March Booklist
Apr. 2nd, 2007 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eleneariel1. The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
All I want is not to die on a day when I went unnoticed.
A very beautiful book. Unfortunately I'm not sure I understood everything, and that bothers me, but it wasn't a book that one was meant to understand all of, I think. Therefore, I predict that it is going to become a classic.
2. Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Dave Barry and Ridley Pierson
I finally finished it. Finally. I don't know why it took me so long! There was some neat foreshadowing to the real Peter Pan story, which I won't reveal in case anybody hasn't read it yet. I liked the little "Oh, cool!" moments, though.
3. Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare
Bought the movie, decided it was time to read the play again. Good stuff.
4. A Perfect Mess, Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
As both John Steinbeck and the University of Texas researchers pointed out, our personalities tend to be more clearly expressed in our disorder than in our neatness. When we are being ruthless about ridding ourselves of what naturally accumulates around us and about meticulously straightening out what remains, we are in a sense tidying our identities. The truth is, we are all at least a bit of a mess -- and all the more interesting for it.
[about an unusual bookstore and how it operates]
....Gans operates out of the landing of a stairway that leads to the roof. He tried to requisition an actual room for an office when he signed up, but was told by Jon that God intended actual rooms to serve as places to pile books, and any person who thought he could find space to wedge a desk between the piles was welcome to try.
IBM, for example, in the 1990s adopted a management structure that took the form of an eight-dimensional matrix, whose working presumable would have been perfectly transparent to anyone conversant in string theory.
savetheolives, this is for you: "Foreign visitors to Parisian parks are sometimes surprised to be accosted by a uniformed guard who tells them to get off the grass, or, if they have children, to remove them to another section of the park altogether, despite the absence of signs warning of any restrictions. The visitors are not being gratuitously harassed; they are being welcomed to an essential element of French society: assuming that something is prohibited until you have positively ascertained that it is not. ... The French themselves are acclimated to the pervasive concept of interdit as preschool students. There are a number of children's books dedicated to explaining to tots why the endless stream of interdits they are already encountering is critical to the smooth functioning of society. Here's how the book Interdit, Toujours Interdit, Mais Pourqoui (Prohibited, Always Prohibited, but Why?) puts it: "all around us and in our daily lives, it seems as if there isn't anything that's not prohibited. It's enough to make you wonder if you have any rights at all! But actually, the prohibitions are essential, and there's a bright side to them. What's the point of all the prohibitions? What would our lives be like if everything was allowed?"
Any book I pull quotes from every couple of pages is a good book. It's ironic that I read this now, when I've become much more of a neat freak that ever before, than the years ago when I was a self proclaimed pack-rat. Neat or not, it's an interesting book full of interesting things.
5. H.R.H., Danielle Steel
Um, yes. I do try to keep up somewhat on popular fiction for work, you see, honest, I swear, that's the only reason I read this. It was so bad. And that's too bad, really, as it was positively clean for modern fiction, but my word, the agony of reading this! Formulaic plot, stereotypical characters, and downright awful dialog. I have a theory about popular authors which I shall expound upon someday.
6. Fame Junkies, Jake Halpern
I expected more out of this one, but it was still pretty good. Sad, really, the desperate lengths people will go to to become famous, or even famous by association.
7. Esio Trot, Roald Dahl
I discovered a Dahl I hadn't read yet! This one was cute.
8. The Complete Book of Absolutely Perfect Housekeeping, Elinor Goulding Smith
Sometimes humor from the 50s and 60s is terribly dated, but this one was timely as ever. I had fun with it.
9. Fall of a Philanderer, Carola Dunn
The 777th book I've read since I started keeping my booklists. I'm so glad to have found this author -- she has good mysteries, charming but not sweet characters, and a very refreshingly pleasant style. I'll be going to her for when I need light reading.
10. *A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson (book on CD)
Very interesting but misleading -- hardly the history of everything, as he focuses on mostly scientific breakthroughs. No problem there, however, as it was all quite fascinating, if unfortunately from the standpoint that everybody knows and accepts evolution as fact.
11. Bellwether, Connie Willis
I could no longer wait for ruthette's Bella to come home from her wanderings, so I got my own copy. Excellent book! I love thinking about fads and trends anyway, and combined with such a great cast of characters -- magnificent!
12. Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11, David Ray Griffin
Um, wow. I don't really know where to start with this book. I'm trying to be tactful about it, but it was pretty much bs.
-cough-
The author was very wise in not explaining his theological viewpoints until the end of the book. It would have been very hard for me to take the book even as seriously as I did if I had known that the author was purporting to know the "Christian" way to respond to 9/11 but believed that the Biblical version of Jesus' trial was "surely fictional", thought that the New Testament focuses too much on the cross and the resurrection, that not all parts of the Bible were equally inspired, that God did not create the world out of nothing, that He is not really in complete control, that humans made demonic powers and that there is no actual demonic being (ie, Satan), and that it really is still up in the air who will triumph, God or the demonic power.
Although I vehemently disagree with his premise that the United States planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to go to war, that almost seems like a mild thing to argue about in comparison with his religious views.
So, yes, well, anyway. He presents a lot of "evidence" with little to back it up, ignores some obvious facts, uses Wikipedia as a source, compares the deaths of 50 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis with the supposed 150 million deaths the USA "causes" by poverty, and is convinced that the USA is an evil empire on par with the Romans and that we want to RULE TEH WORLD, MWHAHAHA.
There are points I would be willing to concede on, or at least discuss rationally (I do not believe we are an empire, but I could understand how some might conclude that), but put it all together and I frankly find this man, and this book, laughable.
And now I feel bad because it was loaned to me by a friend. =P Oh well. I'm entitled to my views, right?
13. I Feel Bad About my Neck, Nora Ephron
For some reason I like humorous books written by middle-aged women. Even though I am not yet old enough to feel bad about my neck. :)
Currently reading: Small Gods, the last Pratchett book that I own but haven't yet read. *sob* That means, except for new ones yet unwritten, I only have two or possibly three left to read! Tragedy!
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Date: 2007-04-03 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-04-09 09:23 am (UTC)My only complaint is that they charge if you order a book from another library in the system unless it's a kids' book. But then I read a lot of kids books, so that's not too bad either ;)
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Date: 2007-04-11 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-04-03 12:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-03 05:32 am (UTC)<---- this is Rincewind looking happy
Date: 2007-04-03 12:35 pm (UTC)So, I must ask ... what's your favorite book? Mine is Thief of Time, followed closely by all of the Witches books. :)
Re: <---- this is Rincewind looking happy
Date: 2007-04-04 09:48 pm (UTC)Re: <---- this is Rincewind looking happy
Date: 2007-04-06 08:17 pm (UTC)DEATH I love. :D
Re: <---- this is Rincewind looking happy
Date: 2007-04-07 05:43 am (UTC)Re: &lt;---- this is Rincewind looking happy
Date: 2007-04-07 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-03 10:30 am (UTC)Second, I think you outread me this month. I think I only read eleven books, twelve at the most. *salute!*
Third, I can't wait to read Peter and the Shadow Thieves. Please tell me that The Black Stache makes an appearance, because I miss him!
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Date: 2007-04-03 12:37 pm (UTC)I've been wanting to read Bellwether since long before she started her travels, but I'll admit her exploits kept her in the forefront of my mind. Hurray for Bella!
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Date: 2007-04-03 10:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-03 12:39 pm (UTC)*uses her other Rogues icon*
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Date: 2007-04-04 04:38 am (UTC)