Literary Mountain

Last night I finished reading the longest book I've ever picked up.  'War and Peace' by Leo Tolstoy is now sitting on my bookshelf after being read cover to cover.  I started reading it last year in December and it took me nearly a year to finish.  I did take some breaks from reading it.  If I had forced myself to just read this book, it might have been done a month or two earlier.  Being labeled as one of the great novels of all time it had always had my interest.  I've wanted to read it for forever, it just sat on my bookshelf for the better part of a decade before I read it.  It's daunting.

With over fourteen hundred pages it gives the reader time to grow to love the characters.  Unless that character is Pierre.  He is one of the main characters and dear god is he insufferable.  I just didn't like him at all.  Even from the get go.  The book kept going and going and I was waiting to start to identify with this guy, but it just never happened.  The rest of the characters?  Good, some even great.  Just not Pierre.

View this post on Instagram

I have done it! I finished #WarAndPeace. It was enjoyable. It was anguishing at some points. I loved and hated certain characters. It took me less than a year!

A post shared by Michael Litzner (@melitzner) on Nov 7, 2018 at 8:14pm PST

This isn't a book report.  Go read it for yourself if you want the rundown.  No more classic Russian novels for me.  One was more than enough. 

Classic Read

A little over a month ago, I made both a terrible and wonderful decision.  I picked up 'War and Peace'.  I got this book when I was in either high school or college.  I tried once to read it.  In fact, there was still a bookmark on where I left off.  I was a little over half way through when I gave up.  The copy that I have is 1444 pages long.  I started reading on 20 December and it is now 29 January.  So far, I am 323 pages in.  

A post shared by Michael Litzner (@melitzner) on Dec 20, 2017 at 8:15pm PST

I am a notoriously slow reader.  I feel like getting through fifteen to twenty pages a night is a wonderful progress.  There are spans in the book that read quickly others that are slow and extremely detailed in writing.  Tolstoy spends three pages describing a room with two people in it, but will only use up three paragraphs to describe an entire battle sequence.  It's weird.  The goal I have set for myself is to have the book read by 20 December 2018.  I am giving myself an entire calendar year to get through the book.  Should I have it finished by then?  Probably.  But you never know.  

Surprise Book

Last week, my wife and I went to a Barnes & Noble because she has run out of books to read.  I always offer her any number of my books to read, but all my books aren't good (her words, not mine).  Sometimes you just need to go out and buy a new book.  I suggested going to Half Price Books, but the selection isn't always wonderful.  Half Price Books is the place to go if you want to take a risk on a book you've never heard of and won't be mad if you don't end up liking the book.  If you are looking for a new release or a book you want to buy and know you'll enjoy, places like Barnes & Noble is the place to go.

Whenever we go to the book store, I don't ever know what I want.   I don't have a lot of authors that I read on a constant basis.  I usually wander around and hope that something catches my eye.  Not much does.  Then I came across this display. 

A post shared by Michael Litzner (@melitzner) on Jul 4, 2017 at 1:14pm PDT

This is such a cool idea!  All different kinds of options and topics to choose from I didn't really know where to look.  I picked up the book that was wrapped and labeled as 'Blind date with an assassin'.  The notes they had for the book:

• Revenge
• Romance with a touch of magic
• Exciting fight scenes
• Strong Female Protagonist
• Unputdownable 

I loved the 'unputdownable' note.  The fun thing about this idea is that it can introduce you to an author you may have never heard of or a subject you might not have read.  And this book could end up being a dud, but who cares?  It was like opening a gift on your birthday or Christmas.  The book I ended up with is titled 'Poison Study' by Maria V. Snyder.  Of course I hadn't heard of it, so I looked it up online and it's the first of a trilogy.  So first off, thanks Barnes & Noble for putting the first of a trilogy in the mystery game.  Although it would have been smart to put the second or third book of a trilogy because you know most people want to read the whole trilogy.  Will I like this book?  Maybe.  And who knows, I might end up buying two or three more of these blind date books if Barnes & Noble keeps this display up.  I would petition the company to keep this going. 

Random Finds

The cool thing about going into a second hand bookstore is that you never know what you'll find.  When you go into one, you do know what you are going to get.  That musty smell.  You know it.  It's usually a little bit darker.  And every once in a great while, you'll find a bookstore with a cat in it.  Those are the best ones.  The great thing about second hand bookstores are usually locally owned and help drive the local economy.  There has been a great drive to buy local across the country recently, and that is pretty cool.

