Ramblings about books ahoy!
This... took me rather longer than anticipated. But - I finally have a (mostly functioning) brain again! Now if this stupid cough would just leave... XP
Anyhow - trip stuff!
It was really a fun trip. Twenty-fifth time visiting the cabin, I believe! We've been going up there for 23 years, but a couple of years went twice. It's always not only a fun, relaxing vacation, but... there's really a reassuring sameness to it. Even when our lives have gotten chaotic, we've had major changes, at times when everything's up in the air and the future seems particularly uncertain, things up there change so little and so gradually that there's a wonderful continuity to it all. Even going grocery shopping the first day we're up there, at the same stores we always go to, I just feel every bit of stress and tension immediately start to unwind.
As usual, we did a fair amount of taking long walks on wooded roads, did some boating, some swimming.... The weather was really nice, for the most part, although a bit odd at times - most days it was warm (though fortunately not too not, since we don't have air conditioning there), but one morning it got down to 40 F. We had lots of time for Serious Family Discussion about several issues, which might normally have been stressful, but really wasn't. It was good.
We also had a really fun time teaching Captain how to swim. He got a little taste of it last summer (not at the cabin, since we didn't have him yet), but he was pretty small then and really scared of going in over his head. This year, it didn't take him more than a few minutes to decide that, yes, getting out into the deep water was absolutely worth it in order to retrieve his fetching dummy. Within a day or two he was enthusiastic about the whole idea, at which point we decided to start teaching him to jump in off the dock... which was a whole different story. *bg* He wanted to do it, but he was scared and not quite sure how to manage it, so he'd race down to the end of the dock, then stop, gather all of his feet right at the edge, then start shaking as he tried to work up his courage, then decide to go for it, carefully step off... and fall in face-first. XD But he got better at it every day, and by the time we left he was leaping a good 10-15 feet off the end. He also really enjoys "rescuing" people who are swimming. Didn't take any real teaching at all - all you need to do is say "Captain, help!" and he'll come out and let you grab onto his fur so he can drag you back to shore. So sweet. :)
We also saw a bit more variety in wildlife than usual. Of course, there are always tons of deer up there, but we also saw a porcupine (which stopped in the middle of the road to attempt to intimidate our car into backing off...), a mother with three adorable cubs (less cute: someone forgot to properly secure their garbage can *sighs*), and an odd snake (which might have been the same species as the water snake we caught a few years back). Even living in the country as we do now, it seems there's always a much greater variety of wildlife hanging around out there.
But of course, my major activity for the trip was... reading. Yeah, this is sadly accurate:
*g* As I said earlier, I did manage to exceed my goal this time around, despite being sick, at 21+ books! Dad also read a book and a half aloud to us, and we listened to another book and a bunch of short stories on CD while driving, but I don't usually count those in my total.
So here's the brief and probably-not-very-coherent rundown. No particular order, just how I happened to have them stacked in my bags:
1984 (George Orwell) - Heheh, seems an appropriate one to read about now, yes? It's... I'm hardly sure what to say about it. It's not exactly the sort of book one talks about enjoying, so much, partly because that implies a lightness that doesn't really fit the tone or subject material. But it is undoubtedly an excellent and profound book - and timely, even this long after it was written. Normally when I come out of a book that ends on that note of hopelessness, and I didn't even really like a single person in it... well, I hate books like that. Typically. I think the hardest thing for me was that even the protagonists weren't really fighting for anything. They had a strong sense that the way things stood was wrong and unnatural, and a vague concept of preserving one's humanity, but ultimately no real principles. Fighting against something without fighting and standing for something else... doesn't work. But, despite all that, I was far from hating the book. I thought it was brilliant, and I'm glad to that I read it. Actually, in some ways it kept reminding me of C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength... Which I have a vague feeling is either so obvious that others' reaction would be pretty much "Um... yeah. You didn't know there were intentional parallels there?" or else so off-base that it'd be more like, "Um... yeah. It's clearly been too long since you've read That Hideous Strength."
