Category: Random

Monthly Review – December 2014

Posted December 31, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 2 Comments

Now that 2014 is officially coming to an end it is time to do some reflecting on the year. I think 2014 has been a great year for personal growth for me as a reader and a blogger. I have pushed myself to improve and read more critically and I believe it is starting to pay off. While I am not fully satisfied yet, blogging and reading are passions of mine and I will continue to work towards improvement. One of the biggest steps I made this year was actually joining BookTube and in the New Year, I am curious to see if that will help me in my reading and blogging.

I have already posted a ‘Best of 2014‘ post a few days earlier but I want to also point out the introduction to ‘What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging‘ on my blog which is where I am trying to push myself and my writing with some bookish personal essays. I love this section and I plan to do it more often in the coming year; hopefully this will allow people to see the natural progression of my writing and watch it improve. Other highlights on my blog include; My Vacation (the Literary Highlights), Plot, Character, Style, and Themes, A Rant about my TBR, and Contemporary Fiction Vs. Literary Fiction. Of course I wouldn’t be that pretentious if I didn’t mention that this year I also wrote My Bookish Manifesto, in which I set out some goals to help me improve as a book blogger and critic. I haven’t been keeping to those goals too well but it is still a very important post and I should reflect on it some more.

As it is also the end of the month so I should also talk about my December reading. This month I have been reading a lot of classics and books in translation; after almost six months I finally finished Middlemarch by George Eliot. I loved this book and taking my time with it allowed me to reflect and absorb everything that was happening. Obviously taking your time with a book isn’t always an option but this is the kind of book you can dip in and out of and still experience everything that is wonderful with this classic. To aid my reading of Middlemarch, I used a reading guide called Eliot’s Middlemarch by Josie Billington and I think this was a huge help and allowed me to get historical and personal context into George Eliot’s writing. I wasn’t ready to leave the world of Middlemarch so after this book I picked up Rebecca Mead’s memoir called My Life in Middlemarch, but sadly it didn’t work for me.

I realised that I hadn’t read much Russian literature this year and after enjoying Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky in November I knew I had to rectify this situation. Most people who read my blog or know me will know that I love Russian history and literature. Thankfully I spent ten days with In The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which allowed me to learn so much about the Soviet era, since most novels I have read on this subject are not by someone who lived through it. I also read The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy because it was a short read and finished off all the Tolstoy I need for the ‘1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die‘ list.

More books in translation included the German novel Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, the Norwegian book A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgård and a French graphic novel in Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh. I even read a few more classics in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. But it wasn’t all older book, I also read some contemporary novels including The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Authority by Jeff VanderMeer and All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld.

It has been a great year and I hope that 2015 will be just as great. Please let me know what books you read this month.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Posted December 30, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book of the Month, Classic / 4 Comments

Title: A Christmas Carol (Goodreads)
Author: Charles Dickens
Published: Oxford World's Classics, 1843
Pages: 438
Genres: Classic
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

When it comes to Christmas books, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is probably the first book that comes to mind. Published in 1843, this novella was an instant success and has been a beloved classic since then. I am not going to go into a plot summary because I believe most people know the story but if you don’t, go watch A Muppet’s Christmas Carol. Told in five staves (similar to stanzas or verses) this book has been adapted so many times that A Christmas Carol has just become a part of the Christmas period.

While compassion, forgiveness and getting into the Christmas spirit is the major theme of this novella, one thing that really stuck with me is Dickens’ ideas of isolation and loneliness. While it is true that Ebenezer Scrooge never indicates he is feeling alone, since the death of Jacob Marley seven years earlier there is a sense that he has falling in despair. Marley died on Christmas Eve and appeared to be Scrooge’s only companion, which leads to a disdain for the holiday period.

Charles Dickens wanted to emphasise the importance of being with friends and family, especially during Christmas. However I got the sense that he may have treated the idea of isolation poorly. Sure, Scrooge was a grumpy old man who was tight with his money but I got no real indication that he was unhappy to be alone. Scrooge could have been an introvert and enjoyed the quiet solitude; is that really such a bad thing?

Then all of a sudden Scrooge is cured from his rationality and becomes an extravert. This is a little strange, Scrooge’s emotional and psychological makeup might not be pleasant or agreeable to the popular worldview but they were his own thoughts. Scrooge was a financial supporter of The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and didn’t want to give money to a charity that worked against his political ideology.