We have yet to find a cool second hand bookstore in our new city, but I'm always on the look out.  When I find my way into a second hand store, there are a few things I look for.  Classic novels.  They're called classics for a reason and even if you don't end up liking the book at least you can say that you read it.  Or is that just a pretentious thing to do?  You might find a book that is a classic that you end up falling in love with even though you had little to no idea what it was about.  For example, I found a copy of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' many years ago in a second hand store.  I had heard of the book and the character and took advantage of finding it.  I enjoyed the book.  I'm glad I bought it and it is still on my bookshelf.  However, I don't know if I would have bought it if I had seen it at a normal full price bookstore. 

Second hand bookstores also give you the opportunity to find an author or genre you might not have ever seen or given a thought to pick up.  I started reading more fantasy books this way.  You can maybe find a trilogy or a two part book series and can buy the entire set for fairly cheap.  I've bought some books that ended up not being very good, but when you only pay four or five dollars for them, it's not as disappointing as if you had paid full price.  Not that long ago, my wife and I made our way up to a Half Price Books.  It's a nationwide chain of second hand bookstores.  You can also sell your used books there for credit if you so desire.  I found a book called 'The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared'.  The main reason it caught my eye?  The interesting title.  So far, I'm about one hundred and twenty pages into it.  It's a fun book and so far I am glad I found it. 

Find a used bookstore.  Take a chance on a book or a genre you wouldn't normally buy.  You never know what you will find.  You might go down a genre rabbit hole you wouldn't have gone down. 

Deserted Island List

Time for something fun and entertaining as we watch the world around us go to complete and utter shit.  We've all seen or read or thought about what we would bring to a deserted island.  There are plenty of people who can easily spout of four or five books, movies, or albums that they would want to have.  Other people probably wouldn't be able to give you one or two.  Me?  I'd be able to list somewhere in the eight to ten each range, but let's keep focused.  Below is a list of five movies, books, and albums I would want to have with me if I were on a deserted island.  And before someone starts the whole 'how are you going to play your music or movies without any power?', just don't.  Don't be that person.  Just have fun and assume the Professor from Gilligan's Island made me a coconut and solar powered tv/dvd combo type contraption before I murdered him for survival.

Albums:

• The Beatles:  Abbey Road
• The Clash:  London Calling
• Kendrick Lamar:  To Pimp a Butterfly
• Jack White:  Lazaretto
• Led Zeppelin:  Physical Graffiti 

Books:

• The Catcher in the Rye
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
• Common Sense
• The Road
• 44 Dublin Made Me

Movies:

• Casablanca
• No Country for Old Men
• Pulp Fiction
• Good Will Hunting
• Dazed and Confused

The movie part is where it got a little tricky because some of the movies that I love are parts of a trilogy.  My favorite movies of all time are the original Star Wars trilogy.  The same can go for the Lord of the Ring trilogy.  Sure, each movie in both trilogies can stand on their own, but when I watch one I kind of want to watch all of them.  Because the story spans three movies.  So, if I could smash all three Star Wars movies into one, I would bring that.  But I'm staying within the margins I have set for myself while writing this.  Besides, I've seen those movies enough times where I don't need to have them physically.  I have them in my mind.  Always and forever. 

Visual Reading

I have recently found myself drawn to comic books.  I don't know why and I don't know how, but I just find them much more enjoyable than novels at the moment.  Maybe it's because comic book movies are very popular right now.  From X-men to the Avengers to Deadpool, it is gaining momentum every time a movie is successful.  Even television shows are popular.  Arrow and Daredevil are two that I watch through Netflix.  Part of it might also be because it is multi medium.  You have the story telling and plot points, but you also have the visual aspect of it.  My wife jokes that it sure does take me a long time to read a comic, but I enjoy reading the dialogue and then looking over the illustrations for full context of the subject.  Plus, I only read a little bit at a time.  I can't read for hours on end like she can. 

I was never really into comics as a kid.  I had a few.  Mostly random X-Men comics that you could find at a bookstore.  Had a couple of 'What If...' comics.  I did have the death of Superman when it came out.  I hadn't ever read any Superman comics before or since, but I just remember thinking I had to have it.  So I think my brother and I went half in and bought it together.  It is more than likely still at my parents house.  I have no clue. 

For a long time, I read non-fiction books, and while interesting, they were mentally draining.  Sure, you learn a lot about a subject that you are interested in or know little about, but it just isn't always enjoyable.  I'm not in school anymore, I don't really need to learn.  I still have and read non-fiction books.  I have a couple on my shelf right now that I am excited to read, but every time I look at them I give out a bit of a sigh thinking 'that's gonna take a long time to get through.'.  Even fiction novels seem like slow reading to me.  

