2022 Reading Challenge

[Mr Moore]

Thanks for this interesting write-up! The book is definitely intriguing. I haven't had a chance to leaf through it at a bookstore or anything, but one thing I've been wondering is without any punctuation or sentence breaks, how do you find a place to pause for the day?

With difficulty to be honest, the first half I'd just been reading on my regular commutes (about 30 minutes at a time) and during breaks at work so it wasn't unusual to have to go back a few 'paragraphs' to pick up a thread again. There are semi-frequent interludes from a song lyric which are quoted with surrounding 's so they offered some break points if desired but even with them I had to go back a bit each time I picked up reading again.

 

[WhiteDahlias]

Book 6: Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellmann

View attachment 128491
I’ve spent the best part of a fortnight reading this, the last few days laying in bed isolating with Covid put the last 30% away quicker than expected.
It’s one hell of a novel and unlike anything I’ve read before so I find it hard to review and do it justice.
There are definitely moments where the writing is sublime. Definitely moments where I felt completely linked with the narrator, a 40 year old American housewife, mother of 4 in her second marriage. There were probably more moments where she left me feeling completely alienated from her as she drifts seamlessly from thought to thought, word to word.
For those unaware, the book is effectively a 1000 page long sentence with no actual dialogue, although some is considered within the continuous internal monologue that our narrator puts forth. It’s riveting at times but like anyone’s thoughts, it’s rather dull at times too.
The only breaks in the main stream are to allow a second narrative, told in a much more traditional manner, of a mountain lion, herself becoming a mother and her quest to find her lost cubs. These interludes last only a couple of pages at a time and crop up around 10 times throughout the whole book. This second narrative does enter the main narrative near the end.
I remember seeing a comedian on a UK panel show describe her experience with ADHD and there are certainly times within the main story where our narrator’s thought progressions and digressions made me wonder whether she too has ADHD although it isn’t specified within.
I’d previously read some reviews and it seems the most popular criticism is the length of the book, that the effect could be achieved in a fraction of the pages. It’s difficult to disagree with that: the actual linear narrative told probably consumes about only 50 of the 1000 pages were it told in a more traditional manner. But, it’s those other 950 pages where Ellmann’s magic takes place. She allows a real human being to take form as we learn of her unresolved issues with her parents, especially ‘Mommy’, her anxiety around a Trump presidency, her fear of weapons, why there are so many weapons, why men just have to carry them around in open carry states, school shootings past and more recent, racial injustice, police brutality, police apathy, making ends meet by baking pies, why the local store hasn’t paid her for the past 20 pies she made for them, her past health issues, Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford’s relationship shift in The Fugitive, did she devote too much time to her second husband and in doing so, neglect her eldest child etc., etc.
The juxtaposition of the two concurrent storylines is so clever: at the heart these are two mothers who have the same purpose - to love, to feed and to protect their children. Ellmann makes sure we get a bare bones, purely animal take on the mountain lion’s experience compared to a complex, personal, unique take on the human condition.
Could the book have been shorter and stayed effective? Possibly, yes. But, the lion at least is given a name, our lead narrator isn’t so one could argue Ellmann could have even squeezed a few more words in there!

I have the ebook for this, but I have been intimidated to read it because I am a person that gets stressed out stopping in the middle of a chapter, also it's super long. But this sounds really interesting so I might need to work up the courage to read it sooner rather than later!

