10 posts tagged “reading”

Suggested by JM:

“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation.  That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading.

Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?

I've almost always completed books that I've started.  Maybe because I usually read books that have been well-reviewed or maybe because I'm generally an optimist and that even after a slow start I hope that it might get better, or maybe I have a stick-to-it-iveness that says if you're going to start something you might as well finish it.

Speaking of of finishing it, that does remind me of one of the few books I didn't finish -- "IT" from Stephen King.  Clocking in at over a thousand pages and at the apex of his drug-addled, no-one-will-edit-him 80s long windedness (Steve: more isn't always better) -- I plodded along in this for about 400 pages and then said, "No mas!"

Oddly, I know several people for whom this book was one of their favorites, but I couldn't stand IT.

Well --- I’d been procrastinating on talking about one of my favorite part of my vacation Down The Shore which was getting in a lot of reading.  I’d been procrastinating because I’d hoped that Vox would have a ready fix for that book-loading breakdown that happened last month.   Anyway, before they got too stale in my head, here they are:

“Lost on Planet China” by J Maarten Troost.  It’s been no secret here that I loved his first book “The Sex Lives of Cannibals” – really one of the funniest books that I’ve read in a long time.  In his follow-up (“Getting Stoned With Savages”), Troost’s befuddlement of South Pacific culture seemed a little stale.  So, in this adventure, Troost – leaving the safe confines of suburban Sacramento (where is wife is currently employed) ventures for a months-long trip to China.  He's a savvy Western traveler encountering the daunting size, pollution, crowds and cultural collisions of this emerging 21st century nation.  For fans of “Sex Lives” Troost returns to top form – from the crowded cities, to the interior, to Tibet, Troost provides a vivid description of the highs and lows (more lows than highs to be truthful) of his travel with a wry and occasionally scathing honesty.  9 out of 10.

“The Likeness” by Tana French.  I had read French’s first novel (“In The Woods”) and enjoyed it.  The mystery was good, creepy and kept you guessing.  The characters were well-drawn and compelling, though not always likeable.  In addition, everything doesn’t tie up cleanly – a real-world touch that I appreciated.  In “The Likeness” French uses that to her advantage, picking up a few months after the aftermath of that story.  She again uses the first-person POV to drive the story, but switches main characters, moving from Det. Rob Ryan to Det. Cassie Maddox.  If anything, French has done a better job of creating a world and characters that the reader can really dive into.  The mystery – the death of a grad student with some secrets to hide – kept me guessing with a number of clues and feints.  The only quibble that I had with the story is that like in “In The Woods”, French relies on an unlikely coincidence (established early) to add dramatic tension and mystery.  In the first book, it worked very well – in this one, it required a bit more suspension of disbelief than I'd like – and that’s about the only thing that niggled at me while I read it.  8 out of 10.

“Duma Key” by Stephen King.  I mean, what’s a trip to the beach without a good pulpy horror story?  Especially one set at the beach!!  When I first picked it up, I thought – oh, regular-size King story.  Well, they must have used some thin pages, because this puppy clocked in at >900 pp.   This was King’s first creepy-things-happen-in-a-locale story that didn’t take place in Maine.  I believe it was written during his recuperation from the man-versus-vehicle accident that almost took his life several years ago.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the main character is a successful man that has life-threatening accident and is sent to Florida to recuperate, where he finds that he (and the things around him) are a little different.  When I started, I was annoyed by the standard King inclusions of People With Funny Names Who Know Too Much, and the habit of Unnecessary Capitalization and unusual vernacular to make things unique.  And then a funny thing happened, I was totally engrossed in the story and the characters.  King even produced a few scenes that got me choked up, believe it or not.  The resolution is fairly standard King-fare and I kept thinking, “How will this look in the movie?”  Still for a beach-read, it was good stuff and kept me wondering a little bit about just what WAS out there in the water…   7.5 out of 10.

