Maybe I read this before, actually. I got to one point of this book, where nothing really happens and I hate the storytelling structure where he is ta...moreMaybe I read this before, actually. I got to one point of this book, where nothing really happens and I hate the storytelling structure where he is talking to YOU, where there's this stolen painting and that sounded really familiar. Maybe I read it in high school.
Anyway, it's pretty forgettable and I can see why I forgot it.
I'm sure I missed lots of very important things that make this work great - there's definitely hero-is-a-Christ-figure stuff going on, but I was fine to just be done with it.(less)
First, the Time Machine. I think it's considered important because this is where science fiction began to have IMPORTANT MESSAGES about society.
I hate...moreFirst, the Time Machine. I think it's considered important because this is where science fiction began to have IMPORTANT MESSAGES about society.
I hate science fiction that has IMPORTANT MESSAGES. I do, nevertheless, thank H.G. Wells for writing this, without which we may not have had The Terminator series of movies nor Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Now on to The Invisible Man. Who authorized a book about an invisible man that doesn't even have one scene in a women's locker room? And it's not because it's all serious, either - Wells has lots of slapstick scenes with tripping and injuries that are supposed to be funny (but aren't).
Also, it never occurred to anybody to keep plenty of flour about, for throwing when the invisible man was around?
Yes, I'm responding on the wrong level - with pragmatic complaints about a philosophical thesis. But, really, I'm comfortable placing these with Frankenstein and Dracula - works that are more important for the cultural touchstones they left behind than for reading in their own right.(less)
Tove Jansson says so much with so little. In 181 short pages (some chapters are only a fraction of a page), she writes the interactions and struggles...moreTove Jansson says so much with so little. In 181 short pages (some chapters are only a fraction of a page), she writes the interactions and struggles of two characters fully, and gives a deep sense of a Scandinavian winter as well.
And the novel has everything - what does it want? Crisp, dazzling imagery? It's there. Symbolism? There. Permanent change among the characters? There. Feeling? There. Definitely there.
Like the skeleton of a boat which communicates every detail of the finished product, this book has exactly those elements it needs and not a flourish more.(less)
Every once in a while I read a book that makes me jealous, that makes me wish I could write and do what...moreThis is the quietest great book I've ever read.
Every once in a while I read a book that makes me jealous, that makes me wish I could write and do what the book did. Like this one. It's a wisp of a book - brief, with no plot to speak of and only two real characters, no compelling crisis to drive the action, no suspense.
I almost cried when it ended.
It's like a watercolor of only four or five easy strokes, that you can't help but stare at for hours.
Yeah.
So, this girl Sophia and her grandmother, and by the way, her dad is there too but in Sophia's world he's just a background force, like the weather, and not a character. This girl Sophia and her grandmother do not do much, but spend lots of time together doing normal things on normal summer days that happen in no particular order, and I don't even think all the same year.
And it's just wonderful.
If you've ever read the Moomintroll books, this book has the same breezy disarming sense of humor.
I bet Tove Jansson could have written this review in 12 words, and it would have been better.(less)
Here's a great way to get in the Halloween spirit.
Lee Herold has nightmare running in his veins. That boy ain't right. His evocative imagery in this b...moreHere's a great way to get in the Halloween spirit.
Lee Herold has nightmare running in his veins. That boy ain't right. His evocative imagery in this book - his many visions - could fuel about twenty Lovecraft books. I'm serious. Oh, the bugs. (less)
Have you ever wondered what a place would be like where you were outside of time and space, neither dead nor alive? Where you could observe the mechan...moreHave you ever wondered what a place would be like where you were outside of time and space, neither dead nor alive? Where you could observe the mechanisms of the universe and see the death of our planet and sun? Where you could commune with souls of the dead in the black, silent sea of sleep?
Well, it would be full of adverbs. An infinitude of adverbs.
Do you like adverbs? William Hope Hodgson did. Do you like to start sentences with a sudden adverb and a comma? William Hope Hodgson liked that, too.
