I have major issues with staying with books to the end, even if I’m totally consumed in the plot. So I’ve again started a new book Hatchet, which I have actually read once before in GT. The reason I chose to read it again was that I remember enjoying it then, so why not read it again and see if I can’t pick up suttle jokes aimed for adults, or simply something I just missed the first read around.
Almost forgot.
In the end of the book there is a mysterious character that was that to be the source of all evil that does something truly unbelievable, and it really grabs your attention. When I was reading the last few chapters its like your reading the whole book over again, and I’m sorry if I’m explaining it poorly, but it was an experience worth remembering.
p.s. lemme know if you know what I’m talking about.
Its just like that.
Life is just flippin’ messed up sometimes. It is the same with books. As going bovine came to a close I realized how creative the author was in executing the book. She made you think you knew the end of the book, but in a way you knew you were wrong, and in the end you really did know exactly what was going to happen. I can’t reveal how the book ends, but its a sad, interesting, perverted, and trippy (so to say) ending that really ties the whole book up nicely.
The Garden Viking.
Balder the fierce, immortal, garden gnome viking, is my favorite character of going bovine by far. He is introduced right after Cameron (the main character) escapes from the hospital with his midget bro, Gonzo. Anyway Balder comes in the story after Cameron meets a girl outside of the motel he is staying at, and she ends up getting him really baked, and he ends up at a party. There he meets Balder in a rather interesting way. After wandering around the party he goes out onto the lawn and trips over a garden gnome, and after setting him up again talks to him. Cameron thinks its just because the weed he smoked must have been really good, but after they talk some more Balder emerges as a legitment talking garden gnome named Balder son of Odin, brother of Höðr, friend to all. His mission is to relieve himself of a curse set by Loki, the trickmaster, by finding his ship Ringhorn, but he can only achieve his goal with Cameron. Balder goes on many adventures with Cameron and the Gonz, showing off his immortality getting, but the appex of his awesomeness is tested when he is stolen by some people that hitchiked with some drunk partiers, and then after that his immortality is tested in the final battle.
In the act of being lazy, I am now deamed a “Bovine Fool”.
When I left English class to go search for a book in the library (because if I didn’t I would be in trouble), I came across a book that just by its appearance captured my eye, it was going bovine, by Libba Bray. Eh, they always say never to judge a book by its cover (and by the way the cover of the book is a brownish-tan cow holding a garden gnome.), but my true intention was to get a book and then ditch it a day later. The universe has strange ways of working, so when I got back to class something compelled me to ACTUALLY READ THAT BOOK (and it was a grade, but that just seems less dramatic…). Anyway after starting to read this book I began to really feel interested in what might happen next, because I had no idea WHAT the book was about, I couldn’t read the back because of that darn checkout sticker blocking my line-of-sight. The book started off with a kid named Cameron, who is a sixteen year old social outcast. Any way it turns out this pot smokin’ outcast of a kid has mad cow disease, which causes him to hallucinate on a regular basis. He found out he had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after having a hallucinating fit in which he screamed obscenities at the teacher, thought he was being closed in by fire, and punching a hardcore, christian, former high school football star (former because he crushed some vertebrae in his neck). I thought to myself after reading that segment how awesome it would have been to witness this event, and how crappy it would be to have been Cameron.
p.s. this blog was posted at 7:41 est time on Feb 12, 2010 (the time zones where jacked on the blog).
Dare I choose to write about a predetermined (technically optional) topic?
I was truly itching to write, or blog rather, about Cameron, the protagonist in going bovine. Cameron is a relatively tall, gangly, sixteen year old social outcast, who listens to crappy music for laughs and smokes weed. Oh, yeah, and he has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (a.k.a. mad cow disease.). His ailment causes prions to eat holes in his brain which in turn causes him to hallucinate insane things. Absolutely crazy. Although Cameron has a pretty interesting scope on things that almost annoys me in a good way, you know when you just wanna scream at the book and go “aww c’mon man what are you doing!” That happens a lot. Anyway even though I can’t really relate to him all that much I love to read what he is going to do next, and hopefully, maybe, possibly, with the slightest glimmer of hope, he will do something that will really blow my mind.
Some good things don’t die.
I have to go back to Whale Talk momentarily because I was reading other blogs, and even got a deeper insight into myself (wow did that sound homo). Anyway, the book constantly takes MASSIVE turns, and I think that’s what makes the book so darn compelling. During chapter five is a prime example it’s almost as if the book is somewhat bipolar in a way, and I wonder if that directly correlates to Chris Crutcher, or one of his acquaintances. Whale Talk I think just really grabbed your attention and didn’t let go for better or worse, and I thought it was tantalizing for my brain cells.
‘Notha book
The book Dragon and Thief has remained untouched on my bookshelf for quite a while and it looks rather interesting, so today I picked it up to find an interesting start. Although by interesting I mean I’m giving the books introduction the prized WTF moment. Ahh, the WTF moment is given to those times when you read a section of a book and just think to yourself what in the heck did I just read. Well man did I ask myself that. I just couldn’t get the imagery in my head and it was somewhat of a nuisance. Anyway I’m giving the book a shot.
Depression…
I finished Whale Talk, and now I am depressed. Not only from the surprise ending it throws at you, but also because now that it’s done I don’t know what book I will be able to pick up next that will be able to compete with it. It makes me fairly depressed. Although there is a sense of accomplishment as I finish, I hope that people will decide to read this book.
Farewell for now Crutcher I have other books to read.
Crutcher captivates me through his artistic abilities.
Chris Crutcher continues to amaze me. As I approach the last 50 or so pages of this book, it has gotten progressively more serious and closer to home. It’s a new concept to me, I have never in all my days sat down like I did today and just read a book with such concentration. Of course that doesn’t mean I have never just sat down and read a book, but this book I never once looked up to see what was going on in the world around me. I was in the mind of Chris Crutcher, or T.J. rather. I am reading as I write this post.
