Othello by Shakespeare

10/10

William Shakespeare that is. Othello is, unofficially, my favorite Shakespeare play (of the relatively few that I've read). I don't know if that's because I am one of those who can't have my favorite be the most famous or popular? Hopefully I'm not that guy, I hate that guy. I actually think the main reason is that it was one of the first Shakespeare plays that I was introduced to and sorta where my Shakespeare appreciation began. So, it's a sentimental thing. Now that we've gotten to the bottom of that...

Othello is very underrated. It is not put on the same level, it seems, with some of the other awesome Shakespeare tragedies, i.e. Hamlet, Macbeth, etc. But it sure does hold its own. Othello is where we meet, arguably, Shakespeare's most villainous creation, Iago. Iago is, in my opinion, not only Shakespeare's darkest creation, but anybody's. I have yet to find a character who is more evil, sinister, and terrifying as Iago. And for some reason I really enjoy exploring the depths of a character like that.

The tale is about a ruler, Othello, and his fascination/love Desdemona and the jealous Iago who resorts to all means of deception and scheming in order to destroy the both of them. And boy does he ever. He's got everyone fooled and pulled the wool over just about everyone's eyes. It's a cool read, folks.

Shakespeare's always good for a quote or two:

"To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on."

"You have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser."

"O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, Let us call thee devil!"

"I think you think I love you."

"When devils will the blackest sins put on, They do at first suggest with heavenly shows."

"How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

"They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they're jealous. It is a monster Begot upon itself, born on itself."

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

7/10

This is the sequel to Ender's Game. It's pretty good. It's much more science fictiony (and philosophical) than Ender's Game and not nearly as many cool things happen in it. Also, Ender plays a less prominent role, which, to me, is a downfall. But alas, it is still worth a read. Just don't expect it to match Ender's Game. You have been duly warned. On a side note, Card says that this book was the original book he wanted to write and the reason he even wrote Ender's Game at all. Therefore, it can stand alone without Ender's Game. I just wouldn't recommend it.

It's cool in the sense that we find out what happens to Ender after the grand finale of Ender's Game. A few cool things: Ender and hive-queen action, a computer that speaks to Ender through a chip in his ear, it's been many a long year since Ender should even be thought to be alive and his identity is hidden in those regards, and I guess other things. It's been a while since I read it, but rest assured, Ender is still a dominator.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

9/10

I'm usually not a big fan of newer books, books written recently, for whatever reason. I am forever unable to get with the times. I think it's because newer books seem to always be pretty risque and push the envelope in lame ways to shock the reader or something. I loved this book, however. And I guess it was risque in it's own right, but there was something to it that made it not so lame. I think McEwan's writing style is what won me over. He is very descriptive and doesn't write like a 21st century author. In fact, he has a very Jane Austen feel to him, and yes, that is a compliment.

The book is about a young, imaginative girl who accuses her sister's new boyfriend of a crime he may or may not have committed. She convinces herself that she clearly saw what she saw, and it is her testimony that eventually leads to some serious life-changing events in the young man's life, as well as her sister's. The way the story unfolds is all very interesting and makes one wonder how clearly some past events actually unfolded.

The book is tremendously fascinating, almost perfectly written, and contains one of the most surprising and cool plot twists I've seen. Sorry to give away that there is a plot twist, now you, dear reader, will be looking for it. But I confound you to see it coming.

This book was also adapted into a very well-done movie.

Some quotes:

"Self-pity needed her full attention."

"It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you."

"He was happy and therefore bound to succeed."

"Truth was strange and deceptive, it had to be struggled for, against the flow of the everyday."

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

9/10

A book about deduction and astute observation? Where do I sign up? Count me in. I just finished reading this book last night. This was fun reading. That Sherlock continued to amaze and solve some real puzzlers. This book is a Barnes & Noble book that has gathered all of the Sherlock Holmes stories into two volumes. Volume 1 included:

1. A 100 page short novel called "A Study in Scarlet" and was really good. There's a lot of anti-Mormon stuff in this story that is more comical than anything where Mormons are painted as these crazed religious zealots that murder anyone who does not obey. The story, however, was still very good.

