I really should read more....

KnifeWRENCH

So I finished The Road tonight. I didn't appreciate it as much as I thought I would, and I reckon it comes from seeing the film beforehand. I really liked the film but the book seemed to drag on in comparison.

Also

I can't have that much admiration for the father; he should have done what his wife wanted to do and kill the boy and then commit suicide. It would have spared them a whole lot of misery.....though I guess there wouldn't have been much of a story then!!!

What this has taught me is that, in future, I should always read the book before watching the film.

Next up: Dubliners. Having liked and loathed A Portrait of the Artist... in equal measures, I'm interested to see how I get on with this. I've never read a collection of short stories before; with all the college work I have to do, I'd prefer short stories that I can dip in and out of than a long novel that requires constant attention.

KnifeWRENCH

Almost two months since my last update. Dubliners is still on the go; I like how I can abandon it and come back to it weeks later and not miss out on anything. That's the advantage of short stories.

Not much of an opinion on it so far, beyond "some stories are better than others." Wasn't too mad about The Sisters, Araby or After the Race - found them quite dull.
The rest though I have enjoyed. I definitetly prefer the more downbeat, depressing ones; Counterparts is my favourite so far. Also quite liked Eveline, The Boarding House and A Little Cloud, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the sheer misery that they contain! :pac:

KnifeWRENCH

So Dubliners has now been read in full. I'm left with the same feeling I had after A Portrait of the Artist..., namely the feeling of not being sure if I enjoyed it or not! Overall, it was definitely worth reading but some stories are much more interesting and readable than others. It was a good experience, though, to read a collection of short stories. I'd never done it before, and it's certainly different to reading a full blown novel.

Next up: All Quiet on the Western Front, which was very kindly passed on to me by Eliot Rosewater!

KnifeWRENCH

KnifeWRENCH wrote: »

So then...13 books read since June 2009! A pretty poor showing, but in my defence exams and real life got in the way a lot! I've decided to rate what I;ve read so far out of 5:

1. The Godfather - Mario Puzo (4/5)
2. Animal Farm - George Orwell (4/5)
3. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis (3.5/5)
4. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (4.5/5)
5. Bleak House - Charles Dickens (4/5)
6. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams (4/5)
7. The Liar - Stephen Fry (3.5/5)
8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen & Seth Grahame Smith (3.5/5)
9. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (4.5/5)
10. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson (4/5)
11. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie (4/5)
12. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (3.5/5)
13. The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave (4/5)

Time for an updated review list, now that I have successfully managed 20 books. Also need to adjust some of the scores I gave (In hindsight, The Satanic Verses deserves much higher than 4/5. Animal Farm also gets an upgrade)

1. The Godfather - Mario Puzo (4/5)
2. Animal Farm - George Orwell (4.5/5)
3. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis (3.5/5)
4. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (4.5/5)
5. Bleak House - Charles Dickens (4/5)
6. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams (4/5)
7. The Liar - Stephen Fry (3.5/5)
8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen & Seth Grahame Smith (3.75/5)
9. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (4.5/5)
10. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson (4/5)
11. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie (4.75/5)
12. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (3.5/5)
13. The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave (4/5)
14. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins (3.5/5)
15. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce (3.5/5)
16. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (4/5)
17. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman (3/5)
18. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (3.5/5)
19. The Road - Cormac McCarthy (3/5)
20. Dubliners - James Joyce (3.75/5)

So.....nothing lower than a 3/5, which at least means I haven't wasted my time on any of these books. Or maybe I'm just too generous.

KnifeWRENCH

Bump! time again.

I have not got past page 7 of All Quiet on the Western Front, for the simple reason that exams had consumed my entire life throughout the month of May and I just didn't have any spare time to devote to such frivolous activities as "reading for enjoyment". :pac:

For the rest of the summer, however, I have a mountain of books to get through. I am excited!

KnifeWRENCH

Reading two books at the moment.