Moonwalking with Einstein (Joshua Foer) - This one's about the science of memory and memory techniques. Very interesting! The trouble is, of course, that while the techniques may enable you to perform some really incredible feats of memorization... it requires investing a ton of time and effort beforehand. Plus, they're more suited to very specific types of memorization, such as lists, random numbers, etc., not really the kind of thing that just helps improve the memory generally for things like, say, recalling where you set down the telephone. *g*
Nerve (Dick Francis) - A good one! But then I've really liked just about everything I've read by him. I'd say this particular one comes in at about the midway point, in terms of most- to least-favorite of his books so far. All of his mysteries are connected with horses/horse racing in some way, of course, but it was even more integral to the plot in this one than in most, seeing as the hero is a jockey and the primary mystery/tension centered around racing. Despite knowing very little about horses and racing, I really enjoyed all of that - he does a great job of laying things out so they're clear to even the very inexperienced, without falling into big "infodump" passages.
Miss Marple the Complete Short Stories (Agatha Christie) - It's been a while since I read an Agatha Christie book. I love the Miss Marple stories. ^^ Also, I am firmly convinced that Miss Marple and G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown should team up. They would be such an incredibly awesome duo of innocent, unexpected mystery solvers.
Whose Body and Clouds of Witnesses (Dorothy Sayers) - As I was just saying to scarvenartist the other day, these books were a very good reminder that there is a reason why I like to start series (whether books or movies/TV) in a particular way: Beginning with the very first book/episode, even if it may not be as good as later ones, and working my way through in order. Occasionally I'll break with that habit and it'll end well, and I'll fall in love with something in a haphazard way first and then go about finding more... but more often it just doesn't work. Even if I might, say, love a movie version of something later on, if I watch it before reading the book it's more likely I'll be turned off the whole idea. In this case, someone recommended that I read the Lord Peter mysteries a looong time ago. When I happened across some Lord Peter videos at the library I thought, hey, I'm looking for something to watch anyway, might as well try these! Yeah. Really didn't like them, and just didn't connect with the characters at all. But, being familiar enough with the refrain of "the books are so much better than the movie!", I was not entirely daunted. Later, on a long car trip, I decided it'd be a good idea to try listening to one of the books on tape. Unfortunately, I don't have much recollection of it, beyond the fact that I still didn't like it. So I was left sadly baffled, having wanted to like the stories, and just... not sure why I didn't. I'm not sure what called it to mind again when I was getting ready for the trip, but I decided to give it another try, this times doing things "right." And now... I am SO looking forward to reading the rest of the series, because I am in the process of falling thoroughly in love. :D So yes, brain, point made: Sometimes movies are not a substitute, books on tape are not a substitute, hearing it read aloud by a family member is not a substitute. Sometimes, I just need to read something for myself first.
Our Fickle Constitution (Scott Ott) - I've enjoyed the author's political satire videos (and his more serious videos) for a while, but hadn't read much of his written work, so I thought I'd try is satirical examination of the preamble to the constitution, and modern interpretations thereof. Quite amusing - not as good as his videos, in my opinion, but fun nonetheless.
Love and Friendship (Jane Austen) - Hahahaha. Okay, this one's not actually a single story, it's several different pieces in varying degrees of completion. And when I started it, I didn't realize just to what extent the first piece was intended to be a parody. And I was very, very befuddled. It didn't take me too long to catch on, but when the heroine's fainted four times within the first ten pages or so... *g* Honestly, I would say that that first section was the most truly, accurately dream-like story I've ever read. Oh, some things may be described as dream-like, but typically the people who say that don't mean it in the way that most dreams really are - the apparently random entrances and exits of various people, coincidences and losing plot points - then picking up them again - at seemingly random intervals, and motivations and reactions that seem to make sense in the moment... kind of... but which from any rational perspective are just... what... XD At any rate, I enjoyed the pieces to varying degrees, but by far my favorite part of the book was Austen's silly and blatantly biased short history of the kings and queens of England.
