Book Reviews? Has It Come To This Already?

I’ve been doing this blog for just about a month now and I’m fairly happy with it. I have a hard time gauging who reads this, and I guess it would be inappropriate of me to ask people to proclaim themselves each time. I don’t need any kind of reader’s list. And I don’t want to find myself, knowingly or otherwise, to be leaning my writings towards a suspected audience. However, the purpose of this blog is to engage with my psyche in an open and public way. I sincerely that by doing this I can also engage with you, the readers, whoever you may be. That being said, I greatly appreciate comments. Honestly, anything at all. I’m made exceptionally happy every time I receive that email that says “So-and-so has commented on your blog”. So if anything I write touches you, makes you think, or engages you in any way, please comment.
Now that that’s out of the way, I’m going to get to tonight’s topic. Since taking my leave from grad school I’ve found the wonderful opportunity to once again read for pleasure. I went through my library and picked out all the books I’d bought over the last few months that I’ve not had the chance to read and put them in several large piles in my room. Since then I’ve been trying to do about a book a week and have, more or less, succeeded. Here is a short review of all the books I’ve read since Christmas.

1)The Wild Things by Dave Eggers – you know, even after reading it, and pondering it for more than a month, I can’t decide how I feel about it. The Maurice Sendak book is brilliant for what it is, the movie by Spike Jones was exactly what I wanted it to be, and this book…well I just don’t know. It was good, I won’t deny that. And I love everything I’ve ever read by Dave Eggers but did I love this book? I just don’t know. Pathetically, it made me have a major depressive episode at one point simply because of a character’s name. God, I hate that fucking name. Do I recommend this book? Yes, absolutely.
2)Zeitoun by Dave Eggers – I love Dave Eggers and I loved this book. There was none of the doubt I felt after reading Wild Things. This book, a work of non-fiction, tells the story of Zeitoun, a Syrian-American living in New Orleans who is arrested in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and held secretly for months without contact with his wife and the outside world. The book is a horrifying look at how people with no malice in their hearts can ruin someone’s life. Do I recommend this book? Yes, everyone should read this book. Everyone.
3)Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett – Oh, Terry Pratchett. You’re what I read when I need an easy, fun book. I specifically picked this book because it featured the Night Watch, the members of which are my favorite characters in the Disc World series. It was good. It wasn’t the best Pratchett book I’ve ever read, but it was a pleasant read. Do I recommend this book? I guess. It makes a good introduction to the Disc World series so if you want to get into Terry Pratchett this is a good place to start.
4)The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami – I went to the bookstore because Emily told me to read Kafka on the Shore and when they didn’t have it, I decided to buy this one instead. It’s a collection of short stories and gives a really good introduction to Murakami’s writing style, and I suppose to what Kafka will be like. Boy, was it weird. The stories are about utterly forgettable people doing stuff just slightly out of their normal lives but is written in a brilliantly different style. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It didn’t make me happy or mad or anything but it intrigued the hell out of me. Do I recommend this book? Yes, if you want to read something weird.
5)Life of Pi by Yann Martel – I’ve seen this at bookstores for years and I’ve always meant to pick it up sometime. I had absolutely no idea what it was about going into it and when I put it down I was utterly surprised by it. This book should be on every highschool English class reading list. That I didn’t read it in highschool is a terrible failing on the part of my teachers: Lundholm, Ressler, Auvdel, and Kinnard. Shame on you all. In short, this book is absolutely brilliant and I loved it. Do I recommend this book? If you’ve never read this book, go get it from a library and read it right now.
6)Boomsday by Christopher Buckley – Buckley is touted as the great American political satirist of his age. I really enjoyed Thank You For Smoking which played on the lobbying and PR world. I enjoyed Florence of Arabia but I didn’t care for No Way To Treat A First Lady and none of his other books ever interested me enough to pick up until I read the back cover of Boomsday. It was a good book, don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed it. It didn’t make me laugh out loud but it made me smile, so that’s something. It’s not his best and it felt like it could’ve been more but kudos to Buckley for writing it. Do I recommend this book? If you’ve read Buckley and know you like him, yes. Otherwise don’t bother.
7)What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell – I didn’t really know what to expect from this book. It’s a collection of Gladwell’s best articles from the New Yorker. The New Yorker magazine is one of those things that I like in theory because I’m an intellectual white middle class college guy but in reality I almost never read it. Nonetheless, I’d heard good things about this and so when it was on sale at the bookstore, I bought it. Anyways, what can I say? Some of the articles I really loved, the ones on birth control and the eponymous article about Cesar Milan was really cool but some of them I really just skimmed. Kinda hit or miss, which is to be expected from such a project. Do I recommend this book? If you’re the kind of intellectual who sees the New Yorker on newsstands and says, “Ah, yes the New Yorker. Hmmm.” Then you’ll probably enjoy this book. At least parts of it. Probably.
8)Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett – Again, Pratchett soothes my pallet after a harder read like Gladwell’s. I picked out this title because I’ve never read anything about the character Rincewind, although he’s apparently one of the major characters of the series. So I picked up this one, about him. Again, it wasn’t my favorite. It’s an older book of his and I recognized few of the characters but it had the same sense of fun and subtle satire that I come to expect from Pratchett. Do I recommend this book? I don’t know if it’s one you’d get to introduce yourself to Disc World, but it’s a good middle book if you’ve already read a bit of his stuff. Maybe.
9)The “Good War” by Studs Terkel – This book is an oral history of World War II. That is, a series of transcribed interviews with participants of the war. It focuses almost exclusively on the American experience, which gives it a nice sense of collectiveness, that something trying to encompass the entire war would lack. It does however, span across all the fronts, as well as the home, and ranges from children to privates, to generals, to their wives, to interred Japanese, to black battalion members. I’ll admit I skipped over some chunks of this book, it’s a well known secret that I don’t care much for individual histories, and especially don’t care about home front war experiences. Nevertheless, this is one of the preeminent histories of the American experience in World War II and I’m glad I read it. Do I recommend this book? Are you a historian? Then yes, you should absolutely read this. If not, then you won’t make it through part I.
10)Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – Oh my God, I love Neil Gaiman. I shouldn’t even say anything beyond that. Since I first picked up American Gods a few years ago, I’ve been absolutely blown away by everything Gaiman pens. I’ve waited this long to read Neverwhere though because the synopsis on the back simply never appealed to me. However, having finally read, I was, once again, blown away by Gaiman’s genius. I can only hope to one day have his writing ability. Do I recommend this book? Yes. Done.
Okay, so that was a bit longer than I thought. I won’t be doing a post like this again, or else no one is ever going to read this damn thing. Anyways, if you’re ever looking for a book to read, I have no shortage of recommendations. Um…in conclusion, keep reading my blog. Please. And comment. Thank you. And Happy February.