Happy October! It’s officially Autumn here in Boston — the leaves on the trees have started to change color and I’ve broken out the lightest of my wool layers already. My early morning walk to the bus stop has become rather brisk.

Spring and fall are by far the more interesting seasons of the year in the Northeast. Summer and winter linger with months of either sweltering and sticky heat (though this past summer was unusually temperate) or freezing cold, but Spring and Fall are anything but predictable. A day with highs in the 60s might be followed by a day with highs in the 80s making a daily weather check imperative when choosing attire for the day ahead.

The transition seasons are unreliable, unexpected, and daily bring novelty to an otherwise mundane routine and I for one enjoy the whimsy of the process.

On the reading front, this past month has been a quiet (and therefore productive) one. The page count for this month comes to 1,859 pages.

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The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

I actually read most of this book in August, but didn’t manage to finish it in time for last month’s book reviews. Honestly, finishing this book was something of an odyssey, and it’s a testament to the quality of Faulkner’s writing that I finished the book at all. Because the book is undeniably well-written; however, The Sound and the Fury is certainly not an easy read and, despite the fact that I am generally opposed to re-reading books, this is a book to read for the pleasure of a second reading. The first reading is necessary because, having waded through the murky narrative once (preferably with the aid of the book’s Wikipedia page…), you’ll actually know what’s happening the second time through. The story is broken up among four narrators and the first two sections are extremely muddled, the third is narrated by a truly detestable character, and the final section marks the only really compelling section of the entire work. Reader beware: The Sound and the Fury is not to be undertaken lightly.

 

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely is a book about some of his research results as a behavioral economist at MIT, and how the results of his experiments demonstrate that humans often behave in ways that defy “common” sense. The book is engagingly written (if perhaps a little too chatty for my admittedly academically-inclined tastes), and the research results are interesting. Some particular highlights: why a 50 cent aspirin is a more effective painkiller than a 1 cent aspirin, the magic of FREE!, and why money-mindedness allows us to justify our greed. The book is a quick read and I recommend it for anyone interested in a bit of lighthearted reading on the subject of human foibles and fallibility. For those less inclined to sit down with the whole book, Dan Ariely writes an advice column that is both insightful and entertaining.

 

Dune by Frank Herbert

So it seems a gross omission that I had not previously read Dune, seeing as it is one of the truly iconic works of the Science Fiction genre. And while I’ll admit that in terms of Sci-Fi/Fantasy I’m usually more of a Fantasy reader than a true Sci-Fi enthusiast, Dune manages to support an elegant blend of both genres. If you’ve been following along with my book reviews, it’s pretty clear that I’ve been on more of a contemporary (non-)fiction tear, so this book made for a welcome change of pace. The book is an interesting and extremely well-executed bit of authorial world-building and I can see why it’s become a classic.

I was reading an interview with David Mitchell (author of such works as Cloud Atlas and most recently The Bone Clocks) and he had this to say about creating believable worlds that are outside of the realm of your own (or anyone’s) experience and I think it’s more than a little profound:

“How to immerse oneself in the moment-to-moment nature of a time and place you’ve never personally experienced—and perhaps cannot?

Well, I would put a question to you. What’s the difference between you and your great great great-grandfather? What makes you different?

I think the answer is this: What you take for granted.

What you take for granted about your life, about your rights, about people around you. About ethnicity, gender, sexuality, work, God. Your relationship with the state. The state’s obligations and duties to you: Health care, education, recreation. What you take for granted about all these things is I think what marks one culture from from another, and one generation from another.” [Source]

It is exactly this that Frank Herbert does so masterfully in Dune.

 

Night by Elie Wiesel

Here’s another entry from my I-can’t-believe-I-haven’t-already-read-this list. Night is a book that needs no introduction. A harrowing tale of the author’s time in Nazi concentration camps, the narrative is at times viscerally cringe-worthy, and yet the prose carries with it a silence, a quietude, that is profound. The prose is stark and the description unflinching in the face of atrocity. It’s no wonder the book has become something akin to required reading.

 

 

I’d love to hear from you! Let me know what you’re reading in the comments below.

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