{Lindsay} Books 7-12

I went through a bit of a slow spell with the reading in the past few weeks. I thought I'd get through a ton of books since I'm not working, but it seems that it's harder to keep myself busy now that I don't have anything that needs to be done, and I've instead gotten a bit lazy with everything. That and I'm back on a serious music kick, so a lot of my energy lately has been invested in going to shows and finding new stuff to listen to. I did eventually manage to get through a few books, though.

First was Milton's Paradise Lost. Nothing like reliving my college Brit Lit I survey course to get the reading juices flowing! I only had to read short sections of it for that class, but had tried on several occasions after that to get through the entire work. It wasn't until now that I was able to do it. Overall, it really is a fascinating story, though Milton's attempts at tying it in with other epic works is a bit awkward at times. My favorite part of Milton's interpretation of the Fall is the way he fleshes out all the characters and gives them feelings, motives, and both good and flawed aspects. It's difficult to entirely loathe Satan, just as it's difficult to see Milton's God as a supremely perfect being. As for Adam and Eve, they end up seeming mostly (to me, at least) just pawns in a game far bigger than themselves, so it's even difficult to place most of the blame of mankind's fall on just them. In the end, there were only two books out of the twelve that really didn't hold my interest, so now that I've gotten through the whole thing once I can definitely see myself reading this one over and over again.

Next was a book on Judaism. I'm not really sure how to critique a non-fiction work, especially one about a religion I don't follow myself. I was raised Catholic, and although I haven't followed it or any religion since high school, I find myself intrigued by religion as a societal construct and dissecting the differences between them all. This book was a little hard to make sense of at times, since it's basically a collection of all sorts of different texts related to Judaism, a lot of them very short and not all of them placed into full context for the reader. There's also a lot of vocabulary that isn't always glossed, so I felt like I had to already know a lot about Jewish religion (culture?) to make sense of it all. That's okay, though. I was certainly not expecting to become an expert on an entire religion from one book. Still, from a comparative perspective, it was nice to at least begin to get a better grasp on differences between the Judeo-Christian religions.

After that was some more Vonnegut. I really really love this guy's writing, and am totally bummed I didn't read more of his stuff until now. Sirens of Titan is only the third book of his that I've read, but I'm officially hooked on his style, and also his worldview that comes out through his plots and characters.

Next was Watchmen. Having not grown up on comic books, I honestly had no knowledge of the existence of this story until the movie got made. I really had no interest in the movie/story until it was brought to my attention that it's actually a very literary work. After learning some more about the general plot and opinions of its amazingness, I was intrigued enough to pick up my own copy of the book, and I'm so glad I did. I honestly think Rorschach might be one of my new favorite literary characters ever. There's SO much going on between the main plot, the flashbacks, the supplemental "documents" at the end of each chapter, the Black Freighter story interwoven with the main action. It makes for a very stimulating read. I'm planning on seeing the movie, but am afraid it's going to disappoint. Hopefully that won't be the case.

Yesterday I re-read Equus. If you're not familiar with it, I definitely suggest checking it out. Plot-wise, it's about a psychiatrist who has a teenaged patient, and he's trying to figure out why the patient blinded six horses. It also has some interesting commentary woven in about what it means to be normal vs. "troubled," and what the psychiatrist thinks of himself and his role in making troubled teens "normal." I don't know if I would go so far as calling this play disturbing, but it certainly has some intense moments. I almost went to see it on Broadway with Daniel Radcliffe playing the patient, but I never got around to it.

Finally, based on Flood's recommendation, was The Graveyard Book. It's been awhile since I read The Jungle Book, so I don't know that I picked up all of Gaiman's allusions to it, but I really really enjoyed it. I have a soft spot for "creepy" stories, so anything involving graveyards and ghosts is A+ in my book. It's about a boy who, after his family is murdered when he is a baby, ends up being raised by ghosts in an English cemetary. He learns how to do "ghosty" things, like become invisible to those around him, and show up in people's dreams. Eventually he has to face the man who killed his family. The end made me a bit sad, as most coming-of-age, losing-the-innconce-of-youth stories tend to. Overall, the settings are what really made this book great for me, so if you have no shame in reading well-written young adult fiction, definitely give this one a whirl.

For my next books, I'm reading Watership Down for the billionth time, and an omnibus of three Michael Crichton books.

Books 7&8

I've spent the better part of the last few weeks plowing through John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany". "The World According to Garp" is one of my favorite books so I had high expectations for this one. I absolutely loved it and found it very hard to put it down - Irving has this great way of traveling through decades of stories and winding them together without losing focus on what he's trying to tell the reader. And as the back cover warned me, the character of Owen Meany was absolutely heart warming and heartbreaking. This book caught my attention at the most appropriate time in my life and I am so very glad that I read it. And just like "Garp", I immediately want to read it again for anything I might have missed.





Next up: "Good In Bed" by Jennifer Weiner. It seems that I've been reading nothing but stories relating to wartime communities, of boys becoming men at the loss of something very important. To give my mind a break (and slowly but surely return my growing stack of borrowed books), I'm making a one-day read of this book. It's a story of a girl coming to terms with her own fatness - which is difficult to read at points because it is somewhat poorly written, and as a fat girl myself, causes me to feel unnaturally guilty and worried that I actually sound and act like this character. I may not finish it, but it'll keep me somewhat entertained for this rainy day.