Busy Busy

October was crazy, and November is going to be even worse. I started The Once and Future King by T.H. White, but I haven't gotten very far. It is a very good book but I just don't have the time right now. I also want to rate the last 10 books I read, but don't know when I will get around to going back through them.

The Black Dahlia

Book #213, The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, is haunting and beautiful. Part of the reason why I haven't posted sooner is because I have been trying to shake the feeling that the story has become entwined with my own life (another part is lack of time). At first I thought the 40's slang was kind of silly, but now I find myself wanting to use phrases like "I was itchy to go."And the complete obsession over Betty/Beth/Betsy Short's life and death had me reeling. Read this book if you don't have problems separating reality from fiction.

Sucked In By A Mystery

I am now reading The Black Dahlia and it is taking over my life. It is an enthralling story that I need to finish so that it will stop messing with my head. Some stories just get under my skin and I think about them even when I'm not reading. It is great to come across a story that powerful, but it can also be exhausting.

The Purloined Letter

Book #909, The Purloined Letter, is an extremely short story by Edgar Allan Poe. I think it is a total of 15 pages, but still manages to be yawn-worthy at times. While Dupin is Poe's all-knowing detective, Conan Doyle did that type of character much better with Sherlock Holmes. While I agree that some of Poe's works are quite important literary contributions, I find that in many of his stories he spends too much time explaining things that really aren't that important or interesting. Case in point - a police inspector asks Dupin for help regarding a case involving a letter stolen from a female person of dignitary importance. The inspector knows who stole the letter but cannot find it even after searching the thief's residence. Dupin then spends several pages explaining how easy the letter was to find. Blah blah blah. At least the story was over quickly.

Ragtime

I finished book #335, Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, this afternoon. It ended up being a thoroughly engrossing book, and the short chapters made it easy to say "I'll just read one more." Among all the famous characters were two unnamed families who were caught up in the middle of all the important events happening at the dawn of the 20th century. We see the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, many of Houdini's amazing feats, the trial of Harry K Thaw, and event a tiny bit of the Mexican Revolution. I very much enjoyed reading this book.

Poe and Doctorow

I started Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, and I am almost to The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe in my complete collection of Poe stories. Ragtime is interesting so far, it is set in the early 1900s and discusses many famous people of the time, such as Harry Houdini and Sigmund Freud. The one thing I find annoying is that the actual fictional characters don't have names - they are called The Little Boy and Mother's Younger Brother. Kind of weird.

Silas Marner

I finished book #875, Silas Marner by George Eliot, pretty quickly. It was a lovely little tale of rural English life in the early 19th century. I like stories with happy endings and where people get what they deserve. There were even a few mild surprises - like what happened to Dunsey Cass. I recommend taking the time to read this book.

Started Silas Marner

I decided to read Silas Marner with some trepidation - even though it is a pretty short book, I have heard many people complain about having to read it in high school. I am actually enjoying it more than Brideshead Revisited! This is my first George Eliot book, I was never required to read anything by her in high school or college. I am glad because I don't think I would have appreciated it as much as I do now.

Brideshead Revisited

I don't know why it has taken me so long to write this entry, but I finished book #563, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, last week. I guess it is because I feel like I should have enjoyed the book more. It was by no means a bad book, the story was well written and fairly interesting. Now that I think about it, maybe the story didn't seem any different from many other stories I have read. A young man befriends another young man at college and becomes involved with his friend's family. They fall out of touch, and then the first man falls in love with the second man's sister when they meet again later in life. Ho hum, heard it all before. Time for me to move on.

Halfway Through!

Hooray - I am finally past the halfway mark in Brideshead and it is getting better. However I find Sebastian quite insipid. At least he isn't talking about his stuffed bear Aloysius anymore. I am hoping to finish the book by the end of the week.

Booooooooooorrrrrrrred

So I can tell that I am not into Brideshead Revisited because last night I was really bored but decided to aimlessly surf the web instead of reading. That is pretty unusual for me, so either I don't really like the book or I am tired of reading right now (unlikely). What to do - take a break? Or keep plugging along?

