The Bell Jar/Things Fall Apart/The Pleasure of my Company

First off, I did these out of order. Second, I am really cutting back on the reading. When I made the list I wasn't planning on doing any writing this summer. Then a few days ago I got an idea in my head that I just had to go with. And the reason for the out of orderedness is I made a trip up to Santa Fe, and I figured since I wasn't reading I could use the whole time in the car to listen to some of these books on tape. Cheating? I don't know. Really doesn't seem to be in the spirit of 10,000 Pages of Summer, but who cares.

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 244


Wow, this one took a depressing turn! Started out all normal, and I was really wondering if there was a point or plot at all, and then WOW. I did feel the ending was too abrupt, and my worse fear was realized when the name was not referring to a jar full of bells, but the scientific apparatus, and metaphorically at that!


Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 209

I have never seen a humorist more committed to a joke in my like that Achebe in Things Fall Apart. So, he started with the whole "I'm writing a serious novel that focuses on life in Nigeria in the late 19th Century, and it's going to describe the hardships in life and the effect on Christian missionaries coming in..." And let me tell you, this setup took a long time. A REALLY long time. He was committed, and then, almost at the end, he gave us the punchline. A guy who instead of saying "myself" or "yourself" he said "my buttocks" and "your buttocks." I tell ya, when he said "Your buttocks said he had a son," I lost it. Long setup, but awesome delivery.

The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 163


Loved it. For some reason, neurotics whose obsessions are so prominent that they can't carry out their normal lives are my favorite characters. And I realize that sounds sarcastic, but I really am being serious. It was short, quirky, funny, (not "Your buttocks said he had a son" funny, but still pretty funny.  I think it would translate very well into a movie, and I am very disappointed it is not one.

3,928 pages in 37 days (because I finished them yesterday) for an average of 106.16.


1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett; 256 
2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville; 870
3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule; 1,542 
4. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 1,773
5. Duma Key - Stephen King; 2,384
6. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 2,608 
7. Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 2,774
8. Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 3,009
9. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 3,312
10. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 4,080 
11. The Taking - Dean Koontz; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025 
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot; 5,761
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison;6,036
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 6,228
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle; 6,368
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 6,612
19. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
20. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
21. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
22. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
23. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
24. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
25. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200 
26. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
27. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847
28. The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour; 10,000

Dexter in the Dark

Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 303


Next time I make the list, I need to shuffle it up before finalizing. Three murder mysteries in a row is kind of much, especially coming this soon after the Ted Bundy book.


This one wasn't bad however. It really felt like the Showtime series. At least the characters of Deborah, Dexter and Rita did. The relationship Dexter had with Rita's kids was definitely different, and kind of his relationship with Deborah was too, because it seemed she new more of his true nature than she does on TV. It probably means that I need to read the first two books in the series to see how this developed. But not this summer. After reading the book I pulled up a couple of plot summaries to make sure I didn't miss anything major, and I saw where it said this was the first Dexter book not entirely in first person Dexter point of view, as it also included sections from the point of view of The Watcher and IT. To tell you the truth, those were the sections I could have done without. And also this book was too much in Dexter's head for my tastes. I would rather the characters be doing things than one character thinking about things and me having to read his thoughts. Even though this one had a better story and better characters, I still tend more to liking Kinky's writing style more because it was straight forward plot driven, and no internal monologs.


3,312 pages in 29 days for an average of 114.20. 


