The Stack
For the past two years, I’ve only read a handful of new books. For some reason, I just kept reading books that I had already read, over and over again.
I think it might have played out this way because I, for one reason or another, felt that my life was getting increasingly chaotic. Reading the same books comforted me. In life, I’m not sure what’s going to happen next, but I know that in the last third of Mistry’s A Fine Balance, I’m going to start shaking my head at the mess that is humankind. Or that somewhere in the last fifty pages of the The Deathly Hallows, I’m going to weep like a runner up for prom queen.
The point is, last week, I put an end to all this. I decided it’s time to read new books by authors I’ve never considered, in genres that, until now, I’ve either ignored or rolled my eyes at. Because predictability, while comforting, does not leave a whole lot of room for expansion of the mind, soul or wit.
Recent post pregnancy weight aside, I’m feeling the need to be expansive these days.
So, I went crazy and bought a slew of books and have neatly placed them in a stack on my nightstand. A reminder, if you will, about my renewed commitment to live outside of my comfort zone.
I was about seven or eight when I got my first library card. I remember the excitement, the expectation, and the inevitable joy of finding new treasures of wisdom, laughter or tears in each book I brought home. I feel like that again when I look at the stack.
Here’s an excerpt from what I read today:
He tapped irritably at a control panel. Trillian quietly moved his hand before he tapped anything important. Whatever Zaphod’s qualities might include — dash, bravado, conceit — he was mechanically inept. He could easily blow up the ship with an extravagant gesture. Trillian had come to suspect that the main reason he had had such a wild and successful life was that he never really understood the significance of anything he did. (62)
I sort of love that last line. Can you guess what I’m reading? It shouldn’t be too hard since they made a movie based on it just a few years ago. Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
Also, I read very, very fast, so that stack of four or five books is going to be gone in about a week or two. In the past, I’ve limited myself to classical works, literary fiction, memoirs, personal/spiritual development, history, “ethnic” literature, some young adult and Harry Potter.
I’m trying out other genres, what might you suggest?
62 Responses to The Stack
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I just read “Under the Dome” by Stephen King, which is not my typical reading material, but it was very good. I also just finished “The Lovely Bones”. It didn’t look especially good to me, but a friend said I should read it, and everything I’ve read about the movie said the book was MUCH better, so I tried it. I couldn’t put it down! I also highly recommend “The Art of Racing in the Rain”. Now I’m reading “The Stand” by Stephen King, which is kind of hard to get into, but an English teacher I highly respect (and several bloggers) said it was a modern classic.
I would love to know what is in your stack.
J.
@HoosierGirl, I love Stephen King. I was going to list “horror” as a genre that I read, but he’s the only one I do read. And, frankly, I view him as literary fiction. I love him THAT much. The Stand is one of those books I’ve read about twenty times in the past two years. Okay, not *twenty*, but a lot.
@Faiqa, and HoosierGirl, I love Stephen King too! Under the Dome was awesome. I almost want to say it’s better than The Stand. It’s not better than The Dark Tower series, though.
I could go on and on about SK books.
Faiqa, if you’re interested, I have a book review blog over at http://freakingbookworm.com. I’ve been trying to expand my author vocabulary, too. Up until recently, I’d only read Stephen King, Tess Gerritsen, and Dean Koontz. Sometimes I’d read something else, but not often. Now, I’ve been buying book after book, soaking up each new author.
Joe Meno is really, really good. You should read his Tender and Hellfire and Hairstyles of the Damned. I’ve read a few of his other books, too. They’re all good.
Anyway. Forgot where I was going with all of this. Books get me that excited!
@Elizabeth Kaylene, Whoops. It’s Tender AS Hellfire. Sorry ’bout that.
I love Hitchhiker’s Guide. Such a great series of books.
@Avitable, I got the “complete” set. As a present. For my BIRTHDAY. from another blogger. Ahem.
Don’t you dare get me something as a result of my comment, either. Any overture would pale in comparison to the potential of making you feel bad for an entire year.
@Faiqa, I know. I already feel horrible enough. Going through my divorce and trying to find a new place to live is no excuse for not buying you a present.
@Avitable, Um. Yeah. I KNOW. Exactly.
The thought of having a stack of books waiting to be read makes me giddy, although I haven’t been able to enjoy that for a while now. So very busy…
Let’s see: Try the alphabet series by Sue Grafton (“A is for Alibi”, etc. – she’s up to U I think). Her heroine is a lot of fun and the series began and remains in the late 80s, which is cool.
Faye Kellerman – Any of the Peter Decker/Rhina Lazarus series, beginning with “The Ritual Bath.” What I love about these is that I’ve learned so much about orthodox Judaism that I didn’t know. She weaves it beautifully into the stories and it’s never in your face.
