April 2005 Archives

I picked up Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain at the library on the advice of TheKnitter. She really liked the book, and she probably knows what she's talking about because she was a litterature major. So, if you want to, take her word for it.

Me, the lowly journalism major, I did not really like this book. I began skimming halfway through. I found the characters were cold and distant, and the story was not really thrilling to boot.

To illustrate why I didn't like this book, I am going to put up a short passage that I feel sums it up quite well:

Part of the problem with this book is the cover. It's embarassing to walk around with a book called Spontaneous Healing with a huge picture of a bearded man on the cover. You automatically look like you would smell like patchouli. However, the book is quite serious and, for being on the best-seller list, is pleasantly devoid of fru-fru bullshit so common to books on natural healing and health.

The book is written by Dr Andrew Weil - a Harvard-educated doctor who is interested in natural health and alternative medicine. The overall premis of the book: your body has the potential to heal itself. Try to plug into that.

You most likely remember the cover of She's Come Undone, because it seemed to be everywhere in the 90's. I'm pretty sure the cover alone kept me from buying it. When I walked into the bookstore ten years later and saw the British cover (much better), I didn't even recognize the book.

The books was under the Staff Recommendations section of the store, and I read through all of the staff blurbs rather meticulously. I decided on She's Come Undone because its simple recommendation was: "I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!" That seemed more enthusiastic than the recommendations that read, "In 19th centure Russia, a man finds himself in dire straights when..." or anything equally as exciting. So I went for it.

I picked Audrey Niffenegger's book up just before heading to London. I spent half of the three-hour train ride sleeping and the other half reading this book, and we pulled into Waterloo before I even looked at my watch once. Even though I myself was travelling, The Time Traveller's Wife kept me entertained enough to consistently sneak in a read throughout my short stint in the city. It made me even look forward to having to wait around in the train station on my return trip, because I knew it would mean uninterrupted reading time. I devoured this book, and finished it a little over 24 hours after beginning it.

I would never say that it's amazingly written or destined to become a classic. It is, however, original and different, and pleasant to read.