2009 Reading List

[gilee7]

Books Read in 2009:

1. Don Quixote by Cervantes--- I didn't think I'd like this book, and I did start to grow tired of it during the second half, feeling like the same cycle was just repeating itself, but I still enjoyed it. The humor is timeless.

2. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett--- A book my former English professor loaned me to read. (It was even

Comments

My 2009 Reading List, part 1 of 2.

[jdroa]

I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov right now! Dmitri finally met up with Grushenka, and was accosted by the officials. I'm too scared to flip through the rest of the book to see where the story ends and the essays begin. I have a version I bought from Half-Price Books for $7.00, a translation done by Pervear and Volohonsky who are awesome! I was never assigned Lord of the Flies either and I haven't read it yet.

My 2009 Reading List:
1. [A+] Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (or wait... was that 2008? I think that was 2008. No, it was 2009). This is a book Ruby sent me. It changed my life. I mean, my writing hasn't improved, because I'm lazy, but this is the kind of book that could change your writing career. My favorite parts of this book were ones about Levin managing his estate and hunting, rofl. He's an honest person but he gets angry easily and isn't very cultured. He gets angry when he talks about politics and yells sometimes. Lmao.

2. [C-] 1923 Was a Bad Year by John Fante. 1923 was a bad book. I don't want to talk about this one anymore.

3. [C ] Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I think Vonnegut also gave himself a C for this one, haha. Cheap satire, redundant, condescending prose. It sounded like something an overly cultured teenager would write, and everything about it was contrived, but not clever. The pictures were funny though.

4. [A ] Post Office by Charles Bukowski. This shit was fuckin' funny. I would give it an A+ but this guy is a lazy son of a bitch, and I don't want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I know he could do much better, but man, he just doesn't want to do it. He shits gold though. His dialogues are hilarious, everything you would want to see in real life or in film or wherever. Watching Henry Chinaski drink himself to death, slop from job to job, get fired over and over again, and yell at people he delivers mail to just feels right. He puts you right at home with this one.

5. [B-] Factotum by Charles Bukowski. Henry Chinaski: Reloaded, or er, unloaded too soon (?). This seems to be the chaff from Post Office, kind of like an "outtakes" album from any of your favorite bands. It was a tired, laboring piece, and the ending summed it up quite a bit: an old stripper is dancing before Chinaski, trying to revive her stardom, but in the end, he can't get it up.

Re: My 2009 Reading List, part 1 of 2.

[gilee7]

The versions of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov that I read were both translated by Constance Garnett. My former English professor/mentor, Dr. Z, told me that Garnett was the one to go with. I trust she knows what she's talking about. She's probably read every version that there is. I picked up another copy of Karamazov that's translated by Andrew R. MacAndrew. I figure I'll read that version some time within the next couple years. That's what sucks about foreign literature--- I always worry that my translation may not be the best. I mean, these works by Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky are so goddamn great, yet there's no telling how much stuff is lost in the translation. Imagine if we could read these works in their native language?

I've never heard of Charles Bukowski, but he seems pretty interesting. I'll have to pick up a copy of Post Office whenever I get a chance.

Re: My 2009 Reading List, part 1 of 2.

[2ndhandsunshine]

Okay. I realize this is Tolstoy and Classic Russian literature and all, and that it shouldn't be reduced to pair shippings and what not, BUT...

I'm still disappointed he ended up marrying Kitty. He could've done better. Lol.