Read two books over the last week with very different takes on both death and life. An unusual pairing, these two. I think I was going for contrast, and I certainly got it. Back when I was a kid in high school making mix tapes every month or so, I'd usually try to follow up two slow, pretty, contemplative songs with something that started shockingly loud. For some reason, the fact that the contrast was violently abrupt made the whole thing work, to my ear.
It would seem my reading sensitivities don't necessarily function the same way.
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
247 pages
Picador publshing, 1st paperback edition (2006)
Originally published 2004
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fictions (2005)
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award (2005)
Is that a circle of national book critics? Or is the award itself a circle?
I first read this book something like four years ago. I remember it was early in Kim's first pregnancy, because I was reading it while waiting with her for the doctor once and I read her the part about baptizing the kittens. (That's a fantastic passage, by the way) Interesting to read it again as a father with a young child (and another on the way, of course) since it's written from the perspective of a father with a young child. Granted, Reverend Ames is much older than I am, and he's dying, so it's not like we have similar circumstances at all. Still, there were several portions of the book that spoke much more loudly this time through.
Gilead is a journal (or just a really long letter) written by the protagonist, 76-year-old Reverend John Ames, to his six-year-old son. Ames and the boy's mother met late in his life, and she's quite a bit younger than he is, thus the young child with the old father. Ames knows he's not much longer for the world, so he writes this love letter to the boy he knows he'll never get to see grow up.
It's really just a beautiful book. I can't find another word that fits any better. It's well written, it's entertaining, it's thoughtful, it's uplifting, it's honest, and it has definite personality. I'm fairly surprised that it won a Pulitzer because it's also a very Christian book. Long passages relate to past sermons Ames has preached, scriptures he's meditated on, or theological discussions he's had over the course of his life. The believer and the cynic are both represented fairly, and the book honestly deals with the reality that some questions have no easy answers. Ames is a man who struggles with a lot of the things that many of us struggle with. His faith and his family are foremost on every page.
Now, because the book is structured like the somewhat-rambling memoirs of a kindly elderly gentlemen, I can see how it might lose some readers. Flashbacks are mingled with current events with life lessons and anecdotes about the young boy and his cat. If you can handle that, however, this is a book I'd recommend to just about anybody.
A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby
352 pages
Riverhead Hardcover, 2005
I don't think Nick Hornby and I are going to get along. This is the second of his books that I've read (High Fidelity being the other) and I just haven't really gotten into either of them. Long Way Down is a very dark comedy that centers around four miserable folks who meet on New Years Eve at the top of a building where each intended to commit suicide. They all get sort of weirded out, though, and decide not to do it just yet. They continue to meet and compare notes on their wretched lives throughout the next three months as they become some sort of twisted support group where nobody really likes one another all that much.
As in High Fidelity, my biggest issue with this book was the characters themselves. These people were just pathetic, which I know was the point. They were self-centered and immature and, for most of the book, incapable of really changing. So while it made for some interesting episodes over the course of these 352 pages, it rarely felt like the story was going anywhere.
The language is strong, of course, as the characters themselves admit, and there's a lot of crudity to go around, so a lot of the folks I know wouldn't be able to stomach this book based on those factors alone. The writing style is very sharp, however, and each of the characters has a strong voice (the book is constantly switching perspective from the four). I'm not saying the book is bad, because it's not. It really just isn't my cup of tea. If you're looking for much of a rewarding story, you're likely to be disappointed. Which, again, is one of the book's points: there's no such thing as a nice and tidy ending. Must be one of Nick Hornby's "things."
That, and pathetic people as protagonists.
Ooh, alliteration!
Anyway, apparently Johnny Depp loved loved loved this novel, so there's that.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Addendum to the last post
After visiting the men's restroom at Guido's pizza joint last night, I now have a fairly good idea of what a fetid goatish smell might be.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Rings and Relics
I decided to wait until I'd finished two books before writing this update because, well, I liked the post title "Rings and Relics."
The Hobbit, or There And Back Again
by J. R. R. Tolkien
This edition published by Ballantine Books in 1981
Also the Mass-Market Paperback edition, if anyone cares.
