For 2024, I’ve decided to forego the x/10 thing.
The Sentimentalists – Johanna Skibsrud
Part of the 2023 Christmas Book Advent Calendar 1. Had never heard of the author. The blurb on the back hinted that it has a Vietnam War backstory, which I’m a sucker for, so I decided to give it a go. Turns out that this book is a quite lovely, sad, slightly plodding slice of life. It kept me engaged right on through. Wonderfully written, it’s the type of book that you reread sentences simply because they’re beautiful.
It – Stephen King
I first read It, freshly released in paperback, when I was a teenager (thirty seven years ago, JESUS) and I loved it. I reread this book every couple of years and my thoughts on it change every single time. There are moments of absolute brilliance and wonder hidden in Its pages (the Derry Interludes are favourite passages of mine), however a good third (at least) of the book has not aged well (and I’m not even talking about “that part”), even when looking at It as a product of Its time.
Microserfs – Douglas Coupland
It was… merely ok. While there are small bits of wonderfulness scattered throughout, I don’t think it would be half as engaging if I didn’t know anything about Seattle and Silicon Valley in the early 90s. It’s a very specific snapshot in time and if you weren’t there, you may not get it. I don’t think I’ll be rushing to read another of Coupland’s books. I like slice of life, meandering books but this was really nothing special. A couple of chapters in, I was enjoying it just enough to maybe read some more of his works, but by the time I finished I decided that I’m going to pass.
Crash – J.G. Ballard (DNF)
Wow. What a fucking bad acid trip this book is. I kind of, sort of see where he was going with it? Maybe? Nah, I don’t know. It was just too absurd for me. Started feeling a little repetitive about half way through (if you can believe that people jizzing all over car dashboards as they crash can become repetitive) and became a slog so I just gave up on it. Disappointing because I fucking loved High-Rise.
Bright Lights, Big City – Jay McInerney
Very, very good. While it’s dark, it’s not Hubert Selby Jr./Brett Easton Ellis, “capital D” Dark. What stuck with me is that it looks at the middle class and reminds you that addiction of any kind is not just the realm of the of the nameless, abused underclass or the bored, abusive upper class. Here is someone who, from viewed with a quick glance by a passerby, may appear to have it all together and shows that addiction doesn’t necessarily include extreme poverty, brutal violence and/or sexual humiliation but that a good number of people with addictions are out there, trying to live a “normal” life (whatever that is) and are just barley keeping it together.
Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever – Matt Singer
As a fan of both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, I thoroughly enjoyed this. While I knew some of history of them and their show, this book really explains how massively impactful these two critics were not just to movie criticism itself, but to movies in general and they way that they are made and marketed.
His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik
I was surprised by this. I’m not what you’d call an ardent fan of historical fiction but sometimes I give it a shot. Most of it was utterly predictable (of course the dragon is a Celestial!) but it’s very readable and not half as ridiculous as I’d expected.
Throne of Jade – Naomi Novik
A little more plodding than the first. Somewhat dark in some places but it never really pushed it. Got somewhat confuddled near the end with a big fight at a palace and the wrap up was, uh, ok? I guess? There was a small setup half way through that made the outcome very convenient. Like very, obviously overly convenient (so you were descended from royalty, eh? Uh-huh, cool beans). Didn’t enjoy this one half as much as the first and I don’t think I’ll read any more of this series.
The Nineties – Charles Klosterman
A very astute, well researched look at the decade I lived through in my twenties. Very much a walk down memory lane and a very poignant look at the decade “before everything changed”. From grunge to slacker culture to selling out, if you lived through that time, you’ll most likely enjoy this book more than you’d think and marvel at some of the dots that are connected as you read it.
The Librarianist – Patrick DeWitt
I discovered Patrick DeWitt thanks to our yearly advent calendar which presented me with a copy of The Sisters Brothers. Since reading that, I’ve gone through all of his works. The Librarianist is not as dark as the aforementioned book, nor as crazily weird as Undermajordomo Minor, nor fantastical as French Exit. It is subtle and, of all things, somewhat believable … until the section with eleven year old Bob running away and joining up with a couple of travelling actors. That whole bit could have been cut out and nothing would have been lost. In the end, I enjoyed this book, just not quite as much as I enjoyed his others.
Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs – Charles Klosterman
Decided to read this based on how much I loved The Nineties. This one was… Ok. Like barely, merely ok. It reads like a series of ranty blog posts that didn’t age well. The book as a whole appears somewhat out of touch, even for something written in 2006. Klosterman is more than mildly misogynistic and some of the pieces come off as “look how much smarter than you, I am!” that’s akin to some of the shit you’d find these days buried in the bowls of Medium or some douchebaggy tech pundit’s site.
