Every month I resolve to keep track of what I've been up to so I'll know what to write about in these posts, and every month I fail miserably at doing so. Put it this way: I'm amazed that June is over already. Last year sometime I decided that I wanted to have all of my junk organized by September of this year, and let me tell you, the clock is ticking. It's particularly hard because sunny days aren't the kinds of days that I want to be spending cooped up going through a bunch of old stuff. But, I think I've had a fairly productive month. I'm relatively on track with my reading goals for finishing this project someday in the foreseeable future, as well as my reading goal for the year.
Not a lot besides that to report for now.
Watching
I saw the new Warcraft movie, and while I thought it was horrendously uneven, there were also a lot of things about it that I really, really liked. Devin Faraci's review at Birth.Movies.Death encapsulates my feelings pretty well.
Finally watched John Wick. I was expecting something more along the lines of The Raid: Redemption for some reason, but enjoyed what I got instead nevertheless.
Socializing
I've become a bit of a fan of this new book app called Litsy. I'm "twohectobooks" over there as well. Goodreads is still where the full listing of all the books I've ever read and some of the books I plan to read lives, but Litsy makes it really easy to quickly share things while I'm reading in a way that I've never gotten the hang of with Twitter. If you follow me on there, you'll definitely get some sneak peaks at what I thought of books, long before the reviews come up in the cue on this 'ere blog.
Listening
I'm listening to Star Trek podcasts again in hopes of getting into the headspace for the new movie (Into Darkness really did a number on me). I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Mission Log before, but there's a new, official podcast, called Engage that's been pretty good so far, too.
Looking Back, Part 4
Last time I did a retrospective post, it had been over two years since the previous one. This time it's been almost three. This time I'm also really serious in saying that it won't happen again. Hopefully you've noticed that the pace of my posting has gone up lately, and to be honest I'm actually almost all of the way through the next ten/twenty books, so pending some catastrophe, I'll be able to do the next one of these within a year *knock on wood*. As much as I've enjoyed many of the books (over one third of them, apparently!), I really am looking forward to finishing this project at some point. Here we are now at 40% complete, and I don't have any charts or graphs yet. Maybe next time.
Proportionally there weren't as many 3/3s this time (down to 46% from 50%), and 1/3s were up to 15% from 10% last time. Of course, there was no Finnegans Wake, though, so that's a major improvement.
Here's an updated table:
70. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durell - 2.33/3
69. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - 3/3
68. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis - 3/3
67. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - 2/3
66. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham - 3/3
65. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - 3/3
64. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - 3/3
63. The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever - 1/3
62. From Here to Eternity by James Jones - 1/3
61. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - 2/3
Total Pages: 3874
R32. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
R33. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
R34. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
R35. The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy
R36. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
R37. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
R38. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
R39. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
R40. Hotel by Arthur Hailey
Total Pages: 7606
Top 100 So Far
Once again I must note that this part of The List consisted of some low lows and some high highs. There are more 3/3s than ever before (6 out of 12—thanks to the presence of The Alexandria Quartet there are a couple of extras this time around), so things really do appear to be getting better. The 1/3s were really unenjoyable though, and every time I hit one of them, it leaves me with a sour feeling.Proportionally there weren't as many 3/3s this time (down to 46% from 50%), and 1/3s were up to 15% from 10% last time. Of course, there was no Finnegans Wake, though, so that's a major improvement.
Here's an updated table:
70. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durell - 2.33/3
69. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - 3/3
68. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis - 3/3
67. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - 2/3
66. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham - 3/3
65. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - 3/3
64. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - 3/3
63. The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever - 1/3
62. From Here to Eternity by James Jones - 1/3
61. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - 2/3
Total Pages: 3874
Random/Romnovs So Far
R31. The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsR32. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
R33. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
R34. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
R35. The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy
R36. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
R37. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
R38. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
R39. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
R40. Hotel by Arthur Hailey
Total Pages: 7606
R40. Hotel by Arthur Hailey
Year Published: 1965
Pages: 408
First Sentence: If he had had his way, Peter McDermott thought, he would have fired the chief house detective long ago.
Review:
Strangely enough, this book is exactly what it says on the tin. It's about five days in the life of a hotel in New Orleans. The hotel is a large independent one, and the picture painted by this book is surprisingly fascinating.
