terabient

title: The Forgotten Girls, Sara Blaedel

started: 1/10/22

ended: 1/17/22

thoughts:

- Saw this book was heavily discounted at the local bookshop and the premise sounded interesting, (while trying to identify a body, it's discovered the woman had a twin who has not been seen for 30 years) so I decided to give it a try.

- it's a crime novel, and while it's told well enough i generally find most crime fiction too lurid and ableist to fully enjoy, and this story wasn't an exception. but not every book you buy because the back cover sounds good is going to turn out well...at least i'm only down $4.

title: The Subtweet, Vivek Shraya

started: 1/9/22

ended: 1/11/22

thoughts:

- as someone who is terminally on Twitter, much of this book struck uncomfortably close to home. Agonizing over whether or not to engage with someone's posts, HOW to engage with someone's posts, pouring over someone's online activity in an attempt to understand what they're thinking, the moment you realize "hey my behavior is crazy i need to STOP" and only partly succeeding--it's all very familiar.

- this is a story about brown girls (Pakistani and Indian) living in a white country (Canada) but does not really dwell on family, family history, or culturally specific detail. it certainly captures how it feels to live in the diaspora.

- the descriptions of how it feels to perform music, and how it feels to hear a unique, moving voice, are incredible. i love the focus on tactile sensation in relation to an auditory experience.

- ending is fantastic. heartbreaking but also beautifully defiant.

title: The Nakano Thrift Shop, Hiromi Kawakami

started: 1/1/22

ended: 1/8/22

thoughts:

- aimless, but not in an unpleasant way. captures some of the intense lonliness that manifests in your life when you're young and barely supporting yourself, ending is not exactly neat but doesn't have much impact either.

title: Kindred, Octavia E. Butler

started: 12/26/21

ended: 12/31/21

thoughts:

- the book opens by describing the ending, which is a trope i enjoy when it's done well. also describes, somewhat gruesomely, a possible consequence of time travel--if one were to cross space and time without control over where you end up, would you end up, er...whole? i find this idea deliciously terrifying, and i appreciate how well-woven this risk was throughout the story.

title: Shadow Theatre, Fiona Cheong

started: 12/19/21

ended: 12/28/21

thoughts:

- has an unusual narrative structure that's hard to describe. at the heart of the novel are two incidents that occur in a Singapore neighborhood during a time of transition/gentrification: a mentally disabled woman disappearing, and the night an unwed woman gives birth. the story is told through several characters who recount what they were doing in the days leading up to these two events, which are implied to be related in a vaguely supernatural way. all the characters "speak" to the reader, and the overall effect is that you are a participant in this neighborhood gossip. often the characters meander on, relate events out of order, make assumptions about others--no one is a reliable narrator here.

- really delves into how...suffocating Asian mother-daughter dynamics can be. even the positive relationships display some toxic codependency. hit uncomfortably close to home in many ways, but i appreciate how real these relationships felt.

- i really enjoyed the book--it captures the very specific tone of southeast asian conversation that felt familiar to me. i think the somewhat abrupt ending and its deliberate lack of clarity and closure was a little unsatisfying, though.

title: The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin

started: 12/17/21

ended: 12/18/21

thoughts:

- I had no idea what this book would be about when I picked it up; I saw it at a used bookstore, thought "Hey I've mostly liked Hugo award winning books, and it's half off" and that was that. Thankfully, it was an excellent read, easily the best book I've read this year.

- The prose is quite beautiful; I was frequently struck by how detailed and poetic passages were, especially the sections concerning Ye Wenjie and her past. Kudos to both the author and translator for crafting such beautiful scenes.

- This is the hardest sci-fi i've read, but it's also one of the easiest to understand sci-fi i've read. The play sessions within the "Three Body" game and the shooter-hunter hypotheses are elegant, concise ways of explaining complicated ideas.

- There's a great deal of empathy for just about all the characters. Like--even for characters doing undeniably terrible things, the author makes an effort to really help make their motivations and reasoning clear.

title: The Grip of It, Jac Jemc

started: 5/26/21

ended: 5/29/21

thoughts:

(5/27/21)
- already love the structure: short chapters, (about 2-4 pages long) with POV alternating each chapter--alternating POV is hit or miss in my experience, often it feels sloppy or confusing, but here it's easy to follow and leads to a lot of interesting emotional juxtaposition between the two main characters.

