Phoenix here-- and screw the epithet, I give up. I am not rising from the ashes of the stupid classic books I have burned this month in an act of catharsis so effective I almost had an Herbal Essence moment right there, if you catch my drift.
I mean it. No more classics for me, and that's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it.
(Till next month, anyway.)
My reading list for the month:
Notes From Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky
If you read this... then that is all you need to know about my thoughts on this here book. 136 pages, and I earned every damn one of them. I'm still having nightmares about being trapped underground with only this book for company. Egads.
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Yes, she has a silly name which is a very bad word if you take out the middle five letters. If you let that stop you from reading this absolutely fantastic book, you are, no offense, a complete loser. A failure at life. I really mean that. You'll never get anywhere making fun of people's names that way.
Apparently because NFU (that stands for "Not For the Unmedicated," in case you were wondering) was such a traumatic experience for me, the reading gods very kindly saw fit to provide me with this lovely tale. It didn't exactly erase the really bad and terrible feelings of inadequacy, just as somebody giving you a really great haircut doesn't quite make up for the fact that you just had your arm amputated.
But it helped. That's all I can say.
I can't talk about this book... the plot is too complicated and yet simple for me to risk not doing it justice by summarizing, the characters need no explanation, and it's the best book I've read since A Thousand Splendid Suns (which is a ringing endorsement a few times over).
Read it. If you don't like it, I'll be glad to take the blame. But I won't understand. 536 pages.
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Sue Monk Kidd
This was a recommendation from our very own resident Mother Earth... in fact, she provided me the book. So, I very much wanted to and expected to like it (I really liked The Secret Life of Bees and I was looking forward to seeing what she'd do with nonfictional narrative). Unfortunately, I didn't like it-- or Kidd-- until the very end, and even then I wasn't crazy about her.
Mainly, this is because she reminds me a lot of myself. You can always count on that to be annoying, especially when you don't like the person, but I found it particularly irksome in this context because Kidd seems to be trying to portray herself as this enlightened, wonderful person (I also had issues with her terrible arrogance) when in actuality, she just comes across as pretentious and dull. Worse, her actions throughout the book were very similar to mine in my most selfish years, and I'm 40 years younger than she is. In a sense I respect her journey, but I can't get behind a lot of her actions throughout it.
Unfortunately, I have to give this one a thumbs-down. 228 pages.
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Did I mention that I am so done with classics? I was looking forward to this book. I read a book of Vonnegut's once and I wasn't all that impressed, but he's one of my best friends' favorite authors so I decided to give one of his most famous books a try to see if I liked it any better.
Not so much. I've moved past the trying-to-understand phase and now I'm just flat-out wondering if anyone else struggles with this stuff nearly as much as I do, or if I'm just a dense fog of a reader. I couldn't follow what was going on during well over half the book. The first part was clear enough, but then it went into this stream-of-consciousness pattern and stayed there till the very end.
I should mention that I have a huge problem with stream-of-consciousness, generally speaking. I hate it, I just hate it. The only time I can excuse it is when the writing is out-of-this-world, wonderful prose (Lolita comes to mind). Otherwise, forget it. I need action. I need plot. I really need to know what the hell is going on if I'm not to end up bored and frustrated and, hey, ready to give up on classics and knock back some quality bourbon while I'm at it.
I was really looking forward to reading about Vonnegut's time as a prisoner of war in that biting, satiric, wonderfully witty way he has (and he really does... the few bits I could understand were some damn fine samples of writing). But the way he structured the book, I couldn't tell what was going on and it left me feeling like I'd missed the point, plus an awful lot of brilliant storytelling. In a nutshell, that's my issue with these classic books. 275 pages.
Girls of Riyadh, Rajaa Alsanea
I read about Middle Eastern cultures all the time, because I find their stories, lifestyles, traditions, and laws to be nothing short of fascinating. This goes double for books about the Kingdom... Saudi Arabia. This book is actually a collection of expose emails a young Saudi woman took it upon herself to write anonymously to a group on the Internet... similar to blogging, but before it was popular. The email group grew and spread like wildfire throughout the Kingdom. Everyone began reading them, but the girl herself stayed completely anonymous. (She talks in one email of how she would print out her new posts as soon as they were available and read them to her family, just as every other girl in her age bracket was doing... no one suspected she was the writer.)
The emails chronicle four well-to-do young Saudi women and their lovers/husbands/boyfriends. The writing is only fair (not even that sometimes; she tends to ramble), but the stories are intense and well worth reading. Not to the extent I would certain other books about this country and others in the area, but I would recommend this book. 286 pages.
My new page count is around 6700. I read a lot this month, but mainly reruns because I read Time Traveler's Wife very slowly out of sheer enjoyment and most of the others found me riddled with frustration and not wanting to concentrate on them when I wasn't on the subway.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Hit or Myth
Even More Books for School
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth. I loved Campbell in college, but rereading it now with a critical eye I realize some of the big problems involved - most namely a basic misunderstanding of many other people's traditions and an inherent selfishness to Campbell's whole project. 320 pgs.
J.F. Bierlein, Parallel Myths. By far the best mythology book used for the class I'm TAing for. Lays out the myths, their similarities and dissimilarities while being very careful to make sweeping (American individualist) generalizations, and has a very nice piece at the end specifically about "religious mythology" which is nuanced and sensitive. If you want to read about mythologies, drop Campbell and pick up this one. 368 pgs.
A Tiny Bit of Books For Fun
Reread Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I love this snarky too-clever-for-their-own-good kind of metafiction that really has something profound to say under all the self-conscious writerly devices (David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, I'll argue, is the greatest book of my generation). Eggers tells the story of his parents' death and his subsequent guardianship of his eight-year-old brother, all framed in a painfully self-conscious reflection on writing, life, and celebrity. 416 pgs.
Sometimes It's Just Time to Walk Away
Started and didn't finish Tim Willocks' The Religion: A Novel. Set in 16th century Malta, The Religion tells the story of the dramatic conflict between the Hospitallers and the Moslem armies. It centers around the figure of Matthias Tannhauser, a German trader conscripted as a boy by the Moslems but now weaving his self-centered intrigue among the various political factions in Malta. Now, I'm not against sex and violence per se, but do you really have to be angling for a movie deal this early, guy? Made it to 250 pgs. and put it back in the "to be returned to the library" bag.
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth. I loved Campbell in college, but rereading it now with a critical eye I realize some of the big problems involved - most namely a basic misunderstanding of many other people's traditions and an inherent selfishness to Campbell's whole project. 320 pgs.
J.F. Bierlein, Parallel Myths. By far the best mythology book used for the class I'm TAing for. Lays out the myths, their similarities and dissimilarities while being very careful to make sweeping (American individualist) generalizations, and has a very nice piece at the end specifically about "religious mythology" which is nuanced and sensitive. If you want to read about mythologies, drop Campbell and pick up this one. 368 pgs.
A Tiny Bit of Books For Fun
Reread Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I love this snarky too-clever-for-their-own-good kind of metafiction that really has something profound to say under all the self-conscious writerly devices (David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, I'll argue, is the greatest book of my generation). Eggers tells the story of his parents' death and his subsequent guardianship of his eight-year-old brother, all framed in a painfully self-conscious reflection on writing, life, and celebrity. 416 pgs.
Sometimes It's Just Time to Walk Away
Started and didn't finish Tim Willocks' The Religion: A Novel. Set in 16th century Malta, The Religion tells the story of the dramatic conflict between the Hospitallers and the Moslem armies. It centers around the figure of Matthias Tannhauser, a German trader conscripted as a boy by the Moslems but now weaving his self-centered intrigue among the various political factions in Malta. Now, I'm not against sex and violence per se, but do you really have to be angling for a movie deal this early, guy? Made it to 250 pgs. and put it back in the "to be returned to the library" bag.
