The 306 Greatest Books #72 - Cyrano de Bergerac

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 Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. This book can be found on the Sybervision and My Book Lists.

My wife found a website that sends a portion of a story each day in your email (DailyLit). I thought that I might try it on some of my shorter stories where purchasing the book did not seem like it was going to happen soon. Well after 62 installments, I finished Cyrano de Bergerac and I not only highly enjoyed the story I also enjoyed the daily portions. The story is about an ugly (due to his large nose) but extremely eloquent and proud man named Cyrano who is in love with a beautiful woman, Roxane. Unfortunately, Roxane is in love with another man, Christian, and asks Cyrano to help Christian talk to her. Eventually she falls in love, not with the handsome Christian but with his "soul" that has been expressed through Christian's words and letters, the words and letters written by Cyrano. The story is humorous, heartfelt, and well written. I definitely recommend this to anyone in the mood for a romantic comedy, even though it is a play.

The 306 Greatest Books #71 - Middlemarch

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 Middlemarch by George Eliot. This book can be found on the Sybervision, Norwegian, BBC, Zane's Top 10, and My Book Lists.

I rather enjoyed Middlemarch. It started off slow, but as the book went on it picked up its pace rather well. Although the book was the longest I have yet read on this list, about 900 pages, the plot was simple enough that it was easy to follow throughout the entire book. Middlemarch is a town in England where the book follows the lives of the families living there, mainly two different families and their daughters. The book also delves into a lot of conflicts including doctors versus faith, modern medicine versus traditional medicine, and similar subjects. When I started reading the book I had a brief period where I needed to get used to the language being used but it didn't take me very long and afterwards I could easily understand what was going on. I can easily recommend this book as a great story with good lessons, if you are willing to take the time to read it.

The 306 Greatest Books #70 - Song of Solomon

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 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. This book can be found on the Observer and My Book Lists.

I rather enjoyed Song of Solomon, however I am not sure if it should go on my personal must read list. It is rather vulgar through most of the story but it tells a very good tale. The story is partly about a black man living in an intolerant society. I read comments elsewhere that this is a work about living as a black person during the early 20th century, but I do not feel that is the primary story being told.  The deeper story is about a man learning about his roots (his people) and learning that family is more important than anything else. The flow of the story carries it along at a great pace and you never know what might happen next, but it all works in the end. Alright, I will put this on my list but with a warning: the story has very harsh language, however it is used with a purpose and fits into the story very well.

The 306 Greatest Books #69 - The Social Contract

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 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau. This book can be found on the Sybervision Book List.

This is definitely not the best book I have ever read, however it was interesting nonetheless. The Social Contract was similar to the other political commentary books on the list as I'm sure most of them do not differ much in tone, but it was written around the formation of the US Constitution and it is enlightening to see how this book influenced the formation of my country. Although interesting, I would not recommend this book since it is rather dry but it does bring up some rather good points. The main few I noticed were that according to Rousseau, the US is a representative aristocracy not a democracy. Because Rousseau, along with other political philosophers of the time, thought a large country would not be stable as a democracy so it could never work. The second is that The Social Contract showed the citizens of Europe that kings were not appointed by divine right but are only in power because the people let them be. This is partially what led to the civil unrest around the same time in many European countries. It you are interested in political theory, then this book is for you, otherwise I would not bother.

The 306 Greatest Books #68 - Candide

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 Candide by Voltaire. This book can be found on the Sybervision Book List.

Candide is by the philosopher Voltaire, whose primary concern was optimism. Ironically though, the book turns out to be rather depressing, yet cheerful, at the same time. I am not sure how, it just does. It is written rather like a children's story, where there are very little embellishments and the characters zip around from place to place in a rather short time frame. But there are a lot of deaths (or supposed deaths), rape, war, slavery and other "adult" concepts making it definitely not a kid's story. The point of the story, I believe, was so that Voltaire could express his distaste for practically everything. This includes religion, war, and people's intolerance of each other (although he expresses his own intolerance rather well, a bit hypocritical). But anyway, the story is a rather interesting read, short (always a plus when your reading 300+ books), and I enjoyed it, but not enough to go on my personal greatest books list.