Six months of unemployment helped me get through a few books this year. It's telling that I got a job two weeks after I started reading War And Peace so it took me four months to read. All in all it's been a good year for books read. I could have written lengthy analyses at the time but, instead, here's some glib comments which have been given little thought on each book in the order in which I read them.
Ethan Canin - America America
I began this at the tail end of last year but read enough of it for to be classed as one of this year's books. It's now almost twelve months and I wish I'd written something about it at the time by way of review or commentary. I thought it was really good at the time. It has deliberate parallels with Edward Kennedy's incident at Chappaquiddick but also refers to this so it's not meant to be an entirely fictional account. I thought of it as a grand family saga which reminded me of the Tolstoy I had yet to read.
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
I was essentially disappointed with this. Many people had told me it was very good but I just couldn't connect with it. I "got it" as an extended poem but I found myself thinking, "Yes, I get it, is this all there is?" Part of the problem may have been that I read it too sporadically instead of in a few short sittings. I may give it another go at some point.
Ian Rush - Autobiography
My granddad gave me this after he'd read it. Ian Rush was my favourite player when I was 8/9 years old. I read the first version of his autobiography around about that age. I was interested to read about Rush's time in Italy and the truth behind "it was like living in a foreign country" which Rush claims was said by Kenny Dalglish in a press conference for a laugh. It was a passable read but nothing special. Plus, I knew what I would read next.
Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
I approached this with some caution. Despite its acclaim, I was concerned that it would be an Austen style novel about social conventions amongst the Russian aristocracy. In other words, a book that girls like. That was an aspect of it but I found it interesting and there there was so much more. This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. It was a revelation. I can only assess it from the Maude English translation but Tolstoy writes brilliantly in both style and structure. I also liked some of the philosophical musings, especially the spiritual enlightenment which occurs towards the end of the novel. The most unfortunate aspect of this is that it tends to be sold as a great love story but that's only a small part of an epic novel.
Denis Leary - Why We Suck
A repetitious comedy book which has its point and jokes stretched out to about 200 thin pages. Far too much filler.
Jonathan Wilson - Inverting The Pyramid
A history and examination of football tactics could be very boring but that isn't so in Wilson's interesting and inquisitive book.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture Of Dorian Gray
This had sat on my shelf for years without being touched. I was glad when I finally read it as it's an excellent novella. I liked the themes it explores.
James Ellroy - American Tabloid
Part one of Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy. I first read this in 2001 and it's the first time in years that I've re-read a book. I generally seek to read something new (to me) but as the paperback edition of Blood's A Rover was due out I needed to remind myself of what happened in the first two parts. I thought this was brilliant when I first read it that excitement couldn't be repeated on second reading so many years later.
James Ellroy - The Cold Six Thousand
I had struggled to read this when it first came out in paperback circa 2002 due to Ellroy's increasingly sparse prose. Ellroy has since said that he may have gone too far in his economy of words. Rather than making it simpler, it's akin to watching split seconds of information and trying to keep up. That said, I gave it greater focus this second time round and probably enjoyed it more than American Tabloid.
James Ellroy - Blood's A Rover
The long awaited final part of Ellroy's trilogy. Ellroy's a great writer but his plotting can become so elaborate (or "Byzantine" as I learnt from reading other reviews) that it's very easy to be at points where it's hard to know who is who, what they did and how they ended up where they are. However, its diversion from the Kennedys was of little interest to me in 2002 but heroin trafficking in mid-60s Vietnam was now of greater interest,
Ben Goldacre - Bad Science
After some 1700 pages of James Ellroy's stylised prose I opted for a simple popular science book which debunks much of today's pseudo-science such as homoeopathy and anything involving Gillian McKeith. There is, however, some balance in that Goldacre recognises the value that a placebo can have.
John Howard Griffin - Black Like Me
In 1959 white journalist John Howard Griffin used medication and deep tanning lotion to make himself appear black and travelled through America's Deep South to experience life as a black man. What Griffin documents is both shocking and moving.
Fyodr Dostoevsky - Crime And Punishment
This was a novel that I'd thought about reading for a number of years but never got round to it. I'd bought it shortly before Anna Karenina and intended to read it first. Having read Tolstoy I think I compared this unfairly. I don't know if it was the translation but the style was far scruffier than Tolstoy's. As a result, this was a disappointment to me. That's not to say it's bad, I just thought I would really like it and I didn't.
Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski - Why England Lose: & Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained
This started off well as a new way of looking at football but after a few chapters I lost interest and skipped quite a bit.
Lee Hill - Easy Rider (BFI Modern Classics)
I'd forgotten I'd read this. An extended essay on the film.
Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club
This is much closer to the film than I expected. It's such a short book that it's hard to add comment.
Kevin Booth - Bill Hicks: Agent Of Evolution
This book needed a better editor. Having read a Cynthia True's earlier biography of Hicks, American Scream, I thought this, compiled and written by his friend would add more insight. Unfortunately, many anecdotes are repeated by different people and it's not until Hicks's very late years that one learns a few things that were not in American Scream. Another glaring omission is a record of Hicks's material at the time. I'm very familiar with Hicks main body of work but I would have liked to have read more of what made him good as a very young comic.