 

[Selaws]

Book 6: Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellmann

View attachment 128491
I’ve spent the best part of a fortnight reading this, the last few days laying in bed isolating with Covid put the last 30% away quicker than expected.
It’s one hell of a novel and unlike anything I’ve read before so I find it hard to review and do it justice.
There are definitely moments where the writing is sublime. Definitely moments where I felt completely linked with the narrator, a 40 year old American housewife, mother of 4 in her second marriage. There were probably more moments where she left me feeling completely alienated from her as she drifts seamlessly from thought to thought, word to word.
For those unaware, the book is effectively a 1000 page long sentence with no actual dialogue, although some is considered within the continuous internal monologue that our narrator puts forth. It’s riveting at times but like anyone’s thoughts, it’s rather dull at times too.
The only breaks in the main stream are to allow a second narrative, told in a much more traditional manner, of a mountain lion, herself becoming a mother and her quest to find her lost cubs. These interludes last only a couple of pages at a time and crop up around 10 times throughout the whole book. This second narrative does enter the main narrative near the end.
I remember seeing a comedian on a UK panel show describe her experience with ADHD and there are certainly times within the main story where our narrator’s thought progressions and digressions made me wonder whether she too has ADHD although it isn’t specified within.
I’d previously read some reviews and it seems the most popular criticism is the length of the book, that the effect could be achieved in a fraction of the pages. It’s difficult to disagree with that: the actual linear narrative told probably consumes about only 50 of the 1000 pages were it told in a more traditional manner. But, it’s those other 950 pages where Ellmann’s magic takes place. She allows a real human being to take form as we learn of her unresolved issues with her parents, especially ‘Mommy’, her anxiety around a Trump presidency, her fear of weapons, why there are so many weapons, why men just have to carry them around in open carry states, school shootings past and more recent, racial injustice, police brutality, police apathy, making ends meet by baking pies, why the local store hasn’t paid her for the past 20 pies she made for them, her past health issues, Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford’s relationship shift in The Fugitive, did she devote too much time to her second husband and in doing so, neglect her eldest child etc., etc.
The juxtaposition of the two concurrent storylines is so clever: at the heart these are two mothers who have the same purpose - to love, to feed and to protect their children. Ellmann makes sure we get a bare bones, purely animal take on the mountain lion’s experience compared to a complex, personal, unique take on the human condition.
Could the book have been shorter and stayed effective? Possibly, yes. But, the lion at least is given a name, our lead narrator isn’t so one could argue Ellmann could have even squeezed a few more words in there!

Sounds like an interesting concept for sure!

Hope you are on the mend, cant imagine its been a great time with Covid.

 

[Mr Moore]

I have the ebook for this, but I have been intimidated to read it because I am a person that gets stressed out stopping in the middle of a chapter, also it's super long. But this sounds really interesting so I might need to work up the courage to read it sooner rather than later!

It took me a few days for my brain to get used to it but once I’d realised it was out of my hands, I stopped worrying about stopping reading. Within the continuous thought there are fairly definitive trains of thought that might last from half a page to 10 pages and while they do slip seamlessly from one to another, I found I could impose a ‘right, when she moves on from this I’m stopping reading’ regime. Definitely long though. My kindle estimated at my speed it was around 35 hours and I‘d say that was probably pretty accurate.

Hope you are on the mend, cant imagine its been a great time with Covid.

Thanks mate, bloody awful it is. My eldest lad had it before Christmas and was largely symptom free. No such luck here unfortunately, it’s like a supercharged cold with allover body aches, lethargy, persistent sneezing and a shit of a cough that’s left me with rib and back pains galore. just starting day 3 so hoping I can start feeling better soon.

 

[Mr Moore]

Book 7: Mr. Loverman - Bernardine Evaristo


I wanted something to celebrate love as we approach St. Valentines Day and this has been in my to read pile for a while now.
It’s the story of a septuagenarian Antiguan migrant, Barrington Walker, living right here in London - husband, father of two, successful property owner/landlord and long-time lover of his oldest and dearest friend, Morris. A tale as old as time really!
Throughout the novel there are chapters told from a second voice, that of Carmel(ita), Barrington’s wife which are written more in verse than prose and all titled, “Song of…”
Funny and sad in equal measures, the novel shows the way cultural and religious expectations get in the way of true love and consequently cause pain and anguish down the road while still allowing the belief that even in later life, it’s never too late to start over.
It’s a possibly unique take on the Caribbean Windrush immigrant experience dealing with serious issues like coming out, homophobia and post-natal depression yet it manages to maintain a light-hearted rom-com feel to it which was just what I fancied. Looking forward to more Evaristo.