304 pages
Originally published in 1937
HOWEVER
Apparently Bilbo lied in the original edition, so in 1951 the whole story finally came out. See, in the original version of the story, Bilbo and Gollum had a friendly riddle contest to decide who would own the magic ring that made its wearer invisible. Then, Tolkien decided it was actually the One Ring he would use as the centerpiece of his Lord of the Rings masterpiece, so he went back and revised the scene to make it one of the creepiest things you'll ever read in a children's story. Fun fact, no?
Anyway, I don't know what you say about this book. I mean, it's The Hobbit. It's a whimsical fantasy adventure tale that introduces readers to the genius of J. R. R. Tolkien. (Because one R. was not enough!) The author loves his characters and his style is (generally) one of whimsy and fondness for both story and reader, and that always makes for an enjoyable read.
I wish I had finished the book before we started rehearsals on the play, however. It became difficult to read this book quickly during my free time when I was spending so much of my workday with the same story. Never mix business and pleasure, I guess. The parts I most thoroughly enjoyed were the portions that had been cut out or significantly altered from the play: the Wargs, the slaughter of the talking spiders, the merry songs of both the dwarves and the elves, the reception at Lake-town, the extended stay at Beorn's, and of course, everything that happened after the dragon was slain. (Though "talking to birds" seemed to come out of nowhere, but whatever)
Man, Bard is way cooler in the book than he is in the play. I recently bought The Silmarilion and will probably work my way through the rest of Tolkien's more mainstream middle-earth works this year. But I have to know: did he ever write out Bard's story? 'Cause it seems like there was an awful lot of potential for awesome in there.
***
Relic
by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
468 pages
A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1995
TOR
Also a New York Times Bestseller
I was reading the Special Edition paperback (4.99 US, 6.99 Canada!)
This is one of those books that a friend kept hyping to me until he finally just put it in my hands one day. I told him I probably wouldn't get to it for awhile, and he said that was fine. So I finally got to it. Given that two of the three quotes on the back of the book compared it to Jurassic Park, I figured it was probably the sort of book I would go for. Plus, when I first saw the cover art from a slight distance, my first comment was, "Cool! Is that a monkey with a gun?" (From a distance, it does kind of look like that) It wasn't a monkey with a gun, but still, the hype was officially there.
Relic is a sciencey murder mystery that turns into a horror/monster story about being trapped in a museum with what may or may not be a supernatural beast from a long-lost African heathen tribe. The language is pretty heavy, so if you can't handle that you wouldn't want to pick this book up. The gore is also pretty intense. It takes about eighty or so pages into the book before you start getting to several chapters in a row that don't end with people brutally murdered by a mysterious killer lurking in the shadows. That said, it took me about a hundred or so pages to really get in to the story. I guess it's because there were a lot of characters to introduce, and I felt the "mystery" element was a little oversold early on. Once I got into the story, though, it became a good roller-coaster bio-thriller that made for some good recreational reading. There was a lot of evolutionary biological jibber-jabber, but it was done it such a way that it was pretty easy to follow and the concept behind the mystery was a good take/twist on this sort of monster story. There were a couple of characters I really liked and a few I thought were pretty bland, so that balanced out.
This was far, far better than the Douglas Preston novel I read last year. It also provided what I thought was a solid twist ending in the epilogue (stay after the credits, kids), so I may pick up its sequel if I'm looking for a good page-turner or some "popcorn reading" over the summer again.
Incidentally, this book inspired a 1997 horror movie called The Relic. According to Wikipedia, it was received fairly well. According to the two people I know who saw it (including the guy who gave me this book), it was horrible. (I believe "We don't talk about that" was the response given when I asked my Relic-loving friend about the film)
Ah! One last comment in the form of a question: What exactly is a fetid goat-smell? Every time the creature came near, there was either an overpowering fetid stench or a goatish smell. It was always described in one of those two ways. I find it odd that goats have such a distinctive smell that, when any two New Yorkers suddenly caught a whiff of it, they'd both think, "That's definitely a goatish smell!"
