Sunday, November 30, 2008
So here’s the thing about this month: I’ve started a novel. Today a lot of people are going to say “I’ve written a novel” and the post is going to include lots of exclamation points and the word “Nanowrimo.” I’ve completed Nanowrimo – 50,000 words by November 16, if you want to be specific – but I’ve not “written a novel.” No, no, I’m nowhere near the ending. I slacked off a bit this past week (truthfully, I only wrote anything on Tuesday and yesterday) and I certainly haven’t made any progress in reading or reviewing because of it. No, I’ve been relaxing. Sleeping in, hanging out with friends, playing video games, and wasting time online. IT’S GREAT.
But now I’m going to get back into my regular routine, I promise! So here’s what I’ve been reading:
- The Eight by Katherine Neville. I picked it up because I’m hearing a lot about the sequel and I thought, well, it’s been sitting there staring at me on bookshelves since I got into bookselling, I may as well try it, right? So far it’s a bit difficult to get into, but I did only start it a few days ago and haven’t given myself much time for reading.
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Richard really liked it and it looked like something I might enjoy. To be honest I passed through a phase in high school where I read a lot of fiction books about mental patients and hospitals; I’m not sure what made me pass over this one, but I think I may have liked it a lot more then. Anyway, I’m nearly done with it, but it’s turning out to be a good “bathroom read;” it’s not something I can’t put down, in other words.
I have a review for The Princess Bride by William Goldman sitting in my drafts. It’s been there all month, pretty much, but I haven’t been able to find the right concluding statements. I think I’ll just publish it and hope it says what I want it to say because honestly I can’t even remember what it says.
November has consisted of the following: Writing, neglecting work (editing), working too much (bookselling), writing, reading some but not much, avoiding writing reviews, writing, and painting. It’s been stock-full of hanging out with friends, excitement over a delicious holiday that definitely delivered, and finding new books I’d like to purchase and read. Some day. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m actually taking pictures of whole bookshelves because I’m too lazy to write down all those books. My goodness, who knew that reading a lot and writing about it would make me want to read even more?
I wanted to dedicate a post to the economy and what it means for retail employees such as myself, but instead I’m going to take a hint from Hev and post a list of some of my favorite authors. At some point I’ll get back into updating my Bookshelf Database and then you’ll know what books I don’t have, in case you’d like to buy me any.
These are truly my favorite authors in the sense that I’ve read a few (or all) of their books and loved something, if not everything, about all of them. Or maybe I disliked one completely, but it didn’t take away from the awesomeness of the others. The point is, I can justify these people as “my favorite authors” simply by saying I’ve read most of their books and enjoyed them.
In no particular order!
So I’m a bit of a classic literature fiend who also loves fantasy, paranormal/horror, a bit of drama here and again, and who occasionally dabbles into some history and mystery. Perhaps this will be the new thing I write in my “bio” box on profile websites and message boards. :) Have I missed anyone?
In any case, this website has been going through some changes in November also; I’ve added a few more recipes to my Articles subsection, and I think I’ll probably add more. I’ve been cooking a lot and I really enjoy it. I just have to remember to take pictures of the results! I moved my writing archive to Untitled, a website dedicated entirely to it… But I think I’ll continue posting Sunday Scribblings here because my readers seem to like them. I’m also geared towards posting more book reviews and less, well, nothing.
Here’s to December! May it be a much less busy month, and may I actually complete more than one book. (It’s true, I only finished one book this month!)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
So I’m sitting here at the moment listening to Ours’ second album Precious, which is always really the start of fall for me. For the past month I’ve felt rather out of it, as I could find the case but not the CD itself. I eventually had to download it, which isn’t quite the same, but I feel much better now. This whole album makes me cry, and I’d hate to start the fall season without that.
Speaking of crying, I finished Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier this week. And despite my complaints, it was very good, and it did make me cry a few times. They were silly tears, getting all caught up in the narrator’s fantasies, but I think it’s pretty powerful writing when it hits you so emotionally that you start crying.
