Category: places
07/05/06 10:32 - ID#25000
Alaska
My in-laws have a wide collection of books. Some line bookcases in the living room - these are the reference books, the photo albums, the cookbooks, the encyclopedias. Other boxes of books sit in storage in the basement, waiting to be opened one day. Still others line a set of shelves heading downstairs - popular fiction from the 1950s onward sitting next to non-fiction books that will teach me French or Spanish, biographies of infamous men, and cast-offs from various libraries and book sales from my travels and their travels
This weekend I picked up the novel Alaska by James Michener and haven't been able to put it down. At this rate I'll finish the thing by the end of tomorrow, and for a book that measures at 900 pages, that's a pretty good clip.
I've read Michener before, starting with The Source in a high school global studies class. Michener's standard style is to take a place (or, for his novel Space, a concept), and weave a set of stories throughout history, beginning with the start of time itself and ending with present day. You get used to his weighty, layered historical detail after a few hundred pages, and if you can get past the sheer volume of his words, the pages reveal a compelling story. This book makes me want to go to this strange state and travel around for a bit, and I imagine that the author would take this as a compiment if he were still alive .
It's hardly a bit of light summer reading - but it does give me an idea - would anyone here like to start up a book club? Something like, we read the same book, then post about it at some point(s). There are a few other Michener books I'd like to try, but I need to take a break after this one, maybe with some non-fiction or a really trashy chick-lit paperback.
This weekend I picked up the novel Alaska by James Michener and haven't been able to put it down. At this rate I'll finish the thing by the end of tomorrow, and for a book that measures at 900 pages, that's a pretty good clip.
I've read Michener before, starting with The Source in a high school global studies class. Michener's standard style is to take a place (or, for his novel Space, a concept), and weave a set of stories throughout history, beginning with the start of time itself and ending with present day. You get used to his weighty, layered historical detail after a few hundred pages, and if you can get past the sheer volume of his words, the pages reveal a compelling story. This book makes me want to go to this strange state and travel around for a bit, and I imagine that the author would take this as a compiment if he were still alive .
It's hardly a bit of light summer reading - but it does give me an idea - would anyone here like to start up a book club? Something like, we read the same book, then post about it at some point(s). There are a few other Michener books I'd like to try, but I need to take a break after this one, maybe with some non-fiction or a really trashy chick-lit paperback.
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I have started easing into this how-you-say "reading" by reading book review websites like smartbitchestrashybooks.com. And there are several books/series they've reviewed that I think I really might want to read. PC Cast writes fantasy romance/adventure novels with a Celtic mythology theme that I think might be good, and not just because one of her heroines has my name. But--- that sort of genre is not for everyone.
(Just you try writing romance/adventure novels with a fantastic flavor to them when the boy you live with who is your only potential fan at the moment totally hates fantasy and romance. Bah! Welcome to my personal hell.)
Anyway, depending on the books of choice I might be interested. I think its a very good idea.