2. Another 100 page short novel called "The Sign of Four" that turned out to be one of my favorites of all the stories.

3. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" which is 16 short stories that are about 20 pages each. These short stories have far less character development, but get right to the good stuff: Holmes dominating and solving cases. Some of my favorite stories of the 16 were "The Red-Headed League" (yes, it IS as awesome as it sounds), "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" (intense and interesting), and "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" (this one had a very Poe-like feeling).

4. "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" which is 11 short stories that are about 15 pages each. My favorites were "The Silver Blaze" (my very favorite of all the short stories in Volume 1), "The Reigate Puzzle" (some cool deductions in this one), "The Greek Interpreter" (mostly because we meet Sherlock's lesser known brother who also has an awesome name, Mycroft. He is exactly like Sherlock except better, according to Sherlock. The two of them together were quite the dominators.), and "The Naval Treaty" (just real good). "The Final Problem" is also notable because it features Sherlock's greatest nemesis, Moriarty. I'll leave it at that due to spoiler issues.

5. A 120-page short novel called "The Hound of the Baskervilles" which was amazingly awesome and my very favorite of all the stories in this volume. It is easily the most well written and most suspenseful. Sherlock is at his best here. Watson too.

Now for the quotes:

"It is not easy to express the inexpressible."

"The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness."

"I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely."

"A change of work is the best rest." I guess he is here quoting William Gladstone, the current Prime Minister at the time.

"Dirty-looking rascals, but I suppose every one has some little immortal spark concealed about him."

"There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman." Holmes says this is an old Persian saying.

"Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent."

"It's every man's business to see justice done."

"Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers."

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

10/10

Good old Clive Staples Lewis, a former atheist who converted to the Church of England, is THE best author on Christianity without a doubt. He is quoted more often than almost anyone, and for good reason. I have read more C.S. Lewis books than I think any other author. I do enjoy his stuff. And this, Mere Christianity, is, in my opinion, his very best work. There's more insight here than any book, outside of scripture, that I have ever read. The way he explains the Christian doctrine is simple, true, and inspiring. He has a section on pride that is just epic. He has a brief section on the Trinity, however, that is not as good as the rest. I'm going to cut my comments short, because I think that I'm going to set the quote record with this one.

Quotes that made the cut (Yes, I had to pass on some very good ones due to the excessive amount of amazing quotes.):

"The question should never be: 'Do I like that kind of service?' but 'Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this?'"

"Selfishness has never been admired."

"I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people."

"As in arithmetic - there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some wrong answers are much nearer being right than others."

"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should have never found out that it has no meaning."

"When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on."

"There are a good many things that would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever. Perhaps my bad temper or jealousy are gradually getting worse - so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years....If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual."

"If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things that we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them."

"God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them."

"The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection."

"A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither."

"Love is the great conqueror of lust."

"I have often thought to myself how it would have been if, when I served in the first world war, I and some young German had killed each other simultaneously and found ourselves together a moment after death. I cannot imagine that either of us would have felt any resentment or even any embarrassment. I think we might have laughed over it." Ha ha, one of my favorites.

"There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit."

"It was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind."

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest."

"The trouble begins when you pass from thinking, 'I have pleased him; all is well,' to thinking, 'What a fine person I must be to have done it.'"

"If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed."

"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible."

"Those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy."

"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means - the only complete realist."

"Christians have often disputed as to whether what leads the Christian home is good actions, or Faith in Christ. I have no right really to speak on such a difficult question, but it does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most necessary."

"If what you call your 'faith' in Christ does not involve taking the slightest notice of what He says, then it is not Faith at all - not faith or trust in Him, but only intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him."

"What God the Father begets is God, something of the same kind as Himself."

"Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is."

"God looks at you as if you were a little Christ: Christ stands beside you to turn you into one."

"Laziness means more work in the long run."

"He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said, 'Be perfect,' He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment."

