Books

One of the things I wanted to get back into was more reading for this year. I've probably strayed a bit too far into sports books and now they all appear to be the same. So I want to get back into reading something with a bit more difficulty. Right now I'm reading Catch 22, having just finished The World According to Garp.

The World According to Garp was a very interesting book as it was all kinds of just plain old crazy (thats an oxymoron, because crazy isn't plain... or is it?). At the time I bought that book I actually thought in my mind, "there is no way I can make this a stand alone purchase. I should get that Bobby Orr book too." Anyways, once I got into it I was still thinking, "I can't believe I'm reading this!" It started to become a novel that I kept going because I wanted to know what happened next. There is one part I totally want to talk about, but it would be a spoiler for anyone who decides to check out the book. Its just completely twisted, disturbing, funny, and sad... I'll have to reread the whole thing sometime just to try and get things I may have missed the first time.

Catch 22 so far is really wacky. It makes me think of it as a precursor to Leslie Nielson type humour. Anyways, the book is set in the army and a catch 22 is this: If you are "crazy", you can ask to be shipped out because you are not fit to serve duty, however if you ask for such a request you have proven youself sane because you understand war is dangerous, and thus you then are fit to serve duty. So far the book seems to be introducing characters, and I have no idea where it is going.

The point of these books is to kind of get away from some of the action thriller type bestsellers. I'm not sure why The Da Vinci Code was loved so much, because to me it came off as a typical action thriller. I guess it just seemed to have a whole bunch of "smart" theories.

So now that I am on this kick, I was trying to think of what was my favorite book. It would actually be Champions: The Making of the Edmonton Oilers by Kevin Lowe and Stan Fischler. Its great because it gives some history of the Oilers, the WHA, and a look into the glory Oilers. There is a bit of irony, because as far as I know, Fishler was a quite the critic of Gretzky and slammed for the sake of it. I also have Peter Gzowski's The Game of Our Lives which chronicles the 1981 Oilers team. Now as for fiction books, it would probably be Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy.

I also think I should get a copy of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger as it is the book I did in high school that I guess opened up my mind. After that book I didn't see books or movies as media where "things should happen." It could be much more than that through uses of different storytelling techniques. It wasn't about the tough guy hero who could beat up all the bad guys in the end (although you can never replace Tony Jaa's Ong Bak). When I first read The Catcher in the Rye it was basically summed up as: three days of the guy complaining about stuff, and then he cries. Once things were explained a bit, I was forced to dig into the book and figure out what the author is trying to say and even what the author is saying without meaning to. This led to the book being pretty good, and I figure if you can understand a book, sometimes it can help you understand life a little bit. This is probably what they meant when they said they wanted to develop "Critical thinking skills." Except for the part where they mark you and tell you that you are wrong if you do it different (or just plain wrong...).

Thats pretty much it for this post, I guess I'll leave one question though. For the upcoming months, does anyone have any suggestions for good reads? Lemme know if you do.

Dang it!

Sigh, I put up a previous post and it looks like it didn't make it so now I am putting up this sentenc e to symbolize that an awesome blog was supposed to be here.