Tim Learn's Blog, page 2

End of June Review

June 2018

With another semester coming to an end, I found some time on my hands. I wasn’t able to read as much as I’m used to—usually eight to ten books a month—but I also got a lot of reading, planning, and rewriting done. I’m very happy with where I’m at right now—though I wish the story is a bit more solid.

Books Read

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Of the few books I’ve read, the first was a book I’ve wanted to read for a long time—Devil in the White City. It’s based on the true story of the Chicago World Fair, the invention of the Ferris Wheel, and the murders of Dr. H H Holmes. At first, I thought the Holmes part was going to play up as a much bigger part. It doesn’t, but his role as one of the first modern day psychopaths is interesting. I understand the difficulty the author had regarding Holmes as little can be inferred from his autobiographies and confessions. He was a chronic liar and manipulator. In that way, the author did well. Recommend only if you can stand immense detail.

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Then I did an audio book, Sapiens. I don’t like fiction while I’m driving so I got this to try. The scope and the size of the book are immense. It encapsulates everything in human existence and breaks it down. Certain things were old news to me, but a lot had very interesting, objective perspectives to it. Some complained that this author is running an agenda, skewed with little evidence. I don’t see that. I thought it was awesome, and many times left me thinking about who and what we are.

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Martian was huge when it came out, even if I thought it became redundant by the end. Still I liked it, so I picked up his new book—Artemis. Sadly, I can’t say the same for this one. Where Martian grabs you quickly—I read the whole 400 page book in one day—this one dragged a bit before the action starts around page 100 and then finishes at 300. On top of this, the character—a girl, which I didn’t find out until 13 pages in—has the same snarky tone as Matt from Martian. So in a way, it’s the girl form of the Martian’s main character. Definitely a flat sophomore work.

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I found this next book on another author’s goodreads list: The Girl at the Baggage Claim. It looked interesting, so I decided to pick it up. Although I like a lot of the situations she describes, showing how strangely different these two parts of the world work—the West and the East—ultimately, I found the evidence haphazardly organized and sometimes too anecdotal. A lot of it I liked, and it was an easy read, but I did roll my eyes sometimes at the ideas they were drawing from very scant environmental references.

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Then I finished On Writing Well. I saw quite a few people disliked his outlook on this, claiming—as some may—that writing is subjective, and his claims are dismissable for these reasons. I disagree. He is pointed in what he believes—yes. But in no way does that detract from what he has to say. Writing well means to do it over and over, rewriting, and avoid those easily grasped structures in our language. Even his example—a piece he wrote—got slammed, when I personally enjoyed seeing the step-by-step commentary he provided to show his process. Does that process work for everyone? No, and he never claims that, but when there are so many useless writing books out there that preach the same well-worn tidbits, to get a book that actual illuminates the inner workings of a real writer’s head, it’s awakening to say the least.

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Finally, I got to a book that has haunted me for a while and at last finding it on sale, I bought it. The Master and Margarita. Immediately, it kicks you in the face with all of its Russian-like semantics and banter. This is definitely a Russian book by a Russian writer—eeriely reminding you of the best of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky while still updating it for the Soviet era. The biggest problem, that a few have noted, is that a main character doesn’t pop up for a while. Eventually, it is Margarita, but Woland weaves in and out, manipulating the landscape in order to set everything up for what happens. Plus, there’s Russian orthodoxy tossed in, so, you know, it’s a plus.

Progress on 2018 goals

1) Finish Brief Lives / Query / Synopsis: Done / 2 letters / halfway: Done

2) Chewy Noh (graphic novel): Done

3) Student workbook: Done

4) Spring Reading:

                  J.R.: Done!!!

                  Quixote: Not started

5) Read 75 books: 64 (Almost there and only six months in!)

6) American Snowflakes: 40,000 words done

Next Month’s Agenda

This part is going to be hard. With a month in USA coming up, I may not get much of anything done. I expect to finish 3 books in the next couple weeks to add to the total. That might be it, though. As for my writing, I will probably—or rather hopefully—drop down another ten to twenty thousand words, landing at around the 60,000 word mark. That should set me up to finish this new book by the end of September, maybe. This story is going to be one of my longest, with a target word count of 120,000 words, so I’m almost halfway through.