"You must realise from the outset that the goal towards which He is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection; and no power in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent Him from taking you to that goal."

"The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were 'gods' and He is going to make good His words."

Sorry, dear reader, for the abundence of quotations. This guy knew his stuff and how to say it, that is for sure.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

8/10

This was the first Dickens book I ever read. I am now a full-fledged Dickens fan. His writing style is unreal. He turns ordinary things into fantastic, many times comical, descriptions. I always catch myself chuckling at how awesome he just finished describing something. How his brain conjures up the combination of words that it does is beyond me, but I do likey likey. Plus, he has some hilariously classic titles to his chapters. Check this one out for Chapter 36: "Is a very short one, and may appear of no great importance in its place, but it should be read notwithstanding, as a sequel to the last, and a key to one that will follow when its time arrives". Oh man, you can't beat that. There's others as well worth mentioning, but I hope you'll just take my word for it.

Dickens is very apt at conveying the terrors of the human condition. He makes it tremendously easy to sympathize with many characters, and I found myself more than once feeling almost pained at the harsh hand dealt to Oliver Twist. He makes it so easy, also, to get behind and root for his characters to overcome their poorly dealt hand. He's also a suspenseful writer and builds up the tension quite nicely.

Another Dickens attribute: coming up with the coolest names ever for his characters. I mean, Oliver Twist? How do you come up with that? Mr. Bumble? Mr. Fang? The Artful Dodger? Does not get better than that.

Some quotes regarding the difficulty in overcoming old habits:

"He was now instilling into his soul the poison which he hoped would blacken it, and change its hue forever."

"I am chained to my old life. I loathe and hate it now, but I cannot leave it. I must have gone too far to turn back."

But then...

"It is never too late for penitence and atonement."

"It is never too late to repent."

P.S. My internet kicked me off just as I was about to post this. So, terror-stricken, I thought I lost my precious, precious post. But nay, it somehow saved itself as a draft. Hooray!

Moneyball by Michael Lewis

10/10

Simply put, one of the best books ever. I read this in less than a week with rabid obsession. I love baseball about as much as anything, so this book was right up my alley. However, a quote by Nick Hornby of The Believer in the opening page makes a case for the appeal of this book even for those who aren't big into baseball: "I understood about one in four words of Moneyball, and it's still the best and most engrossing sports book I've read for years. If you know anything about baseball, you will enjoy it four times as much as I did, which means that you might explode." It is also a business book, and a good one at that. Mark Gerson of The Weekly Standard is quoted on the back cover thusly, "Moneyball is the best business book Lewis has written. It may be the best business book anyone has written."

The book contains some of the coolest, most interesting and unique statistical analysis I've seen. Stuff, even as a baseball fan, that I'd never really thought about. The book focuses on the Oakland Athletics and how they continue to outperform teams who have way more money to spend than the A's do. The A's run their team like a business and look at certain numbers that they have learned are accurate gaugers for players. They worship on-base percentage, walks, not stealing bases, not squandering outs through sacrifice bunts, and don't care about strike outs compared to other outs. Awesome. The upper management runs the show and decides on the strategies the team will implement, not the coaches. They ask, "In what other business do you leave the fate of an organization to a middle manager?"

The book is about the A's obsession with learning "the minute events within the event." And that's why I worshipped it. How much does a batter's batting average drop after a first-pitch strike? What percentage of pitches out of the strike zone do players swing at? How much money per win do teams pay? There's this awesome part where the A's want a certain relief pitcher and want to get rid of one of their own. He finds out which teams want the relief pitcher he wants, so he offers those teams his pitcher for a pretty sweet and alluring deal. They bite and are taken out of the running for his guy who he ends up getting. Not bad. This book is unbelievably entertaining and I could go on about it for some time.

