Another book, and I’m almost up to date with the list of books I’ve already read :)

Original title: Lord of the Flies.
Author: William Golding.
Year: 1954.
Genre: Fiction, Allegory.
Language: English.
Read in: English.
Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd.
Pages: 225.
ISBN: 0-571-19147-9.

Plot outline
During the Fifties, a plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of children, who get together and try to assemble their own civilization while waiting to be rescued and taken back home.

Comment without Spoilers
The narrative rhythm is quite constant, but maybe not as fast as I would like. I think that the whole novel is too slow, and it took it a long time to trap me. Maybe it’s just that I’m used to faster books, but for example, Mrs Dalloway’s rhythm was even slower and I really enjoyed it.

The story is really interesting, and I think that the beginning point is an excellent idea that could lead to many different stories. However, I feel that the author could have achieved more with it, and that it ends too soon.

The characters in the book are very well depicted, and we can see all their motivations, feelings, thoughts and complexities that led them to behave the way they do all throughout the story.

Thanks to the descriptions offered in the novel, you can make a really clear image of the island in your mind. The same happens with the different fauna and flora that can be found in the mentioned island.

The edition published by Faber and Faber is quite nice, although not excellent. The quality of the paper and the printing is good, as well as the material of the cover. However, I don’t like the cover at all… maybe it’s just that I find it too colorful for the content of the book.

So, it took me a long time to read this book, because I didn’t really enjoy the first 2/3 of the novel, as its development was really slow and I felt almost as if nothing was being told. It’s as if the beginning was those 2/3 of the novel, the middle part the other 1/3 and the ending just the 3 last pages. Fortunately in that last 1/3 it improves a lot, raising the overall impression of the novel, but anyway, and contrary to the generalized opinion of the whole world, I’m still not sure if I would really recommend this novel to everyone.

Warning, SPOILERS

As I said in the first paragraphs, this novel left me a really sweet and sour taste, because after such a slow development of the story, once it was becoming really interesting, getting into the dark side of the human psyche with the hunting of Ralph by the wild boys, the author suddenly ended it with the appearance of the rescuing ship.

I don’t know, but I feel as if Golding wasn’t enjoying the path the novel was following, so he just decided to give it an end and send it to the publisher, not to loose the effort put in his work. And it’s a pity, because I think that he could have added at least 100 more interesting pages.

End of SPOILERS

Related links:

• Wikipedia: Lord of the Flies.
• Wikipedia: William Golding.

I haven’t written about TV series for a really long time, but I’m going to take advantage of this post to say that I really love How I Met Your Mother :D

Original title: The Bro Code.
Author: “Barney Stinson” with Matt Kuhn.
Year: 2008.
Genre: Comedy.
Language: English.
Read in: English.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Inc. – Fireside.
Pages: 196.
ISBN: 978-1-4391-1000-3.

Plot outline
This book is the famous Bro Code to which Barney Stinson, one of the characters of the TV series How I Met Your Mother, is making reference all the time.

Comment without Spoilers
This book collects 150 articles, as well as some amendments to the Bro Code, stating the behavior that Bros must have in relation with their Bros as well as in other common circumstances of the daily life.

The mentioned articles are quite funny (the book has been written with that purpose) and, aside from being short, most of them have illustrative pictures as well as tables, and other complementary stuff.

The binding is not very good as it’s too weak and can be broken easily. Despite that, the quality of the pages and the printing is good, and the effect given to the paper to look old is a nice detail.

A very recommendable book if you’re a fan of the series or even just of the role that Barney plays. But if not, I wouldn’t really recommend it, as there are many jokes that come directly from the show and can be misunderstood.

Related links:

• Wikipedia: How I Met Your Mother.

Well, another book to the collection :D

Original title: ¿Me Pone con el Cielo?.
Author: Various.
Year: 2008.
Genre: Comedy.
Language: Spanish.
Read in: Spanish.
Publisher: Espasa.
Pages: 202.
ISBN: 978-84-670-2963-5.

