Fans of Ferris’s first novel will certainly find this novel to be very different. While Then We Came To The End was a workplace satire, The Unnamed is dark, as it deals with the mysterious affliction of a lawyer named Tim Farnsworth. Tim suffers from an unexplainable condition tha causes him to get up and walk… and just keep going and going until he collapses in exhaustion. This problem has doctors baffled, and causes incredible strain on his family and career.

Ferris effectively captures the struggle of the main character, who not only struggles with symptoms of the disease but with the lack of a diagnosis or explanation. Tim is not much different from Captain Ahab, in Moby Dick, obsessed with catching the white whale, or Dr. Frankenstein who obsesses over killing the monster he created.  The disease is slowley destroying the comfortable life he worked hard for. and that struggle certainly leaves the reader as anxious for the answer as Tim Farnsworth is. In that sense, the book is a hard one to get through in the same way that such classics as Moby Dick and Frankenstein were hard to get through.

Fans of Ferris certainly should not be expecting the same kind of dark comedy they got from Then We Came To The End, Though different, The Unnamed still has the mark of Ferris which should be recogzinable to those familiar with his work.

The Unnamed is an enjoyable read, perhaps not as fun as his first novel, but worth reading whether you are a fan of Ferris or haven’t read him yet.

THE UNNAMED, Joshua Ferris – I read Ferris’s debut novel THEN WE CAME TO THE END a couple years ago and enjoyed it, and have been looking forward to reading his second, which comes out in January 2010.

THE FINANCIAL LIVES OP POETS, Jess Walter - This book is highly recommended by Nick Hornby, my favorite author, and I actually purchased it before learning about that because I was

EMPIRE FALLS, Richard Russo - My boss recommended this book, and I bought it.

PLAN B, jonathan Tropper - Last year I read three of Tropper’s novels, and have two more. This one is his debut novel (the first one I read was his new one, THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU) which I started, but didn’t finish. After this one is done, I move onto EVERYTHING CHANGES.

HOW WE ARE HUNGRY, Dave Eggers - I’ve been looking to read Dave Eggers for a while, and figure this collection of short fiction is a god place to start.

IT FEELS SO GOOD WHEN I STOP,  Joe Pernice - Another book with high marks from Nick Hornby. I plan to get a copy at some point this year and read it.

There are other books on my shelf I hope to read this year as well, but the aforementioned books are higher priority reads. Of course, there are bound to be new releases that I am not aware of that I’ll want to read and give high priority to, but for now, this is my short list of must reads for 2010… in actuality, I’ll read more.

Not on the list is James Patterson, whose novels used to be absolute must-reads, but have now became When-I-Can-Get-To-Them books. Once a devoted fan of his Alex Cross series, I’ve felt his recent books of that series to be lazy and less developed as the early books of the series. The Maximum Ride series started off great, but after the second one, they took a horrible turn for the worst. A new book of the Alex Cross series (which i haven’t read yet) came out last year and a new one of  the Women’s Murder Club series coming out this year, so I’ll probably take a chance on them.

According to the rules of this exercise,

Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what books my friends choose.

(To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note – upper right hand side).

In no particular order…

1. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
2. A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
3. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
4. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
5. High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby
6. Planet of the Apes, by Pierre Boulle
7. Visions of the Anointed, by Thomas Sowell
8. 1984, by George Orwell
9. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
11. Slam. by Nick Hornby
12. The Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick
13. Kiss The Girls, by James Patterson
14. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
15. Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen

To be honest, I don’t entirely understand what a book that “will always stick with you” means… Is it a book that if you grab if you ran out of your burning house? Is it a book that just left an impression on you? Whatever it means, I did the best I could to come up with books that “stick with me.” though I imagine there are some that may not always appear on this list if I was asked to do this exercise on a different occasion. Kiss The Girls by James Patterson for instance, may not be my favorite of his novels, but it was the first one I read, and began many years of reading and collecting his books. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley may not be a favorite book either, mut boy did it leave an impression on me.

I found the plot to be intriguing, and thus decided to take chance on starting with Tropper’s newest, rather than going chronologically. I must say that not only did I find the book enjoyable, but I have since got audiobooks of two other Tropper novels (The Book of Joe, and How to Talk To A Widower) which I vill listen to while I am flying to and from Hawaii for my honeymoon in two weeks. If all goes well (and I have every reason to believe it will) I will read his other two novels when I return.

I am not too worried. I believe Jonathan Tropper will be another author permanently on my radar.