End of May

May 2018

Gotta lotta reading done. Gotta lotta writing done. Gotta lotta Chewy done. Good month.

Books Read

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First this month was a long time wait…A Wild Sheep Chase. It is technically Murakami’s third book, and the one when he felt he really grew into being an author by discovering the story as he went along, but it is actually the first one translated into English. Having read almost everything else by him, clearly this one did read like a first novel. Characters and causes were haphazard with little or no reason for certain events. If you’re a diehard fan, you may enjoy it, but I found it lacking overall.

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Then I went nonfiction with Triumph of the City. I liked the main premise of this book and the way it did describe how we have to aim to be more city-like and what policies are actually detrimental to the overall health of the world. Sadly, though, it felt like an ill-prepared piece as there was a lot of repetition with little new insight after you grasped his main idea. In the end, not bad, but not mind-blowing.

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Moving on, I picked up Tenth of December, a collection of short stories. I’ve wanted to read something by this author for a while, having heard he just came out with his first novel after years of only short stories. Yes, these tails are good, and certain ones have amazing voices in them. However, I wouldn’t say I was wowed at all. Still, I enjoyed the read, and it was fast for what it was worth.

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Done with the short, I dove into the long with The Book of Joe. This book is an unbelievable light read. It moves fast, never touching on anything serious for too long and gives mild laughs along the way with semi-predictable actions by the characters. Is it amazing? No. It reads like those fun, old novels by nineties writers that seem to be about something, but aren’t as deep as you think or want. Not bad at the end of the day.

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Having read his shorts, I tried his long, Lincoln in the Bardo by Saunders. Right away he tries to jar you with the different presentation, almost sidenoting who is speaking or narrating at each turn. On top of that, certain chapters are filled with real and sometimes made up non-fiction details from actual books. All of it helps to paint a picture of what politics were at the time, which compared to now, really, is no different. Again, though, by the end, I found nothing to hoot over. The story was fairly run of the mill, only the presentation deserves a bit of a tip of the hat, so I didn’t go that crazy for it.

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The prior book was a Man-Booker, and then next one was too with Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. At first glance, I thought it might be light and fun with a thin page count. I was wrong. Though some parts are funny with the hi-jinks these kids get into, all in all, the stories are disconnected events in a hooligan-like Irish kid’s life. By the time you get about 70% of the way through, we get some kind of story about his abusive father, but everything before it doesn’t feel like prologue—it feels disjointed. Besides that, it was a struggle to read because of the missing plot. Man-Booker, really?

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Wanting something fun, I read Midsummer’s Equation, by my fav, Higashino. It’s one of his thicker books and has detective Galileo in it. Right away it is easy to slip into, but after that it drags. This being the third one translated into English, I’ve realized that maybe I don’t like Galileo or his series. They’re always slow-burns with little reveal, unlike all of the other non-Galileo books by Higashino. Not one of this best.

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Then I found a cheap copy of Call Me By Your Name, and had to pick it up. I read it instantly, as my wife is pestering me to watch the movie soon. Initially, the heavy prose and introspection felt gimmicky, like a narrator trying to show airs. But after slipping into it another 20 pages, I got used to it and really liked it. I finished it quickly and did feel sad to have it end. A surprised read in that manner, I recommend it, even if it’s not earth shattering.

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Finally, I read Ramona Blue. I know, I know—YA again? Somehow I get dragged into them, hoping deep down that they won’t disappoint. Then, ten minutes later, I’m 10% in and I realize—nope!—just as crappy as most YA, except Rainbow Rowell. All the horribleness is here: constant rehashing of plot points, characters having tons of ‘feels,’ and of course, chapters upon chapters where nothing—not a thing, unless you counting marking the passing of time—happens. And this is a bestseller. Go figure!

Progress on 2018 goals

1) Finish Brief Lives / Query / Synopsis: Done / 2 letters / halfway: Done

2) Chewy Noh (graphic novel): 4 parts done

3) Student workbook: Done

4) Spring Reading:

                  J.R.: Done!!!

                  Quixote: Not started

5) Read 75 books: 58

6) American Snowflakes: 25,000 words done

Next Month’s Agenda

I will be wrapping up my reading time next month as the semester winds down and I get ready for my trip to America. My brother says he should have a few pages done by then to show me for the Chewy Noh graphic novel. Added, I want to be much more along in my new novel. So far so good. Another productive month would be nice.

