Vonnegut on the Read/Re-Read

Today I finished re-reading Kurt Vonnegut jr’s Slaughter-House Five for about the fifth or sixth time.  Even considering that I pretty much know the book by heart now I still love reading it again and again.  it is very easily high up on my list of favorite all-time books and Vonnegut himself might be in the top five of my all-time favorite authors (if not actually being my solely favorite author). 

I won’t claim that I really got anything new from the book this time around.  As usually I just appreciated its wit and wisdom.  As in the past readings I finished the book feeling a mixture of great happiness and positinve outlook on life while at the same time feeling terribly sad and despaining about the way the world is.  Vonnegut had possibly the most amazing ability at creating this sense of bittersweetness in his stories.

Besides Slaughter-House Five I also bought his short story collection Welcome to the Monkey House on Saturday.  Welcome to the Monkey House has probably one of my all-time favorite short stories in it, that onebeing “Harrison Bergeron.”  In fact it was reading “Harrison Bergeron” my freshman year of college which really got me started with loving the works of Kurt Vonnegut.  I had read Slaughter-House Five as a freshman in high school but something about it had been lost on me back then and so it would take another four years before I re-discovered it and found the real genius of Vonnegut. 

I have not read eveyone of his books (though I’d greatly like to).  I hope I can get to them all in the not too distant future.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. fell down a flight of stairs my junior year of college and only a few short days after that died.  So it goes.

Today is International Literacy Day

Happy International Literacy Day everybody!  In celebration of world literacy we should all take a little bit of time today to sit down and read something for the pure joy of reading.  it doesn’t matter whether it is a book or a magazine or a paper or a blog.  Just read because you can read.  But also take a moment to consider that there are still millions of people who are not fortunate enough to live with the fundemental right to education and thus live without literacy.  Here is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for Internation Literacy Day this year.  Hopefully with a little effort we can see a future where everyone is entitled to equal education opportunities and can enjoy the pleasures that come with reading.

The Sun Also Rises Again

I am currently re-reading Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises for the second time (which will make it my third reading altogether).

As I have likely mentioned in previous posts, The Sun Also Rises holds a special significance to me, in that I think it is really the one book which demonstrated my growth as a reader and lover of literature.  When I first read the book, my junior year in high school, I loathed it and found it difficult to complete.  I wish I could offr more of an explination as to why this was, but my teenage brain and thought process is quite alien to me now and thus, in all honesty, I really am unsure as to what it was specifically that I disliked about the book back then.  What I can say was that at the time I was quite satisfied with the notion of never picking up Hemingway again.

My first re-read of The Sun Also Rises occurred during my junior year of college, four years after I had had my first painful encounter with the book.  In truth I had not intended to re-read the book at all, but a professor of mine challenged me to give it a second chance and see if I still hated it.  I didn’t.  In all honesty it was almost a mystical experience or something.  I breezed through the novel the second time (which really isn’t much of a challenge considering tha tit is quite a short story) and found myself enjoying every moment of it.  I discovered a humor to the book that I had comepletely missed the first time around.  I also found myself enjoy the tact and skill with which Hemingway had committed words to the creation of a story.  Nothing seemed wasteful with Hemingway’s writing style.  The man had written exactly what he intended to write without needing to over elaborate or becoming clumsy with his style.  As a writing major at the time I found myslef greatly appreciating the use of language that Hemingway had employed in the story and how it maintained a steady motion and consitent sense of character.  Four years prior I had been greatly mistaken, The Sun Also Rises was indeed a fantastic novel.

So that brings us to my current reading.  I had bought the book some weeks back in a used copy of The Hemingway Reader which I had found at a GoodWill store.  This past Sunday I picked it up in the morning as I sat out on my porch and drank a cup of coffee.  It was very relaxing beginning the story again.  I was familiar with it, comfortable with it.  Whereas during my second reading I had picked up the story with a cynical belief that I’d find no more joy in it than I had with my first read, this time around I knew that the story would be a pleasure to work through again.

While I cannot avoid noticing again the magnificent use of language that Hemingway employees in The Sun Also Rises I find that so far during this read (I’m about halfway through currently) I have been paying far more attention to the characters in the story, especially the narrator Jake Barnes.  I know that during both of my previous readings I was well aware of the personalities and characteristics of the main cast of the story, but this time it seems that I am far more interested in the intricacies that make them all at once compelling but also tragic.  Jake has emotion, that much in unquestionable, yet he approaches the story with a certain stoic attitude which shapes our perception of the whole story.  There is a kind of defeatist quality to Jake’s narration which makes us feel that even in the dazzling swinging times the characters might be having in appearance, that in truth there is a lingering sadness and malaise to all of their existences.  In this way we, the readers, truly encounter that “Lost Generation” with which the book so intimately deals.  To be lost is to be without direction and that is exactly what the different characters are, directionless, wanering around, pursuing the semblance of happiness and enjoyment all the while spiraling furthing into indifference and defeat.

I think it might be easy to enjoy the book solely for the nostalgic feel of the 1920s in Europe with lots of drinking, late nights, and parties but this approach to the story misses the key point which it that all those things were merely a shell or a mask put on over the real quality of the people who performed the parts.  There is an existential note to it all, not necessarily the angsty existentialism which emerged after the second world war, but instead, agian, that defeatism in the face of reality.  Jake, deeply in love with Brett knows there is no chance of happiness with her because of his injury in the war (WWI) and Brett, equally in love with Jake, knows that she lacks any ability at actually loyalty which would ever allow for them to be happy.  Instead of seeking some kind of resolution the characters seem to avoid their problems by pursing outside entertainment and a ton of drinking.  As such the story can come across as being without any real sense of resolution or closer, which I suppose might be frustrating to some, but in the end that is entirely the point, that there is no closer because the characters are completely incapable of making such a thing happen.  Thus the story is a tragedy of characters and their inabilty to save themselves from their own directionlessness.

Truly fantastic.  The Sun Also Rises is one of those books which I strongly suggest to anybody who enjoys good writing and storytelling but also likes the challenge of pulling more from a story than may initially be apparent about it.  Hemingway has remained a classic for a reason and The Sun Also Rises is a great example of why that is.

Illustrative Interpretations of Books

While, as this blog contests, I am an avid lover of books and reading I have a number of other interests as well, a big one being drawing (which is a passtime I practice almost as much as reading).  I am very fond of the visual arts in general and thus have often attempted creating my own works (regardless of any merit of my productions.  You can view a number of my sketches and drawings here).  I love to see the creativity of other artists, of whom there are many very talented people out there, and thus I am found of this collection of Wizard of Oz influenced illustrations.

While The Wizard of Oz might nowadays be best recognized and associated with the 1939 film starring Judy Garland it is actually originally a childrens story written by Frank L. Baum titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  Anyone who has seen the movie version of the story can probably recognize the influence of the films look and feel on a number for the illustrations from the above link.  But it is worth noting that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was an illustrated book to begin with.

