A Work in Progress

The Illustrated Essay

How to improve upon the essay?  Essays about art and with full color illustrations will do nicely, thank you.  Although I work in a library, I actually have a degree in art history, so I am always particularly happy when I can find books that are about or relate to art.  I am still on my essay binge (actually I feel as though I am only starting out, so you might expect to see more on the subject here), and now that I have finished reading the Nick Hornby book of essays, I am ready to branch out.  John Updike has two books of essays about art, which I came across in my wanderings.  My experience with Updike's work is limited to a vague recollection of having read S. maybe ten years ago.  Updike is quite prolific--as well as novels, he has written short stories, poetry, criticism and even children's books.  He even studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford, England.  I am starting with his first book, Just Looking: Essays on Art (hopefully) to be followed by Still Looking: Essays on American Art.  I would be quite happy to own both volumes, but I will have to content myself with library copies for the time being.  It is very nice to read a book that has lovely illustrations, too, once in a while!

Over the weekend I also started reading Best American Essays of the Century edited by Joyce Carol Oates (another book I may have to break down and purchase).  What I had planned to do was just read a few essays each week--whatever sounded appealing.  But all the essays seem appealing in these books, so I may just read them straight through.  I really liked what Joyce Carol Oates had to say in the introduction:

"I was the ideal reader (in reference to having to read hundreds of essays in determining which ones would be included): I wanted to like what I read, and I was committed to reading the entire essay with sympathy.  If you substitute 'literature' for 'poetry' in this famous remark in a letter of Emily Dickinson's, you have my basic criterion for the work included in The Best American Essays of the Century: 'If I read a book (and) it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me I know that is poetry.  If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry'."

I suspect with most readers this is the case, I know it is with me--when I start a new book I read with the anticipation of reading something wonderful--maybe even great.  I want to like what I read, and usually I do to various extents.  Sometimes I think I am probably not discerning enough, and maybe I need to read more critically.  I guess I will know the really sublime stuff--when I feel like the top of my head was taken off!

A Book of Literary Lists

I found this book, Literature Lover's Book of Lists by Judie Strouf, when I was weeding out my collection earlier this month.  While it doesn't give much explanation and certainly no literary analysis, it is a fun book to flip through and get reading ideas from. It is literally a book of all sorts of literary lists--lots on the various types of literature and genres as well as other sorts of literary trivia.  While this might be slightly dated now (the copyright on this book is 1998), I like the "est" list:

• Oldest Complete Novel in world - The Tale of Ganji (Japan, eleventh century)
• Oldest poet laureate - William Wordsworth, age seventy-three (when appointed)
• Oldest book printed with movable type - Gutenberg Bible (about 1454)
• Oldest theater - Teatro Olimico (in Italy - 1508)
• Youngest author - Dorothy Straight, age four (How the World Began)
• Youngest author-illustrator - Dennis Vollmer, age six (Joshua Disobeys)
• Youngest poet laureate- Laurence Eusden, age thirty (when appointed)
• Largest bookstore - Barnes & Noble(in NYC - 154,250 sq. ft.)   I wonder if this is still true?
• Largest English language dictionary - Oxford English Dictionary (twenty volumes) no doubt this is no online...
• Largest library - Library of Congress (in Washington, DC - 532 miles of shelving containing over eighty-eight million items)
• Largest printing company - R.R. Donnelly & Co. (Chicago)
• Largest theater - National People's Congress Building in China (seats 10,000 people)
• Smallest book - Old King Cole (1/25" x 1/125" pages have to be turned with a needle)
• Smallest theater - Piccolo (in Germany, seats thirty people)
• Longest biography - Winston S. Churchill (infinished work of five volumes by Randolph S. Churchill and Martin Gilbert)
• Longest-lived poet laureate - John Masefield (nearly eighty-nine years old)
• Longest novel - Les homes de bonne Volonte by Louis Farigoule (twenty-seven volumes) Hmm.
• Longest on N.Y. Times bestseller list - The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck (more than 300 weeks)
• Longest overdue book in U.S. - 145 years (in Ohio)
• Longest over due book in the world - 288 years (in Germany)
• Longest running comic strip - Katzenjammer Kids (since 1897) never heard of it...
• Longest Shakespeare play - Hamlet
• Longest-tenured poet laureate - Alfred Lord Tennyson (nearly forty-two years)
• Shortest drama review - "Ouch" (of play called Wham!)
• Slowest publishing of a book - a German dictionary entitled Deutsches Worterbuch (117 years)