I am not bagging out A Christmas Carol, I do enjoy it but as I was re-reading this novella I kept wondering what this story is saying if we take out the element of Christmas. Basically this is the story of curing someone of his or her personality. I had a lot of fun looking at this book from another point of view, it just gave me a lot more to think about. A Christmas Carol is a nice quick story about the importance of being with your friends and family during this holiday period. Next year I might try Truman Capote’s collection of stories about Christmas.

My Top Five Reads of 2014

Posted December 29, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top 5 / 18 Comments

It is that time of the year where we talk about the ‘best of’ 2014. When I say ‘best of’ I am referring to my favourites of the year. I have once again divided my list into books released in 2014, the backlist and non-fiction. I have done it this way because I have had a strong focus on non-fiction this year and want to recognise my favourites. I also don’t want my ‘best of’ list to be dominated by classics, thus the reason for the first two lists.

Top Five Reads from 2014
5. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
4. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
3. Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson
2. Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
1. All That is Solid Melts into Air by Darragh McKeon

Top Five Reads from the Backlist in 2014
5. In The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4. The Odyssey by Homer
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
2. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1. Middlemarch by George Eliot

Top Five Non-Fiction Reads in 2014
5. What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund
4. Levels of Life by Julian Barnes
3. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
2. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
1. The Dark Path: A Memoir by David Schickler

Now it is your turn to let me know of your favourite books, the new releases and the older books. It doesn’t matter; just what you discovered and loved.

I Joined BookTube

Posted December 21, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Random / 0 Comments

I’ve been trying to push myself to improve myself as a book reviewer and blogger. Here is the biggest step I’ve ever taken.

What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging – Novermber 2014 Wrap-up

Posted November 30, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading, What I Think About When I'm Not Blogging / 8 Comments

It is hard to believe that 2014 is almost over; I went into this year with a goal to read more non-fiction and now I think I am addicted. I joined Nonfiction November firstly because I wanted to keep my momentum and it looked like fun. However I didn’t really participate much in the memes; I did write a great (well I think it was) essay on my non-fiction reading history. I did however finish a few non-fiction books, four memoirs and two books around literary criticism. I am still scrabbling to catch up on book reviews and I have been posting every day to catch up, so most of these books are still waiting to be posted.

Sticking with the non-fiction theme, I started off the month reading Excavation: A Memoir by Wendy C. Ortiz and I owe this book choice to my addiction to the Literary Disco podcast. It was a little out of my wheelhouse but I really enjoyed it and what better to succeed a book about sexual abuse than listening to Amy Poehler’s book Yes Please. This was a funny, yet amazing book and the audiobook was just perfect. This also helped increase my collection of Parks and Rec memoirs. I happened to also read another humorous memoir when I learnt about how Tony Hawks went Around Ireland with a Fridge. The final memoir was Not Drowning, Reading by Andrew Relph which is heavy on the literary criticism and lead to me reading Why I Read by Wendy Lesser and What Is Literature? by Jean-Paul Sartre.

The reading of Sartre may seem pretentious enough to give me enough literary credibility to last the month; it also leads to the second theme in my reading for November. I wanted to participate in German Literature Month this month and I had every intention to read more German translations but the only one I managed to read was Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes. I did however read a great French novel (The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery) and the Russian science fiction classic Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. I had aimed to re-reading Perfume by Patrick Süskind but the library’s copy was too damaged, also if I had time I planned on picking up some more Kafka.

The library has been a huge source of books lately and I am constantly having two or three books checked out at the one time. This might not be good for my TBR bookcase and all the books I still need to read around my house but it has been great for reading on a whim as well as saving me money. Out of the fifteen books I have read this month, five of them were from the library and mostly my non-fiction/translation picks. Last year I went on a book buying ban that didn’t work but it was the start of my obsession with the library and lets face it, it is always good to support them.

I did read some other books this month including Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and Merciless Gods by Christos Tsiolkas. However the real highlight of November was reading poetry to my wife, it was very romantic. I picked up Ariel by Sylvia Plath from the library after reading Belzhar and read a few poems to my wife every night before bed, it was such a great experience but Plath wasn’t the easiest to read aloud (more on this in my upcoming review).

