Completed (awhile ago): The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Jekyll and Hyde is one of those things you hear about when you're a kid. Its names are used as characterizations of personality, as a reference for people having split personality-style attitudes. But it's also a book. A book written in fun, older English. Not a long read, and perfect for around Halloween time - which is when I did read it. 

How much has the modern 'Jekyll and Hyde' idea strayed from the original? Quite a bit, as far as how much the book differed from my childhood impression of its title characters. I was expecting a Halloween-appropriate, creepy monster. In the end, I was left feeling tremendous sadness for Jekyll and all that he suffered. It is not the classic battle between good and evil that a simplistic modern interpretation makes it out to be. It is a tragedy, a man finding a liberation that ends up being his jailer and his self-inflicted end. The humanity of Jekyll, his trying to protect the world from himself, was both touching and pitiable. 

I love Stevenson's writing. I'll read more of him. Kidnapped? Treasure Island? 

Title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Author: Robert Louie Stevenson

Published: 1886 (originally)

Pages: 144

Total Books Blogged: 37

Total Pages: 10,917

Completed (ages ago): The Orenda by Joseph Boyden

I started a new degree in September. Oh, yes I did... I started school in September and totally and completed fell off the blog. However, I am proud to say that I did not stop reading. I have, between books for school and books for fun, read seven books to add to the blog. I will try to get to most of them soon, so that I'm caught up. This term I've only chosen one class, instead of two, so I should have a somewhat better balance of time!

The Orenda ended up on my Goodreads list from a Buzzfeed list about 'Books you won't be able to put down'. I often read those lists, and if a book sounds amazing, I'll add it to my to-read list on Goodreads. That list has ballooned to over 150 books. My house contains hundreds upon hundreds that I also have not read. Yet somehow I keep buying books!

I didn't realize that The Orenda was a critically acclaimed book this past year, or that so many of my friends and colleagues were either reading it or wanted to do so. I just felt like getting a good long book, and picked this one.

The Orenda is a journey of astounding composition. I can genuinely say that all Canadians, each and every one, should read this book. It is an important piece of history, though it is historical fiction - it depicts in heart-wrenching detail the truth and the humanity behind the history of early contact between First Nations and Europeans.

Unlike the Buzzfeed list title, I could indeed put this book down. In fact, it took some time for me to get into it (probably the first hundred pages or so), and there were times further along that my heart needed a break. This book is a heavy, difficult read that will add value, knowledge and perspective to the life of all Canadians, especially those who are not familiar with First Nations history. But it is heavy. Even sitting and writing this blog, I think back on some of the book and realize how profoundly and permanently impactful it was. It is not casual reading - it demands your attention, and occasionally stabs you with its reality and truth.

But read it. Please, please read it.

Title: The Orenda
Author: Joseph Boyden
Published: 2013
Pages: 501

Total Books Blogged: 36
Total Pages: 10,773

Completed: Merde Actually by Stephen Clarke

I'm kinda bummed that this is the book that will push me over the 10,000 page mark. I'm pretty proud of that milestone, but this book was only mediocre.

I feel like a lot of the details I could overlook with moderate ease in the first book - the misogyny, the oversexualized everything, the arrogance of the main character - I could not ignore in the context of this book's plot. I found myself hoping I was almost done. I think most of my surprise moments in the book consisted of how willing French women were to sleep with the chauvinist main character. I've known a few French women - and they don't sleep with just anyone!

If there were more books in this series, I would not read them. But this is the last one.

Title: Merde Actually
Author: Stephen Clarke
Published: 2005
Pages: 448

Total Books Blogged: 35
Total Pages: 10,272 

Completed (again): A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke

Why is this titled Completed (again)? Well, I have read this book before. It has been years, and it was as though I was reading it for the first time, as I had no recollection of the story - nothing rang a bell. Hard to believe I once read it at all!

It was OK. I have the follow-up, too, which is called Merde Actually. I'll probably power through it quickly. Paul (the main character) is a bit of a chauvinistic pig, and so relatively distasteful. The kind of person I used to avoid in bars because I (rightly) guessed about his opinions of women. He kept finding beautiful, confident French women to sleep with, and, having known a few beautiful, confident French women, I would be surprised that they would all fall into bed with that kind of guy. 

Meh - it was a fluffy summer book, with some fun comedy mixed into some things that made my feminist self cringe. We'll see if book #2 does any better!

Title: A Year in the Merde
Author: Stephen Clarke
Published: 2004
Pages: 383

Total Books Blogged: 34
Total Pages: 9824

Completed: Fifteen by Beverly Cleary

Oh, it has been a long time since I read a Beverly Cleary book. I think anyone about my age read some when they were a teen, but I don't think I've picked one up in, oh, 15 years?

This one was quaint. In many ways nothing like my teenage years, and in many ways exactly like my teenage years. 

It is set in the 50s, it would seem. There is discussion of girdles, buckled shoes, soda floats, wearing gloves and hats on dates, and dieting (which you wouldn't see in a book about teenagers nowadays!). There's dates to dances, trading dances with another couple, and of course, everyone's old-fashioned favorite, 'going steady'!

None of these were part of my teenage years (except for desperate dietary attempts to GAIN weight, as I was quite pitifully underweight due to my out-of-control metabolism as a teen!).

However, the second-guessing, always trying to fit in, trying to find confidence, frustrating babysitting gigs, cute boy crushes, long phone calls with your best friend, and parents just not getting it, well, I had all of those things...!

