First Monday Book Day

How Not to Read a Book

67 Comments

In bullet points:

  • notice Redeployment by Phil Klay has won the National Book Award and decide it’s really something you should read even though you tell yourself you’re not someone who likes books about war
  • request it from library only to have it ready for pickup months later when you’re already in the middle of another book
  • not to mention it's the busiest time of the year at work and you’re trying to do at least a little work most evenings
  • don’t start reading until the day before it’s due
  • find out that this is one of those books that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go
  • keep reading
  • receive overdue notice from the library
  • check library website; see that there are 57 copies and 31 requests, so if you returned it you could probably get it again pretty soon
  • fear loss of momentum; keep reading
  • find this Q&A and become even more obsessed with finishing the book
  • pull out the book while standing on a crowded bus (because this is your only chance to read all day); a guy notices you, stands up, and gestures for you to take his seat; wonder if he is a vet
  • feel grateful because it really is much easier to read while not trying to avoid falling over every time the bus makes a turn; finish a story about a guy who really wants to find a whore; wonder if the guy would have still given you his seat if he knew it was for that

So what are you reading?

67 thoughts on “How Not to Read a Book”

  1. • read post titled "How Not To Read A Book" and get excited because you only managed to finish a book you started 6 weeks ago, and get only 4 chapters into The Game From Where I Stand by Doug Glanville. Interesting read so far. (Here's a story about the author and his book, and another by the author about being racially profiled)
    • realize that post title meant something other than you expected and then add that something to your reading list

    1. • figure the author of the post has surveillance of your house and realizes that you've read 0 pages of The Goldfinch since we last checked in.

      1. Perhaps not quite your house, but due to an apparent shift in bus timing (is yours earlier? is mine later? a little of both?), I've espied you crossing Washington several times in the last couple weeks. I couldn't help but notice that your reading material has been far more compact than The Goldfinch could ever be unless you're tearing out pages and reading a few at a time. If you ever want your Arvo Pärt CDs back, I fear I'll have to fling them out the window at you.

        1. I demand that, should you two arrange some morning to meet on the street and return the CDs, that you make a discreet (but not too discreet) show of handing them off without eye contact, and continuing on your way.

                1. This sounds like a mission that calls for my black trench coat. And possibly sunglasses too. (I typically don't wear them downtown in the morning because I'm heading west and the sun is therefore at my back.)

        2. Even when I read books on the bus, I put them in my bag and read slips of paper (or nothing) while walking around. I feel less likely to walk into a pole or moving vehicle.

  2. I've been blowing though the Hangman's Daughter Series. Though by the 4th the template is begging to get a bit old. But books set in historic places with accuracy are right in my wheelhouse.

    The Hangman's Daughter
    The Dark Monk
    The Beggar King

    Since I've last popped in I've also read

    Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness which was great if you are into new organizational/business models. Pretty much everyone I work with has read this at this point.

    Wait: The Art and Science of Delay Which was okay. Humans delay for a reason and its not always bad. NSS.

    Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal which was good, but I'm not keen on Bilton's style. I enjoyed Biz Stone's Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind much more.

    I just started The Poisoned Pilgrim (Hangman's Daughter #4) and am well through Joy at Work which is taking me a while because I'm savoring it.

    I feel like I'm in a bit of a (fiction) book rut but some of my friends are pushing me towards starting the wheel of time which I may do.

  3. I got off the book schneid recently. Finished:

    - Jacques Tardi's It Was the War of the Trenches - Just okay. The artistic style was interesting, but the narration was wooden and I have some issues with a few storytelling decisions.
    - Joe Sacco's The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme - Wordless and brilliant. You "read" the image and develop your own stories and questions about what you're seeing. Fantastic work.
    - Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric - It's been getting a lot of good press; I ran hot and cold on it most of the way through.
    - Art Spiegelman's Maus I and Maus II - Moving and worthy of its fame. Like Harvey Pekar, I have some misgivings about the visual metaphor.
    - Richard Hugo's Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir - An excellent collection on the whole, though it ranks below the other two Hugo books I've read. It's also the earliest, and I actually think I'm benefiting by reading Hugo out of order.

    Currently reading:

    - Brené Brown's Daring Greatly
    - Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just
    - James Wright's The Branch Will Not Break
    - Alan W. Watts' The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

    1. I read Citizen a couple months ago and was glad I did. It's definitely unusual--I found the parts about her personal experiences and the Venus Williams essay particularly meaningful, but I was less sure what to make of the scripts for videos. I really liked the images of artwork that were interspersed.

      1. See, the Williams essay didn't do anything for me. I get her point, but quite honestly I have a hard time getting upset about the shabby treatment of millionaires when other folks have much less privilege and social support.