- reading this after House of Leaves is interesting because they share some broad similarities in plot and theme (a haunted/living house, the unreliability of memory, how we never fully understand the people we love the most and if that matters) but in structure they are polar opposites. it is really striking at how much Jac Jemc reveals by being straightfoward and brief.

title: Eye of the Shoal, Helen Scales

started: 5/13/21

ended: abandoned

genre: nonfiction, popular science

thoughts:

(5/13)
- In the first two pages of the prologue, I learned about Anableps, a fish genus also known as four-eyed fish, which was fun.

- the prologue does a lovely job at conveying a sense of being surrounded by water and watching fish. it's calming in a way that's hard to articulate. the first chapter, though....it rambles.

(5/15)
- impressed with how evocative the descriptions of fish are. I feel like a lot of modern popular science books rely on high-quality photography & illustrations instead of descriptive text, so reading such detailed passages is a treat. I'm especially impressed at how much Scales is able to convey in relatively few words--she's able to capture a fish's shape, size, and movement through their environment within a few sentences. It's a bit like watching an ink wash painter.

- eloquent fish language aside, the first few chapters have not been engaging. lol

title: House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

started: 4/28/21

ended: 5/4/21

thoughts:

(4/30/21)
-really really good use of run-on sentences

-enjoy how the narrative is deliberately confusing, but never gets so confusing it becomes obtuse or frustrating to read. appreciate how there is always a thread of narrative normalcy for the reader to follow even when the formatting goes full-on indulgent bullshit

-on the fence about how women are written but leaning towards 'yikes'

(5/4/21)
-there is exactly one fully realized woman in this book and the rest can be categorized as women that the protagonist wants to fuck, women who the protagonist doesn't feel strongly about and fucks, or his mother. mom genes and mom-related trauma are also a major factor used to explain the protagonist's more deranged moments which is always an ~EXCITING~ trope to run into when you are a woman with a great deal of both personal and professional experience with mental illness and its treatment.

- the novel's conceit of having all references to The Minotaur and the Labyrinth struck out by the original author, then restored by the protagonist (who has to go through some effort to do so) is something i enjoyed a lot

- in general, this is a book that LOOKS intimidating but in practice is fairly easy to follow. like i really appreciate how whenever i got to a point where it felt like the formatting was getting impenetrable, there'd a narrative or visual lifeline thrown your way.

or, to lift metaphors from the book: a fishing line to follow through the shifting hallways.

overall impression:

very engaging to read but i am once again disappointed that an otherwise skillful and thoughtful author failed so much at writing women as more than a shadow of an idea.

So, the World Fantasy Award will no longer issue H.P. Lovecraft busts as an award and naturally, people are salty about this! Apparently it's the worst kind of political correctness to reconsider giving out a statue of an actual, avowed racist. This is because certain people get very upset and nervous when a dead person's fame and influence is no longer considered a 'trump' to their racism, even when that racism is explicitly expressed through their literature, as it is in the case of Lovecraft's work.

If anything, anyone who considers themselves a mindful literary critic should question why fame/genre influence trumps all other flaws in an author's writing. The objection to no longer rewarding fantasy writers with Lovecraft heads seems to boil down to "He wrote a bunch of stories about this specific idea, some were pretty good, and lots of people over the course of a long period of time liked that idea or his stories and it influenced their writing. Yes, he was a racist, and some of his passages are extremely difficult if not impossible to read if you accept on a basic level that all humans are created equal, but that doesn't mean he's an unacceptable figurehead for a general fantasy award. Have you SEEN all the Cthulhu professional fanfiction out there?"

There's a persistent idea in professional literary criticism that social issues like racism and sexism* ought not be considered when deciding the worthiness of reading or not reading an author. People who say they do not want to read authors whose works express racism or sexism are told 'but the themes/plotting/prose are so great that you should just ignore the ugly parts and take away the good!' And yet it never occurs to these critics that their thesis may be flawed, that racism in a work goes much deeper than the use of racial slurs, mocking descriptions of people of color's appearances, and calling other cultures 'savage' or 'barbaric'; that relatable themes, complex or tight plots, and beautiful or economic turns of phrase do not supercede or 'cancel out' the existence of racism/sexism. It should be acceptable to reject an author, as an award figure or as a person worth reading, based on how they portray (or refuse to portray) people of difference races or sexes--just as it's acceptable to reject them because of their prose or their plots or their themes. But no. Critics gonna cry, because not everyone loves the authors they spent their careers fellating.

