Incoherent Scribblings

blondelibrarian on books #2

I finished A Thousand Acres yesterday. Now, I know I promised a book review but after I thought about it, I remembered that I am not really very good at writing book reviews.

Actually, I find this kind of amusing since I majored in literature as an undergrad and have worked as a librarian for many years. But I really suck at writing book reviews. I can write a lovely plot summary or a deep essay comparing and contrasting A Thousand Acres with King Lear, but a simple book review, forget it!

I can’t write a book review for two reasons: 1.) In a fiction book review you really aren’t supposed to give away the ending and I always do and 2.) The thoughts I have while reading a book and the days afterwards aren’t really review-material. I tend to ask myself lots of questions about the plot, the characters, and their motives, and while trying to answer these questions, I also ponder what the books means to me, but I always find it difficult to form a solid opinion on a book that I want to share with others.

Of course I form an opinion on a book and can tell you what I personally thought about it, but in truth, I am reluctant to dump my recommendations on others. The fact is not everyone likes reading the same things that I do and because of this, whether they find a book worthy or not is a very personal decision.

Take the book Angela’s Ashes for example: This book won all sorts of awards in 1996, including the Pulitzer Prize and was on the New York Times Bestseller List. Many people considered it a “must read.” My well-meaning aunt bought it for me for Christmas and after I read the back of the book, it sat on my bookshelf until one day I was desperate for something to read. I read it in one sitting and my first reaction was, “Yuck. I really didn’t like this book.” And then, “So, what was the fuss all about?” Personally, I didn’t really even think the book was all that well-written. But who am I to tell someone else that this book isn’t worth reading? Obviously, other people have enjoyed it and thought it award-winning… but me, I sold it the first chance I got after I read it.

I have always been a member of the literature school that promotes reading what you want and thinking what you want about it. As far as A Thousand Acres goes, I enjoyed reading this complicated book full of plot twists and Shakespearean-style tragedy and if you enjoy that sort of thing, I would definitely recommend it. However, if you don’t, then I would say don’t read it. It’s all up to you.

How DUMB can you be?

I will confess that I have been really tired of this whole Iraq War thing for… oh I don’t know, since before it began, and never have had any desire to put anything about it on my blog before today.

However, since these torture pictures came out I keep thinking about the people that took the photos of the prisoners. Yeah, the photos disgust me and all, but what I don’t get is why the soldiers took these pictures in the first place.

Not so much because only a moron would be stupid enough to take them without thinking that eventually the press would get ahold of them, but what the hell were these people planning to do with these photos in the first place?

Were they going to put them in their “Iraq War” photo album so that years down the road they could browse through the pictures and tell their grandchildren, “Look Sara, these are the pictures of the Iraqi prisoners that your grandfather tortured back in the days when war was about oil and anyone who was a Muslim was a terrorist?”

Man, I just don’t get it!