Currently reading 3 different fantasy books. Am in a fantasy rut. Which I like, but it's not good for broadening my horizons. Unfortunately, I know I can't finish Milne's biography before it's due, so I'll pick it back up later.
I did however, just finish up this little gem:
One Red Paperclip
(Or, How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream with the Help of a Simple Office Supply)
by Kyle MacDonald
310 pages
Three River Press, 2007
I kinda hope someone buys me this book for Christmas because A) it's a paperback and should therefore be cheap, and B) it's a book I'll probably recommend to a LOT of people over the years. A lot of folks have heard about the story in this book: Canadian twenty-something professional job-searcher Kyle MacDonald was looking for a way to provide some future and stability for himself and his girlfriend (who he was living with at the time) and so he decided to play the ultimate game of Bigger and Better. (I've played this awesome game once. In high school. My team lost. Another team came back with two kittens. It was a crazy day) He started posting trade offers on Craigslist, starting with--wait for it--one red paperclip (We have title!) in the hopes of eventually trading up to a house. Long story short, he does it in fourteen trades. Even more amazing, he gets it done in one year. And then he writes an awesome, funny, accessible, and uplifting book about it.
The book reminded me a lot of A Walk Across America in that it is more a story about people and adventure than it is about Kyle MacDonald and trading up to a house. That's a reflection of the author's character, as he turns down some corporate-minded shortcuts in order to keep the focus of the project to be about people; specifically, meeting interesting people and helping fellow dreamers. The result is an adventure that is stranger than fiction, larger than life, nuttier than a PayDay, and 100% real. It's also one heck of an encouraging book, and nobody's really writing those any more.
Well, I take that book: nobody's writing encouraging books that don't suck any more.
Except Kyle MacDonald.
*cough*
Anyway, Kyle's website is http://www.oneredpaperclip.com . I haven't spent a ton of time checking it out yet, but I'm sure I will. This is really a simple guy writing a simple story of what amazing things can happen if you'll allow them to. It's a reminder that there are "good people" out there--that, in fact, there are a LOT of good people out there. It's encouragement that dreams can happen, and you can actually play a pretty big role in making them come true.
Go read this book. It's not a hard read, and it's not too long. Even if you think the whole thing is total bunk, at least it's funny bunk. But I almost guarantee Kyle's story will leave you with a smile on your face. (Yup, that's cheesy. But sometimes, life is cheesy)
Monday, October 4, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Wednesday Update: Irregular Update Schedule edition
Work, writing, and church are all going better now. Which means reading is down. Nevertheless, I ought to post about the last couple of books I read.
The Eye of the World
by Robert Jordan
Published by Tor Fantasy, 1990
670 pages
My good friend Helena has been raving about the Wheel of Time series for pretty much as long as I've known her. I've actually tried to pick it up before, but I could never find the first book at any library. I assumed this was because they were so incredibly popular. Turns out, the Houston Public Library does not have the first book in the WoT series, so I ILL'ed it from Richmond, TX.
Very long, fantastic novel. I thoroughly enjoyed just about every element of it. The characters are clearly its strongest point, in my opinion, and the characters are generally the most important part of any story, fiction or non, in my mind. The book is amazingly clean, especially for a fantasy novel. I've become so accustomed to reading crass language or explicit sex scenes that I was a little discombobulated to pick up a GOOD novel for grown-up people with none of that. So, A+, late Robert Jordan.
Interestingly, there was nothing about this book that made my jaw absolutely drop. It was just a remarkably solid effort the whole way through. I found no glaring weaknesses and very few weaknesses at all. It's long (670 pages, and they are DENSE pages) but constantly engaging, and things happen at a pretty quick pace, which is also a plus for me.
If you're looking for a good epic fantasy adventure that you can commit a sizable amount of time to, Eye of the World looks to be a pretty good place to start. (I'd probably be able to write in better detail, but I actually finished this book something like three weeks ago)
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh
by A. A. Milne
Collects Winnie-the-Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner
Dutton Children's Books, 1994
(Original books published 1926 & 1928)
344 pages
Yes, these pages are large type and some of them have pictures, but with Eye of the World ahead of it, I'm pretty sure it all evens out ;-)
I'm playing Winnie-the-Pooh in a children's play right now and picked this up as research. Turns out, it is one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. It's so charming and innocent yet chocked full of child-like wit and whimsy. You can really sense the love between the narrator and his own son, Christopher Robin, in the voice and the action of each individual story. As a father who makes up stories about zoo bears for his own son every night before bed, I freely admit that I started to tear up over the end of Pooh Corner, where Christopher Robin takes Pooh to a special place where they can always play and explore together, "no matter what happens" as life goes on.
