Reading Update #1 2008

Apr 20, 2008 11:38

I've been meaning to do this for a while, and when I went to update it I realised just how long it was getting. I suspect I've missed noting a few books here, but this is what happens when you let things slide. :P These reviews are a little rushed as well, and for that I apologise. However, if I hadn't done them now, then I probably would have put it off for another six months and had a bigger problem.

Fiction

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

A book given to me by self-awakening. I must admit, I tend to avoid these sorts of books as a rule - I find motivational texts to generally not be to my liking. I read this one because my friend had sent it - and I was pleasantly surprised when I enjoyed it immensely.

We are given the fictionalised story of a man who works in a fairground and is killed in a tragic accident. But this is only the beginning of the tale - we follow Eddie as he meets five people (none of whom you would expect and all of whom died before him) whose task it is to show him the purpose of his life and guide him into heaven.

The metaphysics here is not heavily overdone and religion is largely left out (obviously not all religions have a notion of heaven, so that influence comes in here). The message is simple - everything we do and everyone we meet impacts on both our lives and theirs. I think it is a god reminder of our impact on others in a time when we are increasingly preoccupied. Good for those who are fond of philosophy, not so much for those who are irritated by metaphysical introspection.

4 stars

The Pig of Happiness by Edward Monkton.

Another book given to me by self-awakening. This book is meant purely as a cheer up book - it relates the tale of a pig who decided one day to be nothing but happy. Soon his happiness overflows and spreads to the cows, the chickens and everyone else on the farm. Then everyone is happy! The idea here is obvious - spread the joy. A nice cheery book with adorable pictures. Good for a pick me up.

3 stars

Calling All Monsters by Chris Westwood.

This was a book I grabbed off dulthar's shelves - he refuses to get rid of any book, unless it is truly abysmal, which is how I found myself with a teen fiction book on the train. A teenage girl finds that the horrors she is reading in her nightly reading are coming true, beginning with the return of her stalkerish ex boyfriend...

As teen fiction went, it wasn't too bad - the usual skipping around of plot and a poor attempt to write teen Stephen King (less sex and gore and more zombies). I found it to be unsatisfying and irritating, although as a teen I probably would have just thought it tolerable but not worth rereading. I doubt I would have found this as a teen, though - for my horror texts then I tended towards Point books.

2 stars

The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Oddly enough I picked this up to read on the stepper - my biggest problem with exercise is that I find it boring. Stepping allows me to read (poorly) while stepping and keep my brain a bit occupied, although I know health professionals don’t recommend reading while exercising for a variety of reasons.

I quite enjoyed this, although I am not usually a fan of the play format. I find it requires an adjustment in thinking for emotive responses and a level of uncertainty in the interpretation - reasons, no doubt, why play lovers love plays but I myself don't particularly go out of my way to read or to watch them.

Arthur Miller has drawn vivid parallels in his own time to those of the Salem witchtrials many years ago. They hysteria, the idiocy, the mass delusion and confusion are all echoed between Salem and modern (c. 1950s) America. I quite like his depictions of characters, their humble grace contrasted with their avid hysteria and the ending (although predictable) packs a good punch in its delivery. Now to see the movie with Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder!

4 stars

The Codex by Lev Grossman.

A New York big business banker with a hidden degree in English is offered a job sorting an old book collection during two-week hiatus before beginning a job in London. As he sorts the collection for some eccentric British aristocrats he begins to suspect that the document he holds is a unique medieval codex that has strange parallels with a computer game a friend introduces him to…

This book was clearly capitalising on the Da Vinci code mania - the notion that ancient texts hold esoteric information that people are willing to kill for. It took a long time to get going and the characters were not very engaging - the main character, the ‘hero’ of the piece, is inconsistent and unlovable and his female co-lead not much better. Many of the similes were also unintentionally hilarious, but it hardly added to the attempt to make the book seem edgy and tension filled. These attempts were also thwarted by the author’s continual repetition of information, as if he assumed the reader would forget it. Instead, of being an edgy thriller, this book falls flat.

2 stars

The Dance of Death and Other Stories by Algernon Blackwood

Algernon Blackwood is credited as being a master of the spooky genre and is quiet well known in the older literary circles. He wrote the children’s novel that was eventually made into the musical Starlight Express. This book is a collection of his best works. The stories here are all tales of terror and the macabre (as defined by the nineteenth century).

Overall, I found these stories disappointing. Blackwood’s love of nature and his firm belief in psychic powers come through strongly in all his works, but in a volume like this, with collated texts, it simply makes his works predictable and obvious. The effect would probably be better if the texts were disparate. The title work is something that would be well recognised as a cliché to readers today, although it does occasionally strike high notes in prose description.

Blackwood strikes me as more of a poor man’s Poe - his work lacks the depth and polish (and mania) of Poe’s stories and he doesn’t really include any terror - the suspense element is present at times, but there is little there to truly scare. However, as someone who was reading Stephen King’s It at age 13, I’m not sure I am an accurate judge for what is scary or not!

1 star

Non Fiction

Blooming English by Kate Burridge.

A linguistical feast! Kate was my lecturer when I did Linguistics as an undergraduate student and she was always very lively and good - always able to explain the intricacies and origins of language in a fun and approachable way. This book continues in the same vein - we learn why English has such terribly contradicting spelling, both in its own right (compare pronunciation and spelling of words like tough and bough) and between different dialects (such as color and colour). Examples from other languages are also used and there are explanations given for many common English idioms.

I love this book - it has excellent examples and is peppered with humour and fun. A great book for both beginner and practiced linguist, it’s a must for anyone fascinated by language.

5 stars

Weeds in the Garden of English by Kate Burridge.

The sequel to Kate’s book above. More analysis and fun with the English language! This one was not as well written or as intriguing as the first - it is clearly written for an international audience rather than an Australian one as the first was and hence loses some of its local appeal. It does have more information on foreign language patterns, which is something I adore, so I still enjoyed it greatly.

4 stars

English Proverbs Explained by Ronald Rideout and Clifford Witting.

Bad, so bad, so very, very bad. The text doesn't have accurate interpretations for many proverbs and the examples are terrible. Many of the descriptions given for proverbs are not the meanings I would give for them - and as someone who has spent time studying these, I will go so far as to say that they are just wrong in their idea of the meanings of the majority of the proverbs listed. A poll of several people on the fly also revealed puzzlement in them, along with many cries of ‘That isn’t what that means!’ The text was written in the 1960s, but even so, language change isn’t that rapid that the meanings have shifted so entirely, nor do I think the book’s English origins explain these disparities. The dry tone of the book and the poor grammar lead me to believe that the book was poorly researched and not very well written.

I completely disagree with their definition of proverbs and it completely ignores those proverbs that are not in Latin or English (and ignores a few well known ones in Latin, too). Many 'proverbs' included are not what I would judge to be proverbs at all, even by the author's own definition. A text that was very aggravating and not very accurate.

1 star

I have read another four books, but as this is a four page word document already, I’m a little concerned that this won’t fit in one entry as it is. The rest will come next time!

Books so Far

Fiction - 6
Non Fiction - 3

reading

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