1924: We

Book Name: We

Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin

Genre: Dystopian

Year Published: 1924

Despite We being a Russian novel it was not published in the Soviet Union until 1988. However, it was published in English in 1924, 3 years after its completion. As a result, I will be using it for my 1924 blog entry, as well as my first blog entry for a foreign language novel. When compiling my list I did my best to make it as varied as possible, so of course I didn't want to only include books by English authors. However, I will more than likely be reading translated versions as sadly I don't have the time to translate and read foreign works though I do find it fun to try occasionally. Hopefully therefore the translations will reflect the original works accurately, fingers crossed!

So, it's actually been nearly a month since I finished We but I've been pretty busy due to Stage Managing a play amongst other things! Despite this, I still have a pretty strong memory of the book and in particular the style of writing used by Zamyatin. For a start, the book is written in the form of diary entries, which makes for nice, short chapters with the storyline broken up mostly by the daily thoughts and recollections of the protagonist, D-503. (Note, I wrote mostly because to be honest I can't 100% remember all the diary entry dates or indeed whether I actually thought about whether any days were skipped whilst I was reading it...)

Second, as you may note from the character's name, the book references a lot of mathematical concepts, such as the humans in One State being considered numbers rather than people or the fact that the ship being built is called the Integral. I was a little worried when I first set out to read this book actually as I'd heard lots of people mentioning maths in connection to it but actually, despite the fact that maths is a common theme throughout the book, there were hardly any times when this meant I didn't understand something. Even if I didn't, it wasn't something that was plot relevant anyway, which is always good.

This brings me to my final point about the way the book is written - the type of description used. Often when authors describe things they use fairly obvious adjectives e.g. big, blue eyes or a large, old house. I realise these are kind of boring examples but nevertheless they are a common way of describing objects and people in novels. In We, I felt like the description was a lot more, well, descriptive. Zamyatin mostly uses shapes and colours to vividly help the reader imagine One State in a way I've not really found in other books. It meant that I pictured people as bodies and teeth and eyes rather than a whole person or the world in squares, circles and reds. It was really very interesting and the main thing that I liked about the book.

Overall, I'd say that I did enjoy reading We, but it did take me a very long time for what was technically quite a short book at only 226 pages. This is because I had to on occasion leave it for a bit and then go back to it a few days later to try and get into it again. There's a section in the middle where I did start getting bored and wonder if anything was particularly going to happen but then everything kicked off and it was interesting again and indeed it had a pretty good ending, if one that was a little short perhaps. I don't think I'd read it again but what I may do is reread 1984 now that I've read this as it is cited to have been an influence on George Orwell's dsytopia, so it will be interesting to draw comparisons sometime :)

Other Books I Considered: A Passage to India - E.M. Forster

Books I Read Inbetween: A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin

1971: The Dice Man

Book Name: The Dice Man

Author: Luke Rhinehart

Genre: Novel

Year Published: 1971

I actually read the first few chapters of The Dice Man in high school as my friend was reading it & recommended it then. I found it pretty weird and skipped through bits of the book trying to find interesting quotes/sections rather than actually reading the novel. This time around, I read it from start to finish - all 500 odd pages of it! Not quite as long as A Game of Thrones, but still too long when it's not entirely captivating.

The Dice Man is basically about a guy called Luke Rhinehart who is not overly happy with his life and starts to use dice to randomise his activities and personality. (Note: the author's name is listed as Luke Rhinehart, as on the book cover, which is basically to add to the feeling of the book as a kind of diary or memoir. It is in fact a pen name for George Cockcroft.) Whilst some of his dice decisions are quite funny or interesting to read about, such as him changing personalities every 10 minutes at a party, or enabling the "Great Mental Hospital Escape" at times it seems a bit repetitive. As in, oh another scene in which Luke uses the dice as an excuse to seduce a woman.