Really, this book is just wonderful. The characters, the stories, the language, the miscommunications, the hijinks...I really think this one would've been a beloved classic even without Disney's help. (That said, I really like the early Disney cartoons and think they stayed very true to the intent of the author. But that's another blog)
The Eye of the World
by Robert Jordan
Published by Tor Fantasy, 1990
670 pages
My good friend Helena has been raving about the Wheel of Time series for pretty much as long as I've known her. I've actually tried to pick it up before, but I could never find the first book at any library. I assumed this was because they were so incredibly popular. Turns out, the Houston Public Library does not have the first book in the WoT series, so I ILL'ed it from Richmond, TX.
Very long, fantastic novel. I thoroughly enjoyed just about every element of it. The characters are clearly its strongest point, in my opinion, and the characters are generally the most important part of any story, fiction or non, in my mind. The book is amazingly clean, especially for a fantasy novel. I've become so accustomed to reading crass language or explicit sex scenes that I was a little discombobulated to pick up a GOOD novel for grown-up people with none of that. So, A+, late Robert Jordan.
Interestingly, there was nothing about this book that made my jaw absolutely drop. It was just a remarkably solid effort the whole way through. I found no glaring weaknesses and very few weaknesses at all. It's long (670 pages, and they are DENSE pages) but constantly engaging, and things happen at a pretty quick pace, which is also a plus for me.
If you're looking for a good epic fantasy adventure that you can commit a sizable amount of time to, Eye of the World looks to be a pretty good place to start. (I'd probably be able to write in better detail, but I actually finished this book something like three weeks ago)
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh
by A. A. Milne
Collects Winnie-the-Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner
Dutton Children's Books, 1994
(Original books published 1926 & 1928)
344 pages
Yes, these pages are large type and some of them have pictures, but with Eye of the World ahead of it, I'm pretty sure it all evens out ;-)
I'm playing Winnie-the-Pooh in a children's play right now and picked this up as research. Turns out, it is one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. It's so charming and innocent yet chocked full of child-like wit and whimsy. You can really sense the love between the narrator and his own son, Christopher Robin, in the voice and the action of each individual story. As a father who makes up stories about zoo bears for his own son every night before bed, I freely admit that I started to tear up over the end of Pooh Corner, where Christopher Robin takes Pooh to a special place where they can always play and explore together, "no matter what happens" as life goes on.
Really, this book is just wonderful. The characters, the stories, the language, the miscommunications, the hijinks...I really think this one would've been a beloved classic even without Disney's help. (That said, I really like the early Disney cartoons and think they stayed very true to the intent of the author. But that's another blog)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Thursday update: Labor Day 2010 edition
Bah, regular updates. Bah, reading lists. I think this is officially just another "What I'm Reading" blog, and I think there's nothing wrong with that. ;-)
From Russia with Love
by Ian Fleming
The James Bond Classics Library edition
MJF Books, 1997
253 pages
And, back to James Bond. This was a strange sort of Bond book; the first half of the book featured Russian spykilling organization SMERSH plotting and planning. That's it, just half a book of plotting and planning. The second half of the book is the plan that was plotted in execution. And even then, it was more positioning and lovemaking with a sudden burst of action in the middle and then a hair-raising showdown on a train at the end. Of the Bond books I've read so far, this one was easily the talkiest, with some "Bond going out for dinner" scenes thrown in for variety's sake.
Needless to say, I wasn't terribly excited by this book, though I thought the story was pretty good, and I actually enjoyed most of the new characters. It just felt (to me) like it took an awful long time to get going, and there wasn't much in the way of actual spy work for Bond to worry about. The conniving trap wasn't all that complicated, and the whole thing had already been spelled out for you in advance, so there wasn't a ton of intrigue until Bond was finally face to face with his executioner. Which was a good scene, don't get me wrong, but even that felt a bit more pulled-it-out-of-a-hat than usual.
That said, all the quotes on the back called this the most exciting book of the series, and it's well-documented that I'm in the minority of a lot of popular opinions, so it may just be me. Again.
Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables
by Phil Vischer
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008
260 pages
This book really surprised me. I knew the Christian children's entertainment mega-giant-hit-machine Veggie Tales had gone from humble beginnings to major empire in a time when computer animation was far from the norm. I also knew that, at one point, there were some money issues and bankruptcy going on. What I didn't know was that Vischer, the company's founder, creator, and owner, lost everything at the height of its popularity and was forced to sell the company. The story is startling and surprising, but Vischer's honest and contemplative look at the rise and fall of his Veggie empire is a profoundly challenging look at what it means to have and follow dreams, especially when you believe that the following of those dreams is God's plan for your life. How do you respond to failure when it felt as though your success was preordained by God Himself? Really beautiful story, entertaining and personable. There are times when the earlier chapters about the animation technology of the early 1990's may get a tad too technical to be interesting to the casual reader, but on the whole this is a book I'd recommend to just about anybody.
Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen
by Roald Dahl
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948
255 pages
Yeah. Good luck finding this book, because they never reprinted it after its initial release in either the U.S. or the U.K. Amazon.com has 4 used copies starting at $144. Interlibrary Loan had to go to the University of Oregon to find a copy for me. RARE BOOK.
So, why is this one so rare? Why was it never reprinted?
BECAUSE IT'S TERRIBLE!!!
This book has all of the bizarreness of one of Dahl's children's books with none of the charm. It's like he came back disillusioned from the war and had some issues to work out, and he did them all here. The book starts with strange gremlins that sabotage English planes during World War II. They eventually stop, though, deciding that eventually mankind will destroy themselves, since all they can do is invent more efficient ways of destroying one another. One hundred and fifty pages later, mankind finally dies completely, and the gremlins inherit the earth. A few days later, they disappear from existence completely. The end.
In the middle, there's lots of thinly-veiled social and political commentary as well as doomsday prophecies for every corner of the world, along with strange gremlinish things.
Of note: Apparently this is where snozzberries came from, because they're the only thing the gremlins appeared to eat. All righty then.
From Russia with Love
by Ian Fleming
The James Bond Classics Library edition
MJF Books, 1997
253 pages
And, back to James Bond. This was a strange sort of Bond book; the first half of the book featured Russian spykilling organization SMERSH plotting and planning. That's it, just half a book of plotting and planning. The second half of the book is the plan that was plotted in execution. And even then, it was more positioning and lovemaking with a sudden burst of action in the middle and then a hair-raising showdown on a train at the end. Of the Bond books I've read so far, this one was easily the talkiest, with some "Bond going out for dinner" scenes thrown in for variety's sake.
Needless to say, I wasn't terribly excited by this book, though I thought the story was pretty good, and I actually enjoyed most of the new characters. It just felt (to me) like it took an awful long time to get going, and there wasn't much in the way of actual spy work for Bond to worry about. The conniving trap wasn't all that complicated, and the whole thing had already been spelled out for you in advance, so there wasn't a ton of intrigue until Bond was finally face to face with his executioner. Which was a good scene, don't get me wrong, but even that felt a bit more pulled-it-out-of-a-hat than usual.
That said, all the quotes on the back called this the most exciting book of the series, and it's well-documented that I'm in the minority of a lot of popular opinions, so it may just be me. Again.
Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables
by Phil Vischer
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008
260 pages
This book really surprised me. I knew the Christian children's entertainment mega-giant-hit-machine Veggie Tales had gone from humble beginnings to major empire in a time when computer animation was far from the norm. I also knew that, at one point, there were some money issues and bankruptcy going on. What I didn't know was that Vischer, the company's founder, creator, and owner, lost everything at the height of its popularity and was forced to sell the company. The story is startling and surprising, but Vischer's honest and contemplative look at the rise and fall of his Veggie empire is a profoundly challenging look at what it means to have and follow dreams, especially when you believe that the following of those dreams is God's plan for your life. How do you respond to failure when it felt as though your success was preordained by God Himself? Really beautiful story, entertaining and personable. There are times when the earlier chapters about the animation technology of the early 1990's may get a tad too technical to be interesting to the casual reader, but on the whole this is a book I'd recommend to just about anybody.
Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen
by Roald Dahl
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948
255 pages
Yeah. Good luck finding this book, because they never reprinted it after its initial release in either the U.S. or the U.K. Amazon.com has 4 used copies starting at $144. Interlibrary Loan had to go to the University of Oregon to find a copy for me. RARE BOOK.
So, why is this one so rare? Why was it never reprinted?
BECAUSE IT'S TERRIBLE!!!
This book has all of the bizarreness of one of Dahl's children's books with none of the charm. It's like he came back disillusioned from the war and had some issues to work out, and he did them all here. The book starts with strange gremlins that sabotage English planes during World War II. They eventually stop, though, deciding that eventually mankind will destroy themselves, since all they can do is invent more efficient ways of destroying one another. One hundred and fifty pages later, mankind finally dies completely, and the gremlins inherit the earth. A few days later, they disappear from existence completely. The end.
