So we’re on week 2, and I’m already behind. Ironically, yesterday was annual ‘Break Your New Year’s Resolution Day’, so those of you who have fallen off the treadmill- either figuratively or literally- don’t feel so bad. Admittedly it’s been an intense week, but I haven’t been as diligent as I’d like. Though I am finding covert ways to make it look like I’m watching extemp while reading. I finished up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo today on the flight home from Austin (Texas, I miss you!) and plan on getting back on track this week- that means nailing one out sometime in the next 72 hours (I just reread that sentence and it sounds shockingly graphic).
Anywho, back to the text.
So I’m not going to lie- about 200 pages in I thought I was going to give up and chuck it out the window. It’s hard to follow and has more characters and subplots than any feasible human can keep up with. The Vagner family- which plays an integral role in the plot- is huge with an extensive web of relationships. Where do these people think they’re from? Kentucky? (that comment is slightly ominous, but read it to find out why).
Once you settle past enough exposition to make you feel like you’re reliving the entire Obama campaign (which, in my mind started in 2004 at the DNC), it’s actually quite an engaging read. The premise is strikingly simple despite the complexity of the set-up. Harriet Vagner has been missing for over four decades and a journalist- recently discredited in a libel indictment- has been hired to write the Vagner family biography and see if he can solve the mystery of Vagner’s murder or disappearance. Now that I’m writing this, this kind of sounds like an absurdist Eastern European version of Jason Glass’s life, which arguably got more popular once it was discovered his work was rooted in as much truth as a Harry Potter novel.
The author could do a slightly better job clarifying exactly what is going on at times, but about midway through the text, I was hooked. It’s a great read at that point and had a hard time putting it down.
So now for Book #3- if I’m following my schedule, I need something classical in nature. I’ve got a copy of On Liberty in my bag- which admittedly I’ve never read cover to cover. I may just do that on this flight…
Monday, January 18, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Book 2: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
I started reading this on the plane to Nashville. The story seems intriguing though written in a slightly awkward manner. I'm looking forward to this!
Book 1 down, and early this time!
So I impressed myself by finishing the book ahead of my deadline, (finished it Monday ahead of Thursday's goal), but haven't gotten around to updating this yet. Writing will be the real challenge for this project rather than the reading, clearly...
Rossi's exposition into the Middle East is hardly expository in nature- while her discussions are thorough and she does a remarkable job of covering both a crash course in the politics of every Middle Eastern state (Oman and Jordan were particularly fun reads, and I learned a lot about 'hypothetical development projects' in Dubai that recently made major headlines) and a thematic overview of major tensions in the region. Sadly, a lot of her analysis comes down to the same basic points:
1) America is dominated by a neo-conservative conspiracy that is both blood and jew thirsty- rightly so, Rossi blames a lot of the region's problems on a Western foreign policy hellbent on pursuing stable access to energy resources and/or fulfilling a Zionist Christian belief that populating the Middle East with Jewish citizens will lead to the second coming of the messiah. The point is well articulated early in the text, but gets redundant as she KEEPS REFERRING TO IT IN ALMOST EVERY CHAPTER, and in some cases, reexplains the foundations of her argument in the same terms.
2) Religious divides are problematic, though no one really knows why- Rossi does an excellent job deciphering the various sects of Islam (I learned what makes a Sunni different than a Shia, for example, and it has a lot to do with the line of ascensions for Muslim prophets in the 600s). What she doesn't explain is how these religious tensions manifest into new conflicts and why anyone gives a shit about them in the modern day.
3) Everybody hates Israel- easily half of the book covers Middle Eastern history and politics based on a lens that assumes the only thing the country has to do with its time is worry about when Israel will invade, why Israel is expanding settlements in the West Bank, why Israel is the only nation in the region with a nuclear weapon, etc... While I appreciate the book is written for an American audience, I think we already understand this point.
It's a good read and if you need to brush up on (or learn for the first time) the politics of the region, I say go for it! If you're looking for something more comprehensive, go elsewhere.
Rossi's exposition into the Middle East is hardly expository in nature- while her discussions are thorough and she does a remarkable job of covering both a crash course in the politics of every Middle Eastern state (Oman and Jordan were particularly fun reads, and I learned a lot about 'hypothetical development projects' in Dubai that recently made major headlines) and a thematic overview of major tensions in the region. Sadly, a lot of her analysis comes down to the same basic points:
1) America is dominated by a neo-conservative conspiracy that is both blood and jew thirsty- rightly so, Rossi blames a lot of the region's problems on a Western foreign policy hellbent on pursuing stable access to energy resources and/or fulfilling a Zionist Christian belief that populating the Middle East with Jewish citizens will lead to the second coming of the messiah. The point is well articulated early in the text, but gets redundant as she KEEPS REFERRING TO IT IN ALMOST EVERY CHAPTER, and in some cases, reexplains the foundations of her argument in the same terms.
2) Religious divides are problematic, though no one really knows why- Rossi does an excellent job deciphering the various sects of Islam (I learned what makes a Sunni different than a Shia, for example, and it has a lot to do with the line of ascensions for Muslim prophets in the 600s). What she doesn't explain is how these religious tensions manifest into new conflicts and why anyone gives a shit about them in the modern day.
