Posts Tagged ‘book’

So far in my fruitless quest to read as close to 100 books as possible in 2010, I’ve been pretty pleased with the variety in my choices.  Fiction, fantasy, nonfiction, science fiction…and now, a memoir.  Truthfully, the only reason this book stuck out to me was because of the title: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. C’mon, you have to admit it’s catchy.

I’ve always liked the television-ized version of the curmudgeon (i.e. House, Frank Barone, Perry Cox…the list goes on) and sometimes I fantasize about being a wise-cracking smart-ass in real life. Unfortunately, much like the title, I would quickly lose friends and alienate people. At least…a lot more than I naturally do now.

Anyway, the book follows the times of Toby Young, a journalist from England who decided to try to strike it big with riches, fame and fortune - not to mention hot women - in the bustling city of New York. It’s the cultural mecca of fashion, finance, food and other finds (see what I did there?)…the modern Rome, if you will. Who says he can’t conquer it and be a part of the ruling class?

As you may have already guessed from the title and the snippet that I discussed earlier about curmudgeons, Toby ends up screwing up. A LOT. Spectacularly, I might add. I thought that his writing style was pretty easy to follow, although he does tend to go on tangents quite a few times. Although he admits multiple times in his memoir that his is a celebrity-gawking whore, I can’t help but…well, just dislike him quite a bit through a few parts of the book. I find it sort of ironic how he complains that he is going nowhere when everything he did was just plain stupid. In fact, even the “funny” stories in the book weren’t even that funny. Some of them were just a bit cringeworthy.

In the end, I found it interesting that he was able to neatly tie it up in a rather…well, conclusive ending. It’s almost as though this memoir was made to be a movie: unlikely protagonist, hijinks, fall from grace, and salvation. Did he deserve the ending that he got? Eh.

The biggest thing that bothers me is that he just comes across a bit like a self-entitled brat…and yet he was able to get a book deal which was then turned into a movie. It’s like being okay with that stupid book by Tucker Max. Moral of the story with these books? Be a complete idiotic, self-indulgent jerk and write a book and make $$$. Almost makes me re-think my strategy when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Almost.

Would I recommend it?  Mmmm….not really.  You wouldn’t really be missing out on much if you decided to pass this over. Of course, if someone out there loves this book, I’d sure like to know why.

Update: Okay. So I got ahead of myself and I thought I was on book 10 already…bah. Well, I technically AM on book 10, but as I hammered out this entry last night, I failed to realize that Barganing for Advantage was not it. Oh well. Carry on, folks.

Finally! Book 10! I actually had already started book 11 quite awhile ago, and I’m almost through with that one. Book 10 did take me a lot longer to finish, unfortunately, which set me back quite a bit from my pie in the sky goal. Of course, the more I thought about it the more impossible it seemed to finish close to 100 books in 2010. No matter, at least I’m able to make myself really think about the books I read instead of shuffling them to the side only to be forgotten.

Anyway, I picked up Bargaining for Advantage mostly because it was in the possession of my friend, who is currently an attorney. She had a class in law school that discussed negotiation styles, and I thought it was rather interesting. Negotiation, after all, is a pretty useful skill to have in life. When you think about it, you pretty much negotiate almost everything. You negotiate with your friends on where to eat, with your partner on who does which chores, on your car payments and also your job offer.

I thought this book was well written and organized…but did it really hold my attention? Well, yes and no. I was curious at the very beginning to find out what sort of bargaining style fit me the best. And, yes, it was also interesting to learn about the different scenarios in which certain bargaining skills may be the strongest. Oh…and the chapters about leverage were interesting, mostly because I have never stopped to think about leverage before. But interesting? Eh. It was okay. Do I feel like a better bargainer? Not really…but then again, I haven’t really had an opportunity to put in place some of the author’s tips on becoming a better bargainer.

One thing that it did teach me, however, was to do my research. After all, it seems pretty common sense that the person with the most arsenal of knowledge and information would have the better advantage. Unfortunately, I don’t really have much else to say about this book. Neither incredibly good nor incredibly bad, I would place it in my book purgatory. No negotiations. Ha, sorry. Couldn’t help it.