It was ironic to read a book about superfandom, considering my enthusiasm for Hornby’s writing — which some might perceive as superfandom, though by no means to the degree of the character Duncan in the novel, who gets an advance copy of a yet to be released album of solo acoustic demos of a reclusive 80’s rock star’s last & most famous album. I, unable (or unwilling) to wait until the end of September for the book to be published, got my hands on an advance readers copy (ARC) and read the book in one evening. I rather impressive feat for me. The last book I read in one evening was James Patterson’s Cat & Mouse, back in 1997. I started Juliet, Naked around 6 pm. I finished it around 1 am.

It is hard to say how the book ranks if I were to generate a top 5 list of hornby’s novels. It usually takes me a while to fully absorb a Hornby novel. I didn’t fully appreciate Slam (another book I got prior to publication) until months after I read an advance copy. So, perhaps anything I say about Juliet, Naked now, within 48 hours if finishing it, would be premature. It is hard, after years of built up anticipation, to give a novel proper, objective assessment. The two extreme responses are (a) built up anticipation results in extreme disappointment or (b) extreme desire to love something I have waited so long for ruins any objectivity, in favor of convincing myself that Hornby met or exceeded expectation. Such a problem isn’t present when you’re not dealing with your favorite contemporary author.

Perhaps both extremes are present and are canceling each other out. Nevertheless, this review today with most certainly need to be supplemented by a follow up review closer to the books publication, when I’ll also be more comfortable referencing details of the book. In a sense, this review won’t be so much a review, but a primer for a review, with some of my initial thoughts.

There are lots of Nick Hornby fans waiting for Juliet, Naked to be released. I can safely assure them that the book won’t disappoint them. It’s classic Nick Hornby, delving into obsession, loneliness in a way that Hornby’s fans love and new Hornby readers will appreciate.

How does Juliet, Naked rank compared to other Hornby novels. If I were to create a Top 5 list (which excludes Slam, with the understanding that Siam is technically a different genre) than here is where my list stands.

1. A Long Way Down
2. High Fidelity
3. Juliet, Naked
4. About A Boy
5. How To Be Good

There is a lot a Hornby fan can read into this list. For one thing, High Fidelity is not #1, but A Long Way Down is. High Fidelity is a common favorite of Hornby fans (and especially the one’s who think of the novel before they think of the movie) and, from what I’ve seen, A Long Way Down is one the least favored. For reasons hard to explain, A Long Way Down is slightly more favored than High Fidelity, (an indecisive me would have given them shared first place status) and thus, when I met Nick Hornby at a book signing a couple years ago, I chose A Long Way Down for him to sign. These two books, nevertheless, are hard to beat, so, Juliet’s third place showing is actually nothing to scoff at. It is hard to compete with novels that, for years, have grown to mean a lot more to me than they did even after I first finished them.

That said, it is important to note that Juliet, Naked has all the qualities I love about Hornby’s writing, There are many levels one can appreciate Juliet, Naked… I’ve only just begun.

Until September…

Science fiction isn’t my preferred genre, but I was introduced to a few of PKD’s short stories about a year and a half ago, and have since been reading his work more and more, starting with his short stories.

Work update:

- I’m about a third of the way into a novel, with the working title ‘Juliet, Naked’.
- I’m editing, with Eli Horowitz, a ‘Best of McSweeneys’ book for Hamish Hamilton, publication some time next spring, I think. (This is a lovely job – I’m discovering great young writers I’d never heard of several times a day at the moment.)
- I’m adapting ‘Slam’, for DNA Films
- A friend and I are still messing around with a radio comedy, although the messing around at this stage consists mostly of trying to persuade the BBC that it’s funny. Or comprehensible. Or something.
- I’m working with Airside Studios on an idea for an animated film.

Film update

- Cindy Chupack, the screenwriter on the project, has just delivered a third and hopefully green light-triggering draft of ‘How To Be Good’.
- There’s not much happening with ‘A Long Way Down’.
- ‘Slam’ – see above. That’s ‘above’ in the ‘work update’ bit, as opposed to ‘There’s not much happening’. There isn’t much happening, but that’s entirely my fault.
- ‘An Education’ is in the final stages of editing.

With all the work he’s doing, I wonder how long before we’ll see some new writing from him. I’m anxious for the next novel, but I suspect if he’s only a third of the way into it, then it’ll be a year at least before it is published.

A film version of ‘Slam’ is exciting news… but I’m disappointed to hear that there’s not much movement on ‘A Long Way Down.” I wasn’t aware that a film adaptation of ‘How To Be Good’ was in development. I wonder who will play DJ GoodNews and if he’ll make a cameo in ‘A Long Way Down’ as well?