Monday, February 25, 2008
More Diana Gabaldon (Don't worry, I'm reading lots of non-fiction now to atone)
Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
'nother in the Outlander series... I think it had the most twists of any in the series -- one where I really wanted to know what was going to happen next!I'm not sure how much I've talked about these -- Set in Scotland(1940-1970 and 1740's) and mid-1700's colonial America, largely. 1070 pages.
Buffy in Denver
'nother in the Outlander series... I think it had the most twists of any in the series -- one where I really wanted to know what was going to happen next!I'm not sure how much I've talked about these -- Set in Scotland(1940-1970 and 1740's) and mid-1700's colonial America, largely. 1070 pages.
Buffy in Denver
Saturday, February 23, 2008
hallelujah, i read another book!
by Tamie
I just finished 44 Scotland Street, recommended to me by Buffy. What a fun read. I really enjoyed it. It's about a bunch of people who are sort of connected, who all live in Edinburgh. There's lots of observations about humanity, and it's pretty hilarious, and these two reasons are why I liked it. 585 pages (I got the large-print edition, and I don't feel bad at all for doing so, because it means more pages, and we all know that we all need as many advantages to try and beat Buffy and Jeremy as possible!)
I just finished 44 Scotland Street, recommended to me by Buffy. What a fun read. I really enjoyed it. It's about a bunch of people who are sort of connected, who all live in Edinburgh. There's lots of observations about humanity, and it's pretty hilarious, and these two reasons are why I liked it. 585 pages (I got the large-print edition, and I don't feel bad at all for doing so, because it means more pages, and we all know that we all need as many advantages to try and beat Buffy and Jeremy as possible!)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Synchronicity Means Making Up Meaning Where There Isn't Any
All right, Jeremy catching up.
Books for School
World Mythology, edited by Roy Willis. The primary text for the comparative mythology class I'm assistant teaching. Decent overview but poorly copy-edited, some factual errors, and an overall approach that I find colonialist and condescending. (Did I mention I actually cursed out loud at Joseph Campbell in the library today?) 307 pgs.
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume 1, really should be translated something like The Will to Knowledge. Impossible to encapsulate simply, but crudely summarized Foucault brilliantly argues that the whole concept of "sexuality" is something society made up in the 17th century to enforce power over women, children, homosexuals - and eventually ourselves. Read it several times and with someone who knows what they're talking about and you'll see it has to be true. 159 pgs.
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Another brilliantly argued book that surveys the entirety of Western moral philosophy to see what's gone wrong. Why are we all shouting at each other instead of having intelligent arguments - in other words, Why in God's name did Fox News happen? MacIntyre argues that the Enlightenment project to base morality in individual reason led to the fragmentation of any possible common language of what's a good thing to do, and suggests a return to Aristotle's concept of a community guided by virtue instead. A wonderful read and easy to grasp on its own terms - and not a bad introduction to several key thinkers of philosophy as well. 278 pgs.
Books for Fun
David Leavitt, The Indian Clerk. The real reason for the title of my post (which I happen to also believe). An interesting dovetail with my philosophical reading (especially Wittgenstein and Foucault), this book is a fictional account of mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan's correspondence and contact with Cambridge mathematician G. H. Hardy. Much sexier than it sounds, Hardy considers his own failed attempts at romance, the mysticism of mathematics, and pacifism during the Great War. A sensitive look at complex manifestations of same-gender activity in the Disciples at Cambridge, which also features cameos by Bertrand Russell, D.H. Lawrence, and Herr Wittgenstein himself. Highly recommended - and you don't have to understand math to enjoy it. 485 pgs.
Mario Vargas Llosa, The Bad Girl. Another fascinating tangent connecting to philosophy and cultural studies. The story of a Peruvian expatriate translator in Paris and his contact over the significant decades of the 20th century with a power-and-riches hungry compatriot with whom he is still loyally in love. A look at the changing face of world politics and changing gender roles in the 1950s through 1980s centered around a good man loving the girl gone bad. No cameos, but mentions Derrida, Deleuze, and Lacan among others. Another recommended read. 276 pgs.
And finally, the book that got away - a graphic novel (that's "sequential narrative" to you skeptics). Sadly not that good. The Spectre: Tales of the Unexpected. In the DC Universe that includes Superman and Batman, the Spectre is literally the supernatural incarnation of the Wrath of God. This has been used to quite interesting and sophisticated effect in past comic book history. Not so much here - more an excuse for an adolescent gorefest. Are comics getting stupid again? (They were smart for so long there. Sigh.) 128 pgs.
Books for School
World Mythology, edited by Roy Willis. The primary text for the comparative mythology class I'm assistant teaching. Decent overview but poorly copy-edited, some factual errors, and an overall approach that I find colonialist and condescending. (Did I mention I actually cursed out loud at Joseph Campbell in the library today?) 307 pgs.
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume 1, really should be translated something like The Will to Knowledge. Impossible to encapsulate simply, but crudely summarized Foucault brilliantly argues that the whole concept of "sexuality" is something society made up in the 17th century to enforce power over women, children, homosexuals - and eventually ourselves. Read it several times and with someone who knows what they're talking about and you'll see it has to be true. 159 pgs.
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Another brilliantly argued book that surveys the entirety of Western moral philosophy to see what's gone wrong. Why are we all shouting at each other instead of having intelligent arguments - in other words, Why in God's name did Fox News happen? MacIntyre argues that the Enlightenment project to base morality in individual reason led to the fragmentation of any possible common language of what's a good thing to do, and suggests a return to Aristotle's concept of a community guided by virtue instead. A wonderful read and easy to grasp on its own terms - and not a bad introduction to several key thinkers of philosophy as well. 278 pgs.
Books for Fun
David Leavitt, The Indian Clerk. The real reason for the title of my post (which I happen to also believe). An interesting dovetail with my philosophical reading (especially Wittgenstein and Foucault), this book is a fictional account of mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan's correspondence and contact with Cambridge mathematician G. H. Hardy. Much sexier than it sounds, Hardy considers his own failed attempts at romance, the mysticism of mathematics, and pacifism during the Great War. A sensitive look at complex manifestations of same-gender activity in the Disciples at Cambridge, which also features cameos by Bertrand Russell, D.H. Lawrence, and Herr Wittgenstein himself. Highly recommended - and you don't have to understand math to enjoy it. 485 pgs.
Mario Vargas Llosa, The Bad Girl. Another fascinating tangent connecting to philosophy and cultural studies. The story of a Peruvian expatriate translator in Paris and his contact over the significant decades of the 20th century with a power-and-riches hungry compatriot with whom he is still loyally in love. A look at the changing face of world politics and changing gender roles in the 1950s through 1980s centered around a good man loving the girl gone bad. No cameos, but mentions Derrida, Deleuze, and Lacan among others. Another recommended read. 276 pgs.
