April

11. (audio) At home: a short history of private life. Bill Bryson.
For some exciting minutes, I thought I had find the first great book of 2011: Bryson's description of the personalities and events related to the Great exhibition of 1851, got me marveled at the idea of finding someone who knows how to mix gossip with social science, with history of science, economy and social development... but alas, the book  has turned to be highly irregular. Some really interesting, I would say essential passages, followed by very boring and pointless ones. THIS is what editors are for, like the producer of an album, a good editor could have hammered this into a fantastic book.
Some ideas that got my attention:
- Glass was invented many centuries ago, but only after production cost were cut in the XIX century, it became a commodity.
- I find fascinating that we can trace back the origin of words as basic as "home" and "house", is like peaking at civilization giving baby steps.
- The amount of work that servants had to do is beyond belief! So many human potential wasted, day after day, cleaning, re-cleaning, washing, just to maintaining rooms with linens where often no one slept in; glassware that no one drank, cutting grass on endless gardens, polishing the floors on room after room. Such a maniac waste of effort. If only all those earls, vicars and the like had lived in housing according to their needs, and set the same resources to employ those people in building roads, ports, infrastructure!
- My stomach churned at the descriptions of child labor, as early as 3, cleaning chimneys, and all the horrible diseases that it caused. There again, my stomach churned even more when I heard the part about rat infestations, cockroaches, etc.
- I paused at the stat about toilets being statistically cleaner than kitchen counters, and kitchen rags as the most bacteria infested place in the house!
- After the Romans left the British islands and germania, civilization didn't only stop: it reverted 400 years, the basic advancements, and even wonders like running water, and comfy house layouts, which you would think even the most savage, un-pragmatic tribe would appreciate, were simply and surprisingly snubbed and abandoned in favor of huts build around holes in the ground.
- The XIX american'mogul's palaces, the incredible amount of resources completely wasted.
I reiterate, this book is a screaming cry for help to a professional editor that can cut it into a 200 page wonder, and I wouldn't put in in my resume if I had edited it.

March

10. Norwegian Wood. Haruki Murakami. Sober, superb, sensual and sad. Murakami gave me a really nice welcome during my first days in Canada, so I'm surprised it has taken me 11 years to pick another one of his books. He is praised as a genre bender, so I'm already salivating at the tought of going exploring completely different territories with him.
Norwegian Wood get's you deep, deep in the athmosphere of every scene, the small details are what make this a great book; and the best part is that that he does it not using a narrator, but through the main character, which in turn you can identify with for a number of reasons, making his sensibility your sensibility.
It reminded me of course of my own youth, how different company got you to completely different worlds day after day, how your body and your life was lighter and able to move with the flow more easily. It also reminded me of so many streets and parks in Kyoto and Tokyo. Would it be too easy to compare this book's tone and pace with Banana Yoshimoto's, just because both are japanese? the book has a slow part near the end, and I think setting the beginning in Germany was confusing and unnecesary, the whole book I kept wondering how Naokoto got to Germany because I tought that's where the episode took place. Overall, a greatly crafted portrait of love, pain, and finding the sense of self.