Dewey was a cute book. Chapters alternated between the life of a cat in a town library, the library and the surrounding community, and the author's life. This mix made for a very well-rounded story and a more interesting read.
Book 5 was The Humble Little Condom: A History. In case that title doesn't tell it a
ll, it's a wide-sweeping history of condom production and use from the beginning of recorded history. I was expecting it to be really interesting, but the first half is kind of a snoozer. Since it covers such a vast span of time, the author has little time to devote to really significant, interesting details. Every few paragraphs are broken up into their own little sections, and there isn't a whole lot of cohesion between these different sections. The author says a lot, but doesn't end up explaining a lot, and I found myself wanting to know more about literally everything mentioned in this book.Book 6 was He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman S
hould Know. This one was okay, I guess. None of the double standards presented were anything I (and I'm assuming most people) wasn't already aware of. The author provides some interesting and sometimes insightful commentary, and I definitely agreed with her on many things (for example, disdain over the idea that women can't pick up the check on a dinner date simply because they're women, and that's what the man is supposed to do), but there were times when I was annoyed at its overly feministness. I feel weird citing that as a criticism of the book, since I have nothing against feminism as a general concept, or feminists as people. I would definitely label myself one, if I was into labeling to begin with. I guess I just don't get the whole devoting-your-whole-being-to-focusing-on-the-fact-that-you're-a-strong-woman thing. Just BE one, ya know? I dunno, maybe I'm missing the point of the whole movement and am really some sort of sex/gender traitor by saying that. Whatever! It was a quick, entertaining read, and certainly validated my own personal feelings about women's roles in all sorts of contexts, so overall it made for good times.I'm not counting it, since I started it last year, but I fiiiiiinally finished Crime. Oh Irvine Welsh that I knew and loved, where have you gone? The reason it t
ook me so long to finish is because it's so goddamn BORING. The plot takes forever to get anywhere, and he writes a lot more scene description than dialogue in this one than in his other works. If it didn't have his name on the cover, I would have no idea that he was the one who wrote it. Not much phonetic Scots, no raunchy sex scenes, no characters that you get to know well enough to REALLY hate. Ugh. Such a letdown! One thing I did find interesting, though, was the fact that the entire book is written in the present tense as opposed to the usual past. Welsh even writes in the second person from time to time.Next up for number 7: Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng's China.
Last year I finished a Welsh book that took me all of 2 years worth of motivation to finish. first half was GREAT, and overall it had all of those 3 things listed--phonetic scottish, sex, hate, etc but for some reason the 2nd half was so boring. dunno. he's hit or miss.
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