And finally, the book that got away - a graphic novel (that's "sequential narrative" to you skeptics). Sadly not that good. The Spectre: Tales of the Unexpected. In the DC Universe that includes Superman and Batman, the Spectre is literally the supernatural incarnation of the Wrath of God. This has been used to quite interesting and sophisticated effect in past comic book history. Not so much here - more an excuse for an adolescent gorefest. Are comics getting stupid again? (They were smart for so long there. Sigh.) 128 pgs.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Just Not That Into Hollywood, Buffy (humbly) Declares
The Star Machine by Jeanine Basinger
Nonfiction about the big movie stars in the U.S. from the 1930's to the 1950's (and the "machine" that made them. Really well-written and mildly interesting but i decided I should move on after 316 pages. Should help me with crosswords and trivia games, though! ;)
Coming back to add another (Feb 20)--
Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith
The third in the 44 Scotland Street series. I really like these (not a big fan of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency). I like the little philosophical reflections the characters ponder and ... well, and I just like them. :) This is the most recent in the series, so you won't have to hear me talk about them again for a while. (though I may try his Portuguese Irregular Verbs trilogy.) 357 pages
And Feb.21 --
Crawfish Mountain by Ken Wells
Fiction -- author has been described as the "Cajun Carl Hiaasen". Deals with the decimation of Louisiana's wetlands and the politics involved. Fun characters. Read if you are interested in the subject or area, or really like Carl Hiaasen. If none of these things apply to you -- it's a fine book to skip. 364 pages
Nonfiction about the big movie stars in the U.S. from the 1930's to the 1950's (and the "machine" that made them. Really well-written and mildly interesting but i decided I should move on after 316 pages. Should help me with crosswords and trivia games, though! ;)
Coming back to add another (Feb 20)--
Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith
The third in the 44 Scotland Street series. I really like these (not a big fan of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency). I like the little philosophical reflections the characters ponder and ... well, and I just like them. :) This is the most recent in the series, so you won't have to hear me talk about them again for a while. (though I may try his Portuguese Irregular Verbs trilogy.) 357 pages
And Feb.21 --
Crawfish Mountain by Ken Wells
Fiction -- author has been described as the "Cajun Carl Hiaasen". Deals with the decimation of Louisiana's wetlands and the politics involved. Fun characters. Read if you are interested in the subject or area, or really like Carl Hiaasen. If none of these things apply to you -- it's a fine book to skip. 364 pages
Jeremy and the Book That Disappeared
A. J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. It may just be my field, but I didn't like this one quite as much as The Year of Living Biblically. More neurosis and Hollywood, less personal reflection. Still cute, though - and you do gather some interesting trivia since Jacobs has done the work of reading the Encyclopedia Britannica all the way through for you. 288 pgs.
Annie Proulx, Close Range: Wyoming Stories. The collection that has the original short story "Brokeback Mountain" appears in. All right, I'm having trouble with my life. But not in the same way that a horribly injured rodeo rider does. Or a persecuted inbred adolescent. Or a gay cowboy. Don't read these if you are depressed. Or an inbred rodeo-riding teenaged bruised gay cowboy (because you know these experiences already). I did identify with waiting a long time at Denver International Airport, though. 285 pgs.
And here's the amazing thing, folks - when you read this much, sometimes it doesn't even make an impression. Between Jacobs and Brokeback Mountain I lost a book. I definitely read it and shelved it somewhere, but I have no idea what it was. I guess it wasn't good enough to make an impression.
Annie Proulx, Close Range: Wyoming Stories. The collection that has the original short story "Brokeback Mountain" appears in. All right, I'm having trouble with my life. But not in the same way that a horribly injured rodeo rider does. Or a persecuted inbred adolescent. Or a gay cowboy. Don't read these if you are depressed. Or an inbred rodeo-riding teenaged bruised gay cowboy (because you know these experiences already). I did identify with waiting a long time at Denver International Airport, though. 285 pgs.
And here's the amazing thing, folks - when you read this much, sometimes it doesn't even make an impression. Between Jacobs and Brokeback Mountain I lost a book. I definitely read it and shelved it somewhere, but I have no idea what it was. I guess it wasn't good enough to make an impression.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Reading challenge update from mel
Wow! You guys kick my reading ass. This is great. My only complaint about this challenge thus far is that there is no way I will be able to read all the interesting books you guys are reviewing! They all look tempting (except maybe that one about falling trees? Sorry Rob Jach, I'm sure it was good, just not my territory) and it is so great to read your reviews.
I found my 'Between Interruptions' book that I mentioned last time.
It's a compilation by 30 women, edited by Cori Howard.
AWESOME! I wish this book were three times as long. It's a collection of essay-type writings on 30 womens' experience of motherhood. I think I loved this book so much simply because it was honest in talking about the daily lives of many types of moms. Some are journalists, some editors, some novelists; all are good writers (imperative when writing for publication, I say!), and discusses some of the pertinent and unique issues for women of our generation with children.
314 pages.
'The Tent'
by Margaret Atwood
A 'melange' of fictional pieces by The Margaret
Good. I find her novels more satisfying than this particular compilation because her stories and characters are fascinating enough to want to journey with for a long time.
155 pages.
'Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters'
by Jessical Valenti, founder of feministing.com
Um...I'm VERY glad to have run across this book and blog author. I think she has a lot of very important things to say. The downside? She swears aLOT when she could really be more articulate, and it seems that if one is of a religious bent, one is not truly a feminist? Or intelligent? Or complex? Toss that garbage out, and you have yourself an extremely important feminist resource (not just for your hardcore, no-armpit-shaving, bra burning types...in fact, not really for that 'type' at all, if it even exists) and social commentary. Read it, or at least check out her website, and see what you think. Men, too, though I don't harbour much hope of that actually happening. Perhaps I should check my cynicism at the door ;-)
247 pages
Grand total: 716, which, added to my previous total of 1712, is 2428 pages.
I thought magazines didn't count? Grrr, I will have to start adding those to the fray. Do kids' books count? I read a lot of Dr Seuss. :-D
I found my 'Between Interruptions' book that I mentioned last time.
It's a compilation by 30 women, edited by Cori Howard.
AWESOME! I wish this book were three times as long. It's a collection of essay-type writings on 30 womens' experience of motherhood. I think I loved this book so much simply because it was honest in talking about the daily lives of many types of moms. Some are journalists, some editors, some novelists; all are good writers (imperative when writing for publication, I say!), and discusses some of the pertinent and unique issues for women of our generation with children.
314 pages.
'The Tent'
by Margaret Atwood
A 'melange' of fictional pieces by The Margaret
Good. I find her novels more satisfying than this particular compilation because her stories and characters are fascinating enough to want to journey with for a long time.
155 pages.
'Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters'
by Jessical Valenti, founder of feministing.com
Um...I'm VERY glad to have run across this book and blog author. I think she has a lot of very important things to say. The downside? She swears aLOT when she could really be more articulate, and it seems that if one is of a religious bent, one is not truly a feminist? Or intelligent? Or complex? Toss that garbage out, and you have yourself an extremely important feminist resource (not just for your hardcore, no-armpit-shaving, bra burning types...in fact, not really for that 'type' at all, if it even exists) and social commentary. Read it, or at least check out her website, and see what you think. Men, too, though I don't harbour much hope of that actually happening. Perhaps I should check my cynicism at the door ;-)
247 pages
Grand total: 716, which, added to my previous total of 1712, is 2428 pages.
I thought magazines didn't count? Grrr, I will have to start adding those to the fray. Do kids' books count? I read a lot of Dr Seuss. :-D
More Alexander McCall Smith and (Not) Using Reading as Escapism
Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith
More in the 44 Scotland Street series. 345 pages
Then, in the midst of great emotional upheaval in my life, I chose to read two not so light-hearted books --
Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
Fiction about a West Virginia coal-mining community. The viewpoint alters from chapter to chapter, with the story being told by various members of one family in the community. Author grew up in West Virginia. Pretty bleak (for good reason). 360 pages
The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America by Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen
Non-fiction. The authors follow 9 families in their day to day lives. Good. 229 pages.
