Amok

Plowed right through Amok by Stefan Zweig. Of course it was only 70 something pages long so wasn't too much of a challenge. It was the story of a doctor in the Dutch East Indies torn between his medical duty to help and his mixed emotions. Not exactly my favorite selection but at least I found out where we get the term running amok from:

The term came from when the British and Portuguese were trying to take over Malaya. Assuming the Malay people were extremely passive and easily pushed aside, they invaded the territories, somewhat successfully, but the natives rebelled, shocking the British and the Portuguese, leaving them astounded, hence the allegations of "crazy" and "wild" "jungle people"

The word was used by the British to describe to run-a-muck, or murder indiscriminately It was later used in India during the British Empire, to describe an elephant gone mad, separated from its herd, running wild and causing devastation. The word was made popular by the colonial tales of Rudyard Kipling.

Although commonly used in a colloquial and less-violent sense, the phrase is particularly associated with a specific sociopathic culture-bound syndrome in Malaysian culture. In a typical case of running amok, a male who has shown no previous sign of anger or any inclination to violence will acquire a weapon and, in a sudden frenzy, will attempt to kill or seriously injure anyone he encounters. Amok episodes of this kind normally end with the attacker being killed by bystanders, or committing suicide.

So next I plan on finishing the other three stories in this collection and then reading another e-book. Which will be (drumroll).....wait for it.....wait for it......wait for it..... Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. Tawdry!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Just fought sleep to finish The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This was very interesting. I've always held a special place in my heart for Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, but I'd never actually read either story. I guess its the whole idea of the American frontier Peter Pan. As a matter of fact, they hold such a place in my heart that had things worked out differently for me in my personal life, I would definitely campaigned to have a son named Huckleberry Sawyer Adams. {For the record, my daughter would have been Mallory Guinevere Adams or Guinevere Mallory Adams [Until of course I had a department manager at work with the last name Guinn (cough, douchebag) which completely ruined that name for me anyway.]} I was really surprised at how little I knew about the story. I had assumed I knew the basic gest of it, but pretty much all I knew about the story was Huck Finn and a runaway slave named Jim took a raft down the river.

But I digress. Also, for this book, I tried out my Barnes and Noble Nook app for my Droid phone. It actually worked better than I thought it would. However, the fact that a Nook is larger than the screen on my phone meant that I had to turn the page usually three times to actually get to a new page. It seemed like I was constantly turning the page.

The most difficult thing about reading this book was the use of a certain word. I think everybody who has the foggiest clue about Huck Finn knows what word I'm speaking of. I know Twain used it for a definite purpose but seeing that word over and over was very off-putting. Living my whole life in Alabama, I've heard that word far more often than I care to.

On to the next item on the list. I did break down and order a book. This selection came from probably my best friend and absolutely my most trusted advisor Matthew Hodges. Its Amok by Stefan Zweig. All I know about it is that its only like 70 pages. At least it came as a collection of other stories, but still it doesn't add up to more than 130 pages. Here is the blurb on Zweig from the back cover of the book:

"Stefan Zweig, born in 1881 in Vienna, was a member of a well-to-do Austrian-Jewish family. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was first known as a novelist and translator, then as a biographer. Zwieg travelled widely, living in Salzburg between the wars, and enjoyed literary fame. His stories and novellas were collected in 1934. In the same year, with the rise of Nazism, he briefly moved to London, taking British citizenship. After a short period in New York he settled in Brazil, where in 1942 were found lying on their bed in an apparent double suicide."

Cloud Atlas

Well last night I finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It was a very interesting book. Its actually a series of short stories chopped up and continued at various points throughout the narrative. Eventually you realize that all these stories across different generations and genres are intertwined. Genres. Mr. Mitchell basically uses a different style for each story. Theres a journal, a collection of letters, a thriller, a futuristic post-apocalyptic story. Just very well done. I highly recommend.

So next. According to the schedule Amok by Stefan Zweig should be next. But I really want to try out my e-reader app for my phone so it will be The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Plus the second half of the month is when most of my bills come due so it just makes more since to start reading the thirty some-odd free books I have then plunk down money for a new book. Though invariably I'll probably say to myself during the course of the next two weeks, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" and buy one anyway.

Couple of things I'm working on.