“The Suspect” by LR Wright.  This small book was an Edgar Award winner back in the 80s.  I always find it funny to read stories where the protagonists don’t have computers or cell phones.  It does make for easier dramatic tension in some ways when answers aren’t always immediately at your fingertips.  This story, set in a sleepy little island on the west coast of Canada, isn’t so much a whodunit (the murder starts the book and you know exactly who kills whom and with what), but whydunit, because the violence of the act seems so counter to the persons involved.  And after the mammoth “Duma Key”, a concise (200 pp), thoughtful character study was welcome.  The weirdest thing though was that the font of the book was Tahoma (or something like it) and I found it really strange to read.  Maybe I need my serifs.  8 out of 10.

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I’d determined that I’d been drawn into somewhat of an obscure niche in recent readings.  Well, I think I found another one.  The new one happens to be Mysteries In Which The Protagonist Is a Domesticated Animal.

Earlier this year, I listened to the audiobook of “Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story” by Leonie Swann.   I take it the original was written in German.  In this story, a flock of Irish sheep in the little town of Glennkill find that their shepherd has been killed.  With Miss Maple “the cleverest sheep in all of Glennkill”* leading the investigation, the flock stumbles upon the dark goings-on in the presumably peaceful little dorf.  The tale pretty humorous and pokes a lot of fun at human society.  I thought the mystery sort of fizzled a bit towards the end, but the characters are endearing enough to carry it through.

*and possibly the world.

And just the other week, I finished “Dog On It” by Spencer Quinn --- apparently, the first in the Chet and Bernie Mystery Series.  Chet is a mixed-breed dog that assists his private eye owner in solving crimes in the greater Phoenix area.  The story is told completely from Chet’s perspective – which is sort of interesting because there’s a lot of the mystery that happens “off-camera”.   Chet is the epitome of the loyal side-kick and this book is a hoot for anyone that muses “I wonder what that dog is thinking…”.  This book doesn’t really have the satirical elements that “Three Bags Full” does, though Chet's observations of the quirks of human behavior are pretty funny.  The mystery is pretty light and it’s fairly easy to put white hats and black hats on characters as they appear.  And I don’t think it’s a big giveaway that the bad guy has a cat.

Follow-up to last week’s question:

Do you keep all your unread books together, like books in a waiting room? Or are they scattered throughout your shelves, mingling like party-goers waiting for the host to come along?

I haven't done a BTT for a while, and this seemed like a pretty good one.   To answer the question: my "to-read" books sit in a stack by my side of the bed, as does the book that I'm currently reading.

The to-be-read stack is often, but not necessarily in the order that they (I think) they'll be read.  Because you know you can't have a small book on the bottom and big books on top --- that would be so so wrong.

Anyway -- I like my stack right now.  I have a recent King book (Duma Key) that had gotten pretty good reviews.  A new book on traveling in China by J Marten Troost who wrote one of the funniest books that I've read in a long time (though his follow-up was not quite as good).  The new mystery by Tana French, which I got on the strength of her first novel that I liked very much.

Rounding out the stack is another non-fiction book (A Voyage Long and Strange) about the early colonization of North America by Europeans.  I'm also anxious to read Zafon's "Shadow of the Wind" which was recommended by several folks here on vox.

I also have a couple of other non-fiction books at the base.  A collection of 50 essays -- one written for each state by a famous native, and a account of the design and installation of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel --- we're thinking of going to Italy and Greece next year.

More than half are non-fiction.  Huh.  That surprises me.

So, this morning I had a surprisingly pleasant little excursion.  I certainly didn’t think it was going to be because the first place was a trip to Discount Tire to repair-replace a tire that had picked up a “foreign object” while I was driving around the other day.  I was afraid that I’d have to replace the tire, or worse both front ones (gotta keep ‘em balanced, right?)  Fortunately, the tires I have are run-flats, so the car could sit in the garage for a couple of days and I could drive it over this morning.

