Reading Update #3 2008 - Quick and Dirty edition
Due to time constraints, laziness and, well, mostly laziness, I'm doing this book update as a list - there is too much to go through each one and I would like to put them all in to save me just 'leaving it until next time.' Clearly next time never comes. Instead, here's a quick and dirty list of what I've been reading.
Feel free to let me know what you thought/think of any of these works (or to leave recommendations). Any and all suggestions welcome.
Fiction
The Company of the Dead by David Kowalski. 5 stars.
A brilliant alternate history that revolves around one of my historical interests, the sinking of the Titanic. Well written, well paced, with only one error I detected (and it was a pretty specialist error) and even better, written by an Australian.
Don Quixote by Cervantes. 3 stars.
Too repetitive and I've never been that fond of slapstick. I can appreciate the form and what he is trying to do, but he execution all too often takes the simple route. Brilliant descriptions of medieval romances, though.
Glyph by Percival Everett. 4 stars.
Took a while to get going and heavily jargonised (but necessarily so, as it pokes fun at post structurism and surrealism), but a good read and amusing. Particularly good on constructions and deconstructions of meanings, it views the world through the eyes of a one year old, fully conscious, reading genius.
Murder at Wayne Manor by Duane Swierczynski 4 stars
A Batman murder mystery that is an interactive book - there are images to study, letters to take out and read and police files to peruse. It also has a good mystery story, although it is a little simplistic in parts. This is probably because it is aimed mostly at a juvenile audience. Still, well done and enjoyable.
Tree Frog Tangles by Rebecca Johnson. 5 stars.
Kid's book that Mum found in a bookstore for me. It tells the tale of a tree frog looking for her mate and was so adorable in it's froggy pictures that I just had to buy it. Plus, it was $5. Cheap books FTW!
The Resurrectionist by James McGee. 5 stars.
Sequel to Ratcatcher, this follows the life and times of a 'ratcatcher' in London's underbelly in the nineteenth century. This one deals with the resurrection trade and has a good thrilling tale, despite excessive gore and sex scenes that could easily have been reduced or cut. The focus should be on the telling people, not the vomiting.
Non-Fiction
Academic Dishonesty by Bernard Whitely & Patricia Keith-Spiegel. 5 stars
An excellent investigations into academic cheating. What is cheating? Why do students do it? How can we prevent it? An invaluable guide for teachers on how to combat this rising trend.
Dark Woods, Chill Waters by Marcus LiBrizzi. 3 stars.
As far as ghost tales go, this one is mid level. It focuses around down eastern Maine, an area rich in ghostly heritage. The tales, however, are clearly western in origin (only one mention, briefly, of any native tales of the area) and read more like urban legends that true spooky tales. The author is an English professor, who fails so utterly at telling these tales it is astounding. It is only outdone by his poorly thought through attempts to rationalise any attempt to explain these stories as flawed, whilst ignoring the holes in his own approaches. Still, ghost stories are always cool, so that redeemed the work a little.
Great Tales From 365 Days of History by W.B. Marsh & Bruce Carrick 3 stars
A great idea with poor execution, this book gives an event that happened in history for each day of a yearly calendar. It leans heavily to European and American history and gives no reason as to why some events are chosen over others to be highlighted. Only one event per day is described and other notable events are briefly listed after each entry with little note on their historic import (interestingly it chose the mass suicide at Masada over the sinking of the Titanic).
The History of Indonesia 4 stars.
Quite a good book that gives a good summary of Indonesian origins and the struggle to give a national identity to a country made up of over seventeen thousand islands that have hardly had a cohesive history. Well written, approachable and does not shy away from the recent political brouhahas.
The Little Book of Steam by Clive Groom. 1 star.
This is meant to be a short history of railroads and engines by an enthusiast for amateurs, but falls down in its completely unapproachable style. There are far too many technical terms used and the grammar is atrocious - clearly the difference cannot be told between formal writing and overblown foofy gibberish. Fairly dull and not terribly informative.
