moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jul 22, 2020 11:34:21 GMT -5
UPDATE 20!: I have completed London Fields by Martin Amis for "Unlovable"
The book is described as a darkly comic murder mystery, but it's not a mystery so much as a story about characters - one of whom murders another. It's definitely dark and nihilistic while also being very funny - like, one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. I read 95% of this after midnight because it's just that kind of book - some passages require showering afterward. If Guy Ritchie ever wanted to film a TV miniseries, this might be up his alley.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge/Why I Picked This: I think this might be the most thoroughly fitting book choice I've ever made for a challenge. Two of the four main characters and many of the supporting characters aren't just unlovable, they're detestable. As people, they're the worst collection of fictional characters I've ever read about. One of my British friends suggested this book after reviewing my list of prompts for this challenge in the lobby of the Wit Hotel downtown, where we were having drinks before seeing Massive Attack. Serendipitously, I found a paperback at the aforementioned Open Books sale later that summer.
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? Martin Amis got a lot of buzz during the britpop era, so I was curious, but this wasn't on my list at all. I respect my British friend's opinion on books, though, as she's a very well-read PhD, and even more so now.
What's Next? I started How to Change Your Mind as incidental reading and so far, I'm lukewarm. I'll probably wrap it up sometime in August. I'm planning to devote the bulk of my reading time to The Year of the Runaways and I aim to finish this challenge by October 1, so I can start planning 2021's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming 10th anniversary challenge!
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moimoi
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Posts: 5,090
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Post by moimoi on Aug 11, 2020 15:23:02 GMT -5
UPDATE 21!: I have completed How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan for "Asleep"
Goddamn, I hated everything about this book: the structure, the copious padding, the exhaustive focus on old/rich white people and their boring, repetitive trips...basically, the rendering of a fascinating topic into the dullest bit of pop sociology ever championed by the NYT. This shit was sub-Friedman, sub-Gladwell, sub-TED talk. There are maybe half a dozen interesting ideas in these 400+ pages.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge/Why I Picked This: I was dying to read this because I'm really interested in psychedelics (despite never having taken any because of my government job). I thought Pollan would be a nice, accessible intro to the neuroscience, but there is literally only one chapter on neuroscience. I suppose it fit the theme in the sense that it nearly put me to sleep. It's one of the few books I ended up skimming through and skipping pages.
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? As stated above, this was at the top of my reading list and I was pleased that the Seminary Co-Op had a signed copy. Now I cannot wait to give this piece of shit away.
What's Next? I'm racing through The Year of the Runaways because it's really good and I'm still on track to finish by October 1, if not sooner. It feels good to have my reading list and book purchasing under control like this. The only challenge is finding a sufficiently long and evocatively-titled album to inspire a challenge in 2023...
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moimoi
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Posts: 5,090
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Post by moimoi on Aug 12, 2020 14:49:10 GMT -5
UPDATE 22!: I have belatedly completed The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota for "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"
Whew, this was an agonizingly good read - up until the last couple chapters, which were a bit of a letdown. There are A LOT of books by South Asian writers about the miseries of being an immigrant, as well as the miseries of staying in South Asia, and these tend to appeal to white lit critic guilt. I liked this one because it didn't read as misery porn so much as an interconnected series of picaresque storylines about four well-drawn characters. Sahota's storytelling is vivid, compelling, and very specific to the point of potentially turning off non-Indian readers. I only wish he'd taken another 100 pages or so to tie up some loose ends so the epilogue didn't feel so tacked on.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge/Why I Picked This: A very well-read DC lawyer friend (Bengali, I should mention) sent me this as a thank you for having her stay at my house last summer. Indo-lit has a very high bar to clear among South Asians, so I had a feeling this would be good if she (and the Man Booker Prize Committee) picked it out.
How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? It's rare that I'm in a mood to pick up a sad story, so in all honesty, I probably would have let this sit around the house as a reproach for my inattentiveness to friendships.
What's Next? Only two short books left that would have been perfect for commuting, but with downtown Chicago still very much off limits, I've placed them by the bedside. Even so, I expect to finish early - possibly by the end of this month!
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Crash Test Dumbass
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ffc what now
Posts: 7,058
Gender (additional): mostly snacks
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Aug 12, 2020 15:26:42 GMT -5
PS you have a lot of 18s
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moimoi
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Posts: 5,090
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Post by moimoi on Aug 12, 2020 20:43:05 GMT -5
I...don't understand...is this a DNA thing? |
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Crash Test Dumbass
AV Clubber
ffc what now
Posts: 7,058
Gender (additional): mostly snacks
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Aug 13, 2020 8:01:33 GMT -5
I...don't understand...is this a DNA thing? You have two Update 18s on this page, but I suppose it could also be two things? |
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
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Post by moimoi on Aug 13, 2020 10:13:14 GMT -5
I...don't understand...is this a DNA thing? You have two Update 18s on this page, but I suppose it could also be two things? D'oh! I shall correct...  |
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
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Post by moimoi on Aug 19, 2020 11:47:14 GMT -5
UPDATE 23!: I have belatedly completed An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten for "Ask" This was ok. Just a petite collection of darkly comic short stories about an elderly woman who kills people. I can't say it gave me much insight on anything except how small European living spaces are compared to the U.S.
How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge/Why I Picked This: Admittedly, I thought this was going to be like Murder, She Wrote, with a charming older lady solving mysteries or getting involved in intrigue. It's more like a subversion of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley stories, with the elderly protagonist motivated by little more than a desire to shape the world to her desires and conveniences. It's hard to root for someone who is clearly a sociopath. How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? I have to say, looking at my Amazon store impulse book purchases, I find that only 5 out of 16 were keepers (note: 3 were gifts or books I haven't read yet; no books have been purchased from the Amazon store in 2020). One thing this challenge in particular has taught me is that used books - particularly out-of-print books - tend to be the real gems of one's collection, much like old vinyl tends to have the best music. A used book is one somebody else found value in - they may have even kept it for some time after reading it. The books on display at Amazon or another chain store are just products the publishing industry is currently flogging - whether or not they're any good. What's Next? My final book for this Smiths-inspired challenge is the wholly appropriate Quentin Crisp memoir, The Naked Civil Servant. I'll spend the rest of the year stacking up volumes for next year's challenge and reading as much as I can to keep my TBR inventory low. |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Sept 17, 2020 14:07:33 GMT -5
UPDATE 24! I have completed my Louder Than Bombs Reading Challenge with The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp for "Rubber Ring" Why, you may ask, have I been seeking for years to the read the autobiography of eccentric raconteur and homosexual icon Quentin Crisp? I dunno...I guess I like the cut of his jib. Crisp writes like Oscar Wilde, only without the aesthetic detachment from sex and sexuality. In fact, Crisp can be downright vulgar, retrograde in his thinking, and yet still endearing and heroic. I imagine this book/the movie based on it was a rite of passage for a certain generation of gay men, but I'd recommend it for anyone who ever feels like an outsider. How Well Did It Fit the Theme of the Challenge/Why I Picked This: I really had no idea what to read for "Rubber Ring" which, as I understand, is English parlance for what Americans would call an innertube. I'm not sure if Morrissey (grr...) meant it in that sense or in the urban dictionary sense, but it's entirely probable he meant the latter. In which case, my selection of an open and resolutely homosexual memoir seems pretty fitting - especially from someone who probably inspired Morrissey a great deal. How likely would you have been to read the book without the challenge? As I mentioned, it's been on my list for years since my lifelong Smiths fandom led me to discover Crisp in the first place. He also features in the film version of my all-time favorite novel, Orlando. What's Next? I have a stack of 20 unassigned readings to tackle for the rest of the year before starting my oh-so-exciting 10th Anniversary Hurry Up, We're Dreaming Reading Challenge in January 2021 (assuming we ever get there...) Final Stats:# of pages completed: 10,461 # books crossed off my reading list: 7 It looks like I’m able to cover about 10% of my list per year, but unfortunately the list also increases by 10%. The ultimate goal is to get my list down to 50 books, since I read 40-50 books per year. # of owned books (prior to the challenge) finally read: 14 – this is a big improvement from last year # of books purchased for the challenge: 10 – this was a longer challenge than last year # of books from this challenge I am keeping: 8 % of books that were purchased new from Amazon (online or in store): 30% A significant decrease! The rest were used, gifted, and/or bought from an indie shop. Top 5: Fantomas, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism, The Jungle Books, The Master & Margarita, London Fields
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moimoi
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Posts: 5,090
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Post by moimoi on Sept 23, 2020 20:50:47 GMT -5
Since we don't have Random Literary Thoughts, I'll have to put this here:
I had no idea it was owned by Amazon, but I suspected it, and I'm really not a fan of the layout either. I uploaded my Goodreads data to Storygraph and it's kind of neato. After taking a quiz, it analyzed my goodreads data and told me "you mainly read nonfiction books that are reflective, informative, and challenging.You tend to choose slow-paced books that are <300 pages long." It also categorizes books by certain keywords to help get a sense of the reading experience (i.e. challenging, fast/slow-paced, etc.)
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Post by Desert Dweller on Sept 25, 2020 0:09:16 GMT -5
I had no idea it was owned by Amazon, but I suspected it, and I'm really not a fan of the layout either. I uploaded my Goodreads data to Storygraph and it's kind of neato. After taking a quiz, it analyzed my goodreads data and told me "you mainly read nonfiction books that are reflective, informative, and challenging.You tend to choose slow-paced books that are <300 pages long." It also categorizes books by certain keywords to help get a sense of the reading experience (i.e. challenging, fast/slow-paced, etc.)
Goodreads is great except that a lot of it is actually terrible.
The interface/layout is complete garbage and has been for many, many years. Since Amazon bought it literally nothing has changed. Which is amazing. There are also issues with the way it tries to please writers by eliminating some negative reviews. The people who run it seem to think their client is writers, but no reader uses Goodreads for that.
The problem is that the stuff it does well isn't really replicated anywhere else. Which sucks.
It has actually provided some interesting recommendations to me in the past. It's recommendation tool is waaaaay better than Amazon's. Probably because it can see more of a reader's history than Amazon can. (Trying to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt there, but I'm not sure they deserve it.) I also can follow other people who read interesting stuff and this provides me with way more recommendations than any algorithm ever could.
However, one thing she talks about in this video is exactly what Goodreads should NOT do, which is let people review by what the Artist thinks they should be reviewing. If people want to review your book at 1 star because it didn't give them what they wanted then FINE. The site should be about readers, not writers.
Edited to add: After watching more of the video, she is a bit deluded. It was BIG news when Amazon bought it. I was a user before that. Like, everyone on Goodreads knew that had happened. It isn't a secret.
Also, you don't have to meet any tough criteria to become a Goodreads Librarian. I just signed up an said I wanted to do it. I was granted access immediately. Now, I don't know if that has changed post-Amazon, but it was freaking easy when I signed up.
Final edit: It'd be nice if Storygraph actually works. It definitely has some promising features. I'll keep an eye on it.
Oh, and if she was wanting a nice, uplifting book after reading too many books on climate, I sincerely hope she didn't pick up Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior, which is a depressing book about climate change.
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