My Book List

In the time between my original posts and now, I’ve made pretty immense progress on my book list. Reading more has been a goal that has been very easy to pursue. I had forgotten how much I loved reading and it has all come flooding back since I started reading recreationally again in May. I seriously regret all the time I wasted NOT reading. Honestly. What the hell was I thinking? It’s such a good way to pass time, especially on slow days at work.

 

My official book progress list is here: http://listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.34381

 

Books I’ve already read are automatically shifted to the top of the list, under whatever book I read last. Books that remain to be read are in no particular order. If there is one I wish to read before another higher on the list, I will, but when it comes to just picking randomly  I usually work from the top down (I get tired of seeing the same ones on the top all the time).

 

I’ve read so many good books already, I cannot wait to delve into more. Right now I’m working on Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky, which isn’t exactly a “fun” read, but one I would definitely like to have read and hopefully appreciate more so that I can move onto more Dostoevsky with more preparation. Snow Crash, my most recent read, was a very light-hearted and fun sci-fi novel. It was actually recommended to me years and years ago, a recommendation which has stuck with me until now. While not a paragon of fiction writing or revolutionary in any way it was certainly very well wrought, with extensive preparation and a somewhat convoluted plot that unraveled itself in a (mostly) well-paced manner. Though a bit didactic at times where the plot had to be painstakingly explained due to its surprisingly historical, religious and philosophical nature, I really enjoyed the mostly humorous, fast-paced book.

 

YT is a fucking badass, too!

On the Road

By Jack Kerouac

This book was pretty great. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it, and I got exactly what I expected.

The fractious friendships and travelings of a youngish fifties Beatster. A life so much more open to interpretation and freedom than the one presented to me today. It didn’t change my life or anything like that, but it was a great read and really made me appreciate how quickly social norms can just evaporate and be replaced. The idea of hitchiking today is pretty much taboo but thirty, forty, fifty years ago it was a more than viable option. It felt oftentimes that nothing was happening or that the story was repeating itself in a different location, and it lacked any kind of conclusive ending, but I still liked it. It was the book that sparked the most conversation with people who saw me reading it… thirty year old men who read it in college and wanted to expound on its profundities with me.

I’m not a big profundity expounder, really.

Through the Looking Glass

By Frank Beddor.

This book is notable for having stirred me off my lazy ass to actually start reading again. I spied it on my friend’s bookshelf and its rather interesting cover intrigued me. Retold fairy tales were usually at least interesting if not good and it had been a while since I’d really settled down with a book, just reading for the sake of reading.

It was good, a very quick read, I certainly enjoyed it and would (will!) read the next, Seeing Redd, when it comes out in paperback (and after my friend buys and reads it himself, first, ha). Other than that, this book’s only notable feature is the fact that if it weren’t for it I wouldn’t be here, on a literary roll, reading everything I can get my grubby paws on.

Thanks, Mr. Beddor!