From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,

As we get into the new year, I've been thinking back about the year that was, 2012. The first thing that really jumps out in my mind is the failures of the year; I only completed 13 books from the list.  This hardly keeps up with my desired pace of 24 books per year, and means I have a lot of reading to do in 2013 if I want to catch up. But I do attribute this to two books in particular (read: excuses).

First was The Recognitions by William Gaddis. Coming in at 956 pages, this was a beast that took me 66 days to read. It was my most difficult read from the list so far, and really put me behind pace, so early in the year. I didn't enjoy it, I read it while I was having a difficult time in my life, and of course, it's really long. I'll always wonder if the book was better than I gave it credit, and wonder if I had been reading it under different circumstances, might I appreciated it a little more.

The second trouble book was the on-going The Lord of the Rings. It isn't even remotely as tedious as The Recognitions, but it is twice as long. Add to this my general disinterest in the genre, and I have one difficult, long read on my hands.  I'm currently 60% through the second book, and should be able to finish it sometime in 2013 (although I can't honestly guarantee this as it's already been over 100 days since I began the first one).

But that doesn't mean the year was a total loss, I was introduced to some fantastic books, which I probably wouldn't have read if not for this little project. In no particular order, here are my favorite list reads from 2012:

The Assistant. This was just an enjoyable and interesting read, that's really in my wheel house. It was probably aided by the fact that I read it between books one and two of The Lord of the Rings, a welcome diversion.

Under the Net. One of the best hidden gems I've read from the list so far. I'd never heard of it or the author, and really had no idea what the book was about. It was enjoyable and entertaining in the style of Lucky Jim.

Revolutionary Road. Much like The Assistant,this book is my kind of book; a post-war character novel.

All the King's Men. An engrossing story and dynamic characters make this one of the best I've read so far. A real page turner.

The Sot-Weed Factor. The more I think about this book, the more I begin to think it may be my favorite book through the first 61, and one of my favorite books ever. It's interesting, entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny. And I have still only met one person to date who has ever heard of the book or John Barth, the author.

Tomorrow I'll look at my favorite non-fiction reads from 2012.

I should but teach him how to tell my story.

    When I first began reading Money by Martin Amis, I felt there was something different about it, but something I couldn't quite put my finger on.  It eventually hit me however, that the book was written in first person.  John Self, the protagonist, is telling his story to me, the reader.  But after quickly going through my first 54 reads from this list, I realized about a third of the books have been first person narratives, including a lot of my favorites too; Brideshead Revisited, The Great Gatsby, and Midnight's Children just to name a few.  First person isn't unique at all.

But Money still seemed to strike me as a little different.  It isn't as if it has been a while since I've read a first person story (notwithstanding the amazing amount of time it took to read The Recognitions); numbers 51 (All the King's Men) and 50 (Red Harvest) were both told in this fashion.  As my reading continued however, I realized that perhaps it was the narrator talking to the reader that had caught my attention, the breaking of the 'fourth wall.'

I think in literature, every first person narrative is, in a way, breaking the fourth wall as we have to assume the narrator it telling the story to the reader.  This isn't always the case of course, as in Portnoy's Complaint where the story, in first person, is being told to a psychiatrist, but usually it is to the reader.  But in Money, the narrator doesn't just break this wall by talking to the reader, rather he engages the reader, asking questions, looking to the reader for approval, and even acknowledging that his words are in a fictional book and being read by somebody.

None of this is really groundbreaking or anything, but it caused me to sit back and think about who was telling the story, or perhaps more accurately, how they were telling the story.  I'll admit I never really paid any attention to narrative mode when reading, but I think that is probably because I don't know a lot about it.  To fix this, I've done a little bit of secondary reading, trying to learn to better appreciate, or at least understand, these different techniques.  This has led me to two conclusions.  First off, I would classify Money as metafiction told in first person.  Second is that I should have taken more English classes in University because I find this all very interesting.

Obviously the point of view is an important part of any writing, and I'm beginning to wonder if this has been one of the things I've been missing in a few of these reads.  Perhaps this is the reason I didn't enjoy certain books that so many seem to love.  If that is the case, I suppose I could count this as another benefit of reading through this list.  Maybe it has been reading books I wouldn't normally touch with a ten-foot pole that has forced me to look deeper into the writing, which in the end will only make me a stronger and more sophisticated reader.  And I don't think that's a bad thing.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I've been reading Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway these past few days, but am not moving very fast.  Of course that isn't really an accurate statement; I've been meaning to read Mrs. Dalloway for the past several days, weeks even.  But alas, I am so uninterested in actually reading it, it has served only as a monument to my laziness, rather than a shining beacon of my 52nd triumph from this List.

