Resuming reposting five-year old entries about books. At the moment, still sifting through the “Chesterton phase” of my last year in high school.
[Tales of the Long Bow, by G.K. Chesterton]
I’ve been going off on a G.K. Chesterton reading rampage, and I have a funny quote, from “The Unobtrusive Traffic of Captain Pierce”:
“I have every [...]
Silence, by Shusaku Endo (trans. William Johnston): According to the translator’s introduction, Shusaku Endo has often been called the Japanese Graham Greene, and more specifically, Silence is considered Endo’s response to The Power and the Glory, another book that was on Charmian’s list of recommendations. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to reading The [...]
Endgame and Act Without Words, by Samuel Beckett: I went to see the Cutting Ball Theater production of Endgame in San Francisco with Steve, who later lent me his copy of the play since I hadn’t read it prior to the performance. I don’t know how I would have reacted if I read the [...]
A repost of books read for the “school stories” theme.
Maurice, by E.M. Forster: Maurice draws a portrait of the eponymous protagonist, in the process of self-realization of his homosexuality while struggling with the taboos and social restrictions of his time. I’ve read Forster’s A Room With a View and Howards End a while ago, [...]
A repost of reviews for the “mystery” theme that inaugurated The Bibliophagic Society book club.
The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde: I chose to read this book first because it was the only title to appear on two different lists. I’d read the first two books of the Thursday Next series before and found [...]
[The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton]
I finished The Man Who Was Thursday last night, and I reaffirm my goal to try to write like G.K. Chesterton. I really can’t describe the book adequately, but it was like one of those dreams where you’re terrified or wildly delirious but you don’t want to wake [...]
A Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett: I picked up Dorothy Dunnett on Cat’s recommendation. A Game of Kings is the first book in her famous Lymond series, featuring the Scottish aristocrat, Francis Crawford of Lymond, the Master of Culter. The book felt bewildering at first because Dunnett drops us into the [...]
More than four years later, I still aspire to write like Chesterton.
[The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton]
Oh, and The Man Who Was Thursday is really an absolutely wonderful book. For example:
And in some strange way, though there was not the shadow of a shape in the gloom, Syme knew two things: first, that [...]
I still continue to have contradictory expectations of Asian-American authors. I have yet to come across one that has managed to say something new about the so-called “Asian-American experience” while still remaining meaningful to me. Although thinking more on this issue, I think I would have preferred it if Chang-rae Lee had written [...]
I don’t even know I’d call the book “ingenious” and “innovative” anymore. It’s certainly well-written though.
[The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen]
I’ve finished Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, which I concede is creative and ingenious and innovative, etc., etc., etc., but it was difficult to enjoy. I mean, considering that it’s about a midwestern American family, going [...]