In the middle, there's lots of thinly-veiled social and political commentary as well as doomsday prophecies for every corner of the world, along with strange gremlinish things.
Of note: Apparently this is where snozzberries came from, because they're the only thing the gremlins appeared to eat. All righty then.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monday Update: The "Catching Back Up" Update for 8/16/10
Been awhile. Here's what I've been reading lately.
Powerless
by Matthew Cody
279 pages
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009
http://www.matthewcody.com/
Powerless is a "young adult" book that I picked up on a whim. (I'm doing a lot more impulse reading lately. Also, why is "young adult" generally defined as late teens, but when it comes to fiction "young adult" always means 10-13 year-olds?) Powerless is Cody's first book, and a pretty good one. In the story, a 12-year-old boy named Daniel moves to a new town in which some of the kids for some unknown reason have super-powers. This has been going on in this little town for generations. Another peculiarity: on their 13th birthday, these kids inevitably wake up having lost not only their powers, but all their memories of ever having had powers in the first place. Daniel (an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes stories) sets out on what ends up being a detective-type story of his own to try to save his new friends and their fantastic abilities. It's a fun shift for the normal kid to be the hope of all the supers and it's a quick, fun, imaginative tale. The story loses some of its charm and cleverness toward the ending, and part of that is because the author was clearly hoping to leave the door open for a series (and it turns out, he's working on the second book right now!!) but overall, Powerless is a good read and would probably have been one of my five favorite books when I was a young 'un.
The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, & Bench-Clearing Brawls: The unwritten rules of America's pastime
by Jason Turnbow with Michael Duca
265 pages
Pantheon, 2010
Fantastic book. A must-read for any sports fan not offended by what I will call "clubhouse vernacular." Incredibly well-researched insight into the unwritten rules that govern professional baseball: their origins, their repercussions, their evolution, and their most famous instances. The acknowledgments at the end of the book thanked every single former player, coach, play-by-play analyst, and manager the authors interviewed. The list spanned three full pages.
In addition to the impressive amount of research that went into its writing, the book is also really stinking fun. Many of the most colorful people in the history of the sport are here, and the examples pulled from baseball history range from unbelievable to hilarious. There's also a commentary on the changes Big Money has brought to the sport, and to sports in general. It's a really insightful, enjoyable read that manages to be uncannily informative at the same time.
Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, America, and the Day Everything Changed
by Stephen Brunt
255 pages
Triumph Books, 2009
As hardcore of a hockey fan as I am, I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. The story behind one of the most influential moments in modern hockey history is intricate, bewildering, and surprisingly compelling. The layers of social, emotional, and economic implications, not only for the working-class city of Edmonton but the entertainment Mecca of Los Angeles, were/are utterly fascinating. So too are the principal characters in this drama--in this corner, automotive philanthropist Peter Pocklington. In the other, media millionaire Bruce McNall. (Both would one day end up in jail) And then, of course, there's Wayne Gretzky, Mr. Nice Guys Finish First. The man somehow found himself embroiled in one bad situation after another and yet managed to keep himself clean.
This is an odd book because it's not really a hockey book, not really a biography, and not really a story of how a monumental business deal was struck behind close doors. It's all of those things, because they were all so delicately tied together at the time. Whatever else Gretzky's Tears is, it's definitely fascinating and dynamic on its own levels.
Cell
by Stephen King
451 pages
Pocket Star publishers, 2006
http://www.stephenking.com/index.html
One of King's more grisly recent novels, Cell probably shouldn't have work, but it did because King's a very good writer. The premise: one day, everyone using a cell phone goes insane and starts attacking anything in sight. There's murder, dismemberment, cannibalism, and a lot of babbling rage. It's almost like a zombie story, but after a hundred pages or so, these "phone crazies" start behaving strangely, almost like they're a part of a flock rather than a bunch of mindless roaming individuals. In true King fashion, our survivors take a journey to try to connect with missing loved ones (and hope they haven't gone phone-crazy-zombie, too), and along the way they try to piece together what exactly is going on. I found myself drawn in as the characters uncovered one bit of information at a time to try to put together all the pieces of the puzzle, but the book sorta of jumped the shark toward the end, and it felt like the idea the author had spent the first 400 pages weaving came more or less unraveled by the need for an ending. It was a fun read, though, and quick for four-plus-hundred pages. A "popcorn novel" to borrow a term from cinema, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Currently reading:
I'm about to finish From Russia With Love, the next Bond book. After that, I've got an autobiography from Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales, called Me, Myself, and Bob. I have two books on interlibrarly loan that I have a month to get through: Sometime Never by Roald Dahl (a story about nuclear war that nobody really liked when it came out) and The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. I have a paperback by Terry Pratchett, but I don't think I'll have time to get to it.