 

[Mr Moore]

Book 8: High Fidelity - Nick Hornby


It might seem like sacrilege that a record collector has never read this but for whatever reason, I just never got around to it. It’s a shame really, I think 20 year old me might have found more to like about Rob than 46 year old me does and perhaps the novel just hasn’t aged well in a post Me Too world. He just came across as a self-indulgent, self-centred, selfish shitbag for the vast majority of the novel who blamed the women in his life for all of his failings.
I saw the film years ago and more recently the TV show and I don’t remember the lead characterisations in either of those being nearly as unlikeable.
I enjoyed the book nonetheless, it was well written, funny and sad at times in all the right places, well paced and featured several recognisable characters. I just wish Rob had had a few more redeeming features.

 

[Selaws]

Book 8: High Fidelity - Nick Hornby

View attachment 128935
It might seem like sacrilege that a record collector has never read this but for whatever reason, I just never got around to it. It’s a shame really, I think 20 year old me might have found more to like about Rob than 46 year old me does and perhaps the novel just hasn’t aged well in a post Me Too world. He just came across as a self-indulgent, self-centred, selfish shitbag for the vast majority of the novel who blamed the women in his life for all of his failings.
I saw the film years ago and more recently the TV show and I don’t remember the lead characterisations in either of those being nearly as unlikeable.
I enjoyed the book nonetheless, it was well written, funny and sad at times in all the right places, well paced and featured several recognisable characters. I just wish Rob had had a few more redeeming features.

Ah cool, I was sorting through some books over the weekend that I need to shelve and this was one of them. It's been a few years since I last read it so it's on my reading list.

 

[ayayrawn]

Book 6: Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellmann

View attachment 128491
I’ve spent the best part of a fortnight reading this, the last few days laying in bed isolating with Covid put the last 30% away quicker than expected.
It’s one hell of a novel and unlike anything I’ve read before so I find it hard to review and do it justice.
There are definitely moments where the writing is sublime. Definitely moments where I felt completely linked with the narrator, a 40 year old American housewife, mother of 4 in her second marriage. There were probably more moments where she left me feeling completely alienated from her as she drifts seamlessly from thought to thought, word to word.
For those unaware, the book is effectively a 1000 page long sentence with no actual dialogue, although some is considered within the continuous internal monologue that our narrator puts forth. It’s riveting at times but like anyone’s thoughts, it’s rather dull at times too.
The only breaks in the main stream are to allow a second narrative, told in a much more traditional manner, of a mountain lion, herself becoming a mother and her quest to find her lost cubs. These interludes last only a couple of pages at a time and crop up around 10 times throughout the whole book. This second narrative does enter the main narrative near the end.
I remember seeing a comedian on a UK panel show describe her experience with ADHD and there are certainly times within the main story where our narrator’s thought progressions and digressions made me wonder whether she too has ADHD although it isn’t specified within.
I’d previously read some reviews and it seems the most popular criticism is the length of the book, that the effect could be achieved in a fraction of the pages. It’s difficult to disagree with that: the actual linear narrative told probably consumes about only 50 of the 1000 pages were it told in a more traditional manner. But, it’s those other 950 pages where Ellmann’s magic takes place. She allows a real human being to take form as we learn of her unresolved issues with her parents, especially ‘Mommy’, her anxiety around a Trump presidency, her fear of weapons, why there are so many weapons, why men just have to carry them around in open carry states, school shootings past and more recent, racial injustice, police brutality, police apathy, making ends meet by baking pies, why the local store hasn’t paid her for the past 20 pies she made for them, her past health issues, Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford’s relationship shift in The Fugitive, did she devote too much time to her second husband and in doing so, neglect her eldest child etc., etc.
The juxtaposition of the two concurrent storylines is so clever: at the heart these are two mothers who have the same purpose - to love, to feed and to protect their children. Ellmann makes sure we get a bare bones, purely animal take on the mountain lion’s experience compared to a complex, personal, unique take on the human condition.
Could the book have been shorter and stayed effective? Possibly, yes. But, the lion at least is given a name, our lead narrator isn’t so one could argue Ellmann could have even squeezed a few more words in there!

