Reading List: First Half of 2010; My Brother's Budding Affair
1. Slash by: Slash (w/ Anthony Bozza)--- I don't usually read autobiographies or non-fiction, but, being a huge fan of Guns N' Roses and Slash, I had to make an exception. Slash has lived a very eventful, exciting life, and it was fun to read about. I especially enjoyed reading about his childhood and the early years of the band, when they were all basically homeless and living with strippers. And if I ever start speedballing, blame it on this book.
2. Heart-Shaped Box by: Joe Hill--- It's unfair to compare Joe Hill to his father, Stephen King, but it can't be helped. This is Hill's debut novel, about an aging rock star who, after purchasing a dead man’s suit online, find himself running for his life from a murderous ghost. It's a relatively fast-paced book, fairly entertaining and easy to read. I liked it, didn't love it. Certain sections were fairly creepy--- a couple even gave me gooseflesh--- but there were also scenes that were laughably over the top. (Sadly, as the story progressed, there seemed to be much more of the latter.) Hill knows how to rack up the suspense, but he needs his daddy to help him out with characterization. Stephen King allows his characters to propel the plot. Hill's characters, on the other hand, never felt fully formed, especially the girlfriend. I do think this book could make for a great horror movie, though.
3. The Giver by: Lois Lowry--- I remember seeing this book in the library when I was a kid, and the image on the cover of the weary old man with the Tolstoy-like beard has stuck with me ever since. It's about a future society where everyone's choices are made for them: their profession, their mate, their children. Everything is about "sameness." I wish the book had been geared toward an older audience, because there's a lot of food for thought here, but we only get a nibble. The horrible ending also lessened my overall enjoyment.
4. The Running Man by: Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)--- This is the first book I’ve read that King published under his pseudonym. Supposedly he wrote the entire novel in less than a week, which blows my mind. (It takes me a week sometimes just to write one fucking paragraph.) It's very different from anything else I've read by King. His novels usually start out slowly as he spends a lot of time on his characters before really diving into the plot. This one, however, is all plot. It's fun, though--- a B-movie adrenaline trip from beginning to end.
5. The Pearl by: John Steinbeck--- The Grapes of Wrath is one of my favorite books, and Of Mice and Men is one of the few to almost make me cry. Naturally, I figured I would also love The Pearl, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The story--- about a poor Mexican who finds a giant pearl, only to have his life and family torn apart by greed and corruption--- is all very familiar. The characters were stereotypical, the plot predictable, and the writing too heavy-handed. Very disappointing.
6. Neverwhere by: Neil Gaiman--- More disappointment. I read Gaiman's American Gods a few years ago and absolutely loved it. The follow-up/spin-off Anansi Boys was nowhere near as good or ambitious, but it was still fun and had a lot of great humor. Neverwhere is very creative, with an interesting premise, but I never could get into it. To steal a phrase from 2ndhandsunshine, it felt very "ad-libby." Personally, I like to feel that I'm in the hands of a writer who has a firm grasp of where the story's going, someone who has their eye on the overall picture. But with this book it felt like Gaiman was just making shit up as he went along, sending his characters on pointless side-quests that did nothing but pad the story's length. The many attempts at humor fell mostly flat. Also, now that I'm a bit familiar with Gaiman's work, I'm starting to notice the same trends and “twists” in all his work.
7. The Lovely Bones by: Alice Sebold--- I remember hearing about this book when it was first published, and it sounded interesting. I kinda forgot about it, though, until I saw previews for the film last year. I hate reading a book if I’ve already seen the movie, so I picked up a copy. The premise is interesting enough: a fourteen-year-old girl is raped and murdered (in the first chapter, no less), and narrates the rest of the story from her own version of heaven as her family and friends cope with her loss and try to solve the mystery of her death. Critics loved this book and heaped all kinds of praise on it, but I fucking hated it. This is honestly one of the worst pieces of shit I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. The writing is poor and contrived, the characters completely unrealistic, the dialogue unnatural . . . And the bit near the end, when the MC possesses the body of another girl, just so she can come back to the living long enough to lose her virginity to her former crush, even though he's now in his 20's and she's still, in a way, fourteen--- I almost flushed the book down the toilet right then. Which would be very fitting, since this book doesn't belong on a bookshelf, but in a goddamn septic tank.