I also recently finished my first e-book, Confessions of a Book-Lover by Maurice Francis Egan. I mentioned some time ago that I had started a Pride and Prejudice e-book and I’m still getting through it. What I’ve learned about e-books is this: (1) they’re very easy to ignore, because I don’t mind having that Inbox (7) message popping out at me, letting me know that I still haven’t read 7 consecutive parts to my e-book; (2) I really don’t like reading on-screen that much, and I find that while I’m not ignoring the e-book, I ignore my daily blogs, and vice versa. I can only take so much at a time; (3) I much prefer the way DailyLit sends them, versus ArcaMax, which sent my copy of Confessions. ArcaMax sends the book with all sorts of other things (advertisements, a sidebar, things popping out at you making you wonder why all this fluff is in your email), but that’s not what’s annoying to me. What I don’t like is how much they send at once. While Pride and Prejudice will take me a year to read, at least DailyLit understands that reading a book on screen is completely different from reading a book in hand. I get small sections of chapters, not whole chapters. For those days I only want to read a little bit, I can do so quickly with Pride and Prejudice. Not possible for Confessions without leaving my browser window open to the page at all times.
So, in conclusion, I probably won’t be reading any more e-books unless they are from DailyLit, and even then, I’m not sure, because I’m not terribly keen on their selection.
Unfortunately, we will only have one more Sunday together before I’ll have to take a sort of hiatus from The Sunday Salon. You see, I don’t plan on reading during November at all. I’ll be participating in National Novel Writing Month, as I did last year. I didn’t really think I would do it again this year, but I can blame the decision on all of the awesome books I’ve read this year. Every time I read something spectacular, it reminds myself of my own writing, and how I wish I could be that developed and wonderful. Which, of course, just reminds me that it takes practice. And then instead of writing something I sulk and eventually pick up another book.
This year I’ve an idea which is rather exciting, because whereas last year I wrote entirely for the fulfillment of a goal (having completed a novel), this year I’m writing with the intention of actually showing the finished project to people. I’ll have to be on my best behavior. (If you like, you can follow my progress on the left sidebar, where my word count widget is located.)
In any case, I hope next week I’ll be filled with more interesting thoughts and ideas. By then, I’ll have finished The Princess Bride by William Goldman, which I read a bit today. In fact, I fully expect to have this book done by tomorrow, and I only started it yesterday. It’s one of those books that I can’t believe I haven’t read before, especially as it’s been sitting on my shelf for several years. (I’ve been trying not to bring so many books into the house lately, to give myself a chance to get through the ones I already have, but it’s very difficult when people publish so many interesting looking things!)
Sunday, September 28, 2008
It’s true, I don’t actually have a lot to say today because I work (and thus don’t have a lot of time to read at the moment). I’ve been pretty productive in my reading since I last wrote, though; I finished The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, and despite my confessions about autumn reading in a Booking Through Thursday post, I haven’t been able to formulate intelligent thoughts about it yet. I find myself sitting in odd positions sometimes, having thought about the book and all its hidden meanings for the past twenty minutes without any other care in the world.
I also am addicted to Diana Gabaldon; I completed Dragonfly in Amber in just a few days, and now I’m nearly halfway through Voyager. They’re very difficult to put down, and way too complex to review, so you’ll probably only hear mention of them on my Sunday Salon posts. :)
In any case, yesterday was a long, bustling, wet day, as Richard and I trekked across the National Book Festival (and back again), taking borderline stalkish photos of Neil Gaiman (why? I don’t even know), and generally enjoying the atmosphere. I suppose that since this was my first book festival, and the first time I’d ever been in such close proximity with so many authors that I admire, I found myself sinking back into my highschool fangirl days (when I would jump up and down in anticipation of meeting a musician I enjoyed, despite the fact that I was way too shy to say or do anything aside from handing them the album cover to sign). Well, we had fun, and we got TONS of free bags. I enjoy bags to a mildly obsessive degree; our close it stock full of them, and sometimes shoes even go missing later to be found inside them. So I’m really excited about these bags.
