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a_reader_is_me2009-06-19 02:24 am
potted_music) wrote in a_reader_is_me2009-06-19 02:24 am
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Title: Northanger Abbey
Author: Jane Austen
Genre: romance-gothic mixture?
Book Number/Goal: 56/150
I'm of very mixed feelings about this one. I loved the first half of the novel to pieces, what with the apology of reading & female friendship. The second half, what with its dissing of passionate readers, left me cold. Combining strong arguments pro something should not be followed by dissing the same thing, I guess?
Title: The Best American Poetry 2005
Author: ed. by Paul Muldoon & David Lehman
Genre:
Book Number/Goal: 57/150
A great collection, basically - the title says it all. I've typed up some of the poems I liked best here.
58/150 - four Gothic-themed stories that I'm counting as one book.
Title: The Canterville Ghost
Author: Oscar Wilde
It's funny how the threat to teh old culture (TM) could still be externalized back then :) And the ghost dies in such a Medieval way - la belle dame, the intermingling of death & love, roses as a backdrop. The first Wilde's prose work that I liked, I think?
Title: Sarrasine [English translation]
Author: Honore de Balzac
This is a story about objectification, the Pygmalion myth in reverse, the tale of a woman becoming the work of art, or of a woman never existing outside the man's imagination. Which is definitely not what I expected of a 19 C. novella. It has its fair share of stuff that squicked me out, but the sentiment, wow! Also, I've last read Balzac while still in high school, and I completely missed how ironic/tongue-in-cheek his style is.
Title: The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow
Author: Washington Irving
My plot expectations were pretty much limited to some knowledge of the Tim Burton movie, which, wow, did a 180-degree reverse of the ideological message of the short story, which marginalizes the supernatural motive to bring out the strength of these non-nonsense salt-of-the-earth settlers. I liked Ichabrod - his practicality sprinkled with superstitiousness.
Title: The Camp of the Dog [the second of John Silence stories?]
Author: Algernon Blackwood
So much WTF-ery & overall fail on this one. Raving long-winded explanations of transcendentalist-style werewolves; the girl obliged to fall in love with a guy just because he's so obsessed with her he turns into a wolf; racefail re:Indians; the predictable, unevenly-paced, boring plot - any of that would have made this novella a waste of time, and it had all of those things :-/
Title: Maus [2 volumes]
Author: Art Spiegelman
Genre: biography
Book Number/Goal: 59/150
I've been carefully avoiding Holocaust memoirs, and will probably stick to that decision henceforward. I cried my way through both volumes, and crying while reading as awkward & messy.
Not that I don't recommend Maus - 'cuz I do. It's a great story, powerfully written; Spiegelman records his father's story of surviving Auschwitz, interweaving it with autobiographical segments: the history of his family, survivor's guilt of those who were born after the war, the painful coming to terms with ethnic identity, the painful coming to terms with his tyrant of a father (and through him, with history). The idea of a comic book about Holocaust seemed absurd to me - hello, cultural hypocrisy! - and of a comic book representing people as animals, double so. But this absurdity brings out the horrors of history way more vividly.
Title: The Wisdom of Father Brown
Author: G.K. Chesterton
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 60/150
A collection of Father Brown short stories, most linked by the theme of identity - identities lost, found, assumed, stolen, or otherwise juggled. These felt more like anecdotes than short stories - maybe because all plots hinged strongly on the almost-comic final revelation of the true identity; not a very satisfying read.
Author: Jane Austen
Genre: romance-gothic mixture?
Book Number/Goal: 56/150
I'm of very mixed feelings about this one. I loved the first half of the novel to pieces, what with the apology of reading & female friendship. The second half, what with its dissing of passionate readers, left me cold. Combining strong arguments pro something should not be followed by dissing the same thing, I guess?
Title: The Best American Poetry 2005
Author: ed. by Paul Muldoon & David Lehman
Genre:
Book Number/Goal: 57/150
A great collection, basically - the title says it all. I've typed up some of the poems I liked best here.
58/150 - four Gothic-themed stories that I'm counting as one book.
Title: The Canterville Ghost
Author: Oscar Wilde
It's funny how the threat to teh old culture (TM) could still be externalized back then :) And the ghost dies in such a Medieval way - la belle dame, the intermingling of death & love, roses as a backdrop. The first Wilde's prose work that I liked, I think?
Title: Sarrasine [English translation]
Author: Honore de Balzac
This is a story about objectification, the Pygmalion myth in reverse, the tale of a woman becoming the work of art, or of a woman never existing outside the man's imagination. Which is definitely not what I expected of a 19 C. novella. It has its fair share of stuff that squicked me out, but the sentiment, wow! Also, I've last read Balzac while still in high school, and I completely missed how ironic/tongue-in-cheek his style is.
Title: The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow
Author: Washington Irving
My plot expectations were pretty much limited to some knowledge of the Tim Burton movie, which, wow, did a 180-degree reverse of the ideological message of the short story, which marginalizes the supernatural motive to bring out the strength of these non-nonsense salt-of-the-earth settlers. I liked Ichabrod - his practicality sprinkled with superstitiousness.
Title: The Camp of the Dog [the second of John Silence stories?]
Author: Algernon Blackwood
So much WTF-ery & overall fail on this one. Raving long-winded explanations of transcendentalist-style werewolves; the girl obliged to fall in love with a guy just because he's so obsessed with her he turns into a wolf; racefail re:Indians; the predictable, unevenly-paced, boring plot - any of that would have made this novella a waste of time, and it had all of those things :-/
Title: Maus [2 volumes]
Author: Art Spiegelman
Genre: biography
Book Number/Goal: 59/150
I've been carefully avoiding Holocaust memoirs, and will probably stick to that decision henceforward. I cried my way through both volumes, and crying while reading as awkward & messy.
Not that I don't recommend Maus - 'cuz I do. It's a great story, powerfully written; Spiegelman records his father's story of surviving Auschwitz, interweaving it with autobiographical segments: the history of his family, survivor's guilt of those who were born after the war, the painful coming to terms with ethnic identity, the painful coming to terms with his tyrant of a father (and through him, with history). The idea of a comic book about Holocaust seemed absurd to me - hello, cultural hypocrisy! - and of a comic book representing people as animals, double so. But this absurdity brings out the horrors of history way more vividly.
Title: The Wisdom of Father Brown
Author: G.K. Chesterton
Genre: mystery
Book Number/Goal: 60/150
A collection of Father Brown short stories, most linked by the theme of identity - identities lost, found, assumed, stolen, or otherwise juggled. These felt more like anecdotes than short stories - maybe because all plots hinged strongly on the almost-comic final revelation of the true identity; not a very satisfying read.