It may seem that I'm being a little judgemental, especially of a book I haven't read, but I have good reason to be this way.  Ms. Woolf's other entry on the list, To the Lighthouse was a 252 page book that took me two months to read and was a disappointment to say the least.  You can read my take here.  I can't imagine this book is really any different, so I have not been looking forward to it for almost two years.

I have started it however, and vow to make good progress this week.  My new strategy to finishing this one, opposed to my old strategy of carrying it around and not reading it, is to treat the book like a band-aid.  If I just sit down and rip it off, the pain will be instantaneous and I'll no longer have to worry about it.  It's only about 200 pages, I just need to get it over with.

In the two weeks since I finished All the King's Men, I have been keeping busy, having preoccupied myself with a couple of books.  Most recently, I finished Pity the Billionaire by Thomas Frank, another book on the US political scene; colossal bore for some, fascinating for others.  But before that, I found myself entangled with an interesting and unusual read; a book entitled Flashman.

Flashman is the first in a series of books following Harry Flashman through his adventures, or rather his mis-adventures in the British Army during the middle 19th century.  It was a fun book for the most part, and Harry Flashman is likely one of literature's great cads; sort of a less noble, yet bigger scoundrel version of James Bond.  I can't fault a book that begins with the protagonist seducing his father's mistress after being kicked out of school for drinking and gambling.  It was a pleasant diversion from the list and a series I would think of revisiting in the future (after all, there are 15 more books in the series).

But for now, it's back to Mrs. Whats-her-face-away...which I will try to approach with a more open mind.

#51 - 'All the King's Men' by Robert Penn Warren

Two years ago today, I returned All the King's Men to the library, without having read it.  That would be the first time I did so, but not the last; and I have since returned 32 books from this list without having read them.  In fact, it wasn't even the last time I borrowed this particular book from the library and returned it without reading it.  I have taken All the King's Men out four times.  It wasn't as if I was ever avoiding it, quite the contrary.  It just always seemed to slip through the cracks for one reason or another.  But no more!  Number 51 is finished, the fourth Pulitzer-prize winner from the list, and the second who's movie also won Best Picture (the other being Gone With the Wind).

I previously wrote this book was about Huey Long, or at least the Huey Long-esque character of Willie Stark, Governor of Louisiana.  And while he's obviously an integral part of the story, All the King's Men is a character study of four individuals, each flawed in their own way, with the polarizing Governor Stark binding them together, while at the same time, driving them apart.

Willie Stark is a smart, but uneducated man, who climbs his way from the poorest of farms to the Governor's seat, on a campaign of hard-work, honesty and integrity.  A populist candidate if ever there was one, representing the opposite of the other candidates, as somebody any citizen could identify with.  Of course we quickly learn that while Stark is full of good intentions, wanting to build highways and provide his state with free, universal (gasp!) health care, he isn't exactly the model citizen he portrays to the world.  Stark uses a combination of blackmail, intimidation, and corruption to achieve his goals and retain his grip on power, and he's a prototypical advocate for the end justifying the means.

Carrying out much of the dirty work is Jack Burden, the book's narrator.  A former PhD candidate in History, former newspaper man, and current assistant to the Governor, Jack grew up in what could only be described as a wealthy family, not really wanting for anything, yet still possess a very "down-to-earth" view of the world, and lives without any of the upper-crust cliches one might expect from such a character.  He began working for Stark at a young age, and in a way, has come of age with the Governor.

Also entangled in Stark's web are Ann and Adam Stanton, siblings who grew up in Jack's 'aristocratic' neighbourhood, but do not share his enthusiasm for Willie Stark.  Adam is a doctor hired by the Governor to run his new hospital, despite their complete disagreement with how he runs the State, and Ann is his sister and Jack's former fiancee, who despite disagreeing with his methods, has a soft spot for both the Governor and for Jack.

After a bit of a slow start, I become very engrossed in this book, desperate to see what would happen next, as well as finding myself completely shocked and outraged and a couple of developments.  My like or dislike of Willie Stark as a person and as a public servant would swing wildly from one end of the spectrum to the other.  While many of his ideas were intoxicating and inspirational, so many of his actions were despicable.  These are the same struggles Jack Burden finds himself experiencing as he narrates for the reader.