I also read the March 2007 Atlantic magazine. I'm not ambitious enough to count ads -- do you think subtracting 50 pages is good enough (especially if I carefully perused and mocked the ads?) I'll say 82 pages.
~Buffy in Denver who will eventually read something lighter.
More in the 44 Scotland Street series. 345 pages
Then, in the midst of great emotional upheaval in my life, I chose to read two not so light-hearted books --
Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
Fiction about a West Virginia coal-mining community. The viewpoint alters from chapter to chapter, with the story being told by various members of one family in the community. Author grew up in West Virginia. Pretty bleak (for good reason). 360 pages
The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America by Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen
Non-fiction. The authors follow 9 families in their day to day lives. Good. 229 pages.
I also read the March 2007 Atlantic magazine. I'm not ambitious enough to count ads -- do you think subtracting 50 pages is good enough (especially if I carefully perused and mocked the ads?) I'll say 82 pages.
~Buffy in Denver who will eventually read something lighter.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Handicaps
I've decided that because I read slow, and some of those peope below me have already read thousands of pages, I should get a handicap. 15,000,000 pages sounds fair to me. Do your worst Jeremy and Buffy. Just try and catch me now. HA!!!!
~Rob Jach
~Rob Jach
Rob Jach's Reading List So Far.
Robert Ritter Jach
D. Douglas Dent. Professional Timber Falling: A Procedural Approach.
Maybe not your typical book for this blog, but I read it, so here it is. Douglas Dent is an expert sawyer who has been involved in the timber business for over thirty years. He is known throughout the industry for his knowledge regarding timber falling. In Professional Timber Falling, Dent goes over basic terminology, equipment and general safety procedures before delving into actual felling, limbing and bucking (cutting a tree trunk into logs or blocks). A recurring theme throughout is the need to be constantly aware of one’s surroundings and the status of the tree being felled in order to saw safely. Tree size, rot, lean, compression and tension forces and nearby terrain and trees are all brought into consideration before, during and after both the face-cut and back-cut are executed. The book is loaded with diagrams and photos of actual cuts in the field. For Dent, safety is not a series of rules set by OSHA to be followed begrudgingly, but a crucial part of a specific process that not only leads to the security of the sawyer, but more efficient and, in the logging industry, more profitable cutting. Professional Timber Falling is an excellent text for anyone about to learn how to use a chainsaw; though, obviously, it does not replace hands-on-training.
175 pages. (REVIEWED BY ROB JACH)
Elizabeth Royte. Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash.
Royte, who has also contributed to the New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Outside among others, takes on the sticky topic of where our trash goes when we “throw it away.” In short, the reader learns that it does not just “go away.” The book follows Royte’s personal quest to find out just how her Brooklyn, NY household’s waste is disposed of, from kitchen scraps, electronics, plastics, cans, and even what gets flushed down the toilet. Using traditional research to add to her own investigations, Royte combines both rancid humor and rotting reality to write about the epic voyages our trash takes from curbside to its final resting place. Royte rides along with garbage men on their routes, snoops around landfills after their managers fail to return her calls, tours recycling plants and starts her own compost pile – with grubby results.
Trash, we learn, is a multi-million dollar industry with private companies managing most of our refuse after municipal carriers haul it from our homes to the local sanitation garage. Landfill operators pay millions to poor communities to dump garbage in their backyards. The current limits of recycling along with the pollution risks of leaky landfills are discussed at length. Perhaps the most astonishing realization Royte makes is just how trivial the space post-consumer waste occupies when compared the waste generated by corporations extracting resources, manufacturing, packaging and transporting the goods we purchase. Further indicting those corporations shirking proper responsibility, Royte gives the example of the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign. “Keep America Beautiful” (KAB) is a program funded by the likes of the American Plastics Council and the American Can Company, among over two hundred other corporations. KAB calls on individual citizens to “pitch-it” and enlists them in volunteer beach and park cleanups. But these same entities make no effort to reduce their own waste, reduce packaging, and even vehemently lobby against recycling and state bottle deposit bills (paying a nickel deposit per beer bottle, receiving it back upon its return – states with bottle bills have seen a marked decrease in glass bottles in municipal waste).
But, Royte adds, consumers can help by refusing to buy unnecessary items. Conspicuous consumption (and with it, planned obsolesce), Royte argues, is just as complicit in our enormous garbage situation as the lack of recycling. For every item not purchased, over ten times the resources used to produce it are spared. More discussion on our oil-dependency and its connection to plastics could have been included. There is also no mention of nuclear waste or the very wasteful practices of governmental agencies. Royte delivers a sometimes depressing, yet humorous call to action.
294 pages. (REVIEWED BY ROB JACH)
Karin Muller. Along the Inca Road: A Woman’s Journey into an Ancient Empire.
I’ll be visiting my sister in South America during the month of April, so I thought I had better read up on what I might expect in our travels. Muller, also the author of Hitchhiking Vietnam, spends almost seven months traversing remote villages, bustling capitals, freezing mountain passes, dusty deserts, lush rainforests and windswept beaches. Financed in part through a National Geographic grant, Muller sets upon her journey with only a skeleton of an itinerary and a six foot two vegetarian cameraman for a sidekick. Making use of the local populace’s expertise as her guide, she finds herself in the thick of a riot, a jungle cocaine-bust, deep inside a gold mine, a dancer in a troupe, and on an unsuccessful fishing trip that leaves her stomach churning. Though she visits such sites as Machu Picchu along her three thousand mile journey, she concludes that it was not the sightseeing that left a lasting impression, but the people who helped and befriended her along the way – not too mention the dozens of old women who tried again and again to teach her the “proper” way to spin llama or vicuña fleece.
Interspersed throughout her narrative are short history lessons about the rich Inca Empire, the entity responsible for the most spectacular highway constructed prior to the twentieth-century and how this empire succumbed so easily to Francisco Pizarro’s rag tag band of conquistadors. A fun read, however, I wish she included more detail regarding weather conditions, costs, and where she stayed. Though I suppose that is what travel guidebooks are for.
295 pages. (REVIEWED BY ROB JACH.)
D. Douglas Dent. Professional Timber Falling: A Procedural Approach.
Maybe not your typical book for this blog, but I read it, so here it is. Douglas Dent is an expert sawyer who has been involved in the timber business for over thirty years. He is known throughout the industry for his knowledge regarding timber falling. In Professional Timber Falling, Dent goes over basic terminology, equipment and general safety procedures before delving into actual felling, limbing and bucking (cutting a tree trunk into logs or blocks). A recurring theme throughout is the need to be constantly aware of one’s surroundings and the status of the tree being felled in order to saw safely. Tree size, rot, lean, compression and tension forces and nearby terrain and trees are all brought into consideration before, during and after both the face-cut and back-cut are executed. The book is loaded with diagrams and photos of actual cuts in the field. For Dent, safety is not a series of rules set by OSHA to be followed begrudgingly, but a crucial part of a specific process that not only leads to the security of the sawyer, but more efficient and, in the logging industry, more profitable cutting. Professional Timber Falling is an excellent text for anyone about to learn how to use a chainsaw; though, obviously, it does not replace hands-on-training.
175 pages. (REVIEWED BY ROB JACH)
Elizabeth Royte. Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash.
