“I love Canada...It is a great country much too cold for good sense, inhabited by compassionate, intelligent people with bad hairdos.” UPDATE: Life of Pi

I am about a third of the way finished with Yann Martel's Life of Pi and boy do the holidays dig into my reading time. I hope to have this finished this weekend FINALLY and I am excited to say that I received a nice little collection of new books to read. Until then, here are a few little facts about the man who created Life of Pi, Mr. Yann Martel.

Gotta love the Bob Dylan hair

So unfortunately there is not a whole lot of information out there for Yann but here is what I could find. I would have especially loved to read more about his travels but alas that information was very limited.

1. Yann is Canadian born in Spain and has had a wide array places he inhabited. This includes Costa Rica, France, Spain and Mexico. He worked a lot of odd jobs which also enabled him to pick up and travel often.

2. I found it interesting that he did not fully commit to his writing until he was 27. Most authors I have read about practically spend their whole lives trying to find their break. Life of Pi was his second novel and now is published in about 40 countries in 30 different languages. To me it seems as though Life of Pi was inspired by his stay in India. He studied the religion and culture which holds a prominent theme in the novel.

3. Surprisingly with the revival of his novel there is not much information about Yann past 2011. It seems that most of his career is centered in Canada. He held a teaching position but mainly continued his writing. I was interested to find that We Ate the Children Last: Stories was actually Yann's first series of work to be adapted to film.

Alright folks, have a great week. I will have my little review up soon and now that the holidays are over I will resume my usual speed of reading.

Up Next: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

So, I am about to do something that I NEVER do and give up on a book. I guess not "give up" per say but Naked Lunch is an extremely difficult book to get through if you are not prepared for it. I honestly thought I was prepared for it but I can say now that I understand the extreme controversy towards whether or not this book should have been on the shelves. There are massive amounts of history behind this book so I plan on revisiting it at another time. Until then, the BOOKWORMportal will keep things a tad more light hearted during the holiday festivities. So this weeks pick will be Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

 

 

It has been roughly 6 years since I have last read this book so I think it is time to revisit it. I plan on watching it in theatres sometime next week and I think it will be nice to remind myself to why I thought this book was so special.

Fun Facts: William S. Burroughs

Happy Monday from the BOOKWORMportal! Things have been a bit slow on my reading front, I have had many new endeavors in the past 2 weeks and am hoping to have a more calm and quite time for the upcoming holiday. I thought I would get a few fun facts in until then about Mr. Burroughs...he was a very interesting/strange man!

1. He was born in St. Louis Missouri and was a gay American author associated with the beat generation. I have mentioned the beat generation in my previous post but if you are curious about what it is go here and this is a good summary of how it started and who were the main people in this circle back in the 60s.

2. RANDOM!! He brought his own severed finger to his psychiatrist because he claimed it was an initiation to the Crow Indian tribe. This later inspired him to write a book called The Finger.

3. Burroughs was married (common-law marriage) to a Joan Vollmer and eventually was arrested for allegedly shooting her in the head. He never did time for this because it was ruled an "accident".

There are many many more facts that I could put on here, the man had a very interesting life being friends with Jack Kerouac. He is regarded as one of the best authors of the 20th century. I am surprised that it has taken me this long to get around to picking up on of his novels. I hope to have something posted by next week about it, I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Next Up: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Hello all, happy Wednesday here from The BOOKWORMportal! I trust you all have a wonderful week and are gearing up for a fun weekend. I am absolutely excited for the cool weather that has been brushing across the city. It is truly the best time of year for the desert. Anyhow, I have made my choice for the next book and that my cyber friends has been no easy task. I added 8 new books to the list and the next few will probably be novels that I have not read yet. What is your opinion on non-fiction titles on here? I may branch out a bit and try it out. However, for this week I will be reading Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.

 

 

 

I know this has been adapted into a movie but I have neither seen the movie nor read the novel so I am excited to read something different. I have heard a few things through an old coworker about this book and I sincerely trust her choice in movies and reading materials. Plus, I have always been a fan of the beat generation. Not that I buy into the lifestyle, they were a tad to liberal with experimentation but the literature is just plain neat. Yes mom I said "neat." I do plan of revisiting Kerouac but I am craving something new so let's see how this goes!

 

Until next time...

"Man," I cried, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!"

Happy Halloween everyone! I've got my Charlie Chaplin garb on, listening to Halloween themed music, and eating chocolate like I haven't eaten in years. Hope all of you are having just as a spirited days as I am. Anyhow, I just finished up Frankenstein and it is just as I remembered...dark, complex, and down right exciting.

I know this has been a book that has been adapted to many many films but I highly suggest if you have seen the film and not read the book you need to rectify that because I have not seen a version of Frankenstein that holds true to the book (What's that you say? Everyone says that about books to movies) WELL you naysayers I say to you in this case I am double TRIPLE sure that the book is better than any of the adaptations. Often the storyline will miss the point of the novel and we never really get a sense of the mentality of Frankenstein's monster. He is highly intelligent and completely self taught. He elucidates the nature of society through some of the most poetic lines I have read and he points out that people can be hateful, violent, and close minded.

If there are some of you that have never even heard of the story it starts with a dashing and intelligent Dr. Frankenstein on a quest to find a companion. He wanted a friend that could be an equal in strength, intelligence, and generally be a person with whom he could confide in. Basically, he wanted the perfect best friend. So, essentially he decides that if he can not find one the old fashioned way he would make one from scratch. He is the evil mad scientist version of Martha Stewart I suppose...anyhow he works for months and months completely secluded from society (a habit most common for mad scientists) and he has his breakthrough. However, his experiment does not bring the results that he wanted because lets face it, his monster BFF was basically a dead guy. Frankenstein can't handle being the new Daddy to such a strange looking creature so he abandons him and sends him off into the world without any support or knowledge of what he was going to encounter.



