31 March 2009
I've read it, I swear...
1. 1984 - George Orwell
2. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
3. Ulysses - James Joyce
4. The Bible
5. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
6. A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
7. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
8. In Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust
9. Dreams of My Father - Barack Obama
10. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
Huh. Why the hell would anyone lie about having read Proust? Seriously. People are only going to believe you've read Proust if you're the kind of person who would actually read Proust and who wouldn't lie if they hadn't.
It's such a weird list - 1984, I can kind of understand (come on people, it's not that long...), Midnight's Children ditto. Ulysses? No one has read Ulysses. No one. I wouldn't believe someone if they said they had. Richard Dawkins? Really? I wonder if he should be honoured to have made the list? I think it's kind of funny that Dreams of My Father made the list...I am surprised it is not higher up - it seems every second book club is doing this at the moment because 'you've just got to have read it'. Whatever. I realise I'm just rambling on, feeling superior to people who lie while I've read a grand total of one of the books on the list. (1984. I read one sentence of Ulysses (all 30 pages of it) and threw in the towel). So instead of rambling on further about these and not really getting anywhere, let's have a look at what the people are really reading :
Harry Potter, Mills and Boons, Sophie Kinsella and Jeffrey Archer.
(Well one of our commenters will be happy to confirm that...)
(Not that I am saying ANYTHING disparaging about any of these books. (except Jeffrey Archer). I am a Harry Potter nerd. And have been known to dabble in a little light Mills and Boon reading (only when ill and fuzzy headed...))
I am rocking the brackets today. Your thoughts?
30 March 2009
Author Love: DBC Pierre
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Max Brooks)
29 March 2009
And so it died an abrupt, premature, yet appropriate death
Sigh.
OK, that worrisome topic dealt with I am now in search of something else to stress about.
28 March 2009
March Classic: Three Men in a Boat
Possibly the funniest book known to man, Three Men in a Boat was written in 1889 (so it's a REAL, more than 100 years old classic!) and details a boating trip up the Thames, undertaken by three men (to say nothing of the dog....) The narrator and his two friends have got to be three of the most ridiculous characters in fiction. We can tell this three sentences in, when J. is talking about the various maladies he is suffering...'It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therein dealt with in its most virulent form'. J. says this without a trace of irony let me assure you.
The trip up the Thames is an educational one for the reader, as J. offers his observations on camping, cheese, women, sea trips, as well as a running commentary on the trip and experience thereof. I cannot think of any other book which is as funny today as it was over 100 years ago (although according to my friend Wiki, it was initially seen as a book for the 'Arrys and 'Arriets, evidently it was not something read by the upper classes...). I'm going to leave you with this musing over an Irish Stew:"I forget the other ingredients, but I know nothing was wasted; and I remember that, towards the end, Montmorency, who had evinced great interest in the proceedings throughout, strolled away with an earnest and thoughtful air, reappearing, a few minutes afterwards, with a dead water-rat in his mouth, which he evidently wished to present as his contribution to the dinner; whether in a sarcastic spirit, or with a genuine desire to assist, I cannot say."
In case you are wondering, Montmorency is in fact, a dog.9/10
27 March 2009
The Understudy (David Nicholls)
24 March 2009
Shields of Pride (Elizabeth Chadwick)
"Bess of Hardwick's nose was not NEARLY that aquiline. I can't POSSIBLY read this. Get me something faceless."
Perhaps...
I am currently suffering from a massively painful neck injury. As I can't think of a single thing I have done recently to warrant any sort of physical strain I have come to the anxious conclusion that I probably have meningitis.
THUS I toddled off to the library to pick up some light reading. Don't worry, I won't inflict the Maeve Binchy I read on you, but this novel was fine actually. Chadwick's historical detail is always very well researched, her men are suitably courageous and tortured and the women are beautiful and normally quite erratic. This is a very early novel of Chadwick's and I think her writing style has improved over the years, (if memory serves some of them actually have a plot) but overall I didn't regret the few hours I spent reading this.
If I fail to post over the next few days it is because I no longer have the strength to lift my head from the pillow. I know this post is not up to my usual rambling length, so I leave you with some pictures...
22 March 2009
A Spot of Bother (Mark Haddon)
20 March 2009
The Paris Enigma (Pablo de Santis)
19 March 2009
The agony of shortlists...
18 March 2009
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (Gil Courtemanche)
17 March 2009
March's Book You May Have Missed: The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
16 March 2009
And now for something completely different...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/14/books-news-ayn-rand-sawday
This article got me thinking about how many dyslit novels I have read, which is a disturbing number. Earhart has read even more, so between the two of us we are rapidly approaching the lunatic fringe.
Dyslit? Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Dystopian Literature is a genre of books which are set in a future which is so dysfunctional as to be the antithesis of a utopian future. Also known as cacotopian literature, it is not to be confused with anti-utopian literature, which opposes a perfect society.
If this all seems a little too much like hard work, think of it this way. These would be the books Tyler Durden reads. And who doesn't want a little piece of that?
The genre covers such comforting gems as nineteen eighty-four, Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World. Most of the time they are SUPER depressing, creepy and upsetting.
Earhart and I LOVE them.
Thus, I go on to announce a new regular post... monthly we will have a featured dystopian novel. We hope that this will not only generate a greater interest in the genre, but will also contribute a few more passionate (yet SEDENTARY) anarchists to society.
This month will be Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I will post shortly.
Stardust (Neil Gaiman)
13 March 2009
Apologies
Coming up:
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Recovery by Stephen Benatar
NOT Coming up:
Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer.
11 March 2009
Galaxy British Book Awards
10 March 2009
Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (John Cleland)
09 March 2009
Shakespeare and Co
08 March 2009
On Chick-Lit
05 March 2009
The Good Mayor (Andrew Nicoll)
04 March 2009
The Host (Stephenie Meyer)
03 March 2009
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Fannie Flagg)
Apologies...
By that I mean I am hoping it will right itself.
I will give it a few hours and if we are not up and running I shall do something...
EDIT: Clearly, it has righted itself. There is much to be said for doing nothing.