I guess what I like is the idea of readers or audiences of a story creating their own visual interpretations of the works they encounter.  Obviously once we are exposed to some degree of visual interpretation our future perceptions of characters, locations, events, etc. are highly influenced (it is part oft he reason I prefer to read a book before seeing the movie version).  But even when presented with visual directions in a story (through illustrations or filming or other art forms) we are capable of reimagining them.  Consider Terrible Yellow Eyes which offers an amazing collection of artwork inspired by Maurice Sendak’s classic picture book Where the Wild Things Are.  Of course Where the Wild Things Are (one of my all time favorite books.  I actually have a wild things t-shirt)  being a childrens book is filled with its own original artwork by Mr. Sendak, but Terrible Yello Eyes displays a number of artisitc reinterpretations of the childrens classic.  Much the same to be done with the famous Oz characters.

I love seeing how people interprete and visualize the worlds and characters created within books and stories.  We are visually tuned beings and so even if we can create an image in our minds there seems to be something quite wonderful, almost settling, about seeing an actual illustration or image of the stories we encounter.  Often when I am writing stories I find myself sitting down and doodling just to help me further visualize situations or other elements I am trying to describe.

So great stuff to enjoy looing at and thinking about.

Great Last Lines From Science Fiction Novels

There are many things that I enjoy about the all-things geeky blog io9, but one that fits perfectly well with this blog here has to be the list of favorite last lines from science fiction novels. 

Some people might be put off by reading the closing lines from any novel (in which case I’d suggest avoiding the above) but personally I think it is kind of an interesting approach to picking up a book.  While there were several novels on the io9 list which I have read before there was also a good number of books of which I was not familiar or had ever read.  Reading the last line sparks in my head the thought of “What led to this closing?  what is responsible for this being the ending of the book?”  Personally I think that a thought like that might be more than enough to make me want to grab a book to read.

Anyways, check it out, you may enjoy.

Audio-Book Listening

So I’ve been doing something which I have never done before, and that is listening to a full book as an audio-book (I have previously listened t parts of books in audio form, namely Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series, which my father had plaing in his car continuously a few years ago).  The reason why I decided to pick up an audio-book (this one in CD format) was because I had to drive down to Columbia SC last week, which is almost a two hour drive just one way.  With all that time, and not really wanting to hunt for good music, I decided that an audio-book might not hurt.  furthermore I wanted to see if I could actually make it through the whole thing.

The audio-book I chose was Isaac Asimov’s Foundation which I’ve wanted to read for quite some time.  Part of my reason for choosing it, was that a print copy is not available in the library system (where I work), furtehrmore I have such a list of “to reads” right now that I was uncertain when, if ever, I’d get around to it.  In truth I have rather enjoyed having it playing in my car’s CD player.  Foundation has a lot of dialogue which I think makes listening to it a bit more enjoyable because I am not forced to listen to as much descriptive details but instead can kind of listen in on a conversation.  All and all I haven’t minded it that much.

Of course I would guess a part of that has to do with the fact that Foundation is a really good book (well, that is if you likce science fiction).  I can easily see why it is up there with Frank Herbert’s Dune and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of the classics of the science fiction genre.  Just listening to the story I have thought of a ton of other science fiction stories which have probably been directly influenced by Foundation. Interestingly, for a science fiction, the book is less interested in explaining advanced technologies or vast space battles and deals a lot more with socio-political influences of institutions such as religion and controlled economics.  It is rather great and would suggest anybody who enjoys science fiction to pick it up.

So will I listen to more audiobooks?  Possibly, though I doubt I’ll eve make a habit of the thing.  I see it as being a convenient way to get another book in your head if you’re on a long trip, but if I am just sitting at home or want to read during my lunch break I personally see it making more sense (and beingmore enjoyable) to actually read.  Of course everybody has their own preferences, so if audio-books work for you then more power to ya.

The Wonderful Mr. Bradley

Ray Bradley is unquestionably one of my all time favorite authors.  I honestly cannot think of a single piece of writing of his which I’ve read and not enjoyed.  Perhaps one of his most influential works to me was his collection of essays entitled Zen and the Art of Writing which served as a constant source of inspriation for me during my college years.  I think the man is an absolute creative genius and unquestionably one of the greatest authors of the 20th century.

That being said I was touched and pleased with The New York Times article “A Literary Legend Fights for a Library” by Jennifer Steinhauer.  Being employeed in a public library myself I always feel a ping of anxiety when I read about the closing of other libraries across the nation.  As such it is wonderful to hear about such devoted patronage from a man who has contributed so much in the realm of the material that libraries provide.

I cannot help but feel that the article contains a strong homage to Mr. Bradbury’s best known work, the famous and insightful Fahrenheit 451.  Both the context of closing libraries and Mr. Bradbury’s comments on the Internet (and his great dislike of it) strike me speaking a similar theme and fear of the destruction of books.  Is it a real concern or just tilting at windmills?  Can censorship also ultimately be possibly through the propogation of useless unintelligible junk theat gains more respect and following that that material of true knowledge and worth?  Things to think about.

Anyway, a great article about a great (albeit a bit eccentric) man.  He’d probably hate this blog post on the Internet.  Good for him.

Salinger and Caulfield and Lawsuits . . . Oh My?

Not too long ago I wrote here a bit about J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye and the allure and popularity which has surrounded the story (and how I really am not that big a fan).  Well today I write a bit more about the Mr. Salinger and his famous novel. 

 I’ll direct you first to the article “Holden Caulfield, a Ripe 76, Heads to Court Again” by A. G. Sulzberger in The New York Times.  It seems that Mr. Salinger and his lawyers are pursuing a lawsuit against a Mr. Fredrik Colting (aka J. D. California) for copyright infringement for Mr. Colting’s novel 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.  Now I haven’t read Mr. Colting’s book, so I can’t speak on all the specifics, but, from the above article it sounds like, the story of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye relies on a number of similarities in plot to The Catcher in the Rye as well as utilizing a character named Mr. C who is heavily influenced on the fictional Holden Caulfield.  This is where the all the problems come into play.  Mr. Salinger’s lawyers claim that Mr. Coltings book is a “rip-off” of The Catcher in the Rye whereas Colting’s lawyers say that it is indeed an original work, especially considering that a ficticious J. D. Salinger is an important character in 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.

