Fuzzy's 2018 Reading Log

I might not read a lot of books this year by number, but I am hoping to read more than last year. I will be slow getting my first book in because I am making my way through Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans. I have been working diligently at it for the last week or so, including reading both introductions, and I still have about 850 pages to go. It is a tome! After that, who knows where my reading will take me? I would like to read In Cold Blood and The Winter of Our Discontent soon. Who knows what else I will get my hands on?

>1 fuzzy_patters: Hi. I read allof Gertrude Stein inthe 70s, in my 20s. I probably wouldn't have the patience for it now.

>1 fuzzy_patters: Oooh! I want progress updates on the Stein, you know, to read vicariously through you. :)

I will have to see what I can do!

I am about 70 pages in. So far, it has been maddeningly recursive. We will see how it goes. There were passages that I liked (pages 26 and 67?). I'm at work now, but I will try to post more later.

I'm about 160 pages into The Making of Americans so far. It is a slow and painful slog. Stein writes a lot about how people's characters are revealed through the repeating that they do in their lives, and she mimics this by repeating what makes them who they are to the point where the incessant repetition becomes painful. I'm going to continue to plod along, but at this rate, it might take me six months to finish the novel. I hope that it's worth it in the end.

I considered reading Stein last year as I try to read each year one book by an author whose work enters into the public domain in the EU, and this was the case for Stein last year.
In the end I chose to read Booth Tarkington instead. Reading your comments, I'm not sorry I made this choice!

If it's such slow going for you, maybe you should consider reading another book at the same time, or a few short stories?

>6 chlorine:: That might be a good plan.

I haven't read much this year, and I haven't posted here much at all. Here are the books that I have read and how I rated them.

1. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote- 5 stars- This book is fantastic!
2. Good Bones by Margaret Atwood- 4 stars- This is a fun collection of short fiction.
3. Santa Cruz Noir by various authors- 3 stars- I thought this one was a bit up-and-down.
4. Scriptorium by Melissa Range- 2 1/2 stars- I enjoyed some of Range's poems, but too many of them followed the same formula and hit the same notes as the ones before.
5. 1984 by George Orwell- 5 stars- I'm not sure how I hadn't read this one before, but it was very good.

It's hard to believe how little I have read this year. In the past year-and-a-half I have divorced, moved in with a new girlfriend who has made me much happier, and turned 40. With all of the changes, I have found myself doing less and less reading, and I'm not sure why. My girlfriend is an avid reader, majored in English, and has a huge book collection, so it isn't her. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Glad you’re happier now. With so much happening over the past year, it’s maybe no surprise that you haven’t been reading much. When life settles, something in the books might call you again.