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre - I'd previously read a few chapters of it but am now finally getting to read the whole thing. Other than the writer's arrogance, this is an excellent book and very fascinating. I also hadn't realised quite how horrible and mindnumbingly thick Gillian McKeith really is.

Also reading All Quiet on the Western Front as previously mentioned in other posts. War novels aren't my preferred genre but I can appreciate it's a great novel. Nicely soul destroying and depressing when you're in a bad mood.

I'm also making out a plan of the next books I'm going to read over the summer. Hope to get through a good few before September comes around again. Mixing up some regular novels and some popular science. In no particular order:

Novels:
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.
Ulysses by James Joyce.
And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave.
The entire Hitchiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams
2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
Room by Emma Donohue
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dosoyevsky

Science:
The Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Chaos by James Gleick
The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
The Infinite Book by John D. Barrow
Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese

Here's hoping I get through it all soon.

Jackobyte

KnifeWRENCH wrote: »

Time for an updated review list, now that I have successfully managed 20 books. Also need to adjust some of the scores I gave (In hindsight, The Satanic Verses deserves much higher than 4/5. Animal Farm also gets an upgrade)

1. The Godfather - Mario Puzo (4/5)
2. Animal Farm - George Orwell (4.5/5)
3. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis (3.5/5)
4. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (4.5/5)
5. Bleak House - Charles Dickens (4/5)
6. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams (4/5)
7. The Liar - Stephen Fry (3.5/5)
8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen & Seth Grahame Smith (3.75/5)
9. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (4.5/5)
10. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson (4/5)
11. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie (4.75/5)
12. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (3.5/5)
13. The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave (4/5)
14. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins (3.5/5)
15. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce (3.5/5)
16. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (4/5)
17. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman (3/5)
18. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (3.5/5)
19. The Road - Cormac McCarthy (3/5)
20. Dubliners - James Joyce (3.75/5)

So.....nothing lower than a 3/5, which at least means I haven't wasted my time on any of these books. Or maybe I'm just too generous.

12/20 of these books are on my "I intend to read at some stage..." list or on "already finished" list. Making me feel even lazier than before. :pac:

KnifeWRENCH

Bad Science finished.
Almost a 5/5 but Goldacre's arrogance is what lets him down. His dismissal of humanities graduates is just unnecessary. With that said, on the whole I did enjoy his acerbic comments and cynical attitude. And as someone who's currently considering studying pharmacy, the warnings about what the pharmaceutical industry is capable of was certainly eye-opening.

Now onto Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy, and just within one chapter I'm already rolling my eyes at the arrogance that I've sadly come to expect from popular science writers. Edmund Hillary and William Shakespeare will be forgotten, apparently, yet whoever solves the Riemann hypothesis will live in memory for infinity. :rolleyes: Yeah, because someone who died nearly 4 centuries ago and is still widely talked about today will OBVIOUSLY just fade from memory any day now...

Still, I'm expecting that the actual mathematical content will make the book worth reading.

KnifeWRENCH

Another one bites the dust...

Finished All Quiet On The Western Front last night; up to then I had only about 60 pages of it read but between last night and this evening I managed to finish it. I like that the book is very straightforward and easy to read, although that may be down to the translation.

Anyway, as I said earlier, war novels aren't my thing. There are only so many tmes you can read "War is bad, mmmkay?" before you think "Yes. I GET IT."

With that said, this was an excellent book. To call it bleak would be an understatement! But the fact that Remarque makes the characters so human, without us ever finding out that much abut them, is remarkable. You care about Baumer and his regiment, and that's why you keep reading.

I'd give it 4/5, although it probably deserves higher.

Tonight I shall be starting Midnight's Children. I've been looking forward to this and am hoping I haven't ruined it already by having too high expectations.

KnifeWRENCH

Rightio. Update time.

I've had to abandon Music of the Primes because reading two books at the same time just wasn't working out. I'm kind of getting the impression that, despite Marcus du Sautoy's insistence, the Riemann Hypothesis isn't really that important. The backgrounds of mathematical figures are interesting though; David Hilbert seems to have been a bit of a legend.

