This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

1Q84 Book 3 was really disappointing. Very anticlimactic with a lot of loose ends that just got ignored for the sake of a fairly contrived ending.

Started Fight Club the other day, and can't put it down. Love the writing style.

Alfred Hitchcock and the three investigators : the fiery eye . Really enjoyed it .

Finished the fault in our stars . Don't see what's so great about it .

Next up is animal farm .

I started The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick last night. It's started off promising giving pretty in-depth and seemingly knowledgeable background information of events before the famous battle.

It's one of a number of topics I would like to know more about so I'm excited to be learning about it. I've already learned that Little Bighorn is, in fact, a river.

In the last few months I haven't read for enjoyment at all.

I've been making my way through various computing books and technical manuals, for work and upcoming exams, and just didn't feel like reading in the evenings.

Back on track now though and I've just finished two books by Kōbō Abe in the last week or so:

The Woman in the Dunes from 1962 (trans. E. Dale Saunders). Very Kafkaesque and very good. A surreal allegorical existentialist page turner.

The Ark Sakura from 1984 (trans. Juliet Winters Carpenter). I found this a bit disappointing, especially after The Woman.... The pacing is all over the shop, with long lulls followed by rapid, unbelievable bursts of character development. There's also some misogyny and boorish treatment of a female character which I assume is supposed to be some kind of social commentary, but to me it just comes across as sexist and crass.

Just started Bobby Fischer Goes to War by David Edmonds and John Eidinow. It's an account of the 1972 chess world championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Good so far.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Started off promising but quickly became disappointing.

Tom Joad wrote: »

Just finished Skippy Dies by Paul Murray and really didn't like it. I found it contrived and just not believable and really struggled to finish it.

Hated that book, can't see why it got so much hype

Aenaes wrote: »

I started The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick last night. It's started off promising giving pretty in-depth and seemingly knowledgeable background information of events before the famous battle.

It's one of a number of topics I would like to know more about so I'm excited to be learning about it. I've already learned that Little Bighorn is, in fact, a river.

I finished this last night, a fantastic book. It's descriptive and informative but still manages to flow nicely as a story with insightful anecdotic passages of events prior to 1876 thrown in. A seemingly very well-researched project with the author even travelling to Co. Carlow and visiting the birthplace of Myles Keogh, one of the captains of the Seventh Cavalry. Did you know that 17% of the Seventh Cavalry in 1876 was Irish?

Some detective work was needed in trying to make sense of the battle by piecing together differing accounts from varying sources and while it's not completely definitive, the author provides the most logical assumptions while leaving the reader to have their own opinions towards the motives and actions of the people involved.

A great author and historian. After reading, it makes me want to visit the battle/memorial site.

On to something slightly different now, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

It's VERY descriptive, it reads like a fastidious person's diary. His hygiene products, everyone's clothes, they're all detailed. I supposed it's to highlight the consumerism/shallowness of the Bateman circle. Another thing to jump out at me is how self-absorbed they are.