A Work in Progress

Where are all the happy endings?

Why is "literature" so replete with unhappy endings?  I have in mind Thomas Hardy.  I am cheating as I have not read any books by Hardy (they're in the pile...), but I have seen a fair number of his books adapted to film.  Does any of his work have a happy ending?  If so, I want to see it!  This weekend I watched The Woodlanders, which was very good, and you guessed it, rather sad.  Grace, the daughter of a timber merchant is sent away to a finishing school.  She had been promised to Giles, a woodsman.  But when Grace returns her father thinks she can make a better marriage and prompts her to marry the local doctor.  Of course this backfires.  The doctor considers himself above the "simple" people of this village.  Grace is caught in a bit of a limbo.  Although these are her friends and family, she is now more educated and finished than many, yet the people of high society still consider her a country girl.  It is obviously going to come as no surprise to anyone that this is not going to end happily.  I imagine that much was left out of the book, and it appears that there were important scenes edited out of the American version of the DVD, but I thought it was still well acted and beautifully filmed.  I know that in reading it isn't always the ending that counts, but the journey to get there, but it seems like in order for a book to be classified as literature it can't have a happy ending.  Thank heavens for Jane Austen!

I also watched King Arthur (not for the first time). I realize that they took a lot of liberties with this film in terms of the legend of Arthur.  Normally this would annoy me to no great end, but I have to say, I love this movie.  I see it more of an adventure movie, and I haven't really read enough Arthurian books to call the director or screewriter to task, since I just don't know enough about the legends.  (But I have to insert here that The Count of Monte Cristo is on TV tonight, and I won't be watching.  They completely ignored the book, and it was too far fetched for me to enjoy it--can you see I pick and choose what I like?...).  It is a pretty bloody movie, and normally this would bother me, but I guess these things that happened were so long ago and are so far removed from the reality of the here and now for me that I had no trouble watching it.  By the way, this has a semi-happy ending, but sadly some of my favorite characters don't make it to the end.  That's life, I guess. 

I joined Book Mooch last week after Dorothy mentioned it.  I had my first request for a mooch.  Someone wanted my copy of The Moonstone (not to worry, I didn't give mine away, but I had a mass market copy that I never read--I prefer trade size books these days). I tried to mooch a Daphne DuMaurier book off someone, but they are in the UK and prefer not to mail overseas due to the high cost of postage--fair enough.  This made me want it all the more, so I completely fell off the wagon and ordered four DuMaurier books from Amazon in the UK.  I know, weak, weak, weak.  I have to do better now.  (Though I will be happily waiting for my books to come in the mail--yay).  As for reading this weekend....well...it has not been a productive weekend, and now it is nearly over.  I had (as usual) such great plans.  Didn't finish the Poe (didn't even get more than a few pages into the second story), didn't read Joyce's short story "The Dead" (though I did start it, and you know, it might not be as hard as I thought it would be...). I did read a lot of the Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, though, and I am almost finished (it must be the weekend of bloody battle scenes,since the there have been just a few in the book as well).  I want to start The Mists of Avalon, since I have all this swirling around in my mind now, but just one look at my night stand and it is going to have to wait a bit longer.  Or who knows, since I didn't do anything else as planned this weekend, perhaps I will start it tonight.  Ah, what I would give for more discipline in my life. 

Books on CD...Do You, or Don't You?

I have been trying to stay away from bookstores and even the public library to some extent, but that never lasts for long.  I had to pick up a DVD last night, so I thought I would browse a bit and see what is new (absolutely no intention of checking anything else out though....no, not at all...).  I started looking at the books on CD wondering if I would like them.  I have given audio books one little try.  When I initially bought my treadmill I thought it would be fun to listen to books on tape while I walked.  My first choice was a Rosamond Pilcher novel, and I hated it.  I don't dislike Pilcher.  As a matter of fact I have read a few of her novels and enjoyed them greatly.  I think it was more a matter of the reader.  The voice grated on me terribly, and I gave up and decided to just read a book while walking instead, and that has worked for me ever since.  But I have heard other people talk about listening to books and I thought I might just give it another try.  Of course this leads to some serious questions, like if you listen to an abridged book, does it count as having read the book and you can add it to your book journal?  Perhaps with a little note?  I sort of feel like I am cheating by not only listening (and having not participated in the act of reading physically), but listening to just half the book!!  Why do I worry about these things, eh? 

My initial impetus for this whole book on audio quest was finding this BBC Radio production of Romeo and Juliet.  It starrs Kenneth Branagh and Samantha Bond.  I cannot make myself read Shakespeare for some odd reason.  I feel like there is some huge mental block there that I just can't get past.  When I saw this I thought I could pull out my book (the one I bought last year when I thought I would start reading through all his plays....), and read along.  It is just a little over three hours--surely I can handle that?  In any case, I think I will get more out of the experience this way than just reading the play to myself.  Of course when I finish I can follow up with the movie.  I think my library has all the movies (and possibly even theatrical productions) of Shakespeare's work. My other book on CD choice was Julie and Julia by Julie Powell.  I thought this might be fun to listen to, and it is the abridged version in case I find that audio books just aren't my thing.  Now, when you are listening to a CD, how do you stop and find your place again?  Technical details!

