** F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
*** Robert E. Howard – Three Conan stories (The Scarlet Citadel, The Pool Of The Black One, The Tower Of The Elephant)
** Jules Verne – 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
*** Fritz Leiber – The Best Of Fritz Leiber
*** Fritz Leiber – Swords and Deviltry
*** William Gibson – Pattern Recognition
** Oscar Wilde – The Picture Of Dorian Gray
September was the month I finally started to explore ebooks. I tried the Kindle and Aldiko apps on my phone, reading a variety of free stuff (Fitzgerald, Verne, Howard), and then I ended up getting a Kindle for my birthday (thanks, Mom and Dad!). The phone app is usable for short amounts of time. I like the Kindle pretty well, though it’s a little awkward if you get bored with a book and want to skim. Also, I think my tolerance for boring stuff is lower in ebook format (and even lower in the phone app) — I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed 20,000 Leagues more on paper (or even on the Kindle, which I hadn’t gotten yet).
I was curious to read Benjamin Button; I didn’t actually see the movie, but I wanted to read the story behind it. There’s not much to this short story aside from its strange premise and some good jokes. The movie must have had to make up basically an entirely new story to give the audience something to get interested in. The story was fine, but more of a one-off joke or thought experiment than anything emotionally involving.
I’ve been wanting to reread some good, old fantasy stuff lately, and both Howard’s Conan and Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were on the list. I found several Conan stories free on Aldiko and enjoyed reading them. They’re entertaining reads and written in a lively way, but a little too dependent on the ol’ telling rather than showing. Howard does a lot of what I think of as the Lovecraft move: he tells you something is unspeakable, indescribable, evil, perverse, etc., rather than explaining it in such a way that it makes your skin truly crawl. Still, for all that, there’s a lot of good description and action going on; I’d like to read more Conan and more of Howard’s other writing.
20,000 Leagues was pretty good but required heavy skimming. I believe I read this and some other Verne when I was young, but didn’t remember much in detail. There was a lot of zoology and other nature detail that I wasn’t that interested in, and a lot of attempted scientific explanations that were not unreasonable at the time but seem kind of silly now. Nothing against Verne per se, but I would have preferred a little more adventure storytelling and a little less scientific (or pseudo-scientific) detail. I suspect I’d have a similar reaction to a lot of his other books, though I will probably try some more, since they’re free on the Kindle.
Fritz Leiber is really good. I enjoyed his “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” books as a kid (handed down from my father, who loves them too) but hadn’t read anything else of his. All of the short stories I read in these two volumes were pretty good; my only complaint is I’d like more novels, since I often find the short story form a little lacking. I want something involved that I can sink my teeth into.
Pattern Recognition was pretty good. It was a little silly and one of those author-wish-fulfillment (“omg how cool is my main character, right?”) type things. For all that, I kind of enjoyed Cayce’s weird phobias and talents, and the way a community people grew up around the mysterious footage. The resolution wasn’t particularly satisfying or interesting though. An enjoyable read, but I’ve already forgotten most of it (as I did after the first time I read it) except for a few nice details.
You know, the modern image of Oscar Wilde is a guy going around spouting off witticisms (e.g. this) which is pretty much what I pictured. What I didn’t realize is pretty much all of those Wildean witticisms (okay, a lot of them anyway) are from the first couple chapters of Dorian Gray. I mean, I read it in high school, but who remembers that stuff? Dorian Gray was pretty good, if a bit melodramatic. You will get tired very quickly of some of the more emotional characters and their interminably yip-yap. But hey witticisms, corruption, sex, drugs, and scandal, am I right?