Books Read in '09 and Goals for 2010

[kangarau]

This entry is inspired by Monkey's, and includes my recommendations  (Monkey:  I'll bring along the good ones among these the next time I visit or see you at a tourney - whichever comes first, so don't waste your money buying them. . . )

In 2009, I generally read more, but enjoyed less than I usually do.  The main reason is that I spent over half of

Comments

[kangarau]

Titus Andronicus, followed by Troilus and Cressida.

I took two full semesters of Shakespeare in college - and only 'cause the Professor was supposed to be excellent (he most certainly wasn't), but these are among the dozen I never got to.

Yes!

[kangarau]

Part of the reason I decided to start with Titus is that I saw Taynor's version - flippin' brilliant, and visually breathtaking. I will check out the YouTube version, but I imagine it loses a lot when not on the big screen .I saw it in a (very large) movie theater when it first came out - it definitely added to my enjoyment of it.

I still don't understand how some critics panned it.

[tolarjev]

Coincidentally I read American Pastoral this year. Had never read anything by Roth. It was good - mostly I liked it b/c the daughter who's pivotal to the plot reminds me so much of a friend's bipolar daughter - but I think one's time could be spent better reading "Infidel", "Suite Francaise", or "Monique & the Mango Rains" (some of my faves from my last year of reading). Likewise, I've read "Empire Falls" & would rate it so-so. A Clockwork Orange was one of my favorite books when I was a teenager, & is also one of my favorite films.

[kangarau]

I'd read Portnoy's Complaint if I were you - hands down my favorite Roth, and one of the few books I read in just a few sittings.

I could not put it down - and remember vividly (even though I was only 13 or 14 when I read it) having stayed up all night the first night.

I still have a copy - and would be curious if I, as an older adult - would still love it as much as I did the first time. I mean, when I read it, I couldn't possibly have understood all the raunchy sex bits!

[wrongradical]

I can't believe this! I read Portnoy's Complaint last year, and forgot to include it in my long list I just posted.

[wisemonkey]

oh! i read oscar wao too and loved it, forgot and will add it to my list.

catch-22 is one of my all-time favorites, but it is exasperatingly absurd until nearly the end, when it turns abruptly tragic.

read saturday when it came out and really enjoyed it. i thought some aspects were forced (the symbolism of the plane - barf) but admired the descriptive writing a lot.

[kangarau]

As I read it, I couldn't imagine how someone who doesn't read Spanish could get through it without feeling very frustrated, even angry. That's why I didn't pass it on the Spouse, even though he had some high-school level Spanish.

I'll re-read it for sure, and after reading your assessment, am wondering if my initial grade wasn't too harsh.

I'll have to finally finish Catch-22 one of these days since you mention the end pulling it all together.

[edhorch]

Did you read the 20-chapter or 21-chapter version of A Clockwork Orange? (The original American version omitted the 21st chapter, and watered it down further by including a Nadsat dictionary.)

It's one of my desert-island books.

"Hi hi hi there, Mr. Deltoid!"

[wrongradical]

I knew the story of A Clockwork Orange's chapters before I read the novel, and after I read the twentieth chapter, I asked myself how I felt right then, if that had been the end of the book. Then I read the final chapter, the twenty-first, yet didn't have a different impression. In my opinion the protagonist Alex could have gone either way, and it didn't seem any less real that he should have become what he did in the twenty-first chapter. My edition did not include a Nadsat dictionary, and I'm glad it didn't. It was not necessary, and it would have made the read an unpleasant experience, flipping back to the dictionary all the time. It would have ruined the flow of the read.

[tolarjev]

I was taking Russian in high school when I read it, so the vocab made sense even w/o the glossary. Had never heard about the 21st chapter.

[kangarau]

Ooh! Good point. Ed! I have the 21-chapter one, along with a forward - written in '86 - by Burgess himself. No dumbed-down dictionary version, though, which is fine because I most certainly would NOT have used it. The beauty of the book is that you don't need a translator; to have one would somehow take away from it.

I had seen the movie decades before I read the book, but I don't how it'd be affected by inclusion of the last chapter. I'd have to go back an see it again.

[bbstenniz]

I read Catch-22 for about one BART ride to club one night in 11th grade, and just couldn't take it. I got about all the info I needed if it were to ever come up on a Quiz Bowl question :)