I wrote a small app to chew up the Gutenberg version of this book and count the adverbs (just the -ly adverbs), and count how often he dangled them*. Here are some of William's favorites - the first number is the total count of how often he used them in this 27 chapter book, the second number is my rough count of how often he dangled them:
He used many more adverbs than these, of course. He used only 78 times, which should be in first place, but only doesn't slow down the writing much, and doesn't draw attention to itself the way other -ly adverbs do. So I didn't count it. One of my favorites was multitudinously, although he only used it once (not to introduce a sentence, since I know you were wondering).
His total counts for modifying verbs, instead of choosing a different verb that may not have required modification:
***drum roll***
1,277! In a book of 27 chapters! That's 47 per chapter!
And he dangled 524 of them! An impressive 19 per chapter!
If I ever get swept away from this plane before I slough off my mortal coil, and am tranported to a dark place outside time and space, where I can observe the mechanisms of the universe, neither alive nor dead, and can commune with the souls of the dead in the silent sea of sleep, and I see William Hope Hodgson wading in the black, undampening waters there, I'm going to presently, carefully, slowly, gradually-- or perhaps quickly and suddenly-- but really, literally, soundly, thoroughly-- beat him with adverbs. Multitudinously.
*The 'dangling' count was the count of adverbs immediately followed by a comma, colon, semicolon, or question mark. That may have over-counted, but I let him slide on being followed by hyphens, which he did at times. So that helps him a bit. Trust me when I tell you he began many sentences, Adverbly, ... (less)
If I ever get my hands on a time machine, I'm going back to destroy this book before Melville's widow decides to make it public knowledge. I hate this...moreIf I ever get my hands on a time machine, I'm going back to destroy this book before Melville's widow decides to make it public knowledge. I hate this book. Why two stars? Because the last 30 pages were good.
But look. This book hurts Melville's legacy. Moby Dick is wonderful, but most people never read it because they read Billy Budd under duress. Because this book exists, and is short, every American high school assigns it. Everyone learns to hate Melville because this book sucks wet rope. I learned to hate Melville when I was assigned this book in high school, and I never even finished it. If this book didn't exist, high school students would be assigned Bartleby the Scrivener, or passages from Moby Dick, or, like Faulkner, or Dostoevsky, you'd simply hear about this author but come to believe he's only for college students. And you know what? That'd be fine. Better than what we've got today.
Man, you know, if I get my hands on a time machine, I might instead go back to Melville and say, "remember, Herm, it's show, not tell. And the point of writing is not to be intentionally inscrutable - this isn't a word puzzle. I don't want you hanging out with Nathaniel Hawthorne anymore. He's a bad influence." But then I'd probably destroy this book anyway - it may well be hopeless. After he died, of course. No need to be confrontational; that'd just be rude.(less)
Jerky jerk becomes a teacher and butts heads with everybody. In 1900 Japan, but speaking like the Bowery Boys.
Seriously, In Yasotaro Morri's translati...moreJerky jerk becomes a teacher and butts heads with everybody. In 1900 Japan, but speaking like the Bowery Boys.
Seriously, In Yasotaro Morri's translation, he explicitly says he converted Japanese slang to Bowery slang to be more accessible to American audiences. It doesn't work.
Also, the protagonist is supposed to be sympathetic but isn't. Only my stubborn streak got me to finish this.
Maybe it's good in another translation. It's supposed to be a loved classic in Japan, so that would make sense. Then again, Japanese people love them some crazy things.
Oh, also on the version I listened to, the narrator said 'sundry' like 'sun dry' (like you might say if you were suggesting an alternative to the dryer), as 'fasten' with the 't' pronounced, and many other things like that.(less)
From what I remember, a cool book about a kid who's smarter than his years, growing up on the eastern edge of North Carolina.
Liked Powell's first-pers...moreFrom what I remember, a cool book about a kid who's smarter than his years, growing up on the eastern edge of North Carolina.
Liked Powell's first-person voice.
Always meant to read 'A Woman Named Drown,' haven't managed to yet.(less)
A second or third-grader would love this - there's non-stop action, and not much thought behind the world Burroughs created here, except as was driven...moreA second or third-grader would love this - there's non-stop action, and not much thought behind the world Burroughs created here, except as was driven by the thought "What would a second or third grader find exciting!?"
Make no mistake, I love me some prehistoric life, and I don't mind the cold-blooded lizardy version of dinosaurs that ruled thought at the time Burroughs wrote, but there's like 25 big dinos per acre! All carnivores!
