Tag: Insanity

Books

Book 792: Hallucinating Foucault – Patricia Duncker

Geoff W

Book cover of "Hallucinating Foucault" with amazon affiliate linkI forgot how beautiful this novel is. That’s not surprising considering it’s been over a decade since I read it and I’m honestly not sure if this is my original copy or if I picked up a new one in the past few years. [Can now confirm this is my original – I brought it to Boston in December 2012.]

I remember when I first read this. I had spent a semester studying the history of sexuality in America and we read many passages from Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality and I was obsessed. Between it and the other readings we read that term, a whole new world around sexuality, gender identity, and philosophy had opened up to me. So, more than likely I typed Foucault into Amazon and this came up and I purchased it.

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Books

Book 184: The Madman’s Daughter (The Madman’s Daughter #1)- Megan Shepherd

Geoff W

Shepherd, Megan - The Madman's DaughterA friend from UNC (Go Heels! – it’s a gut reaction :-D), Hi Lizzie!, recommended The Madman’s Daughter as the author is a family friend (or something along those lines) and I’m glad she recommended it! It was a fast paced and engaging read and although it wasn’t perfect, it was an amazing debut novel and I can’t wait to see where her writing takes her in the future.

It has been a very long time, over 10 years if not closer to 15, since I went through my H.G. Wells obsession and read everything he wrote and from what I remember this mirrors The Island of Doctor Moreau pretty closely. I think at some point in the next few years I will go back and read Wells work again as I really enjoyed The Time Machine and The Invisible Man.

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2013 Challenges, Books

Book 180: Mickelsson’s Ghosts – John Gardner

Geoff W

Gardner, John - Mickelsson's GhostsThis book is definitely a reader’s book, or maybe a writer’s book? I’m never really sure what the difference is, but either way it’s a tome that really pushes you to focus on what you’re reading as there are quite a few heavy philosophical arguments and references within the novel, and it pushes you to question what is and isn’t real with the protagonist acknowledging that he’s had previous stints in a mental institution and the varying ‘ghosts’ to which the title refers.

I bought this book in 2011 at the Boston Book Festival and it’s just sat on my shelf since. I’m glad I read it, but at the same time I’m not sure why I bought it at the time as I’m terrified of ghost stories, but you’ll have to read on to find out how this one affected me. Since it’s been on my shelf for almost two years it counts for my Mount TBR ‘extra’ challenge. It took nearly two weeks to read and that’s from the denseness of the book. seriously, scroll down and read the first line—it’s a PARAGRAPH—or any of the quotes for that matter!

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Books

Book 54: The Professor and the Madman – Simon Winchester

Geoff W

The Professor and the Madman - Simon WinchesterThe complete title of this work is The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary and it fully lives up to this title. It is the history of Professor James Murray (the Professor) and Dr. W.C. Minor (the Madman) and their serendipitously linked lives through one of the greatest feats of the English-speaking world.

It’s a fascinating combination of historical novel about the Oxford English Dictionary and Biography of its longest editors (Murray) and greatest contributors (Minor). If there’s one major critique I have is that it often felt like the author purposefully used a ridiculous synonyms when a simple word would suffice. However, with his obsession for lexicography and the OED in particular, it’s not too surprising.

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