April–End of Month Wrap Up!

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April 2018

Been busy this month, as usual, but actually complete a lot more than I expected.

Books Read

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Again, I tried something light, so I read They Both Die at the End. Ah…yeah, it’s YA, and it fits all the horrible requirements that are YA. There is heavy repetition, bloating the book out to twice its size. The characters are flat, with melodrama and hackneyed expression to fake depth. The only thing that was kind of neat was the idea—that a company would call you before you died. Besides that, the story played out like a bad high school poetry reading. Yuck!

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Next up, the unbelievable JR. This book blew me away. First, it was hard to get into. There is a whole mass of characters, and the non-stop dialogue with little or no warning when transitioning from scenes was tough, but around 250, I synced up with it. I remember Infinite Jest was similar. The bigger the book, the more time it takes to ease into it, and when I did it was worth it. JR, himself, was hilarious, as well as Gibbs. Despite the serious topics at times, most was fun, and all of the dialogue had an unbelievable amount of naturalness to it. Can’t love this book enough.

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Empire of the Ants was a student re-read. I originally borrowed it from a parent of one of my students a decade ago. I like it and wanted to read more by the author—who is French—but little else has been translated into English. In Korean, there’s a boatload of them. He’s quite popular here. That being said, with this re-read, I began to see why he maybe fell a little flat. Though the whole book was interesting, by the end the whole spiel no longer had the magic that say a Crichton book is able to hold from beginning to end. Still, something interesting to pick up.

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The Big Sleep. I’ve actually wanted to read this forever. It is perennially on top book lists, and a teacher at my work who’s a fan lent me it. Right away, you can see where all the modern day detective stories get their feel and language. Chandler pioneered it, and for that he deserves his due. However, with this book being his debut, it was actually a bit thin and wanting. It may be for the same reason I found Agatha Christie weak and boring—these are master that everyone has copied ad nauseum since. There formula has flooded and been copycatted everywhere, so I guess I gotta cut him a break.

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Needing something to liven things up, I check out a supposed ‘Hardest Books to Read List,’ and found Tampa. It got my attention right away with its portrayal of a pedophile from a female teacher’s perspective. I can definitely say that at times it bordered on pornographic, to which it may turn off many readers, but even when it did dabble in that murky area, I still would never call it ‘Hard to Read.’ In that way, I was disappointed. I did think it was amusing that a chipper-faced girl wrote it who now teaches writing somewhere in Iowa. All in all, I liked it, but it’s not for everyone.

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Finally, I got around to White Noise. Everyone has raved about this ground-breaking book. Shockingly, it actually took me more time that I thought, and by the end, I was less than impressed. For one, many said it was funny, and I can see where they’d draw that. In many ways, it is kooky and strange—think borderline Arrested Development—but it was never as funny as I thought JR was. Secondly, the message was a bit hard to decipher. Obviously the main character was obsessed with death, and this got crazier with the chemical spill—which was exciting—but the end killing scene really left me lost. Maybe I’m missing something.

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Another ‘finally,’ is for Manufacturing Consent. I got this book back when I was in grad school, having read other Chomsky for my language classes. This is his standout work, but it was written back in the 80’s. For this reason, all of his examples are dated—ranging from Vietnam to Central American regimes and failed Pope assassinations. All of them were interesting, but the style and presentation are clearly not very modern. So many current non-fiction books have much more ease and ability to tell their stories that this was a bit of a drudge. Still, it was unnerving with its implications, and I definitely distrust the media more—though not as much as Trump.

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Hoping for a moving book, I tackled into Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This book is referenced everywhere—including a now debunked bar here in Korea that probably wasn’t too aware of the implications it was drawing. Nonetheless, the writing style was as expected—150 years old. At many points, it was long-winded. However, the story, despite being known as one impetus to the Civil War, was greatly lacking. Much was predicable—though not a fault—but overall, the characters were lacking. Uncle Tom, himself, was too angelic, and religion is just shoved down your throat at every turn. The best part was the last chapter where the author explains that many anecdotes came from real life events.

