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Belated Wed Reading Meme ...
Jul. 17th, 2014 10:52 pm[Because I had no internet access last night due to unexplained outages across my area. Actually nothing was working yesterday...stove didn't work, visited three apartments - didn't manage to see any of them - one was unavailable, one rented, and one a 4th floor walkup. On top of that work was insane about a potential strike. What a difference a day makes. Today - the internet works fine, got a new stove, strike averted, and actually saw one apartment - hated it. But saw it. Ruling out Ditmas Avenue - not working for me.]
1. What I just finished reading?
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck - this is the novel that won the Pulitizer in 1932. Told in the simple narrative of a Chinese Fable or Folktale, it is the story of a poor Chinese farmer who marries a slave girl and acquires great wealth and prosperity through the land. Part allegory and part fable, it shows how money can enslave you and take you away from what is truly important. It also depicts how women were treated in China in the 1920s. Little more than slaves of men. The lead character, Wang Lung, is complicated. He loves the land more than anything, and often allows his desire for wealth and prosperity and superficial beauty to cloud his better judgement. As a result, in the end, he loses much of what he once held most dear.
While the English Lit major in me appreciated the novel for it's themes, and narrative style. I found it painful to read at times. It often put me to sleep. It's not a writing style I like all that much - almost no dialogue, and a simple almost monotone that put me to sleep. The writer was obviously trying to place the reader inside the mind of an illiterate Chinese man. So the language was basic English, with a simple stream of consciousness style. But it was not told in the first person point of view - but in third person. Yet, the style felt like reading an fable or simple children's story.
Eh...here's a sample, albeit not necessarily a good one of the run-on sentences that happen later in the novel, but whatever:
( Read more... )
This style is fine for about 100 pages, but 372 pages gets a bit tiring. Also not helped by the fact that I didn't like anyone or care about anyone in the book but O Lan who dies halfway through. All the other women in the novel are annoying. So too are the men, except possibly the younger sons.
That said, I know enough about the craft of writing to know - that this is a well-written book that deserved the acclaim. The story does stick with you. And is a compelling and haunting one. I'd like to see the movie at some point - it's also a classic and won various awards. Not that I care about awards. Far better written than most of the books I've read of late (sort of goes without saying), but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. I just felt compelled to - if that makes sense?
2. What I'm reading now?
The far more enjoyable, albeit not quite as deftly written, A Dance With Dragons by GRR Martin. I'm about a third of the way through. Or 32% to be precise. Made it through yet another chapter featuring Quentin. Which isn't spoiling anything for tv show watchers since he hasn't been introduced yet and you haven't a clue who I'm talking about.
Sort of scanned a lot of the chapter. Not much happens. Actually not happens at this point at all - just a lot of wandering about. Which was probably why I'd gotten bogged down at the 20% mark the last time I attempted to read it. GRR Martin is in desperate need of an editor - or a tree pruner. The man feels the need to tell me everything single little thing that is happening in his world and from 20 different points of view.
While I appreciate detailed world-building as much as the next person (okay maybe not as much as some), I do not require THIS MUCH detail. Way too much character navel gazing..
That said? It is enjoyable in places. Certainly more so than the last three-four books I read or attempted to read. I sort of hit a reading slump after Jim Butcher's The Skin Game. You know when you keep picking up books but not quite liking any of them? I think it may have been the transition between genres?
( vague plot and character spoilers )
I'm hoping it continues to get better. I think it will for two reasons: 1) it's already better than the first 20% of the book which focused far too much on ( tv and book spoiler, if you saw the last season of the tv show...it's not a spoiler ), 2) all the other books get better towards the second half.
GRR Martin likes to build up to a cliff hanger - which would be less annoying if it didn't take so long to get to the resolution. Even between chapters. He often has fifteen chapters in between each chapter cliff-hanger. That's because he's telling the story in fifteen separate points of view, with each chapter a separate point of view, and from a character that is often not directly involved with another one or very far away from them, such as continents.
Not that I necessarily have anything against cliff-hangers. I don't mind cliff-hangers - if I get to see what happens in a week or two, but making me wait, in Martin's case, 5-6 years - is pushing it. Which is why I take so long to read his novels - I figure if I stretch it out, by the time I finish, he will have completed and published the next book. That's what happened with Feast of Crows - by the time I finished it, he'd published Dance with Dragons, same with Storm of Swords - by the time I finished reading it - Feast of Crows came out. This process has been working for me.
