During family trips to Blockbuster, Dad D. always hoped for two things:

(1) Laser blasters and/or (2) Space battles

Dad D. would not enjoy Ken Follet’s lengthy novel The Pillars of the Earth.

Instead of giant spaceships smashing into other giant spaceships, The Pillars of the Earth describes the building of a cathedral and the frustrating struggle for power within the church and the royalty in England.

In the beginning I loathed the book. There was so much going on in so few pages that it seemed like the author may have been grossly over caffeinated during his writing sessions.

But Follet calmed down a bit once the cathedral building began and the characters came into their own. The villains were easy to hate and the heroes easy to love. The one problem with epic novels like these is that the villains grow into such epic horribleness that there is no death gruesome enough to act as justification for the horrific acts that they commit.

Over all, I greatly enjoyed the read. Despite the lack of space battles, I recommend this book – especially if you’re going on a few plane trips. Nothing makes travel easier than a long captivating book as a travel companion.

On Alicia’s recommendation, I bought The Postman for my kindle. It’s a short science fiction read that retells the post-apocalyptic adventures of Gordon Krantz as he adopts the persona of a United States mailman.

The book starts off beautifully. Gordon’s role as a mailman helps the desperate villages of our future fallen country feel established and connected with one another. Author David Brin does a great job of describing the people’s inspiration and hope that come with this unexpected man in uniform. Unfortunately, halfway through, Brin drops the hope theme to focus on a massive unrealistic battle against violent survivalists. I’m not sure I liked the change in direction.

What made me appreciate the book most was Gordon’s internal monologue as he struggled with his role of leadership. As he was never an actual mailman, he believed his position was based on a lie. While the lie undermined his confidence, it didn’t stop him from taking action when action was required. Is leadership something that’s taken because of necessity, belief, or internal values?

Apparently this was made into a film with Kevin Costner. Apparently it was horrible. If anyone’s seen it I’d love a recap!

I recommend the book. You should probably avoid the movie.

My reading preferences tend to be somewhat cyclical. My last few book choices have quenched my non-fiction thirst and left me aching for something lighter, I have now journeyed to the opposite end of my reading spectrum and am enjoying some science fiction, specifically, Frank Herbert’s Dune.

I was always intimidated by Dune. Perhaps it was its weight or that the title does little to entice. However on Vivienne and Jesse’s insisting, I tried it again.

I am so pleased with the book so far. The families were a little hard to keep track of at first, but having trained with the near infinite Aurelianos of 100 Years of Solitude, I’ve been able to follow the characters fairly well.

I just reached the end of Part I. The book captivates and uses beautifully descriptive language. Despite the fact that I’m only 40% through the book, I’m confident it will be a favorite. If you haven’t read it yet, I strongly encourage you to join me.

I heard a short clip on the radio suggesting that publishers might delay the release of electronic copies of their books. It’ll be like the video release of movies, coming months after the original release.

I find the battle between paper and screen completely fascinating.

In conversing with Sarah T. about literature and education, I realized I strongly oppose mandatory reading for high school students.

I went through the public education system and endured summers of reading lists and English classes full of literature. Of the vast multitude of books populating the curriculum, here’s what I remember:

I enjoyed reading Old Man and the Sea and Sons and Lovers.

I struggled painfully through Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, most Shakespeare, and The Invisible Man (spoiler: not about a superhero who can turn invisible – I know right?!? WHAT THE HECK.)

There’s nothing else. I might recall a storyline here or there if you gave me hints, but otherwise it’s all gone. Furthermore, many of the books I was suppose to read, I didn’t read. There was a fair fraction of us who skimmed and skipped our way through the bulk of books. I think my class read Beloved in high school too. I’m pretty sure I didn’t read it.

With this in mind, it’s hard for me to see value in mandatory reading. Sarah T. pointed out that becoming educated on culturally significant storylines of quintessential works is only half of the purpose. The other half is learning to unearth and appreciate the symbolism and themes that lie between the lines. And while I may have called shenanigans on these themes in high school because they seemed convoluted and contrived, I now appreciate that many written works are carefully crafted to share something deeper than 300 pages of Times New Roman.

Right now I’m reading some poetry. Specifically, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge. This is a perfect example of a work that I would have no interest in if it was forced upon me, but now that I’ve picked it up on my own volition, I find it deeply powerful. Is the best way to educate to try and push value upon someone who may not be ready to embrace it? The clever child might make this argument regarding those last stems of lukewarm broccoli sitting on his dinner plate, but I submit to you that these are different situations.

