I may not have read all of the possible Halloween books that were on the pile for October, but I started the month with Dracula and finished with Something Wicked This Way Comes as planned.
Four books, which sounds really lame and is not up to what my standards were many years ago. But it isn’t bad for me these days. I’m really happy that I got in the two re-reads that I wanted to do and that I bracketed the month with them. It’s also nice that the re-reads were both satisfying and not disappointing at all.
Now on to November. I have nothing planned in the reading department – except for all of the books that I didn’t read while focusing on October.
And then, of course, there is NaNoWriMo.
Let the insanity begin. It’s a good kind of crazy though.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Magic
I finished Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Another first re-reading for me.
I was worried about the book holding up to my memory of it but I shouldn’t have. It doesn’t really matter that it’s been more than 40 years since I read it or that the book is even older than that. The setting is really a character in itself and the book can be read as an historical novel so it doesn’t feel outdated.
My memory of the details was incomplete, which also didn’t matter. More important was that my memory of the sense of wonder was accurate and rewarded by the re-read. I can get as much out of it as I did as a 10 year old because there is still a message in the story for me. And it is such amazing, unabashed and barely restrained fantastic literature that the magic just can’t be contained.
And really, I shouldn’t have worried anyway because the book is all about memory.
The characters and the setting are archetypes of reality revealed in a memory of one essential time and place. It’s set in one year, represents all of time and is anchored in the present – that memory of the all important now is what is essential. The present is composed of the past and our memories of it, we can’t escape it nor should we try.
Of course the story is also about desire and fear and the corruption and predation of life. But in that it is a history of humanity that holds an admonition not only to recall the lessons of the past so that we will not succumb to its deceits but also to remember our own nature.
Read the last line of the book. We may live in cities now but we came from the wild and that is still in our blood. It must be recognized and controlled. We forget who we are and our past at our own peril because the memory of our own dark past flows in our veins.
And no one can write this sort of thing like Ray Bradbury.
I was worried about the book holding up to my memory of it but I shouldn’t have. It doesn’t really matter that it’s been more than 40 years since I read it or that the book is even older than that. The setting is really a character in itself and the book can be read as an historical novel so it doesn’t feel outdated.
My memory of the details was incomplete, which also didn’t matter. More important was that my memory of the sense of wonder was accurate and rewarded by the re-read. I can get as much out of it as I did as a 10 year old because there is still a message in the story for me. And it is such amazing, unabashed and barely restrained fantastic literature that the magic just can’t be contained.
And really, I shouldn’t have worried anyway because the book is all about memory.
The characters and the setting are archetypes of reality revealed in a memory of one essential time and place. It’s set in one year, represents all of time and is anchored in the present – that memory of the all important now is what is essential. The present is composed of the past and our memories of it, we can’t escape it nor should we try.
Of course the story is also about desire and fear and the corruption and predation of life. But in that it is a history of humanity that holds an admonition not only to recall the lessons of the past so that we will not succumb to its deceits but also to remember our own nature.
Read the last line of the book. We may live in cities now but we came from the wild and that is still in our blood. It must be recognized and controlled. We forget who we are and our past at our own peril because the memory of our own dark past flows in our veins.
And no one can write this sort of thing like Ray Bradbury.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Pins dropping, too
There is an old Peanuts strip – so old that I think Snoopy still looks like a dog and hasn’t had flying lessons yet – where Snoopy shows up instantly when there is food and Charlie Brown says that Snoopy can here you eating marshmallows.
I have a cat that can hear you open the bagon a loaf of bread.
He also knows all of the sounds associated with making a sandwich and will appear if I begin to make any of those sounds, even if I am not, actually, making a sandwich.
I think that this is rather clever. It can also be very annoying at times since he is under the impression that I am making him a sandwich. Why would he think that? He doesn’t even like bread.
I have a cat that can hear you open the bagon a loaf of bread.
He also knows all of the sounds associated with making a sandwich and will appear if I begin to make any of those sounds, even if I am not, actually, making a sandwich.
I think that this is rather clever. It can also be very annoying at times since he is under the impression that I am making him a sandwich. Why would he think that? He doesn’t even like bread.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Third October book read
I finished Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard. It is eccentric, shameless, filled with references to books that inspired it and dark. Some parts were written with tongue planted firmly in cheek, I would say more like early Piers Anthony than Douglas Adams, but it is not a light-hearted story.
The protagonist is a self-centered, murderous, anti-social ass. That is not a spoiler. He’s an anti-hero and a jerk and it shows from the start. There is nothing to recommend this man as a decent human being. He leaves a wake of physical and spiritual devastation behind him with cold and cruel abandon. Why, then, did I read it? Well, it starts out with dark humor and I was curious as to how the plot would be resolved. By the time it got really nasty – no blood or gore, just evil – I wanted to see how it ended and it goes pretty quickly.
There are flaws – it’s too fast in places, not focusing on some plot points fully enough, and it lets a few threads get away and doesn’t let others develop fully. That could be the author or required editorial changes. Regardless, they weren’t catastrophic. To the author’s credit he managed to make a book with exceedingly dark themes and an unredeemable protagonist entertaining.
Definitely this was a book for October and Halloween.
And now, Bradbury.
