lmichet so far

Conversazioni75 Books Challenge for 2009

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lmichet so far

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1lmichet
Modificato: Gen 11, 2009, 2:58 am

OK! Here's what I got so far.

Jan 1: Arsene Lupin, the original one I think, but it's hard to tell them apart on this site because they all have practically the same title

Jan 5: The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which I enjoyed but found a little irritating at times

Jan 7: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, for a class-- a difficult haul

Jan 7: I Am Legend, the edition with all the terrible short stories packed in at the end

Jan 8: Curious Men, a brief and unusual McSweeney's book

Currently, I am working on Snow Crash, which is fantastic.

2alcottacre
Gen 11, 2009, 3:02 am

Welcome back, lmichet!

I agree with you on The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I did not like it nearly as much as I thought I would, but I have certainly appreciated Chabon's other works like Gentlemen of the Road, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Final Solution more. Perhaps one of those would be more to your liking.

I really liked I Am Legend, although I did not see the film, so I have no idea how it compares. I did not read all the "terrible short stories" either.

3lmichet
Gen 11, 2009, 11:14 am

I have read Gentlemen of the Road and The Final Solution and liked them, but not The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which I really ought to get around to. I hear it's pretty awesome.

I Am Legend in itself was fine, but I bought the movie tie-in edition, which has a whole bunch of Matheson's short stories included after the book itself, in order to make it a bit longer than the novella it really is. These stories are poorly written, boring, sexist, racist, outrageously melodramatic, and just generally terrible in every possible way. I found them scarcely tolerable. I do not recommend that particular edition.

4suslyn
Gen 20, 2009, 2:28 am

>1 lmichet: "Jan 7: I Am Legend, the edition with all the terrible short stories packed in at the end" That cracked me up! Somehow I'd missed your thread, but here I am. Cheers.

5lmichet
Modificato: Mar 31, 2009, 12:32 pm

It's been a while since I added to my list, but winter was tough on me educationally and I have only just begun my spring term off, working at an internship, which should allow me to read a lot more a lot more quickly. Currently working on A Room With A View and The Gun Seller simultaneously.

No. 6: Practical Matter by Margaret C Jacob Larry Stewart, dull and not particularly factually accurate, for a class

No. 7: Living With Darwin by Philip Kitcher, for a class

No. 8: The Hollow Needle by Maurice Leblanc, which was 'pretty OK,' as my brain said moments after finishing it

No. 9: Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps by Peter Galison, for a class

No. 10: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, which I am convinced has the best first chapter of any book written in the last thirty years

No. 11: You Shall Know Them by Vercors, a weird and racist little science fiction from the 1950s

No. 12: Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace, which was totally unbearable and miserable to read, and practically not even a book

No. 13: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I would not wish on anyone who didn't already find Austen, zombies, or both absolutely hilarious. Also, not exactly something you want to waste time reading ALL THE WAY THROUGH, like I did

6dianestm
Mar 31, 2009, 2:06 pm

You have certainly read some interesting books this year. I have put Snow Crash on the ever growing TBR mountian.

7alcottacre
Apr 1, 2009, 4:11 am

#5: Einstein's Clocks looks interesting, so I will look for it.

I read Stephenson's The Diamond Age earlier this year, I have Quicksilver home from the library now to read, and Cryptonomicon is on my 'must read' list for this year, so it looks like I am going to have to add Snow Crash in some time, too!

8lmichet
Apr 1, 2009, 10:59 am

#6: Yeah, Snow Crash is pretty excellent. I just kind of gaped at it the whole time I was reading it; there aren't a lot of reactions besides 'glee' and 'astonishment' that one can have for that book

#7: Einstein's Clocks was the best book I read for any class this year. It's interesting and very science-y without being too technical. Anyone who can appreciate that is going to like it.

9alcottacre
Apr 1, 2009, 8:10 pm

#8: Thanks for the additional info. I have already added it to my ever growing Continent TBR.

10lmichet
Apr 7, 2009, 1:59 pm

No. 14: A Room With A View. Charming. Just long enough. But I thought that George was totally unrealistic as a lover, or whatever-- no one behaves like a philosopher ALL the time. But glad I read it, anyway.

No. 15: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie. No good. Don't waste time on it. A confused, drivelly bit of writing.

No. 16: Christine Falls by John Banville writing as Benjamin Black (his supersecret not-at-all-a-secret commercial-fiction pen-name). Pretty okay. Good, noncliche characters. Enjoyed it, though the mystery aspect of it was weakly done.

11lmichet
Apr 21, 2009, 1:46 pm

No. 17: St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

No. 18: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

No. 19: Isaac Newton by James Glieck

No. 20: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

No. 21: The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

12alcottacre
Apr 21, 2009, 2:31 pm

#11: Wow! Some good reading lately. What did you think of the Karen Russell book?

13lmichet
Apr 27, 2009, 12:21 am

#12: Karen Russell is some kind of GOD. It was absolutely fantastic. The best thing I've read in ages, actually. I don't think there's anything better you could do for the public good right now than go and give her money in exchange for that book.

