In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 27th Year, Week 1/52

Three books this week, 12 August to 19 August; a library book, an audio book, and an old favourite.  I used to have a physical copy, but now I own it on Kindle.

First, the audiobook; Around the World in Eighty Days.  I recently read Michael Palin's real-life attempt to duplicate the feat, which prompted me to go back to the original.

This House is Haunted was a library book.  It reminded me a lot of Henry James' Turn of the Screw.

Finally, Phone Sex.  This is the old favourite.  I first read it as a teenager, several years ago and I've reread it every few years since.  It's the memoir of a phone sex worker, with a few tips for people who want to try it at home, some info about the industry and lots and lots of stories about callers.  All very fascinating.

I also enrolled in college this week, so I expect to be busier in future.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 50/52

This is a little late because last Tuesday, I forgot it was a Tuesday.  Which is unfortunate and odd because I've only recently decided to carry on with this for my 27th year.  With a slight addition - I'm going to take a shot of my unread pile and update that with crosses and whatnot for books read, or given away - just to track why the damn thing isn't shrinking, despite how much I read.  It may or may not be because I keep buying more books.  Though, actually, I've only bought around fifty this year.

Anyway, 22nd July to 28th July.  Six more books.

Only one I'd read before; RedShirts, by John Scalzi.  It's an affectionate Star Trek parody from the point of view of the titular Red Shirts.  They come to realise that they are characters in a TV show and use the utterly broken narrative laws of physics to ask the writers to please stop killing them.  It's written with a lot of heart, as the best parodys are.  I cried.

This is the book my coworker recommended, which prompted me to go to a bookclub, where I later met Tom.  I have a soft spot for it.

Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days was given to me by a coworker.  Once my friend Paul tipped me off that Michael Palin was part of Monty Python and not an aging politician I was quite a bit more interested in it.

I quite like the original Around the World in 80 Days.  And this trip sounds amazing, an effect which is only added to by the photos.

Day Shift is by the same author as the Sookie Stackhouse novels and includes a few of the peripheral characters.  I listened to it as an audiobook; not a sensible choice, given how I struggle to concentrate on sound.

Americanah is one I got from our local library (Dudley).  It was excellent; the story of a young Nigerian couple, one of whom gets to study in America while the other falls into the more negative options of life in Nigera and ends up in Britain.  The main character write a blog on her observations of racial difference, and the posts were my favourite bit.

How Google Works is essentially a management guide, describing Google's flat (as opposed to linear) hierarchy.  I found it fascinating.  I think I'd quite like to work for Google.

Finally, Capital is one I've had on my unread pile for ages.  I liked it a lot more than I thought I would (which begs the question of why I bought it...).

Capital is the story of one street in London over the credit crunch.  It dips in and out of all their houses and lives in a way that's quite absorbing.  I guess it has the same strength as the Simpsons - it can go follow someone else when anyone character gets too stale.  It stayed lively over 500+ pages.

In Which We Discuss Alice

Yesterday, while reading Still Alice, I experienced something strange. I kept forgetting, whenever I put the book down, that I wasn't facing the same issues the character was.

That's happened once or twice in the past, and it's always very odd. For instance, while reading Around the World in Eighty Days, when I took a break, I kept feeling an odd urge to hurry, like I had limited time. When I tried to figure out why, I realised that it wasn't me in a hurry, it was Phileas Fogg and Passepartout. Likewise, here, it wasn't me with early-onset Alzheimers, it wasn't really me feeling confused and dazed, it was Alice. And Terry Pratchett.

It may have been because I was very tired yesterday, or simply because I was into the book. I don't know.

Still Alice, Lisa Geneva's debut novel, is about a Harvard Professor, Alice, who finds herself with early-onset Alzheimers. It's told in the third person, but mostly through Alice's viewpoint, and is the only book to have the stamp of approval of the Alzheimers Association.

My great grandmother had alzheimers. Not early-onset, she was in her eighties. I didn't know her very well, but I do know that it was a form with genetic causes. In another twenty years or so, we'll find out if my grandfather inherited it. Twenty years after that, whether my mother does. And so on. It's not something that I spent too much time thinking about, most of the time, but now I wonder, about my great grandmother. I think I understand a bit more of what it was like, and I wonder what life was like for her when she was young.

Another train of thought lead to me wondering about miracle cures. I knew Alice was going to get worse, that there is no cure for alzheimers. In novels about cancer patients, there is doubt, there is a chance. People do beat cancer sometimes. No one's ever beaten alzheimers.  I don't believe anyone would write a story about beating it until someone actually does.  And then, once they have, once it becomes commonplace, no one will want to write about it then, either.  It seems to be that there will only be a very small window for books about beating alzheimers.

Another thought occurs to me now. The curse Yuri faces in Shadow Hearts: Covenant, of losing his soul, and forgetting everyone he'd ever loved. He chose to die instead.

In Which We Discuss Books That Seeped into Real Life

I read a lot. Continually, almost. And sometimes, when I physically put the book down, it's not quite gone.

Take Around the World in Eighty Days. I put that down, when I was halfway through, to go and get something to eat. And I found myself rushing around, feeling like I was in a tremendous hurry. It took me awhile to realise that it wasn't me on a time limit.

Then there was what happened today. Right now I'm reading The Boleyn Inheritance, the sequel to The Other Boleyn Girl, both of which are set in Tudor England. Well, at work, I had to go down to the stockroom, to pick up more cups, and I found a packet that were already opened. And I picked those up to use because, and I quote my exact thoughts "they're impure once they're opened, the dirty little whores. No one else will want them."

See, in Tudor England, being a virgin before marriage was a big deal.

...yeah.