Looming dark clouds as we walk up towards the book festival tents
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The past few weeks haven’t been “reading weeks.” I’ve pretty much been doing nothing but working, planning a wedding, and pitying myself (I always get lost in those conflicting feelings of being sad for myself and happy for the bride and groom). Getting back into the habit, though, and remembering how very much at home I feel in books. Do you ever have weeks/months where you just don’t read as much, and something feels totally “off;” it’s not until you get back into it that you realize that, wait a minute, this is where I belong? Right here, on this couch, reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, writing in my online journal about my adventures in reading, and generally living through other people’s words.
Anyway, that’s how I feel about it. I’ve had people tell me that I’m wasting my life by collecting books and reading, that I should be spending my money on more fruitful desires and spending my time experiencing “life.” As if reading isn’t experiencing life! I experience more lives in books than I ever would outside my house! It seems like a debate that’s been going on for quite some time, and I’m sure a lot of authors have something to say about it (for aren’t they “not” experiencing life by writing the books that we read to avoid experiencing life, supposedly?)… Personally, I think life is better experienced by well-versed prose than by spending well-earned gas money to potentially put my life in danger on the way to and back from an event that I’ll forget about in a month’s time.
At least I remember the books I read. What do you think – are you experiencing life by reading, even if you’re reading only fictional works? Or are you avoiding the inevitable, curling up inside yourself and escaping into a black hole?
Anyway, I’ve been back in the habit of reading. I soared through Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, which was quite an easy read and very thought provoking. I’m conflicted about whether or not I liked it, because it seemed pretty slow plotwise (though not boring) until the end when suddenly everything picked up. It seems like this is a method of writing that a lot of people use – long, thoughtful, drawn-out books with very short action-packed endings. I hope all of my stories are long, thoughtful, and drawn-out, though I’m sure they’re also all pretty boring.
Otherwise, the only other book I read was Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which has come recommended for a year now by both an offline friend and Hev, both of whom finally convinced me to pick up that beast of a novel. I enjoyed it! I have Dragonfly in Amber, the second in the series, sitting here next to me waiting to be devoured once I finish my current read. So I think reading an 800+ novel counts for something while I haven’t been reading much in September, though I did get through it in three days so I probably don’t have much of an excuse there. It says a lot for the book that I went through it so quickly, while it took me a week to get through Year of Wonders which is a mere 300 pages.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, I think, will go by quickly. I started it on Friday and I’m unable to put it down. You may have noticed that I keep quoting from it. It’s just one of those books that says things that you think more eloquently than you could have said them. In any case, I’m reading this one today and I’m too hungry to continue this post, as disconnected and frivolous as it is.
I’ll leave you with the informal foreword that is written on the flyleaf. I don’t generally buy books with scribbles in them, but I do love inscriptions.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Finishing up The People’s Act of Love by James Meek incited a short-lived fascination with Russian literature. I made a small list of Russian literature I’d like to read and them promptly forgot about it until today. In my previous Sunday Salon post, two weeks ago, I mentioned this. Now I’m just updating to let you know that I still haven’t written a review for the book. In fact, I’ve finished a few books since then and had only the motivation to pick apart New Moon by Stephanie Meyer.
It hasn’t been a particularly busy week, per say, though I did have a two-year anniversary on Tuesday, a very full birthday on Thursday, and a day empty of life on Friday (used to recooperate from Thursday and the preceeding week, and by that I mean I read Eclipse and became very discouraged to read Breaking Dawn any time soon). I also finished The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox sometime during this week and it was so excellent that I haven’t even begun to gather my thoughts to it. Surely I can think of a better review than, “This book was SO GOOD, you should BUY IT IMMEDIATELY.”
I set aside some time today to read 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, after which I watched the movie. The book was touching and I may have cried a bit, but the movie wasn’t quite as endearing. Anthony Hopkins does make a fine English bookshop employee, though I must admit that I expected him to admit to eating someone’s liver at some point. I know! I’m one of those awful people who can only think of Hannibal Lecter when they see him, even though he is an excellent actor and has done many greater things.
