Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin

1/10

I read this book a while ago and the only thing I really remember about it is that I didn't like it. At all. So this one will be short and I am posting this one just to get it out of the way. But apparently most everyone else likes it somehow so I am in the minority, just so you know.

A lady finds out her brother has AIDS and she has to break the news to their Mom but she has a strained relationship with her. So the rest of the book is a bunch of pointless arguing and getting mad at each other for small things because of all these lame underlying issues they have that I couldn't relate to at all. And her brother comes and stays with the Grandma for a while and he reveals that he has been gay for a long time. Needless to say, there are so many heart to heart conversations and coming to terms with each other. I was like, "Yay! Looks like another chapter of deep, meaningful conversations that are carried forth with such honesty and passion, it is so fun to read about this dysfunctional family." I don't know, it was just a lame book for me.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

6/10

I read this 6 or 7 years ago. It's a good book and pretty interesting. It is a book for the serious reader, that's for sure. It has a very Biblical feel to it with the way that it is written. I enjoyed it to an extent but lacked a certain knowledge and feel for the South African political climate in 1948 that would have helped me grasp much of the underlying themes that I probably missed.

It is an interesting story and one that is pretty heart-wrenching. A priest from a small town in South Africa goes to Johannesburg to help his sister who had fallen into wayward paths. Once he gets her taken care of he begins to look for his son who had come to the big city and did not return. He starts to get a scent and follow his trail and finds out some pretty crazy things including... (should I say it, is it a huge spoiler? Yes it is. Do not read the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to read the spoiler). Here it is, his son has been arrested for the murder of a man while committing a burglary of his house. It is important who this murdered person is and what all comes from it. All in all, it ends up as a pretty touching tale.

The book also has this unique way of doing dialogue. Rather than using quotation marks Paton uses hyphens. So, in honor of that method I will do the same for my selected quote:

- [O]ur Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Katherine Mansfield's Selected Stories

2/10

I read this 7 or 8 years ago. It is a collection of 35 short stories, 20 letters written by Mansfield, and 18 works of criticism from the smarty-farty's. Lets just say that I didn't enjoy reading this book.

First of all, for some reason I am not a big fan of short stories. Which is weird because it seems like they would be awesome. After all, you can start and finish a whole tale in one sitting. But it seems like most short story writers just ramble about non-eventful activities and I'm supposed to come away with some deep meaning from it all. No thank you. It has been a while since I read Mansfield's stories but I recall that there was a lot of boredom on my end and I was like, "Oops, looks like I didn't catch the deep meaning of a story about a guy giving a dill pickle to a bunch of people." It's true, Mansfield's 'A Dill Pickle' is not the type of tale I enjoy. Looking over the stories there are only two that I recognize that I remember enjoying. The first one is 'The Woman at the Store' which is actually really, really good and the type of short story that I wish was more common. The second one is 'Millie.' Both stories actually have some excitement involved with pretty cool endings (is that so much to ask?). The other 33 were meh.

Second of all, I have stated before that I don't usually like reading scholarly criticism. And this was no exception. And yet I read them all anyway (why do I do it?).

But, the saving grace, believe it or not, was the letters. She is a good writer (I just didn't enjoy her stories) and her honest letters to her acquaintances were kind of fun to read.

A quote from one of her letters to Garnet Trowell (the son of her cello teacher and her "lover". Garnet's parents forced them to separate and he was the father of the child Mansfield miscarried. Juicy stuff): "[I]t is the same with Love. The more you give me, the more I feel that you enrich my nature so I can give you more."

Monday, August 6, 2012

Look to the Mount by Leland H. Monson

<-- a="" about="" and="" at="" be="" beatitudes.="" book.="" book="" br="" breakdown="" breaks="" but="" by="" can="" could="" didn="" don="" down="" enjoyed="" find="" for="" from="" gaga="" get="" got="" have="" honest="" i="" in="" is="" it.="" it="" just="" like="" literally="" looking="" looks="" lots="" m="" meekness="" member="" mish.="" mission="" more="" mount="" much="" my="" obscure.="" of="" ok="" on="" one="" only="" out="" outside="" over="" particularly="" picture="" pretty="" provides="" quotes="" re-read="" read="" realize="" really="" remember="" sealy="" sermon="" so="" sources.="" still="" sure="" t="" texas.="" that="" the="" there="" things="" thinking="" this="" to="" underlined="" was="" wasn="" while="" with="" you="">4/10
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I will end with a quote from one of the aforementioned outside sources:

