That's the one! Enjoy!
what are you reading?
- Thread starter janeray1940
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That's the one! Enjoy!
mikelz777
Well-known member
I just finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I guess it was OK. The author was a bit indulgent with his prose which worked wonderfully in parts but was rather fatiguing in others. Oddly enough, one of my favorite chapters in the book was from the viewpoint of a dog. This story apparently parallels one of Shakespeare's tragedies which was lost on me as I've never read Shakespeare. I'm glad to have finally finished it, I'm ready to move on.
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Ah. Hamlet. I just read the synopsis for The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and saw the Hamlet parallel immediately (it is, after all, one of my favourite Shakespeare tragedies, so no surprise). I think you'd have to be a pretty darned fine author to riff off Hamlet and do an adequate/successful job and/or have something else or fresh to say (for example, I thought that the movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? was such a great riff on The Odessey, it really did a good job, but that wasn't an easy task). Hmm, Edgar Sawtelle got some serious panning on Good Reads. I suspect that if you've not read Hamlet, then if you feel the story was only so-so, that's probably a pretty good evaluation. Knowing Hamlet would colour your interpretation even further.
I am always interested in the critical responses to books, even ones I like or love: I'm interested to see what others find negative in a book, and am often surprised that what they don't like I didn't even notice, lol.
bbkobabe
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Funny you should mention The Bard... I'm reading the YA book The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood. A pretty good story, really, of an young orphan who can write in shorthand and is sent to steal the play Hamlet. I'm reading this out loud to my class during reading time, a few chapters a week. The characters are relatable and the story grounded in history. Pretty fun coming of age story of a poor kid - stuck in a rut - who finds something to love in the world...The Theater! And he also finds out about the power of friendship along the way.
mikelz777
Well-known member
The story is a tragedy so the ending is what it is but I found it unsatisfying. I wouldn't necessarily change it but it would have been nice to wrap things up a bit neater. Maybe if I had read Hamlet I would better understand the motivations of the characters but I didn't always understand why characters did what they did and the story left those questions unanswered. I found the story to be a bit bloated and thought that it could easily have been shortened by 100-150 pages.
I gave it a 2-star rating for my book list on Goodreads. I think I pretty much agree with the reviews that gave it the same rating. Why did Goodreads take away the descriptor for each star? I don't exactly remember what they were but I found them helpful. I think 2-stars was "It was OK", 3-stars was "It was good", 4-stars was "I really liked it" and 5-stars was "I loved it, a classic". I've only given a couple books 1-star when I didn't even bother finishing them. I haven't given many 5-stars either. Like a bell curve, a 2 to 4-star rating is where most of my books land. In that zone I think they are all worth reading but I probably wouldn't recommend a 2, I'd recommend a 3 in certain situations and definitely recommend a 4 or 5.
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Shakespeare's tragedies usually end with everyone dead, and one person left standing to explain the tragedy to someone who arrives to find everyone dead. Maybe Edgar Sawtelle needed one of those kind of convenient "show up at the end" summary moments.
Isn't ironic when a story does that? You get loads of information that isn't useful to what you're actually hoping to learn from the author. Ugh.
I've heard of that - I think I saw it at the bookstore the other day when K & I were browsing. That sounds good - I'll look for it in the library.
Currently reading 'The McCartney Legacy, Volume 1, 1969-73' by Allan Kozinn & Adrian Sinclair.
Amazing book, provides an in-depth look at Paul McCartney's life and work post-Beatles.
Amazing book, provides an in-depth look at Paul McCartney's life and work post-Beatles.
Joyful Uke
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I started it, had other things that needed attention, and really, really want to get back to reading it. From what I read of it, it's definitely an amazing book. I initially got it from the library, but bought a copy so I can get to it whenever time allows vs. whenever a copy is available at the library.
bbkobabe
Well-known member
Just finished Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing Card.
I was hoping to see more of the playing cards, but this is a curious tale of the early history of printing and how engravings and typography meshed to make the world's first printed books... and some pretty cool playing cards as well!
I was hoping to see more of the playing cards, but this is a curious tale of the early history of printing and how engravings and typography meshed to make the world's first printed books... and some pretty cool playing cards as well!