3) Everybody hates Israel- easily half of the book covers Middle Eastern history and politics based on a lens that assumes the only thing the country has to do with its time is worry about when Israel will invade, why Israel is expanding settlements in the West Bank, why Israel is the only nation in the region with a nuclear weapon, etc... While I appreciate the book is written for an American audience, I think we already understand this point.
It's a good read and if you need to brush up on (or learn for the first time) the politics of the region, I say go for it! If you're looking for something more comprehensive, go elsewhere.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Book 1: What Every American Should Know About The Middle East (Melissa Rossi)
Author of the famous 'What Every American Should Know" series, Rossi takes us on a tour of a region known for its rich culture, valuable energy supplies, and struggling through a religious and ethnic identity crisis that has had dramatic effects on international politics. I've gotten started on Rossi's work, which incidentally gives a decent overview of Middle Eastern history and then walks us through the various countries, chapter by chapter. So far, I'm less than impressed with the reporter's objectivity. Sure, the book is written from the perspective of what an American audience needs to know, but Rossi has an agenda. Her claims that American foreign policy in the region are oriented only towards petroleum control and her extolling of neo-con foreign policy show a bias that at times, leads the reader to believe the book's objective is more to critique the Bush administration's failed 2003 war in Iraq or inability to rein in Israeli settlement expansion rather than an objective primer. Still, to be able to differentiate the states of the region is essential and I look forward to seeing what Rossi has to offer.
The Goal: 52 books in 2010
A 2008 Harris poll found that 37% of Americans claimed to have read at least ten books in the previous year. 9% stated they had not read a single book all year. In a world of new media, maybe the real argument to make isn't that people aren't reading or that we're reading less, but what we're reading and how we're reading it has changed. I don't need to digest the entire book, I can get a summary off of Wikipedia, Amazon.com book reviews, or even a simple google search. Why buy the book itself when online libraries, a Kindle, a pirated copy, or an iPhone app can substitute for the feeling of physical paper in your hands or the off-white color striking your eyes?
I used to be an avid reader, but then life caught up with me. Reading all the time in college (at one point I was averaging a book a day for about 2 months), the day-to-day routine of life and work have put reading on the back burner for me. So this year, I am giving myself a challenge. A book a week. Every week. For the year. Here's the plan-
Every Thursday, I want to have finished a book. Blog about that book. Comment on it, recommend it, critique, just brag how much I loved it, etc... Since variety is the spice of life, I'm looking for reading to come from five categories:
1st Thursdays: Political Non-Fiction. Preferably something political or extemp related (since that's where my interest lies).
2nd Thursdays: New York Times Fictional Best Sellers. Either hardcover or paperback, I'll pick a title from the top 10 for the preceding week. Gotta keep up with the masses, how else will I relate to the rest of America?
3rd Thursdays: Something I Should Have Read. I can honestly say I have only read maybe a fifth of the College Boards' recommend titles for the AP Literature course. And let's be honest, I didn't really 'read' those that I was exposed to back in high school. Now's the time to catch up- here I'm dedicating a week to tackling some cannon of English literature that I probably should have read at some point in time.
4th Thursdays: Readers Choice. Whatever I'm in the mood for at the time. Who knows, maybe I'll put this up to a vote or take a recommendation from a friend.
5th Thursdays (for months that have these): A Re-Read. I have stacks upon stacks of books at my house, many of which I keep around under the presumption that "Sure, I'll re-read that. Eventually...." and I never do. With the exception of some Harry Potter novels.
So there it is. A book a week. For a year. This is going to be interesting...
I'm open to suggestions: books you think I should read, books you think I shouldn't. But this is really a personal challenge. Can I do it? What kinds of things will I learn? What ideas will I be exposed to?
I used to be an avid reader, but then life caught up with me. Reading all the time in college (at one point I was averaging a book a day for about 2 months), the day-to-day routine of life and work have put reading on the back burner for me. So this year, I am giving myself a challenge. A book a week. Every week. For the year. Here's the plan-
Every Thursday, I want to have finished a book. Blog about that book. Comment on it, recommend it, critique, just brag how much I loved it, etc... Since variety is the spice of life, I'm looking for reading to come from five categories:
1st Thursdays: Political Non-Fiction. Preferably something political or extemp related (since that's where my interest lies).
2nd Thursdays: New York Times Fictional Best Sellers. Either hardcover or paperback, I'll pick a title from the top 10 for the preceding week. Gotta keep up with the masses, how else will I relate to the rest of America?
3rd Thursdays: Something I Should Have Read. I can honestly say I have only read maybe a fifth of the College Boards' recommend titles for the AP Literature course. And let's be honest, I didn't really 'read' those that I was exposed to back in high school. Now's the time to catch up- here I'm dedicating a week to tackling some cannon of English literature that I probably should have read at some point in time.
4th Thursdays: Readers Choice. Whatever I'm in the mood for at the time. Who knows, maybe I'll put this up to a vote or take a recommendation from a friend.
5th Thursdays (for months that have these): A Re-Read. I have stacks upon stacks of books at my house, many of which I keep around under the presumption that "Sure, I'll re-read that. Eventually...." and I never do. With the exception of some Harry Potter novels.
So there it is. A book a week. For a year. This is going to be interesting...
I'm open to suggestions: books you think I should read, books you think I shouldn't. But this is really a personal challenge. Can I do it? What kinds of things will I learn? What ideas will I be exposed to?
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