A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

I would just like to say that what I wanted to write for this blog was ??? and call it a day. That is how I felt about this book. It took me two weeks to read 196 pages... and if you know me, I never take that long to read when I have the time. I read a book in between (Museum of the Missing) because I needed to clear my head of what I was reading. With that, I will try to give you some sort of review of this novel.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce apparently "represents the transitional stage between the realism of Joyce's Dubliners and the symbolism of Ulysses, and is essential to the understanding of the later work" (from the back of the book) and apparently the main character, Stephen Dedalus shows up in Ulysses, another book that's on the list, which I have no desire to read anytime soon. The book starts with "Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy name baby tuckoo..." (Joyce, pg. 4). I should have known where this book was going. This book is suppose to be about self discovery, figuring out what is important and trying to find your place in the world. However, for me, the stream of consciousness technique coupled with the jumping of years, was very hard to keep up with it.
This stream of consciousness was more of moments of reflection, where Stephen reaches his epiphany... questioning his family, religion, faith and education. There were some parts of the novel that I found myself enjoying, but those were short lived. There was one chapter (and mind you, there are only five) which was a sermon, telling those who have committed sin to repent, or face damnation in hell. That chapter was one of the most arduous for me to read. I do not have a Catholic upbringing, nor am I very religious, so it pained me.
I don't really have much more to say on this book that would be of any intellectual value. I am sure Joyce would think of me as Lady Gaga would think of those who don't get her "art", that I don't know what good literature is. To him I say "whatever, I hated your book".
If you too want to read a book that is suppose to be about self discovery with a disjointed timeline, this book is for you!
I gave this book three out of five stars because the parts that were good, were GOOD.

Currently reading a short story, Marquis de Sade's Betrayal. My first Sade book. He has two on the list, but this one is not. I just ordered three more books, but I need a 1001 book to read next. Should I start The Forsyte Saga? The Three Musketeers? The Portrait of a Lady? I need some input!

Until next time,

happy reading!

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

I can't believe as the summer is winding down that I am 1) writing another post in a week and 2) read two books so far this week. This post is going to be short and sweet because this collection of short stories that I read is not on the 1001 list. However, two other of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books are: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles. I have read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes but not yet The Hound of the Baskervilles. I own two books that contain the complete stories and novels of Sherlock Holmes and I am going through it in order. I am super anal when it comes to reading series, You should've seen my reaction when I read Nineteen Seventy Seven and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, both belonging to series. I freaked. Now because of that, I have one more short story collection to read before I can start volume II, to which I can read The Hound of the Baskervilles. The only thing that I knew about Sherlock Holmes while I was growing up was from the PBS series, Wishbone, when Wishbone presented The Hound of the Baskervilles. I always knew the characters of Holmes and Watson, and the many adaptations from The Great Mouse Detective to the Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law characters to my personal favorite, the BBC mini series of Sherlock. If you haven't seen Sherlock yet, drop everything you're doing, no but seriously, stop taking care of your kids, don't go to work, pull to the side of the road and binge watch this series on Netflix. NOW! Well, after you finish reading this post...

However, I am getting way off topic. Back to the matter at hand. What I am trying to say is, for someone who doesn't read a ton of Sherlock Holmes, I feel like I know a lot of these stories because of the many adaptations. In The Memoirs, *spoiler alert* (not really, because EVERYONE KNOWS THIS), the final short story, entitled, The Final Case, is where Professor Moriarty and Sherlock both kill themselves, or where Watson deduces, Sherlock rids Moriarty by killing himself in the process of killing Moriarty by throwing themselves over the Reinbach Falls. However, don't be sad, while this is one of my favorite of the short stories in this collection, since this is where we meet Moriarty, Sherlock doesn't die. The next collection of short stories is called The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock LIVES. Now we can all go on with our lives.

Now that I got the ending out of the way for you, what I like about this collection is that we see a softer side of Holmes. We see where he is not always right. We meet his brother Mycroft (whom I love) and we see more emotion from Holmes. Unfortunately, you also can read Doyle's boredom with his character. Some of the short stories are very formulaic, with 10 pages of the problem being presented to Holmes and the other ten pages consist of him telling them how the mystery is solved. Then, Doyle was basically forced to write more Holmes stories and novels after this. But like I said, there are some good cases in here none of the less. This is a great, easy read. However, to my great annoyance, I have been watching the Poirot series on Netflix, and I have read almost 2/3 of Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries, SO, in my head, when Sherlock was talking, I kept giving him the voice of David Suchet's Poirot, which annoyed me to no end. Damn you, Agatha Christie, for being heavily (and I mean HEAVILY) influenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. DAMN YOU!

I give this 4 out of 5 stars because it's a super easy and fun read.

Now, the next book I am reading, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is going to, literally, be the death of me. I have been avoiding James Joyce like the plague. Mostly because I don't get his writing style. It makes absolutely no sense. If I survive, I'll be sure to let you guys know, in what is sure to be the BEST review EVER!

Until next time... (if I live)
Happy Reading