Back to Basics

Yes, it's been awhile since I wrote a post actually about one of the novels. Bad me. So, let's re-focus.

Have you read Cocaine Nights? If so, I'd like to talk with you, because I'm still attempting to process how I feel about this one. First, it is extremely triggering. It's interesting, because the novel starts off feeling pretty classic noir, which lulls you into a certain place of complacency, and then bham, it just hits you.

I didn't realize how triggering it was, actually, until I re-read the part about the pornography film, and then I seriously almost felt like throwing up. Which is interesting to me, because at first I just read it without noticing what was happening, then paused, realized what I had just read, and felt ill.

Thus, I can't actually recommend it to anyone given the triggering aspects relating to sexual assault. But that said, it's certainly a thought-provoking read, and it certainly paints a remarkably bleak picture of humanity.

Essentially, the plot is a writer goes to the Iberian Peninsula where his younger brother has been managing a resort, because said younger brother has been arrested for a gruesome murder. The protagonist initially aims to clear his brother, but gets further dragged into this dystopian world. As he attempts to unravel the mystery, he becomes further trapped.

So yes, a worthwhile read, but very upsetting. Again, though, I have a pretty low trigger threshold.

My Love

So, I'm still trying to find pictures that I can add to this blog. Even with some deep digging, there appear to be few pictures of me reading that exist. Huh.

Anyway, this doesn't exactly count, but I am surrounded by books, and I'm also with baby, which makes it extra fun. Oh how I miss him.


In other news, sometimes I go to midnight showings of movies based on books, and then I spend the next two days recovering from getting to bed at 3:30am before going into work at 8am.

Hold the phone

No, seriously, hold the phone. Look what I found! A blog where people are crowd sourcing the project to get through the list (original goal was to as a community get through 1001 books in the course of a year; that's been extended now since they didn't make it in 2011). It's like finding soul mates.

This site has been so exciting to peruse. I've found all kinds of fun and perhaps dangerous things. For example, I found this site that offers books on tape for free.

Dangerously, I found this round of stats on page lengths for every book:

These are the longest ones that I have read, which are eighth, ninth, and tenth sadly:
1436 Herman Melville Moby-Dick
1386 Leo Tolstoy War and Peace
1330 Victor Hugo Les Misérables

None come close to Remembrance of Things Past at nearly 3500 pages. I almost cried. The dangerous part is how tempting it would be to read the shortest ones.

Now I have to decide if I want to participate. I'm rather tempted. If my life were a romantic comedy, this would somehow relate to a meet cute. Fortunately, my life is not.

Two for the price of one

Another post in the Awkward Encounters with Men at the Gym series (note, this isn't really about these random guys, it's about how awkward I really am; wanted to clarify that I'm really not mocking them).

First encounter: waiting for bhangra while reading The Long Goodbye. I am approached by one of the older trainers, who squints at my book cover for a solid 45 seconds before asking: "Is that the old book or a new book?" Me: "Um, the old one. I guess?" Trainer: "Huh. Just was wondering if they made a new one with the same title." Me: "I don't think so." Trainer: "Okay; well, enjoy it."

I really had no idea what to say to that one.

Second encounter: waiting for hip hop while reading Glamorama. I am approached by a random gym member who addresses me as ma'am (so awkward to begin with), before asking what I am reading and then what it is about. I give a remarkably superficial summary (it's about a male model in New York; I'm not even kidding, that's how I described it). He then launches into a lengthy story about how his fiancee/girlfriend has told him that he should model in New York. We won't comment on that piece, but what struck me as most interesting was that she started out as a fiancee, but by the end of the story she was a girlfriend. Make of that what you will (I could more see it going the other way if it was a recent engagement).

Also, I found this picture and I thought it was fun. I've always wanted to participate in a living art thing, and maybe I could do this one.

I know what I like and I like what I know

The results of my other hobby recently.

Lucky I'm in love with my best friend

Let's talk about The Long Goodbye! No, seriously, let's! Chandler, Noir, Femme Fatales (three!), what more could you ask for? There is something so sexy and so misogynistic about noir all at once. Yeesh.

This is a genre about which my feelings are quite mixed, as the crazy paragraph above probably shows. That said, I liked this one significantly more than I had expected to. I think The Big Sleep is better, but this one came together when I wasn't sure that it could. Normally I have a really hard time following noir (it's the coincidences and the whole, let's just kick something and see if something happens method; I don't understand it), but with this one it worked for me; the coincidences worked.

It's always interesting to read one of these versus watching a movie. The authors could get away with so much that they couldn't if it were a film made during the era of the Code. That really came through with this one, and it always catches me a bit off guard.

Anyway, mixed feelings about the genre, but worth a read I'd say. Interestingly, noir is a genre I have a really, really hard time writing in; I can fake most styles, but noir is hard for me.

How my brain works

So, recently I've had a few conversations with different people about my reading rate. Apparently people are shocked to learn I try to average two books per week. This apparently is a shockingly high rate in some people's opinions, which honestly surprised me. I mean, I know that I read quickly, but I don't think it's a shockingly high rate. Following the disbelief and incredulity I encountered this week, I've given my speed some thought, which I have reproduced below.

Let's assume that these people are correct that my pace is unusually quick (I'm not necessarily sold on that, but let's assume it for argument's sake). Even if we make this assumption, people still shouldn't be surprised about my pace after hearing about the project. If you do not enjoy reading and do not read fairly quickly, you are unlikely to take on this type of project. If you know that I've taken on this project, you thus know that I read fairly quickly and enjoy reading. I'm no longer a random person, and so anything you know about how quickly the average person reads shouldn't be used as a reference point to my reading rate.

Important note: I don't think that there's anything particularly special about reading quickly. It makes a project like this easier, but it doesn't tell you anything, really, about the person.

That said, 19 so far this year! Right now I'm reading a lovely one about deprogramming someone after an experience with a cult. It's as charming as it sounds.