Virgins – Caryl Rivers. Hysterical look at being young and Catholic in the 50s. It’s sweet and funny and there are things in this book that I keep with me years after I first read it.
That should keep you occupied for a bit.
@Finn, I saw the Sue Grafton series and wondered if it was any good… I’ll add it since you’ve recommended it. In fact, I’ll add all those books. You’re right, it is excited and it will keep me busy.
Is it cliche, then, to suggest Grisham? That doesn’t seem to necessarily fit with any of the genres you listed.
@Miss Britt, No, not cliche. Good call. I’ve never read anything by him and I’m sitting here wondering how THAT happened.
@Faiqa, I was gonna say Grisham too. His books flow so easy. I love his books and when you get tired of lawyers, A Painted House is really awesome.
I would follow you anywhere if you read and could talk about
Berg by Ann Quin has one of the most famous first lines in “alternative” lit by an enigmatic woman. One day Ann just walked into the English Channel and never returned.
The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien is wicked funny.
Kleinzeit by Russel Hoban is something I liked, especially when the hospital and the chairs have a conversation.
The Castle of Argol by Julien Gracq. Gracq was a surrealist, but Breton kicked him out of the club because his stuff was just too weird. No lie.
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz has an unforgettable scene where the maid opens the attic and thousands of birds are stirred into flight. One of the best-written paragraphs I ever read in my life. I swear you can hear the wings. His life was shortened by the Nazis. Died in the Holocaust but not in a gas chamber, he shot down in the street by a jealous Nazi officer. Yes there’s a story there…
The Book of Sand by Jorge Borges. Short stories. The best one starts off when he meets himself as an old man and has a conversation. Or is he meeting himself as a young man? Hmmmm…
The Manuscript Found In Saragossa by Jan Potocki is a book within a story within a book. It makes Dracula and Frankenstein look like little Golden Books and is miles above anything Stephen King could even imagine. Yet it is little known outside of Europe. The most troubling scene is the night spent in a castle where a beautiful apparition seduces him. They make exotic, passionate love all night long, and when he wakes up he realizes that, in the darkness, he unknowingly laid down next to a corpse. Yeah…. then it gets creepier.
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz is a maybe kind of thing. It doesn’t really take off early and may bore you before the best part comes in. It’s like a time travel with your grade school teacher.
The Crazy Hunter, a short novel by Kay Boyle is if you were a woman who wanted to make a statement that a female could do things just as good as Gombrowicz and Schulz.
and
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities by Delmore Schwartz is set in the 30′s and is about a group of young 1st generation Europeans who want to be sophisticated modern young Americans but are tied to their old Jewish parents whose comforts can’t be denied. It works for any separate ethnic group outside the standard WASP-types.
These have formed and informed my tastes, likes and dislikes. I have no one to talk to about these things because they’re not for people who skim and say they’ve read or want to read while on auto-pilot.
And yes… as a matter of fact, I AM a snob.
I meant to say… Schwartz taught poetry at CUNY and one of his students was the musician/singer Lou Reed who credits Schwartz for everything, just about.
GAH… Syracuse, not CUNY. OK I shut up now. sheesh…
@RW, I pick:
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities
The Third Policeman and
The Manuscript Found In Saragossa
For starters. And I’m going to gripe at you if I can’t find them through normal means. As in I better not have to go perusing through patchouli smelling hippie bookstores to find them.
Amazon, smart-alleck. Saragossa, btw is 500-600 pages and changes genres from time to time. Is it a moral lesson? A horror story? A biography? Mwa hahahaha…..
@Faiqa, YEAH. My library doesn’t have half of these!
(back to stalking comments/flipping to library request site….)
I like the path you are on right now. Science-fiction is my first love when it comes to reading. THGTTG is a bit more than just sci-fi, but I would recommend any of the sci-fi classics. Start with Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy.
Oh, and on the fantasy genre tip, have you ever read Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books? Hands-down my favorite reads of all-time. It’s about a writer in the present-day who comes down with leprosy and his whole life spirals hopelessly downward. Until he goes through a series of “visits” to a place calle The Land, your classic fantasy genre world. There he wields the most powerful magic thru his white gold wedding band. Or course one of his first acts in The Land is to rape the first woman he encounters as his leprosy (and impotence) has been apparently healed. This act puts the wheels in motion for everything that follows.
It’s dark, detailed and extremely well-written. The first trilogy focuses on Covenant’s trials in The Land. In the second trilogy he brings along his doctor for the ride, a woman with just as much destiny in The Land as Covenant.
