Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome

Victorian humour? Is it possible? I certainly wasn’t expecting it, but Jerome K. Jerome proved in Three Men in a Boat that it was indeed possible. Despite my normal aversion to ‘funny books’ (in particular modern funny books) there were moments I actually laughed out loud whilst reading this book. It was ‘Murphy’s Law’ in prose, with delightful observations on the world which haven’t lost their relevance despite more than a century passing since the book was first published.

Jerome set out to write a river guide which soon turned into a charming story about the boating antics of the working and lower middle classes in London. The three men are himself and two of his friends as well as a fox terrier, Montmorency, to whom Jerome gives a wry humour and a personality which perfectly suits the group. After spending an evening contemplating their respective illnesses (none of which they had of course), the three friends decided to take two weeks in a boat along the Thames, with idyllic ideas of pleasure, freedom and nature. Thus decided, the journey begins…

This book isn’t fantastic because of its plot – in fact the plot is thin at the best of times. It is fantastic because of the observations made by J and his friends whilst they travel. Whether it was the fun of the three trying (and failing) to open a tin of pineapple chunks, or the observations that because Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn courted in several places, it must have been intenseley frustrating for everyone at the time because every single place they went they would have run into the two wayward lovers, or the delicious description of how they loved to hold up the steam launches by pretending they couldn’t hear them, until they were being towed by a steam launch and then they felt justified in cursing all of the selfish boaters who held up the steam launches by pretending they couldn’t bhear them, this book was constant amusement. Of course, the trip wasn’t as idyllic as they wanted, but that never seemed to dampen the spirits of the main characters. In that respect, they were truly delightful.

Three Men in a Boat paints a lovely picture of the way leisure time was spent during the 1880s. Despite the fact that leisure time was earnt through long hours and hard work, it was used as a way to transcend class and, just for a few short hours, pretend that they were men of leisure with all the time on their hands and the beauty and history of the river in their grasp. In contrast to classics such as Dickens, which paint a miserable picture of the poorer classes of London, Jerome chooses to show them up as happy, carefree and full of humour. It was a lovely contrast.

Rating: 8/10
ISBN: 978-0-14-144121-4
Publisher: Penguin (Classics)
Year: 1889
Date Finished: 16 April 2008
Pages: 178

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

Quite often, the books I read will make me wish I could live more than one lifetime in order to pursue all of the different careers which spark my interest. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson was one of those book. The difference with this book is that rather than an alternative career path, this one found me wishing I could pursue 10 or 15 other career paths because they all sounded so interesting and all left me wanting to know more.

Bryson sets himself no small task with this book. His idea is to describe in as much depth as possible, the origins of the earth, life and science, traversing over astronomy, geology, astrophysics, physics, chemistry, genetics, evolution, biology, zoology, anthropology and a huge armload of other scientific fields which make this planet so utterly fascinating and amazing to be a part of. He writes in a very accessible style, so even as he is trying to describe Einstein’s Theory of Relativity or the still contentious string theory, the reader never feels alientated. Within less than 500 pages, you can begin to grasp the very basics of quantum theory, the theory of the Big Bang and evolutionary selection, all things which every living person on earth should know to give them a better understanding of the world around them.

I am always impressed by Bryson’s exhaustive research. Even though he hasn’t set out to write an academic text, he appears to have made every effort to verify his facts as well as give personality to the characters who have helped the human race build their scientific knowledge to now. Granted, I am sure there are many glaring gaps and many individuals who may have been missed in his narrative. Granted, there is undoubtedly poetic licence in Bryson’s anecdotal personalities. But the poetic licence is necessary to turn this book into an enjoyable read, whether you have a scientific background or not.

I took immense pleasure in being reminded of my high school chemistry in the chapters about the elements. But I think what surprised me and pleased me most of all about A Short History of Nearly Everything is the realisation of how little we know. Not just how little I know as an individual, but how little we know as a race. I think common perception is that we have mentally conquered much of the earth and universe. In fact, we have barely breathed on the surface. And that is what makes it all the more exciting. As a new, tiny piece of knowledge is achieved, one more mystery is resolved, and two more mysteries arise. What an amazing field to be involved in.

