Not 'digressing' all that much, am I? Well, but here's at least another uninspired monthly book post. Maybe I'll finally find the motivation to write about something else. It's not like there aren't other things I could talk about...
The Complete Mapp & Lucia Vol. 1 (E.F. Benson)
I didn't actually read the entire book, just the 'Lucia in London' part because I already knew the first two volumes of E.F.Benson's six-volume series. I think I've read them last year, so there wasn't no need to read them again. Well, not yet, because I love the series and really might want to re-read it at some point. Anyway, Lucia in London was once again highly enjoyable. Before I started reading I was a little bit afraid that we would see less of the people of Riseholme due to Lucia's temporary move to London. That wasn't the case though and both the London and Riseholme parts were simply delicious. I'll probably take my time with the next three volumes, because the books are just wonderful comfort reading and I need to stock up on books like that for reading slumps!
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
I guess basically everyone knows this book (or possibly a film adaption) at least by name. Although...maybe it's just me being an uncultured swine, but I had no idea what it was actually about. (Well, some bloke called Gatsby. Duh.) Well, it's basically about how rich people often fuck up other people's lives and don't even care about the ramifications of their actions. So, while I had a hard time actually liking any of the characters in the book, I quite liked the book itself. A pretty nice, quick and interesting read.
A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
Bah, I tried so hard to like this one and there were parts of it that were highly enjoyable. But in the end...well, it's not my favourite funny book ever, that much is for sure. I get that the main character Ignatius isn't supposed to be an especially likeable sort of chap, but he got pretty much unbearable after a while. And not in a funny way, honestly. Just thinking of it now...I never want to hear the word 'valve' ever again and people who read the book might know why. But like I said, it wasn't all bad and some of the side plots and characters were genuinely funny. I also sort of liked the open ending. So, well, I don't get the high praise for this book because I thought it to be pretty mediocre in the end, but at least I don't regret reading it or anything. Putting the valve issue aside, that is.
Solaris (Stanislaw Lem)
Well, I definitely didn't like this one. Maybe I shouldn't have read the German translation (I heard that one isn't actually all that good and some sentences definitely felt odd and/or clunky...), but I genuinely wonder if the English translation would've made me like the book more. I very much doubt it though. I know that Solaris is one of the most influential examples of sci-fi literature, and I have to admit that some ideas were pretty interesting. What would happen if humanity were to meet a strange foreign kind of possibly intelligent lifeform, but they had literally no way of communicating with that lifeform? What is is that makes a human human? Sadly the execution of those ideas was less good. I actually had to skip some pages because the narrator was droning on about some scientific theories which had absolutely no relevance to the plot. It was also quite hard to grasp the character's motivations – their actions often seemed entirely random to me. So, to sum it up: it's a book I read because it's a book people interested in sci-fi should've read, but it's not something I would have picked up purely for fun or entertainment.
Daisy Miller & The Turn of the Screw (Henry James)
Even though I'm regularly watching English-language news and TV shows, prefer reading English books over translated ones and write a blog and fanfics in English...this book genuinely made me doubt myself. Henry James seems to use an ungodly amount of words to explain even the simplest thing, and that's just something I don't enjoy in a book. I had a really hard time reading and sometimes even understanding both stories – and maybe that was also the reason why I didn't really enjoy them either. Especially The Turn of the Screw: what's with that ending? What did even happen there? And even without the ending, why is that story considered to be one of the most famous spooky stories in classic literature? I was genuinely more creeped out by the writing style than the actual story, haha...
Maus (Art Spiegelman)
I actually didn't buy this book because I saw the news stories about some overzealous American education board banning it from being read at school because it was on my list anyway due to the Guardian 1000, but...that was the reason why I had to wait quite a while until I could get my hands on a reprint copy. I hesitate to say I enjoyed this one (because how could anyone possibly enjoy any kind of media about the Holocaust...), but still, I genuinely liked it a lot. Banning books is wrong anyway, but banning this books is especially stupid because a comic actually seems to be a great way to explain the horrors of the Nazi era especially to younger and/or more sensitive people. I personally doubt whether I could stand reading an actual book about a survivor's story, but the comic made it quite easy while still bringing the point across very well. Also, the characterisation of all humans as various kinds of animals worked really good, I think. Anyway, I wish we would've read Maus back at my school. There even is a German edition and it would've been so much more interesting and shocking than the dry, emotionless facts we learned at school.
Auf phantastischen Pfaden (anthology, various authors)
I love the stories by Karl May, and I love fantasy books. That's why I was pretty thrilled when I stumbled across this book because it combines both things. And while – as is always the case with anthologies – not all stories were that good, I enjoyed reading it quite a bit. One thing I noticed though: I don't actually need the fantasy part, I just want to delve into the universe of Karl May's famous characters again. It's about time for a re-read...
Das Star Trek Universum (Ralph Sander)
Earlier this year I finally got into Star Trek. So far I watched the original series and the first two series of The Next Generation, and I love both. This book is sort of a compendium about exactly that part of the Trek universe, so it was a pretty interesting read with lots of information for me. I would've preferred for the author to leave his personal opinion aside more often, though. Okay, so you don't like it if females write fanfictions about their favourite pairings from the show and that's fine (more or less), but why would I as the reader care about that? It's even more ironic looking at how he repeatedly complained about how intolerant some Trek fans are in other parts of the book...