Every 14 Days...(24)

The Double (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

Suppose I should read some Dostoyevsky in my life. Especially when it's two for £3.99.

With 'The Double' recently made into a film by Mr. Gadget Man himself, Richard Ayoade, I thought this would be a good place to start. Maybe it wasn't. The film met mixed reviews, as did the original story itself, even from the man himself.

A civil servant is one day shocked to find a 'double' of himself now working at his office, though the polar opposite to many of his negative traits. Soon, the 'original' finds himself behind his clone in work and social life, leading to a bitter conflict and an inevitable decent into madness.

The idea is a strong one, though the execution is maybe not always the best, not always a great read, though conveys the frustration, anger and madness that the 'double' creates in the story's hero. The humour in the writing is also good, with long-winded repeating of phrase. But towards the story's conclusions, you felt perhaps more could have been done with the idea.  

Days to read: 18

Days per book: 15.0

The Last Holiday (Gil Scott-Heron)

Gil Scott-Heron is a poet, and I know it. As one of the unofficial godfathers of rap, he is a master of words, and so I expect nothing less from his memoir. But as a memoir, this is a little confused. Released posthumously, it was always going to be more a sum of parts rather than a whole, and the supposed focus is not always apparent.

The idea was for it to focus around his part in Stevie Wonder's 'Hotter than July' tour in the early Eighties - a tour promoting Martin Luther King's birthday being made a national holiday - but before he could get there, he chose to tell the story of how he got to be there first. This results in the book essentially being an out-and-out autobiography up to a certain point in his life, but then sees several leaps in time over the next thirty years.

So, this may not necessarily be as it's billed, but this is jazz, baby. His writing doesn't need any structure, with his lists of adjectives flowing poetically off the page. There are indeed lots of poetry breaks throughout, almost as summations of the moment, like a haiku, but within the main body the words flow like a song.

This makes for a joyful read about his upbringing, his father who played or Celtic and the start of both his writing and music careers, edited and cobbled together for your listening pleasure.

Days to read: 19

Days per book: 15.0

The Strange Library (Haruki Murakami)

'The Strange Library' isn't really a new Murakami work, being that it dates from Japan in 1982, released as a short story of a different name. But it has now made its way to English translation, released as a illustrated children's book...which is probably why it was so quick for me to read, being that it is actually a book aimed at my reading level.

A young boy enters a library, returning some books, wanting to take out some more. He is sent to a strange reading room, where his reading of books is demanded by a strange old man, and of course, a sheep man - a Murakami favourite. Looked away and forced to read as much as possible about Ottoman Empire tax collecting, he worries that his mother will wonder why he has not returned home in time for dinner.

This book is less about its story, however, and more about the English translation which illustrates the story using images from The London Library and other collections. This make it more of a strange art piece than children's short story, making it interesting to look at, though the story flies by the images with ease.

Days to read: 1

Days per book: 14.9

Notes from Underground (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

Yay! Hundredth book spectacular! So, it's just over four years since I started this pointless experiment. By now, I should have reached a little over one hundred books read. I'm a little off that target, having just reached one hundred exactly.

Not exactly a celebratory piece to mark the moment, 'Notes from underground' is a dark read about a middle-aged man, made bitter by the modern world, living underground providing us with a lecture as to the world's wrongs, before we are shown examples from his earlier life of experiences that led him to where he now resides.

The story is in two clear halves: the first a long, rambling critique of society; the second stories from his younger life. The first half proves a difficult read, with long rants in hard to digest chunks, though provides some interesting insights throughout. The book's second half is both an easier read and brings it back to life, as I felt myself often drifting into the depths of lost concentration in the first half. Here we see stories and characters brought in - and they are welcome - working as examples of the narrator's decent into the man he has now become, trapped in a St Petersburg basement.

This is an interesting read, an at-time-difficult read, but ultimately rewarding one, providing a criticism of early modernist society.

Here's to the next hundred...urgh...

Days to read: 13

Days per book: 14.9

Every 14 Days...(19)

Hagakure (Yamamoto Tsunetomo)

I'm sure I'd read this before, but sorting through my books, I noticed that the spine looked barely touched. Needing something to read, I decided that I would read it (again) and see if anything stuck in my memory this time.

Deemed 'the book of the samurai', this edition of 'Hagakure', or hidden leaves, translated by William Scott Wilson features around three hundred of the original teachings of Yamamoto, narrated to disciples when retiring as a monk. Essentially a series of anecdotes, these form the key teachings and life lessons by which samurai should live in the spirit of bushido.