Giant George (Dave Nasser) - The story of the world's tallest (currently living, and tallest ever recorded) dog. It was a fun read, and surprisingly well done. I was impressed at how well the pacing and balance was handled - with a book of this type, it's easy for significant family events to either take over the narrative (so that it loses sight of what you originally came there to read about), or for it to keep so tightly on track that you get the impression that their lives are out of balance to an unhealthy degree ("No, really, our whole lives have revolved around our dog."). But it was handled well here, and the storytelling style was engaging. Having had a bit of experience with similar things from the publishing end, it makes me curious to what extent the author's a natural writer (it's not his career), vs. there being heavy editorial involvement in the process. In any case, a fun one!
Feminists Say the Darndest Things (Mike Adams) - Amusing. ^^ Mike Adams can get pretty, hmm, abrasive at times, but generally in response to situations that are really beyond the pale to begin with, as a way of drawing attention to just how insane some people's behavior can be.
Are We Together (R.C. Sproul) - An interesting last-minute addition - this was a gift from my pastor, just before we left, as thanks for teaching Sunday School classes. It's a look at the Reformation, the details of the doctrinal differences that resulted in the split from Rome, and whether things have changed in modern times - essentially focused on the question of whether the Catholic church has shifted its stance on key points, or whether there is still serious theological disagreement. Very, very interesting. While I was, of course, familiar with the history of the Reformation, this explained some of the finer points in much more detail than I had understood previously.
G.K. Chesterton's Autobiography - It was reading just a short section of the beginning that convinced me I was going to have to read this. Chesterton's got such a wonderful sense of humor, and there were so many great stories in it. That said... it's hardly a sensibile biography if you're looking for any kind of chronological laying out of the main facts of his life. It tells you a lot about the kind of person he was, and quite a bit about the mental/emotional/spiritual journey that brought him there, but skims over or leaves out entirely a lot of the major events of his life, and has a tendency to skip around in time. So: As a biography, not very good. As Chesterton, very interesting. *g*
The Genius of Dogs (Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods) - Despite the interesting information, though, I found the actual pacing and arrangement of the book in places quite odd, and occasional lacking when it came to presenting a good summing-up or conclusion to tie together the information he'd presented.
Call for the Dead (John Le Carre) - This was a wonderful surprise. Rather like the Lord Peter Wimsey books, I was convinced that, despite it being apparently right up my alley, I just didn't like Le Carre's work. Dad had tried reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy aloud to our family a while back, but we ended up quitting partway through. When the movie came out, I thought - hey, I should try this again! It's got a bunch of actors I like, and I feel like I didn't really give the book a fair chance, since it seems like the kind of thing I should've really enjoyed. I wasn't expecting a shoot-'em-up thriller by any means - I was ready for something lower-key, more intricate and realistic than your typical spy movie. Sadly, despite my anticipation, I just found it... the most mind-numbingly boring thing I can remember watching. The music, filming style, and actors' monotone delivery (combined with the fact that it was difficult for me to even hear a lot of the lines) seemed designed not to make me care about anything, at all, ever. But. I really, really enjoyed Call for the Dead. And already, having read just one of the books myself, I think that if I'd read the books first and then watched the movie I would've connected with it a lot more and probably enjoyed it. So - I will definitely be reading more of his books. I've already started checking into whether the library, or just going and outright buying a bunch of them will be the more practical option. :D
Manalive (G.K. Chesterton) - Yes, I love Chesterton. ^^ This one... is ridiculously difficult to even begin to describe. Every time a family member asked me what it was about, the result was basically just incoherent handwaving. I'm actually quite glad, though, that I didn't know much about it myself before reading it - usually I look up some kind of summary first, but I just saw it on the library site when I was looking for his autobiography and decided to request it as well. It was... the most sane piece of utter insanity (or utterly insane bit of sanity, however you like). It was excellent, and I loved the gradual revelation of what was really going on. Beyond that - *flails incoherently*