8. Dracula by: Bram Stoker- I figured the epistolary form in which it’s written would dampen much of the suspense, but surprisingly it didn’t. If anything, the diary entries/letters/telegrams/etc. made the story more engaging. I particularly enjoyed the middle section, after Lucy has been bitten and the doctors desperately try to save her before she “turns.” The climax lacks punch, and the good guys are all too perfect and idealized, but I guess that can be forgiven due to the time period it was written. And it was nice to see vampires that are actually scary and menacing and something to fear, as opposed to, like, playing baseball in thunderstorms and dating high school girls.
9. The Dead Zone by: Stephen King- I’m a big fan of Stephen King and I’ve read a lot of his work. I’d rank this one higher on a “Best of Stephen King” list than I would on a “Favorites of Stephen King” list. It’s one of his leaner books and very well-written, yet for whatever reason I just had a hard time getting into it. I also thought the MC was one of King’s dullest and least interesting characters (even his name, John Smith, is boring).
10. Animal Farm by: George Orwell- I’d put off reading this for awhile because I didn’t really think I’d like it. I was wrong. Despite its heavy political themes/symbolism, I actually found the book quite hilarious, which surprised me since 1984 was completely devoid of humor or fun (which was probably intentional, given that particular story).
11. The Kite-Runner by: Khaled Hosseini- Of the books I’ve read so far this year, this is probably my favorite. I especially enjoyed the beginning, about Amir’s childhood years in Afghanistan. The middle section, when Amir and his father escape to America, was less interesting and kinda dragged. I guess it was needed because it provided a bit of closure between the MC and his father, which was a driving aspect of the story, but all the time devoted to how Amir met his future wife was a waste of time, especially since she barely appears in the third act. The book picks up again toward the latter half when things shift back to Afghanistan. I found the plot a bit too predictable at times, and I guess, at its core, the story is actually quite familiar, but it all felt very fresh and new, perhaps because of its setting. The MC is surprisingly unlikeable, too, which would usually hurt a novel’s enjoyment factor, so I guess it’s a testament to the story's overall strength that so many people like this book.
12. Watchers by: Dean Koontz- This is the first book I’ve read by Koontz. He’s quite popular and is often compared to Stephen King, so I figured I’d like his writing. Maybe I picked a bad book to start with, but I really didn’t like this book whatsoever, and it’s turned me off from wanting to read anything else by Koontz for awhile. The writing lacked personality, the dialogue was stiff, the characters were way too flawless, there was too much repetition and an unhealthy balance toward telling everything instead of showing. My second least favorite book so far this year, just behind that steaming pile of shit The Lovely Bones.
13. The Invisible Man by: H.G. Wells- Not much to say about this one. It’s short, simple, easy to read. An enjoyable pulp novel.
14. The Illustrated Man by: Ray Bradbury- Bradbury has been one of my favorite writers ever since I read his excellent short story, “A Sound of Thunder,” in seventh grade. The guy just writes with such joy and zest that it’s always a pleasure to read. This particular book is a collection of short stories, tied together by an “illustrated man” whose tattoos come to life at night when he sleeps. Most of the stories revolve around space exploration or the threat of nuclear war, which is understandable considering when these stories were written. Like The Twilight Zone, Bradbury uses outer space to explore the inner space of man. Some of my particular favorites from this collection include: “The Veldt,” “The Fire Balloons,” “No Particular Night or Morning,” and “The Man.”
*****
Currently I'm about 180 pages away from finishing Anna Karenina. I would've probably finished it by now, but I haven't read very much during the last three weeks or so. My brother recently came up and stayed for a few days, without his wife this time, who had to work.