So...since I've taken up reading Dance with Dragons again - if the pattern holds, Martin should have completed and published Winds of Winter or whatever he's calling it at the moment - by December or 2015. Just in time for me to pick up where I left off.
Reading Martin's books slowly does have its benefits. Plus you tend to pick up on some things better.
While I clearly like to whine about Martin's writing, I do apparently enjoy it on some level or I wouldn't keep reading his books. We know this - because I gave up on Roger Zelzany's book and MZB's Mists of Avalon. But I have managed to make it through 4 books of the Game of Thrones series. Martin's characters are more complicated and far more interesting than MZB or Zelzany's. He's more into character development than ritual or philosophizing. Not a fan of philosophizing in books. Reading philosophy tends to put me to sleep. I prefer metaphor or the subtle indirect approach. More story, less lecture. Which may explain why I struggled with the Good Earth and The Lord of Light - both swayed more towards allegory and philosophizing than towards character and story.
It may have a lot to do with how I think.
( spoilers for the book, first 30% of it )
Like I said, not all that much is happening. I keep wanting to stretch my arms through the ether and shake GRR - get on with it already! Enough meandering around things! Move the plot forward. But alas, I'm hoisted on my own petard - GRRM is a character boy after my own heart not a plot boy...he cares the most about building and examining, to minute detail, his characters. And he has about 50 of them - he wants to examine.
3. What I'll be reading next?
With any luck Magic Breaks by Illona Andrews - which is getting rather decent reviews from various journals. Library Journal liked it, although they do tend to like most things - librarians unlike former English Lit majors don't tend to be that critical of what they read. They tend to be more interested in organizing the books and making them accessible to others. English Lit majors feel an insane need to analyze and critique them to death.
That said, the Library Journal review is notable for this comment: "With the exception of a weirdly steamy sex scene in the middle - the book tends to focus more on action."
Hmmm, weirdly steamy? The author was rather happy about the review and in particular the one about the sex scene. Which they'd been told to tone down, but ignored and decided to write like an action scene anyhow. Now I can't wait to read the book if for no other reason than the weirdly steamy sex scene. No wonder the author is ov
1. What I just finished reading?
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck - this is the novel that won the Pulitizer in 1932. Told in the simple narrative of a Chinese Fable or Folktale, it is the story of a poor Chinese farmer who marries a slave girl and acquires great wealth and prosperity through the land. Part allegory and part fable, it shows how money can enslave you and take you away from what is truly important. It also depicts how women were treated in China in the 1920s. Little more than slaves of men. The lead character, Wang Lung, is complicated. He loves the land more than anything, and often allows his desire for wealth and prosperity and superficial beauty to cloud his better judgement. As a result, in the end, he loses much of what he once held most dear.
While the English Lit major in me appreciated the novel for it's themes, and narrative style. I found it painful to read at times. It often put me to sleep. It's not a writing style I like all that much - almost no dialogue, and a simple almost monotone that put me to sleep. The writer was obviously trying to place the reader inside the mind of an illiterate Chinese man. So the language was basic English, with a simple stream of consciousness style. But it was not told in the first person point of view - but in third person. Yet, the style felt like reading an fable or simple children's story.
Eh...here's a sample, albeit not necessarily a good one of the run-on sentences that happen later in the novel, but whatever:
( Read more... )
This style is fine for about 100 pages, but 372 pages gets a bit tiring. Also not helped by the fact that I didn't like anyone or care about anyone in the book but O Lan who dies halfway through. All the other women in the novel are annoying. So too are the men, except possibly the younger sons.
That said, I know enough about the craft of writing to know - that this is a well-written book that deserved the acclaim. The story does stick with you. And is a compelling and haunting one. I'd like to see the movie at some point - it's also a classic and won various awards. Not that I care about awards. Far better written than most of the books I've read of late (sort of goes without saying), but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. I just felt compelled to - if that makes sense?
