Hmmmm. Looks like I'm breaking my own record for laziness in Book-a-Month-Challenge-participation. I am, however, a firm believer in never late than never.
November's theme was "give." Good theme, I think. I intended to re-read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, which for the record is a fantastic book. Instead, I ended up "giving" myself a birthday present by reading whatever I felt like reading in November. Accordingly, I "gave" the "Twilight" series by Stephanie Meyer a shot, just to see what all the fuss was about. I read all four books in the span of just over two weeks. Which is not to say that they are great works of fiction, but man they hook you in and are hard to put down. In case you live in a cave, the Twilight books are about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire. And although the vampire/heart throb of the Twilight series was very charming as vampires go, I maintain my previous assertion that I don't get the vampire-as-love-interest phenomenon. They are ice cold, drink blood, and are apparently on the verge of committing gratuitous acts of violence at any moment. Exciting, but not really what I think you'd want to apply the term "honey-bun" to. Also, I think the Twilight romance suffers from an un-resolvable flaw: why would a being who is over 100 years old (the vampire/heart throb) be interested in a teenage girl who is woefully naive and not the sharpest tack in the box? Probably this question doesn't bear thinking about too much, so I'm not going to.
December's theme was "light." I was so busy in December I didn't even bother to check to see what the December theme was until about 10 minutes ago. So, obviously I didn't read a book to fit the theme. I know, you're so shocked you could spit. I did read a most compelling book in December: "The Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman. This book is about two brothers whose father is a minor god (the spider god and keeper of all the stories) and a human mother. To be concise (and I like to be every once in awhile)--this book is weird. But in a good, funny, intelligent, and really interesting way. It's also chock full of quirky chapter titles, my favorite of which is "In Which Rosie Learns to Say No to Strangers and Fat Charlie Acquires a Lime"--and that's exactly what happens. This is an extremely difficult book to describe and even more difficult to do justice to in a short review. So just go read it yourselves and then we can chat. Please.
I feel like I ought to give the Book a Month challenge some sort of final summation, some sort of meaningful reflection and appropriate send off. I enjoyed participating in the challenge (to the extent that I actually did) but found that, like book club selections, I just didn't feel like reading what I was supposed to be reading. I also wished for some more focused themes, or maybe less seasonally oriented. Not that I would necessarily comply with them, but still I could wish. Overall I had fun, and of course I love any excuse to talk about books.
I read Anansi Boys a couple of years ago and really liked it as well!
ReplyDeleteI was doing really well with the Book a Month Challenge until this month. However, you've inspired me to just blog about the book I did read and somehow tie it in with December's theme. Thank goodness for loose interpretations!
Which is a big component of "real" book clubs.
ReplyDeleteAnd also the part where we talk about our pets, children, tv. shows we're obsessed with and the annoyances of the cameras on the 101. If my grrrl book club is any indication. :).
We also occasionally do the read a mystery, or something snarky and women's bio. This balances out the we all read one book bit. I think we've agreed on switching between fiction and "theory" so as to allow for some leeway. Though getting an accord not so easy.
Again, I point out your non-target audience nature for Twilight. Not that it excuses them. But, valid. My next vampire book is The Historian.
ReplyDeleteRegarding not knowing that the theme was light and not finding a book that fits the theme, I am deeply, deeply shocked to the core. My world view is crumling. :). (Okay, not.)
And Anansi has nothing to do with the Anasazi which I didn't know.