Again, not having read Mr. Colting’s work I cannot say for sure how much or little he might be “ripping-off” The Catcher in the Rye.  What I can say however, is that the case seems to raise some questions of fictional ownership that i enjoy contemplating.  For a long time I have been somewhat skeptical (if not outright opposed to) the way in which our society seems to demand the “ownership” of fiction.  I’m not suggesting that all fiction is without creators, or even that people shouldn’t credit others for fictional origins or concepts, but moreso I would say that it seems a little bit ridiculous to suggest a complete ownership over this inmaterial of a fictional character or basic plot.  I understand that we value originality and the creative process, but to me a rethinking and a use of an already created character counts as originality and creativity.  To a certian degree I feel as if it would almost be better if authors of fiction pursued a bit of an “open source” mindset with their material.  That being, that they deserve credit for the original story and creation, but allow for the characters, plots, bits of the story to be used beyond their own work, by others who can also contribute to the originality of these works of fiction.  Of course it really seems to all be a money kind of conflict, which is unfortunate in my opinion, becuase that, much more than the reinterpretting of plots or characters, really strikes me as diminishing thevalue of the fictional work.

Beyond money, it is also part of that whole author function debate, which I could go on and on about for quite some time.  In the article it mentions how Mr. Salinger has refused to sell the rights to make a movie of The Catcher in the Rye, because he, as his agent says, “feels strongly that he wants his fiction and his characters to remain intact as he wrote them.”  Sure, that’s fine and good and all, especially considering that so many good books have been done an unjustice by being made into film, but the problem I have with it is this sense of ongoing ownership and control.  Personally I think that if Mr. Salinger wanted to keep his characters and fiction so safe to his vision then he never should have published in the first place.  I see this as a reality of the author of fiction.  The author has some control on guiding the plot and developing the characters, but really, once a story is made available to read, those plots and characters are open to all sorts of interpretation, contemplation and criticism regardless of whether the author likes it or not (or if they entirely adhere to the author’s original vision).  That being said, I respect Mr. Salinger’s wish not to have his book made into a movie, becuase that is his right, as the law and ownership stand.  But really I question the legitimacy of the lawsuit and am curious to see what the outcome will be.

Memories in “Ulysses”

I love The New York Times for many many reasons (great science articles, interesting political perspectives, etc.) but perhaps one of my favorite type of articles that often appear in the newspaper are the various editorials and op-eds.  For a great example I point you to Colum McCann’s “But Always Meeting Ourselves.”  The piece is a wonderful contemplation of a real life, of a famed novel (Specifically James Joyce’s Ulysses), and ultimately the power within a piece of fiction to draw out truths about those real lifes with live and interact with.  A beautiful little piece, that touched me greatly.  It also contians a wonderful quote by Vladamir Nobokov (no literary light-weight — think Lolita) about the power and purpose of storytelling (I’ll let you find the quote in the article yourself).

Breifly on Ulysses. I have never read the vast and well known Joyce novel myself, though, through discussion and having read about it, I know quite a bit of the plot and premise of the work.  It has for a time now been one of those books that I’ve been interested in picking up, and yet I am hesitant to do so.  A lot of what I have heard about Ulysses is that it is one of the most difficult and complex books in the English language, and that over the years it has spawned all sorts of analysis and criticism.  It is is such details of the book that both intrigue and discourage me.  Ultimately, I feel that I should read it out of principal alone(that being that I should challenge myself to read as many great novels as I can), which might not be the best of reasons to pick up a book, but I doubt it is also the worst.

That being said;  Happy Bloomsday today.

The Lasting Popularity of “The Catcher in the Rye”

The BBC offers an interesting article examining the long lasting popularity of J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.  I feel it is worth sharing here, considering that the popularity of the novel is unquestionable.

That being said, I personally really do not like The Catcher in the Rye.  I think my reason for this really comes down to two main things.  One, I didn’t read it in high school like so many other people.  In fact I did not read The Catcher in the Rye until the end of my junior year in college, and then I only read it because a couple of my friends insisted upon it (the reason I hadn’t read it up until then was due primarily to being uninterested in the book).  But anyways, I did finally read it, but ultimately was not all that impressed.  I won’t go so far as to say it was the worst book I have ever read (I have read quite a number of worse books) but there was nothing about it that really struck me as all that great, as so many people had  insisted it was.  In truth I found the novel overall rather smug and callous, which I realize is part of the characteristics of Holden Caulfield, the narrator, but still, in the end, it kind of annoyed me.

What further has made me have a dislike about the book is the name Holden Caulfield itself.  You see my middle name happens to be Holden and for as long as I can remember people have been say/asking to me “Oh, your middle name is named after Holden Caulfield?”

No, no it is not.  Holden is just a name that my parents liked.  In fact I don’t think my father has ever read The Catcher in the Rye himself, and I am pretty certain my mother has told me that she didn’t care for it when she read it.  I just hate the assumption that because part of my name is Holden that it must certainly be because of Holden Caulfield.  There are plenty of other people (real people might I add) who have Holden as part of their names and I am just as likely to take it from them.  Or, as is the actual case, it could be assumed to just be a liked name my parents picked.  The further annoyance with people making the comparison was that before I had read the book I wasn’t certain who Holden Caulfield was and so wasn’t  sure what people were talking about.

I’ll admit that part of my dislike might stem partially from a desire to be a contrarian in the popular literary field.  But really I think the two above points are my main reason.  I don’t begrudge others for liking The Catcher in the Rye it just isn’t really all that high up on my list of enjoyed books.

H. P. Lovecraft “Tales”

Yesterday I bought The Library of America copy of Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s Tales, a collection of 22 of Mr. Lovecraft’s most famous stories.  The whole collection was selected by Peter Straub, an appropriate individual for the job, if I may say so myself (Mr. Straub also wrote the notes for the collection).  It was this collection, several years back now (when I was in college) that first introduced me to H. P. Lovecraft.  Much like Everything is Illuminated I found Tales while I was shelving some books, and thought “why not?”  A good choice all around.

I have long been a fan of what is considered horror or dark fiction.  As a child (I’m sure of mentioned this before) I was particularly fond of John Bellairs who wrote startlingly creepy books for children and young adults.  As I got older I moved on to Stephen King (who I know I have mentioned as probably my favorite living writer).  I have also long been a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, whom the inside cover of Tales‘ notes as having been a direct predecessor to H. P. Lovecraft’s dark works.

There is much in Lovecraft’s works to admire.  He had an uncanny knack at creating a sense of uncertainty.  Most of his stories rely on at best a questionable narrator, if not one who is outright unreliable due to the possibility of insanity or some other degree of derangement.  While I read some of the stories last night I thought of this fact.  As the reader, the audience of the story, it is hard to determine the truth in what the narrators give.  You want to believe it because it is what you are provided in the story, and yet these narrators often admit to having slipped into madness and insanity due to the horrors they encountered and often what they describe is too strikingly absurd to truly believe.  It is a wonderful conflict which Mr. Lovecraft created.

Then again there is his mythos, the vast dark stories of beings of immense power, which have influenced a great number of other writers since.  The Lovecraft Mythos creates a world in which we are all unfortunate victims to the whims of beings so vastly more powerful than ourselves and beyond anything we possess the capacity to understand.  These are ancient creatures that lack any regard to the suffering or needs of humanity, they exist for their own timeless purposes and we just happen to occasionally get in their way.  They are incomprehensible monsters and yet they have the amazing ability to fascinate us, to make us want to understand even a mote point about them.

