Reading Achievement Unlocked
So as of yesterday I have reached my yearly goal of reading 52 books. To mark the occasion and for anyone that's interested I've decided to give my opinions on 5 books at a time. If you want to comment, disagree or ask any questions feel free.
1. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury - Dystopian/Sci-Fi - 7/10 - This is one of those books that apparently everyone else in the world read while they were in middle school. Which also shows about what intelligence level you need in order to understand it...not very challenging. Bradbury is a great writer especially for his time. He's a master of imagery and dialogue and getting the two to work together to build a thought provoking idea into a plot.
The story is of a Fireman, a horrible job that involves burning books to prevent the public from reading them. But unlike everyone else in his job this Fireman has a desire to read spurred on by a sexy young neighbor. He soon runs afoul of those above him and the story becomes a thrilling race to stay alive.
Unfortunately Bradbury is better at short story length and as far as I know this is one of the only times that Bradbury strayed into the novella length and its mostly in the length that Bradbury has problems. He expands at length on the wrong things and at other times feels like he's working still from a short story mindset for key elements of the plot. For example when he has one of the books villains explain the entire back story of the world's nightmarish condition in a long 2 page conversation rather than letting the character and reader slowly find out for themselves. It read a little too much to me like a James Bond bad guy revealing his plot right before Bond escapes and foils it. But definitely a foundational sci fi text.
2. Royal Flash - Gregory McDonald Frasier - Historical Fiction - 8/10 The second book in the Flashman series which as a whole is a tongue in cheek historical book set in 19th century Victorian England.
In this installment Harry Flashman the perpetual cowardly ladies man gets caught up in a Danish plot involving switching monarchs in order to assist Otto Von Bismark into capturing vital regions of Denmark. For those of you with a taste for historical thrillers with a comedic twist this is the series for you.
3. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut - Sci-Fi War - 9/10 Vonnegut is nearly always on top of his game but of the 4 of his I have read I would put this at the bottom. Not due to lack of quality but just due to endless bleakness portrayed. But as a satirical look at WW2 its wonderful. Describing the plot of a Vonnegut novel is a bit like describing the musical CATS. You'll either love it or you won't but describing the plot will only get you to read or not read it based on the wrong reasons. I would recommend it highly but not until after you've read some other Vonnegut in order to get a grip on the style.
4. The Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad- Classic Fiction - 6/10 - Short, brutal, and boring. Conrad in like reading Faulkner only with less thought provoking material. The most interesting stuff here is still dated and feels old. At only 108 pages you think it'd be easy to rifle right through it but I didn't. Kept getting stuck on long meandering descriptions of African riverbanks and slow moving rivers. It's not hard to see why so many years later very few people understand what the story is a metaphor for. Is the main character chasing into his own subconscious attempting to discern the true meaning of self or is it a strong condemnation of the colonial trade in ivory. Well whatever it is its boring and in my opinion not worth the time.
5. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner - Classic Fiction - 10/10 Faulkner is one of the most challenging authors in the American cannon. It always feels like your attempting to read a book translated from a foreign language and half the words don't fit right.
As I Lay Dying is the story of the Bundren family as they attempt to travel across back county Alabama to put their dead mother's body to rest. Each chapter is told first person from the perspective of a different character and its clear that Faulkner may have more total understanding of each of his characters than most authors have in their best. The narrative is extremely important but buried in the different characters personal voices. Form the sensitive Darl who initially works as the stories narrator as he slowly is descending into madness, to the childish Vardaman who is a decade younger than his siblings, to the short, turse, and angry Anse each character brings new levels of meaning an understanding that may take more than one read to feel like you understand.
This book is not for the casual reader. As each character brings perspective and meaning it's clear that the struggle at the heart of the story is about far more than a Southern family attempting to bury their dead mother. It's about the South, it's about modern life, it's about death, and its about nothing. This may sound like some sort of indie film, hipster nonsense but its true. Faulkner shows that American culture has produced works of fiction that can rival anything brought on by the English, Russians, and Irish. I would suggest that anyone wanting to take on a challenge should give it a try, struggle through to the end, take a few deep breaths, give it a week, and start it again.
1. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury - Dystopian/Sci-Fi - 7/10 - This is one of those books that apparently everyone else in the world read while they were in middle school. Which also shows about what intelligence level you need in order to understand it...not very challenging. Bradbury is a great writer especially for his time. He's a master of imagery and dialogue and getting the two to work together to build a thought provoking idea into a plot.
The story is of a Fireman, a horrible job that involves burning books to prevent the public from reading them. But unlike everyone else in his job this Fireman has a desire to read spurred on by a sexy young neighbor. He soon runs afoul of those above him and the story becomes a thrilling race to stay alive.
Unfortunately Bradbury is better at short story length and as far as I know this is one of the only times that Bradbury strayed into the novella length and its mostly in the length that Bradbury has problems. He expands at length on the wrong things and at other times feels like he's working still from a short story mindset for key elements of the plot. For example when he has one of the books villains explain the entire back story of the world's nightmarish condition in a long 2 page conversation rather than letting the character and reader slowly find out for themselves. It read a little too much to me like a James Bond bad guy revealing his plot right before Bond escapes and foils it. But definitely a foundational sci fi text.
2. Royal Flash - Gregory McDonald Frasier - Historical Fiction - 8/10 The second book in the Flashman series which as a whole is a tongue in cheek historical book set in 19th century Victorian England.
In this installment Harry Flashman the perpetual cowardly ladies man gets caught up in a Danish plot involving switching monarchs in order to assist Otto Von Bismark into capturing vital regions of Denmark. For those of you with a taste for historical thrillers with a comedic twist this is the series for you.
3. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut - Sci-Fi War - 9/10 Vonnegut is nearly always on top of his game but of the 4 of his I have read I would put this at the bottom. Not due to lack of quality but just due to endless bleakness portrayed. But as a satirical look at WW2 its wonderful. Describing the plot of a Vonnegut novel is a bit like describing the musical CATS. You'll either love it or you won't but describing the plot will only get you to read or not read it based on the wrong reasons. I would recommend it highly but not until after you've read some other Vonnegut in order to get a grip on the style.
4. The Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad- Classic Fiction - 6/10 - Short, brutal, and boring. Conrad in like reading Faulkner only with less thought provoking material. The most interesting stuff here is still dated and feels old. At only 108 pages you think it'd be easy to rifle right through it but I didn't. Kept getting stuck on long meandering descriptions of African riverbanks and slow moving rivers. It's not hard to see why so many years later very few people understand what the story is a metaphor for. Is the main character chasing into his own subconscious attempting to discern the true meaning of self or is it a strong condemnation of the colonial trade in ivory. Well whatever it is its boring and in my opinion not worth the time.
5. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner - Classic Fiction - 10/10 Faulkner is one of the most challenging authors in the American cannon. It always feels like your attempting to read a book translated from a foreign language and half the words don't fit right.
As I Lay Dying is the story of the Bundren family as they attempt to travel across back county Alabama to put their dead mother's body to rest. Each chapter is told first person from the perspective of a different character and its clear that Faulkner may have more total understanding of each of his characters than most authors have in their best. The narrative is extremely important but buried in the different characters personal voices. Form the sensitive Darl who initially works as the stories narrator as he slowly is descending into madness, to the childish Vardaman who is a decade younger than his siblings, to the short, turse, and angry Anse each character brings new levels of meaning an understanding that may take more than one read to feel like you understand.
This book is not for the casual reader. As each character brings perspective and meaning it's clear that the struggle at the heart of the story is about far more than a Southern family attempting to bury their dead mother. It's about the South, it's about modern life, it's about death, and its about nothing. This may sound like some sort of indie film, hipster nonsense but its true. Faulkner shows that American culture has produced works of fiction that can rival anything brought on by the English, Russians, and Irish. I would suggest that anyone wanting to take on a challenge should give it a try, struggle through to the end, take a few deep breaths, give it a week, and start it again.