Florida Trip

Happy Early Memorial Day and more importantly Towel Day!

The Huz and I are taking a vacation in Florida. 

We will hopefully be fully unplugged from work 

and relaxing this week. I'll be back in June!

Photo by moi.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams

★★★★★

 

It’s been almost a decade since the first time I read this book. Years later I realized it was just as hilarious when I reread it as it was the first time around. Adams created characters and situations that make you laugh out loud no matter where you are. His droll sense of humor is legendary and just when your stomach stops hurting from laughing, he throws you another curveball, like an alien race that tortures people by making them listen to horrible poetry.

It all starts with a quiet British man named Arthur Dent who unknowingly hitches a ride on a spaceship just before the earth is destroyed. This book is the first in a five part "trilogy" featuring a small band of oddballs who travel through space. The main characters include unforgettable individuals like Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian.

My two personal favorites are Dent, whose bumbling, sweet-natured confusion is irresistible and Marvin, a depressed robot who is constantly bemoaning the fact that no one listens to him. I also have a soft spot for Deep Thought, the mega computer created to answer the question of the meaning of life. 

It’s impossible to fully capture just what it is about this book that I love so much. Yes, it’s funny, but there more to it. In Dent we have a relatable lead that is completely confused by his new space surroundings. He is human, in every sense of the word, so we understand his bafflement and we root for him.
There’s one scene that has always remained my favorite. It is quintessential Adams, completely absurd and yet oddly poignant. Without explaining the circumstances in too much detail, we have a whale and a potted petunia falling from the sky. The whale is in awe of everything he sees and the petunia thinks… “Oh no, not again.” 

BOTTOM LINE: One of my absolute favorite books of all time. I would recommend Adam's writing to most people, but I would say if you love Monty Python's sense of humor these books are an absolute must. Sit back and enjoy the ridiculousness and don't forget your towel.

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”

“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

A to Z Reader Survey

Authors you've read the most books from:

Douglas Adams, Jane Austen, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Neil Gaiman, C.S. Lewis, L.M. Montgomery, and William Shakespeare

Best sequel ever:

All of the Harry Potter sequels (I know that’s cheating)

Currently reading:

Arrowsmith, The Cuckoo’s Calling and Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Drink of choice while reading:

Usually either coffee or red wine.

Ereader or physical book:

Physical books all the way, but I’m finally used to occasionally reading on my kindle.

Fictional character that you probably would have dated in high school:

Quentin in Paper Towns or Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I love the quiet guys.

Glad you gave this book a chance:

The Sparrow, seriously it’s so good and the description of it makes it sound awful.

Hidden Gem book:

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, shows the true meaning of endurance.

Important moment in your reading life:

Reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in high school and realizing how fantastic nonfiction could be.

Just Finished:

Re-reading American Gods

Kind of books you won't read:

Romance novels and modern political whining

Longest book you read:

Probably The Count of Monte Cristo or War and Peace.

Major book hangover because of:

The Harry Potter series, every time I read it I don’t want to read anything else.

Number of bookcases you own:

Oh man, nine bookcases including two massive ones that take up a whole wall.

One book you've read multiple times:

Ender’s Game

Preferred place to read:

Curled up on the couch with my pup.

Quote that inspires you:

“Let me be something every minute of every hour of my life…And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.” — A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Reading Regret:

Not getting the chance to visit Oscar Wilde’s grave when I was in Paris.

Series you started and need to finish:

Sue Grafton’s alphabet series, I read one whenever I need a break from another book.

Three of your all-time favorite books:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Unapologetic fangirl for:

Neil Gaiman and Harry Potter

Very excited for this release:

New Salinger books!

Worst bookish habit:

Buying all of the books!

Xmarks the spot! Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:

The Portable Dorothy Parker

Your last bookish purchase:

A gorgeous 1916 copy of A Girl of the Limberlost from Half Priced Books.

Zzz-snactcher. Which book kept you up way to late:

The Night Circus

Photo by moi. 

2012 TBR Pile Challenge Completed

I completed the 2012 TBR Pile Challenge! I’m so proud of myself, because these are all books that I’ve been meaning to read for a LONG time and I finally got to them! Thanks to Adam at the Roof Beam Reader for hosting the challenge and encouraging me to pick up these long neglected titles. I read 11 books from my original list and one of the alternates, a total of twelve books.

Here is my complete list, including the month I read them and links to all of my reviews.

1) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (finished March 2012)

2) The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (finished April 2012)

3) Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters by J.D. Salinger (finished June 2012)

4) Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (finished July 2012)

5) Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss (finished April 2012)

6) Bleak House by Charles Dickens (finished March 2012)

7) Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper (finished January 2012)

8) The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (finished September 2012)

9) Affinity by Sarah Waters (finished September 2012)

10) The Quiet American by Graham Greene

11) The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy (finished May 2012)

12) Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (finished February 2012)

ALTERNATES:

1) Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

2) That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis (finished July 2012)

Image form here.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
 

by Douglas Adams


★★★☆

Time travel, a detective agency, Dodo birds, ghosts, Electric monks; this book is a hodgepodge of sci-fi elements and the bizarre, which is to say it’s a novel by Douglas Adams.

I’m a huge fan of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series and so I’ve been looking forward to this one for years. To tell the truth I was a bit disappointed, although the book is hilarious it’s also a bit convoluted and hard to follow. It still has Adam’s trademark humor and pokes fun at the absurd, but it lacks the heart that you’ll find in Hitchhiker. I think that a big part of the reason why can be attributed to Arthur Dent’s absence. His bumbling humanness is what grounds the craziness of Hitchhiker. The main character in Dirk, Richard MacDuff, is similar to Arthur but he’s never quite as endearing.