Plot outline
This book doesn’t have any kind of plot, as it’s just a collection of anecdotes that happened in the call center of a phone information service.

Comment without Spoilers
The anecdotes present in this book are classified into different categories, and most of them, aside from being short, are more or less funny and curious, but not really outstanding.

The binding of the book is of good quality, being quite robust. The paper of the pages is quite white and they have a medium thickness. The quality of the printing is also good, being neat and clean.

This book is fine for a light reading or for when you don’t have a long time to focus in a more deep and intellectual book. Anyway, it’s good for having a nice time with it.

Well, so… here we have the first real post after the break I took. Let’s see if I’m still able to write at least a little bit coherently! :D

Disclaimer: I’m a Neal Stephenson fanboy, so any likeness between this post and reality may be by pure chance :P

Original title: Anathem.
Spanish title:
Author: Neal Stephenson (USA, 1959 – ).
Year: 2008.
Genre: Sci-Fi.
Language: English.
Read in: English.
Publisher: Atlantic Books.
Pages: 936.
ISBN: 978-1-84354-915-4.

Plot outline
Fraa Erasmas, an avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, is preparing for the Apert, the brief time in which the Concent, a sanctuary for science and philosophy protected from the outside world, opens its doors letting the inside and the outside get mixed.

Comment without Spoilers
The narrative style is that one Neal Stephenson has has gotten us used to book after book, with a fluent and interesting flow that sets a trap from which the reader definitely can’t escape.

The story from Anathem is also really good, setting a really interesting base in the very beginning, from which the author begins to develop bit by bit until you get completely wrapped in it.

Although most of the main characters are perfectly defined, the one from which we get the deepest view is Fraa Erasmas, as the novel is supposed to be a manuscript he wrote during the events.

The scenarios shown in the novel are really well depicted and have extensive descriptions, thus allowing you to form a faithful image of them in your mind, helping you to immerse even more into the story.

A really nice detail is the definition of the different words from the world of Anathem that can be found in the beginning of each chapter, as well as the glossary at the end (in which they’re all collected), the different appendixes with technical explanations, and the chronology, which is really useful to read once you finish the book.

The edition published by Atlantic Books is simply excellent. The hardcover binding is of a great quality. The pages have a great texture both to sight and touch, and the printing is neat, clear and with the perfect size for reading.

Well, as you can see, I really enjoyed reading this book, and I greatly recommend it to everyone. Furthermore, is one of the few books of Neal Stephenson that actually has what I would call an ending!

So you know, if you have the chance, give it a try… it’s not as long as it seems :D

WARNING! SPOILERS!

For some time, in the middle of the book, I had a feeling that greatly reminded me of Footfall, a feeling that certainly I didn’t like, because it was as if I had already read that. However (anf rotunately), it didn’t last long.

By the end of the novel, when it is shown that the extraterrestrial ship contains people from the Earth, well, although is a nice (and really interesting) twist in the plot, it isn’t completely unexpected, as they keep giving small clues all along the story.

End of SPOILERS

Neal Stephenson:

• mrithail.com: Snow Crash .
• mrithail.com: The Baroque Cycle .
1. Quicksilver .
2. The Confusion .
3. The System of the World .
• mrithail.com: Anathem.

Related links:

• Wikipedia: Neal Stephenson.
• Official site: Neal Stephenson.
• Wikipedia: Anathem.
• Official site: Anathem.
• Wikia: Anathem.

Well here I come back with the last book I read in 2008… I know it’s quite late, but better late than never!

Original title: Burning Chrome.
Spanish title: Quemando Cromo.
Author: William Gibson (USA, 1948 – ).
Content:

• Johnny Mnemonic.
• The Gernsback Continuum.
• Fragments of a Hologram Rose.
• The Belonging Kind (with John Shirley)
• Hinterlands.
• Red Star, Winter Orbit (with Bruce Sterling).
• New Rose Hotel.
• The Winter Market.
• Dogfight (with Michael Swanwick).
• Burning Chrome.