For the most part, Burden thinks of himself as merely 'doing his job', not blackmailing Stark's political and personal opponents.  He chooses and succeeds for a long time, at divorcing his conscience from his actions; something so few are able to do.  But when people he is close to become the subject of Stark's blackmailing, Jack begins to see the consequences of his actions, as he learns how everything in his world is connected in one way or another.  No longer can he pretend there aren't unwanted consequences to what he is doing, and no longer can the Governor's goals make up for the manner in which they are achieved.


While I enjoyed the story, the writing, and the character development, I think what I really enjoyed about reading All the King's Men were a couple of major plot twists.  After setting the scene, developing each character and letting the reader really get to know everybody, Warren drops a couple of bomb shells that left me speechless.  But these plot twists didn't have the corny factor that can plague such a technique, rather they are explained in a rational, plausible manner, and not only left me anxious to keep reading, but also emotional, usually angry, and what had developed.  It was my sympathy for Jack Burden, and dislike of Willie Stark that brought me into the story and the dramatic plot developments that kept me going.  Without a doubt, one of my favorite books so far.



For my next book, I've chosen Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.  Her other book on The List, To the Lighthouse was one of my least favorite so far, and I'd be lying if I said I had any interest in reading this one.  However, it's part of The List and must be read, so I've decided to get it over with right now, in an effort to avoid having too many 'unwanted' reads (see also Gravity's Rainbow and The Man Who Loved Children) at the end of this adventure

Your mystery, your mystery: nay, dispatch.

Before I started reading All the King's Men, I didn't really know much about it.  I knew it had won the Pulitzer Prize, I knew the movie won Best Picture, and I knew it was loosely based on Huey Long, former Governor of Louisiana.  Even someone with my limited knowleddge of the book is aware of these things, so the fact the book takes place in Louisiana isn't a mystery.  However, it seems with every page, author Robert Penn Warren is trying to avoid admitting the fact, book takes place in Louisiana.

I'm not sure why this would be the case.  There are no shortage of novels based on real people, that are not set in fictional lands.  Robert Graves did not set I, Claudius in 'a footwear-shaped country on Europe's Southern coast,' he set it in Rome.  Perhaps he thought by admitting it took place in Louisiana, he'd be admitting it was based on Huey Long.  Long would have been dead at the time of this book's publication (he was assassinated in 1935), so I don't think he would have needed to be worried in that regard.  But he tries to hide it nonetheless. 

Throughout the first two-thirds of the book, Louisiana hasn't been mentioned once.  The book's narrator, Jack Burden, attended "State University," he refers to the state's largest city simply as 'the big city' and to the State's capitol as 'the Capitol'; never mentioning either by name.  When he referred to the Governor's position, Burden has said 'he's Governor of my home state.' A more general statement, one cannot make.

I suppose it doesn't really matter, in fact I know it doesn't matter, I just find it a little odd.  So often I feel like Warren is being purposely vague, for no apparent reason.  Perhaps it just sounds odd to ears that grew up in a city crossed by two rivers in one of the ten Provinces.  Of course this is all irrelevant to the book.  It's an excellent read, and one I must get back to right now.

Why, go to bed, and sleep.

Sometimes I hear people say they "stayed up all night reading..." some great book.  They talk about how the book they were reading was so good, they couldn't put it down, and couldn't sleep because they simply had to find out what was going to happen.  I am not one of these people.

I've read a lot of great books.  Lots of books I was really into.  But I can't stay up all night reading.  Reading in bed is like taking a double shot of NyQuil for me.  Usually I can only read a couple of pages before my head starts bobbing and I can't keep my eyes open.

However, most night this doesn't stop me from trying.  The problem is that I'm not really reading, my eyes are merely glossing over the words, and nothing is sinking in.  I then arrive at where I was this morning, resuming my reading, and having no idea what is going on.  Suddenly, I find myself having to going back a page or two in an effort to piece things together. 

"It's going to be tough," said Hugh.  Who is Hugh!?  I have no idea!  Well it seems Hugh was introduced a couple of pages back and I missed his introduction to the protagonist.  So I have to backtrack a couple of pages, which I suppose it isn't the end of the world.  Each morning I just find myself at the same point I would have had I not tried to read just a couple more pages the night before.

