A Review

So, now we come to the purpose for this blog. I recently finished reading Richard Adams' Traveller.  I was really intrigued by the premise: the story of the Civil War told from the viewpoint of Confederate General Lee's beloved horse Traveller.

The premise of this story was so neat, and I really badly wanted to like it.  The problem was the whole story was told just from the horse's view point. I know, that was supposed to be the draw, but for me it ended up a hindrance.

The horse, of course, did not know the names of any of the places where the battles were fought, so I had to piece together what was going on from my memory of how the war went and the small sections of historical information included in the narrative to try and help readers keep up.  But my knowledge of the early war is not great and I was just about lost until Gettysburg. 

Almost all the narrative comes from Traveller's conversations with other animals, especially the other generals' horses.  He uses nicknames for all the people in the book, including General Lee, whom he calls, "Marse Robert."  But it does make it difficult to remember who is who among the generals, for example through the whole narrative he calls General Pickett "Ringlets" and Stonewall Jackson is "Cap-in-His-Eyes" for his habit of wearing his hat down low over his eyes.

Also, Traveller, being the general's horse regards every battle as a victory, even the whole war itself.  Several times I wanted to throw the book across the room and shout "That was a terrible loss, you stupid horse!"

But the story is told in first person and the character's voice is done very well.  To me it really sounded like what I thought a Southern horse would sound like.

All in all it was an interesting read, but aggravating from a historical point of view.

Page Break

So, I'm back.

I went away for a little while to regroup and realize that I actually really do want to document things going on around me.

While I was away, I read quite a few books.  Some of them good, others middling.  My original notebook started falling to tatters being in my bag all the time, so I bought a second one with a much sturdier cover and back.

So, here's what I read while I rested (list not in order):

• Jude the Obscure--Hardy
• The Song of Bernadette--Werfel
• Rome Sweet Home--Hahn
• Mrs. Queen Takes the Train--Kuhn
• Far to Go--Pick
• Parrot and Olivier in America--Carey
• A Week in Winter--Binchy
• Life, the Universe, and Everything-Adams

There may be one or two more I don't remember right now.  Jude, The Song of Bernadette, and Mrs. Queen, were my favorites for very different reasons.  I really really disliked Parrot and Olivier.  It felt slow and there seemed to be very little going on the whole time.

The list itself has also grown half a page or so since I was last here, I hope they were good picks.  I can't wait to see.

Page 1

Books have always been my favorite thing: my favorite present to get or give, the best way to spend an afternoon, my favorite find at a garage sale, inspiration or relaxation.

It took me a long time to warm up to using a library regularly after I got married, because I'm selfish with books and it was always painful to take them back.  My mother-in-law is a librarian and she and Nathan impressed upon me the fact that our little small-town library is actually part of a gigantic system that works with many, many libraries in our state and neighboring states and can find me practically any book I might ever dream of reading, seriously, any book.

I tested this theory once by ordering a book which was the transcribed trial of the men who shot Elijah Lovejoy in 1837 in Alton, IL and it was there.  Since then, I've really made much better use of our library and its wonderful capacities.

And eventually I got tired of going into book stores and seeing things I wanted to read and then not remembering them by the time I got to the library, so I bought a little blue notebook and scribble down titles and authors when I find something intriguing.

I've gotten quite a ways through the original list, which is here if you're interested, and added many more books to it.  The list is full of classics and new releases and everything in between, and almost all fiction.

Non fiction is a problem for me because I get bored with it quickly, then the words just go over my head and I miss what I'm reading.  But now I have a new task for myself, supplementing my reading list with this list from Brandon Vogt which I found on Pinterest.  Hopefully it will not only help with my formation, but also ease me into non-fiction reading.   I started out with Quo Vadis, which I realize is fiction and a great book, but it's a bit dense so I had to take a break from that. 

You can see what I'm reading right now on the blog's main page.  I'll have a review here when I'm finished with it.