This afternoon I returned a pile of books to the public library (some read and sadly, some unread).  I thought I would just take a peek at the new books area, where I am always lamenting the fact that I never find anything there that I want to read (you really need to request them online).  But no, staring me in the eye were Arthur and George by Julian Barnes (when it first came out I really didn't feel compelled to read it, but after my first taste of Arthur Conan Doyle, my curiosity has been piqued), and Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad.  It was really not my intention to come home with yet more books, but what can I say.  I have this weird guilt complex when it comes to library books.  I see them sitting there and know I cannot possibly read them all (which is why some had to go back), but I don't have this problem with my own books--no matter how tall the piles grow--I know there is no rush to get them read.  So now I have started an Amazon order...so far I have two Colette books in the basket (the same two that went back to the library unread)...must think carefully about what else to choose...

Nex Up: The Observations

I am greatly looking forward to starting The Observations by first time novelist, Jane Harris.  I am trying not to buy any books in hardcover, but I broke down when I received a coupon and got this discounted.  Tell me this does not sound tempting (per the book jacket):

"With its cinematic vividness, masterly, often hilarious dialogue, and its sophisticated yet unexpectedly light-hearted take on Victorian hypocrisy , The Observations is a powerful tale of secrets, sordid pasts, and mysterious disappearances.  And it is unquestionably the story of Bessy Buckley, one of the most delightful heroines in recent fiction.  A hugely assured and darkly funny debut, The Observations is certain to establish Jane Harris as a significant new literary talent."

As Victoria has given it a positive review, I am anticpating this even more.  Last week I finished The Birth House by Ami McKay (this link shows the American version due to be released in September--I think I prefer the cover on the Canadian version).  As I have already mentioned this several times, I won't give a detailed review.  It was, however, immensely readable and I enjoyed it greatly.  The writing was good, and the characters and story were wonderful.  It is set in Nova Scotia during WWI.  Dora Rare is apprenticed as a midwife at a time when modern medicine is rearing its (none too pretty) head in her small town of Scots Bay.  There is more to the story than just midwifing (or midwifery--not sure of the correct terminology).  Were women always considered hysterical in nearly every emotional situation?  Wait, you probably don't need to answer that, I can pretty well guess.   I am only happy the "treatments" no longer are used.  This is another book I am happy to have in hardcover, and I can easily recommend it.  I am ready to start The Observations, but I have to finish Sixty Lights by Gail Jones first.  I had to ILL this book (thank you Amherst College), and they gave me a very short loan time.  Hopefully I will finish it this weekend, though it shouldn't be hard as I am finding this quite enjoyable as well.  I love it when characters in books talk about reading.  I will leave you with this quote from Sixty Lights:

"Dickens, George Eliot, William Thackeray: Lucy discovered the ship's small library.  She thought for the first time about what it meant to read a novel. What process was this?  What self-complication?  What seance of other lives into her own imagination?  Reading was this metaphysical meeting space - peculiar, specific, ardent, unusual - in which black words neatly spaced on a rectangular page persuaded her that hypothetical people were as real as she, that not diversion, but knowing, was the gift the story gave her.  She learnt how other people entered the adventure of being alive.  She saw them move and think and make various choices.  Rain fell, sun shone, journeys were undertaken.  In a high window framed by billowy white curtains, a heroine blew kisses to her lover standing in shadows on the street, his face upturned to receive its inexpressible sensation; and in this moment, composed of aphabets, Lucy knew the shape of her own yearning.  There were sight-lines, image tokens, between people and people, between people and objects and words on a page, that knitted the whole world in the purest geometry of connections.  One simply had to notice.  One had to remark."

Books I'm Afraid to Read

Yesterday I read an interesting article in The New Yorker about Stephen Joyce, James Joyce's grandson, who controls Joyce's literary estate.  Did you know that today, the 16th, is the 102nd anniversary of Bloomsday--the day in which the events of Joyce's Ulysses takes place?  I had no idea.  Stephen James Joyce (as he likes to be called) seems to be making life quite difficult for scholars to do anything, well, scholarly--in terms of Joyce's life and work.  Apparently he has been accused of destroying letters (which he denies), refusing acess to Joyce's papers, blocking public performances of Joyce's work, and opposing any sort of new editions of Ulysses or biographies of Joyce or of any of his family.  All in all he sounds fairly nasty to me.  Per the article:

"Stephen has also attempted to impede the publication of dozens of scholarly works on James Joyce.  He rejects nearly every request to quote from unpublished letters.  Last year, he told a prominent Joyce scholar that he was no longer granting permissions to quote from any of Joyce's writings."

