Too Many Books, Too Little Time

This week’s Blog Hop question, posted by The Blue Bookcase, is:

What is the most difficult literary work you’ve ever read? What made it so difficult?

I love it when a question is easy to answer! Without a doubt, the most difficult novel – literary or otherwise – that I’ve ever read is In the Labyrinth by Alain Robbe-Grillet. This was an assignment in a college World Literature class, and although I read it in 1969, I’ve never forgotten the book nor the struggle it was to read.

Robbe-Grillet was a pioneer of the “new novel” (noveau roman) of the 1950s. It was his contention that the writer should avoid psychological or ideological analysis, but use an impersonal description of physical objects and allow the reader to guess what hides under details and events.

The “plot” of In the Labyrinth (and I use the term, “plot,” loosely) is of a soldier following a boy to meet someone to whom he will deliver a box. None of the characters are named, and scenes and actions are continuously repeated – sometimes word for word – in a labyrinthine manner. It is hard to tell what is real and what might be a dream. The narration shifts throughout the story between the soldier and the boy and, just to make it more confusing, is unreliable. I found it impossible to tell whether anything I read was really happening, was a hallucination, a flashback, or a lie.

It’s possible that now, as a more mature reader, I might be able to understand what I was reading. Frankly, I’m not curious enough about this to test the theory. In fact, just thinking about In the Labyrinth has inspired me to download Stephen King’s latest – Full Dark, No Stars – onto my Kindle!

Thanks for visiting Too Many Books, Too Little Time, where my philosophy is that life’s too short to read bad books! Please take a minute to look around and visit some of my posts. I’d love it if you’d leave a comment, too!

Topic for 10/8-11/2010:

What do you drink while reading or blogging?

When I read, I usually have a diet Coke or water nearby, but I’m afraid of spilling on my computer, so I never drink when I blog.

Welcome fellow Blog Hoppers! This week’s question:

How many blogs do you follow?

I have 22 book blogs in my blogroll, and I try to stop in on each of them at least once a week. I’ve added a number of these from The Blog Hop, which is a great way to learn about new (at least to me) blogs. I also eliminate blogs from my blogroll if, over a period of time, I’m not seeing books that are of interest to me. It’s important to me to keep my blogroll to a manageable number that I can realistically support, not to have a huge number that I only visit from time to time.

Thanks for visiting Too Many Books, Too Little Time! Please take a minute to leave a comment. 

It’s amazing how fast the weekend rolls around! Here we are, ready for another blog hop. As always, thanks to Crazy-for-Books for hosting this!

This week’s question:

How many books do you have on your “to be read” shelf?

Well – the answer depends on which TBR shelf you mean!

On my Goodreads TBR shelf I have 10 books. These are the books from my “Book Splurge” post that followed my trip to Laguna Beach Books, plus a few that I’ve found on blogs that interest me but I don’t actually own.

I have 5 books in my Amazon.com “Wish List.” Again, I’m interested, but don’t own them. I’ve also pre-ordered Jonathan Franzen’s new book, Freedom, which Amazon.com is offering at an attractive pre-order price. It’s due out on August 31.

I have 1 book that I’ve downloaded onto my Kindle, but haven’t yet read.

And now it’s time for a small confession. Last weekend my husband and I took a trip to Santa Barbara, home of another of my favorite indie bookstores, Chaucer’s Books. Chaucer’s Books is an incredible store, has a wonderful website, and for Facebook users, regular FB updates of interesting news from the literary world. Although Santa Barbara is a  couple hundred miles from our home, we try to get up there once or twice a year. Our trip ALWAYS includes a visit to Chaucer’s and, although I truly do not need more books, I always come away with some gems. Not only do they have all the current books, but they have an outstanding “Classics” section as well. Here’s what I brought home from this trip:

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. Since I’ve finished this, it isn’t really a TBR title.

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. Almost done, so technically, I don’t need to count this one either.

The following need to go on the TBR list:

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson

 A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias

No Name by Wilkie Collins

So, I think this makes my total number of TBR books 21. In truth, there are many more, some scattered on my various bookshelves,  some just in my head. But 21 is my story, and I’m sticking to it!

For the uninitiated, every Friday Crazy-for-Books hosts the “Book Blogger Hop, “a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new book-related blogs that we may be missing out on.” It’s a great opportunity to learn about and explore book blogs that may be new to you. I’ve found many, many great blogs by participating in The Hop.

To get things rolling, Crazy-for-Books also posts a weekly question. This week’s question is:

TELL US ABOUT THE BOOK YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING.

I’ve just begun The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. When I say “just begun,” I mean that I am literally only on about page 30, so all impressions are very tentative.

The book is billed as a “gothic tale.” If it lives up to the comparisons to Rebecca, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights, I’m prepared to like it. It’s probably not a book I would have selected myself, but it is the current selection for my book club so I’ll give it my best effort. I have a rule of thumb that I will read 100 pages of nearly anything. If I’m not interested by page 101, I move on to the next book. But blogger Books et al posted a comment here saying that this is one of her favorite books, and we share some favorites, so that gives me hope.

If I’m sounding less than enthusiastic, it’s because the small amount I’ve read suffers from one flaw that can sometimes be fatal for me – it seems to be seriously over-written. A sample of this is in the narrator’s description of a letter she has received:

The crisp-cornered envelope, puffed up with its thickly folded contents, was addressed in a hand that must have given the postman a certain amount of trouble. Although the style of the writing was old-fashioned, with its heavily embellished capitals and curly flourishes, my first impression was that it had been written by a child. The letters seemed untrained. Their uneven strokes either faded into nothing or were  heavily etched into the paper. There was no sense of flow in the letters that spelled out my name.

All this, just to say she received a letter addressed in a childish hand.

I’ll honor my commitment to 100 pages and hope that the story compensates for the style. Come back in a week or so to find out!

Crazy- for - Books hosts the Book Blogger Hop, a great way to learn about and visit new blogs.

This week she asks that we list our favorite authors and tell why they make the cut. This is tough for me – I like so many authors for certain times in my life, or particular books that they’ve written. Some come and go; a handful seem to have real staying power for me, so I guess I’ll list them. Just be aware that this is a very limited selection from a very long list . . .

Wallace Stegner

Stegner is a master at two things that are most important to me in great literature – he captures the feel of time and place, and he knows the depths of the human heart. As a Californian, I appreciate his clear depiction of the West, never more beautifully portrayed than in his masterpiece, Angle of Repose. In Crossing to Safety, he came as close to capturing the intricacies of marriage as any author I’ve ever read. And, of course, his early recognition of man’s impact on the environment takes him beyond the literary appreciation of the world, into the literal.

Toni Morrison

Is there another living writer who uses language and imagery as masterfully as Morrison? Her ability to show us the dark side of the human character without pathos or sentimentality , to shine the light on human strength and honor without stereotype, puts her in my “life list” of favorite authors.

TC Boyle

I don’t know what to say about Boyle except that he’s never written anything I didn’t love. My dream would be to have dinner with him and find out if his thinking is as clear and quirky in real life as it is in fiction!

John Steinbeck

Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, The Winter of Our Discontent, Of Mice and Men . . . ‘nough said!