2. What I'm reading now?
The far more enjoyable, albeit not quite as deftly written, A Dance With Dragons by GRR Martin. I'm about a third of the way through. Or 32% to be precise. Made it through yet another chapter featuring Quentin. Which isn't spoiling anything for tv show watchers since he hasn't been introduced yet and you haven't a clue who I'm talking about.
Sort of scanned a lot of the chapter. Not much happens. Actually not happens at this point at all - just a lot of wandering about. Which was probably why I'd gotten bogged down at the 20% mark the last time I attempted to read it. GRR Martin is in desperate need of an editor - or a tree pruner. The man feels the need to tell me everything single little thing that is happening in his world and from 20 different points of view.
While I appreciate detailed world-building as much as the next person (okay maybe not as much as some), I do not require THIS MUCH detail. Way too much character navel gazing..
That said? It is enjoyable in places. Certainly more so than the last three-four books I read or attempted to read. I sort of hit a reading slump after Jim Butcher's The Skin Game. You know when you keep picking up books but not quite liking any of them? I think it may have been the transition between genres?
( vague plot and character spoilers )
I'm hoping it continues to get better. I think it will for two reasons: 1) it's already better than the first 20% of the book which focused far too much on ( tv and book spoiler, if you saw the last season of the tv show...it's not a spoiler ), 2) all the other books get better towards the second half.
GRR Martin likes to build up to a cliff hanger - which would be less annoying if it didn't take so long to get to the resolution. Even between chapters. He often has fifteen chapters in between each chapter cliff-hanger. That's because he's telling the story in fifteen separate points of view, with each chapter a separate point of view, and from a character that is often not directly involved with another one or very far away from them, such as continents.
Not that I necessarily have anything against cliff-hangers. I don't mind cliff-hangers - if I get to see what happens in a week or two, but making me wait, in Martin's case, 5-6 years - is pushing it. Which is why I take so long to read his novels - I figure if I stretch it out, by the time I finish, he will have completed and published the next book. That's what happened with Feast of Crows - by the time I finished it, he'd published Dance with Dragons, same with Storm of Swords - by the time I finished reading it - Feast of Crows came out. This process has been working for me.
So...since I've taken up reading Dance with Dragons again - if the pattern holds, Martin should have completed and published Winds of Winter or whatever he's calling it at the moment - by December or 2015. Just in time for me to pick up where I left off.
Reading Martin's books slowly does have its benefits. Plus you tend to pick up on some things better.
While I clearly like to whine about Martin's writing, I do apparently enjoy it on some level or I wouldn't keep reading his books. We know this - because I gave up on Roger Zelzany's book and MZB's Mists of Avalon. But I have managed to make it through 4 books of the Game of Thrones series. Martin's characters are more complicated and far more interesting than MZB or Zelzany's. He's more into character development than ritual or philosophizing. Not a fan of philosophizing in books. Reading philosophy tends to put me to sleep. I prefer metaphor or the subtle indirect approach. More story, less lecture. Which may explain why I struggled with the Good Earth and The Lord of Light - both swayed more towards allegory and philosophizing than towards character and story.
It may have a lot to do with how I think.
( spoilers for the book, first 30% of it )
Like I said, not all that much is happening. I keep wanting to stretch my arms through the ether and shake GRR - get on with it already! Enough meandering around things! Move the plot forward. But alas, I'm hoisted on my own petard - GRRM is a character boy after my own heart not a plot boy...he cares the most about building and examining, to minute detail, his characters. And he has about 50 of them - he wants to examine.
3. What I'll be reading next?
With any luck Magic Breaks by Illona Andrews - which is getting rather decent reviews from various journals. Library Journal liked it, although they do tend to like most things - librarians unlike former English Lit majors don't tend to be that critical of what they read. They tend to be more interested in organizing the books and making them accessible to others. English Lit majors feel an insane need to analyze and critique them to death.
That said, the Library Journal review is notable for this comment: "With the exception of a weirdly steamy sex scene in the middle - the book tends to focus more on action."
Hmmm, weirdly steamy? The author was rather happy about the review and in particular the one about the sex scene. Which they'd been told to tone down, but ignored and decided to write like an action scene anyhow. Now I can't wait to read the book if for no other reason than the weirdly steamy sex scene. No wonder the author is ov