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25 November 2005

All About Reading

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I got up incredibly early and drove home from Athens, where I had Thanksgiving with Talya, her sister, and Colleen. And we watched Friends. And we ate food. And I felt sick.

And now I'm avoiding taking a nap because I feel unjustified in being tired. The truth is that I got enough sleep last night, I just got up several hours earlier than I normally would and I'm not used to it. So I'm trying to stay awake by blogging. But first, read this and remember several months ago. Keywords are Vioxx and Katrina.

Colleen showed us a list of books she had read for the year and it was pretty cool so I decided to make my own list, which I will now share with you. However, I may have forgotten a few at the beginning of the year. Anything that happened more than 3 months ago is hard for me to pin down.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis
The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
Harry Potter books Four, Five, & Six, by J.K. Rowling
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
A Continent for the Taking, by Howard French
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
On Writing, by Stephen King
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

There are 19 books in the list. Is this a big number? Is it surprising? Why or why not? In On Writing, Stephen King says he reads 50 to 70 books a year, which is kind of insane. That's more than a book a week, and the man is going freaking blind.
I just finished I Am Legend yesterday and it is hardly a novel at all, only about 150 pages. It's about a man who is surrounded by vampires after a terrible plague sweeps the Earth. Not scary, but full of terror in the sense that you hope it never happens to you. I'd like to read 3 more books by the end of the year, but I have so many choices I'm not sure what to pick up next. I'd also like to try and read one fiction and one non-fiction at the same time, but I'm not sure how that will turn out.

This is what I'm thinking of reading:
The Stand, by Stephen King
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown

I'd also like to eventually read The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King, but that's like a half a million words at least, and I don't know if I can do that. And I've never read anything by him except On Writing, so I might hate it.

In Bible news, in the past week I have read James and 1 Peter. However, I have missed several days of time with the Lord because I suck. James 4:17 says "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" (NIV). Ouch, that burns white-hot. Guilty. I'm also trying to not swear as much, because of James 3 (Taming the Tongue).

Now pretend I'm on NPR and I close by saying "This has been 'All About Reading'" in a smooth radio voice.

posted by Monsterbeard @ 3:54 PM  

12 Comments:

  • At 3:14 PM, November 26, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I couldn't figure out whether to post my list here or post it on my own blog, which seems lamer because it's your idea and it would be nice to have it all in one place. I'll "cross-post" this here.

    I haven’t read enough books this year. I think the Stephen King level sounds about right–A book a week is not very much, especially if some of the books take place in Narnia or at Hogwarts. Those Lemony Snicket books take about a day to read. And they’re refreshing. I heard someone say the other day they’d read about a book a day for five years. Now that level of reading takes serious dedication and time.

    So I always think about making these lists, but they make me depressed. Then the problem is that I end up not knowing what I want to read. Right now, though, I have a couple books I’m excited about reading.

    Let me make a little list.

    I think I did read Narnia this year.
    Homer, The Odyssey (Richmond Lattimore translation highly recommended)*
    The Red Hand Book*
    Six Harry Potter books (including Book 5 twice)*
    Lemony Snicket? Actually, no.
    Kurt Vonnegut, Man Without a Country
    Malcolm Gladwell, Blink*
    Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down
    Dean Young, Elegy on Toy Piano*
    6-7 of the Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey

    If you take out the books I’d already read, I’m down to about 8/9 books there. And I’m sure there are books I can’t remember. But—a book every 6 weeks? That’s pathetic.

    I’m not sure this feeling that I should be reading more is enough to keep me going through the next year. I’ll try for a mad dash through December to bring that average up.

    The most difficult part for me is to think of what books I want to read. I just bought a book called A Million Little Pieces which I’m excited about, and then I’d like to read Everything is Illuminated (Now a Major Motion Picture)… and someone just suggested that I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which I’d read about 1/3 of the way through in the bookstore when it first came out.

    Does anyone else have lists of what they’ve read, or ideas about what is good to read?

    I am still stuck part-way through Ulysses, by the way.

    * Recommended reading is marked with an asterisk.

     

  • At 4:06 PM, November 26, 2005, Blogger shorttallnotatall said…

    i actually don't think that the amount one reads or doesn't read is pathetic, i think the reasons for it could be.

    this year, boy. here's my list:

    dracula, prince of many faces: his life and his times (radu florescu, raymond mcnally)
    the ghost stories of m. r. james (m. r. james)
    farewell, my lovely (raymond chandler)
    the high window (raymond chandler)
    the lady in the lake (raymond chandler)
    provocations (kierkegaard)
    the moon is high (steinbeck)
    the martian chronicles (bradbury)
    bash (neil labute)
    man with bags (ionesco)

    the last two are plays.

    really, the last time i felt like i could read whatever i wanted and truly enjoy it was the summer after i graduated from college. but don't worry! there is a list i'm making of things i resolve to do after i take the bar exam, and real reading again is practically number one on my list.

     

  • At 5:53 PM, November 26, 2005, Blogger Monsterbeard said…

    Hooray for reading. Bob, I don't think that you should take out books you'd already read, because that doesn't matter, unless you think you aren't challenging yourself. If I read a Berenstain Bears book a day, I'm not going to be getting much out of it after a month or so. Then again, if I'm just starting out reading and I read a BB book a day, that's quite an accomplishment.

    Catherine, I certainly wouldn't suggest that someone who has read little is pathetic. However, generally, if I haven't read very much, it is pathetic, because I've been doing useless things like TV or sleeping too long.

    Not only is it fun to look back on what you've read this year, but it's also so nice to see what others have been reading.

