Life of Pi: Halfway

I just finished chapter 50 of the 100 chapters in Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I thought this would be a good time to give my impression of the book so far. From what I've read up to this point, there are two parts. Part One: Toronto and Pondicherry took me quite a while to read. A large majority of this part, and book really, is description. Although Martel has some really wonderful descriptions and images, when that's all there is, it really slows down the reading. In addition, he has used some sentence fragments throughout, and it's unclear if that's Martel's personal style, or if that's how he intends Pi to be interpreted. Either way, that slows things down too.

Part Two: The Pacific Ocean really picks up the pace. There is a lot more action so far in this part of the book. There is still quite a bit of description, but it is broken up with action and dialogue, which helps move the reading along more quickly. The first chapter of Part Two is a little confusing, because he keeps referring to "Richard Parker" and it isn't really clear who or what Richard Parker is, but it becomes much clearer a little later on.

Overall, I'm not a huge fan of this book so far. I have a hard time reading it for long periods of time. I usually read a few chapters and then take a break and do something else for a while and then pick it back up again. At this point, I just want to get it finished so I can move on to my next book. However, I'm hoping that things will pick up in the last half of the book and get a lot more interesting.

Book Two

The second book on my list for this summer is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This book was recommended to me by my friend Katie a while back. It's one of her favorite books. I attempted to start reading this book a couple months ago, but after a few chapters, I just couldn't get into it. Not off to the best start. So I'm going to try again now, and hope that it's as good as Katie says it is and I won't hate it.

Here are a few short reviews about the book:

"An impassioned defense of zoos, a death-defying trans-Pacific sea adventure a la Kon-Tiki, and hilarious . . . This audacious novel manages to be all of these." --The New Yorker

"Life of Pi could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life." --The New York Times Book Review

"Life of Pi is a real adventure: brutal, tender, expressive, dramatic, and disarmingly funny . . . It's difficult to stop reading when the pages run out." --San Francisco Chronicle

This has gotten good reviews, and I know several other people aside from Katie who love this book. So I hope that once I get past the first couple chapters, things will pick up and get interesting. If this sounds like a book you'd like to read, you can order it on Amazon.com.

FYI: As I'm reading books, I will probably update on here how I'm feeling about the book, at least once or twice before I finish it and then write a final review about the book overall.

Thanks for reading!

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

I should mention that I'm stuck in my college town for the summer, only able to go home on the weekends. If this town was boring during the school year, it is a ghost town in the summer. There's not much to do, and not many people to hang out with. The first book on my Summer Reading List for this summer was Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn, and I felt the title fit my situation perfectly. 

This is probably the first memoir I have read that I've actually enjoyed (and not the first I will be reading this summer). I don't generally enjoy them--not because the person's life isn't interesting enough but primarily because they aren't written well. Nick Flynn is a great writer. He has several books of poetry published and his poetic voice comes through often in his prose, which only makes his writing better. His descriptions and images are both beautiful and heartbreaking. 

The memoir primarily focuses on Nick's relationship (or lack thereof) with his father Jonathon. It circles around it, an attempt to avoid directly addressing the situation--his father's alcoholism, homelessness, and their strained relationship. Nick grew up without a constant father figure in his life. His father spent time in jail--more than once--and writing his novel which, according to Jonathon, would be proclaimed a masterpiece and he'd be nominated for a Nobel Prize. 

Nick pulls the reader into his life, his mind. He began working for a homeless shelter where his father eventually turns up. He spends most of his time trying to avoid him and his drunken outbursts, unable to mentally take care of his father. But their paths inevitably cross several times and Nick attempts to figure out how his father fits in his life, both past and present. 

There were several quotes in the book, from Nick, his mother, father, and a few writers, including loose quotations from Shakespeare (primarily from King Lear). These are a few that really stuck out to me as I was reading:

"But they never taught us what to do if both of you are lost, and you both end up in the same place, waiting."

"'Never trust anyone who doesn't drink.' Those who don't drink have something to hide, an awful secret that will slip out if they were ever to get drunk. By drinking together we prove we have nothing to hide."

"Seek, seek for him, / Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life / That wants the means to end it"

"To be caught in a notion of self is bad. To be caught in a notion of nonself is worse." 

"The present is made entirely of the past. Dwell in the present but learn from the past."

"Read when you can. Write whenever you feel the inner need to do so. And don't ever rush into print."

"When everything has proven tenuous, one can either move toward permanence or move toward impermanence."

"By what you make, you will save the world."

"We need to create the story that will make sense of our lives, to make sense of the daily tasks."

Overall, I thought this book was really great, so I'll give it a 4 out of 5 or a Starbuck's Peppermint Mocha. Nick Flynn is a great writer and I plan to read some more of his poetry this summer. If this book sounds like something you'd be interested in reading, you can get Another Bullshit Night in Suck City from Amazon.com. This was a great book to start my summer reading with. I hope the rest of the books I read this summer are as great as this one was. 

Check Out the Rating System

If you haven't noticed, there is a link at the bottom of the page (under the link that says "Home") that will explain my rating system that I'll be using to rate the books I review. Please keep in mind that these reviews are my opinions of the books, and thus the rating system is solely based on my opinion. For instance, I hate black coffee, therefore a really terrible book would receive a 1/Black Coffee rating. Dr. Pepper is my favorite caffeinated beverage, so an excellent book would get a 5/Dr. Pepper rating.

Getting Started

I got the idea a few months ago to start a blog. I was an English major, and I consider myself to be a writer, so I figured, why not? The problem was that I had no idea what I would write about. What in my life could I write about that would be interesting enough that others would want to read? The answer: Not much, my life is pretty boring.

Finally, the idea came to me while I was beginning my "Summer Reading List 2011". I wrote about the first book I had finished for this summer, telling people what I liked about the book. And I realized, that is what my blog should be. So here I am. My reviews will be informal for the most part, because formal can be stuffy and boring. I'll be writing about the books I'm currently reading, books I have recently finished, and books I've read in the past that have stuck with me, as many good books do.

Unfortunately, once I had an idea of what to write, I had to come up with a title for my blog. I may call myself a writer, but I really suck at coming up with good titles. So I went through a long list of really crappy ones. Then I came up with Books and Caffeine (or lack thereof). The "lack thereof" part because I gave up caffeine a few months ago and haven't touched it since. However I get the feeling that might change after I start grad school this fall. My reasoning for books and caffeine together was that there are some books that are just so boring they put you to sleep (like most textbooks) and to get through them, you need an energy drink (or two, or five). So I ran it by a few friends and got mixed reviews. It was okay, but not great. Then my friend (and future roommate) Rhyen said I should call it Books and Caffeine: the only drugs I can afford. I think she was only half serious, but I loved it. Ran it by a few other people again, and they liked it too. So here we are.

I'm working on coming up with a rating system using the caffeine levels necessary to get through certain books. Once I have that figured out and it makes sense (I hope) I'll post that, and then use that rating system to rate the books I read/have read.

I hope you all will enjoy my reviews and maybe you'll check out some of the books. And I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on whether or not I start back up on caffeine again.

Thanks for reading!