The 306 Greatest Books #42 - The Portrait of a Lady

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This book can be found on the Sybervision and the Observer Book Lists. 

The Portrait of a Lady, and Henry James in general, fall into my unmemorable category. Neither of the two stories that I have read of his on my lists I can recall at all. The Portrait of a Lady follows an American woman, Isabel Archer, who moved to Europe and ends up having to adapt from the free thinking American way of life to the more rigid thinking of England at the time. This follows the main theme of the novel, which is the mixing of the old and the new, with often disastrous consequences for the old way of life. Overall, the story is well written with an easy flow to it, however unremarkable it may be. I enjoyed reading at the time but after many years I cannot recall the plot off the top of my head at all.

The 306 Greatest Books #41 - The Call of the Wild

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Call of the Wild by Jack London. This book can be found on the Sybervision, Observer, and My Book Lists. 

When you think about one of Jack London's Alaskan dog books, you would likely think about White Fang, I assume due to the popularity of the movie a few years ago. However, before White Fang was published, London published the much shorter The Call of the Wild. To start off I must say that this book was fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially dog lovers. It is gripping and intense, so much so that it makes you want to read more. And to top it all off, its short, only about 80 pages. I was able to read it in about 2 days without trying very hard. It is about a dog, Buck, who was kidnapped from California and taken to Alaska to be a sled dog. The book is entirely through the dogs perspective but it does not have any of the cheesy "dog voices". Not once do you hear what they are saying but you get how he is feeling, especially among his interactions with other dogs and humans. Again I highly recommend, you won't be disappointed.

Dogs - Our new dog, Twix

Note - This was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

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Introducing our new dog: Twix.

We got her from the SPCA and she already had that name so we didn't want to change it. Although she doesn't really respond to it she is getting better. We have had her a week and two days now and when we first got her she seemed really sad and terribly thin. She really didn't like to be left alone at all and she was over-joyous whenever we came home. But now she is starting to get used to us and whenever we go out she is getting better. We had to use short breaks to teach her that we would always come back. She loves to play, more and more each day. She plays fetch and tug of war with a rope and a squeaky football attached to a rope. She it so very energetic, she absolutely loves to be chased around the yard and she will always vie for our attention. If I stop petting her she will run over to Veronica and then back to me when she is done. It's rather humorous.

The 306 Greatest Books #40 - The Time Machine

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. This book can be found on the Sybervision Book List. 

Similar to Frankenstein and Dracula, The Time Machine represents one of the world's earliest cases of science-fiction. Starting in a time when Jules Verne and other H.G. Wells classics were pushing the bounds of conventional fiction, The Time Machine shows us what Wells' view of the future might look like as his time traveler takes a machine into the future. The book is a very short and fast-paced, action story that is perfectly geared towards the geek in me. Fairly recently, from when the book was publish, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was introduced and this book incorporates the (then) modern day thinking on the Theory of Evolution. This shows that Wells was on the very cutting edge of society, taking new ideas and incorporating them into an already cutting edge story. Overall, this is a great book. The plot starts off fairly slow, but as it picks up, the story draws you in quite quickly. Wells does an amazing job of taking his modern day society and projecting what might happen with the human race several hundred thousand years in the future. He then proceeds beyond this to the end of the planet Earth all together. It is definitely a visionary work for its time and a must read.

The 306 Greatest Books #39 - The Divine Comedy

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. This book can be found on the Sybervision and the Norwegian Book Lists. 

The Divine Comedy is broken up into three separate parts: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. The story follows the poet Dante as he travels through each of the three afterlife worlds, meeting many of the people who once lived along his travels. By far the most interesting and most commonly read was Inferno. I had read Inferno in one of my college classes and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The visualizations were exquisite and remain with you years after you read it. I still remember everything that happened upon reaching the furthest depths of Hell. However, having read this in one of my classes I was probably spoiled, because upon reading the remaining two books on my own for this list, I found them dull and incomprehensible at times. The contemporary illustrations were also well beyond my understanding, even with an annotated book copy that helped explain some of that stuff. It got tedious though to bounce back and forth between text and description. It could have been my translation was not the best (a good translation is key), but it could also have been that having someone knowledgeable about the book made it that much more enjoyable. My suggestion with this series is to do it with someone who knows what is going on, like in a college class.

The 306 Greatest Books #38 - Dracula

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Dracula by Bram Stoker. This book can be found on the Sybervision Book List. 