Rating: 9/10
ISBN: 0-385-40818-8
Publisher: Doubleday
Year: 2003
Date Finished: 11 April 2008
Pages: 423pp (not including bibliography and notes)
Challenges: 3/8 of Science and Skepticism category.

SHAM: How the Gurus of the Self-Help Movement Make Us Helpless – Steve Salerno

I spent much of this book in a state of some confusion. I wasn’t confused because I didn’t understand the subject matter – rather my confusion came from my feelings towards it. Much of the book I agreed with strongly, but other parts I didn’t agree with at all. To be fair, this paradox lends the book its interest and ensures it is a success because it really drove my to think about why I was reacting towards it the way I was.

Steve Salerno is a journalist who discovered that the acronym of the Self-Help and Actualisation Movement was SHAM. This serves well to outline what his expose is all about. His basic thesis is that with the growth of the ’self-help’ industry in America, the result has been a nationwide helplessness, selfishness and imprisonment in a vicious cycle of feeling awful, being given hope and then feeling awful again. He deals with the self-help movement in general and with Dr Phil, Tony Robbins and Alcoholics Anonymous in particular. Salerno identifies that all of the movements are either based on the premise that everyone is a victim (in other words, everything that happens to you in life is someone else’s fault – you are completely blameless) or that everyone is empowered (in other words, no matter what your actual talents, skills and capacity you have a right to be the best and no-one has any right to stop you). Perhaps these might have been valuable premises to start with, but Salerno argues that the result is a society which is litigious to the point of stupidity, the destruction of families due to artificial blame and the complete exoneration of any responsibility for one’s own life on the one hand, and the destruction of any kind of competition (to the point that competitive games can no longer be played in some schools), the false building up of people’s hopes and the cotton wool mentality that nothing bad can ever happen to you if you just believe on the other.

I found myself agreeing with much of this. Perhaps it is an indication of my age, but I cannot see how a total elimination of any form of competition or grading in schools can be a good thing. I also found myself growing angry as Salerno outlined the result of this mentality of “it’s not my fault, it is the fault of my family/upbringing/illness/society/the banks/my boss/my dog…”

And yet, I don’t see ’self-help’ as all bad. What I see is bad is when it is taken to the extreme that it has been. Self-awareness and honesty is a valuable trait. Of course, I don’t see blaming the whole world for your misfortunes as being particularly honest, but I do think the understanding yourself and how you think is vital to get along in life. Salerno seemed to switch, sometimes even mid-sentence, from exposing the extremes of self-help to exposing simple self awareness as a bad thing. Unfortunately, despite the value of much of his argument, I found this weakened it somewhat and I came away not being as convinced as I could be.

The other fault I found was that this book was devoted to exposing how bad things had become, but spent very little time on suggesting some possible solutions. Granted, it may be almost impossible now to reverse the damage that the self-help movement may have caused. And more so, with the amount of money that the movement makes each year, I doubt it is going to change in a hurry. But, I have always thought “If it worked, then why would you ever need to buy more than one book?”. Fortunately for the movement, it doesn’t work, and so people will continue to spend seeking the holy grail of happiness while all the time steering themselves away from it.

It makes for disturbing reading and it definitely makes you think but a little more consistency wouldn’t have gone astray.

Rating: 5/10
ISBN: 1-85788-380-2
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Year: 2005
Date Finished: 4th April 2008
Pages: 263
Challenges: 2/8 of category 6 – Science and Skepticism (I relent – I’ll use the American spelling) of the 888 Challenge.

A mere 3000? How can that be enough?

I found this article recently, which estimated as an aside that an ‘extraordinary’ reader, who manages to finish an average of a book a week, will only be able to read about 3000 books in their lifetime. I calculated that at a book a week for approximately 57 years, so starting at the age of 13 and living (and reading) through until 70 years old. 3000 books…

Goodness. Is that all?

That’s just not enough.

