The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Okay, this was a book club's holiday pick for an uplifting story. They didn't like my pick from last year, David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice because it was "too dark." But, assuming my news is up to date, David Sedaris didn't die of cancer. Go figure.

It's not without it's charm, and there are some decent pieces of advice in here, but overall I would say it's aptly titled. Listening to it in audiobook format is kind of like taking a long car trip with your dad right after you did something dumb, like burning down a chicken coop or running with a screwdriver and falling on it and puncturing your lung. He sort of goes on and on about the right way to do things, dad-style. He makes a good point about him being a lecturer and therefore the lecture is his final act, but I would say that's why you should just watch the original lecture on Youtube. It's not as polished, but I think it's a closer representation of what he did. Plus, that way you don't have to read these awkward descriptions of physical things he did during the lecture.

The topic of his lecture being "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" was also a little unappealing to me, as that would mean I would either be currently testing water slides, which seems hazardous, or be a ninja turtle, which involves being exposed to mutagen ooze, which seems equally hazardous.

Something he left out of the lecture but mentions a bit in the book is his religious beliefs and ties. He doesn't lecture on them so much, but does mention what a great help the church can be in these tough times. He's probably right, the church and its ideas must be comforting when you're on your death bed. But he didn't mention them in the original lecture, and I think his instinct was right in that case. Anyone can talk about the church, and this was his opportunity to give a talk that no one else could give. No need to waste it talking about the most-debated topic of all time.

This book brings up the really interesting point of whether the circumstances surrounding a book change our feelings about it. Does this book get more gravitas because we know the guy was dying, and he did in fact die about a year after the lecture? Does a Charles Bukowski poem mean more because we know he lived every line? Does a Raymond Carver story change if we know which parts are drawn from real life and which parts are invented?

A writer talking about fiction said that people think writing is a way of confronting issues, when in fact it's often a way of avoiding confronting things head on. You can use style to work your way around your main issues, and if you came at them head-on you'd end up destroying yourself. I think there's a lot of truth to that. I don't think a lot of effective prose is written from a place where authors have the answers to their own personal issues.

That said, I don't know that the circumstances surrounding a particular work are all that important. Raymond Carver writes a lot about poor and middle class folks, which he was, but he was also very well-educated. Denis Johnson writes with an easy, very blue collar feel, but he holds an MFA from Iowa. I'm not by any means attacking them or their writing. Both are excellent writers. But what I'm saying is that I think that Carver growing up the way he did doesn't make his writing good, it just confirms what we suspect already.

James Frey, a personality I find myself talking about often, is another good one to discuss. People were disappointed by his lies or omissions or additions or whatever you want to call them. But truthfully, I think he wrote a couple excellent books, and the space separating the fiction and non-fiction shelves is so small that I could care less. But, as evidenced in his case, the circumstances surrounding a book DO matter to a lot of people.

I think that's the case with the Last Lecture as well. I honestly do not think it would be the freight train of the self-help-ish genre that it is if it weren't for the fact that we all know what a labor of love it was for Randy Pausch, his final act. As a part of the whole story, it works. But as something to read, it doesn't offer a whole lot, not a whole book's worth, of good, sound advice.

Three Books About Writing

Here smashed together are three books about writing.

There's probably some truth to the idea that books about writing are a waste of time because whenever you're reading a book about writing, you're not writing something. It's kind of like how for every book about management you own, you're probably 5% shittier at management. Because if you knew what you were doing, how many books would you have to read about it?

And I read these. So hopefully I've been successful at convincing you I know dick about writing, which is my main qualification for blogging.
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Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing

This book takes about three minutes to read through. Which is kind of what makes it work.

The book itself is kind of a handsome devil with a leather outer binding on the spine and thick, cardstock pages with illustrations on the inside. The back cover even suggests that it makes a great gift for readers and writers, which might b true. It might make a better gift than it does a read.