The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches by Brian MacArthur (ed). 4 stars.
A good book that gives the text of some of history's most famous speeches, ranging across the globe from Africa to America. It is of course biased towards the male-centric west, but also gives good insight into the mindset of those who composed these speeches.
The Trials of Oscar Wilde. 2 stars.
It provides a good collection of primary documents regarding the trial of Oscar Wilde: namely the trial documents themselves. It also contains some of Wilde's writings during the trial and letters between Wilde and others before the trials. Unfortunately, as with all such works, they have been edited and truncated, meaning that for a rigorous historian it is necessary to go to the original documents. It means also that there are shades absent as texts have been selected and shaped by unknown criteria.
Comics
As far as I know, only one of you is a comic reader and he is the supplier of my goodies *waves to dulthar*. So I won't give summaries of these, just a star rating. Of course, it would be great if some of you turned out to have read this stuff too! :P
Absolute Power Arc - Superman/Batman 5 stars - BM and SM as brothers? Awesome.
Little Leaguers 2 parter - Superman/Batman 4 stars - crack. Canon crack.
Emperor Joker - Superman Trade paperback 4 stars - awesomely twisted.
Pretty much the entirety of The Authority comics - varies between 5 and 1 star, depending on writer and crudity level - note, writers, that 'adult' doesn't have to mean 'potty mouth'.
A Finer World - Stormwatch Trade paperback 4 stars.
Identity Crisis - DC Heroes Trade Paperback 5 stars - a landmark in the comic industry
Books so Far
Fiction - 12
Non Fiction - 15
Comics - 10 (the Authority stuff ads up to at least five. I'm only counting story arcs here, I've read nearly a hundred comics).
The goal is 50 books overall, and I am this far along:
37 / 50
(74.0%)
37 books.
Damn. I feel like I've read way more than that. It's either the comics or I've missed a few. Probably the comics. It may also be the fact that I am not counting what I read for my thesis or for work - I'd probably be nearer 500 then. Plus if I counted the original short stories I proofed...damn I need to do more 'me' reading.
Feel free to let me know what you thought/think of any of these works (or to leave recommendations). Any and all suggestions welcome.
Fiction
The Company of the Dead by David Kowalski. 5 stars.
A brilliant alternate history that revolves around one of my historical interests, the sinking of the Titanic. Well written, well paced, with only one error I detected (and it was a pretty specialist error) and even better, written by an Australian.
Don Quixote by Cervantes. 3 stars.
Too repetitive and I've never been that fond of slapstick. I can appreciate the form and what he is trying to do, but he execution all too often takes the simple route. Brilliant descriptions of medieval romances, though.
Glyph by Percival Everett. 4 stars.
Took a while to get going and heavily jargonised (but necessarily so, as it pokes fun at post structurism and surrealism), but a good read and amusing. Particularly good on constructions and deconstructions of meanings, it views the world through the eyes of a one year old, fully conscious, reading genius.
Murder at Wayne Manor by Duane Swierczynski 4 stars
A Batman murder mystery that is an interactive book - there are images to study, letters to take out and read and police files to peruse. It also has a good mystery story, although it is a little simplistic in parts. This is probably because it is aimed mostly at a juvenile audience. Still, well done and enjoyable.
Tree Frog Tangles by Rebecca Johnson. 5 stars.
Kid's book that Mum found in a bookstore for me. It tells the tale of a tree frog looking for her mate and was so adorable in it's froggy pictures that I just had to buy it. Plus, it was $5. Cheap books FTW!
The Resurrectionist by James McGee. 5 stars.
Sequel to Ratcatcher, this follows the life and times of a 'ratcatcher' in London's underbelly in the nineteenth century. This one deals with the resurrection trade and has a good thrilling tale, despite excessive gore and sex scenes that could easily have been reduced or cut. The focus should be on the telling people, not the vomiting.
