Dracula

Took me a long time to finish this classic of literature. I'm glad I read it, but I doubt I will go back to it. I liked a few of the characters, though for such a long novel (about 400 pages), there weren't many and they were poorly developed, like Lord Arthur Godalming and Quincey Morris and even Jonathan Harker. The two women--Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray-Harker--were interesting and unique, as was the memorable Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, easily the coolest character of the bunch. The lunatic Renfield was more interesting than his doctor (Seward). Told in an epistolary, multi-media style, the novel seemed fragmented and disjointed in its early stages, but it started to make sense later on, and I can see why he did it that way. Stoker paced himself throughout, taking an awfully long time to develop his ideas, and while it seemed to move too slowly early on, the ending was tense. Hard to keep up with the reading early because it was so slow, but the middle was good, once Lucy died. The woman just kept hanging on, disappointingly. Anyway, Dracula himself was uninteresting and actually kind of weak, though his "capture" of Jonathan in the beginning was scary. The final third of the book turned out to be more of a battle of wits than a physical fight, which I liked much more. In almost every physical confrontation, Dracula fled. Kind of a weakling for a creature of ultimate evil. I was actually more afraid of the three Women of Darkness from his castle than I was of him.

The World Without Us

Hey, who wants to be depressed? Raise your hand, and I'll give you this book. Upsetting and discouraging. Like Ishmael with science to back it. The upshot: People suck and we're ruining the earth. Surprised? You would be by the detail and specificity of the research. The author has identified all the wonderful and diverse ways we are destroying our planet. Turns out, we've screwed it up so badly that some of our unique creations--like nuclear waste, plastic, and enriched uranium--will actually outlast the life of our planet. Also, we're adding a million people to the planet every four days. Better save those TV dinners!

The Golden Compass

Good book! I very much enjoyed it. It was touted (on the cover) as another LOTR, and while I don't see it as that significant a text, it is still one of the better fantasy novels I have read in recent years. Original and interesting with clever and creative elements (alternate universe, interesting quest, compelling protagonist), it has some interesting philosophical digressions and a good narrative. Easy read.  Fighting bears are way cool!  I'll hit the other books in the series in a bit (there are three--big surprise).

Where's My Jetpack?

Very funny -- yet scientific -- look at the future that never quite materialized. Not as technical or as thorough as I was hoping for, but still very readable and entertaining: a fast 187 pages. Wilson discusses everything from personal jetpacks to ray guns to robots to space elevators. Best line (discussing cryogenic freezing): "Here you are palming a silly book with your meaty human paws [when] you could be a thousand years in the future, standing in a thin atmosphere and cradling a mutant human baby with your horrific titanium claws." Same author who wrote How to Survive a Robot Uprising.

The Remains of the Day

I loved this book! It's intellectually stimulating, relaxing, and interesting. The characters had unique voices (Ishiguro conveyed Stevens's voice with spot-on consistency throughout the novel), and they were well-drawn. The book was enjoyable, though the plot was not exactly exciting. It was a leisurely read, encouraging interaction and interpretation, given its indeterminacies, while not requiring the mental efforts to read the complicated prose of, say, Jane Austen. I looked forward to reading the book as one would look forward to sitting in front of a crackling fire. Good book to read with a cup of tea or coffee on a cold winter morning.

The main character, the butler Mr Stevens, was fascinating in his rigidity and self-denial. I liked the fact that he was an unreliable narrator and pretty much knew it. The way he told the memories of his life were realistic and honest, yet his extraordinary self-denial prevented him from really understanding the emotions he was relating. His relationship with Miss Kenton was marvelous: she obviously loved him and tried many times to get past his outer shell, but to little avail. Stevens's love for her was obvious in the numerous memories he related about her and the fact that he read and re-read her letter to him so many times throughout the book, which only spans a week or so, and in his obvious disappointment in finding that she was staying with her husband. Most poignant moments: The tears Mr Stevens sheds as he serves drinks to guests only moments after the death of his father; Mr Stevens waiting outside Miss Kenton's door, certain that she is crying on the other side of it, yet unable to allow himself to go to her because of his duty to his Nazi-sympathizing pawn of an employer; Mr Stevens, crying again, as he speaks with the other butler at the end of the novel. Ultimately, Mr Stevens allows the love of his life to leave and marry someone else because she simply can't wait for him to come around. She knows she would always be second to his professional obligations. By the way, I love the way her emotions play out, crossing the boundary from her world of passion to Mr Stevens's world of rigid professionalism.

The book is about duty and dignity, about living one's life in the best way possible. Mr Stevens's realization at the end is poignant. He knows in the back of his mind that although he fulfilled his professional goal of being a "great" butler, his desire cost him dearly in the personal sphere. And even the attainment of his ambition was tainted by the fact that he worked for an employer who was not as "noble" as he thought.