The sad thing about H. P. Lovecraft is that he died at a rather young age (he was only 46 years old).  One can only imagine that if he had lived longer he might have had the chance to created even more strange dark tales, as well as expand further upon his mythos.  Alas it is not so, and we must make do with those works that he created.  If you are looking for eerie, dark tales, of the things that go bump in the night, then Lovecraft is an essential read.

“Dune” Everybody should Read It!

I would like to extend praise to Douglas Cohen in his efforts to sell Frank Herbert’s Dune to more traditional fans of the fantasy genre (as opposed to the science fiction, where Dune is generally placed).  That being said though, I wish he had pushed further, and not just outreached to fans of the fantasy genre but to readers of all sorts.  While I admit to the personal nature of my opinion, because of my love of the book, I feel that Dune is one of those great novels that should be picked up by everybody.

The thing is that even though Dune is definitely science fiction in its basic structure, I think the story does a lot to transcend the genre.  It is a work, somewhat like Tolkien’s The Hobbit that offers so much more than a simple genre labeling would provide.  I remember when I first read Dune, back when I was a sophomore in high school, being absolutely fascinated by the apparent parallels to the trade guilds during the Enlightenment.  Dune has so much more to do with political systems and power struggles than it really does with spaceships and different planets (sure the spaceships and planets are present, but they are really just vehicles used to convey the complex ideas within the story).  Essentially Dune has always struck me as a wonderfully developed contemplation on the interplay of politics, economics, and religion and how pulling a string in one area inevitably causes effects in the others.

What is more is that Mr. Herbert created some of the most memorable characters you could ever encounter.  Paul Atreides is ten times the hero that Luke Skywalker could ever aspire to be.  He demonstrates outstanding qualities of bravery, level headedness, and all around wisdom in the face of great adversity and ultimately finds transcendence in the tough lot that life has given him.  And the villains like Baron Harkonnen truly strike an emotional chord of the possibilities of the corrupting influence of power and greed. 

Really it is a magnificent book, that I strongly suggest to everyone who claims to like a good read.  It has all the elements that make it an appealing sci-fi or fantasy novel and yet it does so much more than that in the end so that it doesn’t really matter much what genre it is lumped in.

Interestingly, while I was cleaning my room this weekend, which led to my finding and beginning to re-read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated (which I wrote about in my previous post) I also discovered my copy of Dune and strongly considered giving it another read for old times sakes.  I have it on my desk at home and think that it might be what I move on to once I finish Everything is Illuminated.

On the Re-Read . . . Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Everything is Illuminated”

While I was cleaning my room this past weekend I came upon my paperback copy of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated and decided, because I did not currently have any demanding books on my read list, that I’d reread it.  Everything is Illuminated is probably one of my favorite books published in the past decade, and this will be my third reading of it since I first picked it up in early 2006.

The way in which I came upon Everything is Illuminated strikes me as rather interesting.  Truth is I had never heard of the author or the book, and probably never would have if it weren’t for my parents plugging the movie version of the story.  While I was in college my parents loved to suggest tons of movies to me (actually they still do this, but now that I have Netflix I actually get around to watching most of them).  So they kept mentioning this film Everything is Illuminated starring Elijah Wood and how great it was, and my response was something along the lines of “yeah, yeah, awesome, I’ll keep my eyes out for it,” knowing full well that I probably wouldn’t bother looking for it at all.  Apparently the fates that be had a better idea in store.

I was working at the library at school (where I worked for all four years in which I was in college) and was shelving books in the main browsing section (just a collection of popular titles, not necessarily new or anything, just books that had good reviews and seemed popular) when I came upon a copy of Everything is Illuminated.  I recognized the title almost immediately as “that movie I hear about every time I talk to my parents.”  Because I wasn’t reading anything at the time I thought, “hell, why not give this a try, in the very least it might get my parents to leave me alone about the movie for a bit.”  So I picked it up and began reading.  Needless to say, due to my openning of this post, I was captivated.

I will say that Everything is Illuminated might not be for everybody.  The story style can be kind of confusing seeing as it jumps around some between narrators and time period (personally I got used to it pretty fast), it is also kind of a bizarre story to begin with; lots of strange characters, use of strange language, and an overall different driving plot.  But I think once a person gets over the initial difficulties that the story presents they find themselves reading a truly magnificent and moving novel.

I’m trying to avoid spoiling the book too much here.  Basically I think Everything is Illuminated is all about the development of a narrative.  In some ways it presents purposely unreliable accounts of similar events to reiterate the fact that a narrative is reliable only in the perspective of a given party at a given time.  The concept of history playing a direct role on present events is also a very strong theme throughout the book (something which it shares with Foer’s second novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close).  All and all, the relationships that develop throughout the novel between characters, past and present, creates a marvelous interplay of emotion and narrative, culminating in a mixture of tragedy and transcendence.  The book really does have some of the saddest moments I’ve read in any books in recent years, enough to pretty much cause a few tears.  But there is also a really good feeling about it, even in the moments that lack true resolution, because it seems strikingly real.

For anybody who is interested in a slightly different novel structure, a story about family and history, as well as a book about travel and exploration, I would greatly suggest looking into Everything is Illuminated (you also may enjoy Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which is a great novel in its own rights).  I will also give big credit to the film version of Everything is Illuminated which, while it changes some aspects, is a remarkably well made and enjoyable movie that remains relatively true to the book.

‘Waiting for Godot’ Returns to Broadway

I was pretty excited to read that Waiting for Godot will be back in production on Broadway starring some pretty big names in the acting world (Nathan Lane and John Goodman).  I rather enjoy the audio slide show narrated by the director Anthony Page, especially considering the Mr. Page had an opportunity to work with Samuel Beckett himself.  Now I feel like I have to get to NYC to see a performance of the play, especially considering that part of what I am writing about Waiting for Godot deals with the audeince aspect of the play.  Good stuff.  A fun little find this Friday morning.

Finished “Anathem” . . . Finally

I will start by saying that Neal Stephenson’s Anathemis a really long book.  The hardcover was 890 pages of novel, plus nearly another hundred worth of appendix content.  Now a book being long isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, it just means it is long, and if you are the kind of person who does not like devoting a lot of time to a single book then something like Anathem probably isn’t for you.  I actually don’t usually mind long books, but I also haven’t been reading as much or as fast as I used to so it can be a little difficult when it takes over two months to read a single novel.

That being said I found Anatheman overall enjoyable story.  I think that Mr. Stephenson did a great job at creating a interesting social structure and hierarchy as well as a truly original story in a science fiction genre that often has too many variations on the same theme.  All and all I liked it.  I thought the characters, especially the narrator Erasmus, were all interesting and relatively believable people.  I was interested by the various plot developments and curious as to how everything was going to work out, which strikes me as an all around success in any novel.