Royte, who has also contributed to the New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Outside among others, takes on the sticky topic of where our trash goes when we “throw it away.” In short, the reader learns that it does not just “go away.” The book follows Royte’s personal quest to find out just how her Brooklyn, NY household’s waste is disposed of, from kitchen scraps, electronics, plastics, cans, and even what gets flushed down the toilet. Using traditional research to add to her own investigations, Royte combines both rancid humor and rotting reality to write about the epic voyages our trash takes from curbside to its final resting place. Royte rides along with garbage men on their routes, snoops around landfills after their managers fail to return her calls, tours recycling plants and starts her own compost pile – with grubby results.
Trash, we learn, is a multi-million dollar industry with private companies managing most of our refuse after municipal carriers haul it from our homes to the local sanitation garage. Landfill operators pay millions to poor communities to dump garbage in their backyards. The current limits of recycling along with the pollution risks of leaky landfills are discussed at length. Perhaps the most astonishing realization Royte makes is just how trivial the space post-consumer waste occupies when compared the waste generated by corporations extracting resources, manufacturing, packaging and transporting the goods we purchase. Further indicting those corporations shirking proper responsibility, Royte gives the example of the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign. “Keep America Beautiful” (KAB) is a program funded by the likes of the American Plastics Council and the American Can Company, among over two hundred other corporations. KAB calls on individual citizens to “pitch-it” and enlists them in volunteer beach and park cleanups. But these same entities make no effort to reduce their own waste, reduce packaging, and even vehemently lobby against recycling and state bottle deposit bills (paying a nickel deposit per beer bottle, receiving it back upon its return – states with bottle bills have seen a marked decrease in glass bottles in municipal waste).
But, Royte adds, consumers can help by refusing to buy unnecessary items. Conspicuous consumption (and with it, planned obsolesce), Royte argues, is just as complicit in our enormous garbage situation as the lack of recycling. For every item not purchased, over ten times the resources used to produce it are spared. More discussion on our oil-dependency and its connection to plastics could have been included. There is also no mention of nuclear waste or the very wasteful practices of governmental agencies. Royte delivers a sometimes depressing, yet humorous call to action.
294 pages. (REVIEWED BY ROB JACH)
Karin Muller. Along the Inca Road: A Woman’s Journey into an Ancient Empire.
I’ll be visiting my sister in South America during the month of April, so I thought I had better read up on what I might expect in our travels. Muller, also the author of Hitchhiking Vietnam, spends almost seven months traversing remote villages, bustling capitals, freezing mountain passes, dusty deserts, lush rainforests and windswept beaches. Financed in part through a National Geographic grant, Muller sets upon her journey with only a skeleton of an itinerary and a six foot two vegetarian cameraman for a sidekick. Making use of the local populace’s expertise as her guide, she finds herself in the thick of a riot, a jungle cocaine-bust, deep inside a gold mine, a dancer in a troupe, and on an unsuccessful fishing trip that leaves her stomach churning. Though she visits such sites as Machu Picchu along her three thousand mile journey, she concludes that it was not the sightseeing that left a lasting impression, but the people who helped and befriended her along the way – not too mention the dozens of old women who tried again and again to teach her the “proper” way to spin llama or vicuña fleece.
Interspersed throughout her narrative are short history lessons about the rich Inca Empire, the entity responsible for the most spectacular highway constructed prior to the twentieth-century and how this empire succumbed so easily to Francisco Pizarro’s rag tag band of conquistadors. A fun read, however, I wish she included more detail regarding weather conditions, costs, and where she stayed. Though I suppose that is what travel guidebooks are for.
295 pages. (REVIEWED BY ROB JACH.)
i read a magazine!
But it sure is a good magazine. The January 2008 issue of The Sun. It was about emotion, opening to the dark and scary emotions, as an unexpected path into light.
Here are a few quotes.
"Despair can be a powerful path to the sacred and to a kind of illumination that doesn't come when we bypass the darkness." -Interview with Miriam Greenspan
"Why is it that people who cannot show feeling presume that that is a strength and not a weakness?" -May Sarton
48 pages.
(from Tamie)
Here are a few quotes.
"Despair can be a powerful path to the sacred and to a kind of illumination that doesn't come when we bypass the darkness." -Interview with Miriam Greenspan
"Why is it that people who cannot show feeling presume that that is a strength and not a weakness?" -May Sarton
48 pages.
(from Tamie)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Negative Theology, TV Stars, and a little Sci-Fi S&M
Jeremy back.
So Susan Sontag didn't work out. I really can't read nonfiction at this point that isn't assigned to me or can't contribute toward my dissertation at this point. Nevertheless I will read other things instead, as evidenced by the following list:
1. Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity. After I said I was reading Feuerbach, my New Testament scholar friend Micah asked me to define Feuerbach's thesis in two simple sentences. Here it is: "Religion is the good parts of humanity. The bad part of religion is making those good parts into somebody else." There you are - now you don't have to read it. 339 pgs.
2. Anna Quindlen, Rise and Shine. This got on my "To Read" list a long time ago and I finally got around to it. A lovely, sweet little novel that I probably wouldn't have read otherwise. The struggling social-worker sister of a famous talk show host nurses her family after the talk show host breaks down on air. I think New Yorkers would get this more than I did, but I liked it anyway. And Quindlen's politics are solid, too. 269 pgs.
3. John C. Wright, Fugitives of Chaos. Second volume of one of the strangest sci-fi series I've read in a while - and that's saying something. The lone five inhabitants of a prestigious prep school discover they are incarnations of Chaos meant to fight the Greek gods. Each one inhabits a mutually incompatible version of reality that gives them various powers - the matter-manipulating robot, the medieval sorceror, the shaman, the dimensional manipulator, etc. Philosophy and some oddly kinky soft-core BDSM for the kiddies, I suppose. Recommended if you're ready for that kind of thing. 353 pgs.
Next up: A.J. Ayers' attempt to read the Encyclopedia Britannica, and Foucault. Maybe there's a paper in between those last three somewhere.
So Susan Sontag didn't work out. I really can't read nonfiction at this point that isn't assigned to me or can't contribute toward my dissertation at this point. Nevertheless I will read other things instead, as evidenced by the following list:
1. Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity. After I said I was reading Feuerbach, my New Testament scholar friend Micah asked me to define Feuerbach's thesis in two simple sentences. Here it is: "Religion is the good parts of humanity. The bad part of religion is making those good parts into somebody else." There you are - now you don't have to read it. 339 pgs.
2. Anna Quindlen, Rise and Shine. This got on my "To Read" list a long time ago and I finally got around to it. A lovely, sweet little novel that I probably wouldn't have read otherwise. The struggling social-worker sister of a famous talk show host nurses her family after the talk show host breaks down on air. I think New Yorkers would get this more than I did, but I liked it anyway. And Quindlen's politics are solid, too. 269 pgs.
3. John C. Wright, Fugitives of Chaos. Second volume of one of the strangest sci-fi series I've read in a while - and that's saying something. The lone five inhabitants of a prestigious prep school discover they are incarnations of Chaos meant to fight the Greek gods. Each one inhabits a mutually incompatible version of reality that gives them various powers - the matter-manipulating robot, the medieval sorceror, the shaman, the dimensional manipulator, etc. Philosophy and some oddly kinky soft-core BDSM for the kiddies, I suppose. Recommended if you're ready for that kind of thing. 353 pgs.
Next up: A.J. Ayers' attempt to read the Encyclopedia Britannica, and Foucault. Maybe there's a paper in between those last three somewhere.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Michelle here:
Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy This book is brilliant. I don't know a lot about philosophy, but this book gives words to the bits I had picked up along the way. It goes from Socrates and Aristotle to Darwin and Freud. The ending is incredibly creative! I read the last hundred pages while I was work on Friday...It's that good. 513 pages.
Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy This book is brilliant. I don't know a lot about philosophy, but this book gives words to the bits I had picked up along the way. It goes from Socrates and Aristotle to Darwin and Freud. The ending is incredibly creative! I read the last hundred pages while I was work on Friday...It's that good. 513 pages.
A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev
Won the Brenner Prize -- Israel's highest literary recognition.
311 pages
Runemarks by Joanne Harris
juvenile/young adult fanasty by the author of chocolat -- not that great.
526 pages
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs
author reads encyclopaedia britannica from start to finish.
369 pages
Buffy in Denver
Won the Brenner Prize -- Israel's highest literary recognition.
311 pages
Runemarks by Joanne Harris
juvenile/young adult fanasty by the author of chocolat -- not that great.
526 pages
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs
author reads encyclopaedia britannica from start to finish.
369 pages
Buffy in Denver
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
A for effort?
"Tolstoy wrote for the masses, the common man. It's completely untrue that you have to be some sort of genius to read his stuff."
-Rory Gilmore
(Phoenix writing) Okay, so a couple of things here. First of all, have you ever noticed that the only people who make statements like that are, in fact, geniuses (or at least much smarter than you)? Because, you only have to watch 5 minutes of Gilmore Girls to be fully aware of the fact that Rory Gilmore is a smart cookie. Definitely smarter than the average cookie (although the average cookie has chocolate chips in it, which are yummy, so it all evens out in the end).
And, I think she has read more books than Buffy and Jeremy combined. A bold statement? Indeed it is, but consider the following. TV time is different from our time. TV time is kind of like Santa time... basically, an hour lasts just as long as it needs to last in order to get from Point A to Point B in the plot. And people are whatever age they feel like being for as long as they feel like being that age. Rory was 16 for two years, as an example. That's the kind of time this kid has to read all the books ever written by Tolstoy and Dickens and whoever else wrote really long, confusing novels. She has had a lot of time to read and absorb aforementioned really long, confusing novels so that she could then go on to make moronic statements like that, not realizing that it's easy for her to say everyone should be able to understand this stuff when she already understands this stuff!
The point I'm trying to make here (yes, I do have one) is that when it comes to reading Dostoevsky (he's not exactly the same as Tolstoy I realize-- some nonsense about being a "different man" who lived a "different life" but for the purposes of this rant he's close enough-- I might even call them Tolstoevsky from now on), I am a complete hopeless idiot. I can't even spell his name, for God's sake. I had to look it up, and then use the copy paste function. Never mind actually slogging through an entire novel. I have been trying for around three years to read The Brothers Karamazov. Can. Not. Do. It. Where. Is. Stove? Must. Stick. Head. In!
So my dear, sweet, gentle, well-meaning sister who I'll stab to death one of these days, recommended I start with something easier (not in quite so many words, naturally, or the aforementioned stabbing would have already occurred... I don't take constructive criticism particularly well, especially when it comes in response to copious whining). She handed me a copy of Notes From Underground, which certainly is easier than The Brothers K, provided you define "easier" as "just as fiendishly difficult, but at least it's shorter."
It is shorter, almost to the point of being short-- just over 100 pages, which I actually think was kind of malicious of my little pal Fyodor, because it makes clueless morons like myself think that we actually have a shot at making it through the thing. I can just see him finishing this devilish little book, giggling to himself as he pictured all the people who would try to read it and then experience failure on such a massive scale that they gave up reading and writing altogether, thus eliminating his competition forevermore. I know what you're thinking-- yes, that is quite a journey he had to take there!
AND I TRIED!!! I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY TRIED!! IT'S ONLY 130 PAGES LONG!! GOD, ANY IDIOT CAN GET THROUGH 130 PAGES!!! WHY ARE YOU SUCH A HOPELESS MORON?
(Sorry, Tamie, the inner child's not getting any love today. The inner child is getting a sharp stick in the eye. What the hell was I thinking, learning to read?)
I spent the last week sitting on the subway trying to gut this thing out. Now, for those of you out there who, for whatever reason, such as a will to live, do not live in this grand cosmopolitan snake pit I affectionately refer to as NYC, here is some advice for you should that will-to-live thing ever reverse itself without warning (perhaps after reading some Tolstoevsky!): always bring two books on the subway. This is sage advice, my friends. It's right up there with "Look both ways before crossing the street" and "Don't pick your nose in public." Trust me, you'll be glad you listened to me. If you do not have two books, if you only bring one, and you finish that one before your ride is over or it gets boring or stupid or whatever, then you will have no alternative but to focus intently on the body odor of the large man sitting beside you. Or, it could be a woman. Or possibly a well-groomed Newfoundland. There's really no way to tell. Anyway, a good book isn't a complete guarantee against noticing the body odor, but it does help to stave off the nausea. Well, sometimes. Don't ask about the other side of sometimes-- some stories are better left untold (Notes From Underground, as a completely random example).
So, bring two books. I, silly little dear that I am, did NOT bring two books while I was reading Notes From Underground. Or trying to read it (kind of ironic that I was underground almost the whole time). I brought ONLY THAT BOOK, for exactly that reason-- I didn't want an alternative book, because I knew if I had one I would definitely not ever get around to reading Notes From Underground.
And that would be sad. Tragic like the Holocaust. So, I did read the whole thing, and I even understood what was going on during a whole solid eleven pages, and now here's my question: are we grading reading comprehension here? Do I get to count 130 pages, or only eleven? Does it matter that I couldn't understand the words, so long as I read the words? Also, do I get kicked out of the challenge because I am not Rory Gilmore and also not my sister, because they can understand these books and adore these books and I can't, because I am thicker than a concussed troll when it comes to classics, because I know I can't read them because they have words longer than two syllables, but I try sometimes, because I feel like I should for personal growth and damn it, that should count for something, right?
What do you think, guys? A for effort? Please?? Help me out here, I'm just an average cookie!! I have yummy chocolate chips, though!!
-Rory Gilmore
(Phoenix writing) Okay, so a couple of things here. First of all, have you ever noticed that the only people who make statements like that are, in fact, geniuses (or at least much smarter than you)? Because, you only have to watch 5 minutes of Gilmore Girls to be fully aware of the fact that Rory Gilmore is a smart cookie. Definitely smarter than the average cookie (although the average cookie has chocolate chips in it, which are yummy, so it all evens out in the end).
And, I think she has read more books than Buffy and Jeremy combined. A bold statement? Indeed it is, but consider the following. TV time is different from our time. TV time is kind of like Santa time... basically, an hour lasts just as long as it needs to last in order to get from Point A to Point B in the plot. And people are whatever age they feel like being for as long as they feel like being that age. Rory was 16 for two years, as an example. That's the kind of time this kid has to read all the books ever written by Tolstoy and Dickens and whoever else wrote really long, confusing novels. She has had a lot of time to read and absorb aforementioned really long, confusing novels so that she could then go on to make moronic statements like that, not realizing that it's easy for her to say everyone should be able to understand this stuff when she already understands this stuff!
The point I'm trying to make here (yes, I do have one) is that when it comes to reading Dostoevsky (he's not exactly the same as Tolstoy I realize-- some nonsense about being a "different man" who lived a "different life" but for the purposes of this rant he's close enough-- I might even call them Tolstoevsky from now on), I am a complete hopeless idiot. I can't even spell his name, for God's sake. I had to look it up, and then use the copy paste function. Never mind actually slogging through an entire novel. I have been trying for around three years to read The Brothers Karamazov. Can. Not. Do. It. Where. Is. Stove? Must. Stick. Head. In!
