M. Night Shyamalan technique saved it

So I've recently finished book number two, Atonement by Ian McEwan. As soon as I started the book I got worried that I wouldn't be able to read all the books on my list. So flowery, so much detail about how everything looked, and about every thought that ran through each persons head regardless if it was pertinent or not. I was worried that their may be many of 'this sort' of book on the list. I'm much more of an adventure/outdoorsy/non-fiction reader by nature. But I said to myself, "Self, you said you were going to do this, their has to be a reason why they selected this book and even though it is not like the things you normally enjoy reading you need to give it a chance." So I did and it was worth it.

The book is divided into three parts as it goes through a family's history and how one nights' events and misunderstandings changed the fate of all of them. The first part was everything leading up to "the crime." I figured out "the crime" and how it was going to play out much sooner than the author would let me have the outcome in words on the page. Thus the flowery language and too much attention to detail. The book was saved by two things for me. Part two was a view of WWII and the flowery language and attention to detail was riveting and I wanted more. Finally, the ending which actually ends after the end of the story (I know that doesn't make sense, but it does if you decide to read it) clinched it. The author took a page from M. Night Shyamalan (who unfortunately hasn't made a good movie in quite awhile, though I feel he is trying hard.) There was a twist, a twist that I didn't ever see coming and would alter my views and thoughts of the book if I ever read it again. Like looking for clues, like you did when you re-watched The Sixth Sense. This twist made the book and all my frustrations more than tolerable and I would recommend it especially if you enjoy English literature.

So what is coming up? Well, I've been back to The Book Stop and purchased two additional books, but I also have All the King's Men waiting for me. This book is on the massive side, so I have been trying to decide if I should start it or if I should blow thorough one of the much shorter books I recently purchased. In the end, I'm going with All the King's Men. I figure it will take me through the winter holiday's and my friend, Bill, said it was good read in passing when he saw it laying around my house. Bill's a reader, so I trust his judgement. Next time I write I'll talk about the new books I bought for the collection and how the second hand book hunting is going, along with how much I've spent and what books I've traded in.

Happy Thanksgiving Early!

One down ninty-nine to go!

So I've finished Animal Farm and it has left me feeling melancholy and defeatist. During the whole book I found myself yelling REVOLT ANIMALS, REVOLT AGAINST THE PIGS in my head. Would that happen in real life or would we blindly serve those who are taking advantage of us? Unfortunately, I think in most cases we would sit back and take it. Like the animals who just knew it had to be ok that they were going through all this hardship because in the end they were working for the betterment of themselves, only to find themselves in the same dictatorship with a different face on it.

I understand why this book is on "the best list" because it really breaks down why communism doesn't work in a clear and concise way. Communism depends on equality between all and everyone doing their job based on their abilities. Under that structure someone is going to end up doing most of the work and provide for the others. And that is just the start of the breakdown. If those in leadership roles take advantage the whole system immediately shuts down and you now are part of a dictatorship. There are plenty of political arguments to be made but I find it unfun to rant to myself, I'd rather banter back and forth than to lay out my views on paper. Not a "happy" book but a worthwhile book for sure.

I'm on to Atonement. I have no idea what it is about, but since it has Kiera Knightly on the cover, I'm guessing maybe a pouty English girl is in my future. With all the Halloween and football stuff going on last week I had a hard time fitting in reading time hopefully this week will be smooth sailing. Crap baby is crying! Til next time!

Projects and Changes

Hello everybody!
It has been a really long time since I have written and I have decided to get back into the swing of things. I started this blog as just a means to put thoughts onto paper (so to speak) and then it morphed into my pregnancy/baby diary. Now with Oliver here at a full 17 months old and me not writing since he was a month old I've decided to change paths once again. While it is inevitable that Oliver, Jonathan, and Bluebelle will seep into the conversation, I want to focus this blog on a special project. I'm actually borrowing this idea from a friend but am morphing it into what I hope will be something special.

So the project is to read all of the books on All-Times 100 Novels list by the end of next year. While this is a noble feat in itself, my plan is to write reviews of the books, talk about how "easy" it is to curl up with a good book while dealing with daily life, and also talk about how I go about finding these books. My idea is to only purchase used books locally. No new paper, no shipping. I think it will be fun to hunt for some of these titles. Some will be easy, others not so much. My plan is then donate the amassed collection of books to a good cause. Still thinking of what that will be.

Here is the list: (Can't wait to hear what some of you think of these titles!) please check out http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1952021_1952025,00.html to see the parameters in which the books were chosen.

