Don't" Shoot!

The Fountainhead

The first, and thus far, only time that I read this book was a few years back while I was in college. I was looking for a challenge, and I certainly found one.

The book tells the story of an architect who is unwilling to compromise either the ideals of his art or the ideals of his ethical system. He eventually comes to be known as a genius, but that follows a long, difficult stretch where people go out of their way to try to destroy him, largely because his individualism frightens them.

The thing that I find with books of this length is that the reader almost can't help but get wrapped up in the story. When you get to about page 700, you realize what an investment of time and brain space that you've spent on these fictional characters and situations. In my opinion, this book couldn't be any shorter and remain effective. Ayn Rand did an exquisite job of promoting her philosophies within this book, without appearing preachy, as I suspect she kind of comes across in her other large scale work, Atlas Shrugged.

In any case, if you only read one Rand book in your lifetime, read this one.

-Lost

Apathy and Other Small Victories

I recently picked up Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan because I was browsing some old book recommendations over at uncrate, and the write-up that they had over there intrigued me. The site claimed that they laughed all the way through it. As I tend to not laugh out loud while reading as much as I objectively acknowledge that something that I've read is funny, I thought that I'd give this one a shot (no pun intended, based on the cover).

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself laughing out loud throughout this novel, particularly in the first two thirds of it. The almost random association responses that the main character gives during his conversations are so irreverent that I suspect that even the most uptight among us would have difficulty not cracking a smile.

In the first two thirds of the book, Paul Neilan eloquently exposits a commentary via the first-person narrator that intertwines several story lines that, while seemingly separate, end up coming together for the critical points of the novel. Unfortunately, the conclusion left this reader feeling that there was something more to be desired. While I understand that the ending works in this post-modern world of ours, and perhaps even fits with the themes of apathy, indifference, and randomness of existence, I just thought that the elaborate scenarios and cleverly crafted characters deserved a much better conclusion than they received.

If you're looking for a laugh, I encourage you to read this book.

-Lost

The Prestige

I haven't started Christopher Priest's The Prestige yet, although I am eagerly awaiting tearing into it.

I have two reasons for picking it up. The first is that a friend of mine recommended it, and that second stems from the fact that I, somewhat now ashamedly, couldn't wait to see the recent movie based on this book.

The movie was absolutely amazing, but parts of its grip over the viewer were a series of secrets and surprise endings revealed to the viewer towards the end of the film, and, even while I was watching the film, I just couldn't imagine how they could have been expressed as compellingly in a specifically non-visual medium.

I can't wait to find out. I suspect that this post will warrant a part II.

-Lost

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Khaled Hosseini

I don't know about you, but I loved The Kite Runner. As I was on a trip with my girlfriend to visit her parents last year, I couldn't put that book down. It was gripping, compelling, and deeply human, full of ups and downs, events to laugh at and events to make you sick.

The author, Khaled Hosseini is releasing a second book next week. It is called A Thousand Splendid Suns, and it will also be about 30 years of Afgan history seen through the eyes of a family.

I am quite intrigued by the prospect of a new book from the author, especially when one would think that he would have covered most everything worth saying in his last book. I'll have to pick up a copy next week.

-Lost

Blink

Blink, by Malcom Gladwell, is the book that I am currently reading through. This book provides thorough analysis of the idea that many times, our first impressions are often very powerful indicators of what we think and feel deep down within ourselves. Sometimes this is for the best, and sometimes we mislead ourselves by this.

An example on the positive side is an illustration that Gladwell provides in the introduction to his book about a piece of sculpture that the Getty Museum was thinking about purchasing. The museum assembled a crack team of specialists, and they just about conclusively agreed that the piece was authentic. However, upon seeing the piece, many art scholars concluded almost instantaneously that something was wrong with the piece. Many believe that it just looked too perfect to be real. As it turned out, the piece was found out to be a forgery. This is really what gave Gladwell the idea for the book: how could people who just glanced at the piece know intuitively (what Gladwell calls "rapid cognition") that the piece was a fake?

While it was beneficial and correct in regards to the sculpture, people's first impression can obviously be wrong. An example that he lists in regard to this phenomenon is that Presidency of Warren G. Harding. Harding was tall, dark, and handsome. Because of this, peoples' first impressions of him were largely favorable, despite the fact that he was a mediocre politician at best and, arguably, one of the worst Presidents the country has had at worst. Gladwell suggests that it was due to the positive impressions that he instilled in people that won him the Presidency.

As I am still reading it, I am eagerly awaiting what sort of conclusions Malcolm Gladwell will draw from his plethora of research. I am particularly interested in how we can check and know whether or not our initial impressions are correct. I suspect that he will, because the fact that we have initital impressions will hardly be news to anyone.

This is a fascinating and engaging book. I recommend it. Or at least, that's my first impression.

-Lost

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Augusten Burroughs' Mother Responds

In a recent NPR interview, the mother of Augusten Burroughs responds to how she is portrayed in his books, and she says that she continues to love him.

In Dry, and apparently especially in this prior book Running with Scissors, Augusten paints his mother as a woman who is more interested in her own career than worrying about her son. Because of this, Augusten believes that she placed in the care of a psychiatrist who was a friend of the family who sexually molested the then 13 year old boy.

The above link was fascinating for me after reading what Augusten had to say about her; there really are two sides to every story.

-Lost