Personal Reading List

You know how you had those 'Summer Reading Lists' in elementary school? And you had to pick three or four books from the list to read? Then when school started you'd be tested on those books?

Well I've decided to take that horrible idea and put a personal spin on it.

Here's my *Personal Reading List*. A list of books I want to read. I won't have to pick three or four because I'm going to read all of them (and enjoy it). And, most importantly, I won't be tested on any of them when school starts!

These are the top three books I really want to read at the moment.

1. Drive by James Sallis
2. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
3. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski  

Comment with your own Personal Reading List! I'd love to check out some more books!

A Not So "Tell-All" Review

I didn't start Tell-All off right. I started it on the bus whilst being tired on my way to work. I usually don't fall asleep when I'm reading anything, but I succumbed to the temptation and found myself falling asleep. I was still able to finish some of the sentences. No lie, I read a bunch of lines over and over. And at one point I was sitting on the bus, eyes closed with an open book in my lap. Picture that! (LOL) As I procrastinated on, thinking I had enough time to finish before I left for California, I let a week, two weeks pass by without me reading another page. Then I sat down and finished the whole thing in about two hours. It took me far too long to read Tell-All, but I finished it (my second book of Summer 2012, might I add)!!!

Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk wasn't my favorite Palahniuk novel. Not exactly my favorite, but Tell-All was just my cup of tea because of the theme and focus of the book. It's a satire novel about pop culture, focusing on movie stars. The Old Hollywood theme was right up my alley and I liked that Palaniuk bolded the names of all the old Hollywood stars. It was a bit confusing following the narrator though; there's a lot of layers in Tell-All. She reminded of the unnamed narrator from Diary, the first Palahniuk novel I read. I really liked the writing style of Tell-All because it was a book written like a screenplay, but with all the details of a narrative. The writing style also reminded me of the format of a play. Tell-All also felt similar to the style of writing of Mr. Bret Easton Ellis, my favorite author. So that was another plus. 

I found that Tell-All didn't have that jaw dropping twist that I've come to expect from Chuck. It was a bit predictable by the end. At one point I misread something and thought that was the jaw dropping twist, but that was quickly squashed. It's hard to explain without giving anything way, but I didn't exactly see the ending coming and on the other hand I did sort of see it coming. I'll just say it involves the three main characters: Hazie Coogan, Katherine Kenton and Webster Carlton Westward III. I did, however, like the way Tell-All turned out, I was very satisfied. 

If I read Tell-All in a different state of mind and at a better pace, I might have followed it better. But I got all the jokes, recognized the satire and understood everything that happened. 

There were also some parts of the dialogue that I found hilarious. Page 95 lines 4 and 10 from the bottom and page 96 line 2 from the top, are the first instances of HILARITY. The way Palahniuk describes the "love making" between Kenton and Westward is so eloquent and I've never seen it done like that before, I don't exactly know how to process it, so I laugh. His intention was to probably make people laugh at that part. Mission accomplished. 

I may have contradicted myself a few times in this review, but let it be known that I did like Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk; it just wasn't my favorite. 

I do recommend Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk although it's very genre specific. It's probably the simplest Palahniuk novel to follow and that I've read so far. I picked it to read before I left for California because it's only one hundred and seventy-nine pages; a nice, light read. (Not to mention the movie star theme).

I can't wait to read more Palahniuk novels!!!

"Every word he's written about me is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'."

-An Unnamed Source

Starting to "Tell-All"

In an afford not to "Tell-All" (pun!), I've decided to make a quick post about the lastest book I'm reading.  

I've gotten my hands on a copy of Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk! I can't wait to see what kind of adventure Tell-All will take me on! As of this post, I haven't reached page one hundred yet, but I'm fast approaching it.

What book are you currently reading?


Happy Reading!

A Little Reading Monster.

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

When I first picked Rant by Chuck Palahniuk to read I had no idea what it was about. Cards on the table here, I picked Rant because I was looking at the cover art for the list of Palahniuk books I have to read to see which one went with my new Essie nail polish. And Rant was the winner!

I was really cautious not to go onto Wikipedia or any other website that came up. I strictly looked at the image section of Google. I'm glad I didn't get any spoilers because I don't think I would've enjoyed Rant as much or had as many conflicting emotions as I have.

So starting to read Rant I had no expectations. None at all, about anything. Fresh eyes, open mind about it. It didn't even occur to me to expect a twist in the plot like Palahniuk is so famous for. So when that twist hit me, sure I recognized it, but DAMN what a zinger!

It's going to be quite a challenge to review this book without giving away too many secrets or anything. I already told you there's a plot twist. I'll try not to spoil anything else for you (if you care about Rant not being spoiled for you as much as I did).

Basically, Rant by Chuck Palahniuk is about Buster "Rant" Casey. It's his (somewhat) life story told by all the people he interacted with and who they interacted with. And... that's where I'll end that summary because I've already given too much away. I held back here, trust.

I can tell you what I liked and disliked about Rant though, sans the spoilers.

I'll start off with what I liked. I definitely loved Rant because of the plot, the unexpected twist and the characters. My favorite character being Neddy Nelson and before he was introduced, I didn't have one. The plot is very interesting because and despite of the twists and turns it takes; I liked the complexity. The style of writing was another reason why I enjoyed Rant. I've never read a book written in a way that is like a transcript; like a court transcript or something. Only the characters are being interviewed. A page before the actual story starts, Palahniuk lists a few books that are also written in this style. I'm definitely going to check them out. I learned a lot from reading Rant. Without giving away anything, I learned a lot about [blank], I wrote down a lot of words and the quotes from some of the characters are great. I mostly really liked that Rant made me think. By the end, all I wanted to do was search for answers. Answers about the book, the characters, the plot, all of it. I was confused throughout Rant, but that's just me. I didn't mind being confused because I kept reading and sometimes my confusion got answers and sometimes I just got more questions.

What didn't I like? What made me dislike Rant? I was confused for a lot of the book. And by the end, even though I basically understood what happened, I still had a lot of questions. I personally felt sometimes the paragraphs were hard to follow. There was one chapter when I started off totally following it, but by the second paragraph I was lost and I ended that chapter knowing a little bit less. Then there'd be a chapter where I understood the whole book, everything made sense; I felt like I didn't even have to finish Rant. Then I'd read on to the next chapter and everything I thought I knew was shot to shit. But I suppose that's Palahniuk's lovely charm playing into his novel. (No sarcasm intended.) I could possibly be really stupid as well.

Despite being confused whilst reading Rant, I do completely recommend you read this book. Whether it's because you love Chuck Palahniuk (me), you like to read (me) or you want to get mind-fucked, I recommend Rant. Do not read this if you "need something to do"; it's a pretty complex book and needs your full attention. Trust.

To resolve my confusion, I either should reread Rant or head to the interwebs to find answers. I'm most likely going to do the latter because I feel that if I reread Rant in my still confused state, I'd be even more confused and thus none of my questions would be answered. And that's the opposite of what I want.

??Questions??:

Have you read Rant by Chuck Palahniuk? Were you as confused as I am/was? How'd you get over the confusion? Do you plan on reading Rant after reading this post or are you going to steer clear? (I say challenge yourself! But that's just me.)

Hey, make my day! Answer my questions (see above), tell me your opinion on Rant and/or this post. Email me at lectionemmonstrum@gmail.com, y'all!

Next, I plan to read Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk. Look out for a currently reading and review post of Tell-All and a Chuck Palahniuk Master Opinion Post like my Bret Easton Ellis Master Opinion Post.

Sidenote: Rant by Chuck Palahniuk is the first book I've read for Summer 2012!