Powerless
by Matthew Cody
279 pages
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009
http://www.matthewcody.com/
Powerless is a "young adult" book that I picked up on a whim. (I'm doing a lot more impulse reading lately. Also, why is "young adult" generally defined as late teens, but when it comes to fiction "young adult" always means 10-13 year-olds?) Powerless is Cody's first book, and a pretty good one. In the story, a 12-year-old boy named Daniel moves to a new town in which some of the kids for some unknown reason have super-powers. This has been going on in this little town for generations. Another peculiarity: on their 13th birthday, these kids inevitably wake up having lost not only their powers, but all their memories of ever having had powers in the first place. Daniel (an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes stories) sets out on what ends up being a detective-type story of his own to try to save his new friends and their fantastic abilities. It's a fun shift for the normal kid to be the hope of all the supers and it's a quick, fun, imaginative tale. The story loses some of its charm and cleverness toward the ending, and part of that is because the author was clearly hoping to leave the door open for a series (and it turns out, he's working on the second book right now!!) but overall, Powerless is a good read and would probably have been one of my five favorite books when I was a young 'un.
The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, & Bench-Clearing Brawls: The unwritten rules of America's pastime
by Jason Turnbow with Michael Duca
265 pages
Pantheon, 2010
Fantastic book. A must-read for any sports fan not offended by what I will call "clubhouse vernacular." Incredibly well-researched insight into the unwritten rules that govern professional baseball: their origins, their repercussions, their evolution, and their most famous instances. The acknowledgments at the end of the book thanked every single former player, coach, play-by-play analyst, and manager the authors interviewed. The list spanned three full pages.
In addition to the impressive amount of research that went into its writing, the book is also really stinking fun. Many of the most colorful people in the history of the sport are here, and the examples pulled from baseball history range from unbelievable to hilarious. There's also a commentary on the changes Big Money has brought to the sport, and to sports in general. It's a really insightful, enjoyable read that manages to be uncannily informative at the same time.
Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, America, and the Day Everything Changed
by Stephen Brunt
255 pages
Triumph Books, 2009
As hardcore of a hockey fan as I am, I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. The story behind one of the most influential moments in modern hockey history is intricate, bewildering, and surprisingly compelling. The layers of social, emotional, and economic implications, not only for the working-class city of Edmonton but the entertainment Mecca of Los Angeles, were/are utterly fascinating. So too are the principal characters in this drama--in this corner, automotive philanthropist Peter Pocklington. In the other, media millionaire Bruce McNall. (Both would one day end up in jail) And then, of course, there's Wayne Gretzky, Mr. Nice Guys Finish First. The man somehow found himself embroiled in one bad situation after another and yet managed to keep himself clean.
This is an odd book because it's not really a hockey book, not really a biography, and not really a story of how a monumental business deal was struck behind close doors. It's all of those things, because they were all so delicately tied together at the time. Whatever else Gretzky's Tears is, it's definitely fascinating and dynamic on its own levels.
Cell
by Stephen King
451 pages
Pocket Star publishers, 2006
http://www.stephenking.com/index.html
One of King's more grisly recent novels, Cell probably shouldn't have work, but it did because King's a very good writer. The premise: one day, everyone using a cell phone goes insane and starts attacking anything in sight. There's murder, dismemberment, cannibalism, and a lot of babbling rage. It's almost like a zombie story, but after a hundred pages or so, these "phone crazies" start behaving strangely, almost like they're a part of a flock rather than a bunch of mindless roaming individuals. In true King fashion, our survivors take a journey to try to connect with missing loved ones (and hope they haven't gone phone-crazy-zombie, too), and along the way they try to piece together what exactly is going on. I found myself drawn in as the characters uncovered one bit of information at a time to try to put together all the pieces of the puzzle, but the book sorta of jumped the shark toward the end, and it felt like the idea the author had spent the first 400 pages weaving came more or less unraveled by the need for an ending. It was a fun read, though, and quick for four-plus-hundred pages. A "popcorn novel" to borrow a term from cinema, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Currently reading:
I'm about to finish From Russia With Love, the next Bond book. After that, I've got an autobiography from Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales, called Me, Myself, and Bob. I have two books on interlibrarly loan that I have a month to get through: Sometime Never by Roald Dahl (a story about nuclear war that nobody really liked when it came out) and The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. I have a paperback by Terry Pratchett, but I don't think I'll have time to get to it.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Forty Down, More Awards
Hey look, at some point I read ten more books. Only one was actually on my recommended reading list, which has expanded from 60 to 80. Eyes on the prize, man, eyes on the prize...