At times I did think about the book as a sort of giant roleplaying game in which anything goes. I'm used to rolling dice for decision making in character, as well as determining whether my attacks hit someone or whether I'm good enough at diplomacy to persuade someone to let me stay in their inn for free etc. However, The Dice Man takes it to a whole new level where it's about rolling the dice for EVERYTHING from what to wear to whether you are happy or sad or angry to if you're going to rape your neighbour. Yeah, exactly...

Whilst I'm not sure I'd recommend this book to many people as it'd probably upset or annoy them with its content, I can't say it's not good. From time to time it becomes a little boring but then it picks up again and you can't wait to find out what on earth is going to happen to Luke next. I certainly wouldn't recommend trying the dice life full on either as you can imagine how the protagonist's life falls apart pretty quickly. However, occasional dice decisions are pretty common. For example, I'm using a d100 to decide the order I read the books for this blog. People roll dice or flip coins to decide where they will go for dinner/what to watch/who gets that really cool thing they both found at exactly the same time. For little things, it's fun to randomise outcomes. It's just a pretty bad idea when you're doing important things like deciding whether to quit your job.

Other Books I Considered: The Carpet People - Terry Pratchett; Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

1913: Pollyanna

Book Name: Pollyanna

Author: E.H. Porter

Genre: Children's

Year Published: 1913

So I actually read Pollyanna back near the end of June, but I kinda forgot to make a post about it til now. I've actually finished another book too since then, so I'll try and post about that one soon as well! Anyway, I really enjoyed reading Pollyanna! It was a lovely, simple book to read and had a happy storyline nearly all the way through, which made a pleasant change from some books I normally read. The story revolves around a little girl called Pollyanna who tries to find something glad in everything that happens, something which resulted in the book and its sequels being referred to as "Glad Books".

During the book, Pollyanna attempts to make other characters join her in playing the "Glad Game" and encourages them to be more optimistic. I found that it did also result in me trying to find more positives in situations that would normally upset or annoy me a bit, which I wasn't expecting. Her character is so sunny and happy about everything I think it's almost impossible for it not to rub off on the reader a little bit! I don't often find characters in books which I particularly relate to or feel the emotions of, and as such I found this book to be very well written and easy to read.

Whilst some of the writing style may be a little too easy for some older readers to enjoy, the overall content of the book is very warm and happy, just perfect for a little pick-me-up or a lighter read between other books. I'd be very surprised if someone else reading it didn't find themselves playing the Glad Game too occasionally, which can't be a bad thing!

Other Books I Considered: Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence; Swann's Way - Marcel Proust

1901: Kim

Book Name: Kim

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Genre: Spy; Picaresque

Year Published: 1901

So despite what I wrote last time, I ended up reading a 1901 novel this time - Kim by Rudyard Kipling. It was indeed difficult to read at times and took me just over a month to read as at times I simply couldn't get into it for more than a few pages (though time constraints didn't help!) Kim started off for me in a very confusing manner as it seems to start of as a kind of religious journey and then suddenly at the end of the first chapter a load of spy language is thrown in and then not mentioned again for a while. However, it was this mishmash of genres that ended up making the book really interesting for me.

The internet tells me that Kim is a spy and picaresque book. The picaresque part is certainly true, but the spy part is more subtle in the book. It is more an underlying theme that you are reminded about from time to time, whilst the main emphasis is on Kim's journey and his growing up. The Indian setting was very interesting to read, but the usage of foreign and archaic words liberally throughout the book made me feel very glad I was using a Kindle with an inbuilt dictionary. However, I don't think the book would have felt quite the same without it as it really adds to his journey due to the way language is used by different characters in the novel.

Overall I only have two complaints about this book. Firstly, the start was very confusing and I didn't really have a clue what was going on in terms of genre and actual storyline till a few chapters in. I am undecided as to whether this a good thing or not. Secondly, it ends quite abruptly. I was fully prepared to keep reading Kim's journey and suddenly the book ended. Certain storylines within the book are left therefore unfinished and you simply have to decide for yourself what might have happened. Interesting for some, maybe, but I found it a bit frustrating. Regardless, I really enjoyed the majority of the story and I would certainly recommend keeping going to anyone else who found it confusing or difficult to read. It is worth the effort!

