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Blundering through Cincinnati, laughing all the way

Category Archives: Reading


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100 Books by 40: VICKY ANGEL

Book: Vicky Angel
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Published: 2000

Writing a children’s book about the grieving process must have been tough. Reading a children’s book about the grieving process was tough. It would be inaccurate to say that I enjoyed this book.

The main character has a troubled relationship with her parents. She also has a troubled relationship with her best friend who passes away early in the book. She stumbles through the grieving process with little support.

I recognize that this context is considerably more realistic that what’s often portrayed in our books, movies and TV shows. So, I see the need to paint a more relatable picture to young adults. But filling a need doesn’t necessarily equal enjoyable end product.

I don’t like children’s books. I often feel that the reader is being condescended to. This book was no exception. The only children’s author that I’ve read in this list that’s avoided condescending is Roald Dahl. Somehow he manages to deal with emotional challenges and ethical problems while fully inhabiting child-like imagination. Feel free to skip this book. But for God’s sake read Roald Dahl if you haven’t.

Check out my blogs on Roald Dahl’s books here:
THE TWITS
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
BFG


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100 Books by 40: THE TWITS

Book: The Twits
Author: Roald Dahl
Published: 1980

I am not sure I needed to read The Minpins and The Magic Finger, but I did. All three of these stories came packaged together in the audio book. I am not sorry for it as I loved The Minpins. I suppose read isn’t the right verb to use in this context. Listened it is.

Roald Dahl is obsessed with our ethical responsibilities to the other living creatures we share this planet. His sense of ethics are clear in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. All of the children aside from Charlie suffer unfortunate ends due to character flaws and poor behavior. Hints reveal his concern for life apart from human; in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he’s careful to justify how the Oompa Loompas turned up in the factory.

I wonder if the current trend toward sustainability isn’t in part due to a generation raised on Roald Dahl books coming into middle age. Dr Seuss was a contributer here too with The Lorax. I never considered the role that writers might play in shaping the minds of the next generation until now. This is due to my own struggles with reading as a child.

I didn’t have any favorite books growing up. I didn’t read. Couldn’t is perhaps a more accurate word. I am dyslexic and failed to sort out my reading issues until I was 16 or 17.

When people describe a love of childhood stories, I can’t relate. But had I been a little reader, I would have loved The Minpins. This is about the secret world in trees. And I loved that world. One of the characters rides a swan to other hidden worlds. The story is beautiful and fantastic. I loved every word of it.

I know that I’ve not mentioned The Twits. It was an entertaining read, but my heart was stolen by The Minpins. Roald Dahl would have captivated me as a child. He continues to captivate me as an adult.


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100 Books by 40: CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR

Book: CLAN of the Cave Bear
Author: Jean M. Auel
Published: 1980

I get the point of this book. I understand the research that preceeded it. I respect research.

The book is set in prehistoric history when early versions of man were competing to survive and evolve. What we recognize as humans had just emerged, and our ancestors were starting to die off. The book provides enormous detail describing what life was like for early man, including lists of available plants and animals and tools that were in use at the time.

I appreciate the effort that this required. This only elevates my disappointment at the other aspects of the book. The dialog is shit, partially this is due to the neanderthal characters speaking mostly in a primative form of sign language. But the plot is terrible too. The main story arc describes a struggle between the heroine and her nemesis. Unfortunately neither of them are well develope, and they are devoid of any complex emotions. When this arc was resolved at the end of the book, I felt nothing.

This book is solidly mediocre. All that great research really can’t make up for everything else that is lacking. Read at your own risk.


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100 Books by 40: I CAPTURE THE CASTLE

Book: i Capture the Castle
Author: Dodie Smith
Published: 1948

A less interesting title for this book could be, Exercising Good Judgement in Love. And congratulations, main character of this book, you’ve managed to stick the landing on this while simultaneously being seventeen. And here lies the most preposterous aspect of the book’s plot. I’ve known many 17 year-old girls, myself included. Sensible judgement is not their strong suit.

But this book was published in the 40’s. Humans seemed to mature faster in the past. Perhaps that’s to do with so many men getting shipped off to wars at 18. Perhaps that’s to do with women becoming mothers at 20. Or perhaps it’s due to a shorter life expectancy in our not-so-distant past. What I do know is that maturity seemed to come earlier to people at that point in time. Perhaps maturity is driven by environment, and the lazy hairless apes that we are will fail to mature until life forces otherwise.