Here are the last ten books, in no particular order:
Wistrix Donn by Peter DeVries
Blasphemy by Douglas C Preston
The Cherokee Trail by Louis L'Amour
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
Christ the Lord by Anne Rice
Goblin War by Jim C. Hines
The Game by Ken Dryden
Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
Remember, everybody's a winner here at WAR. Which only cheapens the entire experience.
The "WHO wrote this?" award goes to..
The Game.
Or, more specifically, to Ken Dryden, who has got to be one of the most intelligent, eloquent professional athletes in North American history. (I'd say "In history," but I'll bet all those crazy naked Greeks could probably wax philosophical with the best of them) Seriously a must-read for any sports fan who cares about what goes on beyond the field of play.
The "Well, at least it isn't another vampire story" award goes to...
Christ the Lord (the book, not the Man) by Anne Rice
It wasn't a great book, nor was it particularly well written, but hey, at least Rice gifted the world with something other than yet another vampire novel. Because there are far too many printed pages devoted to vampires of every mythology these days. I mean, the X-Men are currently fighting vampires. I wish I were joking.
The "You can't say I didn't warn you" award goes to...
Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston.
The book wasn't technically blasphemous. It's hard for a work of fiction to be truly blasphemous. Nevertheless, with that title, you really should have a pretty good idea what you're in for if you are of any particular religious persuasion.
The "Weaponized Shark" award goes to...
Live and Let Die, by Ian Fleming
Seriously. So many clever ways of killing and maiming people in this book. Mr. Big was one legitimately bad dude and a worthy foil to Bond, and I think it made this book stronger than any of the other Bond books I've read.
The "Everyone's a hero in their own way" award goes to...
Wistrix Donn, by Peter DeVries
...in their own not-that-heroic way...
The "Yeah, I just had space aliens devour humans in your kid's book. What of it?" award goes to...
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl. Because, you know, he has space aliens devour humans. With crunching and screaming and everything.
The "Hotel Award" goes to...
The Cherokee Trail by Louis L'Amour
Because it was the Best Western. Get it?
The "Always a bridesmaid" award goes to...
Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming
Somehow, this book manages to be the runner up in two different categories: It is the 2nd best Bond book on this list and, in a way, the 2nd best Western as well. It was, however, probably the best horse-racing book in this batch, but I found the horse-racing part boring.
The "TMI" award goes to...
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
Really, any of King's books could probably win this award. For those who've read it, I'm thinking specifically of the night in the cave after drinking the streamwater. T...M...I...
The "Best Use of the Giving Tree Mythos" award goes to...
Goblin War, by Jim C. Hines
Curious as to why? Read the book. I really don't want to spoil it. But it was wonderful.
Allll righty, that's 40 books checked off the list, here are my 9 favorites so far:
9. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
8. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis
7. Goblin War by Jim C. Hines
6. Blood Feud by Adrian Dater
5. The Game by Ken Dryden
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
3. Ilium by Dan Simmons
2. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
1. The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition by Stephen King
Here are the last ten books, in no particular order:
Wistrix Donn by Peter DeVries
Blasphemy by Douglas C Preston
The Cherokee Trail by Louis L'Amour
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
Christ the Lord by Anne Rice
Goblin War by Jim C. Hines
The Game by Ken Dryden
Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
Remember, everybody's a winner here at WAR. Which only cheapens the entire experience.
The "WHO wrote this?" award goes to..
The Game.
Or, more specifically, to Ken Dryden, who has got to be one of the most intelligent, eloquent professional athletes in North American history. (I'd say "In history," but I'll bet all those crazy naked Greeks could probably wax philosophical with the best of them) Seriously a must-read for any sports fan who cares about what goes on beyond the field of play.
The "Well, at least it isn't another vampire story" award goes to...
Christ the Lord (the book, not the Man) by Anne Rice
It wasn't a great book, nor was it particularly well written, but hey, at least Rice gifted the world with something other than yet another vampire novel. Because there are far too many printed pages devoted to vampires of every mythology these days. I mean, the X-Men are currently fighting vampires. I wish I were joking.