I am really enjoying these essay style blogging but I have discovered I have so much to learn. While writing I have noticed I am very minimalist and I could almost turn each paragraph into a list of books that I have read. Practise does make perfect and I know what I need to focus on for upcoming essays but I have no idea how I am going to do that. These journal style personal essays are addictive and I plan on exploring them further; I think my next one will revolve around writing. One day when I am looking back on these essays, I am hoping to see how much I have improved and this writing will be laughable. Until then I am going to continue writing and writing, so look for more posts in the What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging series…if you are interested.

What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging – My Year in Non-Fiction

Posted November 15, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in What I Think About When I'm Not Blogging / 0 Comments

Recently I decided to participate in bloggers reading challenge; actually I joined two. I wanted to read more books in translation so I joined the German Literature Month but that is not what I want to talk about here. The other group activity I joined in on was Nonfiction November and I did this because this year I wanted to make more of an effort with reading non-fiction books. There was a theme post as part of this challenge where they asked everyone to answer four questions about our year of reading non-fiction. These questions where:

What was your favourite non-fiction read of the year?
What non-fiction book have you recommended the most?
What is one topic or type of non-fiction you haven’t read enough of yet?
What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

I thought rather than just answering the questions, this would be a good opportunity to practise writing another personal essay. If you are unsure what I’m talking about, check out my October wrap up post. So here I am back with another What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging post and of course that means another essay where I talk about books.

I owe a lot to non-fiction; it was a book about music and the Romantic Period that saved my life and turned me into a reader. In 2009 something clicked within me and I went from a man with no passion to a bibliophile and it was thanks to Craig Schuftan’s book Hey! Nietzsche! Leave Them Kids Alone!: The Romantic Movement, Rock and Roll, and the End of Civilisation as We Know It. I listen to a lot of music and that book come out at the right time; suddenly I want from a loser to someone that wanted to learn everything they could.

Yet I still wasn’t reading much non-fiction, I was reading everything I could get my hand on in fiction but that was it. I knew I had to make more of an effort so I set myself a personal challenge in 2013 when I realised I was avoiding non-fiction. I could never understand my aversion towards non-fiction; I often considered myself autodidactic (which I guess I can no longer call myself since I am at uni) yet I kept avoiding it. I try to be a literary explorer and you can tell that by my blog name, and while I do struggle with some genres, I had no justification for avoiding non-fiction.

So I pushed myself to read more and in 2013 I set myself the challenge of reading 20 non-fiction books. My first book for the year was Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and I thought this would cure me. A book about books was the perfect medicine but I did not reach my goal of 20 books. I did read some wonderful books including You Are Not So Smart, Perv and Practical Classics but in the end I only achieved fourteen books. This is not a bad effort but I was not content with this and set myself the same challenge again.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff started off my 2014 challenge and I fell in love with this book. I don’t know if would call it my favourite for the year anymore (Ex Libris was more inspiring) but 84, Charing Cross Road is the kind of book I could recommend to every book lover (see I have answered the first two questions now). This led to the realisation that if I wanted to push myself into loving non-fiction maybe I should focus on these books about books. I have since read other interesting memoirs by bibliophiles including My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff and The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller.

I couldn’t tell you when I found joy in reading non-fiction but I do know it happened sometime this year and it isn’t just books about books. I have enjoyed memoirs by authors (Little Failure), actors (Yes, Please) and even someone contemplating the priesthood (The Dark Path). I have tried some books about the TV (Difficult Men), Crime (In Cold Blood), Feminism (The Fictional Woman) and I have discovered there is so much more to learn.

I want to read some more about literary criticism after reading Critical Theory and Literary Theory but I think I need to put more of a focus on psychoanalysis. I have an interest in psychology and I realise I do not know anything about it. I know I will need to read some more Freud and I am sure there are plenty of others I am yet to discover. I know this all seems so obvious to other readers but I am still navigating the literary landscape.

So far this year I have read twenty-three books and I am glad to say, I have no plans on slowing down. I feel like I have hit a groove with non-fiction and joining Nonfiction November in the hopes to push myself a little further. I have one book left to read in my planned reading for the month, which is Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books by Wendy Lesser but I might fit in a few more. I was thinking about reading Vladimir Nabokov’s memoir, has anyone read it?

