Tag: book lust i

Scared by the Numbers

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Since adding all of the books from Book Lust To Go to my challenge list (all 1,600+ of them) I have been wondering how much time this has added to the challenge. I was curious. How many years will it take me to finish reading 5,500+ books? Exactly how old will I be when it is all said and done?
First I needed to know how many books I have left to read. The grand total is 5026. This includes books of varying lengths – anything from graphic novels, children’s picture books to 1,000 page biographies. Yikes. Yikes. Yikes.

Then I needed to find out my average reading “speed.” What did I accomplish in a year’s time? On average, I read 109 books a year – give or take a poem, short story or article or two. This average of 109 books included books for fun, books for LibraryThing, and the books on the challenge list. However, here is what I found out from doing the math: if I only read challenge books from here on out it would take me 45 years to finish every book indexed in Book Lust, More Book Lust and now, Book Lust To Go. Scary. I honestly don’t think I will live that long. Frightening. Seriously.
What to do? I refuse to give up reading the books from LibraryThing’s Early Review program. And, and. And! I will not ignore the gift books I receive from family or friends. So. What happens now? I either have to face facts that I will never finish reading 5026 books in my lifetime OR be a little more selective about what takes up my time. I like option #2 better.

Here are my ideas for amendments:

  • Instead of reading 50 pages before giving up on a boring book I only read one chapter or 25 pages – whichever comes first. I’m a pretty good judge of what books will bore me to death and which ones I will “book” through (pun totally intended).
  • Of the books I have read before instead of rereading them I will install the “Odd page rule.” The odd page rule is to only read the odd pages and skip the evens. (the rule right now is if I don’t remember the plot, key characters or how it ended I have to reread the entire thing. Not happening).
  • Third and final change: the movie rights rule. If a book has been made into a movie AND the book author has had a hand in writing the screenplay AND the movie has won an Academy Award I give myself permission to watch the movie instead. I am not a movie person so I doubt this last rule will really come into play that often.

I will be in my 90s when I finally finish the challenge. People have asked me why it matters. They like to point out that Nancy Pearl didn’t read every book she recommends. She had help. People made suggestions. I get it. I don’t care what Pearl has or hasn’t read. Her reading list is not my concern. The pages MY eyes fall upon are what matter and I want to read them all. If I’m lucky.

China to Me

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Hahn, Emily. China to Me: a Partial Autobiography. Philadelphia: The Blakiston Company, 1946.

I always love it when my own library has something from my Challenge list. I have to be honest. I didn’t think I would see China to Me on our shelves and I’m not sure why.

People pick up China to Me for different reasons. Some look for a travelog, something to give an accurate picture of the politics and society of mid-war China (it was published in 1944). Some look for a personal account of an outspoken feminist American living in Shanghai and Hong Kong and beyond. I picked it up because I heard Hahn was like Isabella Bird, a gutsy traveler who was not afraid to live outside the conformity of her time. After reading most of Hahn’s partial autobiography I have to disagree somewhat. Hahn’s autobiography has been criticized as being a little self-indulgent. I agree. She frequently drops the names of then-prominent Chinese society (most who mean nothing to us in the 21st century). Whereas Bird lingers over flower and fauna, Hahn belabors relationships she had. I was distracted by all the name references. I am sure in the 1940s the individuals were impressive to know but that society has long since lost its luster in the 60+ years since. Another complaint about Hahn is her apparent little regard for the welfare of her born-out-of-wedlock child. While in the Japanese prison camps she seemed more concerned with herself than the individuals around her. Despite Hahn’s apparent selfishness she writes with clever humor and keen insight. In addition her life as a concubine and mistress to a spy was interesting enough to write about!

Favorite quotes: “As long as I had a column that wasn’t news, so that our readers wouldn’t be distressed by having to think, it was all right” (p 11).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called ” Lady Travelers” (p 143). Also, from More Book Lust in the chapter called ” “Living Through War” (p 155). Mentioned a third time in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “China: The Middle Kingdom” (p 60).

Little Women

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Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. New York: Scholastic, 1987.

