some smart, some don't
Book blogging (mostly)
Summer of Genji
4
I’ve had a copy of The Tale of Genji on my bookshelf for several years now. It’s status as the world’s first novel (though that term may be a tad anachronistic) intrigued me, but it’s size and scope (1120 pages/11th Century Japan) was intimidating. Last week, however, I discovered the Summer of Genji – a group of readers who will be spending between now and August 30 reading and discussing The Tale of Genji. With this discovery, I’ve decided it’s finally time to get started on this massive epic.
Why am I making such a big deal out of this? Well, for starters, it’s a great idea to read a book like this online because, honestly, how else are you ever going to get a group of people together who are willing to read it? Plus, the whole Summer of Genji project is still in its infancy, and so there’s time for you to join in as well.
Second, it’s a massive book, which may result in a reduction in the number of blog posts, or at least an increase in the number of posts that aren’t actually about books I’ve finished reading. I will be reading other books at the same time, once I catch up to the Genji schedule, but the number of books I finish will inevitably be reduced.
Finally, it gives me an excuse to start a new series of posts where I show a picture of how far I am through this massive book. Here’s my progress after several hours of reading yesterday:
54 down, 1066 to go.
The Well at the World’s End Volume II
21 year ago
Considering 
The Well at the World’s End was split into two volumes arbitrarily, it’s not worth reiterating what I said in my post on Volume I. No time passes between the volumes, and the quest for the Well picks up right where it left off. What is worth mentioning, however, is how great the book continues to be.
Without the surprise of the language, or the need to grow accustomed to it, I had a great time reading Volume II. Unfortunately, there’s really no good way for me to explain what exactly I liked so much without spoiling specific moments. Of course the experience of reading it would still be great, even if you knew everything that happens, but that’s no reason to spoil such a great tale.
If, as I hope is the case, I’ve convinced you that you should read this book, but you don’t have a friend or family member you can borrow it from, I have some great news. You can actually download The Well at the World’s End for free thanks to Project Gutenberg. You can even put it onto your iPhone, iPad, Kindle or any other eReader that will accept ePub files. You officially have no excuse not to read this book.
Just in case there is any doubt, allow me to state my opinion clearly: I recommend this book. It’s a great adventure and the medieval language helps make it feel like an ancient story from a long lost age. I honestly have no complaints. Considering you can grab a copy for free online, there’s no reason to not at least give this one a try.
“Alas!” she said, “and had I lain in thine arms an hundred times, or an hundred times an hundred, should not the world be barren to me, wert thou gone from it, and that could never more be? ” (53)
Full database entry on The Well at the World’s End Volume II. Beware spoilers.
Goose Girl (Audio)
101 year ago
Goose Girl is not the type of book that would normally catch my eye. However, after reading Christy’s review of the sequel I figured it would be worth requesting from the library and listening to it when I got the chance. I had it for a few weeks and, honestly, I didn’t have a plan to start it anytime soon until I saw Erin’s claim that Shannon Hale “has not written a bad book”.
Convoluted story of why I started reading it aside, I’m really glad that I did. Goose Girl seems pretty straight forward at first – a crowned princess of a small kingdom is, unbeknownst to her, about to be sent off to marry the prince of a distant kingdom. As the story progressed, though, I was consistently impressed both with the number of times the plot surprised me and with how well-realized the world and characters were.
True, I’ve only read one book by Shannon Hale now, but I can see why Erin would say she hasn’t written a bad book. In addition to a consistent, deep world full of entertaining characters, Goose Girl is also filled with some beautiful writing. Even the first line (“She was born Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildinree, and she did not open her eyes for three days”) has a sense of weight and meaning that I find appealing.
My only real complaint was with the audio production. Instead of having a single narrator, this book had a full cast. I don’t mind this on principal, but with so many actors participating, it’s inevitable that some of the performances will not be as good as others. Ultimately, instead of enhancing the experience, the unevenness of the performances just made me wish the main narrator (who was excellent) had been responsible for everything.
I recommend this book without reservation. Don’t let the title (and in some cases the unfortunate covers) convince you that this is a book only for girls. Anyone who is willing to read a fairy tale based fantasy will be able to appreciate Hale’s quality story telling.