***
Changing gears completely now: I'm re-reading Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. I got it for Christmas in 2009 and haven't gotten around to re-reading it. I first read this book four years ago, early during Kim's first pregnancy. Curious to see if/how it affects me differently now. I do remember loving it, however. And it'll be a nice change of pace from Trollocs, Darkfriends, Goblins, Giant Spiders, and Museum Beasts.
The Hobbit, or There And Back Again
by J. R. R. Tolkien
This edition published by Ballantine Books in 1981
Also the Mass-Market Paperback edition, if anyone cares.
304 pages
Originally published in 1937
HOWEVER
Apparently Bilbo lied in the original edition, so in 1951 the whole story finally came out. See, in the original version of the story, Bilbo and Gollum had a friendly riddle contest to decide who would own the magic ring that made its wearer invisible. Then, Tolkien decided it was actually the One Ring he would use as the centerpiece of his Lord of the Rings masterpiece, so he went back and revised the scene to make it one of the creepiest things you'll ever read in a children's story. Fun fact, no?
Anyway, I don't know what you say about this book. I mean, it's The Hobbit. It's a whimsical fantasy adventure tale that introduces readers to the genius of J. R. R. Tolkien. (Because one R. was not enough!) The author loves his characters and his style is (generally) one of whimsy and fondness for both story and reader, and that always makes for an enjoyable read.
I wish I had finished the book before we started rehearsals on the play, however. It became difficult to read this book quickly during my free time when I was spending so much of my workday with the same story. Never mix business and pleasure, I guess. The parts I most thoroughly enjoyed were the portions that had been cut out or significantly altered from the play: the Wargs, the slaughter of the talking spiders, the merry songs of both the dwarves and the elves, the reception at Lake-town, the extended stay at Beorn's, and of course, everything that happened after the dragon was slain. (Though "talking to birds" seemed to come out of nowhere, but whatever)
Man, Bard is way cooler in the book than he is in the play. I recently bought The Silmarilion and will probably work my way through the rest of Tolkien's more mainstream middle-earth works this year. But I have to know: did he ever write out Bard's story? 'Cause it seems like there was an awful lot of potential for awesome in there.
***
Relic
by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
468 pages
A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1995
TOR
Also a New York Times Bestseller
I was reading the Special Edition paperback (4.99 US, 6.99 Canada!)
This is one of those books that a friend kept hyping to me until he finally just put it in my hands one day. I told him I probably wouldn't get to it for awhile, and he said that was fine. So I finally got to it. Given that two of the three quotes on the back of the book compared it to Jurassic Park, I figured it was probably the sort of book I would go for. Plus, when I first saw the cover art from a slight distance, my first comment was, "Cool! Is that a monkey with a gun?" (From a distance, it does kind of look like that) It wasn't a monkey with a gun, but still, the hype was officially there.
Relic is a sciencey murder mystery that turns into a horror/monster story about being trapped in a museum with what may or may not be a supernatural beast from a long-lost African heathen tribe. The language is pretty heavy, so if you can't handle that you wouldn't want to pick this book up. The gore is also pretty intense. It takes about eighty or so pages into the book before you start getting to several chapters in a row that don't end with people brutally murdered by a mysterious killer lurking in the shadows. That said, it took me about a hundred or so pages to really get in to the story. I guess it's because there were a lot of characters to introduce, and I felt the "mystery" element was a little oversold early on. Once I got into the story, though, it became a good roller-coaster bio-thriller that made for some good recreational reading. There was a lot of evolutionary biological jibber-jabber, but it was done it such a way that it was pretty easy to follow and the concept behind the mystery was a good take/twist on this sort of monster story. There were a couple of characters I really liked and a few I thought were pretty bland, so that balanced out.
This was far, far better than the Douglas Preston novel I read last year. It also provided what I thought was a solid twist ending in the epilogue (stay after the credits, kids), so I may pick up its sequel if I'm looking for a good page-turner or some "popcorn reading" over the summer again.
