I've realized something about myself as I continue work on this blog, and I should probably share this insight as it has a potentially major impact on this project.
That insight is this: The reading of a book is far more important to me than writing about it.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy this blog, because I do. It's just that I get so caught up in reading that I forget to update these entries. That's why, for example, the entry on Midwives is still (at this moment) empty, even though I finished that book almost a month ago. It was a difficult book to read for its emotional content and I think that's part of why I have trouble going back to it and reflecting on the experience of reading it.
Other books aren't nearly as emotionally draining but I still get caught up in reading the next book and thus forget to finish the entry about the other books I've finished. I'm trying my best to get them all done, but bear with me :)
I will always be a reader first, a writer second.
Monday, June 27, 2011
No # -- Chang and Eng
No # -- Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss (started 6/14/2011, stopped 6/16/2011)
The concept of this book sounded mildly interesting -- enough for me to purchase it for 25 cents from a clearance rack at my local bookstore. However, I just couldn't get into the text itself. The writing is rather stiff and I found myself disliking the narrator from the very beginning. In addition, the story jumps back and forth through time seemingly at random -- there will be a scene from near the end of the twins' lives, then suddenly the story will jump to their birth, then back to the first scene, and there will be no logical pausing point in the original scene to allow the story to jump. In addition, the author's forward bothered me: he explained that he originally started the book for its ungrammatical appeal (the first sentence goes back and forth between the singular and plural first person, which frankly is irritating and hard to read).
Overall: I just did not like the book. And the main thing I found myself wondering about the twins' lives was not what they had achieved as the first famous Siamese twins, but a) how they had managed to convince two women to marry them, and b) how they had managed to each father more than 10 children. The mechanics and shame factor alone are mind-boggling. But since those questions were not going to be answered in the first 30 pages or so, I lost interest. If anyone has had more success reading this book, I'd love to hear about your experience. The novel has won several awards, so maybe there's something I'm missing.
The concept of this book sounded mildly interesting -- enough for me to purchase it for 25 cents from a clearance rack at my local bookstore. However, I just couldn't get into the text itself. The writing is rather stiff and I found myself disliking the narrator from the very beginning. In addition, the story jumps back and forth through time seemingly at random -- there will be a scene from near the end of the twins' lives, then suddenly the story will jump to their birth, then back to the first scene, and there will be no logical pausing point in the original scene to allow the story to jump. In addition, the author's forward bothered me: he explained that he originally started the book for its ungrammatical appeal (the first sentence goes back and forth between the singular and plural first person, which frankly is irritating and hard to read).
Overall: I just did not like the book. And the main thing I found myself wondering about the twins' lives was not what they had achieved as the first famous Siamese twins, but a) how they had managed to convince two women to marry them, and b) how they had managed to each father more than 10 children. The mechanics and shame factor alone are mind-boggling. But since those questions were not going to be answered in the first 30 pages or so, I lost interest. If anyone has had more success reading this book, I'd love to hear about your experience. The novel has won several awards, so maybe there's something I'm missing.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
16. Pope Joan
16. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (6/8/2011 - 6/13/2011)
I loved this book. I don't normally read books that are specifically focused on "strong women" or anything like that -- to me, it seems like any book should be able to have a woman in the main role without it having to be labeled as a pseudo-feminist text or something silly like that and it's rare that I read a book specifically aimed at any group or idea (for example: I don't read fluffy romance novels aimed solely at women). But I could not resist this book. Maybe its appeal lies in a woman rebuffing all of Christianity :) No matter what the reason, I could not put it down.
The plotline is pretty straightforward -- a young, brilliant girl is repressed for her gender, assumes the identity of her brother after his murder, and eventually rises to become the Pope -- but what Woolfolk has does with that plot is incredible. She paints a fascinating picture of life in this time period, which is roughly 850 AD, and does not spare any details with what it meant to be a woman, particularly a smart woman, during that time. She handles the historical uncertainties well (and acknowledges them at the end in a note) and balances Joan's romantic feelings and inclinations toward one character perfectly with her desire to help the Catholic people/Church from the highest office available. Even though I know that this text is fiction, I could have easily believed in its historical accuracy -- and in fact there is some evidence that the major events of this book took place.
I also found this book to be a fairly easy read, but that may have more to do with my Catholic upbringing/schooling than with the construction of the text itself. Having some understanding of Catholic dogma and attitudes definitely helped me make sense of some areas of this text -- such as dissections of Biblical passages and the scenes of Joan and other scholars arguing a point by quoting scriptures back and forth at each other. Some background knowledge too of how women have been historically treated is helpful but not as necessary. I'd recommend this book to anyone, ultimately, although those who cling more dearly to their Catholic faith may not be thrilled with the content :)
I loved this book. I don't normally read books that are specifically focused on "strong women" or anything like that -- to me, it seems like any book should be able to have a woman in the main role without it having to be labeled as a pseudo-feminist text or something silly like that and it's rare that I read a book specifically aimed at any group or idea (for example: I don't read fluffy romance novels aimed solely at women). But I could not resist this book. Maybe its appeal lies in a woman rebuffing all of Christianity :) No matter what the reason, I could not put it down.
The plotline is pretty straightforward -- a young, brilliant girl is repressed for her gender, assumes the identity of her brother after his murder, and eventually rises to become the Pope -- but what Woolfolk has does with that plot is incredible. She paints a fascinating picture of life in this time period, which is roughly 850 AD, and does not spare any details with what it meant to be a woman, particularly a smart woman, during that time. She handles the historical uncertainties well (and acknowledges them at the end in a note) and balances Joan's romantic feelings and inclinations toward one character perfectly with her desire to help the Catholic people/Church from the highest office available. Even though I know that this text is fiction, I could have easily believed in its historical accuracy -- and in fact there is some evidence that the major events of this book took place.