The Pun also Rises (John Pollack) - A book about puns - their use, history, and all that. I mostly got it because... well, I'm notorious for my dislike of puns, and I was curious as to whether it could change my mind. Despite the interesting information, it didn't exactly revolutionize my perspective. It did, however, help me realize that I don't hate puns without exception. What I mainly tend to react against is 1. their overuse and 2, that air of gleeful smugness over having made, in many cases, a joke that was obvious and not very clever to begin with. It's often so belabored or pointed, it feels like the writer has veeeery deliberately Made A Joke with zero subtlety to it and is looking at you, saying, "Look! Look! Did you see what I did? Wasn't that clever?" To which my reaction is most often either "You're trying too hard." or just "...No." Unfortunately, the author only proved that point to me by inserting some forced puns in the middle of otherwise interesting passages. XP
The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster) - :D Oh, this book made me so happy. A friend at church had mentioned a couple of times that it was among her favorite books. I recognized the title, but didn't know much about it - I kinda thought it sounded like something related to The Twilight Zone. *g* But upon coming to it myself I realized that, lo and behold, certain parts of it were very, very familiar. I'd actually read some excerpts from it, probably at least 15 years ago, in some of my school readers. Hooray for rediscovering old friends and finally getting the whole story! It really is one of those "comfort food" books I just want to hug.
Twilight's End (Jerry Oltion) - No, it has absolutely nothing to do with vampires - just and older Star Trek novel. *g* As ST books go, it was... middling. A decently unique and interesting plot, but the characterization (particularly Spock's) didn't quite ring true at times. Eh, mostly I'm spoiled by having read some particularly good ST fanfic recently. Still, a fun enough read.
In the Frame (Dick Francis) - Oh, this was a fun one. Among my favorites of his, I think. Others may find the similarities of his heroes' personalities a weakness in his writing, but I just love it. Not really detectives or genii or really inquisitive people, sometimes outstanding at their professions but generally just fairly good, just decent, hardworking, sensible people who wind up in a bad situation and unravel mysteries to get out of trouble successfully because they're decent and sensible and hardworking and determined and braver than they themselves believe. As a bonus addition (unusual for his stories), this one took place mostly in Australia. Very good read!
Chancy (Louis L'Amour) - As it happened, I read this immediately after 1984. It is, in many ways, the one least like 1984, of all the books I read. Given Orwell's brilliance, you might think that would mean that this one would suffer particularly in comparison... but it really, really didn't. A straightforward book where the hero's just a good guy, and honorable men like each other and stand by each other, and in the end the good guys come out well, the bad guys come out badly... Well, it was just a breath of fresh air at that point. :)
The Lost Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Ken Greenwald) - This one's an adaptation/novelization of some of the old radio programs. Since the year when Dad first started reading the original ACD stories aloud to us as a family, Sherlock Holmes has been a family tradition that we've particularly associated with the cabin, since that's also been where we've listened to a lot of the old radio programs while driving around. So when I came across it I couldn't resist the urge to read this book there. I thought there were some stories in it that I hadn't heard yet, but in the end I think I have listened to all of them in the past, which was a bit of a disappointment. It also made me a bit twitchy due to some odd - and in some cases persistent - spelling quirks/errors. He did a pretty good job of expanding and adapting to make things more appropriate to a book, but it seems like in some cases he either misheard what the characters were saying or didn't know how to write something out ("aye" =/= the same thing as "eh", even if it may make sense phonetically). :P Still, fun for the nostalgia.
I'm too tired now to go back and re-read everything, so I've a feeling there are plenty of typos and unfinished thoughts. Maybe I'll have more energy to fix that later. XD Looking at the list, my reading ended up skewing a lot more heavily toward mysteries than I'd intended, but ah well. I try to balance things out on this trip, but I have a tendency to go in trends where genres are concerned.
Oh, and the 22nd book that I started but didn't finish on the trip is The Gentle Art of Written Self-Defense (by Suzette Elgin). Not done with it yet, but it looks likely to be very helpful.