Incidentally, this book inspired a 1997 horror movie called The Relic. According to Wikipedia, it was received fairly well. According to the two people I know who saw it (including the guy who gave me this book), it was horrible. (I believe "We don't talk about that" was the response given when I asked my Relic-loving friend about the film)
Ah! One last comment in the form of a question: What exactly is a fetid goat-smell? Every time the creature came near, there was either an overpowering fetid stench or a goatish smell. It was always described in one of those two ways. I find it odd that goats have such a distinctive smell that, when any two New Yorkers suddenly caught a whiff of it, they'd both think, "That's definitely a goatish smell!"
***
Changing gears completely now: I'm re-reading Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. I got it for Christmas in 2009 and haven't gotten around to re-reading it. I first read this book four years ago, early during Kim's first pregnancy. Curious to see if/how it affects me differently now. I do remember loving it, however. And it'll be a nice change of pace from Trollocs, Darkfriends, Goblins, Giant Spiders, and Museum Beasts.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Saturday update: Happy New Year edition
I finished The Dragon Reborn just under the wire to include it in my 2010 reading list. Score one for me.
The Dragon Rebornby Robert Jordan
Tor Fantasy Books
594 pages
You can pretty much read what I wrote about the first couple books. These are wonderful books, and writing about them is getting redundant. Plus, I'm distracted right now. If you've read them, though, and would like to have a geekish chat, feel free to give me a call.
I will have to wait a bit before tackling book 4. I may just have to buy it, too, because I'm not convinced I can finish it before it'd be due back to the library. 'Cause it's long.
The Dragon Rebornby Robert Jordan
Tor Fantasy Books
594 pages
You can pretty much read what I wrote about the first couple books. These are wonderful books, and writing about them is getting redundant. Plus, I'm distracted right now. If you've read them, though, and would like to have a geekish chat, feel free to give me a call.
I will have to wait a bit before tackling book 4. I may just have to buy it, too, because I'm not convinced I can finish it before it'd be due back to the library. 'Cause it's long.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Thursday update: Two Days Until Christmas edition
I read another book a couple of weeks ago. I've started on three more since then, and I don't know that I'll get any of them finished before 2011.
The Great Hunt
by Robert Jordan
Tor Fantasy, 1990
585 pages
This is the second book in Jordan's Wheel of Time series (the first, The Eye of the World, I read a few months ago). As a writer, I find it a little depressing to read Jordan's epic because I realize I will never, ever, ever write anything anywhere near this good. A friend recently told me that this, Eye of the World, and the third book in the series (The Dragon Reborn) were originally intended to be one book instead of three. That would have been a very long book. However, it does explain why, in a lot of ways, this book felt like it was the middle of a story and not a story in and of itself. That isn't to say that it was bad or even unsatisfactory, because it was neither, but as a novel its structure wasn't quite as solid as Eye. The climactic final chapters felt a bit like they had been forced together and souped up a bit in order to bring the book to an exciting conclusion. (And, indeed, the ending itself is strong and launches perfectly into a new volume) As with Eye of the World, everything was solid. It's a thoroughly enjoyable fantasy reading experience, and while it's still not so convoluted that a casual reader can't keep everything straight, I can see where the larger story may be in danger of spreading itself a bit thin (a complaint I've heard from a few who've ventured further than I have).
In short, I enjoy the story, the characters, the mythology, and the tone of the narrative. One of the most fun fantasy stories I've ever picked up.
Currently thumbing through The Sacred Romance (a Christian nonfiction book about discovering the hidden yearnings of our heart), Relic (a murder/crime investigation novel that is apparently about some sort of monster, as the first two quotes on the back cover have compared it to Jurassic Park), and The Dragon Reborn (which will most likely be the first of these three books I finish). Got to get one of them done before New Years to boost my page total ever so slightly for the calendar year!
Merry Christmas, by the way. In the immortal words of Handy: "READ A BOOK!"
