Fritz
This book. I'm not quite sure what to say. I started this book out thinking this was going to be fun. After 140 pages or so, I was glad I found a very well done audiobook (solo recorded) on librivox.org –> Moby Dick read by Stewart Wills
There were quite a few beautiful passages. Perhaps my favourite ones were Chapter 94 - A Squeeze of the hand and the ones about the anatomy of the Sperm and Right Whale. Throughout the book I've been interested by the large mammals and sea life in general. It has inspired me to look up a multitude of stuff.
For the rest of it though. It is dense, terse and does not move along at all. The story is hardly the most interesting part of the book, but it's what keeps coming back. It sometimes feels as if Melville was really trying to show everyone how much he really knows about stuff.
I'm not sure I will ever muster up the courage to reread this ever again.
Dit prachtige boek is een soort ode aan de millenial die van de klassieke kunsten houdt: klassieke muziek, schilderkunst, poëzie en literatuur. Het heeft humor en beschrijft de eenzame mens die schouderklopjesbehoeftig is. Sterke proza en referentiele taal beschrijft in prachtige woorden het leven van igor, bekeken vanuit 2 protagonisten. De een verloren in zijn kunst (viool), de ander verloren in het gebrek daaraan (schilderkunst). Beiden zijn ze weg van igor, de man die alles kan. Die hun laat twijfelen aan de manier waarop zij hun kunst uitoefenen.
Een prachtig boek over mensen die als succesvol beschouwd worden, maar gevangen zijn in hun talent of in hun kunstvorm.
Het is prachtig, prozaisch en blijft op het randje van menselijk, terwijl het toch over een elitaire wereld gaat. Die van de klassieke muzikant. Een wereld die in het boek ook geridiculiseerd wordt, omdat zij zo hautain is. Een aanrader.
Het eerste gedeelte is fantastisch, het tweede gedeelte is goed. Daarom 4/5 sterren.
Kerouac's nervous breakdown, takes you up and down into the twists and turns of his inner most honest thoughts. Thoughts of death and dying and life and living. The triumphant beat generation comes to an end. The bouts of drinking and madness turned to thinking and sadness.
A requiem for the kind of life that takes no no for an answer that never stops to think, but just cruises down the highway at a 100 mph.
It is uncanny, the amount of effort to break the madness and the futility of it all and to have the feeling that this book could have been written now. In a world of sad millennials who are dissapointed about their life and opportunities and the people who try to break the mould.
I loved it and binged it, as my generation does.
I have never read a book like this. It is weird and has little punctuation. It's about politics but not in a way that describes a certain conflict or a strong cast of characters. But rather it is very abstract, using a party on the left, party on the right and party in the middle. None of the characters have names. They are only described by their title or their relation to others: e.g. the doctor's wife.
The book describes what can happen when the majority of the people legitimately cast a blank vote during elections. It displays a democratic multi-party government as obsolete. What does happen when there is no majority voting for parties. Do riots happen, or does life as usual run its course?
The first 100 pages are filled with conversations between the cabinet members of government, the party leaders and their direct subordinates. Silly debates, and pretentious arguments hold sway for that part of the book. Personally I found this part extremely tedious, and it was only the second try that got me further than page 55.
Conversations are stringed along sentences that can run for half a page, in the way a conversation is directly transcribed. Some conversations can ramble on without even taking place in real life and are just a what-if scenario described by the character that at that moment takes centre stage.
Looking back I might have caught on to the central part of this book earlier on in the book instead of the final stages of it. It's the small conversations that matter in the way that Coen Brother's movies are more about the dialogue than about just the storyline. I was looking for a plot, but found a very flimsy one. I was looking for engaging characters, but found abstract archetypes. However, I did find a very unique writing style and a book I might have to get back to, when I'm wiser and less restless. For that it deserves an extra star to what I initially wanted to give it.
Malcom Gladwell gets a lot of flak, about not getting the facts “straight”. Which I think is not really what he's trying to do. He's not a researcher as much as an essayist. So whether or not he got the science right is not very important to me as a reader. Although it would be a waste if certain falsehoods become a publicly accepted fact.
Regarding it as an essay I enjoyed reading Gladwell's optimistic style of combining certain stories to create a common thread. I didn't care much for the gimmick of starting a story very positively and asking a rhetoric question like: “He should be proud of what he achieved right? Everything is great now”. And then appending: “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
On the whole I enjoyed the premise of the book. Giants can be defeated. And being smaller or weaker does not have to be the end of it. It can also mean that you can be more creative and still outwit someone.
It might sound super obvious, but it is nice to be reminded of it. People will never voluntarily choose a path of more resistance like dyslexia, or worse. But adversity does cultivate cunning and creativity.
Not having read a whole bunch of fantasy (save for Harry Potter and Narnia) I am not sure I can say this but I will: I thought the book original. The story as well as the cast of fantasy characters.
There were creatures I had never thought or heard of: Wolfbrothers and Ogier are my favourite.
It was fun to read through it and I didn't feel that the descriptions of the landscape or the characters was tedious or extremely lengthy (as I've heard Tolkien can be). But I did feel that the story wasn't intended to be this long. It felt like the first Harry Potter in the first 200 pages. A story that started to take on its own life as the author was writing it.
Around page 400 the characters caravan was split up around the river the Arinelle and the story started to fork from the one narrative into 3. Following Nynaeve, Perrin and Rand together with the other cast with which surrounded them at the time.
In terms of character development, I'd say there is hardly any. However it is not really a problem in this story. The story just meanders on through the world Robert Jordan created and is interesting enough to follow. It might not really be high literature or anything. But it sure is an entertaining story and a good read.
Some words that caught my attention (lot's of equestrian terms):
lather (noun): sweat on a horse's neck
discomfit :to make uneasy or perplexed
rictus: the expanse of an open mouth / gaping grimace
ostler: a person employed at an inn
tart: having a sharp or pungent taste
acerbic: sour or bitter tasting
rote: memorizing process using routine
hackamore: a rope or rawhide that can be lowered over a horse's eyes
slipshod: marked by carelesness
gelding: castrated horse
murk: total or partial darkness
mastiff: an ancient breed of dogs
resplendent: splendid or dazzling in appearance
querulous: given to complaining
inchmeal: little by little, gradually
temerity: foolhardy disregard of danger
unctuous: characterized by insincere or exaggerated earnestness
torrid: parched with the sun's heat
fetor: offensive odor or stench (a fetid smell: fetor).
This book is about two sisters from a family that once held high esteem in the village they grew up in. A family that once had money. The book moves through the two World Wars of the previous century as the sisters grow up. The book is written as if the elder of two is writing down her memoirs as an 80-year old lady. The sadness keeps building as the story progresses. Sadness piled upon sadness.
I love reading Atwood, and this is no exception, it is a very funny (the laugh-out-loud kind of funny), and interesting read with a large and colourful vocabulary. At the bottom of this review I'll share all of the words that stood out to me, because they were being used in different way that I am used to, or because I think I should use these more, or because hitherto I simply was not aware of their existence. The start of the book confused me somewhat though as I am not really one for reading the blurbs on the back. And in this case it would have at least helped me place the characters a bit. It didn't really matter though. I think the book was meant to be read with people leafing back to find clues they first missed. And that was something I really enjoyed. Being surprised and finding myself leafing back to find what became clear later on.
If you don't like descriptions of an upper-class lady about attire and decoration this book is probably not for you. If you do not mind, you learn a great deal about terms for all kinds of decoration material that was used at the beginning of the previous century. As well as learning about different kinds of dresses, veils and the such.
Here are some quotes I enjoyed; interspersed is a list of words that stood out to me.
52:
History as I recall, was never this winsome, and especially not
this clean, but the real thing would never sell: most people prefer a past
in which nothing smells.
55:
Why do we always assume at such moments that everyone in the
world is staring at us? Usually nobody is.
fractious
propitiatory
95:
At the very least we want a witness.We can't stand the idea of our
own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down.
102:
Now I think it was more complicated than that. It may have been a warning. It may also have been a burden. Even if love was underneath it all, there was a great deal piled on top, and what would you find when you dug down? Not a simple gift, pure gold and shining; instead, something ancient and possibly baneful, like an iron charm rusting among old bones. A talisman of sorts, this love, but a heavy one; a heavy thing for me to carry around with me, slung on its iron chain around my neck.
caul
145:
...many people take a
curatorial interest in their own scars.
hector
162:
We didn't learn very much Latin, but we learned a great deal about forgery.
inane
169 the button factor picnic:
More and more I feel like a letter – deposited here, collected there. But a letter addressed to no one
windfall
181 loaf givers:
It was the purpose in life of older people to thwart me. They were devoted to nothing else
...
I found it difficult to picture Helen of Troy in an apron, with her
sleeves rolled up to the elbow and her cheek dabbled with Hour, and
from what I knew about Circe and Medea, the only things they'd ever
cooked up were magic potions, for poisoning heirs apparent or chang-
ing men into pigs.As for the Queen of Sheba, I doubt she ever made so
much as a piece of toast. I wondered where Mr. Ruskin got his peculiar ideas, about ladies and cookery both.
compunction
tippler
souse
dowdy
doily
beg off
erstwhile
lascivious
voracious
bas-relief
stodgy
aplomb
fob off
pinko
breviary
tawdry
glassine
purloin
inert
sibilant
216: the attic
(Which does a man prefer? Bacon and eggs, or worship? Sometimes
one, sometimes the other, depending how hungry he is.)
porphyry
paunchy
228 Imperial Room:
It was God, looking down with his blank, ironic searchlight of an eye.
He was observing me, he was observing my predicament, he was
observing my failure to believe in him. There was no floor to my room: I was suspended in the air, about to plummet. My fall would be endless - endlessly down.
Such dismal feelings however do not often persist in the clear light
of morning, when you are young.
indenture
trousseau
truss
242: The Tango
They were new money,
without a doubt: so new it shrieked. Their clothes looked as if they'd
covered themselves in glue, then rolled around in hundred-dollar bills.
244: The tango
Sex may go nicely with many things, but vomit isn't one of them.
sequin
chiffon
epicene
suds
wallow
filigree
effluvium
283: steamer trunk
The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read.
nacreous
292: the fire pit
Well, they bill by the minute, these lawyers, just like the cheaper whores.
waylay
frump
portcullis
yokel
jaunty
cupola
marcel
303: postcards from Europe
The French hotel had a bidet, which Richard explained to me with
the trace of smirk after he caught me washing my feet in it. I thought,
they do understand something the others don't, the French. They
understand the anxiety of the body. At least they admit it exists.
304:
The French are connoisseurs of sadness, they know all the kinds. This is why they have bidets.
insouciance
dulcimer
taffeta
bouffant
ermine
chiffon
nostrum
biddy
stevedore
specious
impecunious
quoits
379: the ashtray
the rich have always been kleptomaniacs
poultice
emery
corundum
riffle
traipse
pinafore
patina
garish
sheen
q.t.
insouciant
gambol
layette
belfry
morass
tatty
maquillage
stolid
abstemious
lugubrious
verisimilitude
scurrilous
bilious
508: victory comes and goes
But unshed tears can turn you rancid. So can memory. So can biting your tongue. My bad nights were beginning. I couldn't sleep
harridan
518: the other hand
The picture is of happiness, the story not. Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there's no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It's loss and regret in misery and yearning to try the story for it, long it's twisted road.
The story is set on a swampy world, with a minimal cast. According to my sources (meaning: Wikipedia) ADF's job was to write a story which could pass as a cheaper sequel to Star Wars if (what is now known as) SW IV: A New Hope did not prove to be very successful.
That does not make this book a cheap Star Wars story though. It feels like it could be part of a George Lucas world. But perhaps it feels more like an Indiana Jones adventure with the Star Wars personnel. The interesting thing is that very little about the Star Wars universe was known at the time. At the moment of writing we have an official canon decreed by the Disney-folks: 7 movies in a series and a Star Wars story: Rogue One. Alan Dean Foster was trying his best to create an interesting world with creatures that fit into the first movie.
And in my opinion he succeeded. The world immediately called to mind the Dagobah system of “The Empire Strikes Back” (my favourite movie).
The book is a fun read, an adventure story that makes you flip pages quickly. Battles that last long enough, but not too long. The only thing that is weird is that it does not really fit into the Star Wars stories of today. Luke is in love with Leia and it seems she with him. and some of the battles or Force uses seem strange and out of place.
Other than that, if you're a fan of sci-fi and adventure this is a fun read that could neatly fall in between Star Wars IV and V.
Ender's game is a book that is simple in its language, and grand in its story. Ender is the protagonist in a world where an alien invasion (in 2 phases) has shaped the outlook on the world. Fear of a third invasion shapes the world in a unique political reality: unity among the nations with one common enemy: the buggers.
The story revolves mostly about a young boy (Andrew “Ender” Wiggins) that is broken down again and again to be used as the ultimate weapon in the fight against these aliens.
The book really excels in hooking the readers and creating sympathy for the empathetic and strong Ender. A riveting read that you will devour in no time.
The only thing that confounded me was the intelligence of all the Wiggins children. Where did it come from? From the story it seems that the father is a daft simpleton, and the mother is not really a very important character.