Non-Fiction
Academic Dishonesty by Bernard Whitely & Patricia Keith-Spiegel. 5 stars
An excellent investigations into academic cheating. What is cheating? Why do students do it? How can we prevent it? An invaluable guide for teachers on how to combat this rising trend.
Dark Woods, Chill Waters by Marcus LiBrizzi. 3 stars.
As far as ghost tales go, this one is mid level. It focuses around down eastern Maine, an area rich in ghostly heritage. The tales, however, are clearly western in origin (only one mention, briefly, of any native tales of the area) and read more like urban legends that true spooky tales. The author is an English professor, who fails so utterly at telling these tales it is astounding. It is only outdone by his poorly thought through attempts to rationalise any attempt to explain these stories as flawed, whilst ignoring the holes in his own approaches. Still, ghost stories are always cool, so that redeemed the work a little.
Great Tales From 365 Days of History by W.B. Marsh & Bruce Carrick 3 stars
A great idea with poor execution, this book gives an event that happened in history for each day of a yearly calendar. It leans heavily to European and American history and gives no reason as to why some events are chosen over others to be highlighted. Only one event per day is described and other notable events are briefly listed after each entry with little note on their historic import (interestingly it chose the mass suicide at Masada over the sinking of the Titanic).
The History of Indonesia 4 stars.
Quite a good book that gives a good summary of Indonesian origins and the struggle to give a national identity to a country made up of over seventeen thousand islands that have hardly had a cohesive history. Well written, approachable and does not shy away from the recent political brouhahas.
The Little Book of Steam by Clive Groom. 1 star.
This is meant to be a short history of railroads and engines by an enthusiast for amateurs, but falls down in its completely unapproachable style. There are far too many technical terms used and the grammar is atrocious - clearly the difference cannot be told between formal writing and overblown foofy gibberish. Fairly dull and not terribly informative.
The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches by Brian MacArthur (ed). 4 stars.
A good book that gives the text of some of history's most famous speeches, ranging across the globe from Africa to America. It is of course biased towards the male-centric west, but also gives good insight into the mindset of those who composed these speeches.
The Trials of Oscar Wilde. 2 stars.
It provides a good collection of primary documents regarding the trial of Oscar Wilde: namely the trial documents themselves. It also contains some of Wilde's writings during the trial and letters between Wilde and others before the trials. Unfortunately, as with all such works, they have been edited and truncated, meaning that for a rigorous historian it is necessary to go to the original documents. It means also that there are shades absent as texts have been selected and shaped by unknown criteria.
Comics
As far as I know, only one of you is a comic reader and he is the supplier of my goodies *waves to dulthar*. So I won't give summaries of these, just a star rating. Of course, it would be great if some of you turned out to have read this stuff too! :P
Absolute Power Arc - Superman/Batman 5 stars - BM and SM as brothers? Awesome.
Little Leaguers 2 parter - Superman/Batman 4 stars - crack. Canon crack.
Emperor Joker - Superman Trade paperback 4 stars - awesomely twisted.
Pretty much the entirety of The Authority comics - varies between 5 and 1 star, depending on writer and crudity level - note, writers, that 'adult' doesn't have to mean 'potty mouth'.
A Finer World - Stormwatch Trade paperback 4 stars.
Identity Crisis - DC Heroes Trade Paperback 5 stars - a landmark in the comic industry
Books so Far
Fiction - 12
Non Fiction - 15
Comics - 10 (the Authority stuff ads up to at least five. I'm only counting story arcs here, I've read nearly a hundred comics).
The goal is 50 books overall, and I am this far along:
37 / 50
(74.0%)
37 books.
Damn. I feel like I've read way more than that. It's either the comics or I've missed a few. Probably the comics. It may also be the fact that I am not counting what I read for my thesis or for work - I'd probably be nearer 500 then. Plus if I counted the original short stories I proofed...damn I need to do more 'me' reading.