2009 Reading List

[gilee7]

Books Read in 2009:

1. Don Quixote by Cervantes--- I didn't think I'd like this book, and I did start to grow tired of it during the second half, feeling like the same cycle was just repeating itself, but I still enjoyed it. The humor is timeless.

2. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett--- A book my former English professor loaned me to read. (It was even

Comments

My 2009 Reading List, part 1 of 2.

[jdroa]

I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov right now! Dmitri finally met up with Grushenka, and was accosted by the officials. I'm too scared to flip through the rest of the book to see where the story ends and the essays begin. I have a version I bought from Half-Price Books for $7.00, a translation done by Pervear and Volohonsky who are awesome! I was never assigned Lord of the Flies either and I haven't read it yet.

My 2009 Reading List:
1. [A+] Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (or wait... was that 2008? I think that was 2008. No, it was 2009). This is a book Ruby sent me. It changed my life. I mean, my writing hasn't improved, because I'm lazy, but this is the kind of book that could change your writing career. My favorite parts of this book were ones about Levin managing his estate and hunting, rofl. He's an honest person but he gets angry easily and isn't very cultured. He gets angry when he talks about politics and yells sometimes. Lmao.

2. [C-] 1923 Was a Bad Year by John Fante. 1923 was a bad book. I don't want to talk

Re: My 2009 Reading List, part 1 of 2.

[gilee7]

The versions of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov that I read were both translated by Constance Garnett. My former English professor/mentor, Dr. Z, told me that Garnett was the one to go with. I trust she knows what she's talking about. She's probably read every version that there is. I picked up another copy of Karamazov that's translated by Andrew R. MacAndrew. I figure I'll read that version some time within the next couple years. That's what sucks about foreign literature--- I always worry that my translation may not be the best. I mean, these works by Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky are so goddamn great, yet there's no telling how much stuff is lost in the translation. Imagine if we could read these works in their native language?

I've never heard of Charles Bukowski, but he seems pretty interesting. I'll have to pick up a copy of Post Office whenever I get a chance.

Re: My 2009 Reading List, part 1 of 2.

[2ndhandsunshine]

Okay. I realize this is Tolstoy and Classic Russian literature and all, and that it shouldn't be reduced to pair shippings and what not, BUT...

I'm still disappointed he ended up marrying Kitty. He could've done better. Lol.

My 2009 Reading List, part 2 of 2.

[jdroa]

6. [B+] The Elephant Vanishes: A Short Story Collection by Haruki Murakami. Murakami is a lazy writer, the kind that can cater to women and seem hip and metropolitan and all that jazz. It is evident in such stories as "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One April Morning" that he knows how to eat women out and charm the hell out of them. He also has weirder, more alienating work like "TV People," where he paints deja vu-like repetition, deafness, and the zombieland that is the commercial industry like no other. It was a fun collection, easy to read and sometimes he'll astonish you with his nuance, but he'll almost always settle for cheap literary thrills. That's why I love him, lolol.

7. [A+] One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez. Ruby also mailed me this COMPLETE FUCKING GEM (she, by the way, has great taste). This piece seamlessly bobs from one vignette to the next, jumps through time, switches characters in a heartbeat, but I never found it hard to keep up. The characters were easy to love. This book had a perfect

Re: My 2009 Reading List, part 2 of 2.

[jdroa]

Heck no, man! That thing made my eyes want to bleed. I bet you could get beat in the head by a fat Mexican several times and still write a piece better than The Sun Also Rises. Actually, I know it. Your work is funny. :">

I love Hemingway, that bastard, but I have a few bones to pick with that story.

1) The characters, rich, jaded expatriates with nothing better to do than sit around and drink wine, had the potential to be funny, or in the very least, interesting, but they were trite, the scratching posts for a completely cynical world view, and completely unlikeable. Even if this was done on purpose, it was just too much. Especially the Jewish guy, Robert C/Kohn; I mean, Hemingway made him look so bad that it was excessive - pieces need a bit of panorama and compassion for their characters, even the stupidest, most evil of them. Not that I expect poor Hemingway to have complete buttsex with this Jewbag, but the blips of sympathy he showed for Cohn were disgustingly condescending, as if he knew he had to parcel out

Re: My 2009 Reading List, part 2 of 2.

[gilee7]

I actually think I've read that "TV People" story by Murakami. I took a World Literature course at the community college, and I'm pretty sure it was in our textbook. I remember it being pretty bizarre, but I liked it.

Hemingway and I don't know each other very well. We've met only briefly a couple times, exchanging maybe a handshake, if that. Although if I knew he was abusing you like he is, I would've cracked him over the head with a salt shaker. Nobody beats you but me!

"Hills Like White Elephants" is one of the greatest short stories I've read, just because it leaves itself so open for interpretation and is a great discussion piece. I read a couple of his other short stories, but never any of his novels. I've been wanting to for awhile, though. I just couldn't decide which one. I almost bought a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls just a week or so ago, but something made me put it back on the shelf

I lied. My 2009 Reading list, Part 3 (?) of 2. Rofl.

[jdroa]

10. [B+] Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. I take it back. This is probably the most depressing book ever written (next to Ketchum up there, possibly!). Thomas Hardy is a sick, sick person. This was the last book he wrote before he died, and probably the most sadomasochistic book of them all, which is saying a lot. One thing Hardy's really good at is timing tragedy so that hope brushes shoulders with the characters before something completely horrible happens to them: rape, murder, loveless marriage, career failure, a loss of ideals, religious fanaticism, etc., etc. There was a bit of recourse in Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, a teeny ounce of hope because of the budding romance and the nice pastoral descriptions. Jude is just one disappointment after another. I give it a "B+" mostly for the outstandingly sad ending. I want to spoil it just so you could see how horrible this thing is, but maybe you'll go against my request not to read this book and read it anyway. This Hardy guy is the worst.

11. [A ] I'm Not Hanging Noodles on

[jdroa]

WHAT! Well, actually, yeah, some parts were yawners but overall, it's a great read. I love Russian anger and cynicism, but hate Russian romance - that's the only thing that keeps me from reading the book a second time. Tolstoy sucks at romance and... effuses effusion, if that makes sense.

Still gotta read Slaughterhouse-Five, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. Then again, I've heard nothing but good things about the movie Crash, and that thing sucked. Rofl.

[lukertin]

I first read Slaughterhouse-Five in 10th grade. I would not classify it as 'trippy'. It reads like the narrative of a crazy old man overcome with grief who reflects on the parts of his life that brought him to where he is now (people don't really recall their memories in a chronological order, memories are more so ordered by topic and related themes so the jumpy aspect of the book makes it read more like someone's thought processes than an actual novel) --in fact he has relived those experiences so many times he is able to recall random facts like the barking of a dog-- and then realizing none of it matters in the end. And instead of focusing on the terrible things in life which he can't change, he just focuses on the good things instead (something meant to serve as a wake-up call to those who do believe in free will

[lukertin]

RE: JD Salinger

His daughter or his step-daughter or one of his children reports that JD Salinger has a room full of manuscripts for novels and short stories and they will probably be published posthumously.

I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Decameron-Penguin-Classics-Giovanni-Boccaccio/dp/0140449302/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263440520&sr=8-2 Not really known outside of Italy or Europe for that matter, but pure genius. You'll probably like it.