Bookkeeping 2006-February Weeks 2 & 3
Book Log: Second week of February
The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg
Strolling through an evil mega-corp book store, a blurb from Harlan Ellison caught my eye: “One of my favorite nightmare novels.” I’ve been thinking for years about what makes horror novels horrid, and so I was intrigued by Harlan’s come on. I picked up the top copy of the book from the stack to investigate further. Steve walked by on his way from the fiction section to the philosophy section and said incredulously (that’s just the way he says things): “Robert Silverberg?!?! He’s an old sci-fi guy!” Indeed. The cover of this 2006 Del Rey Books Trade Paperback edition of The Book of Skulls (originally published in 1972) had another front cover note announcing: Soon to be a major motion picture. Having since purchased and read it, I must say I’d be interested to see what Hollywood does with this story. (Right now, looks like it's stuck in production limbo.) One thing I know for sure, Ned (one of the characters), provides the perfect tag line: “It’s not just your asshole that gets broadened.” The basic story can be described as follows: "Four very different college roommates set off on a wild spring break adventure!" Which more or less sums things up, but this is no ordinary spring break...This book actually deserves an expository essay, which I don't feel up to writing (plus I promised myself not to get too grandiose w/ my summaries, or else I'd start to avoid them...) What I really did like about the book is that it has stuck with me more then I expected...two weeks after finishing it, I find myself thinking about the central issues in the book: belief, reality, living and dying, the little things. The book's narrative structure is first person w/ alternating narrators (the four main characters.) The voices are distinct and all of the characters have different narrative strengths/thematic focus: Eli advances the premise--he's the scholastic nerd...OR IS HE?, Ned provides the best road-trip stories--he's a hot Catholic fag, Oliver is the mystic farm boy who keeps the implausible plausible and Tim is in some ways the skeptical reader, a rich boy along for the ride who gets in way too deep and keeps questioning what's really going on...It's complicated. It's also worth reading. I'm still wondering if it's real (I know, it's fiction) but I mean, is it true? If it is, then it's sci-fi. If it's not true then it's a novel about a slightly cheesy cult..."That's some catch that catch-22."
Book Log: Third week of February
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
If you ever find yourself going to Iowa for three days, this is the novel to take. It's great plane/airport reading. A zippy little mystery set in the future. Lots of sex (J.D. Robb also writes romance novels under the name Nora Roberts) but this was fairly graphic, not too bodice-y. What I like about it is that the futuristic elements aren't over explained or even really the focus of the book. The main protagonist, Lieutenant Eve Dallas, is smart, damaged (this was probably the most uncomfortably heavy handed part of the novel, but not a deal breaker) and she's also hot for a tall, dark, rich and bad (in a good way) suspect named Roarke...I don't know if he has any other name... There are twenty + other novels in this same series, and I am curious to see where things go but not yet so hooked that I'm going to dive right into the next one. I do have a feeling that it could potentially become habit forming though.