With thoughts and ideas that have been seen throughout Japan's history, these are moral learnings as to how to samurai should conduct themselves, with the key life lesson: if in doubt, kill yourself. Many are thoughts transferable to the modern world, though others seem little more than little tales that seem irrelevant today and simply of the time in which they were conceived. Those left out by Wilson are more administrative matters or simple accounts of events of the time, with those included the more interesting point to teach us about an important way of life in Japanese history.

Read, I now have Internet evidence of its completion, though the spine looks barely touched.

Days to read: 17

Days per book: 16

The Nigger Factory (Gil Scott-Heron)

With a delightful title, 'The Nigger Factory' is the second novel written by poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron. Like much of his music, it's a political piece about the educational system in America during the Sixties. Set at a Black college in Virginia, it focuses on a three day period in which student protest erupts into violence.

Earl Thomas is the student president at Sutton University, and with two friends creates a list of actions they want to see taken at the University. The ideas are stolen by a more militant student group who quickly force the 'demands' on the powers that be within the university. The students demand immediate action, which the university refuses to give into, resulting in a student strike, internal conflict and the eventual closing of the university campus.

In seeking education and wanting to see change to the way the university is managed, what results is a violent struggle and all being left without. Scott-Heron wrote the book as a criticism of the educational system and its slow progress in updating with the times, without really allowing students to move forward with the times.

Like 'The Vulture' before it, 'The Nigger Factory' is a good read, with some interesting ideas and critiques on the changing times of the Sixties and Seventies.

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 15.9

Homage to Catalonia (George Orwell)

So continues my mission to get all of George Orwell's books read by some point in my life: now at 'Homage to Catalonia'. Written from memory of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War, the book is a war diary about the complex political divisions within the War which would shape much of what he would subsequently write.

Little fighting actually happens over the course of the book. The start is more a description of how he and fellow militiamen kept themselves entertained when stationed at the Front Line with little more to do than stare back at the opposition. Then a long period of stand-off in Barcelona where little actually happens in the end. The comes his infamous neck wound from being shot, resulting in hospital stays and his attempts to leave the country once his group is outlawed. The book then closes with his take on the political divisions in Spain at the time he was there.

On paper, this isn't the most entertaining of reads. And, indeed, it isn't. But 'Homage to Catalonia' is an important step in Orwell's life and the experience of fighting fascism in Spain in the Thirties would shape his most famous works in the Forties, and for that reason alone, it is an important read in Orwell's oeuvre. 

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 15.9

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings (Charles Dickens)

Reading 'A Christmas Carol' almost feels like a thankless task, being that the story has been told in a hundred ways on screen and stage. With 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' working direct from a lot of lines in the book, I almost felt like I knew half of it before having turned a page. But persevere I did.

And I'm glad I did. I can't remember having ever read any Dickens before, and 'A Christmas Carol' is a story full of wit and humour that wouldn't come across in a film, only by reading.

But while 'A Christmas Carol' proved to be the classic that it is, the other writings in this collection weren't really for me. While '' and 'A Christmas Tree' are short descriptive pieces of a Christmas scene, but some of the others feel like long, overdrawn, Victorian descriptions of bleak life, which my uneducated mind felt in no way entertaining.

I'm sure much of Dickens' other classics are as good as they are made into films and comedy parodies for, and I'm sure I will try some at some point, but only half of what was contained here worked for me. But still, with this collection of writing, you can see the sheer influence that Dickens' writing has had on the modern ideals of Christmas. God bless us, everyone.

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 15.9

Coming Up for Air (George Orwell)

I'm really starting to nail this fourteen days per book malarkey now: four books read; fourteen days to read each now. And what's more, I've notched off another Orwell. Oh, and another good one - the man now has a one hundred percent record with me; and my opinion counts, whether I use semi-colons or not.

Tired and fed-up with his life and the modern world, George Bowling yearns for the days of his childhood in a small village, away from the stresses or work, family and the sheer absurdity of everything he sees before him. But on leaving London to visit his boyhood home, he finds something different, but soon realises that the more things change, the more they stay the same, returning to his life and the endless cycles of nothingness he now feels.

What struck me first about 'Coming Up For Air' is its timelessness. Written in 1938, it is a book that feels just as relevant today as it did before the Second World War. With so much future on the future and the inevitable and looming threat of war with Germany. So much of what is written seems to come to pass, making the bleak view of the future seem more relevant than that of '1984'.

'Coming Up For Air' is a beautifully easy read, much less political than some of his other works, but with a similar effect, and along with his other works, like 'Burmese Days', says as much about the world now as it did when it was written.

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 15.8

Every 14 Days...(12)

The Road to Wigan Pier (George Orwell)

‘…we have nothing to lose but our aitches.’