Do you think people know when they witness something that will change history forever? I would like to think that we all do. In those moments, it is as though an invisible thread is suddenly pulled through each of our heartstrings, connecting us in the most profound way that is indescribable. We may be from different backgrounds and grow up with differing perspectives on life, but I think that different generations are able to point to an event that radically shifted the way things were.

A librarian at my old junior high school once told me how she remembered with absolute clarity the moment JFK died. They were doing something at a pep rally, she said, and they did a mock-up of the other school’s “mascot” being carried to the grave (the things people did back then, sheesh) and suddenly it was announced over the PA system.

Without a doubt, I think that people in my generation (and of course those older, and maybe slightly younger) will always remember 9/11. I can still remember the classroom where I was sitting. It was senior year, and I was in the computer lab with my English class. I remember staring at the computer screen, inwardly groaning at the paper I had to write dissecting the subtle nuances of Shakespeare’s MacBeth. Another teacher knocked on the door. My English teacher stood up to greet her, and they conversed quickly in whispers. Then my teacher turned back to the class, grabbed the remote and said simply, “I was told we should turn on the news…a plane went into the World Trade Center.”

A few murmurs of astonishment rippled through the room. What a tragedy - how could that happen? A plane into the tower? It must have been a horrible accident.

And then, to our horror, we saw the second plane crash.

I don’t know if someone actually yelled, or maybe that was just what I felt inside. Suddenly, in those few minutes, the world went topsy-turvy.

I wasn’t sure what to expect in my latest book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I remember reading the back and musing to myself, “huh, a fictional book about 9/11.” It’s hard to believe it, but somehow after nine years the numbing horror of the event had somehow buried itself deep inside me. After all those tearful montages were shown and realizing that (thank God) none of my close family and friends were hurt, it was all too easy to push the memory of that event away.

Sure, there were moments when it would pop up in television shows, or a reference in one way or another. But all in all, it seemed to disappear in my personal life.

With this book, it all came back to me and so much more. First of all, though 9/11 is a major aspect of the book, the whole book isn’t centered around the event. It is centered around a precocious boy and his quest for answers in a world that seemed to offer none. This book is art. From the way the words were strung together, spaced out, and even the pictures intermittently laid throughout, it was a mosaic of emotions.

It made me realize how writers could be artists. It was a beautiful story, it made me think of relationships, humans, love and hope. Now, I’m not really an emotional reader. I don’t really cry at movies, and I don’t tear up over books. However, for some reason, this book made me choke up a few times. I had to put it down, close my eyes, sigh, and then continue. It made me realize how human 9/11 really was through the voices of his fictional characters

Do I recommend it? Yes, wholeheartedly. I enjoyed the book thoroughly. I rooted for Oskar in his quest for answers. My heart ached at the losses that the characters felt, and it was a very uniquely constructed tale. I wanted to tell people in my life that I love them. I hope that people who read this feel the depth of the journey with Oskar and his family as much as I did.

I’ll be honest: I’m a wuss. Really. As I tell most of my friends and people who have just met me, I tend to have a fairly solid memory and after watching a particularly horrific show or movie, I end up re-creating the scene in gruesome detail in my own room. In short, I end up scaring myself all over again even after said program.

The Ring? Yeah, couldn’t stand being near a TV, especially a TV in my ROOM for the longest time. Could hardly stomach The Blair Witch Project (not just because of the crazy camerawork) and yes, when I read ghost stories sometimes my overactive imagination gets pumped on fictional steroids and then I can’t sleep.

The point of my rambling? I avoided Stephen King like plague for the longest time. After all, given my penchant for scaring the bejesus out of myself, it only makes sense that I would stay away from a guy who has carved a hefty niche in the horror fiction world.

Of course, despite my own misgivings, I do have to say that my curiosity bested my own sense of self-preservation (at least when it comes to sleep). I figured I’d give his fantasy series a try. So I went to the library and picked up The Gunslinger.

Now, I think Stephen King is a great writer. A prolific author, and a pretty masterful storyteller…my first book by him was actually ABOUT writing and I greatly enjoyed it. But with The Gunslinger? Mmmm…not so much. I had a brief chat with a colleague of mine about this, actually - it’s not that his work is too densely populated with obscure vocabulary words. It’s not even that he writes in a boring, pedantic way (quite the opposite). But for some reason, I really just didn’t like the first book in his dark tower series.

