BlueBilly - aNobii

Books (61)

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- Moby Dick (1614)
- By Herman Melville
- Reading since Feb 15, 2013
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- Frankenstein (3042)
- (Dover Thrift Editions)
- By Mary Shelley
- Finished on Oct 26, 2012
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- We'll Always Have Paris (17)
- By Ray Bradbury
- Finished on Oct 16, 2012
  
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We'll Always Have Paris

A collection of wonderful, delicate, intense short stories

I love Ray Bradbury. This guy could have written vacuum cleaner manuals and made them awesome. This book was a birthday gift, I didn't know it (although I had already read some book by Bradbury) and I didn't want to know anything about it before reading it, not to spoil the fun. I didn't even know i ... (continue)

I love Ray Bradbury. This guy could have written vacuum cleaner manuals and made them awesome. This book was a birthday gift, I didn't know it (although I had already read some book by Bradbury) and I didn't want to know anything about it before reading it, not to spoil the fun. I didn't even know it was a short story collection!
Lacking of mind breadth, while expecting sci-fi, Ray stuck me with an incredible variety of subjects and characters. There is everything, from love stories to fantasy, from a little sci-fi to the struggle of aging and living.
What really strikes me is Bradbury's talent to fascinate the reader with a delicate, intense and stimulating prose. The best you can do is letting him take care of your heart.

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— Oct 17, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Brave New World (1773)
- By Aldous Huxley
- Finished on Oct 9, 2012
  
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Brave New World

1 person find this helpful
Incredibly ahead of its time

It is hard for me to reduce my opinion about this book to a number of stars. I chose four as a compromise between its value (in terms of message, depth and cultural influence) and the quite slow rhythm of some pages, especially in the central part. This said, missing it would be a pity and a shame. ... (continue)

It is hard for me to reduce my opinion about this book to a number of stars. I chose four as a compromise between its value (in terms of message, depth and cultural influence) and the quite slow rhythm of some pages, especially in the central part. This said, missing it would be a pity and a shame. Huxley's vision astonishes for its power and the danger it foresees. More than genetic engineering, the enemy of the story is the lack of critical thought. From this angle, it is easy to match this novel with the other two dystopian milestones and masterpieces, "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451". Huxley does not create a stifling atmosphere as Orwell does, nor he has Bradbury's talent to tell a story and catch the reader word by word, but before both of them imagined a future mankind had better avoid and showed us the real picture and, together, the frailty of our nature.
It becomes even more impressive when you think that, just a few years after the book was published, intellectual and moral laziness would bring the world to war.

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— Oct 17, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Catcher in the Rye (3872)
- By J.D. Salinger
- Finished on Sep 28, 2012
  
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The Catcher in the Rye

How a 3.5 can become a 4

Some paragraphs made me laugh a lot. Some others gave interesting insights on Holden's character and his personality. In some pages I found interesting food for thought. The subject is extremely interesting and I liked the story of this boy looking for a meaning in his life and rejecting established ... (continue)

Some paragraphs made me laugh a lot. Some others gave interesting insights on Holden's character and his personality. In some pages I found interesting food for thought. The subject is extremely interesting and I liked the story of this boy looking for a meaning in his life and rejecting established society. My problem with this book is the style. The next book I'll read had better not contain the words "phony", "corny", "flit". Also, I found a certain discrepancy between Holden's love for the school subject of English, reading and writing, and the "lousy" (there, another word I've had enough of) style of some pieces.
My note would actually be 3.5, but I feel that digesting the book will make it raise a little, so that's it, four stars.

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— Sep 29, 2012 | Add your feedback

- Alice adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (3833)
- By Lewis Carroll
- Finished on Sep 21, 2012
  
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Alice adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Alice in the sky with diamonds

Should I be sorry I didn't read it when I was a child? Maybe. I would have probably dived more in Wonderland and felt the awe for the bizarre characters and situations. Maybe not. I couldn't have read it in English and I wouldn't have appreciated what I think is at the same time the best part of the ... (continue)

Should I be sorry I didn't read it when I was a child? Maybe. I would have probably dived more in Wonderland and felt the awe for the bizarre characters and situations. Maybe not. I couldn't have read it in English and I wouldn't have appreciated what I think is at the same time the best part of the book: the return to childhood and the importance of keeping alive the child inside us.
This said, Carroll is a precursor of psychedelia. I would love to see the Cheshire Cat singing "Alice in the sky with diamonds".

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— Sep 25, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Lord of the Flies (1903)
- By William Golding
- Finished on Sep 17, 2012
  
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Lord of the Flies

How much better this book could have been! I appreciate the base idea of observing the battle between instinct and reason reproduced in a primordial society of stranded boys, but in my opinion the book is undermined by at least two flaws.
First of all, if Golding wanted to "model" human society and ... (continue)

How much better this book could have been! I appreciate the base idea of observing the battle between instinct and reason reproduced in a primordial society of stranded boys, but in my opinion the book is undermined by at least two flaws.
First of all, if Golding wanted to "model" human society and reduce it to its main driving forces he simply could not forget in such a relaxed way women, or, better, sexual instinct. I did not miss for one second a cheesy and obnoxious love story between teenagers, nor am I talking about introducing a "female touch". I am referring to pure sexuality. Why can't you put in the plot at least a girl or two gay boys without turning the subject of the book into feminism or LGBT?
The second objection involves probably implies a deficiency of mine... I enjoyed the symbolism of characters, objects and situations, but there was no need of sacrificing the fluency of style. I found certain pages quite heavy and sometimes I completely lacked the "urge" of reading on. I don't remember where I read about a parallel between Golding's "Lord of the flies" and Conrad's "Heart of darkness: I agree, in the sense that sometimes I had the same feeling of boredom and pointlessness I experienced (much more extensively) while reading "Heart of darkness".
Finally, although this is more of a personal idea rather than a real defect, my nature prevents me from sharing the final picture resulting from Golding's point of view, but I won't talk more about that or it will become a spoiler...

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— Sep 17, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Flatland (371)
- A Romance of Many Dimensions (Dover Thrift Editions)
- By Edwin A. Abbott
- Finished on Sep 6, 2012
  
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Flatland

Another proof, if needed, that maths make you think

I enjoyed it a lot, in spite of the somehow slow start. Besides being a nice short novel, it is a very interesting way of teaching elementary geometry. So much for the skin. What I found the best aspect of the book, it's the picture and the description of the rigid class system and the following dis ... (continue)

I enjoyed it a lot, in spite of the somehow slow start. Besides being a nice short novel, it is a very interesting way of teaching elementary geometry. So much for the skin. What I found the best aspect of the book, it's the picture and the description of the rigid class system and the following discriminations of that (only?) time.

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— Sep 7, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Martian Chronicles (261)
- By Ray Bradbury
- Finished on Sep 1, 2012
  
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The Martian Chronicles

2 people find this helpful
How a rocket can warm your heart and blow your mind

I'm not a big fan of "my favorite book" & Co., so I won't put this book in a definite position of the ranking of the best ones of 2012 (so far) or ever. Maybe I'm afraid some other books I love might get jealous. But one thing I can tell for sure is that I just read a masterpiece. This book is simpl ... (continue)

I'm not a big fan of "my favorite book" & Co., so I won't put this book in a definite position of the ranking of the best ones of 2012 (so far) or ever. Maybe I'm afraid some other books I love might get jealous. But one thing I can tell for sure is that I just read a masterpiece. This book is simply fantastic. There are too many reasons why I would suggest to everyone to read it, but I'll keep it as short as I can and tell only the first three that come to my mind at 1:37 am.
It's a book, maybe the book, that can convince all those out there who look at science fiction as a 2nd order genre that there are infinite universes beyond laser beams and space ships. Very few books have the depth and meaning of this one and even fewer among them have the power to make them jump out of the pages into the reader's mind. Some paragraphs struck me and forced me to read them twice not because they were hard to understand but because they were simply too beautiful to move on without enjoying them again.
Bradbury's style is a pleasure for mind and heart. The first page of the book is an example of delicate, strong, beautiful prose. I won't unveil anything about the content of it, but I'm sure that those people I mentioned a couple of lines before would never think that "this" can be described so elegantly.
If that's not enough for you, think about this: now it's 2:02 and instead of going to bed I feel the urge to write an enthusiastic review of a book I finished reading about ten hours ago and whom I'm not done thinking about.

