#76 - "A House for Mr. Biswas" by V.S. Naipaul

It is done. #76 on the list, A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul. By no means the longest book on the list, but I believe 2nd only to Lord of the Rings in how long it took me to read, at nearly four months.

This was a bit of a different one for me; I enjoyed reading it, the entire time in fact, but when I put it down I had little to no motivation to pick it up again. Reminds me of Possession. Looking back on the book, this actually makes sense; the writing was wonderful, with complex characters, interesting settings, and vivid descriptions. There was just one thing missing, a plot. It didn't seem to be a book I needed to pick up on a regular basis, as I wasn't really concerned with what was going to happen.

Mohun Biswas is born into a poor, Indian family in Trinidad, sometime in the early part of the 20th century. His birth is looked upon as a stroke of bad luck, as he is born with an extra finger, and comes out feet first. And for the following 500 or so pages, it seems that prophecy turns out to be true. Mr. Biswas lives a life without many successes.

His troubles start when he hides from his parents, fearing harsh punishment. Mr. Biswas' father, fearing his sun has drowned, dives into a lake to find him, only to drown himself. And it goes downhill from there. He is pulled out of school to begin a career, but fails at nearly everything he does. Eventually, through cowardice, he becomes engaged to Shama Tulsi, daughter of a shop owning family; a family that would come to dominate him for the rest of his life.

#69 - Possession by A.S. Byatt

This is a book I actually finished over two weeks ago. But after returning from Costa Rica, I got sick, which pushed everything back a couple of days, and then with Christmas and all, it's just a really busy time of year! But I have now finished 69 books from Time magazine list of 100 All-Time Novels. Soon to be 70, as I'm nearly finished American Pastoral as well.

This isn't the first time I've had difficulty deciding what I thought of a novel, but Possession might be one of the trickier books to pin down so far. For me it was kind of a tale of two novels, one of which I quite enjoyed, the other which I...didn't.

Returning from the Rich Coast

Well, I'm back from Costa Rica. Is there a better feeling than having breakfast with monkeys and iguanas in 30C heat, then dinner in -20C at a Wendy's drive-thru? (there's never anything to eat when you get back from vacation, and at 2 in the morning, there's nothing else opened!) Of course it always sucks coming back from vacation, regardless of where you've been, but such a huge temperature change seems to exacerbate the situation.

But, I digress, back to reading. I had planned to finish #69, Possession on the plane ride to Costa Rica, but since I was taking a red-eye to Toronto, then boarding a five hour flight to Liberia, I wasn't in the best reading mood. Quite frankly, I was too tired to read, so instead, I spent most of both flights drifting in and out of consciousness, never really asleep, but never really awake. However, although I didn't finish the book before getting to Costa Rica as planned, I did finish it the next day.

I'm still gathering my thoughts on it as I didn't really spend much of my vacation thinking about it. It was more one of those, "okay, it's done, let's move on" books, rather than a "wow, I need to discuss this with anybody who will listen" types. That doesn't necessarily mean it was a bad book, it's just that some books are more interesting to dissect than others.

Besides finishing Possession, I was also able to get some non-fiction reading done, as well as make a good dent in Philip Roth's second list book, American Pastoral. Hopefully a review for #70 can appear in the next week or so. As for my thoughts on Possession, I should be able to have something ready in the next two days.

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Have all his ventures fail'd?

I've failed my goal of finishing Possession by today. I had set this goal for a couple of reasons. First of all, and most importantly, I wanted to finish #69 from this list. But I also wanted to finish it by today because I'm heading to Costa Rica in a couple of hours.

It would have been nice to be starting #70 as I left for this vacation, but as I haven't finished, it comes along with me. And what will happen is I'll either finish it on the plane or at the latest on the first day I'm there; I do only have a 100 pages left, and nine hours of flying time.

Holden Caulfield Boards the Train

I don't really have much to report, as I continue reading Possession. I'm still going at a rather slow pace, which I continue to blame on small print, italics, and the rather boring prospect of reading what others are reading. But a slow pace is better than no pace, and I am making progress. I'm probably about 60% finished.

In other news though, something finally happened this weekend that part of me thought would happen more often; I saw somebody on the train reading a book from The List. This weekend, taking the train downtown, somebody sat down across from me, pulled out a copy of The Catcher in the Rye and began reading.

I did commend your highness' letters to them

My reading of Possession continues. But as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm being stalled by the typeface. Last week it was tiny font, which this book as plenty of. But to make matters worse, the last chapter I finished, some 55 pages, was almost entirely in italics.

The chapter in question contains a series of letters written between two lovers in 1859. I'm not sure why a letter has to be in italics; it's obvious it's a letter that we're reading, there is no need to differentiate it from the rest of the text. And of course the font is smaller than the rest of the book as well. So I had the grueling task of reading 55 pages of tiny italicized font.

To add to this, I was basically reading about what somebody else was reading. For whatever reason, I've always found this incredibly tedious. If it's a line or two, there doesn't seem to be a problem, but when it's page after page after page, I find my attention drifting, wondering if I really need to read all of this. Through the first 69 books on this list, this particular chapter was the closest I've come to skipping ahead a few pages, and that includes Lord of the Rings. Fortunately I was able to resist the temptation, saving myself from having to one day proclaim "I've read through Time magazine's list of 100 All-Time Novels, save a few pages of Possession."

For now, it looks like I'm through with italics and tiny font, but I have moved on to reading about somebody reading somebody else's diary. But I've passed the halfway point, so I have that going for me.

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With any size of words.

I'm about a third of the way through my 69th book from The List, Possession by A.S. Byatt. I'm not sure what I think of this one. So far, I'm interested in the story, although I have no idea where it is headed, and I'm intrigued by the characters, although I'm not sure why.

Like so many books I've read from The List so far, I was a little worried when I started reading this one. First off, I usually select a book because it's story or subject interests me. But when I tackle many of these list books, I'm reading them because they're on The List, not because my interest was piqued.

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, the title Possession: A Romance, throws up all kinds of flags. But I shouldn't allow that to be the case, as it would be a prefect example of judging a book by it's cover. I honestly try not to do that! Plus it's size is a little intimidating; not the 510 pages, but rather the tiny font. Such small font over 510 pages can make for a lengthy read, especially if it turns out to be one I'm not enjoying.

The problem with small font, is that it can often feel like I'm not making any progress on the book. If each page is taking a couple of minutes, an hour of reading might only get me through 25 or 30 pages. I think I'll always prefer larger font and more pages, just so I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere. Having said that, large print books are unreadable, as it feels like the book is yelling at me. I guess it would seem I'm quite picky when it comes to font size.

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Time Enough at Last

Henry Bemis:
Book Lover/Wife Hater

Since a trip to Disneyland in September, where I rode the Hollywood Tower of Terror more times than I care to count, I've developed an interest in the original Twilight Zone TV series. Of course I knew about the series, but could only really think of one or two episodes that I might have seen over the years. To fix this, I picked up a few DVD's at the library, and have been watching old episodes here and there.

A couple of days ago, I came across an episode entitled "Time Enough to Last" featuring Burgess Meredith as Henry Bemis, a bespectacled man who loves to read. Unfortunately for Henry, his life doesn't seem to allow him much time to read. We first see Henry working as a teller at a bank, with a book in his lap trying to read David Copperfield while he helps a customer. But his Mr. Potter-esque bank manager has a problem with this, and forbids him from reading at work.

#68 - "The Heart of the Matter" by Graham Greene

A week ago I finished #68 from Time's list, The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene. This was the 2nd Greene book I've read from the list, so he joins Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner with this honor. I'm happy to report that this book was more enjoyable than Woolf and Faulkner's books combined. In fact, I think it's safe to say I'd rather read this book 100 times, than read those four books once.

Henry Scobie is a policeman, serving in an unnamed West Africa colony during the War. Scobie is, in many ways, a classic colonial Englishman, dedicated to Queen and country and proud of his English heritage and traditions. But unlike most of his contemporaries in West Africa, Scobie is also very honest; refusing bribes and for the most part doing what is "right." Or at least, what he feels is right.

Then 'tis but reason that I be released

Now that I've unshackled myself from The Lord of the Rings, I feel as if I am Dbryan Unchained (the 'D' is silent). My lack of progress reading these past few months has resulted in my lack of posting about my reading. It's difficult to write about your reading when you're doing so little of it. But now that I'm finished with that seemingly never ending read, I'm ready to get back at it; both reading and writing.

The next book I've decided to read is The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, one of the authors with two books on the list. I wasn't fussy about his other book, Light in August (which was my fourth book), and have to admit that I was a little gun shy about reading this one. But after being bogged down in Middle Earth for so long, it really doesn't feel that intimidating.

Of course it is over 1,000 pages shorter than the last one, so its size is a lot less intimidating. Silly as it may seem, there is something comforting about reading a book that doesn't cause ships to list to starboard; it fits in a jacket pocket and can be held with one hand. And after being able to slog through a 1,300 page book I wasn't really interested in, I feel a 320 page book, regardless of whether or not I am enjoying it, will seem like a breeze. I'm feeling so confidant with these books now, I even considered reading Gravity's Rainbow next, but couldn't track down a copy in time.

I have a few other books lined up right now, waiting to be read, and plan to really make some tracks this month. Also on my shelf are Possession, A Clockwork Orange, The Big Sleep, and The Grapes of Wrath. I'm not going to think about what #64 will be until I'm nearly finished The Sound and the Fury however. I've got to keep my eye on the prize.