I could write a great novel if my neighborhood weren't so upscale (book thread)

[Greg Nog]

I joined this website, Readernaut. Readernaut.com. I think it's basically like goodreads except with an emphasis on making notes as you go along and writing down quotes from individual pages rather than rating the books when you're done with them.

I think that for me, a problem with that quotey thing is that some books I like just kind of chug along enjoyably, but don't have any particularly delectable passages, whereas other books have quotable bits of pithy wit on every page, so it would lead to a fairly imbalanced distribution of passages -- zero from Stephen King, hundreds from Edmund White.

Anyway, finished The Hunger Games, and it was good except for the Werewolves Ex Machina.  Although it's the first of a trilogy, so maybe the wolves make more sense in the larger context.  About to start Charlie Huston's Caught Stealing.

[davy]

The Wolves Ex Machina?! What about the Rule Changes Ex Machina!

"Oh hey! Teams can now win together!"

"Oh wait, we're at the end and there's not enough tension, so scratch that!"

What was the purpose of changing the rules in the first place? Katniss's gesture (and her alliance/romance with Peeta) would've been all the more powerful and compelling if they'd known all along that only one of them could survive.

[Greg Nog]

The rule change, I thought, was good for highlighting the fact that major tension comes less from "How do we win this competition?" and more from "How we do react to the fact that the whole terrible game (and indeed, the whole terrible nation) is rotten to the core?", which seemed borne out by uncomfortable ambivalence of the ending.

[davy]

"How we do react to the fact that the whole terrible game (and indeed, the whole terrible nation) is rotten to the core?"

I didn't need a reminder! It was all I could do to push aside my horror and disgust of the games (and my disappointment in Suzanne Collins for glossing over many of the terrible implications) long enough to pay attention to the story.

All the initial rule change did was lessen the tension between Katniss and Peeta, and why would you want to do that? It doesn't affect the plot because they just change the rules again at the end. Felt a little tacky to me.

[jm]

I joined this website, Readernaut. Readernaut.com. I think it's basically like goodreads except with an emphasis on making notes as you go along and writing down quotes from individual pages rather than rating the books when you're done with them.

Damn.  Wish I would have known about this when I was reading all that damn Proust.  There was one particular quote that I can't, for the life of me, remember that I really liked (and even now, I'm not sure whether it was in book 2 or book 3).

[Greg Nog]

All the initial rule change did was lessen the tension between Katniss and Peeta, and why would you want to do that? It doesn't affect the plot because they just change the rules again at the end. Felt a little tacky to me.

It changed the plot because it made them come together; there would have been no romance for the home-viewers if they hadn't changed the rules.

[davy]

Collins could've easily found a more interesting way to achieve that, though.

[Greg Nog]

I dunno, I thought the structure was a fairly sharp satire of how most reality shows operate.

[davy]

Certainly that is the novel's greatest thematic strength--the satire of reality television--but it's everywhere you look, not just in the bending of the rules.

But whatevs, I'm done harping on it. Glad you liked it! That's the main thing.

[alex]

For some reason, that discussion made me look up the plot description of the book on wikipedia, which in turn made me curious about a writing sample, so I hit up googlebooks and somehow ended up reading as far as I could into the book on there (missing a page every now and again), and then when  I was done there, for some reason I looked whether google would help me find a pirated copy of the whole thing, which it did, and so I just spent a good part of my evening sort of speed-reading through the whole thing.

I know you're done discussing the thing, but I sitll have to say, couldn't disagree more with you, davy. The one thing* I found interesting about this book  is indeed the satirisation of reality TV, but also the problematisation of the reality show concept as a tool of control and power over society on a larger scale - so not just the internal logic of reality TV, but the idea of it being used to control those who aren't themselves participants**. The rule change, then, serves as more than a plot device to get the two together (though I agree with Greg on that point), but it exposes something about the arbitrariness of those decisions. It's pretty integral to the whole thing, in my opinion. Even if you can think of a different plot device to suddenly change the dynamics of their interactions and thus develop the romantic plot in a similar way, the critique of the functioning of reality TV would be fundamentally altered by that.

