Queen-Mise's Reading Log

Queen-Mise

This could be a very intermittent log. I read 4/5 books a week, but I have a habit of re-reading a lot e.g. I am one of the fools who has read LOTR over 20 times; most recently I just finished re-reading a series of over 20 books:eek:

But then I will go through stages of reading new stuff usually all in one type of genre. They are a few books that I really want to get round to reading like...
Count of Monte Cristo
1984
Slaughterhouse Five
I want to also read some of the books I have seen people talk about here.

Either way, here is a log for the new stuff I read.

Here is the first book of my log:

Orson Scott Card's: Ender's Game



This was excellent, really enjoyed it. It was strange retrospectively seeing the influence it has had over other authors; I was thinking this reminds me of X etc, but it was the other way around.

EDIT: Although this book was inspired genius, I have to say, I will be very cautious about reading anything else by Card. Bearing in mind how religious the author is & it is one of my pet hates in SF & Fantasy having these messages filtering through (or sometimes slapped across your face). If I want to read something religious I will read the Bible, Koran etc... not a fantasy book.

Queen-Mise

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut



Odd, funny, amusing, sad, absurd - I liked it. A very typical anti-war & that 1960s pop American novel style of writing. It is very light & easy to read. And then these bombshells of ideas dropped haphazardly all over the place. A thousand books written on one aspect of the second world war - he gets the point across in 8 words.

EDIT: I am trying to get through the top books men should read (women's books are so not my thing). I love looking at lists & certain books keep coming up so going to try and get through a few of them.

Queen-Mise

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell



I liked it, the Paris part was especially good. Orwell has a tendency ever so often of going into political rants which I didn't like (or probably didn't agree with). His descriptions are excellent, at times you could feel, smell & taste what was going on.

If you have ever been poor in your life then this is essential reading. I had times when I lived abroad that I wasn't much better off than some of the people Orwell writes about.

EDIT: I am working through a list on Reddit on books men should read. Some interesting stuff on it.

Queen-Mise

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman



I lost the will to live a few times through this book. It is a book of extremes - when it is good it is excellent, and when it is poor, it is goddam awful. It is more a man's book now than a woman's book. I wouldn't be too quick too pick anything else up by the author again though.

It is essential reading though if you were born in that 1968-78 generation - male or female, and they are some incredibly clever observations along the way.

Queen-Mise

Man's Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl



This book should be on the leaving cert and probably should also be essential reading for everybody. It is incredible, this is my second time reading it - but this time I read the version with the extra chapters on the end. These chapters are Frankl expounding on the philosophy of logo-therapy.

I like it because rather than concentrating on the horrors of the concentration camps - he talks about how man keeps his dignity and humour in a camp.

Queen-Mise

The Road by Cormac McCarthy



Not really sure what to make of this novel. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world - one of the more depressing worlds I have ever read about. The novel doesn't tell us a lot - either the character's names, where they are, what the apocalypse was... [The last one annoyed me actually as I couldn't come up with any apocalypse that would explain the world as it was.]

And they are some nasty, nasty bits throughout it. The book is disturbing from almost the first sentence, exceptionally fragmented - but that is meant to reflect the world they are living in.

I presume it will be (or is) a classic - examining the relationship of father and son, and through that God and son. But then for me, any book that looks to God for meaning, is an automatic cop-out & therefore weak.

Again another book that will probably be on the Leaving Cert - well worth reading.

Queen-Mise

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk



Well, I am back to the books that every man should read after a hiatus of reading lots of Urban Fantasy, et al.

Fight Club is short, sharp, and shocking. I am also never using soap again. They are so many themes and ideas in it that can be talked about - a fantastic modern classic IMO.

It makes a mockery of Catcher in the Rye being about alienation and rebellion - Fight Club (excuse the pun) beats it hands down. It is also a thousand times better than The Road.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading it - but most definitely not a feel good book;)

Queen-Mise

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry



What a strange little book. I had never heard of it but had come across authors talking about it in other books. I can see why it is a classic, utterly off the wall, absurd, a great story.

One I will be giving to my kids soon, once I find a hardback version.

Queen-Mise

American Gods by Neil Gaiman



I started this as soon as I finished The Little Prince - so it took 9 days for me to read which is a long time for me

I found it tiresome, tiresome, & tiresome. Oh, did I say tiresome. It dragged out so much.
I kinda liked it at the same time. It had some positives, but dragged out too much. Some of the characters were excellent. And the side plots and stories were really good.

I have no idea if I would recommend anyone read it. I think Gaiman needs a sharp slap upside the head really:pac: I think he was trying to write a modern Ulysses.

