I'm about a hundred pages off finishing it for the second time, and I didn't even realise that February was the 10th anniversary. Either way, the second reading has been infinitely better than the first. There has been no grappling with the semantic and syntactical difficulties of the first read and, though I knew what was going to happen, I found I had no real idea of how we were going to get there. It's been almost like reading a different book. Almost. Also, it's suddenly occurred to me that I have found it so much funnier this second time around.

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

April Wrap-Up

I completed eight books in April. Here's the breakdown:

5 stars: 1

The Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volume II by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

4 stars: 0

3 stars: 5

Death of a Hollow Man by Caroline Graham

The Secret of High  Eldersham by Miles Burton

The Yard by Alex Grecian

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

2 stars: 2

Death in Disguise by Caroline Graham

Veronica's Grave by Barbara Bracht Donsky

Reviews: 8

I participated in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon this month and managed to read 2 1/2 books during the 24 hours. I also finally finished adding all my books to Leafmarks.

May Reading List

I'm treating May as my cleanup month. The books that I didn't get to in March and April are on my reading list this month.

February Wrap-Up

February was a good month for me. I completed 14 book and 3 graphic novels. Out of those 17 completed works: I rated six as 5 stars, two as 4 stars, and one as 4 1/2 stars. I only had two books that I DNF, which is awesome. My average for the month for DNF is around 5. Going into March I have four books on my Currently Reading List.

I'm still doing the buddy read for American Gods, this will take a while because our schedules don't always sync up. If we're lucky we can get together once every other week. I'm still enjoying it and I'm kind of getting frustrated that we can't get together more frequently. I'm also slowly going through The Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volume II. I've been reading one story every other day and I fully expect to be finished with this volume before the end of the month. I'm finding that the formatting of this volume is really annoying me and I don't know why; it's set up the same way the previous volume was. Each page has two columns, the story is printed on the inner column and any notes on the outer column. This formatting is kept up throughout the book, even when there aren't any notes, so some pages have a huge empty space on the outer edges of the pages. I started An Elementary Study in Chemistry in February as well. I've been picking it up and reading a chapter at a time whenever I feel in the mood. This one I fully expect to be reading well into April. The final book on my Currently Reading List is The Force Awakens, which should be completed before the end of this week. 

2016 Reading Challenge Update

1. Participate in four readathons. 

 I've participated in two readathons so far this year. In January I did the Bout of Books, which ran from January 4th-10th. In February I participated in the Rainbowthon 2.0, which ran February 7th-14th.

2. Finish "The Wheel of Time" Series.

  I left off at book 5 in the series sometime last year. In March I'm planning to start up the series again, though I might need to refresh my memory of what happened in previous books. 

3. Read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

 I haven't done this yet and will probably not happen until later in the year.

4. Reduce Library Shelf by half.

 I've already removed 21 books from my library wishlist, most of them I couldn't remember why I had added them in the first place.

5. Read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

 I started and finished this in February. I'm kind of mad at myself for putting this off for so long. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be picking up more of Dickens work in the near future to read.

6. Finish one series other than "The Wheel of Time".

 This was done in January. I completed the Harper Hall Series, which had been sitting on my shelf unread for a ridiculous number of years. 

7.Read at least 100 books.

 Two months into the year and I've already read 32 books. I don't expect to keep this pace throughout the year. Usually around April my reading slows down, so it will be nice to have a good cushion going into the warmer months.

March Reading List

I have nine books on my March Reading List, one I've started already. The Dragon Throne, I won in a giveaway over a month ago. I know the author was expecting a review, so I feel bad about putting it off for so long, but there were other books that wanted to read before I dived into that one. After an almost three month hiatus I'm planning to jump back into the "Wheel of Time" series with The Lord of Chaos. Due to waiting so long, I will probably have to find a summary of the previous book on-line to refresh my memory and will be reading this book towards the end of the month. Relativity, Planet X, The Masterharper of Pern and Infinite Jest have all been on my shelf for over two years so it will be nice to clear them. March should be a good month

This book was sitting on the staff picks of my local bookstore for over a month, even at just $4, I suspect because of the title. Which makes sense, though seems odd after reading since the book never touches on the controversy of the procedure, it's simply a thing that happens in the story. I suppose putting abortion right on the cover filters out people who would take offense. It is hard to know what the climate was like he was releasing it into in 1971.