Brideshead Prologue

I am having a hard time getting past the Brideshead Revisited prologue - it is just boring to me. Maybe I need read something else and come back to it? On the other hand, I am still reading the Edgar Allen Poe stories and The Murder at Rue Morgue was pretty good.

Go Tell It on the Mountain

Book #517, Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin, is about a boy's spiritual awakening on his 14th birthday in 1930s Harlem. Stories like this always make me sad - a harsh, uncaring father, shattered dreams, rampant racism and violence. I would like to say that the world has changed, but it hasn't - at least not nearly enough. This is a book that I am glad to have read, but am equally glad to be done with.

Decided on Baldwin

I picked Go Tell It on the Mountain to read after Surfacing. It isn't a difficult read, but I tend to dislike characters like Gabriel Grimes (John's father) - those who don't practice what they preach, in a very literal sense. I am about half-way through so it shouldn't be much longer. I think I will read Brideshead next.

Surfacing

Earlier today I finished book #354, Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. It was quite interesting - the narrator returns to her family home on a remote island in Canada to look for her missing father. Her boyfriend and another couple accompany her to film a movie of random events. While there, the unnamed main character discovers the true nature of her friends and the truth about her failed marriage and the birth of her son come to light. The end gets pretty weird, but that seems about par for the course with Atwood's books.

What Next?

I am getting to the end of Surfacing and thinking about what to read next. I have some Bookcrossing books that I am trying to read so I can get them out of the house, so trying to decide between Brideshead Revisited and Go Tell It on the Mountain. Anyone have an opinion?

Up to Canada

I have moved from the South/East hemispheres to the North/West hemispheres with Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. I enjoyed Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake, and am hoping to enjoy this one as much. So far I am just dumbfounded by the narrator's lack of emotional attachment to her family. Even so it is interesting so I shouldn't have too much trouble getting through it. The only barrier (as usual) is time.

Nervous Conditions

Last night I finished book #208, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Even though it took me a while to get started I really enjoyed this book. Young Sisi Tambudzai is sent to school at the local mission after her older brother dies. Tambu's uncle is the headmaster of the school and the family patriarch who basically runs the lives of his entire family. Tambu's father is lazy and unmotivated, so without Babamukuru's help they would all starve. The hardest thing about reading this story was keeping the familial titles straight.

Having lived all my life with my "twangy American accent" and a very female-dominated family, it is hard for me to relate to the issues in this book. Even so I really enjoyed the book. It is one of those stories that makes me realize what I have and how fortunate I am.

Wow

I can't believe it is already September 5th and I still haven't finished Nervous Conditions. Don't get me wrong, it is a good book and worth reading - I just haven't had much time lately for reading. Also, I started reading an Edgar Allen Poe collection in bed, so my small amount of reading time is divided. Time to get cracking.

Really Busy

I haven't had much chance to read this weekend because I am getting ready for my baby's 3rd birthday party. I like Nervous Conditions so far but party prep is taking all of my time. Hopefully after tomorrow I can get back to reading.

Back to Contemporary Times

After getting through about 1400 pages of 19th century Gothic literature, I needed to read something more contemporary. Even though Nervous Conditions isn't from this century, it is at least from my lifetime, so it should be a good choice. According to the back of the book it is set in colonial Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in the 1960s. It has been a while since I read anything by an African author who was not from South Africa (like Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee), so I am looking forward to a fresh perspective.

The Albigenses

I am so glad to be done with book #927, The Albigenses by Charles Maturin. This is an epic tale of the Crusades and the romance between two knights and the women they love. While in theory this is a great story, I couldn't help but be very bored by it most of the time. The language was overwrought and excessive. One thing that really bothered me about this story was the footnotes - half of them were in French or Latin. My very limited ability in both languages did not make the footnotes at all helpful. I really wanted to like this book, but I didn't. Time to take a very short break for a fun book.

The Albigenses Vol IV

Volume 4 brings the story to a close, mostly with a large battle between the Crusaders and the Albigeois. We meet a mysterious sable knight and discover the identity of the sorceress, as well as discover Sir Paladour's and Sir Amirald's lineages. Even though the battle was boring, this was the easiest of the books to read.