He called ahead of time and asked if I could get a hold of some weed. He used to smoke quite regularly when he was a teenager, but then he joined the Navy at 19 (he's 35 now, going on 36) and hasn't been able to get high ever since. But now that he's currently unemployed he's been wanting to try it again while he still has the chance. I tried to score some weed when he was here at Thanksgiving, but couldn't. This time, however, I succeeded, and got us several grams of decent-quality herb.
Getting high with my brother was pretty fucking awesome and really helped us bond. Since he's thirteen years older than me and moved out when I was six years old, I've always felt like an only child that just so happens to have a brother. He spent several years in Italy and Spain (where he met his wife) and he would only get to visit for a couple weeks every two-to-three years or so. Even though he's spent the last several years stationed in Jacksonville, Florida and then Charleston, South Carolina, and I've been able to see him a lot more, I've never felt particularly close to my brother. We often share awkward silences where we don't know what to talk about. After getting high together, though, that's all changed. We talked about all kinds of shit while high and had a lot of fun. I then went back with him to Charleston and stayed a few days, where we continued to get high at night after his wife and daughter went to sleep, playing Wii golf and Wii bowling while laughing and talking and having a great time.
Something else that may have helped us bond, though, was a new shared secret between us. About a year ago, thanks to Facebook, my brother reconnected with his old high school sweetheart, and they've been e-mailing/texting/talking on the phone ever since. They dated for a couple of years when they were teenagers; she was his first true love and they lost their virginity to each other. I was only like four-years-old at the time, but I still remember her pretty well since she was always at our house. My brother was pretty devastated when they broke up, and I guess she's always had a place in his heart, considering he named his little girl after her. (His wife doesn't know that, of course, or else she'd flip the fuck out.)
Anyways, while he was here, he met up with his old g/f a few times. She's also married and has a kid, but is apparently unhappy in her marriage. He says they mostly just talked and made-out. No hankey-pankey.
I feel partly responsible since I helped encourage him. He talked to me about it the first night we got high together, asking if he should meet up with her or not, and my stoned-out self was like, "Hell yeah! It ain't really cheating if you've been with her before!" My brother says he wishes he hadn't got married, that he was way too young (21) and that the main reason he married his wife was because he was lonely overseas. I like his wife. She's a good person, and she stuck by his side for several years even though my brother battled with alcoholism. However, she is rather hot-tempered and they argue quite a bit. She can also be a bit overbearing and believes everything has to be her way.
Now that my brother has caught a glimpse of greener grass, he's considering leaving his wife. I think he would've already if it wasn't for his daughter. He knows his wife would get custody of her, and he's afraid she may return to her homeland of Spain. I told him not to do anything drastic or stupid. Even though he and his old flame have talked about leaving their spouses to be together, I'd hate for my brother to confess everything to his wife, ruin his marriage, only to have the other woman get cold feet and decide to stay with her husband.
A small part of me feels a bit guilty, especially when I was around his wife and she was being all nice to me and everything. I feel like I can relate to my brother's situation in a way, though. I've only been in love once, and when the relationship ended after a couple of years, I was devastated. If I got another chance with her someday, I think I would take it, regardless of whatever my current situation may be at the time. Like my brother, I've often wished I could have another chance, since she and I were both too young and immature. My brother has gotten that second chance; he's older now, more mature; both he and the girl still care for another, even after all these years. Like I told my brother, "Maybe she was the one. Maybe the two of you were meant to be together, but were just too young and stupid to realize it. Now life has given you another opportunity. You can either stay on the same road, where you say you're unhappy, or take a risk and turn down this new path, where you may find true happiness or be more miserable than you are now." At least, I think that's what I said. I was pretty fucking high.
