...When you just can't get into a book? I mean, I'm trying, but I just can't take all the philosophical blather of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. What happened to books that just have an excellent plot like Lolita, Beloved, End of the Affair, or In Cold Blood? Or even just stupendous writing like Middlesex?
It's likely that Milan Kundera is just a genius whose writing style can't be comprehended by lightweights like me. But let me just say that I've tried on three different occasions to tackle the tale of the womanizing Tomas, a Czech surgeon forced to leave the country because of a Russian invasion, and the complex, tender, nightmare-plagued woman who loves him.
But I can't get into it. I don't want to constantly be interrupted by philosophical pontificating when I'm reading a novel. Is that too much to ask?
Problem is: I have a bad habit of trying to finish the books I start.
But I have an antidote. I bought another book today in hopes of curing myself of my nasty time-wasting habit. Let's hope The Known World doesn't disappoint.
15 comments:
This is crazy. I have two Kundera books given to me by a boy I dated c. 1997; most of our dates over coffee, drinks, walks, sitting around wherever, surrounded talks of books and literature (we were both editors and nerds, afterall). BUT, I have yet to finish either of those books. In another twist, he also bought me The Catcher in the Rye, which you had gifted me about a year prior...
I just looked on one of my bookshelves and discovered that both Kundera books are shelved with Middlesex and every other book I've yet to start and/or finish...and The Known World is right there with them. I picked it up earlier this year when Borders had a "Buy 2, Get 1" promo, sent an e-mail around to my voracious reader-friends to ask if anyone had read it, and no one had (it's a Pulitzer winner, for pete's sake; either that fact is daunting or boring or annoying to some people...).
I'm still reading Peace Like a River, but do you want to read The Known World together? Not "together" together, just at the same time? Only caveat is that you have to tell me when you stop. You know, if you just can't do it. No book report necessary, maybe just a talk over coffee.
ps: Something else you will appreciate is that stacked on that area of unread books are my Rick Bass collections, ready to be shipped to a high-school friend in LA.
pps: It was Franny and Zooey you gifted me, not Catcher; but I have trouble reading Salinger, if that makes you feel any better about Kundera.
Oh man! I want to read a book "together", too! You guys call me from the coffee shop and I'll teleconference in. :)
Ok, so Jen. I know you don't usually like the movies I like, but if you haven't seen High Fidelity, rent it immediately. Rob Gordon (hottie John Cusack) says in the movie that he's read the important books: "The Incredible Lightness of Being and Love in the Time of Cholera, and I think I've undersood them. They're about girls, right? Just kidding."
Then he go goes on to say that his all time favorite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography, Cash by Johnny Cash.
Anyway, High Fidelity is an excellent movie. And a pretty good book by Nick Hornby, who writes a book column in The Believer about his struggle with the monthy tide of books he's read vs. the books he buys. Sounds like us. :)
Back to your post: You read Middlesex? I picked that up at the bookstore, stared at it, decided it was too damn long and put it back. Should I read it? Is it worth it? Also, keep me posted on The Known World. I need a new book to buy and then possibly read one day. :)
PS. Franny and Zooey is one of my favorite books ever. But I read it in high school, so... Who knows what I'd think about it now.
And now this is even crazier after Gina's post! Alongside Middlesex on the shelf is High Fidelity, which I've had for years, but only cracked open while waiting for jury duty last spring and got through 5 pages before being called...
I almost can't wait to see what one of you mentions next and whether it's on my "lonely books" shelf (as if you have nothing better to do than read or respond to my comments here), but here is a selected list of ten books I've still waiting to be started or finished:
The Dangerous Husband
Durable Goods
Ball Four
My Year of Meats
Plainsong
Slowness (ah, the irony)
The End of the Affair
East of Eden
In Country
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Add Middlesex and High Fidelity and about 30 others to that list.
If you can tell me why I need to start/finish those ones I've listed, convince me girls! Anyone!Please!
Jen, I have High Fidelity on DVD if you'd like to borrow it; I'm cheaper than the video store and even Netflix and even the library!
Whoa! I can't keep up with you two.
First, AQ: yes, we should read The Known World together. I'm on about page 30. And I've got the reading bug again, so I'll probably stick with this one.
To you both: Middlesex was a wonderfully-written book at many points. (Patrick is actually reading it now.) It was also a page-turner at times. For those of us from Detroit, it was great to read about so many of the places we know. However, like much fiction, it was too damn long (why does everyone want to write a 500-page novel?) and the scenes often spun off unnecessarily. But there were beautiful, vivid turns of phrase, and the story is engrossing.
"The only light inside the diner came from the red glow of the jukebox. It stood to one side of the front door, a Disco-Matic made of chrome, plastic and colored glass. There was a small window through which you could watch the robotic changing of records. Through a circulatory system along the jukebox's edges trails of dark blue bubbles rose. Bubbles representing the effervescence of American life, of our postwar optimism, of our fizzy, imperial, carbonated drinks. Bubbles full of the hot air of American democracy, boiling up from the stacked platters inside."
I loved passages like that and tried to remember them when I wanted to throw the book across the room.
AQ: Rick Bass? Hahah. I was in love with him for awhile. Remember? (Yes, I will borrow High Fidelity.)
To anyone: Salinger is phenomenal and Franny and Zooey should be read every year.
Gina: I love your book shelf. It pretty much solidified our friendship. ;)
Oh man. I don't have any of those books, Amanda, so I can't even begin to convince you one way or the other. (I'm feeling book inadequate right now, I should run out and buy them so they can sit on my shelf unread too!)
And Rick Bass... Who's that? I feel ashamed I don't know! I also admit to liking the movie High Fidelity better than the book, which is not to say that Nick Hornby's book wasn't good, it was, but the movie - Ahh!!! Jack Black, John Cusack, the record store. Good stuff.
We three should count up the number of books on our shelves we've read vs. the number of books unread.
I gotta tell, ya, I'm pretty sure most of mine are sitting there, spine uncracked. But they look good! Which takes me back to Nick Hornby, who in the Polysyllabic Spree (excellent book) wrote:
"All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal. ...But with each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not. Maybe that's not worth the 30-odd quid I blew on those collections of letters, admittedly, but it's got to be worth something, right?"
Hell yeah it is, Nick. I'm off to buy more books!
Bookshelf? You can't fit a bookshelf in a basement!
I feel funny leaving all these notes on Jen's space and clogging it up like a port-o-john at Kentucky Derby, so my next proposal is book sharing. Kick me straight out if you're not about that, but I've never been one for book clubs/groups (which is why I've not finished several books; it felt "forced"). I am about sharing books I love (or hate) with people I respect and care for. Or with people I vicariously care for because they are close to someone I deeply care for, but also whom I hope to care for in a personal sense at some point as I get to know her (that would be you, Gina). I'm subtle, yet concise and direct at the same time :)
My point is that I have so many books and so little time or energy or desire to read "X" book at "X" moment--a consensus, it seems. Why don't we share what we have, with a virtual agreement that all shall be returned to its owner someday? I'm a frequenter of the library, too, so I have no problem borrowing books you may recommend, but is this a bad and un-thunk-out idea? Why, yes it is (not bad, just un-thunk-out). Mail works, and B and I pass through Cinci 3 or 4 times a year.
I don't mean to be a nerd again like I was in 1996 1/2-1997, but I'm loving this book talk with both of you. Maybe when you're 33 it goes from "nerd" to "school-marm"-ish.
I will gladly share anything I have (when I find all the books I've packed away in the folks' basement), but you opened a can o'worms with Gina, I think.
I'm sure she shared everything when she was a kid -- pop rocks, bubble yum, lemonheads, etc. Books? No.
But if you ever mention you like or covet one of her books, or if she thinks you're missing out because you haven't read something, you're likely to see it as a gift at the nearest holiday.
;)
Hahaha. Very true. Candy cigarettes, burnt peanuts, Boston Baked Beans, I'll all share all that! But books, I miss 'em too much when they're gone. It's like the holes they leave on my bookshelves are really holes through soul! ;)
This hang up of mine should not inhibit this brilliant idea, though. We agree on a book or recommend a book we've already read - we get it from the library, bookstore, etc - then commence to further clogging of Jen's site with our thoughts. :)
We could even create a new site, but something tells me a new space wouldn't feel a comfy as this one.
It could be a "virtual" book club. We could just talk about whatever it is we're reading, open a thread at some point and comment to heart's desire! (Though I feel bad about missing out on wine and hummus, like book clubs have.)
I can even start a thread on mine, too. I'm going to start reading Richard Russo's Straight Man soon (hopefully.) When I get a few chapters in, I'll make a post about it and we can start commenting on what we're reading. And even if no one comments, ah well, it'll still be fun to post about it.
How does that sound?
And if it sounds dumb, then forget it! :)
PS Talk about blogs being off the chain. I never get this many comments!
Great ideas! I like both the "virtual" book club idea and the concept of posting on what we're currently reading, assuming I continue reading. (Perhaps this'll force me. I'm on page 106 of the Known World, BTW.)
And since I, too, clearly like these book "conversations," I'll post more often on what I'm reading to give an opportunity to open the dialogue, if the mood strikes. If Gina does that too, which she tends to do anyway, we'll have plenty of book-talk to go around.
Your comment about loaning books and Gina's subsequent response made me laugh, because I used to have the same "hang-up."
I began to look at it this way: I'm sharing a book I love with a friend (or a friend of a friend, or a friend of a friend of a friend, etc.), and that's the reason I gave it to them. If they don't give a lick, they'll give it back and comment upon how they don't give a lick; if they love it, they will comment on that and how a friend would love it, and return it, or not. I love how books are passed along that way. Certain books will never leave my shelves, like any first edition or any collection I'm working on. Anal? No. And neither is anyone for NOT loaning books out. I keep loan lists of certain books, but there are others where I just don't care and will give away anytime.
My biggest "book heartbreak" came last summer when my parents had a garage sale and I discovered my texts from English Literature I in the pile; volume 2 was already gone, my stellar notes and all. I still haven't gotten over this and don't quite understand why my parents didn't take more care in checking what went out for sale.
I definitely understand the keeping of books, but you have to trust some people that they will care for them, love that they're well-loved and read, and return them to you with the care they were given.
Hahaha. Good point. Perhaps if I keep a ledger, or lend only those that it would be OK if I didn't get back, I could get over my book loaning tourettes.
But no one's getting my faux-grass covered Leaves of Grass! ;)
Oops! Sorry. That last comment was me. Didn't realize Paul was signed in. But you guys totally knew there's no way he has a copy of Leaves of Grass. (Burn!)
I don't think I even have a copy of Leaves of Grass or anything else by Walt; that's kind of sad!
Alright, because I'm wanting to share a childhood favorite, and I don't have my own child to read it to/share it, will the two of you please read The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin)? It's one that you can finish in a night or a week, depending on other goings-on in your life. You won't be able to put it down.
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