2000 Lives : The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart

It's taken me quite a while to get around to doing one of these hasn't it?! 

After I finish a book I'm so keen to move onto the next one, that I keep forgetting to write about them. Not that the books I read are so rubbish that I need to move on fast, I just want to ALWAYS be consuming books. Do you know that scene in that duck film?

 I know, I know, you are overwhelmed yet again by my film knowledge. I'm not even sure I've seen this film but I remember this scene...

Well I want that, but with books. Before you start getting all fastidious, yes books would hurt, but so would gold coins so go D: yourself.

Should I get to the book bit? 

This fine book was recommended to me by Hannah. She said it was amazing and she loved it, so, I said 'Okay!' and picked a copy up.

Usually, people pick up a book, and before they choose to buy it, they read the blurb, the reviews, maybe even just the publication date. 

I forgot to do all this. Hannah had said it was good, so I just jumped straight in. 

Lesson learned. 

Although it is not good to judge a book by it's cover, it does help if you LOOK at it. 

I don't know what I thought this book was about, maybe a guy that just really loved dice (which is kinda is), or perhaps a man that just frikking loves playing monopoly (which it isn't). Whatever I thought it was about, it was nowhere near what it is actually about.

Within the first few pages, there's a whole lot of rape talk, murder, general dickishness. Which is fine, I am no prude, but I should have prepared myself by reading the blurb.

Also, it was published in 1971! Who knew!?

So, in the interest of your potential interest in the book, here is the blurb. Read it!

'The cult classic that can still change your life... Let the dice decide! This is the philosophy that changes the life of bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart -- and in some ways changes the world as well. Because once you hand over your life to the dice, anything can happen. Entertaining, humorous, scary, shocking, subversive, The Dice Man is one of the cult bestsellers of our time. '

Done? Good.

 It starts with Dr Rhinehart being bored of his life, his family, his job, which everyone can relate to. Instead of just grinding on, he starts to develop a new methodology, 'The Dice Life'. He starts letting the dice decide what he does, in the hope that it will allow every aspect of his personality to be satisfied. As he gives himself more to the die, his life becomes more and more chaotic...

I actually really enjoyed the book. I like the way that it's all over the place. Sometimes 1st person, sometimes 3rd, sometimes a chapter is just one sentence. I enjoyed the psychological aspects of the story. I find the habits of humans and society fascinating and I found myself not entirely disagreeing with Rhinehart's theories. If I was a crazier, or perhaps braver, person,  I may have adopted the dice life myself. 

I found it a slow read at first, but perhaps a third of the way in things do pick up. At times Rhineheart can become a little frustrating, because he is just so in love with himself and his 'genius' theory, but it doesn't entirely ruin the book. The ending suits the book, but some people may also find that frustrating. Don't read this book if you like neat endings. Also don't read this book if you don't like to think too much about life, and ALL aspects of your personality, the good AND the bad.

Overall I gave this a 4 out of 5 on GoodReads. It made me think, and I like that. Certain bits drag (like the parts from 'the book of die') but you can just skim over those.  It's topics are still very relevant to today, and it's brutal honesty about human nature is refreshing.

Have you read this? What did you think?

 

Scotch's adventures with A Street Cat Named Bob

As promised, I will begin by completing my review of 'The Shock of the Fall' by Nathan Filer. All in all, I thought the book was a good read. I loved the fact that the chapters were really short and easy to read, apart from the section towards the end where Matt is explaining what happened to his brother. This contrast to the rest of the book kept me gripped to the story and I couldn't put it down until I was finished. I think Filer managed to build suspense and tension really effectively. In the 'question and answer with the author' section at the back, I was interested to find out that Matthew is real and the book is based on a true story. It was quite sad in places but had a hopeful ending. Worth a read!

ANYWAY. I shall move on to my book of the week. Finally.

Oh, Bob. Your ginger fur. Your round squishy face. Your SCARF. You are everything I want in a front cover. I also like the fact that the blurb is simply an extract from the story. That's all the up-selling books need, in my opinion.

