Archive for June, 2010

18

The Great Book Project 5 of 20 – Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Not my cup of tea

It’s Friday night. I’ve just had a few beers after a beauty of a run and the completion of stage 1 of the house move. I’m shattered. Had a wee sit down after it and finished off this book.

Didn’t take long. It’s only 50 odd pages and each page is just a single little poem about love in all its permutations. I’m not gonna lie to you here and there is no point beating about the bush.

It was absolute gash.

I just don’t get poetry. I try to look at them from different angles and from all the different layers that might be there. But it all just feels like free association writing to me. Like it’s been a random chain of thoughts that have been given purpose and meaning after the fact.

Actually, I know I’m wrong about this. If someone was to sit me down and talk me through what it all means I think I’d have a great time and learn loads. For example this poem from the book below. Please feel free to talk me through it in the comments.

Love
Love is talent, the world love’s metaphor.
Aflame, October’s leaves adore the wind,
its urgent breath, whirl to their death.
Not here, you’re everywhere

The evening sky
worships the ground, bears down, the land
yearns back in darkening hills The night
is empathy, stars in its eyes for tears. Not here,

you’re where I stand, hearing the sea, crazy
for the shore, seeing the moon ache and fret
for the earth. When morning comes, the sun, ardent,
covers the trees in gold, you walk

towards me,
out of the season, out of the light love reasons.

Apart from the content for the poem, what I find interesting and equally baffling is the unusual line breaks in the sentences. Does this mean something, does it add substance, is it just random bashing of the ‘enter’ key?

I read this book keeping my eye out for something that struck a chord with me that I might serenade the Mrs with. I am getting married in three weeks after all. But instead I was left scratching my head.

Rating: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Next up is Animal Farm by George Orwell.


14

The Great Book Project 4 of 20 – The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Holy Smokes its been a tough couple of weeks! I got the keys to my house last week and have started the mammoth task of getting everything ready for when we move. This last week we have had a painter in who practically painted the whole house. Had the Sky man in today fitting the tv, phone and broadband and tomorrow and Wednesday got a guy coming to fit the laminate flooring and vinyl for the kitchen.

We’ll hopefully be set to start moving all our stuff in over the weekend as one of my buddies has sorted me out with a van! Can’t wait for it. We will probably be living out of boxes for the first month as we’ve just got so much on financially with our approaching wedding/honeymoon.

Because of all this madness going on I’ve not had a chance to read as much. Been reading on the train mostly, to and from work.

The Average Scottish Male

This book is the first on the list that was suggested to me in the comments on my first post about this project. It was Jen who recommended it. I have to say right now: Thank you Jen. I’ve not laughed so much in a long time. This book was hilarious.

To give you an idea of the book; it follows the thoughts of an unnamed twenty-something male from LA who has a high sex drive. The content of the book is absolutely absurd. When I first started reading it I was finding it really shocking. To the point where I was unsure if it was entertaining or not, but the more I turned the pages the more I wanted to laugh at the outrageousness.

The title ‘The Average American Male’ gives you the idea that this is an attempt to document just how we blokes think. In a way it does, but exaggerated times a hundred. That’s why its so funny.

Here is a video of Tom Green reading the first paragraph of the book:

Not much really happens in the book. It’s a basic little story about a guy dealing with the ladies, but I really enjoyed it.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone due to the explicit content, but if you think you can deal with it and are up for a laugh, read it now!

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Here is my Readmore stats:

5.3 hours of reading over 13 days.
Started on June 1
Finished on June 13
19 reading sessions (17 min per session)


9

Stephen Fry Talks Sense

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

How can you not like this guy? I don’t understand half the things he talks about with regards to philosophy and musical history, but he is so damn engaging.