I'm in the middle of reading Cloud Atlas and am finding it quite interesting. Its a tough book to explain its basically a set of short stories that span time and the characters all seem to be intertwined. Really looking forward to figuring out whats what.

Now I have my list saved as a word document containing twenty-three pages. Each time I read a book, I change the font of that book on my list to bold and red. So the other day I was scanning the list and was interested in seeing how many pages had no books in red. I found eight pages that had no red books. Interestingly enough the page that has the most is the final page which only goes from 989-1001 which has five. I decided that after I read Amok by Stefan Zweig that I will line up a book from each so that they may have at least one red book. Here is the list in order:

1. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. Vertigo by W.G. Sebald
3. A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
4. Troubles by J.G. Farrell
5. Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker
6. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
7. Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
8. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell

I find it so interesting that I chose these books at random and yet two of them are not only by the same author but are also two parts of a trilogy.

Also, to fill the gaps between finishing a book and going to the bookstore to get the next one, I'm going to use the Nook app on my Droid. I have been able to get about 20 free ebooks which are on the list so I'll see how I like books e-reader style.

Next!

Just finished A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. It took some getting use to the slang used by Mr. Burgess especially since I've never seen the movie. Interestingly the version I have includes an "extra" chapter. In the introduction the author talks about the 21st chapter. He mentions that American versions of this book did not include the final chapter while every other version did. It was interesting that when making his classic movie, Stanley Kubrick, an Englishman, based his movie on the American version.

Next on the list is a selection chosen by my recently betrothed friend Stewart Cisco. It is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I know practically nothing about the book but from what I can surmised it is a group of vignettes which I believe will intertwine with one another. Should be interesting.

A "love" story in Syracuse?

In the opening to Callirhoe, Chariton states that he is going to relate a love story from Syracuse. Well let me lay this out for you. I wouldn't say what he related was love. In my opinion nothing that Chariton described had much to do with love. The only virtue he described that attracted Callirhoe and Chaereas to each other was their outward appearance. Now I know what you're saying, "C'mon Keith, what do you know about love. Nobody has ever demeaned themselves enough to want to be with you." Point taken. But often he who has been most rebuked by Love is often its best analyst.

Another issue I have with this book is the constant references to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. I mean it seems like every paragraph or so had a quote from Homer.

I will say that I really like the quote at the end, "I do not reproach you, Lady, for what I have suffered: that was my fate. I beg you, never part me from _____, but grant us a happy life, and death together." I may use that if there ever comes a day that a woman decides that my company isn't worse than death.

On to the next book, since Cloud Atlas hasn't arrived yet so I'll be reading A Clockwork Orange. I've read a couple of pages and it looks like it will be a challenge.

Book Expedition!

Well seeing as how I'm working five days straight after today, I decided that I needed to make a B&N run to pick up a book for when I finished Callirhoe. Looking at my list it would appear that next up should be Stewart's pick of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and then Matthew's pick of Amok by Stefan Zweig. Sadly neither was in stock but the nice lady at the counter ordered a copy of Cloud Atlas for me and hopefully it'll be in before I finish the current book. I hate driving all the way to Jones Valley and coming up empty-handed and it would be just as bad walking out with just an order receipt so I needed to pick another book. At this point I called into service my trusty Droid. I was able to bring up the website which has the book list and a random number generator to make a selection. After a few attempts, I finally found one in stock........wait for it.........wait for it......A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Now I'm kinda excited about it because I've never watched the Stanley Kubrick classic. So if Cloud Atlas arrives before I finish Callirhoe I will read it however if it does not I'll have Clockwork Orange waiting in the wings.

Third times the charm!

Well after starting and failing two times, I have finally made it all the way through John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. As someone as known for my melancholy as for my sarcastic wit, even I was struck that this book was such a downer. I mean everytime that things began to look up for the Joad clan disaster struck.

But as was said in a movie which is very personally inspirational to me, "When you read last page, close book."



So with that I'm on to the next book, Callirhoe by Chariton. This is a book which Todd Hughes chose with a random number selection. Callirhoe is sometimes referred to (including on my list) as Chaireas and Kallirhoe. It is a Syracusan love story, so this is going to work out great for Keith Adams who holds an almost unblemished record of cynicism.