Don’t Read This

quirkyalone

1 Comment / 2007, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /

I’m finding it difficult to blog about quirkyalone. It was a weird book. I don’t have any problems with the quirkyalone label. I understand it. I might actually be a quirkyalone together person. In fact I probably am. I also think Michelle is quirkyalone. Jenn and Chris, totally not quirkyalone. But that is neither here, nor there. I’m talking about the book.

I ended up with the book because librarian Katie was talking about it on a message board. Which reminded me that sassymonkey did not like it, (though I think she doth protest too much – she is quirkyalone and I will explain to her later how one can be a quirkyalone together). I figured it was time to check it out and see it for myself. I had to get it through Inter-Library Loan because obviously the Alachua County Library system would not have it. There is nothing quirkyalone about this county. Fake quirky maybe but definitely not real quirky much less quirkyalone. Too many people wearing matching shirts all the time.

I liked bits and pieces of the book but I was mostly just disappointed. I don’t like my books to look like ‘zines, even if the author is a ‘zine writer. I like social network profiles but I don’t want my books to look like someone went to some social networking site (which by the way there should be a quirkyalone social networking site and I should be hired to run its community) and pulled various profiles and just plopped them into the book as content. Profiles aren’t content. They’re good lead ins to content. They’re a good way to tie up content. They’re good filler between content. But full pages of profiles – not content. Boring as all hell.

So where the book wasn’t formatted like a ‘zine, I liked it. I liked the resources in the back, those were nice but nice enough for me to want to buy or even read the book in order to get to them. I can just get those online, ya know? And where it wasn’t just straight profile, I liked it. Which means I didn’t much like the book, it was full of stuff I just didn’t like. I do, however, like quirkyalones.

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The Crying of Lot 49

2006, Books in Bed, Classics, Don't Read This, Favorites /

Because I couldn’t make my way through Gravity’s Rainbow and because Gravity’s Rainbow was one of my Summer Reading Challenge books, I decided to take a recommendation from someone at “work” and read Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 instead. About the only thing I can say is I managed to make it through the whole book

Conspiracy theories, bah who cares. And can someone tell me why this guy insists on writing incredibly long sentences? He’s much worse than I am. Look, this is how it starts:

One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Invararity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary.

I mean really, was that necessary? The whole book is like that. The whole book is unnecessary. No more Pynchon for me, thank you.

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The Prophet of Yonwood

2006, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Don't Read This /

Well, I was disappointed. That pretty much covers it. Prophet of Yonwood is a prequel to the much loved by me People of Sparks and City of Ember. I don’t care much for prequels as a rule but I found this one particularly disappointing.

The story takes place long before people went “underground” so it isn’t much of a prequel. It’s also full of propaganda and while the message it sends regarding religious zealots and fear is an important one, it just comes off as condescending. I can’t imagine what kids would think about this book. Kids who’ve read Sparks and Ember will probably be more disappointed than those who haven’t read them.

Just skip this one, people. Read the other two and let’s hope Duprau gives us a better story next time.

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Gravity’s Rainbow – Help Me!

3 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Classics, Don't Read This /

Gravity’s Rainbow is the last “difficult” and “scary” read from my Summer Reading Challenge and I’m ready to give up. I was ready to give up on page 7, again on page 16, also on page 34, then on page 43 and now on page 116.

I don’t want to give up on it, so now I’m in search of study guides, reading guides, something that will help me follow this, this, this… I don’t even know what to call it.

Anyone out there have any words of wisdom? Anyone out there who can tell me why I should keep reading? 600 pages is a long time to muddle through if I’m not going to get anything out of the muddling.

Help!

Updated – 8/6/6 – I’ve given up, for now. I may go back to it later but another 50 pages last night proved that I just wasn’t going to get anything out of it. Darn it.

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The Moonstone

8 Comments / 2006, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery, The Moonstone /

Well ladies, and gentlemen (surely there are some men lurking), I did it. Finally. It took me 10 years and many, MANY false starts but I did it. I. Finished. The. Moonstone.

I didn’t ever think I’d be able to say that. But now that I have said it, I’m quite pleased with myself. I’m not really pleased with my mother who purchased the book for my daughter 10 years ago. I’m not really pleased with my mother who rambled about how much she loved the book when she was a teenager. I’m also not pleased with my mother who has generally recommended really fantastic books in the past. I’m also not pleased with my mother who on one other occasion recommended a book in a similar way, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, and that recommendation was so RIGHT that it led me to believe that any such recommendation would also be RIGHT.

The Moonstone. Not right.

I like Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White is a very good book. I’ve actually read it two or three times and enjoyed it everytime. I would happily recommend that book to you. The Moonstone. Not so much. In fact, except for 3 pages very near the end, I wouldn’t really recommend it at all. Except of course, there’s my mom. She loved it when she was a teen (or so she said, 10 years ago – she’s waivered a bit on that over the years – that’s the dementia though, so we expect that from her now).

Anyway, I’ve finished it. I’m proud of myself for having finished it. I’m proud of myself for being able to cross book #1 off of my summer reading challenge.

Now onto bigger and better things…. The Day My Butt Went Psycho… gotta be bigger and better than The Moonstone, right?

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Trigger, Trigger, Trigger

3 Comments / Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /

The only thing I can say about Girls of a Tender Age is that is one trigger after another.  Wait, I can say one other thing and it isn’t good.  Why would anyone read this book? Why did I read it?  Bad guy abuses and/or rapes very young girls and kills one in the process.  There was no mystery involved, we knew right off the bat that this guy was bad and he did the deed (or several deeds).  There was no redeeming social commentary.  It was just a recap of this horrible story, plain and simple.  Nothing we haven’t seen for ourselves or read in a newspaper.  It was almost boring, it was so normal and that is probably what bugs me most.  Don’t read it.  There’s just no reason to do so.

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Whale Season

2006, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Fiction /

I heard or read that Whale Season was similar to Christopher Moore’s books. I reserved it at the library and was excited when the email notification for pick-up arrived in my mailbox. TW read it first and she said it was sort of “Fluke-like” but not. I started reading it last weekend, at the Synchro meet, and I loved the first 100 pages or so. Those were “Fluke-like” or “Sequined Love Nun-like” but from there it went downhill quickly. Downhill because it no longer read like a Moore’s books and it was just plain boring.

I’ve plopped this into my “don’t read” category because I don’t have a “don’t read if…” category. Don’t read this if you’re hoping to find more books like Fluke, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Coyote Blue etc… If I hadn’t read those, then I might have enjoyed Whale Season a bit more. But Christopher Moore has spoiled me. Whale Season just doesn’t have what it takes. Darn it.

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