I thought it would have promise. After all, in his foreward he mentioned how he was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkein’s intricate world of Middle Earth. I like Lord of the Rings. Heck, I read all of them and thought they were, you know, nifty. And I’m pretty cool with cowboys too, not just because I’m from Texas. I enjoy the mashup genres like Firefly, with a little bit of sci-fi and a little bit of good ‘ol fashioned Western flair.

With The Gunslinger…it felt like there were too many things unexplained and things that were meant to be symbolic…but just ended up boring me. There was talk about KA, and katet, and High Speech and … I don’t even know. It reminded me of this chart from xkcd:

There were brutal, violent scenes and background that just didn’t connect for me. In fact, while I was reading this book I started to drift off quite a few times and ended up skimming most of it. Would I recommend this book? Erm, no. I really wouldn’t. In fact, it almost dissuades me from reading another Stephen King book…almost. We’ll see how the next one goes.

The current book I’m working on now has taken on a completely different direction than any of the other books I’ve read. It’s even (dare I say it?) NONFICTION. Dun dun DUN….

Book five!  Finished!  Finally!  Well, okay.  I didn’t mean to write it that way, as if it were a chore to finish the last book: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  But I certainly did slow down the momentum a bit.  In any case, I had no idea what to expect from this book when I first picked it up.  I read the back, which simply said that Oscar was an obese super-nerd who has a rough love life.

But that’s just scratching the surface.

I wasn’t too keen on the beginning at first, mostly because I didn’t understand what the author’s point was.  As I continued on, I came to appreciate the different character voices and the way he unravels the story through the eyes of Lola, Oscar, and Yunior.  The three of them tell the tale of the unspoken hidden curse of the family, and it ties together historical events that occurred in the Dominican Republic.  Quite honestly, before this book I really never gave the Dominican Republic another thought.  Afterward, it really opened my eyes to some things, not all.  The horror of the regime, the way people lived, the harsh brutality and violence.

This book does a great job of taking you through the emotional wringer.  I felt, so many times throughout, absolutely sad and horrified at what occurred.  Likewise, I cheered for the small victories and mourned the losses, and grimaced at some depictions and scenes.  In the end, I felt hopeful. Why? I can’t explain without giving it away.

One complaint is that he goes into great detail in his footnotes, sometimes to where I don’t even have the patience to sift through it.  His footnotes are quite anecdotal as well.  Truth be told, I ended up skipping big chunks of them to move on with the story.  Another small issue of mine is that … well, despite taking AP Spanish, I could not understand most of the Spanish interlaced throughout the book.

So is this book recommended?  Um, yes and no.  It’s recommended if you’re curious, have an open mind, and all around just like to read interesting prose.  Probably not if you’re a die-hard “I only read Tom Clancy or Dan Brown” type.  Yup.

Next on the list?  The first book in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.  This is horrendous to admit but…I’ve never read anything by Stephen King.  Other than his book On Writing, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Except for the part where he hates on adverbs…but that’s another rant entirely.

Ah, Tuesday. It’s still a little hard to get oriented to this new week, especially after a three-day weekend.  After sorting through my “blah” moments during Valentine’s Day and taking it fairly easy on President’s Day, it was actually quite nice to get back to work.  In addition to getting back to the ‘ol 9 to 5 (and many times beyond 9 to 5) job, I decided to finally jump back on my task of reading as many books as possible.

I’m still in the midst of reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but I did get sidetracked by a new library book - A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book.  In fact, one of the reasons I was so keen on reading it was because of the title.  I know the old adage goes: “Don’t judge a book by its cover” but I fail to see any reason why I shouldn’t be able to judge it by its name.

The basic premise is that a neighbor’s dog is killed with a garden fork.  Christopher, the narrator and main character, has decided to get to the bottom of this.

