Book-snob
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Thanks to a very high recommendation from my old buddy Ryan, I've just finished the Pulitzer Prize winning 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'. What a great freakin' story.
I have spent most of my adult reading life under the assumption good books are relative to the readers taste. While I still mostly agree with that statement, every once in awhile you get a hold of a book where not only the story, but the writing itself just grabs you and won't let go. Usually it's an author you've never read with a style that might take a couple of chapters to get used to, but when you finally finish the tale, you're left with this incredible, almost palpably empty feeling of 'wow.' Having wanted to finish the book so badly with 100 pages to go, you now feel a little bit disappointed you rushed to the end.
I've always been a voracious reader and before meeting my wife I'd consume anywhere from ten to fourteen books a year. I'm one of those people who can't just go to bed by turning off the lamp, closing my eyes, picking my nose and voila!- talking with the sandman. Sometimes it took just a couple of pages before my forehead landed between the pages of an open book, sometimes an hour or two.
Nowadays I'm lucky if I even turn the page once before dozing off to sweet oblivion. At this pace it has taken me most of this winter to read 'Kavalier and Clay'. Because this pace seems to be about all I've been able to muster over the last couple of years, I've recently decided to make whatever reading time I might get before nodding off count for something a little bit more than it has been.
This is my goal: Read as many Pulitzer Prize winning authors in a row as feasibly possible.
Now, we're talking fiction here. I completely understand and admire every single writer to be nominated and/or have won the prize (and the thousands who haven't), no matter the subject or content - but to try and keep my eyes open for any period of time with any genre other than fiction would be fruitless at best. No offence intended to the many talented journalists, columnists, biographers, speech writers, and others who base their careers on any one or all of these areas. My brain just doesn't like to work that way, particularly when hitting the sack.
The last paragraph doesn't mean I don't have an appetite for what's going on the world via all my bookmarked Internet news sites. Just ask my wife. Every night there's the inevitable "Did you here about this... honey?"
Since 1917 there has been a Pulitzer given every year in the 'Fiction' (pre-1948 'Novel') category except for in 1920, '41, '46, '54, '57, '64, '71, '74, and '77.
That's a lot of reading. Would love to have some recommendations...
As for now I'm following 'Kavalier and Clay' up with John Updike's 'Rabbit , Run', the first in a series of four in which two have won Pulitzers.
We'll see how long being a "book-snob" lasts.
I have spent most of my adult reading life under the assumption good books are relative to the readers taste. While I still mostly agree with that statement, every once in awhile you get a hold of a book where not only the story, but the writing itself just grabs you and won't let go. Usually it's an author you've never read with a style that might take a couple of chapters to get used to, but when you finally finish the tale, you're left with this incredible, almost palpably empty feeling of 'wow.' Having wanted to finish the book so badly with 100 pages to go, you now feel a little bit disappointed you rushed to the end.
I've always been a voracious reader and before meeting my wife I'd consume anywhere from ten to fourteen books a year. I'm one of those people who can't just go to bed by turning off the lamp, closing my eyes, picking my nose and voila!- talking with the sandman. Sometimes it took just a couple of pages before my forehead landed between the pages of an open book, sometimes an hour or two.
Nowadays I'm lucky if I even turn the page once before dozing off to sweet oblivion. At this pace it has taken me most of this winter to read 'Kavalier and Clay'. Because this pace seems to be about all I've been able to muster over the last couple of years, I've recently decided to make whatever reading time I might get before nodding off count for something a little bit more than it has been.
This is my goal: Read as many Pulitzer Prize winning authors in a row as feasibly possible.
Now, we're talking fiction here. I completely understand and admire every single writer to be nominated and/or have won the prize (and the thousands who haven't), no matter the subject or content - but to try and keep my eyes open for any period of time with any genre other than fiction would be fruitless at best. No offence intended to the many talented journalists, columnists, biographers, speech writers, and others who base their careers on any one or all of these areas. My brain just doesn't like to work that way, particularly when hitting the sack.
The last paragraph doesn't mean I don't have an appetite for what's going on the world via all my bookmarked Internet news sites. Just ask my wife. Every night there's the inevitable "Did you here about this... honey?"
Since 1917 there has been a Pulitzer given every year in the 'Fiction' (pre-1948 'Novel') category except for in 1920, '41, '46, '54, '57, '64, '71, '74, and '77.
That's a lot of reading. Would love to have some recommendations...
As for now I'm following 'Kavalier and Clay' up with John Updike's 'Rabbit , Run', the first in a series of four in which two have won Pulitzers.
We'll see how long being a "book-snob" lasts.
posted by Corey at 11:53 AM
1 Comments:
Glad you liked the book, man. I know exactly the feeling you're talking about. I'll never forget how I felt when I finished that book.
I actually read it again recently and it was just as good, if not better, the second time.
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