Her descriptive power is tremendous, and she inhabits the minds of children particularly well. Her sense of humour is also great, and her premises were all about as unusual and creative as a writer can make them. Also, I enjoyed every single one of the stories. It is not often that I read a short story collection where not a single one of them strikes me poorly. They were incredible.

Recently read:

No. 22: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the best Michael Chabon I have yet read (And I've read The Final Solution and Gentlemen of the Road AND The Yiddish Policemen's Union already)

No. 23: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, which was a bit of a letdown: a super-optimistic view of the apocalypse. I like my post-apocalyptic science-fiction BLEAK, thank you very much!

14ronincats
Apr 27, 2009, 11:57 am

I'm not usually a big short story fan, but I think I'll give the Russell book a try, based on your description.

15lmichet
Mag 8, 2009, 10:51 am

No. 24: Introducing Jung

No. 25: Introducing Bertrand Russell

No. 26: The Road to Samarcand by Patrick O'Brian

When I was in eighth grade, I read the entire Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. One of my friends accused me of 'being like her dad,' which was, I assume, some kind of insult. I enjoyed it, though. I have explanation why, I just did. So I read this other O'Brian book that just came out again in a new edition last year-- The Road to Samarcand-- and was surprised to find it so different from anything else I've ever read by him. My favorite book of his, actually, is Hussein, a fable-like tale about an elephant-driver in India during the Raj. (Unusually, there are no British people in that book. An unusual take for a white writer, indeed.) The Road to Samarcand is a straight-up boys' adventure novel, written in the fifties-- therefore, it has a vocabulary that would today be unsuited to the age-group it was intended for back then. I'm guessing twelve-year-olds would like the story best, if they could handle it. Intelligent twelve-year-olds. Anyway, it was interesting as a curiosity.

16alcottacre
Mag 9, 2009, 4:44 am

#26: I will give The Road to Samarcand a try - even though I am far removed from being 12-years-old!

17lmichet
Mag 10, 2009, 2:33 pm

#26: Compared to most of what else he's written, The Road to Samarcand seems a bit stupid and silly at first, but hang on: further along you get tanks, piles of skulls, dread hopelessness on snowy wastelands, and all the rest of it. High adventure is what he went for, and he mostly got it. It's nothing like the adult novels he wrote, though, so restrain your indignation if you're used to his writing being a bit more deft and his characters being a bit less like clowns.

18alcottacre
Mag 11, 2009, 12:26 am

I have only read one of O'Brian's Aubrey books, so I really have no basis for comparison. The only other book of his I have read was nonfiction, a biography of Joseph Banks.

19lmichet
Ago 15, 2009, 2:10 am

Books I've read since last posting here (a lot). They bring the total up to 42.

Einstein's Dreams
The Unknown Shore (Another O'Brian)
Caesar: The Life-Story of a Panda-Leopard (Another O'Brien, he wrote it when he was twelve and it is fascinating for O'Brian nuts but not for anyone else)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (This, and all the Shakespeares on my list, for a Shakespeare class)
The Merchant of Venice
Richard II
Henry IV Part 1
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
King Lear
The Grand Strategy of Philip II (About Philip II of Spain and his political program, quite fascinating)
The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision (Also interesting-- writer posits that the Inquisition was not as over-the-top bloody and violent as it is depicted to be, though he isn't an apologist by any means-- just a guy with a sense of perspective and a willingness to troll the archives)
The Spanish Seaborne Empire (Also interesting, but not as much as the other Spain books I've tackled)
The Conquest of New Spain (TRULY FASCINATING account of the invasion of Mexico by a gentleman-soldier who fought under Cortes. Best historical source I've read in a year of history classes)
The 25th Hour (Was made into a movie. The book is excellent excellent excellent, and undervalued by a lot of people. Also, written by a guy who studied under my same creative writing prof)
Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (A pack of fine essays about game studies. Nonboring and better than a lot of shitty game studies stuff that's floating around out there these days

Anyway, that brings the number up rather drastically. Most of this is books I've had to read for class-- I've been really swamped by that stuff lately, because my school has all students take at least one summer term (to lighten campus housing pressures) so that's what I've been doing all summer long. Anyway, reading all this has certainly made me much smarter. Yeah. But I can't wait to get back to reading stuff I actually WANT to read. I've got heaps waiting aside...

20alcottacre
Ago 15, 2009, 2:34 am

I am adding The Conquest of New Spain to Planet TBR. It looks very good!

I hope you are able to get back to reading books you really enjoy very soon.

21lmichet
Ott 5, 2009, 11:11 am

Here's what I got! Read since the end of my summer term and includes a few read for class this fall term, which I am taking at Trinity college in Dublin, Ireland. Awesome here, indeed: Dublin is packed with great bookstores, including Hodges Figgis, the bookstore where the college has its books ordered and which is also mentioned in the early part of Ulysses, which I am currently reading for a seminar. YEP YEP

A Journal of the Plague Year by Defoe
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle
Gulliver's Travels by Swift

Particularly recommend the Journal of the Plague Year. A hoaxlike work of creatively fictionalized nonfiction-- it's really fiction, yeah, but who cares? It was drawn from Pepy's diaries and from Defoe's uncle's memories, apparently. Anyway, it's excellent stuff. I adore good historical sources.