1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett; 256 
2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville; 870
3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule; 1,542 
4. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 1,773
5. Duma Key - Stephen King; 2,384
6. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 2,608 
7. Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 2,774
8. Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 3,009
9. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 3,312
10. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 4,080 
11. The Taking - Dean Koontz; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025 
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot; 5,761
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison;6,036
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 6,228
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle; 6,368
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 6,612
19. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
20. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
21. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
22. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
23. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
24. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
25. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200 
26. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
27. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847
28. The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour; 10,000

Murder in the White House

Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 235
After the first couple of pages I was coming up with one line reviews to cover this whole book;
"You know those conversations you hear old people having and can't believe anyone in the world would find them interesting, this book was just a boring old person conversation." and "This book would have never been published if she were not a president's daughter." &t.
But, it got better. The dialog was really good and kept the story going. The details and plot action, eh, not so much, but it was a good quick read. I really have no complaints. Well, except for the first two or three pages. Those were pretty awful. And the fact that the chapters were so long. Two were over 40 pages, and one was over 60. Ok, so I have two complaints. Three if you count how boring the stuff that wasn't dialog was. 


3,009 pages in 26 days for an average of 115.73. 


1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett; 256 
2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville; 870
3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule; 1,542 
4. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 1,773
5. Duma Key - Stephen King; 2,384
6. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 2,608 
7. Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 2,774
8. Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 3,009
9. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 3,312
10. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 4,080 
11. The Taking - Dean Koontz; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025 
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot; 5,761
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison;6,036
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 6,228
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle; 6,368
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 6,612
19. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
20. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
21. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
22. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
23. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
24. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
25. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200 
26. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
27. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847
28. The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour; 10,000

Greenwich Killing Time

Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 166


I liked this book a lot. Kinky does something in his books that I find really awesome. He takes himself, and then makes himself the main character of a the novel, but completely fictionalized. Which honestly I think is what most people do, they just change the character's name, which takes away the awesomeness. Instead of saying "I like detectives I will right a story about one name 'blah, blah, blah," it is like he said,"I would make an awesome detective, and this is what I'd do." The only other book I have read by him is Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch, and that one involved three plots with Kinky trying to solve them all, whereas this one only had one plot. Now, I am trying to figure out what that means. Normally, I would guess it is assumed as someone becomes a better writer, they can integrate more plots and twist into the story and give it more depth, but I think at least with this style, that writing a full length novel around one story line is going to take more work and creativity. I don't know. If I ever see Kinky again I may just ask him. (That last part was intended as a joke, but thinking about it, I guess it isn't out of the question that I will see him again. I mean, just hanging out at the right cigar stores in Texas should really boost my chances.) Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch, had a little bit more crassness in it, and a little bit more of Kinky's personal life in it, which I think comes with him just being more comfortable putting himself into the novel, but I give this one an A+, and I decided while reading it, there really is no way that I can say what my favorite book of the summer is at the end, because every time I have been reading a book (except for Alda's) I have been thinking "This is the best book yet!" so me judging wouldn't really work. I can say that I liked it more than Duma Key, which is currently in 3rd with Flow My Tears and this one tied for first.


And here I am with Kinky a couple of years ago.

2,774 pages in 26 days for an average of 106.69. (About 1 page per day behind schedule.)


1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett; 256 
2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville; 870
3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule; 1,542 
4. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 1,773
5. Duma Key - Stephen King; 2,384
6. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 2,608 
7. Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 2,774
8. Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 3,009
9. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 3,312
10. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 4,080 
11. The Taking - Dean Koontz; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025 
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot; 5,761
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison;6,036
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 6,228
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle; 6,368
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 6,612
19. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
20. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
21. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
22. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
23. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
24. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
25. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200 
26. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
27. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847
28. The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour; 10,000

Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself

Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 611 pages


I did not like this book. At all. It wasn't all commencement speeches, but there sure were a lot of them. It has been over 5 years since I read Alda's other memoir, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, but I do remember really liking that book. This one just seems like the leftover. The stories that weren't good enough to get into the last book, speeches to make the book longer, and anecdotes to make the speeches seem to fit into the story.



2,608 pages in 21 days for an average of 124.19.


