The 306 Greatest Books #155 - Scoop

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. This book can be found on the Observer Book List.

Scoop was not what I was expecting, however I was pleasantly surprised. The story is set up like a 1930's/1940's comedy movie with several people having the same last name getting all shuffled together in different circumstances. The main part of the story dealt with a naturalist/country bumpkin being employed as a war correspondent in the fictional country of Ishmaelia. The country was embroiled in unrest, and had been plagued by an influx of reporters. The story, though was surprisingly funny. I laughed out loud at several points in the story and in general greatly enjoyed it. My only issue with the story was the racism that seemed to be spread throughout the story. It definitely felt like a period piece including the racism of the time, but I had hoped for more. The country of  Ishmaelia was located somewhere within northern Africa and felt like a caricature of an African country instead of a legitimate location. Even though I enjoyed the book, it didn't really feel like a "great work of literature". It felt like pulp fiction that one reads and then forgets about. Overall, I would say that the story was enjoyable but forgettable.  

The 306 Greatest Books #154 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. This book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth and final Harry Potter book on my 100 greatest book lists. Up until this point, all of the Harry Potter books have been on the BBC Book list, which was chosen by a UK popularity vote in 2003. This also tells you why some of the other Harry Potter books did not make the cut, since they were not published by that point. Looking at the BBC Book List, the first 21 books have been ranked according to popularity with only one book per author appearing in the top 21. That is the reason books 22, 23, and 24 are all Harry Potter with this book taking the prize at number 5. So, by popular vote, book 4 was chosen as the best of the first four books of the series and I whole heartily agree with them.

Rowling has moved beyond the issues that plagued the first two books and worked this book into a fantastical masterpiece that will survive long into the future. The plot is riveting and the pace of the book is remarkably easy to flow through. The language used helps it to stay in the "teen lit" category but that just means that more people can enjoy it, it is not a knock to the content. The pattern of the novels was also mixed up a bit for this one, where the quidditch matches which were used as the background events helping to propel the finale of the story forward were discarded for an overarching Olympics type event. This tournament resulted in some real stakes for the characters where not everyone was left unscathed. It made the books very suspenseful and very difficult to put down. To top it off I had not seen this movie for several years, perhaps not even since it came out, so the overall plot and the surprise twist at the end completely caught me off guard. Needless to say I loved it and this is by far my favorite of the Harry Potter novels.

The 306 Greatest Books #153 - One Hundred Years of Solitude

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This book can be found on the Norwegian, Observer, BBC, and My Book Lists.

I found myself constantly comparing One Hundred Years of Solitude to Marquez's other work on the list that I read almost 12 years ago, Love in the Time of Cholera. You can definitely get a feeling for Marquez's style between the two books. I have to say though, that between the two, Love in the Time of Cholera was a much easier book to get in to, but One Hundred Years of Solitude was the more impactful. To sum it up One Hundred Years of Solitude was fascinating, horrifying, hilarious, depressing, intriguing, and by the end, I couldn't put it down. The story is about a fictional South American town named Macondo that was founded by the couple José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Buendía. Within the story we follow the development of the Buendía family, and despite how large or small the town gets, eventually turning into a thriving metropolis, we never really feel that because of the focus on this family. However, the family mirrors the effects of the town; as the town grows, so does the family, as the town shrinks, so does the family. One of the first things we learn about the family though is that there are issues with the family, specifically incest, which comes up again and again, which is one of those things that is rather horrifying in the story. The story, though, is about cycles, and how everything changes, yet everything stays the same. 

