Books
I like reading very much. I haven't read much for a while until this last week and I didn't realize how I've missed it, how I actually need it. I could actually feel myself becoming a little smarter(or a little less dumb, depending on one's POV) during the course of finishing it.
The book was a first hand account of a tragic climb of Mount Everest where 9 climbers died within 48 hours. The real tragedy is that it was unavoidable and it will
inevitably happen again. That year(1996) was an unusually safe season for climbing Everest as there were far fewer deaths than usual. But the odds will always kick in sooner or later and house always wins. And the longer the odds are stretched out, the fiercer its vengeance will be. The book illustrates the realization of this phenomenon.
Though I enjoyed it very much, I didn't even read the whole thing because my cynical mind told me that a book that deals with an event that takes place over 4 days should be shorter than 333pages. So I jumped ahead skipping character introductions,
the history of Mt. Everest, biology lessons and whatever else the author decided to delve into so he could lengthen the book and therefore maximize his pay.
Now the question is: What to read next? Or, a more important question that I've been asking for a long time is: Why is there no place where one can reliably find book reviews? Yes I know there are websites that have reader reviews but they're not really that helpful because the reviews aren't relative. There are reviews about everything else out there though: Movies, videogames, action figures, baseball cards, sexual equipment, car batteries etc. But why not books? Is our world so fast moving and impatient that there’s no room left for books?
Anyway, until that mystery is solved, I think I’ll go with my guts(pun) and read Chuck Palahniuk again like I promised some months ago. Grow grey matter, grow!(Try saying that 17 times fast)
The book was a first hand account of a tragic climb of Mount Everest where 9 climbers died within 48 hours. The real tragedy is that it was unavoidable and it will
inevitably happen again. That year(1996) was an unusually safe season for climbing Everest as there were far fewer deaths than usual. But the odds will always kick in sooner or later and house always wins. And the longer the odds are stretched out, the fiercer its vengeance will be. The book illustrates the realization of this phenomenon. Though I enjoyed it very much, I didn't even read the whole thing because my cynical mind told me that a book that deals with an event that takes place over 4 days should be shorter than 333pages. So I jumped ahead skipping character introductions,
the history of Mt. Everest, biology lessons and whatever else the author decided to delve into so he could lengthen the book and therefore maximize his pay. Now the question is: What to read next? Or, a more important question that I've been asking for a long time is: Why is there no place where one can reliably find book reviews? Yes I know there are websites that have reader reviews but they're not really that helpful because the reviews aren't relative. There are reviews about everything else out there though: Movies, videogames, action figures, baseball cards, sexual equipment, car batteries etc. But why not books? Is our world so fast moving and impatient that there’s no room left for books?
Anyway, until that mystery is solved, I think I’ll go with my guts(pun) and read Chuck Palahniuk again like I promised some months ago. Grow grey matter, grow!(Try saying that 17 times fast)
posted by ds @ 11:53 PM
The whole concept of reviews is flawed, if for no other reason than the fact that people's tastes vary. I see merit in product reviews like when deciding which TV to buy, because you can measure them on picture quality, durability, price, etc...but that does not apply as well to things like books and movies...books especially. Plus, a review would take some mystery away from the experience of reading a book.