And just because it's a fun way to keep track (although, naturally, it's got little significance, given the varying physical sizes of books), it looks like the total number of pages was just short of 4,400. ^^
Anyhow - trip stuff!
It was really a fun trip. Twenty-fifth time visiting the cabin, I believe! We've been going up there for 23 years, but a couple of years went twice. It's always not only a fun, relaxing vacation, but... there's really a reassuring sameness to it. Even when our lives have gotten chaotic, we've had major changes, at times when everything's up in the air and the future seems particularly uncertain, things up there change so little and so gradually that there's a wonderful continuity to it all. Even going grocery shopping the first day we're up there, at the same stores we always go to, I just feel every bit of stress and tension immediately start to unwind.
As usual, we did a fair amount of taking long walks on wooded roads, did some boating, some swimming.... The weather was really nice, for the most part, although a bit odd at times - most days it was warm (though fortunately not too not, since we don't have air conditioning there), but one morning it got down to 40 F. We had lots of time for Serious Family Discussion about several issues, which might normally have been stressful, but really wasn't. It was good.
We also had a really fun time teaching Captain how to swim. He got a little taste of it last summer (not at the cabin, since we didn't have him yet), but he was pretty small then and really scared of going in over his head. This year, it didn't take him more than a few minutes to decide that, yes, getting out into the deep water was absolutely worth it in order to retrieve his fetching dummy. Within a day or two he was enthusiastic about the whole idea, at which point we decided to start teaching him to jump in off the dock... which was a whole different story. *bg* He wanted to do it, but he was scared and not quite sure how to manage it, so he'd race down to the end of the dock, then stop, gather all of his feet right at the edge, then start shaking as he tried to work up his courage, then decide to go for it, carefully step off... and fall in face-first. XD But he got better at it every day, and by the time we left he was leaping a good 10-15 feet off the end. He also really enjoys "rescuing" people who are swimming. Didn't take any real teaching at all - all you need to do is say "Captain, help!" and he'll come out and let you grab onto his fur so he can drag you back to shore. So sweet. :)
We also saw a bit more variety in wildlife than usual. Of course, there are always tons of deer up there, but we also saw a porcupine (which stopped in the middle of the road to attempt to intimidate our car into backing off...), a mother with three adorable cubs (less cute: someone forgot to properly secure their garbage can *sighs*), and an odd snake (which might have been the same species as the water snake we caught a few years back). Even living in the country as we do now, it seems there's always a much greater variety of wildlife hanging around out there.
But of course, my major activity for the trip was... reading. Yeah, this is sadly accurate:
*g* As I said earlier, I did manage to exceed my goal this time around, despite being sick, at 21+ books! Dad also read a book and a half aloud to us, and we listened to another book and a bunch of short stories on CD while driving, but I don't usually count those in my total.
So here's the brief and probably-not-very-coherent rundown. No particular order, just how I happened to have them stacked in my bags:
1984 (George Orwell) - Heheh, seems an appropriate one to read about now, yes? It's... I'm hardly sure what to say about it. It's not exactly the sort of book one talks about enjoying, so much, partly because that implies a lightness that doesn't really fit the tone or subject material. But it is undoubtedly an excellent and profound book - and timely, even this long after it was written. Normally when I come out of a book that ends on that note of hopelessness, and I didn't even really like a single person in it... well, I hate books like that. Typically. I think the hardest thing for me was that even the protagonists weren't really fighting for anything. They had a strong sense that the way things stood was wrong and unnatural, and a vague concept of preserving one's humanity, but ultimately no real principles. Fighting against something without fighting and standing for something else... doesn't work. But, despite all that, I was far from hating the book. I thought it was brilliant, and I'm glad to that I read it. Actually, in some ways it kept reminding me of C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength... Which I have a vague feeling is either so obvious that others' reaction would be pretty much "Um... yeah. You didn't know there were intentional parallels there?" or else so off-base that it'd be more like, "Um... yeah. It's clearly been too long since you've read That Hideous Strength."