Started Volume 4

OK, one more volume of the Albigenses to go. I started volume 4 and I am about 1/4 of the way through. I am so glad that it has less than 300 pages. It has started off with a recounting of the night of Sir Paladour's marriage to Isabelle and Genevieve being escorted to Toulouse by Sir Amirald. I am interested to see if this will have a happy ending, because it seems unlikely for some characters at this point. But what would a romance be without a happy ending? And the author describes this story as a romance, not a tragedy.

The Albigenses Vol III

Phew - I am finally done with volume 3! This volume begins with Genevieve's capture and Isabelle's escape. Sir Paladour comes to Isabelle's aid and she pledges to marry him. Sir Amirald confesses his love to Genevieve and assists her in helping Queen Ingelberg escape from Beaucaire. The last volume is less than 300 pages, so I am hoping to get through it before too long. I will be glad to finish this book!

New Incentive to Finish

So I requested a guilty pleasure book from the library (Heat Wave from the TV show Castle) and it is ready for me to pick up. I am not allowing myself to read this book until I am done with The Albigenses. Hopefully this will spur me on to finish. I have less than 200 pages left in volume 3and volume 4 is less than 300 pages. I think I can do it within the next few days.

Plodding Through

Once again I am finding myself avoiding reading The Albigenses. It stinks that I am having such a hard time getting through this book when I looked so long to find it. I guess this is why it hasn't been re-published lately.

Back to The Albigenses

Now that I have had a week-long break from The Albigenses, time to finish volumes 3 & 4. I am hoping that these will go quickly, but I don't know. The break will have either helped me with the time away, or made it harder now I won't be used to the archaic language anymore.

The Albigenses Vol III and Vol IV can be found here on Scribd.

White Teeth

Finally finished book #54, White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It was a really good book, but I just didn't seem to have much time to read this past week. Smith is a great author and I look forward to reading more by her. My favorite part dealt with the Chalfen family meeting Alsana's lesbian niece (whom she refers to as Niece-of-Shame) for the first time. The remark that Joyce Chalfen comes up with almost made me choke - "Do you use each others' breasts as pillows?" - and I had to explain to my 6-year-old that why I was laughing was not something I cared to share with him. Not that he would have understood, but I didn't even want to go through trying to explain.

Still Going...

As much as I am enjoying White Teeth, it is taking me a while to get through it. I am almost halfway finished, with 9-year-old Magid just being sent off to live with his grandparents in Bengal. I am interested to see what kind of fallout ensues from this event, as Magid's father Samad made the decision to send his son off without consultant his wife Alsana. I know that I would not take kindly to this situation, and Alsana is a pretty fiery character. Hopefully I will finish this book in the next few days.

Starting White Teeth

I was pretty busy over the weekend, but I did manage to start book #54, White Teeth by Zadie Smith. So far it is pretty good - and a nice break from The Albigenses. It is about two families, men with wives 25+ years younger and their children. It can be quite funny at times, as evidenced by the following quote:

"Do you hear that, mister? We're not licensed for suicides around here. This place halal. Kosher, understand? If you're going to die round here, my friend, I'm afraid you've got to be bled thoroughly first." Page 6.

The Albigenses Vol II

I finally finished the 2nd volume of The Albigenses. This part of the story was mostly about a battle between the Crusaders and the Albigeois. The Albigeois ended up with a much larger fighting force and routed the Crusaders. There is also a burgeoning romance between Albigeois girl Genevieve and Sir Amirald. Lady Isabelle is captured by bandits and Sir Paladour sets out to rescue her. The next volume should show what fate befalls both leading female characters.

Ugh

I am finding myself avoiding reading The Albigenses, and not just because I have to read it on my computer. It is sloooooooowwwww and overly wordy. I only have 80 pages left of volume 2 and I am bored. I think I will reading something else before I continue with volumes 3 and 4.

Project Gutenberg

Even though I posted yesterday about how I was not enjoying reading The Albigenses online, I still think free online book services can be a great resource for some of the older books on the list. Project Gutenberg has a large number of the books for free, some are even available for Kindle or other mobile devices. Here is a list of a few that I have found:

1001. Aesop's Fables by Aesopus
1000. Metamorphoses by Ovid
997. The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius
995. Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
993. The Unfortunate Traveller by Thomas Nashe
991. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
990. The Princess of Cleves by Comtesse de La Fayette
988. A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
987. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
982. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

There are many others, check out Project Gutenberg and search by title or author to find more.