If my brother really does turn down that path, though, and my family learns that I helped encourage him to do so, a lot of people are going to be very upset with me--- especially if things don't turn out so well. I keep asking myself if I truly have my brother's best interests at heart or if I'm just so bored with my life at the moment that I'm trying to create drama and watch the ensuing fallout from the front row. Sadly, I think it may be more of the latter.
Does that make me a bad person?
2. Heart-Shaped Box by: Joe Hill--- It's unfair to compare Joe Hill to his father, Stephen King, but it can't be helped. This is Hill's debut novel, about an aging rock star who, after purchasing a dead man’s suit online, find himself running for his life from a murderous ghost. It's a relatively fast-paced book, fairly entertaining and easy to read. I liked it, didn't love it. Certain sections were fairly creepy--- a couple even gave me gooseflesh--- but there were also scenes that were laughably over the top. (Sadly, as the story progressed, there seemed to be much more of the latter.) Hill knows how to rack up the suspense, but he needs his daddy to help him out with characterization. Stephen King allows his characters to propel the plot. Hill's characters, on the other hand, never felt fully formed, especially the girlfriend. I do think this book could make for a great horror movie, though.
3. The Giver by: Lois Lowry--- I remember seeing this book in the library when I was a kid, and the image on the cover of the weary old man with the Tolstoy-like beard has stuck with me ever since. It's about a future society where everyone's choices are made for them: their profession, their mate, their children. Everything is about "sameness." I wish the book had been geared toward an older audience, because there's a lot of food for thought here, but we only get a nibble. The horrible ending also lessened my overall enjoyment.
4. The Running Man by: Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)--- This is the first book I’ve read that King published under his pseudonym. Supposedly he wrote the entire novel in less than a week, which blows my mind. (It takes me a week sometimes just to write one fucking paragraph.) It's very different from anything else I've read by King. His novels usually start out slowly as he spends a lot of time on his characters before really diving into the plot. This one, however, is all plot. It's fun, though--- a B-movie adrenaline trip from beginning to end.
5. The Pearl by: John Steinbeck--- The Grapes of Wrath is one of my favorite books, and Of Mice and Men is one of the few to almost make me cry. Naturally, I figured I would also love The Pearl, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The story--- about a poor Mexican who finds a giant pearl, only to have his life and family torn apart by greed and corruption--- is all very familiar. The characters were stereotypical, the plot predictable, and the writing too heavy-handed. Very disappointing.
6. Neverwhere by: Neil Gaiman--- More disappointment. I read Gaiman's American Gods a few years ago and absolutely loved it. The follow-up/spin-off Anansi Boys was nowhere near as good or ambitious, but it was still fun and had a lot of great humor. Neverwhere is very creative, with an interesting premise, but I never could get into it. To steal a phrase from 2ndhandsunshine, it felt very "ad-libby." Personally, I like to feel that I'm in the hands of a writer who has a firm grasp of where the story's going, someone who has their eye on the overall picture. But with this book it felt like Gaiman was just making shit up as he went along, sending his characters on pointless side-quests that did nothing but pad the story's length. The many attempts at humor fell mostly flat. Also, now that I'm a bit familiar with Gaiman's work, I'm starting to notice the same trends and “twists” in all his work.
7. The Lovely Bones by: Alice Sebold--- I remember hearing about this book when it was first published, and it sounded interesting. I kinda forgot about it, though, until I saw previews for the film last year. I hate reading a book if I’ve already seen the movie, so I picked up a copy. The premise is interesting enough: a fourteen-year-old girl is raped and murdered (in the first chapter, no less), and narrates the rest of the story from her own version of heaven as her family and friends cope with her loss and try to solve the mystery of her death. Critics loved this book and heaped all kinds of praise on it, but I fucking hated it. This is honestly one of the worst pieces of shit I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. The writing is poor and contrived, the characters completely unrealistic, the dialogue unnatural . . . And the bit near the end, when the MC possesses the body of another girl, just so she can come back to the living long enough to lose her virginity to her former crush, even though he's now in his 20's and she's still, in a way, fourteen--- I almost flushed the book down the toilet right then. Which would be very fitting, since this book doesn't belong on a bookshelf, but in a goddamn septic tank.
