April’s Audacious Attempts at Assailing Avenues of Literary Adventure.

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I'm reading Blood Rites book 6 in Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

A fun supernatural story after a few more serious,slower books.
 
I have recently completed Bruno Schulz’s The Street Of Crocodiles. I’m going to post a fuller review of this but just briefly I would like to say that this book is an unequivocal masterpiece. It’s probably the book that has had more of an effect upon me as a reader than anything else I’ve so far covered this year and every bit as good as Kawabata’s Palm of the Hand stories or Buzzati’s Tartar Steppe. Briefly then, rather than a collection of disparate stories, this is really a series of interconnected vignettes drawn mainly from Schulz’s childhood, focusing primarily around his family, hometown and its associated cast of characters. Aside from the frequently soaring prose and use of imagery and fabulous imaginative qualities that Schulz’s writing displays, this is really about an author whose Genius lies in the uncanny ability to almost seamlessly dismantle the divide between dream and reality in an attempt to more closely connect with the taproot of humanity's primal myth and from whose process entirely new and wonderful possibilities materialize. Reading through the all too brief introductory notes to this excellent translation, it is obvious to even the casual observer that Schulz was a deep thinker and this current collection in the opinion of this reviewer at least, a brilliant triumph in the merging of sublime poetic prose with clear-sighted intellect.

Particularly memorable, poignant and indeed touching are Schulz’s portrayals of his Father, whose near mythical persona emblazoned its influence upon the conscience of a young boy’s life, symbolic in fact of the book’s wider attempts to mythologize reality and indicative, I suspect, of Schulz’s own fundamental desire to ascend from the mundanities of provincial existence into a world of art and continued exploration of the mysteries of the human soul. More than that though, it acted as a doorway into what may be described as the equilibrium of solitude both requisite for the author’s creative process but also, as Schulz wrote, “almost art itself”; a bulwark in fact against the rising tide of consumerism that was encroaching upon the old traditions of Schulz’s Polish hometown, no more patently described as in the title story detailing those “rattlleheaded men and women of easy morals” who populate “The Street Of Crocodiles”. In conclusion, this collection comes very highly recommended and with the greatest possible rating of 10 stars.

I’m now reading The Palace Of Dreams by Ismail Kadare, arguably Albania’s greatest living novelist and a frequent nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Briefly then, The Palace Of Dreams describes a place in which the dreams of all a county’s citizens are collected and scrutinized, where an entire nation’s consciousness is laid bare to the mercies and manipulations of its government. Banned upon publication in Albania in 1981, this novel is so far proving to be a high quality read….

Following this novel I’ll be starting on the widely acclaimed existential masterpiece The Book Of Disquiet, what has been described as “the most beautiful diary of the Century” pieced together as it were posthumously from some 25,000 literary items discovered in a trunk in 1935 belonging to Portugal’s greatest ever poet, Fernando Pessoa.
 
I polished off Changes by Jim Butcher in one sitting. Starting Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon. She is returning to the Paksenarrion story line after a 20 year layoff. I hope it holds up to the originals.
 
Have finished the 5th Zelazny compilation book, and started on something a little different; Leviathan. No, nothing quite so classic and instructional as Thomas Hobbes; rather, this one is by David Lynn Golemon, and is intriguing so far....
 
Recently finished Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and although I enjoyed it, I think comparisons to 1984 are very generous and this future is not as well realised. I also had issues with the rushed ending that wasn't really an ending. Very creepy though. I've also read Xenocide by Orson Scott Card, the third in the Ender Saga. Good, but not as good as the first two; too much technobabble and philosophising. I've just started on the first Gail Z Martin novel, be damned if I can remember what it's called, has a good pace to it so far.
 
Finished up my reread of Charles Stross' first five books of The Merchant Princes and started my first read of the sixth book, The Trade of Queens. Good story, but a bit intense at times.
 
K. Riehl said:
I polished off Changes by Jim Butcher in one sitting. Starting Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon. She is returning to the Paksenarrion story line after a 20 year layoff. I hope it holds up to the originals.
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Didn't Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle write OATH OF FEALTY?
 
Well I'm reading slower than a weighted down, snail, but I've managed to finish Golden Fool by Robin Hobb, and am now moving from fantasy into Science Fiction with Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
 
Perpetual Man said:
Well I'm reading slower than a weighted down, snail, but I've managed to finish Golden Fool by Robin Hobb, and am now moving from fantasy into Science Fiction with Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
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Isn't Golden Fool book 2 in a trilogy? (and Green Mars book 2 in a totally different trilogy)
 
AE35Unit said:
Isn't Golden Fool book 2 in a trilogy? (and Green Mars book 2 in a totally different trilogy)
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HMMM..well unless I'm seeing things I would have thought Perpetual Man had made that quite clear by naming the 2 different authors involved for starters and whether it's book 1 or 3 or whatever and I have both of those trilogies then I'm unclear what the issue here is?...:confused:

Edit1: Unless you're implication is that becasue they are in fact Book 2 in each series (just confirmed) that PM may not be reading in the correct order?

Edit2: Responding to AE35Unit's post below...YES I guessed that was what you probably meant...:)
 
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Yea Gollum what I meant was that PM would be finishing in the middle of a trilogy and then reading another half way thru-something i couldn't do as I'd lose the plot.
 
Just finished The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kid - been on the shelf for a few years. Not as stunning as The Secret Life of Bees but finely written and has the same special flavour that is hard to describe. Mysterious, water-colour like and atmospheric. The eccentric characters are also vivid. Towards the end some very moving moments require Kleenex. :)
 
What did you think of Golden Fool, Perp?

Finishing that series is on my list for this year.....
 
Now finished Simon R Green "The Spy Who Haunted Me". Good, but not quite as good as the two previous books. Would note for anyone reading the Nightside series, that there is a cross-over of a character from the Nightside - but it is from quite late in the series so would be a bit of a spoiler if you hadn't read to about book 6 (I think) in Nightside.

Just started CE Murphy "Urban Shaman" and having fun. Thank you to Winter Lord who answered my book search query. (Also have a Tony Hilleman on the to read pile, by the way.)
 
Grimward said:
What did you think of Golden Fool, Perp?

Finishing that series is on my list for this year.....
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Hi Grim,

Well as I say, I'm reading far too slowly at the moment, and it's taken me over a month to read Golden Fool, that's nothing against the book, that's just the way things are for me at the moment. That being said, I whipped through the second half in under a week.

I felt that it was very much the middle book in a trilogy, closing of threads from the first book and setting things up for the third. I really enjoyed the second half and look forward to reading the third... whenever...

Which leads me neatly to AE35 and Gollum. Yeah the way I read series of books is odd. (And strange when you consider that I refuse to read more than one book at the same time, and have cold sweats if I have to put the book down halfway through the chapter) - but I always read things one book at a time, giving myself breaks between series and coming back to them as when. I think currently I must be reading 6-7 ongoing series, but some of these are still being published, and we're all waiting for them!!!

My memory has always served me well, it's the way its always been trained - I imagine it came from reading comics, having to wait a month between issues and reading countless different titles a month!!! Strangely even now when my memory has been badly impaired, it still seems to work perfectly when it comes to reading!:D
 
Over the last week or so, I read the first three of Jeff Lindsay's Dexter books, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter and Dexter in the Dark. Quite a bit different from the series. Can't quite see why he had to introduce a supernatural stuff in the third book.
 
ktabic said:
Over the last week or so, I read the first three of Jeff Lindsay's Dexter books, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter and Dexter in the Dark. Quite a bit different from the series. Can't quite see why he had to introduce a supernatural stuff in the third book.
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I read the first two books. I can't remember if I read the third.

You're right, the books are different from the TV series, very much so in my opinion. I think the TV series does a better job of exploring Dexter's character and telling his story. He's much more believeable on screen than he is in the books.

I lost interest in the books but I am a fan of the TV series.
 
After rereading Mythago Wood (Robert Holdstock), I moved onto Lavondyss. Rarely have I have a book capture my imagination so much. Tallis' journey of discovery brought me along for the ride. The way the mythagos are presented made sense tome, and I liked this telling of 'Faerie' (though that word is not used much) more than others I have read. I'm glad I found copies of The Hollowing and Avilion to continue the series.
 
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