Leo Tolstoy - War And Peace
Having found Anna Karenina to be a revelation I was looking forward to this but delayed reading it due to its length - I wanted to commit to it. I thought this was an excellent book which was a pleasure to read. The only problem was that, after starting a new job and commuting every day, I opted to nap on the train instead of reading this. The final section of the book (The Second Epilogue) is more a collection of essays and musings on the nature of determinism and the Great Man theory. I was keen to have finished this by the end of the year so skimmed over this last section. Regardless of that, I can say, "I've read War And Peace".
Michael Foley - The Age Of Absurdity
An excellent birthday gift from a friend. Foley examines contemporary life with reference to philosophy and psychology. I can't claim to have thought of everything in this book but many of the ideas broached are in line with some of the thoughts I've occupied myself with. The difference is that I haven't articulated them so well.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Books Read 2009
Davies is the journalist who recently uncovered the News International phone tapping scandal but much of it was already in here on the subject of the dark arts of journalism. The book is an excellent examination of the state of modern journalism (told from the inside) and the delivery of news.
I flew through the first hundred pages or so of this until a friend let slip the ending after she'd seen the film. I lost momentum for a few weeks. This is an excellently written novel which still has relevance today.
An acclaimed American novel incorporating the Kennedy Assassination, you say? Why did I never read this sooner? I loved this, not just for the subject matter but also for the writing. I read about two-thirds of Delillo's Underworld about ten years ago and found some of the writing a little patronising wherein he would explain the significance of his metaphors or create unnecessary analogies. After reading Libra, I am tempted to revisit Underworld and its brilliant opening passage.
I doubt I would have gone near a true crime book were it not from the creator of The Wire. This is a fascinating book about murder investigation and police politics. Simon writes with the scope of a novelist when describing what he saw with his 365 days with the Baltimore PD. The one thing which differentiates it from a novel is a general absence of the characters' homelife.
I read this slightly out of obligation after a former colleague gave it to me. I was interested in a bit of light reading but, having read Jeremy Paxman's The English, this was too familiar former. Added to that is the fact that I am not English and have observed many of the characteristics noted in this book. I soon skipped and skim-read large passages of the book. Paxman's book was more easily digested.
This had served as an adornment to my book shelf in two flats over two years. After seeing the paperback version in a shop I thought it was high time I read my own copy. The large hardback lacks the portability of a nice paperback so I didn't read this as quickly as I might have done had I taken it with me to the coffee shops of York. However, I thought it was an insightful depiction of the making of the film. Having seen Star Wars countless times since the age of four, I now find it difficult to be engrossed in actually watching the film, so familiar has it become but this provided a great deal more detail than is usually provided on the development of the script, the foundation of ILM and the obstacles Lucas had to overcome. Even if one of not a fan of the film, it is a well constructed document of the requirements of film making.
I recently entered my details on a dating website and in the brief section under books I had to say that my favourite books are "Modern American Fiction". The fact that Orwell was English might explain why it took me over ten years from buying to reading this. Or, I simply forgot I had it. I'm glad I waited so long to read it because its significance is more apparent to my more mature self who has thought about the use of language in newspapers, the use of war to maintain power and the role of the individual in society. Some of the book's terms such as "Big Brother" and "Thought Police" have become ingrained in the popular vernacular but that doesn't denude their impact here (where they are given actual meaning rather than being synonymous with CCTV). I feel that 300 pages is enough for the novel as after establishing the situation and introducing the plot, the novel leads quickly and naturally to resolution.
Having grown up in Wales I think that modern history was ignored in favour of local interest. As a result, I've felt rather ignorant about aspects of this country's history. I had watched the TV series when it aired and with a voucher in hand thought I could acquire more detail. On reading this I realised I wasn't as ignorant as I had thought (and I wasn't just remembering the TV series) but it filled in a lot gaps. At over 600 pages I knew this wasn't something I wanted to spend months reading (because I have other books to read and it's not like fiction where you can become absorbed in another world) so I read it in less than two weeks. It's well-written and witty but it does seem to make assumptions of the reader notably the General Elections and the reasons for victory. Marr is most incisive when writing about the time he's actually covered as a journalist from the Thatcher period onwards.
There are similarities between this and Price's earlier Clockers where the drama and mystery centres around a shooting. Like that earlier work it's as much a study of an aspect of society as it is a murder mystery. Where Clockers centred around drug pushers in the New Jersey projects (with the film adaptation set in Brooklyn) Lush Life looks at a more bohemian life in and around Manhattan's Lower East Side. The mystery of the murder is the event around which the story centres rather than being the crux of the story.
Obama's second book is his political treatise wherein he shows an admirable vocabulary and awareness of politics on the right and the left. Whereas George W Bush once famously said "either you are with us or you are with the terrorists" Obama does at least consider an opposing point of view. I share Obama's point of view on most things in the book and therefore it's difficult to be objective.
