Over the last three weeks I have attempted and failed at three books. I got halfway through Lost Cosmonaut by Daniel Calder before realizing it would not improve. I had such hope for this book! He documents his travels to places tourists rarely, if ever, visit. The least you could hope for from such a book is that the writer has something interesting to say about the places he visits or insights into different cultures and people. But he does not! The book is also scattered with tangents and useless information and although I am not opposed to useless information per se, he could at least try to tell stories in a more engaging way. This book is essentially Calder (who I imagine would be an insufferable travel companion) saying, "I am so interesting because I am traveling to places not on the tourist track. Therefore, I must be superior to everybody else (and funnier, and wittier, and clearly more intelligent). I am an untourist! But, wow, these places really are as boring and unstimulating as could be expected but I will force myself to stay so I can write a book about this uninspiring experience and make fun of the local population and fail to make any kind of meaningful connection with anybody I might meet as it would detract from the story." Yeah, it really is as crappy as that. But look what this reviewer says! Opinions differ widely, I guess.
I also attempted David Foster Wallace's book, Consider the Lobster, a collection of various essays he has written over the years. The first essay held considerable promise, documenting 1998's AVN awards (essentially, porn awards). It was clever and, I must admit, rather fascinating. Then I started the next essay, lost interest, moved to the next essay, lost interest, and so on. Most of the essays are dominated by pages of aggravating and way-too-clever footnotes. I may make another attempt at some of the later essays, but so far the AVN award essay is the only one worth recommending.
Finally, Planet of Slums, which I think has hope so I won't write it off yet. It reads a bit like a scientific report, rather than journalistic non-fiction. It isn't bad, and the subject matter is interesting, so I'm going to plug away at another couple of chapters and see if it can grab me.
posted by Tina on 5/03/2006 | 1 comments | #