Great stuff.
@B.E. Earl, Just so you know, your description made me sort of not want to read it… leprosy AND rape? No thank you. HOWEVER. The fact that you were so committed in leaving a comment of this length is reason enough for me TO read it. The first one will at least make The Stack. After that, we’ll see.
@Faiqa, Oh, he’s no happy, furry hobbit or boy with a destiny. And he doesn’t suffer from leprosy, he wallows in it. The rape of the young woman winds up hurting him and those he love nearly as much as it did her. The first book, by the way, is called Lord Foul’s Bane. Enjoy!
@B.E. Earl, Wow, I just looked up the hardcover of this book and it sells for 600 dollars. American. I added the paperback. Obviously.
@Faiqa, $600? Really? What was it a first edition written in goat’s blood on a virgin’s dried skin?
@B.E. Earl, I know, right? Same thing with Asimov.
I definitely suggest…
Oh crap. I forgot I haven’t read anything since the Twilight series in December ’08.
I’m a literary loser.
@Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing], Hahahaha. Have you read City of Bones? It’s really good. Like Twilight, but you know, with *good* writing. ::DUCKS::
I had to google the quote to know what book you referred to. I’ve never read it, but I have heard good things. (I’m avoiding watching the movie until I’ve read the book.)
@SciFi Dad, Hm. SciFi Dad has never read HHGG. That’s weird.
Yay! I love Hitchiker’s Guide! Also, I love reading! I received a Nook for Christmas, and it is AWESOME!! You should totally look into an e-reader. They’re lovely. Anyway, on with the suggestions. Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is a great fantasy series that is very enthralling, and and is almost complete. (which is worth mentioning since many fantasy series’ go on for books and books, and then the author gives up, or dies or whatever. Robert Jordan did die, but he left behind a detailed outline which his friend is using to finish the story. only one book to go, and it will actually be wrapped up.) Also, the Ender’s Game Series by Orson Scott Card is one of my favorites, it’s sci-fi, technically, but it’s really way more about human nature than the genre suggests. I could talk about books all stinkin’ day, actually. One of the things I like about the nook, is that I can read multiple books at the same time and it remembers which page I was on in each. So now all I have to remember is what was going on when I left off. And, instead of having to find space for new books, they all fit into a hand-held device, which I can shove in my purse.
Oh, one more thing, if you like the humor of Douglass Adams, you may want to try Terry Pratchett, he wrote the Discworld Series, and also Good Omen. Both are hilarious with a similar sense as D.A.
@Allyson, It’s not that I don’t like the nook… I just really love physical books. You know how Carrie Bradshaw was with shoes? I’m like that with books. And thanks for the suggestions, I’ve added them to my list.
P.P.S. The movie a few years back was pretty awful as far as following the book. But the BBC did a mini-series many years ago, which was fantastic. I highly recommend that instead of the hollywood movie.
@Allyson, I’m already realizing how bad the movie was and I’m only about fifty pages in.
For murder mysteries that are sorta chick-ey, I love Lisa Scottoline. Ya wanna try to find them in the order they were written, though, because the characters make more sense (yanno, not technically a series, but same characters).
I love historical fiction (though I always question its accuracy and make myself crazy)…I recommend the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (no, not related to the movie).
I’m also kind of addicted to anything by James Patterson…I can almost never predict the twist.
@Lexi, I’m added Outlander to my book list… it looks really good, thanks!
Oooh…the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. Great and heady sci-fi stuff. Imagine the Canterbury Tales in space with, um…a creature made of razor-sharp blades.
@B.E. Earl, So, I looked this up and I cannot figure out which one the first one is. I just ordered Hyperion Cantos. Hopefully, that’s the first one. Otherwise you owe me ten bucks.
@Faiqa, The Hyperion Cantos is the collective term for the books Simmons wrote about Hyperion. You likely ordered the first two books in the series, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. The third and fourth books are called Endymion and Rise of Endymion.
Hope you like it/them. A little knowledge of John Keats’ poetry and the teachings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin might help you along that path.
I read a lot of crime and detective books as well as spy novels and also biography. One author I have really liked is Lee Child. He has a series of books in which the each story features Jack Reacher. Reacher is a fascinating character who doesn’t live anywhere, doesn’t really own anything but has amazing adventures in which he gets involved helping people who are being beaten down by bad guys.
@alan7933, Sounds good, thank you. I didn’t have any crime/detective books on my list, so I appreciate that.
I think RW probably picked the best, and I think you and I read about the same kind of books, so I’m not sure I can really suggest anything. Mark Helprin is amazing – “Winter’s Tale” was the first book I read by him and I looved it, even though it gave me craazy dreams (but good ones!).I have all his other books – and they are all spectacular.