I think it goes without saying that Little Women is a classic. Who doesn’t know the story of Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth? Okay, so female readers of all ages probably know it better than men but either way there is no denying it’s a classic! Plus, they made a movie out of it!
So. To repeat the obvious: This is the story of the March women – Mrs. March and her four daughters. Too old to be drafted into service, Mr. March enlists to be a chaplain in the civil war. While he is away Mrs. March and her girls keep a modest house house in Concord, Massachusetts. The story centers around the four daughters and their four very different personalities. Alcott was ahead of her time when she created the character of Josephine (“Jo”). Jo is an ambitious tomboy who cuts her hair and wants to be a unmarried writer. She is referred to as male by herself (saying she is the man of the house while Father is away) and by her father (who calls her “son”). It’s an interesting dynamic to the plot. The rest of the March women are as Victorian as can be. I try to refrain from seeing them as prissy. They are all very pretty and wishy-washy and have talent. As a aside, the storytelling reminded me of Anne of Green Gables.

Disclaimer: Alcott intended Little Women to the first of a two volume set (with Good Wives being the second). Because Good Wives is not on my reading list I didn’t read it with Little Women.

Author Fact: Louisa May Alcott is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, MA. I wonder if I’ll have time to look her up while I am there in another week?

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Three-Hanky Reads” (p 236). Of course Pearl is referring to the part when Beth dies.

Carry On, Mr Bowditch

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Latham, Jean Lee. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1955.

Read this in a day. May is National History month and while that alone was a good excuse to read Carry On I also chose to read it because of Kon-Tiki. Seemed like the perfect transition.

This was reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s account about growing up in the unorganized territories of the midwest in the Little House series; better known as historical fiction. I call it biographical with a little imagination thrown in. It covers the life of Nathanial Bowditch, navigator extraordinaire. While the details of his childhood and subsequent personal adult years are somewhat abbreviated for adults, the content is perfect for children. I appreciated the way Latham didn’t minimized or sugarcoat the tragedy in Bowditch’s life. Nor did she gloss over his relationships with his first wife Elizabeth, or Polly, his second. What does come across is Bowditch’s love of mathematics and the seriousness with which he applies it to navigating the high seas. He does not suffer fools easily but his passion for teaching is enthusiastic and patient.

Favorite lines: “Sometimes women get a little upset about the sea” (p 71). Well, can you blame them? Husbands were gone for months and even years. Sometimes they didn’t come home at all. Another line I liked “You know, you’re real humanlike – in spite of your brains” (p 86). Funny.

Book Trivia: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch won Latham a Newbery Medal.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Historical Fiction for Kids of All Ages” (p 114).

Six Months in Hawaii

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Bird, Isabella. Six Months in Hawaii. London: KPI, 1986.

This book has several different titles. The one I was supposed to read is called Six Months in the Sandwich Islands: Among Hawaii’s Palm Groves, Coral Reefs and Volcanoes. I couldn’t find that edition so I had to settle on the one simply called Six Months in Hawaii. They appear to be one in the same. There’s another called Hawaiian Archipelago. I couldn’t find that one either. Granted, I didn’t look that hard either.

The thing I love about Isabella Bird’s writing is that she is humorous as well as descriptively thorough in her observations. She has a certain playfulness to her otherwise didactic travelogue. The thing I love about Isabella Bird the person is that she is adventurous to the core. To read about her crossing a swollen river like it was a walk in the park is astounding. Her horse nearly drowns but she keeps her cool. According to the introduction to Six Months in Hawaii by Pat Barr Isabella Bird was 41 years old when she first visited the islands of Hawaii. Around my age. Traveling by herself at a time when women were not supposed to be unaccompanied at any age. Fearless.

Examples of her humor: “Miss Karpe, my travelling companion, and two agreeable ladies, were already in their berths very sick, but I did not get into mine because a cockroach, looking as large as a mouse, occupied the pillow, and a companion not much smaller was roaming over the quilt without any definite purpose” (p 45), and “…my beast stopped without consulting my wishes, only a desperate grasp of mane and tethering rope saved me from going over his head” (p 70).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Lady Travelers” (p 142). Also from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Hawaii: memoirs” (p 94).

“True Love”

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Szymborska, Wislawa. “True Love.” Poems New and Collected 1957 – 1997. 1998. Trans. Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 2000.

I couldn’t help but think of Natalie Merchant singing “Jealousy” when I read this poem for the first time. It sounds spiteful and catty. It could have been written by someone sitting alone on prom night or someone with no one to kiss on New Year’s Eve. That wallflower with the mad-enough-to-spit-nails attitude. It’s sad and snarly. The echo of longing for a relationship is loud and resonating and clear and yet, the poem speaks of true love being a farce, a joke, something he or she cannot possibly believe in.

