A start to the reading year

[mousme]

(cross-posted to 50bookchallenge)

Here I am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and all enthusiastic about starting a whole new year of reading! Last year my annoying job (*pauses to spit derisively in direction of company*) prevented me from reading as much as I would've liked, but now that I no longer work there, I'm hoping to get a lot more reading done.

So far, I've got two books under my belt, and they were pretty good. Without further ado:

1- Girl, Interrupted (Susanna Kaysen); a very compelling read, although I'm ashamed to say I saw it after the movie and thus was "tainted" by the movie version of the characters. I was told to see the movie first because the book jumps around in time a lot, but when I read the book I didn't find the time jumps all that disorienting. Perhaps it's just a matter of perception. If you've seen the movie and plan on reading the book because of it, be prepared to find something completely different: the story in the movie has very little to do with the narrative in the book. However, I found the author's meditations on mental illness particularly vivid and compelling (I've already used that word once in this review, oops), and the wry, ironic tone of the book is laced with compassion and understanding of the subject that can only be obtained from the inside. The book itself is only about 150 pages, and reads very fluidly.

2- Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (William Styron); best known for Sophie's Choice and his Confessions of Nat Turner, Styron suffered from a severe depression shortly after the publication of his first book, Lie Down in Darkness in 1952, and very nearly committed suicide. He discovered to his astonishment that most people either don't know or don't talk about depression, let alone suicide, and one letter of his concerning depression to a newspaper sparked an outpouring of further letters. This is what prompted him to write his own story in book form, and it is a very particular, very moving account of one man's struggle against the darkness.

Comments

[paganmommy.livejournal.com]

Did you know that my stay in the hospital is the same one that the main character in "Girl Interupted" stayed in. I can't remember if it is an autobiography or not.
<--wheeeeee famous madness.

[djs-specs.livejournal.com]

Its semi-autobiographical at the very least if memory serves.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

You stayed in McLean hospital? Kewl. Any famous people while you were there? ^_-

*huggles* btw (hospital stay = suck, even if there were famous people around)

[djs-specs.livejournal.com]

*glances at computer calendar* But its only the third!

I'm envious of your ability to speed read. Takes me weeks to get through a book now unless I'm really into it.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Well, these were really short. Girl, Interrupted was about 170 pages, and I started it before the New Year, then stopped and picked it up again, and Darkness Visible is only 100 pages long.

So these were kind of short cuts, if you will. But they're pretty good. :)

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

Second. It's only the second day of January.

[djs-specs.livejournal.com]

No, it definitely says the third... ;)

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Heh, let's all remember that we're on opposite sides of the globe here, folks. For me, it is indeed the second of January, but for Dan, it's the third. :)

*smooch*

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

Oops -- my bad!

"All hail our Queen in her regalia;
One foot in Canada, the other in Australia!"

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Remember, Dan's an Aussie. She's fully fifteen hours ahead of those of us residing in Montreal. :)