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— Sep 2, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Slaughterhouse-Five (1069)
- Or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death.
- By Kurt Vonnegut
- Finished on Aug 24, 2012
  
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Slaughterhouse-Five

1 person find this helpful
It is as good as it is strange

This is a book I'm happy I read. Before opening it I didn't know what to expect, having a hard time imagining how the author would reconcile science fiction, war criticism and the bombing of Dresden in a "natural" and enjoyable manner. He did it.
I think that the value of the book (apart for the pl ... (continue)

This is a book I'm happy I read. Before opening it I didn't know what to expect, having a hard time imagining how the author would reconcile science fiction, war criticism and the bombing of Dresden in a "natural" and enjoyable manner. He did it.
I think that the value of the book (apart for the pleasure of reading it) is in the power of the message of absurdity of war associated, at the same time, with the awareness that war is hard (maybe impossible) to eliminate from man's thought and history. What I enjoyed the most was the human interpretation of the Trafalmadorian approach towards fate: there is no pessimism and, I think, no complete fatalism either. In fact, although free will is said to be man's illusion, what remains as Billy's motto (recurring in the book in different contexts) leaves room for hope.

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— Aug 24, 2012 | Add your feedback

- Heart of Darkness (1810)
- By Joseph Conrad
- Finished on Jul 20, 2012
  
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Heart of Darkness

I expected much more

I don't know... The description of the forest is undoubtedly fascinating. The thoughts of this white European willingly playing his role in colonialism reflect the spirit of the time. But I did not appreciate the vague and subtle racism creeping through some pages.
Furthermore, I found the writing s ... (continue)

I don't know... The description of the forest is undoubtedly fascinating. The thoughts of this white European willingly playing his role in colonialism reflect the spirit of the time. But I did not appreciate the vague and subtle racism creeping through some pages.
Furthermore, I found the writing style quite heavy and the figure of Mr. Kurtz, who should be the key of the story, more similar to a mess than to a mystery.

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— Jul 21, 2012 | 4 feedbacks
- On the Road (1948)
- By Jack Kerouac
- Finished on Jul 13, 2012
  
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On the Road

I expected a revolutionary masterpiece...

What I'm going to say hurts twice, since this is my wife's favorite book. The first star is for some beautiful pictures of country landscapes and city streets. The second one for what this book means in the history of literature.
The main themes I found in the book are the vague search for a vaguer ... (continue)

What I'm going to say hurts twice, since this is my wife's favorite book. The first star is for some beautiful pictures of country landscapes and city streets. The second one for what this book means in the history of literature.
The main themes I found in the book are the vague search for a vaguer it (meaning of life? religion?) and the description of life in the lower classes: this could have even been interesting, if it were not buried in a plot that is too dense and too empty at the same time. The most frequent comment coming up in my head while I was reading was "why the hell would you do that?". Dean Moriarty jumps to the top of my list of the most hated characters, with a strong lead in front of anyone else.
That said, I think this book must be read and I'm happy I did. I don't discard the possibility I took a wrong approach towards it while reading, after some boring pages. Dear Jack, I'll give you and your beat friends a second chance...

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— Jul 26, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (4385)
- By Oscar Wilde
- Finished on Mar 1, 2012
  
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The Picture of Dorian Gray

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it"

Criticism towards Victorian Age morality and English society of the period, meditations about the weight of the past and on the role of conscience: these are the main themes I found in this fascinating book. I read it right after "The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and I had the feeling th ... (continue)

Criticism towards Victorian Age morality and English society of the period, meditations about the weight of the past and on the role of conscience: these are the main themes I found in this fascinating book. I read it right after "The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and I had the feeling that while Stevenson was the typical 19th century British writer, Wilde offers more than one glimpse of 1900's.
The only downside that caused my four star note is the lack of pace of the middle chapters. In particular, I found most of chapter XI redundant and quite tedious.

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— Mar 1, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1993)
- (Dover Thrift Editions)
- By Robert Louis Stevenson
- Finished on Feb 17, 2012
  
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

You get to look for your own Mr. Hyde

Although everyone knows the story, so there is really no surprise in the plot itself, reading this short book is a very interesting experience. The suspense grows page after page, together with the interior conflict of every man.

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— Feb 23, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Hamlet (1498)
- (Dover Thrift Editions)
- By William Shakespeare
- Finished in Nov 2008
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