Would you like to know what I did on my birthday? Of course you would. Richard and I visited several bookstores in the Northern Virginia area, not all of which were entirely disappointing. I shall eventually write something detailed, with pictures, about all my bookstore adventures in the past few years, but for now I’ll just give a light overview. I couldn’t tell you which came from where, as they’re mixed by size and not by time of purchase, but visiting seven stores only yielded seventeen books. This time last year, a trip of this nature would have brought at least ninety books into the house, so I’m glad being completely poor has allowed me some constraints on my wallet. (Not that I’m glad I couldn’t get more books, but I’m glad that in refusing to use the credit card I’ve realized that I don’t have so much to spend after all.)
Among my favorites included Prospero Books in Manassas, a quaint shop with a large collection of mostly old books, Civil War prints, and some pricey antiques. The employee looked bored, but she was helpful (even though she didn’t know what I meant by “Andrew Lang’s fairy books”).
I consider McKay Used Books, also in Manassas, a “rival” bookstore. Often customers coming into the bookstore where I work will either think we are McKay’s, or they will compare us as if we will change our policies just because this other store exists. The store was extremely disappointing. If I were going for CDs or DVDs I am sure I’d be much happier with my experience, but as it stands, I was put off by the higher prices and unorganized mess. I mean, more than usual (most used bookstores are not organized, and this normally doesn’t bother me, but as I was already biased against them I suppose their mess was more offensive).
Hole in the Wall Books in Falls Church was recommended to me several times by several professors in college, and after visiting it I wonder why. It was a cute store, but its specialty seemed to lie in science-fiction and comic books. Richard enjoyed it much more than I did, but I managed to find at least one satisfying read.
Olsson’s Books in Alexandria wasn’t disappointing, but it did consist mostly of a small selection of new books and tons of remainder/”sale” books. The bright part of that bookstore was the used books, and after browsing those I found about thirty I wanted but only two or three that I actually bought.
I don’t remember the Book Bank very well, except that it was in Old Town Alexandria near Olsson’s. It sort of got lost in the sea of bookstores we visited; however, I do recall thinking it may have been very comfortable to browse for hours on end.
Our second to last bookstore, Already Read Used Books was just as cute as the title, though it was extremely cluttered and, I swear, the cat tried to attack me. I got a discount on the books I purchased simply because I didn’t ask for one, and the woman working was very polite, pleasant, and talkative.
Finally, the Book Rack we found was in a shopping center next to a grocery store, and it seemed very out of place and uncomfortable among so much after-work traffic. It was impossible to find parking, but I now realize that it must have been a commuter lot. This is a great store if one is searching for “bestseller fiction,” but as I’m more of a classic/nonfiction browser, my experience was pretty pathetic. All of my books seemed shoved off to the side and weren’t in any decipherable order.
Newest additions to the household:
All of which will, of course, just be added to a growing stack of books that will probably not be read for another ten years.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Wow! Two Sundays off work in a row – I’m on a roll here, guys, and I’m very excited at the availability of time to read. I have plans later today to, gasp, trade some books into my used bookstore, paint, and write. A pretty full day, so let’s get this show on the road.
I’m surprised at how many people got some of my authors correct in the WeeklyGeeks13 post, though I noticed that a few just weren’t even in the running. :P
My Favorite Authors
Haruki Murakami
Recommended: Kafka on the Shore, After the Quake, Sputnik Sweetheart, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Bret Easton Ellis
Recommended: American Psycho, The Informers, Glamorama, Lunar Park
Patrick Süskind
Recommended: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, The Pigeon, Mr. Sumner’s Story, The Double-Bass, The Stranger
Authors of Books I’m Reading
Michael Cox: The Meaning of Night
Erin Hunter: Warriors series (finished!)
Gena Showalter: The Darkest Pleasure (finished!)
Author of the Book I Most Recently Finished
Mil Millington: Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About
Hottest Author
Ewan McGregor: Yes, he did write a book; Long Way Round chronicles his marathon motorcycle trip with his friend Charley Boorman.
I should have made it a giveaway or something (except that I don’t have anything to give away, erg) to encourage more guesses but, well, maybe next time?
Yesterday I bought some Poptarts at the grocery store, and there’s nothing too spectacular about them except that they’re Indiana Jones Poptarts, which means they have white frosting and badly printed pictures. This morning my trivia question was: In The Last Crusade, how did Indiana Jones know which of the Holy Grails was the right one? It was a delicious question. I recommend these Poptarts to all ages.
