Writer's Block: Book worms unite!
Dec. 15th, 2009 06:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
[Error: unknown template qotd]
Top Three:
3. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
This is the story of a young girl struggling with to reconcile her sexuality with her conservative Christian upbringing.
Yes, it was a set text. I’d like to think I’d have read it anyway though. Winterson’s soul comes through in this book (which is part fabrication and part autobiography), and she refuses to be a victim at any point. In this sense, this book is her reflection on the events that happened in her life and how she reconciled them to herself. I’m quite conservative, so I don’t like experimental texts, but Winterson’s style works, interweaving myth and fairytale into her narratives. She also has as much Christian theology as I do, so she makes subtle little references and draws things out that really made me think long and hard.
2. The Warlord Trilogy – Bernard Cornwell
(Three books. Totally cheating.)
This is Cornwell’s take on the Arthurian legend, set in fourth century Britain and told through the eyes of Derfel, one of Arthur’s spearmen who eventually became a Warlord.
I love this set of books. The writing is stunning and the story based in fact with most of the key points of the legends. It’s Cornwell’s attention to detail that gets me though. His research is impeccable, especially with regard to people’s superstitions and beliefs at the time. I love the development of Derfel’s character and the way in which Cornwell shows the encroaching threat of both the Saxons and Christianity. It does disturb me that I wind up hating my own religion and sympathising with paganism whenever I finish the books, but the writing is just that good. This is another book that really makes me think and re-evaluate myself.
1. One Bullet Away – Nathaniel Fick
Fick’s story from OCS to Iraq and back again.
I’m not going to go so far as to say that this book changed my life, but it definitely inspired me to make my life choices and clarified some decisions for me. Fick has this natural ability to manipulate the English language in such a way that he says exactly what he means without being either too coarse or too flowery. He keeps a military syntax with minimal swearing or jargon, which is quite a feat. He’s distinctly a blue person in his thoughts and ideals, and the book is less about war and more about soldiers, which is an important distinction. There’s an overwhelming sense of honour that comes through on every page and the last section broke me.
Bottom Three:
3. The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat - ?
Apparently, the new theory for teaching children to read involves phonetics. I don’t know what phonetics are, but they create the least imaginative and most grammatically inaccurate books. What happened to Winnie the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland? I refused to read half of my little brother’s books to him because the grammar is atrocious and the story lines beyond dull. Stop treating kids like morons and maybe we’ll raise them into vaguely intelligent teenagers?
2. Harry Potter – J K Rowling
If you don’t know this story, your instincts are clearly better than mine are.
I appreciate these books are written for children, but the pacing is awful, the vocabulary limited and the characters shallow. I don’t think I’d care so much if it wasn’t clear that Rowling is actually pretty clever. Books like this make me wonder if people like Fick and Cornwell just naturally have a good command of English which can’t be taught. Yes, these books got children reading, which was a brilliant feat, but they’re disappointing, empty, and, in my opinion, badly written. She also manages to skip 19 years directly after her last book, refusing to tie up any of her stories or deal with the emotional fall out. I hate that.
1. Beloved – Toni Morrison
Umm… I wish I could tell you what this book is about.
I cannot get over how much I hate this book. It is unnecessarily complicated and confusing, as though Morrison would rather demonstrate how clever she thinks she is than write something that can be understood and learned from. The plot makes little sense and is distinctly red – it is filled with irrational emotion and dramatics that prevent any kind of understanding. I hate this book. I have an A-level resting on my being complementary to this book.
Apparently my angryness is showing today...
Top Three:
3. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
This is the story of a young girl struggling with to reconcile her sexuality with her conservative Christian upbringing.
Yes, it was a set text. I’d like to think I’d have read it anyway though. Winterson’s soul comes through in this book (which is part fabrication and part autobiography), and she refuses to be a victim at any point. In this sense, this book is her reflection on the events that happened in her life and how she reconciled them to herself. I’m quite conservative, so I don’t like experimental texts, but Winterson’s style works, interweaving myth and fairytale into her narratives. She also has as much Christian theology as I do, so she makes subtle little references and draws things out that really made me think long and hard.
2. The Warlord Trilogy – Bernard Cornwell
(Three books. Totally cheating.)
This is Cornwell’s take on the Arthurian legend, set in fourth century Britain and told through the eyes of Derfel, one of Arthur’s spearmen who eventually became a Warlord.
I love this set of books. The writing is stunning and the story based in fact with most of the key points of the legends. It’s Cornwell’s attention to detail that gets me though. His research is impeccable, especially with regard to people’s superstitions and beliefs at the time. I love the development of Derfel’s character and the way in which Cornwell shows the encroaching threat of both the Saxons and Christianity. It does disturb me that I wind up hating my own religion and sympathising with paganism whenever I finish the books, but the writing is just that good. This is another book that really makes me think and re-evaluate myself.
1. One Bullet Away – Nathaniel Fick
Fick’s story from OCS to Iraq and back again.
I’m not going to go so far as to say that this book changed my life, but it definitely inspired me to make my life choices and clarified some decisions for me. Fick has this natural ability to manipulate the English language in such a way that he says exactly what he means without being either too coarse or too flowery. He keeps a military syntax with minimal swearing or jargon, which is quite a feat. He’s distinctly a blue person in his thoughts and ideals, and the book is less about war and more about soldiers, which is an important distinction. There’s an overwhelming sense of honour that comes through on every page and the last section broke me.
Bottom Three:
3. The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat - ?
Apparently, the new theory for teaching children to read involves phonetics. I don’t know what phonetics are, but they create the least imaginative and most grammatically inaccurate books. What happened to Winnie the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland? I refused to read half of my little brother’s books to him because the grammar is atrocious and the story lines beyond dull. Stop treating kids like morons and maybe we’ll raise them into vaguely intelligent teenagers?
2. Harry Potter – J K Rowling
If you don’t know this story, your instincts are clearly better than mine are.
I appreciate these books are written for children, but the pacing is awful, the vocabulary limited and the characters shallow. I don’t think I’d care so much if it wasn’t clear that Rowling is actually pretty clever. Books like this make me wonder if people like Fick and Cornwell just naturally have a good command of English which can’t be taught. Yes, these books got children reading, which was a brilliant feat, but they’re disappointing, empty, and, in my opinion, badly written. She also manages to skip 19 years directly after her last book, refusing to tie up any of her stories or deal with the emotional fall out. I hate that.
1. Beloved – Toni Morrison
Umm… I wish I could tell you what this book is about.
I cannot get over how much I hate this book. It is unnecessarily complicated and confusing, as though Morrison would rather demonstrate how clever she thinks she is than write something that can be understood and learned from. The plot makes little sense and is distinctly red – it is filled with irrational emotion and dramatics that prevent any kind of understanding. I hate this book. I have an A-level resting on my being complementary to this book.
Apparently my angryness is showing today...