Well this month has set me back. I have some catching up to do in March.
Book #9 of the year was "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. I am a huge Bryson fan, and I couldn't be happier that there are still several of his books out there that I haven't read yet . He can be laugh-out-loud funny. While he did not elicit that reaction in me nearly as much with this book, I enjoyed it just as much. Here, he is reunited with his old college buddy Katz (who first appeared in "Neither Here Nor There," his book about his European travels with Katz, which had Adam and I doubled over as we were reading it in Spanish hostels). They make an attempt to hike the entire Appalachian trail together, and hilarity ensues. Bryson is quite a bit more serious and introspective here than I am used to, but that is not a bad thing.
Book #10 was "The Importance of Being Earnest," by Oscar Wilde. This play is as funny today was it was when it was written in 1895. It is so fast-paced and you will all of a sudden find the play finished as you are enjoying yet another witty exchange. No societal institution is left unattacked. Wilde was a devil!
Book #11 was "Of Mice and Men" by Steinbeck. Brilliantly depressing as ever.
Book #12 was "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. Absurdism at its best. Camus presents a world in which no meaning or truth exists. Only things that can be experienced physically are real. The attempts of the main character, Meursault, to find any meaning are ultimately a total failure. He is the most disaffected yet honest character you will ever encounter, unyieldingly honest. A very disturbing book. It's hard to imagine anyone actually liking the main character, but you will feel something for him. And that will trouble you most likely.
Books #13 and 14, in progress, "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse and "The Tempest" by Shakespeare.
2.28.2008
Book update
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3 comments:
The scene in The Stranger where Meursault turns over in his bed and smells the salt of the woman's hair lingering on the pillow is forever burned in my memory as this clear shining bright spot of happiness in his otherwise dreary world.
you really don't cut yourself any slack with your book reading project- no "devil wears prada" for you.
What great reviews! You should write for the NYT . I'm reading Bill Bryson's History of The Universe and it's fantastic. Very interesting and he goes into cool details, like the scientist whose wife wasn't very happy at finding a dead rhinoceros in her front hall. MOM
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