So, below is my very modest collection of comics and graphic novels.  It started out with 'Watchmen'.  I read my brother's copy several years ago and gave it back.  But then I wanted to re-read it because I felt like there were some things that I just missed in it.  And I thought that while it would be just as easy to borrow it again, it would be a nice book to own.  That way I could read it whenever I felt the need to.  Then 'The Walking Dead' came to be.  Once I got the first and second compendium, I wanted to keep with the theme.  So I anxiously waited for the third one to come out.  And sure, I could just start going out and buying the chapters as they are released, but I like having the big collections.  Just how my mind works.  And thanks to the successful Netflix show, I have really taken interest in Daredevil.  The three that I have I bought for my birthday.  They are the run that Frank Miller did in the late 70s and 80s.  After reading the first collection, I am looking to add as much as possible.  Going back to the very first one and adding everything in between.  This is where sites like Amazon come in handy because you can find literally anything you want.   

What I have found is that collections are the way to go, especially if you are interested in a comic or graphic novel that has been out for a long period of time.  Or if you aren't up to having tons of little comics lying around.  Plus, I'm not going to be running out every couple of weeks to update my collection.  I would rather have these big books versus hundreds of small ones sitting around.  It's all together in binding.  You don't have to try keep going back to the bookshelf once you finish one and then find the next once.  With collections you can just keep turning the pages.

I think that the one problem with comics is that there are just so many.  And I'm not just talking titles, because we all know that, but plenty of comics books have been out for decades.  DECADES.  Daredevil started in the 1960s.  So if you want to read everything that has been published, you are going through sixty years of publication.  So you have the amount of time titles have been out, but then you also have different story arcs, alternate versions, crossovers, all kinds of things.  And that's the cool thing about comics.  In one universe you can have certain characters that are dead, but are brought back in other universes.  Unless it's the 'Walking Dead'.  Once you're gone, you stay gone.  There is no alternate universe.   

Put it Down, it's Okay

I do my best to read.  I am not a quick reader.  My wife and I joke back and forth with the phrase 'you're still reading that book?'.  And when I say it to her, it's because she is reading her third book to my one.  When she says it to me, it's because it takes me months to get through one book.  I only read a chapter or two before bed.  She can read for hours on end. 

I am currently reading Norman Mailer's 'The Deer Park'.  And I gotta tell you, I am struggling.  I am about 120 pages into it and am struggling to stay focused.  I don't know if it's the writing style, if it's the plot, or if it's something else.  I read a chapter, put the book down, and think 'meh'.  At what point, do you think about giving up on a book?  I'm about a third of the way through the book right now.  I have a few books that I have put down because I couldn't get into them.  But it's usually within the first one hundred pages.  I am determined to get through it because there are moments in the book that get me hooked.  It is just followed by a couple of chapters that cannot keep my interest.  

A few of the books have been 'classics' or classic authors.  The two that come to mind are 'Tropic of Cancer' and 'The Dubliners'.  And I know that a lot of people say that James Joyce is hard to read.  But I am determined to give it another try in the future.  I tried reading 'Tropic of Cancer' twice.  Got about fifty pages into and just didn't enjoy it.  You can always make the argument that you have to get to a certain point of a book before you start to enjoy it, but shouldn't that be within the first fifty to one hundred pages?  You need to hook the reader. 

I never want to give up on a book, because some don't start to get really interesting until halfway through.  Like every single Cormac McCarthy book I have ever read.  But with his books, I know that.  And they are all beautifully written so if you aren't hooked by the story line, you can read beautiful prose.  If it's an author I have not read, it's hard to give up on a book.  I want to believe that the plot will get better.  I want to believe the the author is just being an asshole and keeping the reader going.  But sometimes, you just got to walk away from a book.  And that's okay.  There is no shame in not finishing a book. 

Is This Just Fantasy?

There is a nationwide book store chain called Half Price Books and it is awesome.  It's only in sixteen states, which is sad because it is a place that all book lovers would make a trip to.  It is just as their company name says.  They sell books at half the price of the cover price (rare and collectable books excluded).  They also buy books.  You won't get a ton of money, so it'll be like when you traded in your college text books all over but you didn't pay in the three hundred dollar range initially.  

We were there this past weekend because we had a coupon.  As I walked up and down aisles looking for books, any books that caught my attention, I started to think about the books that were on my bookshelf at home.  They were mostly pretty heavy books.  And as fun and satisfying as reading an engaging novel can be, I wanted something different.  I wandered over to the 'sci-fi/fantasy' section.  The main reason I thought about this section was because I started re-reading the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and realized I did not own 'The Hobbit'.  I've read it, just didn't own it.  

*side story*

I tried reading The Hobbit in fifth grade and I remember not liking it.  I don't remember why I didn't like it, I just remember finishing it and being not impressed.  

