Sorry
for the delay in posts yet again. Sadly this is going to be the nature of my
writing life for the foreseeable future. Writing falls behind marriage, work,
travel, sleep and occasionally yoga on my list of priorities. I would love to
be able to carve out fifteen minutes to a half hour a day, five days a week,
where I could just focus on writing. That said, I would also like two hours a
week to work on jigsaw puzzles and that isn’t going to happen either.
Ok,
time to finish off this damn Amazon booklist. Less snarky comments this time
for reasons that will become readily apparent.
The
Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright: I’ve heard
good things about this book but haven’t come around to actually reading it yet.
The
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein: I know, I know. No one will ever belief
that I never read any of the Lord of the Rings. Or sat through any of the
movies. Look, if I didn’t like it when Led Zeppelin sang about hobbits I doubt
that I would like it in literary form. I’ve tried but can never get past the
first fifty pages. By the way, I found out today that Tolkein died the day
before I was born so if you believe in relatively instant reincarnation that is
a possibility.
The
Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Oliver Sacks: I’ve always wanted to read
this book since at least high school and have no idea why I have never read it.
I blame Robin Williams ruining Oliver Sacks for me in Awakenings.
The
Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan: I’ve read Pollan’s food writing just not
this book. He does have the best diet advice ever: “Eat food, not too much,
mostly plants.”
The
Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster: The number of childhood classics on this
list that I have completely missed is pretty astounding. The Berwyn Public
Library served me poorly. Well, other than the fact that they started to let me
take out books from the adult section when I was nine. Science fiction was
right at the top of the stairs with the collected works of L. Ron Hubbard front
and center. I will remember that forever apparently.
The
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover: Seen it in bookstores. Also remember
seeing bookstores.
The
Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro: Ok, Amazon,
what the hell? Are you seriously telling me that for my life to be complete
that I must read this book? I’ll take a pass.
The
Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe: Finally one where I can say that I have at least seen
the movie. I have spent so much time studying the history of the space race I
guess I could never bring myself to read a fictionalized version of it.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy: What an amazing, haunting book.
I brought it with me to read on a vacation one year. This is not recommended.
Not only did I spend hours in my hotel room because I just had to finish the
book but I was also forced to wander around in a daze thinking really, really
dark thoughts.
The
Secret History by Donna Tartt: Figured that since it was a secret that it would
be impolite for me to read it.
The
Shining by Stephen King: I’ve read surprisingly little Stephen King (The Stand
and It being the exceptions based primarily on my having watched the ABC
miniseries back in the day). I don’t know if I was scared by the size of the
book or the nature of the material. I’ve never liked horror as a genre in books
or movies. It was just never my style.
The Stranger by Albert Camus: “Mother died today. Or maybe
yesterday; I can’t be sure.” One of the most amazing opening sentences ever.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest
Hemingway: One
of the better Hemmingway novels and great in that rough and tumble masculine
way that probably has a lot to do with the fact that Hemmingway wore dresses
until he was two.
The
Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien: I have this collection of stories and have
read the title story multiple times but I am embarrassed to say that I have not
finished the book. However, the title story is without a doubt the best story
about Vietnam from the soldier’s perspective that I have ever read or could
even think about reading.
The
Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: I’ve read Ulysses. I haven’t read The
Very Hungry Caterpillar. According to Amazon this is a strike against me.
The
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame: Look, if Disney World can get rid of
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride I feel that we can state as a society that we no longer
have to read the book that the ride was based on.
The
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami: I actually have this book, strangely
enough, and got through about thirty pages before just becoming completely
befuddled by it. Points for inspiring Mike Doughty’s best song outside of his
Soul Coughing days, though.
The
World According to Garp by John Irving: Same as the previous note but replace
Mike Doughty song with Robin Williams movie.
The
Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion: Yeah, the lack of bold in this list of
twenty five books is disturbing.
Things
Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: Of course things fall apart. The entropy of the
universe is always increasing.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper
Lee: Great book
even if it has a lot less to do about hunting as the title implies.
Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand: I agree that this is, most likely, a book.
Valley
of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann: Personally I recommend Beyond the Valley of
the Dolls: the absolutely bizarre movie written by Roger Ebert and that will
cause you to freak out as only a really bad late 60’s / early 70’s movie could.
I’ve seen it once and was like, “What the hell was that about.” Sigh. I miss
Roger.
Where
the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein: I’ve never liked Shel Silverstein. I’ve
had so many people talk to me about how wonderful the story of The Giving Tree
is and all I can say in return is “the kid was a total asshole to that tree.”
Where
the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak: Yeah, my childhood reading list was
apparently lacking.
So,
all told I have read 27 of the 100 books that Amazon states that I should read
in my lifetime. Any claims that I make from here on forth about being well read
can be dismissed in their entirety.
The
five random CDs for the week:
1)
The
Subdudes “Primitive Streak”
2)
Kathleen
Edwards “Back to Me”
3)
Midnight
Oil “Blue Sky Mining”
4)
Kelly
Willis “Reason to Believe”
5)
Josh
Ritter “Live at the 9:30 Club”
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