Reading Again
I had not read a single book for my own enjoyment since 2018. Five years ago. As a kid I was a bookworm, devouring multiple books a week, re-reading book series again and again. I really enjoyed reading and it was my escape from the real world. Back in my days (imitating a disgruntled old man) I had no computer, no console and no cable TV. As I grew older, I had access to video games and youtube, however I kept reading, albeit a bit less arduously. As I grew even older, I started having mandated readings in french class that were absolutely atrocious. We were forced to read antiquated theatre pieces, books in old french, and indigestible garbage from the 1800s that are considered “classics”. This, coupled with the fact that I had access to other forms of entertainment, really took its toll on my willingness to read for my own enjoyment. The nail in the coffin was when I reached university and had to read math and physics textbooks and papers. Mix together very high-level science material, english from the late 1900s, and abysmal writing and you get your average physics paper/textbook. From that point on, my vision of reading had completely shifted from a fun activity to something unbearable but unfortunately necessary to acquire knowledge. The only non-mandated books/texts I read from this point on were purely for practical purposes; language textbooks, bass textbooks, reviews of future purchases... Those were for the most part also not enjoyable to read as the act of reading was not their primary purpose, but the conveyance of knowledge. In the year of our Lord 2023, I joined the Printhouse, and apart from being emboldened by everyone's passion for reading, I also wrote my first article here, which made me realize two things. First, even if writing had taken the same path in my mind as reading, I found it fun now. Second, my writing was shit and it took me more than a whole month to produce a passable first article. Since my goal was to write an article or more a month, I had to improve. The most obvious way of improving my writing was to write more, read good writing and try to emulate it. So I started reading again.
I did not want to go down the same path that had led me to give up on reading; I was going to KISS (Keep It Simple Shithead Silly). At first, I was going to choose small books that I had read before and that I remembered liking. I was going to keep it low-pressure by not setting deadlines for myself. I also was going to keep it easy by starting with books in my maternal language, french. Lastly, since I really can't focus on reading ebooks, I was going to stick to paper format. But I'm also filthy poor; books I already had in my possession had to fit the bill. Fortunately, since I stopped reading right during the time I was partially still living in France, the only books I have here in Canada are the ones that fit the bill. I started with a sci-fi classic that I remembered really enjoying: Roadside Picnic (aka Stalker).
Roadside Picnic
One other reason I chose this book first is that I played the first two STALKER games back last December. The games are very loosely based on the concept first introduced in Roadside Picnic. In any case, I was going to start with that novel, written by the Strougatski brothers. Before bed, I opened it up, skipped the preface and got directly to the meat of the book. Here is a very brief synopsis: Aliens have suddenly landed on Earth and left as promptly as they arrived. On their landing sites, things start to act strange: laws of physics don't seem to hold up, and enigmatic artifacts with various reality-defying properties are also left. The book begins years after, in a town where the aliens briefly stopped. Their landing area here is called the Zone. Military and science complexes have been created there to study the Zone and send in expeditions to retrieve artifacts and conduct experiments. They are not the only ones going into the Zone, Stalkers sneak into the Zone to illegally retrieve the artifacts and sell them to the highest bidder. Here we follow the life of Redrick Souhart, a Stalker. It only took me about three reading sessions to finish it, each one being about 30-45min; it is a pretty short book. I really enjoyed it and found it an easy read, especially for an older sci-fi classic. Nothing seems lost in translation in the french version; the original is in russian. I wouldn't call the writing style traditional or basic, it is very far from that, but it was still very engaging in my opinion. A couple of things that could confuse the reader, like the jumps in time and change of POV were handled fairly well, even if what happened in those time jumps is for you to fill in. The style is very authentic and honest, if that makes sense. The book is composed only of snippets of Redrick's life at a point in time; when the next chapter starts, a few years usually have gone by. All chapters but one are through Redrick's POV, which might make it a bit strange, but I think it was necessary for world-building. If that information had been there in his POV, it would have been hard to reconcile it with the character. My favorite part of the book comes during that change of POV, when we follow Richard Nounane and listen in on his conversation with an eminent physicist. It is refreshingly human instead of trying to be science-y. On the content of the novel, as said before the premise is truly original and the way we see it through Redrick's eyes is really interesting and keeps the whole mystery of the Zone intact. The dangers of the Zone are not explained fully, but it is implicit that the Zone is not the antagonist in the novel, it just exists. There is no antagonist in the story, the stalkers are on one side, the military on another, and the scientist and industrial in the middle. None of them have a clear moral high ground, and there is no one to root for. All the characters are extremely flawed and feel very human, which I really liked. The relations between the people are interesting there although they are not always super fleshed out. To come back to the Zone, the passages about it are tense and even if they are always really short, you can feel the excruciatingly slow pace of each expedition through the page. The Zone itself is surrounded by mystery and none of it gets explained, and the way it is described, extremely vaguely, reinforces that. Overall, I would recommend it, especially if you like SF.
