An Easy Reader

I think I read too many blogs. I picked up The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Man Booker Prize winner, and it was refreshingly easy to read; at least the first five pages. The narrator is an uneducated Indian guy writing to the prime minister of China. His tone is so chatty and non-mysterious. I asked myself why this was and realized, it reads more like a blog than a serious work of fiction. That is not to say that blogs are not wonderful and well written, but they are a more spontaneous, colloquial form of written expression. And, much easier for a busy gal like me to read. I like checking my blog reader and quickly getting a few easy to decipher and topically familiar things checked off. It feels good, and easy.

Is this a personal failing? Shouldn't I love a challenge? Good fiction is hard fiction right? Any Moby Dick Fans out there?

I don't feel great about my reading self right now. I am excited though to read The White Tiger and see if the whole thing is as enjoyable as the first five pages.

Whining about Waterland

I'm trudging through Waterland by Graham Swift. I badly want to like this novel, but I feel like I'm failing. Why can't I just love it? It seems like it should be really good. This book feels sort of like a mystery in which nothing happens. At least not so far, well, besides the murder, and the pregnant teenager.

The story traces three threads, narrated by one old man; that of the narrator's family, beginning with his great, great grandparents and down to his own generation, a story of his childhood on the fens (a desolate low country prone to flooding), as well as a section about the more recent past in his own life. This approach lends a little bit of suspense to an otherwise quiet story, but I wish that it were just a little easier. I don't want to have to work quite so hard to decode a sentence, or to understand what just happened.

I'm not picking only on Mr. Swift. This obtuse spareness I've been discussing can be insidious, ugly even, if handled badly, and I don't think its a good trend. I certainly have a tough time coping with it. I prefer a slightly more straitforward prose when I'm reading in the evening. After interpreting irrational behaviors and incomplete communication from my preschool aged children all day, and I just want a story, not a puzzle.

Booker Prize Winners

Are books that win The Man Booker prize always really hard to read? I've recently read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Gathering by Anne Enright, and am now reading Waterland (not a winner) by Graham Swift, an author who won the award in the past. All of these novels are tough. I mean, obtuse and confusing, with kind of hard to follow sentences and a purposefully fuzzy sense of what's actually happening and fuzzy timelines.

Why?

Does being hard to read make something a better book? In the end, I would give The God of Small Things a favorable review, but I found it really tough to get into. Roy kind of put up walls of trickiness, not inviting at all. With The Gathering, I just didn't get it. I did not care for that book, plus, it was hard to read. These novels gave me a vague feeling that I have to fight to get through them, that somehow I had to get past all this challenging prose in order to get to the treasure at the center. Once I got to where I was supposed to go, the reward was not quite good enough.

So far I am enjoying Waterland, but it too is hard to follow, and not really in a good way. I'll report back as I read more, and maybe look for Swift's Last Orders (the Booker winner)to see how it measures up. I also happened to grab The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga at the Library this weekend, so maybe I'll have a go at it.

To be fair, I also have read The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, also a Booker Prize winner, and loved it very much. It was a couple years ago though, and I don't remember if it was difficult to read.

Shameless Friend Promotion

Hey reader!

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A Brief Chat about Bill Bryson--I love him

I saw Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, in Stimey's basement a few weeks ago, grabbed it and couldn't wait to read it. it has now been read. I knew it would be great fun because I loved Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. It was full of good tidbits about geography, geology and biology, plus I love that he was supposed to hike the Appalachian Trail and didn't make it. As I recall, don't quote me here, but I think he felt like he had seen enough and understood fully the enormity of hiking the whole thing, so he really didn't need to. He did a really good job of it though, hiking really really far, and maybe checking out the beginning and end. It turned me into a big Bryson fan at any rate.

So I saw A Short History of Nearly Everything and was very excited. I wasn't disappointed. I learned EVERYTHING! History of science, names and amusing anecdotes about millions of forgotten scientists, quarks, mitochondria, black holes, the works. I'm much more scientific now.

I love finding authors that I want to be friends with. Like Mary Roach, Bill Bryson seems like he'd be perfect to chat with. Really smart, but not soo serious, a little self deprecating, and fun but not fluffy.

A Terrible Confession

Remember a couple of months ago when I told you my mother had left a box of books at my house? Mostly these were her rejects, so they weren't great. I haven't been to the library lately, and had read all the things in my To Read pile, so I picked up Audition by Barbara Walters. And OMG I have been READING IT! I gotta tell ya, its kind of a snore. But I haven't quit. Today, I officially quit. I'm backing away from the five hundred page auto-biography of a living news woman. I'm so embarrassed to be reading this book for old ladies that when I thought a friend might enter my room, I put it back on the bookshelf so my loseriness wouldn't be discovered

It might seem as though I am being rude to my mother in criticizing this book, or criticizing Barbara Walters. I am not. Ms. Walters is a fine interesting lady who has had a very full life. I just don't need to spend my evenings reading about it.

About my mother's choice in non-fiction; firstly, she is the one who chose not to keep the book on her shelves, indicating that it is not a great classic. Secondly, she is thirty years older than me. I give permission to every person over 55 to read a Barbara Walters biography, or say any book by Tom Brokaw.

I am not even remotely hip, even by suburban thirty year old standards, but good lord! Barbara Walters? I am going to the library today, and finding something more suitable, and cooler, like maybe something I heard about on NPR.

New Plan

I began this blog because I'm a reader and because I frequently find myself with things to say about my reading but no-one inparticular with whom I can share these ideas. The problem is that I read and think in spurts, and regular blog readers are not necessarily fans of spurt reading.

In order to combat inertia and procrastination, I have a new plan. I'm going to write this blog once a week; on Thursdays. I've been reading a fair amount over the last few weeks that I haven't been posting and have a couple of good things to chat about, so we should be good for a while.

Wish me luck.

Sex-ed for Grownups

So, I've been reading lately but not blogging. A few weeks ago I spent an hour in Stimey's basement and she had re-organized her bookshelves in a very nerdy manner, like according to size and subject matter. I immediately grabbed Bonk by Mary Roach. I had previously read Stiff by Roach, and loved it.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex is about um, sex. It can make for some uncomfortable reading, especially if you are reading about the Dr. Kinsey's experiments, say, on the subway. Mary Roach takes the always fascinating topic of sex and makes it lighthearted, amusing and educational. Here are a few chapter titles, "Dating the Penis-Camera" "The Testicle Pushers" and "Mind over Vagina". I was mildly mortified several times while reading this book, and I think Roach was mortified a few times while researching it, but she pushes through bravely and gracefully giving a fun overview of some of the more technical aspects of human sexuality.

If you are not interested in reading about sex, you may like reading about dead bodies. Roach's earlier book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers examines body snatching, decay of corpses, embalming and a whole array of things that can happen to you after you die.

If I had to choose an interesting and/or learned person to have lunch with, Mary Roach would be pretty high on the list. Despite her non-traditional subject matter, Roach's bright and warm personality shines through her prose.