8. Dracula by: Bram Stoker- I figured the epistolary form in which it’s written would dampen much of the suspense, but surprisingly it didn’t. If anything, the diary entries/letters/telegrams/etc. made the story more engaging. I particularly enjoyed the middle section, after Lucy has been bitten and the doctors desperately try to save her before she “turns.” The climax lacks punch, and the good guys are all too perfect and idealized, but I guess that can be forgiven due to the time period it was written. And it was nice to see vampires that are actually scary and menacing and something to fear, as opposed to, like, playing baseball in thunderstorms and dating high school girls.
9. The Dead Zone by: Stephen King- I’m a big fan of Stephen King and I’ve read a lot of his work. I’d rank this one higher on a “Best of Stephen King” list than I would on a “Favorites of Stephen King” list. It’s one of his leaner books and very well-written, yet for whatever reason I just had a hard time getting into it. I also thought the MC was one of King’s dullest and least interesting characters (even his name, John Smith, is boring).
10. Animal Farm by: George Orwell- I’d put off reading this for awhile because I didn’t really think I’d like it. I was wrong. Despite its heavy political themes/symbolism, I actually found the book quite hilarious, which surprised me since 1984 was completely devoid of humor or fun (which was probably intentional, given that particular story).
11. The Kite-Runner by: Khaled Hosseini- Of the books I’ve read so far this year, this is probably my favorite. I especially enjoyed the beginning, about Amir’s childhood years in Afghanistan. The middle section, when Amir and his father escape to America, was less interesting and kinda dragged. I guess it was needed because it provided a bit of closure between the MC and his father, which was a driving aspect of the story, but all the time devoted to how Amir met his future wife was a waste of time, especially since she barely appears in the third act. The book picks up again toward the latter half when things shift back to Afghanistan. I found the plot a bit too predictable at times, and I guess, at its core, the story is actually quite familiar, but it all felt very fresh and new, perhaps because of its setting. The MC is surprisingly unlikeable, too, which would usually hurt a novel’s enjoyment factor, so I guess it’s a testament to the story's overall strength that so many people like this book.
12. Watchers by: Dean Koontz- This is the first book I’ve read by Koontz. He’s quite popular and is often compared to Stephen King, so I figured I’d like his writing. Maybe I picked a bad book to start with, but I really didn’t like this book whatsoever, and it’s turned me off from wanting to read anything else by Koontz for awhile. The writing lacked personality, the dialogue was stiff, the characters were way too flawless, there was too much repetition and an unhealthy balance toward telling everything instead of showing. My second least favorite book so far this year, just behind that steaming pile of shit The Lovely Bones.
13. The Invisible Man by: H.G. Wells- Not much to say about this one. It’s short, simple, easy to read. An enjoyable pulp novel.
14. The Illustrated Man by: Ray Bradbury- Bradbury has been one of my favorite writers ever since I read his excellent short story, “A Sound of Thunder,” in seventh grade. The guy just writes with such joy and zest that it’s always a pleasure to read. This particular book is a collection of short stories, tied together by an “illustrated man” whose tattoos come to life at night when he sleeps. Most of the stories revolve around space exploration or the threat of nuclear war, which is understandable considering when these stories were written. Like The Twilight Zone, Bradbury uses outer space to explore the inner space of man. Some of my particular favorites from this collection include: “The Veldt,” “The Fire Balloons,” “No Particular Night or Morning,” and “The Man.”
*****
Currently I'm about 180 pages away from finishing Anna Karenina. I would've probably finished it by now, but I haven't read very much during the last three weeks or so. My brother recently came up and stayed for a few days, without his wife this time, who had to work.