It’s almost impossible to explain the premise of the book, but this line from it is as close as I can get …

“Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.” - Dirk Gently (also known as Svlad Cjelli).

One element that I loved was the idea of the Electric monks. People have created machines to do almost all of their menial tasks. We have dishwashers, microwaves, washing machines, etc. This novel takes it once step further, they’ve created robots called Electric monks to do their believing for them. It’s just one example of Adam’s brilliance.

“Don’t you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn’t developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don’t expect to see?”

“If you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else.”

“The phone rang and Janice answered it. ‘Good afternoon,’ she said, ‘Wainwright’s Fruit Emporium. Mr. Wainwright is not able to take calls at this time since he is not right in the head and thinks he is a cucumber.’”

BOTTOM LINE: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the best place to start with Adam’s work. If you already love that series then definitely check this one out! It’s not quite up to the same standard, but nothing of Adam’s should be missed.

p.s. I have to mention one fantastic line that nods to Hitchhiker, “Do you always carry a towel around in your briefcase?”

Top Ten Authors that Deserve More Recognition

This week we’re allowed to pick any old topic for the Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish. I wanted to focus on authors I think deserve more recognition.

It’s always amazing to me that some authors get loads of hype while others fly under the radar. You never quite know why one book gets a flurry of attention and another equally good one never becomes the new “it” thing to read. So here are a few authors that I wish more people would sit up and recognize. This isn’t to say no one reads their books or they haven’t won any awards, it’s just to say that they aren’t household names like John Grisham or Charles Dickens.

1) Carlos Ruiz Zafon – I love this man’s books. His writing is like magic to me, but sadly many people have never heard of him. TRY: The Shadow of the Wind

2) Richard Russo – He tends to be lumped into the modern white man category with Philip Roth, John Irving and John Updike, but I think he stands alone in his ability to create relatable characters and excellent small town dynamics. TRY: Empire Falls or Bridge of Sighs

3) J.D. Salinger – Yes, I know that everyone knows who he is, but usually it’s because of Catcher in the Rye and not his other work. I honestly didn’t really like that book, but I adore his others. Two many people read Catcher and write him off. TRY: Nine Stories or Franny and Zooey  

4) Kate Morton – She writes fantastic gothic mysteries with wonderful characters and yet I just heard about her last year! TRY: The Forgotten Garden

5) Graham Greene – He’s well-known in readers’ circles, but he’s often overlooked by people just starting to explore the classics. TRY: The End of the Affair

6) Mary Roach – Anytime a book is dismissed because of its genre I think that’s a mistake. Roach writes nonfiction, but because her books aren’t memoirs people assume they’re serious. In reality Roach writes hilarious books about a variety of strange subjects. TRY: Stiff

7) Douglas Adams – He was brilliantly funny, but just like it is with movies, comedy is rarely respected. How often do comedic movies win the Oscar for best picture? Sometimes I think it’s much harder to truly be funny than to be serious. TRY: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

8) E.M. Forster – I have no idea why, but he’s never at the top of any “Best of” classics lists. His novels are some of my favorites! TRY: Howards End or A Room with a View

9) Dennis Lehane – In recent years Lehane’s books have become popular fodder for movies. There’s Mystic River, Shutter Island and Gone Baby Gone, but as it usually is, the book is better. He creates amazing characters and his books are hard to put down. TRY: Mystic River

10) Roald Dahl – Not his kid’s books, we all love those. I think Dahl’s adult stories are really underrated. They are clever and creepy and I love them! TRY: Umbrella Man

Photo from here.

Top Ten Authors I Wish Would Write Another Book

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Authors I Wish Would Write Another Book. They can be debut authors, authors who seem to have taken a hiatus, OR for those who read classics authors you wish would have written another book before they passed. Here’s my list…

1) Jane Austen – Of course she tops my list! She was only 41 when she died and had completed only six novels and a few shorter pieces. She showed such wisdom and depth in her writing at such a young age, one can only imagine what she would have written if she’d had more time.

2) John Berendt – He has written two nonfiction books (including Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and both have been wonderful in their own way. He captures the cities he writes about (Savannah and Venice) in such rich detail that I know I’ll read whatever he decides to write next.

3) Edgar Allan Poe – He was 40 when he died! He created the world’s first detective novel, wrote the infamous poem “The Raven” and has chilled souls for decades with stories like The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado. I wish he’d had another decade and a few more bottles of cognac to fuel his writing.

4) Douglas Adams – The author of the hilarious Hitchhiker series died when he was only 49. I can picture him growing even funny with old age.

5) Harper Lee – Only one book and it’s one of my all-time favorites. Who knows what brilliance could have been found in a second book?

6) David James Duncan – The Brothers K was such an epic novel and I wonder if Duncan’s next book will have a similar scope or would be something more focused. Either way, I bet it will be great.

7) E.M. Forster – He didn’t die at a young age, in fact, he made it to 91, but I still would have loved another book from him. Howards End, A Room with a View, A Passage to India, each of his novels is written so beautifully. I could read 10 more books from him if I had the chance.

8) J. D. Salinger – The reclusive writer published only four books. I’ve read three and have been dreading reading the final one because I know it’s the last new book I’ll ever have from him.

9) David Benioff – I was surprised by how much I enjoyed City of Thieves. Benioff hasn’t written much else, but that’s because he’s busy writing HBO’s Game of Thrones and a few little movies, like Troy and X-Men: Wolverine.

10) Kathryn Stockett – The Help was just wonderful, as just about everyone and their mother (and grandmother) know by now. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next from the debut author.