Too many good quotes, here's a few:

Bill James, a sweet baseball stat guru: "Think about it. One absolutely cannot tell, by watching, the difference between a .300 hitter and a .275 hitter. The difference is one hit every two weeks. It might be that a reporter, seeing every game that the team plays, could sense that difference over the course of the year if no records were kept, but I doubt it. Certainly the average fan, seeing perhaps a tenth of the team's games, could never gauge two performances that accurately - in fact if you see both 15 games a year, there is a 40% chance that the .275 hitter will have more hits than the .300 hitter in the games that you see. The difference between a good hitter and an average hitter is simply not visible - it is a matter of record."

"Assembling nobodies into a ruthlessly efficient machine for winning baseball games, and watching them become stars, was one of the pleasures of running a poor baseball team."

"The market for baseball players was so inefficient, and the general grasp of sound baseball strategy so weak, that superior management could still run circles around taller piles of cash."

"It was more efficient to create a closer than to buy one...You could take a slightly above average pitcher and drop him into the closer's role, let him accumulate some gaudy number of saves, and then sell him off. You could, in essence, buy a stock, pump it up with false publicity, and sell it off for much more than you'd paid for it....Jason Isringhausen's departure wasn't a loss to the Oakland A's but a happy consequence of a money machine known as 'Selling the Closer'".

Billy Beane: "Relievers are like volatile stocks. They're the one asset you need to watch closely, and trade for quick profits."

"The difference between 1-2 and 2-1 in terms of expected outcomes is just enormous. It's the largest variance of expected outcomes of any one pitch...People talk about first-pitch strikes. But it's really the first two out of three." This is a quote from an Ivy League dude named Paul who is the main stat guy and a huge part of the A's organization.

Scott Hatteberg: "When you go to the plate, it's about the only thing you do alone in baseball. Here they have turned it into a team thing."

P.S. A movie is coming out with Brad Pitt as Billy Beane. Ha ha, good stuff.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

10/10

A fantasy post right after a science fiction one? Draw your own conclusions my friends. One thing is for certain, that good old J.R.R. can weave a pretty gnarly yarn. I was raised on The Lord of the Rings. My Pa read these books to my brother Matt and I at night before beddy by. He would do the cool voices and all, his gollum voice was classic. I have since read the book at least two other times since. I don't read too many books more than once. I mean, I've read this book more than any other besides scripture.

When I first started the book I was like, "Where the h-e-double hockey sticks is Bilbo Baggins? And why should I care about this Frodo punk?" I have since repented of my rash, foolish words.

The book starts slow, but picks up rapidly once the ringwraiths get involved. Could anything be more scary than when the four hobbits are hiding in a ditch with a black rider sniffing for them some few feet away? I say nay. Plus, there is some cool action involving the Old Forest and Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo that wasn't in the movie. Then the mystery whether Aragorn is a good guy or bad guy. Narrow escapes. The intrigue.

Then the fellowship is formed, and that is where it gets real fun. Going on a mission into the heart of enemy territory against all odds? You betcha. After that, there's only a billion other cool things that happen.

While I do think that this is one of the awesomer books ever written, I'm not one of those silly fellows who believes it's real and that Middle Earth exists. In case you were wondering.

Token Gandalf quote (or should I say "Tolkien" Gandalf quote, but seriously):

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." I guess that's why they call him "the wise".

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

10/10

What could possibly be cooler than six to ten year old kids going to space to save all humanity? Almost nothing is your answer. When I was told that I would love this book, I was a bit skeptical to say the least. Science fiction? What am I, a nerd? Whatever the case might be, I thought this book was top notch.

This book won me over right from the get-go when the five year old Ender accidentally killed some bully at school. Aliens have attacked earth and the rest of the book is pure adolescent awesomeness: youngsters shipped to space to become military geniuses, competing is zero-gravity space training games, plotting and conniving and scheming and conspiring to harm or kill each other, Ender dominating at everything and being the coolest kid ever, and Ender playing his game that may save humanity.

Also, I got this book from a used bookstore and it has Orson Scott Card's autograph in the front that says, "To Laura - A survival guide for geniuses" I am not Laura.

If you think this book sounds nerdy, then I have this to say: This book is one of the funnest reads ever and it would be extremely difficult to fathom anyone not enjoying it. So there you have it.