With all the simultaneous projects going on with Nick Hornby, I’m hoping it won’t be too long of a wait before we get some new reading material. Personally, I’d like to see a collection of his short stories published, I’ve managed to read a few. His short story, ‘NippleJesus’ was published in ‘Speaking With The Angel’ a collection of short stories by several writers that he editted. I’ve also been able to get my hands on ‘Not A Star’ and ‘Otherwise Pandemonium’ — the latter I got a limited edition copy off of Ebay that was also signed, so I’ve not taken it out of the shrink wrap. A collection of Hornby’s short stories would be fantastic. Unfortunately, I’ve not heard anything that indicates such an idea has been considered. But, I’d like to think that it could be done, and would give us loyal fans something to hold us over until the next novel is published.

Unfortunately, Personal Days got increasingly more difficult to read as it progressed… and the last part of the story was an excruciatingly long email written as a 30-page run on sentence because the character’s period key wasn’t working.

But I digress, I have since started Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution by Jerome Charyn, which I’ve been looking forward to starting for quite a while.

In branches of Borders, they are trying to flog us their e-book reader, the ‘Iliad’, for £399. Meanwhile in the London Evening Standard, David Sexton seems quite taken with Amazon’s version, the Kindle. In my branch of Borders on Monday, the Iliad was piled high on the left, just as you walk in; on the right is their wall of bestselling paperbacks, many of which are being sold at half price. It was a quiet Monday morning, and there didn’t seem to be too much interest in the four hundred quid e-book reader; what was striking, though, was that there didn’t seem to be too much interest in the four quid books, either. Attempting to sell people something for four hundred pounds that merely enables them to read something that they won’t buy at one hundredth of the price seems to me a thankless task.

According to Hornby, “there is currently much consternation in the book industry about the future of the conventional book,” but believes the book will prove itself to not being going anywhere. He gives a number of reasons.

1) Book readers like books, whereas music fans never had much affection for CDs. Vinyl yes, CDs no. They are too small for interesting cover art and legible lyrics, the cases break easily, and despite all promises to the contrary, they are extremely easy to break and scratch. Books have remained consistently lovable for several hundred years now. For readers, a wall lined with books is as attractive as any art we could afford to put up there.

This is very true. Books, unlike digital their counterparts, can be signed by the author and collected. Early editions of classic novels are big collectors items. I personally enjoy the convenience of listening to audiobooks, but if I enjoy an audiobook enough, it is safe to say that I will buy the book to give it its deserved spot on my bookshelf. Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, are two examples of novels I first experienced in audiobook form that I’ve since bought in traditional book form, in the earliest edition I could find. Book readers like to keep books long after they’ve been read to serve as a testament to hours of reading done by the reader.

2) E-book readers have a couple of disadvantages, when compared to mp3 players. The first is that, when we bought our iPods, we already owned the music to put on it; none of us own e-books, however. The second is that so far, Apple is uninterested in designing an e-book reader, which means that they don’t look very cool.

Another good point. I might be open to trying an e-book reader, but the biggest problem I have with that, besides the cost of a e-book reader, is that I have nothing to put on my bookshelf.

3) We don’t buy many books – seven per person per year, a couple of which, we must assume, are presents for other people. Three paperbacks bought in a three-for-two offer – expenditure, fourteen pounds approx – will do most of us for months. The advantages of the Iliad and the Kindle – that you can take vast numbers of books away with you – are of no interest to the average book-buyer.

I’m sure I’m part of the minority of people who buy (and read) closer to twenty books a year for myself. While the advantage of carrying a vast number of books with me at time, that’s only one small convenience gained by the e-book format. Audiobooks, similarly, can downloaded and stored in large numbers on your iPod, and given that all you need to do is put on your headphones and hit play, you can, with some limitations, multi-task while you listen to the audiobook. The e-book is still read the same way as a tradition book, and multi-tasking would be extremely difficult.

The advantage e-books have over audiobooks is the price. E-books cost less to produce and thus cost less than traditional books. Audiobooks cost more than traditional books — even as purchased downloads rather than in tape or CD format.

4) Book-lovers are always late adaptors, and generally suspicious of new technology.

When it comes to new technology regarding books, this may be true. Audiobooks are a good format for me, because the format allows me to multi-task. E-book readers may be cool devices to carry around, but I’d just as soon read a real book than try to read a screen.

5) The new capabilities of the iPod will make it harder to sell books anyway. How much reading has been done historically, simply because there is no television available on a bus or a train or a sun-lounger? But that’s no longer true. You could watch a whole series of the Sopranos by the pool on your iPod touchscreen, if you want. Reading is going to take a hit from this.

I’m not as concerned about this as Hornby is. As our daily lives continue to become increasingly digitized, I still say books will continue to fill up our bookshelves.