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Gligamesh, I got from a co-worker that was emptying his shelves. I obviously have heard about this one before and somehow made through my undergrad studies without any forced reading of it—unlike Beowulf. The story is toted as being one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in recorded history, being translated from Symerian Cuniform only 100 or so years ago. And…I kind of liked it. The story had a very myth-like feeling and flowed with a much greater ease than other old classics. On top of that it was short, and clearly even with its short length, I can see a thousand theses written regarding it. Not bad.

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Then, for that oh-so unique Japanese feel, I read The Professor and the Housekeeper. It didn’t disappoint on the Japanese tone. It was riddled with it. Furthermore, I don’t think Japanese write long books—this one clocking in at around 200 or so pages. I like the overall flow and characters, but the ending was lacking with the power that I’ve kind of expected from Japan lately. This is her prize book, too. Go figure.

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Lastly, with a struggle, I got through The French Lieutenant’s Woman. It is post-modern—which I liked, but it also reeks of Victorian England, you know, Jane Austen and such, which I don’t particularly mix well with. Needless to say, I had a hard time with the flowery way of speech and the heavy reliance on manners. The only part that broached a postmodern feel was the slight meta fiction and the multiple endings, both didn’t sit well with me. Frankly, it seemed poorly done, and yet this book was not only critically lauded, but also loved by the public. Strange. The one thing I can say, is it makes you think—mainly about how it could have been adapted to something a bit more modern.

Progress on 2018 goals

1) Finish Brief Lives / Query / Synopsis: Done / 2 letters / halfway: Done

2) New project: Something brewing to do with graphic novels. Working on it.

3) Student workbook: More than half written out. Still looking into template.

4) Spring Reading:

                  J.R.: Done!!!

                  Quixote: Not started

5) Read 75 books: 48

 

Next Month’s Agenda

Frankly, I got a lot done this month. I now have 3 full ideas in the works for future novels or stories. I’m hoping to maybe turn one into a graphic novel, but who knows. Otherwise, I have started my new story—tentatively titled: American Snowflakes. Hopefully, I’ll have much more to report next month.

My Top Three Five Living Authors (Redux)

My Top Three Five Living Authors

I’ve made this list before and in that post I stated that this was an ice-breaker a particular professor used to not only have us introduce ourselves but also to subtly jab at any of us English majors who quite possibly dealt to long in old texts and authors while rarely visiting newer ones. About three years ago I posted my original list years after the one I did for the aforementioned class because most of those authors had died. Well, I decided to do it again because, well, tastes change. So here’s the old list first.

1) Haruki Murakami

2) Audrey Niffenegger

3) Neil Gaimen

4) Malcolm Gladwell

5) Jonathon Safran Foer

Why a new one then if all of these guys still seem good? Well, first of all, I haven’t read much from any of them in the interim. Murakami’s books aren’t translated nearly as fast into English as they are into other languages (ie. Korean.) Beyond that, his flavor of writing has gotten a bit repetitive. He’s good at what he does…and it’s always expected, I guess.

For Audrey, she hasn’t published anything big lately, and that goes the same for Gaimen. Even more so, with a lack of new reads that seem interesting, I’ve delved into Gaimen’s old books and grown a little bit sour with him. He’s very hit or miss…and lately it’s felt like a lot of misses.

Then the same can be said about Gladwell. I’ve enjoyed his podcasts, but found little in books as of late. For Foer, he just came out with Here I Am, and yet it fell flat in my opinion. I liked it, but it wasn’t nearly as powerful or creative as his old stuff.

Therefore, it looks like my list has shifted. On top of that, I’ve read much, much more in the past three years, especially in more contemporary authors. So who’s my new top 5 living authors?

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5) Chimamanda Adichie

Currently, I’ve only read two of her books—We Should All Be Feminists and Americanah—but I enjoyed the unique perspective and the amazing use of words. In Americanah, despite certain readers being appalled or offended by it, I had to agree with the author who said it was meant to be funny. I laughed at many parts—especially when America came off looking odd or out of the loop—granted, that’s not hard nowadays. Still, I won’t mind picking up something else by her.