The article goes on to talk about how, due to this limitation, it is so important to choose your reading carefully and not to waste your time on ‘bad books’. But I kept getting caught on how few 3000 books actually is. Just to put it in perspective, I own nearly 1000 books – which would make up a third of my lifetime quota already. I would love to read my way through my entire book collection (which grows at a rate of 5 – 10 books a month) but still allowing myself to get distracted by library books, book club books, borrowed books, re-reads of favourites and the plethora of other reading material that is out there. Which then begs the question. Am I simply being unrealistic?

I am in no place to estimate my own life expectancy, nor my ability to continue to read until I reach it, but of course I hope the prognosis on both will be good. But being well into my 30’s already, I am a long way past the 13 year old starting age. Can I start my 3000 all over again please?

Realistically, I can read more than a book a week, which increases my numbers. I have joined the 75 book challenge over at LibraryThing in conjunction with various other reading challenges this year, so that ups my total by 50% at least. Then there is always the example of this lady who is looking to read 200 books this year. She’s certainly defying the average.

The problem is, there are so many admirable books out there. There are so many exciting stories to read. There are so many fascinating things to learn and amazing things to discover between the pages of books. Even some of the ‘bad books’ merit a read. I have spent time with books that reviewers have slated and been pleased I made the effort. I have persevered with books I started out hating and not been sorry. Of course, there were some which I was sorry and hated all the way through, but how would I have known the difference if I hadn’t persevered? Now I wonder, has that one bad book has taken up one of my precious quota?

As much as I hope for immortality to achieve my quest of reading everything in the Amazon catalogue, being a realist I am not really holding my hopes up. In the meantime, all we can do is our best.

3000 books just isn’t enough.

I had better get reading.

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition and Other Confusions Of Our Time – Michael Shermer

During the Second World War, the Nazi’s orchestrated the systematic murder of millions of Jews in the gas chambers of concentration camps around Europe. This horror known as the Holocaust is remembered and studied by students and academics alike. But there are a few people out there who, for some reason, deny that it ever happened and try and suggest that the whole thing is a big conspiracy.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a brilliant scientist called Charles Darwin finally gave a name to the scientific theory explaining life and how it came to be here today in the form that it is. His Theory of Evolution precipitated a complete change in the understanding not just of science, but of the amazing world in which we live. But there are a few people out there who spend their entire lives trying to deny that it ever happened.

These two ‘weird things’ are just several of the many beliefs which Shermer discusses in Why People Believe Weird Things. Although I only read the first edition which is now 11 years old, it was a fascinating and still very relevant expose of some of the strange beliefs that humans hold dear and why they hold them so closely.

Shermer is a sceptic (or, to use the American spelling which is presented in the book – a skeptic) which, as he explains, offers a way of examining things, not a belief unto itself. To be sceptical, one must approach each claim with an open mind and base the truth or falsity of that claim on evidence in a scientific manner. He employs Hume’s motto

That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.

So essentially, if the alternative explanation (other than the miraculous one) is completely unbelievable, then one would default to the miraculous explanation. If it was more miraculous that someone could fall asleep and experience a waking dream than it was if that said person was abducted by aliens and used for alien experiments, then the falling asleep explanation would have to be discarded. However, as one can clearly see, this simple reasoning tends to assist in disproving most supernatural claims.

Shermer’s  book isn’t just a treatise on debunking claims such as alien abduction, Holocaust denial, cults, witch crazes, near death experiences and the ubiquitous creationism. It is also an examination into why people believe such things. In this he touches on psychology, human need for comfort, biology and history. Ultimately, it is human nature to look for causality and to try and find simple explanations. Because of this, all too often human allow themselves to be seduced by fallacies to the point of refusing to listen to anything else. This book causes you to take a step back and look at your own beliefs and try and test each one for its plausibility. Without realising it, we are all subjected to fallacious thinking and convincing myths and often accept them without question, despite our ability to critically think and assess evidence.

Shermer’s overarching reason, however, for why people believe weird things is that hope springs eternal. Even if there is solid proof to the contrary, hope that the pseudoscience or myth is true continues to dominate. Perhaps that is an inescapable aspect of the human condition? And really, the majority of people who do believe in ‘weird things’ aren’t doing it because of political, racial or religious prejudice, or because they lack the ability to think for themselves. The majority truly hold that hope. But Shermer demonstrates that exploration, examination and critical thinking can result in explanations which are so amazing that you feel privileged to be alive and living within it. The reality of the world in which we live is far better than hope, if people would just walk out of the door and see.