Such is the horror of Political Correctness: it cares not for your prolific body of work, your level of fame nor the countless adorers of your tales--it takes all your poorly designed caricature busts away, and lays waste to your reputation! Truly it is the cruelest of the Elder Gods.

Current Mood: cold

My reading goal for 2011 was to read 40 books. I only managed 30. SIGH. At least there were some pretty huge tomes in that 30.

I enjoyed most of what I read although I didn't find much of it outstanding, just pleasant and/or interesting. But that's still a pretty good achievement for a book! There was only one that ended up being completely forgettable. (It was Plus Blood in Their Veins, which I should have expected considering it was a pulp fiction novel that cost me about a quarter.)

For those interested ~~nobody?~~, my ( 2011 Book List )

You can ask me questions about how ~awesome (or not ~awesome) these books are and I will probably answer them!

ALSO. This week I am going to go on my New Year's book buying binge on Amazon, but I don't have many books picked out yet, so! SUGGESTIONS FOR EXCELLENT READING would be appreciated.

My book collection has outgrown my shelf space, so I may do a book giveaway in the near future. Just in case anyone is interested.

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto - The Girl From Ipanema
Crossposts: http://m-aenea.livejournal.com/103725.html

Have a teeny book meme, since I can't think of anything else to do. :D

What book are you currently reading?

The Last Panda, by George B. Shaller.

How far in are you?

About 150 pages in, with roughly 100 pages left. Hoping to finish by Thursday.

What's it about?

Short, obvious answer: Pandas! Better answer: It is the account of the World Wildlife Fund's initial efforts with the Chinese government to study pandas and set up formal, modern research centers for conservation efforts in Sichuan.

Are you enjoying it?

It's slow going at first; there's a great deal on the difficulties encountered in first setting up the international collaboration, and while that kind of tension can be interesting (and is in later chapters) it's presented in a way that's very tedious and dry.

Once that's over, though, there's lots of detailed description of how day-to-day research is done, and there's a special emphasis on how seemingly small facts or observations can be used to draw unexpected conclusions.

And of course, there are pictures of pandas. :3

So far, it's been an enjoyable read.

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Music: Plants vs. Zombies
Crossposts: http://m-aenea.livejournal.com/97092.html

Apropos of nothing: I enjoyed this pithy dig at Twilight.

On the subject of books, I set this year's goal at 40 books. So far I've finished sixteen. /FAIL If I count graphic novels the number is probably in the mid twenties but that feels like cheating. My book pile is still pretty huge, but I can't seem to concentrate on fiction these days, and I don't have much nonfiction in my list. Time to go browsing at the library! Suggestions are always welcome, of course - I'm most interested in Asian and Middle Eastern history at the moment, but any subject that's presented well is fine.

To round things out, it's meme revival time!

30 Days Fanfiction Meme

Day 4: Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

Not really? I have favorite characters who I write about, but that's not the same as being inspired in the way people who say they have 'muses' are. For me, there is a lot of conscious thought that goes into the development of fic ideas - I'm not really the sort of person who gets random plot bunnies - though I wish I could. :c

~~boring answer is boring~~

( the rest of the meme )

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Yuki Kajiura - Agmen clientum
Crossposts: http://m-aenea.livejournal.com/94044.html

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 22 was pretty rough. I think I actually fell asleep for a few minutes, there.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Hmmm....I think Natsuo Kirino's Real World or Out would be good picks. I didn't read them this time around, but Real World is short but hits hard, and Out is a very different kind of murder mystery. Both are written in an unpretentious, clear style that would be helpful in the later hours, I think.

They do contain triggery material for people, especially women, who have suffered abuse. So while I recommend them, it is with some reservation; they are not suited for everyone.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Hmmm...well, as a first-time participant I was a bit confused by some of the dates in the information sections of the site. Times and a few other things on the FAQ were from 2010/2009. So making sure those references are current would help.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I really enjoyed the tweeting aspect, it was very encouraging to read about people's progress in an abbreviated form. With blog posts, I sometimes spent a lot more time than I intended reading through posts and subsequent comments. ^^;

5. How many books did you read?
Six, seven if the one I am not going to finish in time counts ;)

6. What were the names of the books you read?
2666, Roberto Bolano
The Cage, Kenzo Kitakata
Confessions, Kang Zhengguo
Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
The German Shepherd Dog, Howell Book House
(Unfinished) The River at the Center of the World, Simon Winchester

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
Confessions was a very striking memoir and demonstrated the difficulties of living in China during Mao's reign superbly. And I always enjoy Beatrix Potter ^^

8. Which did you enjoy least?
The author of The River at the Center of the World comes off as patronizing and bombastic, so...

