Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About ingres77

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I've been doing this since 2015, and though I'm not going to read a hundred books a year, I plan on doing this for the foreseeable future. I also maintain the Cannonball Read database, and make infrequent updates on our reading habits. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: ingres77's Quick Questions interview.)

ingres77's Reviews:

In many ways, this is every bit as important to speculative fiction as The Lord of the Rings

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Born in 1875, Edgar Rice Burroughs worked a number of odd jobs until, at the age of 35, he decided to pick up writing. Recalling in 1929 that, “if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten.” So, in 1911, he started writing what would go on to become A Princess of Mars, the first book in his Barsoom series. Shortly thereafter, he would go on to create Tarzan – […]

Like a tumescent Ronald Reagan on the fourth of July

The Rider of Lost Creek by Louis L'Amour

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Growing up, my dad had a sizable collection of books written by Louis L’Amour. They were all part of a matching set, with brown leatherette covers (hey, you can still buy them). I always liked the look of them, taking up the bottom shelf of the family bookcase. For a while, in my teens, I blew through them, and remember finding them enjoyable. This time? Not so much. Louis L’Amour published 100 novels and over 250 short stories in his long career, and is as […]

I held back my indifference long enough to write the review. So, that’s good.

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

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On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr shot and killed his entire family in their home on Long Island: both parents and his four siblings (ranging in age from 9 to 18). One year later, George and Kathy Lutz bought the house, and, along with their three kids, moved into the house in December 1975. 28 days later, they moved out, leaving all their belongings after claiming to have been victims of a traumatic haunting. Which is utter horseshit. Perhaps that goes without saying – […]

We’re going to need a bigger boat

Jaws by Peter Benchley

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One of the reasons the 1975 film adaptation is hailed as a masterwork of suspense cinema is because the monster is rarely seen. Turns out, not having the monster be a prominent part your novel doesn’t work quite as well. The novel starts off well. The first half of the book is pretty compelling, and the movie follows the plot reasonably well. The scenes where the shark attacks its victims are pretty scary – especially the opening scene, which legitimately made me nervous about the […]

500 words on how I have nothing to say

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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There can’t possibly be something left to say about this book. It’s been a keystone in the American education system since the 1960s, with literally millions of students reading and analyzing this book. To some degree, this is a testament to the timelessness of the novel, and I can’t imagine being an English teacher having to dredge this text year after year. But I’m not an English teacher. I’m just a guy who skipped most of the required books that serve as the glue to […]

“With a return ticket, courage becomes an intellectual exercise.”

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

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From 1951-54, Graham Greene was a foreign correspondent in French Indochina.  Contrary to the belief of some, Edward Lansdale (a pioneer of American intelligence operations) was not the inspiration for the character of Pyle (the titular Quiet American). Greene instead based the character on a man named Leo Hochstetter, with whom he shared a room and traveled to Saigon from Ben Tre. Hochstetter lectured Greene on finding a “third force” in Vietnam: a democratic alternative to colonialism and communism. The Quiet American takes place in […]



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