Thursday, March 17, 2005

The Time Traveler's Wife

Oh, man.

This book was glorious. I have an awful feeling that it might be one of those books that won't stand up as well to a second reading, or that it wouldn't do as well if I weren't a quick reader. But, be that as it may, this book just swept me up and sucked me into its world for two days.

I'm trying to straighten out how I feel about it and write about it before I fall out of the world, and it's hard. I'm not terribly convinced that it's the world's most romantic story, because there's something unromantic about falling in love with someone that you're absolutely sure you'll end up with. I think it's more the way their lives weave in and out of each other than appeals to me. Niffenegger really pulls off the story - the time travel is remarkably coherent, something I rarely find pulled off well - and the way the story unfolds is really intriguing. It's the kind of book that makes you really have to concentrate at times but at other moments just kind of carries you along.

It is also a book that is nearly impossible to explain. I don't know. It was good. It was very easy to read and once I got the hang of the time traveling it was very easy to follow. It was startling at times - the author didn't shy away from some harsh stuff - and it was also surprisingly compelling for a book where you pretty much know the ending. Mostly I'm amazed at how well the time travel works and impressed at how compelling a story about two not terribly appealing characters is able to be. The ending left me pretty cold - the book starts out a lot more strongly than it ends - but the overall story maintains itself.

Very good book. One of those stories that makes me want to just do nothing but read for a month or two. Ahhh. I love satisfying books.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Why, why, WHY did I reread this book? I HATED it the first time I read it. It's a stupid premise, an absolutely HATEFUL main character, badly written, atrocious lesson to be teaching impressionable young people...basically, it has nothing going for it.

But so many people loved it I thought I should give it another chance. I did the same thing with the authors of the Nanny Diaries - I read their second book, about a girl who gets a very menial job at a publishing company and gets totally abused. I figured I would be able to sympathize with THAT situation without too much trouble. But GOD ALMIGHTY, it was terrible. Ugh. Same with Shopaholic. I just hated it.

So. I'm going to stop reading things just because other people love them. Or, rather, I'm going to stop reading things more than once just because other people love them. A good position to take, I think.

Books to Read

The pile of checked out books is starting to get a little out of control, so here's a list of everything I want to read in the next little while.

The Eyre Affair
The Time-Traveler's Wife
The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Son of the Mob 2
Fray
America (the Book)

various other things which I can't remember.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I decided that I should reread these before the movie comes out, so I tackled my five-in-one anthology a few weeks ago. I'm plodding through it - that sucker is BIG - and I'm enjoying most of it quite a lot. I have an unreasonable love for Marvin, and I am so freaking thrilled that Alan Rickman is doing his voice in the movie. That right there is brilliant casting.

There are a lot of truly brilliant moments in this trilogy. (In five parts.) The sperm whale and the bowl of petunias is one of my favourite scenes in all of literature, and it's been a couple of years since I've read them, so the payoff with the bowl of petunias had slipped my mind.

I am also very fond of the sofa and the mattress. The mental images that these books conjur are so bizarre that it's hard to resist. I'll be interested to see how the movie does with bringing those things to life. I've seen some of the old tv shows and it is, well, lacking, in certain areas. I've got slightly more faith in this movie just based on budget alone.

I'm up to So Long and Thanks for all the Fish, and it's not my favourite of the series. There's not enough wackiness and too much Fenchurch. A last minute addition character is never going to be as appealing as the established ones, and she's just kind of...eh. I don't know.

Anyway, this is taking up much of my reading time of late, but I'm almost finished so I can get into some of the other reading material that's haunting me.

Gollum: How we made movie magic

This was an extremely nerdy book and I totally admit that with no shame whatsoever. It was an interesting read - I really didn't realise just how obscenely complicated Gollum was - but it felt a little pretentious in a lot of places. Nothing too blatant, but I was left with the feeling that Andy Serkis is kind of one of those actors who makes a big deal out of being kind of wacky.

Still, it was nerdy enough to be mostly enjoyable, and I do like hearing about the making of the movies. But I'm holding out for Sean Astin's book, which I have on hold - I hear it's totally self-righteous and snobby, which is always entertaining.

Cheaper by the Dozen

I don't usually bother with movie books when it's a movie I haven't seen and don't really have any intention of seeing, but I read this book mostly on a whim. It was kind of entertaining, but it mostly just horrified me to think of having 11 siblings.

Some of it was verging on the unbelieveable - an instance in which most of the kids have their tonsils out is kind of ludicrous - and the story is kind of repetitive, but it has the advantage of having that whole train-wreck aspect to it.

And from what I've seen of the movie trailers, it's horribly butchered in the recent remake. But I think they tried to update it, which is reasonable, since it's pretty obviously old-fashioned in a lot of places.

Ladies with various things

Two books: Ladies with Options and Ladies with Prospects. Both kind of fluffy books that I picked up on a whim. I read the first one, Options, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's the story of a bunch (it was a while ago that I read it, clearly) of mostly middle-aged women who start an investment club. It was chick lit, I suppose, but not in the most traditional of senses. It's nice to see someone doing something a little different.

Both books were about the Ladies doing something that seems too good to be true and making a pile of money out of it. Not terribly suspensful, nor believeable, but kind of an amusing read for the duration of two books. I think I would get bored of it after another book - the second one was less entertaining than the first, and there were distinctly annoying writing habits throughout - but better than the average fluff book.

Not that that's necessarily saying much.