I also found this book to be a fairly easy read, but that may have more to do with my Catholic upbringing/schooling than with the construction of the text itself. Having some understanding of Catholic dogma and attitudes definitely helped me make sense of some areas of this text -- such as dissections of Biblical passages and the scenes of Joan and other scholars arguing a point by quoting scriptures back and forth at each other. Some background knowledge too of how women have been historically treated is helpful but not as necessary. I'd recommend this book to anyone, ultimately, although those who cling more dearly to their Catholic faith may not be thrilled with the content :)
15. The Princess Bride
15. The Princess Bride by William Goldman (6/2/2011 - 6/7/2011)
I've always loved this movie and consequently always loved the book. The writer(s) of the movie did a fantastic job of editing the text because the movie mimics the book's storyline exactly. There honestly isn't much to say about it past that. It's a fun read just as it's a fun movie, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who would listen :) I doubt anyone would be disappointed with reading this text.
I've always loved this movie and consequently always loved the book. The writer(s) of the movie did a fantastic job of editing the text because the movie mimics the book's storyline exactly. There honestly isn't much to say about it past that. It's a fun read just as it's a fun movie, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who would listen :) I doubt anyone would be disappointed with reading this text.
14. Go Ask Alice
14. Go Ask Alice -- Anonymous (6/1/2011)
I suspect that my expectations were far too high for me to actually enjoy this book. For a short period of time, I considered myself something of a counter-culturalist -- I liked to fancy that I fought the mainstream. (Granted, this didn't last long and I eventually stopped bothering to try to classify myself into anything.) While I was in this phase, many many people recommended that I read Go Ask Alice, and I'm not 100% sure why -- I never tried drugs or anything like that, and I was far enough beyond 15 when I lost my virginity that I certainly didn't need to read this book to keep me from the "dangers" of sex. But for some reason, this book was always pushed by my friends -- too bad I just now got around to reading it.
Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy it. The story itself was fine I suppose, but I just didn't find the shock factors that shocking -- sure, a 15-year-old falling victim to drug abuse, sexual abandonment, homelessness, etc is terrible, but for pure shock value in a piece of work you absolutely cannot beat the film Requiem For A Dream -- and frankly, I'd rather watch that again and be scared off drugs than try to read Go Ask Alice for the same purpose. I also did not enjoy the language; I realize the book was first published in the early 70s, but it's written very stiffly and uses a lot of archaic language. Overall, I just didn't find it to be a very compelling read once I got started -- I finished it because it was short and I was curious about the widely-advertised ending, but that too brought little satisfaction.
The controversy behind this book is pretty interesting, and I suppose that was also part of why I wanted to read it. The book's author is anonymous, but it's been suggested for a long time that the book's publisher is actually its author -- minus the suicide/death ending, of course. I wondered about that as well -- the book is listed on its copyright page as fiction, but whenever I've seen it at the library it's in the non-fiction section, and people talk about it as non-fiction. If I remember correctly, this is because of the publisher's efforts. The whole situation is rather complicated and I hoped that reading the text would help me understand. From reading the language and the descriptions of situations, I suspect an older writer -- no fifteen year old would say things like "it pleases me so" when she's happy a friend's visiting or something like that. But past that, alas, I have no further insights into the author of the book. Perhaps with a little more research, I could find a better answer.
I suspect that my expectations were far too high for me to actually enjoy this book. For a short period of time, I considered myself something of a counter-culturalist -- I liked to fancy that I fought the mainstream. (Granted, this didn't last long and I eventually stopped bothering to try to classify myself into anything.) While I was in this phase, many many people recommended that I read Go Ask Alice, and I'm not 100% sure why -- I never tried drugs or anything like that, and I was far enough beyond 15 when I lost my virginity that I certainly didn't need to read this book to keep me from the "dangers" of sex. But for some reason, this book was always pushed by my friends -- too bad I just now got around to reading it.
Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy it. The story itself was fine I suppose, but I just didn't find the shock factors that shocking -- sure, a 15-year-old falling victim to drug abuse, sexual abandonment, homelessness, etc is terrible, but for pure shock value in a piece of work you absolutely cannot beat the film Requiem For A Dream -- and frankly, I'd rather watch that again and be scared off drugs than try to read Go Ask Alice for the same purpose. I also did not enjoy the language; I realize the book was first published in the early 70s, but it's written very stiffly and uses a lot of archaic language. Overall, I just didn't find it to be a very compelling read once I got started -- I finished it because it was short and I was curious about the widely-advertised ending, but that too brought little satisfaction.
The controversy behind this book is pretty interesting, and I suppose that was also part of why I wanted to read it. The book's author is anonymous, but it's been suggested for a long time that the book's publisher is actually its author -- minus the suicide/death ending, of course. I wondered about that as well -- the book is listed on its copyright page as fiction, but whenever I've seen it at the library it's in the non-fiction section, and people talk about it as non-fiction. If I remember correctly, this is because of the publisher's efforts. The whole situation is rather complicated and I hoped that reading the text would help me understand. From reading the language and the descriptions of situations, I suspect an older writer -- no fifteen year old would say things like "it pleases me so" when she's happy a friend's visiting or something like that. But past that, alas, I have no further insights into the author of the book. Perhaps with a little more research, I could find a better answer.
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