read 50 books in 2008

Oh, Joan, you own my heart. This was a killer. I’m going to spend my whole summer wearing big sunglasses, drinking gin in the afternoon, and driving the CA freeways thinking of Didion.

Reed is one crazy cat. This was a little rough on me due to my sensitivity to the scatological and to allegory. This book is one big poo joke. And yet, really funny and fairly astute.

B+.

Whoa, I read a mass-market paperback??! Yes, though I did it in the privacy of my own home. I was actually teaching this book to my freshman, so I guessed I had better read it myself. It was quite all right. Compelling, descriptive, etc.

B.

Intense, complicated and beautiful, like most of Morrison’s work.

A.

This book is sort of outrageous and completely over-the-top most of the time, but that’s what makes it so fun to read. It’s not great literature, but it’s very readable and has some amazing turns of phrase. Altogether enjoyable. Plus everybody loves incest, right?

A-.

I always thought that I didn’t really like Bellow, but it turns out that I probably really do. I’ve actually become a sort of feminist apologist for this novel and its curmudgeonly, misogynistic protagonist. In any case, the prose is beautiful and brilliant nearly all of the time.

A.

so i completely forgot about 43 things. but i’m back, and it’s still great, and obviously i’m going to be way behind on this year’s 50 books. it’s okay, though. i’ll try to remember some of what i’ve read so far this year, and make wicked progress this lazy summer.

so today i finished didion’s first novel, which has a far more traditional, linear plot than her later novels, but is still as grim and bleak as one might expect. it’s good, but not nearly as good as her later stuff.

B.