Well, here it is, the first day of 2009 and I have officially missed the mark. I will finish 50B 2008 in a distant third, having read only 46 books. I started a new job this year teaching middle and high school English in Brooklyn and I blame that for the drop-off from last year--I thought about making a finish-line dash toward the end, but I've just been too busy and will have to settle. It's okay, though, I'm still beasting the two-year rate at 108 books (to 100 each for Carlton and Brent).
Looking forward: At some point we should be transferring to Wordpress and maybe putting a little effort into a redesign. But for right now I've changed the color scheme--I'm open to criticism, but personally I think it looks sharp. And after all, 2009 is a good year for Carolina blue.
As of right now, we have nine participants for 2009. Five are from 2008: Myself, Brent, Carlton, Liz, and Brooke. Nathan will be rejoining us, plus three more of my friends, Helen, Jim and Pieter. Awesome. Everyone has administrator capabilities as far as I know, so if you know anybody who wants to get in on the book madness, go ahead and invite them!
My top ten: I'm missing three reviews, I know. My computer's been on the fritz lately. I promise, they're coming. But here are the top ten books I read this year, beginning with number 10:
10. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski: Danielewski's House of Leaves is the kind of book that really ought to annoy me--it's a gimmicky quasi-horror story wrapped in several layers of frame story, and often is written in strange shapes or directions like a concrete poem or a Jonathan Safran Foer novel. Not all of it works, but the central story--about a man who discovers that a corridor in his house may contain an infinite labyrinth--kept me up at night. No Stephen King book could possibly be this scary.
9. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster: You might call The New York Trilogy a collection of three detective stories, but that's only glancing at what they're about. The detectives of Auster's book often begin in earnest detective fashion, keeping an eye on their targets, but by the end they are all in some fashion spying on themselves, searching for clues about the nature of self and identity.
8. The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West: I still think that this may be too low for West's angry little book, but I'm not sure if any of the books above it deserve to be any lower. The novel is about Hollywood, but not the Hollywood populated by movie stars but the one populated by extras, set painters, and various has-beens and wannabes who do very little but fuck, drink, and fight. It may be a lot less glamorous, but I bet it's a lot closer to the common experience, even today.
7. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov: Nabokov makes the most complex concepts seem effortless. This book is half poem, half crazed commentary by a man who believes himself to be a deposed king of a fictional country. A lot of people argue about what truly is going on in this work of fiction--an irony that Nabokov surely meant to engineer.
6. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: If House of Leaves is about the scariest place ever, McCarthy's Blood Meridian is about the scariest man ever--a hulking, Gnostic murderer and child rapist known only as the Judge. What's even scarier is to think that he's based on a historical figure.
5. The Magus by John Fowles: One day I will re-read The Magus and the bizarre machinations of its antagonist, millionaire hermit Maurice Conchis will make complete sense. Or maybe I won't, because the utter strangeness and surreality of it are what make it such a thing to behold. Like House of Leaves and Blood Meridian, here is a book that thrives on suspense without R.L. Stine-style cliffhangers.
4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller: Maybe one of the quintessential novels about death and man's obsession with avoiding it. Strangely enough, probably also the funniest book I have ever read, along with A Confederacy of Dunces. I wish I could read this in my class, but I think the strange sequence--which jumps around time as if at random--would confuse my students. Oh well.
3. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger: Salinger turned ninety years old this week, refusing to die and bestow upon the world whatever he's been ferreting away in his New Hampshire filing cabinet. Until then, we'll have to make do with a pair of novels and a handful of stories like these, which are unmatched in their representation of real dialogue and their incisiveness as character studies.
2. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy: I started to read The Moviegoer in high school, but it bored me; the second time around I couldn't put it down. I think that perhaps it's a novel meant for those who have reached their twenties (and most definitely for those shuffling into their thirties), putting onto paper all those inexpressible feelings of confusion and angst that elude description by most writers. This book simply blew me away.
1. The Rabbit Series by John Updike (2 3 4): Okay, I'm cheating a little--but I didn't want to make my top ten all Rabbit novels. I'm not sure how to describe what exactly it is I love about these books, which follow Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom from his thirties into his sixties--they're not page-turners, like House of Leaves or The Magus; they're not as singularly unique as Pale Fire or Blood Meridian, or as transcendent as The Moviegoer--but there's something so real about Rabbit that makes them so engaging. I think that I have never read about another character who seemed so alive, so similar to a living, breathing human being and I doubt that I ever will. I understand that many people would probably find them boring, but hey--life is boring. I think that the level of hyperrealism achieved by Updike probably takes more skill and imagination than anything written by Tolkien or Lewis.