The Great Hunt
by Robert Jordan
Tor Fantasy, 1990
585 pages
This is the second book in Jordan's Wheel of Time series (the first, The Eye of the World, I read a few months ago). As a writer, I find it a little depressing to read Jordan's epic because I realize I will never, ever, ever write anything anywhere near this good. A friend recently told me that this, Eye of the World, and the third book in the series (The Dragon Reborn) were originally intended to be one book instead of three. That would have been a very long book. However, it does explain why, in a lot of ways, this book felt like it was the middle of a story and not a story in and of itself. That isn't to say that it was bad or even unsatisfactory, because it was neither, but as a novel its structure wasn't quite as solid as Eye. The climactic final chapters felt a bit like they had been forced together and souped up a bit in order to bring the book to an exciting conclusion. (And, indeed, the ending itself is strong and launches perfectly into a new volume) As with Eye of the World, everything was solid. It's a thoroughly enjoyable fantasy reading experience, and while it's still not so convoluted that a casual reader can't keep everything straight, I can see where the larger story may be in danger of spreading itself a bit thin (a complaint I've heard from a few who've ventured further than I have).
In short, I enjoy the story, the characters, the mythology, and the tone of the narrative. One of the most fun fantasy stories I've ever picked up.
Currently thumbing through The Sacred Romance (a Christian nonfiction book about discovering the hidden yearnings of our heart), Relic (a murder/crime investigation novel that is apparently about some sort of monster, as the first two quotes on the back cover have compared it to Jurassic Park), and The Dragon Reborn (which will most likely be the first of these three books I finish). Got to get one of them done before New Years to boost my page total ever so slightly for the calendar year!
Merry Christmas, by the way. In the immortal words of Handy: "READ A BOOK!"
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday Update: "You Can't Spell Adventure Without 'Advent'" Edition
Thanksgiving holiday! I finished/read THREE books with my time off! It was awesome!!
The Grey Fairy Book
Edited by Andrew Lang
387 pages
Dover Publications, Inc., 1967
(An unabridged and unaltered replication of the work originally published in 1900)
One day, while stumbling around Wikipedia, I came across a bizarre little fairy tale simply titled The Bear. Long and short of it: a king loves his daughter so much, he locks her up and never lets her leave the castle. This makes her sad, so her fairy godmother or some such instructs her to ask the king for a bear's skin and a wheelbarrow. The fairy then places a spell on the wheelbarrow so it will take the Princess anywhere she wants to go. So, disguised as a bear riding in a magic wheelbarrow, the Princess escapes without drawing any attention to herself whatsoever. She's eventually captured by a Prince of another kingdom, who takes the amazing talking bear home to do chores for him. Eventually he falls in love with her (sans bear skin) at a party, and they get married.
Wikipedia told me this and other similarly strange, obscure fairy tales had been collected into a volume called The Grey Fairy Book, and I knew I had to read it. So I did.
These stories were collected from all over Europe and north Africa and it really showed, as the style and subject matter varied from demon ponies to fairy charms to thieving Jews to cannibals. Some of our heroes slaughtered people in gruesome ways due to a simple insult. In one story, a boy who could see two days into the future (more or less) killed his mother and father as well as an old woman, seven young boys, and his uncle's boss, mostly because his uncle was a fool. Many of these stories were just a random sequence of events that seemed to end only when the storyteller grew bored, at which point everything wrapped up in about three sentences. Just weird, weird stuff.
There were one or two tales I really did enjoy, however. And it was really very cool to get a glimpse at the many different types of fairy tale tradition. I don't know that there's a lot in here for me to adapt into a children's theatre format one day, but you never know. That delightful story where the sparrow tricks a carter into killing both of his horses before tricking his wife into cutting off his head because the man ran over her friend the dog is just screaming to be made into a musical!
The Green River Trail
by Ralph Compton
304 pages
St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2011
I'm not sure when this was originally published, but it wasn't 2011. Actually, the copy I read was an older print, but I don't have that publishing information at hand, so I'll just use the newer info.
