I think we can all identify with this week’s challenge in one way or another – A book you own but haven’t read. Whether you have a book-buying obsession, just like having books around (they are friends, after all) or are plain too busy with work, study or family life, those unread books seem to pile up at an alarming rate!
We look forward to reading about the unread books you read this week (an oxymoron, I know). Here are some of ours:
Samantha Baxter read The songs of distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke (820 CLAR(A) 1C SON)
I
have been meaning to read more science fiction so I took this opportunity to
read one of the classics I had sitting on my bookshelf. I have only read one other Arthur C. Clarke
novel -2001: A Space Odyssey and, I think having read this, I will endeavour to find more.
Songs of Distant Earth tells the story of humanity spreading out across space from the perspective of a colony on an ocean world. Hundreds of years earlier, seed ships had been sent out to habitable planets to save humanity from the imminent destruction of the Earth. Thalassa is one such colony. Then they are visited by another ship, not a seed ship this time but the actual remainders of Earth’s people on their way to a new home. The crew needs to stop and reinforce their ship, and spends over a year on the planet.
Clarke weaves realistic science fiction with history (one of my favourite references being to the Bounty), and still manages to tell a very human story. The book is not heavily action packed but is short and moves along at enough of a pace to keep you interested. There are tastes of cultural clashes, the search for other intelligent life, and the nature of human societies. It is an interesting investigation into how our future might look.
Scott Dale read Time’s
Arrow, or, The Nature of the Offence by Martin
Amis
The end is not much different from the start, just the order
is reversed.
I did not know anything about this book before reading it.
Hopefully you are in the same boat. I won’t explain where the author’s
inspiration was said to have come from, nor detail or offer comment on the more
shocking parts of the story. Read this book fresh if you can, without learning
any more than this brief review offers.
This is a clever book. There are a lot of funny observations
as our narrator describes the daily routines of a life in reverse. It turns out
that eating, relationships, arguments, even littering all seem a lot funnier in
reverse.
The story begins in a groggy light as our main character
drifts into life. He is an old man and not steady on his feet. The narrator of
this story does not seem to know that things are going in reverse order. It’s
unclear who this narrator is. He seems to be in the same body as the main
character, able to watch and observe the man’s life but not influence or
communicate with him in any way. The narrator tells the story of a stranger
from his perspective. With time the main character becomes younger and stronger
and we learn what he did with his life.
Let me explain the bounds and manner of this reversed
chronology. Words are spelled as expected and sentences also follow the norms
we expect. Dialogue is for the most part expressed as we would expect, it’s
just that the sequence of events the sentences explain are actually happening
back to front.
Time’s Arrow (820 AMI(M) 1C TIM) is a book whose idea could have been explored and finished in just a few pages. Martin Amis has created something of more significance and depth from what might have been nothing more than a clever trick. The book goes backwards.
Brenda
Carter read Tolstoy:
A Life of my Father by Alexandra
Tolstoy
I picked up
an ancient-looking copy of Tolstoy: A
Life of my Father at a wonderful secondhand bookstore in Yungaburra a
couple of years ago. It had everything going for it – it was old, in hardcover,
and about an author whose work I very much enjoy. The reason I haven’t finished
it is the same reason it’s worth reading.
Biographies
are written by people with varying degrees of connection to their subject. This
book was written by Tolstoy’s daughter, Alexandra, and is consequently a
detailed and intimate reflection on Tolstoy’s work and personal life. She
discusses Tolstoy’s concerns with life, death, the peasants, religion,
war, peace and justice, as well as the loss of some of his children and his
continual health issues. Alexandra uses his personal diaries and
manuscripts to bring alive the pre-Russian Revolution world of peasants and
nobility alike.
While the amount of detail makes for rather heavy reading, it
is well-written, factual and very interesting for fans of Tolstoy’s work. You
can find this rare gem in the JCU library (891.7 TOL 3 TOL T5).
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