Trekking up nort’, t’e first ‘alf of Orwell’s ‘T’e Road to Wigan Pier’ in an, at times, ‘ars’ account of working class life in Britain, c’arting ‘is accounts of living quarters, trips down working mines and t’e general squalor of urban life in t’e industrial towns ‘e visited. T’e descriptions are detailed and bleakly negative, seemingly condemning of t’e working class by t’e lower-upper-middle class writer taken out of context. But t’e furt’er you read, t’e more t’e language is not a criticism of t’ose ‘e comes across, but more t’e system t’at creates t’em. Often t’ose ‘e comes across are described as ‘noble’ and ‘e is full of respect for t’e work t’at t’ey carry out, but also ‘e writes of ‘ow t’ey will never receive t’at same respect from ot’ers in ‘ig’er orders.

T’e second ‘alf is muc’ more controversial, and looks at t’e ideology be’ind class differences and political discourse. Based on ‘is experiences in Burma, Paris, London and ‘is trip nort’, ‘e is critical of bot’ t’ose on t’e Rig’t and t’e Left and could leave anyone t’at read it feeling a little alienated in any number of ways.

Part One is at times brilliant; at times a calculation of weekly incomes. Some of t’e descriptions flow poetically and s’ow t’e ‘ars’ness of t’e situation for many in 1930s England. Part Two can feel rant-like, wit’ page-long paragrap’s and individual criticisms, but like Part One, offers insig’ts from 75 years ago t’at could be applied today, particularly in lig’t of last year’s riots. 

Days to read: 17

Days per book: 14.2

Down and Out in Paris and London (George Orwell)

Something of a theme here…

Before making ‘is trip up nort’, Orwell spent time in Paris and London, living on the fringes in both. The book is an account of his experiences in short chapters, each an anecdote of the various roles he took/was promised or the many characters he met along the way.

The Paris half is focuses on his work as a plongeur in Parisian restaurants. Here it is a day-to-day struggle to find both work and money for food, while mixing with various foreign immigrants to the French capital while spending what little money they have on wine. The conditions are hellish and hours long and hard for little reward. Many working like this come from better backgrounds in their native countries, but finding themselves scraping-by to serve their ‘superiors’.

London sees a delayed promise of work leaving him without an income for the period of one month. Exchanging his clothes, he lives the life of a tramp, bouncing between spikes and lodging house, looking for hand-outs wherever possible.

The book is more like a collection of short anecdotes than the more detailed and analytical ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’. Indeed, much of the interpretation, from London at least, is included in his later work and feels like research building up to ‘1984’.

Days to read: 16

Day per book: 14.3

The Vulture (Gil Scott-Heron)

The’ original rapper’, Gil Scott-heron is a man I became aware of through hip hop, learning of his music and poetry. But before his music career began, Scott-Heron wrote his debut novel while at University – essentially dropping out to complete it. A young New Yorker himself at the time, the story starts with the murder of teenager John Lee as an endpoint to the lives of four characters all connected to the victim over the past year.

Scott-Heron, therefore, takes on the narration of four personas, all with their differing connections to the victim and motivations leading up to the death in July 1969, as well as dialogue and interpretations. An overarching narrative is thrown in throughout to add details to the murder, though this is less of a who-done-it and more an insight into the mind-set of a young generation of Afro-Americans.

The writing is clearly that of a poet, with verses thrown in, and a language that oozes with imagery of early 1970s Blackploitation cinema. While not without its flaws, ‘The Vulture’s is a strong work and his influence on later generations can be felt throughout.

Days to read: 17

Days per book: 14.3

The Lonely Londoners (Sam Selvon)

My English Literature teacher during GCSEs used to read all dialogue in novels in the supposed accent in which it was intended. If I had studied ‘The Lonely Londoners’ at GCSE, English lessons would have been much more entertaining.

Moses, who would feature in later novels by Selvon, is a first point of contact at Waterloo Train Station for many Trinidadians coming to London via the south coast. The story tells of various anecdotes of the various characters he comes across and how they all struggle to fit into their new life as a Londoner.

Writing from experience, Selvon, a native of Trinidad moving to London in the 1950s, chose to write ‘The Lonely Londoners’ essentially in patois. Not just the dialogue, but the narration is also that of Caribbean tongue, making it – while fully understandable – difficult to read. To fully get into it, a fair few pages have to be polished off in one sitting to get into the Caribbean rhythms of the writing style.  Combined with sentences pages and pages long, ‘The Lonely Londoners’ is difficult to get into at times. But stick with it, and it becomes almost poetic and humorous in how each character describes their new home.

Days to read: 16

Days per book: 14.3