I haven't decided yet if I like westerns or not. This is only my second, and I've enjoyed both of them, for what they are. It seems to me the strength of the western is generally the Wild West mystique rather than the story itself. Green River Trail was a pretty standard trail drive story. Four guys decide to drive some cattle from Texas to Utah. They buy horses, they take wives, they hire some cowboys, they drive to Utah. There are savage Indian attacks, desperadoes, crooked sheriffs, stampedes, and all that jazz. The women are tough, the men are tough, everybody's tough. And then they get where they're going. So if you're into that, pick up Green River Trail. It's a pretty entertaining little read.
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie
224 pages
Penguin Books, 1991
For those who say I've completely abandoned my original reading project list, I submit to you Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Boo-yah.
This was a very clever book. Not necessarily in the popular "Wit-as-humor" way, but in the way the idea was plotted into a story and the care with which the idea was executed within the narrative. It's fairly silly, and the author knows and uses that effectively. It is a story written for those who love stories. Even if it's fairly obvious at times where the story is going, it's still a remarkably charming tale. And a quick read, too. I finished the first 75% of the book in a single sitting. (And I would have finished it, but it was after 2 a.m. and I had a rehearsal the following morning) So if you're looking for something that's altogether silly, charming, adventurous, light-hearted, and fast, then this is one I'd recommend.
Am currently reading The Sacred Romance (note: Also from the original reading list) and The Great Hunt, book 2 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. For some reason, Green River Trail really made me want to re-read Eye of the World, but since that book's only available via interlibrary loan (until I one day own it) I figured I'd go with the more readily-available second book in the series.
The Grey Fairy Book
Edited by Andrew Lang
387 pages
Dover Publications, Inc., 1967
(An unabridged and unaltered replication of the work originally published in 1900)
One day, while stumbling around Wikipedia, I came across a bizarre little fairy tale simply titled The Bear. Long and short of it: a king loves his daughter so much, he locks her up and never lets her leave the castle. This makes her sad, so her fairy godmother or some such instructs her to ask the king for a bear's skin and a wheelbarrow. The fairy then places a spell on the wheelbarrow so it will take the Princess anywhere she wants to go. So, disguised as a bear riding in a magic wheelbarrow, the Princess escapes without drawing any attention to herself whatsoever. She's eventually captured by a Prince of another kingdom, who takes the amazing talking bear home to do chores for him. Eventually he falls in love with her (sans bear skin) at a party, and they get married.
Wikipedia told me this and other similarly strange, obscure fairy tales had been collected into a volume called The Grey Fairy Book, and I knew I had to read it. So I did.
These stories were collected from all over Europe and north Africa and it really showed, as the style and subject matter varied from demon ponies to fairy charms to thieving Jews to cannibals. Some of our heroes slaughtered people in gruesome ways due to a simple insult. In one story, a boy who could see two days into the future (more or less) killed his mother and father as well as an old woman, seven young boys, and his uncle's boss, mostly because his uncle was a fool. Many of these stories were just a random sequence of events that seemed to end only when the storyteller grew bored, at which point everything wrapped up in about three sentences. Just weird, weird stuff.
There were one or two tales I really did enjoy, however. And it was really very cool to get a glimpse at the many different types of fairy tale tradition. I don't know that there's a lot in here for me to adapt into a children's theatre format one day, but you never know. That delightful story where the sparrow tricks a carter into killing both of his horses before tricking his wife into cutting off his head because the man ran over her friend the dog is just screaming to be made into a musical!
The Green River Trail
by Ralph Compton
304 pages
St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2011
I'm not sure when this was originally published, but it wasn't 2011. Actually, the copy I read was an older print, but I don't have that publishing information at hand, so I'll just use the newer info.
I haven't decided yet if I like westerns or not. This is only my second, and I've enjoyed both of them, for what they are. It seems to me the strength of the western is generally the Wild West mystique rather than the story itself. Green River Trail was a pretty standard trail drive story. Four guys decide to drive some cattle from Texas to Utah. They buy horses, they take wives, they hire some cowboys, they drive to Utah. There are savage Indian attacks, desperadoes, crooked sheriffs, stampedes, and all that jazz. The women are tough, the men are tough, everybody's tough. And then they get where they're going. So if you're into that, pick up Green River Trail. It's a pretty entertaining little read.