Moonwalking with Einstein (Joshua Foer) - This one's about the science of memory and memory techniques. Very interesting! The trouble is, of course, that while the techniques may enable you to perform some really incredible feats of memorization... it requires investing a ton of time and effort beforehand. Plus, they're more suited to very specific types of memorization, such as lists, random numbers, etc., not really the kind of thing that just helps improve the memory generally for things like, say, recalling where you set down the telephone. *g*
Nerve (Dick Francis) - A good one! But then I've really liked just about everything I've read by him. I'd say this particular one comes in at about the midway point, in terms of most- to least-favorite of his books so far. All of his mysteries are connected with horses/horse racing in some way, of course, but it was even more integral to the plot in this one than in most, seeing as the hero is a jockey and the primary mystery/tension centered around racing. Despite knowing very little about horses and racing, I really enjoyed all of that - he does a great job of laying things out so they're clear to even the very inexperienced, without falling into big "infodump" passages.
Miss Marple the Complete Short Stories (Agatha Christie) - It's been a while since I read an Agatha Christie book. I love the Miss Marple stories. ^^ Also, I am firmly convinced that Miss Marple and G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown should team up. They would be such an incredibly awesome duo of innocent, unexpected mystery solvers.
Whose Body and Clouds of Witnesses (Dorothy Sayers) - As I was just saying to scarvenartist the other day, these books were a very good reminder that there is a reason why I like to start series (whether books or movies/TV) in a particular way: Beginning with the very first book/episode, even if it may not be as good as later ones, and working my way through in order. Occasionally I'll break with that habit and it'll end well, and I'll fall in love with something in a haphazard way first and then go about finding more... but more often it just doesn't work. Even if I might, say, love a movie version of something later on, if I watch it before reading the book it's more likely I'll be turned off the whole idea. In this case, someone recommended that I read the Lord Peter mysteries a looong time ago. When I happened across some Lord Peter videos at the library I thought, hey, I'm looking for something to watch anyway, might as well try these! Yeah. Really didn't like them, and just didn't connect with the characters at all. But, being familiar enough with the refrain of "the books are so much better than the movie!", I was not entirely daunted. Later, on a long car trip, I decided it'd be a good idea to try listening to one of the books on tape. Unfortunately, I don't have much recollection of it, beyond the fact that I still didn't like it. So I was left sadly baffled, having wanted to like the stories, and just... not sure why I didn't. I'm not sure what called it to mind again when I was getting ready for the trip, but I decided to give it another try, this times doing things "right." And now... I am SO looking forward to reading the rest of the series, because I am in the process of falling thoroughly in love. :D So yes, brain, point made: Sometimes movies are not a substitute, books on tape are not a substitute, hearing it read aloud by a family member is not a substitute. Sometimes, I just need to read something for myself first.
Our Fickle Constitution (Scott Ott) - I've enjoyed the author's political satire videos (and his more serious videos) for a while, but hadn't read much of his written work, so I thought I'd try is satirical examination of the preamble to the constitution, and modern interpretations thereof. Quite amusing - not as good as his videos, in my opinion, but fun nonetheless.
Love and Friendship (Jane Austen) - Hahahaha. Okay, this one's not actually a single story, it's several different pieces in varying degrees of completion. And when I started it, I didn't realize just to what extent the first piece was intended to be a parody. And I was very, very befuddled. It didn't take me too long to catch on, but when the heroine's fainted four times within the first ten pages or so... *g* Honestly, I would say that that first section was the most truly, accurately dream-like story I've ever read. Oh, some things may be described as dream-like, but typically the people who say that don't mean it in the way that most dreams really are - the apparently random entrances and exits of various people, coincidences and losing plot points - then picking up them again - at seemingly random intervals, and motivations and reactions that seem to make sense in the moment... kind of... but which from any rational perspective are just... what... XD At any rate, I enjoyed the pieces to varying degrees, but by far my favorite part of the book was Austen's silly and blatantly biased short history of the kings and queens of England.