This week I finished my book club book, The People’s Act of Love by James Meek, a selection that I made all my book club members read even though I didn’t know anything about it (except that it had something to do with Russia and it looked very interesting). I’ve lately been interested in Russian literature, and Aleksandr Solzhenistyn’s recent death doesn’t diminish the interest one bit. (There’s been a lot about Russian literature in the news because of it — I’m certainly not trying to imply that deaths encourage me.) So this book sort of acted as a segway into it; I’ve already made a list (ongoing) of books that look interesting. Do you have any to recommend? I admit I’m a bit shy on the subject.
In the mean time, I’m reading New Moon by Stephanie Meyer. It’s been a quick read, so far. I started it this morning and I’m already more than halfway through, and it’s only 1:30. Twilight was the same. My copy is an uncorrected proof, however, so there are all kinds of blatant errors: “whoever” in place of “whomever,” which happens a lot; sentences that break in the middle and start new paragraphs, sometimes several lines below; “he”s instead of “she”s; and most annoyingly words that obviously are supposed to be other words. (At one point it says, “Charlie was the closet.” I’m pretty sure it was supposed to say “closest.”)
I admit that I’ve been turning over in my brain whether I’d get a better investment out of selling the ARC online or handing it over to my bookstore like I do with the other books I don’t intend to keep. I’d have to get at least 15 bucks out of it to make it worth selling, but I can’t help but feel a tinge of guilt; selling it denies the random browser the satisfaction of finding a treasured book. I always like going into bookstores and finding things that should be worth more than they’re priced simply because they are priceless to me. Ah well.
In any case, New Moon is startingly more disappointing than Twilight was. The main thing that has stuck out in mind so far was a point about Twilight that I found utterly annoying: Isn’t Bella supposed to be more “mature” than her peers? Wasn’t she the one who claimed to “act older” than her age, something that several other people had claimed? Perhaps the events at the beginning of this book shook her so much that she actually started acting her age, but the inconsistency still boils. I hope she grows up a bit and by the next one she has stopped calling her peers immature and childish while acting just as stupid herself.
To sum up, I’ve given in; the hype surrounding Breaking Dawn and having 20 people a day come into the store asking for any remnant of a Stephanie Meyer book has strangled me into continuing the series despite my better judgement. I think the books are fun, though. They’re not good, but I like picking them apart and scoffing at the silliness. I can only hope that the next one is just as lame.
(By the way, the answer to the trivia question is: It looked like it had been made by a carpenter.)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
It’s been a while since I participated in this weekly meme; actually, it’s been a while since I’ve participated in any of my weekly memes, probably because my work is stressful and I’ve been way too busy writing! (I’ve also understandably been busy with my big project which I can’t help but plug because it was so awesome and fun.)
Today I sat down and read some of the book I claim I’m “currently reading” – The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox. I am currently reading it, of course, but I’m also reading a few others, so instead of focusing all my attention on this masterpiece, I’m cutting it into bits, only reading a chapter here and there. I should stop. It really is a good book so far. It’s not for those who dislike “slow-paced” books. By no means would I call this slow-paced, but the bulk of the book (so far) dives into the past, thoroughly explaining the main character’s relationship with his adversary. I find the storyline captivating, but others might think it long-winded and boring (those who prefer, say, popular fiction over well thought-out literature, not that I’m prejudiced or anything).
I’m also getting through the last in the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, The Darkest Hour. I’ve overall found these books to be quite suspenseful, attention-grabbing, and addictive. But I’ll address that in a moment; for now, suffice to say that I understand why they are always sold out.
I’ve been writing a novel. Actually, in addition to reading five books at once, I’m also developing one novel (you can see my sparse developmental posts in the Sunday Scribblings category), writing another (the main character’s name is Edgar, isn’t that an awesome name?), and editing a third (my Nanowrimo from last November, Afterwords Cafe, which is doing sumersaults in my mind but might actually turn out to be a relatively decent book). It’s been busy, busy, busy in the land of Michelle, but in the end I’ll feel incredibly accomplished.