*side story concluded*

So I grabbed the book thinking that it might be my only purchase.  Then I started looking up and down the shelves of the section and thought 'I should read more fantasy stuff'.  One daunting task is finding what you want to read.  What I didn't want to get was one book that looked interesting only to find out that there's, like, seventeen other books(!) in the series that you need to read in order to fully grasp what is happening in the story.  And one thing that is cool at Half Price Books is that they group book series together.  So if you did want to read an eighteen book series, they would all be on one or two shelves.  

By the end, I found a random book trilogy by an author I had never heard of. Thanks to technology, I was able to look up reviews of the trilogy and the author and make an informed decision.  He has written a series of books that take place in the same world, but from what I can tell, all the books don't tie together.  There are some references to other characters and stories, but he writes stand alone books.  

One reason I decided to read some sci-fi/fantasy is because it's a genre I have always enjoyed (come on, I have a bunch of Star Wars books at home).  But for some reason I ventured away from the genre when it has come to books in my adult life.  Sci-fi and fantasy books have a certain quality to them that other novels can't touch.  It's at another level of creativity from a writing stance.  Think of the 'Lord of the Rings' books and world. J.R.R. Tolkien created an entire fucking language when he wrote those novels.  That's unreal!  

More than anything, it's just fun.  And that's what reading really should be about.  I have history books and political books and classic novels, but they aren't as fun to read as sci-fi and fantasy books.

How Best to Beat the Bookstores

I found a gift card for a chain bookstore in my wallet the other day.  It had been there for such a long time I forgot who gave it to me or when they did.  I thought there was close to nothing on it because it had been there for such a long time.  I went to the website to check the balance and there was enough to cover the price (or at least most of it) of a new book!  I was so excited.  I don't go to the bookstores much because the prices for the books is crazy.  Especially because there are several options that are not big chain bookstores.

One option is used bookstores.  Used bookstores are usually local and independent so it's great for them and the local economy.  Look at it as giving back without getting tons of those address stickers in the mail from some random organization you donated to once back in college.  There are some drawbacks.  The books are not always in the best of condition.  The selection isn't always the best either.  But it's cheap!  Plus, you may stumble across a book or an author you have never heard of before and thought 'what the hell, it's only three dollars.'  That is the glory of used bookstores.  I'm reading 'Main Street' by Sinclair Lewis right now.  I had never heard of it and found it in a used bookstore.  Come to find out, it's considered a classic book.  And he was from Minnesota, so yeah.  

Another option is the library.  What?!  What is this strange thing that I have forgotten about?   Go old school and go get a library card.  Someone like me, a slow reader, this might not be the best option.  It would depend on how long you are able to check out a book.  I think most libraries are one to two weeks.  I have a hard time reading a book in a month or two months.  So I don't know how I would be able to read a book in half the time.  But at the same time, it would force someone to read more or at a quicker rate.  I remember being a kid and going to the library a lot during the summer.  It was great.  I had my own library card.  I took total advantage of the library to get pizza from Pizza Hut via the Book It program.  It was wonderful.  The one disadvantage is not owning the book.  If you find a random book and fall in love with it, you do have to return it.  Or never ever go back to the library again.  The choice is yours. 

The last option is a great website we found several years ago.  So here are the advantages:  it's cheap to mail the books (about $2.50 [more for hardcover] using media mail), you get as much as you give, every single book you could ever want is available, and popular books are in high circulation.  Here are some disadvantages:  if it's not a popular book, you'll be waiting for a long ass time, you don't know the true condition of the book, you have to wait for the book to arrive.  We have not had many problems sending or receiving books through this website.  There are options you can use so you don't end up with books that were once in a smoker's house or that have been sitting in an attic or basement and are all musty too.  So that's nice.  The major problem I have found is requesting books that are not in high demand.  I have been waiting for three books to come up and I have been waiting for them for quite a while.  Part of me just really wants to go out and buy them.  But I'm waiting.  Ever so patiently.  You essentially wait your turn for the book to be posted and you claim that you want it and then it is sent to you.  It's a great and cheap way to keep refreshing your personal library.  You can keep the books you truly wanted and send off the ones that you wanted to read and be done with.  A great program.

These are all great ways to keep your library fresh and updated.  And all these options are within reach of everyone.  These options are also great for those who are living on a budget but still want to continue to read.  Why spend twenty dollars on a new book at a chain bookstore when you can buy the same book at a much cheaper price?  Now don't get me wrong, every once in a while I want a new book.  Brand new.  Without any creases or bends in the pages.  New is fun sometimes.  The only downside to that is that it doesn't have that used book smell.  You all know what I mean.  