The "You can't say I didn't warn you" award goes to...
Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston.
The book wasn't technically blasphemous. It's hard for a work of fiction to be truly blasphemous. Nevertheless, with that title, you really should have a pretty good idea what you're in for if you are of any particular religious persuasion.
The "Weaponized Shark" award goes to...
Live and Let Die, by Ian Fleming
Seriously. So many clever ways of killing and maiming people in this book. Mr. Big was one legitimately bad dude and a worthy foil to Bond, and I think it made this book stronger than any of the other Bond books I've read.
The "Everyone's a hero in their own way" award goes to...
Wistrix Donn, by Peter DeVries
...in their own not-that-heroic way...
The "Yeah, I just had space aliens devour humans in your kid's book. What of it?" award goes to...
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl. Because, you know, he has space aliens devour humans. With crunching and screaming and everything.
The "Hotel Award" goes to...
The Cherokee Trail by Louis L'Amour
Because it was the Best Western. Get it?
The "Always a bridesmaid" award goes to...
Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming
Somehow, this book manages to be the runner up in two different categories: It is the 2nd best Bond book on this list and, in a way, the 2nd best Western as well. It was, however, probably the best horse-racing book in this batch, but I found the horse-racing part boring.
The "TMI" award goes to...
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
Really, any of King's books could probably win this award. For those who've read it, I'm thinking specifically of the night in the cave after drinking the streamwater. T...M...I...
The "Best Use of the Giving Tree Mythos" award goes to...
Goblin War, by Jim C. Hines
Curious as to why? Read the book. I really don't want to spoil it. But it was wonderful.
Allll righty, that's 40 books checked off the list, here are my 9 favorites so far:
9. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
8. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis
7. Goblin War by Jim C. Hines
6. Blood Feud by Adrian Dater
5. The Game by Ken Dryden
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
3. Ilium by Dan Simmons
2. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
1. The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition by Stephen King
Monday, July 19, 2010
Monday Update: "Ilya Kovulchuk is actually signing somewhere" update
Have been reading a couple of books, but I had to lay down the fantastic Baseball Codes because I have one ILL book due today and another (Frank Peretti's Prohpet) due Wednesday. But I thought I ought to drop by and give a brief reflection on Peter De Vries' Wistrix Donn.
Book #40 of 80
Wistrix Donn
by Peter De Vries
# of pages: 371
Total pages: 12,639
Avg pages/book: 315.975 (+.415)
Don't read Wistrix Donn by Peter De Vries.
Book #40 of 80
Wistrix Donn
by Peter De Vries
# of pages: 371
Total pages: 12,639
Avg pages/book: 315.975 (+.415)
Don't read Wistrix Donn by Peter De Vries.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Thursday update: Post-vacation edition
Polished off a couple of paperbacks in my last few days of vacation. I'll talk about them here.
Book 38 (of 80)
Blasphemy
by Douglas C Preston
I'm learning that "New York Times Bestseller" does not necessarily equal "Good Book." This wasn't a horrible book, but there were points, especially in the early going, that felt really cliched and predictable. Now sometimes, cliche is cliche for a reason, because it works. In most of these instances, however, it felt more like you were traveling a well-worn formula toward a generic blockbuster in terms of characters, relationships, and mysterious suicide/homicides. Sorta been-there, done-that kinda stuff.
This book comes out making evangelicals look pretty bad. The author points out in his note at the end of the book that the novel is not anti-Christian, as the book's hero is a Catholic (the author called him a devout Catholic, but other than saying 'I grew up Catholic and used to be a monk, but I left that because I didn't find God there,' not much in the book seemed to devout about his faith to me), but only anti-bigot. His definition of a bigot, however, appears to be anybody who believes in one religious truth above all others. He takes this premise to what he believes is its only ultimate conclusion: that all who believe in such a premise as "No man comes unto the Father except by Me" will, with a little manipulation and absolutely no free thought, take up arms and kill on sight anyone who will not immediately accept their views.
Obviously, Preston and I will probably never come to agreement on this premise.
A sort of cynical naivety pervaded throughout the book. It was a very quick read, even at 536 pages, and at times managed to build some strong momentum and intrigue. About halfway through, however, the book started to telegraph its ending, and after figuring out the big twist at the end, the final hundred and fifty pages were sort of a jumbled mess, jumping back and forth from philosophical babble to an angry mob of Christians mercilessly executing those who didn't confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Troubling scenes, as they were intended to be, but almost comic in the melodramatic representation of the religiously convicted.