I will definitely try and get my hands on the more recent edition of this book and re-read it because there was a wealth of information and a deliciously long bibliography at the back. It was the thing I adored when I was doing my MA – when you had finished a chapter, book or article, you came away with another list of related chapters, books or articles from the bibliography that you could go and explore further. Seems my academic years will never truly leave me.

Rating: 9/10
ISBN: 0-7167-3387-0
Publisher: W.H. Freeman and Co.
Year: 1997
Date Finished: 30 March 2008
Pages: 278
Challenges: 1/8 of Category 6: Science and Scepticism

It Isn’t The Death of The Book Quite Yet

There is much talk nowadays about books going the same way as music, and electronic book readers replacing traditional paper books. Because of the iPod revolution, very few people are still buying CDs (or records…remember them?) and along with the changes have come the battles over copyright, illegal downloads and file sharing. An article that I recently read in Business magazine suggested that what with the release of the Kindle from Amazon, books could be going the same way. Although not available yet in the UK, despite my eagerness to own an iPod (and my inability to be without it now), I certainly won’t be rushing out to get a Kindle.

Stephen Amidon writes about the new device for the Times Online and comes to quite a positive conclusion, however it is his final paragraph which struck a chord with me.

The beauty and genius of the traditional book is that it is a thing unto itself. It is self-contained. Its limitations are its strength. It has covers, and between them is an entire world created by the interplay between the author’s imagination and the reader’s. Once you connect that autonomous world to the shifting, boundless, hyperactive universe of cyberspace, you run the very real risk of severing that magical bond of imagination…By opening up the book to the limitless possibilities of the digital age, Amazon just might be risking closing it for good.

I love books because I love the fact that the story plays out in my imagination. The instant I open the cover I am transported to another place and can sit in silence, completely unaware that anything or nothing is happening around me, totally lost in the world of the book. I don’t want to have hyperlinks to video, music clips or pictures. I don’t want aides to my imagination. I don’t want anything which is going to remind me that I am actually in the real world. Television does that for me already, which is why I tend not to watch it. Books are my escapism.

Furthermore, and I know I am going to sound like an old traditionalist here, I love the feel of the paper. I love being able to flick ahead, or check how far into the book I am. I love picking up old books in second hand bookstores and finding someone’s old bus ticket or a scribbled ‘with love’ in the cover. And I just adore standing in front of my bookshelves, my head on one side as I go through that delicious decision about what I am going to read next. Nothing in the world could take that experience away from me. It is why I am a book addict.

I had to smile though at an alternative article by Steven Poole of The Guardian. In it, he lists all the things an eBook reader would need before it could truly replace paper books. It is a pretty tough list for an electronic device, and a pretty easy one of the humble book. I had to agree with all of them (except ripping out a page to write a phone number on!). Unlike music, where the primary purpose is to listen to it and really the method of delivery isn’t that important (although the better the sound quality, arguably the greater the enjoyment), books aren’t just about reading a story. They are a whole experience. And I, for one, am not planning on giving that up even if I am the last woman standing hugging my old book collection to myself.

Plea Of Insanity – Jilliane Hoffman

This is a courtroom drama with a difference. It is a courtroom drama with a definite purpose. The author actually seeks to teach the reader something and open their eyes as well as entertain them. It was an interesting combination which I really enjoyed, but which could take the average reader who is just looking for a bit of escapism by surprise.

Plea of Insanity starts out as a story of a rookie prosecutor, Julia Valenciano, who is given her big break by being asked to act as second seat in the murder trial of the decade. David Marquette has apparently slaughtered his entire family in one night, including his 6 week old daughter, and then turned the knife quite harmlessly upon himself. It appears to be a solid case, despite his engagement of one of the best (and most expensive) defence lawyers in town. But when a plea of insanity is filed, suddenly Julia is forced to realise that for the past 15 years she has been living a lie and this case is going to tear her entire life apart.