I've got to say that I was NOT A FAN of Lucy Gault. It's a story about people who like to sit in one place and be sad, which is not necessarily a theme that I enjoy reading about. The Woman Who Walked into Doors was better, but also very very sad-- but at least that one had firm characters that you end up caring a lot about, not simply Trevor's vague archetypes. Trevor creates his sadness and beauty-- beauty with which I was largely unimpressed, by the way-- by creating sad situations. Doyle's sadness is all in the personality and character of his heroine, an abused alcoholic housewife. It's a much more tremendous achievement.

This brings the total up to 47. Probably won't break 75 this year, sadly.

22alcottacre
Ott 6, 2009, 2:30 am

#21: The only quibble that I had with A Journal of the Plague Year (and it is a small one, I admit) was that I wished there were maps of London in it, so that when a specific area was mentioned, I could see where it was in relation to the whole. I am not familiar with London at all and felt this was a drawback for me, but otherwise I thought the book was terrific.

Sorry you did not like The Story of Lucy Gault more. I loved that one. I have not read The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, but I will look for that one.

Some very nice recent reading for you!

23lmichet
Ott 7, 2009, 7:38 pm

Have you read anything else by Trevor? I hear Felicia's Journey is pretty good, as are his various short story collections, but I haven't come across either yet

24alcottacre
Ott 10, 2009, 3:14 am

I read Felicia's Journey last year, but did not enjoy it as much as I liked The Story of Lucy Gault. To this point, that is the only other Trevor book that I have read.

25Prop2gether
Ott 12, 2009, 12:25 pm

If you enjoyed The Story of Lucy Gault, I strongly recommend a really short novel called Nights at the Alexandria by Trevor. I haven't made it to Felicia's Journey (although it's on the shelves at home), but I'm enjoying Trevor's work very much. Another author introduced to me thanks to the 1001 Must Read list.

26alcottacre
Ott 13, 2009, 11:35 am

#25: I will look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation, Laurie.

27lmichet
Ott 15, 2009, 5:09 am

Read:

The Drowned World, JG Ballard's first novel
One by One in the Darkness, a novel about northern Ireland
Candide, the Penguin classics deluxe edition with the hilarious cartoon cover

If you're interested in JG Ballard, start with Empire of the Sun or Crash or The Atrocity Exhibition, but if you want a bit more of his stuff, then The Drowned World is pretty good. It's an unusual and imaginative post-apocalyptic story about what might happen if solar flares stripped the earth's magnetic field and ozone layer, thus heating the earth to prehistoric levels and reverting biology to the age of the dinosaurs. London gets flooded and filled with giant lizards. Good stuff. But, as with nearly all 1960s sci-fi, racist as hell.

Hated One by One in the Darkness. The author has a poor control of language and there's little to no plot to speak of. Irish people I know like it more, because it's stuffed with recent history about the Troubles, and because it apparently expresses well a common perspective on the violence in northern Ireland. But I found little to enjoy about it.

Candide, of course, is as good as ever, and this translation was especially fine.

28alcottacre
Ott 16, 2009, 1:21 pm

#27: I read The Drowned World last year and enjoyed it, but I agree with you about the racism. To my mind, Empire of the Sun is definitely better.

I think I will skip One by One in the Darkness. Does not look good at all. Thanks for the heads up!

29lmichet
Ott 28, 2009, 10:16 am

ok!

51: Eureka Street, a truly excellent novel about Troubles-era Belfast. Some hilarious characters, some deft plotting, a lot of humor and a lot of pathos. I recommend it.

52: The Blackwater Lightship, a rather dull tale about some miserable little family. Apparently-- I've only just started reading a lot of contemporary fiction, so I've just noticed this recently-- there is a 'sad modern woman' character archetype prevalent in a lot of modern fiction about women. This woman is always very well-employed and enjoys a super little family, but her life is filled with obscure sadnesses which make it difficult for her to have any self-esteem or to feature productively in a book with an interesting plot. Instead of having insights or being likeable, she sits around moping and having conflicts with her mother. I hate these books. Please, I say, give me an adult female character with some cleverness about her! But no. We get books like The Blackwater Lightship. Bleah. Give it a skip.

53: Inglorious Soldier by Monk Gibbon. IF you can find it, READ THIS BOOK. But it's rare even here where I'm studying in Ireland, the place of its printing-- I had to march a mile and a half into the suburbs to find a library that had it on the shelf. It's been missing from Trinity for fifteen years, apparently. Anyway, a great book about a young man in the first world war who decides, mid-war, that he's an ardent pacifist. An unusual situation.

30alcottacre
Ott 28, 2009, 9:47 pm

#29: I will look for both Eureka Street and Inglorious Soldier. Thanks for the recommendations!

31lmichet
Gen 17, 2010, 2:47 pm

Final count was 58. Oh well!