Book 39
The Cherokee Trail
by Louis L'Amour
Okay, look. It's summer vacation. Nothing wrong with a steady diet of hot dogs and cotton candy (or, in this case, fantasy, suspense, and westerns) ;-)
I'd never read a Western before, save for Stephen King's The Gunslinger. My grandfather-in-law practically lives on them, so I asked him for a recommendation. (This because I have a character/story idea I'd like to do someday, but I know practically nothing about the genre) He naturally led me to L'Amour and handed me The Cherokee Trail and another book.
The Cherokee Trail is really not about the Cherokee Trail, though it does take place at a stagecoach stop along that trail. I guess after writing over a hundred and twenty Westerns, titles get harder to come by. The story is about a woman who comes west to manage the station in place of her husband, who was killed by a bunch of guerilla fighters. At first, everyone reacts with the typical "But you're a WOMAN!" mindset, but she's a good cook and a hard worker, and she soon wins everybody over. Constantly proving her worth, Mary Dreyden has to deal with horse thieves, Indians, common jerks, and--dun dun dun!--the man who killed her husband, who is running for governor of Colorado. There's gunfighting, whipfighting, mysteriously dangerous but good heroes, tough orphans, and pretty much everything else you think ought to be in a Western.
So there's that.
Pages: Blasphemy (536) The Cherokee Trail (222) = 758
Total pages: 12,268
Avg pages/book: 315.56 (+3.48)
Book 38 (of 80)
Blasphemy
by Douglas C Preston
I'm learning that "New York Times Bestseller" does not necessarily equal "Good Book." This wasn't a horrible book, but there were points, especially in the early going, that felt really cliched and predictable. Now sometimes, cliche is cliche for a reason, because it works. In most of these instances, however, it felt more like you were traveling a well-worn formula toward a generic blockbuster in terms of characters, relationships, and mysterious suicide/homicides. Sorta been-there, done-that kinda stuff.
This book comes out making evangelicals look pretty bad. The author points out in his note at the end of the book that the novel is not anti-Christian, as the book's hero is a Catholic (the author called him a devout Catholic, but other than saying 'I grew up Catholic and used to be a monk, but I left that because I didn't find God there,' not much in the book seemed to devout about his faith to me), but only anti-bigot. His definition of a bigot, however, appears to be anybody who believes in one religious truth above all others. He takes this premise to what he believes is its only ultimate conclusion: that all who believe in such a premise as "No man comes unto the Father except by Me" will, with a little manipulation and absolutely no free thought, take up arms and kill on sight anyone who will not immediately accept their views.
Obviously, Preston and I will probably never come to agreement on this premise.
A sort of cynical naivety pervaded throughout the book. It was a very quick read, even at 536 pages, and at times managed to build some strong momentum and intrigue. About halfway through, however, the book started to telegraph its ending, and after figuring out the big twist at the end, the final hundred and fifty pages were sort of a jumbled mess, jumping back and forth from philosophical babble to an angry mob of Christians mercilessly executing those who didn't confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Troubling scenes, as they were intended to be, but almost comic in the melodramatic representation of the religiously convicted.
Book 39
The Cherokee Trail
by Louis L'Amour
Okay, look. It's summer vacation. Nothing wrong with a steady diet of hot dogs and cotton candy (or, in this case, fantasy, suspense, and westerns) ;-)
I'd never read a Western before, save for Stephen King's The Gunslinger. My grandfather-in-law practically lives on them, so I asked him for a recommendation. (This because I have a character/story idea I'd like to do someday, but I know practically nothing about the genre) He naturally led me to L'Amour and handed me The Cherokee Trail and another book.
The Cherokee Trail is really not about the Cherokee Trail, though it does take place at a stagecoach stop along that trail. I guess after writing over a hundred and twenty Westerns, titles get harder to come by. The story is about a woman who comes west to manage the station in place of her husband, who was killed by a bunch of guerilla fighters. At first, everyone reacts with the typical "But you're a WOMAN!" mindset, but she's a good cook and a hard worker, and she soon wins everybody over. Constantly proving her worth, Mary Dreyden has to deal with horse thieves, Indians, common jerks, and--dun dun dun!--the man who killed her husband, who is running for governor of Colorado. There's gunfighting, whipfighting, mysteriously dangerous but good heroes, tough orphans, and pretty much everything else you think ought to be in a Western.
So there's that.
Pages: Blasphemy (536) The Cherokee Trail (222) = 758
Total pages: 12,268
Avg pages/book: 315.56 (+3.48)
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