But sometimes it isn't just that I lose a couple of pages to Mr. Sandman.  When I was reading Blood Meridian, a book I had trouble staying awake for at the best of times, I remember suffering a particularly rude awakening.  As I fell asleep, I dropped the book; the sharp corner of the hardcover hitting my eye before bouncing off the bedside table and landing on the floor.  I'm not sure if it was the shock of being woken in such a fashion, but it really hurt.  So far, it's my only injury from reading this list.

At times I wish I was able to stay up all night, or at least for an hour or two, reading.  Imagine the progress I could make each day!  There's a scene in the movie JFK where Kevin Costner's character is so engrossed in reading the 'Warren Report' he stays up all night.  I always think I would love to be so engrossed in something I don't notice time passing.  But I know what would happen if I were that character; the scene would show me sleeping in a chair with my reading spread acorss my chest or possibly on the floor, as I sawed logs.  I guess I should enjoy the fact that I rarely have any difficulty falling asleep. 

Looking back at books from The List, Gone With the Wind sticks out as one I 'couldn't put down.'  I was really into that book, especially the last three hundred pages.  But this never solved the problem of falling asleep while reading.  Of course part of the problem might have been that since Gone With the Wind was such a large book, such a heavy book, it didn't lend itself well to reading in bed.  Quite frankly, my arms would fall asleep from holding it above my head too long.  And I shudder to think what the result would be if I had a dropped that one on my head.

But I don't think I'll stop trying to read in bed.  In fact I'm sure tonight will find me falling asleep while trying to squeeze in a few more pages before the enevitable happens, yet again.

Should be, or should not be: that is the question.

I love going to bookstores.  And it doesn't really matter what type of bookstore it is.  It can be a large store that's part of a national chain, a small independent, or a used bookstore.  Each has it's own charms, it's positives and of course, it's negatives.  But they all offer the opportunity to walk the stacks, browse through the titles, and find things to add to my 'to-read' list. 

While naturally the bulk of my reads the past couple of years have been from this list, there are a few gems I've found merely stumbling across them at a bookstore.  I look at Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue as a perfect example of a book I probably never would have read if I restricted my titles to things I found on-line or things others had recommended.

The gems I find aren't usually being displayed in the front window or a front-of-store display; they're hidden on a shelf, wedged between a couple of better known titles.  But browsing in a bookstore doesn't just offer me the chance to find new things to read. It also offers a glimpse at what the general public is reading.  And it isn't always pretty.

When I look at the first 50 books I've read from The List, most highly regarded, I notice they all share a common trait; most of them aren't prominently displayed.  I've talked last month about The Sot-Weed Factor and how nobody has ever heard of it.  Naturally it is hidden amongst the B's in the Fiction section, if you can even find a copy, which is too bad as it is such a great book.  This probably wouldn't bother me very much, if it wasn't for the fact that A Shore Thing by Snooki, is.

I'm always on the look our for what I call 'books that shouldn't be.'  A Shore Thing is definitely near the top of the list.  How somebody like this can be a 'published author' is beyond me and a symptom of everything that is wrong with society.  I remember the furor caused a year or two ago, when Snooki was paid $35,000 to speak at Rutgers in New Jersey, while they had only paid Toni Morrison $32,000.  How could a Pulitzer-winning novelist be paid less than Snooki!?  they cried.  My thought was always not how could Snooki be paid more, but rather how she could be paid at all.  But, I digress.

If Snooki's book/books (she has others, sadly) weren't enough, the Kardashians have also recently published a novel; Dollhouse.  It's bad enough when a novel has two authors, and this one has three.  Three sisters, who have no business writing a book.  It sounds like a really great plot too; it's about three sisters, whose mother marries a well-known, retired athlete, and the three sisters become famous for no reason.  I guess it's more historical fiction.

I wonder if I should take any solace in the fact that these books, like a Sarah Palin autobiography, were completely written by a ghost writer, likely without any input from the name on the cover.  At least an actual author wrote the book.  But I think at the end of the day, my beef isn't with the fact that they wrote a book, but instead that they are able to sell these books.  And worst of all, these 'books' are featured in many bookstores, while it's nearly impossible to find a copy of The Berlin Stories.


My progress continues, slowly but surely, on All the King's Men.  It's been a little slow starting, but things are starting to pick up.  I'm also tackling a book called The Leap by a local Calgarian author.  Both are due back to the library soon and neither can be renewed.  To the reading mobile!