He called ahead of time and asked if I could get a hold of some weed. He used to smoke quite regularly when he was a teenager, but then he joined the Navy at 19 (he's 35 now, going on 36) and hasn't been able to get high ever since. But now that he's currently unemployed he's been wanting to try it again while he still has the chance. I tried to score some weed when he was here at Thanksgiving, but couldn't. This time, however, I succeeded, and got us several grams of decent-quality herb.
Getting high with my brother was pretty fucking awesome and really helped us bond. Since he's thirteen years older than me and moved out when I was six years old, I've always felt like an only child that just so happens to have a brother. He spent several years in Italy and Spain (where he met his wife) and he would only get to visit for a couple weeks every two-to-three years or so. Even though he's spent the last several years stationed in Jacksonville, Florida and then Charleston, South Carolina, and I've been able to see him a lot more, I've never felt particularly close to my brother. We often share awkward silences where we don't know what to talk about. After getting high together, though, that's all changed. We talked about all kinds of shit while high and had a lot of fun. I then went back with him to Charleston and stayed a few days, where we continued to get high at night after his wife and daughter went to sleep, playing Wii golf and Wii bowling while laughing and talking and having a great time.
Something else that may have helped us bond, though, was a new shared secret between us. About a year ago, thanks to Facebook, my brother reconnected with his old high school sweetheart, and they've been e-mailing/texting/talking on the phone ever since. They dated for a couple of years when they were teenagers; she was his first true love and they lost their virginity to each other. I was only like four-years-old at the time, but I still remember her pretty well since she was always at our house. My brother was pretty devastated when they broke up, and I guess she's always had a place in his heart, considering he named his little girl after her. (His wife doesn't know that, of course, or else she'd flip the fuck out.)
Anyways, while he was here, he met up with his old g/f a few times. She's also married and has a kid, but is apparently unhappy in her marriage. He says they mostly just talked and made-out. No hankey-pankey.
I feel partly responsible since I helped encourage him. He talked to me about it the first night we got high together, asking if he should meet up with her or not, and my stoned-out self was like, "Hell yeah! It ain't really cheating if you've been with her before!" My brother says he wishes he hadn't got married, that he was way too young (21) and that the main reason he married his wife was because he was lonely overseas. I like his wife. She's a good person, and she stuck by his side for several years even though my brother battled with alcoholism. However, she is rather hot-tempered and they argue quite a bit. She can also be a bit overbearing and believes everything has to be her way.
Now that my brother has caught a glimpse of greener grass, he's considering leaving his wife. I think he would've already if it wasn't for his daughter. He knows his wife would get custody of her, and he's afraid she may return to her homeland of Spain. I told him not to do anything drastic or stupid. Even though he and his old flame have talked about leaving their spouses to be together, I'd hate for my brother to confess everything to his wife, ruin his marriage, only to have the other woman get cold feet and decide to stay with her husband.
A small part of me feels a bit guilty, especially when I was around his wife and she was being all nice to me and everything. I feel like I can relate to my brother's situation in a way, though. I've only been in love once, and when the relationship ended after a couple of years, I was devastated. If I got another chance with her someday, I think I would take it, regardless of whatever my current situation may be at the time. Like my brother, I've often wished I could have another chance, since she and I were both too young and immature. My brother has gotten that second chance; he's older now, more mature; both he and the girl still care for another, even after all these years. Like I told my brother, "Maybe she was the one. Maybe the two of you were meant to be together, but were just too young and stupid to realize it. Now life has given you another opportunity. You can either stay on the same road, where you say you're unhappy, or take a risk and turn down this new path, where you may find true happiness or be more miserable than you are now." At least, I think that's what I said. I was pretty fucking high.
If my brother really does turn down that path, though, and my family learns that I helped encourage him to do so, a lot of people are going to be very upset with me--- especially if things don't turn out so well. I keep asking myself if I truly have my brother's best interests at heart or if I'm just so bored with my life at the moment that I'm trying to create drama and watch the ensuing fallout from the front row. Sadly, I think it may be more of the latter.
Does that make me a bad person?