When I arrived, Discount Tire Guy was all "We see this all the time...we'll have you fixed right up..."  so I left my keys and walked over to a nearby Panera for a coffee and a not-so-good-for-me-but-tasty treat and my book.

Forty minutes later they were done and the repair was $ 0.00 (because I'd bought the tires there last year, so repairs are free).  Works for me.

I had a rescheduled piano lesson at 11, and had a little (more) time to kill, so I drove over and hung out at Seagrove Park in Del Mar, sat in the shade and read my book.  I tempted the notoriously fickle Del Mar Parking gods by wagering that 105 minutes in a 90 minute spot would work out ok.  (And it did).

When I got home, Penny was very happy that I was back and we hung out in the back for a while and she tortured herself by watching me eat lunch (she’s a big girl now and only gets fed twice a day).

We sat in the shade of our jacaranda tree and I read and she chewed on her towel.  Later, she decided it was a little cool under the boughs and opted to stretch out and grab some rays.

Not a bad start to the week, I’d say.

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So, this week the Beloved’s been a somewhat under the weather and so we’re having a very quiet and hopefully recuperative weekend.

One thing though is that having to stay home, the Beloved has torn through the books on her nightstand.  So we figured that the one errand today would be to go out and acquire some news books (I am also approaching the end of a long-ish book that’s taken me a while to get through…).  Also, with a travel-free Thanksgiving on the horizon, we plan to have a lot of reading time that weekend.

After the really good commentary on last Thursday’s BTT post (on buying and keeping books), we drove not to the nearby Barnes and Noble, but in the other direction to our local library.  It was great.  I found a thriller and a couple of mysteries that I think will be interesting and the Beloved came back ready for some reading.

And it didn’t cost us a dime.  Hmmm…. there might be something to this library thing afterall.

I’ve asked, in the past, about whether you more often buy your books, or get them from libraries. What I want to know today, is, WHY BUY?  What made you buy the books that you actually own, even though your usual preference is to borrow and return them?  If you usually buy your books, tell me why. Why buy instead of borrow? Why shell out your hard-earned dollars for something you could get for free?

This BTT question is a pretty interesting and I’m always curious about how people view books in their lives.  It’s actually one thing that the Beloved and I disagree on (I think we’re in détente right now, we’ll see how this evolves…).

I am a book buyer and saver.  I like my books.  I like the idea of having my own library.  When I’m in a room with shelves of my books, I look at them and try to recall things…how old was I when I first read this?  How much did I like it?  How has my opinion of it changed?  Did this book make me try (or not try) other books/authors?....  Because I’ve read fairly steadily my whole life, for me perusing my books is like looking through a very personal photoalbum.  Or seeing old friends or acquaintences.

The Beloved (who reads more books than I do in a year…) believes that we should be more selective and only keep our very most favorite books and PURGE the others – something that is anathema to me.  We are however, running out of room with the current shelving arrangements we have throughout the house.  One thing that she's been angling for is built-ins installed in our spare room – and the lure of having more book space is probably the right way for me to agree with her that we should spring for them.

My predictions:

1. Harry lives.
2. Hermione or Ron dies, but not both.
3. Dumbledore still dead. (though he pulls a Yoda-Kenobi twinkly gone-but-still-with-you bit)
4. Harry snogs Ginny.
5. Ginny ends up saving the day.
6. Harry ends by taking a teaching position at Hogwarts – Defense Against the Dark Arts.  McGonigle is now head of Hogwarts.
7. Snape – actually evil – though will likely pull a Vader and turn on Voldemort, sacrificing himself.

Yes, I know that there are two-Star Wars analogies in there.  That was definitely the mythology of MY childhood as HP is for this generation, I think.

Also, what do you do in a household of two with one book delivered?  Both The Beloved and I are in the middle of books right now… though admittedly she is a faster reader than I am.  I say, first come, first served.  Though the likely outcome is that if she thinks I’m taking too long, she’ll just go buy a second copy and donate it when we’re done…