What it becomes is an exploration of schizophrenia, the nature of the disease and its often tragic and misunderstood consequences. As the author notes in the Epilogue, it is a disease which is rarely acknowledged because it remains such a mystery to medical professionals and the public alike. Like anything which isn’t understood, schizophrenia invites fear and scorn, and it doesn’t take long for Julia to realise that fear and scorn are the most damaging reactions possible. I knew very little about the disease, and I was glad of the care which Hoffman put in to explanations of the symptoms and effects. I could feel precisely when my own judgement of the situation changed – and it was at the time that Julia too began to understand how close schizophrenia was to her. The interesting thing is that Hoffman does still leave you questioning at the conclusion of the trial. You have to come to your own conclusion about who is suffering from the illness and who isn’t. The whole storyline was very well done.

It was a long book but it did keep you guessing. There were passages which were perhaps a little drawn out. I am not really convinced when one character says a line of dialogue and it is followed by two pages of the other’s characters thoughts before they actually give their one line reply. Yes, the mind works very quickly and yes it certainly kept the tension, but it generally found me skipping paragraphs to find out what was said, and then having to go back and re-read them in case I had missed something important.

Otherwise, it was a great book and one which has piqued my interest in schizophrenia – I would like to read more about it. And judging by the tragic true story upon which this was very loosely based, I think that is exactly the reaction that the author was seeking.

Rating: 7/10
ISBN: Book club copy – no ISBN
Publisher: BCA
Year: 2007
Date finished: 26 March 2008
Pages: 598
Challenges: 3/8 of category 1: Crime Fiction for the 888 Challenge

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd

I took a book off from World War I while I waited for my next Amazon delivery. I swear I keep Amazon in business. Even my postman has commented on the number of Amazon parcels that arrive at my door. In the meantime, I finished a book which had been chosen this month by my reading group which I had read before but was quite happy to revisit.

The first time I read The Secret Life of Bees I was at a different stage of my live, and I absolutely loved it. I loved the strength of Lily, and her desire for love which overcame all prejudice. Reading it the second time around, from a different place in my life, I loved it again but for a different reason. This time I read it less as a story of fight, strength and defiance and more as a story of growth and finding one’s place. Lily touched me again, as did August, Rosaleen, June and May but because I knew the story, I spent more time enjoying the journey rather than anxiously waiting to find out whether they would ultimately win.

The mark of beautiful writing is when an author can truly transport you to a time and place, stimulating every one of your senses. This book does just that. Despite the cold and rain outside, I could feel the heat of the South Carolina summer. Despite the endless soundtrack of traffic outside, I could hear the gentle drone of the bees on the morning air. Despite being indoors, I could smell the freshly mown grass and the rich honey. To achieve this with just words is no small feat and it was one of the reasons that re-reading this book was such a pleasure.

Getting emotionally caught up in books is a habit of mine, and one can’t help grow angry at the blind racism which underpins this story. It is set in the Southern States of America in the 1960s just as the Civil Rights Movement is becoming law. But simply signing a law cannot change ingrained prejudice, and some of the attitudes towards the black inhabitants made you feel ill. You can’t help but ask ‘did people really behave like that?’ – a question which brings you to the realisation that many still do. I have never in my life understood how anyone could believe they were superior simply because of the colour of their skin. And this is something that Lily learns – skin colour means nothing. What matters is love and acceptance. Those people who don’t know that are poorer for it, which comes clear as this story develops.

This book, and those like it, is the reason I prefer to own books rather than borrow them – so I can go back and read them several times over. You will never approach a book as the same person. Everyone changes over time. As such, a re-read becomes a discovery of something new, and a reminder of how things once were.

Rating: 10/10
ISBN: 0-7472-6683-2
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing
Year: 2001
Date Finished: 22 March 2008
Pages: 374
Challenges: M in the A-Z Challenge

A Farewell To Arms – Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms is an unusual book. The storyline is simple enough, but the style of writing took some time getting used to. This is the first Hemingway novel I had ever read so I wasn’t prepared for it, but after reading the introduction in the edition which I own, the word ‘detachment’ stood out to me. The story began and I felt like I was outside looking in. Despite being written in the first person, you never feel like you have got into the mind of the protagonist. There is a wall there between his feelings and you as a reader which never really comes down even as the story turns into tragedy.