What the book is, is beautiful, slow moving, and quirky. Brautigan does not seem interested in experimenting with plot, but he revels in the feel of language. Everything goes according to plan, I kept expecting for things to go terribly wrong as things are wont to do in stories. There is tension, but the kind that arises naturally from traveling, medical procedures, a change in job, and many other events that will probably be okay but worry us.

The focus is on the writing. Brautigan spends whole sections building the settings: who is there, what they are doing, what the space is, what it means to the characters.He flirts with indulgence but his style is straightforward enough that he never quite crosses that line. Plus his world and his writing are just off-beat enough to justify the approach. 

The Abortion is set in 1966, which is incidental since it mostly takes place in a "library" that takes in any book that anybody wants to write and add to the collection, any time, day or night. The librarian, whom I don't believe was given a name, bears the naivete of that era convincingly. Meditations on the beauty of Vida--his girlfriend whose attractiveness and the constant, unwanted attention it brings, has become a burden, a forerunner of Madame Psychosis in Infinite Jest--come off as endearing, genuine appreciation in a world that constantly wants to own and ogle and grab.

It is a quick read, and a pleasant one, for anyone coming off of a long project or anytime you could use a read that points out the beauty around us, which is really what the book deals with: his beautiful girlfriend, the beautiful moments that make up a life, appreciation for what was and hope for what is to come.

I forgot, going into Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, about the experimental David Foster Wallace. After some time away from his work, I remembered the most distinctive parts - footnotes/endnotes, long recursive discussions  about sincerity vs. appearance, elevated vocabulary - and forgot his abilities as a storyteller and the ways he played with voice and structure. Every feature we associate with Wallace and many that get forgotten are deployed in some story or another in Brief Interviews.

The story, "Datum Centurio," for example, is written as a dictionary entry (from the future). "Octet" starts as a collection of pop quiz/thought experiments that quickly breaks down into some confessional digression on the gulf between feeling and expression, what  the writer wants to say and what the reader perceives. Adult World (II) appears to be authors notes for what a story yet to be written and, of course, the titular series of interviews with men who have IDEAS about sex and power and relationships and what those ideas reveal (the inquisitors contributions replaced simply with "Q.," a method he used in parts of Infinite Jest as well).

Experimentation can, of course, be Difficult, and the rewards are not easy. There is a lot of melancholy in  Wallace's works and one need only read the list of titles including "The Depressed Person" and "Suicide as a Sort of Present" to understand that these stories will be plumbing some depths, but, if you can reckon with these subjects, you can find plenty of humor as well and solid storytelling, particularly (the storytelling) in the Interviews, I could not put the last one down.

Of the Wallace that I have read, the stories presented here are the most obsessed the viewer/performer hall of mirrors, the idea that the writer or character is trying to be honest and sincere and wants to get that across but can only do so by insisting that is what they are doing, which, of course, be seen as a narrative ploy and so the writer/character then sees how the reader is perceiving their attempt at sincerity as maybe not sincere and must try to convince the reader that really s/he is dropping all pretense, which can be perceived as etc. ad nauseam.

(This all adds an interesting fold to the ongoing debate about the conflation of the works of David Foster Wallace and who he was as a person, the constant stressing of sincerity and pieces such as "Octet" which discuss breaking that fourth wall and appealing directly to the reader. Is it that our culture that demands to know the man behind the art or that this man seemed to invite us to look beyond the art? That's all I will say on that.)

This, like all Wallace I've so far read, is a rewarding experience, but expect the difficulty both in thought and emotion that is a hallmark of his fiction. It can be work, but like exercise it is asking you to push beyond what feels good, to think harder and deeper so in daily life you will be up to the task. Brief Interviews does not rise to the height of Infinite Jest, a ridiculous mark to judge by in any case, but many of the same elements can be seen here making it good for those familiarizing themselves with his work or looking for more after reading his masterpiece. 4 Stars.