'London has always had a large population of street cats; strays who wander the streets living off scraps and the comforts of strangers, fighting for survival on a daily basis. A lot of them were, like Bob, slightly battered, broken creatures. Maybe he'd spotted a kindred spirit in me...'

My research into the book (I was too excited whilst waiting for it to arrive in the post) told me that it is true story about a homeless busker named James, the author, and the unlikely friendship he strikes up with a stray cat. Apparently there is talks of a film too! I wonder if my ginger cat would stand a chance in the starring role...

Unfortunately I haven't got a lot of reading done this week, I seem to have been really busy, so I'm only a couple of chapters in. I do like the book so far, which was probably expected due to my crazy cat lady tendencies! The writing style reminds me of my own, you can tell that the author isn't really a 'writer' so to speak. It is a lovely story though and I am looking forward to seeing how it progresses. I just really love reading about cats if I'm honest!

Hopefully I will have made a lot more progress next week and I can tell you all about it! What have you been reading this week?

2000 Lives: 'The Shock of the Fall' by Nathan Filer

I like to think I'm an extremely avid reader and it saddens me that I hadn't actually read a book in months and months. Until now! This new feature inspired me to start reading again though and I have rediscovered my love.

My first choice of book was The Silmarillion by Tolkien but after struggling through the first chapter without actually understanding ANYTHING, I realised this wasn't the best choice of book to start with. I needed some easy reading so I chose two new books in Tesco. Any excuse to buy a few more!

My first choice was an obvious one:

C'mon, it has a ginger cat on the cover. Wearing a scarf. I couldn't leave the shop without buying it! I must have been way too distracted by the cat to actually read anything on the cover though, as it wasn't until I got home and all settled down to read that I realised it's a sequel! I haven't felt disappointment like that in a while! I was so excited to read the book but just couldn't do it without the prequel, which is now luckily on it's way to me. Thank you eBay! Hopefully next week I will be detailing my own adventures with Bob!

So after a few false starts, I finally settled on my other new book:

It was the blurb that got me:

'I'll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name's Simon. I think you're going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he'll be dead. And he was never the same after that.'

I am currently about 3/4 of the way through and I like it. I still haven't found out what happened to his brother though! We learn more and more details along the way and are currently led to believe (through various flashbacks and dreams) that Matthew, the protagonist, played a very major role in his death.

The book is written from Matthew's perspective; he is basically telling us his life story. We first learn that he may be a little different from the norm when he casually stabs a fellow pupil in the back with a compass. They unusually end up being best friends and we follow Matthew as he helps his new friend, Jacob, care for his disabled mother. We also learn about Matthew's relationship with both his parents (he describes his mother as 'mad') and his lovely 'Nanny Noo'. He is currently living on a psychiatric ward of a hospital because he hears voices, or more specifically, he hears the voice of his dead brother. I enjoy reading these kinds of books and it reminds me of one of my favourites, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. They are much more true to real life and I guess I can relate to certain aspects. Not that I've ever been admitted or anything, but I am a little strange....

The author is a registered mental health nurse so has a good knowledge of what actually goes on in mental hospitals and psychiatric wards. Most of this book is very sad and disturbing, and gets very dark in some places, which unfortunately makes a good read! I last left the story where Matthew has convinced himself that his brother wants to 'play' and is just about to escape from the ward. I believe he is heading to the caravan park where his brother died.

'When your big brother is calling, when it's finally time to go and play, if you need to escape from a psychiatric ward- the first thing to do is observe. Then get the hard work done for you. Say, Ahh. I'm a mental patient, not an idiot.'

I am interested to finally find out what happened! I shall let you know whether it was worth the wait or not next week. And about Bob. Bob the cat will definitely be playing a part. I hope the suspense doesn't kill you too much... Alternatively, you could buy the book yourself, I would recommend it so far. Let me know what you think!