I'm focussing on Midnight's Children now and am just over half way. There are a few little things that irk me about it; I wish Reverend Mother would stop saying "whatsitsname" and Evie Burns seems to have been a totally pointless character, not to mention irritating and exaggerated. I also didn't like the whole thing about him telling his story to Padma at first (I also initially saw her as being a bit superfluous) but I've gotten over that now.

On the whole, it's a quite difficult read that seems to drag on a little at first but then becomes progressively more gripping - just like The Satanic Verses! Salman Rushdie has a strange style of writing that I imagine would not suit everyone (and be a bit flowery at times) but he's a fantastic storyteller. I shall definitely be checking out more of his work after this.

KnifeWRENCH

It was long. It was difficult. It was really fúcking bizarre. And it is now finished.

I dare say I had overhyped Midnight's Children in my mind beforehand; I don't think it could ever have lived up to my expectations. Overall it is certainly an excellent novel but I think I enjoyed The Satanic Verses more.

Not sure where to go next....I had abandoned Music of the Primes because it wasn't really holding my interest. I might go back to the start but I may also start focusing on fiction for a while before going back to popular science.

KnifeWRENCH

So I decided to pick up more fiction. Went with Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal. Only about 40 pages in so far but am really enjoying it. I love how it's the villain/antagonist who narrates rather than the protagonist. Already there's been plenty of dark humour. Also like how the book is very easy to read, yet is still quite well written.

So far so good anyway.

KnifeWRENCH

Bump worthy announcement! :cool:

Today I did something I haven't done for a long long time - went to my local library. Got out three books for me to go through when Electric Sheep is finished. They are:

*The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie - This will be Rushdie novel #3 for me.
*The Pictrue of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde - Been meaning to read this for ages.
*The Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector and Selected Stories by Nikolai Gogol - I picked this up because one of the stories in it is The Nose, which my mother called "the most ridiculous thing I've ever read in my life". Given our vastly different tastes in books I took this as an encouraging sign that I should read it.

I'm often very slow to read books that I buy myself but now that I have library copies I'm much more likely to read a lot more to beat the "deadline".

KnifeWRENCH

Finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? last night. Was honestly rather disappointed with it, given that a few of my friends had recommended it and said that they loved it. The actual plot was interesting but are we honestly supposed to believe that everything takes place in one day? A few things like that annoyed me. Also the quality of the writing was not great; reminded me of Dan Brown a little in that it was a page turner but not particularly well written.

Reading The Picture of Dorian Grey now.

KnifeWRENCH

1. The Godfather - Mario Puzo
2. Animal Farm - George Orwell
3. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
4. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
5. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
6. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
7. The Liar - Stephen Fry
8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen & Seth Grahame Smith
9. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
10. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
11. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
12. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
13. The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave
14. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
15. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
16. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
17. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman
18. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
19. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
20. Dubliners - James Joyce
21. Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
22. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
23. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
24. Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller
25. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
26. The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde

So that's just 26 books since June 2009! I wonder how people manage to do the '50 books in a year' thing; I've only managed half that in over twice the time!

Currently on #27, which is The Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector and Selected Stories by Nikolay Gogol. First story in this I read was The Nose - loved it! Especially since my mother had read it and said it was the most ridiculous thing she ever read.

KnifeWRENCH

Finished reading that Gogol collection. I didn't read The Government Inspector because I'm not a big fan of reading plays but I quite enjoyed most of the short stories in the book. (The Nose and Diary of a Madman in particular.)

Now on to The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie. The early chapters show great promise; maybe it's just because I've got used to Rushdie's style now but this one seems initially to be more accessible than either Midnight's Children or The Satanic Verses, both of which started off a little slow and took a while to get in to.

KnifeWRENCH

I've decided I'm not gonna update this anymore. I'm just gonna use my blog rather than here.

I don't think I'll ever make fifty books in a year. I'll be lucky if I make it to fifty in 3 years!

Thanks to anyone who ever bothered reading this or gave a comment. Very much appreciated.