A - B
The Adventures of Augie March (1953), by Saul Bellow
All the King's Men (1946), by Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral (1997), by Philip Roth
An American Tragedy (1925), by Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm (1946), by George Orwell
Appointment in Samarra (1934), by John O'Hara
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (1970), by Judy Blume
The Assistant (1957), by Bernard Malamud
At Swim-Two-Birds (1938), by Flann O'Brien
Atonement (2002), by Ian McEwan
Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison
The Berlin Stories (1946), by Christopher Isherwood
The Big Sleep (1939), by Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin (2000), by Margaret Atwood
Blood Meridian (1986), by Cormac McCarthy
Brideshead Revisited (1946), by Evelyn Waugh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927), by Thornton Wilder
C - D
Call It Sleep (1935), by Henry Roth
Catch-22 (1961), by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye (1951), by J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange (1963), by Anthony Burgess
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), by William Styron
The Corrections (2001), by Jonathan Franzen
The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), by Thomas Pynchon
A Dance to the Music of Time (1951), by Anthony Powell
The Day of the Locust (1939), by Nathanael West
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), by Willa Cather
A Death in the Family (1958), by James Agee
The Death of the Heart (1958), by Elizabeth Bowen
Deliverance (1970), by James Dickey
Dog Soldiers (1974), by Robert Stone
F - G
Falconer (1977), by John Cheever
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), by John Fowles
The Golden Notebook (1962), by Doris Lessing
Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953), by James Baldwin
Gone With the Wind (1936), by Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath (1939), by John Steinbeck
Gravity's Rainbow (1973), by Thomas Pynchon
The Great Gatsby (1925), by F. Scott Fitzgerald
H - I
A Handful of Dust (1934), by Evelyn Waugh
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter (1940), by Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter (1948), by Graham Greene
Herzog (1964), by Saul Bellow
Housekeeping (1981), by Marilynne Robinson
A House for Mr. Biswas (1962), by V.S. Naipaul
I, Claudius (1934), by Robert Graves
Infinite Jest (1996), by David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man (1952), by Ralph Ellison
L - N
Light in August (1932), by William Faulkner
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), by C.S. Lewis
Lolita (1955), by Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies (1955), by William Golding
The Lord of the Rings (1954), by J.R.R. Tolkien
Loving (1945), by Henry Green
Lucky Jim (1954), by Kingsley Amis
The Man Who Loved Children (1940), by Christina Stead
Midnight's Children (1981), by Salman Rushdie
Money (1984), by Martin Amis
The Moviegoer (1961), by Walker Percy
Mrs. Dalloway (1925), by Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch (1959), by William Burroughs
Native Son (1940), by Richard Wright
Neuromancer (1984), by William Gibson
Never Let Me Go (2005), by Kazuo Ishiguro
1984 (1948), by George Orwell
O - R
On the Road (1957), by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), by Ken Kesey
The Painted Bird (1965), by Jerzy Kosinski
Pale Fire (1962), by Vladimir Nabokov
A Passage to India (1924), by E.M. Forster
Play It As It Lays (1970), by Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint (1969), by Philip Roth
Possession (1990), by A.S. Byatt
The Power and the Glory (1939), by Graham Greene
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), by Muriel Spark
Rabbit, Run (1960), by John Updike
Ragtime (1975), by E.L. Doctorow
The Recognitions (1955), by William Gaddis
Red Harvest (1929), by Dashiell Hammett
Revolutionary Road (1961), by Richard Yates
S - T
The Sheltering Sky (1949), by Paul Bowles
Slaughterhouse Five (1969), by Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash (1992), by Neal Stephenson
The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), by John Barth
The Sound and the Fury (1929), by William Faulkner
The Sportswriter (1986), by Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1964), by John le Carre
The Sun Also Rises (1926), by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), by Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart (1959), by Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), by Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse (1927), by Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer (1934), by Henry Miller
U - W
Ubik (1969), by Philip K. Dick
Under the Net (1954), by Iris Murdoch
Under the Volcano (1947), by Malcolm Lowry
Watchmen (1986), by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
White Noise (1985), by Don DeLillo
White Teeth (2000), by Zadie Smith
Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), by Jean Rhys
Graphic Novels
Berlin: City of Stones (2000), by Jason Lutes
Blankets (2003), by Craig Thompson
Bone (2004), by Jeff Smith
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (2002), by Kim Deitch
The Dark Knight Returns (1986), by Frank Miller
David Boring (2000), by Daniel Clowes
Ed the Happy Clown (1989), by Chester Brown
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2000), by Chris Ware
Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (2003), by Gilbert Hernandez
Watchmen (1986), by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Yesterday, Oliver and I headed to The Book Stop (http://www.thebookstoponline.com/)
on Atlanta Road (my favorite used book place). Please visit Ginny, she is really great and helpful. Anyway, I brought in my list of the "A" books and a few pregnancy books to trade in. Ginny helped me locate some of them. (I was having a hard time focusing with my little one going crazy for a new Curious George book we picked up.)

I'm starting with Animal Farm by George Orwell (which I remember reading in 8th grade, but was too cool for school to really care about the message), All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, and Atonement by Ian McEwan. (which unfortunately has Keira Knightly on the cover. I hate movie covers. Now that character will be Keira and not the picture I form in my head. At least I have not seen the movie yet.) So last evening I thought about what I would write in this blog and if this was really doable. I think it is! With wheels turning I climbed into bed at about 11:30 with Animal Farm in hand, I got cozy, opened to page one, and promptly fell asleep.