        1. That is awesome news. I look forward to your book signing. And then handing you a book on whiskey to autograph.

          EDIT: yeah, this was in response to your other LTE down there.

        2. I guess I didn’t see the Williams essay quite like that. To me it was more about examining how the media treats even a very successful black woman, how women—especially black women—aren’t “supposed” to express anger regardless of circumstance, and most of all how the episode was part of the low-level racism (kind of death by a thousand cuts) that Rankine chronicles throughout the book.

    2. I met Art Spiegelman not too long ago. He's a family friend of one of my best friends. He's also a very, very nice guy even if the papers don't say so.

  4. I haven't read Redeployment yet. I actually haven't read anything from the OIF/OEF generation of writers, save for a fair portion of Dexter Filkins' The Forever War (excellent; I couldn't finish it because it hit too close to home) and Benjamin Percy's terrific short story "Refresh, Refresh."

    That (probably) changes this year; I've been fearful that reading too much of others' work would influence my voice, but I'm far enough along that I can try to set that fear aside. So I've been told, anyway.

        1. I'm about 80% done with my first book. Far enough to have started the second one, which hopefully doesn't jinx me.

          1. looking forward to seeing it at my local bookstores. Or at least on teh Amazon.

            ^a few: somebody recycled the The Forever War title? Eww. Why are you infringing on that brand name, person? Eww. (yea, I know you can't copyright a book title, but why not? sometimes, the title is so deeply entrenched in popular culture that it probably merits copyright protection)

            1. I was similarly confused until I looked it up and realized there was another book with the same name.

            2. Normally that would bother me, too, but Filkins is one of the best war journalists active today. And he's a nice guy to boot; I chatted with him a while at an event a few years back.

          2. I was wondering why Walking Point had been so lean of late - Congrats my man, I'm with bS: looking forward to seeing what you've done!

    2. I'm about halfway through now. Some of the best stories bring to mind those in The Things They Carried, which I love. Each story is told from a different point of view, which makes for a rich and nuanced look at the experiences Marines have in Iraq. I will say Klay pulls of some points of view better than others; sometimes I think he can spend a bit too much time in a character's head. However, he has an amazing instinct for knowing exactly how to end a story--like a punch to the gut.

    2. I nominated this year in the fiction categories. It really sucks to spend all that time reading and trying to find the best stuff out there, only to see none of that show up on the final ballot. Which is kind of the point of some of the Puppy voters, but I feel like that gets pretty well lost when one press and one writer end up with multiple nominations.

      Put another way; if a group of pulp sci-fi loving fans got together and said, let's put the best pulp story we've read this year on the ballot (which is pretty analogous to what happened last year), I would have no problem with that. My tastes are not everyone's tastes and part of the reason I like the sci-fi award lists is because they differ and have the potential to introduce a reader to all kinds of new work. When that same group gets together and decides to sweep the nominations because they can, then it seems like they're only doing it to cause grief to everyone else. And that isn't in the spirit of any award.

      I'm using pulp sci-fi here as a stand-in for the less savory aspects of some of the Puppy ballot rationales.

      'Spoiler' SelectShow

      But, I still plan to read as much as I can of the nominees and vote. I also plan to hold them to the standard of my own nominations and will not hesitate to choose "No Award" if that seems to be the best option.

        1. I don't know about that. No rules were broken by the campaigns. The mess I referred to is how the whole situation has exposed the awards to some of the worst parts of internet culture (from all sides). Cancelling the awards would do nothing that I can see to combat that.

          1. while no formal rules were broken, the process certainly is. I don't see how the Hugos survive as something useful and respected without a change. George R.R. Martin apparently has the same concerns.

            The lesson will be learned. The Sad Puppies have already announced that they intend to do it again next year. Which means that other factions in fandom will have to do it as well. Just as happened with the “let me tell you about my eligible works,” the rest of the field is going to need to field slates of their own in self-defense.

            I don’t look forward to that. It cheapens the Hugos. Will future winners actually be the best books or stories? Or only the books and stories that ran the best campaigns?

            1. further down in the above-linked blog post (not by Martin, it only includes extensive quotes from him):

              Is there a way to ‘fix’ the Hugos? (Although Martin is dubious about this tactic, some some voters are considering protesting this year’s ballot by showing support for “Noah Ward.” Slate suggests saying that name to yourself out loud, slowly.)

  6. I finished The Invisible Bridge and found it woefully in need of an editor. There's a few really good strands throughout, but Perlstein goes on very weird tangents that easily added a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff to the book. Still, I would definitely read his next book if he continues and looks at the Carter administration and the 1980 election in a few years.

    I have about 25 pages left of Gone Girl. Pretty decent thriller.