A few weeks ago I attempted to participate in a WeeklyGeek meme (another meme which I’m neglecting lately) and asked my visitors to provide questions to my unreviewed books, which I would then answer in a long post. I probably should have answered them shortly after that day, but to prove I haven’t forgotten about them, I’m going to conclude that activity now!
I liked this meme, and will consider doing it again on my own sometime as well. Perhaps every three months (or so) I will create a post for it. In any case, this gets very long, so I’m going to cut it.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
I know, I know, I’m copping out today. I think I have a really good reason for it, though; I want to spend more time reading and less time online.
So today I’m doing the Where’s Your Book Set meme provided by Blue Archipelago (who is also hosting the July Book Blowout challenge… another reason I would like to read more today!).
1. Title and author of the book
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
2. What year is the book set in?
World War II and before, also I assume the early 2000’s for the “present time” stuff.
3. What happened on this day in that year? Go to google and type in the date ie 13 July 1952 and see if you can find a news item for that day.
Well, exact years aren’t given. Time just kind of… happens. So I’m going to say that the part I’m currently reading was in 1940 during the Sino-Japanese war (give or take a few years). I’m after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident but the end of the war hasn’t happened yet… So this is just a guess. :P
On July 13, 1940, Patrick Stewart was born. Okay, it wouldn’t have been a “news item” back then, but the only other thing I can find is from Historyofwar.org stating that Italian troops from Abyssinia attack the British garrison at Moyale on the border between Abyssinia and Kenya. Wow.
4. Where is your book set?
China and America/San Fransisco
5. Have you visited that place before? If yes tell us something about your trip. If no, look the location up on google and tell us an interesting fact about the city/country.
No on both counts. I’ll put this in because it’s relevant to the book:
Chinese characters have had many variants and styles throughout Chinese history. Tens of thousands of ancient written documents are still extant, from Oracle bones to Qing edicts. This literary emphasis affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, e.g. the view that calligraphy was a higher art form than painting or drama. Manuscripts of the Classics and religious texts (mainly Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist) were handwritten by ink brush. Calligraphy later became commercialized, and works by famous artists became prized possessions. (Wikipedia)
That said, I’m still slugging through The Bonesetter’s Daughter for my book club. It’s actually quite a good book, but it’s really sad so it’s hard to get the motivation to read straight through. Next I’m going for something a little more light-hearted – Fatal Attraction by Alicia Fields. As you can see from my recently read list, I’ve been diving into more paranormal/romancey type of books, putting out more feelers in the genre if you will. I like the strong men with fatal flaws and supernatural powers; this one, however, stars Aphrodite, so it’ll be really interesting to see whether it butchers Greek mythology like the Gena Showalter books did (*cough* still like them *cough*) or if I’ll come back in a week and tell you it was the truest portrayal I’ve ever seen. I’ve also acquired Inkspell and Dragon Rider, both by Cornelia Funke, since I enjoyed Inkheart so much… But I’ll probably read those after I’ve gotten through the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, as they were so graciously lent to me by Hev. I know! Lots of young adult mingled in there, and I’m really looking forward to it.
Until next week! Hopefully I’ll have an honest-to-God real post about reading then.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
It’s been a while, now, hasn’t it? I’ve been working on Sundays and I find when I work on Sunday I really don’t have time to read and get online. The past few Sundays I’ve been reading after work and then going to bed late into the night… I also haven’t touched Twilight of the Superheroes since the last time I posted under this heading.
When I started doing these Sunday Salon posts I thought it was a brilliant idea to dedicate each Sunday to a short story, then write about that story with my post. I’m starting to think that I’d prefer to do what other people do – read a bit from the book I’m already reading anyway, then share my ideas on my progress so far. For one, it means I don’t get stuck reading something I’m probably not in the mood for anyway (*cough*).