It could very well be that it just wasn’t for me and that most lives are enriched by what I saw as cultural water-boarding. Even if the mikedidonato.com sampling might have a disproportionate amount of engineers who, like me, chose a college based entirely on the fact that they didn’t have to take English courses, I’m curious to hear your opinions on mandatory reading in high school.

Literature really is an art. I didn’t see it as such until I started walking down the literary path alone.

My sister recommended MJ Hyland’s Carry Me Down after I finished Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves last year. She described it like this:

House of Leaves is truly unique, but at times it seems like the author is exploring new writing styles just because he can – more for the gimmick than for the act of telling the story. Carry Me Down is just as unique in its main character and the means of the story, but it never feels forced or fake.

I didn’t read the book right away because it wasn’t available on Kindle. Thankfully, there’s a really handy website called Mysteria which will regularly ping Amazon to see if they have the book you want converted as ebook. Conveniently, Mysteria e-mailed me about Carry Me Down on Thursday just before my flight. I promptly downloaded the book and read it on my westward journey.

Nothing makes a flight more enjoyable than a good book to read. And mostly, I agree with Alicia’s opinion above. Carry Me Down never felt forced and it had a subject matter that was very clever and mostly untouched in the literary world. That said, I don’t think you would ever want to put Carry Me Down and House of Leaves in the same sentence let alone the same bookshelf. House of Leaves is a suspenseful book whose subject matter steps far into the paranormal – Carry Me Down is just a story about a boy. There are no endless hallways or monsters lurking out of view, it’s just decent story telling.

It’s a pretty short book too which is nice. I read it in about 6 hours of flying.

Next up, I’ll be reading Going to Extremes with book enthusiast Tony E. If you’d like to join our impromptu book club, pick the book up and plan on finishing the first 2 chapters by next weekend.

Until then, keep reading!

WARNING: SPOILERS.

I finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle this weekend. On Sunday I relaxed for the better part of the morning prone and closed to the world reading my book. The writing kept me captivated and it wasn’t a challenge to just read for 4+ hours straight.

Repeat warning: Spoilers.

I really disliked the ending. When I told my mother that I had finished the book she said

Mom D: “Oh, right. That’s an Oprah book club book right?”
Mike D: “I think so, have you read it?”
Mom D: “I haven’t. Was it depressing? All Oprah books seem to be depressing.”

And yes. It was depressing. It ended in a giant pile of sadness. I really dislike disheartening books. I mean, it’s fiction. Why create a book that provides a path of misery for your reader? Some people might enjoy a good gloomy book. Perhaps it leads them towards a better understanding of life’s unfairness. Perhaps those cynics readers find it a more realistic story. But not me. For me, the best thing about a sad book is that it boosts my joy for those books that end with justice and a happy couple walking into the sunset.

Are there any people out there who prefer a depressing ending to one that is happy in its conclusion? I wonder if there’s some metric that could help define which sells better: the joyous finale, or the dismal one.

Out of curiosity, now I want to check to see what percentage of Oprah book club books are actually depressing.

Occasionally you meet people who have read every book you’ve ever read as well as a million more. My sister Alicia is one of those people. So too is my friend Bekah Hayes. Most recently though, I interacted with Treesa’s old office mate Tony E. Tony E. also has a wide breadth of books under his belt. Before I started in on One Hundred Years of Solitude, he gave me a firm warning of its potential to become mind-bendingly irritating.

He read my most recent post about the book and we had the following conversation:

Tony E: hate to say it…. but i told you so
Mike D: it’s absolutely true. It became torturous
Tony E: yeah, Edgar Sawtelle is an awesome book though
Mike D: You’ve read that too? Geeze, it’s like you’ve read every book. TIME FOR A TEST.

1. Did you read: Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime?
2. Did you read: East of Eden?
3. Did you read: Atlas Shrugged?

Tony E: 1. yes 2. yes. 3. yes, even the speech.
Mike D: even the speech? Gah! you win man.
Tony E: though I must admit I haven’t finish Sawtelle yet
Mike D: you still win.
Tony E: No no, when you read books everyone wins

Awww.

Awhile ago, I asked Tony for a book list. He sent me the following recommendations:

1. the savage detectives, Roberto Bolano
2. heartbreaking work of staggering genius, dave eggers (this one is probably the sweetest to read)
3. Zen and the art of motorcyle maintenence, Robert Pirsig – that book is freaking cool

Sadly, #’s 1 and 2 aren’t available on Kindle. Though I’ve heard very good things about the Zen book. Has anyone else tried either of those first two?