Category: Random

What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging – October 2014 Wrapup

Posted October 31, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading, What I Think About When I'm Not Blogging / 0 Comments

The Anubis GatesOn the day of writing this (which is not the same as the day posting this) I was ready to abandon this journalling idea all together. I just scheduled my next What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging post for the next day and I thought to myself, “This isn’t a journal entry, this would make a good blog post”. Talking about book projects and challenges is a great bookish blog post and while it has some elements of book journaling it wasn’t the same. I had recently finished writing my review for Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman and I was thinking that this is who I want to emulate. Though I’m not sure I know how to write a personal essay; is it the same as a blog post?

Then while sitting in a room full of salt, I started The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (known as The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs. the Dirt in the US), which is a collection of articles from his monthly column in The Believer called Stuff I’ve Been Reading. This got me thinking about What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging and how I should go forward. I want to write like Anne Fadiman but I need to start practicing. Nick Hornby mentions in the introduction that he spends a lot of time thinking about how to simplify his writing and I can’t help be feel jealous by this idea; I need to spend more time polishing my own writing to make it sound better.

I am not happy with my writing and I have a feeling I will never be happy with it. My mind races with ideas and thoughts and I struggle to keep up with it. Currently my mind is singing Cosby Sweater by Aussie Hip-Hop band Hilltop Hoods while trying to think about what to write, this is making for some weird typos. Thankfully my wonderful wife is always willing to look over my writing before I post it and make me look good. It isn’t a perfect system, sometimes I want to post something right away but I don’t want to pressure her and other times things get missed and end up in a tweet by Simon and Schuster.

I want to become a better writer and I have finally admitted to myself that I am a writer; I normally refer to myself as just a reader. However I feel the need to document my reading life and while I may never write fiction, I can become a better essayist. The only way I am going to improve is practice and while I feel like my reviews are getting better, I feel like I have been doing myself a disservice lately. I have been so far behind in reviews that I feel like I am playing catch-up. I could write mini reviews and be done with it but that isn’t going to solve any issues either.

Getting back to The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, the reason I mention this books was that Nick Hornby has taken a very simple concept of what he has been reading for the month and builds his essays around that. I am not saying that he is someone I want to write like but I can take that simple idea and start building on that. For example, for this post, I’m combining my monthly wrap up and making it more of an essay. I am hoping I can start with this basic concept and begin to build upon it.

I started What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging because I wanted to journal more and the idea comes from the fact that when I am not reading or blogging, I’m thinking about reading and blogging. I am sure my wife is sick of me being so passionate about literature but she has been great in nurturing my passion and supporting me. Recently I have been having a great time reading, I feel like I have hit this groove and I don’t want it to end. All my free time I want to spend reading but sometimes, I just end up catching up on Cinema Sins or the Climb the Stacks channel.

I have completed seventeen books this month and while I didn’t enjoy some of them, I’m glad to have read them. This month for the Literary Exploration book club I had to read The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, which was weird and challenging, but I managed to finish it. The only other assigned reading I had to read was for a book club that meets in real life and that book was We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler and that was a brilliant but I am still sorting my thoughts on that one.

I had a birthday on the 30th of September and I got a lot of book vouchers for my birthday; I have had a wonderful time buying books and I have already expressed my thoughts about this book buying binge. However, while I have so many new books to read, I have borrowed a few books from the library instead. I know I need to read my books but I was following my reading instincts, which lead me to books like The Unloved by Deborah Levy and E Lockhart’s new novel We Were Liars.

I have found myself exploring the complexities of the mind, not just the psychological but that has been a big part of my reading. Haruki Murakami has reminded me how complicated the mind can be and while reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage not only was I converted into a fan but it reminded that I am fascinated by psychoanalysis and should pick up some Freud and learn more about this literary theory.

On the other side of my reading spectrum I have been diving into memoirs, firstly with Ex Libris and then moving onto Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch. I have also mentioned The Complete Polysyllabic Spree already and it has been interesting just to learn about the reading journey. I want to read more books about books; I have another memoir by Wendy Lesser called Why I Read waiting at the library for me to pick up and read next month.