As an aside…I have been struggling with what to say at my cousin’s burial. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the guy. It’s the love that has me livid. I’m thinking if I had been a little less loving while he was alive this wouldn’t hurt so much NOW. There is truth to not believing in love.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Polish Poetry and Prose” (p 188).

“Tortures”

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Szymborska, Wislawa. “Tortures.” Poems New and Collected 1957 – 1997. 1998. Trans. Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 2000.

This was a difficult poem to read because the first few times I read it literally, I imagined feeling specific tortures inflicted on a body: whippings, bones being broken, knuckles being popped…To me it was an admonishment – society changes but our methods of torture remain the same. It’s the mantra “nothing has changed” that haunts the entire tone of the poem. There is a sense of violence behind every word.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Polish Poems and Prose” (p 188).

“Golden Retrievals”

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Doty, Mark. “Golden Retrievals.” Sweet Machine: Poems. New York: Harper Collins, 1998.

This is such a great poem to read out loud. Read it to a child in a really funny voice and watch him laugh with his imagination running wild. It’s not hard to see the golden retriever waiting for the ball to be thrown, eyes watching his master anxiously. Short attention span: the breeze, another animal, his owner’s distracted mood. Everything captivates and yet, he’s still waiting to play fetch. Love it.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Great Dogs in Fiction” (p 105).

John Barleycorn

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London, Jack. John Barleycorn. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968.

This was a hard book to read. How can I explain this? I am not in the midst of turmoil caused by someone who can’t put down the bottle. But rather, I am on the periphery of the damage that the drink is causing. Yes. I know alcoholics and at one time in my life I could have been part of the problem and yet…now it’s none of my business. Now I can walk away guilt and Scott B. free. How convenient. It’s someone I used to know. How odd. At one point in our lives he wrote the line “I never want to not know you” as he was breaking up with me. Now he’s drinking himself to death. It’s not only not my fault but it’s also none of my business. April is alcohol awareness month. I always think of Natalie’s song “Don’t Talk” when she says, “we’ll discuss this in the morning when your head is clear” but for me, morning never came. Clarity is a myth.

Jack London is the master of denial in John Barleycorn. His drinking takes him on adventures he cannot fully remember. He wakes up with his shoes, jacket, and of course, his money stolen with no memory of how he ended up where he is and yet, it is not his problem. It’s John Barleycorn’s problem. London calls alcohol John Barleycorn as if to personify the alcoholism; allowing Barleycorn to take the blame and London to be absolved of it. Early in the narrative London illustrates his confusion with John Barleycorn, “I am. I was. I am not. I never am. I am never less his friend than when he is with me and when I seem most his friend” (p 4). Sure. In addition to denial London is obsessive. Everything he does is to the extreme. Shoveling coal, studying books, drinking, writing. Whatever he does he attacks it, spending 15 hours a day at it.

One of my favorite lines, “But it is ever the way of John Barleycorn to loosen the tongue and babble the secret thought” (p 52). Here’s another, “Gratitude is inherently human” (p 207).

Author fact: some think London committed suicide. Interesting because John Barleycorn touches on suicide several times.

Book Trivia: Librarians don’t be shocked when I say this, but according to Wikipedia the first reference to being extremely drunk as “seeing pink elephants” came from John Barleycorn. Interesting, if true.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Lost Weekends” (p147).

Cold Mountain

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Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1998.

I started the year reading a lot about World War II (Flags of Our Fathers and Band of Brothers) and decided to move onto the Civil War. It was perfect timing for such a move because the start of the Civil War was in April.

Right away I need to make a bold statement. I have mixed feelings about this book. While the writing was amazing I couldn’t reconcile all the sadness. Hopelessness and starvation follow every character and violence is nearly in every chapter that involves main man Inman. As a deserter in the Confederate army I realize his journey back to North Carolina will be fraught with dangers of all kinds, both from nature (animals and the elements) and mankind (by leaving the ear he is officially an enemy of both sides now). The Home Guard is determined to bring every deserter to justice. It’s a harsh book so don’t expect any happy endings (although the epilogue tries an attempt at some semblance of peace if not cheer). I am embarrassed to say I am like every other romantic out there that wished the book ended on page 406.

