Books of 2007
Jan. 5th, 2008 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snowystingrayIn typical lazy me fashion, I'm waiting until the first week of the new year is almost over to usher out 2007 properly. The majority of the memes circling about seemed to be more focused on real life events, which. Blah. I'm guessing you probably don't want to read about mine (I don't even want to read about them), so here instead is my Fictional 2007: A Year of Books, Movies, and TV Shows.
Part One: Books
I... have a confession to make. I really just haven't done much reading at all this year. *hangs head in shame* Also, I didn't start keeping track of anything until I added the handy facebook application over the summer (although to be honest, I don't think I read any new, non-school related books during spring term). According to said application, I've read twenty-six books since May; quite a few of them are re-reads, so I'll only include the new ones:
Bleak House - This was a gift which I had expressly asked for and yet didn't make time to read until many months later; the airing of the miniseries on Masterpiece Theatre pushed me to finally take it off the shelf, and I kept just ahead of the installments each week. Again, this is such a me thing to do, but I fell horribly in love with Mr. Guppy from the very start. And. Well. Let's guess how that turned out! Really, though, I had so many thought on his character after finishing the book/miniseries that I meant to post and never got around to, so I guess this is my opportunity to ardently defend him... too bad I've forgotten a lot of what happened! Um. I'll do my best. He has his whole love at first sight deal, which is terribly awkward but terribly adorable, and then goes out of his way to help Esther's case. And then more things happen with his proposal which turn out to be quite shallow, if I remember correctly, but I didn't buy into the idea that he only wanted her for her money at the end (sudden realization about his last scene with his mother: Mrs. Guppy totally = Mrs. Thornton, ahaha). Romance woes aside, I always got the feeling that he was one of the cleverest characters in the story as well. You might just call it being nosy, but he was always prudent about his findings. Basically, Mr. Guppy for the win, Mr. Woodcourt for the borrrrring.
The Big Sleep - Another gift, which ended up being the basis for much roommate drama and is thus slightly tainted for me. Lame, I know. I'd already seen the movie before, so I pretty much knew the story (I think the ending is a bit different, though). It was good, but didn't leave much of an impression.
Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1 - The original H/W! How could I resist? My sister was reluctant to lend me this book, claiming that I wished to read it out of impure motives. So just to prove her right, here are some of my favourite slashy quotes:
"'Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,' said he [Holmes]." Victorian mpreg!
Okay, this isn't really slashy, but it's so very House/Wilson: "An anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was none the less in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. Not that I am in the least conventional in that respect myself. The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on the top of natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man. But with me there is a limit, and when I find a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece, then I begin to give myself virtuous airs."
Not slashy at all, but a totally hilarious comeback from one of the suspects in "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist": "I never saw either of them until two months ago, and I have never been to Africa in my life, so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Busybody Holmes!"
Finally, Holmes takes his boyfriend out for a romantic stroll: "Let us walk in these beautiful woods, Watson, and give a few hours to the birds and the flowers." (I think what he actually meant to say was "the birds and the bees.")
The Glass Key - After my fun but forgettable foray with The Big Sleep, I was still determined to expose myself to more classic American pulp fiction. Switching things up from Raymond Chandler to Dashiell Hammett, then, I went for the title which was supposedly Hammett's own personal favourite of his works -- and with good reason, I might add, because I officially crown this my Best Book of 2007. I didn't even think the mystery turned out to be that great (for once I was so sure that I had solved it because I came up with a really awesome theory for the ending, so maybe I'm just bitter that I ended up being wrong). The characters, though...! Again, I am rapidly becoming more and more convinced that I only ever become invested in relationships which are destructive, deceitful, and doomed, but whatever. Even if it's a predictable angst, it's still gorgeous. The novel explores the loyalty of one racketeer to a mob boss who's angling for political office, and whether loyalty can mean the same thing in a world so defined by betrayal (and I swear that one day soon I will stop thinking about Robin Hood 24/7, but in typing this out I suddenly started making all these Guy/Sheriff connections. GET OUT OF MY BRAIN! It isn't even that similar, either; going back to Gilda, I think it's probably more analogous to the Johnny/Ballin relationship in that film). Really, really, really awesome read, if you're looking for anything to add to your '08 book list.
