A bittersweet farewell

Hi,

Last April, I decided on a whim to start collecting, reading and reviewing 250 books. As months went by, I attempted to do so, set on finishing it in a few years. This meant that I would have to read at least two books every week. Impossible? No. Improbable? Certainly.

Soon reaching the year mark, I find that I cannot possibly achieve my goal in so short a time. Life has been complicated and busy through the year and I feel it will be even more so in the near future. Sadly, I feel that I will have to stop this project.

I meant to show people that it was possible to buy and enjoy books for under a dollar. I feel that I have done as much. I have found true gems through this experience and some of those books will remain in my collection until death or fire takes them away from me.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the commentaries. I feel silly to have started such a lengthy endeavour on a bet but if it has helped anyone understand that there is more to literature than the price of a book, I guess the experience has been worth everyone's time.

Thank you.

The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice

The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice
Ballantine Books, ISBN 0 345 38475 X
Price paid: 0,50$

The following review come from a series of books I have already read, eons ago. Seeing them for cheap, I have decided to give them a second glance and review them.

Strangely enough, I enjoyed this book. It is my third favorite of all Anne Rice's books (the first being Interview and the second, Armand). The reason for this is that it departs from Anne Rice's ongoing vampire saga and gives us a rare glimpse into something utterly different; a vampire becoming human again.

Unlike the turning of a human and the splendors described by Louis in Interview, the humanization of a vampire is a difficult, clumsy thing. Tricked by a con man who can switch bodies, Lestat is stuck in a gross, ineffective human body, understanding it the way today's teenagers understand an abacus.

Lestat, humbled, tries to find a way to get his body back.

Is it worth a dollar?

Yes, read it. Some of it might not make sense at first if the second and third books are skipped but it is worth the slight confusion.

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
Ballantine Books, ISBN 0 345 35152 5
Price paid: 0,50$

The following review come from a series of books I have already read, eons ago. Seeing them for cheap, I have decided to give them a second glance and review them.

The Queen of the Damned is probably my least favorite book of the series in terms of quality and plot. While Memnoch the Devil was simply awful for linking Lestat to God and Satan (or at the very least, giving him as much importance), QotD is a wacky superhero adventure featuring vampires. That is basically it. Lestat becomes all powerful and as arrogant as it is inhumanly possible. All the other vampires gang-up and cannot do anything useful.

We are also given an origin story of all vampires which, while fitting, ends up being disappointing. Part of the mystery of vampirism, seen through the first two books, was the fact that no one knew of the origins or how long this had been going on. The source now given and the sheer amount of vampire deaths in the book, this story served nothing more than to cause a major reboot of the series and realign all remaining vampires and their positions. It upset me at the time.

Is it worth a dollar?

No. I would normally go so far as to urge you to watch the movie instead but the movie was even worse. This book is a waste of time.

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Ballantine Books, ISBN 0 345 31386 0
Price paid: 0,50$

The following review come from a series of books I have already read, eons ago. Seeing them for cheap, I have decided to give them a second glance and review them.

A draconian shift from the first book, The Vampire Lestat tells the story of Louis' maker and vampire jerk Lestat, the archetypal vampire antihero. Unlike Louis, Lestat has no problems killing, plotting and justifying his evil actions. He is the villain that does not understand his own villainy.

Searching for answers, eons prior to Louis' quest for the same, Lestat goes on the trail of Marius, rumored to be a terribly old and powerful undead. The story then links with Interview with the Vampire, telling Lestat's side of the story, to finally arrive at the "current" year (the eighties), which chronicles Lestat's return to the world and the start of his rock band, which would be featured more importantly in the following book, The Queen of the Damned.

Is it worth a dollar?

I am going to get a lot of heat for this but I would not recommend either this one or the following book from the Vampire Chronicles. Anne Rice has made the mistake of turning Lestat into a superhero and this book already spells the beginning of the end for this undead. This would become most apparent in the fifth book (which I will not review as I found it aberrant). So, skip it.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Ballantine Books, ISBN 0 345 33766 6
Price paid: 0,50$

The following review come from a series of books I have already read, eons ago. Seeing them for cheap, I have decided to give them a second glance and review them.