I read this book before I would mark my books up, so I don't have any cool quotes available. Sorry fans.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

10/10

I absolutely love this book, one of the best of all-time. I always thought that the title translated into The Miserables, but in the introduction to my book it says that it comes "from the Latin miserabilis, worthy of pity, it refers to anyone who deserves to be pitied." This makes a lot more sense to me. Jean Valjean is, perhaps, my very favorite fictional character ever. That includes movies and other mediums that provide fictional characters. Jean Valjean is anything but a miserable character. But he is most certainly a pitiable one.

Reading this book was one of the funner reading experiences that I have had. We learn to care deeply for Valjean and discover his extreme goodness repeatedly. But it is the man, Myriel, who transforms Valjean's life. This book shows how people can be forever changed through simple acts of love and kindness.

Plus, the endless chase of Javert pursuing Jean Valjean is pretty dang intense. One of the best rivalries ever. It is through this chase that we really see how good a person Valjean actually has become. He has his chances to rid himself of Javert who causes Valjean so much constant anxiety but does not do it. He even saves Javert's life on one occasion much to Javert's bewilderment. We also learn of Valjean's goodness during a period when his adopted daughter is kept from him due to falsified or misleading accounts of his character and past life.

There is so, so much more to this book and things and characters that I didn't cover. The book is epic and cannot be covered in a relatively brief blog post. There are, indeed, some trecherous and villainous folk doing their dispicable, dastardly deeds.

This book "rules", as the kids say. As Hugo says in his preface: "So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilisation, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is devine...so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless."

Some of my favoriter quotes:

"One can no more pray too much than love too much."

"Yours is like a beautiful face, upon which someone has sat down by mistake." Awesome.

"To lie a little is not possible; he who lies, lies a whole lie."

"One can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. In the case of the sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty, it is called remorse. God upheaves the soul as well as the ocean."

"The highest duty is to think of others."

"Tomorrow performs its work irresistibly, and it performs it from today."

"People are ignorant of what they ought to know, and know those things of which they ought to be ignorant."

"When met by adversity, he saluted that acquantance cordially, he patted catastrophes on the back."

"There is one thing sadder than to see their children die - to see them lead evil lives."

"Cities, like forests, have their den in which hide all their vilest and most terrible monsters. But in cities, what hides thus is ferocious, unclean, and petty, that is to say, ugly; in forests, what hides is ferocious, savage, and grand, that is to say, beautiful. Den for den, those of beasts are preferrable to those of men."

"If there is anything more poignant than a body agonising for want of bread, it is a soul which is dying of hunger for light."

"Civil war? What does this mean? Is there any foreign war? Is not every war between men, war between brothers?"

"A cannon ball makes only two thousand miles an hour; light makes two hundred thousand miles a second. Such is the superiority of Jesus Christ over Napoleon."

"The pupil dilates in the night, and at last finds day in it, even as the soul dilates in misfortune, and at last finds God in it."

"God knows better than we do what we need....Because things are unpleasant, that is no reason for being unjust towards God."

"It is nothing to die; it is frightful not to live."

"There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another."

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

8/10

This book is tremendous. It is a decently quick and easy read as well. It is about a butler who dedicates his entire life to his trade. He is completely consumed by his service that he misses out on many of life's pleasures. He misses out, generally, on life. It is actually quite a heartbreaking novel. The butler, Stevens, is seriously one of the most likable characters I've seen in a novel and that's why it is so sad to see all that he misses out on.

The book takes place during a rare, week-long "vacation" that Stevens takes after 30 years of service. He is going to visit a former butleress, if that's what female butlers are called. Deep down I think they loved each other, but their profession kept them from enjoying life together. During his drive he has many recollections about his years of service. Doubts emerge in his mind whether his committed service was done toward a gentleman who may not have been that good of a guy. His life he gave to serve this man may not have been worth it.