 

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4) Rainbow Rowell

My first journey done by Rowell was her impeccable Eleanor and Park. She pinned down first love and all its craziness masterfully. The little twist in the end wasn’t even really needed. It just stood out by itself. Then I ventured into Fan Girl, and loved all the light story-telling, mixed with a real conundrum of whether or not fan fiction is copying or not—especially since the stories are original. And I think that’s why I find her so appealing. It’s light and bubble-gummy, but not inane. She never talks down or pares off key elements to a character. Everyone feels real—and it’s fun.

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3) Ryu Murakami

I’ve read two of this Japanese authors books now—69 and In the Miso Soup. Both were addictive and fast reads, not to mention somewhat on the short side. Nonetheless, the latter was really hard-hitting, if not hard to read when you get to the brutal murder part. However, I liked a lot of his social commentary and the overall flow and feel of his writing. I will definitely be checking out more by him, although his Coin Babies book appears to be one of the most difficult reads due to violence. But that won’t deter me.

 

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2) Khaled Hosseini

From Kite Runner, to A Thousand Splendid Suns, to And The Mountains Echoed, I’ve enjoyed seeing this author mature and grow in scope. Foer was on my list before, and in a way this author reminds me a lot of him. He hit big with his first book, then sank a little with the next, but where Foer still gave us middling fare, from Hosseini, I felt his third book was more dynamic and challenging. Many hated it, especially the way it subverted the normal mode of story telling, but I think he’s just growing into his own. Can’t wait to see where he goes next.

 

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1) Keiko Higashino

This is the most surprising to me. Over a year and a half ago, I had never even heard of this guy. Now, he’s practically the only author I’m excited to read. I’ve read five to six of his books so far, with one on the shelf because I don’t want to rush it because his newest one isn’t translated until next October. Sadly, they can’t do it fast enough. Even worse, he’s got loads of these books in Japanese—stacks of them—but no one in the English-reading world is really latching onto them. In a way, he’s like Murakami. Now I just hope he gets some international fame soon.

End of March

March 2018

The new semester started and everything’s going full swing again, yet still I’ve gotten some things done that I’m proud of finding the time to do.

Books Read

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First up, I read this very strange ‘On Method Acting,’ inspired by my earlier read of ‘Moonwalking with Einstein.’ I wanted to up my game a bit with my writing, which means sometimes venturing off in odd areas to see things differently. Here, this book helped me see how to develop a character more authentically, but really, with all of its advice on how to draw forth the character in the actor naturally, it came off rather spiritualistic. Seriously, you could easily swap this out with any book that talks about focus and life, and you’d barely notice the difference. Overall, I liked it.

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Then I moved on to Carry On. I’ve wanted to read this for a while, having liked many other Rainbow Rowell books. At first, I’d have to say it was a bit disconcerting, what with it seeming so Harry Potter-like. In that way, I agree with a lot of the naysayers out there. However, very quickly, she separates it from the former with very creative differences. At the same time, it hits a very satirical note, bashing the copycats that flourished after HP’s wake. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

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My next book I waited for all of vacation to get—Skin in the Game. I loved his old ones—Black Swan, Anti-fragile—and could wait for this. I was extremely excited and then…I felt like I hit a brick wall. What a letdown! Where he had this interesting, different point of view, now he just seems to yell and pontificate at the world. I had admired his drive to be a well-self-educated person, but now—quite possibly—he’s become so secure in his ways, that he’s calcified the way he sees the world—that being against everyone else. I would say pass on this.

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Disheartened, I needed something to pick me up, and Higashino always pulls through, especially with Malice. The book starts out with his usual details—which always come back in the end, though I had no idea until I reached it. This book is wonderfully crafted and keeps you guessing the whole time. None of his novels follow the same format—it’s crazy. He’s always reinventing the way he writes which makes it refreshing every time you pick up one of his books. A must read!

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With that high, I dove into what I thought would be a light, but pleasurable romp—Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. God, was I wrong. It seems like every book with Peter in the title, save Peter Pan, can’t help but suck. I’ve read a few over the years. Though this one wasn’t the worst, it certainly helped add more ire to the name Peter in the title of books. The writing was redundant, too think, and the plot was highly predictable. Even more frustrating, this got enough fans that he made a second. I want to gouge my eyes out.