So my dear, sweet, gentle, well-meaning sister who I'll stab to death one of these days, recommended I start with something easier (not in quite so many words, naturally, or the aforementioned stabbing would have already occurred... I don't take constructive criticism particularly well, especially when it comes in response to copious whining). She handed me a copy of Notes From Underground, which certainly is easier than The Brothers K, provided you define "easier" as "just as fiendishly difficult, but at least it's shorter."
It is shorter, almost to the point of being short-- just over 100 pages, which I actually think was kind of malicious of my little pal Fyodor, because it makes clueless morons like myself think that we actually have a shot at making it through the thing. I can just see him finishing this devilish little book, giggling to himself as he pictured all the people who would try to read it and then experience failure on such a massive scale that they gave up reading and writing altogether, thus eliminating his competition forevermore. I know what you're thinking-- yes, that is quite a journey he had to take there!
AND I TRIED!!! I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY TRIED!! IT'S ONLY 130 PAGES LONG!! GOD, ANY IDIOT CAN GET THROUGH 130 PAGES!!! WHY ARE YOU SUCH A HOPELESS MORON?
(Sorry, Tamie, the inner child's not getting any love today. The inner child is getting a sharp stick in the eye. What the hell was I thinking, learning to read?)
I spent the last week sitting on the subway trying to gut this thing out. Now, for those of you out there who, for whatever reason, such as a will to live, do not live in this grand cosmopolitan snake pit I affectionately refer to as NYC, here is some advice for you should that will-to-live thing ever reverse itself without warning (perhaps after reading some Tolstoevsky!): always bring two books on the subway. This is sage advice, my friends. It's right up there with "Look both ways before crossing the street" and "Don't pick your nose in public." Trust me, you'll be glad you listened to me. If you do not have two books, if you only bring one, and you finish that one before your ride is over or it gets boring or stupid or whatever, then you will have no alternative but to focus intently on the body odor of the large man sitting beside you. Or, it could be a woman. Or possibly a well-groomed Newfoundland. There's really no way to tell. Anyway, a good book isn't a complete guarantee against noticing the body odor, but it does help to stave off the nausea. Well, sometimes. Don't ask about the other side of sometimes-- some stories are better left untold (Notes From Underground, as a completely random example).
So, bring two books. I, silly little dear that I am, did NOT bring two books while I was reading Notes From Underground. Or trying to read it (kind of ironic that I was underground almost the whole time). I brought ONLY THAT BOOK, for exactly that reason-- I didn't want an alternative book, because I knew if I had one I would definitely not ever get around to reading Notes From Underground.
And that would be sad. Tragic like the Holocaust. So, I did read the whole thing, and I even understood what was going on during a whole solid eleven pages, and now here's my question: are we grading reading comprehension here? Do I get to count 130 pages, or only eleven? Does it matter that I couldn't understand the words, so long as I read the words? Also, do I get kicked out of the challenge because I am not Rory Gilmore and also not my sister, because they can understand these books and adore these books and I can't, because I am thicker than a concussed troll when it comes to classics, because I know I can't read them because they have words longer than two syllables, but I try sometimes, because I feel like I should for personal growth and damn it, that should count for something, right?
What do you think, guys? A for effort? Please?? Help me out here, I'm just an average cookie!! I have yummy chocolate chips, though!!
Throw Another Couple on the Fire
Jeremy here. In the middle of writing, preaching, and grading undergraduate papers of varying qualities, I've managed to find time to still read for fun. Finished off the Levinas, too.
Sting, Broken Music. This guy can actually write. Starts off with the former lead singer of the Police taking ayahuasca with his wife in the Amazon and triggers into his life growing up in a lower-class industrial working town in England. A worthwhile read. 352 pages.
Darcey Steinke, Easter Everywhere. A lovely little memoir (and quick read) about Steinke's childhood as a Lutheran pastor's daughter, her rebellion from her childhood faith and her dysfunctional family, and her belated dawning awareness that she still needs the holy in her life. I identify with Steinke's journey (and it also makes me a little nervous about my own family!). I think a lot of folks on here would like this one. 240 pages.
Ronlyn Dominique, The Mercy of Thin Air. A revenant looks on while two lovers deal with the shadow of their past. Meh. Don't bother. 336 pages.
Next plan: Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity for a class presentation, and Susan Sontag's posthumous book of essays for fun.
Sting, Broken Music. This guy can actually write. Starts off with the former lead singer of the Police taking ayahuasca with his wife in the Amazon and triggers into his life growing up in a lower-class industrial working town in England. A worthwhile read. 352 pages.
Darcey Steinke, Easter Everywhere. A lovely little memoir (and quick read) about Steinke's childhood as a Lutheran pastor's daughter, her rebellion from her childhood faith and her dysfunctional family, and her belated dawning awareness that she still needs the holy in her life. I identify with Steinke's journey (and it also makes me a little nervous about my own family!). I think a lot of folks on here would like this one. 240 pages.
Ronlyn Dominique, The Mercy of Thin Air. A revenant looks on while two lovers deal with the shadow of their past. Meh. Don't bother. 336 pages.
Next plan: Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity for a class presentation, and Susan Sontag's posthumous book of essays for fun.
Friday, February 1, 2008
January Reading Summary
So here I am thinking, hey, I'm at around 2,500 pages read... pretty respectable, right? Then I come here and realize that the rest of us might as well just drop out now, because Buffy and Jeremy are OUT OF CONTROL!! (You might mistake the previous sentence's corresponding emotion with anger... it's actually a serious case of green eyes... I'm ridiculously jealous). But onward.
Geek Love, Katherine Dunn (348 pages)
I would not recommend this book to everyone. In fact, as I was reading it I desperately wanted to talk with someone about it, but I couldn't think of a good person to recommend it to. It's not for those of a sensitive nature, let me just say that. Every time I thought it couldn't get more shocking, darned if the next page wasn't talking about a dwarf having sex with a horse onstage (I am exaggerating a tiny, tiny bit, and that is all).
That being said, it was an amazing book in some ways. Basic premise: this newly married couple who runs a small carnival decides to essentially start growing their own freak show. The husband mixes a variety of highly creative cocktails of amphetamines, tranquilizers, tobacco, alcohol, etc. for his wife to drink during each of her pregnancies (I think there were around 20 in all). Needless to say, most of their "experiments" didn't make it. The five that did are the most unusual compilation of characters I have come across in literature in quite some time, and among them is a young man that could give Shakespeare's Iago a run for his money in the depraved and evil nature category.
The story (told from the perspective of the third child, a bald albino hunchback dwarf who is looked down on in her family for not being freakish enough) chronicles their life in the carnival. It's a serious mindfuck of a book, not going to lie... intense and revolting and just flat out WTF in certain areas. But I would also say it's one of the most interesting books I've ever read, and certainly it's living proof of the truism that perspective is everything. And then some.
The Secret Life Of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd (336 pages)
A delicate, delicious read, wrought with the high irony and subtle spirituality that I have come to expect only of my favorite tomes. The protagonist is a young girl who runs away from her abusive father to follow the path of the mother she accidentally killed at age five. It takes her down some strange journeys, and Kidd's portrayal of the unique and surprising ways in which we find our own families as we grow up is nothing short of-- my favorite and most flattering description-- genuine.
Promise Not To Tell, Jennifer McMahon (250 pages)
I picked up this book, as well as the following one, at a bookstore in Nevada mainly because they were having a two-for-one sale and these were the covers that caught my eye. This slender book is a fast read, designed as a combination coming of age/murder mystery/ghost story. It's no Stephen King, but for what it is, it's well-written. If anything, the plot ties together just a little too neatly, but the flashbacks in the book are carefully constructed and unfold entertainingly. Decent airplane reading.
Paint It Black, Janet Fitch (418 pages)
This book is the main reason I didn't get as much editing on my own book accomplished this month as I wanted to. Note to self: next time, read really shitty books while editing, because if you don't you will want to say fuck it and just crawl into a hole and henceforth completely give up on your own writing. (If you're sensing a slight competitive streak in me, well, then, okay.)
Janet Fitch is an artist. Her sentences read like friendly poetry, and her description of inward struggle is as authentic as any I have ever read. She does exactly what I'm trying to do. The end.
The plot is very, very simple: Poor girl lives with a slumming rich boy, and they are hopelessly in love. Oops, rich boy kills himself. Poor girl is very sad. To make anything come of that, the writing has to be spectacular, and Fitch delivers. The other reason it took me so long to get through this one is because I wasn't trying to rush it, and I don't recommend that you do either. Cheerful? No. Laff riot? Can't say it is. Uplifting? Not exactly. Read it anyway, and enjoy it for the beautiful piece that it is. This is a book you savor.
The Four Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss (292 pages)
I mainly read fiction this month, but in the normal course of things I read at least as much nonfiction as I do fiction, and I read more books about business now than I did in college. This book was recommended to me by a friend, so I decided to check it out. Ferriss' style is fast-paced and the subject matter is interesting, but it's not exactly a feel-good piece. I am about to sum up the entire thing in one sentence, and a short one at that. Are you ready? Here it is: Why work? He spends the whole book first explaining why you don't need to work (at least not nearly as hard as you probably are) and the second half telling you how to stop working so hard.
There are some really, really good ideas in it, but none that I'm willing to implement at this particular point in my life. I happen to like my job and if that makes me a wage slave, then so be it (for now, at least). Thankyouverymuch.
The rest of the books I read were reruns. I tend to get attached to certain books and I read them at night to unwind and calm down, and hey, now they're boosting my page count! But I'll only write about my new books in here.
Hope everyone's January was jolly. I'm off to get a jump start on February, though God knows I was behind from the word go with competition like this! :-)
-Phoenix
Geek Love, Katherine Dunn (348 pages)
I would not recommend this book to everyone. In fact, as I was reading it I desperately wanted to talk with someone about it, but I couldn't think of a good person to recommend it to. It's not for those of a sensitive nature, let me just say that. Every time I thought it couldn't get more shocking, darned if the next page wasn't talking about a dwarf having sex with a horse onstage (I am exaggerating a tiny, tiny bit, and that is all).
That being said, it was an amazing book in some ways. Basic premise: this newly married couple who runs a small carnival decides to essentially start growing their own freak show. The husband mixes a variety of highly creative cocktails of amphetamines, tranquilizers, tobacco, alcohol, etc. for his wife to drink during each of her pregnancies (I think there were around 20 in all). Needless to say, most of their "experiments" didn't make it. The five that did are the most unusual compilation of characters I have come across in literature in quite some time, and among them is a young man that could give Shakespeare's Iago a run for his money in the depraved and evil nature category.
The story (told from the perspective of the third child, a bald albino hunchback dwarf who is looked down on in her family for not being freakish enough) chronicles their life in the carnival. It's a serious mindfuck of a book, not going to lie... intense and revolting and just flat out WTF in certain areas. But I would also say it's one of the most interesting books I've ever read, and certainly it's living proof of the truism that perspective is everything. And then some.
The Secret Life Of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd (336 pages)
A delicate, delicious read, wrought with the high irony and subtle spirituality that I have come to expect only of my favorite tomes. The protagonist is a young girl who runs away from her abusive father to follow the path of the mother she accidentally killed at age five. It takes her down some strange journeys, and Kidd's portrayal of the unique and surprising ways in which we find our own families as we grow up is nothing short of-- my favorite and most flattering description-- genuine.
Promise Not To Tell, Jennifer McMahon (250 pages)
I picked up this book, as well as the following one, at a bookstore in Nevada mainly because they were having a two-for-one sale and these were the covers that caught my eye. This slender book is a fast read, designed as a combination coming of age/murder mystery/ghost story. It's no Stephen King, but for what it is, it's well-written. If anything, the plot ties together just a little too neatly, but the flashbacks in the book are carefully constructed and unfold entertainingly. Decent airplane reading.
Paint It Black, Janet Fitch (418 pages)
This book is the main reason I didn't get as much editing on my own book accomplished this month as I wanted to. Note to self: next time, read really shitty books while editing, because if you don't you will want to say fuck it and just crawl into a hole and henceforth completely give up on your own writing. (If you're sensing a slight competitive streak in me, well, then, okay.)
Janet Fitch is an artist. Her sentences read like friendly poetry, and her description of inward struggle is as authentic as any I have ever read. She does exactly what I'm trying to do. The end.
The plot is very, very simple: Poor girl lives with a slumming rich boy, and they are hopelessly in love. Oops, rich boy kills himself. Poor girl is very sad. To make anything come of that, the writing has to be spectacular, and Fitch delivers. The other reason it took me so long to get through this one is because I wasn't trying to rush it, and I don't recommend that you do either. Cheerful? No. Laff riot? Can't say it is. Uplifting? Not exactly. Read it anyway, and enjoy it for the beautiful piece that it is. This is a book you savor.
The Four Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss (292 pages)
I mainly read fiction this month, but in the normal course of things I read at least as much nonfiction as I do fiction, and I read more books about business now than I did in college. This book was recommended to me by a friend, so I decided to check it out. Ferriss' style is fast-paced and the subject matter is interesting, but it's not exactly a feel-good piece. I am about to sum up the entire thing in one sentence, and a short one at that. Are you ready? Here it is: Why work? He spends the whole book first explaining why you don't need to work (at least not nearly as hard as you probably are) and the second half telling you how to stop working so hard.
There are some really, really good ideas in it, but none that I'm willing to implement at this particular point in my life. I happen to like my job and if that makes me a wage slave, then so be it (for now, at least). Thankyouverymuch.
The rest of the books I read were reruns. I tend to get attached to certain books and I read them at night to unwind and calm down, and hey, now they're boosting my page count! But I'll only write about my new books in here.
Hope everyone's January was jolly. I'm off to get a jump start on February, though God knows I was behind from the word go with competition like this! :-)
-Phoenix
Two more to finish up January
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
A re-read for book club last night. The chapters alternate between the point of view of a little boy who was taken to live with a group of changelings and that of the changeling who takes his place. I didn't hate it, but I definitely feel no need to read it for a 3rd time at any point -- some people loved it, but I wasn't that entranced. 319 pages
The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America's Future by Craig Unger
The title pretty much says it all. Each chapter was about a different angle, and some were more interesting to me than others, but this was definitely a good book.
355 pages.
Welcome, Mel! Congratulations on your pregnancy -- looks like you are reading some good ones.
~ Buffy in Denver
A re-read for book club last night. The chapters alternate between the point of view of a little boy who was taken to live with a group of changelings and that of the changeling who takes his place. I didn't hate it, but I definitely feel no need to read it for a 3rd time at any point -- some people loved it, but I wasn't that entranced. 319 pages
The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America's Future by Craig Unger
The title pretty much says it all. Each chapter was about a different angle, and some were more interesting to me than others, but this was definitely a good book.
355 pages.
Welcome, Mel! Congratulations on your pregnancy -- looks like you are reading some good ones.
~ Buffy in Denver
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