Giant George (Dave Nasser) - The story of the world's tallest (currently living, and tallest ever recorded) dog. It was a fun read, and surprisingly well done. I was impressed at how well the pacing and balance was handled - with a book of this type, it's easy for significant family events to either take over the narrative (so that it loses sight of what you originally came there to read about), or for it to keep so tightly on track that you get the impression that their lives are out of balance to an unhealthy degree ("No, really, our whole lives have revolved around our dog."). But it was handled well here, and the storytelling style was engaging. Having had a bit of experience with similar things from the publishing end, it makes me curious to what extent the author's a natural writer (it's not his career), vs. there being heavy editorial involvement in the process. In any case, a fun one!
Feminists Say the Darndest Things (Mike Adams) - Amusing. ^^ Mike Adams can get pretty, hmm, abrasive at times, but generally in response to situations that are really beyond the pale to begin with, as a way of drawing attention to just how insane some people's behavior can be.
Are We Together (R.C. Sproul) - An interesting last-minute addition - this was a gift from my pastor, just before we left, as thanks for teaching Sunday School classes. It's a look at the Reformation, the details of the doctrinal differences that resulted in the split from Rome, and whether things have changed in modern times - essentially focused on the question of whether the Catholic church has shifted its stance on key points, or whether there is still serious theological disagreement. Very, very interesting. While I was, of course, familiar with the history of the Reformation, this explained some of the finer points in much more detail than I had understood previously.
G.K. Chesterton's Autobiography - It was reading just a short section of the beginning that convinced me I was going to have to read this. Chesterton's got such a wonderful sense of humor, and there were so many great stories in it. That said... it's hardly a sensibile biography if you're looking for any kind of chronological laying out of the main facts of his life. It tells you a lot about the kind of person he was, and quite a bit about the mental/emotional/spiritual journey that brought him there, but skims over or leaves out entirely a lot of the major events of his life, and has a tendency to skip around in time. So: As a biography, not very good. As Chesterton, very interesting. *g*
The Genius of Dogs (Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods) - Despite the interesting information, though, I found the actual pacing and arrangement of the book in places quite odd, and occasional lacking when it came to presenting a good summing-up or conclusion to tie together the information he'd presented.
Call for the Dead (John Le Carre) - This was a wonderful surprise. Rather like the Lord Peter Wimsey books, I was convinced that, despite it being apparently right up my alley, I just didn't like Le Carre's work. Dad had tried reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy aloud to our family a while back, but we ended up quitting partway through. When the movie came out, I thought - hey, I should try this again! It's got a bunch of actors I like, and I feel like I didn't really give the book a fair chance, since it seems like the kind of thing I should've really enjoyed. I wasn't expecting a shoot-'em-up thriller by any means - I was ready for something lower-key, more intricate and realistic than your typical spy movie. Sadly, despite my anticipation, I just found it... the most mind-numbingly boring thing I can remember watching. The music, filming style, and actors' monotone delivery (combined with the fact that it was difficult for me to even hear a lot of the lines) seemed designed not to make me care about anything, at all, ever. But. I really, really enjoyed Call for the Dead. And already, having read just one of the books myself, I think that if I'd read the books first and then watched the movie I would've connected with it a lot more and probably enjoyed it. So - I will definitely be reading more of his books. I've already started checking into whether the library, or just going and outright buying a bunch of them will be the more practical option. :D
Manalive (G.K. Chesterton) - Yes, I love Chesterton. ^^ This one... is ridiculously difficult to even begin to describe. Every time a family member asked me what it was about, the result was basically just incoherent handwaving. I'm actually quite glad, though, that I didn't know much about it myself before reading it - usually I look up some kind of summary first, but I just saw it on the library site when I was looking for his autobiography and decided to request it as well. It was... the most sane piece of utter insanity (or utterly insane bit of sanity, however you like). It was excellent, and I loved the gradual revelation of what was really going on. Beyond that - *flails incoherently*
The Pun also Rises (John Pollack) - A book about puns - their use, history, and all that. I mostly got it because... well, I'm notorious for my dislike of puns, and I was curious as to whether it could change my mind. Despite the interesting information, it didn't exactly revolutionize my perspective. It did, however, help me realize that I don't hate puns without exception. What I mainly tend to react against is 1. their overuse and 2, that air of gleeful smugness over having made, in many cases, a joke that was obvious and not very clever to begin with. It's often so belabored or pointed, it feels like the writer has veeeery deliberately Made A Joke with zero subtlety to it and is looking at you, saying, "Look! Look! Did you see what I did? Wasn't that clever?" To which my reaction is most often either "You're trying too hard." or just "...No." Unfortunately, the author only proved that point to me by inserting some forced puns in the middle of otherwise interesting passages. XP
The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster) - :D Oh, this book made me so happy. A friend at church had mentioned a couple of times that it was among her favorite books. I recognized the title, but didn't know much about it - I kinda thought it sounded like something related to The Twilight Zone. *g* But upon coming to it myself I realized that, lo and behold, certain parts of it were very, very familiar. I'd actually read some excerpts from it, probably at least 15 years ago, in some of my school readers. Hooray for rediscovering old friends and finally getting the whole story! It really is one of those "comfort food" books I just want to hug.