I may not know how I found a love of non-fiction but it was somewhere between 84, Charing Cross Road and Excavation: A Memoir. I cannot believe how obvious it was, I have so much I want to learn about and yet I resisted for so long. Weirdly enough, if I think about it, I write non-fiction and I have a real passion about talking about books. I blog because I’m passionate about books and I cannot stop talking about them; I write essays like this because I want to get better at writing.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want To Re-read

Posted November 4, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 22 Comments

It’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Books I Want To Re-read. It has been awhile since I’ve participated in this meme but recently I stated that I planned on doing more re-reading next year. So I thought this might be a good chance to pick some books to re-read.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Outsider by Albert Camus
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

German Lit Month & Nonfiction November

Posted November 3, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Bloggers Event / 23 Comments

Now that it is November; that means it is German Literature Month as well as Nonfiction November. While this is a little last minute, I think I’m going to participate in both. I have some books that fit already planned and I’m going to get involved by reading two or three books for each.

Nonfiction November is a chance to get people reading more non-fiction and is hosted by Sophisticated Dorkiness, Regular Rumination, Doing Dewey and I’m Lost in Books. I’ve already planned on reading some non-fiction this month; which include Excavation: A Memoir by Wendy C. Ortiz, Not Drowning, Reading by Andrew Relph and Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books by Wendy Lesser.

I’ve been focusing on reading more books in translation lately, so what better way to push myself than join in German Literature Month; hosted by Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy’s Literary Life. I’ve got Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes (translator: Jamie Bulloch) planned and I also want to re-read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind (translator: John E. Woods). If I find more time, I wouldn’t mind dipping into some Kafka again and finally read The Castle (translator: Anthea Bell).

What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging – October 2014 Wrapup

Posted October 31, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading, What I Think About When I'm Not Blogging / 0 Comments

On the day of writing this (which is not the same as the day posting this) I was ready to abandon this journalling idea all together. I just scheduled my next What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging post for the next day and I thought to myself, “This isn’t a journal entry, this would make a good blog post”. Talking about book projects and challenges is a great bookish blog post and while it has some elements of book journaling it wasn’t the same. I had recently finished writing my review for Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman and I was thinking that this is who I want to emulate. Though I’m not sure I know how to write a personal essay; is it the same as a blog post?

Then while sitting in a room full of salt, I started The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (known as The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs. the Dirt in the US), which is a collection of articles from his monthly column in The Believer called Stuff I’ve Been Reading. This got me thinking about What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging and how I should go forward. I want to write like Anne Fadiman but I need to start practicing. Nick Hornby mentions in the introduction that he spends a lot of time thinking about how to simplify his writing and I can’t help be feel jealous by this idea; I need to spend more time polishing my own writing to make it sound better.

I am not happy with my writing and I have a feeling I will never be happy with it. My mind races with ideas and thoughts and I struggle to keep up with it. Currently my mind is singing Cosby Sweater by Aussie Hip-Hop band Hilltop Hoods while trying to think about what to write, this is making for some weird typos. Thankfully my wonderful wife is always willing to look over my writing before I post it and make me look good. It isn’t a perfect system, sometimes I want to post something right away but I don’t want to pressure her and other times things get missed and end up in a tweet by Simon and Schuster.

I want to become a better writer and I have finally admitted to myself that I am a writer; I normally refer to myself as just a reader. However I feel the need to document my reading life and while I may never write fiction, I can become a better essayist. The only way I am going to improve is practice and while I feel like my reviews are getting better, I feel like I have been doing myself a disservice lately. I have been so far behind in reviews that I feel like I am playing catch-up. I could write mini reviews and be done with it but that isn’t going to solve any issues either.

Getting back to The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, the reason I mention this books was that Nick Hornby has taken a very simple concept of what he has been reading for the month and builds his essays around that. I am not saying that he is someone I want to write like but I can take that simple idea and start building on that. For example, for this post, I’m combining my monthly wrap up and making it more of an essay. I am hoping I can start with this basic concept and begin to build upon it.

I started What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging because I wanted to journal more and the idea comes from the fact that when I am not reading or blogging, I’m thinking about reading and blogging. I am sure my wife is sick of me being so passionate about literature but she has been great in nurturing my passion and supporting me. Recently I have been having a great time reading, I feel like I have hit this groove and I don’t want it to end. All my free time I want to spend reading but sometimes, I just end up catching up on Cinema Sins or the Climb the Stacks channel.