I read 2 different series of books recommended by friends, and I really wouldn’t recommend either series. I was grateful for books to read, but not enough to read them again, you know?
@Sybil Law, Haven’t read Helprin, so thanks.
*pulling out my nook which you refuse to try out so moooore nook for meeeee*
How about Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith?
“Imagine a world, if you will, where crime does not exist. A startling proposition that seems outlandish, but our imaginations, of course, need not be bounded by the rules and restrictions imposed by realism. It would be a world, one might suppose, where equality reigned, where the thought of violence was so alien that it need not be practiced. People would smile more. They would cooperate more. And they would create a microcosm of peace that, town by town, country by country, could grow exponentially into worldwide tranquility.”
I’m currently reading Held Hostage by Michelle Renee, a bank manager who was held hostage, along with her daughter and female roommate, and she was forced to rob her own branch. It’s a’ight.
@Poppy, Child 44. Is it a work of fiction? I like the passage you quoted. The thought of violence so alien… yes. That would be nice.
@Faiqa, Child 44 is, yes, fiction. That other book I mentioned, Held Hostage, not so fiction. The woman is starting to get on my nerves. I don’t recommend Held Hostage.
Oh, crap, I didn’t finish reading the Child 44 bio. It doesn’t go well. Everyone’s living in fear. Haven’t read it yet, but I know that much.
have you tried hard-core, fetish porn yet?
Its quite good!
@Slyde, NICE. Honestly, I’ve never understood the concept of porn books. And, you know, I don’t *want* to understand, either. I’ll just make do with those obtuse slutty stock photos you post on your blog.
For the past few years, I read only what we are reading in our book club. I just haven’t been able to get myself to do more than that. I used to read a book or two a week, and yes, I had stacks of books that I couldn’t wait to read.
Here is a link to all of the books we have read up to this year. Maybe you’ll find something that interests you.
http://jason-thejasonshow.blogspot.com/2009/03/need-good-book-2009-edition.html
@Jason, Oh, this is awesome!! Thank you… I remember this post, and I even wrote the books down, but I misplaced the paper… awesome, thank you!
And I just saw Slyde’s comment about hardcore fetsih porn. Sounds like something just up your alley.
Too funny.
@Jason, That Slyde. He’s chock full of funny.
A few “modern” books I’ve read in the last year that I’ve really liked/loved:
White Teeth – Zadie Smith
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
Drown – Junot Diaz (this one is a short story collection)
Daughter of Fortune – Isabelle Allende
@Shane, I saw House of Spirits years and years ago and have always meant to read Allende since then. Added to my list!
most recent book i have read was the girl with the dragon tattoo. at first i had to force myself to keep reading, but then it got good. all in all i really liked it. liked it enough that i went out and bought the hard cover version of the second in the series (the girl who played with fire), but i haven’t read it yet. perhaps i should do that this week.
@hello haha narf, I’ve heard of that series. I’ll look into it, thanks!
All of Douglas Adams’ books are pretty good. “Mercury Falls” (Adam talked about it a while back) has the same sort of fun and feel going for it.
Lately I’ve been reading books by Craig Rice (the pen name for an author who is a woman). The first one or two were written in the late ’30s. They’re light, sometimes humorous, mysteries.
@delmer, I actually got the “Complete HHGG” so I believe it has all of Adams’s novels in it.
I am jealous you can read so fast. Before we had a baby, I read a lot and not slowly, but I definitely don’t burn through books in a night. Now with a baby, my goal is to simply read War and Peace this year http://hoobingfamilyadventures.com/2009/12/29/war-and-peace/.
You may think I am crazy, but I would recommend the series by George R. R. Martin that starts with A Game of Thrones. Ya, I was totally turned off by the fantasy genre too, but I dig the books. And they are going to make an HBO series out of it. Here is a link to some of the other books that have influenced me http://hoobingfamilyadventures.com/2009/12/06/fifteen-books/ (some of them are cheesy, but at some point in my life they were significant.
@Alecia,
I tried to read War and Peace many, many years ago and I just gave up. I was still in high school, though, so I probably didn’t get it. One of these days, I might try again. Good luck with that!
Actually, I don’t mind fantasy and have been looking for something good to read in that genre, so thanks.
As for the baby, thing, oh, yeah, I know what you mean. I slowed down quite a bit. Luckily, my second baby is a good sleeper and knocks out fairly early, which leaves more reading time for me!
[...] week ago, I posted about the ever growing stack of novels on my bedside table. It occurred to me that my opinions on these novels make for excellent blog fodder, and so I offer [...]