book list, February 2006

[edenfalling]

I made three resolutions this year. First, get a job. (Done.) Second, exercise more regularly and lose weight. (In process.) Third, keep a list of my reading material.

These are the books I read in February, 2006:

New: 2
---The Turn of the Screw, Henry James (fiction: highly literary ghost story, made me want to tear my hair out in sheer frustration)
---Petshop of Horrors, volume 10, Matsuri Akino (manga: awfully pretty; I really have to stop reading things out of order, though...)


Old: 9
---On Writing, Stephen King (nonfiction: I don't follow his method -- for example, I do use outlines -- but it's a fascinating book, and always readable)
---Trigun, volumes 1 and 2, Yasuhiro Nightow (manga: cracked-out sci-fi, gunfights, reads much better the second time through)
---Trigun Maximum, volumes 1-5, Yasuhiro Nightow (manga: ditto above; it's a continuation)
---The Iroquois Trail: Dickon Among the Onondagas and Senecas, M. R. Harrington (historical fiction: sequel to The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes, both set during the early 1600s. I think my dad originally acquired the books because Rutgers University republished them in the 1960s. They have quite a lot of information, and they're not bad stories either -- very clean and readable -- though there's a piece of period-accurate sexism at the end of The Iroquois Trail that bugs me every time I read it.)


February Total = 11 books (plus a bunch of fanfiction, quite a lot of newspapers, and several magazines)

Year to Date = 34 books (16 new, 18 old)

Comments

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

The Turn of the Screw is one of the 100-odd unread books I have sitting on my shelf, 20% of which I vowed to read in 2006. You're saying I shouldn't bother, I take it?

My February total is an absolutely pathetic 5. I comfort myself with the thought that I have three weeks off in March, and three extra days to boot!

[edenfalling]

James cannot write ghost stories to save his life.

It takes until about page 90 of a 126 page story for the protagonist to actually do anything except wibble. James's (apparently characteristic) vagueness and ambiguity about feelings and situations is really, truly not helpful in a ghost story, where one wants something to grab hold of in order to anchor the weirdness. I could not get a clear image of Miles's age -- I think he's meant to be about 13/14, but he's constantly described as 'little,' 'charming,' or 'sweet,' so I ended up defaulting to picturing him as about 8 years old, which then made some of his actions make no freaking sense. The classism and sexism are thick enough to choke you, and there's no sense that James disagrees with those attitudes in any way, or that he's even conscious that most social arrangements are constructed, rather than being incontrovertible laws of nature. About every third page, there was at least one sentence where I got totally lost halfway through and had to go back and start over -- and this almost never happens to me!

It was like drowning in a sea of dust.

I've been told that The Turn of the Screw is James at his worst, writing out of his element, and that I should try one of his long novels instead, but I'm not sure I want to bother -- the vagueness and the appalling sentences really turn me off.

Hope this helps

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

I've read two books only by James, both of which I would recommend with reservations to you having read this comment.

You mentioned sexism. The Bostonians is about late eighteenth-century feminism and the suffragette movement. It is absolutely fascinating from that angle, and while James can be accused of sometimes taking the anti-suffrage side in the book, there are enough really important moments (I don't want to give away anything), good pictures of feminists and most importantly, a LOT of the characters' arguments for suffrage that I don't see how he can be accused of favouring the other side. It's got three very interesting characters at its centre, plus a packed cast of supporters, but it's too long. If you try it, be prepared for that. He set out with the intention to write with what he called 'that pictorial quality' and he succeeded a little too well for my taste.

(very femslashy, though. practically textual.)

Oops, I forgot, I read three. Daisy Miller and Washington Square are both under 100 words, very fresh and readable and have interesting dilemmas. I enjoyed them both but felt a hunger for something meatier - however, since neither takes long to read, you've no opportunity for not trying one. :) I think I'd give the preference to WS if you're picking.

I own The Aspern Papers and The Golden Bowl as well as The Turn of the Screw, and can give you my opinion on them when/if I read them.

Re: Hope this helps

[edenfalling]

I think I have a copy of Washington Square in my pile of 'books I maybe ought to read sometime.' I definitely have a copy of Daisy Miller, and I guess I'll try reading it this month. *crosses fingers and hopes for the best*

Re: Hope this helps

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

Man, what kind of time was it when I wrote that? Two typos - 19th century rather than 18th, and you've no excuse for not trying them. Oh well, I hope I got the sense across. Do give one of them a go; you'll be done within an hour if you read at my speed.

Re: Hope this helps

[edenfalling]

My reading speed depends on how much a book absorbs me -- I read faster if I'm interested, and I read in much longer chunks. I read The Turn of the Screw in roughly 20-page chunks during my lunch breaks, so it took me a week to finish.

(typo 3 = 100 pages, not 100 words)

Re: Hope this helps

[edenfalling]

I just finished Daisy Miller two days ago, and there are not words for how much better it is than The Turn of the Screw. Not only does James handle the characters and material much better -- it's obviously the sort of thing he's actually interested in, rather than ghost stories -- his writing itself is a hundred times more clear and readable.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

when yo usay 'old' do you mea nrereads or books that are otu already/ DO yu coutn rereads?
I liek this idea nad i now remembeir had plans to do it too *sigh*

[edenfalling]

Old books are books that I've already read.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

aha.