It’s
November, and this means there are only two months left before my challenge is
over. And holy shit, this year has just flown by. I’ve read a lot of different
genres, from fantasy to non-fiction, from literature to children’s books. So I
thought I should do something special, for the last stretch, so to speak.
Here’s the plan: for the next two months I will read books of every genre for
adults we have at the library. These are fantasy, non-fiction, regional novels
(this might be a horrid translation. I think family novel would be more
suitable), romance, thriller, detective, and horror. Then on the second floor
we have literature which isn’t categorized per genre, but since I need two more
categories I’ll just take a genreless novel (yes, genreless is a word now) and
a ‘surprise novel’. It might be a historical novel, maybe I’ll do something crazy
and read a western. I might lose my mind and read porn. Who knows!
Another thing that I want to do with this extra challenge is discover new authors
- which means I’ll be avoiding the authors I know. The only thing that can
somewhat steer me from ‘bad novels’ is the five-star rating system our catalogue
has.
So without further ado: Poison Study! A fantasy book by Maria V. Snyder.
Boy, she’s bad at metaphors. 
I knew what kind of book I had in my hands after the first paragraph:
Locked in darkness that surrounded me
like a coffin, I had nothing to distract me from my memories. Vivid
recollections waited to ambush me whenever my mind wandered.
Meet Yelena, a girl about 18 years old who has been living in the dungeons
the last few months. When she’s about to get hanged for her crimes, an official
offers her a way out; get hanged or become the commander’s taster. Things don’t
really start to look up after this decision, as this seems to really set the
ball rolling for intrigue, assassination attempts and romance.
This is a very typical fantasy novel; the main character is an orphan with a
tragic, mysterious past, and who is incredibly talented at everything she
tries. The book itself should have been longer, because some things are only
described when they need to happen. I’ll try to explain this with an example;
when Yelena decides she needs to learn some self-defence she practices in an
abandoned part of the castle with three other people. It’s only after she’s
been practicing for several months that we suddenly learn they also do special
‘warm-ups’ called catas, which of course help her focus and channel her magic
better. (Oh yeah, and she can do magic. Of course.)
Still, I think I’d give this novel a five out of ten, because the escapism of
the storyline works. But really? Describing fear as ‘having a feather in her
stomach’? Not cool, sister.
Until next time,
Bejoes
Aaand
part 4 of my September Moderate Book Binge. You thought I’d forgotten? Well, I
haven’t.
I picked this book up in Limerick, which is a store where I keep happening to
buy good books I’d never heard of before. I bought Crimson Petal and the White there; so when I saw Under the Skin there (also written by
the lovely Faber) I didn’t hesitate much before I bought it. Ask the Dust happened to be the book
right next to Under the Skin; it’s
written by John Fante. It starts with a 3-page introduction by Charles Bukowski
about why this book is awesome, so I thought that was enough incentive to give
it a go. (I’ve never read Bukowski, but I’ve had to treat enough book covers at
the library to know he’s a bit of a big deal.)
Ask the Dust is a story about Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in Los
Angeles. He is also the narrator of the story. Arturo’s quite an interesting
character; he’s obviously a dreamer, because he often imagines what life is
going to be like when he’s rich and famous. These thoughts seem to be more
frequent when he’s bitter about other people. He also struggles with women and
his understanding of them; he refuses a hooker who comes up to him, then
follows her to her place as she takes another guy with her, he waits for her
outside, and then when she finally takes him upstairs he flings money at her
saying he only wants to talk.
You could describe him as a typical starving artist, but the way he shows you
his life in LA is so confusing and weird, you start to feel for him. Even
though he’s sometimes a really big creepy jackass. He’s an underdog who’s not
an underdog at all; he’s hard to explain.
If you feel like you’re having a writer’s block, you’ll like this. It won’ help
you with your writer’s block, but it’s a good read anyway.
(Oh and apparently they made this book into a movie with Colin Farrell who is kinda cute. Win!)
Until next time,
Bejoes
The
last part of my favourite trilogy, and also my favourite part of the trilogy.
Reading this book with my blog in mind, I tried to find a suitable subject to
write about- and I just can’t find anything that sticks out. I feel like I need
to talk about the battle of the Pelennor fields because I cry every time I read
that damn chapter. And I want to talk about Sam and what kind of character he
is because he’s so human, and I want
to talk about the scouring of the Shire, and about Frodo’s burden, and about
the Valar, because even they are in this story in small ways…
I could write about the relationship between Frodo and Sam; how Tolkien put his
war experience in their story, how they have a commander-soldier relationship
where one can’t go on without the other. But that’s been done a hundred times. I
could write about why Frodo had to leave Middle-earth and write a whole article
on his psychology, but I need at least two years at uni to fully explain it with
the right words if I want to do it well.
Then I started writing about the effects of the events of the mission to
destroy the ring on the four hobbits. But I just ended up with a really long
description of events, and that couldn’t possibly be interesting to read, right?
… And just today I tried writing about why people on the internet are wrong
when they say Tolkien was a fascist, a nazi, or a gender discriminator.
Truth is, I really can’t describe Return of the King. It’s just beyond my level
of writing right now. And I might be having a cold and having a head that’s so
stuffed that I feel like someone shoved a turkey baster up my nose whilst I was
sleeping really isn’t helping with the writing. And I did try. I have five
pages of useless drafts.
See it as a credit to this book. It is literally indescribably good. It’s the
reason why I read the entire series every year- to end up snivelling and crying
on the last page. (Sam’s last words. They are the best words ever written. And so
normal. God damn it I feel like
crying just thinking about it.)
See it as a promise. If I do find a suitable subject related to Return of the
King I will post it on this blog. But honestly, I’ve been trying for two weeks
and nothing feels right.
Until next time,
Bejoes
