Last night right before going to sleep, as I was turning off my bedside lamp and I knocked over a water bottle and it spilled all over my bed. Since I didn't think sleeping in a damp bed would be enjoyable, I slid over and slept on the other side of my bed because I have a queen sized bed. I never sleep on this side of the bed and then this morning, I literally and figuratively woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I woke up to my alarm which signaled we had school today, and not another snow day, and it just put me in a bad mood. I was so convinced that the administration would call another snow day, but I was incorrect. Since I am in a bad mood, I've decided I'm not going to hide it and instead I will blog about it. First of all, I hate this book. After reading the first five pages, I was thought, ehh I'm not feeling this book. Then after the first chapter of reading and ever since I've decided that I hate the book. Granted we are only one third of the way through the book, but there is nothing in this book that I particularly like. Whenever I say I hate the book (which I've said on multiple occasions) Kelly keeps responding, "It's only the beginning. Give it a chance." She has a point, but I think I'll pass and continue hating the book. Another reason besides the content that this book is making me angry is the format. The book is fat and small. It is impossible to read the book without using two hands. And you have to practically lean on the book to free a hand to write in comments. Which brings me to my next point that there are no margins. Annotating and writing comments in the book is a bit difficult seeing as there is half a centimeter of space to write in. Also, the font is small. For those of us that are visually challenged, with this book, I have to put the book two inches away from my face to read it, which probably makes me look very odd. Also, the book is in block format. So if a word does not fit onto the line, a dash is used. So the line "he compliments the Negro cook on sun-nysiding the best eggs he ever age," takes me about a good extra 30 seconds to realize what the word is. Not kidding. I spend a good amount of time and effort sounding out the word- in my head and most likely out loud too until I figure out the word. So maybe I have bad taste in books, I do not know how to hold books and write at the same time, I have large and messy hand-writing that does not fit in margins of books, I have bad eye-sight, and I cannot read, but instead of blaming myself, I'm choosing to put all the blame on this book. I hope you enjoyed the angry side of me.
P.S. I miss Gogol and The Namesake.
I enjoyed this. I cannot read it very well either and the margins seem to cause me quite an issue as well. This book has a few problems with the "readability" aspect. I share your pain. However, so far I have no complaints with the story and I think that McMurphy acts quite humorously.
ReplyDeleteJillian, I completely agree! I really dislike this book. It is too confusing and weird. The margins are too small, and it is very hard for me to squeeze in my notes. This book can be interpreted in many different ways, which makes it very subjective. I miss Gogol. His story was so much more entertaining and relatable.
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ReplyDeleteI also very much enjoyed this, Jillian and Henry. I prefer "The Namesake" much more than this book, because I can relate more to the characters in that novel. In "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", I constantly have to wonder how credible the narrator, Chief Bromden is, because of his unstable mental state. It often bothers me how reading this book seems very similar to experiencing an acid trip, because the variability in syntax and ellipses utilized by Kesney cause me to feel very disoriented.
ReplyDeleteI know I already told you this when we talked about this in commons, but I feel the exact same way you do about this book. I can't say i'm particularly enjoying it. I find myself getting in arguments with almost everyone over our opinion about this book. As stupid as it seems, I really HATE how hard it is to read. I can never find a comfortable position in my bed to read, I almost have to read sitting up, and I have to use two hands. Gross. I feel like a lot of my anger towards this book also has to do with how much we are reading. I loved in The Namesake having nights when we only read a chapter. I miss that. Looking at the calendar, I see that we will not be having any night like that soon. I want Gogol back in my life :(
ReplyDeleteWhen we first got these books, I immediatly noticed how unusually tall they are and thought that I would take even longer to just read one page. Although I do not like this book as much as The Namesake, I feel the story is interesting. However, I find it annooying that it takes me so long to actually understand what is happening as Bromden's illness makes the story very confusing.
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