According to Stephen Joyce he is simply trying to protect the legacy of James Joyce and the privacy of the Joyce family.  Of course I can certainly understand this.  I, too, would hate the idea (if I were a famous author) of scholars digging through all aspects of my personal life.  I would also probably want to only reveal those things important to my work and nothing that might be embarrassing.  However, as a reader, I know when I am curious about something or someone I want to know every last detail.  Certainly there are going to be personal or private matters, but those might have particularly important bearing on why an author wrote what he did.  Stephen Joyce was quoted as saying that reading Joyce is not as difficult as scholars say he is.  As a matter of fact he thinks that scholars have put off many readers who are afraid to attempt his work.  Maybe he is right.  Joyce, however, told one of his translators (once again per the article):

"I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality."

To me that sort of makes Ulysses sound difficult!  Hmm.  What all this boils down to...when I was reading this article I was thinking that there are not many books that I am afraid of reading or at least attempting to read, but Ulysses pretty much tops any list that I could come up with.  As a matter of fact all of Joyce's work scares me.  My fear is that I will read, and I will be totally and completely lost.  Even with a book like Dubliners, which is short stories, I don't look forward to reading.  If I did have to come up with a list, you could also add Umberto Eco (though I did buy The Name of the Rose recently in anticipation of attempting it), and to a lesser degree Shakespeare (though honestly here it is probably more a matter of laziness) and maybe even William Faulkner (though I did "read" The Sound and the Fury...and if Oprah can recommend him for her bookclub, surely I could read him with some degree of success, too, right?). 

These are just small mental stumbling blocks.  I mean it isn't as though I would be attempting to read any of these authors in a foreign language, right?  Sometimes, though, some books even in English feel quite foreign!  I decided this year to begin working my way through the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list.  Although it will take me (probably) years to make my way to the top, I thought it would be as good a list as any to read from (I do like The Observer's list too, though), so I can be exposed to authors I may not have chosen to read otherwise.  Joyce has three books on the list.  Faulkner has three as well.  I guess I will worry about those books when I get to them.  The article also discussed the issue of copyright, but that topic is better saved for another day.

The Desert Island Scenario

Recently Tales from the Reading Room contemplated which ten books she would take with her to a desert island. Why do I love questions like this?  Of course you really do have to give this some serious thought.  There are so many variables, which might impact your decision of which books to choose.  I mean, will you be rescued some day?  Or are you stuck there?  If you are going to be there for the duration, perhaps a textbook written for say the Navy SEALs about survival training would be helpful.  But who wants to waste one of your book selections on something like this if you might be rescued someday.  Then there is the consideration of exactly what sort of desert island it is.  Are they all the same?  Living in Nebraska, I can't say I have much, okay any, experience with this sort of environment.  Are all islands tropical and exceedingly humid?  And if it is going to be that hot are you going to want to bring really heavy duty reading?  Perhaps you would want something light and amusing.  And would I want to bring some hefty books that I have not yet read and tested even though I have always meant to read them?  What if I hated them?  So, you see I have been considering this for a few days.  The books I finally decided would see me through (in no particular order) are:

1. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen--actually I thought I might cheat here and snag a collection.  Surely there must be a Modern Library edition that has all of her novels?
2. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas--and it will have to be the unabridged version--a good adventure story to take my mind off being stranded. 
3. Middlemarch, George Eliot--I said after reading this that a novel such as this requires careful study and more than one reading...can't beat the circumstances here for several readings.
4. Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund--a seafaring tale would be needed, I think.  Okay, maybe I should opt for Moby Dick, but I think I would prefer a retelling of the story (loosely done) from the woman's point of view--and this one has already been read and enjoyed.
5. Learning to Swim, Clare Chambers
6. In a Good Light, Clare chambers--these last two books are not highbrow lit, but I could happily read them over and over, and you definitely need something easy and entertaining now and then.
7. Chocolat, Joanne Harris--another story that I have read over and over.
8. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte--the windswept Moor would be a nice change from the sand and heat.
9. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins--because it is one of my favorites.
10. Howard's End, E.M. Forster (again...can I bring a collected works...).

How can you possibly narrow it down to only ten?  And ask me this question in six months and we'll see how similar the lists are!  So can I tempt anyone else who hasn't already posted their list on Tales from the Reading Room to share your choices?

On Photography

"Photography has without doubt made her a seer; she is a woman of the future, someone leaning into time, beyond others, precarious, unafraid to fall...", so says the book description.