It is a weird situation that I am in; I have so many new books plus plenty on my shelf waiting for me to read but I am using the library so much. I have The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Sylvia Plath’s Ariel to read next month and I am sure there will be more visits to the library. Being able to check what the library has online is not helping reduce my TBR but it helps me to follow my reading interests as they change from day to day. My wife would prefer that I spend more time with what I have and she might be right, however following your heart and reading on a whim is so much better.

I feel like I have so much more to say but I am not sure how people will take this format of blogging so I am going to stop here. I found this an enjoyable experience and I am excited to write more like this and I am going to try and incorporate more of my personal life and thoughts into these in the future. For a first attempt in the new direction, I think this worked well. I am not sure if this will be monthly, weekly or something in between. I will see how things go and I will go from there. However I would love to know what you thought of this; as well as any suggestions or criticism that can help me improve essay writing.

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What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging – 25th October 2014

Posted October 25, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in What I Think About When I'm Not Blogging / 5 Comments

reading challengesI have often considered this blog as a book journal that documents my reading life from its conception in 2012. What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging is an attempt to close the gap between book blogging and journaling. This is a (semi)regular stream-of-conscious where I explore all the bookish thoughts I currently have got on my mind.

I have been thinking a lot about book challenges and book projects lately. We are coming to the end of the year and it is about that time to start planning for next year. For the past couple of years, I have committed myself to a 36-book challenge, which included all different genres. This is The Literary Exploration Challenge and while it will be running again next year, I am not sure if I want to be involved. Sure I will be hosting it at the Literary Exploration book club but that does not mean I have to do it again.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the challenge and I think it is a great way to experience genres of different varieties. I just want to commit to something different next year. I have only been reading books since 2009 and in that time I have discovered close to 700 books (680 books according to my spreadsheet). I remember back in 2012 I wrote a post about re-reading and how there are so many books to discover, so I didn’t want to waste too much time re-reading.

Since then, I’ve changed my mind; I know there are millions of books out there that I want to read. I know that I will never get to them all and that does stress me out. However I have changed a lot as a reader and a book blogger and I want to see what I think of books I have read in the past. There are favourites I want to experience again but there are also classics I might not have been ready for. I am curious to see what I will get out of books from my past.

This is not an excuse to write reviews on books I have missed but that is a bonus. Next year I would like to devote some more time to re-reading. I am not sure I would set an amount but ideally I want to re-read at least one book a month. The reason why I don’t want to set an amount or a reading challenge is I want to also spend some time with some reading projects. Sometimes a big book or a complicated book needs that extra time and attention and I would love to leave myself some time to explore them.

So there you have it; this is what I would like to achieve with my reading next year. Have you thought about a reading challenge for next year? Are you going to try something different? I like the idea of reading challenges but I think I will feel more free to read bigger books if I don’t set myself a reading goal or join any reading challenges.

Five Must Read Memoirs from Bibliophiles

Posted October 23, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top 5 / 26 Comments

As a book lover, I found that I get a lot of pleasure out of reading books about books. There is something about a book that revolves around other books that really works for me. Judging by the popularity of books like The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and more recently The Collected Works of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin I know I am not alone. I made a conscious effort to read more non-fiction this year and I quickly discovered a whole new genre that I enjoy; the bibliophile’s memoir. What could be better (also meta) than reading about someone reading, but be warned, it could also be damaging to your TBR list. So I thought I might offer five memoirs that people should read about reading and the reading life.

Memoirs from Bibliophiles

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What I Think About When I’m Not Blogging – 18th October 2014

Posted October 18, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in What I Think About When I'm Not Blogging / 0 Comments

BelzharI am currently reading Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer and part of her English class, Jam has to write a journal and this got me thinking about journaling on the whole. I have always wanted to be able to journal but never really found an ability to do so; the words wouldn’t come out and I was never consistent enough to get any better. However, I am addicted to book blogging, I always want to talk about bookish things and I think I can work with that. I was talking to my wife about journaling. She is great at it; it comes naturally but she has been writing in a journal since she was ten. I do consider my blog here as a book journal that documents my bookish journey so why not expand on that a little bit.