     

  • At 5:55 PM, November 26, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    For me, reading so few books is an occasion for sadness. And I think for other people too. If Chris had read 0 books in the past year, I would feel sad for him.

    So, Catherine, My own level of reading this year has been pathetic. But you're right: let me clarify that I intend only to judge myself. And I mean pathetic in the sense of inspiriting pity and/or pathos, and not especially in the sense of "miserably inadequate."

    Catherine, which books were good? Which were bad? Which should I stay away from? I need to get a list going so that I'll have some books in queue (and so that I'll have a Christmas list).

    What time are we three playing Halo, and what day.

     

  • At 9:25 PM, November 26, 2005, Blogger Class of 2000 officers said…

    i haven't really read anything since we moved to clintonville, and i got this laptop with wireless internet. isn't that sad?

    at bryden road, there were a few good places to read. here, whenever i feel like reading something that is not news, i turn to blogs, or online bibles, or other useless forums.

    i am trying hard to think of a book i've read since june. prior to that, i was on a role with lots of Sedaris, D. and Franzen, J. i also read several anthologies of dudes, mostly, who have probably written for Esquire. ifor a while i thought i was a dude. and i hated oprah. i think i have spoken of this before.

    since June, i have read the beginning of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and the beginning of T. Friedman's The World is Flat, which Maybel ate.

    i will see what i can do for monday.

     

  • At 1:32 PM, November 27, 2005, Blogger Seth said…

    I'm glad everyone here enjoys reading so much, but I'm more like Lyndsey--I do most of my "reading" on-line these days. I did a lot of book-reading when I worked as a substitute teacher or as a movie extra because there was a lot of down time on the job, but lately, it's more enjoyable for me to get on the Internet or watch a movie or my favorite TV show with what little free time I have. I guess for me, the toughest part about picking up a book right now is not knowing when I'll have the chance to finish it.

    Certainly, most of television is crap and there are a lot of really awful movies, but there are also some diamonds in the rough and I wouldn't say these are always necessarily less valuable art forms than books, as comments here might suggest. (e.g. Chris saying he feels watching TV is "useless.") Would anyone argue that watching a classic such as Citizen Kane is less noble than reading the latest Stephen King or John Grisham? Or that an episode of "Lost" is less worthy of my time than the best-seller du jour? What is it about the written word that people still hold it above an artfully directed film or a carefully scripted television drama? Granted, TV and movies aren't exactly Shakespeare, but the literary world has its share of duds as well.

    Speaking of which, in regard to Slaughterhouse Five, I found it disappointing. Maybe as a modern classic, it didn't live up to the hype? For those who haven't read it yet, my top recommendation (besides 1984, which I'm sure you're all familiar with) is Catch-22.

     

  • At 6:32 PM, November 27, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    We are all so hard on ourselves, aren't we? Let me show you what not a lot of reading looks like, and try not to feel bad about it.

    Blue Like Jazz--Donald Miller
    Bee Season--Myla Goldberg
    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    The Golden Compass
    One Hundred Years of Solitude--Gabriel Marcia Marquez
    1984--George Orwell
    The Drama of the Gifted Child--Alice Miller

    Those were all very good books, and I think there are two or three more that I can't think of. I did listen to A Separate Piece and most of the Chronicles of Narnia on tape. Now I am reading Anna Karenina very slowly. That's probably all I'll read in 2006, at the pace I'm going.

     

  • At 8:08 PM, November 27, 2005, Blogger Monsterbeard said…

    Seth- I don't mean all tv is useless. There are definitely a lot of tv shows that are great and worth the time. But, I don't usually have the discipline to watch TV show by show. Usually I end up watching clumps of hours. The amount of crap tv I watch each week is probably 90% of all my tv watching. I could take that time and read, and still enjoy tv with the remaining 10% that is actually worth watching.

    Michelle, Bee Season looks great, and I really want to read the Golden Compass, so while you might hate your reading list, I almost envy it. Besides, I think the most fun out of this experiment is discovering what others are discovering (doesn't that sound like a middle school science teacher?).

     

  • At 12:20 PM, November 28, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    i think it's nice that you want to read stephen king. i have read a few of his books. the stand is good, but longer than it needs to be. you should read the shining, maybe. it's much scarier than the movie, so much so that i had to put it down a few times. these were books i read in high school.

    his short(ish) stories are good, too. especially the ones he wrote under the name richard bachman. the running man, the long walk, apt pupil (which is in a collection called "different seasons") and the story that "stand by me" was based on (which may or may not be written by "richard bachman")--those were all ones i thought were good. again, when i was in high school.

    i think "richard bachman" is a dumb pen name.

     

  • At 10:38 AM, December 02, 2005, Blogger Megan said…

    Chris-

    I've read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell as well as The Poisonwood Bible and I recommend them both. Other books I read this year that I really enjoyed were Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, Why Government Can't Save You by John MacArthur and the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan.

     

  • At 2:40 PM, December 03, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hi Megan! I hope you're well.

     

  • At 6:46 AM, December 05, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Being that my reprieves from dirt and oil and "HELLO! WHAT IS NAME!" are few, my list is near 75. So I won't type them. I will argue for Bob's and Chris' and everyone in between's (puttting on ponchos, praying for mosquitos) for not reading tons. So what if someone reads a lot of books? Are they interacting with people? All of us know people who read a lot but have no concept of how to interact with the people around them.

    Also, I would give a big X to The Poisonwood Bible, as I had to read it in a college class and spent my entire time during class discussions hugely despising a girl I called Chinua Achebe. However, Bee Season is worth its weight in something, but not gold. Perhaps lead? Uranium?

     

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