One of the hardest parts of the story to get through was the names of the characters. The story was written where time kind of bounced all over. Even the first sentence of the book begins with an illusion to what would happen halfway through the narrative. But the names of the characters were all either identical or very, very similar, making keeping track of who was who extremely difficult at times. By the end I still couldn't remember who was who's daughter/grandmother/aunt. But it works in the context of the story. The Buendía family is constantly making the same mistakes, constantly rehashing the same issues, through several generations, and by renaming their kids after either the patriarch José Arcadio or Aureliano (I believe there was at least 22 Aurelianos mentioned by the end of the story), it got to be rather confusing. This was not an easy book to read because of that. I could only read about 20 pages a night because I kept having to go back and rereading to figure out who was who as time slowly marched on through the story, bouncing back and forth as it went. The chapter breaks generally covered a different person within the generations as they progressed through life as well. So by the time I got to the end of the story, I immediately wanted to jump back to the beginning to see how it all tied together. This is a definite reread story, to catch all the hints about later parts of the story in the earlier sections. It is a story about time, where time doesn't seem to be happening. It is a fascinating tale and a definite one on my must read list, but it is work to get through, if you want to get everything out of it.

The 306 Greatest Books #152 - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. This book can be found on the Observer Book List.

I went into The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie knowing absolutely nothing about the book or the author. All I knew was that it was fairly short at 125 pages. So I dived headfirst over a camping trip and was able to finish it over the weekend. The book takes place during the Great Depression at a women's school where one of the teachers, a Miss Jean Brodie, has a rather unique method of education. She likes to tell stories about her past and use them to influence a select set of girls within her class of middle school age girls. Miss Brodie keeps telling the girls that she is in the "prime" of her life (hence the title) and that she is fully able to mold the girls into proper adults. The story is interestingly laid out, with the narration of the story bouncing around each of the "Brodie set" (the girls she is influencing), both in the story "present" as well as in their future, long after school is over. But the narration also dances around the girls heads, like if they are having daydreams, it flows with part of the story. It's a story that I could get behind ... in theory. However there were several factors of the story that irked me. The author repeated herself on many points, many, many times. She would say the same thing about the girls repeatedly. And while I can see that as a useful tool so that the reader could distinguish between the girls, it got old very quickly. The story is not that long that you need to repeat the same part 5, 6, or 7 times. Also the main girl, Sandy, I rather hated. I feel like she was written so the reader didn't like her, but it makes for a tiresome book when you don't like the main character at all. The molding of the girls was rather interesting, though. I liked how the story evolved in that sense, how the girls changed throughout the story due to Miss Brodie's influence, and how that influence could be seen as a helpful or harmful thing. While reading the story it also felt like the part about it being set in the 1930's was not at all relevant to the plot, but it winds up being a major factor in the end of the story. An interesting story indeed. So overall, I'd say that this book was good in concept but left me with a bad taste in my mouth in execution.  

The 306 Greatest Books #151 - Good Omens

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. This book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

Good Omens has been on my radar for a while now, having been a fan of Terry Pratchett ever since first starting his Discworld series. And with the beginning of the Good Omens TV show, I was prompted to pick up the book earlier than I otherwise would have done. Pratchett is a very smart and funny writer. He is able to weave political and social commentary throughout his books in a very humorous and sometimes even subtle way and I love him for it. Gaiman, I had never read before, but I am well acquainted with his work. I know he is very knowledgeable about mythology and religion, so I figured this was going to a very good book, both from hearsay and from the authors' reputations. And I was right. The story is about the birth of the Antichrist and the coming Armageddon that shortly follows. The story follows along with an angel and a demon as they try and figure out what is going on. These are not your stereotypical angel and demon. They are flawed and they are fantastic for it. Not only is the story well written but it is as hilarious as I expected. There wasn't a space of five minutes when I wouldn't laugh out loud. Within the plot we follow around several different groups of people as they all come together eventually in the end, for one reason or another. I would say that my only problem with the story was the ending. The story ended too easily. Many of these groups of people didn't really have anything to do with how the story played out. Like, why were they in the story in the first place if they weren't going to have an impact on the story in the end? They felt wasted and it annoyed me a bit to see them tossed aside like they didn't really matter to the story as a whole. Overall, the story is a definite must read. I can see why it has become a cult classic and I can't wait to see the show because I can picture some of these scenes perfectly laid out for television. Even with the ending being a bit 'meh' for me I can still give it my full recommend.