The book isn't satisfying on its own, either - it's so clearly setting up a series, that I guess he didn't mind much that the central conflicts in this one were never really resolved.
And, by the way, the views of the evolution of man leave it pretty clear that Burroughs felt white people are more evolved than other races. So there's that. Oh, well.
Thanks for Tarzan and John Carter of Mars, Edgar. You can keep Caspak.(less)
Well, they didn't have to do anything to make a great movie out of this - it's all right in the book. Really a fun ride.
The only reason I didn't give...moreWell, they didn't have to do anything to make a great movie out of this - it's all right in the book. Really a fun ride.
The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I prefer my detectives to rely more on just their brains. Sam Spade's as smart as any of them - Holmes, Marple, Ellery Queen, whoever - but he's got a mean bullying streak that he also uses as a tool. I don't doubt that it's a bit more realistic, but it's still all so ridiculous that worrying about realism is silly. My basic problem is that at times I want to smash Spade's face in.(less)
I can cheat fate right there with the best of them. F'rinstance, I didn't read the edition of Red Harvest I told goodreads I had. I read Red Harvest a...moreI can cheat fate right there with the best of them. F'rinstance, I didn't read the edition of Red Harvest I told goodreads I had. I read Red Harvest as part of Dashiell Hammett - Five Complete Novels - and nobody but you, me, and the Specter of Death is the Wiser - and ol' Spec's giving me a pass this time.
Not what I expected. It's a powerful novella, but the story itself is what pushes this to greatness, not the writing (or at least not the English tran...moreNot what I expected. It's a powerful novella, but the story itself is what pushes this to greatness, not the writing (or at least not the English translation).
I guess it's such a big deal of a book because a 'nuanced' look at Nazi war criminals is something you don't hear much about. But even Nazi war criminals deserve to be seen as three dimensional people, which is hard to admit.(less)
Every time someone in college writes some emo thing where there's no plot and where it's really deep and tortured, where the person thinks they've sta...moreEvery time someone in college writes some emo thing where there's no plot and where it's really deep and tortured, where the person thinks they've started the greatest novel ever, they should be forced to read Notes from Underground - at least the first 30 pages. Then they can see it's been done, it's been done as well as it can be done, better than they could possibly do it, and it still ain't all that great. Here's as good as it can get when you really don't have any experience at anything in the world. When you're trying to write what you know and you don't really know anything.
And what is it with Dostoevsky and all the money? You can't swing a dead cat in a Dostoevsky book (and, although not explicit, you kind of get the feeling there are lots of dead cats in his books just, you know, lying around) without hitting somebody refusing money they're desperate for.(less)
Not typical Willa Cather at all - there are no descriptions of a love for any land - but pretty good nonetheless. I kept thinking I was reading Edith...moreNot typical Willa Cather at all - there are no descriptions of a love for any land - but pretty good nonetheless. I kept thinking I was reading Edith Wharton and reminding myself it was Willa Cather.
The book's a tiny little thing, but I really felt the reality of the marriage between Oswald and Myra. I've known people like each of them, and known them in relationships too.
I thought the movie(s) must have developed Nick and Nora extensively from germs of characters in Hammett's novel. Turns out, they're fully formed in t...moreI thought the movie(s) must have developed Nick and Nora extensively from germs of characters in Hammett's novel. Turns out, they're fully formed in the book-just as funny, likeable, and smart as that great first movie. Hammett deserves all the credit. I didn't know he had it in him - all his other novels are relatively humorless, and his protagonists borderline cruel. What happened? Lillian Hellman softened him? I don't know, but this novel is a short gem.(less)
Maybe this doesn't deserve only two stars, but maybe "Around the World in Eighty Days" didn't fully earn the three stars I gave it, either.
They go und...moreMaybe this doesn't deserve only two stars, but maybe "Around the World in Eighty Days" didn't fully earn the three stars I gave it, either.
They go underground. IN CHAPTER 18.
Then...it's just not interesting enough. I don't know what I was expecting, but...