8/120

Source Material

I finished reading the 'Walking Dead' graphic novels earlier this month.  Well, not all of them.  There have been a handful that have been published since I got the set I have.  Either way, they are straight up amazing!  The first graphic novels I have ever really wanted.  I wanted them because of the television show.  I wanted to see the similarities and the differences.  I read 'The Watchmen' after seeing the movie and enjoyed it as well.  Graphic novels are basically grown up comic books that make you sound not like a little kid when talking about them.  But here's the thing with graphic novels or any other written material, they can go a bit further than you can with a television show or movie.  That's the nice thing.  The Walking Dead is so much darker as a graphic novel set than the show ever will be.  And I love it.  But here's the thing, because you can't be as dark on television or movies, the show/movie developers have to make changes.  Which can be a good thing, but also a bad thing.  And it's up to those who have read the original source material on whether or not to make a big deal about it.

The first time I remember finding out a book and movie had different things happen was with 'Jurassic Park'.  I saw the movie when it came out a couple of times because it was only two dollars back then.  Yeah.  TWO DOLLARS!  I loved the movie and even today it is still entertaining.  I read the book a few years later and was dismayed at the differences.  I just didn't understand why the book and movie differed.  Over the years, I have come to the decision that the book was better than the movie, but when I first read the book I was a little pissed about it.  I didn't quite understand that the book came out before the movie.  How do you fully explain source materials to an eleven year old and how a movie and book can have different events happen in them?  

During the seasons of The Walking Dead, I have had these thoughts go through my head like 'Well that's different from the books.' or  'That didn't happen to that character, it happened to someone else!'.  Sometimes the changes are irritating and other times I look at them as they are for the best for the characters or story lines.  There are two major differences from the books to the show that always sit in my mind and both have major impacts.  Don't worry, these aren't major spoilers.  The first is that the character Daryl from the show doesn't even exist in the books.  At all.  In the show he is a major character in the main group and has become a fan favorite.  He is an overall badass.  The other difference is that the character of Rick is disfigured in the books.  It is a major setback for him but so far in the show it hasn't happened (and who knows if it will!).  I like these differences from the books and show, but have read rumblings about the disappointment of others on the internet.  I say who cares?  The main story is still going and that is what should really matter.

As long as the main story is intact, than who cares about some of the details?  I have learned to enjoy some of the changes from original material to new a format.  If anything, it can make for a great conversation.  You can talk about the similarities and differences and how that helps or hinders the overall plot.  Original material can be hard to transition from book to screen.  With books, there can be great narration for pages and pages (see Hemingway, Ernest or McCarthy, Cormac) that just flat out cannot be made on the screen.  Beauty can be captured on the screen, but not all the time.  At times, it is best left on the pages. 

Re-read recap

Last November, I decided to take this year and re-read some of my books.  They had been collecting dust over the years and thought that as long as they're there, I might as well enjoy them again.  Isn't that the point of keeping them?  Along with the list below, I read the Walking Dead graphic novels.  They have put together two compilations for the entire series so far.  It was a nice change of pace from the novels I read.  So here's a breakdown of what I read over the past twelve months:

• The Old Man and the Sea
• The Killer Angels
• Diary
• Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour:  An Introduction
• Franny and Zooey
• The Zombie Survival Guide 
• Prison Writings:  My Life is My Sun Dance
• Nine Stories
• 44 Dublin Made Me 
• Jedi Search
• Dark Apprentice
• Champions of the Force
• Gone for Soldiers 
• The Dharma Bums
• Skeleton Crew
• Survivor 
• On The Road
• The Catcher in the Rye

This makes me happy on several levels.  One, I read more this year than last.  Two, these books are re-read for a reason.  I enjoyed then when I first read them, I loved them when I read them again.  I have, since I first read it in high school, loved The Catcher in the Rye.  It has been my favorite book ever since.  Slowly closing the gap, however, is 44 Dublin Made Me.  I have not read many memoirs, but for whatever reason this one gripped me when I first stumbled across it in a second hand book store down in Wichita.

The Star Wars books I bought while in middle school and high school.  I have about a dozen books at my mom and dad's house.  I'll eventually get them all back to Minnesota, I just don't have a ton of space right now.  I have really embraced my nerdy past recently and I'm loving every minute of it. These books are easy reads which are something everyone needs to have in their book collection.  Easy reads feel like a reset button to me.  They remind me of why I enjoy books and reading. 

I got to the middle of August and started to regret my decision to do this.  Right around the time I was reading 'Gone for Soldiers'.  Mainly because I started to collect a ton of books that I really, really wanted to read.  But I made it a point to read nothing but books that I had previously read and I stuck to it.  So I made it through the year of re-reading.  Almost twenty books in the year.  Quite a change from last year's six books.  Now, on to the stack of books that have been calling my name for the past four months.  