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini (DNF – I gave it up with maybe forty pages left to go)
While I’m sure words cannot really describe how much I disliked this book, I’ll certainly try. This was another Advent Calendar book. Had good reviews. Sold a ton of copies. Won a few awards. A movie was made that seemed to be well liked (Ebert named it the fifth best movie of 2007). In short it was popular enough that I knew the title, so why not?
I was completely engrossed at first and it wasn’t until the protagonist and his father go to the US that I found the book starting to show itself for what it is: typical, cliched, Hollywood style tripe. When he goes back to Afghanistan the book casts aside whatever it was hiding under and confirms, in a huge way that yes, it’s just typical, cliched, Hollywood style tripe. I hate that everything in this book is so very convenient and outcomes are so very neatly wrapped up in glittery paper. With a bow. It takes a horrific, super complicated subject and streamlines it into a basic story of capital “C” Coincidence 2.
Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona Lisa Overdrive
– William Gibson
Mental mouthwash to get rid of the taste of The Kite Runner. I fucking love the Sprawl Series and realized I haven’t read it in a good long while. All three books hold up for the most part. Mona Lisa Overdrive is still my fave out of the three.
Virtual Light
Idoru
All Tomorrow’s Parties
– William Gibson
Just kept right on going with the Bridge Series. I found these to be a little less better than I remember. Especially Virtual Light. There are bits that seem moderately juvenile to me in my old age; weird little quips here and there that really don’t drive the story and wouldn’t feel out of place in one of Stephen Kings lesser books. Still, the idea of The Bridge is wholly original and, at one time, wholly plausible; it’s a shame the eastern span of the actual Bay Bridge was replaced. Out of the three All Tomorrow’s Parties is my fave.
Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH – Robert O’Brien
I first read this book it in grade school right around the time the movie came out (I would have been ten). This book holds a special place in my heart as it was the second “novel style” book I read (the first being My Bodyguard) and also my first realization that 99% of the time, the book is better than any film adaption 3. I saw the movie, The Secret Of NIMH, not in the theaters but a few years later when it hit VHS (yup!) and I remember thinking that all the magical shit they added, and turning Jenner into a major villain who kills Nicodemus, was over the top and dumb. This book is still a nice, quick read and I was happy that I still enjoyed it.
Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
Jon Stewart mentioned that Kurt Vonnegut was his favourite author so I decided “why not?” Not knowing where to start, I asked the Internet and people suggested that one should begin with Cat’s Cradle then move on to Slaughterhouse Five.
So I started with Cat’s Cradle, and it was… interesting. I definitely didn’t hate it, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t love it. Don’t know what more to say about this odd story other than it certainly got stuck in my head for a few days after I read it, so mission accomplished?
Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
This book was not at all what I was expecting. I see a description like “the author was in World War 2 and this is based on his experiences” and I think of what we all think: “Oh! Band of Brothers!”
Heh, well, I can see why the sages of the Internet recommend starting with Cat’s Cradle as Slaughterhouse Five was definitely not Band of Brothers. I could see how one could be put off by the strange, weird, yet wonderfully original use of seemingly oddball 60’s science fiction. I really don’t know if I’d have enjoyed Slaughterhouse Five as much as I did had I not read Cat’s Cradle beforehand; I was at least somewhat prepared for it.
That being said, I don’t think I’ll be going out of my way to read any more Vonnegut. It’s good. It’s definitely original. I think I’m just a little too young and a little too jaded by the modern WW2 movie experience to really appreciate Slaughterhouse Five.
With The Old Breed – Eugene Sledge
This… Oh. Where do I start? We are taught to see war as patriotic; flag waving and cheering, this was the first book I’ve read that really questions this. By this I mean, it’s a person who believed, volunteered, fought and saw first hand what a complete and total and utterly complete waste war is. I know this. I hope that you know this, and I pray we never have anything on this scale again.
I have seen the The Pacific, on which some parts were based on With The Old Breed, but I didn’t really like it. Now I know why. The Pacific is more in line with the modern WW2 movie experience, covering most of the entire Pacific timeline while throwing in some of the more egregious happenings without clear context. With The Old Breed is the context from beginning to end. It’s a hard read, but an important one.
Vox – Nicholson Baker – DNF
I started it. Just didn’t quite get it. Put it down. Picked it up again. Still didn’t quite get it. Put it down. Maybe I’ll get back to it. Maybe I won’t.