Perelandra
41 year ago
Instead of listening to audio books during my daily commute, I have recently been enjoying lectures from The Great Courses. These cover all types of subjects, from classical mythology, to Einstein’s theory of relativity. The one I just finished, however, was a 12 lecture series on the life and writings of C.S. Lewis. I complimented this listening experience by reading Perelandra, the second book in Lewis’s classic Space Trilogy.
I’ve read Perelandra before, as well as a number of Lewis’s other works, but by listening to lectures discussing major themes of his work in general, while simultaneously reading a single work in depth, I was able to enjoy it at a much deeper level. I encourage anyone with the time or opportunity to do something similar.
As for the book itself, Perelandra follows Ransom (a professor of philology) on another interstellar adventure – this time to Venus (or Perelandra). While there, he becomes involved in Perelandra’s own Edenic struggle to resist temptation.
I loved reading Perelandra. Lewis’s ability to make the temptation believable, and compelling, is extremely impressive. In fact, the dialogue of this book is far more exciting than the “action” moments. Full of fascinating ideas, Perelandra is easy for me to recommend – to a certain audience. I can see how many, however, might not enjoy it nearly as much as I have.
First of all, science fiction fans who aren’t interested in Lewis’s Christian theology would find this book endlessly frustrating. Lewis makes no attempt to hide the Christian elements of this work, and I can see how someone who is not predisposed to believe the same things as Lewis would criticize this as being preachy or even condescending.
On the other hand, those who may hold the same beliefs as Lewis may not be as interested in a book that is so very science fiction. In fact, the sci-fi qualities are even more obvious than the Christian elements to the story, making a predisposition for enjoying this kind of work even more necessary. However if, like me, you are interested in rigorous theology in your hardcore science fiction, then this is definitely the book for you. That has to be one of the nerdiest things I’ve ever said.
“There seems to be no plan because it is all plan: there seems no centre because it is all centre” (218).
Stats at 50
2Now that the database officially has 50 books posted, I thought it would be fun to throw together some stats to analyze my reading habits for the last 18 months. I am also using this post as an opportunity to add the new Charts page to the wordpress blog. It’s basically just the old charts page, but edited and formatted for the main blog.
Note: all the stats below, as well as those on the charts page, are dynamically updated from the database, so regardless of when you read this, know that the information is up to date.
One of the first things that jumps to my mind when I think about my habits since December of 2008 is that I’ve been reading non-stop. But how much have I really been reading? Fortunately, I made an agreement with myself not to read two books at the same time, so by determining the number of days in each month that fall outside of the start and stop dates of a particular read, we can calculate this. The table below shows the breakdown, per month, since I started the book database.
| Month | Year | DaysReading | DaysInMonth | PercentReading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 2008 | 20 | 31 | 64.5161 |
| 1 | 2009 | 31 | 31 | 100 |
| 2 | 2009 | 28 | 28 | 100 |
| 3 | 2009 | 31 | 31 | 100 |
| 4 | 2009 | 26 | 30 | 86.6667 |
| 5 | 2009 | 31 | 31 | 100 |
| 6 | 2009 | 25 | 30 | 83.3333 |
| 7 | 2009 | 23 | 31 | 74.1935 |
| 8 | 2009 | 26 | 31 | 83.8710 |
| 9 | 2009 | 26 | 30 | 86.6667 |
| 10 | 2009 | 21 | 31 | 67.7419 |
| 11 | 2009 | 30 | 30 | 100 |
| 12 | 2009 | 24 | 31 | 77.4194 |
| 1 | 2010 | 18 | 31 | 58.0645 |
| 2 | 2010 | 28 | 28 | 100.0000 |
| 3 | 2010 | 22 | 31 | 70.9677 |
| 4 | 2010 | 26 | 30 | 86.6667 |
| 5 | 2010 | 26 | 31 | 83.8710 |
| 6 | 2010 | 30 | 30 | 100 |
| 7 | 2010 | 26 | 31 | 83.8710 |
| 8 | 2010 | 31 | 31 | 100 |
| 9 | 2010 | 21 | 30 | 70.0000 |
| 10 | 2010 | 31 | 31 | 100.0000 |
