I just finished reading The Bride Stripped Bare. It’s the type of book that I would call bumfodder. Bumfodder is toilet reading material. Nothing in depth, nothing intellectually challenging and no vast complexity to the plot. You could quite happily pick it up every time you went to shit and put it down and walk away after the event. Clive Cussler is master of producing bumfodder. That’s not to say that I don’t like this kind of reading. It’s easy. The words flow in and out again as quickly as you turn the pages. It is time spent as an ultimate sloth – not moving, not doing, not even thinking.
What I didn’t like with this novel is the main character. I couldn’t identify with her at all. She was weak, basically. I think that not liking a main character really effects my enjoyment of the novel. If they aren’t a character who I would want to spend time with in person, why would I want to spend time reading about them? This character in The Bride Stripped Bare was not someone I would essentially dislike, but not somebody I would crave knowing at all. A person I just would not bother with.
I’m presented with the dilemma of having packed all my books into storage (where I won’t see them for at least another six months) and having a hell of a lot more spare time on my hands. That means I’ve got more time to read, but no more going back to the old faithfuls in my collection. It is time for a new author. This is a horror prospect for me, the person who can be in a movie store and waste the same amount of time it would take to watch a movie just wandering around the store trying to select one.
So I need suggestions. I love Stephen King to pieces – not for the horror aspect, though. It’s because he can make me laugh out loud while reading. Katherine Kerr’s fantasy series is fantastic and she should be jailed until she finishes it. Bret Easton Ellis is brilliant even though the characters are arseholes. That’s his point – they’re meant to be. I look upon Mills and Boon with total disdain. I loved the Da Vinci Code until the ending, which I thought was total shit.
What do I read next? Suggestions, anyone?
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- Vic
- I'm an All-Purpose Groover. A laid-back guitarist, bassist and teacher. A percussionist. I'm an ecletic mix of interests that occasionally combine into a coherent thought process. Unless I have a hangover.
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12 comments:
The Kite Runner, Angela's Ashes
I second Angela's Ashes and also The Red Tent. Right now I am reading,
"Surpassing the Love of Men"
Romantic, Friendship & Love Between Women from the Renasissance to the Present.
oh and a CPR book for school.
cheers!
neen
Anything by Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina, Cavedweller.
Anything by Pam Houston.
Dan Choan "You Remind Me of Me"
Whispers by Dean Koontz
I might have to reread that one... it's been years.
After reading it... every time you hear Pat Benatar's Hell Is For Children you will think about Bruno Frye.
Koontz is second only to King... a fav of mine, as well. You will like Whispers for the horror.
Under a Thousand Suns (powerful! - by the same writer as The Kite Runner),
Lovely Bones (just finished it - sad and sweet),
Fall on my Knees (worth the slower beginning),
The Poisonwood Bible (i almost didn't read it, the beginning was a little dry, but it was soo good),
if you like british mysteries, try Minette Waters later stuff,
if you like historical fiction blended with some other sensuous writing, and strong female (and male) characters, try the Dreaming the Serpent Spear series by Manda Scott (amazing),
this is the stuff just off the top of my head....i love, love, love reading!
I suggest Jodie Picoult she is great my fav so far has been "my sister's keeper" but there is always a twist at the end. Or you could always read the prescribed reading for musicology 101 if you are completely bored.
Dickens, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy.
Do it right.
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
And if you haven't already, you must read Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen RIGHT NOW.
While you finding the next one go and see a brilliant movie - 'Into the Wild'- I know I hassled you about this before but seriously mate you need to see it.
The Kite Runner is supposed to be great. I will get Mike to suggest a few.
By the way Dive you and my husband would get on great guns with that reading material!
Dai - Welcome, and thanks for the suggestions.
Nina - Surpassing the love of men? It sounds like a controversial read. The history would be interesting. Let me know how it goes.
MLC - Welcome, also to the comments box. Thanks for the suggestions!
JC - I've read a few Koontz books and you're right, he comes second to King. I find his books really hit and miss - there were some I thought were brilliant (Lightning was one) and some I thought were terrible (Bad Place comes to mind). I'll give Whispers a go on your recommendation.
JLB - British mysteries and historical fiction aren't really my cup of tea, but that's not to say I won't give them a go if they're lying around. Slow beginnings tend to put me off, but I read a great series by Katherine Kerr that started off way too slow. It was well worth persevering through.
TrumpetChick - There was prescribed reading for Musicology 101? Fuck, all I did was laugh at Rex's thongs and take note of the interesting anecdotes he made rather than the actual stuff I was meant to be learning.
Dive - We used to have an english teacher at school who would come around and pick up whatever book you were reading, and is she thought it was trash she would whop you over the head with it. I can imagine you doing that.
Tec - Welcoe, also, to the comments box. Good to see you. Thanks for your suggestions!
Kat - You're not a mother just yet, mate! Quit the nagging! I will try to get to see it.
WHOP!
So what kind of mood are you in??
In the country and thinking of the environment? Then maybe Collapse by Jared Diamond, a man given the biggest rap' I have heard. Something like: "Jared Diamond is actually suspected of being a pseudonym for a committee of experts."
Short and not-so-sweet - Clockwork Orange. Will keep you thinking the next time you're dangling off a tree!
"Shantaram" is hugely popular right now and probably easy to get hold of. Might even make you want to go and live in a Mumbai slum. Doubt it though.
Into The Wild. Movie/Book - both are excellent and maybethe best choice for what you are doing right now. Escapism of a different sort.
If you wnat to slam a book down in disgust at how a man had it all only to throw the lot away then Dostoyevsky's The Gambler is theone. To delve deeper into the Russian the The Idiot/Crime and Punishment/Brothers Karamazov are all first rate.
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