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With nothing to lose, I tackled a book on my shelf for a long time—Education and the Significance of Life. When I had originally glanced at it ages ago, the idea of education and spirituality was interesting, as well as the short section I read. However, after jumping into this sparse book—raking in a mere 125 pages—I found it toilsome and aggravating. All the worst crimes of writing were there: repetition, wordiness, and a lack of clarity. By the end, I understood what he thought education shouldn’t be, but I didn’t see any advice on what it should. Skip this book.

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Finally, with its immense count of pages, I picked up A Little Life. At first I didn’t know what to think, but as I went on, I loved this book more and more. First off, it has a light, fast tone, reminiscent of Time Traveler’s Wife in the way that everyday events are detailed, which may drive some readers crazy. I didn’t mind, though. Then there were they unusual relationships that made it unique. Many complained about this part, citing how could a woman know about gay relationships, saying she portrayed them horribly to be anti-gay. I didn’t get that at all. Others attacked the friends for not help Jude enough, calling them enablers. Again, that didn’t really seem like the point of the book. Near the end, everything does come together, and you really see what the author was striving for. If not, you can always read a couple of her interviews and get the same—though the book is much more powerful. The best of the month, by far!

Progress on 2018 goals

1) Finish Brief Lives / Query / Synopsis: Done / 2 letters / halfway: Done

2) New project: Something brewing to do with graphic novels. Working on it.

3) Student workbook: More than half written out. Still looking into template.

4) Spring Reading:

                  J.R.: 400 out 712 pages

                  Quixote: Not started

5) Read 75 books: 37

Next Month’s Agenda

I’ve got a huge outline already started for my next project. I’m beginning to skew away from graphic novel, though I’d like to incorporate it somehow. Either way, I want to make it big, like 600pages or more big. Added to that, I’ve ponder releasing my other books that no agent seems to think are worthy. Who knows? We’ll see.

End of Feb.

February 2018

Obviously, as you can see, I’ve had another big month when it comes to reading. With the new semester coming up, I wanted to clear off as much of my Kindle TBR list as possible. Seeing as it is break time, it shouldn’t be surprising, but even I am astounded by how much I was able to cross off. Mainly, I don’t have much for writing work to do. This makes me a little sad, but the break is needed.

Books Read

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First, Americanah has been sitting on my list for over a year. I’ve really wanted to read this author but kept putting off this large book. Finally, I got to it. Although I wasn’t as impressed as I had hoped, a lot of it got to me. I really like the way she drew a picture of America, showing how race appears from an outsider’s perspective. In an interview, she said it was supposed to be funny, and I agree. Many parts had me laughing. On top of this, the love story wasn’t bad either. It felt very realistic, especially under the immense changes for the characters and the country.

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Then I finished a book I had partly read, When to Rob a Bank. I started this over a year ago, but found the small chapters and stories a bit slow. I pushed myself through it, enjoyed a lot—especially as this is from the guys who did Freakonomics—but still wanted some more in-depth reasoning.

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My next venture, The Gateless Gate, was a PDF I downloaded over three years ago. I keep looking at it and passing it up. I’m sorry I did. It was a quick read, but also represented the quintessential aspects of mysticism. I adored it. Every small tale was accompanied by comments by the master and this helped open up these Koans, which at times are quite complex. If you like this stuff, this one’s good.

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Only now do I realize how long I’ve put off so many of these. My next one is Phillip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. I read a short by Roth a long time ago—university to be exact—and enjoyed it. I rather enjoy these strong Jewish characters, and Portnoy’s didn’t disappoint. Many parts had me laughing out loud, even though later on the whiny voice of Portnoy did get a little grating. Overall, I can see why it grabbed so much attention when it was first released. I would never ask another human being to read it without a preface about the excessive talk of sex and masturbation in it.

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Then I took up Bird by Bird. This is not that old, but I want to read it because of all the acclaim I saw on the net. Unfortunately, it didn’t really offer much. A lot of the tales were interesting, but too much were snarky remarks or rambling. In a way, what she said made sense, especially that being most writers don’t make enough to support themselves and that publishing shouldn’t be the big take-all goal, but the rest fell, well, kind of flat. Maybe the hype outdid it.

