Off the Bookshelf: SciFi, Zombies, Animals & Alice

In the week break between my summer class and my fall class, I read as many books as possible. With the start of class, I will probably only have time for textbooks. In the order I read them:  

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

I read this book twice but not because I loved it. I read it a year ago for a scifi/fantasy book club that I did not attend.  I only remember that I did not like it.  This year, a different book club that I really like chose this book so I read it again. There are some great passages: 

“Time is a machine: it will convert your pain into experience. Raw data will be compiled, will be translated into a more comprehensible language.”

I loved many passages so I could not understand why I didn’t like the book overall. The book discussion clarified why: the first half is a zany, off-beat, funny, light-hearted science fictional caper. Then, there's an event and the book becomes a deep, depressing, examination of father-son relationships (which contains a well-written passage about the father-son relationship). The general consensus is this tone shift is starling and off-putting. I love book clubs because people can share their perspectives on the book. I suggest reading this book with a different perspective: this book is Buddhist mediation. Don’t read this book for the overall plot or the zany science fiction action (this does not happen), read it for the emotional passages. Take it bit by bit.

Feed by Mira Grant (Read this one!)

Another book I read for a different book club, the book can be summed up by two words: bloggers, presidential election. Oh, I guess I should mention the zombies. As the narrator points out, “The zombies are here, and they’re not going away, but they’re not the story[…] They did their part: They changed everything. Absolutely everything.” I liked how the story was written. Details about how the zombies affected everyday life were gradually revealed: people’s attitudes towards pets, eating meat, and the death penalty; the younger generation’s fear of crowds; eating outdoors in a restaurant is newsworthy; blood tests to prove you’re human are required to enter your own home; how and why bloggers became reporters.  I also loved the details behind the outbreak. 

Living in the Bay Area (California), I laughed at the following passage about Berkeley: “It was a city primed to believe any weird thing that came across the wire, and when all those arguably crazy people started hearing rumors about the dead rising from their graves, they didn’t dismiss them. They began gathering weapons, watching the streets for strange behavior and signs for sickness, and general behaving like folks who’d actually seen George Romero movie.” 

Read this if you’re into zombies or bloggers.  Read it this year while there is a presidential election.

Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals by Hal Herzog

I try my best to read an occasional “smartish” book between my fantasy and my detective novels. I read this book because I have seen it cited in other works, and I ran out of library books to read for the week and was able to focus on it.  This is pop science, so it’s accessible to a general audience.   It has not changed my mind on anything but it is a smartish read. A week after completing this book, I remember two facts. First, there is such a thing as dolphin therapy and it’s bunk (i.e. does not work).  Second, the much touted positive benefits of having pets can be obtained by reading a book quietly. In other words, pet a cat or read a book in lieu of petting a cat. Reading the summary remains me that he shows that cockfights can be more humane than factory farming in overall quality of life.  Read this if you’re into animals, psychology, and/or sociology.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

I remember finding the Disney movie very strange and somewhat frightening as a child. Thus, I never felt an inclination to read it. Then in college, every one of my linguistic textbooks quoted passages from Alice in Wonderland.  Although it made me curiouser and curiouser about the book, I did not read it. I finally read it after asking friends to be virtual reading partners. My feelings after reading it: I am definitely not ready to have kids as I find Alice annoying in first chapters (the crying, the interruptions), I think someone slipped me some psychedelic mushrooms, the wordplay isn’t as fun as when it is taken out of context and stands alone, I may have read it too fast to appreciate the fun, why do people like it so much?, I wonder if I’d like it better read out loud or if I had read it as a kid, I want to watch the Disney and Burton movies.

I did like "Through the Looking Glass" more than I liked “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.  I don’t know whether I like the sequel better or I got used to the writing style. “The Walrus and the Carpenter” poem made me laugh. I also really enjoyed the illustrations by John Tenniel. I am currently reading the The Annotated Alice and am learning rather disturbing facts about Lewis Carroll. I will only say that you should not read Alan Moore’s graphic (oh my, how very graphic) novel “The Lost Girls” before reading Alice in Wonderland. It definitely affected my reading of Alice and especially after reading the introduction to the Annotated Alice. Read this book if you're curious about it. Read it before reading "The Lost Girls".


What children's book did you first read as an adult, and what did you think of it?