The Book Movie Connection

We are four months into the year and already I have read more books than I did last year.  Partly because I have sworn off history books for at least a year (learning is hard guys) and partly because I'm reading books I love.  Books that I have read over and over.  Reading books several times over is easy because you have it in your mind what the characters look like, what the characters are wearing, how they walk, how they talk.  They are familiar faces in your mind.  When you read a new book, you have to develop the characters or at least I do.  And that is where I start to slow down when I read.

Part of the slow down is trying to develop the characters in my head despite the fact that this is what the author has done.  However, telling me someone is wearing a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, and sunglasses doesn't help me out.  Is there a graphic on the sweatshirt?  What color is the sweatshirt?  Are the jeans some old beat up pair with a ton of tears in them or brand new?  Are they a pair of acid wash 80s throwback?  See, this is what I deal with.  And yes, some authors go into detail about these little things which is awesome because the work is done for me.

This is where movies help me out.  Not everyone is a fan of a movie being adapted from a book, but it's okay by my standards.  I remember reading 'Jurassic Park' after seeing the movie.  Despite the differences, it was so much better for me to read it after seeing the movie because the characters were already there.  Same thing when I read the 'Lord of the Ring' trilogy.  Having this kind of connection in my mind helps to get me through some books.  

To counter this point, isn't one of the points of a book to engage your mind and imagination?  And I say absolutely!  For example. all the Cormac McCarthy books that I have read (four in total) I have fully developed the characters in my mind.  What helps out is his attention to detail.  While it may take longer to finish the book, I find myself going back and re-reading paragraphs, pages, or even chapters just to absorb as much detail as possible.  That is the glory of his writing style.  Don Delillo is the same way (I've read three of his books).  Both throw out some heavy subjects and the detail that they write with helps to get through the books.  

The story is in the details, but getting a boost from the silver screen every once in a while helps.  

Books, Music, and Movies

Generally, I try to write with some purpose.  To write something to ponder about.  Something that will lead to a great discussion.  Something that can lead to a heated argument.  Other times, I just want to write to write.  Kind of like a fluff piece, but better.  Because I wrote it.  This is one of those times.  

Over the past ten days, our computer was being repaired.  There was a cord that was getting pinched and was causing the back light on the monitor to occasionally go out.  So we would move it to a different angle and it would light up again.  It got to the point where it took a lot of time just to get the light to come on at a reasonable angle and we took it in for repairs.  So for ten days, we had no computer.  It was...interesting.

Having smart phones, we were able to access stuff like email, twitter, and facebook so there wasn't much to be missed out on.  Not having a computer meant not spending as much time looking at websites created as time wasters.  Personally, I spent a little more time reading because of it.  While there is not much on TV, I would use the computer, but not having the computer, I went into the bedroom and read.  I read a book in the time of not having a computer, which is a big deal for me because I am a slow reader.  Since making my decision to re-read some of my books, I have gotten through two books in just about a month.  And not having a computer at hand helped with this.  

Earlier this week, I came to the realization that I still enjoy making burnt CDs, or if you want to go old school, making mix tapes.  Of course there are no more blank tapes anywhere (are there?) and CDs are now just about as obsolete.  I think that it is just fun to have a CD with nothing but music that you want to listen to.  Sure, having an iPod and an auxiliary jack in your car gives you the same thing, but whatever.  This is something to hold onto.  Something that still links you to the past and where we are at as a technological society.  There are people that still remember eight track players in cars and how that was the greatest thing.  I remember the tape that you plugged into your portable CD player to listen to your CDs that way.

On my day off I went to the movies.  By myself.  It was great!  I hadn't been to the movies in such a long time and it is too bad because there have been quite a few that have come out over the past year that I wanted to go see.  We have been watching our spending recently, and cutting out movies is a great way to help with that.  I finally got to the point where I wanted to splurge so I went to the movies.  The nice thing is that the theatre that is here only cost four dollars during the day and six dollars at night.  Super cheap compared to some.  And this isn't a second run theatre, they show what is out now.  So I went and watched 'The Hobbit'.  I've only read the book once and that was back in college, and I really don't remember much about it so I will not be arguing with anyone about it.  It was enjoyable.  I went by myself because my wife had no desire to see it.  She has never wanted to watch any of the Lord of the Ring movies.  I don't know what is wrong with her either.  After a very stressful few months at work, it was nice to get out and relax like that, alone.  To forget about everything for a few hours.  And because it has been out for a few months, there were only about a dozen people watching it, so that made it so much better.  I do not like seeing movies in crowded theatres.  

2013: The Year of the Re-Read

While struggling to get into Walden, I looked through the stack of books I have yet to read.  They are all books that I really want to read, but didn't find any of them interesting right now.  I went to the book shelf to see if there were any books I hadn't yet read, but couldn't find any.  Then I started to look at some of books I have already read.  Is the point of owning books to just read them once or twice then never again?  I think not.

