| Terry Pratchett - Thud |
[Oct. 30th, 2006|11:35 am]
Book Reviews
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I just finished reading Thud by Terry Pratchett. I loooove the Discworld but I was rather underwhelmed.
The story was overly preachy and moralising, the plot wasn't exactly thrilling, the dialogue wasn't particularly funny and the dwarves seemed to change quite a lot from previous novels in order to make the story work.
I must admit that I do (on the whole) prefer Pratchett's earlier novels, but I know that he's still got it in him: Jingo, The Truth, The Fifth Element etc.
However, both Monstrous Regiment and Thud were just blah in my opinion... I hope the Discworld isn't in the process of jumping the shark, but I suspect it might be. |
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| Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching |
[Oct. 17th, 2006|11:14 am]
Book Reviews
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I am trying to read the Tao Te Ching but finding it really tough going. I'm reading a verse or two on the tram each morning on the way to work and trying to think about them. I think I might possibly need a translation with more annotations and footnotes - but how could I trust that they weren't written by a crazy person?
You'd think I would know this from studying Classics, but what do you find is the best way to go about reading a 'difficult' text, especially one in translation? I don't just want to skim through it. |
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| Catch-22 - Joseph Heller |
[Oct. 11th, 2006|11:00 am]
Book Reviews
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This book has been called one of the greatest works of fiction of the 20th century - its reviews were rave when it was published in 1955 (it was called a 'masterpiece' by the Chicago Times, etc.). It is a satirical 'indictment of twentieth century madness.' It is wildly original, utterly unique in style, and very interesting. The setting is 1944ish, a military airbase in Italy; the main characters are American bombadiers, chaplains, generals, pilots, and so on. There are dozens upon dozens of characters, and most of the book is spent creating the characters and their interaction with each other; the plot is secondary, and the action; brothels in Rome, bombing runs over Italy, are merely backdrops for the psychological aspects of the book. This is not at all bad. But.
The satire is one which you can only really get - and I am sure that if you do get it, you will love it - if you relate to it, and to relate to it, you really have to have been in a war, or have seen first-hand the madness portrayed so wondefully and monstrously. To me, an 18-year old college student with copious amounts of luck, the madness portrayed in the book is just too far removed from reality to capture my imagination, and so I can't find it funny, even though I can see the humour, know that it's exquisitely written, and be aware that I should be in stitches.
I read it, and didn't regret it, but it holds no special place in my heart. It will return to my bookshelf, and there it shall stay. It is, I am sure, a fantastic book, but it is a book of its time (or, rather, a book of the time of warfare). My dad, who recommended it to me, read it while abroad as a soldier, and he certainly does consider it one of the greatest books of all time.
So; don't read this book unless you've been in a war.
-James |
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| A. S. Neill - Neill! Neill! Orange Peel! |
[Aug. 13th, 2006|10:15 pm]
Book Reviews
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Mum gave this book to me when she was clearing out her bookshelves. It's an autobiography written by the man who founded the Summerhill school in the U.K. I had never heard of this school before but apparently it was very famous for being one of the first to have self-government by the students.
Neill was born in the later part of the nineteenth century and the book was written in 1972. Reading the book I realised that his generation lived from what I'd consider the real 'Olden Days' - horse-drawn carriages, Queen Victoria - to the 70s: i.e. through two world wars, the Depression, and into modern times. I can't say I really liked the author by the end of the book - he had some strange ideas - but I was fascinated by his journey through life and the changes he saw.
It makes me wonder what the world will be like when I'm in my 80s (if I make it that far). |
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| Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex |
[Mar. 27th, 2006|10:02 am]
Book Reviews
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This book is not for everyone and I'd advise against some of you reading it.  gerbilsage, don't read the book.
It's the story of a gene that passes down through three generations of a migrant family and how this gene effects the life of one person in particular who is part of this family. You can relate well to some of the characters, there are others you wouldn't want to relate to at all. There are skeletons in the family closet, hardships, teenagers trying to find where they fit in in the world and a family trying to adjust to the "American way of life", trying to belong.
