Brian.
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Fremder by Russell Hoban
Synopsis
Fourth Galaxy, 4 November 2052: in the black sparkle of deep space a figure in a blue overall tumbles over and over as it drifts towards the planet Badr-al-Budur. No space suit, no helmet, no oxygen. He can't be alive, can he? But he is. First Navigator Fremder Gorn is the only survivor when the Corporation tanker Clever Daughter disappears. Nobady knows how he did it, and everybody, including Fremder himself, wants to know. Caroline Lovecraft, Head of the Physio/Psycho unit at Newton Centre, Hubble Straits finds that intimacy doesn't lead to answers and Fremder's own memories are resolutely obscure. Fremder's name means stranger, and his story, as one would expect from Russell Hoban, is full of strangeness and brilliant imagery. (Taken from Amazon)
My Thoughts
I decided that it was about time I took a look at some sci-fi, a new genre of fiction for me. I picked this up the other day at a charity store based entirely on the cover and the blurb on the back. I didn't know what to expect and came out pleasantly surprised.
The story has some nice twist and turns throughout and remains engaging. Its only a short book at 180 pages but that feels about perfect, anymore would just be filling. Strangely after reading it feels as though there is so much more to the whole story though, almost like this episode 1 of a series.
Apart from that, there isnt a lot more I can say, I enjoyed the story and the writing evoked a lot of good imagery in my mind. I thought that the use of classical music and paintings was a little overdone but not to the detriment of the storyline. I will certainly be hunting out some Hoban in the future.
7/10
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Day 11 – A book you hated
Simple, Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. In my English Literature lessons at school I got to read Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream which I enjoyed. Sadly I was forced to read Tess as well and I hated it. Part of me wants to read it again to see if I hate it as much now but I remember it being torture at the time. Forcing school kids to read classics is not a way to encourage an interest in Literature in my opinion.
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Thanks for the kind words Julie, being in the correct mood is certainly a must in my opinion.
Day 10 – Favourite classic book
I'm going to have to pull a bit of a fast one with this and choose a modern-classic instead of a bonifide classic. I have a pretty good reason for this, I've probably only read 2 or 3 old classics. Anyway, my choice is Animal Farm by George Orwell. I never thought that this kind of fiction would appeal to me but I loved it. It's one of the first novels I had ever read which relies strongly on an allegorical story.
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Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Synopsis
As the snow begins to fall, a journalist arrives in the remote city of Kars on the Turkish border. Kars is a troubled place - there's a suicide epidemic among its young women, Islamists are poised to win the local elections, and the head of the intelligence service is viciously effective. When the growing blizzard cuts off the outside world, the stage is set for a terrible and desperate act . . . Orhan Pamuk's magnificent and bestselling new novel evokes the spiritual fragility of the non-Western world, its ambivalence about the godless West, and its fury. (Taken from Amazon)
My Thoughts
I'm not sure where to start with this book. It's another one of the '1001' list titles that I've had sitting on my shelf for a while and read it at the suggestion of people on here. The book has been rattling around my head ever since I finished it, this rarely happens for me. I've never read anything quite like this before so I'm not sure how it sits with me.
It took me a long time to get into the story, 200 pages in fact and in most cases I would have given up after 100. I decided to stick with it as I knew a few people on BCF wanted my opinions on it (I'm honoured). I felt the story wasn't really going anywhere and was really turgid. This isnt a book to pick up and read quickly, I found it required some effort initially to stick with it. I also couldn't help but feel slightly hamstrung by the fact that I'm not familiar with Turkish customs and culture. For example, the characters seemed to cry far too much for me and provintial Turkish life is completely alien.
I also read afterwards that the names in Turkish are quite symbolic to the the story. For example, the main character (Ka) has a shortened name that would never be found in Turkey. As a further exmaple, the city the story is set is called Kars, Kar being the Turkish for 'Snow'. The main events in the story are symbolized by events in a theatre, the main thing being the stuggle between the secular state and the Islamic government. This is all tied in with poverty, isolation and odd love stories.
