The Next Two Selections.

Dear Reader, I have been thinking about my bookgeekism blog a lot as of late.  I have had some issues go on in my personal life that caused a delay in updating.  I had also at the same time begun work on an alternate blog for my adventures in Self Education.  As I thought more and more about it I realized that I did not have the time to maintain 3 blogs: a personal one and an additional 2 related to books.  So Dear reader I have come to the decision that I am going to combine the self education blog and this blog together.

Ultimately I had planned to read The Girl In The Steel Corset  as my next book selection, but due to a recent...err restructuring of my bookshelves its currently been...for lack of better wording, misplaced.  This dear reader is an unfortunate habit of mine and could possibly explain why I own 2-3 copies of some books (the major reason for the book restructuring is so that I can used Hooked In Motions book cataloging app on my iPhone to keep track of those books that I do own.)

For now I intend to read The Epic of Gilgamesh  as it is the first book off the Lifetime Reading Plan.  I had also been reading Don Quixote, but that book has also been misplaced for the time being.  I will endeavor to finish the Epic by the end of this weekend or hopefully by the end of this week at least.  Drood, was a gift from my mother who came across it upon one of her trips to the used book store (we believe in recycling books, we give books to the used book store and pick up new ones along the way sometimes).  I've read the first few paged of Drood and will have to say that I am very interested.  Drood centers around Charles Dickens, who I will openly admit is one of my least favorite authors.  I personally have never cared for the writings we were forced to read in school and can only say the one I really enjoyed was A Tale of Two Cities.  

I've been very ...very lax in my reading, I used to read as much as possible and now it feels like I am hardly reading anymore.. I used to try and read as much as possible at work, but it's been so busy at work and I am unable to read as much as I would like. I am going to try and find ..  or at least work on putting more effort into giving myself adequate time to read and work on my self studies.

We by Zamyatin

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (July 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-0812974621
• Language: Russian (originally)
• Genre(s): Dystopian Novel, Science Fiction

This novel was originally written by Zamyatin during 1920-1921, and paints an interesting picture of a dystopian totalitarian state. The tale itself centers around D-503, a cipher of the One State, and is written in almost a journal entry style.

The One State, a world where buildings are created of glass and the Guardians/Spies can watch every ciphers movement and behaviors. Daily life is regimented by a time table that clearly lays out how each Cipher is to expend their time in the most efficient way and is the most beneficial to the one state. D-503, as stated previously, is a cipher of the One State. He is a mathematician who is working on building the Integral, a spaceship designed to help the One State conquer the universe. The book is actually a record that he plans to send along inside the Integral during it's maiden voyage. During the course of the novel he becomes entangled with a female cipher who he develops an obsessiveness for and may or may not be his undoing.

I found the novel to be a quiet enjoyable read and rather intriguing, but as I have stated before I enjoy dystopian literature. Although at times the novel seemed a bit dry and the ending seemed a little forced and possibly even quite predictable I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Orwell's 1984.

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

I offer up a prayer to the patron saint of Bookgeeks--Looks like the closest I'm going to get is Saint Jerome, the patron Saint of Librarians.. I cannot get through this book. Maybe it's because I'm not a fanatic for spy novels. I have tried and tried to read this book but I cannot get into it, I feel like I am limping along with a mortal wound and this book is driving the sword further in.. I don't know what it is. It is a well written novel, and an easy read but the material does not interest me. I was even shocked when the book group even wanted to compare it to Ian Flemmings 007. I'm not sure what to do next, Lady Chatterley's Lover is the next book for the group and I honestly look forward to that more than anything else. I currently have cast aside LeCarre's "masterpiece" and picked up something not so renowned Genesis by Bernard Beckett. I will be offering up the review of that novel on Monday instead of LeCarre's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold....