"Look here, shut up, you!"
I'm not sure if it's been a conscious effort or not, but I've been reading more over the last year or so than I have in a good while. I'm going to list the last several I've read, for no real reason other than that it gives me something to post.
1. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis - I've been working my way through the Narnia books and I just finished this one on Saturday night. I'd read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe a few times when I was growing up, but hadn't read any of the others until I read The Magician's Nephew when we were in Pitkin with the Silverthornes in July 06 (Observe:
), so I'm going through the rest of them now. I liked this book all right, but I'd say it's probably my least favorite of the four I've read so far. Thought it was a bit Gulliver's Travelsesque. On an unrelated note, I can't believe I lived so long being unfamiliar with Reepicheep.
2. Animal Farm by George Orwell - I didn't realize we owned a copy of this until I was going through our bookshelf trying to find Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We didn't have that one, so I read this in the interim. This was one of those books that I was always a little bit ashamed to admit that I'd never read. I was surprised at how short it was, and also surprised at how far off some of my long-held assumptions about the story were.
3. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
From the wikipedia entry:
It seems pretty stupid to me that people would read these books in chronological order rather than their published order. C.S. Lewis wrote Prince Caspian as a sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and it seems to work pretty well as such. Jack and Evie will eventually start with the first book published, not The Magician's Nephew, that is all.
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - I think I was in high school the last time I read this. When I was growing up we had a VHS copy of the 1979 animated version which we watched a bunch. We still reference/quote it every once in a while, and these are the characters I hear in my head when I'm reading the books now. Which is kinda odd because the kids' british accents are pretty inconsistent.
The entire thing is on youtube apparently.
5. Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson - True story about some New Jersey divers who discover a sunken German U-boat from WWII, but nobody knows which U-boat it is or why it was sunk off the coast of New Jersey. Including both the U.S. and German military. I bought this book for my dad on his birthday after hearing the panel on This Week in Tech rave about it. He read it and liked it so much that he immediately mailed it to me so I could read it. It's pretty fascinating, Amy tore through it when I was finished, and I think it's now been passed on to my brother. It sounds like it would really, really, really suck to get the bends real hard.
6. Watchmen by Alan Moore - I went entirely too long without reading this. Back in 2005 it made Time magazine's list of 100 all-time greatest English language novels. I'm sure I'll pick this back up and read it again once every few years. As a side note, I fairly enjoyed the first season of Heroes, but after reading the Watchmen I lost any respect I had for the show. Some serious plagiarizing of ideas there.
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - I guess I'm still coming to terms with my disappointment here, the last few chapters really hurt my appreciation for the series as a whole. I had let myself believe Rowling was setting things up in the first six books for a smarter payoff at the end, which I guess is really my own fault. I might come around on it eventually.
8. It's Superman! by Tom De Haven - I read this because of some statements I'd read in random movie reviews of Superman Returns. I thought it was all right since I like Superman, but there are very few people I could recommend it to.
Well, I'm not sure why I did that. If anybody read the whole thing, congratulations, you must have been bored. I think I might end all my posts from here on out with something along the lines of "Why did I post this?"
1. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis - I've been working my way through the Narnia books and I just finished this one on Saturday night. I'd read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe a few times when I was growing up, but hadn't read any of the others until I read The Magician's Nephew when we were in Pitkin with the Silverthornes in July 06 (Observe:
), so I'm going through the rest of them now. I liked this book all right, but I'd say it's probably my least favorite of the four I've read so far. Thought it was a bit Gulliver's Travelsesque. On an unrelated note, I can't believe I lived so long being unfamiliar with Reepicheep.
2. Animal Farm by George Orwell - I didn't realize we owned a copy of this until I was going through our bookshelf trying to find Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We didn't have that one, so I read this in the interim. This was one of those books that I was always a little bit ashamed to admit that I'd never read. I was surprised at how short it was, and also surprised at how far off some of my long-held assumptions about the story were.
3. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
From the wikipedia entry:
Fans of the series often have strong opinions over the correct ordering of the books. When the books were originally published, they were not numbered. The first American publisher, Macmillan, put numbers on the books in the order in which they were published. When Harper Collins took over the series in 1994, the books were renumbered using the internal chronological order, as suggested by Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham.
It seems pretty stupid to me that people would read these books in chronological order rather than their published order. C.S. Lewis wrote Prince Caspian as a sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and it seems to work pretty well as such. Jack and Evie will eventually start with the first book published, not The Magician's Nephew, that is all.
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - I think I was in high school the last time I read this. When I was growing up we had a VHS copy of the 1979 animated version which we watched a bunch. We still reference/quote it every once in a while, and these are the characters I hear in my head when I'm reading the books now. Which is kinda odd because the kids' british accents are pretty inconsistent.
The entire thing is on youtube apparently.
5. Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson - True story about some New Jersey divers who discover a sunken German U-boat from WWII, but nobody knows which U-boat it is or why it was sunk off the coast of New Jersey. Including both the U.S. and German military. I bought this book for my dad on his birthday after hearing the panel on This Week in Tech rave about it. He read it and liked it so much that he immediately mailed it to me so I could read it. It's pretty fascinating, Amy tore through it when I was finished, and I think it's now been passed on to my brother. It sounds like it would really, really, really suck to get the bends real hard.
6. Watchmen by Alan Moore - I went entirely too long without reading this. Back in 2005 it made Time magazine's list of 100 all-time greatest English language novels. I'm sure I'll pick this back up and read it again once every few years. As a side note, I fairly enjoyed the first season of Heroes, but after reading the Watchmen I lost any respect I had for the show. Some serious plagiarizing of ideas there.
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - I guess I'm still coming to terms with my disappointment here, the last few chapters really hurt my appreciation for the series as a whole. I had let myself believe Rowling was setting things up in the first six books for a smarter payoff at the end, which I guess is really my own fault. I might come around on it eventually.
8. It's Superman! by Tom De Haven - I read this because of some statements I'd read in random movie reviews of Superman Returns. I thought it was all right since I like Superman, but there are very few people I could recommend it to.
Well, I'm not sure why I did that. If anybody read the whole thing, congratulations, you must have been bored. I think I might end all my posts from here on out with something along the lines of "Why did I post this?"
7 Comments:
Among work, family, and your internet buffoonery, where do you find the time to read?
I spend a lot of nights at hotels in places like Riverton, Wyoming. Plus I sit on the can a decent amount of time, you do the math.
I think between twitter and your blog maybe you're letting people know a little too much about your bathroom secrets. Or maybe not. Who am I to speak for your public audience?
In true spanky form.... "nasty."
I reread my comment and it may have come off sounding unintentionally condescending. Really, I just wanted to use the term "internet buffoonery."
That is all.
I'm just surprised no one made the overly obvious reference. Drew came closest in his first comment.
I didn't know you could read.
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