* and really, I'm pretty sure it's the only thing: the writing certainly didn't win me over, and I found the characters pretty one-dimensional
** though I'd also say that this is an aspect that should have been fleshed out A LOT more; the importance of the show for political control is really just taken for granted rather than worked out in any meaningful way; "show don't tell" and all that...

[alex]

As for the readernaut thing, I tried signing up hours ago but still have yet to receive my confirmation e-mail that I need to activate the thing (and no, it's not the spam folder either). What gives?

[davy]

Sorry, I just know how it made me feel. I was already struggling with the tone of the novel and then the sudden rule changes just made me roll my eyes. That was my gut reaction, and I trust my gut in these matters. I mean, you can make plenty of sound arguments about why it was crucial to the narrative, but if it doesn't read well--and I don't think it does--then it's still a problem.

I really didn't dislike the book, though. I found it to be enjoyable, if somewhat structurally flawed.

[Thermofusion]

I'm the readernaut, bitch

[Bernard]

The baby is 9 books away from her first 100 books. I think she should have a nice treat when she makes it to 100. I'm trying to think of something she would really like, but all I can think of is that she would like to either chew my cell phone or type on the laptop. So far her favorites are That's Not My Teddy and Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, although a recent addition, Mr. Brown Can Moo, looks to have legs.

[G.C.R]

Oh jeez that book is great.

[Nick Ink]

Yesterday, when I unexpectedly had a couple of hours on my hands before I had to be at a meeting - too long to hang around work, but not enough time to come home and back - I went out and bought a book from one of the many second-hand shops in Brighton's North Laine, and then secreted myself in a little coffee shop and rattled off the first 80 pages or so. The book was Gunter Grass's Local Anaesthetic. It pulled me in straight away, even though it can be a bit baffling at times, jumping around in time and blurring the narrator's visions, imaginings and reality. I read a bit more today, and I'm more than halfway through now - hoping to finish it off this week.

[clare]

The baby is 9 books away from her first 100 books. I think she should have a nice treat when she makes it to 100. I'm trying to think of something she would really like, but all I can think of is that she would like to either chew my cell phone or type on the laptop. So far her favorites are That's Not My Teddy and Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, although a recent addition, Mr. Brown Can Moo, looks to have legs.

Mr Brown Can Moo is s big favourite here too. And some of the That's not my... (we have Penguin and Monster) are very popular too.

http://www.amazon.com/Grug-Green-Paint-Ted-Prior/dp/0340246170/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281061899&sr=1-3

They've just reprinted all of these so the price is sensible, rather than what you see here.

[Bernard]

Oh, I love the cover on that one! Thank you for the suggestion, I love learning about great stuff from other places that I wouldn't know from my own childhood.

[alex]

That cover looks like it could be a book by Janosch! I approve!

[clare]

They are pretty cool. Published originally in the late 70s early 80s. I used to read them to my sister, and she loved them. There's about 50 titles now. They're very simple stories. Grug and the Green Paint involves Grug getting a job in the city to paint a house. He wants to paint it his favourite colour, green, which he does, but it makes him homesick so he goes home again.

[davy]

I am excited about this because a) it's about Siberia, b) it's by Ian Frazier, c) it's brand new! and d) it sure is pretty.

[G.C.R]

 !

[davy]

I'm gonna start this:



I guess the most recent novel in this series just came out, and I read a glowing review of it in the NY Times Book Review. That surprised me--I always considered Martin Cruz Smith sort of a hack, though I had nothing concrete to base that on. Last time I read a positive review praising a writer I'd previously thought little of, I was inspired to start The Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. If this book brings me 10% of the enjoyment that A Game of Thrones did, it'll be well worth the time.

[hannah]

Oo, davy, Frazier published two essays on his travels in Siberia in the New Yorker last summer. I should check that book out.

Finished Swann's Way last week (awesome) and just wrapped up Ada or Ardor (a'ight). Now on to The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade.

[davy]

Ada or Ardor (a'ight)

Just..."a'ight?!"