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.

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.

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.

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.

Books Brought Back

Before leaving Vermont I grabbed a number of books that I wanted to have back in South Carolina.  Over the course of the years I spent living in Vermont (and New Hampshire partially while I was in college) I accumulated a vast number of books.  I hope to someday have a house where I can set up a giant bookcase and then get all the books that I have to fill it (I love books!) but I don’t know when that will be, so for the time being I am just slowly collecting books that I want around.  This time the two books that I am really excited to have brought back were Jonathan Safran Foer’s novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.  I’ve read both novels before, junior and senior year of college respectively, and loved them both.  I have really wanted to reread Everything is Illuminated for some time now because I feel like there is a lot that I missed the first time through.  I’ll probably pick it up after I finish Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I also brought back a book of science fiction short stories, a collection of Philip K. Dick writings entitle Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings (the man was an absolute genius by the way), Charlie Papazian’s vital The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, and a number of cookbooks.  All great things to place on my small bookshelf that I keep in my room (it really is very tiny, but for now, as a renter, it is appropriate).  I am excited to have these various reads available to me at my whim now.  I plan on doing some major room cleaning an organizing on my days off on Thursday and Friday, and I will probably devout a good amount of time on the bookshelf.

Time’s 10 Best of 2008

Time Magazine has compiled a vast and comprehensive list of the Top 10 of Everything from 2008.  Of course you can’t have a category of “everything” and leave out books . . . so here, according to Time, are the top fiction books of 2008.

1. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
2. Lush Life by Richard Price
3. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
4. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
5. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
6. Personal Days by Ed Park
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
8. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
9. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
10. The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike

If you are curious of reading the Time quick reviews of each you can find them starting here.

Time also offer the Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2008.

And, in similar fashion, check out the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2008.

I have found several books on all these lists that I would really like to check out.  Personally really want to get a 8hold of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem because I have read a number of glowingly positive reviews of the novel (also, I am slightly ashamed, as a self avowed SciFi fan, of never having read any of Stephenson’s works).  Bolaño’s 2666 intrigues me also, it seems to have gotten a lot of attention since its publication and I would like to pick it up for no other reason just to see what the heck it is all about.

Well if I get any gift cards to Barnes & Noble or Borders for Christmas I will definitely make sure to grab some good reading material.

Praise of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman”

A bit late on noting that the 20th anniversary of Gaiman’s epic comic creation (which occured a few weeks past) but not so late that I cannot lint to a great post on the 5 Ways That Sandman Changed the World.

I did not grow up as a lover of comic books.  Sure I read some here or there, but ultimately I was never really terribly interested in them until around Junior year of college.  It was that year that I picked up Alan Moore’s great comic, which some regard as the greatest comic of all time, Watchmen.  I will put my reaction simply as having been blown away (I’m also proud to report that my brother has recently had a similar reaction to Watchmen).  From there I went on to read other great comics (or Graphic Novels depending on your semantic preference — I still owe a post on my views of the use of Graphic Novel versus Comic Book) such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and Jeff Smith Bone amongst others.  Interestingly I had been curious of Gaiman’s Sandman books before beginning my real comic reading mostly because I had greatly enjoyed his novels Neverwhere and American Gods (both wonderful pieces of urban fantasy).  After having read the above mentioned comics and finding myself enjoying this form of literature, I made it a personal goal to pick up The Sandman at some point.  I was lucky when I got a job at the Greenville County Library System that the main library had all the comics available.  I made my way through the series in about a month’s time.  All around The Sandman comics rank up there with Watchmen and Maus as the favorites that I have read.  If you like comics or are interested in trying reading some I would suggest checking out Neil Gaiman’s works, they are very good.

Be Kind to Books!

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels That Deserve Movies

My friend Evan pointed me to a post from Topless Robot on Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels that deserve film adaptations.  I consider this a pretty good post and was quite glad to see several personal favorites on the list, especially Dick’s The Man In the High Castle and Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land (very proud of the second, which is one of my all time favorite books, and landed number one on the list).

I have long been a fan of fantasy and science fiction novels.  As I think I have mentioned before, The Hobbit gets some big credit as being the book that really got me into reading altogether.  I’ve since enjoyed a wide variety of novels from authors of science fiction and fantasy.  It is always neat to view film adaptations of novels that you have enjoyed, though, unfortunately, it seems that all to often they fail to capture the real greatness of the book version of the story (of course their are plenty of exceptions; personally I think the “The Lord of the Rings” movies did a wonderful job). 

Part of the problem that I see with the list from Topless Robot is that while I enjoy a lot of the books included I am not so sure that the stories would ultimately appeal to the wider audiences.  The Man In the High Castle probably would be doable, and I like to think that Stranger in a Strange Land and Snow Crash would be generally appealing to the crowds, but others might just not garner the attention or appreciation that could make for successful movie versions.

Who knows though.  Both Sci-fi and fantasy films have seen relatively more attention in recent years (due largely in part, I believe, because of the quality of computer special effects).  Maybe we’ll hear of some of these being made in the future.

R.I.P. Michael Crichton

Best-selling author Michael Crichton, who authored such well known and popular novels as Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, and Timeline passed away this past Tuesday.  Crichton was 66 years old.

I’ve read a number of Crichton’s books myself including The Lost World, Sphere, and Prey.  Back in 1996, when I was only twelve years old I picked up The Lost World (I had not read Jurassic Park amazingly considering how mush I liked the movie) and absolutely loved it.  I wrote Crichton a letter telling him how much I appreciated his novel.  All I got back was a basic form letter, you know a “Thank you for your comments” kind of thing (a fact that has always irked my father even though I didn’t really mind that much).

Personally I would not list Crichton as an author of great literature but I will give him credit for creating very popular and commercially successful books that have the wonderful ability to truly captivate readers.  Personally I link Crichton as being in a clade with authors like John Grisham, Dean Koontz, and even to a degree Stephen King (though I like King by far the best) in that they have all been very successful at marketing the “pop novel”.  Crichton will be greatly missed but we should all be appreciative of the work he provided to the world.

The New York Times offers its own take on the man who Crichton was.

Contemplation: The Kindle and the Future of Print Text

This past weekend my friend Paivi asked me about my opinions on the Kindle, Amazon.com’s wireless reading device which, this past Friday, received significant praise from Oprah (I will withhold my opinions on Oprah and her book club from this post but it may be an eligible topic in the future).  Paivi, knowing that I am an avid book lover and work at a library, wanted to know what impact I thought the Kindle might have on print books and possible libraries.  My immediate answer to this inquiry is that, at least at the present time, the device will have little impact on either the print publishing industry or libraries.  I come to this conclusion almost exclusively based on the $359 price tag on Kindles.  For the time being I think the up front cost of Kindles will make them an item popular to those with disposable incomes and a significant interest in gadgets.  In regards to libraries I cannot really see the Kindle being a significant threat because the fact is that you still have to pay for the downloaded books on the device whereas libraries offer books to be checked out for free (well more or less, the actually cost is included in taxes).

Still, considering my conclusion at the present, I think the Kindle brings up some worthwhile thinking about the digitization of text.  The computer age in general and the Internet revolution in specific have allowed for text of all sorts to be accessed through a new source that was previously not possible.  Entire novels and other books have been placed online on websites like Project Gutenberg and Wikisource.  Most newspapers are now available electronically on their own sites and can be accessed in different ways.  Blogs number in the millions.  Oh, and let us not forget the big deal that Google announced today.  All that being said it is worth considering what the future of print text is and through which outlet books will most commonly be read in the future. 

Personally I do not think that we will see physical books disappearing anytime soon.  The publishing industry is huge and successful and likely will continue to be for a very long time.  Part of why I think this is has to do with the nature of books themselves.  The book format has been around for a very long time and it represents a very important part of human history. While computers and the Internet have definitely become a ubiquitous part of many people’s lives it is probably arguable that books are still more far reaching.  Perhaps someday most texts will be accessed via some electronic device (note I don’t say the Kindle, primarily because I think the Kindle represents just one way in which text will be accessed electronically) but this is likely still quite a long ways off.  I’d say for the time being physical print books are still pretty safe.

What about libraries?  If books do disappear in the physical form does that mean that libraries do too?  No, it just means that libraries change.  Being a library employee I am sometimes saddened that people think of libraries as only holding places for a bunch of books that can be checked out.  Yes this is obviously a big part of libraries but really they offer a lot more than that.  I think that libraries should be considered more as physical archives to information access.  Libraries are places where people are able to find information through a vast number of outlets, whether it be through a book, periodicals, or using publicly available Internet.  Computers and the Internet are already shaping important changes in libraries (online reference services, digital databases, public computer stations with whole slews of software) and will likely continue to do so.  Saying that I think it is naive to think that computers or the Internet or the digitization of texts will see the end of libraries.  Likely things may eventually change and the need of having a physical building that houses print books might not be as necessary but I assume there will be something still called a library, or at least something analogous to, that still exists to provide people with reliable information without a purchase fee.