Year: 1986.
Genre: Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk.
Language: English.
Read in: Spanish.
Translation by: José Arconada and Javier Ferreira.
Publisher: Minotauro.
Pages: 200.
ISBN: 84-450-7383-4.

Plot outline
In this short stories compilation, most of the texts are unrelated, so there’s no underlying plot connecting them. The only exceptions are Johnny Mnemonic and Burning Chrome, as both of them are set in the same universe as Neuromancer .

Comment without Spoilers
This collection puts together the first stories published by William Gibson, and that appeared in different magazines and science-fiction anthologies and in them we can observe how Gibson’s particular style of narration was slowly taking shape.

Several of the stories were nominated for different science-fiction awards, such as Hugo, Negula or Locus. And those were right nominations, as the quality of some of the stories is quite astounding.

The translation by José Arconada and Javier Ferreira is not bad, but sometimes the language used and the composition of the sentences seems quite artificial. Anyway, the text is good enough for it to be enjoyable.

The edition published by Minotauro is nice, although not outstanding. The printing is mostly neat and the quality of the paper good, with very whitey pages. The binding is not as robust as one might want, but it’s a pocket edition, so you can’t expect much in there.

I personally encourage the reading of this Burning Chrome, as it’s a great way to see the initial steps of Gibson, and also of seeing how the basis of the cyberpunk genre were steadily being established in the roots of the contemporary generation of science-fiction writers.

William Gibson:

• mrithail.com: Sprawl Trilogy.
1. Neuromancer .
2. Count Zero.
3. Mona Lisa Overdrive.
• mrithail.com: Burning Chrome.
• mrithail.com: Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.
• mrithail.com: The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling).

Bruce Sterling:

• mrithail.com: Burning Chrome.
• mrithail.com: Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.
• mrithail.com: The Difference Engine (with William Gibson).

Related links:

• Wikipedia: William Gibson.
• Official site: William Gibson.
• Wikipedia: Burning Chrome.

Lately I’ve been reading a little bit of poetry aside from novels, and I thought… why not some plays too? It’s good to explore every side of literature!

Original title: The Importance of Being Earnest.
Spanish title: La Importancia de Llamarse Ernesto.
Author: Oscar Wilde (UK, 1854 – France, 1900).
Year: 1895.
Genre: Theater, Comedy.
Language: English.
Read in: English.
Publisher: Penguin Books – Penguin Popular Classics.
Pages: 67.
ISBN: 978-0-14-062345-1.

Plot outline
Algernon is a bachelor who has invented Bunbury, a sick relative who frequently calls him away, just to be able to avoid some kind of social duties, like family meeting. His friend Jack, in his own way, has created a brother called Ernest, to disguise his own misdemeanors.

Comment without Spoilers
Although this play is very short, the plot of it is really nicely developed. Even more, thanks to its short length, everything that appears has an specific purpose, being difficult to find any kind of filling in it.

The rhythm of the narrative is quite constant, not decaying in any moment. It’s light and fast, and helps a lot to trap you, as you read and read, flying over the pages without any difficulty.

There are very few scenarios alongside the novel, but all of them are well depicted, thanks both to the description at the beginning of each scene, and the interactions of the characters themselves.

The background of the story is also nicely set, and in the first scenes you get all the relevant information you need not to get lost during the events comprised in the play.

This is the same kind of edition as the version of Mrs Dalloway I read, so you can expect pretty much the same in both of them. That is, low quality in pages and printing, and just regular in the binding. But hey, it was really cheap!

Conclusions? Well, this play is delightfully funny, short and easy to read. And with a quality that definitely makes it a must for every literature lover out there. So, if you haven’t read it yet, just give it a try :)

Related links:

• Wikipedia: The Importance of Being Earnest.
• Wikipedia: Oscar Wilde.

I really need to get up to date with the posts I write. I read this book in the middle of November! But hey, time to time.

