Summer Reading List

So, I’ve been trying to do a little more reading lately.   The two most recent picks consisted of one book for pure pleasure (Saucer) and one to acquaint myself with one of the”classics” that I’ve never read before (Animal Farm).

Saucer was pretty entertaining, if not exceptional.  It’s about this oil field survey guy named Rip who notices some kind of metal sticking out of the ground, shimmering in the desert.  He goes to investigate and (as you might easily guess from the title) it turns out to be a flying saucer.  There is a lot of debate regarding the origin of the saucer.  An archaelogist from a nearby dig gets involved in solving the mystery, and determines that based on where and how its buried, it has to be at least 140,000 years old.  While our hero and his companions are trying to figure out what to do with their discovery, word manages to leak out to a spectacularly wealthy bad guy, as well as several governments (including the US).  Understandably, all these players want to get their hands on the technology.

I won’t go into to much further detail, I don’t want to throw in any spoilers to anyone who might be interested in reading it.  I enjoyed reading the book, but I have to confess that throughout most of the book I felt like the characters, one in particular, didn’t really behave the way I’d expect them to.  Of course, real people don’t always behave the way I expect them to, so what the heck do I know?

After finishing Saucer, I dug into  “Animal Farm”.  I was rather surprised at what a short book it was.  I guess I just always assume that “classics” are going to be these huge tomes (like War and Peace, which I have started reading, but haven’t managed to force myself too deeply into)..  All I really knew about it before I read it was that it was a “classic” and that it was written by George Orwell, who also wrote 1984 (which I have read before).  Well, it turns out that it was a little story about some animals that banded together and overthrew their oppressors (pesky humans wouldn’t you know!), and took over the farm they lived on.  Really, though, the book is much deeper than that, as this animal revolution is a symbolic representation of Stalinist Russia and communism.  What starts out as a “people’s revolution” (well, “animal’s revolution” I guess), which they believe will free them from being slaves to the humans, etc. turns into quite the opposite, where their old masters are simply replaced by new ones (in this case, the “pigs” which are the leaders, I guess equivalent to the Politburo).  In the beginning, the animals all agree on a list of “7 Commandments” which include things like “No animal shall ever drink alcohol”, “No animal shall ever sleep in a bed”, “No animal shall ever kill another animal”, etc. These things eventually get overturned one at a time, as the pigs start drinking alcohol (and the commandment ends up getting “to excess” added to it, which the pigs and their dog enforcers convince everyone was the way it always was).  

Overall, it was quite an interesting book, and I could really see the parallels to repressive communist regimes.  I hate those commie bastards!  I’m gonna go out and slaughter me some pigs!