Update

Well it doesn't appear that I will meet by deadline for finishing The Brothers Karamazov by tomorrow. Still got about 150 pages left. Maybe by end of weekend. Doesn't matter tomorrow after work I make a trip to the Barnes and Noble at Bridgestreet to pick up the next book on the list Ignorance by Milan Kundera as chosen by Sarah. Its not by go to B&N but it says online that they have it and Jones Valley does not. It will give me an opportunity to stop in and get a slice at Tommy's Pizza though so thats an plus. Wow! Does Keith ever have raucous Friday nights?

Filler

Okay, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Doestoyevsky is slowing me down considerably. I guess its all about the luck of the draw because June through July I was on a break-neck clip and was thinking I'd possibly have the list chopped down to 950 by year end. But these last few books have changed that, now I'm hoping to be at 960 by year's end. I'm almost halfway through TBK. I'm setting a fairly ambitious EFD (Estimated Finish Date) of October 1.

I guess I could announce that the book waiting on deck is Ignorance by Milan Kundera. This book was selected by a dear old friend, Sarah Shelton (Ok don't give me that look.)

On a book-related front, it often bothers me how much fast food I eat. I work kinda weird hours so its not always conveniant to cook. Add into that the fact that I cannot cook. My house may have gremlins because honestly I can't even get popcorn right anymore. So basically if I don't eat fast food I usually cook a frozen pizza or something else frozen, which is just as bad as the fast food. Anyway I did a Google search for "Dinner for One" thinking surely they'd be something alas no. Then I looked for cookbooks on Barnes and Noble and theres actually a couple but its ridiculous stuff like foie gras.

I really should be a television executive. Why doesn't Food Network have a show called "Dinner for One." I mean I can't be the only person with a toxic personality. We shouldn't be forced to either 1)waste food, 2) eat the leftovers for a week, or 3) Eat a box of salt with an alleged piece of frozen chicken. Also, I'd make an American version of Top Gear and most importantly I'd do it right. NBC actually had a version in development and its currently in The History Channel's hands. But it won't be as good because they won't want to piss off potential advertisers. Which I really didn't think of until I read about it my personal flaw in an American Top Gear would be the celebrity portion I just don't think American celebs would be as good. I'm hereby throwing my hat in as a presenter. Now I'm not especially a "car guy" but I'm not asking to be the lead presenter (Jeremy Clarkson) but I can serve in the Richard Hammond role.

Done-diddly-done

Wow! Finally finished with Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe! I never knew that the matriach of the Flanders family had such an eventful life. Unfortunately, the book read as if Ned Flanders wrote it. I mean I wasn't expecting porn but dang it was kinda dull. The book was divided into two sections. The first described her five marriages. The second detailed her life as thief. The crazy thing is that the second part was by far more interesting. Also the e-book experiment will probably need to be put on hiatus until I actually buy the Nook proper because turning the page 3-4 times to actually read a full page is just too annoying.

Okay, onward and upward. Next on the list is The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I've previously read Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky and it seemed to take forever and I was quite confused. I did read a bit of the introduction and so this time I understand the Russian naming protocol. For instance my name would be Keith Haroldovitch Adams and I would be formally addressed as Keith Haroldovitch.

Difficult this is!

I'm having some serious problems with the e-reader app. I'm reading Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe and I'm making practically no progress. This is a true story. Really would I make something like this up.

Keith Adams: I hate this Nook app for the Droid. What who is this?



Keith: Master Yoda!
Yoda: Yes, young one. Hearing you very disturbed I am.
Keith: But master I'm constantly flipping pages and it doesn't seem like I'm making any progress.
Yoda: Matter it does not. Hate there can be not. To the dark side it will lead you. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
Keith: Okay Yoda, I'll give it another try.
Yoda: Do or do not....there is no try.
Keith: Yes, master.

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.