Last week was a good reading week for me. I spent most of the time on the couch because of my chronic earache and couch-laziness is a key motivator for reading.
The first book I finished was Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. The story concerns an orphan boy, Bod, who grows up in a graveyard and seeks out the person who murdered his parents and older sister. The story was quick-paced and engaging, but I did not find it as enthralling as Coraline. The world is imaginative and the book is well-written, but it seemed to lack depth. Of course, this is usually my complaint with children's literature; if I love the novel, I tend to wish that there was more depth. Basically, I want the stories of children's literature fleshed out into adult novels. I like background and loads of character development.
Author, Author, by David Lodge, was the second book I finished. Author, Author details Henry James' failed career as a playwright and contrasts that with his friendship with George Du Maurier, an "accidental" novelist. This novel I loved in concept and many parts were well-written, but it felt uneven and stilted. I think that this mostly stems from the way Author, Author is written: Lodge tells the entire story as a sort of semi-biography with snatches of conversation thrown in. Also, the Du Maurier aspect was in the book unevenly. Overall, an okay book, but not one I would pick-up again.
In other literary-ish news, I saw Watchmen on Saturday. I was pleased with the movie; until the end and then I was just pissy. Watchmen did a good job of staying true to the main story (some more intricate stories were left out) and maintaining a comic-book style. The last bit of the movie sucked ass. I was so psyched about seeing the orchestrated, tentacled alien thing AND IT WASN'T IN THE MOVIE. They changed the ending! Why? Why?! The original ending was kick-ass.
humpf.
Sam says I'm overreacting and that, on the whole, the movie was pretty good.
Anyways, for this week's reading I'm planning on finishing Sarah Waters' The Night Watch and reading Hamlet.
Happy Reading Everyone
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