Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time

After a great deal of deliberation that has been going on throughout this here meme, I have settled. When I was younger it was Good Omens; then, for a long, devoted time, Catch-22. I still need to reread the latter, which may account for my lessened reverence, but regardless, I just don't remember having a reading experience like this one.

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

And the meme begins where it started, haha. I recently realized that I shouldn't even have answered this to the first question, because I didn't read it last year! It was this year, several months ago. So the answer to that first question would have been the His Dark Materials trilogy. But it's okay, because it means now I don't have to write about this book again. You can go back and read that post.

I'll just reiterate that the experience of reading this book was kind of like no other for me, and it was sort of breathtaking and liberating as one who isn't too good at reading books. As much as House of Leaves or The Raw Shark Texts altered my perspective toward what to expect from novels, this book still goes above them in what it did for my readerly self-esteem. It was a joy, and it was satisfying, and it filled me with inspiration and ambition. I don't believe I could ask for any more from a book.

Well, that was fun! Now back to your regularly scheduled increasingly infrequent updates.

Day 29 - A book that everybody hated but you liked

There are a few good candidates for this one, since the list includes Most Everything I Had To Read In School, with some major exceptions where I also hated them. Here, though, is the most notable and surprising example:

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

There was a trick to this one: I didn't read it in class. Because of the year I spent living in Estonia, I was not able to take the placement exams before entering high school, and didn't manage to get into the AP class until midway through the year. By that time, the class was already deep into Jane Eyre, and hating it vocally and abundantly. It seemed impractical for me to join when they were so far into it, so my teacher had me read Lord of the Flies instead, which everyone else had already done. This was a win on TWO levels, because I really loved Lord of the Flies, whereas my love may had been tempered by classwork... and, it gave me the opportunity about nine years later to finally give Jane Eyre a try.

As you may recall, I have a not-so-good relationship with Jane Austen, who is sort of on a similar playing field with Ms. Brontë, and so I didn't exactly have high hopes for this one. Ironically, the main reason I decided to finally read it was because I thought the most recent movie adaptation looked cool (AND THEN IT KIND OF WASN'T). But! to my immense surprise, I did like it. I didn't love it, but I found it engaging and enjoyable enough. The reason was twofold: first, I liked the creepy gothic horror of the whole setup, and second, I found Jane to be a stronger and more relatable character than any of Austen's brood, and while I continue to find Mr. Rochester pretty deplorable and continue to puzzle over the scores of literary women who find him somehow deeply attractive (seriously, I don't...??? did you miss the part where he is creepy and aggressive), I think Jane holds up well enough for it to be a good read.

Day 28 - Favorite title

I have several. I think there is real art to a well-crafted, meaningful title that roles pleasantly off the tongue and has just the right number of syllables. Good titles are really hard to come up with, and if they sound like poetry and make you feel feelings before you even know what the book is about (which is the basis for a lot of my favorites), well, that is an accomplishment indeed.

Here are some of my favorites, in no order, presented without explanation because more often than not there isn't one. Note that almost all of these are books I haven't read, and in many cases I don't even know what they are about. I feel like once I read a book, the title loses some of its mystery and beauty (especially if I don't like the book itself). I've italicized the ones I have read.

Good-Bye to All That, by Robert Graves
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers
100 Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien
The Way Through Doors, by Jesse Ball
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
The City & The City, by China Mieville (currently reading)
Man on the Threshold, short story by Jorge Luis Borges*
John Dies at the End, by David Wong
If on a winter's night a traveler, by Italo Calvino
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller


*if I had the time/inclination, I could list a ton of Borges titles, but I'll stick with just this one as it is my favorite (though not, interestingly, one of my favorite of his stories; I don't even remember what it's about!)

Day 27 - The most surprising plot twist or ending

The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall

This book is actually nothing but crazy plot twists. It's a whole pile of THE PLOT (or rather THE CONCEPT) THICKENS, and I remember just sort of constantly being in a state of "WHAAAAAT?"

And that's all I'm gonna say! Man, this question. Even alluding to a surprising twist ending has the potential to ruin it, you know!!

Day 26 - A book that changed your opinion about something

Another hard one. I don't know that a book has ever changed my opinion about anything, not in the way I think this question means. Which is probably another sign that I don't read enough and don't look adventurously enough for books outside my comfort zone. I have a lot of catching up to do. But here's the best thing I can think of:

Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare

This play changed my opinion about... Shakespeare! Haha. That feels like cheating. But it's true. Prior to this play, I'd only read the standard school curriculum fare, and it wasn't doing much for me. I liked Shakespeare sort of because I knew I had to, but I didn't feel a real fondness until I went to college and read this. This play is FUN and not incredibly difficult to follow for a newbie with the language, and it's got cross-dressing and an arguably gay pirate (totally gay pirate). I remember reading it in my dorm and laughing and suddenly realizing that I was laughing at these jokes written in Shakespeare English, and I was so pleased with myself. And suddenly the floodgates were open: I could appreciate just about any of his plays, and the ones I didn't like after that were just... the ones I didn't like! As opposed to didn't get.

So, thanks Twelfth Night! Someday I'll write a movie sequel to you where the apparent happy ending falls apart very quickly, because that is what would happen.

Day 25 - A character who you can relate to the most

This question is bugging me. I've been letting it sit for hours (literally! hours!) and have not come up with any answer that I like reasonably enough. Is the issue that I am taking this too seriously or that I don't relate to characters deeply enough to just be like "oh that's the one I can relate to the MOST"?? I ... don't know.

I'm going to say Holden Caulfield, because while I don't agree with anything he says and have never really felt the way he feels, I get him. And I love him.

I'll do better on tomorrow's question.