So what have I read since the last time I posted? Gosh, it’s almost been a full month! I finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which was one I couldn’t put down… Sort of like how I couldn’t put down Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Those young adult authors clearly have something going that I’d like to get into. I also read the first two Lords of the Underworld novels by Gena Showalter; I’ve loved JR Ward’s Blackdagger Brotherhood books and I wanted to read something else mythologically appealing (if inaccurate), so The Darkest Night and The Darkest Kiss both spoke to me. Actually, they giggled at me, and I giggled right alongside them. Lately, though, I’ve been reading The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer which has been on my wishlist since it came out in hardback and on my TBR pile since the day it came out in paperback. It’s a good sign – I’m finally making an etch in those bookshelves I reserve specifically for “not read yet” books!
A few Sundays ago, Katrina’s Reads posted a meme specifically for the Sunday Salon and today I’m going to steal it.
The author I always meant to read is Evelyn Waugh. I have some of his books (this is true for a lot of authors I haven’t read, though) and just haven’t seemed to have gotten around to them yet.
The author I always meant to read more of is Philip Roth. I have seven of his books in my collection already but I’ve only read one of them. I really enjoyed it so I’m not sure what’s keeping me back from reading the rest…
The genre I always meant to try is political/spy thrillers, actually. I don’t think I’ve ever read any from this section of the store. I mean, I usually enjoy political thriller movies so why wouldn’t I like the books?
The book on my TBR pile I always mean to read next always manages to be by Haruki Murakami. I have tons and tons of his books and one of my 101 Things in 1,001 Days goals is to read all of his books that I currently own. So I’m in the middle of a book and I glance in the direction where I keep his books on my shelf and think, “I’ll read one of those next.” I always mean to… But it doesn’t seem to quite turn out as planned.
The book I always meant to try again is The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa. Well, there are a lot I’d like to read again, but this one in particular because while I was reading it for a class in college, people kept comparing it to The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. Now I’ve read that, and others by Vargas Llosa, and I’d like to go back and re-read this book which I loved so much, if not just to get more out of it.
I don’t have a lot else to say, unfortunately, because (as I hinted) I’m not really in the mood for Twilight of the Superheroes. But! I did read some Castle in the Forest and I’m starting to get into the book much more. It had a very slow, rather drawn-out and confusing beginning, but now it’s one of those books I randomly think about in the middle of the day and yearn to read even though I can’t because I’m at work or driving or doing some other menial, obviously unimportant task. Like writing this post, for example. :)
It’s been raining a lot lately, I should mention, since it’s my subject line and all. I really enjoy reading when it’s raining – I can’t sit on the porch and listen to it, because my apartment is crooked. (Basically the rain very easily gets onto the porch, even though we have a covering, and large puddles start to build and attempt to drown us if we sit out there.) However, I can crack a window and listen to it, smell the musky breath of the wind while I dive into another world. The sounds of rain are so soothing; even the thunder never frightened me.
Today is another promised rainy day so I hope to get a lot more reading done later, but now it’s time to make cookies.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
I know it’s not technically summer yet, but the past few days have been so horribly hot that it may as well be. Yesterday I cut my hair in the bathroom really, really short so that it wouldn’t be on my neck. Of course, now it’s always in my face. Why I give myself bangs every time I cut my hair is beyond me, because I clearly don’t enjoy it! I’m also sitting here eating cantaloupe. Most people associate watermelon with summer, which is fine I guess, but I personally tend to have cantaloupe at the start of the season so it always comes with a feeling.
Somewhere in the middle of my reading today, I suddenly felt it only proper to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. All of my peanut butter is expired (yes, it’s been that long since I’ve had a PB&J sandwich), so I compromised and made it with grape jelly and apple butter. It wasn’t too great, but this season is about experimentation and energy. The fan sent shivers down my spine as I continued reading munching on wheat bread with too much slop in between.
Last week I missed the Salon and all the posts that came with it due to a funeral. I also missed my reading of Twilight of the Superheroes; instead, I spent most of the day on an airplane reading The Time Traveler’s Wife. Actually, since my last Salon post, I finished that, I Sing the Body Electric! by Ray Bradbury, and JR Ward’s Lover Enshrined. I’m hopping quickly through The Book Thief by Markus Zusak as a feeble attempt to start my Cat Herding Challenge books. I’m a little behind in my two challenges, but I’m putting together a post for the June Bookworms Carnival, which is hosted by Nymeth and themed Fairy Tales, and the Soup’s On! challenge requires me to cook… And, well, I haven’t had a lot of time for that either. Looking forward to getting into my cookbooks soon, though, because they’ve been neglected for far too long!