From William George Jordan under the chapter 'Judge Not That Ye Be Not Judged': "One judges a painting by the full view of the whole canvas; separate, isolated square inches of color are meaningless. Yet we dare to judge our fellow man by single acts, and words, misleading glimpes, and deceptive moments of special strain. For these we magnify a mood into a character and an episode into a life."

Saturday, August 4, 2012

The Way to Nibbana by Ven. Narada Thera

3/10

I read this book on my mission after a Buddhist lady invited us into her home, showed us her various shrines, and gave us some literature. I always enjoyed such encounters and she was a real nice lady as I recall. Meeting a Buddhist on my mission was usually more enjoyable than meeting a "Christian" because the Buddhist was usually kind while the "Christian" usually not so much. So I said, "Hey, I will most certainly peruse this book during my morning studies and sometimes during my lunch break." And so I did, and so I did.

It's a short little 83-page book of Buddhist philosophies on how to become a better person and strive for better things. I learned a bit about the religion (while still not fully grasping all of the terminology and such) and found some of the ideas to be useful. I also enjoyed finding some similarities between Mormonism and Buddhism, including their beliefs on chastity ("sexual misconduct debases the exalted nature of man"), Word of Wisdom stuff ("certain drinks and drugs promote heedlessness and mental distraction"), fasting ("fasting at least once a month is advisable"), tips on how to subdue evil thoughts ("endeavor to control any unwholesome thoughts at their very inception," "[h]arbour[] a good thought opposite to the encroaching one"), etc.

And for those of you wondering what "Nibbana" is, I will write the first sentence of the introduction: "Nibbana or Nirvana can be interpreted to mean the extinction of the thirst of sensual pleasures." So there you have it, this book was about the journey to such self-mastery.

Quotes:

"Very few people have realised that the cause of suffering is due to their own attachment and craving towards various things."

"The Buddhist way of salvation and eternal bliss cannot be obtained unless man purifies himself by becoming a perfect one."

"There is a great difference between the pleasure one derives from sensual gratification and that which one gets from restraining from it....[T]he highest form of bliss in life is to be attained by controlling one's senses and not by indulging in them freely."

"The best repentance is the will not to repeat that evil."

And then this quote for fun: "Bodies are adorned and adored. But those charming, adorable and enticing forms, when disfigured by time and disease, become extremely repulsive."

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

6/10

I read this several years ago. It was alright but one of my least favorite of the Narnia books. I just now decided that I will reveal the order of my favorite Narnia books when I make my final post about the last book in the Narnia series, so stay tuned.

The Pevensies are brought back to Narnia after a short absence as they are waiting at a train station. They don't recognize it as Narnia at first and think they are in a completely different land. But they soon realize that they are in Narnia but that it has been many many years that have passed in Narnia since they last were there. Much had been corrupted and they work with the Narnians to restore the proper order. Caspian is a Prince who is the rightful King of Narnia and a good dude who joins forces with the Narnians. There's a cool face-off duel at the end between Peter and the main bad guy who had usurped the throne.

So, the fun part is locating the Christian symbolism. This is where Aslan usually comes into play. There is a part where they are journeying through the wilderness and Lucy is the only one who can see Aslan and wants to follow him but no one else can see him and they don't listen to her. They choose to follow their own path and end up getting lost. Eventually they listen to Lucy and start to believe and eventually see him as well and find their way. So the symbolism there is clear. The cooler symbolism is that the whole book can be viewed as representing the falling away from true Christianity and its restoration.

A quote:

"Have you pen and ink, Master Doctor?" "A scholar is never without them, your Majesty."

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

7/10

I read this some 6 or 7 years ago. It was my first H.G. Wells book that I ever read (I've only read two but will certainly read more). I actually liked it quite a bit. Wells was kind of one of the first science fiction writers (this book was written in 1898) and still one of the best.

This meteor-like cylinder object lands on earth. It sits there for a while and then, eventually, the aliens come out in these tripods and wreak some serious havoc. They pretty much wipe the floor with the human race for the entire book. The main character and his comrades sure were on the ropes. So much so that I couldn't see how they would pull it out. They were always on the run with fewer and fewer places to actually run to. Things continued to look very bleak even up until the very last chapter. I kept wondering how so much could be overcome with so few pages left. I obviously won't give it away but it was a sweet twist ending, or at least I thought so. It was such a practical and legitimate way to reasonably end a story about alien invaders.

The Tom Cruise movie version was a "it didn't suck but coulda done without it" type of a movie. Surprisingly the book wins again (I continue to reveal myself as the annoying "it wasn't as good as the book" guy).

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

5/10

I read this about 7 or 8 years ago. It's a fun little book, not as good as Mere Christianity or The Screwtape Letters, but it's alright nonetheless.

The book is about a bus ride that a bunch of people take from the "grey town" (hell) toward the mountains (heaven). (I actually read this story about a bus ride while I rode the bus between Orem and Draper). Eventually everyone is given the choice of whether they want to return to the grey town or continue on to the sunrise (a place they got to partially experience and recognize as a better place). Yet most people chose to return to the grey town. And we do the same thing, choose the things of the world in the face of the way better and more obvious choice.

His quote in the preface sums it up well: "If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell. I believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what he abandoned (even in plucking out his right eye) was precisely nothing: that the kernel of what he was really seeking even in his most depraved wishes will be there, beyond expectation, waiting for him in 'the High Countries.'" And later: "I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself."

More quotes:

"That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory."

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'

"There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels."

"Good beats upon the damned incessantly as sound waves beat on the ears of the deaf, but they cannot receive it. Their fists are clenched, their teeth are clenched, their eyes fast shut. First they will not, in the end they cannot, open their hands for gifts, or their mouths for food, or their eyes to see."

Friday, July 13, 2012

Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Nancy

10/10

I read this some 9 years ago-ish. It is absolutely hilarious. Laugh out loud ("LOL") hilarious. Almost as hilarious as my LOL joke I just did.

So I read this and the intro to the book by Jerry Seinfeld and sort of always assumed that Ted L. Nancy was Seinfeld. But, alas, Ted L. Nancy is the pseudonym for Barry Marder as this link will tell you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_L._Nancy Either way, it just doesn't get much funnier than this book.

I guess I should tell you what the book is all about. It is just a series of letters written by this guy to hotels, companies, etc. with crazy requests or ideas. On the left side of the page is his letter and on the right side of the page is the usually serious yet confused response from the company or hotel. It is awesome.

A few of my favorite letters include:

A letter to a hotel asking if the lost and found department has found his missing tooth. "It is a small hard whitish object. The size of a piece of corn. It has a rippled top; speck of silver embedded in the top."

His hilarious response to that hotels response informing him that they had searched for the tooth but to no avail. The letter included a "Certificate of Excellence" that has a picture of a 1st place badge, a birthday cake with candles, and a crowd cheering. Ha ha, oh man.

A letter to the California Institute of Technology's Physics Department. "Doesn't it make sense to you, that if you weighed 150 pounds, and you could lift 300 pounds, you should be able to fly by sitting on a chair and lifting it up?" And he closes the letter with: "I hope to excel in Physics some day like you. I think I'm doing 'ok' now."

A letter to the Topps Baseball Card Company informing them that he has in his possession "Nine and some shavings but a full set" of Micky Mantle's toenails and would like to donate it to them. "He had trouble with the last nail but eventually his diligence paid off."

A letter to Hanes Underwear with his idea for "Six Day Underwear" that has "three leg hole openings."

A letter to a hotel and casino asking if it is ok if he wore his lucky clothes to gamble in which is a shrimp costume, "a reddish veiny body outfit with a brittle curved fintail. The top of my head will be hardish and crunchy and have tarter sauce on it."

A letter to a hotel requesting certain accommodations because he looks exactly like Abraham Lincoln and does not want to be bothered by people. "People love Lincoln! One guy tried to give me his Lincoln car once, that's how impressed he was. I did not take it, of course. But I have been in the tunnel."