Ah, such a book. Interview with the Vampire is the one novel that has changed the way people see vampires in pop-culture today. Far from the days of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Anne Rice depicts vampires as childish immortals, fixating on the mundane and self-imposed drama. This book, which became a series later on, shows for the first time the character which would become the archetype of the vampire antihero, Lestat.

The book reads like a memoir from a vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac. Louis, giving up on life, is approached by the vampire Lestat, a careless arrogant undead. Turning him, they plan to travel the world and witness the passing years, enjoying the fruits of the Earth. However, Louis is never successfully turned and retaining his human nature, seeks to understand the beginning of his condition and the possibility of others like him. This leads him away from the path of his malevolent master and into more troubles than he has bargained for.


Is it worth a dollar?

Unlike the other books from the Vampire Chronicles, which I did not find were terribly appealing, Interview with the Vampire has that appeal one gets from reading time pieces; books set in another era, with all corresponding mysteries. Louis is the right protagonist to lead us through the centuries and the story would have lost a lot of its quality, had it been seen through Lestat's eyes (which happens starting from the second book). for this I recommend this book.

Needful Things by Stephen King

Needful Things by Stephen King
Signet Books, ISBN 0 451 17281 7
Price paid: 0,50$

The following review come from a series of books I have already read, eons ago. Seeing them for cheap, I have decided to give them a second glance and review them.

I remember reading this book right after seeing the movie, which was released in 1993. I believe that this book caused me to want to read the original story of every movie adaptation I would come across later on. The reason of it is that it is a very good book and that the movie does not do it justice.

Needful Things is the story of a small town being manipulated by the owner of a new shop, dealing with antiquities. What starts as a series of pranks soon turn to murder and the town sheriff, the only man seemingly not affected by the store owner, has to find out what is going on.

I loved the cameos and links to other stories which flood this novel. One can find mentions of other notable King stories, such as Cujo and Christine, as well as Lovecraftian mentions; some even suggest that the store owner is an adaptation of Nyarlathotep. A fitting comparison.

Is it worth a dollar?

I have to admit that I not the biggest Stephen King fan. Nonetheless, this is one of my favorite stories from the author and I would highly recommend it.

New books!

Great deals lately, here are new books:

Impared Judgement by David Compton
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
The Stand by Stephen King
Needful Things by Stephen King
Dolores Clairborne by Stephen King
A Nun in the Closet by Dorothy Gilman
Police Chief by John Ball
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom by James Kahn
The Shadow by James Luceno
The Omen by David Seltzer
The Omen II: Damien by Joseph Howard
The Omen: The final Conflict by Gordon McGill
Hannibal by Thomas Harris
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
The Body Thief by Anne Rice
The Patriot by Stephen Molstad
The Thomas Crown Affair by Evan Lee Heyman
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

This will complete the following list:

Thunderball, by Ian Flemming
A Primer of Freudian Psychology, by Calvin S.Hall
Tales of Terror and Myster, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Master's Choice (multiple authors)
Wolfsbane, by William W. Johnstone
A Game of Eagles, by Oakley Hall
Anatomy of the Spirit, by Caroline Myss
Sociology, an Introduction by Neil J. Smelser (742 pages!)
Trojan Odyssey, by Clive Cussler
American Political Science Review Volume 85 (a dozen or so authors)
Arthur, King by Dennis Lee Anderson
Quarantine by Greg Egan
A Midsummer's Night Gene by Andrew Harman
Illegal Aliens by Nick Pollotta and Phil Foglio
The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham
Arcturus Landing, by Gordon R. Dickson
The Great Time machine Hoax, by Keith Laumer
The Traveler in Black, by John Brunner
Alpha Centauri or Die!, by Leigh Brackett
The Puppet Masters, by Robert A.Heinlein
The Revenge of Dracula, by Peter Tremayne
French Lessons; Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew, by Peter Mayle
Planets Three, by Frederik Pohl
Medusa's Children, by Bob Shaw
Manseed, by Jack Williamson
The Last Castle, by Jack Vance
The Green Hills of Earth, by Robert A. Heinlein
Richard III, by William Shakespeare
A Woman a Day, by Philip Jose Farmer
A Small Town In Germany, by John Le Carre