Siam Scarlett

I can't believe I forgot to mention this last week, but while in Thailand, I had a run-in with one of the list books. It wasn't until we were going through our photos last night that I remembered...

As I've mentioned many times before, I always enjoying perusing a bookshelf. It could be in somebody's home, at a hotel, in a library, or in a bookstore; it doesn't really matter, I just like walking my eyes over the spines of books. I suppose the fun is that you might come across something unique or something you've never heard of, and it just might take your reading in a new direction.

After having spent over five years reading through this list, I'm still little amazed how often I come across these titles. Of course it shouldn't really come as any surprise, after all they are 100 "all-time novels."

#71 - "The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow

I'm happy to report that I'm finally finished The Adventures of Augie March, my 71st read from Time's list of 100 All-TIME novels. Sure, it was on the longish side, at 612 pages, but really, this one shouldn't have taken this long.

Unsurprisingly, this book follows the adventures of one Augie March, a Chicago-born middle child in a poor, single-parent home. Augie seems to drift from one situation to another, without any real aims in life, or any drive to change his situation. Almost every change for Augie is the result of happenstance, not because of some conscious decision he had made to do something.

Augie drifts between various jobs, never sure of where he's going, and never really concerned with what happens. His long list of occupations include human trafficking, book thieving, training an eagle, dog keeping, and a hitch with the Merchant Marines. Sprinkled among these odd jobs are a series of women who Augie tends to feel passionately about to a point, before losing interest in them; much like his career.

The story is told in first person, as if Augie is writing his memoirs, and most chapter focus on a different occupation or woman, without any real connection to previous or future chapters. It's almost as if he remembered a story, put it to paper, and continued adding little anecdotes until he had reached 600 pages.

I am stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.

I've past the halfway mark of The Adventures of Augie March, which really isn't anything too special; I should have finished it long ago. It's a tricky book to figure out. I enjoy reading it, but when I put it down, I don't think I would be bothered if I never picked it up again. It's hard to explain, but it's like I'm interested in the argument, but not interested in the conclusion.

I can't think of any other books like this on the list so far. There are ones I have no desire to pick up again, but I also didn't enjoy reading them in the first place. Again, I enjoy reading this book, but it doesn't have a hold on me. It's like watching Jeopardy; you're interested in the current question/answer, but probably wouldn't lose sleep if you never saw who won that day.

As Aventuras de Augie March

I was in Brazil for a week , and am currently in Panama , so I have not been able to post anything for a while. While I'm having a great time here, it has not given me much time to read . I'm still plugging away at The Adventures of Augie March though.

But plugging away doesn't mean I'm making much progress . The problem started before I left for this trip, as I was too busy trying to finish David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas, a book about the building of the Panama Canal, before we left. I was not able to finish it, but I did manage to read 660 of 700 pages in a week (I didn't bring it with me as I did't want to lug such a big drag around for two weeks just to read 40 pages!).

Fala Portuguese?

To read over 600 pages of good, but dry writing about a canal, I wasn't able to touch Augie March for almost two weeks, and now I am only a third of the way through it . It has been in my thoughts though, and I was able to find a copy of it at Livaria Cultura, a giant bookstore in downtown Sao Paulo. Of course that version would likely go even slower because my Portuguese is not, how should I put this...it's not...good.

The plan for today is to stay at the hotel and relax by the pool, which should be perfect for getting some reading done ...

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O lord, sir! thick, thick, spare not me.

As I read my 71st book, The Adventures of Augie March, I have come to a conclusion about the book, despite not having even read a quarter of it. Let me be straight, I'm not talking about the quality of the writing or story, I'm talking about the actual physical printed book. I hate it.

The copy of Augie March that the Calgary Public Library has, is actually an omnibus called Saul Bellow: Novels 1944-1953.  Since my book is the third one, it began on page 383, which for reasons unknown I find very off putting. Then, the pages are very thin, so thin they remind me of a bible, where the pages feel more like tissue paper than regular stock. This presents two problems, first the pages are often difficult to turn because they stick together, second, I can see through them. And I'm not talking when I turn the page, or hold the book up to the light, I mean as I sit and read, I can see that there are printed words on the other side of the page. I find this very distracting.

But since the library doesn't have another copy, which I find a bit odd, I might be forced to make an emergency trip to a used bookstore this week. That's right, I might actually buy a book that is available at the library. But I don't know how much longer I can stand reading this book, and I fear these problems might impede my progress even more than my current reading habits already do.

End Rant.

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Only 30 Books to Go!

As I begin to read The Adventures of Augie March, I realize that I really am on the home stretch right now, with only 30 books, including Augie, to go. I'd like to say I'll be done in a year, but I'm probably going to be close to a year and a half or more.

Regardless of when I end up finishing, the fact remains that I have only 30 books to read. While I was reading American Pastoral, I did manage to amass almost all of the remaining books at one time. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to do this, maybe as a way to see exactly how much I have left to read.

#70 - "American Pastoral" by Philip Roth

It's amazing how my reading pace can change from book to book. After a rather grueling time reading Possession, American Pastoral flew by. That's the difference in a book I really, really enjoyed versus one that was so-so, I guess. Philip Roth's second book from the list, and another Pulitzer Prize winner, was simply a great book.

Seymour Levov, known as "The Swede" to his classmates in high school, is the stereotypical big-man-on-campus. To those around him, he has it all; good looking, star football, baseball, and basketball player, and wealthy. His good fortune only continues as he graduates to adulthood, when he serves in the Marines at the tail end of World War II, inherits his father's successful glove business, and marries Miss New Jersey.