When I read a review of Sixty Lights by Gail Jones over at Reading Matters, I knew I had to get a copy of this book.  I am intrigued with not only the settings (Australia, London and India), but the period (Victorian) and the whole concept of photography in its infancy.  Jones is Australian, and her novel has not been published in the US, but I was able to track down a copy with the help of my library's ILL department.  How can you pass up a book that has been described as:

'"A moving and captivating story... a feast for lovers of language"?

It is a slim little volume with just over 200 pages, but sometimes it is amazing what an author can do in such a small amount of space.  I have only started reading, but I can already tell I am going to enjoy this book.  It starts out with Lucy and her brother Thomas being orphaned.  I haven't read enough to give much detail, but this synopsis makes the book sound quite tempting:

"Her tale is told in sixty illuminated parts - using candlelight, flames, lightning, gas-lamps, mirrors, magic lanterns and, most mysteriously, lit faces and bodies. In a contracted, almost modernist form, Sixty Lights tracks Lucy's life from her childhood in Australia, to her stormy adolescence in England and India and finally to her death in London at the age of twenty-three."

To round things out a bit I have also borrowed a copy of The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre by Dominic Smith, which has come recommended by Pages Turned.  This novel seems to have also received some very positive reviews.  Kirkus gave it a starred review saying:

"A compelling psychological study, a thoughtful tracing of the birth of a new art form and an atmospheric portrait of 19th-century France: impressive on all three counts."

It is the imagined story of photography's inventor, Louis Daguerre.  When we met him he is going mad after spending years using poisonous mercury vapors to cure his photographic images.  He decides to create a "doomsday list" of ten items he must photograph before he dies.  This will be my follow-up to Sixty Lights.  It will be interesting to compare and contrast the two novels even though the only thread (at leas that I am aware of right now) running through both is photography.  Now I am off to read, and see if they live up to my high expectations!

Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend

Over the weekend I finished watching Masterpiece Theatre's Elizabeth I: The Virgin Queen.  Oftentimes I will see something or read something and it will pique my curiosity to a point where I become sort of obsessive about the topic.  I find that I am very interested in learning more about Queen Elizabeth I.  I have gone through this before, as my little stack (I didn't pull them all out--I should have a few more books on the subject...) here might attest.  The timing for this actually couldn't be better as my public library is one of 40 nationwide that will be hosting The Newberry Library Exhibit of Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend.  The exhibit at my library runs from June 28 through August 11.  I am not sure what exactly to expect from the exhibit, but I am most particularly interested in the programs that will be running in addition to the exhibit.  I hope to attend as many of them as I can.  The Saturday Lecture Series will hopefully be as good as it sounds. 

In addition to all the activities, of course I have to have supplementary reading material.  The brochure that I grabbed last time I was at the library lists several interesting-sounding titles.  I only have one that is listed-Elizabeth I by Anne Somerset, which I will have to search for (though I think I remember where it is on the bookshelf--surely I didn't give that one away...).  As for the other books I did manage to grab: The First Elizabeth by Carolly Erickson, Elizabeth and Mary by Jane Dunn, and The Public and Private Worlds of Elizabeth I by Susan Watkins (a gorgeously illustrated book of Elizabeth's world--the author has one on Mary Queen of Scots as well).  I may have to read a few reviews and see which is the most readable of the biographies I have.  I also have a copy of Philippa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover.  I had thought this might be a bit closer to historical romance than historical reality, but I am willing to give it a spin.  This is the book that is being used for book discussions at the library, so I am interested in reading it now.  This should satisfy my interest in Elizabeth, don't you think?

Reading War and Peace

I managed to work my way through Middlemarch (and enjoy it),  now it is time to tackle War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.  Isabella announced this weekend that this would be the next reading selection.  The set up should be similar to our Middlemarch read with a schedule to be posted soon (fifteen sections with two epilogues--perhaps one section a week?).  Discussion is due to begin July 5 on the first section.  Although I wasn't able to keep up with the Middlemarch reading schedule, I did finish the book, so I hope I can do the same with War and Peace.  I have never read Tolstoy, so I am looking forward to this.  I have been in the mood for a while to read some Russian literature, so this should fit the bill nicely...(all 1,386 pages!).  The back blurb of the book says, "often called the greatest novel ever written".  Is it just me or has this claim been applied to other famous classic novels?  In any case, I am looking forward to finding out for myself.  I wonder if I should start a flow chart of characters?  At the moment my copy is lovely and pristine...I don't think it is going to stay that way for long! 

