Books

Book I’m Currently Reading

Franz Kafka – Amerika

So far, still just reading the introductions to the book and haven’t gotten into the actual meat of the book yet.  Sounds like it should be an interesting read.  I didn’t know much about Kafka, so it’s been interesting reading about the man – never knew his stuff was published after his death when a friend went against his wishes and didn’t destroy the manuscripts.  Anyway, Kafka’s version of the U.S.A., taken from research and second-hand accounts (he hadn’t visited the States himself), and I guess it’s not a country really reminiscent of the U.S.A., so I’m looking forward to getting into this.

Books I’ve Recently Read

Georges Bataille - The Story of the Eye

I’m still scratching my head.  I was in Half-Price Books and found this book in the horror section.  I liked the title, so I picked it up.  Read the back, and it said Georges Bataille was one of the best pornographic writers.  Well, I’ve never read a pornographic novel before, so I thought why not try something different – especially since it’s under 100 pages.  Horror mixed with a little pornographic writing – let’s see what that’s like.  Well, it was definitely pornographic writing, but I didn’t really get the horror element of the story, which was pretty disappointing.  Nearly put it down a few times but thought – it’s so short, I may as well finish it.  Maybe it’s building to something.  It did but nothing horrific – so it’s a week I could’ve spent reading something else.  Oh well.  I’m sure it’s very smart and I’m just missing the point, but it’s not a book I would recommend.

Nick Hornby – A Long Way Down

Great book by Nick Hornby (also wrote HIGH FIDELITY – great book and film).  Four strangers who are nothing alike meet up on a rooftop one night, all with the original thought of jumping over the edge.  Circumstances ensue that postpones their decisions to jump, forever linking them together, as their story ends up going public thanks to a lie, which builds to another lie and so on.  Book is funny.  Great portrait of these four unique individuals, as the story is told from each of their points-of-view, linking together to form one continuous narrative.  You really do hope for the best for these guys, hoping they continue finding the will to live.  Wonderful little book.  Never has attempted suicide been so funny.

A. Lee Martinez – Monster

Very cool and funny book about a supernatural animal control officer, who contains these otherworldly creatures, like yetis, and gets paid for them.  You see, there’s magic all around us, but we just don’t know it because our simple minds cannot process it.  A human gets mixed up with Monster (the animal control guy) and have to try to keep the world from changing as we know it.  Humorous and interesting.  Kept me turning page after page, filled with demons, angels, trolls, dragons and anything else you can think of.  Definitely a good read.

S. G. Browne – Breather: A Zombie’s Lament

Another humorous book from an interesting perspective.  A zombie just wants his “life” back.  Zombies are not afforded basic rights, and a bunch of zombies are trying to get that changed, especially after they start feeling a lot better (and healing) after eating some mystery meat.  Chronicles what happens when the zombie crusade becomes a media circus.  Definitely different from the typical zombie story.  Highly recommended.