My thought is to make a regular post about what I have been thinking about and my reading journey; a bookish stream of conscious just to see where this takes me. I would like to make this a weekly activity but it might only be semi-regular. I will start and see where I go. This might just fade out but if I make an effort then maybe I will be able to progress into journaling more frequently on and off this blog.

I have been fallen so behind on my book reviewing, it has taken over my book blog. I have thirteen posts to edit and schedule and five book reviews to write. The problem with being so far behind is that I don’t do any blogging outside of book reviewing. I don’t want every post just to be a book review; I want to explore all bookish thoughts and topics that come into my head. This is one of the main reasons to start with a post like this.

I have been lucky enough to be able to read a lot lately; I have been attending salt therapy to help clear up my sinuses and one of the requirements is no electronics in the room. This is giving me an hour a day where a have no distractions and I can read; sometimes I fall asleep but I normally force myself to use the time reading. I have so many books I want to read and salt therapy might be helping my reading life more than my sinuses.

I have worked out that I can get between 50 – 100 pages done in the hour of salt therapy and I’m there six times a week. This isn’t my only reading time but it has put a big boost to the amount of book I get through a week. Depending on the book, I often aim for the 100 pages each hour but if I love the book, I would rather read slower. The good news is I do think the salt therapy is helping; I’m starting to feel healthier. Anyway, maybe I should get back to Belzhar and I will see if this type of blogging takes off. If anything I hope to be able to turn my book blog into more of a book journal and explore more bookish thoughts.

Monthly Review – September 2014

Posted September 30, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 0 Comments

Gone GirlNow that September comes to a close, I would like to hear what people thought of Gone Girl. Did you read it? Did you like the ending? Did it keep you up all night? Or any other comments you want to make of this novel. Personally I was gripped and reading this to about 4 am, just to find out what happens. I know the ending is weird but there isn’t a better way to end it, that I’ve found.

Next month’s book we will be reading the some steampunk/fantasy with The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I ‘m not sure what to expect, I am a little nervous. I don’t have the best track record when it comes to steampunk or fantasy novels. However I am hoping everyone reading this book will generate some interesting discussions. Also, as a reminder, in November we will be reading Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle as part of the short stories theme and we will be looking for a book to fit the Christmas/Religious Holidays theme to wrap up the year. If you are not aware, the book discussion and everything else will be happening over on the Goodreads forums, so feel free to join in there.

I have had an amazing reading month, which is a nice change after reading only three books during my vacation. I have read sixteen books this month (which included four comic collections) and some of the highlights included The Odyssey by Homer, A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgård and The Circle by Dave Eggers. But my favourite of the month is a book, that is a top candidate for novel of the year was All That is Solid Melts into Air by Darragh McKeon. For fans of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra, I highly recommend picking up All That is Solid Melts into Air. What have you been reading this month and what were the highlights?

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Posted September 29, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book of the Month, Crime, Thriller / 0 Comments

Gone Girl by Gillian FlynnTitle: Gone Girl (Goodreads)
Author: Gillian Flynn
Published: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2012
Pages: 442
Genres: Crime, Thriller
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I’ve been trying to review this book for a while now and it has become a real struggle. I don’t want to give any spoilers for this brilliant book so I will try my best. Advanced warning: this review may have spoilers or turn out incredible vague. When I first saw this book I kept thinking this was just another YA novel but then I noticed this book kept popping up everywhere so I thought I better read what this is about and when I did, I had to read it right away.

When Amy disappears in suspicious circumstances all eyes fall to her husband as the primary suspect. Nick claims he is innocent but the evidence is not in his favour. Did Nick kill his wife? As this novel progressed any ideas of what happened will be shattered, any presumptions you’ve made about the characters will be wrong. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a dark and twisted journey with so much unpredictability that you will be up all night trying to find out what really happened to Amy.

What I loved about this book was that you never really know what to expect. The book is told from the perspective of Nick and Amy, the diary of Amy tells the back story of their lives while the alternative chapters told from Nick takes the story from the disappearance. Slowly the pieces start to fall into place but there is always another curve ball just around the corner. The dark and psychological aspects of this novel remind me of something Jim Thompson would write but then the thriller and suspense of this book reminds me a lot of books like Before I Go to Sleep or Into the Darkest Corner.