Twilight's End (Jerry Oltion) - No, it has absolutely nothing to do with vampires - just and older Star Trek novel. *g* As ST books go, it was... middling. A decently unique and interesting plot, but the characterization (particularly Spock's) didn't quite ring true at times. Eh, mostly I'm spoiled by having read some particularly good ST fanfic recently. Still, a fun enough read.
In the Frame (Dick Francis) - Oh, this was a fun one. Among my favorites of his, I think. Others may find the similarities of his heroes' personalities a weakness in his writing, but I just love it. Not really detectives or genii or really inquisitive people, sometimes outstanding at their professions but generally just fairly good, just decent, hardworking, sensible people who wind up in a bad situation and unravel mysteries to get out of trouble successfully because they're decent and sensible and hardworking and determined and braver than they themselves believe. As a bonus addition (unusual for his stories), this one took place mostly in Australia. Very good read!
Chancy (Louis L'Amour) - As it happened, I read this immediately after 1984. It is, in many ways, the one least like 1984, of all the books I read. Given Orwell's brilliance, you might think that would mean that this one would suffer particularly in comparison... but it really, really didn't. A straightforward book where the hero's just a good guy, and honorable men like each other and stand by each other, and in the end the good guys come out well, the bad guys come out badly... Well, it was just a breath of fresh air at that point. :)
The Lost Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Ken Greenwald) - This one's an adaptation/novelization of some of the old radio programs. Since the year when Dad first started reading the original ACD stories aloud to us as a family, Sherlock Holmes has been a family tradition that we've particularly associated with the cabin, since that's also been where we've listened to a lot of the old radio programs while driving around. So when I came across it I couldn't resist the urge to read this book there. I thought there were some stories in it that I hadn't heard yet, but in the end I think I have listened to all of them in the past, which was a bit of a disappointment. It also made me a bit twitchy due to some odd - and in some cases persistent - spelling quirks/errors. He did a pretty good job of expanding and adapting to make things more appropriate to a book, but it seems like in some cases he either misheard what the characters were saying or didn't know how to write something out ("aye" =/= the same thing as "eh", even if it may make sense phonetically). :P Still, fun for the nostalgia.
I'm too tired now to go back and re-read everything, so I've a feeling there are plenty of typos and unfinished thoughts. Maybe I'll have more energy to fix that later. XD Looking at the list, my reading ended up skewing a lot more heavily toward mysteries than I'd intended, but ah well. I try to balance things out on this trip, but I have a tendency to go in trends where genres are concerned.
Oh, and the 22nd book that I started but didn't finish on the trip is The Gentle Art of Written Self-Defense (by Suzette Elgin). Not done with it yet, but it looks likely to be very helpful.
And just because it's a fun way to keep track (although, naturally, it's got little significance, given the varying physical sizes of books), it looks like the total number of pages was just short of 4,400. ^^