Of course anyone is welcome to join.  Just leave a comment over at Reading Middlemarch!

What I do with the rest of my free time...

I haven't shared many needlework accomplishments here lately, but as I picked up one of my projects from the framer yesterday, I thought I would let you have a peek.  This is where some of my free time, and a small chunk of my money (though I am trying not to buy new needlework materials right now) goes.  This design was charted by a company called Historic Stitches.  It is actually a reproduction of a sampler stitched in 1885 (that is in the designer's collection) called "John Foster".  The original is of British origin, and it contains many Quaker motifs.  I thought it was a very handsome sampler, and it was stitched by a young man, which is somewhat unusual.  I am particularly fond of beehive motif, which was another draw for me.  I will be hanging it in my living room, where hopefully someone other than me will notice it!

Last night I finally got around to watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the first two hours of the Masterpiece Theatre production of The Virgin Queen.  As much as I love Johnny Depp, to be quite honest, Charlie sort of creeped me out.  I think I will stick with the original Gene Wilder version.  They did a pretty good job of remaking it, but Willie Wonka was a little too bizarre, and the whole squirrel scene (however cute the squirrels at their nut cracking job might have been) I found a bit disturbing.  I might be the only one who feels this way, though, as most Amazon reviewers seemed to loved it.  That's okay, it was just borrowed from the library.  I did vastly enjoy the Elizabeth movie.  I only caught part of it when it was on PBS earlier this year.  I hope to be able to squeeze the last two hours in tonight.  I had been working on watching Middlemarch a few weeks back, but I think I will have to start over again as I was watching it in such a disjointed way.  Another reason to love your library--rent free movies (and you get to keep them for three weeks).

I love Nick Hornby, or how I discovered the essay

Okay, wait a minute.  I love Nick Hornby's book, The Polysyllabic Spree.  First off, I only came across it by reading this post.  It would seem that many of you have already read this book...why didn't you tell me it was so good?  Probably what really sent me off to the bookstore in search of this book was my new desire to read more essays.  It was a matter of putting two and two together and then finding it on the shelf.  Even though I am not supposed to be starting a new book until I finish one already on the reading pile, what can one little essay hurt I said?  My new goal is to try and read three essays a week, so why not start here? 

I am not even going to bother adding this book to my "current reads" list on my sidebar--I don't expect it to languish on my reading pile long enough for anyone to even notice it there!  When I read the essays I feel like he is writing exactly what I am thinking and feeling.  I wonder how much of the book I can quote for you?  Hornby writes these essays for the magazine, The Believer, which apparently I am now going to have to search for.  He begins by laying some ground rules, the first of which I can particularly relate to:

"I don't want anyone writing in to point out that I spend too much money on books, many of which I will never read.  I know that already.  I certainly intend to read all of them, more or less.  My intentions are good.  Anyway, it's my money.  And I'll bet you do it too."

Yes, he knows us too well. All his essays are about books he has bought and books he has read. And when he talks about a particular book, which he wanted to read, he had read the author's previous book and loved it, so he knew what he was in for when he started reading it, he says:

"...it wasn't just up my street; it was actually knocking on my front door and peering through the letter box to see if I was in."

Those are the best kinds of books.  For me, the Ami McKay book and the William Styron, which I am currently reading, are exactly like that.  There are books that you like or enjoy or can appreciate, and then there are those books that you Love!  Anyway, if the rest of the books I found in the essay section at the booksore yesterday are like this one, they most certainly are not going to last me through the summer.

I suspect each and every essay is going to be different than the last, each with its own flavor and style.  I did search out a few anthologies at my library when I had to return the Lopate book.  I found one edited by Maureen Howard, The Penguin Book of Contemporary American Essays (which sadly had never been checked out until I came along and appears to be out of print as well).  Already I am liking it though--in her introduction Howard talks about her love of reading essays (and you can also compare this idea to blogs--and why I love reading book/litblogs):

"I heard these writers, though I had no notion of what is called, in literary parlance, a writer's voice, and I suppose that is what I loved about a good essay then and admire it still.  An essay, though it takes as many shapes as weather or daylight, always has the immediacy of a real voice, some necessity to the telling that lies close behind the written word."

So, my goal is again (at least) three essays a week.  Preferably three by different authors.  I should have plenty to choose from, as I also checked out The Best American Essays of the Century edited by Joyce Carol Oates, to go with the Mary McCarthy anthology and all my bookstore finds.  It can be dangerous discovering new things.