A letter to the Minnesota Twins asking if he could be the new mascot - The Minnesota Twin. A mechanical twin duplicates his movements. "I dance around, move about, run, stop, start, tumble."

A letter to Highlights magazine to see if they could publish pictures of his freckle that looks like Anthony Quinn and his "mole that when bunched together kinda looks like Richard Gere. When not bunched, Andy Griffith."

Maybe my favorite letter is one to Al Gore telling him how great of a Vice President he is. "I hope that you are Vice President forever! You're more than a V.P. - you're an MVP - Most Valuable Vice President." And later, "You look like Sylvestor Stallone. Same hair."

A letter to a hotel informing them that he is "a level 4 bed wetter. Although in six months I will be reclassified a level 3." He tells them that "I like to let the hotel know so that I don't damage anything. (Plants, dresser, etc.)."

An awesome letter to Shasta soda about how he thinks it is a huge mistake that they are "changing your name to Laarksvard's Hot Cream." Ha ha.

A letter to Kal Can Cat Food Co. telling them about his 36 year old cat and how all his cat eats is their cat food. "We used to watch Chuck Berry together. But now his eyesight is bad."

I guess I will stop there, although there are many, many more amazing gems. So classic.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

7/10

I read this book as a youngster (or had it read to me, I don't recall) but revisited it and read it probably about 8 years ago or so. Also, this book cover is sweet.

This is the first book in the Narnia series (I will have none of this chronological order nonsense that has 'The Magician's Nephew' first, such talk is blasphemous). This is a fun little children's fantasy adventure story of the Pevensie children and their journey to Narnia where they meet a lion named Aslan (Christ figure in the book). Edmund and his sweettooth for Turkish Delight nearly ruin everything. Some scary White Witch turning-people-to-stone-figures action takes place, but the gang eventually pulls through. An Aslan sacrifice where he gives his life for Edmund's is the most emphatic Christian allegory and the heart of the story.

It is mostly a fun read for kids and I am actually pretty stoked for the time when I can read this to my youngens. And it is a decent read for adults who like to look for some Christian allegories. In the end, we all know that I am a big C.S. Lewis guy but I think I am a bigger fan of his straight Christian doctrinal books more than his Narnia Christian symbolism books (even though I like Narnia books just fine). The End.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

5/10

I read this book about 8 years ago. It is one of three Hemingway books that I have read and it ranks 2nd of those three (my favorite has been discussed in a previous post, so go find it if you care).

I didn't love this book but didn't hate it. It is typical Hemingway. Not much is going on on the surface but much more once you peel the ol' layers. On the surface it looks like a bunch of drunk writers and friends who just sit around cafes in Europe getting drunk and watching bull-fighting. But more at the heart of the matter it is about a guy who got injured in the war and the injury caused his impotence (this isn't spelled out super obviously but is hinted at here and there) and his relationship with a woman that he loves but cannot have because of his injury. The woman he loves uses him for emotional support but always abandons him to pursue other men.

Like I said, I wasn't crazy for it but there is enough in here to keep yourself interested and this may just be the book to read if you want to read a Hemingway novel.

A quote:

"There are people to whom you could not say insulting things. They give you the feeling that the world would be destroyed, would actually be destroyed before your eyes, if you said certain things." I think this is how people feel about me, ha ha.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Understanding The Lord of the Rings

2/10

So I took this sweet J.R.R. Tolkien class in college. It was a scene man. Lets just say that there were more than one girls who on more than one occasion dressed up as elves to attend class. This book was probably the second nerdiest book we read in the course (but the nerdiest one I read since I didn't even attempt The Silmarilion). I read a chapter, maybe two that semester and read the rest of the book a few years later during breaks at work.

About the book: First of all, these types of books are usually not my thing. I like to read but I really don't like reading scholars write about books. I usually don't get much out of them and it is typically just an exercise of showing how smart they are rather than being clear, insightful, or helpful. This book was no different. There were a few insights sprinkled in a mass of confusion and smarty-pants talk. But I guess these types of books are meant for an audience that I am not a part of. C.S. Lewis has an essay in here which is good because, well, its C.S. Lewis. If you are a diehard Lord of the Rings fan then it may be worth checking out. But then again, I like Lord of the Rings quite a bit myself.