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
I was not a cheerleader but I might try it next year? I thought this year's cheerleaders did well :)

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I would love to try it next year! I don't know if I'd stay up the whole 24 hours, though. I kind of wish I had tried more of the mini-challenges, in retrospect, as they were quite clever and I enjoyed seeing what others did for them. Also, being a cheerleader looks like a lot of fun; I might try that.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Mitsuo Suzuki - Cloud of Aureolin

As of 5:20 AM Eastern Standard Time, I have read 6 books:

2666 Roberto Bolano
The Cage Kenzo Kitakata
Confessions Kang Zhengguo
Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer
The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter
The German Shepherd Dog Howell Book House

Although technically I only read the last 100~ pages of 2666, so that would be...uh... 5 and 1/4 books? Hahaha

After all this is done (I don't want to spend TOO MUCH time posting) I'm thinking of posting all of the lines and passages that I found particularly striking or memorable or bizarre. This assuming I can remember anything after what will probably be a very long nap ;)

Two teaser lines, to give you a taste of what I've been reading:

I could barely pronounce his English name, so I adopted the Xi'an custom of calling him Stinky Egg.

Finally, one day, the ant meets its awful end: the parasite dissolves the connection between the head and the rest of the body.

Almost there!

Current Music: Nobuchika Eri - Inner Glow

It's a bit late to be posting this, but I'm participating in Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon today. I am posting updates through Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/janejana) if you're interested in watching my progress.

I will also edit this post throughout the day. Also, even thought the read-a-thon has already started, feel free to hop in and share what you're reading too! :)

Just finished my first book - 2666 by Roberto Bolano. (I know, I said I wouldn't finish it, and that it probably wouldn't get better after the first 150 pages. I lied and was wrong. Ending was frustrating, though.)

Wish me luck!

---

Mid-point Update:

1. What are you reading right now?

Still working through Confessions by Kang Zhengguo, the memoirs of a man growing up during China's Cultural Revolution.

2. How many books have you read so far?

Two and a half: 2666, The Cage and my current book. All together I've read about 600 pages.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

I have a huge pile of books that I am pulling from without much forethought, so I don't know for sure what I will read even at this point, lol. But I really like the look of Parasite Rex, a nonfiction book about super gross but super cool parasites. ^^

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

Nope!

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

I've had to take breaks so my darling sheltie, Momo, gets exercise and attention, but she's been unusually quiet today. She spent most of the day sitting next to me and has only wanted to go outside to play a few times. How considerate of her :)

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

How easy it's been to get sucked into the twitter feed XD

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Not really!

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

I'd structure my book list more carefully - add a few shorter books to the list, maybe some more light-hearted fare. I've enjoyed what I've read so far, but there's really only one 'fun' book in my pile and I could go for a few more.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

Nope, which is totally surprising - I thought for sure around now I'd be a little drowsy. I bet I'll start crashing around midnight, though.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

I haven't done it yet today, but whenever I have to stay up for long periods of time I try to do 'morning' things late in the evening. I plan on showering around 9pm and will have cereal and toast for dinner - it sort of tricks the body into thinking it's morning, I guess? Anyway, it worked for me in college when I had to pull all-nighters. :P

Current Mood: cheerful

so, every time i make a personal commitment to do something, uh, internetty, for lack of a better term, like this blog once a day thing or finish some mediocre fanfiction or doodle shit or whatever, my life - which until said decision had been content to be a gaping hole of boredom and suck - decides it would be a really great time to become ~eventful~ once again. And it's never, you know, one or two ~events~, it's like the universe is making up for lost time and crunching three or four months' worth of THE HAPS into a week. And I am like: "Why, Fate? Why?"

Then I stop because talking to nonexistent entities, like multiple exclamation points, is a sure sign of a diseased mind, and also counterproductive to my current task of filling out a sea of paperwork in which i must give detailed answers to the question Why do you fail so hard at life?

If you are wondering what i am going on about, don't. because i'm not quite sure i know, either, only that i have been doing it for the past uhhhh three days i believe.