My main detractor though goes back to the great length of the book.  Upon finishing it, and at several times in the story, I felt that really it was just over stretching.  I don’t think Anathem needed to be nearly 900 pages long.  I don’t think that it even needed to be 500 pages long.  yes there was a lot of interesting moments and a lot of characters and obviously Mr. Stephenson felt the need to fully develop the society in this world which is quite different than anything that we know, but there just seemed to be a lot of stuff that seemed to drag forever unnecessarily.  And while I don’t know for sure, I imagine that the original draft was significantly longer than the published book because there were some parts that read as if Mr. Stephenson had more that he wanted to write but didn’t include.

My personal conclusion to this is that the book should have just trimmed down and focused more on exact plot points, or Mr. Stephenson should have opted to write a couple books, like a trilogy.  Now sure, you can ask how a trilogy where each book is about 300 pages long would be that different than a 900 page book, but I think that it definitely would.  It would create a bit more of a differentiation in the story arks, and possibly have allowed Stephenson to add that bit more that at times seemed missing.  It is kind of a tough call but, that is my overall feeling.

I will give Anathem an A for overall plot and concept and a B for overall reading enjoyment and experience.  Probably not for everybody, but I think some people will really like it.

Theater of the Absurd

I’ve be reading/rereading a number of plays this week that are often lumped in a classification of “Theater of the Absurd.”  So far I have read/reread Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame,” Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story,” and John-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit.”  Besides these three plays, I also watched the film version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” which is likely Albee’s best known work.  All of these rank as some of my favorite pieces of literature, and part of my purpose of reading them is that I intent to revamp, if not rewrite entirely, a paper dealing with these plays.  I won’t go into much detail (that is what the paper will be for), beyond saying that it will probably be about the relation of interpersonal relationships within the plays as well as the effects such relationships are intended to solicite in a captive audience.  I’ve also got a number of other Albee plays on my list to read, and Beckett’s masterpiece “Waiting for Godot.”

Truth is I love reading plays.  I am not sure when I really realized this, but it is something of which I am unashamed to admit.  Back in college I picked up a number of pieces of drama for mere pleasure, specifically a couple of Shakespeare works that I had wanted to reread and get a better understanding of (such as “Julius Caeser” which may be one of my favorite plays of all time).  I assume a part of my enjoyment of reading a play has to do with the fact that I used to enjoy performing in theater myself.  I saw “No Exit” as a live performance several years prior to my first reading the actual play.  The thing that  find interesting is that drama is written entirely with the intention of it being performed. It is this fact that I think makes it an interesting area of literary inspection.  How does writing change when it is made for a performance in front of an audience.  Really fascinating if you think about it, the fact that the majority of people who are apt to interact with the text do so not as readers, but as either audience or actors (which I suppose an actor/actress counts as a reader in some sense, but I could argue, in another sense, that they are still not).

If you have never read a play before, I challenge you to.  I won’t claim that they are always easy.  I’ve known a number of people who find it hard to read them.  My best advice, would be while reading a play, try to imagine it performed.  Depending on the playwrite’s decisions there may be a lot or very little stage direction in the actual text.  As you read try and visualize how the characters move, what the set is like, etc.  I find that this really helps bring into focus some of what the  writer is attempting to portray.  Then, if you feel like it, or are fortunate to get an opportunity, try and see the play performed live.  I can almost guarentee that it will help solidify an understanding of what you have read.  Really, try it out, it can be fun.

By the way, while probably not quite the same as watching the liver performance, the film version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is really a wonderful work of art, and the acting is magnificent.  It is a strange, uncomfortable, all around disturbing story, but ultimately I think it presents one of the most thought provoking looks at mid-20th century American life.  Quite a good comparison and contrast can be drawn between it and Albee’s other play “American Dream.”

Michael Arrington, In Praise of Science Fiction Novels

Michael Arrington, of TechCrunch fame, provides a wonderful piece about his favorite/most recommended science fiction books/series.  I love that Mr. Arrignton recommends that people skip reading books on how to run successful businesses (or likely any other “inspirational” self help books) and suggests that people looking into the classics of scifi to find quality imagination and innovation at work.  I agree fully (a few years back I wrote about how I would love to teach a class on Literary Cristicism of self Help books and more or less how they are crap).

I was pleased to see several of my favorite books on Mr. Arrington’s list.  And the ones that I haven’t read yet are included on my list of “to read” books.  The one book that I was surprised to see was Neal Stephenson’s Anathem.  I am still slowly making my way through Anathem (I refuse to put it down till I’m finished).  I don’t want to say much right yet (I’ve been taking notes), but I will say that I wouldn’t quite put it on par of classics like Dune or Stranger in a Strange Land. 

Still a great post, which is a little deviation from the normal appearing on TechCrunch, but enjoyable nevertheless.

Congratulations to David Berona

I would like to extend a congratulation to David Berona, the Director of Lamson Library at Plymouth State University, on recieving The New York Book Show award for first place Special Trade/Adult Graphic Novel. During the four years that I attended my undergrad studies at Plymouth I worked at Lamson Library.  My junior and senior years were the first two years that Mr. Berona was director of the library.  While I didn’t work terribly close with Mr. Berona (I was at the circulation desk) I did have the occasion of conversing with him on a number of occasions.  I recall having a very good discussion with him on Art Spiegelman’s great Maus graphic novels.  In fact I will extend some credit to Mr. Berona for helping me come to appreciation of graphic novels and comics.  In my last two years working at Lamson, Mr. Berona greatly increased the number of graphic novels and comics available in the library, several of which I read and rate highly, including Bone and The Dark Knight Returns.

So anyways, always glad to hear of the successes of former Professors or people I worked with back in college.

A Literate Comic

First off . . . it has been too long.  I should be writing here entirely more often.

That being said . . .

Second, XKCD, which I consider one of the funniest webcomics provides a wonderful one today, which includes a number of literary references.  I highly approve.  Interestingly enough I just attended a short lecture on wind energy this past week, it was fascinating and did not give any indication of wind turbines being our future alien overlords.

Check out War of the Worlds, it is pretty good.  As for Don Quixote, I have not yet brought myself around to reading it.

I picked it up . . . starting “Anathem”

Well I caved and grabbed Neal Stephenson’s Anathem from the library yesterday.  Here’s hoping that I can get through it, because that book is massive, some 890 pages long, probably the longest book I have picked up in the past few years.  Still, upon starting to read it yesterday, I found it relatively enjoyable and interesting.  Mr. Stephenson has a keen sense of detail and does not want to deny a reader a full understanding of the world surrounding the characters.  The most challenging thing I have found so far is the use of different language and words.  I have mixed feeling about this (see this previous post for better understanding).  On the upside it is obvious that Stephenson is not making up words arbitrarily, that the use of strange language is very purposeful, if not altogether one of the more important factors in the story, which helps in its defense.  But still it presents a challenge to get used to and make sense of.  I assume by the end of the book the reader hardly notices it any more.