Watership Down - This was for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
lost_bookclub, and to copy what I wrote on there: "WOW. I sure read this a lot faster than I thought I was going to. I definitely agree with everybody else that it starts out slow and then it's all AHHHH what will happen to these bunnies?!??! So I just finished reading it this afternoon, although I had counted on taking at least until next week." Seriously -- most intense/creepy/violent/suspenseful bunny novel EVER (not that I'm sure there's a lot of competition).
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - I am completely incapable of judging this book objectively, because. OMG. HARRY POTTER IS OVER FOREVER AND EVER. I still don't think I've fully accepted that fact. Even though it's been a while since I've really been involved in HP fandom, I do consider it to be the defining obsession of my young adult life. Having to say good-bye to that meant so much more than just closing the book on those characters. July 21st was perhaps one of the most bittersweet days of my entire life; despite my general satisfaction with the ending, I still get all mopey just thinking about it. :(
A Wrinkle in Time - Another read forlost_bookclub -- yes, I'm probably one of the only people who didn't read this as a child. I almost wish that I had, though, because I think I would have enjoyed it much more. Contrasting it with Harry Potter, which despite its classification as children's lit has drawn fans from all age groups, I feel like the writing style of this book is really too simplistic to bridge that gap. Although I found the storyline intriguing, I couldn't connect to much else.
The Third Policeman -lost_bookclub once more (thanks, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bellichka, for keeping me literate this year)! This was a total WTF??!!? book, but kind of in the same way that Lost is; even though I probably couldn't explain anything that happened in it, I still really enjoyed it. I guess it was supposed to be a comic tale? So I was a little taken aback by the scenes of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FREAKED OUT CREEPINESS, especially with anything in/around Mathers' house -- but again, like Lost, it was a delicious sort of creepy weirdness, and who doesn't love a total mindjob every now and then? I had a hard time drawing any direct parallels to the show, but from the feel of the book I can totally understand why the producers included this in the show.
Watchmen -lost_bookclub. Again. Copying more of the comments I made to the post there: "Considering that I didn't manage to get a copy of this until the beginning of this week and I have so much extra reading now that I've started classes, I thought I was going to fall even further behind with the book club. But, wow. Watchmen trumps English classes! I guess I'm going to have to use this weekend to get caught up on my other reading, because pretty much every spare moment over the past three days has been spent reading Watchmen. It was my first graphic novel, so I wasn't really sure of what to expect (although, haha, in recommending it to me, one of my friends pointed out that the back of book actually says, "If you've never read a graphic novel, then WATCHMEN is the one to start with." I guess we were a perfect match!). Needless to say, I liked it very much." And, because I had to say it: "Oh, and where's the Nite Owl/Rorschach slash when you need it?? Just when you thought the internet could provide for every pairing ever conceived in the deepest, darkest corner of the fangirl mind..." BECAUSE IT'S TRUE. But anyway, yeah. Wow. I don't really have anything profound to say about Watchmen, other than totally. freaking. awesome. Just... yes.
Doctor's Orders - Cheesy Star Trek novels! YES! I wish I had typed out some of the more glorious passages from this book before I had to take it back to the library; the only one I can find is this hilarious quote from Kirk's introspective moments in the captain's chair: "But in the meantime, the front half of his attention was busy with a philosophical question. Am I lonely? he wondered." AHAHAHA oh dear Star Trek. How I love you. I've made no bones (ohhh groan awful pun!) about the fact that McCoy is my most favourite squishy curmudgeon from TOS, so this book was pure fangirl delight from cover to cover.
Brainiac - I finally finally finally got around to reading this one; being my usual cheap self, I wanted to wait for it to come out in paperback before buying it, but it took me ages to finally make it to the library and check it out. Seriously, though, this book just further cements Ken Jennings as the ultimate role model of my life -- go to college and major in English; realize that with your degree you can never do anything both fulfilling AND bill-paying, so get a boring job to make ends meet; through some miracle end up making millions and millions of dollars in a few short weeks; quit lame job and write awesome books for the rest of your days. If it worked for him, then why not for me?
The Gun Seller - Another book that I had been meaning to read for ages. To be quite honest, I wasn't really that impressed with it at first; if it hadn't said "Hugh Laurie" on the front cover, I don't know that I would have kept reading past the first 100 pages. It had its moments, but never seemed to progress past playing into the same tired clichés in an only vaguely humorous way.
But.
