Books 2013: Levels of life

Documenting all the books I read in 2013 turned out to be more difficult than I thought. Suddenly time flew and I was to busy to write about the books. And some were forgotten for other, mystical reasons. Better luck in 2014, is all I can say.

When going through my Kindle titles the other day, I realized that I've completely forgotten to include Julian Barnes' Levels of Life in my 2013 reading list. Julian Barnes is one of my favourite contemporary authors. There is something light and refershing about his writing. I can't quite explain it, but I find him a joy to read.

This is in a way not a typical Barnes book. It has three stories, one about photography 19th century photographer Nadar), one about ballooning, love and Sarah Berhardt and one about Barnes' own grief after losing his wife. It's been a few months now since I read it, so the detailes of the stories are lost to me. What I do remember is that I liked reading it. As always, when it comes to Barnes.

Barnes, Julian (2013): Levels of life. Cape, 2013.

Books 2013: Living, thinking, looking

The last book of the year was this essay collection by Siri Hustvedt, an author I like very much. Halfway through the book I was ready to pronounce this my favourite book of the year, but I changed my mind during the last part, not because it wasn't any good, but because it turned out to be more demanding than I wanted. The first part, Living, is, as the title says, about life in general. It is Hustvedts thoughts on different aspects of life. She writes in such a clear and illuminating manner, that I frequently find myself thinking 'Yes, i agree! She writes what I'm thinking too!' The second part is Thinking, and here we moves heavily into the area of neuroscience and psychology. I can follow her writings to a certain degree, but must admit that some of it was a bit boring for someone who has absolutely no background in this field. The last part, Looking, is more or less about art, about artists, paintings and our perception of art. Interesting to read, especially if you are an art student, but I found myself wanting more Living and less Looking.  

Still - Hustvedt is a brilliant writer, and can never really go wrong. (The only exception is when she writes about Motherhood. Her apotheosis of Motherhood (why not Fatherhood or Parenthood) makes me a bit queasy.)

Funnily enough, I saw the book advertised as a 'self-help' book in one of these horrible women's magazines. I can't really see how any of her essays could be classified in this category, but I'm sure there are a handful of disappointed females out there that expected something quite different from the book.

Maybe this wasn't the ideal reading-in-bed book. Tonight, I'm ready for pure fiction! 

Hustvedt, Siri (2012). Living, thinking, looking. London: Sceptre.

Books 2013: Something I've been meaning to tell you

The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2013 was Alice Munroe. This is an author who has been on my reading lists for a decade or two, but who has somehow never made it to my bedside table. Or my Kindle. Until now. Luckily for me, I've made a promise to myself to read all the Nobel prize authors. Sometimes I don't quite agree with the Nobel judges, but this year, I found the author an absolutely worthy winner.

Munro is mostly known for her short story collections, and my choice fell upon Something I've been meaning to tell you, originally from 1974. The book contains 13 different stories. The strange thing is that after reading them all, I felt like I'd read a novel. Somehow it felt like all the main characters really was one person, no matter how different they all were. I think this says something about Munros strong voice as a storyteller.

This particular collection has a strong sense of quietness, of longing and of melancholy, but is never sentimental. That is not Munroe's style. It is everyday life disguised in extraordinary words that make you want to read more. I will. Hopefully.

Munro, Alice (2004). Something I've been meaning to tell you. Vintage: New York.

Books 2013: What's that sound? An introduction to rock and its history

In order to learn more about MOOCs (massive open online courses), this autumn, I've done two courses on Coursera, The history of rock, part 1 and 2, both presented by John Covach at the University of Rochester. The accompanying book, What's that sound, written by Covach, was an optional feature of the course, which otherwise consisted of video lectures and quizzes. I loved the course, just to make that clear! This little review is about the book, however, though in many ways, my views on the course also reflect my view on the book.

The book is a chronological overview of the history of American rock. It takes us from the early beginnings of rock up to around 2010. I find the first part much more interesting, probably because it is easier to write well about periods more distant in time. The coverage of the 2000s is very much just a listing of bands, record companies and chart positions. Which can get a bit tedious after a while.

