The Ten Year Catch-Up | Raging Biblio-holism

Slaughterhouse-Five

January 4, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time – and as he bounces between the decades of his life (a young man, an optometrist, a prisoner of war in Dresden, a prisoner of aliens on Tralfamadore), the novelist creating him considers his own time in Dresden and how best to write about it. The Review: It feels fitting to me that the first review I’m publishing in 2017 is of a book that needs no review. Slaughterhouse-Five is the […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Autofiction, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Dresden, Fiction, Kurt Vonnegut, Literature, Memoir, Re-Reads, review, Reviews, Science Fiction, Semi-Fiction, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Ten Year Catch-Up, Vonnegut 201x, World War Two

Hemingway 2016

December 29, 2016 by Drew

HEMINGWAY 2016 editions: Scribner paperbacks The Sun Also Rises – 4 out of 5, 2/10-2/13 The Old Man and the Sea – 5+ out of 5, 4/5-4/6 To Have and Have Not – 4 out of 5, 6/27-6/29 A Farewell to Arms – 4 out of 5, 8/13-8/16 In Our Time – 3.5 out of 5, 9/12-9/17 For Whom the Bell Tolls – 3 out of 5, 12/21-12/23 Hemingway is one of those authors who you’re familiar with even if you haven’t […]

Categories: Features, The Ten Year Catch-Up • Tags: A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway, Features, Fiction, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway 2016, In Our Time, The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, The Ten Year Catch-Up, To Have and Have Not

Palm Sunday

April 29, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A ‘collage’, as the man himself puts it, of essays and speeches and thoughts and even a short story and a play – all of which add up to a charmingly odd portrait of a literary life. The Review: There is something about Kurt Vonnegut that runs the risk of coming off as too self-assured, almost cocky, sometimes. It is, perhaps, only his relentlessly Midwestern sense of self-deprecation that saves him – but I have to admit […]

Categories: Essays, Memoir, Non-Fiction • Tags: Autobiography, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Essays, Kurt Vonnegut, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Palm Sunday, Reviews, Short Stories, The Ten Year Catch-Up, Vonnegut 201x

The Sun Also Rises

February 26, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Jake Barnes and a group of expats in Paris, including Lady Brett Ashley (the woman he loves), tumble around Paris in the mid 1920s before taking a trip south into Spain for the summer. They arrive in Pamplona just in time for the Fiesta de San Fermin, where Brett falls for a bullfighter and several friendships are ruined. The Review: Here we are, headed into the halfway stretch of The Ten Year Catch-Up project. Hard to believe, frankly – […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Classics, Ernest Hemingway, Fiction, Hemingway 2016, Literature, Reviews, The Sun Also Rises, The Ten Year Catch-Up

Woolf 2015

December 29, 2015 by Drew

WOOLF 2015 editions: Penguin Hardback Modern Classics Mrs. Dalloway – 5+ out of 5, 3/2-3/9 To the Lighthouse – 4.5 out of 5, 5/17-5/24 The Waves – 3.5 out of 5, 9/5-9/20 A Room of One’s Own / Three Guineas – 4 out of 5, 10/30-11/13 Orlando – 3.5 out of 5, 12/5-12/10 For the first time, I’ve hit an author in the Ten Year Catch-Up whose major works I have at least a passing familiarity with – and, for […]

Categories: Features, The Ten Year Catch-Up • Tags: A Room of One's Own, Features, Fiction, Modernism, Mrs. Dalloway, Non-Fiction, Orlando, Recap, Stream of Consciousness, The Ten Year Catch-Up, The Waves, Three Guineas, To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, Woolf 2015, World War One

The Waves

September 25, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: A series of soliloquies or internal monologues, delivered nearly uninterrupted, across the lives of six acquaintances – three men, three women – from their childhood until their old age. The only intervals are a series of short vignettes detailing a coastal scene from early dawn to nightfall. The Review: I’ll be forthcoming and admit that this book nearly threatened the sanctity of the Ten Year Catch-Up project. Partially because, even though I’d had a very agreeable time with To the Lighthouse and […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Classics, Experimental, Fiction, Literature, Reading, Reviews, Stream of Consciousness, The Ten Year Catch-Up, The Waves, Virginia Woolf, Woolf 2015

To the Lighthouse

May 28, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: The Ramsay Family and their guests are summering on the Isle of Skye in Scotland in 1910. Over the course of an ordinary day, rather ordinary things happen – but time swiftly passes and, ten years later, so very much has changed (while yet so much remains so similar). The Review: There is a certain amount of work that goes into reading Virginia Woolf. I noticed it, to some extent, with Mrs. Dalloway but To the Lighthouse is a more […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fiction, Literature, Modernism, Reviews, Scotland, The Ten Year Catch-Up, To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, Woolf 2015, World War I

Mrs. Dalloway

March 16, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: On a June day in the 1920s in London, Clarissa Dalloway is throwing a party. From the morning to the evening, we follow her and several others about London through what is an ordinary – and completely extraordinary – day. The Review: For the first time, I’ve re-read something that I’ve already reviewed on this blog. Mrs. Dalloway was one of the first books I read and reviewed here, way back in fall 2009. This gives me a […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Literature, London, Modernism, Mrs. Dalloway, Re-Reads, Reviews, The Ten Year Catch-Up, Virginia Woolf, Woolf 2015

Murakami 2014

December 30, 2014 by Drew

MURAKAMI 2014 editions: Vintage paperbacks Norwegian Wood – 4.5 out of 5, 1/2-1/5 Kafka on the Shore – 5 out of 5, 3/8-3/11 1Q84 – 3 out of 5, 5/24-5/31 The Elephant Vanishes – 3 out of 5, 8/18-8/28 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World – 4 out of 5, 10/23-10/28 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – 3 out of 5, 12/08-12/14 So, in a bit of a change of pace from the last two years, I opted to pick a contemporary author for this third year of the Ten […]

Categories: Features, The Ten Year Catch-Up • Tags: 1Q84, Features, Fiction, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami, Jazz, Kafka on the Shore, Literature, Music, Norwegian Wood, Reflection, Short Stories, The Elephant Vanishes, The Ten Year Catch-Up, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: The Ten Year Catch-Up