Original title: Selling Manhattan.
Author: Carol Ann Duffy (UK, 1955 – ).
Content: Practising Being Dead, Die Natalis, Sanctuary, An Old Atheist Places His Last Bet, Strange Language in Night Fog, I Live Here Now, Homesick, The Dummy, Model Village, The Brink of Shrieks, Recognition, Absolutely, And How Are We Today?, Psychopath, Every Good Boy, Yes, Officer, Statement, Money Talks, Selling Manhattan, Politico, Scraps, Stealing, Translation, Colours by Someone Else, Three Paintings, Mouth, With Soap, Big Sue and Now Voyager, All Days Lost Days, Foreign, Postcards, Correspondents, Telegrams, Telephoning Home, Space, Space, Lovesick, Strange Place, Only Dreaming, By Heart, Warming Her Pearls, Deportation, Plainsong, Miles Away.
Year: 1987.
Genre: Poetry.
Language: English.
Read in: English.
Publisher: Anvil Press Poetry.
Pages: 62.
Size: -
ISBN: 0-85646-295-0.

Plot outline
This is the second collection of poems ever published by Carol Ann Duffy, comprehending from her famous monologues to love poems, all of them with her characteristically satirical and ironic point of view.

Comment without Spoilers
Again, as it happened to me with The World’s Wife, this is going to be a really short post, as I still haven’t managed to find a way that satisfies me while commenting poetry and collections of poems.

The truth is that, after thinking a lot about what I could write about this collection, I determined that the feelings I got, and what I wanted to write, is almost exactly the same as I did the last time with a collection by Duffy.

That is, that her style is completely refreshing and impressive, and that I particularly love the beauty of her poems and how she expresses that using her ironic, sarcastic critic and, sometimes, cruel style… just amazing.

The edition by Anvil Press is quite nice. The binding isn’t excellent, but it’s good enough. The quality of the paper and the printing is really nice, with very white sheets and a really easy to read typography.

Once again, with this collection Carol Ann Duffy made me appreciate and love poetry like I rarely do. But once again, the only drawback of the collection is that it’s really short, and even reading it slowly to analyze every poem, you finish it really fast.

Now I just remembered that some time ago I reproduced in this blog one of the poems of this collection: Foreign. Enjoy.

Carol Ann Duffy

• mrithail.com: Selling Manhattan.
• mrithail.com: Foreign.
• mrithail.com: The World’s Wife.

Related links

• Wikipedia: Carol Ann Duffy.

So, after this Macedonian Series, it’s time to get back to some books… In this case, Mrs Dalloway, the first book I’ve ever read from Virginia Woolf, but for sure, not the last one.

Original title: Mrs Dalloway.
Spanish title: La Señora Dalloway.
Author: Virginia Woolf (UK, 1882 – UK, 1941).
Year: 1925.
Genre: Drama, Stream of Consciousness.
Language: English.
Read in: English.
Publisher: Penguin Books – Penguin Popular Classics.
Pages: 213.
Size: -
ISBN: 0-14-062221-7.

Plot outline
It’s London, after World War I, and Mrs Dalloway is preparing one of the frequent parties she holds at her house. Then, an old lover of her, Peter Walsh, who was living in India, appears, making her rethink about all her life up to that moment.

Comment without Spoilers
Although the plot of the story is quite simple, and it revolves just around a regular evening in someone’s almost daily routine, it’s in that daily routine, not only from the main character, but also from the supporting ones, where the novel gets most of its strength.

The main point of the novel is how it presents the thoughts of the characters, their inner motivations and how they think and behave in relation with the others. The technique Woolf uses here is called stream of consciousness and I find it just amazing, although it makes the reading and understanding of the novel a little complicated as this resource appears at least in 90% of the book.

The scenarios in which the events of Mrs Dalloway are held are very few, and the truth is that they barely have any kind of importance, as the main points of the novel come from the minds of the characters, not their actions.