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Then I read Ham on Rye because I haven’t read any Bukowski for roughly twenty years now. Right after high school, I went on a big Bukowski / Vonnegut binge, but haven’t touched much of the former since. I really enjoyed again the character of Hank. I’ve forgotten why I was so drawn to not only the writing but the author as well, and this book really explored the early years of the writer so it was even more of an interesting read. Definite request.

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This book was odd. How to Get Rich in Rising Asia. Besides being set-up as a How-to book, I didn’t even know I had bought it. Searching my book cloud, I found it. Supposedly I snagged it this past summer. Huh? Regardless, I jumped into it, and it was heavy on all the verbiage, with long jaw-breaker sentences, like a lot of Post Modern Lit, but it fell short. For one, the characters weren’t too attractive. Secondly, the finally feeling seemed to just be saying, Hey! You don’t need to be rich! I got through all that for such a simple message? The only thing I enjoyed is how a lot what happened in this impoverished situation fell in-line with a lot of the modern theories of how poor countries get rich. Besides that, I call it a wash.

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I picked up this next book last year when writing my first YA book. Lost Horizon. It was short, to the point, and…intriguing. All the hype about Shangri-La and the characters that inhabit it are well-deserved. The pace was a little bit lagging, but how the world slowly developed and opened up was perfect. It came off believable and enticing. Afterwards, I really felt it would be amazing for some place like this to exist.

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Then on to YA—The Thousandth Floor. It was a monster read, but like all YA, took little time to digest. What do you expect from something that is usually just loosely tied plot points with shallow thinking? And, even though it hit a lot of the tropes of bad YA—useless, repetitive thinking and mind-boggling connections to grandiose things—overall, the plot wasn’t half bad. A lot of it linked up and had great tension, even if I wasn’t sure why it was in the future with all of this other crap going on. If not for the weak writing, the story wouldn’t be half bad.

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As if to dove-tail this bad writing, I read Aspects of the Novel next. It’s actually based of many lectures Forrester gave to a university. So right away, it had a strange vibe to it. Although a lot of his chapters delved into unbelievably specific examples of books that for the most part aren’t too prevalent nowadays, I did like a lot of his explanations. Supposedly James Patterson was a big fan of this. I’m not sure why. Still, overall, it was just okay.

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On my wife’s prodding, I picked up Inquisitor’s Tale. Just at a glance, I already knew it was set up like Canterbury Tales. At first, I enjoyed the tales being told this way with spectator commentary breaking up the flow from time to time. And in fact, the first few tales were scintillating. Sadly, that didn’t last long. By the time our three protagonists finally meet-up, the steam ran out for this tale, and dragged until it hit a mediocre end. If you like middle grade stories that start with a bang and crashes fast, then pick it up.

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Moving on—I trounced Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. Clearly a reference to Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Englander delivers the same caliber shorts he’s known for. Though all didn’t hit perfectly, many were outstanding and delivered shocking power. Again, the book was riddled with strong Jewish characters, and heavily detailed Post Modern writing, but Englander hit every note perfectly. Good.

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With Egan’s book under my belt from last month, I thought I would try another Pulitzer winner with Tinkers. Yuck! Again, it was riddled with an unnecessary amount of details and descriptions which many reviewed as bringing everything to life, but under it was very little story, especially for the first, roughly half. Then finally story kicks in, things happen, but the heavy-handedness keeps ruining everything, and by the end—yeah!—we find out life is great and worth the living, and dying is like a clock. Pass on his next book.

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My wife, having read my book, asked how it sized up to other modern books, so I decided to read The Woman in Cabin 10. I read Girl on the Train last year, and liked it, but—wow!—this thing stank. It was like a resizing of all the current female-murder hits. On top of it, the protagonist is saddled with annoy—what?—claustrophobia / anxiety / a million other phobias, so that every moment is ‘vertiginous.’ Seriously, the word vertigo was thrown around quite a bit, and the repetitive thinking bombed the two-thirds of the story. It only got good at the end, and still the writing was abysmal.

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Last, I did a reread for my students—Trevor Noah’s awesome autobiography, Born a Crime. Not even a half a year later and still it blows so many other books away. Why can’t others learn to tie things together like this? On top of this, I was surprised how much I had forgotten. Reviewing over it, I got a lot and the emotional punches still rang strong and vibrant. Read it—please!