Day 24 - A book that you wish more people would've read

Another weird question in that I have no real way of knowing what books are specifically neglected, and also the phrasing carries a vague implication of "because they would have been better for it" - which, I'm sure I could think of one like that, but I'd rather just go with something that I like that I want more people to know about. And I just haven't met a whole lot of people who've even heard of this book, though I know they're out there. So:

The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall

This book is so baller. One of the best things about it in my opinion are the little snippets of reviews that plaster the inside cover, on this pictured edition anyway. Read them! Read them all! They are great. If I had my copy on me I would quote them for you. Curse my being away from home, again.

But here is why they are all great: almost all of them feel compelled to compare this work to three other things. Some of them choose authors like Borges (YEAHHH), Melville, Kafka, Pynchon, Murakami... is that Douglas Adams I see there on that little picture??? It IS. Weird! I don't remember that being on and furthermore I can't even figure out what that guy is talking about? But okay. Others go after specifics works, like I think maybe Alice in Wonderland makes the list, but mostly it's not so much books as it is MOVIES. Which might be weird and dubious to other people, but to me is kind of a good sign and also what makes these little blurbs very interesting. I recall movies such as The Matrix (yes) and Memento (so much yes that I was actually extremely suspicious during the first few chapters that this whole book was just ripping off Memento but boy was I wrong)... but here's the fun part! THEY ALL MENTION JAWS.

An inordinately high number of these review excerpts talk about Jaws. Why??? Doesn't that seem kind of strange? Sure this is a book that appears to be about a shark, but is Jaws the only thing we can think of that has a shark in it?! But as it turns out, that's kind of the whole point?

You may notice that I have now spent three paragraphs talking about the review excerpts on this book and not the book itself. I promise you there is a good reason, which is this: you shouldn't really know anything about this book before going in. I bought it at the insistence of a friend, who refused to tell me anything about it, only that I would like it. Bewildered and somewhat frustrated, I studied the blurb on the back (unhelpful) and the review excerpts inside, at which point I became OVERCOME WITH CURIOSITY. Look at all those fancy authors! And so many mentions of Jaws? WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THAT YOU GUYS

Well the answer to that mystery, which might only have been interesting to me, is buried deep within the pages of this totally fascinating wonderful book. After I finished it, I wrote the author a message on Facebook, and he actually responded and we had a little bit of a conversation. Friendly guy! I remember telling him that this was something I wish I'd written. It's very much an elegantly synthesized clusterfuck of all the neat stuff whirling around in my brain waiting to be made into a story so brilliant. Goddammit, I reserve all my best jealousy for people who are capable of doing that very thing.

Also, this book made me REALLY AFRAID of the clanking of my radiator for a little while.

Also, my girlfriend read it right after me over like a three day period or maybe less, and during that time she started announcing her theories to me as she was reading, which sounds annoying but totally wasn't because she was right constantly. That actually also sounds annoying, but it still wasn't. This book is way out there on the field of imagination, and I don't know how she is so smart and so aligned with Mr. Hall's wild ideas that she was just on the ball again and again? I wrote him again while she was reading and told him where she was in the story and gave him a list of all the things she had been saying to me. And he wrote back saying something like "Whaaaaaaat! She is awesome!" and I was like "Dude, I know."

It wasn't exactly like that, but man, that conversation is buried deep within Facebook's grim underbelly, so that is CLOSE ENOUGH.

Anyway, READ THIS BOOK IT IS AMAZING.

Day 23 - A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven't

Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco

I have wanted to read this for years, well before I even considered reading The Name of the Rose. I gave it a couple false starts and chickened out, intimidated by how insanely complex it is purported to be. This ain't your aunt's Dan Brown bullshit. I kept thinking, gotta put it off, wait until you're smarter. I knew it was probably gonna require a lot of research, and I fully intend to keep a notebook handy while reading it so I can write down whatever I want/need to look up. Now that I've read The Name of the Rose and loved it so damn much, I think the time for this one is fast approaching. I'M READY. Haha probably not. BUT WHATEVER I am excited about it.

I just want to read all the Eco. ALL OF IT.

Plus this book is about secret societies and the SEPHIROT and I am ABOUT THAT.

As for the Foucualt Pendulum itself, CHECK IT OUT IT'S REALLY COOL.

CAPS

Day 22 - Favorite book you own

I.... what? What kind of question is this? How does this differ from "favorite book altogether"? Is the assumption that you wouldn't own your favorite book of all time? I mean, that is possible, but also possibly unlikely???

Whatever, sorry to keep harping on these questions, guys, it is obviously something of a fixation for me for some reason.

Okay, going with a strictly literal definition...

House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski

Hah! Here it is again, just after I slipped it somewhere it didn't quite fit. Welp. If we take this question to mean "favorite book to own," there can be no other. This is a book that deserves being looked at again and again, studied just for the fun of it, reread because there is so much going on, or just opened to a random page and shown to incredulous friends. I love owning this book. So yes, of the books I own, this one has come through for me most often. I think that's an acceptable answer to a slightly redundant question, yes?

Day 21 - Favorite book from your childhood

The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw

Without question. My dad read me this book, and he and I both retained a lot of feelings about it. It's been a long time since I thought about it, and I really only remembered it now because I had to pack it up to move to a new city. It was one of the books I chose to put in the little ship-to-me-immediately box. It was just so lovely. It's about a changeling swapped for a human baby, who grows up human and just doesn't fit in no matter how hard she tries, and her parents love her in spite of everything, and it's this whole myth turned story about a misfit. It's so sweet and poignant and I just loved it. I want to read it again right away!!

This cover was the original cover I owned, and I adore it, I think the art is so charming and strange and perfect. But that copy was left out in the rain and got wrecked, and we had to get a new one with a different cover that was far less superior. I think it's high time to seek out the old cover and get that copy again. Because it matters to me. Haha.