Jane Smiley « Books Worth Reading

2008 Year in Books

January 1, 2009 at 12:23 pm | In Year in Review | 4 Comments
Tags: Amitav Ghosh, Antoine de Saint Exupery, Emily Bronte, Favorites, George Saunders, Jane Smiley, Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, Stewart O'Nan

: Image via Wikipedia

I saw a lot of bloggers doing year-in-review posts, so I thought it would be fun to add my own to the mix. I’m not going to list every book I read; visit the Monthly Reading category to see that.

First, some favorites/surprises:

Favorite book read this year (fiction): Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Favorite book read this year (nonfiction): 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley
Favorite reread: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
Favorite new book read this year: Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Favorite new (to me) author: Jane Smiley and Stewart O’Nan (tie)
Old favorite author whom I continue to adore: Margaret Atwood
Most surprising book that I loved: Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders
Most surprising book that I hated: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Now, the stats. I am a bit ashamed of my total number of books read, because clearly a lot of you are kicking my butt in this category, but hey! I did have a baby this year. So cut me some slack.

Total books read: 45 (averaged 3.75 books per month)

Number of books started but then abandoned: 11 (Whew, that seems like a lot of rejection!)

Ratings stats:

3 books (5%) They were: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, The Little Prince and Slaughterhouse-Five

17 books (30%)

22 books (40%)

3 books (5%)

11 books (20%) These were all the abandoned books.

Taking out the abandoned books, my ratings system is pretty much following the bell curve, which I guess is what you would expect.

The remaining stats don’t count the abandoned books.

Types of books read:

Novels: 34 (76%)
Novellas and short stories: 6 (13%)
Nonfiction: 5 (11%)

Clearly, I love novels. I could read more nonfiction, I think.

Genres read:

Science fiction: 12 (27%)
Literary fiction: 8 (18%)
Horror: 5 (11%)
Suspense thrillers: 4 (9%)
Historical fiction: 3 (7%)
Classics: 2 (4%)
Mystery: 2 (4%)
Parenting: 2 (4%)
Memoir: 2 (4%)
Children’s literature: 2 (4%) This doesn’t count all the picture books I read.
Fantasy: 1 (2%)
Literary criticism: 1 (2%)
Short story anthologies: 1 (2%)

Science fiction is still my favorite genre, but I have been reading a lot of mainstream fiction, to my surprise.

How do you use book reviews?

August 29, 2008 at 9:00 am | In Books, Reviews | 4 Comments
Tags: Jane Smiley

Image by elkit via Flickr

I have to admit that I usually only read reviews of books that I have already read. I like to see if the reviewer agreed or disagreed with my opinion of the book and has any new insights to add. A shared reading experience can lead to a good discussion in the comments.

Sometimes I’ll skim a review for a book I haven’t read if I’m considering buying it or if the subject interests me. But I am cautious, because I don’t want to get spoiled!

I don’t really like to read criticism — or an in-depth analysis of a book — unless it’s written particularly well, such as in Jane Smiley’s entertaining 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel. I also don’t like to write that kind of criticism. I’m not in school anymore!

I started this blog as an online version of my personal reading journal, so my reviews are typically limited to my feelings about a book and any interesting thoughts I might have had while reading it. They don’t go deeper than that. I might write more if I were getting paid. (But you’d have to pay me a lot to read books I don’t enjoy and then write about them.)

How do you use book reviews? Do they help you decide what to read, or do you wait until after you’ve read the book yourself? Do you prefer personal reactions to the book or more analytical reviews?

(I started thinking about this after reading this post on Editorial Ass.)

Monthly Reading: May 2008

June 1, 2008 at 11:14 am | In Monthly Reading, Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: Jane Smiley, Joe R Lansdale, Susanna Clarke, Children's literature, Antoine de Saint Exupery, Mainstream

Image via Wikipedia

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery — Children’s literature

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley — Mainstream fiction

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke — abandoned

The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale — abandoned

My rating scale:

1 star: Abandoned before finishing. Don’t waste your time.
2 stars: Poor. Avoid with extreme prejudice.
3 stars: Average. Read it, have a good time and move on. Or not.
4 stars: Great. Push it on your friends and family.
5 stars: Excellent. Keep it, treasure it, reread it.

Disclaimer: My ratings are very personal and may have little to do with the book’s artistic or commercial merit, or its place in the literary canon. Rather, the rating reflects how the story, characters and writing spoke to me and augmented my understanding of the world.

Monthly Reading: January 2008

February 1, 2008 at 12:51 pm | In Monthly Reading, Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: David Brin, Science fiction, Jane Smiley, Gregory Benford, Soft science fiction, Dystopia, Lois Lowry, Kim Stanley Robinson, Mars, Books about books, Austin Grossman, Denis Johnson, Superhero

Book cover via Amazon

Click the titles for my review or notes.

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley — book about books

Heart of the Comet by David Brin and Gregory Benford — science fiction

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson — Mars science fiction

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman — superhero science fiction

The Giver by Lois Lowry — dystopian soft science fiction

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson — abandoned

My rating scale:

1 star: Abandoned before finishing. Don’t waste your time.
2 stars: Poor. Avoid with extreme prejudice.
3 stars: Average. Read it, have a good time and move on. Or not.
4 stars: Great. Push it on your friends and family.
5 stars: Excellent. Keep it, treasure it, reread it.

Worth Reading: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel

January 7, 2008 at 8:20 am | In Books, Reviews | 4 Comments
Tags: Literary criticism, Jane Smiley, Biography, Authorship, Fiction history

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, Jane Smiley (2005)

5 stars!

This book is a must-read for anyone who loves reading novels as well as for new and experienced writers. Although it covers its subject in great depth and detail, analyzing the novel throughout its history by closely examining 100 (actually, slightly more) representatives of the form, it is such fascinating material and such food for thought that it doesn’t seem academic at all. In fact, a lot of witticisms are scattered throughout (such as, “the biographer is the author’s natural enemy”), as well as useful, practical and compassionate advice for those who aspire to write a novel themselves.

I won’t say that I agree with every theory Smiley posits. She pretty much omits genre fiction, and she takes a highly feminized viewpoint, which I think betrays her reading tastes. Her outlook of the novel as a form that has primarily dealt with the question of what to do about women is likely a result of her bias toward books that focus on female characters and women’s issues; she pretty much dismisses masculine-themed books such as Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness (two personal favorites).

Smiley’s most valuable offering is a short and precise definition of what a novel is that can’t really be argued with: A novel is a lengthy, written, prose narrative with a protagonist. From that starting point, all of her subsequent ideas of what the novel is flow. This is a juicy book, one which I found inspirational both for my reading life and my writing aspirations.