Planet of the Apes
Monke. Continuing on my sci-fi binge, I decided to pick up the french classic “La planète des singes” (Planet of the Apes) from Pierre Boulle. I also read this one in french, since it is its original language; there would be no translation approximations here. The story goes as follows: Professor Antelle has designed a ship capable of interstellar travel, and wishes to explore the cosmos. He assembles a crew comprised of himself, Ulysse Merou and Arthur Levain, our protagonist, and they set out to the Betelgeuse star system, on a three-century-long journey in Earth time, but only two years for them (because light-speed, special relativity, time dilations and such). The journey goes without trouble and they even find a habitable planet in that star system, which they investigate. Air is breathable there, there is flora and fauna similar to Earth, and before landing they see cities! Stepping out of the ship, they meet their first humans; although they don't look primitive, they are in their birthing suits and it doesn't seem like they can speak at all. They have no time to ponder on their discovery; they are being hunted, alongside those humans, by apes. This was also a very enjoyable reading. It is also very short, I devoured it in two nights, and it's an easy read, contrary to some SF novels, even easier than Roadside Picnic. The book is divided into two parts, the first half has almost no dialogue but is yet not filled to the brim with descriptions, which I am grateful for. It is very fast-paced and there is a couple of time jumps even during events that one could have been curious about. This however doesn't take away anything from the story, which I found very consistent and coherent. Without revealing too much, I found it interesting to see humans through the eyes of a simian society, and how they flipped the script on human/apes relations, even if sometimes a bit overt, it is done well. There is an overarching mystery that develops pretty naturally, except for one part which I think the author put there for additional background; in my eyes, it could have been omitted. It also solely relies on the concept of genetic memory which has been completely disproven. Another little thing, this is a story within a story type of thing (some people found a manuscript with the main story), and there is a second end plot twist. This could also have been omitted. Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend it.
Dragon teeth
This book, and the little investigation it lead me to will get its own post.
La Passe-Mirroir: Les fiancés de l' hiver & Les Disparus du Clairedelune
Ophélie is a regular young lady in this fantastique world, whose whole routine is about to change; she is getting married to a stranger from another floating island. Upon meeting, this stranger does nothing to gain her heart, quite the contrary, almost as if he is also a victim of that forced marriage. But they have no say in it, it is a deal between the Family Spirits, immortal being that preside over the affairs of their respective floating Arches. The Arch of her future husband is very different from her own, there, the society is organized in a court which head is the Family Spirit. It is a cutthroat world where no blow is low enough to ascertain the power of your family or gain the favors of the Family Spirit. Her presence at the court has to be kept secret; many are the people that would rather see her or her husband dead, than married. Put that shit straight into my veins. It took me only two and a half days to completely annihilate those two books, which are both over 550 pages each. I was completely entranced and every waking moment I had during those two days would be spent longing for a time I could continue my reading. Those are the first two books in a series of four, and if I had the other two on hand, I would have read them too right this second. As you can tell from the title of the books, I've read them in french, but the author (Christelle Dabos) is also french and her writing style is amazing, despite this being her first book. She carefully balances action, descriptions, internal monologue and dialogue in a way that flows so well under the eyes. Content-wise, everything is also great, the characters are great; the hero, Ophélie, is great at her job, smart but has some obvious weaknesses that she will have to overcome, and some emotional growth to do. We love to see a balanced character and not an OP mess. It is interesting to discover the characters through Ophélie; they are at first depicted in a one-dimensional almost caricatural manner, but as she gets to know them, much more nuance is introduced. The dynamics between the character are also similar to that, and go through plenty of development. My favorite one is between Ophélie and her future husband (what can I say I'm a romantic), which is full of twists, turns, and questioning. The setting is really original and described in great detail without being excessive. Seeing it and the world being discovered by the hero at the same time as us really makes it digestible. I can not recommend this series enough, although I can not yet gauge the quality of the english version. Seriously, if you must only read one thing from the books presented in this article, it's those ones. I would recommend reading both at once, treating them as the same book, as they only form a satisfactory story together. Much of the character development (for most characters) only comes together in the second book. Also, don't go on Goodreads; I don't know what book they read but one of the most popular reviews, which is extremely incendiary, is completely ridden with inaccuracies and cherry-picking.
I was not expecting to be able to go back into reading that easily; from struggling to read an entire paragraph to devouring a book in a couple of nights. It is a big relief for me, who thought I had become iliterate (yliterate?,hilliterate?); who thought he couldn't read anymore. The trick was to just keep it light and fun, only read things that I wanted to read, wouldn't provoke any thought or teach me anything. This fooled my brain into being able to focus on reading more than a sentence at a time. This activity is now an integral part of my day, away from screens and constant stimuli. The only thing I wasn't able to change is my inability to focus on reading anything on a support other than paper. But I still have a bunch of books in my library, here in Canada, to read, so that's not an issue. I actually had a specific order of books to read and talk to you about, but the third book I read, “Dragon Teeth” by Michael Crichton derailed my plan. Not only was it not what I remembered, but my adult mind could also see something that my 18-year-old self couldn't: it's not that good. This is from the guy who wrote Jurassic Park, which alongside some of his other work, has raving reviews; what could've happened? Stay tuned...
Thank you for reading my logorrhea, Eddie