I tell you what. When I was a kid, I got water from the kitchen sink once and there was a spider in it. I thought that water came from the center of the earth, and this spider must have come from the center of the earth. That was cool. Totally a gross-out - I wasn't going to drink the water with the yucky spider in it - but I think my imagination made me expect more of a center-of-the-earth journey than this. This should have been on the proportion of discovering the new world. The world is mostly hollow - there's all kinds of continents and people and kingdoms and (well, plumbing and spiders, I guess).
This had some things but downplayed them. All it was, essentially, was a giant cave. With thought-to-be-extinct creatures. That he didn't dwell on. Giant mushrooms - tree sized. Moving on. Plesiosaur fights an icthyosaur. Moving on. Perfectly preserved cave man. Moving on. Made my heart sing less than a typical "Little Nemo" installment.
It was interesting to get Verne's pre-evolutionary theory take on blind subterranean fish, even though there was light in this giant cave. It's like blind fish are begging him to develop a theory of adaptation...but he misses.
Then again, he did pre-conceive the electric light in this book, and that's no small thing. So I don't pretend he doesn't kick my ass in the futurism department.
Racist? Wow, that's a tough one. If Gabriel Garcia-Marquez had written this novella, nobody would call it racist. It would be about a bunch of lazy dr...moreRacist? Wow, that's a tough one. If Gabriel Garcia-Marquez had written this novella, nobody would call it racist. It would be about a bunch of lazy drunk unambitious men who just happen to be Mexican-Indian-Italian-little-bit-of-everything.
Still, Garcia-Marquez didn't write it, Steinbeck did. Can the exact same words, and not just a phrase - what up, homey? - but 70,000 exact same words in a row - be racist when coming from a Californian of European descent, when they would not from a Colombian whose first language is Spanish?
I really don't know.
So I'm going to pretend the book was written by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, and what a great book it is. His usual elements of eye-widening, soul-delighting surrealism are out in full force, what with women that seem to get pregnant without help, children thriving on just beans, but brought near death by vegetables and milk, and dogs and ghosts and all kinds of stuff that live right between reality and full frontal assault fantasy seizure.
And Garcia-Marquez' characters - just great. They are so messed up, but I swear by the time the book's over you'll see every situation exactly as they do. There's no situation they can't solve - really solve - by selling something for more wine.
As with any story of Garcia-Marquez, you know there's going to be humor - the winking dry variety, wherein our narrator is playing along with his characters, but also letting you know it's just a playalong.
This may rank right up there with his best - Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. Make sure to get a copy by Garcia-Marquez, though. The one by Steinbeck has too many embarrassingly stereotypical Latino behaviors, which were tolerated in the 1930's but are not today. (less)
I didn't know what to expect - the central gimmick, of course, is a cultural touchstone - but I had no idea what Kafka did with it. "Come for the bug...moreI didn't know what to expect - the central gimmick, of course, is a cultural touchstone - but I had no idea what Kafka did with it. "Come for the bug man, stay for the ..."?
Imagine if Dostoevsky decided to write a sci-fi.
It's odd. And it has humor. Especially in Part I. Really dry stuff. If I were a bug, I think my reaction would be along the lines of "AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!! I'M A BUG!!! I'M A BUG!!!" but Gregor is more like, "Wow, the boss is NOT going to like this."
It also has despair and loneliness. And resignation. And rebirth - maybe not rebirth I'm supposed to feel good about, but I did. Maybe I'm supposed to hate and resent the hope at the end, but I couldn't. Anyway, it's there.
Basically, it deals with the reality of becoming a bug in a lower-middle-class family. The parallels to having a wage earner in the family who's suddenly permanently incapacitated are obvious. Maybe not on first thought, but on second thought. And the dynamics play out much the same.
It's a quick read, and I highly recommend it. Of course, I may be the last person on goodreads who *hasn't* ever read this, but in case I'm not, go read about the bug man.(less)
If you want Mark Twain's version of a sociopath, this is the book for you. Tom Driscoll may be Twain's most evil villain.
The other reason to read this...moreIf you want Mark Twain's version of a sociopath, this is the book for you. Tom Driscoll may be Twain's most evil villain.
The other reason to read this is that what opens each chapter is a quote or two from "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar," which contain some of Twain's best-known and funniest bitter one-liners.
