Leila's comments (member since Apr 23, 2008)

Leila's comments from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group.

It is not on the 1001 Book list, Lyn.

I'm not trying to finish the list either. Mainly I wanted to fill in some gaps in the classics department and read modern books that are held in high regard. I did set the goal to read 24 books from the list this year (I figured 2 per month should be an attainable goal) and I've already read 20. I have found that I've enjoyed the vast majority of books from the list that I have picked up, so it is working for me.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer isn't on the list (but in my opinion should be) but it is one of my favorite books of all time and it is narrated by a 9-year-old boy.

I recently finished (and loved!) The Handmaid's Tale. I have yet to read any other Atwood, but hope to pick up some of her earlier stuff soon. There is a more involved discussion of The Handmaid's Tale in The Next Best Book Club's discussion boards for those of you who are interested in talking about Gilead...

I (finally!) read this one this week. Once again I find myself with a different reading experience than those expressed above. Maybe I'm a contrarian. :)

I loved the beginning of this story. I loved the set up, the discussion of the expedition, the building of suspense regarding what the expedition would bring. I also found it interesting to feel like the technology of the time was not particularly removed from what one might expect today. I loved the author's descriptive style.

The story lost me after the initial horror of the camp scene in the foothills. I liked the concept of the lost city and deciphering the ancient ruins and art, but the narrative style of constantly repeating how little the narrator wanted to tell the story and how he desired to leave certain details out, etc., just wore on me and felt like a forced way of creating suspense. Eventually it made me feel like I just wanted it over already, detracting from the well-written descriptions and the story of the lost city and the Old Ones.

I'll be the first to admit that horror/suspense is not a genre that I read (or watch!) very often, so I guess it isn't that surprising that those parts of the tale didn't grab me. I will say that I enjoyed his descriptive style and I'd definitely read more of his work. Maybe not starting tomorrow, but still. :)

It took me 50-75 pages to get into the flow, but once I did the disjunctedness (don't think that is a word) stopped bothering me. This was the first book I read on my new Kindle and it was rather alarming to have picked something that jumped around so much as my first read -- I thought maybe the Kindle purchase was a mistake as I kept wishing I could easily flip pages back and forth to try to figure out what was going on. By the end I understood the viewpoint to be a single one -- that of Everett, as he envisioned the stories of the other characters.

SPOILER SPACE




I think I agree with other reviewers on goodreads (and elsewhere) that there was not much in the way of development of Sarah's character. She felt pretty flat to me, as opposed to all of the other main characters. I also agree with many here that the WWII story was the most engaging part, though it felt diminished to me somehow when I learned that it was being recounted by Everett.

I think that the book put a lot out there for consideration, and by the end I found myself enjoying the twisting, tangled ride.

I finished this book this morning and I'm still ruminating on it a bit, but my initial feeling is different from the other posters here. I was more engaged and interested in The Past than either of The Present sections. Part of that, I think, is due to the stylistic changes made by the author. I found much of the difficult sentence structure to be contained in The Present, while The Past was laid out more clearly (the fact of more action to follow may have helped me in overlooking obtuseness?). Also I enjoyed the development of the Karen character. It felt to me like Bowen gave Karen the gift of Bowen's larger thoughts and therefore some of the better descriptions of thoughts and feelings were contained in The Past -- whereas in The Present the reader was (understandably, based on the confusion or denial about past events) left to puzzle over motives and thoughts.

My favorite quote from the book is from Karen's voyage to Cork:

"Karen, her elbows folded on the deck-rail, wanted to share with someone the pleasure in being alone: this is the paradox of any happy solitude. She had never landed at Cork, so this hill and that hill beyond were as unexpected as pictures at which you say "Oh look!" Nobody was beside her to share the moment, which would have been imperfect with anyone else there."

Who hasn't experienced those moments? I love the grace of that passage.

I've had the kindle2 for about 2 weeks now. The first book I bought for it (aside from downloading compendiums of classics that are now out of copyright) was City of God -- the April book club book. I've read a fair amount of that book on the kindle, while reading some of my backlog of paper copies. Kindle still isn't the same as holding a book for me, but I can tell it will be wonderful for travel. I'm hoping that I'll get used to the kindle and learn to love it (nearly) as much as holding paper books. I think it will take a bit of adjusting to.

I'm glad you like yours, Christine. I ordered mine today. SHould have it in a week or so!

Billy, your idea sounds reasonable (assuming Amazon purchases of the hard copies). I wonder whether Amazon has considered something like that. I guess there must be some portion of the cost of the e-books that is royalty payments, so maybe not entirely feasible, but a good idea.

My main reason for considering the Kindle is that I really don't have storage space for all the books I read in my loft-style apartment. I'm not overly attached to hard copies and I generally end up giving away books periodically, so having them all on a little device would actually be helpful for me. Plus it seems great for travel because you don't have to try to guess how much you'll end up reading or schlep around a bunch of books in your luggage. I'll update here if I do end up getting it to let you all know what I think of it.

I'm getting ready to pull the trigger and buy a Kindle 2. Anyone here using Kindle or similar devices? It looks like the price of downloads is reasonable and the Amazon catalogue is quite large. I'm hoping to keep going with the 1001 list using the Kindle. Any feedback or other thoughts on mobile readers?

I just finished Infinite Jest and picked up In Cold Blood. I really enjoyed Infinite Jest, but it took me about 2 months to read, so I'm ready for some quicker reads right about now.

I finally finished Infinite Jest and wow I'm not sure what to say. I love the fact that he created such a detailed and fascinating alternate reality and I'm impressed by his ability to say so much and leave so much unanswered. I won't say I loved it -- there were parts that I did and parts that I didn't -- but I'm glad to have read it. I'll definitely pick up some of his essays and short stories.

Great idea to use the poll feature! Makes it easier to guess at which will win too (for those of us who jump the gun at things). :)

The puzzle I do every day is the crossword published online by The Los Angeles Times. If you want to start with that one, you can put it on a setting that will tell you when you fill in something that is incorrect. Probably crossword purists wouldn't like that, but for me it makes for a fun, but not overly challenging, diversion. I do learn clues over time and I'll also do other crosswords when I come across them, but that is my main habit at this point. Maybe I'll break down and get a subscription for the NY Times puzzles sometime. Until then, LA Times it is.

I've made it to page 219 in Infinite Jest so far. Wow. It is a lot to take in, but I'm really enjoying it. How on earth did he come up with this stuff? I can't even fathom how much work it must have been to write.

I do most of my reading at night before bed, but in order to make progress on this one I've started carrying it around to read during the day as well.

I end up reading several at once, though I'm generally happiest with fiction if I'm only reading one fiction book at a time and I allow myself to become immersed in it. I don't mind mixing fiction and non-fiction (including the many design books I read for classes or leisure), but I do tend to have a problem enjoying fiction books if I have too many going at once.

My least favorite from the list that I read this year is Choke. Not my thing at all.

My favorite is probably Things Fall Apart. I also liked Empire of the Sun quite a lot and I have a couple that I'm reading now that I'm enjoying for very different reasons -- The Bell Jar and Infinite Jest.

Emilee, it was a book club read in this group a few months ago, so there is a discussion board set up in the book club area of this group with analysis by people who read it then if you are interested.

Hmm. Good question. I have a few books from the list that I've started but not finished. Currently reading Infinite Jest and I'm pretty sure I'll make it through that one (that may be my goal for the rest of 2008). I guess I'd like to finish those I've started recently -- Satanic Verses and The Bell Jar in addition to IJ -- and read two from the list per month in '09. Sounds manageable.