    1. I'm about 40 percent through the Invisible Bridge and agree with your sentiment. Maybe because even though I was a kid, I remember some of the stuff going on, whereas the events depicted in the first two books, while somewhat known to me, most details were fresh.

      I also read Redeployment Pepper. Not a big ready of war stories, but yeah, it's a page turner.

    2. I'm still stuck in Nixonland for the same reason (probably about 80% home after reading it off and on for three months now). There is enough good stuff in there to make me keep coming back to it, but I go long periods without reading it because I'm just not up for wading through all of the different threads.

      1. I had to be the bearer of bad news, but Nixonland was much, much more coherent.

        2. Update: I plowed through the end of Nixonland this weekend. Watergate helped.

          I think I'll take a year or two off before I came back to The Invisible Bridge.

  7. I have made it not much further into 100 Years Of Solitude, because apparently having a job and needing to drive almost 3 hours a day on top of that is not conducive to reading. The upside is that yesterday I got a library card and will now be listening to books as I drive. My first selection is Cat's Cradle. I already regret my previous reluctance towards Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five just didn't quite work for me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.).

    I also picked up Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu to read to my kids before bed over the next couple weeks. I'm excited about this one.

    1. drive almost 3 hours a day on top of that is not conducive to reading.

      Ever try audio books? I haven't really tried them but I know plenty of people that use them in long commutes.

      1. The upside is that yesterday I got a library card and will now be listening to books ...

    3. When I had my long commute, I started audio books, but the cassette player in the Buick promptly crapped out. Insult to injury. (Injury being that the car doesn't have a CD player.)

  8. Vonnegut Book of the Month (March) - Sirens of Titan - it was... good. I remembered enough of the plot that I got to see how Vonnegut put the whole thing together, which really drove home how the sci-fi aspects weren't the point. At all. It's weird to think that this book labelled Vonnegut a sci-fi writer, when all the technology is so clearly just mechanisms to make the characters do what they do.

    I enjoyed it still, and had an easy time reading it. I'm excited that the next book of his (chronologically) is Mother Night which is one I haven't read before. I'll probably get to that in a week or so.

    1. I may just read that one again myself, I've always considered it one of his most important books. Younger Daughter used is as an example in her Aquinas Scholars application essay (she was accepted, BTW -- 2 free credits/semester!) about propaganda, and as they say, the past is prologue.

  9. Thank you to Pepper for stepping up and bailing me out on this post.

    Regarding the "keep reading, must finish!": House of Leaves was a book like this for me. I had checked it out over a Winter Break or Spring Break or something during college. It was Friday, and I was leaving on Sunday and I hadn't started it. So I opened it up to see what it was about. I spent all day Saturday reading and getting completely immersed in the world of the book, to the point that I had nightmares where I was in the hallway. But I finished the thing in about 36 hours, and that immersion is probably why I still love that book.

  10. Other books read . . . I went on a bit of a Biss bringe at the beginning of the month.

    Notes from No Man's Land by Eula Biss. Essay collection. I quoted from the title essay in my FKB piece earlier this year, and I finally got around to reading the rest of the book. Ostensibly, the collection is an exploration of race in America. To me, however, it was also about becoming an adult; going out into the world on your own, discovering that the things you were told as a young person do not always match up with what you experience, and reconciling your what you see with what you believe to be true. The essay "Goodbye to All That," modeled after Joan Didion's essay of the same name (which I really need to read) hit me the hardest of all the essays. In that one, I discovered that Biss and I both lived in New York City during the same time period when we were in our early 20s. (Maybe we crossed paths unknowingly!) Our reactions to the city were by no means identical, but I found a lot to relate to--both in terms of the allure of the city and reasons to leave it.

    The Balloonists by Eula Biss. Poetry. Actually, I didn't realize this was classified as poetry until after I'd read it. It's an odd little slip of a book, and I probably should have read it more slowly than I did. It's Biss' first book, written while she was still in New York (before California, before Mexico, before Iowa, before Chicago), and it's a sort of exploration of commitment through the eyes of the daughter of divorced parents. I didn't find it as compelling as Notes from No Man's Land or On Immunity, but I was interested to see where she started as a writer.

    The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. Novel in verse. Winner of this year's Newbery Medal. It's about 12-year-old twin brothers who are obsessed with basketball. The book is told from one brother's point of view, and it has a lot to do with family relationships as well as a quest for a championship. I haven't read many novels in verse, and I struggled with this book because I kept wanting things to be more fully fleshed out. I also had trouble connecting with the poems that had to do with the action on the court during basketball games, but perhaps my problem there is that I'm not familiar enough with the rhythms of the game. It wasn't a bad book by any means, just not one that I felt a strong connection with.

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