Anyway, here is to giving it a shot.  The positive reviews brought me here, lets see if they prove true.

Rivka Galchen’s “Atmospheric Disturbances”

So I am reading this book called Atmospheric Disturbances, by Rivka Galchen, and I am finding that I really enjoy it.  The the fact that I am really enjoying it is not all that special in and of itself, seeing as I have a habit of enjoy a lot of the books that I read.  But my reason for my enjoyment is something which I have not experienced for a great while with a book.  This reason is in that I feel that Atmospheric Disturbances is a book which should be read and discussed in a college environment, because it is the type of book that promotes contemplation about the characters and situations and everything.  It is, so far as I can tell (only being about 70 pages into it) a truly literary work.  To me this makes it wonderfully enjoyable, my only real regret being in that I am not reading it in a classroom where I can talk to others and hear what they make of it as well.  Not only is the story compelling, moving, a wonderful display of postmodern thought and story device, but the very language is just saturated with intelligence, cleverness, and all around beauty.

That being said, I will say that I cannot consider Atmospheric Disturbancesto be, by any means, an easy read.  For a novel of only around 240 pages, it has thus far presented itself as being dense, full of cerebral content and articulate wording.  I would not recommend this for a simple browsing read, because in doing such, one is guaranteedto miss important parts of the story.  This is a book that almost demands close reading and that is why I feel it would be so in place in a college classroom.  I want to write a paper about it, pulling in material from the likes of Freud and Baudrillard both (the latter especially because of the concept of “simulacrum” that exists throughout).

It is fantastic . . . there, I have said it.  Don’t take that to mean that the book is “good” because the measure of goodness is not an easy thing for one to objectively classify.  But it is fantastic in the sense of being a piece of literature that sparks further contemplation beyond just the initial act of absorbing the story.

This Day in Books

On this day, February 2, 1922, James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysseswas first published.  To this day the book has been regarded as both one of the most important works in the English language and also one of the most difficult.  Critics have presented a slew of various takes on what it means and whether or not it is even a valuable contribution to English literature.  Though there does seem to be a general consensus that Ulysses is important piece of work to modernist literature.

I have never read Ulyssesthough, having been in college studying English, I have heard many takes on the book.  it has both been highly recommended to me and also blatantly ripped apart by its detractors.  Personally it is one of those books that greatly interests me, but one which I have not decided whether or not I actually want to read it.  part of me is greatly intimidated by Ulysses.  I have found throughout my life as a reader, and especially since spending my college years studying a lot of literature, that there a number of works that act in this fashion.  The Brothers Karamazov is one example, as is Moby Dick.  It has something to do with the concept of a literary classic, that these books have thus far withstood the tide of time and remain as relevant works in the greater study of the art of literature.  Ulyssesis a massive novel, some publications surpassing 1000 pages.  It is also noted for being very difficult because much of the novel is written in stream-of-conscience style.  I feel that if I intend to continue on in literary scholarship (something which I fully intend to do) this is a book that I need to at least take a shot at.  But as of yet I have not.

But anyhow, there is the big thing in literary history for this day.

John Irving on John Updike

I always love reading what authors have to say about other authors.  Sometimes the pieces are critical and deeming, while at other times they can be full of praise and grace.  My favorite thing about reading what authors have to say about each other is the insightfulness that exists in the understanding of how one writes.  While without doubt we all write in our own personal style and voice, I believe there is a similarity in all writing.  It has something to do with the thread of language, and the purpose of writing in and of itself, which is to communicate ideas to others.  Very often (though not all the time) people who have made a profession out of writing have a profound understanding of the art and what goes into the process of good writing.  As such they can often relate to other writers and the process they got through.

All that being said, I direct you to a piece written by John Irving on the late John Updike, appearing on Slate.com.  It is wonderful, insightful, and moving and strikes of that understanding that I think exists between people of letters.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I have never read a full John Updike novel.  The same is not true of John Irving, who ranks as one of my favorite authors (The World According to Garpbeing high in my favorite books list).  I think Mr. Irving is a great writer.  And while his stories may definitely not be for everybody, I think he deserves credit for his skill with language.  Read what he wrote about John Updike.  It is really beautiful in my opinion.  And interesting, very very interesting.

RIP John Updike

Perhaps one of the greatest American authors of the past century, John Updike, passed away from lung cancer yesterday.  Mr. Updike was 76 years old.

I am a bit ashamed to admit, that while familiar with many of his major works, I have never read a full John Updike novel.  I have however read a number of articles and other pieces by him, the most recent being an article about Mars that appeared in the December 2008 edition of National Geographic, it was a lovely and enlightening piece.  I feel that it is worth reading the New York Times obituary for Mr. Updike, as it does a better job than I could at summing up the man’s great life. You may also want to check out this article and this slideshow.

I can say, with honest belief, that Mr. Updike wil be greatly missed, but that in all likelyhood his works will continue to persevere and promote discussion and contemplation.  He was truly a gift to American Letters, a rare breed that finds their place, and excels at it in all ways.

To Read Stephenson’s “Anathem”

So I have been debating whether or not I would like to read Neal Stephenson’s latest novel Anathem.  The debate has a number of factors in favor of pursuing the reading of the book and a number against.  Standing strongly in favor is the fact that Anathem has received a lot of positive praise, and was probably the most successful science fiction novel of 2008.  The other thing, and this may sound blasphemous to some, is the fact that I have never read a whole Neal Stephenson novel (I read maybe the first thirty, or so, pages of Snow Crash a few years back, but because of other responsibilities I didn’t get through it).  Also the plot of Anathem sounds genuinely interesting to me.

The detractors that have been holding me back so far (I’ve had plenty of opportunity to pick Anathem up by this point) are present to.  First off the book is huge; the hardcover having a length of 960 pages.  There isn’t anything wrong with big books, by any means, it is just I haven’t been in a major commitment to reading really long novel recently.  Then there is that fact, again, that I have never read any of Stephenson’s works.  As such I could go either way with enjoying his writing or absolutely hating it.  Also, the few less than complimentary reviews I have read stick in my mind, even considering there are far fewer of them than the positive reviews (and really I should ignore the reviews all together, I have a very anti-review belief when it comes to books and movies, save them for after you have read or watched).

So can’t decide.  If anybody has read Anathem I would love to hear what you thought about it and if you think it is worth my time to pick it up.

The Curious Creatures and The Blood they Drink; Bill Schutt’s “Dark Banquet”

At the same time that I have been reading Charlie Huston’s vampire detective novels (just finished the second one No Dominion the other day) I have also been reading another book about vamprism, albeit a completely different kind.  The book is titled Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures and written by Bill Schutt.  Truth be told I actually picked up Dark Banquet before I had even heard of Charlie Huston, so it is pretty much mere coincidence that I have been reading two things about blood suckers recently.