For the next year, I will be putting the books I have not read back on the shelf and will dig into some of the books I have read already.  I grabbed seven books to start with.  Everything ranging from Hemingway to Stephen King to one of the few memoirs I have truly enjoyed.  In 2012, I made a point to read six new books and it was tough at times because I felt like I was on a time crunch to finish the books before the end of the year.  I don't want to pressure myself into finishing a set number of books.  I've said it before and will say it again, I am a very slow reader.  So whichever books I get through that'll be good enough for me this year.

It's like comfort food for the mind.  All year long.  

Six Pack of Books

I have finished my six books that I set out to read through the year.  While I feel great for reaching my goal, it's just six books.  Although it did lower the stack of unread books on the bookshelf, this isn't some huge accomplishment.  Having a goal of reading through just six books isn't the largest of goals, but it was for me because I don't read quickly.  What I feel best about is that these books were not all novels, three of them were history books.  Heavy reading well worth it based on the topics.  

The last book I read, Suttree by Cormac McCarthy, was extremely depressing.  I've read books that have had sad moments when you put it down at the end of the night and just want to cry yourself to sleep or wonder how you can avoid such a situation, but this book....the entire time I was reading it, I felt really down.  Maybe it was the way McCarthy painted the situations, he has such a great way with words.  Don't believe me?  Read 'The Road'. 

I think that the one scene in the book that just got to me was four characters sleeping in an abandoned car and starting a fire on the floor boards just to keep warm and make it through the night.  You can just see this old rusted out car with no windows, no wheels, remnants of seats.  You can picture four grown men huddled on the floor of this car and being okay with the situation because they don't know a better life.  I finished that part of the book and didn't read for about two weeks.   

As with all of McCarthy's books that I read, it was a good book just really tough to get through.  I need to find something light and fun to read now.  I still have seven books that I haven't read, but I may try to find an old favorite.  As long as it isn't 'The Jungle', the most depressing book I have ever read.  EVER! 

• Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies
• Tell All
• Damned
• A Little Matter of Genocide:  Holocaust and Denial in the Americas from 1492 to Present
• Suttree
• Founding Brothers:  The Revolutionary Generation

Chuck Being Chuck

I'm past the home stretch.  I have but one book left in my little quest to feel like I have accomplished something in a year.  After I finish up with these six books, I think I might just place every book I haven't read on my night stand.  A bigger challenge to see how many I can get through before next January, which sadly is five months away.   

When I was first introduced to Chuck Palahniuk's books I was a little skeptical.  I read 'Fight Club' after seeing the movie so the twist in the book wasn't much of a twist to me.  I picked up a few more of his books here and there and started to read them.  'Survivor' got me hooked on Palahniuk.  Yes, his writing style is weird.  Yes, his plots are twisted from time to time.  Yes, I question whether or not I am ever going to read another one of his books.  He has hits and misses, but doesn't every writer?  The thing about his writing is he doesn't stick to one style.  He changes his approach in each book and that is one thing I like about him.  You never know how much different the next book is going to be.  Is he ever going to win a Pulitzer Prize?  Probably not.  Would I read any of his books over, say, a James Patterson book?  Absolutely. 

'Damned' was a little more normal that I had anticipated, but still bordered on weird.  After some of his other books that went way far out, it feels like he has dialed it back a little bit on the two books of his that I read this year.  Just like 'Tell All' it took a while to get into the story because the main character didn't develop until a third of the way through the book. 

I know that this book focused just mainly on the narrator, but what makes a book a good book or even a great book, is secondary characters.  It's one thing to have a book mainly about one person, in the style of 'Old Man and the Sea', and have only a few minor characters that are around for just a few pages and it's another thing to introduce supporting characters, keep them around for the entire book, and not develop them.  It's infuriating!  But, it's what Chuck Palahniuk does.  He writes whatever he wants to and probably tells his editor to get bent. 

• Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies
• Tell All
• Damned
• A Little Matter of Genocide:  Holocaust and Denial in the Americas from 1492 to Present
• Suttree
• Founding Brothers:  The Revolutionary Generation

Love Him or Hate Him

Two books down, four to go.  Basically ten months left in the year.

• Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies
• Tell All
• Damned
• A Little Matter of Genocide:  Holocaust and Denial in the Americas from 1492 to Present
• Suttree
• Founding Brothers:  The Revolutionary Generation

 So, the thing about Chuck Palahniuk is you either love him or you hate him.  Tell All could be the breaking point for anyone who has been sitting on the fence about him.  Don't read it if you aren't fully entrenched in his style of writing.  I have now read eight of his books and every time I get into one, I think to myself 'this is it, he has finally lost me.'  Then I finish the book and think 'Goddamn you Chuck Palahniuk!'  I even throw a fist in the air and shake it angrily like an old man.  I got a third of the way through Tell All thinking that nothing will happen.   Then two thirds of the way through I still thought nothing was going to happen.....then the last third of the book.  The twists in his books are what M. Night Shyamalan's twists dream about being.  He always seems to have something in each book that is just different about it.  In Tell All, any name drop was in bold lettering.  A little annoying at first, but it makes sense as you go on.  It's all about name dropping, along with the other parts of the plot.  