Although the scenarios, as I said, are secondary, the background of the story is well depicted and it shows in a detailed way the structure of the British society as well as some of its customs and behaviors.

The quality of the edition I read was really bad, but it’s also true that I couldn’t expect anything else, as its cost is like 2 or 3 EUR. Probably it won’t last more that 3 or 4 readings, but eh, at that price you can always buy it again if you want to!

I really loved this novel, as I found it really interesting and refreshing, mainly because of the stream of consciousness. But on the other hand, that can be also a kind of drawback, as reading Mrs Dalloway trying to pick up every detail is really hard, at least for me, and it took me a long time to finish reading it. Anyway, I think is a great novel, suitable for everyone.

Related links:

• Wikipedia: Mrs Dalloway.
• Wikipedia: Virginia Woolf.

Aside from the trips, I’m getting delayed with the list of books I’ve read, so… let’s try to get a little bit up to date with them!

Original title: The Running Man.
Author: Stephen King (USA, 1947 – ), writing as Richard Bachman.
Year: 1982.
Genre: Science-Fiction.
Language: English.
Read in: English.
Publisher: Signet.
Pages: 318.
Size: -
ISBN: 0-451-19796-8.

Plot outline
Ben Richards, needing money to buy medicines for her severely ill little child, decides to go to the Games Federation, who runs several violent and deadly TV programs, in order to get the money by becoming a participant in them.

Comment without Spoilers
This book really surprised me when I read it… not really because of its overall quality, but because I read it in just one night, after just a couple of breaks, and I can remember only one other time in which that happened to me.

The fact I stated in the previous paragraph happened due to the fantastic narrative rhythm, which is really fluid and hooks you up, making you just want to read, and read, and then read a little bit more. And the good point is that that fluidity is maintained through the whole novel.

The story begins in a very interesting way, with a great presentation of events. However, as you advance in the novel, it begins to get a little bit awkward, as the events presented start to lose their neat logic connection, giving you the feeling that in the end, the novel was just being written for the sake of it.

The plot is viewed exclusively from the point of view of Ben, as it’s the only character the novel focuses on, letting us know exactly what’s going on in his mind at every step of the story.

The background set in the book is one of the best points of the novel, as it’s very well depicted, and it shows an interesting hypothetical future that, sincerely, I think it might not be as crazy as it seems at first sight, even more after taking a look at the path that TV is following lately.

The edition I read wasn’t precisely what I would call very good. The binding was robust and of good quality, but that’s something I can’t say about both the paper and the printing. But anyway, for reading it in just one day, is not entirely bad.

So, even though it isn’t one of the best books I’ve ever read and I don’t consider it one of the “musts” of Science-Fiction, I have to say that it is interesting and really entertaining. Also, I want to add that there’s a movie with the same title based on the novel, but it’s not really an exact representation of the book.

Related links:

• Official site: Stephen King.
• Wikipedia: Stephen King.
• Wikipedia: The Running Man.

Imagine living in a strange, dark city for twenty years.
There are some dismal dwellings on the east side
and one of them is yours. On the landing, you hear
your foreign accent echo down the stairs. You think
in a language of your own and talk in theirs.

Then you are writing home. The voice in your head
recites the letter in a local dialect; behind that
is the sound of your mother singing to you,
all that time ago, and now you do not know
why your eyes are watering and what’s the word for this.

You use the public transport. Work. Sleep. Imagine one night
you saw a name for yourself sprayed in red
against a brick wall. A hate name. Red like blood.
It is snowing on the streets, under the neon lights,
as if this place were coming to bits before your eyes.

And in the delicatessen, from time to time, the coins
in your palm will not translate. Inarticulate,
because this is not home, you point at fruit. Imagine
that one of you says Me not know what these people mean.
It like they only go to bed and dream. Imagine that.

– Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy

• mrithail.com: Selling Manhattan.
• mrithail.com: Foreign.
• mrithail.com: The World’s Wife.