I LOVED this book! This is my second time on the thread extolling it! (Hey, it's a long thread!) There are ways in which Paul's solo career got off to a bumpy start, while in other ways, McCartney, Ram, and Band on the Run (plus the standalone singles Live and Let Die and Helen Wheels if you were in the UK) are among his career highlights, Beatles included.
The miracle to me is that with all the other nonsense going in his life, that he was able to make anything of value at all in that period of his life. It's a gripping story with a lot of twists, and some truly horrifying legal stuff. It's easy to forget that he doesn't turn 30 until near the end of the book, so it's also not surprising that he doesn't always deal with the ungodly pressure with maximum grace, since some of that pressure was to always be charming. Being charming all the time is not only impossible, but in many of the dire circumstances he encountered, entirely inappropriate. Some of it really was agonizing. I found MY stomach in knots as I was reading, sometimes for days at a time. I can't imagine how he got through it, even though he clearly did.
The one thing that this established to me beyond any doubt is that Paul's solo story really does demand multiple, long volumes.
Another thing that jumped out at me is that they were very frank about their debt to Mark Lewisohn, author of In Tune, The Complete Recording Sessions, etc. -- as indeed are we all. LOL Lewisohn's approach was to treat every story about The Beatles as if it were a thriller, where you don't know what's coming next. This works, because Lewisohn, as well as his pals Kozinn and Sinclair, have uncovered so much stuff that even me, coming up on 60 years of non-stop maniacal Beatles obsession, having subscribed to all the magazines and read dozens (scores?) of books, movies, documentaries, etc etc etc KEEP FINDING NEW STUFF.
Not trivia, either. MAJOR new stuff.Hearing me tell her the shocking new stuff, my likewise fanatical wife said, "We need to buy the expanded edition of Tune In, don't we?" As she said that, she was at Amazon.co.uk ordering that edition, which more than doubles the length of the version sold in the US. Because of that little stretch where the dollar was so strong relative to the pound, we got it for less from the UK than we could from the US AMZ store, and it arrived in Hawaii like five days later. I'll buy local when I can, but if I can't, if I'll harness corporate henchmen to do my bidding. LOL
Anyway, I found volume 1 of McCartney Legacy to shake me to my core. I hope to live long enough for these guys and Lewisohn to get to the end of their tales, because they are rip-snorters, for sure!
Reckon I may wanna purchase my own copy of 'The McCartney Legacy'. I'm less than halfway through, but it's due back at the library and looks like a long wait before it will be available again. It's fascinating to read about his approach to songwriting and how he recorded his songs!
Down Up Dick
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I bought a new poetry book, but it’s mushy, simple and mostly boring.
Luckily, I still have my English poetry books, and, even better, my Cowboy poetry — Ye Hah!
Luckily, I still have my English poetry books, and, even better, my Cowboy poetry — Ye Hah!
Yeah, I'm going to have to buy one too. I find myself champing at the bit to read it again, and I can't say that about too many 700 page books.
JJFN
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I just finished Ian McEwan's The Innocent. A tale of love, espionage, irony and human frailty. As you can imagine, this is not a James Bond type spy novel. Takes place in Berlin, in 1955, before construction of the wall. Beautifully written and a lot of story packed into 270 pages. I highly recommend this book.
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Just picked up an old worn out copy of Truman Capote's "In cold blood". I've read this nonfiction book many times and have seen the original 1959 film based on the true life crime event. Grim, brilliant, cold and compassionate all at the same time.
Joyful Uke
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I'm sorry to hear about your elderly dog. I went through a scare with one of my dogs recently, (fortunately she is OK now), but a friend's dog, who we all referred to as my dog because of our bond, just passed away. I was trying to help out towards the end, when his "dad" had surgery and his "mom" was therefore stressed to the max, and that actually is part of the reason that I still haven't gotten back to the book.
Sending you support during this stressful time.
Finished two novels in the last few days: The Sheltering Sky, by Paul Bowles, which I read years ago and wanted to savor again, and Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. Both are mind-blowing— superb achievements.