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie
224 pages
Penguin Books, 1991
For those who say I've completely abandoned my original reading project list, I submit to you Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Boo-yah.
This was a very clever book. Not necessarily in the popular "Wit-as-humor" way, but in the way the idea was plotted into a story and the care with which the idea was executed within the narrative. It's fairly silly, and the author knows and uses that effectively. It is a story written for those who love stories. Even if it's fairly obvious at times where the story is going, it's still a remarkably charming tale. And a quick read, too. I finished the first 75% of the book in a single sitting. (And I would have finished it, but it was after 2 a.m. and I had a rehearsal the following morning) So if you're looking for something that's altogether silly, charming, adventurous, light-hearted, and fast, then this is one I'd recommend.
Am currently reading The Sacred Romance (note: Also from the original reading list) and The Great Hunt, book 2 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. For some reason, Green River Trail really made me want to re-read Eye of the World, but since that book's only available via interlibrary loan (until I one day own it) I figured I'd go with the more readily-available second book in the series.
Friday, November 19, 2010
It's been a month: How's about some awards?
It's been a month-plus since I've written in this blog. Sadly, it's been that longs since I've finished a book. I got crazy-busy with Winnie-the-Pooh and The Littlest Angel both going on at the same time--both plays, by the way, based on books!
I'm pesudo-back-on-track with reading now, and hopefully I'll have something new to put here soon. In the meantime, I'm overdue for some awards. So here's what I've read since we last gathered 'round the podium:
Cell by Stephen King
Gretzky's Tears by Stephen Brunt
The Baseball Codes by Jason Turnbow with Michael Duca
Powerless by Matthew Cody
Sometime Never by Roald Dahl
Me, Myself, and Bob by Phil Vischer
From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
The "Book That Had The Most Direct Impact On My Life the Past Two Months" Award goes to
Winnie-the-Pooh!
Obviously. Which means this book also wins the "Book That Won The Award With The Longest Title" Award
The Batman Bounce-back Award goes to:
Sometime Never!
Or, more specifically, to Roald Dahl. Much as folks thought the Caped Crusader would never bounce back after Bat-nipples, cold puns, and Alicia Silverstone, I don't imagine many would have expected Dahl to have the wildly successful career he had after reading this debut novel.
The "Most of this Didn't Have to Happen" Award goes to
From Russia With Love!
Which wasn't a bad book. The more I've thought about it, the more I realize that most of what occurred in the first half of the book was actually pretty irrelevant. However, it did introduce one of the greatest Bond support characters we've seen (up to this point in the series)
The "Coolest Interpretation of the Werewolf Mythos" Award goes to:
The Graveyard Book!
Though I don't think any of the rest of these books dealt with the werewolf mythos...nevertheless, I really liked what Gaiman did with it in this story.
The "What Have We Learned Song" Award goes to
Me, Myself, and Bob!
When it was done burying you in technical information regarding computer animation, this ended up being a really insightful and challenging read on dreams, faith, and growth. Like, uber challenging/convicting. Not bad for a book with a talking tomato on the cover.
The "Redemption of the Internet" Award goes to
One Red Paperclip!
Proof that, yes, good and worthwhile things do sometimes happen on the World Wide Web.
The "Holding Out Hope for a Sequel" Award goes to
Powerless!
A really fun, innovative story for kids that starts to feel (toward the end) that it's not so much telling a story any more as it is trying to set up a franchise.
The "Most Likely To Restore Your Faith In Baseball, Only To Potentially Dash It To The Ground" Award goes to:
The Baseball Codes
Which also gets the "Book That Won The Award That Supplanted That Other Award For The Title Of Award With The Longest Title Award" Award.
The "Oh, They'll Accept It All Right. They'll Accept It And They'll Like It!" Award goes to
Cell
Does it ever feel like Stephen King is just daring you to say, "Okay, now that's just a little too far-fetched"?
