August 2007 50 Books

Category: 50 Books

 

38. Hobo by Eddy Joe Cotton
This was a nonfiction book about a kid who starts tramping in the western United States. It’s slightly interesting and written in a really romanticized poetic stream of consciousness way. I enjoyed reading it, but I don’t think it’s true. I think parts of it are true, and I think most of it is made-up bullshit. That is what I think.

It did get me interested in hobos though. The history, the train hopping, the hobo jargon, and the survival of it all is really crazy interesting. I’d like to find a more believable book by a hobo or about hobos and hoboing and/or hobo-humping slobo-babes. So I hope to find something a little more real on the subject. Stay tuned for more books on hobos.

37. The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt by John Ray
This nonfiction book was about the Rosetta Stone as well as the gentlemen who found it, studied it, and solved it. It doesn’t talk so much about Ancient Egypt as it does the Enlightenment and the Romantic periods because that’s when the stone was found and those are the people who studied it. The author focuses on the two main contributors to solving Egyptian hieroglyphs, Thomas Young, an englishman, and Jean-François Champollion who was french.

The author makes the case that Young laid the foundation of solving Egyptian hieroglyphs while Champollion took them even further. It’s a big deal to some because of the whole british/french thing. The history of the stone is fascinating. It is a decree made by Pharoah, Ptolemy V Epiphanes thanking the priests and temples for helping him out during a period of revolt, and it’s written in hieroglyphs (which was considered the writing of the gods), Egyptian Demotic (a kind of script used in document writing), and also in classical Greek.

It was Napoleon’s men who found the stone first in the Egyptian city of…Rosetta. The french were unearthing all kinds of ancient treasures while Napoleon invaded Egypt. Then along came Britain who took Egypt from France and also stole treasures, many of which sit in the British Museum today.

What makes this book so great is the author, an englishman, writes so well. It’s not a dull book at all. He has that dry british wit and he uses it quite a bit. The only part that was “meh” was the last little bit about who really owns the Rosetta Stone? Where should it reside? He goes on about should we give back all the treasures to the places they were found? But that if we do that we’ll have to do that with everything, not just Egyptian stuff…and then what of the people who legally bought things? Do the items belong to the purchaser, or should the purchaser be made to give the items/artwork back to the countries where they were made?

Then at the very end the author translates the stone for us. The decree itself is kinda boring because it’s the pharaoh going on and on and everytime he mentions himself it’s not “I” or “me” it’s “King Ptomlemy god manifest whose beneficience is perfect” and reading that over and over gets old. But it’s not what the stone says that’s actually important, it’s the fact that it says it in three different languages/scripts/whatever which leads to people being able to figure out Egyptian hieroglyphs.

36. Fancy Pants by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
This is one of her earlier novels. It’s not as good as Natural Born Charmer mostly because it’s WAY too long and there’s too many characters and too much drama (my god, the drama). The story was sweet though…only, not very realistic.

It’s about a spoiled rich girl from England loses everything and moves to the USA and hooks up with a redneck pro-golfer and then gets pregnant and she runs off cos she and the golfer hate each other and she manages to make something of her life and becomes a famous television personality. Ten years later she and the golfer hook up again and with the kid and all and they all live happily ever after. Only there’s a million things that happen. And also sex. Lots of sex.

So while I recommend Ain’t She Sweet and Natural Born Charmer I’m telling you that unless you’re just interested in Ms. Phillips’s earlier work, don’t bother reading this one.

Also it’s nearly 500 pages. I’ve got to start reading smaller books if I plan on reaching 50 books this year.

 

35. The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

This novel was hilarious and in very much the same vein as Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s stuff. In this book a chick named June gives Marisa a ride home from a Weight Watcher’s meeting and there’s a car accident and Marisa dies (i’m not spoiling anything, this is all on the jacket cover). June finds a list in her crashed backseat and it’s a 20 Things to do Before I Turn 25 list. It was Marisa’s list. But she’s dead. So June decides to finish the list for her. Hilarity ensues.

The characters are very well done and everyone is sarcastic and funny. I really liked this book. I liked it more than Harry Potter…mainly cos it wasn’t so long and sad.

34. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

I was glad that I got to read this book before I heard any kind of spoiler. First things first, this book was too long. Parts of it were kinda draggy and redundant. The same things kept happening over and over. They had to hide, they had to sneak around, people died, more hiding, more sneaking around, more dying. Lord have mercy.

33. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

I liked this one better than the Odor of the Penis because while Harry is still a whiny, angry teenage boy…a lot happens in this book and I think maybe Harry grows up a bit at the end and will become more serious and less, well, really fucking stupid.

I was shocked at who the half-blood prince turned out to be.

I did, of course, cry like a baby towards the end. Had to blow my nose several times.

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