My arty farty disappointment aka. Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer

It was sad! Very very sad.

I have to say I like arty farty things! Honestly, big fan of arty farty movies (if their not too experimentalist and not too much David Lynch), arty farty novels (if they don't try too hard) even arty farty minimalistic music. And the best of it all is the expression itself. Arty farty for the go!

As you maybe know I am adoring Mr. Safran Foer for his writing. And I think I have actually read everything he wrote ... which is why I was so looking forward to his new book.

I also have weird habit of getting the least amount of information about the book possible. Just in case they spill the story ... so I didn't read any interviews or articles about his new book "Tree of Codes".

Well, the day comes. After tracking down every possibility to get the new book, I finally got it (wasn't cheap), ripped open the 2 envelopes with all my excitement, open the book very careful to see...it's an arty farty book. He didn't write anything. Even if he would have, it's almost impossible to read without getting annoyed and/or ripping the pages. So sad. It's 'just' another story cut out. He took Bruno Schultz's "Street of Crocodiles" and left some words/sentences/phrases of it. The rest is an assembly of wholes. Honestly?? Why? He could have as well spend his precious time on writing.

I'm sure the art world will appreciate his work a lot more than I do. For now there is nothing left to do. Except of reading "Street of Crocodiles" as whole. I hope at least that will be worth the read.

World Book Night

Check it out, it's world book night soon. You can apply to give books away, and you can even choose to whom you want to give it (well kind of). I love it. It gives people who are passionate about literature the chance to encourage other people to read. Without annoying your friends who can't listen to you anymore without rolling the eyes.

So go on, check it out and get the world reading :)

www.worldbooknight.org

Jonathan Livingston Seagull — a story by Richard Bach

Hmmmmmmmm ... apparently it's HUGE in the US. Not so huge in Europe but people 'have heard of it' at least. It's a fable and it's philosophical, trying to bring the meaning of live to the reader.

Maybe I just didn't get it, but I thought it's a weird novel.
Jonathan is a seagull, bored with being ordinary. While the rest is only concerned about flying from a to b to get some food, he practices flying everyday. In all possible constellations, really fast, really slow, really high, really low. Of course the others don't like that and say bye bye to the weirdo. He doesn't really care and continues his flying.

He then (I think after he died) comes into a form of personal heaven and learns more and better flying. He also starts to learn a lesson about freedom.

In the last part of the he tries to get this freedom into other seagulls...partly successful.

So even though the other seagulls were mean to him and didn't care about him, he goes back to them (from his heaven) to bring a meaning to their lives.

I'd have rather read the message in a shorter short story (the book I had was 74 pages, 30 of those were pictures of seagulls but it could have been shorter), and I honestly think it would have had more effect on me. But than, maybe I'm just not a big fan of those 'find and love yourself and you'll repair your live' stuff ...
or maybe it was the translation, as I read it in German?!

This is the End ...

Uch I hate it so much. You're nearly there, the story is almost over. But not quite yet. It's those last 10 pages, that really annoy me. You know who the murderer was, that they kissed and got married, that they saved everyone from dying, or that they all died. And then? Then there is this last bit with a couple of blablas and blublus but there is nothing in it. All you want is the book to be over, but you can't just put it away because there are only a couple of pages left.
This is why I love books that end with the peak of the climax. Murder is solved, end of the book. No celebrations or promotions afterwards, because they don't matter! They kiss each other? Good, I will assume that they spend the next days in bed, move in with each other and have a happy ever after life. But please don't make a never ending end out of it!

Transgression: A Novel of Love and War by James W. Nichol

If you have some spare time and like crime novels, this one is quite enjoyable.
It's the story about Adele in 1941 in occupied France. She meets a German soldier (who is of course not all German and soldierish, but nice and handsome), they fall in love and the relationship is not allowed to work easy. The story drags on until World War II is finished ... and continues with a search.

The other story is a search in itself. There was a murder in a small town in Canada in 1946. The police chief tries to find evidence, which is of course what they do ...

As you will imagine the stories link into each other at some point. I found the first part of the story more interesting than the second half, but that might just be me. There is an interesting story in all of the characters. I didn't think it was an awesome book to read, but it was fun! I liked the way the end makes you think about the story and everyone in it. In fact I think if the ending would have been different the book would not have been so good ... so finish it, even if you get bored at some point. It's worth it and it's an easy read. Good for holiday time.

I also just found out that Mr. Nichol is a massive star in Germany (where I got the book from) but almost unknown in his home country, Canada. So if you're Canadian - give him a chance.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Now that was good! I saw the movie trailer and decided to read the book before the movie comes out. As it turns out I'd have time till February next year, but the read was totally worth it anyway.
It is the story of Kathy, Ruth and Tommy. About their youth and their growing up, about their love for each other and their friendship later on in life. However they are not 'ordinary' kids, teenagers or adults. Nope, they are donors. Clones designed to give away their life for other people sooner or later in life. Now this may sound really dramatic, but it's not. It's weird, because it is such a sad story, but the way it is written doesn't leave you upset. It leaves you thinking about the possibilities we'd have, about the lives of those kids, and the live of the others. The worth of live in general. Honestly, without sobbing or crying or so.

I don't think the movie will be like this though: Watch the trailer. When I saw the trailer for the first time I nearly cried ... Still going to watch it of course! I think Keira Knightley is perfect (!) for the role of Ruth. And if there is crying involved ... oh well, it happens.

I guess I'll end up reading more Ishiguro too!

Remember me?

As was having coffee with a friend earlier today we were going through lists of books 'you had to read'. I know we covered this topic before ... but as I discovered that I actually had read a lot of those books I realized that I can't remember most of them. I forgot the characters, the main plot, even the end. I mean how sad is that??
We spend so much time with the book and than simply forget it? With some of them I wasn't even sure IF I actually read them. Of course some of them were school stuff, which you read in puberty. Now at this time you can't be asked about anything, so you're not supposed to remember, right? But I know, that I liked some of those books.  And it's not only those I forgot. No, books I've read over the last like 5 years or so ... I have no clue.

Neil Pasricha wrote about the awesomeness of realizing that you don't know how one of your favorite movies end in The Book of Awesome. And he is right, because it makes the movie exciting again. But how often do we read books again? So I now decide that realizing you don't know how the book you once read ends has to have a place in the imaginary book of annoyance. Or sadness.

And because I still don't have any comments, tell me how you remember the books you read. Do you keep a list? Or do you have a better memory than I do? Or maybe it doesn't make you sad at all? Let me know.