I thought *Dune *was great - I found the rest unreadable.
Just finished Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man, which I found very enjoyable.
And now, for something completey different, I’m reading Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which I am enjoying, although I’ve only got as far as Solomon building the temple.
After that, I plan on reading The Secret Scripture, after hearing Sebastian Barry reading excerpts on the radio today ( BBC Radio 4’s Book Club, which I caught while driving to a house call).
Bradbury’s the greatest. I grew up reading his books, and I credit him for stoking my sense of wonder at just the right time in my development as a reader and as a human being.
I’m also reading “IQ84”. Almost done. Murakami is amazing as always but…yeah, the repetitiveness. As mentioned above, I believe its a result of putting all three volumes into one book. As much as I’m enjoying this, as I enjoy all his books, my favorite is still “Kafka on the Shore”. I haven’t read “Hard Boiled Wonderland and the end of the World”. I only have about four or five I haven’t read yet, so I’m holding back a bit.
I think I should give* Hard Boiled* a try. So many people have liked it.
Re: Murakami, do all his books end with no real resolution? I just finished After Dark, and it was good, but I like a clear, stated resolution to stories! Especially when all kinds of strange stuff is going on.
Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. I’m at the part where Aibileen realises Miss Hilly knows Skeeter is writing something critical about segregation and she fears for her life. I like this book. At times funny, mostly heartbreaking. I don’t think it’s going to end well for the maids, right? Don’t tell me, don’t tell me!
If anything it has made me want to read more on the American civil rights movement which was never covered in school (I’m Malaysian). The President himself had to order the Ole Miss college to allow a black student in? Damn!
I’m dumping (for now anyway) The Gallows Thief by Bernard Cornwell. It’s kinda clunky, and Cornwell did something that bugged me. I’m well into the story. Cornwell has fully described Sandman, the main character, what he looks like, his history, personality, etc. Then Sandman encounters someone who pisses him off, and Cornwell adds that Sandman has a short fuse, just before he beats up the guy. It was like “Oh, I forgot to tell you he has a temper. Let’s get that out of the way or you’ll wonder why he clocks this guy.”
So I picked up the next Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book, and also The Trial: From Socrates to O.J.. Found it after googling the history of animals being considered criminals (which happened in The Pilgrim, where a guy was hanged for buggering a sheep and the sheep was hanged too). It’s fascinating, so far.
There’s a pretty good medieval movie called The Advocate, starring Colin Firth and Ian Holm, that depicts a similar thing where a man is hanged alongside the donkey he buggered. There’s also a pig being tried for murder.
Isn’t it bizarre, and amazing? Inanimate objects were also put on trial, as well as bodies dug up from their graves. Peoples be weird.
They can be that way, yes. I describe him as “Take equal parts Raymond Chandler and Franz Kafka, toss in some cool pop-culture references and stir” - so you get this wonderful sense of noir/Existentialism and interesting plot twists that feel a bit surreal and cool. All of that is a long-winded way of saying: its more about the journey than the destination, and sometimes the destination is not much more than a release from that overall mood at the end…
And sometimes, not even then. Kafka on the Shore, hard Boiled Wonderland and
1Q84 both stuck with me for days, even weeks, after I had finished them. It’s unlike reading any other author.
Yep - that’s what he does. Even if you’re frustrated with the low-key ending, the overall mood of the book sticks with you and the frustration is more likely to emerge simply because you loved the book and want that satisfaction…but the open-endedness can be part of the equation…
You can tell if you are wired for Murakami if his stuff sticks in your brain that way…
With books like that, I always feel like I’m missing things that should be obvious. But I’m never sure. Is everyone saying “WTF?” or is everyone else but me saying, “Indeed, that kangaroo clearly represents the character’s feelings about his mother”?
If I knew that I was getting the book as much as it was supposed to be gotten, then the bizarre open-ended stuff wouldn’t bother me.
About the end of the Civil War and the Lincoln assination.
Totally fair. No idea what to do with the fact that the feeling of unease and lack of closure is part of the “Noir/Existential” equation. I think I have gotten to a place where I accept that open-endedness without “taking it personally” for want of a better term…
I started Monsters of Men about three days ago. For what it’s worth, I liked both of the earlier books, but I found The Ask and the Answer even more compelling than the first. So, I reckon, you’re in for a treat.
I just ordered The Lady and the Panda, which I’ve wanted to read for ages.
And, woo hoo, the grocery store had the latest Ann Rule book for 40% off, so I bought that today. Lowbrow but I thoroughly enjoy her books.
Max Torque & Delphica - glad to hear the next Walking Chaos book is a good 'un!
However, it will have to wait til I’m done with another YA SF dystopia The Maze Runner by James Dashner - another “young man dealing with a dangerous new-to-him world” - tho am reading this via Kindle (on iPhone) versus audiobook.
Current audiobook is Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Boy evil genius vs tech-enhanced Little People - enjoying it quite a bit. Loving the different accents Nathaniel Parker is using in his narration: Root as a hardboiled East Coast cop, the goblins as rednecks and of course the authentic (as far as I can tell) Irish accents - swoon!
Also just finished Joe Hill’s Horns - a story of revenge & redemption, where the main character knows every evil thought in those around him. Tightly written and quite entertaining.
How are you liking it? I’m not a Stephen King fan. I got bored with The Dome about a hundred pages in.