It was an easy read. I'm finding that tossing a young adult novel in every once in awhile just adds a nice balance to my reading - not everything needs to be an intense roller-coaster of prime-quality, award-winning literature. This quick read is proof that spending a few nights having a heartfelt, nostalgic trip down teen memory lane is just as good a time.

Title: Fifteen
Author: Beverly Cleary
Published: 1956
Pages: 203

Total Books Blogged: 33
Total Pages: 9441

Completed: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons; also, The Tayinat List

Once upon a time, in 2005, I was on an archaeological excavation in southern Turkey. We flew in and out of an airport about 2 hours' drive away. On the very last night, we all sat up in our outside hang-out space - it was lovingly known as the Languidarium. The flight was at maybe 6 in the morning. But this meant heading for the airport at about 3. We chose not to sleep before we left.

I passed around a piece of paper. I asked everyone to contribute books that they thought I shouldn't live my life without reading, for whatever reason mattered to them. I got a varied and eclectic list. And although Watchmen got mentioned that night (for some reason I remember it distinctly), it is not in fact on the list. But lots of other great books are. I've read 11 of them:

• Life of Pi
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Eats, Shoots and Leaves
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
• My Name is Red (very much NOT my favorite book - took me 8 months to force myself to finish)
• The Bluffer's Guide to Archaeology
• Away by Jane Urquhart
• Baghdad Without a Map
• Pillars of the Earth (one of my all-time favorite books)
• Eye of the Needle
• Murder in Mesopotamia

I haven't read more, mostly because I tend to forget about the list - though I still have the original piece of paper:

So - should I get around to reading any more of these books, I'll tag them with The Tayinat List tag (Tayinat being the site I was working at), so that they're recognized as pieces of contribution by my colleagues that summer to my reading enjoyment (except for My Name is Red - that book was just terrible to me!). 

OK so back to Watchmen (which I always want to call The Watchmen, but it's not). This book is in the Time Magazine Top 100 Best Novels (of all years since 1923, all genres). It is one that has been made into a movie - a movie I did not watch, as I always try to read the book first. 

This was my first graphic novel, and I've never really read comic books or anything either.

So, with that precursor, this was not my favorite book. I truly understand some of the brilliance in the writing, in the story, and in the implications of the subject matter. But I really had to make myself read it - it didn't grip me, and having now read a graphic novel, I'm not sure if it is my favorite medium to read. So I guess this is a classic where I understand why it's a classic, but it's also really not my thing. 

My favorite pieces were Dr. Manhattan's reflections - on himself, on earth, on humanity. I loved his perspective, despite its heartbreaking coldness at times.In chapter IV, he talked about stars - that was my favorite quote, so here you go - upon reflecting on an old photograph of him and Janey: "I am going to look at the stars. They are so far away and their light takes so long to reach us... All we ever see of stars are their old photographs."

Title: Watchmen

Author: Alan Moore. Illustrated and lettered by Dave Gibbons

Published: 2008

Pages: Amazon tells me it's 416

Total books blogged: 32

Total pages: 9238

Completed: The 8:55 to Baghdad by Andrew Eames

Andrew Eames seems a bit arrogant, in the way he wrote this book. It is written in the style of someone whose nose is always a bit up. Jumping over that relatively minor hurdle, I enjoyed about half of this book. Sorry in advance about some of the rambling-ness of this post...!:

It's somewhat similar to The Year of Living Biblically, in that I very much enjoyed parts of it, but very much didn't enjoy other parts. The parts about Agatha, about Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and about the lead-up to the Iraq War (which Eames was right on the brink of, during his travels) were phenomenal, and gave me much food (and many words) for thought. But the long, drawn-out pieces of European and near eastern history, which seemed both out-of-place in the text (they weren't linked directly to the later pieces about the author's travels) and written, again, in a bit of a condescending tone. As though, if only history had listened to Eames, much of this ridiculousness would not have happened. 

But outside of this, there were a few really excellent moments. Talking about realizing your own destiny (p19) made me want to more consciously think through my wants versus my needs, and it made me all the more glad that I'm going back to school in the fall, and doing that for me. 

I loved the discussion on p37 of 'transport' versus 'holiday': "The essential difference was not the speed or the plate of guinea fowl, but the fact that, for us, the process of getting there was at least as important as the destination." This was quite profound for me - it has been a long time since I enjoyed the travel-to portion of a getaway. Made me long for a train journey myself (though not strongly - I've never been able to sleep well on trains). 

Along his journey, Eames met a man named Alp Aslan, in Turkey on the train. Alp was from Konya (a place I have always wanted to go). And here I really loved Eames' description. He wrote Alp as follows: "He had the serenity of someone who'd seen the world and was now happy to have returned home, where he could share that experience with others and to listen to theirs..." - I really loved this. I hope I'm like Alp someday. I need to get my feet to a few more countries first. 

The other favourite moment did not include Eames' words, rather Max Mallowan's (Agatha's second husband, an archaeologist). Max described their lives together as "forty-five years of a loving and merry companionship. Few men know what it is to live in harmony beside an imaginative, creative mind which inspires life with zest." Such a beautiful love story, those two. I look forward to reading Mallowan's memoirs, which I also own! So many more books to read...

Title: The 8:55 to Baghdad - From London to Iraq on the Trail of Agatha Christie

Author: Andrew Eames

Published: 2004

Pages: 390

Total Books Blogged: 31
Total Pages: 8822