The nice thing about his books is that they are fairly short.  This one was under two hundred pages.  A nice break considering the last book I read was a history book.  And over four hundred pages long (still don't regret reading it).  The bad thing about his books is that the hook to get the reader to keep going is past the halfway point.  Oh well, I still love his books.

Progress in the Stack

A quick update on the book reading resolution:

• Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies
• Tell All
• Damned
• A Little Matter of Genocide:  Holocaust and Denial in the Americas from 1492 to Present
• Suttree
• Founding Brothers:  The Revolutionary Generation

One down, five to go.  GGS was definitely a tough nut to crack.  The way it was written was a kind of all over the place.  The author didn't do the readers any favor by keeping a straight and narrow path throughout time and throughout the book.  That was the only real draw back.  It was full of great information, first hand experiences the author has had with some of New Guinea's aboriginal people, and enough charts to last a life times.  It was tough to get into, as you would imagine with a history book, but once the connections and differences between thriving societies and those still in a hunter/gatherer type of a society

Now, onward to the next book and what hopefully will be an easier read and one that will be much more enjoyable.  A fun read if you will. 

How to best the books and timelines

*Author's note:  this is the 600th post at My Own Manifesto.  Kind of a big deal*

So I made a resolution to read six books this year.  Not the greatest resolution ever and kind of setting the low for an entire year, but reading one book in two months is a decent clip for me, so I'm sticking with it.  Besides, resolutions don't have to be an earth shattering goal.  Sometimes smaller, easier goals are the way to go. 

The best way that I can see going about this is setting a day to day goal for the books.  The one that I am reading right now is 450 some pages.  So, I figured that if I read ten pages a day, I would be able to finish the book in a month and a half.  Right now, I'm on page 145, so I'm a little behind.  To be fair, I worked closing shifts most of the week last week so it threw a kink into the plan, but I have the day off today so I might find some time to pick up the slack.  Besides, there is still a fifteen day grace period between the second a third month in which I need to finish this book (if I keep on the pace of two months per book).  But that's a bad way to look at it.  Plus, it isn't like I'm going to wait for the two months to end in the event that I finish a book a little early.  That just means that there is more time to read the next book.

With the novels, it might be a little more difficult to just read ten pages a day.  Just reading ten pages can leave you in the midst of great story development or a character revelation.  Who wants to stop half way through that?  With the history books, you are reading for knowledge.  Pretty dry stuff despite the fact that it is really interesting.  It's history, it has already happened.  It's not going anywhere you don't expect it to take a big twist.  That is part of the fun with the history books.  It is more about analysis and opinion than it is about the main character and story line.





At least I find it fun.

Onward resolution makers!

New year resolutions are a joke.  I think that is why they are broken so easily.  Not everyone has the tenacity to keep up year round on what they decide to do at the beginning of the year.  I think one factor is that resolutions aren't specific enough.  Some people want to lose weight over the course of the year, but does weighing 210 pounds in January and weighing 208 pounds at the end of December constitute a completion of a weight lose resolution?  When people talk about losing weight, they don't target two pounds as a goal.  What about exercising more?  If you didn't work out at all the previous year, going to the gym once fulfills the resolution.  For every failure there are successes too, don't get me wrong, but if you talk to people in June about how they are doing on their resolutions, how many of them just flat out laugh about it?

This year, I want to read a bunch of books, and by a bunch I mean a handful.  I'm okay with the fact that I am a slow reader, but I have picked out six books I want to read over the course of the year.  Six books doesn't sound like a lot, but it is a good goal for me. 

• Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies
• Tell All
• Damned
• A Little Matter of Genocide:  Holocaust and Denial in the Americas from 1492 to Present
• Suttree
• Founding Brothers:  The Revolutionary Generation

Again, six books doesn't sound like a lot, but there are three history books on this list and are heavy reading.  I've started with Guns, Germs, and Steel and cheated a little bit because I started this book in December.  Now, let's talk strategy.  What is the easiest way to get through this list (no, reading faster is not the answer).  Is it read all the history books first and blast through the novels or vice versa?  Or alternate between the novels and history books?  Or some other pattern.  I think that going with two history books followed by the three novels and finishing off the year with the last history book is the way to go.  





So it begins.  *Dramatic movie music*