Thursday, March 6, 2008

Eunoia

Title: Eunoia
Author: Christian Bök
Recommened by: Ben Moss

Back to book reviews, right? Right!

It's a poetry book, but unlike anything I'd ever seen before. The first I heard about this book was from my friend Ben Moss, who has one of the poems as his instant messenger away message. I read it, and like it, but it took me a while to figure out what was odd about it, so here it is:

Pilgrims, digging in shifts, dig till midnight in the mining pits, chipping flint with picks, drilling schist with drills, striking it rich mining zinc. Irish firms, hiring micks whilst firing Brits, bring in smiths with mining skills: kilnwrights grilling brick in brickkilns, millwrights griding grist in gristmills. Irish tinsmiths, fiddling with widgits, fix this rig, driving its drills which spin whirring drillbits. I pitch in, fixing things. I rig this winch with its wiring; I fit this drill with its piping. I dig this ditch, filling bins with dirt, piling it hight, sifting it, till I find bright prisms twinkling with glitz.

The thing is, it only uses the vowel 'i'. And that's the idea behind this book. There are 5 different main sections, each devoted to a vowel. Each section contains entries like the above, but using the vowel for that section. It's really amazing how the author can have such freedom of expression while being limited to one vowel. Some of the sections are better than others, and my favorite is 'i' because everything seems more lyrical, and as you might imagine, the 'u' sections isn't very large, but it's all impressive.

Recommendation: 6/10, some of them are really good, but most of the time, it's just more impressive that someone was able to write this book.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Children of Dune / God Emperor of Dune

Title: Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Recommened by: Myself

Okay, I haven't been reading too much in 2008. And when I say "I haven't been reading much" I almost always mean, "I haven't been reading much besides SciFi". I finished books 3 and 4 of the Dune series last month, and I enjoyed them both a lot. Dune is shaping up to be one of the best series I've ever read, and I'll probably be at the library soon to pick up the next book.

This entry is going to be pretty unique though, first off, I'm covering 2 books, and secondly, I'm not even going to talk about them much. They fit very well in the Dune series, and both differ from the other books. It's enjoyable that the books are all so different, it lets you see a lot of sides to the author, and doesn't get old quickly.

But mainly, I want to talk about science fiction. I find that no matter what's going on, I'm always reading a scifi book on the side. I think that science fiction is really great in it's views of reality (this is also why Philip K Dick is my favorite sf writer). Science fiction can create a world that is so different from the one we're use to, it's guaranteed to make you think. A lot of people throw out science fiction, and don't give it much credit, but I find it to be one of the most challenging genres. In a society where imagination seems to take a backseat, scifi can be a great release. Reading in general will make you think, but I feel scifi makes you stretch your brain to the fantastic concepts it provides. In conclusion, pick up one of Philip K Dick's books of short stories, and when you're bored, read one. It'll be quick, and it'll make you think, what more would you want?!

Recommendation: Anyway, Dune's great. 9/10