The book is also pretty funny. Stevens is so concerned about learning how to "banter". His ability to interact with other people is a skill that he does not have due to his quiet butler nature. The fact that his inability to banter is about the most important consistent thought in his mind on recollecting his life makes this book all the more heartbreaking.

The movie of this book is also very good starring Anthony Hopkins and was nominated for Best Picture. It is a little different in places, but I guess all movie adaptations are.

One isolated quote I like:

"It is unbecoming to go on hating an enemy like this once a conflict is over. Once you've got a man on the canvas, that ought to be the end of it. You don't then proceed to kick him."

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

8/10

This book has a reputation. That it is long and boring. Not so, well, I guess it is long, but boring it is not. True, there are many chapters that talk on and on about whales and why they are so awesome. Those chapters were tough at times, but I'm all for a challenge. I ended up really liking this book. Melville's language is about as good as it gets, and good enough to get me through the whale description chapters. This book is deep and full of meaning, not just a book about revenge, but, I suppose it is about that too. Symbolism is laced all throughout, enough to keep my thinker thinking. The whale named Moby-Dick, it could be argued, represents God or spiritual power. Captain Ahab is out to destroy it and he is described many times as being "monomanaical" which is a really cool adjective. He also describes himself as "madness maddened". Awesome. Meanwhile, the narrator Ishmael, is obsessed with learning as much as he can about the whale, thus all the whale description chapters. He could be viewed as a man in search for God. Interesting stuff.

This book is also hilarious. Melville's phrasing of events is extremely funny. Especially at the start, so many funny parts. My personal fav is when Ishmael has to share a bed at an inn with a cannibal harpooneer that he has never met and all the nervous, panic-stricken thoughts going through his mind. Oh man, classic.

This book did not become popular during Melville's life and not until the 1920's. I feel terrible for Melville that he wrote such a profound, epic novel that got no recognition during his lifetime. Much, much more can be said about this book, but in an effort to make sure this post is not too long (for I have many a sweet quote to share), I will cut it short.

Selected quotes:

"Ignorance is the parent of fear."

"Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."

"The pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried,...Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow."

"But what is worship? - to do the will of God? - that is worship."

"To enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more."

"Wonderfullest things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs."

"Thy thoughts have created a creature in thee."

"Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!"

"In man or fish, wriggling is a sign of inferiority." Ha ha. Funny quote.

"How immaterial are all materials!"

Looks like my new blog will soon develop a reputation for being long and boring as well. Yowza.

The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark

9/10

First of all, coolest author's name ever. Walter Van Tilburg Clark? Are you kidding me? Awesome.

Moving on...this book is great. It started a little slow, and at first I was like, "Oh boy, some typical Western." But some typical Western it is not. Basically, a bar full of dudes catch wind that some cattle have been stolen from a nearby rancher and that the rancher has been killed. Everyone gets pretty riled up and become quite bloodthirsty and want to exact some revenge. Rather than contacting a sheriff and allowing the law to handle matters, the mob believes that they have the right and duty to capture the thieves and deal with them as the mob sees fit.

Sounds somewhat like a typical Western, right? An injustice has occurred, and a gang rides out to settle the score. However, it is when they find the three men who they believe committed the crime when it becomes clear that this isn't an ordinary Western. Are these the men who committed the crime? Several signs point to yes, but some things they say and how they act cause some in the mob to question whether these men are guilty. Led by a man who was set out to find blood at any cost, the gang is torn on whether to take the law into their own hands like they set out to do, or to wait back and let the matter follow a proper course of action. The emotional changes that take place among the men in the mob is compelling and intense. This book shows what can happen when anger and stubbornness are allowed to take a powerful hold on a group of people, often reason and common sense are ignored and discarded.

It was also made into a really good movie starring Henry Fonda.

Random quotes:

"Most men are more afraid of being thought cowards than of anything else, and a lot more afraid of being thought physical cowards than moral ones....moral courage is a lot higher quality than physical courage."

"I know better than to do what I do. I've always known better, and not done it....And that's hell; can you understand that that's hell?"

