Just a swoop-in post to purge my system of a couple of books I’d rather not bother to finish.
These were on the Books I’ve Been Meaning to Get To list, and I’m relieved to be able to cross them off my list.
The Map of Time, a book with a super shiny, extra foil-y, nearly holographic cover, by Spanish author Felix J. Palma came out in 2011. I couldn’t resist it. I was reminded to read it when I discovered that the sequel, published this summer, has–I shit you not–3-D endpapers! Alas, 200 pages in and I just don’t care about these characters. Meh. Sorry. Maybe it will dazzle the people at the thrift store.
Michael Chabon is one of those current literature greats that, as readers, we’re all supposed to read. I read…something…by him in 2008/9 and it made such a great impression on me that I can’t remember when I read it or what the title was. I didn’t understand any of it, and at the end I found myself having missed some portion of my life. However. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union was talked about a lot, and it won the Hugo, no? I’ve read the first two chapters three times and again I’m having that memories-wiped sensation of before. The particular bother with this one is that I can’t see past this question to comprehend what I’m reading–in a fictionalized account of a displaced people finding a home, what happened to the peoples they displaced? I’m sure it’s all explained in chapter three.
Anyway, there you are. In reading both of these books, I just felt like the author was not writing to *me*, but that I was looking through a dirty window onto someone else’s party.
Next! On to Cryptonomicon
I liked The Map of Time and The Map of the Sky. But, I will agree the books can be hard to get into. HG Wells as a character isn’t easily likable. The endpapers in The Map of the Sky are kinda cool though.
The books are gorgeous! Beautiful covers, and the full color endpapers! Gosh!
You’ve been reading a lot of H. G. Wells lately, no? Is that fun, in respect to reading the fictional Wells in these books?
Actually, I’m finding both Wells versions annoying. His writing is a bit condescending and the fictional Wells in the Palma books is pretty much the same but at least he became likable for me toward the end of the books. I finished up The Time Machine but it’s slow going on The War of the Worlds. Not sure what I think of either yet.
I don’t often quit books – usually, I’m able to power through; something something committment, I guess. I probably ought to just some of them go. The last one was Cat Valente’s “Palimpsest”, which I just couldn’t seem to crack – though I keep hearing so many good things about it from everyone, I’m willing to try it again…someday, anyway.
As for Chabon – I’ve read a few of his – I remember sort of enjoying “Yiddish Policeman’s Union” while I was reading it, but I’ve retained so little memory of the actual story, plot or characters in the intervening time (according to the blog, it was 2009), I might not as well have done so.
I enjoyed the heck out of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay”, though – mostly for the connection to the early days of superhero comics; i kept trying to find real-life analogues for all the characters.
I wish I could Power Thru books. I get blasé about finishing books I’m not enjoying and then just stop reading altogether. Rather than not read, I taught myself to move on.
I adored Cryptonomicon. But I also adored Gravity’s Rainbow. YMMV–and from what I’ve seen, both of these books have very high quit rates, too.
What’s YMMV?
There’s a reason you’re qualified to run a successful small press..!
Oh, I am late coming back. I was buried in typeset.
YMMV=Your Mileage May Vary.
LOL. Qualifications to run a successful small press include inability to recognize when it’s time to go do something else and willingness to beat one’s head repeatedly against any given text. And utter geekishness, of course.
I look forward to seeing what you have to say about Cryptonomicon. Both my man and I enjoyed it, tho it is thick with history and math/encryption at times.
I’m already enjoying it
happy to hear your enjoying Cryptonomicon, I should really reread that sometime, it’s the book that got me addicted to Stephenson.
Can I totally be on the Chabon bandwagon but have zero interest in Yiddish Policeman’s Union? I’m a Jew who grew up hearing Yiddish, that book should be part of my personal library. . . but I read the blurb and I’m completely not interested. But Adventures of Cavalier and Clay? one of the best novels I’ve ever read!!
I’ve picked up and put back Map of Time so many times humming and hawing about it – I don’t know, I just can’t get excited about it and I must have had it in my hands a dozen times or so, reading and re-reading the synopsis. I even sat down in the bookstore and read the first chapter. Couldn’t get into it. I think I am going to just keep passing that one by for now.
It may be the translation. I’ve been exploring translations: sometimes the translation looses the original “sparkle”.