#50 - "Red Harvest" by Dashiell Hammett

I'm finally there, the halfway point to finishing all 100 novels.  While I had planned to reach this point with something a little more...notable I suppose, Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest will do just fine.

The novel takes place in the fictional town of Personville, pronounced 'poisonville' by the locals, as the unnamed protaganist arrives in town to visit a new client.  Unfortunately that client was murdered before they ever had a chance to meet and soon our hero finds himself entangled in a corrupt, violent, and seemingly lawless town, where everybody needs to watch their back.

For the most part, I found it to be a fun book, filled with kitchy dialogue, detective speak, and Bogart-esque slang.  There are plenty of murders and double crossings, and a cast of good guys and bad guys.  You could say it's a real 'guy's novel,' in that there's lots of action and sometimes not everything needs to make sense.

The problem I did have with it was that it was a little difficult to follow at times.  And by that, I don't mean that the plot was too complicated nor the language, but just the sheer number of characters was almost overwhelming.  At times, there were so many different people playing important roles in the story, it was difficult to follow who was who.  Throw in a few dozen double crosses, and it became impossible to know who was on which side.  Several times I had to flip back a few pages to confirm who somebody was and where their allegiance was.  Adding tot he confusion was that every charachter seemed to have several nicknames.  What a minute, is Whisper with Slick Al and Fat Tony?  Or did he cross them, and now he's with Bick Nick and Young Albury?

There was also a little bit of what I would call TV detective syndrome in the book, when our protaganist would suddenly piece a crime together, seemingly out of mid-air.  It reminded me of how Columbo was always able to figure out who the murderer was because the clock said 12:15 when the cat meowed.  It didn't really make any sense, but we marveled at his ingenuity.

But like Columbo, this was an entertaining book, and I won't be bothered by these 'flaws.'  Much the same way I don't mind that fact that John Wayne could shoot his way out of a saloon, even though he's surrounded by 150 men from the Bar-T.

Red Harvest was an enjoyable read, and I would consider reading more from Dashiell Hammett, but I think this book found its way onto the list as much because it was the first of such a popular genre as because it is such a good novel.

I'll be starting the second half of my journey tonight, or possible tomorrow morning, with All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.  I had originally taken this book out of the library with the intention of it being my 7th read.  But that was almost two years ago.  It was almost my 36th read as well, but instead I went with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.  Well, it will be number 51.

That hath contrived this woful tragedy!

Here I write, not quite halfway through The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski, wondering what is taking so long.  I look at this book and its' modest 234 pages, and figure I should finish it quite quickly.  But here I am, a week in, not having reached the halfway mark.  The book itself isn't a difficult read, and I always feel as if I am making good progress.

When I first starting reading this, I had thought it was 'about the Holocaust,' a general statement if ever there was one.  This only really came from having once seen the book described as 'Holocaust literature' though, not from having read any details about plot or theme.  I now know, that while it may have taken place during the Holocaust, it is about a boy, alone, struggling to survive.  He roams from village to village, staying with whoever will take him in, trying to avoid death.  But each encounter seems to end in some sort of horrible tragedy.

It occurred to me yesterday that it is these tragedies that are slowing me down.  Each chapter seems to begin relatively calmly, as the boy finds a new home, and while life isn't all peaches and cream, it could be much worse.  But as the chapter develops, things begin to unravel, as each chapter crescendos into a roar of horror and tragedy.  At the end of each, I feel as if I need to put the book down and allow the things I just read to soak in, like the pause one experiences after witnessing a horrible car accident.

But the tragedies in this book, despite being depressing as hell, aren't stopping me from enjoying the read.  The only problem is they may be stopping me from picking up the book.  While it sits on the coffee table, I can think of a million things to do instead of reading it, but once I do pick it up, it's quite enjoyable, despite being so horrific.

I would like to finish it sometime before the weekend, and have stopped reading any non-fiction on the side until it is finished.  I also need to start thinking about what books I'm going to read as I approach the halfway point.  I have often said I would read Lord of the Rings as my 50th book, and that still may be the case.  But what to read for number 49?  I currently have Native Son, All the King's Men, The Sot-Weed Factor and White Teeth out from the library.  Having read that The Sot-Weed Factor is as funny as Catch-22, it may be a nice fit after this less than funny read.

#35 - "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

After some feverishly reading yesterday, I was able to plough through the final 150 pages, and have now finished my 35th book from the list, Gone with the Wind.  It took me a little over a month, two days over to be exact, but I'm still happy with my progress.


