Image by Maciej Szczepaniak from Wrocraw, Poland |
What have you read this past year? |
Looking back at 2010, I hadn’t expected that I’d read the volume of books I have during the course of the year. For one thing, I’m not a very fast reader — I tend to savor the language, unless the book is a work of non-fiction. Jeanette Walls happily changed that outlook with her memoir. For another, I tend not to read while I’m working on a project, since I have limited time to begin with, and I try to shoehorn my reading in after dinner and before bed.
I also tend to purchase a lot more books than I have time to read, and that pile is growing almost uncontrollably. As a result, I have no less than a dozen books on my bedside table that I started reading during 2010, their dust jackets neatly tucked into the page I left off. (I generally don’t use bookmarks, since the metal ones tend to tear and bend the page, while the paper ones get bent and damaged, and I can’t bring myself to spend $3-$5 on a paper bookmark, especially since it would remain in the book indefinitely. If I really need a bookmark, I’ll use a plastic post-it tag.) So, ignoring my current reads, here’s an abbreviated list of some of the books I’ve devoured in 2010.
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This is a post-mortem collection of stories, essays, and miscellany that Vonnegut wrote about his experiences in World War II, among other things. The part that sticks with me is his exploration of his time as a POW under Nazi Germany, and the Dresden fire bombing. Not a cheery book by any means, but is full of the venomous double-speak that Vonnegut is famous for, and a damn good read on a subject that no one else ever talks about. |
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A quick read, Bible Code III is the third in Drosnin’s bestselling series. The first two were much more entertaining in the way the Bible Code was described, and the controversies surrounding the code coming to light. This particular edition does little to follow up on those prophesies that may or may not have come to fruition in the intervening decade since the first book was released. I read it simply because I read the first two and felt I needed a followup appointment. Would I recommend it? Only if you’re into the end-of-the-world zeitgeist that seems to be dominating the media, since the book will probably be viewed as a passing curiosity in a few years. |
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This was a fascinating read covering the issues of brain plasticity, its discovery, current research, and breakthroughs. The book is well documented with references to studies in peer reviewed journals of psychology and medicine. One important note, however, is that Dr. Doidge’s chapter on sexual addiction only references his own works. This is not to say wether I agree or disagree with the author, or whether the author is correct in his assertations, but it suggests that his views put forth in the book on that particular topic are unsubstantiated by any peer-reviewed studies. The remainder of the book is excellent and well worth a gander for anyone who has relatives suffering from brain ailments. |
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Having previously read Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal (and nearly pissing my pants with laughter in the process), and fresh off reading his holiday zombie tear, The Stupidest Angel, I dove right into this off-color retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear, and was not disappointed. I highly recommend it, especially if you like to see the Bard’s works colorfully deconstructed. |
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A journalist and news-writer for one of the cable news outlets (I believe it was CNBC), Walls’ memoir about her childhood in Arizona and West Virginia is mind-blowing from the get-go with it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire style and story. If you don’t like memoirs, you’ve never read The Glass Castle. |
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Hitchens makes an excellent case against religion in this to-be-classic modern manifesto of atheism. But be warned — don’t read it unless you’re prepared to set your religious beliefs aside to consider his reasoning. (Of course I’m also reminded of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy where he describes the case of the philosophers who successfully argue that black is white and get themselves trampled to death at the next zebra crossing…) There’s another remarkable thing about this book — it’s publisher. Twelve is an odd little company that’s decided to only produce 12 books a year. The result of this more focused approach is a larger than normal bestseller rate than other publishing houses in the industry. |
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This is the second or third time I’ve read Gatsby, and I still feel like the story’s a little too simple. It’s not a big book to begin with, clocking in at a mere 133 pages. The supporting material in the edition I read was an additional 40 pages, increasing the size of the book by almost a third. As far as the novel goes, it’s a fine piece of work, and very much a product of its time. Because of this, and a lack of context on the modern reader’s (my) part, I still don’t think I’ve connected with the story’s zeitgeist, so I’ll probably be reading it again in the future. |
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Brunonia Barry’s second book focuses on one of my favorite cities, Salem, and a psychological mystery. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say the story has a nice clever twist to it that doesn’t cheat the mystery reader. |
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The copy I read was of a new edition restored from Hemmingway’s notes and edited by his grandsons. The language is as spartan as I remember his short stories being, adding to the feeling of being personally tutored by Papa Hemmingway in writing, even though there’s plenty he did that modern writing pundits disagree with, not the least of which was his heavy drinking. |
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Please feel free to share your thoughts on these titles and authors. What did you read during 2010 that you found memorable, humorous, provocative? Please share your thoughts and opinions.
Oh, my. Your list is so much more mature and classy than mine is, Brian! It’s times like this that I have to remind myself that what I read is what it is because of what I write. That, and my approach is a bit different because I’m looking to enter the market (someday) from probably a different angle. An angle which also changes my reading material, because I’m making 98% of my book purchases in digital format now.
All that said, ever since I purchased an e-reader, my reading has skyrocketed. Last year this time, I was cautiously optimistic about the idea of trying to read 50 books by year end. This year I’ve upped the ante to 100. Part of this is because I wind up downloading a lot of short stories. Or there’s the inevitable bag of utter crap that is the reason romance and erotica have the bad rep they do, and those ‘books’ get tossed in the DNF pile. It’s research – what works, and what doesn’t.