In the very beginning of Cold Mountain there is a line that sums up the epitome of any war, “Every vile deed he had witnessed lately had been at the hand of a human agent so he had about forgot that there was a whole other order of misfortune” (p 9). Cold Mountain is a war book but it is also a relationship book and a romance. Inman is a confederate soldier recuperating from a serious neck wound. When he is well enough to move he decides to become a deserter and make his way back to North Carolina where there is the memory of a girl he fell in love with. During his long journey home his love, Ada, is struggling to run her deceased father’s farm. Helping her is Ruby, a strong mountain woman running from her father and the memory of a neglectful childhood.
Towards the end of the book not one but two wounded men make their way back to Ada and Ruby. Ruby’s father has murdered his relationship with his daughter but when he is shot and left for dead it is up to her to put aside their differences and nurse him back to health. Inman makes his way back to Ada with more than a broken body. His spirit has been tested. I spotted a lot of symbolism (intentional or not). The reoccurring mention of crows was ominous while the fixation of food represented an emptiness of more than just bellies. There was an absence of comfort and of hope.

Only favorite line (besides the one I previously quoted), “Even my best intentions come to naught and hope itself is but an obstacle” (p 353). See what I mean about hope?

Probably my biggest connection in the book was with the music. If it weren’t for Natalie Merchant I wouldn’t have recognized the lyrics to Wayfaring Stranger or Mary Don’t You Weep and now that I know the movie has a soundtrack I might have to go out and get it.

Author fact: Frazier is from North Carolina and a distant relative was the inspiration for Cold Mountain, Frazier’s first novel.

Book Trivia: Cold Mountain won a National Book Award and was made into a movie.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Civil War Fiction” (p 57).

“House of Blue Light”

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Kirby, David. “The House of Blue Light.” The House of Blue Light. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998. pp 26-29.

“The House of Blue Light” reads like a short story. We’re talking really, really short, but a story with characters and a plot all the same. It starts off with dad at the gym. I’m guessing he’s in his 40s, maybe early 50s. He’s watching Little Richard on tv. Inexplicably he gets emotional about the music he hears. I say inexplicably because personally, I cannot understand Little Richard for the life of me. Anyway, when describing the incident to his wife she tells him, “your just emotional because your son is going off to college.” His emotions make him think about other situations where he has broken down and lost his compusure. He imagines a house of blue light where good times are had. A place where all his memories are kept.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Kitchen Sink Poetry” (p 138).

My Antonia

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Cather, Willa. My Antonia.New York: Everyman’s Library, 1996.

Rereading My Antonia was like spotting a familiar face in a crowd somewhere in a country I have never been to before. It was like coming home after forty years away and remembering houses and neighbors. An old familiarity that was somehow comforting and true. I thoroughly enjoyed rereading this classic. Structurally, My Antonia is separated into five different books: The Shimerdas (introducing Antonia and her Bohemian family), The Hired Girls (delving into Antonia’s life in town), Lena Lingrad (Antonia’s good friend), The Pioneer Woman’s Story (Antonia’s friend, Tiny’s return to the farmland) and Cuzak’s Boys (Jim visiting Antonia after a twenty year absence and meeting her large family).
The premise of the story is in the introduction. Two friends are traveling by train and reminiscing about Antonia, a girl they both knew growing up. They agree to write their thoughts of her but James Quayle Burden is the only one to do so. He tells the story of growing up on the Nebraska plains with Antonia as his lifelong friend.

Best lines: “Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great” (p 20), “Those two could quarrel all morning about whether he ought to put on his heavy or his light underwear, and all evening about whether he had taken cold or not” (p 159), and “Clearly, she was the impulse, and he the corrective” (p 262).

Author Fact: Willa Cather was born Wilella Cather and lived in New York for most of her life.

Book Trivia: My Antonia was made into a movie in 1995.

BookLust Twist: My Antonia is indexed in all three Lust books: in Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads, Decade by Decade: 1910s” (p 175), in More Book Lust in the chapters called “The Great Plains: Nebraska” (p 107) and “The Immigrant Experience” (p 123), and in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Nebraska: The Big Empty” (p 148). If Pearl had written a chapter called “Women Channeling Men” she could have included My Antonia there as well.

