Archive for The “100 Novels” Project

Boat Porn

11/10/2010 ALL, Deep Thoughts, The "100 Novels" Project No comments

You might have noticed that I haven’t posted anything on 20,000 Leagues in a while. I stopped reading it for the same reason I think I’ve stopped every other time I’ve attempted to read it in the past – because I got bored.

I’m on about page 85 right now and so far, except for the first, maybe 20 pages, the entire book has been nothing but boat porn. Don’t get me wrong – I understand that Verne’s ideas for a submarine, possibly nuclear power, definitely electricity, and all that jazz were worlds ahead of their time. I get that he was a visionary and a genius when it comes to projecting our future selves. But, dude, Jules, c’mon – let’s get a story going here again. I’m getting a little tired of hearing about the Nautilus’ awesome technology, like electrical lights that run throughout the ship, the air compression-fired torpedoes that send an electrical shock into their targets, the way lights can be turned on outside the ship and the underwater world viewed through thick, glass portholes. I mean, I get that it’s an amazing ship, but sometimes less is more, man. Let’s get back to ramming some naval ships and having Captain Nemo do something again.

So normally this is probably where I’d stop reading – if I’d even gotten this far, to be honest. But I’m going to push on through the nautical pornography (which reminds me, I haven’t done a Band Name post in forever…) and hopefully get back to some semblance of a story soon. Once Verne and his fictional proxy, Aronnax, stop their lovefest on board the Nautilus, I have a feeling I’ll like where this is going. But in the meantime, it’s a struggle to continue to care, considering I’ve been on a boat so few times I could probably count those trips on two hands (maybe three if a friend lets me borrow one).

I’ll keep you posted on my progress, but here’s hoping we get to the aquatic money shot pretty soon, or else this ship is sunk.

20,000 Leagues – First Post

07/27/2010 ALL, The "100 Novels" Project No comments

I won’t lie – I’ve been avoiding Jules Verne’s classic tale of a giant beast under the sea. I’ve started it a few times and just haven’t been able to get into it. But I’m doing some traveling for work this week, so I’ll be sitting in airports and hotel rooms, giving me a little downtime to get some reading done. So I thought I’d tackle 20,000 Leagues again. Maybe I just need to be isolated with few other entertainment options available to break through the wall and get to the meat of the story. Never underestimate the power of boredom…

Slaughterhouse-Five: Final Thoughts

01/08/2010 ALL, Deep Thoughts, Reviews, The "100 Novels" Project No comments

As I said in my previous S-5 post, there’s no way I’m going to add anything new or original to the discussion of this high school/college English class staple.

So let me just say, if you haven’t read any Vonnegut, this is a really great place to start. It has everything – the rapid-fire delivery, the unusual narrative structure, the minimal dialog, wonderful observations of the world around us, and even a funny drawing at the end of the book. It doesn’t hurt that the message of life, death, and everything else is very moving, funny, and humbling.

I’m back to Moby-Dick right now (via Stanza on my iPod no less), so look for some updates on that soon. One of these days I’m going to read a book that hasn’t been written about extensively, I promise.

Slaughterhouse-Five: First Post

11/30/2009 ALL, Reviews, The "100 Novels" Project No comments

I’m about halfway through my next 100 Novels Project book, Kurt Vonnegut’s classic, Slaughterhouse-Five.

I’ve read this one before; the last time about 4 years ago. It’s not an easy book for some people because of the structure. I mean, you have a guy who is “unstuck in time”, so the narrative jumps all over the place – in World War II for one page, 1960s America the next, and some imaginary planet (presumably) called Tralfamadore on the following page. There are also quite a few heady concepts like the notion that time is not a series of cascading events, but actually occurs all at once, making the ideas of birth and death meaningless.

I have to admit this is probably another of those books that I’m not going to write about much. I mean, let’s face it, I’m not going to say anything that so many college students before me have not already regurgitated so they can muster a B- in English 101. So I will update again when I’m finished, but there won’t be any huge, in-depth research or analysis going on here. If you would like a more thorough examination, I suggest you check out the Wikipedia entry or SparkNotes.

Look for an update when I’m done.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Final Thoughts

09/14/2009 ALL, Deep Thoughts, Reviews, The "100 Novels" Project No comments

I just finished The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The copy I have is a version that was sold to promote the 2005 film adaptation starring Mos Def, Martin Freeman, and Zooey Deschanel. With that in mind, the book is 309 pages long, but 93 pages deals with the production of the film. I didn’t know this until I was on page 216 of the book and the story suddenly stopped.

Now I’m all for cliffhangers. I’m all for a series of books or movies that continues the story. But, man, talk about leaving you hanging – there was zero resolution to this book. Even the Lord of the Rings saga, which was not originally intended to be broken into a trilogy, but was meant to be read as one, long story, had more natural breaks between books than HHG left us with. Maybe it plays differently on the radio, where this story was first produced, but on the page I was left feeling very disappointed with our heroes’ escape from…something.

Then again, maybe this is intentional. Maybe Adams was playing with the storytelling status quo, wherein a story has three specific acts and closes with a satisfying dénouement. Maybe he wanted to mess with us; to throw us off our balance. The rest of the book is so haphazard and random that perhaps this shouldn’t surprise us when he stops before we know why anything is happening.

I guess what I’m saying is, for me, HHG was more a jumble of really funny pieces, but the overall story left me very disappointed. What’s most frustrating is that I appreciate a movie that’s structured like this. In fact, I love Will Ferrell’s Anchorman, primarily because it’s little more than sketch comedy scenes strung together with a threadbare plot. But for whatever reason, this absurdist storytelling doesn’t work for me in a book. And what’s most frustrating about that is I really thought some of it was hilarious.

I loved the concept of what mice on planet Earth really were. I loved Marvin, “the Paranoid Android.” The inner monologue of a missile that was suddenly turned into a whale cracked me up! But put it all together and you don’t really have much coherence. It’s almost like someone turned the improbability drive on at around the midway point of the book.

I know I’m going to get crucified for this in the geek community. To some people, not liking HHG is akin to not liking air. But aside from a few laughs, there was nothing here that helped me understand why this book has become such the cult phenomenon that it is. Maybe I have to read the rest of the 5-part trilogy to see how it all fits together, but, honestly, based upon the first book, I’m not sure I really care.

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