I read some things in January
- A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby
- Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself - David Lipsky
- Big Machine - Victor LaValle
- The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
- Newton and the Counterfeiter - Thomas Levenson
- Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho - Stephen Rebello
My goal every year has been to read a pretty modest number of books, usually 26 when I was in school. One every two weeks always seemed doable to me, but I always, always, always failed miserably. So this year, I’m giving myself an even loftier goal of actually finishing a book a week, and, most importantly, I’m giving myself some cushion to start with. Thus, that list.
First, the good: I finally read some Sherlock Holmes, owing mostly to the lady in my life being wholly obsessed with Holmes and figuring I, therefore, must have missed something when I read that one Holmes story for school in, like, junior high and totally hated it (the “for school” part being the most likely culprit in my general hatred of it). All of which is to say I totally dug it…well, minus an extended section at the start of the second half which comes out of no where and introduces a whole different story (SPOILER ALERT: Mormons hate this book). I have a feeling quite a few more Holmes books and collections will be making appearances on my list before the end of the year.
More good: The Polysyllabic Spree was the absolute perfect start to my new 2012 book adventure. Nick Hornby’s column from Believer does more to remind anyone who generally enjoys reading why exactly they enjoy reading than anything else I can imagine. Here’s one guy reading books, buying books, and talking about the journey. Absolutely fantastic, especially if you’re the type who hits a brick wall on a book and just gives up on reading all together for a while. Anyway, in a way I’m doing a real shitty version of that column here, but let’s ignore that and move on to the rest of the month.
The rest of the list doesn’t really offer much meaningful excitement for anyone, even me. The David Foster Wallace interview book (Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself) was fantastic for some who is obsessed with Wallace’s work (me). I couldn’t hope to do it justice in some sort of short summary. If you’re looking to better understand what exactly Wallace was trying to accomplish, read it.
Now, that leaves me with four more books, only one of which I felt was particularly worthwhile as a book. Unfortunately, that book was The Name of the Rose, which is the one people are least likely to want to hear about. Yeah, it’s a great mystery, which does things just differently enough in a setting used by few enough, that it’s completely worthwhile. Everyone already knows that though. The interesting development here is where I start to see my story of reading in January: the mystery. Holmes got me in the mood for a detective story, and Name of the Rose is in the exact same vein, down to the storytelling method, which is not a connection I’d have made if not for proximity in reading. I’m glad I wasn’t able to make it through Rose a couple of years ago, so I could have this particular experience.
The final mystery of the bunch was Newton and the Counterfeiter. On the surface, this book was supposed to be the crowning jewel of the bunch: a book set during the Scientific Revolution, starring Isaac Newton, and involving a giant detective story. The Scientific Revolution, and events surrounding Newton in particular, is my absolute favorite era and has been since I was about sixteen, which probably tells you about all you need to know about how fun high school was for me. I feel like an asshole for saying that a book’s commitment to not speculating on history ruins it, but this book’s refusal to speculate ruined it. The book spends far too much time retracing the entire life of Newton which is a problem when you’re not reading a Newton biography and, worse, loads the reader down with so many dry facts with little explanation that it just is not enjoyable. It’s really about the most anticlimactic wrap up to a mystery possible. The author spends so much time building up how great of a struggle and battle of minds this was, but apparently he neglected to includes those parts in the finished product.
As for the other two, I’ll just be more polite and say they weren’t for me for the sake of not being particularly negative. Overall, it was a good start towards a goal, but honestly, I’m out of the reading vibe already. I’ll be working on that, and hopefully I’ll make an effort to just post as I read instead of waiting until I’ve forgotten all I had to say.