Not Enjoying Reading PDFs

I started Volume II of The Albigenses that I found on Scribd and I am having a hard time reading it. I really wish I had a hard copy, but I hate to waste all the paper and ink to print the last 3 volumes, especially since I cannot see myself reading the books more than once. Fortunately the volumes get shorter as they go.

The Albigenses Volume I

I finished the first volume of The Albigenses. At its core, it is a romance between Sir Paladour and Lady Isabelle. The year is 1216 and Sir Paladour is a knight without lineage fighting the crusades against the heretics, the Albigeois. The young knight encounters Lady Isabelle when visiting her uncle, the Lord of Courtenaye. There is also a suspicious female character who is some sort of sorceress, and volume 1 ends with an encounter between her and several of the knights and other men. It will be interesting to see how the story plays out. The biggest complaint I have is the burdensome language. The story was written in 1824 and the author seemed to want a very authentic feel regarding the language of the 13th century.

Finding The Albigeneses

The Albigenses by Charles Robert Maturin (book #927) is one of the hardest on the list to find - at least in print form. So I was excited when I found what I thought was all four volumes at my local library system. What came was the first volume only, and the librarian said there is no record of the other three.
Enter Scribd - you can find all four volumes of The Albigenses on here, thanks to member marcDh. Having to read a pdf copy of three of the four volumes of the book is less than ideal, but it is better than nothing. You can find volumes 1 and 2 here.

Rating My Last 10 Books

I am going to list the last 10 books I read in order of my preference. This is no reflection on author ability, just my enjoyment of the books themselves.

1. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston
3. The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
4. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
5. July's People by Nadine Gordimer
6. The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
7. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke
8. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
9. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
10. Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee

Taking Another Break

After reading so many depressing, death-related books, I need another short break. However, I did make it to 16%, which means I read 10 books on the list last month. I am waiting for The Albigenses by Charles Maturin to come in from the library, so I am going to read an Anne McCaffrey book while I wait.

Elizabeth Costello

I am done with book #21, Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee, and I am glad. Elizabeth is an aging writer from Australia and the story progresses through eight speeches that are made by her and others. There was quite a bit of contemplating about death and I got very tired of it. All I can say about this book is good riddance.

J. M. Coetzee

I am currently reading book #21, Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee. This is my fourth Coetzee book, and I have disliked all of them so far. I can't believe this author has managed to get 10 books on the list - the same amount as Charles Dickens! I just cannot see how Coetzee can be considered worth of 10 books on the list - fortunately they are all fairly short. I actually found a quote in Elizabeth Costello that describes my feelings toward Coetzee's work.

When talking about books - "that are going to be opened and read for a page or two and then yawned at and put aside forever..." If I didn't feel the need to finish any book I start, I would probably do this with Coetzee's books. And if I didn't feel the need to finish this entire list, I would never pick up another of his books again.

The Kreutzer Sonata

Book #810, The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy, starts with a man declaring "I am that Pozdnyshev in whose life that critical episode occurred to which you alluded; the episode when he killed his wife." The narrator then goes to describe his encounter with Pozdnyshev and the man's story of how this murder came about. It is a sad story of lust and betrayal and a man's realization that he never truly understood love. This is one of the best short stories by Tolstoy that I have read.

Went Book Shopping Today...

As I have said before, I love to buy books. Today I went to Half Price Books and picked up four more books from the list, as well as one from the 2008 version of the list. My new acquisitions are:

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
Unless by Carol Shields
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (2008 list)

Now to get back to reading The Kruetzer Sonata!

The Death of Ivan Ilych

Last night I read book #829, The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy, and I must say it is the most depressing Tolstoy story I have read so far. The story follows the excruciating death of Ivan Ilych, who falls sick and the doctors cannot agree on what is wrong with him. I think the story wouldn't be so bad if it didn't dwell on the mental anguish Ivan Ilych felt while grappling with his imminent demise, but then again the story would have been far less authentic. And not only does Ivan have to deal with the pain of his illness, but he also comes to realize how unsatisfactory his entire life had been.

