read 25 books in 2007

Nick Bantock seems to keep reworking the same ground.

Mysterious correspondence between man and woman? Check.
Strange collages that pay into story? Check.
Metaphysical and romantic plot? Check.

Nonetheless, enjoyable and beautiful. Would probably seem less so if you were to read a bunch of his books in a row.

Really, one of Ngaio Marsh’s very best.

Nice to find that I had downloaded it for myself quite some time ago and that it had been long enough since I read it (10 years ago?) that I no longer remembered anything about it other than that it was really good and it was where Alleyn meets Troy.

Delightful!

Cute.
That Gobbolino! He has such troubles!

Way way below my reading level. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I read a book with such a large font. But I think the chum will like this book in a few years. A good early chapter book, not too scary or anything.

I have mixed feelings about this book.

I think I would have really liked it without the Jane Austen overlay but, honestly, I found the Austen aspect annoying. Maybe I’m too fond of her books to like having her played with.

The mystery was good. The plotting was well done. The characters were interesting. But I was constantly bothered by the footnotes that explained period details. Even though I found them useful, I kept thinking, What? She assumes I don’t understand the use of titles? What kind of Austen reader doesn’t understand the proper use of titles? And I was also bothered by small details that seemed not period appropriate – people using first names too easily, too much sex and other romantic impropriety etc.

But I also know that all of these elements wouldn’t have been a problem for me at all without the Jane Austen aspect. If the main character had been Charlotte Someone and if there hadn’t been such an attempt to bring in aspects of her life, I would have liked it a lot.

But as it is, I don’t know if I’ll read any more of this series.

I’ve been talking about how I’ve come to realize that what I really need in a piece of fiction is a plot. But then along comes this book, smashing that all to hell.

I liked this, I really did. I didn’t necessarily understand some of it. I really wished I was reading it in a lit class so someone could clear up the references and allusions for me some of the time. And it sure took a lot of reading effort, but I liked it.

I’ve tried to explain the book (I typed plot, but had to go back and change that!) to GG as I’ve gone along, but it’s just impossible. There is no plot as such, and there are 3 or more layers of story within it. I could go on and on about the structure but, it’s just so bizarre and entwined.

I googled it on finishing, wondering what people thought about it and here are some I found interesting

From Time Magazine:
“O’Brien … would have been disappointed if anybody could come up with a coherent summary of this brilliant, beer-soaked miniature masterpiece. One of the best-kept secrets of 20th-century literature, At Swim-Two-Birds is ostensibly a novel about a lazy, impoverished college student who’s writing a novel (“One beginning and one ending for a book is a thing I did not agree with,” he opines), but his characters won’t stay put, and they get mixed up with all kinds of local Dublin types and figures out of Gaelic myth—it’s like Ulysses played out in a comic mode, on a more human scale”

Some blurbs:
“That’s a real writer, with the true comic spirit. A really funny book.”—James Joyce

“At Swim-Two-Birds has remained in my mind ever since it first appeared as one of the best books of our century. A book in a thousand . . . in the line of Ulysses and Tristram Shandy.”—Graham Greene

“Flann O’Brien is unquestionably a major author. His work, like that of Joyce, is so layered as to be almost Dante-esque. . . . Joyce and Flann O’Brien assault your brain with words, style, magic, madness, and unlimited invention.”—Anthony Burgess

I guess I’m floundering for what to say myself. It’s a book that pretty much defies explanation but made me laugh and confused me and tried my patience and grossed me out but I found myself savoring the final pages and wishing for more while being relieved to have it done.

This is the book I’ve been reading snippets of on the nights I didn’t feel up to a post-modern masterpiece. I realized I should just pick it up and read all the bits I had skipped and, suddenly, I was done in one night.

Well, Cynthia Heimel still has all the wit and bitchy sarcasm in the world, that’s for sure.

But man, it’s sad to see someone move from writing about oral sex, orgasms, and relationship drama to writing about depression, menopause, and dogs. I’m sorry, but there it is.

I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as her earlier stuff.

Not only an audiobook – but selections – oh, the horror!

But with David Rakoff, like Sarah Vowell, David Sedaris,or Spalding Grey, so much of the joy of the writing is in hearing it and he performs his work so well. If I was reading it, I’d be carefully playing each word in his voice in my head, so why not avoid the middle man?

Very enjoyable. He manages to be horribly sarcastic yet wistful at the same time – a hard act to pull off. And he sure makes some great points about the wealth and comfort we take for granted.

Very worth reading!

What does it say about my comprehension that I don’t know why this book is titled that? I mean, it’s not like these romances are filled with a lot of subtlety.

Noticed this time how much important information is repeated again and again. I assume that we aren’t all reading with a keen critical eye!

Anyway, just what I needed – a romance/ mystery with no surprises to take my mind off things. And I don’t feel any intellectual guilt since I’m working through challenging fiction at night!

Read this in about an hour and a half. Intellectually pretty much as taxing as an issue of Entertainment Weekly. But hey, it says right there on the cover that it’s for teens.

Too embarrassing even for a poolside read! Utterly predicable and formulaic without even the excuse of quirky characters to redeem it.

Very much brain candy.

A fun mystery with interesting characters. Not a lot to it, not very hard to sole yourself, but perfect for vacation.

I’m ordering the next one from paperbackswap too.