Things do change, and there is no doubt that we are witnessing some rather impressive ones with what computers and the Internet allow us to do.  Yes texts are being digitized and this is a practice that will continue as long as computers and the Internet are relatively easy to use and access.  Still I think that we cannot forget the degree of respect that has come to surround physical books.  Many people, myself included, have a notorious habit of hording books, reluctant to toss them out or sell them.  I foresee that even if digital text becomes the dominant form in which material is read books will continue to hold a captivating quality and will still be made.  There is something philosophical about how the physical nature of paper and page seems to transcend the cold letters shining out from a screen.

But let us not forget the most important thing of all.  Whether it is lying in bed with a favorite hardcover book or sipping a latte while you browse on your Kindle, we are reading, and that, more than anything, is what needs to be encouraged, no matter how it is accomplished.

“The Stand” is 30 years old, so Mr. King gives an Interview.

“Earlier in my career, I was just excoriated by the critics. I was just drubbed unmercifully, and I think I got more of it because the books were successful, and they were just horrified because they sensed it was something that was working in the popular context. It was different than what had gone before.” ~ Stephen King

How appropriate, I am currently reading a Stephen King novel (Duma Key), I have written a couple other posts about the prolific author on this blog, and today I find this wonderful interview with him on Salon.com.

I cannot remember exactly when I read The Stand but I do remember that it was one of the longest books I had ever picked up at the time.  I devoured it.  I recall spending ling hours lost in the story.  To date I would still consider it one of my favorite King books (which, considering I like almost everything of his I’ve read might not really be saying that much).  I would really like to pick up The Stand again because, while I can remember most of the essential plot and characters, it has been quite a long time and some of the story has become hazy.  Interestingly, I just found an old copy of The Shining while I was cleaning my room this past weekend, this is another book that I really want to reread.  Especially because my view of the story has been distorted recently by watching Kubrick’s film version many times since getting it for Christmas (Kubrick’s “The Shining” is a great film but it is not credited as being very true to the novel).

I love reading interviews with authors talking about their works.

Urban Fiction

I read a really interesting article earlier today about the emergence of a relatively new genre of fiction and how it is impacting readers and libraries, especially in urban areas.  The article, titled “Urban Fiction Goes From Streets to Public Libraries” by Anne Bernard appeared in today’s issue of The New York Times and focuses on the rising popularity of a genre that is called, as you may guess from the title, Urban Fiction.  What I find most interesting about the article is the degree of controversy that can arise over a certain genre or literary style.  Urban fiction has been criticized for being overly violent and/or sexual and for romanticizing “gangster” lifestyles.  In fact many of the criticisms of urban fiction parallel those made on Rap music which is closely associate incidentally in both location and within the writing itself.

What I really find interesting is that this isn’t the first genre or literary form to be criticized in similar fashion.  Romance novels have long been looked down upon.  Until rather recently comics were not generally considered of much literary value (a topic I hope to write about in further detail at a later time).  At the same time other styles of writing, which once dominated what was literary have fallen out of popular favor.  Poetry was once the way to write, and it made up much of what people read.  The case is not quite the same today (not that people do not still read poetry, I personally love it myself, it is just not as popular as it was in the past).  

As I have written before I’m sure, I will state again that there is a certain degree and mindset of literary elitism.  It is the stance that people take saying that “this” is a work of literary worth, while “that” is quite base and low, solely intended to entertain the masses. I admit a guilt to this kind of thinking occasionally myself.  I personally have great dislike for some very successful novels such as “The Da Vinci Code” and “The Kite Runner” and have made arguments about them being of low literary worth.  At the same time I am currently in the midst of Stephen King’s “Duma Key” and considering authors who have received significant criticism for not creating works worth literary praise King is high up there.

I have tried to relax my bouts of overpowering literary elitism by taking a proactive stance of “if it is getting people to read more than it cannot really be all that bad.”  I suppose in the long run time will tell, as the scholars of literature in the years to come determine which works are worthy of continual inspection and which others disappear into the metaphorical cracks of literary history.

Of Literary Value; Continental Consideration

While primarily I would like to use this blog to discuss specific books that I am either reading, have read, or plan to read, I feel that this is also an appropriate space for me to discuss some things of interest in the greater realm of literature as a whole.  Ideally I would like to someday go back to school for some more degrees and for a couple years now I have thought that it would be pretty great to get a PhD in some study of literature.  Any advanced degree is likely still several years away, but that is no reason for me to sacrifice thinking about literature and the studies that surround it.

That being said I point you to this AP article that appeared on CNN.com earlier today.  I encorage those who ahve interest to read the article themselves, but will sum it up by saying that it is about how Nobel Prize permanent secretary Horace Engdahl thinks that literature from the U.S. is overall lacking and that that is why most Nobel Prize winners are European (and note that I am summarizing nicely, Mr. Engdahl more specifically referred to U.S. writing as “ignorant”). 