A great way to sum up the entire story is with the following quote: "'Why these sufferings?' And the voice answered, 'For no reason - they are just so.' Beyond and besides this there was nothing."

Reading Tolstoy

I am reading the last two Tolstoy stories on the list, which are contained in the volume The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories. I love Tolstoy and I can't see why only four of his books made it on to the list when other (less deserving in my opinion) artists have more. Tolstoy's book are usually sad, sometimes even downright depressing, but beautiful in their melancholia. If you haven't read anything by this author yet, I highly recommend trying. War and Peace can be daunting (though wonderful), but his short stories are just as good, as is Anna Karenina.

Mrs. Dalloway

Poor Clarissa Dalloway - she doesn't seem to know what she wants in life. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf follows Clarissa and several other characters throughout one day, ending with a party at the Dalloway home. The book tends to jump from person to person with little warning which made me go back and reread passages a few times.

Most of the characters in the story were tragic, but Septimus Warren Smith with by far the most pitiful. Septimus seemed to be suffering from what we now know as post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming from his stint in World War I. However, the two doctors he meets with in the book are not as sympathetic as they should be which causes even more problems. This also caused much strife in his marriage, because he felt "One cannot bring children into a world like this. One cannot perpetuate suffering, or increase the breed of these lustful animals, who have no lasting emotions, but only whims and vanities, eddying them now this way, now that." page 135

One thing I learned from this book is that whelmed is actually a word. I have heard of being overwhelmed and underwhelmed, but Woolf uses the word whelmed on page 172. According to Merriam-Webster online, whelmed means to cover or engulf something with usually disastrous effect. Who knew?

Missed One

In going through my books I realized that I had not marked King Solomon's Mines as read. So I checked my Bookcrossing account and sure enough I had read and released the book 2 years ago. This is why I use Lists of Bests to keep track of what I read - I read so many books that it is easy to forget what I have finished and what I still need to read.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I just started book #698, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and it is kicking my behind. I have never read anything by Virginia Woolf before so I thought I would start with the book I hear about most often. Maybe I don't have the patience for it right now, but I am kind of bored by it. I am hoping it will pick up soon.

Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut is a crazy book. That is the only way I can describe it. But crazy in a good way. Vonnegut has such an honest view of life that I can't help but love him. He is like the crazy old grandfather who shouts obscenities at his nurses. Embarrassing but forgivable.

The first thing I noticed about this book is that it seems to be written for aliens in the distant future. He explains even the simplest things and provides his own drawings to further the explanation. For example, Vonnegut compares a steam train whistle to "the voice boxes of mating or dying dinosaurs." He then describes a dinosaur as "a reptile as big as a choo-choo train." This is followed by a drawing of what looks like a stegosaurus. He then talks about how the dinosaur's brain was the size of a pea, and goes on to describe what a pea is and provides a drawing. Check out page 126 of the Delta Trade Paperbacks edition to see exactly what I am writing about.

If you are not afraid of an unflinching view of society, read this book. Vonnegut was an amazing writer and the world lost a great talent when he passed away a few years ago.

Love Vonnegut

I sometimes forget how much I like an author if it has been a long time since I read anything by him (or her). This is what is happening to me now. I put off starting book #340, Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, and I have no idea why. Probably because it has been years since I read Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. He is so funny and I can't put the book down. Now I remember why my husband likes Vonnegut so much.

(In case you don't know, the phrase "So it goes" is repeated several times in Slaughterhouse-Five. My husband got this tattoo because he is a big Vonnegut fan and he said it represents his apathy toward the world.)