What I don't like about the book is its American focus. Not because it is not correct, but because the history of rock as I know it (at least the last three-four decades) is nothing like the history portrayed in the book. Reading about the 80s (which is the decade I "discovered" pop music) I can't help feeling that this history is not my history. How can you write about 80s rock and not even mention The Cure? How can you give Michael Bolton and U2 an equal amount of space? How can you claim that Kate Bush is a "lesser-known artist" (Covach, 505) when it comes to rock history? And isn't it strange to list Coldplay as a band known "as much for their good looks and personal relationships as their music" (Covach, 555)? It is just very clear that this is just one history of rock, seen from a white, male, American perspective. We all, of course, know that there are several histories of rock. I just wished for a broader viewpoint. I would only recommend the book to those of you who want to take the online History of rock course. For pure interest in music history, I'd choose another book, if I were you.

Covach, John and Andrew Flory (2012): What's that sound: An introduction to rock and its history. New York: Norton.

Insomnia

Why sleep? spør Siri Hustvedt i den utmerkete essaysamlingen Living, thinking, looking. Jeg skjønner forsåvidt spørsmålet hennes, men et mye mer relevant spørsmål for meg er: Hvorfor skal det være så vanskelig? Når det er så nødvendig, mener jeg. Hvorfor klarer jeg ikke å sove, selv om kroppen en trøtt som en strømpe. Hodet også, for den saks skyld. Tankene kverner rundt som i en tørketrommel på varierende hastighet og jeg roterer i senga som en grillkylling på ICA. Jeg får ikke sove. Det er ikke førjulstida som stresser meg. Jeg har alltid vært sånn. Så lenge jeg kan huske i alle fall. Det går rykter om at jeg var et vanskelig spedbarn, når det gjaldt søvn. Men det husker jeg altså ikke.

Det er rett og slett tidkrevende å sovne. Om man legger seg rundt midnatt (for det prøver man jo på, helst litt før, til og med), går det gjerne en time eller to før øynene blir værende lukket. Når vekkerklokka ringer dagen etter har man fått alt for lite søvn. Noe som resulterer i at man er nød til å sove på ettermiddagen dersom man skal får gjort noe i løpet av kvelden. Lar jeg være å sove på ettermiddagen og legger meg tidlig (rundt 22) våkner jeg etter noen timer og er lys våken og klar til dyst. Sånn går no dagan. Og nettene. Som ikke er lange nok, selv om kulda setter inn.

I det siste har det største problemet vært at døgnrytmen min har slått seg til ro i en nokså utfordrende syklus. Maks 5 timer søvn om gangen. I en utopisk verden kunne dette gått helt fint, for da kunne jeg bare tatt meg noen nye timer søvn sånn midt på dagen. Med det går jo ikke når man er på jobb. Det jeg trenger er natt to ganger i døgnet. Det ville løse ganske mye på søvnfronten. Selv om det ville by på en del andre utfordringer. Men søvn er viktigst. Det er tross alt min favoritthobby.

Men man kan jo se positivt på ting også. Man får jo lest en del på natta, for eksempel. Eller bakt julekaker. Eller vaska hus. Dessuten er det snart juleferie, og poenget med juleferie er, foruten å spise usunt en hel uke til ende, også å sove akkurat når man har lyst. God natt! 

Books 2013: Thinking, fast and slow

I try to read every winner of the Nobel prize for literature. The rest of the winners I leave to others. But this summer I've enjoyed reading a bestseller written by another Nobel laurate, the psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who won the prize for economics in 2002. His book, Thinking, fast and slow became incredibly popular when it was published in 2011, and is about the reserach that resulted in his winning the prize.

 

This is quite far from my subject area, but his book really resonated with my views. "Yes, that is exactly how it is", was my standard thought on almost every chapter. He writes well, and he writes for a non-scientific audience. You certainly don't have to be an economist or a psychologist to enjoy this book. 