With bold statements such as those said by Mr. Engdahl it should be no surprise that there has been some raised debate about the merit of literature on both sides of the Atlantic.  Of course there always exists debate about the merit of literature as there has to be by the very nature of the art.  How is it determined whether or not a piece of writing is one of literary worth?  Of course there are many criteria to consider and disagreement on the value of the criteria is part of the whole discussion.  If a book achieves great popularity does that automatically make it of value in the study of literature?  Does it all rely on the critics who either praise a work of writing, or scoff at it and call it dirt?  What about when the piece is read?  Just because something is considered of value today will it be tomorrow?

The thing is that the study of literature cannot truly posses an objective degree of value.  There is no universal rating that marks some writing on the level of mere amateur garbage while it lists other pieces as near divine writ.  Yet it can be agreed that some writing has had an impact of great significance and thus must indeed be of “literary value.” Consider Shakespeare, or Crevantes‘ Don Quixote, there is not much argument that these are people or stories that are considered to have quite a bit of “literary value.”

So what does it mean that a European very intimately involved in the Nobel Prize thinks poorly of American writing?  I would say it really depends on where you stand, not just in the Continental sense, but ideologically in regards to what constitutes literary worth.  Personally I think there is a good deal of writing coming out of the States, as well as out of Europe, that is worth literary priase and recogntion.  A comment that suggest that one geographic region continually creates better works of writing than another region should be regarded as exactly what it is; a completely subjective statement.  As such the offense that Mr. Engdahl may have caused some may not be due so much because he does not appreciate American literature but more so because he would so confidently assert that somehow the writings of European origin are superior without considering the absolute impossibility of there existing any objective proof of this idea.

This article made me really excited when I read it earlier today because it allows the kind of discussion that I so love in regards to literature.  I hope other people have thoughts on this.  If you do please share them with me, I’d love to hear what you think.

Fiction Goodness Graph

Having read my fair share of fantasy and science fiction I find today’s xkcd to be both very funny and also somewhat accurate.  Imagination and creativity is great but sometimes an over abundance of it can be tiring.

First Book(s)

I’ve been reading for a long time, the vast majority of my life, but I can’t seem to remember what the first book I ever read was.  Of course there is a difficulty in this.  Should it just be whichever book I first picked up on my own accord and understood the words enough to make sense of it?  Or does it have to be a novel broken into chapters?  Part of the problem is that while growing up my dad read to/with me a lot and it is hard for me to recall when the shift from him doing the majority of the reading to me doing most occurred.  

I remember reading the C.S. Lewis‘ books and E.B. White’s Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web when I was pretty young.  As a kid I was a big fan of Roald Dahl’s books, especially The Witches which I think I read about three or four times.  One author who I remember first having my dad read to me and later picking up myself was John Bellairswho wrote horror novels for children and young adults (and I really mean horror novels, as a kid his books were very scary to me).  I consider my love of Bellairs as a child a precursor to my eventual enjoyment of just about everything ever written by Stephen King.  As far as more picture book style I was really into Steven Kellogg and Maurice Sendak. I also had a huge fondness for Shel Silverstein (owned almost all his books).

When I think of the one book that really launched me into my obsession with reading I always find myself at J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit which had been suggested to me by a friend in fifth grade.  I remember wanting to just read the book and do nothing else, and probably, if people hadn’t made me do other things, I would have just sat all day absorbing the words and story.  The Hobbit is still high up on my list of all time favorite books, and, in my opinion, the best J.R.R. Tolkien book (I bet that statement might garner some disagreement).

Really I can’t place my finger on any one book in my youth that was “first.”  Obviously there had to be one, but the unreliable nature of my memory from that time period makes it impossible to have a certainty of which that one was.  And in the long run it isn’t really all that important.  The big thing is that I did start reading at a young age and have maintained such throughout my life.  Personally I look forward to hopefully having children of my own someday and getting to read with them.

“Choke” and Deviant Literature

Last week I started reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke, which I thought I had read before but now that I am about sixty of so pages into it and can’t recall anything I am reconsidering that stance.  The film version of Choke was just released this past weekend, which is a big part of why I picked up the book.  Generally I like to read a book before seeing a film adaptation if I can (of course an exception to this rule was Palahniuk’s other novel Fight Club of which I have only seen the movie).  

