Cloud Atlas

As I finished Cloud Atlas today and wrote it down on my list of books read in 2013 (if I don't keep lists, I will not remember everything I've read - well, unless I go through my blog), I realized that I am way off pace for my usual number of books read so far this year.

In my defense (to myself) this one is a particularly long book, so it can sort-of count as two.

As I read in one Amazon review - while I liked this book, I can see where it is not for everyone. One of the things I did like was the changing of stories and writing styles. If you have not heard about this book, it can best be summed up as 6 distinct stories which are related like Russian nesting dolls. My favorite part is about a composer (surprise, surprise) who is working on a piece called Cloud Atlas Sextet with this description - "Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year's fragments into a 'sextet for overlapping soloists": piano, clarinet, 'cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor; in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan't know until it's finished, and by then it will be too late..."

Of course, this is a description of the novel, as well.

I know the movie has mixed reviews, but I think I will see it anyway.