July's People

Even if the violence of the events in the book did not reflect what really happened during the fall of apartheid in South Africa, the emotional reaction of the characters rings true in Nadine Gordimer's book, July's People. Gordimer was predicting what would happen when the black vs white conflict came to a head. The Smales family went through a huge transition of feelings toward the black people of Africa. At first they were left-wing sympathizers who wanted equality. Then after living with July's extended family for a while they acted more and more like they wanted nothing to do with the rural folk. I think the following quote shows the relationship (and repressed disdain) between July and the Smales quite well:

"What do the blacks think? What will the freedom fighters think? Did he join the people from Soweto? He took his whites and ran. You make me laugh." Page 128

I cannot even imagine what it would be like to go from living in a large house in a big city to a mud hut with no doors or windows, let alone luxuries like plumbing. This book makes me remember how fortunate I am to have what I have. I hope that I never will experience that kind of loss. But then again, I also can't image what it would be like to have a servant live in my yard, as July did with the Smales family.

Nadine Gordimer

Yesterday I started my first Nadine Gordimer book - July's People (#284 on the list). I don't know much about the uprising in South Africa against apartheid. July is a black man who works for the white Smales family. When the situation in the cities becomes too volatile for the Smaleses to stay, July takes them to his village to hide them. The Smales are a liberal family but they seem to be finding out that they don't treat July and his family as much as equals as they thought. This is an interesting narrative about the clash in South Africa and I feel like I am learning a lot.

Reading with Kids

I love reading to my children. Last Christmas I read A Christmas Carol to my 6-year-old at his request. He is now the only child I know that will hang a jump rope around his shoulders and say he is the ghost of Jacob Marley. But he is having the hardest time learning to read on his own. We go over and over sight words and get simple books from the library. Things just don't seem to click for him. Maybe I have spoiled him, but I want him to love books as much as I do. I guess we will just have to keep working at it.

Three Lives

I have finally finished Three Lives by Gertrude Stein, and I am glad to be done with it. All three women in the story were so tragic and sad but not particularly likeable. The one thing they all had in common was living in Bridgepoint - otherwise the stories had nothing to do with each other (unless one of the Mathildas in The Gentle Lena was the Mathilda in The Good Anna).

The most difficult thing about this book was that I kept feeling like I had already read it. There was so much repetition - complete sentences in their entirety were duplicated at different points in the stories - especially in Melanctha. I think I will be giving myself quite a bit of time off before I tackle one of the other Stein books on the list.

Still Working on Three Lives

I am slogging through Gertrude Stein's book - I thought I would finish it over the weekend but didn't read as much as I expected to. The Melanctha story is getting more repetitive as it goes along. Melanctha and Jeff Campbell, the man she is in love with, seem to have the same conversation over and over. They also like to say each others' names many times during the conversation which seems awkward to me. Hopefully I will finish soon.

The Good Anna

I just started book #756, Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. The book is broken up into three stories - The Good Anna, Melanctha, and The Gentle Lena. I finished The Good Anna and have started on Melanctha.

I really think The Good Anna should actually be The Meddlesome Anna, or The Exasperating Anna - something not so flattering. Anna is a stolid and stubborn servant who works for a few different people. She will only work for people that will allow her to control every aspect of their lives. She gets upset at any money her employers spend, yet wastes all of hers on friends who overspend on themselves. She is hostile and unreasonable when interviewed for a job. She scolds her friends when they do something she doesn't like and they are afraid of her wrath.

So far Melanctha is a much more affable character, but the writing is getting more and more repetitive. Stein finds phrases that she likes and uses them over and over, sometimes within the same paragraph. If the author's other books on the list are as repetitive (and I have read that The Making of Americans is more so and over 900 pages long), it may be a chore getting through them.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston a lot quicker than I expected. I still don't like the phonetic speech, but once I got a little further into the book I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed the main character, Janie. She was so easy to relate to and her pain was very real. Even though she left one husband and buried two more she didn't let life beat her down. In the end she found peace, which might be her greatest achievement.

As you may have noticed, I like to find specific quotes from the books that either strike a chord with me or tend to sum up the experience of the book. Here is one that speaks of Janie's second marriage:

"She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over." Page 68

Who hasn't felt that way at some point in life? Not just about a spouse, but with any sort of relationship. Hurston has a way of putting visceral emotions into words that anyone can understand.