I enjoyed Pelecanos's debut novel A Firing Offense when I read it three or four year ago. In the time since I have discovered The Wire and Pelecanos's contribution to it. The character ofDennis "Cutty" Wise was drawn from notes made when researching Drama City. The title of the novel is a nod to its setting, like most of Pelecanos's novels, in Washington DC and the fact that the novel is a short drama. Its plot is very simple and focuses on character. However, it felt a little light and like an extended television episode without the context of a series.
I childishly read this in five or six days so that I could say I read it quicker than a friend of mine. I'd heard that the novel was darker than its film adaptation especially as the Clough family objected to the novel's supposed portrayal of Brian Clough as obstinate and capricious. The film adds many of Clough's famous witticisms and aphorisms making it a lighter expericence but the novel isn't as dark as I had been lead to believe. The novel explores Clough's psyche behind the bluff veneer and the opposing forces which lead to his failure at Leeds United.
From reading a novel in five or six days I then took a few months to read this. This was due to the dense subject matter and the fact that I started a new job which left me too tired to read about the fight against free market economics in Poland in the late eighties. I felt that the middle section sagged slightly due to either me being distracted or because I felt that it was starting ti repeat itself. There is a place for repetition in order to emphasise a point but, for whatever reason, I didn't quite regain interest until the book explored free market economics as professed by George W Bush and his alumni. An interesting book which I wish I had concentrated a little more on.
The reading of this book also suffered from me either being distracted in the break room at work or just too tired to concentrate on it fully. Additionally, there's no real plot to the book, rather a fractured depiction of lives in the aftermath of 9/11. DeLillo's earlier Libra jumps back and forth in time but is far more cohesive than the elliptical approach used here. The overlapping stories and its lack of a plot give it a dream like quality which give a feeling rather than a dramatisation of the effects of the attack on the Twin Towers.
A short text which I was able to read in a couple of hours. I was familiar with aspects of communism but had never read this. Much of it is still relevant, particularly in light of the current recession but history has shown that communism works in theory but in practice. As much as I appreciate some of the ideology I'm not yet ready to sign up.
I'm only 112 out of 458 pages in so I can't assess the entire novel. I might have finished it in the next week. Thus far it's shaping up to be a Great American Novel in the classical vein. The first person narrative is not stylised and seemed dry to begin with but gradually forms character. Can't say much more than that yet.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
A Voyeurs Guide to Internet Dating
I have been happily single for a number of years. I have been open to the prospect of a girlfriend but didn't seem to meet anyone and didn't actively seek a relationship. I was curious to try Internet dating as I don't think there's a stigma attached to it and it could be interesting, even fulfilling. When even my mother suggests I try it I thought I should give it a go.
Firstly, I have to confess that I haven't made contact with a single woman because I'm too cheap to pay for the subscription and am self-conscious of the fact that I'm out of work. Therefore, my observations are based solely on reading the profiles of potential matches on match.com and not on actual people in person.
I don't know if a memo went out to all women within an age group but the same stock phrases appear time and again. I haven't read the profiles of any men so I don't know if my own profile would suffer from the same syndrome but a cliche makes someone look uninteresting and unappealing.
"I love to go out but I also love staying at home on the sofa with a bottle of wine and a DVD"
This on its own is fine but it seems that every other woman states this to the extent that it should be taken as a given.
"One of my favourite things is going to the gym. I'm a real gym bunny."
I understand that the purpose of a dating site is to make oneself appear attractive so it could be that this is a thinly veiled way of saying, "I'm not fat" but as a hobby it makes people sound pretty dull. "I like to run on a treadmill as often as possible" Wow, let's talk about that. I can't help but think, "No wonder you don't meet anyone, try going down the pub where your stock personality might be welcome"
"I love travelling"
Maybe if you stay in one place for long enough rather than travelling to the cliched destination of Australia you might get to know someone a bit better.
"I love long walks in the country"
I don't get this at all. Is this something that men are meant to find attractive or do people genuinely love walking in the country so much that it's a prominent statement in their profile? Personally, I love cities but that doesn't sound mystical or middle-aged.
"Harry Potter"
I have a pretty high opinion of myself based partly on aspiring to be better. One of the first things I look at is a person's choice of books. I'm not expecting to see numerous profiles listing the collected works of Dostoevsky as their preferred reading material (I've never read any of his work myself) but there does seem to be an emphasis on the "trashy" and infantile. I have not read any Harry Potter. I understand that they're entertaining books but they're aimed at children and young teenagers. It raises the question, Are women genuinely that undemanding of the books they read or is there a perception amongst women that men don't want an intelligent woman? Is there a stigma attached to reading something more highbrow? I find it hard to believe that there are no women out there who read nothing more than celebrity magazines and children's books.
Photos
This is the first thing that takes my attention. I know it's difficult to get an ideal photo of oneself but should one at least make the effort to use a flattering photo? I wouldn't chose to contact a woman whose photo depicts her with a can of lager between her breasts. I've also noticed that a lot of photos appear to have been taken at weddings which screams "I AM DESPERATE TO GET MARRIED". Maybe it's just me but I'm not looking to get married.
For the time being I shall continue to gawk at people I don't know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)