The protagonist is a self-centered, murderous, anti-social ass. That is not a spoiler. He’s an anti-hero and a jerk and it shows from the start. There is nothing to recommend this man as a decent human being. He leaves a wake of physical and spiritual devastation behind him with cold and cruel abandon. Why, then, did I read it? Well, it starts out with dark humor and I was curious as to how the plot would be resolved. By the time it got really nasty – no blood or gore, just evil – I wanted to see how it ended and it goes pretty quickly.
There are flaws – it’s too fast in places, not focusing on some plot points fully enough, and it lets a few threads get away and doesn’t let others develop fully. That could be the author or required editorial changes. Regardless, they weren’t catastrophic. To the author’s credit he managed to make a book with exceedingly dark themes and an unredeemable protagonist entertaining.
Definitely this was a book for October and Halloween.
And now, Bradbury.
So that’s where the year went
Since the beginning of the month I was wondering how it got to be the beginning of this month. I think I finally managed to figure out where this year went. I was sick. Between actually suffering from viral and other infections and recovering from them, I was sick for more than 12 weeks.
It started in mid-June and kept going until the end of September so I was sick for basically the whole summer. Which explains how it got to be October so fast. That sucks, but at least it makes some sort of sense.
Time sure flies when you’re not really having any kind of fun at all. It does when you’re having fun as well, so back to the reading.
It started in mid-June and kept going until the end of September so I was sick for basically the whole summer. Which explains how it got to be October so fast. That sucks, but at least it makes some sort of sense.
Time sure flies when you’re not really having any kind of fun at all. It does when you’re having fun as well, so back to the reading.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Why certain books
After that last post you might be wondering why I read books by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. I didn’t exactly rave about him, so why bother? Well, for one thing, his books are intriguing and I want to see where some of his stories go. But it might just be that I had one of his books next to the bed when I first got out of the hospital – no, it’s not going to be one of those posts. Maybe I want to read more of his stuff because one of the first books I read that October was by him – specifically The Fencing Master.
The very first book I read was Tim Powers’ The Drawing of the Dark, which was another one that had been on the bedside pile for a while.
These days neither of those books strikes me as particularly appropriate for someone still hazy under the influence of anesthetics and the depletion brought on by 2 months in the hospital. For all I know I only read one word in seven and don’t even know the stories.
Go look up some descriptions of Tim Powers’ books and you’ll see how crazy it was to read one of his just then. Hey, it was close at hand and I didn’t know what I was doing. I actually kind of like Tim Powers. Some of his books are stronger than others (whose aren’t?), but they’re fun in a weird sort of way. A very weird sort of way.
Now back to the October reading list.
The very first book I read was Tim Powers’ The Drawing of the Dark, which was another one that had been on the bedside pile for a while.
These days neither of those books strikes me as particularly appropriate for someone still hazy under the influence of anesthetics and the depletion brought on by 2 months in the hospital. For all I know I only read one word in seven and don’t even know the stories.
Go look up some descriptions of Tim Powers’ books and you’ll see how crazy it was to read one of his just then. Hey, it was close at hand and I didn’t know what I was doing. I actually kind of like Tim Powers. Some of his books are stronger than others (whose aren’t?), but they’re fun in a weird sort of way. A very weird sort of way.
Now back to the October reading list.
A surprisingly familiar plot, with twists
So I’m reading this book, The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, that I picked up because it had some good reviews and I kind of liked other things I’ve read by the author. His books are a bit eccentric but intriguing enough to be interesting. This one isn’t my favorite of his that I’ve read, but it isn’t a bad book.
Part of the problem may be that, as I read, I realized that I knew some of the story because I had seen parts of a movie based on the book - ‘The Ninth Gate’ starring Johnny Depp (I looked it up). I haven’t seen the entire movie, and it only has part of the story – not unusual for a movie made from a book – so it is very different. I’m not sure it isn’t better for that, or could have been (again, haven’t seen the whole thing so I don’t know). To be fair the parts of the plot the movie used are much more complex and nuanced in the book. There’s also an entire plot the movie ignores.
Though the book has plot complications that are there for reasons I do not know and can’t get from the reading. Maybe I’m too dense, or maybe the plotting is too arbitrary and self-indulgent. I get the feeling that it’s the latter. Whatever.
This is the first non-swashbuckler I’ve read by Pérez-Reverte, and I’ll read others to see what they’re like. I’ve read mostly earlier work and I want to see how his books develop. I may have to try to find out more about how and why this one was written. It seems to explain a lot about his other books, though, as in revealing the books the author loves and his influences.
And it does fit the October theme.
Part of the problem may be that, as I read, I realized that I knew some of the story because I had seen parts of a movie based on the book - ‘The Ninth Gate’ starring Johnny Depp (I looked it up). I haven’t seen the entire movie, and it only has part of the story – not unusual for a movie made from a book – so it is very different. I’m not sure it isn’t better for that, or could have been (again, haven’t seen the whole thing so I don’t know). To be fair the parts of the plot the movie used are much more complex and nuanced in the book. There’s also an entire plot the movie ignores.
Though the book has plot complications that are there for reasons I do not know and can’t get from the reading. Maybe I’m too dense, or maybe the plotting is too arbitrary and self-indulgent. I get the feeling that it’s the latter. Whatever.
This is the first non-swashbuckler I’ve read by Pérez-Reverte, and I’ll read others to see what they’re like. I’ve read mostly earlier work and I want to see how his books develop. I may have to try to find out more about how and why this one was written. It seems to explain a lot about his other books, though, as in revealing the books the author loves and his influences.
And it does fit the October theme.
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