So far I am really enjoying Choke.  It falls into a category of what I’d like to call Deviant Literature, that is, novels and stories about characters who live lifestyles or do things that a moral audience might take particular offense to.  I’ve read a lot of books that I would classify in this type of genre.  Examples that come to mind immediately are some of the Bret Easton Ellis books (Less Than Zero, American Psycho), J. T. Leroy (Sarah, The Heart is Decietful Above All Things), and Dennis Cooper (Frisk, The Sluts).  All of these listed novels would be what I call Deviant Literature and have been met with varying degrees of criticism and success.  I would argue that Ellis and Palahniuk have both had a general degree of popular success and acceptance (brought about partially due to the success of the movie versions of their best know works).  Leroy brings a degree of interest in the fact that he isn’t even a real person but instead the imagined persona of Laura Albert (which when you read all about the charade is pretty deviant in and of itself).  Cooper writes some seriously twisted shit, his books were almost hard for me to read, and I am sure there have been some people who have just been utterly disgusted with his work.

I like the Deviant Literature.  I like the rawness of it.  The blunt look at human nature and psychology.  I am sure that almost all the books above have been called pornography at some time or another.  I know for a fact that at least one, American Psycho, has regular attempts at banning from public libraries (and if that is the case then Frisk and The Sluts are probably both very contested).  I would not call these books pornography, even if the stories they tell are often very graphic sexually and/or violently.  The reason why I would not call any of them pornography has to do with the fact that I don’t believe them to be written with the intent to cause sexual arousal but instead are meant to be commentaries, satires if you will (albeit not the most humorous type of satire), looking at people as manifestations of violent and sexual tendencies.  Of course one can draw a line wherever they please and make a case for their stance.  Look at Sade’s work.  He has been dead for almost two hundred years and there is still very heated debate over whether many of his writings are just twisted pornography or if they are actually works of literary merit.

Personally I would kind of like to teach a course on Deviant Literature, partially because the debate on the nature of the various works would likely be very interesting.  If I was going to teach a class I think I would probably start with some Sade, then touch on authors like Jean Genet, Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Ellis, Cooper, LeRoy, and Palahniuk.  I think there are very comparable themes that can be found in the works of all these writers and some good discussion could be made.  I would be curious to hear what people think about why these books manage to last and continue to be talked about.  Again, Sade’s writing has been described as one of the most depraved and disturbing stuff ever written and yet a fascination with him persists.  Is it the forbidden fruit theory, or is it that people are are actually more interested in the content of these works than our moral personalities want to admit?  Something worth thinking about.

Considering I am a long way off from teaching any classes I will satisfy myself for now with Choke.  Let me know if anyone has read any of the above books, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them or on Deviant Literature as a whole.

My 10 Most Influential Books I Read in College (A Re-Print)

The Following was originally published on General Lordisimo’s Apocalypse (see link below) on April 3rd, 2008.  I reprint it here because I think it does and excellent job at capturing a lot about my reading habits and opinions.

 

I graduated from college with a degree in English Writing almost a year ago (May 2007) and have been living in Greenville, South Carolina since.  Being an English major (albeit with a writing option) and a Philosophy minor I read a hell of a lot books during my college career which is okay because I like books . . . books are good.  Yesterday I posted about April 2nd birthdays and discovered that a favorite author of mine, Camille Paglia, was born on that day in 1947.  After taking out her most recent work in the library (Break, Blow, Burn) I wrote a post a little bit about her on MadLord Innovations (note the continuing theme of shameless cross blog self promotion.  Though I haven’t even linked to I Wish I Was a Scientist yet — haha, there we go). 

Anyhow . . . At lunch yesterday I began reading Break, Blow, Burn and was immediately reminded of why I had fallen in love with reading Paglia’s writing way back in my freshman year of college.  That year I read Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence From Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson which is still to date one of the best books I’ve ever read (it was also probably the most difficult book I read freshman year, and one of the most difficult throughout my whole college career).  Thinking about Sexual Personae got me to thinking about all the other books that I read in college (which was a damn lot) and how they had changed my way of thinking.  So sitting at lunch I wrote down what I think are my 10 most influential books I read during my years of undergraduate education.  Note that not all these books were required readings for classes, some I had just chosen to read for my own pleasure or interest.  I will list them here in as best order as I can remember reading them (from first to last).