Like Frankenstein, which I had read prior to this novel, this novel brings the horror genre back to the beginning. This is essentially the one that started it all. I assumed I was familiar with the plot, having seen snippets of takes on the character for decades. However, I don't think I've ever seen a straight out adaptation of the book. Reading the original novel, though gave me perspective on how the character of Dracula has changed through time, from his very first incarnation, through the many movies, novels, and TV series that vampires have been inserted into. The story is written as a series of  letters and journal entries, very much like Frankenstein, however these are all from several different characters that interact with the vampire. Due to this method of storytelling, the story ends up not being very fluid at times, but it is still enjoyable nonetheless. I would have to say that it is a definite recommend for those who want to read the original.

The 306 Greatest Books #37 - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. This book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists. 

Continuing on through my fantasy kick, I decided to hit up one of the hallmarks of children's literature, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. However, I like to read stories in chronological order even if they were not originally written in that order, so I started with the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia series (chronologically), The Magician's Nephew. This gave me a different perspective on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe than I'm sure a lot of normally get by only reading that one novel, or reading them in release order. The Magician's Nephew gave me a  background on a lot of the features seen within the novel, not the least important being the lamppost. The story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe follows a group of kids who find themselves in another world by going though a magical wardrobe. Once in this magical land of Narnia, they are drawn into an all out war of good versus evil. Being a "kids book", means that the book is very easy to read (you can breeze right through it) but it is still enjoyable for all ages. My biggest peeve about the book, though is the overarching religious themes. In this original story they aren't as blatant, but as you get into the later Narnia books it becomes pretty oppressive. Definitely on my must read list though.  

The 306 Greatest Books #36 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. This book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists. 

Continuing on my "I'm going to read some "funner" books on this list" trend, I dove into my first outright humorous book. Prior to this I was not much accustomed to "British humor", having not watched much of British comedy shows or movies before. But afterwards I became a convert. I thought this book was absolutely hilarious, and I could not stop laughing through the whole thing. Just thinking about it now makes me want to dive back headlong into it. The plot follows one man, Arthur Dent, as he gets transported off Earth just as it is about to be destroyed. We follow along as he is shuffled around the galaxy just trying to figure out what is going on. I loved this book so much that I continued on through the next four books (making what Adams called "the longest trilogy in the world"). These books also continue the plot-line and are a great fun to read, although the final couple of books in the series start to get a bit bizarre (even more bizarre if you will) and deviate from the original plot-line of the story. This is definitely on my list of books to read, and if you have time, read the entire series. 

The 306 Greatest Books #35 - The Lord of the Rings

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book can be found on the Observer, BBC, and My Book Lists. 

Following The Hobbit, I dove headfirst into the tome that was The Lord of the Rings. Although it is often listed as a trilogy of books, my book list treats it as a singular novel, and really that was what it was meant to be. Looking at the detail that Tolkien puts into this world, it is absolutely incredible. For a book that took ten years to write, you can tell. The story is so in depth and the languages that were created so complete that you can almost feel like this is an actual world. Word of advice, I recommend that you read it like I did. Read The Hobbit first, then expand into this book because The Hobbit flows into this book. Also, watching the movies after reading these books gave me so much more insight that upon first viewing I missed. The characterization in these novels is some of the best I have ever read. I love stories that tie back into a whole wider universe. This novel alone had urged me on to explore all of the Tolkien stories tied together, from The Silmarillion to the Lost Stories. If you don't like fantasy novels this might not be for you, but it is dead center of my alley. Overall, the book is fantastic, you just need to read it to appreciate it. Definitely on my must read list.

The 306 Greatest Books #34 - The Hobbit

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book can be found on the BBC Book List. 

Since books are notoriously better than their movie counterparts, I wanted to wait until all of the Lord of the Rings films finished up in theaters before starting this series. The third movie was released in December of 2003 and so I could get started on the books at any time. I also like to read books in the order that they were meant to be read, so that meant starting off this series with The Hobbit. Overall, I felt that this was a fantastic book, however it definitely was not as intricate as The Lord of the Rings. The one thing it does do fantastically though is it sets up the events of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows a hobbit names Bilbo Baggins, while he goes off on some adventures with the wizard Gandolf. It definitely feels like a kiddie version of the Lord of the Rings movie/book though and so may be a good stepping stone getting into the series, but for those already accustomed to the movies, this may end up not being what they expect.