God, this book whips, can't think of another one this long I actually want to read again.

 

[ayayrawn]

I'll hop in on this and give incremental updates even though I don't really do numerical goals anymore, and try to just focus on enjoying the books I do read.

Book One:

Room to Dream by David Lynch and Krisitine McKenna - A carry-over from last year. Interesting enough, but the writing's a little dry. Would really only recommend to Lynch heads.

Book Two:

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen - A delight. Entertaining, but also honest and pretty moving. Told with all the brio you expect from the boss at this point.

Book Three:

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - Pretty good! Probably the only piece of apocalypse fiction that actually made me feel pretty optimistic about the end of days.

Book Four:

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - My first encounter with Joan shockingly, and can't say that I "enjoyed" it in the traditional sense. Really painful piece. Probably shouldn't have started with this one, but I look forward to looking into her more iconic work.

Currently reading Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. Wanting to get a couple more novels in before I tackle War and Peace this Spring.

 

[Bull Shannon]

Book 4: Harlem Shuffle by Coulson Whitehead

Having read Underground Railroad and Nickel Boys and marveling at Whitehead's ability to tell vital, lyrical stories that still propel themselves in a highly readable manner, I was looking forward to this one. The story is a noir yarn concerning Carney, a furniture salesman who is simultaneously trying to gain legitimacy and status as a businessman while also slipping into the criminal world as a fence for goods stolen by his cousin.

The story is structured into three sections as 1) Carney's cousin forces him into flipping stolen goods from a big hotel heist that brings Carney into the wider criminal world, 2) Carney is snubbed by a sort of businessman's club and he formulates a plan to steal back a "bribe" a member had implied would get him into said club, and 3) backdropped by the Harlem riots of 1964, Carney's cousin enlists his help in robbing a friend.

The first two sections represented a pretty clear character and thematic arc for Carney, while the third (to me) leaned really hard on the cousin relationship in a way that I'm not sure was really earned. Then again, I don't feel it's uncommon in noir/crime to end a plot-heavy story on a left-turn of "the story's always been about the relationship between these two people, and will end with either an uneasy union or parting of ways that leaves much unresolved."

Overall, really good, especially if you meet it on its own terms.

 

[Bull Shannon]

I read Underground Railroad not knowing it was a speculative fiction take, and when the title got literal I was *very confused*.

When it turns out to be an actual under ground railroad

 

[Bull Shannon]

It's been a couple of years since I read it so it's already a little fuzzy in my brain, but I remember thinking at the time that I wasn't totally sure what that device actually added to the narrative. I could be misremembering, but there didn't seem to be much about the story that couldn't have been accomplished with a more reality-based take. I didn't give it a whole lot of thought, but it felt like he was suggesting an idea that I didn't quite grasp.

It's been some years for me as well, but I remember the book being quite similar to Gulliver's Travels, in that every place the main character stopped at had its own "thing" that would present itself as a more positive dynamic than the last, but still flawed in some deeper systemic way. I felt like the literal underground railroad was a magical realist device meant to add to that distinct separation of "lands."

At the least, it's a hook that perhaps makes this book stand out to a prospective reader more than other slave narratives.

 

[WhiteDahlias]

Hey guys! I finally finished a book!



This was another one I picked out because I liked the cover, it's a book of essays (both personal and research-based) about the author and Florida. There were a few essays that really grabbed me. I loved the first one where she talks about her old best friend and how they drifted apart, and there is an essay about homelessness that I thought was very good, but I did find some of the other essays to be a little bland. If you are really looking for a book about Florida, I'd probably recommend Florida by Lauren Groff before this one, but if you like nonfiction I'd say give it a try if the topics seem interesting.