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

10/10

I just finished this book about two weeks ago. It was fantastic. It is a story about a 23-year-old man who decides that he wants to murder an old woman. He gets it into his head that there are certain elite individuals who are above the law and cannot be contained by it. Good causes that are against the law should not hold back the man who is extraordinary. He chooses the old woman as his victim after an unpleasant visit with her and after overhearing a subsequent conversation that this old woman should be killed for the betterment of society. He decides that he will kill this old woman for a good cause and is probably convinced that he is above the law and views himself as extraordinary.

At the end of Part 1 is when he commits the grisly murder involving a hatchet. Dostoyevsky's description of the murder is not for the faint of heart. The Punishment, which consists of the remainder of the book, comes about by the complete disconnect the young man feels from the world. He can no longer have personal relationships with anybody due to his secret. He has spurts of madness and deeply wishes that he had the power to confess his crime, which he comes close to doing many times. He thought he would be the same person after the crime because he is extraordinary, but he learns that this is not the case.

The conversations between the young man and a police inspector that happen many times in the book are fascinating. The investigator is very Sherlock Holmesish in the way he is able to deduce motives and actions. They have some interesting philosophical discussions where the investigator tortures the young man by hinting that he knows he is the murderer without coming out and saying it.

I haven't read anything that gets inside the mind of a madman/criminal better than this, besides, maybe, some stuff by Edgar Allan Poe. The tortured nature of the main character is very well done, unpredictable, and very convincing. The book shows how much suffering takes place when a man has something wicked hidden up inside himself. The book ends in a positive note with redemption and hope for a new life.

Some fun quotes:

From the first page: "I should like to know what people fear most: - whatever is contrary to their usual habits, I imagine."

"He never indulges in raillery...because he disdains to waste his words."

"A man who is really great, it seems to me, must suffer considerably here below."

"Drowning men, it is said, cling to wisps of straw!"

"A courageous man ought not to fear disgrace."

"A new life is not given for nothing; that it has to be paid dearly for, and only acquired by much patience and suffering, and great future efforts."

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

10/10

My first post about the books I have read had to be this one. I don't know that I have an official favorite book, but when people ask what my favorite book is, I usually tell them this book. Also, when asked who my favorite author is, I usually say Steinbeck, due in large part to this book. I suppose that the reason I like it so much is that I have never been more emotionally effected by a book than with The Grapes of Wrath. Emotionally effected? Yep, I said it.

The book is about the "Okies" who were driven to California during the Dust Bowl, shortly after the Great Depression. They could no longer grow their crops and had heard that money was to be made in California. Having been driven from their land, they are met with hardship after hardship, but always remain positive that life in California will ease their problems and view it as their promised land. The problem is that so many "Okies" migrated to California that there was little to no work available. And when there was work, they were paid pennies because if they wouldn't want to work for that little of money, someone else would be willing. A main theme throughout the novel is that the poor and struggling are the only ones who will lend a helping hand, they had to get by by sacrificing for each other. It also covers the relationships between the privelaged and the less fortunate.

It's true that there are parts of the book that could be viewed as less than entertaining. Steinbeck does do a lot of describing of the landscape that may tend to lose the distracted reader, but these descriptions are very important parts of the book.

The end of this book is my favorite ending to any book that I've ever read. I remember when I read the end, my jaw literally dropped and I sat there in stunned amazement. It was the most shocking surprise ending ever. If you've seen the movie, they couldn't show the ending because the shocking nature of the end of the book couldn't be put in movies back when the movie was made. I love discussing the end of the book with those who have read it. It is surprisingly an encouraging and upbeat ending to the book despite all of the trials that the family has gone through.

Steinbeck wrote this book after having visited several of the Okie camps in California. Knowing that many of the incidents in the book occurred to hundreds of people makes the book hit home that much more.

A quote from Ma Joad near the end of the novel: "If you're in trouble or hurt or need - go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones."

Another awesome quote when a preacher was baptizing lots of people: "He picked each one up in his arms and shouted, Take 'em Christ! and threw each one in the water."

If you haven't read this book, then read this book.