march book reviews

So I didn't do so well with finishing any books in February, but I tried to make up for it in March by reading four.


Winesburg, Ohio. I'd been meaning to read this book for a while and it's one that I'd owned for years and never got around to reading. I have to say, I didn't really like it. Part of the reason could be because I started reading it, was distracted with other things, came back to it weeks later and no longer really felt like what was going on in the book really mattered. The other part is that I couldn't feel any sort of connection to the characters. I feel bad about not liking it because supposedly it is one of the best novels of the 20th century. Maybe I'll give it another try in a few more years.


The Road. I bought this book a year ago. Tried to read it. Couldn't deal with the weird sentence structures and lack of quotation marks around conversations. Knew I'd come back to it again sometime. Then my friend Brittany read it. Said it was great. So I picked it up again. I read it in one night. This time the structure of the writing made sense. Couldn't put it down. I had to know how they would continue to survive and how McCarthy would end the book. I didn't really like the ending, but it's still a really good read.


Blindness. My friend Andrea strongly recommended this book so I followed one apocalyptic story with another. In this one, as the title suggests, everyone goes blind. Andrea warned me that only people who don't mind reading about poop should read this one, and I will second that warning as well. But, like The Road, I had to keep reading to find out what would happen and how these people would survive. This one followed even less punctuation rules than The Road (like sentences that never end but instead have a bajillion commas in them) so it's probably a good thing I was able to get past that barrier with the first book before reading this one.

I'll be interested in seeing the film versions of both The Road and Blindness to see how they compare. I'm guessing they won't.


Blankets. Tonight I read Blankets for the second time. The first time I read this was a few years ago back in college. I remember thinking it was something really profound and great back then. Tonight, I didn't have that same feeling as much. This could have something to do with the fact that I just got done reading two books about the end of the world (or close to it) and it's probably messing up my mood more than I'd like to admit. I still think it's a great coming-of-age story but I was reading it hoping to get the same feeling and connection I got the first time I read it and it just wasn't there. But again, it could just be my mood.

I'm moving into a little bit lighter fair for April (must stay away from end of the world thoughts for a while) and I'm continually adding to my ever growing list of titles I want to read this year. But then I read this blog which had a very good idea, which is to select 100 books you'd like to read in your lifetime and give yourself 5 years to read them. So, now I think I've got a new list to work on ... my 100. Suggestions are welcome.