OMG. If, like me, you ever find yourself wanting to read this book, and if you really just can't get into it, but if you still want to try really hard to like it just for Hugh's sake, and if you're finishing up part one and still wondering if it's ever going to get really good -- part two was amazing, and completely blew my mind. It was more than worth having to work through the first half of the book for the payoff at the end. So, Hugh Laurie, you once more win my respect as one of the most awesomely multi-talented people in the world today.
Sherlock Holmes Vol. 2 - ...I cannot seem to find my copy of this. Annoying, because I know there were so many wonderful out-of-context lines to post. Man. I think maybe my sister has it...? Otherwise I left it at school. LAME.
The Know-It-All - It got a mention on KenJen's blog, so I decided to give it a read. As a narrative structure, I really couldn't care less about Jacobs' insertion of his real life experience while reading the encyclopedia from start to finish; but as a compendium of random bits of hilarious, often overlooked knowledge, it was a lot of fun to read. I mean, who doesn't love learning that René Descartes was a cross-eyed fetishist? Very light reading, but I learned a lot of cool stuff. Also, it was kind of weird to read this/go to class/watch Jeopardy! every day, and see where facts overlapped in my daily life; that is, I would frequently read something in the morning and it would come up as a Jeopardy! clue that afternoon, or we would discuss it in class that day. For once I actually felt like I was learning something in college!
Something Fresh - More P.G. Wodehouse; I've taken a break from Jeeves and Wooster for a while and branched out to some of his other works. I bought the giant Blandings omnibus at the beginning of the year, and finally started in on it over break. Really, I think it's quite simply impossible to not enjoy yourself during a Wodehouse novel -- it's like taking a trip to fairy land or something.
...And you know, it would probably make things a lot easier if I just posted about these things as I read them, instead of waiting until the last minute to throw all my thoughts together. At this rate, I think I'm just going to split movies and television into separate posts, because otherwise this could go on for quite some time. So look for parts two and three in the near future!
Part One: Books
I... have a confession to make. I really just haven't done much reading at all this year. *hangs head in shame* Also, I didn't start keeping track of anything until I added the handy facebook application over the summer (although to be honest, I don't think I read any new, non-school related books during spring term). According to said application, I've read twenty-six books since May; quite a few of them are re-reads, so I'll only include the new ones:
Bleak House - This was a gift which I had expressly asked for and yet didn't make time to read until many months later; the airing of the miniseries on Masterpiece Theatre pushed me to finally take it off the shelf, and I kept just ahead of the installments each week. Again, this is such a me thing to do, but I fell horribly in love with Mr. Guppy from the very start. And. Well. Let's guess how that turned out! Really, though, I had so many thought on his character after finishing the book/miniseries that I meant to post and never got around to, so I guess this is my opportunity to ardently defend him... too bad I've forgotten a lot of what happened! Um. I'll do my best. He has his whole love at first sight deal, which is terribly awkward but terribly adorable, and then goes out of his way to help Esther's case. And then more things happen with his proposal which turn out to be quite shallow, if I remember correctly, but I didn't buy into the idea that he only wanted her for her money at the end (sudden realization about his last scene with his mother: Mrs. Guppy totally = Mrs. Thornton, ahaha). Romance woes aside, I always got the feeling that he was one of the cleverest characters in the story as well. You might just call it being nosy, but he was always prudent about his findings. Basically, Mr. Guppy for the win, Mr. Woodcourt for the borrrrring.
The Big Sleep - Another gift, which ended up being the basis for much roommate drama and is thus slightly tainted for me. Lame, I know. I'd already seen the movie before, so I pretty much knew the story (I think the ending is a bit different, though). It was good, but didn't leave much of an impression.
Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1 - The original H/W! How could I resist? My sister was reluctant to lend me this book, claiming that I wished to read it out of impure motives. So just to prove her right, here are some of my favourite slashy quotes:
"'Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,' said he [Holmes]." Victorian mpreg!
Okay, this isn't really slashy, but it's so very House/Wilson: "An anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was none the less in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. Not that I am in the least conventional in that respect myself. The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on the top of natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man. But with me there is a limit, and when I find a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece, then I begin to give myself virtuous airs."
Not slashy at all, but a totally hilarious comeback from one of the suspects in "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist": "I never saw either of them until two months ago, and I have never been to Africa in my life, so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Busybody Holmes!"