| 11 | 2010 | 28 | 30 | 93.3333 |
| 12 | 2010 | 7 | 31 | 22.5806 |
| 1 | 2011 | 8 | 31 | 25.8065 |
| 2 | 2011 | 13 | 28 | 46.4286 |
| 4 | 2011 | 22 | 30 | 73.3333 |
| 5 | 2011 | 15 | 31 | 48.3871 |
| 6 | 2011 | 28 | 30 | 93.3333 |
| 7 | 2011 | 15 | 31 | 48.3871 |
| 8 | 2011 | 10 | 31 | 32.2581 |
| 9 | 2011 | 29 | 30 | 96.6667 |
| 10 | 2011 | 18 | 31 | 58.0645 |
| 11 | 2011 | 30 | 30 | 100 |
| 12 | 2011 | 29 | 31 | 93.5484 |
| 1 | 2012 | 21 | 31 | 67.7419 |
As you can see I do spend a lot of time reading, but in total, I actually only spent 77.6199% of the available days actively reading a book. Or, to put it another way, of the 1126 total days available to read, I was not reading during 252 of them. Now it suddenly seems like I could be spending even more time reading than I already am. In fact, that’s like 8.2895 months of additional reading!
Well, I hope you enjoyed that little bit of nerdiness. I’d post more, but my head feels like it’s going to explode. Still, I’m always open for suggestions on additional stats, so let me know if you have any.
The Ringworld Engineers
01 year ago
It was probably 5 years ago that I read Ringworld – the tale of a group of 3 adventurers who are tempted to travel to beyond the known universe to explore a giant Ringworld in search of treasure and fame. Unfortunately, that’s about all I remembered about the first book, and so when I was looking to read the sequel last week, I decided to check Wikipedia for the details I could not recall. To my great disappointment, Wikipedia had only an extended, spoiler free summary. Yet another reason I wish I had started my book database years earlier!
Despite my failed memory and lack of information online, I went ahead and read The Ringworld Engineers. In this sequel, Louis Wu and Chmee return, against their will, to the Ringworld in search of a mysterious object. Louis and Chmee, however, spend most of their time looking for freedom from their paranoid Puppeteer captor.
Ultimately, not remembering the details of the first book was a minor point. I wish I had, but only because I think it would have added depth to the development of Chmee and Louis Wu as characters. As it was, I could only watch them grow within the context of the book. And while this was an enjoyable experience, I can’t help but think it would have been more meaningful if I could have seen them evolve from their original incarnations. Of course, the possibility also exists that they behaved in foolish and unbelievable ways in comparison to the first book, but I like to remain hopeful.
While I recommend this book, I do so with the caveat that this is hardcore science fiction. In fact, in the introduction, Niven admits that the whole reason this sequel was written was so he could deal with all the scientific and mathematical questions and concerns that readers raised after the first book. Now, if you’re like me, you just thought “Yes! Can’t wait to read it!” but if you are a normal person, feel free to pass on this series for something a little more down to earth.
“You only learn to ask more questions” (215).
Full Database entry on The Ringworld Engineers. Beware spoilers.
The Light – Morpheus Road Book 1
21 year ago
I love reading young adult fiction while on vacation. Last Christmas I tore through The Hunger Games in less then 36 hours, and it was absolutely fantastic. I didn’t know much about The Light, but I have listened to the first three books in MacHale’s Pendragon series, and they are good enough that I was willing to give this new series a chance.
The Light is, ultimately, a ghost story. In fact, the book starts with a hip “I believe in ghosts now” intro. From there, it follows Marsh, the main character and narrator, as he attempts to solve the various mysteries surrounding his haunting and his best friend’s disappearance.
While The Light was the fun, light reading I was looking for in a vacation book, it was also extremely disappointing. In spite of having an entirely different storyline and cast of characters, The Light felt exactly the same as the Pendragon books. In fact, in terms of the main character, there wasn’t anything to distinguish Marsh from Bobby Pendragon.