 

Much of his research is actually quite useful in my job as a librarian, working with information literacy. To simplify, one could say that his book is all about critical thinking and about using our brains. And how we all not neccessarily apply too much thinking into our decision making. I wish more people would read (and understand) it. If everyone read it, I'm sure the world would become much better:-)

One of my favourite books this year, actually. Quite a surprise to me, at least!

Kahneman, Daniel (2011): Thinking, fast and slow. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Books 2013: Revenge wears Prada

My beach novel this year was Revenge wears Prada. I was looking for something very easy and light to read and simply stumbled across this sequel to The Devil wears Prada. I seem to remember that the first book wasn't too bad. I might be wrong. In this chapter of Andrea Sachs' life, (sorry, spoiler alert!) she has founded her own sucessful magazine, met the man of her dreams, gets married, has a baby. The things one tends to do with one's life in this kind of novels. There is actually quite a lot of things happening in this book, and plenty of stuff to make it exciting. The problem is that the author doesn't manage to seduce the reader one bit. It is utterly boring, and I was at times amazed that she managed to get so little out of so much. The tough and smart woman from the first book has become insecure and silly, verging on 50-Shades-Anastasia Steel-stupid. As a sequel it is truly unnesessary. The subtitle is "The Devil Returns", which makes me wonder who's return this book is most about. Miranda Priestly doesn't figure prominently here. Not really. So it's really Andrea's return we're talking about, I'd say. So is she the devil, then? (No, of course not!) But perhaps the film will be better? (Doubt it ...)

Weisberger, Lauren (2013): Revenge wears Prada. HarperCollins.

Books 2013: On the Origin of Species

Another person I've been following on Twitter is Charles Darwin (@cdarwin). Yes, I know. It sounds silly, but somewhere out there someone is posting Darwin quotations on Twitter on a regular basis. I am quite fascinated. (I also follow Ernest Shackleton!) For a while I thought about reading a Darwin biography, but concluded that I needed to read the real thing first. So I downloaded the 1859 classic On the Origin of Species, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life to my Kindle. The book is written for a wide audience, so you don't need to be a biologist to understand him. But I must say I struggled sometimes, especially in separating genera from class from group from type from variety etc. With its more than 500 pages, I wouldn't describe it as an easy read, but still enjoyable.

His enormous impact on science and biology is undisputable, and I'm quite impressed by the way he forwards his arguments and makes them as solid as possible. He writes quite confidently about his opponenets: "The day will come when this will be given as a curious illustration of the blindness of preconceived opinion." (Location 6019) And he was, of course, right.

After a while I got used to his style of writing and became almost hooked on reading. He has a much more lyrical way of writing than most modern scientists, especially the second half of the book. The very ending is almost poetical:

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have bee, and are being, evolved. (Location 6109)

 It took a while to read, but I'm glad I did it. For December, I'll go for something lighter, however:-)

Books 2013: The Pursuit of Cool

Sometimes I pick up a book for no reason at all. I just happen to read a sentence about it, or the cover looks good, or the title sounds intriguing. This novel, I picked up on Twitter. For some reason I followed the author, Robb Skidmore, on Twitter and he put out some sentences from the book which made me curious. It's a book about growing into adulthood in the 80s, and a couple of pop music references made me decide to buy the book. 

 

Unfortunately, the book said nothing to me. It was just a written version of the seemingly endless amount of american high school/college films that keep being made. American high schools/colleges as presented on film might as well be part of a different planet if you're European. 

 

I couldn't make myself find his story realistic at all. Nobody can be that stupid. Only in American films. We meet the slightly awkward kid, who wants to be one the cool guys, who wants a girlfriend and a career and all that. And somehow he mangedes to become partly cool at least, and to get his hands on a couple of girls, all the time wasting his education on nothing, being a spinless creature without a sense of belonging. Sorry, no sympathy from me.

Skidmore, Robb (2013): The Pursuit of Cool. TMiK Press.