The intellectual equivalent of a ham sandwich.

Posts tagged ‘book’

What Have I Done Reading List

One of the items on the “What Have I Done / Bucket List of Sorts” was to read 18 books this year. This is the list of those books.

An Object of Beauty – Steve Martin

  • I’m a big fan of The Pleasure of My Company. This one, eh. The most interesting and neat thing with this book, to me, was that it includes color pictures of some of the paintings the book talks about. This is nice because I’m lazy and don’t look up things (except in rare cases) that books talk about. A lot of the art talk was probably lost on me, so if you’re into that this book may appeal more to you.
  • Here’s a NY Times review of the book. (The author doesn’t directly say but I get the impression she wasn’t a big fan either.)

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

  • I finished this earlier today so I’m still not sure how much I like it. BUT, I can tell you that I really enjoyed his writing style.
  • Come back tomorrow for some quotes from the book that I liked.
  • Here’s the catch with the book, in case you pick it up without knowing the plot like I did – it’s a love story between an upper 30’s man and a 12-14 year old girl. From the perspective of the pretty-vocabularied man. Huh. It’s fiction but an odd pill to swallow.
  • Check out some quotes from the book that I liked … here.

Next up will be A Clockwork Orange. (After that I promised myself a lovely, feel good book.)

Above published Jan 5, 2012

I thought about it some more and I decided … yes, I like Lolita. If for no other reason than the language. But it’s also interesting because it has a lot of unexpected parts (at least I was surprised) and it’s just plain odd.

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

  • Yikes!
  • I read on wikipedia (linked above, and because it’s wikipedia take it as you will) that the author was not a fan of the book or the movie. The book, because he wrote it quickly and why is everyone in to this thing I wrote just off-hand! Gah! The movie, because it didn’t accurately convey the meaning of the book. I have not seen the movie, but the book’s message was interesting.
  • I haven’t seen the movie, but I thought the book did present an interesting question. And I have heard the movie is violent and crazy, but with books you can distance yourself (in my opinion) more easily from that. It’s less ‘real.’
  • Also, possibly the coolest part, is that wha-la, you know about forty words of slang without having tried. There are more than forty in the book, but you walk away without knowing ALL of them. Well, maybe YOU do. But I didn’t.
  • Yep, you read that title right.
  • I knew I wanted something light and happy after Lolita and A Clockwork Orange and this book provided just that. I would recommend this book for just such a situation.
  • I’m jealous of this guy because he writes dumb, goofball, enjoyable nonsense and he’s gotten published doing it.
  • Check out quotes I enjoyed from the book here.

Above published on January 30, 2012. I think. 

  • I started reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and then a friend (nicknamed Airplanes), invited me to a book club. The book they were reading was book one of the Hunger Games trilogy.
  • It was great!
  • I read the book and couldn’t help but tear through books two and three. Hence …
  • At the book club, two of the people had already read all three books. One girl said she couldn’t remember which book event X happened in, and then said, “well it doesn’t spoil anything,” then she said event X. Really? Doesn’t spoil anything? That annoys me so much when people do that. In my head I turn in to a cat and hiss at them. Is that weird?
  • Yes, it is weird.
  • But, it’s oddly soothing.
  • Here’s how good these books are. I bought the first in paperback, and read it. I knew I wouldn’t be getting books two or three for a while because they’re just in hard back, and it bothers my meticulous, boring nature to own books in a series that are not all the same format. But then it was Sunday, the library was closed, and all the sudden there I was buying the hardback.
  • Book three I read the vast majority of at a sandwich shop. I just sat there for three or four hours reading. I think I must have seemed like I had no life, which you can tell by the fact that I blog 5 times a week that I am clearly a very happenin’ individual.
  • I realize I’m not saying anything about these books, so here’s this …
  • Book 1 I read over the course of a week. Book two in three or four nights. Book three in two days. They’re good.
Ok, seriously, I’m going to finish On the Road now.
Above published on March 5. 
  • Remember what I said about On the Road? Silly me …
  • At book club the latest book chosen was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The book was nominated by me, and the gang chose it. The book I voted for wasPersuasion. I had yet to read a Jane Austen and I figured this would force me. It worked!
  • The first hundred or so pages I thought, “make it stop, oh make it stop.” But then around page 150 things got interesting, and I actually thought the book was decent. Stellar review, right?
  • One of the best things about this book will be the transition from this read to the next because the book club’s next read is … 50 Shades of Grey. Or “mom porn” if you prefer (based on the SNL skit). Yikes.

Above published on May 24. (Oof I need to get back to reading more!)

Ok, big update this time around so I’m going to be less wordy …

Fifty Shades of Grey – E.L. James

We Were Soldiers Once and Young – Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret) and Joseph L. Galloway

  • A good read, but boy it is tough to swallow because of how sad it can be
  • There can’t be enough respect for vets

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Stardust – Neil Gaiman

  • I bought this because I had read that if I enjoyed The Princess Bride I would enjoy this … it’s not nearly as good as The Princess Bride in my opinion, but it’s enjoyable.
  • If you have no plans on a rainy day, read this book.