OK, so everyone talks about how bitter Mr. Twain was in this book. But I think it's not bitter enough. Tom Driscoll should have gotten off. In real life, he would have, and nobody would have believed the switch-at-infancy happened, nor that the fingerprints on the knife proved anything. People don't let go of their beliefs that easily.
In real life, Charlie Chaplin lost a paternity suit when blood tests proved he was not the father of the child in question. Why? Because the science was new, and people wanted him to be found 'guilty' (in quotes because it was a civil trial, but in the public's mind a criminal one).
In real life, O.J. Simpson got off although Ron Goldman's blood (proven by DNA) was in O.J. Simpson's Ford Bronco. One of the jurists after the trial said that could have been anybody's blood.
In real life, Pudd'nhead's clients could have gotten off if the D.A. was a decent man who recognized he was prosecuting the wrong guys. But convicting Tom Driscoll? No way.
I must admit, though, that the twist at the end where Tom Driscoll was treated differently because he was property and not a person was a nice, bitter twist. Although in real life they would have just lynched him.(less)
Almost great - I loved this book - it's only not five stars because it's too moralistic. But nicely done. A couple of cool plot twists, and great char...moreAlmost great - I loved this book - it's only not five stars because it's too moralistic. But nicely done. A couple of cool plot twists, and great characters.
She's kind of a proto-Dickens - there's that humor in it, but the writing style is a bit more garbled.
What I learned - either people in circa 1830 England were the most sarcastic people ever, or 'doubt' used to mean 'the opposite of doubt.'(less)
So I saw him as I see the letters I form on this page; then, exactly, after a minute, as if to add to the spectacle, he slowly changed his place - passed, looking at me hard all the while, to the opposite corner of the platform.
They have a big sale on commas, there, Henry?
I felt a sick swim at the drop of my victory and all the return of my battle, so that the wildness of my veritable leap only served as a great betrayal.
That's nice. What the hell are you trying to say?
At this, after a second in which his head made the movement of a baffled dog's on a scent and then gave a frantic little shake for air and light, he was at me in a white rage, bewildered, glaring vainly over the place and missing wholly, though it now, to my sense, filled the room like the taste of poison, the wide, overwhelming presence.
You know what helps convey a real sense of action? It ain't turgid, obtuse syntax filled with three word meaningless phrases set off by commas that act as the prose equivalent of um....
I think Shakespeare said it best when he described it as both brief and tedious. Shakespeare was ostensibly describing the mechanicals' play in A Midsummer Night's Dream, but it's a more apt description of Screw.
One final thing that's REALLY bugging me, but is a MAJOR SPOILER, so LOOK AWAY if, for some reason, you think you may be forced to read this novella at some point in the future (it'll probably involve a gun to your head).
Here's the last sentence of the story: We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped.
I just shake my head in wonder. If you want a jarring ending, and one that at the same time more accurately conveys what you meant to say, change the pronoun to the now correct "I": I was alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped.
See how that works? See how much more it communicates that he died?
In short, what I'm trying to say is, Henry James sucks. He sucks so much that even books near this book are forced to suck.(less)
Synopsis: Utterson: I can't figure out why Jekyll puts up with this Hyde fellow. Dr. Lanyon: I saw Hyde turn into Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll: Yep. I'm Mr. Hyde. V...moreSynopsis: Utterson: I can't figure out why Jekyll puts up with this Hyde fellow. Dr. Lanyon: I saw Hyde turn into Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll: Yep. I'm Mr. Hyde. Vladimir Nabokov: What an excellent story.(less)
I was supposed to read this in 6th grade. I read most of it but never finished, and I don't know why I didn't. I was surprised, reading it again, how...moreI was supposed to read this in 6th grade. I read most of it but never finished, and I don't know why I didn't. I was surprised, reading it again, how far through it I got - I remember specific passages from lo those many years ago.
Anyway, it was great! It was short, it was emotionally driven, and so it fit the character of a noble dog. It also pulses with a visceral sense of the Alaskan wilderness.
So weird, yet with evil so believable that it made it hard to read. I bristled with anger at the characters' behavior.
The ending bit, but wow did the...moreSo weird, yet with evil so believable that it made it hard to read. I bristled with anger at the characters' behavior.
The ending bit, but wow did the book hit me in the gut. I'm glad to be done with it, honestly.(less)
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