1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett; 256 
2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville; 870
3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule; 1,542 
4. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 1,773
5. Duma Key - Stephen King; 2,384
6. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 2,608 
7. Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 2,774
8. Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 3,009
9. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 3,312
10. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 4,080 
11. The Taking - Dean Koontz; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025 
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot; 5,761
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison;6,036
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 6,228
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle; 6,368
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 6,612
19. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
20. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
21. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
22. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
23. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
24. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
25. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200 
26. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
27. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847
28. The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour; 10,000

Duma Key

Duma Key - Stephen King; 611 pages

First off, it took me more days to read this book than I expected it to take me to read any of the books. I was on pace to finish it on Saturday, but I had a conference to go to in Louisiana Sunday, and that mucked up Saturday. Then, you know what, the time spent in Louisiana was better spent not reading. However, I did get a couple hours reading time on the airplane, and now that I am back, I finished this book up.

I have to say the first 400 pages or so, I was enjoying the heck out of it. But as it drug along, I was really just wanting it to be over. Really, it reminded me of a Goosebumps book for adults, and that aspect isn't really a criticism; I enjoyed it. But after the first 400 pages, I was really ready for the action, and though the last 200 pages were action packed, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I enjoyed the set up. Up until the end, I was thinking this might beat out Flow My Tears as the new lead in best book of the summer, but Flow My Tears still stands in a steady, uncontested first place.

2,384 pages in 20 days for an average of 119.2.


1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett; 256 
2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville; 870
3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule; 1,542 
4. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 1,773
5. Duma Key - Stephen King; 2,384
6. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 2,608 
7. Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 2,774
8. Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 3,009
9. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 3,312
10. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 4,080 
11. The Taking - Dean Koontz; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025 
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot; 5,761
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison;6,036
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 6,228
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle; 6,368
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 6,612
19. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
20. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
21. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
22. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
23. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
24. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
25. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200 
26. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
27. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847
28. The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour; 10,000

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 231 pgs


So far, this definitely has to be my favorite book of the summer, which I guess is somewhat surprising to me, because so far it is the only book on the list by an author I haven't read before, and the only book I started without any expectations for at all. The main thing I liked about Dick's writing style is he pretty much only wrote exactly what was needed in the book to prolong the plot. That is a huge deal to me while reading. It is the reason I loathe anything I have ever read by J.R.R. Tolkien, because his books are just filled with useless nonsense, wasteful descriptions, and he rarely, if ever gets to the point (now, this opinion may seem to be in contrast to the glowing review I gave of Moby Dick, but the purpose of that book was to give the reader the experience of being a whaler, and to do that, the reader needed extensive knowledge of whaling.)


At the beginning of the story there were terms and concepts I didn't understand at all, (sixes, etc.) and I was worried that I needed to be familiar with Dick's earlier works to understand what was going on, but in due time in the book, all of my questions were answered, and I finished the book happy and satisfied. 


1,773 pages in 13 days for an average of 136.38.


1. Swine Not? - Jimmy Buffett; 256 
2. Moby Dick; or The Whale - Herman Melville; 870
3. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule; 1,542 
4. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick; 1,773
5. Duma Key - Stephen King; 2,384
6. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - Alan Alda; 2,608 
7. Greenwich Killing Time - Kinky Friedman; 2,774
8. Murder in the White House - Margaret Truman; 3,009
9. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay; 3,312
10. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky; 4,080 
11. The Taking - Dean Koontz; 4,544
12. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe; 4,753
13. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris; 5,025 
14. Middlemarch - George Eliot; 5,761
15. Beloved - Toni Morrison;6,036
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne; 6,228
17. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Howard Pyle; 6,368
18. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath; 6,612
19. Gadsby - Ernest Vincent Wright; 6,768
20. Pulp Fiction Selections - L. Ron Hubbard; 7,456
21. The Final Testament of the Holy Bible - James Frey; 7,856
22. Chili Dawgs Always Bark At Night -Lewis Grizzard; 8,125
23. The Greek - Pierre Rey; 8,573
24. The Pleasure of my Company - Steve Martin; 8,736
25. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins; 9,200 
26. Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs; 9,504
27. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote; 9,847
28. The Daybreakers - Louis L'Amour; 10,000