Queen-Mise

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac



I really enjoyed this. I like Kerouac's writing style; it is prose heavy, but trips along the page, so not hard to read at all.

His descriptive writing is brilliant, so I can smell, see, hear, & feel the mountains he was talking about. And I presume his writings on Buddhism were accurate also, but I don't know enough about Buddhism to make any comment.

All I want to do now is go live in a cabin on the top of a mountain in the Rockies:P The whole thing is so appealing.

So between mountain climbing and Buddhism, I am enriched for having read this book;) Easy to see why it inspired a generation.

Queen-Mise

Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman



Feynman was born in the early 20th century and grew up during the Depression years. He is a physicist and has won a Nobel Prize.
And is also one of those exceptionally annoying people that seems to be really good at anything they set their minds at... In Feynman's case this includes lock picking, painting, anthropology, samba... the list goes on.:eek:

He was involved in the development of the atom bomb and writes of his time in that. The book is a strange pick 'n mix of the century.

Well worth reading. A nice alternative to a history book.

Queen-Mise

The Seven Harry Potter's by JK Rowling



I am not going to look at the books individually but as the entire series.

The first three books are more stand alone and are more children's books.

The tone changes utterly in books 4-7. I found Umbridge's character, for example, particularly nasty. I could imagine Umbridge sitting in a concentration camp surrounded by her pictures of kittens frolicking.

They are the perfect books really, the entire arc works so well and they are no plot lines left hanging and also none of them seemed forced to tidy off loose ends.

Queen-Mise

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami



This is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. In fact, it is one of the best books I have ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It works on so many levels, including, the Greeks myths (Oedipus in particular), modern pop culture, religion, philosophy, music (classical including Beethoven), biology, nature, books, poetry.
There is also a healthy dose of violence, and physical crassness. Oh and talking cats.

To me it was reminiscence of the Celestine Prophecy and Life of Pi, but this one has none of the shortfalls that they had and is also infinitely better.

Bearing in mind, that the book dips into a lot of different disciplines it is remarkably easy to read and follow. It is a page turner.

Murakami says it is a book that needs to be re-read - it will be long time before I do so. A few years anyway. It will be interesting to see, what I think of it reading it a second time.

The below is from the wiki page for the book:

After the novel's release, Murakami's Japanese publisher set up a website allowing readers to submit questions regarding the meaning of the book. 8,000 questions were received and Murakami responded personally to about 1,200 of them.[11]
In an interview posted on his English language website, Murakami states that the secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it multiple times: "Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It's hard to explain, but that's the kind of novel I set out to write".[11]

Queen-Mise

Storm Front by Jim Butcher



This is the first book of the Dresden Files, the series of books by Jim Butcher. I have known about these for the last few years but kept away from them, as honestly, I thought with the titles they would be something to do with concentration camps.

This book is very ok, not fantastic & not bad either. Seemingly they pick up a lot three or four books in, so will stick with them for another few books. A few bits of them annoyed me, I'll see if the rough bits are smoothed out as the books go on.

At the moment, it is 2 + 2 = 4 urban fantasy. You can see plot lines coming a mile of, as I said annoying.
This one is particularly annoying:

He also has a practically omniscient talking skull, very handy for a detective trying to solve crimes:rolleyes::( I found that ridiculously self-serving

Queen-Mise

Burmese Days by George Orwell



Jeez - it is over a year since I posted in here. Is it that long since I have read something that I would admit out loud to reading

This is my third book now by Orwell. This one I really liked. It is a damning critique of imperialism and the effect of it on the British in the colonies.

It was published earlier than Animal Farm & Down and Out - so it not as politically sharp nor does Orwell do as much preaching in it.

The language and the attitudes to the Burmese is quite shocking. I happened to be reading this, at the same time as the Jeremy Clarkson controversy with Burma. I am absolutely in no doubt, that Clarkson knew exactly what he was saying about the bridge.

This I really liked enjoyed. A good read.

Queen-Mise

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys



Wide Sargasso Sea is a retelling of the story of the 'mad woman in the attic' from Jane Eyre. Rhys's novel tells the story of how Bertha ended up in Rochester's attic.

It is a lesson in race and identity and how these things are set in stone. To me it was the first time I had ever heard the term: 'white ******'.

It is a beautiful read, Rhys has a real gift for describing the local flora and fauna from Jamaica.

It is not the clearest read, but it is not meant to be. I am still not entirely sure what happened at certain points in the novel - I won't give examples in case any of you ever read the book. (Although if you do, I would be intrigued to know what you thought what happens at some points).