Just Moseying Along

I am having a hard time finding a book that I truly love lately. I started Their Eyes Were Watching God (book #609) yesterday. This is one of those books where the speech is written phonetically, which I have always had trouble reading. I did want to share a quote that I found amusing:

"...he talks tuh unlettered folks wid books in his jaws..." page 46. I love the imagery that line produces.

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

A soccer-goalie-turned-construction-worker decides that a casual glance from his foreman means he is fired, so he leaves his job and starts wandering aimlessly around his city. After stalking and killing a movie cashier, he leaves and wanders around another town.
The back of the book describes the writing as "fractured prose" and I definitely agree with the description. I know that the style is showing the increasing paranoia of the main character and his crumbling sanity, but sometimes it gets confusing. For example, here is an excerpt from page 38:

'Even though the window was open, it was impossible to see into the customs shed; the room was too dark from the outside. Still, somebody must have seen Bloch from the inside; he understood this because he himself held his breath as he walked past. Was it possible that nobody was in the room even though the window was wide open? Why "even though"?'

As the story progresses, the writing gets even more choppy and baffling. From page 77: "To his left he saw...To his right there was...Behind him he saw...He got hungry and walked away."

You will need some patience to get through this book if you are not a fan of this writing style. The book also feels unfinished, but I suppose you can infer what eventually happens to Bloch. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke is not casual reading.

Fear and Trembling

If you have problems with your manager(s) at work, read Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb and you will be happy your boss isn't Mori-san or Omochi-san. This is a true account Nothomb's move from Belgium to Japan to work for the Yumimoto Corporation. Her immediate supervisor, Mori Fubuki, is bitter when Nothomb is given an assignment that Mori-san feels is to good for our heroine. Mori-san then proceeds to make Nothomb's life a living hell by giving her the worst assignments she can think of. Nothomb spends several months cleaning toilets, even though she is supposed to be working for the import-export division.
This book catalogs the humiliation the author endures for an entire year with the company. I had a horrible boss at the end of my career with The Callos Companies, but it was nothing like this. While this book may not make you like your supervisor more, you just might appreciate that he or she could be much, much worse.

Now What?

I finished Out of Sight, and am trying to decide what to read next. The problem is that I have too many books. I literally have over 700 books in my house because I love to buy them, particularly at bag- and box-sales. So now I can't make a decision. Right now it is between Time's Arrow, a Tolstoy book with both the Kruetzer Sonata and The Death of Ivan Ilych, or The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick. Any opinions on what to read next?

15% Finished!

In looking at my list on Lists of Bests, I realize that Death in Venice has put me over the 15% mark! Only 850 books to go - easy right?

Possession

I would like to share my favorite poem from Possession by A.S. Byatt. I enjoyed this poem so much that I wrote it down in a notebook so I wouldn't forget it after I passed the book to the next person in the bookring. Possession was a good story, even if the Maud character had a strange obsession with the color green. This poem was written by Randolph Ash in the book.

And is love then more

Than the kick galvanic

Or the thundering roar

of Ash volcanic

Belched from some crater

Of earth-fire within?

Are we automata

Or Angel-Kin?

After Death in Venice and Naked Lunch, I needed to take a break and read something a little - simpler. I am reading Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard, which is not on the 1001 BYMR list (even though Leonard's novel Get Shorty is, I really wanted to read this one).

Death in Venice

Just finished book #750, Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. This book is only 62 pages, but it took me 4 or 5 days to read. It is a dense novella about a man who suddenly decides to travel in 1911. He makes his way to Venice where he begins observing a Polish family. He ultimately falls in love with the young Polish boy Tadzio. It is hard to say much else about the story without telling everything, so I will share my favorite quote from the book:

"Yes, even on a personal basis art is an enhancement of life. It makes you more deeply happy, it wears you out faster." Page 11 Dover Edition

Naked Lunch

 

I thought I would have finished Death in Venice by now, but I have been falling asleep as I read it. So I wanted to talk about the book I finished a few days ago, Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.

A long time ago I tried watching the Naked Lunch movie and was never able to get through it. I do remember the beginning having a lot to do with an exterminator who was addicted to the powder insecticide. So when I started reading this book I expected to start reading about an exterminator. Nope - not at all. In fact, I found one short section about an exterminator, but it was in the last 3rd of the book and a pretty negligible part of the story.

I don't know what to think of this book. Even though I finished it less than a week ago, I can't seem to remember anything concrete about the story. This is probably because it was the disjointed ramblings of a man addicted to opiates. Burroughs himself states in the introduction that he doesn't remember writing it, at least how he felt as he wrote it. These were notes he took while drifting in his junk-induced dream state. So I guess it isn't all that surprising that the book feels like some kind of bad dream, the details of which keep slipping through my grasp.

Ready...Set...

I have decided to blog about reading through the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" - the 2006 edition. I have the actual book, but am using the Lists of Bests list to track my progress. The Lists of Bests list is in reverse chronological order, opposite to the book, for some reason. Here is what I have read so far:

1. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
2. Saturday - Ian McEwan
5. Adjunct: An Undigest - Peter Manson
11. The Lambs of London - Peter Ackroyd
16. Thursbitch - Alan Garner
19. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
24. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
33. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
42. Atonement - Ian McEwan
45. The Body Artist - Don DeLillo
48. Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
49. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
67. House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
75. Fear and Trembling - Amelie Nothomb
77. Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee
86. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
92. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
93. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
106. Forever a Stranger - Hella S. Haasse
116. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
117. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
135. Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War - Sebastian Faulks
141. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
143. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
147. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
183. Possession - A.S. Byatt
187. Sexing the Cherry - Jeanette Winterson
190. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
195. Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel
196. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
223. Beloved - Toni Morrison
227. Watchmen - Alan Moore
232. Foe - J.M. Coetzee
236. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
237. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
240. Less Than Zero - Brett Easton Ellis
241. Contact - Carl Sagan
242. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
243. Perfume - Patrick Suskind
254. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
258. Neuromancer - William Gibson
259. Flaubert's Parrot - Julian Barnes
266. Life and Times of Michael K. - J.M. Coetzee
272. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
293. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
301. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
320. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice
349. Sula - Toni Morrison
350. Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
351. The Breast - Philip Roth
365. The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
367. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
368. Mercier et Camier - Samuel Beckett
375. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
379. The Godfather - Mario Puzo
389. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
390. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
399. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
400. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
408. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
413. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
427. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
428. The Graduate - Charles Webb
433. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
437. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
438. Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
444. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein
445. Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger
451. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
456. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
461. Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
472. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
486. Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
487. The Wonderful O - James Thurber
494. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
496. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
508. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
520. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
521. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
526. The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
527. Foundation - Isaac Asimov
529. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
536. The 13 Clocks - James Thurber
539. I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
547. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
549. Disobedience - Alberto Moravia
561. Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
564. Animal Farm - George Orwell
565. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
574. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
579. The Outsider - Albert Camus
592. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
603. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
608. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
610. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein
619. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
649. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
667. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
671. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
695. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
699. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
708. A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
717. Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
747. Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs
752. Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
780. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
781. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
790. The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
791. The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
794. Dracula - Bram Stoker
797. The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
801. The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
804. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
809. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
825. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
831. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
838. The Red Room - August Strindberg
840. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
848. Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne
854. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There - Lewis Carroll
857. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
863. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
866. Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne
867. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
868. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
876. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
886. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
890. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
896. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
897. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
902. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
904. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
905. Vanity Fair - William Thackery
911. The Pit and the Pendulum - Edgar Allen Poe
913. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
916. The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allen Poe
919. The Nose - Nikolai Gogol
931. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
933. Persuasion - Jane Austen
936. Emma - Jane Austen
938. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
940. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
959. The Sorrows of Young Werther - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
961. The Man of Feeling - Henry Mackenzie
962. A Sentimental Journey - Laurence Sterne
982. A Modest Proposal - Jonathan Swift
989. Oroonoko; or, A Royal Slave - Aphra Behn
992. Don Quixote - Miguel De Cervantes
996. The Thousand Nights and One Night - Anonymous
1001. Aesop's Fables - Aesop

Some of these books I read so long ago that I have little memory of them. Some of them, like A Suitable Boy, Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace (and many others) will stay with me forever. I will talk about the books as I read them and go back and discuss some of the previously read books once in a while.