A few quotes I liked:

From C.S. Lewis: "And all the time we know that the fate of the world depends far more on the small movement than on the great."

From Rose A. Zimbardo: "[N]othing is created evil. Evil is good that has been perverted."

Probably my favorite tidbit in the book, a Jekyll and Hyde analogy from Verlyn Flieger: "Frodo and Gollum can fit the same pattern, Frodo as the self, Gollum as the other....Gollum is his dark side, the embodiment of his growing, overpowering desire for the Ring."



Saturday, June 23, 2012

Gospel Principles

8/10

That's right, last year's Priesthood/Relief Society manual. I actually finished this book a few days before last Christmas. (That's keeping up with the lessons throughout as they are being taught, yeah, I'm like that). I was also a Priesthood Instructor for a time and taught a handful of the lessons in this manual. So you can consider me as somewhat of an expert in the Gospel Principles arena is what I am trying to get at. It is a cool book that breaks down what we believe in as simple a manner as any manual possibly can. And when people say that Mormons believe in crazy stuff, they should read this book and realize that what Mormons actually believe in makes more sense than any religion out there.

I shall now thumb through my book to find a few quotes to share:

"He has chosen the time and place for each of us to be born so we can learn the lessons we personally need and do the most good with our individual talents and personalities."

"All of our thoughts, our words, and our actions are influenced by our prayers."

"How can we increase our faith?...We study and practice and work at it."

"Strong drink often brings cruelty, poverty, disease, and plague into the home. It often is a cause of dishonesty, loss of chastity, and loss of good judgment. It is a curse to all who drink it."

"Adam and Eve were married by God before there was any death in the world. They had an eternal marriage."

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare

6/10

I decided to crank this fun little Shakespeare play out over President's Day weekend. It was good times.

It is one of Shakespeare's comedies. I have only read two of his comedies and they were good but not as good as his other stuff. But I liked this one better than the other two that I had read. Some serious trickery is involved. There's these two people, Benedick and Beatrice, (Steve Holt of Arrested Development played this role masterfully) who are always sparring wits and openly insult each other. A plot is involved where Benedick is told that Beatrice is in love with him and Beatrice is told that Benedick is in love with her. They then start reading into everything and ultimately come to the realization that they love the other as well. There is also another plot that matches Claudio and Hero and a later plot where Claudio is told that Hero is unfaithful to him. This leads to an epic wedding alter scene and yet another plot to get Claudio to again love Hero. It was fun stuff and classic Shakespeare. Now only if I could see this play directed by the vision of Tobias. Ha-zaa!

Quotes:

"How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!"

"Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites."

"O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do!"

"What we have we prize not to the worth Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value, then we find The virtue that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours."

"There's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself."

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

5/10

I read this book a few weeks ago during my spring break. As a big fan of Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," I was quite excited to read this, all the while realizing that it will likely not meet the awesomeness of "Catcher in the Rye." With that said, I was a bit disappointed in it overall. It was written very well and I expected no less. I just didn't enjoy the characters pretty much.

It starts with Franny meeting her boyfriend and they are at a restaurant and they just fight the whole time because Franny is starting to get very annoyed with all the scholarly types because they think that they are so smart and superior. This is something that I can sort of relate to except she gripes about it in such a way that makes it look like she herself feels way superior and smarter than everyone else. Apparently she read some book about a guy who wants to learn to pray constantly in his heart so he repeats this prayer over and over until eventually it becomes a part of him like a heartbeat. So Franny starts to do that too and it makes her judgmental of everybody. She ends up having a massive breakdown. Plus, her boyfriend is a punk.

Then the story shifts to Zooey (pronounced Zoe?) who is Franny's brother. He is sitting in a tub, his mom comes in and he treats her all crappy and rips on her all the time. Then Zooey goes and talks with Franny (who has come back home all psycho) and tries to help her stop being a whack job. This part of the book was a bit better, it is just Zooey going off on her (not trying to be rude but he isn't really helping). Finally he leaves, goes upstairs and into his older brother's room and calls Franny on the phone from the upstairs phone pretending to be his brother. This was the best part of the book. Eventually she finds out it is Zooey and then she actually opens up, they have a heart to heart, and gets her to have a proper perspective.

