Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

I could totally understand if someone said they hated Breakfast of Champions. But also.. I love it. It is that type of book. It has a very thin plot. The plot isn't the point. And it meanders around about everything in life and society but isn't really much about anything either. This is maybe the third time I've read it and I probably enjoyed it now more than I did as a teenager or a twenty-something. It is just there trying to make sense out of life and all of creation and not really succeeding because that's an impossible task. Not for everyone, but for me A.

The Last Wish (The Witcher # 1) by Andrzej Sapkowski

 After spending the summer being bogged down by books that were either excessively long, way too dark, or just plain disappointing The Last Wish was an enjoyable read. Will I continue on with the series? Maybe, maybe not. But yeah - it wasn't bad. I was surprised at how closely the television series stuck to the book. B+

Horror Book # 34 Jaws by Peter Benchley

 

The film Jaws is an all time classic. The book not so much. Literally all the best scenes from the film aren't even in the novel. And then the book has subplots not in the movie that 1) make some of the characters quite unlikable and 2) aren't even resolved in the end! They aren't even about the shark. I think a novelization of the film done afterwards would be better than the actual book. C+

Book # 157 - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Well it has now been 10 years since we started this blog and this will be the 312th book that I've read in that time. I've finished the initial task of reading 100 of the greatest novels of all time but there are still so many books out there! Anyway....

So yeah, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I was looking forward to reading this since I enjoyed The Road so long ago, but this book is pretty brutal. When I had read that it was considered "unfilmable" because it was so violent I thought "really, is that possible?" and now I see that yeah, it kind of is. I see the merit in the book and what I'm guessing is a commentary on America's past but at some point it is all just too much. B

Horror Book # 3 - It by Stephen King

 Somehow I had never gotten around to reading It. Probably because it is such a long book. So long. And so heavy too. Probably the best way to sum it up is that it is pretty much the ultimate Stephen King book. It is the most "Stephen King" of Stephen King books. Most every element in the book has appeared in other King works. A group of kids on a mission, neighborhood bullies, people possessed, an otherworldly entity, lots of movie/music/literature references, way too long for its own good, small town setting, a main character that is a novelist, etc... Still I enjoyed it. My main complaint is the length. It could easily have been 600 pages shorter. It got a bit repetitive with seven main characters all having a similar story - they each individually encounter It/Pennywise, get scared, and run away and escape. With this repeating again with them as adults. A-

Also I'll mention that maybe some enjoyment of the book was tempered by recent current events. When what's going on in the world is worse than the events in a horror novel it probably says something about America. Yeah Pennywise gets a dozen kids but in real life anyone can easily get a gun and do far worse. And when the evil in the world is visibly worse than the evil in a fantasy horror book it is quite sad.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino

You know, I enjoyed reading Once Upon a Time in Hollywood more than I thought I would. I'm not sure if there's another example of a movie director writing the novelization of his own movie. It follows the broad story from the movie but takes some interesting detours and mixes up how the story is presented. In fact, the events from the ending of the movie are just mentioned off hand early on in the novel and never shown in any detail. It kind of changes what the story is really about.... less Manson family stuff and more about Rick Dalton turning his life around. A-

The Marvelous Land of Oz (Oz #2) by L. Frank Baum

 It literally took a few months of semi-regular nightly readings for me to read The Marvelous Land of Oz to Becky. I don't think either of us was really into it. We should have stopped after the first one. C+