Postby Kaori » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:29 pm
Over the course of the summer, I have read the following books:
The Faerie Queene. I began reading this book quite some time ago and finally finished it. I found the symbolism and allegory fascinating, and it contains quite a bit of beautiful poetry.
Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones. The movie and the book were both highly enjoyable, but in entirely different ways. Jones has a wonderfully quirky sense of humor.
The Golden Key, by George MacDonald. This was my first time reading anything by MacDonald. All of the stories in the book were good, but "The Golden Key" was the best of the lot.
Absalom! Absalom! by Faulkner. As all Faulkner novels, it was a difficult read, and I liked it less than As I Lay Dying or The Sound and the Fury.
Myths of the Norsemen, by H. A. Guerber. Along with the myths themselves, the book contains quite a few cultural details. The reading was slightly dry at times, but still an excellent (and very informative) read.
Vampire Hunter D (vol. 1), by Hideyuki Kichuchi. Pulp is still pulp, apparently, even when originally written in Japanese. On the plus side, the novel features cover art and several illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. It was interesting to find that the first Vampire Hunter D movie follows the plot of the book fairly closely; unfortunately, Kikuchi's writing is not impressive.
Kim, by Kipling. A worthwhile read, but not one that I found particularly remarkable.
Doubleday Prayer Collection. The quality of prayers in the volume is rather mixed; some were very good, but others were merely mediocre. I was slightly disappointed by its lack of a bibliography; this meant that I could not have gone to any of the editor's original sources for further reading, had I wished to do so.
Studies in the Short Story, by Virgil Scott and David Madden. This seems to be a textbook written by professors specifically for a course they taught. While the editorial comments are not of enormous value, some of the stories are very well-written. (The authors also included several poorly-written stories to illustrate the differences between popular and literary fiction, but high-quality stories make up the majority of the book.)
Let others believe in the God who brings men to trial and judges them. I shall cling to the God who resurrects the dead.
-St. Nikolai Velimirovich
MAL