Progress on 2018 goals

1) Finish Brief Lives / Query / Synopsis: Done / 2 letters / halfway: Done

2) New project: Something brewing to do with graphic novels. Working on it.

3) Student workbook: More than half written out. Still looking into template.

4) Spring Reading:

J.R.: Not started

Quixote: Not started

5) Read 75 books: 30!—It’s been a crazy two months.

 

Next Month’s Agenda

Within a day or two, my beta readers should be done with Brief Lives. When they are, I hope to start sending it out to agents. The way they are reacting, and seeing as quite a few were positive to my last one, I hope this one will be the start of something good.

Two Common Writing Mistakes

A Review of Common Mistakes While Writing

My one friend decided to write his own book, too, so I said, “Hey, let me see what you got!” And so he did, and immediately, the finer grammarian hairs on my neck stood up. Though I don’t take such things as seriously as other, I do find massive grammar mistakes and habits something to be weary of. I said as much to him. Then I decided that maybe I’d post the advice for all those who may have started similar missteps.

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For the most part, with a lot of writing, you learn as you do it. You start to see how to make a tighter sentence, how you can sometimes be redundant, and how to make things clearer. But even I have noticed certain quirks in my own writing that are more maybe bad habits than actual style.

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One thing I picked up a lot in many books is comma splices. Thought they didn’t use them in the narration as much as they did in the dialogue, any appearance of them can be offsetting. I couldn’t remember any specifically, so I made some up to illustrate.

One example: “I really need that box from the top shelf, can you get it for me?”

Though they may be related in context, they are actually two independent clauses and should either be separated with a period or be conjoined by a semi-colon. As for the latter solution, I want to warn you: too many semi-colons can also get annoying. Personally, I avoid use one, maybe two, in an entire manuscript. They are tricky to use and can get too repetitive quickly.

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Secondly, there is the habit of using ‘then’ as a coordinating conjunction. I’m not sure how much of this you all know. The only way I have any knowledge of it is because I teach it. Quickly, it’s easy to remember coordinating conjunctions by the acronym, FANBOYS. That stands for ‘For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So.’ These are the only words that can join two independent clauses into compound ones. Notice there is no ‘T.’ That’s because ‘then’ isn’t one of them. ‘Then’ is called a transition word and can only be used at the beginning of a sentence.

Example: I went to school, then saw her waiting for me.

This doesn’t work here. You can separate it, making two individual sentences or you can add ‘and,’ like ‘I went to school and then saw her waiting for me.

Again with the two rules I’ve shared, there’s always times to break them and do something different, but all in all, you want to stick to them and not develop bad habits that turn off a surprisingly vast amount of readers.

Hope that helped.

 

A Look Back Part 8: Non Fiction

A Look Back at My Reading List (2017 Part 8: Non Fiction)

Here is my final breakdown of my reading list from last year. It is non fiction. I’ve been doing more reading in this area and figured it deserved its own place in my list. I’ve grown into more economic based books but some bios are here too. In total, I’ve read 12. Quite a bit. Here they are:

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[image error]With an odd selection like this, I found I really enjoyed Trevor Noah’s book, Born a Crime. It was funny but not slapstick, and overall very insightful about what it was like growing up in South Africa during a pinnacle time in its history. Awesome read!

 

 

A Look Back Part 7: Book Club Reads

A Look Back at My Reading List (2017 Part 7: Book Club Reads)

I added this category this year as I joined a book club. I hope to continue this next year, but so far it looks like my little club is dying. Nonetheless, I joined in March and went through until November when the steam for this year ran out. Altogether I read 7 books

Here they are:

 

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[image error]The pick from this selection would definitely be The Sellout. I still remember many parts to it and found the writing entertaining and fun. It tackled a touchy topic in an offbeat way which made it unique.

A Look Back Part Six: Graphic Novels

A Look Back at My Reading List (2017 Part 6: Graphic Novels)

I do usually love this category. Art and words—awesome. But this year, I didn’t get much…but this is probably why my page count is up compared to books read.

I’ve read…4! That’s it. To quote my president, Sad.

Here they are:

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[image error]The winner here is obvious: Through the Woods. Although the stories aren’t one hundred percent satisfying with resolve or originality, I loved the tension and the set-up of all them. I just hope she makes something longer.