It's this symbolism which probably caused me the most problems as not knowing the story behind the symbolism made it hard to grasp at times. I suspect though that this in large part due to my inexperience in dealing with this kind of fiction. Like I said it required me effort to get through some early parts of the story but it was worth it in the end. I would have probably prefered a more straight forward story but that's personal preference.
All this probably sounds like I felt negatively towards the book but I didn't, I just feel like I should be as thourough as I can. The two main things that stuck me about Pamuk's writing are his environment and his characters. He made the city of Kars feel hugely isolated and oppressive. His use of the city helf to seige by the snow creates a wonderful effect of total isolation. The constant snow feels like the un-relenting drip drip of life breaking you down. It's effect is mirrored by the people who live in Kars, largely un-employed and really down trodden about life.
His characters are also a bit odd. His descriptions lean far more towards the intangibles of the characters rather than their physical attributes. Its like he uses emotion to build a spirit of person rather than the person of person if that makes sense. Due to this and their unique Turkish ways it was hard to relate to individual characters but I suspect they were symbols of group sentiment rather than people in their own right.
One last thing I would say is that when the main event happen, especially the first it completely surprised me and I didn't see it coming at all. I found this to be an enjoyable book of a little hard in places. It doesn't make me want to read anymore Orhan Pamuk soon but certainly doesn't put me off reading his other books at some point in the future.
6/10
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Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
My choice is The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. I managed to get this from BookMooch and picked it up out of desperation because there was nothing I really wanted available. I saw that it was part of the '1001' list so reluctantly went for it. Upto that point I had never read a fiction title by a German author and really didnt think I could get into fiction at all.
I'm still not sure how but the story drew me in and I was really fascinated. The 2 main characters were captivating and the story a really great one.
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Just finished reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Still a bit unsure what to make of it so I think I'll leave my thoughts on it until the morning.
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Day 08 – Most overrated book
This is a tricky one as it inevitably turns into 'what book did you not enjoy that others like'. I'm going to have to choose American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I just did not get on with this book at all and it took some effort on my part to get through it and I really wanted to enjoy it. I didn't get on with his writing style and thought that it was plain nasty in a lot of places needlessly.
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Easy Reader - Be sure to let me know what you think of it when you get round to reading it.
Julie - Thanks for the recommendation, I shall add it to my wish list and check it out. I'll let you know what I think of it when I do.
Chesilbeach - I've not read any of Jim Dodge's other books but the blurb for Fup sounds utterly bonkers. Its got me intrigued, I'll have to see if my local library has it or can get it in.
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Day 07 – Most underrated book
I'm going to pick a book which is in '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die' by Peter Boxall but I've never seen mentioned outside this list. It may be that I don't frequent the right places to see it mentioned though. The book is Stone Junction by Jim Dodge. I bought it purely because of its cover about 4 or 5 years ago assuming that due to the cover it would be an American western tale or something baes in Vegas. I really should have read the blurb because its anything but this.
The story focuses on Daniel Pearse who's mother is killed and he is taken under the wing of the AMO - Alliance of Magicians and Outlaws. Under their guidance he learns magic, how to play poker, how to make himself invisble and how to crack safes. I think over time it has become a bit of a cult hit but it should have been read by far more people.
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How about a donation to a literacy charity based on the severity of your negative score?
Or send the others cookies
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Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Eyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Muller. This book was written by a guy who was send to Auschwitz on one of the first transports in 1942. Somehow he managed to survive until the end of the was and remains one of the few people who saw the gassings at first hand and lived to tell the story. This is a seriously harrowing book to read. I've leant it to a few people over the years and everyone has felt really crappy after reading it.
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Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
This one is easy for me, Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera. Its a great little book about a girl who wants to become the chief of her tribe. The big issue is that her grandfather believe that tradition dictates that the leader should only be a male. It's one of the few books I've read where the movie was as heart warming as the book.