Flynn did a brilliant job with this novel, it kept me up at night, made me want to skip work to read this book and in the end any spare time I had I was back in this book trying to find out what really happened to Amy. I wasn’t sure what I was in for and I didn’t know who to believe but in the end I enjoyed the ride. On reflection this book seemed incredibly basic with its plot but writing in a brilliant way that while reading you never have enough pieces to solve this puzzle. Highly recommend this book to any lovers of mystery and suspense.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Spring To-Be-Read List

Posted September 23, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 45 Comments

toptentuesdayIt’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Books on my Fall Spring To-Be-Read List. I’m not sure what I’ll be reading but I thing these books will be involved. Because I couldn’t stop at ten, here are twelve books, I hope to read during this season.

the people in the treesThe ParrotsBelzharA Man in Love

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Need To Read More

Posted September 16, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 30 Comments

toptentuesdayIt’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Top Authors I’ve Only Read One Book From But NEED to Read More. I have a very bad habit of trying plenty of different authors and never returning to them. It isn’t because I don’t like the author but because I like to try a bit of everything. Here are some authors I’ve really enjoyed but have only read one book by them.

Recommend Me… Comics

Posted September 13, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Recommend Me... / 6 Comments

Recently I have started dipping into the world of comics and graphic novels after I heard that the most recent reboot of Ms Marvel was the first Pakastani-American Muslim superhero. This new change was exciting, and there was also the news that the new Captain American was going to be Falcon, an African American and Thor was soon to be a woman. Finally, when Archie died after he took a bullet protecting his gay friend, I knew that it was time to jump into the world of comics.

First problem I found was the sheer amount of comic book series out there. If I wanted to dive into the world of a particular superhero, I had no idea where to start, what is good and what is bad. I asked a fellow book blogger (Nylon Admiral), as I knew she was knowledgeable in the world of comics. I have been given a nice long list of Marvel Now comics to try and I am very pleased that they are mainly woman superheroes (the new Black Widow, She-Hulk, Storm).

However I think I am just getting started and I know I have plenty of great series to read. So I thought I would ask for some recommendations. Not just superheroes but I want to explore some interesting comics and superheroes. However I would like to dive into the world of some of the greatest superheroes as well. To help here are a list of comic books series I’m currently reading at the moment, and keep a look out for some reviews in the future.

Currently on my TBR

  • Afterlife with Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (art by Francesco Francavilla)
  • Captain Marvel by Kelly Sue DeConnick (art by David Lopez)
  • FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics by Simon Oliver (art by Robbi Rodriguez)
  • Peter Panzerfaust by Kurtis J Wiebe (art by Tyler Jenkins)
  • Richard Stark’s Parker by Darwyn Cooke & Donald E. Westlake (art by Darwyn Cooke)
  • Rocket Girl by Brandon Montclare (art by Amy Reeder)
  • She-Hulk by Charles Soule (art by Javier Pulido)
  • Storm by Greg Pak (art by Victor Ibanez)
  • The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan (art by Marcos Martin & Muntsa Vicente)
  • The Punisher by Garth Ennis (art by Lewis Larosa, Tom Palmer & Dean White)

My Spring Reading List (for University)

Posted September 6, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in What are you Reading / 0 Comments

2014-09-04 17.00.12-2I’m back at university for another semester. This time I’m doing a course called Great Books part 1 (whatever that means). I’m actually very nervous and excited about this as I will be reading some very scary books. I’ve been doing an English Literature course part time and I feel like it will take me a very long time to finish this course. Studying online means I have a lot more flexible and that is hopeful for balancing my time between both work and study, however it also means it will take awhile. I thought I would share this list with you, not for sympathy but I’m hoping people might offer some advice (or encouragement) about getting through these books.

  • The Odyssey by Homer (translated by Walter Shewring)
  • Beowulf (translated by Michael Alexander)
  • Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (translated by Nevill Coghill)
  • Macbeth by William Shakespeare
  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

I think this is going to be hard, I don’t often read anything that was released before the 1800’s.