Finally, Holmes takes his boyfriend out for a romantic stroll: "Let us walk in these beautiful woods, Watson, and give a few hours to the birds and the flowers." (I think what he actually meant to say was "the birds and the bees.")
The Glass Key - After my fun but forgettable foray with The Big Sleep, I was still determined to expose myself to more classic American pulp fiction. Switching things up from Raymond Chandler to Dashiell Hammett, then, I went for the title which was supposedly Hammett's own personal favourite of his works -- and with good reason, I might add, because I officially crown this my Best Book of 2007. I didn't even think the mystery turned out to be that great (for once I was so sure that I had solved it because I came up with a really awesome theory for the ending, so maybe I'm just bitter that I ended up being wrong). The characters, though...! Again, I am rapidly becoming more and more convinced that I only ever become invested in relationships which are destructive, deceitful, and doomed, but whatever. Even if it's a predictable angst, it's still gorgeous. The novel explores the loyalty of one racketeer to a mob boss who's angling for political office, and whether loyalty can mean the same thing in a world so defined by betrayal (and I swear that one day soon I will stop thinking about Robin Hood 24/7, but in typing this out I suddenly started making all these Guy/Sheriff connections. GET OUT OF MY BRAIN! It isn't even that similar, either; going back to Gilda, I think it's probably more analogous to the Johnny/Ballin relationship in that film). Really, really, really awesome read, if you're looking for anything to add to your '08 book list.
Watership Down - This was for
lost_bookclub, and to copy what I wrote on there: "WOW. I sure read this a lot faster than I thought I was going to. I definitely agree with everybody else that it starts out slow and then it's all AHHHH what will happen to these bunnies?!??! So I just finished reading it this afternoon, although I had counted on taking at least until next week." Seriously -- most intense/creepy/violent/suspenseful bunny novel EVER (not that I'm sure there's a lot of competition).Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - I am completely incapable of judging this book objectively, because. OMG. HARRY POTTER IS OVER FOREVER AND EVER. I still don't think I've fully accepted that fact. Even though it's been a while since I've really been involved in HP fandom, I do consider it to be the defining obsession of my young adult life. Having to say good-bye to that meant so much more than just closing the book on those characters. July 21st was perhaps one of the most bittersweet days of my entire life; despite my general satisfaction with the ending, I still get all mopey just thinking about it. :(
A Wrinkle in Time - Another read for
lost_bookclub -- yes, I'm probably one of the only people who didn't read this as a child. I almost wish that I had, though, because I think I would have enjoyed it much more. Contrasting it with Harry Potter, which despite its classification as children's lit has drawn fans from all age groups, I feel like the writing style of this book is really too simplistic to bridge that gap. Although I found the storyline intriguing, I couldn't connect to much else.The Third Policeman -
lost_bookclub once more (thanks, bellichka, for keeping me literate this year)! This was a total WTF??!!? book, but kind of in the same way that Lost is; even though I probably couldn't explain anything that happened in it, I still really enjoyed it. I guess it was supposed to be a comic tale? So I was a little taken aback by the scenes of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FREAKED OUT CREEPINESS, especially with anything in/around Mathers' house -- but again, like Lost, it was a delicious sort of creepy weirdness, and who doesn't love a total mindjob every now and then? I had a hard time drawing any direct parallels to the show, but from the feel of the book I can totally understand why the producers included this in the show.Watchmen -
lost_bookclub. Again. Copying more of the comments I made to the post there: "Considering that I didn't manage to get a copy of this until the beginning of this week and I have so much extra reading now that I've started classes, I thought I was going to fall even further behind with the book club. But, wow. Watchmen trumps English classes! I guess I'm going to have to use this weekend to get caught up on my other reading, because pretty much every spare moment over the past three days has been spent reading Watchmen. It was my first graphic novel, so I wasn't really sure of what to expect (although, haha, in recommending it to me, one of my friends pointed out that the back of book actually says, "If you've never read a graphic novel, then WATCHMEN is the one to start with." I guess we were a perfect match!). Needless to say, I liked it very much." And, because I had to say it: "Oh, and where's the Nite Owl/Rorschach slash when you need it?? Just when you thought the internet could provide for every pairing ever conceived in the deepest, darkest corner of the fangirl mind..." BECAUSE IT'S TRUE. But anyway, yeah. Wow. I don't really have anything profound to say about Watchmen, other than totally. freaking. awesome. Just... yes. Doctor's Orders - Cheesy Star Trek novels! YES! I wish I had typed out some of the more glorious passages from this book before I had to take it back to the library; the only one I can find is this hilarious quote from Kirk's introspective moments in the captain's chair: "But in the meantime, the front half of his attention was busy with a philosophical question. Am I lonely? he wondered." AHAHAHA oh dear Star Trek. How I love you. I've made no bones (ohhh groan awful pun!) about the fact that McCoy is my most favourite squishy curmudgeon from TOS, so this book was pure fangirl delight from cover to cover.