Because of this, I found it one of the strangest love stories I had ever read. The love between Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley plays out in an almost childlike way. This impression was heightened by the continual repetition in the dialogue, or the descent of the dialogue into a long rambling paragraph of ‘he said’, ‘I said’ not unlike a child’s journal. It was when I switched from seeing the book as a detached narrative and began seeing it as a story from the heart of a child, that it really began to move me.

Despite their trials, the relationship between Catherine and Frederic is steeped with innocence. The war goes on, but neither character is ever truly a part of it. What they are part of is a strange world filled with the mystery of an overwhelming love for one another, and the war does little more than get in the way of that. Despite danger and risk, both characters continue to talk about the ‘fine time’ they are having or the ‘grand adventure’ that it all is. Nothing sullied can touch them – neither cruelty, injustice, war or death. Because of this, Hemingway’s conclusion is all the more tragic because

[The world] kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry

I enjoyed viewing World War I from a different angle again – this time the battle in Italy against the Austrians which tends not to be the focus of most WWI novels. Henry’s experience during the retreat is poignant – you so want him to escape and return to Catherine. But Hemingway’s intention is not to build anticipation or fear that he won’t. This part of the story simply serves to place a surmountable barrier in the way of Catherine’s and Frederic’s love which makes their reunion all the more wonderful.

There was little true character development of any but the main characters, and even those two were not developed deeply. I get the sense though that characterisation was not his priority. Because this story is semi autobiographical, I get the sense that Hemingway simply needed to ‘get it out’ and in doing so, contemplate his experience, his loss and mortality. In such an exercise, the characters were incidental.

Rating: 8/10
ISSN: 1753-3120
Publisher: Vintage (promotional copy from Paperview UK Ltd)
Year: 2005
Date Finished: 20 March 2008
Pages: 252
Challenges: 4 of category 7: Books with World War I as the theme for the 888 Challenge

All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque

I would hail this book as one of the most evocative accounts of the First World War ever written. I was almost speechless when I finished it. There were passages which I found myself reading a second and third time because of their beauty. The story itself is similar to so many others – a young man grows into an old man as he experiences the war. His comrades become his only family and by the end, all hope for a future is lost along with the tens of thousands of lives. The difference with All Quiet on the Western Front is that the young man is from the ‘other side’. He is a ‘Hun’, a German, and yet his experience and suffering is identical. Upon reading this book so close behind A Long Long Way, the futility of the whole event becomes brilliantly clear.

It is little wonder this book was banned by the Nazis in the 1930’s. It does not glorify the war. It does not make the Germans out to be a master race or an invincible war machine. Rather, it shows them up as terrified boys who want nothing more but for the whole thing to end, but who cannot see an end and ultimately do little more than wish for their own. The reflections of the narrator are often bitter. The emphasis is on their living for the moment, enjoying what little they can scrounge, because they know that their mortality is finite and it is usually a matter of luck that they wake to see the sun rise.

One of the most incredible scenes was during the first battle early on in the book where the troops are subjected to the anguished sound of injured horses screaming. The scene consolidated the fact that no matter which side you were on, ultimately everyone suffered.

“You want to get up and run away, anywhere just so as not to hear that screaming any more. And it isn’t men, just horses.”

Every participant is like one of those horses – “…what have they done to deserve that…it is the most despicable thing of all to drag animals into a war” – they are all helpless, all dragged in, all frightened to die.

Once again, this book follows a trajectory downwards. It starts with some hope. There is levity among the group at the beginning. But as the war drags on…

“Our hands are earth, our body mud, and our eyes puddles of rain. We no longer know if we are alive or not.”

They are no longer boys with hopes, dreams, futures or lives. They become the earth which is where they all ultimately fall.

This is an incredible book which should be mandatory reading for anyone who has ever seen war as a positive thing.

Rating: 10/10
ISSN: 1753-3120
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd.
Date: 1994
Date Finished: 13 March 2008
Pages: 197
Challenges: 3 from category7: Books with World War I as the theme from the 888 Challenge; 1920’s in the 8 Decade challenge.