1. The Night Abraham Called the Stars: Poems by Robert Bly (Freshman): Plymouth State University had a really good poets series and every year had a number of noteworthy poets come and read on campus.  The first Poet I saw read at school was the amazing Robert Bly.  The venerable poet had a charisma and passion to his reading and writing of which I don’t think I have yet encountered an equal.  He read the title poem of this book and I was captivated, I think it was then and there that I knew I wanted to be a poet more than anything.  After the reading I bought this book of poems (his most recent collection at the time) and got his signature.  I can’t say how many times I’ve read this book since it’s purchase but the current state of its cover suggests that the number is many many times.  Utterly amazing and beautiful.  Not only did it change my perspective on reading poetry but it has also greatly influenced my own poetry writing.  I so love the title poem of this book that I think it would be nice if somebody would read it at my funeral or memorial service after I die (sorry for the grimness but its just the way I feel).
2. Zoo Story and American Dream by Edward Albee (Freshman and again as a Senior): This is actually two plays by Albee and so some may not consider it a book but I will anyways.  I read these two plays in my Contemporary American Literature Class and absolutely loved them.  I think I read them both in about three hours one afternoon after getting out of class, I hadn’t intended on reading them that fast, in fact I hadn’t even been all that interested in reading them in the first place, but once I started the reading I couldn’t put it down.  Albee is well know for his absurdest style and satirical humor (often being quite critical and biting of society).  Both plays fit this description well.  Something about both the dry humor and the dark sarcasm of the plays really appealed to me at the time and I would say they have somewhat helped formulate my perspective of the world especially concerning American culture.  I picked up Zoo Story and American Dream again my senior year and used the two plays to help write a paper on Existential Theatre (along with Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit).
3. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia (Freshman):  If I remember correctly Sexual Personae was the first book I read in Literary Criticism with Professor Robert Garlitz (a professor who is involved in a way with two of the other books on this list and who has likely read everything I am writing about).  Sexual Personae is a big book.  No, that is an understatement, it is fucking huge (no pun intended for those who know what the book is about).  Not only are there a lot of pages but there is just a lot going on in it in general.  For a freshman it was a very intimidating book to suddenly find oneself reading.  But I did read it (albeit slowly so as not to miss anything) and I found it changing the way that I looked at everything in art and sex and culture and, hell, just about anything I could imagine.  The biggest challenge ofSexual Personae for me, as a freshman, was that, at the time, I was severely lacking in my literary and cultural knowledge.  Thus I have picked the book up many times since my initial reading as I feel that it is an incredibly valuable piece of writing to help think about the world as a whole. 
4. Dark Back of Time by Javier Marias (Sophomore): This is the second book the Bob Garlitz played a role in.  Sophomore year I took Contemporary World Literature with Garlitz and at one point in the semester he gave every student a different book to read and do a quick presentation on.  I got Dark Back of Time.  To date Marias may be one of the strangest and most enigmatic authors I have read.  I find it hard to even explain what Dark Back of Time is about.  It comes across as partially auto-biographical, part fiction, part roman-a-clef, and then a whole bunch of other things.  The novel (if it can even really be classified as a novel) is still to date possibly the most challenging book I’ve read because of the chaos that it seems to present and yet the comforting order and simplicity that slips in between all the apparent discord.  I list Dark back of Time as one of my most influential books of my college years because it, like The Night Abraham Called to the Stars, had a profound impact on my writing and also my perspective of narrative and novels.  I have since read two other novels by Javier Marias (both given to me by Garlitz right before graduation) and found them to follow suit withDark Back of Time.
5. The Brothers Karamazovby Fyodor Dostoevsky (Sophomore and again in an independent study as a Senior): I didn’t realize the three Bob Garlitz involved books would appear on this list one after another but they have.  I did not originally read The Brothers Karamazov for any class, in fact I had never really intended on reading it at all, but during my winter break happened to come upon it in a box of books in my Grandmother’s basement.  I didn’t have anything to read at the time and seeing as my winter breaks were really long I thought to myself, “Why the hell not?”  I am glad that I did choose to read The Brothers Karamazov as I now think that it is probably my favorite book of all time.  I realize this is a big bold statement but to be perfectly honest I cannot think of a better book that I have read (Frankenstein, Moby Dick, and Stranger in a Strange Landhave all come close but something about The Brothers Karamazovmakes it stand out more than these three).  I love this book, even though it is huge and difficult and not necessarily the most accessible piece of literature (I don’t think of it as a book that one would want to pick up for just a casual read).  Senior year I set up an independent study with Bob Garlitz that was meant to be focused on the novel.  The class ended up being more focused on discussion and contemplation of literature as a whole but I still used it as an opportunity to reread The Brothers Karamazov and further affirm my love of Dostoevsky’s writing.  Besides being a poet I think another occupation that would be high up on my list of ideals would be to become a Dostoevsky Scholar.  Perhaps what surprises me most about The Brothers Karamazov is that even after 120 plus years it still seems to convey a relevance and understanding of human ideology and action; it reads as almost timeless.  No other book has ever quite struck me to the degree in which The Brothers Karamazov has.
6. Theory of Religion by Georges Bataille (Junior): Junior year I took a class called Comparing World Religions which was taught by Phil Hart.  As students we had two big text books assigned for the class (I can’t recall what they were titled) and then this thin little book.  Though I had not read any Bataille prior to Comparing World Religions I was familiar with his name because my roommate at the time had taken another class with Hart and read a Bataille book entitledErotism: Death and Sensuality.  Of all the philosophical texts I’ve read (quite a few as a philosophy minor) I think that Theory of Religionhas had the most lasting effect on many of my own ideas.  The basic idea in the book is that of humankind’s lost intimacy with being; that we have fractured our existences through the process of “thingness.”  Bataille says that we as people desire a return of that lost intimacy and immanence of “the animal” which passes through the world “like water through water” and as such we create ritual and violence to release that inner part of us that yearns for the unbroken being.  This book is heavy cerebral stuff and Bataille’s writing style is, at best, damn hard to read and yet sticking with it I found myself thinking about a lot of things I had never considered before.  In many ways this book did for my philosophical thinking whatSexual Personaedid for my artistic and cultural thinking.  I would later read another Bataille book (in another Hart class no less) titled The Accursed Share, Vols. 2 and 3: The History of Eroticism and Sovereignty which was also very good but not quite to the same level as Theory of Religion.
