Books Read: January & February

[2ndhandsunshine]

Comments

[wpadmirer]

Wow. I really disagree with your assessment of DRY. I live with a man who's an alcoholic (sober for now almost 20 years), and I can tell you that the book is extremely true to what his experience was. He felt a deep connection to the book.

I found it powerful and moving.

[2ndhandsunshine]

See, and that's the thing. My boyfriend was a smoker who quit last year and it was a very difficult process he had to try a couple of times before it finally stuck, and even then it was far from him just quitting completely. There were definite withdrawal symptoms and every day he had to fight the craving to light up-- he bit his nails a lot, chewed a lot of gum, drank a lot of caffeine, snacked a lot more, and got bad headaches he described as feeling like "a mouse was running around his head chewing on his brain".

With the book, the author does a great job of showing us what a drunk he was at the beginning-- the way he stays up at all hours of the night drinking with his friend, then shows up to work reeking of alcohol or missing work altogether, and so on to where we can see he's a complete mess. But he barely mentions the difficulty he has with getting sober and staying sober; only a couple of times does he mention wanting a drink, and only then in passing comments that does little to illustrate the actual craving. I had the same

[gilee7]

I wasn't planning on reading The Things They Carried until much later in the year, but hearing that it's apparently much more than just a war story makes me want to check it out a lot sooner. I might make it my next read.

City of Thieves sounds interesting, too. I haven't read anything "adventurous" in a long, long time. It might make for a nice change of pace.

[2ndhandsunshine]

City of Thieves is like... Enemy at the Gates but with more likable leads and less metaphorical gravity.