I have completed seventeen books this month and while I didn’t enjoy some of them, I’m glad to have read them. This month for the Literary Exploration book club I had to read The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, which was weird and challenging, but I managed to finish it. The only other assigned reading I had to read was for a book club that meets in real life and that book was We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler and that was a brilliant but I am still sorting my thoughts on that one.

I had a birthday on the 30th of September and I got a lot of book vouchers for my birthday; I have had a wonderful time buying books and I have already expressed my thoughts about this book buying binge. However, while I have so many new books to read, I have borrowed a few books from the library instead. I know I need to read my books but I was following my reading instincts, which lead me to books like The Unloved by Deborah Levy and E Lockhart’s new novel We Were Liars.

I have found myself exploring the complexities of the mind, not just the psychological but that has been a big part of my reading. Haruki Murakami has reminded me how complicated the mind can be and while reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage not only was I converted into a fan but it reminded that I am fascinated by psychoanalysis and should pick up some Freud and learn more about this literary theory.

On the other side of my reading spectrum I have been diving into memoirs, firstly with Ex Libris and then moving onto Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch. I have also mentioned The Complete Polysyllabic Spree already and it has been interesting just to learn about the reading journey. I want to read more books about books; I have another memoir by Wendy Lesser called Why I Read waiting at the library for me to pick up and read next month.

It is a weird situation that I am in; I have so many new books plus plenty on my shelf waiting for me to read but I am using the library so much. I have The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Sylvia Plath’s Ariel to read next month and I am sure there will be more visits to the library. Being able to check what the library has online is not helping reduce my TBR but it helps me to follow my reading interests as they change from day to day. My wife would prefer that I spend more time with what I have and she might be right, however following your heart and reading on a whim is so much better.

I feel like I have so much more to say but I am not sure how people will take this format of blogging so I am going to stop here. I found this an enjoyable experience and I am excited to write more like this and I am going to try and incorporate more of my personal life and thoughts into these in the future. For a first attempt in the new direction, I think this worked well. I am not sure if this will be monthly, weekly or something in between. I will see how things go and I will go from there. However I would love to know what you thought of this; as well as any suggestions or criticism that can help me improve essay writing.

What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging – 25th October 2014

Posted October 25, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in What I Think About When I'm Not Blogging / 5 Comments

I have often considered this blog as a book journal that documents my reading life from its conception in 2012. What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging is an attempt to close the gap between book blogging and journaling. This is a (semi)regular stream-of-conscious where I explore all the bookish thoughts I currently have got on my mind.

I have been thinking a lot about book challenges and book projects lately. We are coming to the end of the year and it is about that time to start planning for next year. For the past couple of years, I have committed myself to a 36-book challenge, which included all different genres. This is The Literary Exploration Challenge and while it will be running again next year, I am not sure if I want to be involved. Sure I will be hosting it at the Literary Exploration book club but that does not mean I have to do it again.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the challenge and I think it is a great way to experience genres of different varieties. I just want to commit to something different next year. I have only been reading books since 2009 and in that time I have discovered close to 700 books (680 books according to my spreadsheet). I remember back in 2012 I wrote a post about re-reading and how there are so many books to discover, so I didn’t want to waste too much time re-reading.

Since then, I’ve changed my mind; I know there are millions of books out there that I want to read. I know that I will never get to them all and that does stress me out. However I have changed a lot as a reader and a book blogger and I want to see what I think of books I have read in the past. There are favourites I want to experience again but there are also classics I might not have been ready for. I am curious to see what I will get out of books from my past.

This is not an excuse to write reviews on books I have missed but that is a bonus. Next year I would like to devote some more time to re-reading. I am not sure I would set an amount but ideally I want to re-read at least one book a month. The reason why I don’t want to set an amount or a reading challenge is I want to also spend some time with some reading projects. Sometimes a big book or a complicated book needs that extra time and attention and I would love to leave myself some time to explore them.

So there you have it; this is what I would like to achieve with my reading next year. Have you thought about a reading challenge for next year? Are you going to try something different? I like the idea of reading challenges but I think I will feel more free to read bigger books if I don’t set myself a reading goal or join any reading challenges.