7. The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things by J.T. Leroy (Junior and again in class Senior):  Nearing the end of the semester in Comparing World Religion, Phil Hart handed me this paperback book and said I would probably like it.  I think I looked at it and kind of shrugged and told him I’d take a loot at it if I got a chance.  I believe Hart laughed and said I’d probably have it read within a week.  He was right about that.  If I remember correctly I had been kind of sick (actually the sickness eventually led to my having pneumonia and getting to spend a good part of a Saturday in the hospital) and so one afternoon I sat on my bed by my big window and picked The Heard is Deceitful Above all Things up.  It only took me about a day to read the whole thing.  The story is fascinating in a certain cathartic, voyeuristic, and vicarious way.  In its simplest it is about child abuse but when one really sits down and considers it, the book becomes a real examination of masochism, religion, poverty, and many other societal topics.   All this made for a great read but alone it isn’t enough for this book to make my top ten list.  What elevated it to this level was the revelations on the nature of the author.  A lot of people had had questions about the author J. T. Leroy(whose life the book was suppose to be loosely based upon) because he was a shadowy character himself, rarely making any public appearances and reluctant to hold interviews.  First semester of my senior year I took another Hart class called Sexual Ethics and The Heart is Deceitful above all Thingswas one of the required readings (as was Bataille’s The Accursed Share, Vols. 2 and 3: The History of Eroticism and Sovereignty).  During that semester the Paris Review interviewed Laura Albert who turned out to be the creator of the identity of J. T. Leroy (some other publications had made claims that Albert was really Leroy prior to the Paris Review but the prominent literary publication pretty much settled the matter once and for all).  A lot of people (literary critics, reviewers, the general public) considered the revelation of the reality of Leroy a hoax in the least and a downright scandal at worst.  I found it fascinating because suddenly there was a whole new degree of fiction and narrative that we were looking at beyond what Leroy had written in The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things and his other novel Sarah.  Leroy himself was a work of fiction!  The whole matter with Leroy and Albert and the novels brings up so many questions about authenticity and authorship and reality that I just love.  If it had not been for the Leroy revelation, The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things probably would have just gone on my list of enjoyable reads, but because of how things turned out and all the wonderful thinking it provokes this book cannot be ignored as far as its influences on me during my college years.
8. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (Junior): Durning the long break between Fall and Spring semester of junior year (the whole month of January 2006) I lived on campus and worked some twenty plus hours a week at the Lamson Library.  Because there was not a lot to do at the library during the long break I ended up just reading a ton (just counting in my head I think I read about eight books in one month).  One thing I decided to pick up and read was Stephen Hawking’s well known A Brief History of Time which I had skimmed through a couple times in the past but never really sat down and read.  What a wonderful and educational book!  I really think that anybody who has even the slightest of interest in science in general should pick up this book.  Sure Hawking is a big famous theoretical physicist but his book is amazingly accessible and written in with an intended audience of common everyday people.  Some of it is still a bit confusing and beyond my grasp, but all around I learned more about space and time and physics from this book than from any other source.  I actually read the illustrated version which was wonderful because it had great pictures to demonstrate a lot of the ideas being discussed.  I have always loved science but A Brief History of Time further developed my fascination and I would say it is a pivotal work that lead to my creation of I Wish I Was a Scientist (twice in one post!  This is absurd.  Mr. Lordisimo have you no dignity? — Answer: No).
9. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (junior in high school and junior in college):  What?!  How can you put this on your list if you originally read it in high school?  Here’s how.  I had to read The Sun Also Rises in my junior English class of high school and I hated it.  Honestly I think I may have loathed it more than any other book I read in my four years of high school.  I thought it was the biggest most boring load of crap I had ever read (Ethan Frome was right up there as well).  I am pretty certain that I swore upon finishing The Sun Also Rises, in high school, never to pick up Hemingway again.  Now jump forward almost four years to that same long winter break when I read A Brief History of Time. Lamson Library had a display of the Time Magazine list of 100 best English-Language Novels from 1923 to Present (many of which I read during the long break.  Special favorites from that list that don’t quite make this list but are awesome nevertheless are Catch-22 and Watchmen).  One day one of my professors, a fellow named Joseph Monninger, came into the library and was looking at the display, then he walked over to me holding one of the books.  “Have you ever read this?” He asked.  I took a look at it and cringed.  It was, as you have probably guessed, The Sun Also Rises.  I looked at Monninger and responded, “Yeah, I’ve read it and I hated it.”  He looked shocked.  “Really?  When did you read it?” ”Junior year of high school, ” I said.  Monninger laughed at this and handed me the book.  “Read it again, I dare you.”  I think at the time I was fully intending on putting The Sun Also Rises back up on the display as soon as Monninger left but for some reason or another I opened it up and read the first page.  Then I read the second.  And Third. And then the whole damn thing.  And when I was finished it a couple of days later I put it down and sat there thinking to myself, “My God how could I have ever hated this book?”  This is why The Sun Also Rises is on this list.  I talked to Monninger about it after I had finished it and he told me that he knew I would like it now but he also could understand why I hadn’t liked it that much in high school.  For me, in many ways, The Sun Also Rises represents how much I came to appreciate good literature and writing during my college years.  I loved reading and writing in high school, but it was in college that I really got down to studying the arts and loving them for their uniqueness and skilled creation.  It had taken me nearly four years to get to the point where I could pick up a book I had thought I hated, reread it, and then see why it was a classic of literature.  For that The Sun Also Rises will probably always hold a special place in my heart.
10. Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard (Senior):  In some ways Simulacra and Simulation is a book of regret for me 1). because the class it was taught in, The Real World (not the reality TV show though we did talk quite a bit about reality TV) was the second of only two classes I had with the awesome professor Robin DeRosa and 2). the same semester I read this book in The Real World I had had an opportunity to take another DeRosa class on Critical Theory but I had chosen not to which, in hindsight, I now believe was a big mistake.  Still even though regrets arise when I think of Simulacra and Simulation I cannot regret the actual fact that I did read it, as it, like all these books on this list, is absolutely amazing.  Baurdillard’s book is about post-modernism and hyperreality and more or less says that the real world is gone and has been replaced by layers of simulacra or mirrored representations of that lost real.  In a lot of ways I can compare the ideas found in this book to the concepts of lost intimacy in Theory of Religion.  Not only did this book further expand upon my already diverse knowledge of philosophy and theory but it has remained a big part of how I still look at the world to this day.  I think a lot of my critical (not necessarily bad critical, just critical thinking critical) views of the world today are in direct correlation to what I read in Simulacra and Simulation.  Like all these books on this list this one was very difficult, I remember in class a lot of my classmates struggled with the work (as did I) but once we got down to discussing it and applying it to other ideas in the class it ended up being hugely significant and beneficial.