I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

I'm also still liking Swing Time but I am listening to that one on audiobook and haven't had much time lately.

 

[Mr Moore]

Book 9: The Sellout - Paul Beatty


Superb. Absolutely laugh out loud satire of race relations and racial inequality in modern day America.
Bonbon or Me (Me is his surname), attempts to put the fictional California city of Dickens back on the map (literally, as it’s removed without warning), by painting a boundary line, reinstating segregation and accepting a volunteer slave, former child actor from The Little Rascals to assist on his urban farm.
It’s full of biting social commentary tempered by hilarious absurdism that reminded me at times of Vonnnegut’s Breakfast of Champions.
Not to oversell the comedy, there are plenty of serious issues here. We’re left contemplating the idea that maybe America finally paid its debt when Obama was elected. Bonbon and Beatty seemingly have their doubts. “…the neighbourhood glee wasn’t O.J. Simpson getting acquitted or the Lakers winning the 2002 championship, but it was close.” Too funny.

 

[Bull Shannon]

Book 9: The Sellout - Paul Beatty

View attachment 129327
Superb. Absolutely laugh out loud satire of race relations and racial inequality in modern day America.
Bonbon or Me (Me is his surname), attempts to put the fictional California city of Dickens back on the map (literally, as it’s removed without warning), by painting a boundary line, reinstating segregation and accepting a volunteer slave, former child actor from The Little Rascals to assist on his urban farm.
It’s full of biting social commentary tempered by hilarious absurdism that reminded me at times of Vonnnegut’s Breakfast of Champions.
Not to oversell the comedy, there are plenty of serious issues here. We’re left contemplating the idea that maybe America finally paid its debt when Obama was elected. Bonbon and Beatty seemingly have their doubts. “…the neighbourhood glee wasn’t O.J. Simpson getting acquitted or the Lakers winning the 2002 championship, but it was close.” Too funny.

Loved this one!

 

[avecigrec]

Book 3

The Holy Bible by David Evans


This may well be my favourite of the 33 1/3 books I've read so far and probably my timeliest reading of one, as I've been on a pretty steady love affair with this album since first listening to it about 6 or 7 weeks ago. It's a nice breezy read (took me a week to read, but only a couple of sittings with a few days off in-between) that presents a good overview of the Manics' upbringing and career before and after the centrepiece of the album in question. Not sure how this would be for a more advanced Manics fan who has read some of the other many books available about the band but it was definitely a very satisfying entry point that has made me excited to delve further into the band and, most especially, this album - which has easily been my most listened to album of 2022 so far... making up for the lost time of having "discovered" the album 28 years after the fact!

 

[LeSamourai]

So, who's a multiple-books-at-a-time reader? I usually have 6-10 ongoing at any time, if I count audiobooks as well. Maybe it just means I have bad impulse control...

 

[avecigrec]

So, who's a multiple-books-at-a-time reader? I usually have 6-10 ongoing at any time, if I count audiobooks as well. Maybe it just means I have bad impulse control...

View attachment 129646

*raises hand*

Similar number, but no audiobooks.

 

[BjorgenFjorgen]

So, who's a multiple-books-at-a-time reader? I usually have 6-10 ongoing at any time, if I count audiobooks as well. Maybe it just means I have bad impulse control...

View attachment 129646

One fiction and one non-fiction at a time is basically my limit, but even that I don't do often. I wouldn't be able to keep that many straight!

 

[avecigrec]

One fiction and one non-fiction at a time is basically my limit, but even that I don't do often. I wouldn't be able to keep that many straight!

I typically have a book of poetry, a non-fiction music-related book, another non-fiction book, a book of essays and/or a book of short stories on the go at any given time. With occasional novels and graphic novels sprinkled in. And sometimes I double up on the music and/or poetry books.

[edit: and once in a while for sheer masochism I throw in a rather academic book about poetry or literature!]