I've noted that others are becoming inspired and starting to read their own lists. Australia has a massive bookstore called Dymocks, it became a chain in 1986 but I first noticed it in Melbourne around 1995. They have published their own list, and it's a kind of cool list indeed, of 101 most popular books as chosen by their customers.
+kym brown and our daughter have started their own reading quests. I'm hoping that they will, from time to time, blog and tell us all about them. I will certainly provide some links here.
Last Tuesday was, indeed, Cloud Atlas day. Wow. The book truly is different and yet very similar to the movie. It does highlight how friggin' ace those Warchowski siblings are to be able to turn it into a filmic experience. Yeah, they added bits, massive bits that weren't in the book, but I'm long over the whole "You must replicate this book exactly" feelings that I used to have as a child. I remember explaining this to my daughter around the Harry Potter Three movie.
Movies are different entities, they need to be treated as such by the viewers. For a start, they use pictures to convey a message, and not words. You think that this is obvious until you really start to think about what that actually means. A 5 page detailed description of a setting can be snapped in a few seconds in a movie, but how difficult is it to convey a person contemplating a momentous decision involving internal dialogue? So I never judge a movie adaptation based on the book that it was based on. I always give it plenty of room to be it's own story.
On Wednesday, I finished Piers Morgan's diaries. The years 2001 - 2004. It was a struggle, not because they were dull, they're not (although, in places where he discussed football (soccer to the non-European crowd) I would literally skim) but they are quite detailed entries and I found I'd lose my concentration if I actually sped read them. I was also incredibly tired by Wednesday - far too many late nights and early mornings. So methodically I pushed through these years.
By 2001 onwards was particularly interesting especially after 9/11. Suddenly Piers started acting and behaving pretty much as David and I had during the lead up to the war on terror. It really was a very crazy time and Bush and Blair were such blatant liars with their desire to move the war into Iraq. I remember pointing out that it really wouldn't solve anything at the time, that they would never find WMD, that it was all about oil. I don't feel vindicated that I was right about all of this. Piers didn't either. We just felt sad. Sad that the world could actually be manipulated in this way. Sad that folks like Bush and Blair could do this to the world so easily, and even marching 1 million strong against it would just be ignored.
So I end up realising that Piers and I would get along pretty well at a dinner party. We'd annoy the crap out of stale stuffy conservative folk with their circular arguments. Mind you, that would be a dinner party that we had both gatecrashed.... probably after a pub crawl... or perhaps it would be a conversation overhead in a restaurant as there are not that many stuffy conservative dinner parties that I'm likely to be invited to anytime soon.
On Thursday I finished Stephen Hawkings A Brief History of Time. Well I feel good in that I have finished this. I mean, I can now say I've read it. Yes, I've read the words, no I didn't quite understand about a third of it. Actually, probably about half of it. There were times I was thinking "What is he on about" and then suddenly I'd be like "Aha, of course, I know this". My intense love of Science Fiction helped me to get through this. I still laugh because I honestly thought this would be 1,000 pages long, the way folks have gone on about it. Most people don't read it to the end. I did. Yay me.
On Friday, I finished Eowyn Ivey's A Snow Child. I just loved this book. Easy to read, but not simple in any way. I truly loved her characterisations, her ability to get me teary, especially during the first half of the book. As the story continued I found myself far more emotionally stable... but then she got me at the end. It is based on an old Russian fairy tale, and it beautifully encapsulates this into a real flesh and blood drama. I HIGHLY recommend this one. Brilliant stuff
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Then yesterday I continued reading Dickens. Another 50 pages. I read 50 pages last Saturday so at this rate it will take me about 3 months to finish it!! It's not that Dickens is hard to read, but the plot is kind of all over the place, with intense characterisations of minor characters that just don't seem to actually be really very necessary. It's a little bit gratuitous... nay... it is a LOT so. All my actor luvey friends (the older ones, the ones that worked with Olivier and his ilk.... most of them are dead now come to think of it.) All of them used to go on and on about Dickens and how wonderful he was. Well, at 100 pages into David Copperfield with about 800 to go... I fear that I may have picked up the wrong one. But on the list it is, and so continue reading it I will.
Mind you, it wouldn't be a challenge if it wasn't at least a little bit challenging, and the whole point of taking on a challenge is trying to overcome the possibility that you may actually fail in the end. I'm sure we won't, we'll read all night for the last few months if we need to, or at least I will, David has now read 7 books AND he started about a week after I did. Here is his latest review on The Godfather. He thoroughly enjoyed that one. I'm starting it on Friday as I need another Friday book after finishing Ivey's fairytale.
Today, it's clearing up the backyard, going shopping and reading a bit (a lot) more of Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. I'm enjoying it, but again I wonder how long it will take to actually finish it. I chose these big books to read on the weekend because I figured I would have more time to actually read them. Turns out that isn't the case when the sun starts to shine. I should have guessed, really
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Days Left: 339
Books Read: 9
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