That said, the advice is all good stuff. Basic, but good. You certainly get a lot of stuff like, "Don't talk about the weather. Unless you're Barry Lopez." Leonard has a good set of rules, and without killing the point, mentions that the rules will be broken, citing specific respectable authors who break one or more of the rules with the regularity of a vegetarian drinking a 2-liter of Metamucil.

His main rule, and probably the best, is "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

Good gift. If you're curious about the rules, you could stand and read the whole thing in no time and then decide on it.
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The Secret Miracle, ed. Daniel Alarcon

This book has an interesting take on the classic How-to writing book.

There are a couple dozen authors interviewed, everyone from Stephen King and Amy Tan to Chris Abani.

The format of the book is a displayed question, followed by the short answers of several of the authors. So you might see, Do you listen to music while you write? followed by answers from a variety of different authors.

I can't say I read this one word-for-word, and I don't think it's meant to be used that way. If you read through, you can get a good profile of an author you like, and you also see the huge variety of answers provided, the overall message being, "Everyone does this differently, so you probably better just do what works for you." Not too helpful as advice goes, but a nice kickstarter for a writer who's feeling stuck or unsure of their process.

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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Of the three, this one is the least oriented towards writing. Murakami, a great novelist, spends a lot more time talking about his life as a distance runner, drawing some parallels between writing and running.

This feels like a niche book to me. It might be of interest to aging athletes who are wondering how getting older changes a person's relationship with his body, and it is likely of interest to runners who write. But other than those two and Murakami super-fans, I don't know how appealing it would be.

BUT, if you belong to one of those groups, give it a shot. It's a fast read, and in a lot of ways it really leans well towards Murakami's reflective, meditative style.

Oh, and anyone who translates the works of Raymond Carver and then asks Carver's widow about borrowing the title is okay by me.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

This is a book I read for a book club that I help out with at a local middle school.

I just felt that I should add that in because, being such an advocate of not finishing books that you don’t love, I thought I should explain why I finished a book that I didn’t love.
The story is pretty simple, a bunch of kids trapped in a giant maze for no apparent reason. It reads like a sort of cross between Lord of the Flies, Battle Royale, and the Hunger Games.

The thing to not like about this book is that all of the plot points come out way before they are executed.

For example, the main character wants to be a Maze Runner (not too important to explain, but they’re just the people in the maze with the coolest job). But instead of just becoming a maze runner, the first third of the book shows him doing other jobs, screwing around, and pining about how he should be a maze runner, how he somehow knows deep down that he’s meant to be a maze runner.

Alright, well just be a damn maze runner already. As a reader, I wasn’t absorbed with the story enough to ignore everything going on and flow with the story. Okay, the book is called the maze runner, the kid wants to be a maze runner, and all the excitement seems to be with the maze runners. Somehow, I think he’s going to be a maze runner, so get to it. It would be like titling a book, “Detective Wabash’s First Case” and then spending the first third of the book with a cop named Wabash who really wants to be a detective for no discernible reason, nor is there any reason for him not to be a detective, and only after some serious work does he become a detective and start in on the story.

I had a roommate who started watching the show 24, and after a couple seasons he did a pretty accurate impression of the show’s main flaw, which consisted of yelling, “No time to explain!” and then cutting to commercial. This book felt a little like that, like there was a lot of information you could feel the author purposely withholding. It felt more like the characters were engaging the author than the story, badgering until he finally gave in and gave them a revelation.

Also, it ends on a complete non-ending, setting you up for the second book. So again, knowing that before I finished, I wouldn’t have gone all the way through just to get to an unsatisfactory ending. Plus, the second book just came out a month ago, so god knows how long you would have to wait for the third, and alleged final, part of the series.

I'm a big fan of this type of book. I don't know what the genre is...survival fiction? But I would say skip this one in favor of:

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

The Crimson Labyrinth by Yusuki Kishi

and the movie Cube. You gotta love Cube.