Wednesday Reading Meme
Nov. 27th, 2013 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Maureen Johnson’s The Last Little Blue Envelope, a rather peculiar choice, given that I pretty much panned the book it’s a sequel to, Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes. However, Johnson has either become a better writer or this latter book plays to her strengths better, because I enjoyed it a lot more. For one thing, Johnson has improved remarkably at place description, which is an absolute must in a travelogue.
Ginny is still not interesting enough to carry a book by herself, but this time Johnson gives her traveling companions. This not only takes some of the narrative-bearing weight off Ginny’s shoulders but gives her other people to react to, which throws her personality into higher relief.
Plus I like the boy in this one better than the boy in Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes, who was kind of a jerk. A charming jerk, but still kind of a jerk.
Also Adam Gopnik’s Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life. I have more to say about his argument about moral judgment and history - he argues that “We should judge the past by the standards of the best voices that were heard within it,” which I think is basically right (and would cheerfully tape to a lot of historians’ computer screens) - and indeed, I think he’s right about many of his subsidiary points.
But ultimately the basic thesis of his book doesn’t cohere. It feels as if, having argued for a meaningless universe where humans are less than knots on the wind, he flinched; and tried to salvage some hope by arguing that we can create our own meaning. But he dwells too too preponderantly on the side of despair for him to pull it off.
Still, it’s a good book for thinking with, and worth reading for that reason.
What I’m Reading Now
Adam Gopnik’s The Steps Across the Water, which is set part in New York City and part in its magical mirror city, U Nork. I would have thought that inventing a city would fit Gopnik’s skill set exactly - I love his book Paris to the Moon because he makes Paris feel palpably real and yet also magical - but actually, the New York parts of the book are far more vivid and magical than the U Nork parts.
In between this and Angels and Ages, I am beginning to feel gloomily that Gopnik may be a one-book wonder, although I really love that one book.
Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise, which includes a couple of minor characters who are...actually decent human beings! I was beginning to worry that Fitzgerald could only see other people as reflections of his own narrow-minded insecurity, but no, it turns out that he can see goodness if it’s obvious enough.
What I Plan to Read Next
Eva Ibbotson’s The Dragonfly Pool.
Maureen Johnson’s The Last Little Blue Envelope, a rather peculiar choice, given that I pretty much panned the book it’s a sequel to, Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes. However, Johnson has either become a better writer or this latter book plays to her strengths better, because I enjoyed it a lot more. For one thing, Johnson has improved remarkably at place description, which is an absolute must in a travelogue.
Ginny is still not interesting enough to carry a book by herself, but this time Johnson gives her traveling companions. This not only takes some of the narrative-bearing weight off Ginny’s shoulders but gives her other people to react to, which throws her personality into higher relief.
Plus I like the boy in this one better than the boy in Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes, who was kind of a jerk. A charming jerk, but still kind of a jerk.
Also Adam Gopnik’s Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life. I have more to say about his argument about moral judgment and history - he argues that “We should judge the past by the standards of the best voices that were heard within it,” which I think is basically right (and would cheerfully tape to a lot of historians’ computer screens) - and indeed, I think he’s right about many of his subsidiary points.
But ultimately the basic thesis of his book doesn’t cohere. It feels as if, having argued for a meaningless universe where humans are less than knots on the wind, he flinched; and tried to salvage some hope by arguing that we can create our own meaning. But he dwells too too preponderantly on the side of despair for him to pull it off.
Still, it’s a good book for thinking with, and worth reading for that reason.
What I’m Reading Now
Adam Gopnik’s The Steps Across the Water, which is set part in New York City and part in its magical mirror city, U Nork. I would have thought that inventing a city would fit Gopnik’s skill set exactly - I love his book Paris to the Moon because he makes Paris feel palpably real and yet also magical - but actually, the New York parts of the book are far more vivid and magical than the U Nork parts.
In between this and Angels and Ages, I am beginning to feel gloomily that Gopnik may be a one-book wonder, although I really love that one book.
Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise, which includes a couple of minor characters who are...actually decent human beings! I was beginning to worry that Fitzgerald could only see other people as reflections of his own narrow-minded insecurity, but no, it turns out that he can see goodness if it’s obvious enough.
What I Plan to Read Next
Eva Ibbotson’s The Dragonfly Pool.