My most memorable reads in this little project of “Romance/Erotica Saturation” were by certain authors.
Nalini Singh has a series with very unfortunate covers that are a really neat blend of sci-fi, paranormal, and romance called the Psy-Changeling series (or maybe that’s just the loose term for it). They’re really nicely written, but mostly she’s a good study in world-building. Hers are inarguably Romance books, but the long-term, non-romantic story arc is interesting and dare I say captivating.
I also discovered Zoe Archer, another series romance writer. She blew me away by writing a prequel to her Blades of the Rose series that actually incorporated zombies into a romance. In a romantic fashion. Okay, so he’s a non-vampire-y ‘undead’ guy. His brain still functions and all. Still, kind of a zombie, really. And it WORKED. And not in a creeper, Twilighty sort of way, either. WOW. Turns out the Blades of the Rose series is just as promising. I’ve only read the second one so far (you can read them out of order, which is kind of interesting for a series). But again – very plotty, lots of action, just enough paranormal to qualify it as ‘paranormal,’ I guess, and the characters are terrific.
I’m really getting very, very picky about the bones of romance. Things like weak characterizations, purple prose, and unnecessary sexual metaphors. TSTL (To Stupid To Live) heroines, Alpha Stalker Dumbass heroes, really, REALLY bad sex scenes – things like this give my genre the epically bad reputation it has, even though it’s the biggest and best selling genre of fiction on the shelves. It’s – not easy to write romance, especially sex, and god – kisses are like the hardest thing in the world to get right. It’s a minefield, really, both as a reader and a writer. Which is all the more reason why I don’t feel bad about reading SO much romance right now. It really has become research for me.
(Yep. That’s what it is – “research…”)
Comment by Holly Ross Quigley — January 18, 2011 @ 6:44 pm
Holly, I’ve no idea what angle I’m entering the market from. I just hope I don’t burn up on entry. 🙂
The only romance I tried reading this year I won’t name, because it was awful. It was a gay romance, and I thought it might be fun. Plus I couldn’t beat the price — free. Once again, though, sometimes you get what you pay for. I know there are quite good romance writers out there. And erotica can be amazingly well written – the Sleeping Beauty stories by Ann Rice (under a pen name as I remember) come immediately to mind, so i”m by no means dissing all romance and erotica. There’s a reason though that certain romance authors eventually publish hardcovers on the best sellers list instead of remaining on the pulp rack. There’s a secret in there somewhere that’s worth trying to crack open, even if I never write a single romance novel myself.
I’ll have to check out the Singh Psi-Changeling books sometime, and Zoe Archer. THey seem to be more toward my taste. Thanks for the recommendations!
Comment by Brian Triber — January 19, 2011 @ 10:04 pm
Fool definitely made it to the top of my list this year. I also re-read Paradise Lost, which I found much more interesting this time around. I never should have tried to read it in high school – I wasn’t ready for it. Plague of Doves was also one of my reads… but I didn’t really enjoy it. Maybe I’ll revisit it again in a year or two.
Once I’m done with Life of Pi (a little late to the bandwagon, I know), I’ll pick up the Mezzanine. You’ve got me pretty stoked about it.
Comment by Nikki — January 19, 2011 @ 7:11 am
Nikki, Milton still scares me a bit, even though I’ve produced enough Shakespeare plays to ward off the nerves. Life of Pi is one I’ve been going back and forth on, because I tend to avoid books that appear to be over-hyped — kind of a throwback to my reactions to anything “in” when I was in high school. But, of course, books really aren’t like that, since they tend not to be “in” except in circles of readers.
BTW, I can’t wait to start on House of Leaves. It’s literally next on my fiction list, after I finish The Dunwich Horror and Others, my current Lovecrafft short story collection.
Comment by Brian Triber — January 19, 2011 @ 10:10 pm
I really like The Brain That Changes Itself. It shows that neural-plasticity does exist, and that means hope to thousands currently suffering some kind of brain damage, who formerly had no hope at all. True, I have always been on the psychology end of things, but the biology end also explains some behaviors, therefore i’ve found value in biology’s way of illuminating the subject.
Also one of my favorites, God Is Not Great -How Religion Poisons Everything. I am impressed how Hitchens conveys the need for religions “security” on par with the urge for suicide. Religions IS the opiate of the masses, further we know that opiate is an addictive, sedating, toxin that lures one ever closer to an over-dose. The “over-dose” of religion is full psychic dependency and thanatos (see Freud- i.e. “deathwish”). The most provocative Hitchens gets is to eschew even made up “mithos’es” or “Religion on one’s own terms” as failure to confront ones guilt for being fully in the moment of life, free of imagination’s whim and ever closer to being its master. Oh, no wait, his most provocative was to suggest that raising a child “religiously” is full-on clild abuse! That I can identify with because I lived it. Anyway, let’s just say the whole book is a bees nest in a room full of allergic’s with no Epipen in sight.
Comment by Norman — May 9, 2011 @ 2:01 pm