The "How Has Nobody In Canada Made This Into a Movie Starring George Clooney Yet?" Award goes to
Gretzky's Tears
Clooney wouldn't play Gretzky, but I think he'd make a dynamite Bruce McNall. Alan Thicke would play Alan Thicke.
The "Hands Down Favorite Book (Of This Grouping)" Award goes to
The Eye of the World
The award title is pretty self-explanatory. But the more I think back on this book, the more I like it.
The "I Can't Believe It's A Debut Novel!" Award goes to
Elantris
Quite the opposite of what I said about Roald Dahl with Sometime Never. I'm sure this one raised the bar sky-high on expectations for Brandon Sanderson's career.
And, done. Close to finishing a book of obscure fairy tales. That'll be a fun one to write about.
I'm pesudo-back-on-track with reading now, and hopefully I'll have something new to put here soon. In the meantime, I'm overdue for some awards. So here's what I've read since we last gathered 'round the podium:
Cell by Stephen King
Gretzky's Tears by Stephen Brunt
The Baseball Codes by Jason Turnbow with Michael Duca
Powerless by Matthew Cody
Sometime Never by Roald Dahl
Me, Myself, and Bob by Phil Vischer
From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
The "Book That Had The Most Direct Impact On My Life the Past Two Months" Award goes to
Winnie-the-Pooh!
Obviously. Which means this book also wins the "Book That Won The Award With The Longest Title" Award
The Batman Bounce-back Award goes to:
Sometime Never!
Or, more specifically, to Roald Dahl. Much as folks thought the Caped Crusader would never bounce back after Bat-nipples, cold puns, and Alicia Silverstone, I don't imagine many would have expected Dahl to have the wildly successful career he had after reading this debut novel.
The "Most of this Didn't Have to Happen" Award goes to
From Russia With Love!
Which wasn't a bad book. The more I've thought about it, the more I realize that most of what occurred in the first half of the book was actually pretty irrelevant. However, it did introduce one of the greatest Bond support characters we've seen (up to this point in the series)
The "Coolest Interpretation of the Werewolf Mythos" Award goes to:
The Graveyard Book!
Though I don't think any of the rest of these books dealt with the werewolf mythos...nevertheless, I really liked what Gaiman did with it in this story.
The "What Have We Learned Song" Award goes to
Me, Myself, and Bob!
When it was done burying you in technical information regarding computer animation, this ended up being a really insightful and challenging read on dreams, faith, and growth. Like, uber challenging/convicting. Not bad for a book with a talking tomato on the cover.
The "Redemption of the Internet" Award goes to
One Red Paperclip!
Proof that, yes, good and worthwhile things do sometimes happen on the World Wide Web.
The "Holding Out Hope for a Sequel" Award goes to
Powerless!
A really fun, innovative story for kids that starts to feel (toward the end) that it's not so much telling a story any more as it is trying to set up a franchise.
The "Most Likely To Restore Your Faith In Baseball, Only To Potentially Dash It To The Ground" Award goes to:
The Baseball Codes
Which also gets the "Book That Won The Award That Supplanted That Other Award For The Title Of Award With The Longest Title Award" Award.
The "Oh, They'll Accept It All Right. They'll Accept It And They'll Like It!" Award goes to
Cell
Does it ever feel like Stephen King is just daring you to say, "Okay, now that's just a little too far-fetched"?
The "How Has Nobody In Canada Made This Into a Movie Starring George Clooney Yet?" Award goes to
Gretzky's Tears
Clooney wouldn't play Gretzky, but I think he'd make a dynamite Bruce McNall. Alan Thicke would play Alan Thicke.
The "Hands Down Favorite Book (Of This Grouping)" Award goes to
The Eye of the World
The award title is pretty self-explanatory. But the more I think back on this book, the more I like it.
The "I Can't Believe It's A Debut Novel!" Award goes to
Elantris
Quite the opposite of what I said about Roald Dahl with Sometime Never. I'm sure this one raised the bar sky-high on expectations for Brandon Sanderson's career.
And, done. Close to finishing a book of obscure fairy tales. That'll be a fun one to write about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