The Right Stuff – Tom Wolfe

  • I read this during a trip, so I would read a lot, then not for a while … But I would go through some parts of the book that were exciting and I couldn’t stop … Other parts, not so much.
  • It has a really interesting look at NASA in its beginning, and the first astronauts
  • Overall, I would definitely recommend it.

Candide – Voltaire

  • Do you have to do a book report on this book? Here it is, summed up as I see it:
  • Do you believe that life is rosy and all is for the best? Here, lets have a bunch of horrible things happen to you … Still believe it? Here comes more horrible.
  • It’s a classic, so for that reason you should read it I suppose?

Armageddon’s Children – Terry Brooks

The Elves of Cintra – Terry Brooks

The Gypsy Morph – Terry Brooks

  • The first books I ever got into were written by Terry Brooks. I read them because my brother recommended them to me (see: big brother idol warship). Up until that point I rarely enjoyed reading (Bruce Coville was the exception), so I’ll be a lifelong fan of Terry Brooks for getting me into books.
  • Sometimes if life has you down, you read fantasy books.

Bossypants – Tina Fey

  • This book was geared more towards women, but it’s very funny I think regardless of who you are. She knows how to be funny.

Above published

 

Check out the master to do list here!

Category:

Weekly Wacko

Tagged with:

Texas, the Original Honey Badger?

You may be aware of the reference to the ‘honey badger video.’ If not, here you go. And mom, careful, this guy likes to cuss.

If you don’t want to watch it – I’ll sum it up. The honey badger is a real tough guy, he does what he wants and takes crap from no one. Remind you of anyone? (At least, remind you of anyone in the sense that it’s how that someone likes to be perceived?)

That’s right, I’m here to say that Texas was the original honey badger.Owen P. White

I just bought a book called Texas: An Informal Biography. It was written by Owen P. White and  published in 1945, it was one dollar and it’s in fantastic condition. How is that not great? I read the little bit from that link I have on Owen P. White’s name, and I am now actually excited about this book not just for comedic reasons. He sounds interesting. But, I bought this book primarily because of the first few lines of the Introduction. Again, Texas, the original honey badger.

“Texas is one of God’s greatest and most gratifying experiments. When God created Texas He did so with the mischievous intention of providing men who had no fear of Him, if only they could conquer it, with an empire of their own of stupendous wealth and unbounded opportunity. Thus Texas was His challenge to the tall, the tough, and the ugly to come and get it.”

You can pretty easily guess that I read this with a ridiculous accent, and am already excited about a video where I read excerpts of this while wearing a cowboy hat and standing around at a bayou.

Category:

Du Jour of the Week

Tagged with:

50 Shades of Grey Review

For book club we read 50 Shades of Grey, by E. L. James. If you don’t know anything about it, allow me to allow Ellen DeGeneres (you know, the lady I wrote postcards to once a week in the hopes she’ll take pity and invite me on her show and help me get published?) … anywho, here’s Ellen reading from 50 Shades.

The book is bad. I don’t know how else to tell you that. I’m sure some people will like it, but even people who like it (on boards I looked at) seemed to know that it was still bad writing. If you’re into reading about kinky sex or controlling dudes, I recommend this book. Otherwise, suffice yourself with this series of quotes from the book.

My personal favorites are the ones where she talks to her subconscious, and also her “inner goddess.” Good GOD this book is bad.

50 Shades of Grey

His voice is warm and husky like dark melted chocolate fudge caramel … or something.

“Um.” I feel the color in my cheeks rising again. I must be the color of The Communist Manifesto. Stop talking. Stop talking. NOW.

Paul is cute in a wholesome all-American boy-next-door kind of way, but he’s no literary hero, not by any stretch of the imagination. Is Grey? my subconscious asks me, her eyebrow figuratively raised. I slap her down.

My subconscious is figuratively tutting and glaring at me over her half-moon specs.

Tonight’s the night! After all this time, am I ready for this? My inner goddess glares at me, tapping her small foot impatiently. She’s been ready for this for years, and she’s ready for anything with Christian Grey

He gives me a wicked grin, the effects of which travel all the way down there.

It’s a beautiful May morning, Seattle at my feet. Wow, what a view. Beside me, Christian is fast asleep. Wow, what a view.

My inner goddess sits in the lotus position looking serene except for the sly, self-congratulatory smile on her face.

[…] a very small part of me resents that he should find this a surprise. My inner goddess does, too. She makes a very vulgar and unattractive gesture at him with her fingers.

My inner goddess jumps up and down with cheerleading pom-poms shouting yes at me.

My subconscious runs, screaming, and hides behind the couch.

My subconscious peeks out from behind the couch, still registering shock on her harpy face.

I thought I was in charge? My inner goddess looks like someone snatched her ice cream.

My inner goddess pouts at me, failing miserably to hide her disappointment.

Fin

What’s impressive is that I have even more so-amazingly-bad-they’re-good quotes from this book. But that’s all I can muster for now, my inner goddess has a gun.

Category:

Quotes of the Day!

Tagged with: