100 Books - October

[xenith]

I should have done the October update, not November.

So here is October!


The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

It's slow story. I kept putting it down, reading ahead to see if anything interesting was going to happen, wishing he'd just get on with it. The plot is thin. There's a lot of reminiscing & back story (it doesn't help that the story is told by someone looking back) and "this is my life" stuff. Most of the characters I don't care for, including the narrator/protag.

But it made me cry. To the point where I was about to stop reading. So it gets a 5.

Also, it had me up until hours after my bedtime because I wanted to finish it. That usually rates a 5 too.

Echoes of the Great Song by David Gemmell

I picked this up from the library because I used to love the author's books. Every one of them had the same story (a group of people facing an army that is many times their superior in numbers and weapons, and they have no chance of winning, or maybe a slim chance, which usually rests on the shoulder of a disgruntled, reluctant and/or generally disagreeable outcast from society) but with different characters. Except where the characters are the same. Same story with the names changed?

But I kept reading them. I read everyone I could find on the shelves of the library and in the local bookshops. It's not that I ever had any expectations of a different story. It's fairly obvious after the first couple that they're all same direction. I'm never been sure why :)

It's been probably close to 15 years since I last read one though. There is a reason for this, but there I was in the library and I needed something to read and I couldn't find anything (yes, I can go into a decent sized library and not find anything that interests me enough to take home) so I thought I'd give this a try.

9 days later, I'd only got up to page 170. This wasn't even half way. It wasn't the usual story -- the main characters' race is all-powerful and some of the other races around them are a bit of threat but nothing particularly interesting. And there are a lot of characters being brought in -- Talaban & Touchstone, Ro & Rael, Viruk & Kale, Sofarita, Anu, Boru & his daughter, Baj & his aunt, Anwar & his king, and Methras, and Pendar, and Yasha and some I've forgotten. Who to care for? Whose story is this anyway?

I had thoughts of taking it back to the library half-read. Maybe finishing it next year when I wasn't trying to reach a target. Maybe forgetting it existed. I kept thinking about how I used to love these books and wondered if it was me that had changed, or the writing?

I had spent 9 days on it so I kept going. Then, just after the halfway mark, the bad guys arrive, and our characters, all of them, are facing an army that is many times their superior in numbers and weapons, and they have no chance of winning, or maybe a slim chance. It's the usual story! And now I'm interested in it again. I remember why I loved these books.

I think it's the characters. Despite my grumbles about there being so many, it's not the number that's the problem, it's the lack of focus on any central character/s. The way the minor characters, the spear carriers, are developed as real people is one of the strengths of the book, of all the books. Even if they're often developed at the expense of the supposed main character. And they're flawed. The hero/saviour is usually the most flawed off all. That's another commonality to these books -- that good/bad, hero/villian, right/wrong can change, depending on who you are and how you look at it.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

If you've thought about reading this but were put off by it being in the form of letters, then don't be. The format enhances the story, rather than getting in the way (and I saw that as someone who usually can't stand diary/letter format stories).

The "Separate" or "Model" Prison, Port Arthur by Ian Brand

Short book :)

I read this because I was after information on something specific, but it wasn't in there. Still, all grist for the mill.


Eight books in 2 months. Not good.