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On a different note I did something for the first time today, I went book shopping in a charity shop, well two. I don't know why it had never occured to me in the past but for some reason it hadn't. In the end I picked up 7 books for less than £9.
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Smiley's People - John Le Carre
Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid
Fremder - Russell Hoban (picked this up on a whim, sci-fi)
White Noise - Don DeLillo
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
It's been a good morning so far. Made a start on Snow by Orhan Pamuk last night, I don't think it's going to be a quick read but I think I'm going to really enjoy it.
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Machine head were, as you say, Epic. They really know how to put on a great show and despite playing for 2 hours the set seemed to really fly by. The support acts, well 1 in specific weren't really to my liking but that happens from time to time.
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Day 04 – Favourite book of your favourite series
It has to be the first book in the series The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. All 3 of the books I really enjoyed but the first one laid down a great foundation and I thought the story line just worked. In the other 2 books I felt there was a little un-needed filler in both, especially at the start of the books. The first one also took the least amount of pages to hook in me in where as some of the others took 150 odd pages to grab me.
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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Synopsis
Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the approval of his father and resolves to win the local kite-fighting tournament, to prove that he has the makings of a man. His loyal friend Hassan promises to help him - for he always helps Amir - but this is 1970s Afghanistan and Hassan is merely a low-caste servant who is jeered at in the street, although Amir still feels jealous of his natural courage and the place he holds in his father's heart. But neither of the boys could foresee what would happen to Hassan on the afternoon of the tournament, which was to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return, to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption. (Taken from Amazon)
My Thoughts
First of all I have to say thanks to Kidsmum, Sofia & Julie for suggesting that I go for The Kite Runner otherwise it may well have sat on my bookcase unread for another year. Its a pretty well read copy I have, it must have been one of my few BookMooch successes. Its been sitting on my bookcase for at least a year maybe more.
Onto the book, I absolutely loved it, I've never had a book get to me on an emotional level as much as this one did. Despite trying to avoid anything to do with the book I knew the fate awaiting Hassan as a boy as it has caused some controversy. I thought that Hosseini handled this very well, little to no graphic detail, its all left up to the reader. The first part of the story is beautifully written and it made me a little sad knowing that the good times wouldnt last.
The rest of the story pulls the emotion in just the right areas, the good times rise gently but the lows crash in devestating fashion. I like to think I am a good judge of what's going to happen in a books but more than 1 of the plot twists caught me completely off guard. Occasionally they feel a little contrived but not to the point where the story is spoilt.
I'm trying to be very careful about not posting any plot spoilers so that I don't spoil it for other people. To this end, I'll skirt over the ending a bit and just say that I thought the ending was perfect. Had it been done in another way I think it would have spoiled the overall tone of the book. This makes me really want to read A Thousand Splendid Suns because I've read that a lot of people think it's even better.
Best fiction book I've read this year.
10/10
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Day 03 – Your favourite series
Almost all the book I read are individual and not part of a series so this make my choice a bit tricky. I've only read 2 series off the top of my head, the Cicero series by Robert Harris and the Millenium trilogy by Steig Larsson. So far I've enjoyed the Cicero books, I'm eagerly awaiting the third book to come along. I have to choose The Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson. I had some doubts over whether it would be for me but I really enjoyed it. I was initially also put off a bit by the increasing size of the books but found it to not be a problem after all.
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Thought I should add the ones I've read to this thread seeing as though I am picking books off the list every so often. I'm working from the 2008 edition, I have the list as an Excel Doc, if anyone wants it, PM me an email add and I'll shoot it your way.
Justine - Marquis de Sade
Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan
Siddharta - Hermann Hesse
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Junkie (Junky) - William Burroughs
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Stone Junction - Jim Dodge
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho
Fear and Trembling - Amelie Nothomb
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
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Anyone care to share their live music experiences, I tend of go to quite a few gigs throughout the year. This includes the Sonisphere festival that I try to get to each year (its only be going a few years). Recently I saw Red Hot Chili Peppers at the O2 and it was a great show. I'm not a huge fan of their music but they certainly live upto the reputation of being a great live act. I'm going to see Machine Head at Wembley Arena on Saturday night and I expect it will be good mayhem. I've seen them live twice before and they were superb both times.