Official Truth, 101 Proof – Rex Brown
Your standard rock autobio. Rex seems to be the only one of the Pantera members with any real kind of head on his shoulders (then again, it is his book). It’s not as party focused as rock bios go. While he does talk about booze and drugs (and how it almost killed him) he certainly doesn’t glamorize much. I did find the intro chapter a little insufferable; he lays on the “I’m the only smart one in a sea of dumbasses” pretty thick. He settles that shit down pretty quick, and it becomes an easy, enjoyable read. If you’re a Pantera fan, then this book is a no brainer. If you’re not a Pantera fan, but like rock bios, then this is worth it.
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace (DNF)
I got about maybe a quarter of the way in, and I just had to put this book down. The five star reviews out there say you have to stick with it and it starts making sense several hundred pages in 4. In a plebe sense I felt like I did when I started watching Infinity War; like there may be something here, but I was missing it so I gave it up because I was bored and confused. Then a friend told me I had to watch no less than twenty other MCU movies and TV shows in a certain order to make any real sense Infinity War. Yeah. No thanks.
I have patience, but not that much patience. I like plot twists, unreliable narrators, and non linear timelines but I found this just a little too much for right now. Mammoth paragraphs, runalong sentences, and a plethora of words that are either pretentious or seemingly made up. Maybe I’ll come back to it. Maybe I won’t.
(Narrator: He won’t.)
Although, I do wonder if that dude ever got his weed…
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
Not at all what I was expecting. Slow burn science fiction that’s low on the science part. It’s there, but it’s not in your face. I tend to not try and over analyze the meanings of stories. I like to let good books unfold. Never Let Me Go surprised me as I felt it was a look at the world as I’ve been seeing it of late; an examination of what makes us who we are and how all the dreams and expectations that we grow up with usually turn out to be just that: dreams and expectations. I felt the idea of “possibles” not as who you came from, but where you think you can go. It’s not so much “I came from a lady who works in an office” it’s “I’d love to be working in an office like that lady”, yet it rarely, if ever happens. Just because you want to be an astronaut when you’re a kid doesn’t mean that’s where you’ll land. All these years later, while you’re spending your days answering emails, you think back of the possibles that were, and how here you are now, donating your organs to a society that takes what you have to offer as long as they don’t have to see you. And then you “complete”.
Weaved in and around this are the those few that care enough to try and make things right by everyone, yet those in power only make half hearted attempts at any kind of change before letting everything slip back into the status quo.
The Time In Between – David Bergen
\The first book in this years Advent, it turned out to be one of the best books I read in 2024. Dark. Sad. Beautifully written. I wish I could conjure up something more to say. This is one of those books that I loved but can’t really express why. It just is. And it stayed with me for a good while when I’d finished.
I tried to start four books after this one, and just had to put all of them down as none of them clicked with me for various reasons 5 but mostly because I was still thinking of The Time In Between 6.
The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead
Finished this the evening of Dec 30 – I wasn’t sure I’d have it read by the 31st, but I managed it. The Nickel Boys was an excellent, albeit hard read that left me feeling scraped out. Very well written, very deserved of its Pulitzer. I may have more to write about it in the coming days after I’ve had a chance to live with it for a bit…
1: A local, second hand book store does a yearly “Book Advent Calendar” where they have tables and tables of bags marked like “Popular Thriller” or “Science Fiction” etc and each contains 24 pre-wrapped books. Our family has been doing it for a couple of years now; it’s a good way to reuse/recycle and much more fun than the standard off the shelf garbage Advent Calendars you get at box stores.
2:When the villain takes off his sunglasses to reveal himself and starts monologuing about how he came to be with the Taliban to get his revenge and so on and whatnot. I literally rolled my eyes and yelled: “I’M SYNDROME!!!”. Then he gets a slingshot round to the left eye, conveniently by the son of the person who threatened to put a slingshot round through his left eye 30 years prior. Uh-huh. I sighed and just gave up. I put the book down, Wiki’d the ending and it boy am I glad I didn’t waste the last 40 pages or whatever reading what was, essentially, a cop out ending to a cop out book. I’ve played yellow paint slathered video games that don’t even come close to insulting my intelligence the way The Kite Runner did. What a fucking waste of my time.
3: Fight Club is one notable exception. One of my favourite movies. A somewhat less than mediocre novel.
4: And one dude on Goodreads (scroll down to a review by Kemper) says “And then there’s the fact you have to use two bookmarks because you’re constantly going back to the endnotes…. (and) Some of the endnotes contain long wandering passages that also don’t seem relevant to anything.” No, please. No thank you.
5: Including, but not limited to: adult trying to write as a first person teenager (usually always falls flat), cliché depictions of supposedly troubled people (yes, yes, goth bad), and one of the worst opening sentences I’ve read in a long, long time. After The Time In Between, the 2024 advent calendar served up mostly duds.
6: I did find a book (finally) that I’m reading now, but I won’t be done before the end of the year. Goddamn, I finished it!