The 305 Greatest Books - #203: Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

Continuing my trend to try and finish the BBC Great Read book list, I decided to tackle Birdsong, which was the highest ranked story I had left on the list (at #13), and so I was anticipating at least an interesting story. The book was listed as the second book of a trilogy, however from what I had read, the trilogy was a loose trilogy focusing mostly on the settings and not really the main characters, so I opted to skip the first book (The Girl at the Lion d'Or), and go straight into Birdsong. If I had missed anything by skipping the first book I am totally unaware of it. The book follows a couple of soldiers during and before World War I, as well as a decedent some years after the war. The book mainly follows Stephen Wraysford, from about 5 years before the war and then jumps into his time with the war, where we get the bulk of his story. The second POV soldier the story follows is Jack Firebrand, who is introduced during the war as a tunneler for the Allied side. While interesting, and very horny, the pre-war section of the book was kind of slow and didn't really draw me into the story at all. Even the first part of the war was plodding at times. As the war dragged on though, we get into the psychological aspects of war on the soldiers and how that same war was viewed by the people at home. It was an interesting dichotomy between the two worlds, with quite a bit of PTSD ("shell shock") thrown in the mix. By the time we get to the last main section of the book, I could not put it down. I had to know what happened to our heroes because by this point I felt anything could happen, even with our glimpses of the future with our occasional jumps in time. Overall, I found the book a rather interesting look at soldiers and how war leaves them broken people, not sure how to reintegrate themselves back into a society that has known no direct conflict. This is especially disheartening by witnessing the occasional looks at the family members who "just don't get it". I would say that this was good book to read, but the slow parts, and a lot of just unlikeable characters, have me leaning towards not putting this on my list. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #202: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

I am of two minds about this book. I keep seeing people rave about this book (and the subsequent series) and I can understand it. The Pillars of the Earth is an intriguing and absorbing story that is essentially about the building of a cathedral in the small English town of Kingbridge, back in the mid 1100's. The trials and tribulations that it takes to build this cathedral are fun to watch and the in-depth analysis of revolutionary inventions of architecture are fascinating to read about. Doing outside research, I also discovered that the story is, more or less, historically accurate. Which makes this an even more enjoyable book to read. The principle character is Prior Phillip, who leads the creation and building of the church throughout the story. Besides him there are several characters who come and go throughout the story. And while some of them are probably considered our heroes, and some considered our villains, most of them were insufferable. While the story of the church was fascinating, the characters were the major drawback. It was the women in particular that I found problematic. This story emphasizes why I have been more drawn to stories written by women, because the few women in this story are used and abused by the other characters to such a point that I can't imagine any woman reading this story and actually enjoying it. To give the author credit, the main female character, Aliena, despite going through the worst ordeals possible throughout the story, still manages to become a person of some influence. However, many of the men throughout the story fail upwards. And while that may be akin to real life, I would prefer not to see it so plainly laid out on the page. So, while I am considering continuing on in the series with the other books, I can't in good conscious recommend this on my list. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #201: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

Although I have never heard of this book, or the author before, I found out the author, Dodie Smith, had also written The Hundred and One Dalmatians, from which the Disney movie was based on. So I thought, ok, this could be good. The premise is that a family had moved into a long abandoned castle and were severely down on their luck. The book is written from the first person perspective of Cassandra Mortmain in the guise of diary entries. Her family all live within this castle, James, her father who is a world famous author having written one breakthrough novel but hasn't been able to write anything since. Her step-mother, Topaz, is a model who hasn't had much luck since the castle is far away from London and there isn't much work without travel. Her sister Rose, who really is useless. She apparently has a brother who is hardly mentioned, and a foster ward, Stephen, who is in love with Cassandra. And while I had assumed the book would be about this castle and perhaps their refurbishment of it, that is not in the least what the book was about. It is about their relationship with their new American landlords, who recently inherited the property, upon which the castle sits. While this book would be considered a character study, it is a rather boring one. I truly didn't care about most of the characters. And I felt no desire to go back to the book upon putting it down. I didn't hate the book, I just felt no desire to read it. It was meh. Even as the story ends on a "cliffhanger", you can see where the story is likely to go and be fine with the resolution. The writing is nice and the narrator does do a good job of keeping the listener informed but there is nothing compelling about the book. Overall it's ok. Nothing to write home about though.  

The 305 Greatest Books - #200: Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Ficciones (AKA Fictions, AKA Collected Fictions) by Jorge Luis Borges. The book can be found on the Norwegian Book List.

Initially, I had a rather difficult time trying to find the proper collection for my reading list. The book is listed as "Collected Fictions" on the Norwegian Book List. However, I can not find any book by Jorge Luis Borges with that specific title. After some internet sleuthing, I have come to the conclusion that it refers to Fictions, or Ficciones, as per the title of the book I read. This book is a compilation of two short story compilations by Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths and Artifices, totaling 17 short stories. I have a hard time reviewing short stories because some could be fantastic and others terrible, and really, they often have no correlation between each other. I also don't usually like short story collections because I don't have enough time to get into the story. It does take my brain some time to get accustomed to the writing style of the author and where the story is going before I am comfortable enough with the story to give it the attention it deserves, neither of which I usually get with a short story. With that being my caveat, on to the total review. Borges was an Argentinean short story writer who primarily wrote in Spanish, however I am led to believe that the English language itself and writings in English greatly influenced his work. I am surprised that his writings were not originally in English because typically translations tend to smooth over the language differences, choosing simpler, more common words, when translating into English. However, these translations are so rich in the language used that I can't even comprehend the translation abilities of the translator. I am certain Borges did have a hand in the translations, though, since he was proficient in both. Most of the stories in the first collection, The Garden of Forking Paths, had a very similar theme. Most were based on some made up book. Some of the stories were reviews of these made up books, others were entire mythological quests to discover these made up books about made up civilizations. And while I greatly enjoyed these stories, I definitely felt some of them were better than others. "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" stands apart as a marvelous story about a mythical, perhaps alien, culture that only has a few books scattered across the globe describing this place that I would love to hear more about. "The Babylon Lottery" also had me entranced because it definitely seemed like a precursor to Squid Game. In the second volume, Artifices, Borges branched out a bit more. In this one though he seemed to get more religious, or at least he became more fascinated with the Name of God, which came up in at least three separate stories. And while I did not get into these stories as much as the ones from the first collection, I did rather like "Death and the Compass" and was rather surprised at the twist ending. Overall, while I did enjoy them, and I thought the language, while it could be heavy at times, was beautiful, I did not enjoy all of them enough to recommend them to my list. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #199: Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

I should note that this book is from the BBC's Big Read list, which is a compilation of survey responses across the UK asking for the general public's favorite novels during 2003. With that in mind, there are many books which would seem out of place on any other "100 Greatest Books" lists, this one included. With that being said, Bridget Jones's Diary was so much fun. I laughed quite a bit and generally enjoyed it. It was far from taxing to read and I breezed through it. It turned out to be the perfect beach read on my vacation. It is also very far from "higher lit" that I would equate with the 100 Greatest Books. But it is just simply a fun book to read. I was invested in Brigit's year and I loved the setup of the diary format throughout the year. The book also lends itself perfectly to being made into a movie, hence the reason I am not surprised whatsoever that it was made into a very popular movie (however I have not seen it at this point in time). Overall, it was just an easy to read, fun book, where you could turn off your brain and enjoy the drama on the page.