***
in other news, i think i have a book problem.

( book stack )

Out of that to-read pile, i've only finished The River Ki, The Stranger, and What is the What; I've started Dracula: Prince of Many Faces, Dracula's Guest, Kraken, 2666, and P.S. Your Cat Is Dead. Which sounds ridiculous, i know, but my reading sessions go something like this:

"Hey, self! You know what sounds like a smashing good read? Victorian vampire fiction!"

*30 pages in*

"You know what, I am just not feeling up for fictional vampires today. I'm going to read about the real Dracula!"

*30 pages in*

"Okay, let's be honest, even Dracula can't salvage dry history texts. Time for some giant squid cult action!"

*30 pages in*

"Fuck, could this narrator be any more of a hipster douchebag? Gawd. I'm going to read some real literature."

*30 pages in*

"Oh. I forgot a hundred pages describing nothing but the passage of time as expressed through the changing of seasons is the calling card of Japanese writers. Fuck this, I'm going to watch some douchebags fail at life on tv."

And thus, five books started, no books finished. MISERY AND WOE!

***
CLUMSY SEGUE!

Anyway, I was planning to dick around on XBL like I usually do last night, BUT i had completely forgotten that there was a SUPER IMPORTANT BASKETBALL GAME between MAH TEAM the Celtics and the Miami Superfriends that i had to watch w/ assorted RL semi-friends. I do like to pretend i have some actual, flesh-and-blood people i can tolerate for the approximate length of a basketball game, and also i genuinely enjoy b-ball, so i resisted my first inclination to ditch everyone for the joys of the interwebs.

And man, i was NOT disappointed.

Since I'm pretty sure 0% of my flist is interested in basketball, i'll try to keep the summary to the juicy drama: the Miami ~~Heat~~ Superfriends currently has the NBA's most self-indulgent player, Lebron James, on its roster. How self-indulgent, you may ask? Well, he had an hour-long ESPN special broadcast that was basically about how fabulous he was as a human being, and so that he could destroy the city of Cleveland with this really awkward announcement of his move to Miami:

( the show was called 'The Decision.' With capital letters and everything, for added gravitas and/or asshattery )
Seriously. "Taking my talents to South Beach." Who talks like that? Assholes, that's who.

Anyway, the Miami Superfriends ~~are~~ were supposed to be *the* team to beat this year, with people predicting 72+ wins (in an 82-game season) and all sorts of jackassery. Currently, though, they are 5-4, and they lost last night in the *best* way possible: a massive, embarrassing meltdown in the face of a monstrously good Celtics performance. Basically, I got both the childish glee of watching my favorite team perform high-flying dunks and ridiculous ally-oops and ninja passes and all sorts of cool things while also indulging in the sweet, sweet taste of schaudenfreude that comes from watching the 'best player in the league' brick a three-pointer by hurling the ball off the backboard. A+++++ game, Miami!

AND THEN! After the game my favorite player ever, Paul Pierce (seriously i have his jersey and wore it last night and everything it is kind of embarrassing because it hurts my geek cred) used the Amazing Technology of Twitter to start some awesome trash talking:

( tweet tweet ;D )

AWWWWWW YEAAAAAAAH

Also after the game he was wearing some pretty rockin' glasses that made me :)

( glasses )

4 minutes before i miss the day! PHEW.

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Kanye West - Flashing Lights

I finished the book The Angel's Game this morning after months of picking it up, starting it, getting about 100 pages in, then forgetting about it only to pick it up a few weeks later and start all over again. This is not to say it was a difficult book - far from it - I just wasn't engaged by it for the longest time. After finishing it, I still can't say with certainty whether I enjoyed it or not.

The particulars: the book is described as 'Gothic horror mystery;' it's about a pulp fiction author being contracted to write a book so moving, it becomes a religion unto itself!!!, so it is also a mediation on the act of writing and story crafting. That's a whole lot of pots going at once.

I can't say that it all comes together and works, because it doesn't, but it's a strange kind of failure. The various elements at work never become as compelling as they could, but they fail...on their own merits, so to speak; they don't interfere with each other, if that makes sense. The mystery at the heart of the novel is never truly resolved, and the revelations that do occur fall apart the more one considers them. The setting is undeniably, deliciously Gothic but for all the descriptions of crumbling cemeteries and pools of blood beneath the city and people burned alive there's never a strong sense of horror. I am not sure if something was lost in translation from Spanish to English, but basically...stuff happens, and despite the elegance of the prose I found it impossible for the dread of the situation to sink in.