MacHale certainly isn’t a bad writer, but I’m starting to get the impression that his versatility is severely limited. If you aren’t absolutely in love with novels narrated by smart, sarcastic, angsty 15 year olds, who are just trying to figure out this crazy world, then I wouldn’t bother with The Light, or anything else written by MacHale.
It’s unfortunate, too, because he has some great plot ideas. I may even continue listening to the books in this series, just to find out what happens next, but I definitely won’t be reading them next time. Is that hypocritical, to continue reading a series that I won’t recommend? Perhaps, but I am a sucker for a cliffhanger.
Please stand by
01 year ago
by Scott
in Uncategorized
I apologize if you tried to access the blog/book database in the last few days. I was on vacation (which of course means lots of time to read) and I didn’t immediately realize the site had gone down. Then, once I did discover the problem, I wasn’t in any position to fix it. So, hopefully the issue was temporary and the site won’t be interrupted for so long again any time soon.
With that said I finished 2 books while at the beach and should have at least those 2 posts up this week. Okay, non-book relate post over!
Unwind
21 year ago
I learned about Unwind from a coworker whose son was reading it for school. Apparently there was some controversy among the parents. Having just finished Don Quixote I figured this would be great light reading to bridge the gap before vacation. While easy to read, this definitely wasn’t exactly the light reading I had expected.
Unwind is set in a dystopian future in which America has fought its second civil war. Only this time, the fighting was over abortion. The war eventually ended with the signing of the Bill of Life. According to this document all life was protected from conception to the age of 13. From 13 to 18 a parent could choose to retroactively unwind their children. Unwind follows the story of 3 children who are set to be Unwound.
Unwind is full of interesting ideas and deals with the difficult subject of abortion with subtlety. However, the writing itself is just mediocre. It is worth reading if you want to start a discussion on abortion with a teen, but probably not otherwise.
In fact, the most interesting thing for me in regards to Unwind was finding the parallels between it and Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (an essay in which Swift satirically encourages the Irish to eat their children in order to alleviate poverty). I would say more here, but I don’t want to spoil anything if you are interested in reading Unwind. Feel free to check out the last 2 paragraphs of my database entry for the details, though.
What suprised me the most, however, was that this would be picked for school reading. What do you think – is this appropriate high school reading?
Full database entry on Unwind. Beware spoilers.
P.S. I wrote this on my iPhone so please forgive any typos or weird formatting.
Don Quixote – First Part
31 year ago
Okay, I confess I cheated; I decided to read only the First Part of Don Quixote. This part, at 459 pages, is technically a complete book in its own right. It was published in 1605, 10 years before the second part that makes up the other half of the copy you see depicted to the left. I will get around to the rest of it eventually but, honestly, I just needed a break.
I feel bad saying I needed a break because I really enjoyed Don Quixote. If you read my First Line post on Don Quixote you know I was having a blast halfway through the first part. It was funny, intelligent, modern, and creative.
At about 300 pages in, however, Cervantes decides to interrupt what could have easily been the most interesting and entertaining part of the book with two complete novellas. Seriously, he interrupts the action to tell two complete stories that deal with characters and plot that are entirely unrelated to Don Quixote. To be fair, these stories are good, but at this point in the main novel I’m reading, I honestly just don’t care what happens to these other characters. I want to get back to Sancho and Don Quixote, not read about The Man Who Was Recklessly Curious.
This post sounds a little negative, but only because I said so many positive things previously. Fortunately, all of those positives are still true and, as a result, Don Quixote is still a recommended read. However, I can completely understand why an abridged version would remove the two novellas that come so late in the work. In fact, I would go so far as to say, if you do decide to read Don Quixote, skip the novellas and finish the main story. Then, because they are good enough in their own right to warrant it, go back and read each novella. I know it’s a little vain to think that I can suggest a better way to enjoy a book than the author, but I really think your experience will be far superior if you separate the actual Don Quixote story from the two novellas.
“That’s the way,” said Sancho, “I’ve heard it said in sermons, we should love Our Lord: for Himself alone, not because we hope for glory or are afraid of punishment. But I’d rather love and serve Him for what He can do” (263).
Full database entry on Don Quixote. Beware spoilers.