Books I Read In Between: Monday to Friday Man - Alice Peterson (2011)

1900: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Book Name: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Author: L. Frank Baum

Genre: Fantasy; Children's

Year Published: 1900

For the second book in my challenge I thought I'd go all the way back to the start and the year 1900. Originally I planned to read the full 100 years of books in chronological order, but to be completely honest I thought I would find it a little difficult only reading relatively old books for some time. For example, whilst reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I found that although I could tell it was aimed at children, the language used was of course quite different to what you'd find in a modern children's book, from little things like, "Toto did not like it", as opposed to "Toto didn't like it" to phrases such as "resolved to wait calmly" and "gave a cry of amazement". I read two more recent children's books around the same time as this novel and it's safe to say this kind of phrasing featured in neither of them. Given that this book was aimed at children, I figured that adult novels would be even more difficult to get into reading and so it would perhaps be more fun and refreshing to skip between time periods and genres when choosing which book to read next. I may go for a simple method of rolling a d100 to choose books, but we shall see.

As for the content of the book, I have to say that I did find it fun to read. I watched the film The Wizard of Oz quite a long time ago so I could only remember the basic storyline of Dorothy goes to Oz, meets x, y & z and they all want things so they ask the Wizard for them. Therefore it was quite fun to read the book and rediscover all the events and of course find the ones that didn't even feature in the film, or at least that I don't remember being in the film, such as a land of china people and the field of poppies which makes them fall asleep. Something that struck me in particular was the fact that at times the book was really quite creepy, such as when you think about how exactly is the scarecrow talking when his face is only painted on. But despite a few points like this, where I did question what on earth was going on, and yes, I know it's a children's fantasy novel, it was overall a good and well-written tale and I found it easy to read quickly and often, though maybe I wouldn't recommend it for particularly young children as some of the content is a little weird for nowadays.

Books I Read In Between: Who Could That Be At This Hour? - Lemony Snicket (2012); There's A Boy in the Girls' Bathroom - Louis Sachar (1987)

1996: A Game of Thrones

Book Name: A Game of Thrones

Author: George R.R. Martin

Genre: Fantasy; Political Strategy

Year Published: 1996

When I decided to take this challenge, I had already started reading A Game of Thrones, but I figured I might as well include it in my 100 books as it was going to take me a while to finish it anyway. As it turns out, it took me around 3 months to read it on and off as I found it quite difficult to get into. In fact, I read 3 other books between starting and finishing A Game of Thrones... Despite this, I did quite enjoy it after a while and am planning on reading the rest of the series someday.

It was certainly not the usual kind of fantasy novel that I enjoy. One of my favourite authors is Terry Pratchett and I prefer books with dragons and wizards and suchlike in them. In contrast, A Game of Thrones is much more fantasy in the sense of a made up world as opposed to more unusual fantastical elements. So I guess it was quite interesting to read something quite different to the style I'm used to, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to start this 100 book challenge anyway. Hopefully sometime I'll have time for the rest of the series, but until then, just to say I'm glad I stuck it out with this one & thanks to many of my friends for the recommendation!

Other Books I Considered: The Butterfly Lion - Michael Morpugo; Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk; The Green Mile - Stephen King

The Concept of This Blog

Based on a friend of mine's attempt to watch 100 films from 1913-2013, I have decided on the slightly different challenge of reading 100 books from 1900-2000 - one book for each year. The aim of this blog is two-fold I suppose.

a) To personally keep track of what I'm reading and remind myself things about each book that I liked or didn't like and just to generally record little things about them.

b) For other people to maybe discover new books or just have a read about ones that they may not have heard of or have heard of but not bothered/had time to read. To this end, I will do my best to avoid any major spoilers in the posts, which should be quite short anyway - however, I may mention something like character development or something particularly interesting/creepy etc. So hopefully this is fair warning.

Anyway, fingers crossed it goes well & doesn't take too many years! :D Kou.