Brainiac - I finally finally finally got around to reading this one; being my usual cheap self, I wanted to wait for it to come out in paperback before buying it, but it took me ages to finally make it to the library and check it out. Seriously, though, this book just further cements Ken Jennings as the ultimate role model of my life -- go to college and major in English; realize that with your degree you can never do anything both fulfilling AND bill-paying, so get a boring job to make ends meet; through some miracle end up making millions and millions of dollars in a few short weeks; quit lame job and write awesome books for the rest of your days. If it worked for him, then why not for me?
The Gun Seller - Another book that I had been meaning to read for ages. To be quite honest, I wasn't really that impressed with it at first; if it hadn't said "Hugh Laurie" on the front cover, I don't know that I would have kept reading past the first 100 pages. It had its moments, but never seemed to progress past playing into the same tired clichés in an only vaguely humorous way.
But.
OMG. If, like me, you ever find yourself wanting to read this book, and if you really just can't get into it, but if you still want to try really hard to like it just for Hugh's sake, and if you're finishing up part one and still wondering if it's ever going to get really good -- part two was amazing, and completely blew my mind. It was more than worth having to work through the first half of the book for the payoff at the end. So, Hugh Laurie, you once more win my respect as one of the most awesomely multi-talented people in the world today.
Sherlock Holmes Vol. 2 - ...I cannot seem to find my copy of this. Annoying, because I know there were so many wonderful out-of-context lines to post. Man. I think maybe my sister has it...? Otherwise I left it at school. LAME.
The Know-It-All - It got a mention on KenJen's blog, so I decided to give it a read. As a narrative structure, I really couldn't care less about Jacobs' insertion of his real life experience while reading the encyclopedia from start to finish; but as a compendium of random bits of hilarious, often overlooked knowledge, it was a lot of fun to read. I mean, who doesn't love learning that René Descartes was a cross-eyed fetishist? Very light reading, but I learned a lot of cool stuff. Also, it was kind of weird to read this/go to class/watch Jeopardy! every day, and see where facts overlapped in my daily life; that is, I would frequently read something in the morning and it would come up as a Jeopardy! clue that afternoon, or we would discuss it in class that day. For once I actually felt like I was learning something in college!
Something Fresh - More P.G. Wodehouse; I've taken a break from Jeeves and Wooster for a while and branched out to some of his other works. I bought the giant Blandings omnibus at the beginning of the year, and finally started in on it over break. Really, I think it's quite simply impossible to not enjoy yourself during a Wodehouse novel -- it's like taking a trip to fairy land or something.
...And you know, it would probably make things a lot easier if I just posted about these things as I read them, instead of waiting until the last minute to throw all my thoughts together. At this rate, I think I'm just going to split movies and television into separate posts, because otherwise this could go on for quite some time. So look for parts two and three in the near future!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-05 05:12 pm (UTC)And yaaay for Doctor's Orders! That was possibly the most delightful ST book I've read thus far. *fangirls McCoy too*
Oo, and Something Fresh.... You know, I've read a ton of the Jeeves and Wooster books, but haven't really investigated any of others. I can't imagine why, because Wodehouse is love. I'll have to remedy that this year. :D
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2008-01-05 06:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2008-01-05 11:31 pm (UTC)RORSCHACH IS NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE SEX WITH ANYONE, EVER. *shudders* (It's not like he'd want to anyway.)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 02:11 am (UTC)I've been meaning to read A Wrinkle In Time and Watership Down, and one of my mates has been pestering me to read Sherlock Holmes for quite some time...
That Facebook application sounds handy - perhaps I'll have to get a Facebook(but not just for that, I SWEAR).
(no subject)
From: