Keeping It Brief

After a slow few weeks, in writing terms, I’m back, hot on the tails of finishing yet another book. In the interest of keeping it brief (which both helps me keep up to date on my writing, and means you have to wade through less of my ramblings), I’m going to restrict myself to one paragraph per book (without producing three, page-long paragraphs...). With that goal in mind, I’m not going to go through the preamble of introducing each book; if you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the below Wikipedia links.

The Plague

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

Slaughterhouse Five

The Plague was a fascinating book, containing many profound sentiments about human nature in unexpected contexts (which, I believe, is sort of the point). Perhaps as testament to this, it’s the first book this year for which I’ve resorted to highlighting (digitally, calm down you book-puritans!) so I can easily re-visit these passages. Thanks to Abbie for an excellent recommendation.

The Good Man... was a surprisingly short read. It clocks in at 245 pages, but it’s comprised of many short chapters, with a oddly high blank page count between them. I presume that this was an intentional authorial/editorial decision, but I’m still trying to work exactly what the significance behind it is. Part of a wider myths series, GMJ&SC provides an interesting underscore to Pullman’s atheism, in a highly inflammatory way. It's clear why it attracted such controversy (and threats), because it offers a highly irreverent take on the Jesus mythology.

Slaughterhouse Five was lying around on my eReader from a few years ago - something I never got round to reading at the time. I was familiar with the title and painfully aware of that fact that I had never read any Vonnegut, so I decided to go for it, without really reading up on the background to the book first. It turned out to be another quick read, one that is, fairly, heralded as one of the great novels of the 20th century (though, admittedly, by Modern Library). For all of its occasionally trite, disarming, or satirical style, it’s a highly though-provoking, philosophical work, rooted in a fatalist philosophy. I highly recommend it.

Well, that’s me up to date... I’m trying to forge ahead with some other short-mid length books to get ahead of my quota, so I can think of tackling some of the intimidatingly longer ones on my list (speaking of which, I will share my list as it stands at some point this week).

I’m also looking at instituting some achievements to round out the challenge, partly because I seem to love gamification in any form, and partly because it might give me some interest ideas of connections to write about. Please drop any suggestions in the comments, but here are a few for starters (a few of which I’ll already have achieved):

Fanboi (Read two or more books by the same author)

Well-Versed (Read 5 or more different formats: short story/novel/verse/non-fiction/drama)

Internacional (Finished a foreign language or dual-text book)

Genre-Savvy (Read from at least 6 different genres)

Strong Opening (Completed ten books)

Take A Leaf Out of My Book (Finished 5 recommendations)

You Have Excellent Taste (Finished 15 recommendations)

Let’s hear what you’ve got for me... Just a reminder that you can follow my occasional micro-updates on Twitter via #GRaBaW (usually tweeting from @mastergeorge). As ever, keen to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Week 12

13/52

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)

The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (1988)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carré (1974)

I Can Make You Hate - Charlie Brooker (2012)

Looking For Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville (2005)

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (1989)

The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (1979)

Jobs - Walter Isaacson (2012)

The Plague - Albert Camus (1947)

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (2011)

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman (2010)

Currently Reading:

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1931)