Also:
Fifty Booker most likely to have a crush on me: Carlton Farmer
Happy New Year, everyone!
Showing posts with label Top Ten 2008. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Ten 2008. Show all posts
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Brent's Top 10 2008
At 9:00 on December 31st, I finished A Wind at the Door by Madeline L'Engle. That made 50 books for 2009, but didn't leave much time to write my backlogged reviews. A few of the books on my top 10 for the year don't havea proper review, so I'll leave all the 50bers with these capsule reviews and a pledge to do better next year.
Minor Spoilers.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
This collection of short stories built around mankind's repeated attempts to colonize Mars runs the gamut from humorous to chilling, sometimes within the same story. Less than 200 pages long, this, like most of Bradbury's work, doesn't waste a word.
In Two Words: Alien Sensation!
Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Given its portenteous title and considerable length, I expected Bonfire to be tough. I read it on Chris's recommendation, and was glad to be proven wrong. Bonfire is at times hilarious, at times moving, and never dull. It satirizes the excesses of the 80's without the ironic distance characteristic of satire, and managed to make me sympathize with Sherman McCoy. Well-worth the read.
In Two Words: Flaming Fantastic!
Carlton recommended this to me, but, joke on him, I was already planning to read it. What plays as a religiously-tinged adventure story becomes a thought-provoking metaphor of the search for God, and has stuck with me longer than I expected.
In One Portmonteau: Indiancredible!
Monsignour Quixote by Graham Green
If 2008 stands out from a literary standpoint, it will be as the year I discovered Graham Greene. Although I've only read a few of his books, he may be the tightest prose stylist I've ever read. Very few of his books crack 250 pages, but they're all packed with thought-provoking scenarios and brilliantly simple turns of phrase. Monsignour Quixote is a riff on Don Quixote, one of my favorite books, and, although it's only the second best Greene I read this year, it didn't disappoint.
In Two Words: Monsignour Magnificent!
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
If you've seen the fantastic movie adaptation of The Princess Bride, nothing in the book is going to take you by surprise. However, the Granfather-Fred Savage framign device is replacing by a Pale Fire-esque commentating editor, and all the charm is fully intact. It was more fun than anything else I read this year, so it's on the list.
In Two Words: Truly Lovely!
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Unlike The Princess Bride, Moby-Dick could hardly be more different than its various adaptations. Although the base story, a sea captain's obsessive search for the mysterious white whale, is indeed in the novel, the narrative takes up maybe 1/3 of the book's 700 pages. The rest is a vast, infinitely interpretable metaphor for God, the human race, evil, obsession, all couched in the terminology of whaling and seafaring. If it sounds dull, I won't lie—sometimes it is. But the prose is beautiful and the whole, transcedent. It's also one of the primary forerunners of modernism and a serious contender for greatest American novel ever written.
In Two Words: FromHell'sDarkHeart IStabAtThee!
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
I've never been a fan of war books, but The Things They Carried is hardly your standard war novel. Set in Vietnam, it's structured as a series of interconnected vignettes following the members of the O'Brien's company both in and out of wartime. It's gut-wrenching and never glorifying, which reminds me a little of my next entry.
In Two Words: Boom! Auuuuugh!
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
I think I said everything I wanted to say about this book in my review, but it's great. Read it.
In Two Words: Kilgore Trout
Anna Karenina is the prototypical Russian great novel. A massive cast of characters, a setting in the 1800's, themes of redemption, Christianity, politics, fox hunting, and plenty of soap operatic melodrama. It also features Tolstoy's most brilliant passages, a forerunner to the stream-of-conciousness that dominated modernist literature. No one writes people like Tolstoy, and the Pevear/Volkhonsky translation reads as easily as Dan Brown.
In Two Words: Pevear Volkhonsky
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
When I finished The Power and the Glory, I knew it was very good. When began analyzing it and thinking about it afterward, I realized it was great. Greene's story of a persecuted priest in early 20th century Mexico is haunting and human in a way nothing else this year was. Greene's method of questioning Christianity, specifically Catholicism, is both thought-provoking and encouraging, and the whiskey priest's struggles are familiar to anyone struggling to reconcile or find faith in a world that doesn't always make sense. This has my highest recommendation and is one of the best books I've ever read.