So today was my first revisit to the Deborah Eisenberg book since two weeks ago… It’s a good thing I’m keeping tabs. Today bright me to a story called “Window,” and made me realize how few books are single-word titled. They all have “the”s or “a”s… And even though this is a short story, it’s made me want to find a book that doesn’t have more than one word in its title!
I can’t say it did much else for me.
I didn’t “get” this one. There were a lot of characters in this story and I couldn’t quite figure out what their relations were to each other. I was also pretty annoyed with the fact that the story started out fine, perfectly well in fact, but then slowly snowballed into a mesh of improper punctuation. People would be saying things, but there would be no quotes, and no line breaks. It felt rushed, smushed together like the editor didn’t have time to correct it.
Somewhere in the middle I started thinking that maybe when there weren’t any quotes and these mysterious other characters showed up, perhaps those were memories. Those moments had a memory feel to them; in your memories, there’s no time for proper quotation use and line breaks. You just think of it how it was, and it’s very straight forward and jumbled. And this would have been fine – great, in fact – except there was nothing implying a memory, nothing to connect these characters to the others (except a child, though I was unsure of why he was in both groups of people). Maybe I missed something. Maybe I fell asleep across two sentences and thus missed the point of the whole story.
Surprisingly, though, I got the “Window.” I may have missed out on the bulk of the meaning, but the window stayed with me – looking through it with envious eyes, sometimes yearning or expecting something, sometimes disappointed… Rarely satisfied but surprised at finding something satiable. Perhaps I have slapped this “memory” thing onto this story and it’s not actually there, but the window theme made me think of how we sometimes think of our past. It’s always as if gazing through a closed window, clear though it is we can’t get through to the other side, can’t warn ourselves of what’s to come or congratulate old friends with whom we recently lost touch. And so I think this story has created meaning for me through my own silly and maybe incorrect interpretation of it, because I was trying so hard to get into this author’s writing that I eventually got bored of it.
An edit (the next day). I reread the story and found what I was missing. I’m amazed at how well the “memory” was translated, how I got that even though I had no idea what was going on! I’ll have to strike through my original statement that I “didn’t get much” from it, because the power of word usage and style is readily apparent in this story. It starts with Kristina, her half-sister Alma, and a baby Noah in an apartment. The sisters are newly reunited and the parentage of Noah isn’t clear, but Alma says he’s “their” baby, as if to imply they’ve taken a bond to take care of the child together. Then we jump back in time to “she”s and “her”s which confused me so much; “she” was living with Nonie and Munsen while working at a cafe, where she met Eli. Eli, the love of her life, the man she looked at and wanted through the window… Then later, found that she could have him. Noah is his child with another woman, a nondescript name that floats through Kristina’s – “her” – life, until eventually things come together. (It could be construed as a twist, so I won’t share it.) So, for one reason or another, she’s with Alma thinking of the past.
So I’m quite a bit impressed. Sometimes stories confuse me so much that I’m left with the basic plot but I couldn’t recount details or tell you exactly what happened (read any Faulkner?). Sometimes I am so lost that I end up feeling like I just wasted two hours of my life reading this jumble of words. That would have been true of this story if it weren’t for the attention to style. I clearly understood that there was some recollection going on, that there had to be a connection in some way between the Eli, Nonie and Munsen storyline and the Kristine and Alma storyline. Noah. I’m just glad they didn’t change their names until the end, because that really would have thrown me in for a loop. Edit ends.
Books that came into my house these past few weeks? Ugh, don’t make me list them all! I grabbed Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky at the airport, though, and quite a few ARCs came in for trade at the bookstore sometime ago. They aren’t new anymore, but I like having them anyway – The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor, New Moon by Stephanie Meyer, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee, among others. I’m thinking I’ll read the ones I haven’t read and perhaps give some away during some distant future contest? (I’ve never done a contest before. It’d have to be really interesting. :P)