I'll leave you with this beautiful quote:
In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.
Great story of daring and compassion. However the writing style is sometimes needlessly complex with a ton of sub-sentences which make it hard to follow what is going on.
It's heartbreaking, and watching the film after having read the book was a great experience of accenting the more emotional scenes.
The Diamond Age pulls you into a wonderful world of new lingo, social strata and devices. The story starts out with few different story lines that inevitably weave together. It is set in a possible future in which country states have become obsolete because of a digital currency. Prophecies of cryptocurrencies and 3d-printer in a book that was first published in 1995.
The book has some great words and wonderful phrasing. Sentences are straightforward and not needlessly complicated. There is a colorful cast of characters and a very interesting world this is a part of.
The only thing that really bummed me out was that it ended rather quickly.
An interesting take on the needy culture social media is creating. The need to know everything and to share everything. But above all the need to rate and be rated (just like I'm doing here on Goodreads).
The story is just not that convincing, it was ok, but not great. I have never read anything by Eggers, but my expectations were quite high, because of my friends. They are really into him. I also really enjoyed McSweeney's. Maybe this only enlarged the dissapointment.
Nevertheless it is an interesting read and just makes you think again about the overly-shariness we've grown accustomed to.
This was great. And I'm looking forward to the sequel (although at the time I started I was not aware of a sequel existing.. silly me).
The plot starts out in Madison, Wisconsin (USA) with a technical diagram of a device being posted online for the whole world to see. Quickly children/teens start assembling the device from parts they picked up at the Electronics store. As soon as they have they flick the switch, and ppooooff.. they have no idea where they are, and feel sick upto the point of throwing up. What happened?
They “stepped” to a parallel version of Earth.
A very original plot and interesting features that combines different paths of evolution and lots of other ingenious stuff. A funny and light footed read, with an exciting and original story. 5 stars.
It was ok. A bit lengthy.. :)
Update in answer to someone who asked me some questions about the book.:
I believe War and Peace is a Romance fiction work as well as a quasi-historic account of the war between France (Napoleon) and Russia. It is not at all what you would expect from a Victorian era novel. Most of these are very intense and hectic and have quite manic characters (taking Wuthering Heights (Bronte), The Last Man (Shelley) and Crime & Punishment (Dostoevsky) as my frame of reference).
It is much more tranquil and reads much like a modern novel (far ahead of its time in that sense).
However, it is really lengthy. This puts a lot of people off, so bear with it. The romantic story is between the regal houses of Russia, their courtships are quite intriguing. My advice to be able to bear the length is: GET A PROPER TRANSLATION. The really cheap one is probably by Constance-Garnett, she translated quite a number of big Russian works in the early 20th century, but her style is itself quite Victorian, which can be exhausting and overloaded with quaint expressions like: “He was vexed at her deplorable disposition”.
What did I get from it? I guess I can say I read it, and was pleasantly surprised with the quite modern take on things. What is very typical in both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy's works is that they take a sidebar in the storyline. They reflect on the nature of history or the nature of philosophy and the impact it can have on a society.
So it is a “good read” but it takes patience :).
With precise diction and purpose David Mitchell again has written a novel worthy of winning more prizes than it did. Mitchell's love of Japan and his characters can be read throughout the book. I would recommend this to everyone in to contemporary literature and even more so for the people into historical novels.
The life of a young Dutchman, Jacob de Zoet, goes to the trading post of Dejima close to Nagasaki in the Japanese Empire for the hopes of some extra cash. As a clerk he hopes to make some money so he is worthy of marrying a woman he loves back in Zeeland (the Netherlands). He finds out soon enough that in the Dutch East India Company in the tail of the 18th century honesty and diligence are not always considered virtues by his superiors, peers or subordinates. Corruption and fraud is what keeps the company a float. And his report digging up dirt on all his superiors predecessors is not wholeheartedly welcomed.
Through events like these the intelligent clerk learns to be a shrewd diplomat and not to blindly the virtues of his superiors.
I think I'll leave it at that. The book is to intriguing and intricate.. just read it yourself. Mitchell is an artist.
Not yet, have I ventured into the mysterious world of poetry seriously. I've read some John Donne and read some to and fro. But this ‘autobiography' of one of the English language's most important poets of the 20th century has certainly aroused my interest.
The book loosely follows the author as he travels across ages and styles into his life, an absurd array of stories which has its grande finale in “One Warm Saturday”
One last quote:
“Too much platitudinous verbosity!”
