My Boyfriend’s Book Club (vol. 3 -The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy)

For the third installment of MBfBC, we took a mostly harmless journey into the galaxy with Will’s pick, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. This book has always been on my TBR so I was excited when Will selected it plus I knew I was in for a laugh.

Published: 1979     Pages: 180     Genre: Science Fiction

Drink: We learned a lot from The Guide. For instance, we learned that “the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. It says that the effect of drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick” (17). So, naturally, Will and I gave them a go.

 

Why This?: Will read Hitchhiker’s when he was younger and wanted to give it another go. I remember so many of my classmates reading this is school and I have been meaning to try it ever since.

Shae’s Short Summary: Earth is blown up to create a galactic freeway, Ford Prefect (writer for The Guide) saves Arthur Dent (the last remaining human) and they begin to travel the galaxy and search for the meaning of life. Thanks to many acts of improbability we meet the President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian, and their depressed robot Marvin the Paranoid Android.

Shae’s Thoughts     Will’s Thoughts

Favorite Part: Meeting all of the different characters throughout the novel and learning about them. Also that Earth’s entry in The Guide is “mostly harmless.” Petunias and the whale…to best describe this incident, read the following graphic.

Favorite Character: Zaphod and Ford – they’re quirky and fun. Marvin – so annoying he made the computer commit suicide.

Least Favorite Part: None, it made me want to keep reading. No issues, too short.

Would you recommend? YES! Absolutely, bring a towel.

Real Talk: I could see how HHGTTG would not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is sooooo amazing. I couldn’t even think of one quote to pull out of the book in fact, my great friends at BookRiot managed to narrow it down to 42 for us :). My favorite from the list is #37 – “Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.” Reading HHGTTG made me feel all the feelings and despite being 37 years old, the issues are still relevant. Adams is a hilarious genius that makes the reader escape into a crazy world that, somehow, if you choose to suspend some sense of reality, seems real.  I honestly have no more words to say about the book other than read it and enjoy a nice giggle.

Rating:  5/5

Next Read: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Oliver enjoying HHGTTG

My Boyfriend’s Book Club (vol. 2 – Fight Club)

Welcome back to MBfBC, I told myself that I would do a blog post a week this month BUT life has been happening and I simply do not have time to write blog posts in my spare time without giving up my Netflix addiction. But, never fear, the book club is still going strong!

This month was my pick! I chose Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (10 points if you can properly pronounce his last name) because it’s been sitting on my shelf forever, it’s short, and it turns out that neither of us had seen the movie. Additionally, the stars aligned, and Flix Brewhouse was screening the film at the end of month. So, without further ado… Congratulations! You are now the recipient of a book review and a three sentence movie review from something that happened almost 20 years ago and you could easily Google!

Published: 1996        Pages: 208        Genre: what in the world is happening?!? (Satirical Novel)

Food: Bone-in chicken, we wanted something primal.

Drink: Whiskey and ginger

Why This?!: Shae’s pick – I’m selfish and am tired of looking at it on the shelf. Plus the cover has a recommendation from Bret Easton Ellis and American Psycho is one of my favorite books.

Shae’s Short Summary: This guy’s apartment blows up, he can’t sleep, he goes to support groups, he meets Marla. Same guy meets a dude name Tyler Durden, they make soap and fight each other. WHAT IS HAPPENING?! I can’t keep up! This book is stupid…OMG it all makes sense now! The narrator and Tyler are the same person, duh! (That was literally my thought process during the book.)

Will’s Thoughts     Shae’s Thoughts

Favorite Part of the Book: When the narrator holds up the convenience store worker and you think the whole time he is going to have to kill him but instead he gives him six weeks to get on track to be a vet. Chapter 18, when you learn about the dual personality…whoa! Or am I just dumb? And when his boss finds his stuff on the copier, that was fun.

Favorite Character: Tyler, he was a terrorist and philosopher. Narrator,  he seemed like the most normal one until you realized he was the whole reason so much weird was happening.

I didn’t like…: Marla as a plot device, she wasn’t a character. When Tyler was out of control with Project Mayhem and the soap, it made me uncomfortable.

Would you recommend this book? Yes. Yes, and I’d even recommend that they read the afterword by Chuck Palahniuk first because it gives a lot of fun, context to how the story came about. 

Real Talk: Entering into this book all I knew about Fight Club is that you don’t talk about it. I know, basic. You learn in Palahniuk’s afterword that the book originated from a short story that later became a chapter within the novel. He had recently been in fist fight over summer vacation and was bored at work, on top of that he was tired of seeing novels in bookstores that aimed to women within society so, he created Fight Club. The plot is driven by the narrator’s inability to sleep, which leads to  Marla, frustration, fear, and, ultimately, fighting. Fighting is something I’ve never done, although I was punched in a basketball game once (video on my Instagram: @seagraves22) but Fight Club is built upon the ability to release the frustration and fear people are feeling. Overall, this book feels like you’re in a 200 page fever dream; it’s dark and twisted, it messes with your mind, but it’s honest. The idea of creating fight club stems out of something very real, two people looking for release.

“I want you to do me a favor. I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” 

Now I don’t suggest that everyone who needs to find themselves and do some self-exploration goes around starting fight clubs and creating havoc around the town like Tyler does with Project Mayhem. But Fight Club hits strongly on destruction – people want to destroy what haunts them now, to find what is creating their inner turmoil and just pummel it. It’s the basic concept that sometimes, people need to break themselves down in order to find out who they are.

3 Sentences on the movie: I’m so happy they were able to use Marla’s character better than the book could convey her, after all, fight club began because of her. Reading the book helped me take so much more from a first watch of the movie, picking up on how others don’t look at Tyler and better understanding the relationship with Marla. Such a good film, despite Brad Pitt’s clothing.

Rating:  4.5/5

Next Read: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Anatomy of Stuff

Titles, I’ve always been really bad at titles. Remember in high school when you would always be asked to come up with something creative to encapsulate your 5 paragraph essay about Julius Caesar, or The Scarlet Letter, or World War II? Well, mine was probably “Julius Caesar and Other Stuff.” So after 3 months of agonizing over the next great blog title I have thought up “Stuff by Shae,” don’t worry, we’re only bound to go up from here.

I used to write a blog, in fact I learned today that it has had 49 views in the last week and I haven’t posted in over a year (woo! P.s. if you click on the link just read the one about Insanity, people seem to like that one), but I needed a new area to hoard my thoughts and ideas so here I am. You can expect hard-hitting posts including, but not limited to, things like books, beer, sports, comics, podcasts, Netflix, WWE, Big Business, the Oxford comma, and “The Bachelor/ette.” Aka, anything.

Here’s a few things about me: My name is Shae and I fall into the category of twenty-something. I recently adopted a dog who is very small to contrast how tall I am. My boyfriend is even taller – he will be making appearances on here because I forced him into a book club with me. My 3 favorite things: books, beer, and watching sports.