Honestly who wouldn't immediately love this face!

 

There is always a debate on whether Frankenstein's creature is evil or good. I fully support the notion that he is not evil and merely a product of a bad situation. Nature vs Nurture! The Creature goes out into the world and is constantly being attacked because people are afraid of him. People always will fear what they do not understand. So immediately from when this creature was brought into the world he is hated for looking different. The Creature makes good use of his time in seclusion and learns how to speak and read. He gains great knowledge from some of the most revered novels in history which is why he speaks so eloquently. This quote is a genuine glimpse into The Creature's psyche and I do not see something evil, I see a creature that was rejected and learned to hate the people who hated him.

"How can I move thee? Will no entreaties cause thee to turn a favourable eye upon thy creature, who implores thy goodness and compassion? Believe me, Frankenstein, I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me. The desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. These bleak skied I hail, for they are kinder to me than your fellow beings. If the multitude of mankind knew of my existence, they would do as you do, and arm themselves to for my destruction. Shall I not then hate them who abhor me? I will keep no terms with my enemies. I am miserable, and they shall share my wretchedness."
 

Things get even worse after the Creature comes to Frankenstein and begs him to make him a companion. He expressed his deepest and most sympathetic verses that should have been emotions that Frankenstein could relate to since he began this novel yearning for the same exact connection. He really could have avoided this whole mess had he looked to his future wife and family. He acted as though he was utterly alone in this world but his creature knew absolutely nothing but loneliness and exile when he probably would have cherished anyone whom ever would grace him with their presence without an attempt on his life.

I do not want to spoil the ending because it varies slightly to some of the movies out there. I will say this, the Creature was probably the most human out of any one of the major characters in the novel and I think he acted as anyone would in his situation. Go on and give it a read! In my humble opinion, this book is perfect. It has depth, history, creativity. I give it a 5/5+ but I could be biased since I have read this so often. Anyhow folks that's all for now, I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!

Next Up: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Good afternoon and happy Monday from the BOOKWORMportal! I was drinking down a comically large cup of coffee and it dawned on me that Halloween is this Wednesday and I forgot about my Halloween themed book! I was mulling it over on which one I wanted to read and with time constraints I thought it would be best to read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I have read this book MANY times before but I figured it would be a quick read while staying within the spirit of the holiday.

So I haven't really read anything sci-fi in awhile but I am a sci-fi junkie and Mary Shelley is a pioneer of the genre. This novel has always interested me for many reasons and one is that this novel was so ahead of its time. Written in 1818 this novel touches on the subject of creating life and essentially playing God. As for being ahead of its time, the scientist takes dead tissue and regenerates it to bring it back to life, pretty interesting topics for the times. I will be looking forward to revisiting this novel and I hope to post about it on Wednesday!

"So Now You're Death: Here's What You'll Need:" A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Happy Sunday cyber-world here from the BOOKWORMportal! I was a little late in starting Chris Moore's book but it is such an entertaining read that I blew threw the first third of the book in a mere three hours and finished it the next day. As I mentioned in my post last week, I chose this book in remembrance of my friend that passed away three years ago. This book is a perfect reflection of his quirky humor and several times I actually laughed out loud. I enjoyed it so much that I may venture into Chris Moore's other work.

So according to what I have read about Moore's style, he generally likes to write about the "every man." He takes his main character who is usually an unimpressive guy and completely turns his normal world upside down. Charlie Asher (beta-male as he refers to himself) is the nice and normal guy in A Dirty Job and he runs a business where things from the deceased are collected. After his wife dies after giving birth his entire life changes in a most unexpected way.

On a side note this novel really reminded me of the show called Dead Like Me where grim reapers live among us like normal people and take your soul before you die to minimize the pain or to keep you safe while you die (if that makes sense). It is a great show and I highly recommend it! With that being said, as the story progresses Charlie notices that some of the things in his shop now emit a red glow to which he attributes to his grief for the loss of his wife. No one else can see these things glow unless you .

"Amid the shelves of knickknacks and books, the piles of old radios, the racks of clothes, all of them dark, just lumpy shapes in the dark, he could see objects glowing a dull red, nearly pulsing, like beating hearts."

This is the moment when it all begins. My thoughts initially from what I have heard about this book were that he becomes death and collects artifacts belonging to the deceased that these objects were essentially their resting place for their soul. I was not too far off but Chris Moore makes it much more intricate than that and he sort of toys with the idea of reincarnation. If you are spiritual you generally believe that what makes us "us,"our very being is held within our soul. Charlie is the keeper of these souls until they find their next home. Once they find their next home the red light will go out in the object being held.

"Always compliment the merchandise; it might be a piece of crap to you, but they might have a lot of their soul poured into it."

Aside from the humor I really think one of the best parts of this novel is the character developments. Charlie starts off as a normal guy but really he is surrounded by a plethora of colorful people. His fellow Death Merchant friend is named Minty Fresh, a seven foot tall black guy that wears mint green suits, aside from Charlie he is my favorite character. Charlie also has a daughter Sophie who has a very dark and scary trick of killing things by saying "kitty" to them and her two hell hounds have just as much of a personality as everyone else. Charlie's store is ran by an oversexed guy named Ray and a sassy goth girl who is the first to discover Charlie's new role in life.  Quite honestly this novel would make an awesome sitcom if just for the characters alone.

The only qualm I had was I thought the end was a bit silly and almost predictable but overall I think this novel was a great step out of the box and I have to give it a 5 out of 5 across the board. I think I may have to add one or two of his novels to my reading list. Until next time my fellow bookworms, enjoy the rest of the weekend before we have to get back to the grind.