Rabbit Hole #1

When I read, I feel very much like Alice going down the rabbit hole. As my family can attest to, I can become lost for hours in a book, everything else falling away as I chase my characters through time and space on their adventures. It's been this way as long as I can remember.

And I read. A lot, according to some people; not enough, according to me. Right now my average is four books a month. Generally two of those are books for the book clubs I belong to, which leaves the other two for my own tastes. Sometimes I can squeeze in an extra one or two; once in a while, a book will bog me down (I'm looking at you, Tolstoy). I'm also the type of person who HAS to finish a work. I know others who can walk away, but I just don't seem to be able to do it. 

So these posts are going to hit on some of the pieces I've been reading. I won't go over all of them, so if you see a title listed off to the right that sounds interesting, and you want to know more about it, feel free to ask about it in the comments.

The Circle by Dave Eggers

I've liked Eggers' work since I read his Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, primarily because no two pieces are the same. The Circle is a modern day dystopia, centered around a tech company named, of course, The Circle. The Circle has taken over all of the current tech companies we now know--Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Amazon, etc.--and merged them. Their headquarters consists of several glass-walled buildings creating a "campus" for its employees. Eventually, their employees don't need to leave, and don't want to leave, the campus for anything. The Circle's ultimate goal is the complete transparency and interconnectedness of everything and everyone on the planet. It's a modern 1984, very fast-paced, and a bit unnerving to read, as most of the technology is already available. 

Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell

Disclaimer: I love Gatsby. Absolutely love it. Yes, it has its flaws, but it is one of my top five books of all time and has always been my favorite book to teach. (Ask any of my students--I go a little nuts about Fitzgerald and the 20s.) I actually stumbled upon this book by accident during a Barnes and Noble venture. Churchwell connects some of the events in Gatsby (although loosely) to an actual murder that took place in New Jersey during the time Fitzgerald was living in Long Island. She also discusses a lot of the sources for some of the symbolism and characters in the novel. Of course I had heard of a lot of them, but some were new. It was a refreshing take on a topic I know fairly well. She also includes great lists on 1920s slang terms, which we should definitely bring back! If you've read Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen, this is a similar text, and worth your time.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Ah, poor Anna. Where to begin. This is by far my least favorite work that I've read this summer, probably because it was nothing like I was expecting. I assumed that the 750 page novel would be about Anna Karenina and her tragic love affair with Count Vronsky. No...that encompassed only about 250 pages. And after her death, she only receives about another two pages of mention--50 pages after she dies! The rest of the novel deals with other characters and the state of nineteenth century Russia, Russian politics, the state of peasants in Russia, the state of religion in Russian, Russian society, etc. Even the section that deals with Anna turns her in to a horrible shrew of a woman, when she is trying to live the best she can within the circumstances she finds herself in. I know, what was I expecting from a 19th century Russian novel written by a man? Maybe Dr. Zhivago ruined me for Russian novels.

This is George Lucas' library at Skywalker ranch. Someday....