The book goes to lengths to indicate that the main character is mature for her age. But some things require experience. This girl exercises good judgement the first time she falls in love. I cannot suspend my disbelief.

But Castles are romantic. The setting for this book is an old castle in the English country side. The descriptions of the seasons passing over this idyllic setting are delicious.

The book is ok. I won’t read it again. If you love romance novels this might be your bag. It simply isn’t mine.


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100 Books by 40: NIGHT WATCH

Book: Night Watch
Author: Terry Pratchett
Published: 2002

It’s an accident that I finished Night Watch a few days after Terry Pratchett passed away earlier this month. But I will call it a happy accident. Because I can’t think of a better way to celebrate him and his life. While I’m sorry that I didn’t get turned on to his books earlier in my life, I am thankful that I found them at all.

In the same way that I cannot resist any combination of chocolate and peanut butter, dry British humor in any form will delight me. The humor obscures the science fiction elements of the plot; since I am not a fan of sci-fi, that works for me. This is an excellent outcome considering that time travel is often a lazy plot device, a device that this book uses. Although, I don’t think time travel is used in a lazy manner in this particular book. This was a dazzling, funny whirlwind. Read it.

Time for an update on my list.

Reading now:
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

Finished reading:
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen – only 99 cents for Kindle edition
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens – have on Kindle
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy – have on Kindle
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens *I read this when I was too young to appreciate it; I would like to read it again as an adult. I will do so if I have time.
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding *I’ve read this twice. I will read it again if I have time.
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac *I’ve read this twice. I will read it again if I have time. I have the unabriged unedited version and will probably take on that if time allows.
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

Pending reading:
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie


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100 Books By 40: THE GODFATHER

Book: The Godfather
Author: Mario Puzo
Published: 1969

I have seen many movie adaptations of books. Mostly, they are poor adaptations. The Godfather is an exception. The movie was as great as the book.

The book challenges our current system as being just as arbitrary and unjust as any power structure The Mafia might have. When The Don is dispensing retribution against someone who has violated his trust, is this anymore meaningful than juries convicting their fellow citizen? I am hard pressed to come up with an answer for that.

In some ways our legal system seems even more unjust. So much of a trial hinges on irrelevant factors apart from the crime in question. Eye witness testimony has been proven to be unreliable. The incarceration rates suggest that minorities are given harsher sentences than white people. And the money. People with money and connections often seem able to out run justice.

The 2008 financial crisis left thousands of Americans without homes and jobs. It wiped out retirement funds. That crisis had a measurable impact on millions of Americans. No one went to jail. Haven’t we arbitrarily decided that those misdeeds don’t deserve jail time?

I was just talking with a friend a few nights ago. We agreed that everything is a hustle. We dress accountants up in nice suits, but this time of year they are all breaking the spirit of tax law if not the letter. How is that more admirable than the panhandler up the street selling cigarettes? It’s not. We’ve just labeled it as such.


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100 Books by 40: HOLES

Book: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Published: 1997

I borrowed this from the library. I could see that I requested sound media. I expected an audiobook on CDs. Instead, I got this doodad.

Picture of a mp3 player with one audiobook on it

It’s like a baby MP3 player only with one book on it. I guess this gets people mobile with a book without supplying their own MP3 player.

The doodad worked fine, except that it randomly shut down a few times losing my place in the book. It was a mild inconvenience. I had no idea such a thing exists, but I am happy that folks without access to an MP3 player have some options.

I often don’t research books before I read them. Because this little doodad had virtually no writing on it, I didn’t benefit from any of the information the book cover typically imparts. After some minutes of listening, it was discomforting that I was unsure if the book was a young adult novel. I noticed that the prose was pretty simple. But the subject matter was a bit heavy. Yet subject matter is a poor barometer of a book’s category.

This mystery drove me to distraction for the entire experience. I learned that the book is a young adult title after finishing it. So, note to self, when I don’t have a book jacket to peruse, I should look up the book to at least assess the category it’s in. Wondering about it diminishes from the experience of the book.

The book itself is unremarkable. The story is of a boy coming of age in a labor camp. Unwittingly, he solves some family mysteries and resolves an outstanding family debt. The plot is a little too precious for me, but I would happily recommend this book to any young adult.


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100 books by 40: GOOD OMENS

Book: Good Omens
Authors: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Published: 1990

The writers of Supernatural, the TV show, seemed to borrow many of their idea from this book. The similarities are so close that I looked to see if one of the authors also write for the show. When I came up dry there, I checked to see if the show credits Gaiman or Pratchett. My less-than-exhaustive research came up dry.

What I did find is that rumors of Good Omens becoming a movie have been swirling for some time. These rumors have been persistent enough that the actor that plays Crowley in Supernatural was asked if he has been approached to play Crowley in the Good Omens movie. The actor denied this.

I wonder what’s up with the intellectual property here? Perhaps the authors or the publishing company lack the motivation to file suit. Maybe the publishing company and authors see the fan fiction that has sprouted merging the two story lines and sense that this is good for all involved. Or maybe the similarities relegated to side characters, aren’t significant enough for a claim.

In the book, an angel and demon join forces to postpone the apocalypse. The unique picture of good and evil that this book paints is reason enough for me to recommend reading this book. The book’s take on the banality of evil is communicated effortlessly; a feat that isn’t lost on me due to my past experience with numerous psychological texts that struggle to convey the same.

The shimmering, dry British humor, also reason enough to recommend the book, is a welcome diversion from the weighty premise of the book. That being said. This book is great for divergent interests; moralists and humorists can unite. If a book can be described as a romp, this would be the book. Read it.


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100 books by 40: ULYSSES

Book: Ulysses
Author: James Joyce
Published: 1920

I was warned about this book. The warnings were justified. Aside from the more obvious difficulty around a lack of quotations, the lack of prose tires my eyes in unanticipated ways.

And then there is my honed scholarly habit of rereading sentances that I failed to comprehend. I find myself doubling back numerous times on the same page. This habit served me well in my studies in organic chemistry and geology. In this context, my habit isn’t useful.

I have to enter a semi-meditative state and let the words flow over me. The book is less a dissection of form and plot and more about learning new reading habits. Allowing my mind to let go of what I don’t understand is liberating.

Will I understand critical plot points? Probably not. I struggled to identify when Leo Bloom was taking a crap, a bit of ammunition used to classify this work as obscene. There are references to Ireland’s relationship to Great Britain for which I am missing critical context. Let it all wash away or commit to reading this book for the better part of 2015.

I know this book is supposed to take place over the course of one day. I also know that there are two main characters who’s lives careen together through the course of that day. I know that the chapters seem to be written from different people’s perspectives, and in significantly different writing styles. I also know that primary themes are the meaning of life and the part that religion plays in our lives.

I enjoyed the experience of reading this book, but I find my feelings for it difficult to grasp as I do many of the details of my dreams. There’s subjective experiences that the book captures better than any writing I’ve seen. The cacophony of a full bar, and the happenstance of new friendships that crop up there are perfectly translated to letters. The flighty nature of consciousness is flawlessly captured. It’s this precise capture that puts this book in my repeat read list. I didn’t understand a lot of it, but the bits I did were beautiful.


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100 Books by 40: BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY

Book: Bridget Jones’s Diary Author: Helen Fielding Published: 1996 Ambivalent is a good word to describe my feelings about this book. It was an easy humorous read, but it made the feminist in me rage. I saw the movie years ago. I recall feeling mild amusement.

The book is set-up as a diary, and Bridget is obsessed with her weight and finding a boyfriend. As though women are incapable of having any interests outside the man in their lives, or getting a man in their lives. Not only is this notion offensive, it’s destructive.

Shame on you Helen Fielding for confirming all the worst things that culture tells us to believe about ourselves. Anyone that hangs all of their happiness, hopes, and dreams on their significant other is promised one thing. Disappointment. You’ve just put all the weight of your life on this relationship and your future partner. No human being can, nor should, live up to this sort of pressure. Bridget Jones is delusional. Relationships at their best are a mixed bag of wonderful and difficult. You will have beautiful moments; you will have terrible moments. That’s what it means to build a life with another person.

I wish I could say the snarky British humor trumps the GOD AWFUL MESSAGES TO WOMEN in this book. It doesn’t. I don’t need Helen Fielding telling me to obsess about my weight and finding a man (or woman in my case), as those messages are constant in our culture. I want to bitch-slap Bridget Jones. And Helen Fielding.