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One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
8 comments:
I'm sorry, guys, I'm not going to make it to the book talk as I feared. I hope you all have a good discussion and enjoy the evening. Please write about it here later!
Awww, :(. I didn't know you were thinking you might not make it. We'll miss you!
~Lisa
For all who asked, DRD's blog:
http://www.crazyormediocre.blogspot.com/
and as a bonus, Ben's:
http://cigarinhand.blogspot.com/
and Insomniac, if you want the URL to my Fantasy Football blog, just ask. ;-)
You are too kind Don =:O
Sorry you couldn't make it Christine. Did you read it? If so, please share your views.
I'll make my admissions about Slaughterhouse 5 here: I didn't like the book. I really despised Billy Pilgrim's fatalistic, uncaring, unemotional character. I didn't get an anti-war feel from the book - just a depressing notion that we have no way to control anything that happens in our lives. I don't like being out of control so I don't buy into such dogma. I think Vonnegut was contradictory in several parts of the book and quite honestly I didn't come away from the read with any real sense of his intentions.
The Tralfamadorians would say that while I have finished reading this book at this moment, I am still reading it in plenty of other moments. I hope not.
As of right now, I'm on page 66/215. I like it so far. I like his voice and the tone. He reminds me of Salinger (who also fought in the war). But something must happen later in the book that turned off most of you guys. We'll see.
Don, may I paste part of your last email to me here?
"The Tralfamadorians would say that while I have finished reading this book at this moment, I am still reading it in plenty of other moments. I hope not."
That was hilarious, Insomniac!
~Lisa
p.s. I guess overall although I found the incessant "so it goes" annoying, and although Billy Pilgrim's character was pretty maddening, I liked the book better than everyone else. I don't like the whole idea of fatalism, but I'm hoping neither did Vonnegut--I'm still not clear on his intentions. I did like his style of writing; I often found it amusing.
I'm halfway into the book, and I really like it. It makes sense to me that he isn't recording clear, factual events so much as he is making a comment on the senselessless of it all. I can't imagine seeing the things a soldier must see and coming back to a "normal" life. How could you? Even the whole alien thing, which is a stretch for me, works on this level. And the "so it goes" isn't bothering me either. Lives are being extinguished one by one. War or not. So it goes.
Interesting that you mentioned Salinger Christine, because Slaughterhouse 5 evokes in me the same feelings of senseless futility that I had about Catcher in the Rye. Both the main characters were irritating to me and I was left with a feeling of hopelessness. I found no humor in either story.
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