The novel is structured as a succession of days featuring a number of subplots including various hotel guests and staff. These subplots include: a hotel thief on the make fresh out of jail, a potential hostile takeover of the hotel, a couple of romances, and the fallout of a hit and run. The characters are all surprisingly vibrant* and well-rounded, the functions of the hotel are gone over in great detail that never feels strained, and there's a surprising depth—or maybe just a nice bit of lip service to the issue of desegregation. But…
Published in 1965, the book is of course out of date in a large number of its details (the elevators have operators in them) which is not a problem at all, except for one pretty glaring thing. Marsha Preyscott, approximately 19 years old, is very nearly gang raped at a hotel party hosted by a frat. I doubt that situation is dated, sadly, but what is dated is the way Arthur Hailey writes the aftermath, which is that Marsha brushes off the whole thing with astonishing ease and proceeds to latch on to the main hero, Peter McDermott, as if absolutely nothing traumatic has happened to her.
So that being said, I'd have preferred if Hailey could have handled that a little bit better or found some other way for Peter and Marsha to encounter one another that had nothing to do with rape. Hailey is like so many other authors here in his race but not sex consciousness. It's even more disappointing considering that another female character in the book has a tragic backstory involving her whole family being killed that isn't paired with her having been raped as well (an inseparable combo for all time, if fantasy novels can be believed).
Still, despite certain predictable beats, and the whole gang rape thing (um), I quite enjoyed this book. Hailey is listed on Wikipedia as being "British Canadian" for reasons I can't quite decipher, and his greatest claim to enduring fame as far as I'm concerned is that he wrote the book that inspired the movie that inspired Airplane! (do yourself a favour and read this plot summary, you will not regret it). Nevertheless, a bunch of his books, including this one I think**, were huge bestsellers, and he obviously knew what he was doing. Even if it wasn't great literature, it was a fun book to read.
* I keep saying "surprisingly" because this would seem to be (and is) a rote thriller about a hotel, and I suppose I'm just really astonished at the quality of it.
** This book also inspired a tv series of the same name.
Pages: 408
First Sentence: If he had had his way, Peter McDermott thought, he would have fired the chief house detective long ago.
Review:
Strangely enough, this book is exactly what it says on the tin. It's about five days in the life of a hotel in New Orleans. The hotel is a large independent one, and the picture painted by this book is surprisingly fascinating.
The novel is structured as a succession of days featuring a number of subplots including various hotel guests and staff. These subplots include: a hotel thief on the make fresh out of jail, a potential hostile takeover of the hotel, a couple of romances, and the fallout of a hit and run. The characters are all surprisingly vibrant* and well-rounded, the functions of the hotel are gone over in great detail that never feels strained, and there's a surprising depth—or maybe just a nice bit of lip service to the issue of desegregation. But…
Published in 1965, the book is of course out of date in a large number of its details (the elevators have operators in them) which is not a problem at all, except for one pretty glaring thing. Marsha Preyscott, approximately 19 years old, is very nearly gang raped at a hotel party hosted by a frat. I doubt that situation is dated, sadly, but what is dated is the way Arthur Hailey writes the aftermath, which is that Marsha brushes off the whole thing with astonishing ease and proceeds to latch on to the main hero, Peter McDermott, as if absolutely nothing traumatic has happened to her.
So that being said, I'd have preferred if Hailey could have handled that a little bit better or found some other way for Peter and Marsha to encounter one another that had nothing to do with rape. Hailey is like so many other authors here in his race but not sex consciousness. It's even more disappointing considering that another female character in the book has a tragic backstory involving her whole family being killed that isn't paired with her having been raped as well (an inseparable combo for all time, if fantasy novels can be believed).
Still, despite certain predictable beats, and the whole gang rape thing (um), I quite enjoyed this book. Hailey is listed on Wikipedia as being "British Canadian" for reasons I can't quite decipher, and his greatest claim to enduring fame as far as I'm concerned is that he wrote the book that inspired the movie that inspired Airplane! (do yourself a favour and read this plot summary, you will not regret it). Nevertheless, a bunch of his books, including this one I think**, were huge bestsellers, and he obviously knew what he was doing. Even if it wasn't great literature, it was a fun book to read.
* I keep saying "surprisingly" because this would seem to be (and is) a rote thriller about a hotel, and I suppose I'm just really astonished at the quality of it.
** This book also inspired a tv series of the same name.
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