People who know me pretty well are probably familiar with the fact that I have a pretty big interest in all the sciences (see my blog “I Wish I Was a Scientist“) and as such, when I saw Dark Banquet on the new book shelf at work a few weeks ago I thought it sounded pretty fascinating.  I will tell you that it is.  Currently I am only a little over a hundred pages into it, having just finished a lengthy section on vampire bats (Schutt’s personal specialty).  While I love reading things of science (high up on my list of favorite books is Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time) I usually take a bit more time in reading them, just reading a few pages here or there, as such the reading of Dark Banquet is going a little slower than other books I generally pick up.

Still, I really enjoy what I have read so far.  Schutt writes in a very accessibly manner that demonstrates his understanding of the topics but also a quick wit and sense of fun in regards to a subject matter that might not be something everyone can stomach.  And if anything, what Schutt seems to be doing in Dark Banquet, is show the utter amazingness in the the existence of these blood feeding creatures.  Take for example the vampire bats (of which there are three living species) which are the only known mammals to have evolved a specialized diet that consists solely of blood.  What is even more surprising about them is the fact that there is something like 1200 species of bats in the world (bats make up approximately 20% of all living mammal species on Earth, the only group tha makes up a bigger chunk are the rodents) and yet still only three feed on blood.  Schutt has done a lot of research on vampire bats and so has a really acute understanding of the animals.  The thing that I thought was most interesting is how one species, which feeds primarily on the blood of birds, had developed a habit of mimicking chicken chicks so as to feed on hens unmolested.  Just absolutely amazing.

So a really good book.  The chapter I am currently on is giving a brief history of human understanding of blood throughout history, which, until more modern times, was very minimal (hence the centuries of blood lettings).  If you are interested in science, especially biology, and are not too squeamish, then I would say Dark Banquet is a pretty good read to check out.

Fiction Reading on the Rise

Well here is some good sounding news, according to the National Endowment of the Arts it appears that the reading of fiction among adults appears to be rising, after years in which it had experienced steady decline.  Read about it in this New York Times article.  The sad thing is that both poetry and drama reading are still not really all that popular, which isn’t really a surprise, but I still kind of find it sad as their is great literature in both styles.  Still an increased reading of fiction is great.  I am curious if part of it has something to do with the current woes of the world?  It would be interesting to compare the reading habits during times or relative peace and stable economy versus times when their are greater reasons for concern.  Still any increase in any type of reading is a good sign.  I hope people keep it up.

Charlie Huston’s “Already Dead”

I will begin this post by saying that prior to picking up Charlie Huston’s mystery novel Already Dead I knew next to nothing about the author or the books he has written.  The way in which my attention was brought to Charlie Huston was through reading a post on Early Word: The Publisher| Librarian Connection which pointed me to Huston’s new novel The Mystic Art of Erasing All Signs of Death.  Stephen King provides a captivating review of the The Mystic Art on Amazon.com (see book link previously) which made me think that it would be worth a look (a feeling which I feel stronger about having now read Already Dead).  One of the great benefits of working in a library is that I literally have thousands of books within immediate reach of me every work day.  So, after reading the reviews for The Mystic Art I decided to see if we had a copy available at work.  We didn’t but we had a number of Huston’s other books.  At work I took a quick break and went to browse the shelves to see if anything by Huston would possibly interest me.  That is how I found Already Dead.

On finishing Already DeadI will state that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  The reason for my surprise stems from two major facts.  1).  I don’t really care for mystery novels.  I don’t have anything against the genre in general (and arguably some books that I have read could be considered slightly within the mystery genre, like say many of Stephen Kings works) but it just doesn’t really interest me.  Probably part of it is because I associate mystery novels with my mother’s personal reading preference, while I have always been swayed more towards fantasy, horror, and scifi.  2).  I don’t really read books about vampires.  Yes, that is right, Already Dead is about vampires, I realize I neglected to mention that previously, but now you know.  The fact that I don’t read vampire novels (in fact the only one I think I have ever read is King’s Salem’s Lot and I read that more because it was a Stephen King book than because it was about vampires) might surprise some people who know me because I happen to be a pretty big fan of vampire movies and I find the mythology that has developed around vampires to be rather interesting.  Probably a big thing that has driven me away from vampire novels is the general pop goth stereotype I associate with the works.  I do not have anything against either pop or goth but neither are areas that generally interest me and I think a lot of vampire stories are written with these groups in mind.  Sure, I’ve been curious about works by Anne Rice (my college roommate was rather fond of her works) and have considered picking up one of the Sookie Stackhouse novelsby Charlaine Harris because I was really enjoyed HBO’s first season of True Blood (which was based on Ms. Harris’ works).  So all around not a reader of either mystery or vampires.

But I did like Already Dead.

I think a big part of my enjoyment stems from the fact that Huston’s novel provided me with a very quick and relatively easy read that was entertaining but also thoughtful.  Huston’s style of writing, in my opinion, can best be described as pulp.  Already Deadread like a gritty detective novel that seems like it would be more in place in the late forties or early fifties, except for the whole vampire thing (I don’t think they were quite the same level of popularity then) and the computers and ATMs and cellphones and everything else in the novel that presents modern day Manhattan (where the story is set).  In a way the noir pulp feel of Already Dead set in modern NYC seems almost anachronistic, but it works for the characters and the plot in a way that dives the reader from front to back.  For this fact alone I give Huston high praise.

As I said above I found Already Dead to be a pretty easy read.  It only took me about two days to read it (though admittedly I was sick yesterday and spent most of the day in bed reading).  Just because it was a quick and easy read does not mean I think it was written simply.  All around I found the story to be very creatively developed and the language to be written with admirable intelligence.  Huston has a knack for words, especially when he puts them in the mouth of his characters, like the narrator Joe Pitt.  He captures the gritty underside of the world in startling detail all the while keeping the read accessible and progressing.  And while the book was easy enough to pick up and get through, I actually feel that there is a lot more going on than first impressions give.  Sure you can read Already Deadas a detective novel featuring vampires in modern day New York and walk away having encountered a fairly entertaining book.  But I would suggest you could dig deeper into the story and pull a lot of relevance from the themes that arise.

Already Deadis dark, and honestly that is a bit of an understatement.  I would list this book as rated Mature with the capital M because a lot of the subject matter is pretty rough (the least of which is a vampire sucking somebodies blood or a zombie munching on some brains – both of which happen repeatedly in the story).  Probably not the best book for teeny-bopper fans of Stephanie Meyer’s the Twilight Saga to jump to next (though I don’t know for certain just how detailed and mature the subject matter in those books gets).  Besides the general violence that one would associate with vampires and zombies there is also a fair share of other dark aspects of society presented; murder, rape, child and domestic abuse, drugs, alcohol, sex, and enough “colorful” language to fit right in with a Quentin Tarantino movie.  This isn’t to say that Huston glamorizes any of these subject matters.  In fact, if anything, he writes about them exactly as they are, the hardships and dark sides of life that some people have the misfortune of experiencing.  It isn’t gratuitous, it is just the world in which the characters of Already Dead live in.

