#75 - "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith

I've finished #75, White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Actually, I finished it about a week ago, but haven't had a chance to write anything until now.

It's tough to say what, or rather, who this story is really about. I suppose it's the story of a group of people, three families, whose lives become intertwined over the course of several decades. It begins with Archibald Jones, recently divorced from his wife, as he attempts to commit suicide. After being rescued by a passer-by, Archie gets a new lease on life, and before too long, is re-married to a Jamaican woman named Clara, who is 30 years his junior.

After marriage, Archie is reunited with an old Army pal, Samad Iqbal, a Bengali Muslin who has recently immigrated to the United Kingdom. Both men are married to much younger women, and both are soon raising young families. From there, the book follows their lives, as they struggle with a variety of topics, including race, religion, substance abuse, infidelity, and...genetics.

The Final Twenty-Five Books

Yesterday I wrote of my planned reading list, but didn't mention what it was. Since I've spent countless hours planning this reading order, I figure I should share it. It will be a road map of sorts for the next year of my reading.

A lot of the order is because I own nine of the final 25 books, so they all find themselves in the final 10. I also wanted to be sure to space out the more difficult reads, which right now I am anticipating to be Gravity's Rainbow, Call it Sleep, and A Dance to the Music of Time. Not only are these three quite lengthy, but I also just have a feeling they will be quite taxing reads.

To ease the pain, so to speak, of reading these tomes, I have followed them with books I anticipate to go quite quickly. Two of the remaining books that I've previously read, Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird, will follow Gravity's Rainbow and A Dance to the Music of Time respectively. And I plan for Watchmen to follow Call it Sleep.

I know this; and thus I challenge it.

I'm about three quarters of the way through number 75, White Teeth by Zadie Smith, and am happy to report it I'm enjoying it. I started it a couple of weeks ago, but was away at a golf tournament last week, on an annual trip that doesn't afford me much reading time. Looking back at the Victoria Day weekend the past few years, I see there is always a gap in my reading each time. But I'm back on track now, and plan to finish it before I leave on another trip this Thursday.

When I do finish it, I might be in a bit of a conundrum with regards to what to read next. Right now I'm planning on reading A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul, and I do currently have it out from the library. The problem is that it is getting more and more difficult to plan my next read, simply because there are fewer books to choose from.

Less. what's next?

As I make my way through Revolutionary Road, I've started to think about what I should be planning to read for the next few months.  As you may have noticed, I've tried to space out the bigger reads a little, so as not to get bogged down by them, but also in an effort to not leave them until the end.  But really, there hasn't been any order set in stone.  Mostly I've been getting what I can from the library and going from there.  However, after having read 58 books there are simply fewer books to chose from than two years ago, so the decision over what to read next is more difficult, but also more important.

Of the final 40 books, I have already decided on the final five.  I'm ending with Nineteen-Eighty Four as I've read it several times, and if you recall, was actually going to start the list with it until I discovered my tattered copy was missing the first fifteen pages.  I've also decided to read Never Let Met Go and A Passage to India as numbers 99 and 98 respectively, as they are the newest and oldest books on the list.  Numbers 97 and 96 will be Neuromancer and A Death in the Family, as those are two books that I own a copy of.  I figure with only five novels left, it might be more difficult to get them from the library so I should be sure to read ones I can get my hands on.

So that leaves 35 other books to read (I'm reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest next, as #60), and there are still a few behemoths left.  I've identified, Gravity's Rainbow, Lord of the Rings, Call it Sleep, The Man Who Loved Children, and A Dance to the Music of Time as the most challenging book I still have to read.  Some will be challenging because I have been told how unreadable they are by a co-author of the list (Man Who Loved Children)  while others will be difficult simply because of their length (Lord of the Rings and A Dance to the Music of Time).

Anyone for a little light reading?

I'm starting to realize that one of these five books needs to be #61 or #62, and I'm not sure which one it is going to be.  Of those five, Lord of the Rings is probably the most appealing and Gravity's Rainbow the least.  I can't keep putting the other Pynchon novel off though!  However, Call it Sleep is sitting on the shelf behind me right now, but, it's thicker than four other books combined.  Maybe it's large print.  Really large print.  Or think paper.

Of course for every long book there are shorter ones.  Looking at what I have left I'm predicting that To Kill a Mockingbird, Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, Lord of the Flies, Watchmen, and Wide Sargasso Sea, will be my easiest reads.  Don't be surprised if the books mentioned earlier are followed by one of these.

But I suppose for now, this is all like planning tomorrow's lunch when you haven't even begun to finish making today's.  Let's get back to our regularly scheduled program, Revolutionary Road.

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.

A New Year, a new book

My first entry of 2010, and the first entry since I turned 31, which was yesterday. I’m starting to get old. Okay, I'm not that old, but I do find myself starting to think about aging more now than ever. Fortunately I'm as mature as a fifteen year old, so life continues at a good pace.

I went to the library today, and was hoping to pick up Animal Farm. However, it had been checked out, so I walked the stacks of the local library, until I spotted a book I was sure was on the list. The first one I came across was Light in August by William Faulkner. I don’t really know anything about this book either, which I guess I might as well not mention, as that will be the case with most of the books on this list. I recognize the name William Faulkner, but I don’t know anything about him, nor could I name any of his books. I do know that he has two books on the list, the other one being The Sound and the Fury.

Anyway, I’ve checked this book out as well as The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird; both books I have read. My plan is to read Light in August and then one of the other books. I had only previously read six of the novels on this list, and I don’t want to go into re-runs too soon. So, I’ll read one of these two when I’m finished Light in August to kind of get me a head a little bit, which is necessary after Naked Lunch took so long to read.