The end. As I said, I didn't love it but it was alright I suppose.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

3/10

This was the book I chose to read during Christmas break. I finished it up out in Utah. I chose it because, a) I wanted to read a Virginia Woolf book before declaring a boycott on all of her books; and b) It seemed the proper length of book to finish in time for when school started again. After making this decision on these unreasonable grounds, I less than anxiously began. When the first line began thus, "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself," I think I let out an audible, "Oh boy."

In honor of Virginia Woolf (a.k.a. "the semi-colon queen"), I will write this whole paragraph with semicolons instead of periods: The whole book, all 296 pages, covers one day (with random flashbacks); the story will change from one character to another without much hint that it does so; the characters are rarely introduced; instead, they are thrown in there and you have to slowly learn about them as the story progresses; while I typically enjoy reading stories that go deep into a character's thought processes and their methods of analyzing other's behavior, it is less enjoyable when the characters are so serious, not funny and dramatic about everything; I wish one of the characters was likable, not that they were unlikable, just not likable; the whole book was about Mrs. Dalloway getting flowers, how she was in love with this other guy before they got married and he still loves her but they were not right for each other, and there is a boring party at the end; I had to constantly force myself to pay attention while I read; while I did not love this book, I will give credit where credit is due - Woolf did have a pretty snazzy grasp of the English language and crafted some nifty sentences; but, alas, it was not enough to save the boring subject matter, for, style over substance has never been my cup o' tea; and I refuse to say I liked it just because it is "critically acclaimed."

It's true, she did bust out long sentences with infinity semi-colons. I get the whole semi-colon concept and all, but I am of the position that it should be used sparingly. There is a time and place, Virginia.

I also came to the sudden realization that I should have invoked some kind of star system to rate the books I've read. But I haven't. Is it too late? Do I go back and put in a star rating for each book? What a dilemma. But, doing a star system might lead to my ultimate demise because I would constantly second guess my rating in comparison with other ratings of books that are extremely difficult to compare. In conclusion, I will not do it I say. But if I did, I would probably give this book like 3 out of ten or something. Maybe 3.2.

Quotes:

"Communication is health; communication is happiness." Ha! There's that semi-colon...

"It is a thousand pities never to say what one feels."

Friday, January 13, 2012

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

8/10

This is a short little story, a "novella" if you will. I know I will. I just finished this over my Christmas break. I read the first little chapter in Utah and then the rest in the Salt Lake airport/airplane from Salt Lake to Denver/Denver airport/airplane from Denver to Columbus. I liked being able to cross the United States in a matter of hours while reading about grueling Yukon klondike treks that took months to complete. Technology!

You may very well know the story, but I will continue nevertheless. The story is about this dog named Buck and most of the narrative is through Buck's perspective. At first I was a little hesitant to fully commit to reading about the thought processes of a dog. Then I remembered that it was The Call of the Wild and how else would it be told? By random iditarod sledders? Nay. Buck was in a much better position to analyze his own experiences and survival methods. Plus, I loved this opening line: "Buck did not read the newspapers." Ha ha. Anyway, back to the story. Buck is wrenched from his cozy, civilized, domesticated life and sold to Alaskans for some sled-pulling. He pretty much dominates. There is some triumph, some brutal hardships, and other various sad moments. But Buck finds his calling in the end. The call of the wild that is.

I think I enjoyed this book because I have always been a fan of slavery stories. Let me be clear: Not a fan of slavery, but of slavery stories: the Underground Railroad, Roots, Harriet Jacobs, Uncle Tom's Cabin was entertaining, etc. This had that kind of feel to it. Buck stolen, forced into labor, pushed beyond reasonable limits, and eventually free in a new place but he makes it his own. P.S. I hope it's not insensitive to make such a comparison. Sometimes my "sensitve meter" doesn't function properly.

Also, Jack London is a great writer. Really enjoyed his style. How cool is this oft repeated phrase: "The toil of trace and trail." Answer: really cool.