At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised.  Although there were parts that I skimmed over a little bit (the main character is autistic, and a mathematical savant) overall, I love how the story unfolds through his eyes.  The protagonist’s voice is no nonsense, factual, yet human and full of unspoken simple longing.  Although he can’t explain the reasons why the people around him act the way they do, it’s enough for the reader to understand the depth and breadth of the people that love him.  It’s not a sappy happy ending, but it’s still one that makes you feel good.

I think another reason why this book really spoke to me was because I read Born On A Blue Day last year, a rather autobiographical book by a real mathematical savant, Daniel Tammet.  Because my brother is mildly autistic (albeit not a savant) I can in some ways empathize with how the main characters feel.  It’s feels as though I have a little window into understanding what makes my brother tick, especially when it was difficult to fathom when I was growing up with him.

Definitely an easy read and highly recommended to someone who enjoys fiction or has a personal connection with autism.

I started my fourth book, The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao.  Unfortunately, I set it aside these past few days to enter in a cake competition at work for Valentine’s Day, celebrate Chinese New Year and a friend’s birthday.  Although a part of me does feel a tinge of guilt, I decided to make a trip to the library this weekend to pick up another book — just in case.

As I was skimming through the first chapters of A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I realized that a lot of the characters in my book are rather tragic.  In their own flawed way, they seem to have a difficult time.  Oscar, in my first book, is obese and an uber-nerd with failed attempts at love.  His mom lived a life where she aspired for more but ended up (as far as I’ve read) in a sordid affair with a shady gangster and then dying of cancer.  Christopher in the current book obliviously lives his life trying to reason out humanity…but has a difficult time because of his autism.

Although I can appreciate that good characters have color and flaws, it made me realize why fantasy and fairy tales often appeal to me.  In a world where you run into complexities like how you can’t explain why you’re unhappy with someone, or why someone rubs you the wrong way, or why you simply just want to be alone - I find a bit of solace in escaping into a world that is black and white.  There’s not analyzing or deeper meaning and understanding in some books: Heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists.  That’s all you really need to worry about.  You naturally cheer for the good, boo for the bad.

On a tangent, today is Valentine’s Day.  Although I’m normally one for holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, sometimes Valentine’s Day just rubs me the wrong way.  As a kid, I didn’t mind it.  In fact, strangely enough, I don’t mind the days leading UP to Valentine’s Day.  But for some reason, unlike the climactic joy of Christmas, when Valentine’s Day finally arrives I just get grumpy.

via Sister72 Flickr page

Maybe it’s the blatant commercialism, the unspoken message that material objects are a true expression of love or perhaps it’s the whole feeling of forced obligation.  I guess it didn’t help that today was a beautiful day and I ended up wasting most of it because I slept in, sat in a car, dodged the touristy crowds at Fisherman’s Wharf, waited forever for a bus and now I’m doing nothing but waiting for an overpriced dinner that’s supposed to make me feel happy.

I’ll just be glad when the chocolates end up being discounted by 80 percent tomorrow.

A colleague of mine and I started chatted one evening at a dinner for work and we, as most avid readers do, started to exchange notes. She mentioned, vehemently, that I needed to read The Namesake. I remember perusing through the shelves at Blockbuster (what, people still do that!) and catching a glimpse at the movie. I was curious about it, and her advocacy for the great storyline in the book motivated me to seek it out and give it a go.

Besides, I am one of those snotty people that usually insists that the book is better than the movie. And I’ll gladly have a tete-a-tete with anybody who disagrees.

At any rate, I really enjoyed this book. It follows the life of a Bengali family, focusing mostly on Gogol Ganguli, the son. It’s a really touching coming-of-age story and she does a great of weaving together the scenes with her simple yet descriptive prose (which I noticed was all in present tense. Not sure if that really makes a difference or not, just found it interesting). I think that it really resonated with me mostly because I am first generation in my family. I relate to the woes of Gogol when he has to endure people butchering his name or assuming that he is one way or another just because of his background. And, likewise, it also made me really appreciate what my mother and father went through in adapting to a whole new country when they were merely graduate students.

Quite an enjoyable, easy read - and I also felt like I learned a lot more about Bengali culture. I’m glad that I took the time to read it and would definitely recommend it. Now I’m curious to see the movie adaptation. Maybe it will change my mind about the book > movie equation.