In Two Words: Power, Glory
I intentionally read a lot more pulp this year, and it resulted in some real stinkers. Here they are, least bad first:
The Homing, Jeffrey Campbell – More like The Boring.
Doom: Knee Depp in the Dead, Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver – This book was better than I expected, but... I wasn't expecting much.
Basket Case, Carl Hiaasen – This book was so bad it almost put me off reading entirely. And, it was worse than Doom.
It's been great, everyone. See you in 2009.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Carlton's Favorites from a Year of Reading (2008)
When I sat down to write up this list, I realized just how much I enjoyed nearly all the books that I read this year. I didn't really come across any stinkers, besides The Good German, which was horrible. Otherwise, this was a really good year of reading.
10. The Assault on Reason
I read this during the final weeks of the presidential election. Al Gore went up a few points in my book (that's right, I keep a book in which I rank everyone I know on a scale of one to seven) and Dubya went down a few more.
9. Timothy; or Notes of an Abject Reptile
One of the weirder books that I read this year.
8. The Tale of Despereaux
I am all about anthropomorphic animals.
7. The Napoleon of Notting Hill
Earlier this year, I read a collection of Chesterton's Father Brown stories, and The Man Who Was Thursday was my favorite read of 2007. Chesterton is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. And he's so dreamy.
6. The Golden Compass
I absolutely loved this book and the two that followed it (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass). It is sad that the film adaptation was so abysmal.
5. At Large and At Small
A collection of essays
Both enlightening and fun,
I would recommend
This to anyone.
4. The Green Mile
This is only the second book by Stephen King that I have read. I read The Shining a few years ago, and it scared the bajeezes out of me. The Green Mile was not scary, but it sure thrilled the bajeezes out of me. Bottom line: I've got bajeezes that can't wait to be teased out of me.
3. The Idiot
I was nearly halfway through this book before I realized it was not a biography of Pauly Shore.
2. Twilight in Delhi
Ahmed Ali beautifully blurs the line between prose and poetry in this novel set in early 20th century India.
1. Life of Pi
When I put this book down, I knew that it was going to be a hard one to beat. The rest of the books on this list have moved around, and some that were initially a part of the list were dropped, but Life of Pi has always remained in the top spot.
Book Review of Mine with the Weirdest Comments
Assassination Vacation
Sexiest 50 Booker
Christopher Chilton (sorry Brooke, good effort)
My Book Resolution for 2009: More books with bunnies.
10. The Assault on Reason
I read this during the final weeks of the presidential election. Al Gore went up a few points in my book (that's right, I keep a book in which I rank everyone I know on a scale of one to seven) and Dubya went down a few more.
9. Timothy; or Notes of an Abject Reptile
One of the weirder books that I read this year.
8. The Tale of Despereaux
I am all about anthropomorphic animals.
7. The Napoleon of Notting Hill
Earlier this year, I read a collection of Chesterton's Father Brown stories, and The Man Who Was Thursday was my favorite read of 2007. Chesterton is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. And he's so dreamy.
6. The Golden Compass
I absolutely loved this book and the two that followed it (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass). It is sad that the film adaptation was so abysmal.
5. At Large and At Small
A collection of essays
Both enlightening and fun,
I would recommend
This to anyone.
4. The Green Mile
This is only the second book by Stephen King that I have read. I read The Shining a few years ago, and it scared the bajeezes out of me. The Green Mile was not scary, but it sure thrilled the bajeezes out of me. Bottom line: I've got bajeezes that can't wait to be teased out of me.
3. The Idiot
I was nearly halfway through this book before I realized it was not a biography of Pauly Shore.
2. Twilight in Delhi
Ahmed Ali beautifully blurs the line between prose and poetry in this novel set in early 20th century India.
1. Life of Pi
When I put this book down, I knew that it was going to be a hard one to beat. The rest of the books on this list have moved around, and some that were initially a part of the list were dropped, but Life of Pi has always remained in the top spot.
Book Review of Mine with the Weirdest Comments
Assassination Vacation
Sexiest 50 Booker
Christopher Chilton (sorry Brooke, good effort)
My Book Resolution for 2009: More books with bunnies.
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