Being such a popular book and movie, I assumed that it would be a good read and I assumed I would like it.  But I didn't think I would like it this much.  To be perfectly honest, I think this book just shot up to near the top of my favorites from The List so far.  What can I say, I really enjoyed reading it; I loved the stories, the dialogue, the settings, the events, everything.  I don't remember the last time I was into a book as much as I was reading the last couple of hundred pages.  There were times I felt I couldn't read fast enough, and had to police myself to avoid skipping ahead.  I was that into it.

Gone with the Wind  is difficult to classify.  All at the same time, it's a romance, a tragedy, a comedy and an adventure.  It's about war, slavery, money, family, business, and love.  I guess it really would be described as an 'epic.'  It follows Scarlett O'Hara through the ups and downs of her life during the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era.  But who didn't already know that?  Besides me of course.

My first thought is that it's the Scarlett O'Hara character that makes this such a great book.  Margaret Mitchell described Gone with the Wind as a book about people with 'gumption,' saying she always wondered why some people were able to make it through tragedy, while others fell apart.  Surely few have the will power and 'gumption' of Miss Scarlet O'Hara, who meets every setback head on, never satisfied to settle or resign herself to a cruel or unwanted fate.  But for all her will and determination, Scarlett is equal parts selfish, bossy, arrogant, greedy and naive.  There are times when I absolutely adored her, but then she'd blindside me, and while I wouldn't go so far as to say I despised her, I certainly found her quite frustrating.

And to further that frustration, there is Scarlett's love triangle with Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler.  Ashley is the man she pines for, but I don't know why; while Rhett is her perfect match, something only she can't see.  Scarlett spends most of the novel chasing after the wrong man, and pushing away the right one.  For the entire book I was frustrated at how Scarlett could not see that Rhett would be perfect for her; even when she was married to him.  And everytime it seemed the two would finally connect, Scarltt's shortcomings would rear their ugly head.

Of course it isn't all Scarlett.  There are so many great characters in this book.  Each with their own personality, their own story, and each so well written.  By getting to know each of these people so well, it allows the reader to fully integrate themselves into their lives, into Atlanta during the Civil War, and into Scarlett O'Hara.  Not only are we privy to her thoughts and feelings, but by getting to know those around her so well, we learn about where she came from, and how she became the woman she did.

Because of the knowledge and intimacy gained with all these characters, the emotion that played out in their dialogue and monologues really shines through.  There were too many instances to list of times I was entirely caught up in the feelings of Scarlett and the people of Atlanta.  This was especially true near the end of the book, as a series of rather unfortunate events occur, each with a lasting impact on Scarlett's life.  When the characters would speak of these events, I truly felt the sadness, the panic, the frustration or the desperation in their voices.  I'm unsure if was because it was so realistic and so impassioned, or because I knew the characters so well, but I simply couldn't avoid getting caught up in all the same emotions; feeling elated when things looked up, and utterly down when they turned for the worst.

Now I can fianlly watch the movie, which I"ve had on my PVR for over a year now.  I'm eager to see it, just as so many must have been in 1939, but I fear it will pale in comparison, as the movie usually does.  I don't see how so much infromation can be packed into a movie, even if it is almost four hours long.



Click to hear my discussion of Gone With the Wind on the CBC Eyeopener, here.

You can read TIME's original review from July 6, 1936 right here.




When deciding what to read next, I chose between The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark and All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.  When I looked at the two, I noticed one was 171 pages, while one was 590.  After finishing a long book like Gone with the Wind, I picked the shorter one for my 36th book, so The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie it is.

I will (not) watch to-night;

I cam across the movie version of Catch-22 today while I was flipping channels. Let me re-phrase that, I came across the movie Catch-22 today, when I was flipping channels instead of doing what I should have been doing; reading. Although I'd heard of the movie, I've never actually seen it. I believe this means that Catch-22 fits into the "I've heard of the movie but didn't know it was a book as well" category from this list. Along with A Clockwork Orange and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Fortunately I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't realize A Clockwork Orange was a novel before it was a movie.

I didn't watch Catch-22, but I have PVR'd it for later viewing. I've actually PVR'd (perhaps the newest verb I've ever used) a couple of movies from the list, to watch them after I've read the books, including All the King's Men, Deliverance, To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone with the Wind. I always like seeing a movie version after reading a book, to see how others have interpreted the same story.