 Holy crap, the list is done!  This is a really big blog post!  I started this post yesterday afternoon (I’ve done some editing since then) and now I am wrapping it up.  It has felt wonderful to recollect and write it down.  Very autobiographical really.  Also makes me miss all the awesomeness that was college.  Boy I had some damn good times.  Not to mention some awesome professors and friends. Oh yeah, and the books, so so many great wondrous amazing spectacular genius books!

Goals, Ideas, Directions . . . all that and the etc

It is raining incredibly hard outside right now, which does not make me very excited about having to go to work in a little bit.  Oh well, for now I will focus on writing.

As if I don’t have enough blogs going right now anyway (General Lordisimo, I Wish I Was a Scientist, the semi-defunct MadLord Innovations).  That being said I would kind of like to use this blog for books alone.  You know talking about something good that I have read or are in the midst of reading.

Having spent four years in college as an English major I have read my fair share of books and have also developed what I like to think of as a pretty decent critical opinion of literature.  Of course these opinions will be mostly my own (mostly, though outside influences should always be considered).  Perhaps eventually I will invite others to contribute to posting here.  I guess I will just have to see.

For now then.

I hope this rain ends soon.

Holy Cow!

I can’t believe I am the first person to register a wordpress domain for booksaregood.wordpress.com.  Not even sure what I will do with it.  Actually that is a lie . . . I know perfectly well what I will do with it.  Assuming that I find time to do things with it.