2010 in retrospective and some books

Hmh. It's interesting to think that I started 2010 in high school and finished it in college. For all the cynicism and frustration, it was actually a pretty good year. As far as high school goes, I did excellently on my exams, concluded reasonably happily with my friends. And college thus far has had... ups and downs, but I would classify it mostly as ups. I've connected with people I knew from high school and met some (But not too many!) great new people. That, and academic stuff went fine. Yeah, yeah.

There was also a fair share of sadness and frustration, though. I'm usually pretty good about following through on the plans that I make, but that's not always the case. Suffice it to say that there's a difference between being a solitary person and being alone. Ah well. Move on, damaged but not broken, I guess.

On an irrelevant note, I just got copies of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo today (Have already read both of them, but didn't own copies). Both definitely fall in my list of Best Things Ever Written, for varying reasons. I'd argue that The Giving Tree is one of the quintessential childhood reads, and it definitely continues to be a moving story into adulthood. Johnny Got His Gun, for those who haven't read it, falls into the sort of hypercritical, disturbing, oft-depressing category that encompasses books by authors like George Orwell and Vonnegut. Put simply, it's an anti-war novel from the perspective of a soldier who wakes up lacking all of his limbs and all seven senses. Although the premise seems a bit... absurd?, the writing is absolutely brilliant at capturing the sensations (or lack thereof) of the narrator. It's gripping, dips into the insane, and as mentioned before, extremely disturbing at times. For anyone who hasn't read it, you need to. I learned recently that there was a movie made of the book a ways back, and think I will look into it - hopefully the cinematography captures the essence of the book.