There's also a requisite romantic subplot which ends up gaining more importance toward the end, which I found unexpectedly touching, even though it was not paticularly well developed and it ends in a very strange, almost...time paradoxical way. Guess I'm just a sucker for prettily-described, doomed romances.

So there's not a whole lot that is striking in this book (at least plotwise) but I can't say I disliked it - for all its flaws there are a lot of witty and beautiful lines. It's a very quotable book, if terribly melodramatic:

"A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price."

"The only way you can truly get to know an author is through the trail of ink he leaves behind him. The person you think you see is only an empty character: truth is always hidden in fiction."

"Isabella, if you really want to devote yourself to writing, or at least to writing something others will read, you're going to have to get used to sometimes being ignored, insulted, and despised and to almost always being considered with indifference. It's an occupational hazard."

"I think you judge yourself too severely, a quality that always distinguishes people of true worth."

"Never underestimate a writer's vanity, especially that of a mediocre writer."

"Don Basilio was a forbidding-looking man with a bushy mustache who did not suffer fools and who subscribed to the theory that the liberal use of adverbs and adjectives was the mark of a pervert or someone with a vitamin deficiency."

"The disease afflicting you has a name, and that is Grand Guignol: it does to drama what syphilis does to your privates. Getting it might be pleasurable, but from then on it's all downhill."

Decidedly overcooked and overthought, but I eat this kind of stuff up. And the book is peppered with these savory little phrases. They are really what make the book worth reading, more than anything else.

***

Been trying to figure out what to do with my Dreamwidth account I've been mulling over the idea of starting a community there - something like a "I love this book" or "I love this song!" sharing community, because I like talking about books and music and listening to others talk about books and music they like. I mean, I'm sure there are tons of communities on both LJ and DW that already have the same idea, but idk i want to create one anyway. ;o;

I don't suppose any of the LJ/DW ppl on my flist would be interested in participating in a book/music community? I think it'd be fun.

here are all the books i read in 2009. IT IS A THRILLING LIST LET ME TELL YOU (actually no :p )

no rhyme or reason. just all the books i can remember reading. :)

( books: fiction )

( books: nonfiction )

24 in total. there are probably a few - possibly more than a few - that I'm missing, especially in the nonfiction section, but still: FAIL :(

(my aim was to read at least 30 books)

will add 2010 planned reading list soon, maybe~

Current Mood: blank

Dear book reviewers everywhere:

A book does not require a likable main character to be good. A good book does not require any likable, or even relatable, characters.

The purpose of a book - at least in books that aspire to qualify as literary (itself a sometimes problematic concept, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish) - is to convey a message, an idea, about some aspect of the world to readers. Sometimes, a narrative that contains only unlikable characters is necessary in order to illustrate an author's theme. Reading a book where, say, all the characters are ruthless and cruel and end up winning at everything can be, should be, emotionally unsatisfying, but that doesn't mean it's a poorly written book, because maybe the author's purpose wasn't to write an emotionally satisfying story. Maybe the author wanted to say, "Hey readers, horrible people get what they want and it sucks."

Disagreeing with an author's theme or premise is a valid criticism. Believing a point would have been better made through the inclusion of sympathetic or 'likable' characters is a valid criticism. Pointing out that a character is not likable when it is clear the author intends to have said character be likable is a valid criticism.

What isn't a valid criticism: saying a book sucks because there were not any characters you felt you could 'root for.'

A great many books are written with the intent to challenge people's assumptions, to make readers reconsider the way they look at particular aspects of society or history or human interaction. When I hear someone dismiss a book on the grounds that 'nobody's likable', I often hear it as 'This book challenged my assumptions about something, and I didn't like it.' I know that is not always the case but I believe it is true for many of them.

So. Readers. Stop insisting books need likable characters. They do not.

Sincerely,

terabient (who is beginning to question putting

bookfails on her f-list)

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Entries tagged with reading

book log 009: The Forgotten Girls

book log 008: The Subtweet

book log 007: The Nakano Thrift Shop

book log 006: Kindred

book log 005: Shadow Theatre

book log 004: The Three-Body Problem

book log 003

book log 002

book log 001

cry harder, baby

book club

NaBloPoMo Day 8: Book Meme

sticky sentences

Readathon: End Survey

Readathon: Final Stretch

Read-a-thon!

it's like the things never end!

Angel's Game

2009 Reading List

nobody likes you