Big Sleep

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Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The High Window.New York: Everyman’s Library, 2002.

This was my first introduction to a “hardboiled” thriller. Phillip Marlowe is a private investigator hired to deal with a blackmailer. His client is an ailing elderly General with two unruly adult daughters. The plot twists and winds around murder after murder and through it all private investigator Philip Marlowe is right behind, chasing down clues and killers. It takes place in the 1930s so the economy is a little out of place but the humor and sarcasm of Marlowe is timeless. One of my favorite “shticks” in the story is how everyone keeps asking Marlowe if he is looking for the missing husband of one of the daughters, Vivian. He has been hired to sort out a blackmail scheme, not find a missing man but everyone assumes that is why he is on the case. He ends up accomplishing both but his technique along the way is highly entertaining.

Favorite passages: “The General spoke again, slowly using his strength as carefully as an out-of-work show-girl uses her last good pair of stockings” (p 7) and “Dead men are heavier than broken hearts” (p 36) and “If you can weigh a hundred and ninety pounds and look like a fairy, I was doing my best” (p 44).

Author Fact: Raymond Chandler didn’t start writing detective fiction until he was 45 years old. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Book Trivia: The Big Sleep was made into a movie twice and was just adapted for the stage in 2011.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 122). This is a huge chapter with over 80 titles. She does try to break up the lists into different genres of mystery and I guess Chandler would be listed under private investigators.

Two Towers

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Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings “The Two Towers.” Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

The saga continues. I have to admit there were times when I was reading Two Towers and I thought, “Wait. Didn’t I just read this? Wasn’t this in Fellowship of the Ring?” My advice would be to read the entire Lord of the Rings series straight through. That way you won’t lose your place and confused with the details.

At this point in the saga Frodo and crew are still traveling through the dangerous countryside on a journey to destroy the magic ring. Along the way they encounter Gandolph (who they thought was dead), trees that can walk, talk and see called Ents, the have a couple of skirmishes with bad guys and they trust creepy swamp creature, Gollum. We leave the happy hobbits as Frodo is being captured. Okay, so they’re not so happy.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 215).

Fixer

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Malamud, Bernard. The Fixer. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.

Yakov “Ivanovitch” Bok is a poor Jewish handyman in Russia, a fixer. When his wife of five years couldn’t produce a child he stopped having sex with her. This prompted her to run off with another man. Left with his father-in-law and no prospects for work, Yakov decides to leave his little shetl for the bigger city of Kiev. He knows that leaving the safety of the Jewish village is a dangerous risk. Kiev is full of anti-semites hungry for the blood of his people. But, he is 30 years old and is losing faith, just short of becoming desperate. A short time after arriving in Kiev he comes across a drunk man lying face down in the snow. His manner of dress tells Yakov the man is not only wealthy, but an anti-semite. Despite this Yakov helps him out of the snow. Nikolai Maximovitch is indeed wealthy and, feeling very much indebted to Yakov, gives him work. He further rewards Yakov with a job as overseer at his brick company and gives Yakov permission to see his only daughter, a crippled by the name of Zina. Despite Yakov’s fear of being found a Jew and against his better judgement he reluctantly accepts the job but has nothing to do with Zina. A series of misfortunes lands Yakov in jail where he is accused of being Jewish, attacking Zina, and worse, committing murder. Based on a true story this is a very, very difficult story to read. Yakov’s plight is horrible, his situation, dire and it doesn’t improve despite his innocence.

Favorite lines: “Where do you go if you have been nowhere?” (p 29) and “The more one hides the more he has to” (p 41).

Author Fact: I read The Fixer in honor of Malamud’s death month being in March. He died on the 18th in 1986 at the age of 72.

Book Trivia: The Fixer was made into a movie in 1968.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “The Jewish American Experience” (p 133). False alarm. Pearl admits The Fixer is not about the Jewish-American Experience. She just mentions it because Malamud wrote other books that would fall in this category and The Fixer was worth mentioning because it won a Pulitzer and a National Book Award. IMO she should have had a chapter called “Pulitzer Pleasers” or something and listed her favorite award winners. Maybe something for a new Book Lust? She could call it “Lauded Book Lusts” or something. Each chapter could be a different award: Newbery, Caldecott, Push Cart, Pultizer…. okay, I’ll shut up now.