One new, one old, one terrible

Three books I’ve read so far this year, among other digressions

The big question that echoes through my mind whenever I try to get back into writing is “If someone else were to write this, would I read it?” I want to write the kind of books that I would read.

One of the nice things about my day job is that I really don’t do much. Most days, I work an eight-hour shift which is comprised of about ten to twenty minutes of actual work. The remainder is sitting around being bored. The job doesn’t pay that great, and there are no benefits, but it is a comfortable gig. Every now and then there is some time- and energy-consuming problem I have to deal with, but typically, I have hours and hours of free time every day.

As of late, I’ve been trying to use this time at work to read more. I have always enjoyed reading a good book — who doesn’t? — but finding those good books isn’t always easy. There are endless lists like “Best Fantasy Novel” or “Best Novel of 2015” or “Books You’ve Got To Read, Now”, and occasionally those bear fruit.

One new

I learned of Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves this way. A Google search for “best science fiction books of 2015” uncovered quite a few lists, and Seveneves was one of a handful of titles that kept appearing in those lists again and again, so I downloaded the free sample on my Kindle. Not long after, I bought it outright. Like many others have said, it is an excellent read. I don’t usually read much “hard” science fiction, but Seveneves hooked me. The ideas that Stephenson writes about regarding spaceflight and space colonization are fascinating to the point that they more than make up for the relatively bland characters. It is not a perfect book, but it is well worth the reading.

I spend a nontrivial amount of time at work watching videos on YouTube. My subscription list is all over the place. I don’t intend to list every channel I subscribe to here, but suffice it to say that Let’s Players like Jacksepticeye sit side-by-side with educational content from John Green at Crash Course.

Two dramatically different types of content, to be sure, but they are connected by one thing: the enthusiasm of the host for the material they are sharing. Jacksepticeye is loud and obnoxious and profane and loud, but it is clear he really enjoys what he is doing. He is living the dream so many of us share, making a living doing something he enjoys. Through his channel I have been introduced to a number of great games, such as Life Is Strange and Tales from the Borderlands, but in all honesty, the games he plays are of only secondary interest to me. I like Jacksepticeye’s personality. Too many people I know plod through life with no enthusiasm for anything, so Jacksepticeye’s unyielding glee is refreshing.

One old

John Green is quite a bit more subdued than Jacksepticeye, but it is still very clear that he enjoys what he is doing. His Crash Course series on history (two on world history, one on U.S. history) manage to make one of the subjects I found utterly boring when I was in school and make it riveting. (The public education system has a knack for making people hate subjects that they would otherwise enjoy.) John Green also hosted a Crash Course series about literature, and his thoughts on The Catcher in the Rye were intriguing enough that I did something I thought I never would: I actually read it.

I didn’t read The Catcher in the Rye years ago when I was in school. (I’m not sure why. I don’t even remember it being mentioned back then. Maybe it was banned by the school district?) It always struck me as one of those “classics” that people only read because they had to. I had a passing interest in The Catcher in the Rye that came about due to the references to it in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, but that just led to me reading an article on the book on the TV Tropes wiki and then forgetting about it. Along came Crash Course Literature, and John Green managed to make The Catcher in the Rye sound interesting, so I picked up a copy. The protagonist-narrator Holden Caulfield is a rather unlikable little git, but a sympathetic one. For all his flaws, Holden Caulfield has a powerful voice as the narrator, making the reader sympathize with his internal struggles, and therein is the brilliance of J.D. Salinger’s writing.

(It just occurred to me that the main character of Life Is Strange was also named Caulfield. A coincidence, or a deliberate reference? Now that I’ve read the book, I need to play through that game again to see if I’ve missed anything.)

One terrible

My best friend has been doing a lot of reading lately, when he isn’t working (his job actually requires him to do stuff) or playing his XBox, and every so often he will recommend a book to me. We have significant overlap in our interests, so if he enjoyed something, there’s a good chance I would, too. However, there is also significant disjoint, and a lot of that comes down to the types of characters we enjoy, and the fact that I tend to scrutinize the media I consume quite a bit more than he does.

To make a long story short (too late, I know), he likes characters who are powerful and invincible and wholly unfettered, beholden to no one, a god among men, with no equals. But me, I’d rather the character in a story have to struggle through the challenges the world presents, and be a part of the world around them with connections and commitments and complicating relationships, rather than just having things happen around them.

So, my friend recommends this book, Jack Kursed, to me, saying it was right up my alley, and that the characters in it bore similarities to some that we created for one of the pen-and-paper RPG campaigns we ran some time back. I give it a go.

Jack Kursed is The Worst Book I have ever read, and yes, I read the whole book hoping it would get better. It never did. The eponymous protagonist is invincible and immortal, and goes through the story chewing up everyone in his path, killing them in boring and uninteresting ways, or bribing them with his ridiculously vast and ill-explained wealth. Jack Kursed has no redeeming features. He is not humanized in any way. He walks through life flipping the bird (metaphorically) at everyone and everything that crosses his path, and when anyone tries to call him on it, he either kills them or throws his money around to destroy their lives. It is all just petty revenge fantasy centered around a boring invincible protagonist. There is a younger character that I think was intended to serve as a “morality pet” but does nothing of the sort. The protagonist is superficially nice to her, but nothing affects him or changes him.

You could sympathize with Holden Caulfield, but not with Jack Kursed. The former grows over the course of The Catcher in the Rye. The latter was just a two-bit thug with some cheap superpowers.

But it seems my opinion of Jack Kursed is not a majority opinion. On Amazon, three-fourths of reviewers gave it five stars and sung its praises. Reading their reviews made me wonder if they read a completely different book than the one I read. They saw in it things I didn’t. They, like my friend, found great amusement in the sociopathic antics of Jack Kursed, where I found none. So be it. I left it a one-star review, and I intend to leave it at that.

However, my to-read list is now empty. That needs to change…