I found it a good read but quite confronting at times. It's very well written and was definitely worth the time I spent reading it. |
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| Margaret Atwood - The Penelopiad |
[Mar. 6th, 2006|06:06 pm]
Book Reviews
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Yes, I had some holiday reading, specifically the book above (in the title). Its plot, in short, is The Odyssey by... some Greek guy... but told from the perspective of the undead Penelope 2000-odd years later. Yes, I thought that to be an odd package, too. But, there's spiteful malice against Helen, there's multiple interpretations of lineage, there's Eurycleia featuring prominently, and there are chorus lines a la Greek plays every couple of chapters.
Now, if you're a Classics student, you're probably thinking "shut up Cicero" or perhaps even "hmm, sounds interesting". Well, I'll come to the rest of it. Margaret Atwood is pretentious, but usually she hides it well. Within this book, however, there is some shocking alliteration (v. "bonelessness, liplessness, breastlessness" to describe the undead), and a number of chapters that made me think the book was a good idea that got lost in its writing. Nevertheless, if you don't mind grimacing every now and then, and you don't mind the regular explanations of what you'd already know if you were a Classics student, then go ahead and read it. As I said, she bitches about Helen. |
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| Defoe - Robinson Crusoe |
[Dec. 6th, 2005|09:49 pm]
Book Reviews
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| [ | mood |
| |  just a bit drunk | ] |
I feel like I shouldn't post this yet because I haven't quite finished the book yet but the end is ridiculous.
Anyway, the last time I read Robinson Crusoe I doubt I was even in my teens, so it was probably an abridged or simplified version then. I love adventure stories and sailing ship stories so I picked it up from the library and I really enjoyed it. I love the insights into seventeenth century life, as well as the story of how Robinson established himself on the island, starting with nothing and working his way up to a house, agriculture, a flock of goats, and, apparently, insights into God gained from reading the Bible (Mark says it's a dirty dirty Protestant book). It has everything: shipwrecks, cannibals and self-sufficiency.
Interestingly, I read the introduction and apparently Defoe wrote several godawful sequels as a money-grubbing gesture. And here I was thinking that was a malady of our modern Hollywood times... |
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| Le Fanu. |
[Nov. 17th, 2005|09:00 pm]
Book Reviews
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I've been spooking myself with glorious Victorian era Sheridan Le Fanu horror stories! Very dignified, traditional devil supernatural stories. |
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| Daniel Handler - 'The Basic Eight' |
[Nov. 7th, 2005|11:48 pm]
Book Reviews
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| [ | music |
| | Bob Dylan - Ballad Of A Thin Man | ] |
Robert just lent me a book that he'd recommended to me a couple of weeks ago, called 'The Basic Eight', by Daniel Handler. You might know Daniel Handler as the guy behind the Lemony Snicket novels, or at least, you do now. His adult fiction is, well, quite different to say the least. The concept behind 'The Basic Eight' is interesting. A girl in prison writes up her journal of the time preceding the death of the boy she is meant to have murdered, though editing it as she goes, allowing her to include references to future events and people who have theories on her.
The title comes from the name of her high school clique, eight friends who knowingly are very pretentious and exclusive. For instance, they belong to a school club called 'the Grand Opera Breakfast Club, an organization so pretentious that no one but our friends would join it', which they came up with to enable them to give them a time to socialise together each week in place of their French class.
The book itself is very entertaining and gripping, so much so that I started and finished it today. Also, every so often it has vocabulary words for the section, and a few study questions, which are rather amusing. Basically, I'd highly recommend it. |
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| Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad |
[Oct. 9th, 2005|03:50 pm]
Book Reviews
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Good old Terry Pratchett. I haven't read the new one yet, but there's always time to read the old ones. I always think of him as a humourous writer but I've been moved more than I'd care to mention by his books.
( Contains a quote and a spoiler.Collapse ) |
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