Speaking of books, I neglected to post a list of books I read last year. Probably because I was so hung up on Ulysses. I had taken up the Ulysses Challenge put forward by Jian Ghomeshi (on Sounds Like Canada in the Summer), loved the writing, loved the beautiful use of language, loved reading it, but probably only understood about 1% of it so stopped around page 300. It has the distinction of being the first book I hadn’t finished in manymanymany years. But the challenge still lingers and perhaps (perhaps) I will take it up again.
Meanwhile, what I did read over the past two years:
Yo! By Julia Alvarez: I enjoyed reading this adventuresome story.
How to Speak Dog by Stanley Coren: I’m still learning. I do (obviously) love his books on dogs. The first one I read, How Dogs Think, is probably what pushed me over the edge to get another dog after being dogless for five years.
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson: A little too melodramatic for me although not a bad story. I read this while my house was under unexpected renovations in the spring of 2006. So it was a good distraction.
Short Stories by O’Henry: I know he’s supposed to be a great short story writer, but I just couldn’t get into these stories. The characters didn’t interest me very much. Their lives never touched mine. I am proud to say I didn’t finish the book.
Bacombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut: These short stories seemed formulaic. People were good and bad, very predictable. And I found the satire and sarcasm unappealing.
A Ulysses Primer. I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember the author and can’t find the book right now. I didn’t have the patience when reading UlyssesUlysses again.
Sympathy by Dede Crane: It’s always difficult to write about what goes on in a psychotherapeutic situation. Most of this novel takes place in a mental hospital. Sometimes the insights were interesting, but overall, I might have liked it better in another setting.
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi: This was fascinating reading, interesting peek into a difficult time in the history of Iran. But the writing became labored, as if she, as a teacher of literature, was trying too hard to be literary.
Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac: Actually this was a rather enjoyable read, a good relief from Ullysses. A glimpse into an important period in the evolution of personal growth, so to speak.
A Good Dog by Jon Katz: I talked about this in my blog so I won’t say more than it is a very very beautiful story of a man and a dog. If you like dogs, Jon Katz’ writing is the best, very sincere.
The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald: I actually put this book down a third of the way through. It just didn’t interest me.
The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag, the sad story of a young boy’s life in a Mongolian nomadic tribe.
The Bookseller of Kabul, by Asne Seierstad. Interesting reading, for sure. A fascinating, detailed portrait of a family and a country.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. As has been said many times, who would have thought a book on punctuation could be so much fun to read! I’ve always loved punctuation. For me it’s a literary form of mathematics.
American Pastoral by Philip Roth: Never thought I would enjoy a book based on a political situation so much. I do love his writing. It is so thorough. I was fascinated by the way he slips around in time and still keeps the storyline moving.
House of Sand and Fog Andre Dubois III: The book went from okay to not so great. In fact, I was left feeling like it was a waste of time. Too dark without any feeling of growth or resolution.
Three by Margaret Lawrence: Stone Angel, House of Fire, The Fire-Dwellers. I enjoyed them. Except for House of Fire, where I would have loved to be her editor. I’d never read Margaret Lawrence before going to see Stone Angel at the Halifax Film Festival in September. I enjoyed the novel so much more than the movie. But then there is only one movie I enjoyed more than the book and that was The Hour.
Short Stories by Willa Cather and Still Life by A.S. Byatt. Ann lent me these books as I was leaving Rome. She promised to come get them next summer. The Willa Cather stories were perfect, especially her later ones. Still Life, I would have enjoyed editing a bit. The story was interesting, about a family in England, especially the two sisters, struggling with their intelligence and women’s issues. There was a lot of philosophizing about life and literature and also quotes from Van Gogh’s letters that were helpful to understanding his process.
And of course, Miles Davis’ Autobiography which I am currently enjoying so very much. I’m sure I left out a few but this will do for now.
Posted by leya at December 21, 2007 08:19 PM | TrackBack