Around the World in 80 Days

I started Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days while I traveled across America in 6.  Much like Mr. Fogg, I had some close calls and unexpected issues, which unfortunately brought me home later than scheduled, unlike the heroin of our story.

It's a fun, quick, silly book.  Descriptions are brief and to the point, much like Fogg himself, and it often reads just like a timetable rather than an actual story.  The protagonist is a very likable character, much like Sherlock from the BBC show - cool, calculated, and logical (and though he says he has no friends, easily finds himself loved by those around him).  It's strange to think that the entire book is carried through without much emotional connection to any of the characters, but somehow it's effective in driving home the point of a nail-biter adventure story.

I'm only confused as to why pop culture associates this story to a hot air balloon - none was present in the entire book, save for one mention of this form of transportation which was immediately dismissed.

The Enormous Room

Not much to say to this one, but that it was sometimes a good time, sometimes not, probably just depending on my mood.  If anything, I pulled out of it that there is essentially good in anyone, especially E.E. Cummings, who seems to be the type who is able to find charm in any terrible situation.  La Ferté-Macé really sounded miserable, but Cummings describes it with such an upbeat outlook that it's hard to see it as it was.  His fondness for his fellow inmates, as well, really exemplified his kindness and good humour.  He would have been a lovely person to meet,  and to especially have as a friend, I think.  Bros before hos the French!

There was quite a lot of simple French dialogue in my e-book version, without any form of translation.  With my highschool/early college knowledge of French, I was able to understand the majority of it without help, but wondered whether everyone was so educated in the language in the 20's.  What do modern people do when they read this?

In other news, JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER HAS COME OUT WITH A NEW BOOK!  That means the next book from the 1001 list is probably going to have to wait a little longer to get its turn from me.

Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen in summation...

The first 500 pages: Before there was Larry David, who got famous for writing stories about nothing, there was Jane Austen.  It was like time was still, with nothing to report on for months on end.  It really must have been nice to be the child of a wealthy European person in the 1800s.  Their problems were trivial and emotions juvenile, and nearly everyone is unlikable.

The last chapter: Night and day from what I just described.  Very odd; everything from the writing style, to perspective, to pace was entirely separate from the rest of the book.  It almost seemed like someone had put a gun to Austen's head and told her to just sum it up or else.  Austen speeds through months within a matter of pages (what would have taken her hundreds if not more pages previously), and skips through what one would have presumed to be the ultimate climax as if it were a trifle.

It seemed like the author was learning how to write throughout the entirety of the book, getting into the groove in the middle, but then realizing she had taken up all of her pages in the beginning and finally giving up and rushing through the ending.  I really do not give much credit to Jane Austen.  I don't understand why she is given so much praise; her female protagonists are often silly and mindless and it's very hard for me to connect with them.  I can only imagine that her life reflected that of all of her characters', and that her own life must have been a very dull one indeed.

A Room With a View

There's no getting around it.  I have been a lazy piece of garbage.  I hadn't read anything for almost a complete 3 months, not because I was busy, but simply because it seemed like too much effort.

But I've broken free now!  And I read a very short book, very slowly.  I don't have much to say about E.M. Forster's A Room With a View, except that it was an ideally brief story as befitting a lazy me.  I preferred his A Passage to India - that one seemed to have more mystery and voice and elegance.  Room was almost silly, though perhaps it's really just my disinterest in reading about people falling in love so plainly.  I'm pretty jealous of the lifestyle all of these characters have in this time though - all travel to fantastic locations, and socializing, and lazy afternoons in the country.  I wish.

Not dull, but also not much to dote on.  That is my simple view of this book.  (But after a google image search of the title, I see there was a movie made with Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy looking all pre-emo, and Maggie Smith as Charlotte, and it's screwing up my whole perception of what these characters could be.  Oh the difference a film can make)

Dead Babies

Well shit.

Dead Babies by Martin Amis is one hell of a book.  Everyone on GoodReads seems to be super disturbed by it, but I don't share that sentiment.  To me, it was cool (in the slick way, not the can't-think-of-a-way-to-say-I-like-something-way), funny, and actually elegantly engaging.  I don't know why all the readers on the aforementioned site keep calling Amis shallow, because this book, so closely resembling dark genres of cult legend like Clockwork Orange, in my opinion, is much easier to digest than that (not to mention far superior to any garbage like Paluhniuk that everyone jizzes over so much).  It isn't gruesome in an unnecessary way, and though it obviously isn't a popular opinion, I honestly think the characters are likable in their individual crazy ways.  There is a point to everything that happens, and I really appreciate that having read so many books on this list that seem to have endless pages of useless dribble.

Sure, the subject is crass, dirty, and edgy.  But that's what gives it so much character.  There's pure joy in getting to spend a few days with these drug addicted assholes.  Fuck and get fucked up until the very climactic end.  It's all in good fun, folks.