Another theme that I pulled from the book, though I think that it is a little bit burried under the other more visual elements form the story, is the concepts of illness or sickness.  Quite obviously the vampires and the zombies are infected with disease and this is a fact that is brought up time and time again; the zombies have a flesh and brain eating bacteria and the vampires have a blood consuming virus (simply referred to as Vyrus).  But beyond that there are other ways in which illness is present in the story.  Joe Pitt’s girlfriend, Evie, has HIV which is the main reason she won’t have sex with Joe (even though as a vampire Joe is immune to the disease – Evie is unaware of Joe’s vamprism though).  Then there are the diseases that might not be caused by any germs but seem to be the ills of society.  There are several characters who are homeless or drugs/alcohol abusers.  Several of the people have been victimized by abuse or are themselves abusers.  Even the perception of Manhattan and it’s society seem to represent a sickness in the world.  part of this is inevitably due to Joe Pitt being the narrator and his cynical perception of the world and people around him, but I also think that Huston was consciously using the idea of illness to further frame the story.  Nobody is clean in Joe Pitt’s world and near the end of the novel there is a pretty grim couple of paragraphs in which Pitt contemplates the fact that inevitably everyone is either dying or on the road to being killed.

Joe Pitt himspef presents an interesting study.  As the protagonist and narrator he is what I would call a pretty good example of an anti-hero.  Being an anti-hero does not mean that a character is necessarily a bad guy or a villain but more so that they do not follow the normal perception of traditional heroism.  Joe fits this description in that he tends to be far more concerned with his own well being and survival than with other people around him.  Joe doesn’t end up in most of the situations in the book because he is pursuing the goal of being a hero and savior, instead much of his actions are driven by his desire to earn his next meal or to save his own hide.  Joe shows little problem with roughing people up or, if the situation calls for it, killing them.  He seems to view most others as either inferior to him or too dangerous to really try and get involved with.  But Joe also does have some deep set moral drives.  It is revealed in the story that before he became a vampire he had lived in an abusive household and so he tends to have a strong drive to protect innocent people, especially children and teenagers.  Further Joe comes across as having a somewhat guilty conscience of his need for blood.  This doesn’t always stop him from taking it but it is a matter that seems to always be in debate in his mind.  There is also his relationship with Evie and his knowledge that if he made her a vampire it would cure her of her disease but ultimately curse her to another and potentially worse one.  If Joe has any real weakness it may be that he is too smart, which is also, interestingly, one of his biggest strengths.  Joe Pitt can’t seem to escape from his own mind and thoughts, and at times from his own mouth (he often fails to know when to shut up).  In some ways life might be easier for Joe  if he was more brawn and less brains, like the giant vampire Hurley.  But Joe is a thinking and his thinking often gets him into more trouble than out of it.  But it is his ability to reason which also allows him to be more than a blunt instrument and thus overcome being a truly monstrous character.  While Joe knows how to use violence when it is needed he can also refrain from it.  It is his intelligence that in many ways makes him a kind of heroic.  What drives Joe into action is usually his own self interest but inevitably his intelligence leads him down other paths, even ones that may be of danger in the long run.

So Already Deadis a pretty good book in my opinion.  A quick read but an interesting one.  Charlie Huston has written three other novels in the same setting and with Joe Pitt as the main character.  I think I would like to check them out just to see how Huston further develops his characters and the world of Manhattan populated in part by vampires.  There were also a few questions left open at the end of the book which I imagine will be further examined in the following books.  I also would still really like to pick up The Mystic Art of Erasing All Signs of Death.

Read Before You Give? Or Not?

A post from Brian Herzog on his blog Swiss Army Librarian raises the question of whether or not it is socially acceptable to read a book before you present it as a gift.  This is actually a matter I have considered before and coming out of the Holiday season I think this is an appropriate area of contemplation.

Personally I see no real problem with this, especially considering the gift of a book is often based on a personal opinion (of the gift giver) that the book would be something that the receiver would enjoy.  A lot of books that I have given as gifts are books that I have read before, though generally I will buy a new copy as a gift (this is in part because I like to horde my books and also because I like to write a note to the person I am giving the book to inside the cover).  I guess you could take the question further and say, “is it okay to buy a book, read it, and then give it to somebody as a gift?”  My response . . . sure, why not?  I mean as long has you haven’t done significant damage to a copy of a book (essentially as long as it is still readable) then why shouldn’t it be gift worthy?

One might be tempted to say, “because it is a used item.”

Really?  Well ask yourself this.  1). Can you really tell?  Assuming that the book has not been beat up by the giver’s reading process it is probably kind of difficult to determine whether or not the book was previously read.  2). Isn’t the idea of giving a book as a gift a lot more about the content within?  Sure there are some books with nice looking covers and it could be annoying having to deal with previous fold-marked pages (something else I’d like to write about at some point) but really the important thing in a book is that it is readable or that the pictures are still in good condition.

As a rule the books that I give to people are generally things that I have read previously (though not necessarily the exact copy) because then I am in a better position to talk about it and give reasons for why I chose it as a gift.  For example, I gave my cousin a copy of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov for Christmas this year.  Part of the reason was because she mentioned that she was going to be taking a Russian Literature class at school, but further so because The Brothers Karamazov is one of my all time favorite books (which I happen to believe should be an essential on any list of Russian Literature — actually several of Dostoevsky’s works are worth making the list; The Idiot, Crime & Punishment, and Notes From the Underground to name some of the best).  I bought her a new copy of the book, though it was the same translation/publication that I had read previously.  On the other hand I give both my brother and father books for Christmas that I had not previously read at all, though I did take a bit of time to glance through them.

I have on occasion given books that I have owned as gifts, though on much more casual terms then say as a wrapped Birthday or Christmas present.  There have been times, when through interaction, I have deemed that some people need to be exposed to a certain book that I own, and thus give it to them.  An example is when a friend and I, my junior year of college, each exchanged one of our favorite books.  I gave her Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and I was given in turn Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (which at the time I had not yet read — which many people still find fascinating).

I could go on and on about giving books as gifts and could expand further on gift giving in general (in fact just the other day I reread a paper I wrote a few years ago on the topic of gift giving and sacrifice).  I think that the really interesting and important thing to remember is that a gift is a comment or critique of a type between the giver and the receiver.  I don’t have qualms with reading a book before you give it as a gift, but consider the book as a whole and why you want it to be a gift, it is the message of the giving that is probably the thing of real importance.