I've had a quick scan and can't see another live music topic, if there is one, I apologise.
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Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
This one is a little tricky as I rarely if ever re-read books. Its going to have to be a non-fiction title, Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor. This was the first book about Buddhism I ever read and picked it up purely on a whim. At the time it was probably the ideal introduction to Buddhism I could have read as its very simply laid out. There is little to no dogma in it, everything is tailored to a modern setting. If I had to put a number on it, I've probably read it half a dozen times and given away just as many copies.
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Re: our PMs regarding book swap: See, you liked this book and still you are willing to swap it for some other! I could never do that, but I admire your willingness to let go and venture on new books
I have to ask: are there books that you do keep?I'm not sure if I knew you were doing the 1001 challenge, but anyways, nice to see other folk who are participating
I've wanted to read beat authors as well, for a while now, but have only managed to read On the Road so far (which I enjoyed, and you didn't 
). This sounds good, autobio and yet not. I really need to bump this novel up on my list.
There are books I keep, in fact pretty much all the books I've bought. I've been trying to trim numbers for a while without just giving them away. I had a go at BookMooch the other year but there was little of interest in there. I sent away about 10 books and picked up Robinson Crusoe, The Kite Runner and The Shipping News in return but then ran dry. I ended up closing my account and giving the Mooch points away. I don't re-read books as a general rule so they either take up space or I end up giving them to people. I would much rather swap them for something I havent read than for them to sit looking pretty (and they do look pretty) on my bookcases. There are of course books I wouldnt give away. I have a lovely hardback complete works of Conan Doyle which was bought as a gift that I'll never give away for example.
I only really started to read fiction about 18 months ago, before that I was pretty much a non-fiction only reader. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley changed all that. I bought the 1001 Books book as a way to find new stuff to read so have been dipping in and out of it since. Its certainly made me try stuff I would never had read otherwise.
As for the Burroughs book Junky, its great if a little short. It mixes themes of post war America, Nomadic ways and realy gritty writing that appeals to me. Themes that are covered in On The Road but I just found Kerouac's writing style a bit difficult to work with at times.
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I'll start with The Kite Runner and then go for Snow, sounds like a good plan to me.
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Thanks for the reply Kidsmum, I shall take your advice and go for The Kite Runner. Not sure where I got it from, it looks a bit battered so it may have come from one of the few successful BookMooch swaps I did.
I've decided to give the 30 day challenge question thing a bash so I'll start with #1.
Day 01 – Best book you read last year
Seeing as though the year is almost up I'm going to go for one from this year and a book that has just won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke by Ronald Reng. Given the recent tragic news of the suicide of Gary Speed its a very timely book. Its the story of Robert Enke, a German international goalkeeper and his battle with depression. Things got too much for the poor bloke and he killed himself on 10th Nov 2009.
Ronald Reng had become good friends with Robert over the year and the book has been constructed with the help of Enke's wife, friends and his diaries. The story is handled with supreme care and thought by Reng and as he regularly reminds people, its not his book, its Roberts. Its a book I would recommend to everyone, even those with no interest in football.
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The life of Pi sounds really good, I'm sure I've got a copy of it lying around somewhere but I've never read it. I will have to dig it out and add it to my pile of books to read before the year is out.
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On the right of the page is a kindle gift voucher tab although I suspect that any Amazon voucher would be redeemable against kindle purchases as long as its done via the website and not on the kindle itself.
Brian's Books 2011
in Past Book Logs
Posted
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNabb. It was one of the first books I asked for as a kid and I got it for my birthday and I really loved it at the time. I must have read it over and over again then out it away for ages. Last year I decided to re-read it and although the story remained pretty good the writing jumps out at me now as being really poor.