Progress: 5 down, 15 to go
Which: Prince of Thieves, Chuck Hogan
Owing to the fact that I picked up the book after watching the trailer for The Town, Thieves reads quickly and like a movie to me. I let the casting director do that heavy lifting for me and between you and me: Jeremy-Renner-as-Jem in my head is terrifying.
I like that the book doesn’t ask for and the fellas don’t want your sympathy. And not in an adolescent, “no, you shut up!” kind of way. There’s just the story and the way Hogan tells it and either it works for you or it doesn’t. It worked for me.
p.s. Boston and I aren’t very good friends, so even though I Google Map’d the major locations for context (nerd!), my brain called up visuals from The Wire for Charlestown scenery. Weird.
Next batch of books!
- Prince of Thieves, Chuck Hogan (library)
- The Book Thief, Markus Zusak (Ky)
- The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (Tiff)
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (mine)
After almost a month of not really being home, there’s lots waiting on the TiVo—along with the Netflix-delivered season 1 disc 1 of “Chuck” (uh, love it)—but I am totally sucked into Thieves, so that all gets to wait. Plus, Seattle decided it needed a gray, rainy day and not that I need an excuse to stay in and read, but…
Progress: 4 down, 16 to go
Which: The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan
The size of Pyramid surprised me after the relatively short Percy Jackson installments, but Riordan fills that extra space well enough. Pyramid has a lot more going on, not least because of its two narrators (brother and sister), but it doesn’t drag and he keeps the sibling jokey-bickering to a minimum.
This? would be a fun movie. (Provided they keep Chris Columbus away from it. Yeah, I said it! but look: how can you have multiple Percy movies when you’ve deleted the Titans from the story?! Bah.)
Progress: 3 down, 17 to go
Which: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
I’ve tried to sum up five times, now and I keep deleting it, so: it’s good! I liked it! (Also: the movie’s good, too.)
Stumbled on to from Colonoscopy: It’s Time to Check Your Colons (hee) (via kottke)
Strangely, I haven’t read very much Shakespeare criticism, excepting Harold Bloom because my first Shakespeare professor referred to him frequently. I like Frazier’s description and caveats, though, so Shakespearean Tragedy will be added to my shelves soon.
(re: “colonoscopy”—I don’t always like Internetisms¹, but the jumper colon? I like.)
¹ If you get a message from me with “u” or “r” in it? Assume I’ve been buried alive and have MacGuyver’d a way to send out 1 brief message.
Progress: 2 down, 18 to go
Which: Sisters Red, Jackson Pearce
It makes me laugh at myself that it didn’t dawn on me—for awhile—that Sisters Red is a new twist on Little Red Riding Hood. Way to pay attention, me! Sisters moves pretty quickly and only gets a little bit syrupy (c’mon, 2 sisters? it’s going to happen), which is a risk you take with YA; heh. I liked it, though, and I bet it would make for a fun movie if they shifted the characters a few years older…
Also? Love that cover.
Monday, more reading.
Sunday, reading
Progress: 1 down, 19 to go
Which: Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
I love Carnivàle and unfortunately that’s what I hoped for when I cracked open Water for Elephants. It’s not bad, really, but…in the world of the Dust Bowl circus: Knauf’s writing, Brother Justin, and that title sequence! are damn hard act to follow.
The story trundles along at a good clip, to Gruen’s credit; there’s not much time to grow too impatient with anyone¹. I’ll be it translates pretty well to film. Plus, Christoph Waltz as the schizophrenic animal trainer? I am in.
¹ Except maybe with Gruen? Jacob isn’t unsympathetic and, as the wife of an unhinged and abusive husband, neither really is Marlena, but they’re not actively sympathetic either. That was frustrating.
Need more input!
Giving the 20 books in 6 months another shot, but unlike last time I’ll pick the books a few at a time as I go. This way I can swap in new books as I come across them and! maybe the reading won’t feel like a chore 2 months in. (:
First batch:
- Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson
The 2nd series I’ve seen the first movie of prior to starting the books (the 1st? Harry Potter :P)
- The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan
- His Excellency George Washington, Joseph Ellis
Already in progress, but it counts!
- Sisters Red, Jackson Pearce
Got any recommendations? (: (I’m all over David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet after this group.)
Original goal: to read 20 books by the end of June.
Final results: 16 books read, 1 abandoned, 4 incomplete¹.
It’s only the 28th! You could still do it!
…no. The 4 books left?
- The Rest is Noise - 7300 of 15,103 Kindle locations—after 6 weeks of reading, mind
- His Excellency: George Washington - 535 of 5831 Kindle locations
- The Inheritance of Rome - not started
- 2666 - 77 of 912p
So, I’m calling it.
That said, I’m pretty happy with how much I read and the variety thereof. The 2 biggest reasons I didn’t finish the list: a nearly 2-month break in the middle and choosing the entire list up front in January. I’m giving myself some slack on the break: getting laid off wasn’t exactly planned. Heh.
For the next set of 20 (by New Year’s :P), book selection as I go. I’ll choose a few at a time, so there are always a few on deck, but fixed list…pass! (:
One of the side effects of not letting myself read anything but the list was an ever-increasing backlog in my living room. Ahem…
(full size)
¹ My math’s not off, the final list ended at 21, but I didn’t feel like changing the tag. :D
Progress: 16 down, 1 abandoned, 4 to go (list)
Which: Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
That’s a fun little book. You never really know where you’ll end up with Gaiman and his story-telling, but it’s always a good time. A green fedora, though? Heh.
Progress: 15 down, 1 abandoned, 5 to go (list)
Which: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
It took a few pages to get a feel for what’s happening here, but that accomplished, the book brings you along on its merry way. The rarely-longer-than-4-pages entries were a welcome relief after books and books of fully-justified, days-long chapters (I’m glaring at you Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer and The Rest is Noise).
Hedgehog made its way into my library at the recommendation of a friend and that title! As it happens, the book is lovely and worth the read; it goes quickly, but not passively.
Also, I’d really like some madeleines, now.
It’s very pretty,” a statement that is to art as using “bring” when you mean “take” is to the beauty of language.
Renée, p. 199 The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
Hee.
telemachy:
“Every object, however near the eye, has something about it which you cannot see, and which brings the mystery of distance even into every part and portion of what we suppose ourselves to see most distinctly.”
from Modern Painters I, John Ruskin
20 minutes later, I came across the following in The Elegance of the Hedgehog:
Some people are incapable of perceiving in the object of their contemplation the very thing that gives it its intrinsic life and breath…
