Something Blog

Meine Reading

         Work and boredom, work and boredom. I could list a hundred excuses for why I haven't updated my blog in over two months but I'd rather leave it up to you, the reader, to post those excuses for me. The commentator with the best excuse will win something. I promise.





         In the meantime, though I have not been writing much lately, I have been reading like a madman. I am so far over-achieving in my New Year resolution to read one book per month with particular thanks to my newly purchased Kindle e-reader. Today I'll be quickly recounting my reactions to...

Meine Reading!

January





         The first book that I finished this year was The Two Towers. My re-reading of this fantasy classic followed The Fellowship of the Ring which I finished in December. Tolkien's stories have always filled me with comfort, something I was really needing at the time as I was really missing my friends and family back home in America. Being a foreigner in China in the midst of a two-year work contract, I have become prone to loneliness and longing for company and The Lords of the Rings helped me to fill a hole for the moment.





         Following quickly on the heels of Towers came The Return of the King. It had been so long since I read this trilogy and I have seen the movie version of this story so many times since that I found I had forgotten vast swaths of Tolkien's original work. For example, I had completely forgotten what happens when Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippen return to The Shire toward the end of the third novel. After completing The Lord of the Rings I immediately wish I had started back in December with The Hobbit, my copy of which I had left behind on my last trip to America, or even The Silmarillion which I did remember to bring along. Ah well, I still have 8 full months remaining in the year.





February





         I had just endured a string of fantasy reading and so I decided to move back into the real world. During my Thanksgiving visit to America, my dad had lent to me his copy of How America Fought Its Wars: Military Strategy From The American Revolution To The Civil War by Victor Brooks and Robert Hohwold. Brushing up on some American history had been high on my to do list for quite some time, so I eagerly hit the pages of this one. One part dry conveyance of statistics of Union and Confederacy reserves, supplies and casualties and one part romanticized retelling of the many battles of early American history, I was left with a colorful and accurate picture of the events of the time. After finishing it I was still yearning for more history literature so I went to look at my bookshelf. One yellow hardback stood out, titled The Myth of Gentlemen Heroes in the Nineteenth Century: the Duke of Wellington and General Robert E. Lee by Dr. Timothy Grammer. I almost took it down, but a black and grey hardback book caught my hand instead.





March





         Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. What a kick-ass idea. The author Seth Grahame-Smith mixes history with the popular vampire genre that is still sweeping the globe to this day. I had started reading this during my final weeks in the States in the summer of 2010, but put it down in favor of On the Road since it was less bulky. Having seen the trailer for the upcoming movie version of this book, I decided to finish it before I see the film when it comes out later this year. It's a little cheesy, a little cliche, but having just finished reading about the American Civil War in the last book I was anxious to get to the end of Vampire Hunter to compare the two. Both of the books used many of the same sources and a few of the same quotes in differing contexts. Overall I was satisfied with Grahame-Smith's efforts and I look forward to reading his other monster mash up: Pride, Prejudice & Zombies.





         Meanwhile, the lovely jadelette had been telling me about a book she was reading on her Kindle. I had silently been arguing with myself about buying a Kindle or not for months, but the breaking point had arrived. With the help of a Chinese co-worker I placed my order on Taobao (the Chinese version of eBay) and waited patiently.





April





         Thanks to the paradoxically quick and efficient shipping in China, I received my brand new Kindle e-reader the next afternoon and immediately began to download books. The first one I would read (starting in March) would be Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. Banned in my current country of residence, this is a narrative of the lives of three generations of women in China from the early 1900's through the end of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Chairman Mao. Having already spent a year and a half living and working in China so far, I was given a new perspective on the people I see in my day-to-day, especially older Chinese people. I began looking at them wondering what their lives had been like in the 1960's and 1970's. Were they former landlords? Class enemies? Red Guard members? Were they victims of denunciation campaigns? Were they shipped out to the countryside to live like the peasants? The journey was long and difficult but I made it through. Though I felt it a very valuable read, I was now desperate for something fantastic.





         Enter the fiction! My father is a big Philip K. Dick fan; he's got just about every one of his stories on his bookshelf at home. It had been a long time since I had tried to read any of Dick's books however. When I was about 10 years old I caught a showing of Total Recall on HBO or Showtime with my father. I thought it was totally freakin' cool and my so my dad took my into his library and noted the Philip K. Dick collection. "That movie we just watched is based on one of his books, you should check him out some time." The paperback covers were smooth and cool to the touch and they had crazy psychedelic pictures on them. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the first one to peak my interest, so I picked it up and tried to read it. I didn't really get what was happening in the first couple of chapters so I put it back down. Almost twenty years later I was downloading it to my Kindle for a second try. In a period of three nights and one morning I devoured this sci-fi thriller. The ending, however, left me feeling depressed for Rick Deckard. His experience left his mental state altered and I felt bad for him. I wish I could have grabbed onto an empathy machine to help him feel a little better.





         Another book that I always saw on my dad's bookshelf was Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. I remember watching the movie in the theater (probably with my dad again as I was under age) when it first came out. Months later my dad had mentioned he had the book at home but that I probably shouldn't read it - his veiled suggestion that I should read it I would later learn as he would similarly shrug off some of his favorite books. Anyway, at my young age I did what he told me and decided not to read it. Now at the tender age of 28 I was reading it on my e-reader. In similar fashion to the Dick novel, I tore through Fight Club in a matter of days. I wonder if I could ever raise an army of space monkeys...





         April's not over yet and I've already picked out my next read: A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. I really enjoyed his writing style in Electric Sheep and so far I've yet to be disappointed in this one. Perhaps I can continue to keep up to date in reviewing and reacting to books as I read them. If you have any suggestions for me feel free to leave me a comment or a message. I'm open to any genre but I reserve the right to ridicule your recommendation!