I did take a peek at the new books as well and came away with two (very bad of me...when am I supposed to fit these in, too?).  I read a good review of Joanne Harris's new book, Gentlemen and Players.  How can you pass up a book that starts out: "If there's one thing I've learned in the past fifteen years, it's this: that murder is really no big deal.  It's just a boundary, meaningless and arbitrary as all others--a line drawn in the dirt."  Have you ever heard of Liz Jensen's My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time?  Completely new to me.  A prostitute in fin-de-siecle Copenhagen becomes a cleaning lady in a house full of mysteries, and there is time travel to 21st century London...and.  Okay, I know it sounds strange.  It is either the sort of book that ends up being really good in a quirky way, or maybe just quirky...we'll see.  First maybe I can actually finish something this weekend?  This past week was not productive at all for me!

'Tis the Season....Really

I think I can say it is now officially time to start thinking about the holidays.  Are you afraid?  I know I am.  However, the Holiday catalogs have started to arrive.  Only two, but I expect soon they will arrive en masse.  The new Bas Bleu and (one of my favorite seasonal catalogs even though I can't afford much of anything in it...) The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It is a bit like wondow shopping when these come.  I may not be able to buy the lovely items shown, but I can certainly fantasize over what I would get if I could!

And, yes, I am going to do just that.  Would you like to window shop with me?  I will go quickly by all the gorgeous jewelry in the Met's catalog....it's beautiful, but at $200 for this Spanish Rosary (I love anything Spanish style), I won't even stop to look.  Let's just zip along to the back where the art books are! Now this is a book I would love to have, Dangerous Liaisons-an "elegant new volume of 18th-century French costumes and furniture".  Now that might just might feed my appetite for elegant dresses that I envision wearing--well maybe not literally--but it would put a picture in my mind whilst reading historical fiction!  Okay, here is a book that I would love to have, but it costs more than the rosary!  The Art and Spirit of Paris.  But for that price you should be able to go there yourself and pick it up! It is a slipcased two volume set tracing the entire history of the arts in Paris--no mean feat.  No wonder it costs so much.  Remember, I said we're window shopping.

I can tell you're getting fidgity, so we'll just go directly to Bas Bleu.  We can all afford something there!  How about Decorating with Books?  I want that room with the books going to the top of the inverted "V" roof!  I might just be able to fit a few books in there!  I will definitely be getting The 2007 Reading Woman Calendar!  I buy it every year to hang by my desk at work! Maybe Bloglily could use these Rainbow Carpenter Pencils and Sharpener?  I hear she is fond of fancy  colored pencils.  They would come in handy whilst filling out this New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games!  Let's get to some books now.  I would love to have The February House (now in paper by the way, so it will be going on my List).  How about Endless Love?  Do you remember it?  Am I the only one who read it (more teenage angst filled years--the same ones that saw me reading Flowers in the Attic!).  I didn't even realize it was still in print!  And yes, I saw the movie, too!  I love, love, love this book--Remarkable Trees of the World.  I bought it several years ago here.  It is the coolest book--especially if you like trees!  How about something serious?  I have a friend who has always recommended Sarah Orne Jewett.  Maybe I should give A Country Doctor a try?  Since I am in a Russian mood, a la War and Peace, this St. Petersburg Church Advent Calendar  would be fitting (actually I would love to have this and am contemplating getting it!).  If you have not read Susan Fletcher's (Whitbread Prize winner) Eve Green--it's good!  And now in paperback!  And one more since so many of us are choosing eerie and atmospheric reads these days...A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women.  It has stories from writers like Susan Glaspell (way back in 1917) up to Minette Walters (just a few years ago in 2001)! 

If you don't receive Bas Bleu already, I recommend that you request a catalog!  Just think of all the goodies I didn't share... 

Comfort Reading

As I seem to be having one of those sorts of weeks, where I feel like I am in a bit of a fug, and I don't want to deal with life and all its minutiae (and right now there is lots of minutiae), I have turned to a book that has long been on my nightstand unopened, The Oak Apple by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.  No, it is not highbrow literature.  Sorry, it likely won't win the sort of awards that make readers take notice.  But it is absorbing in a way that makes me lose myself in someone else's problems and forget my own.  Just what I need right now.  I have mentioned this series before.  It traces the history of one family from the time of the War of the Roses (1400s) until the present.  I am not very far--just entering the Civil War (early-ish 1600s)--book 4. 

By now of course the Morlands are a big family with lots of off-shoots and children born out of wedlock and the family tree is somewhat muddied--so many children and cousins and aunts and uncles and...well you get the picture, but I refer to it often, so I can keep everyone straight.  Two of the main characters in The Oak Apple are brothers, one who will inherit (though he doesn't act much like an elder son--of course), and one who should inherit.  Yes, imagine the problems.  The elder will soon be returning home (from Oxford and the beyond) with a Puritan wife.  Of course loyalties will be split when war breaks out.  And then I guess we'll see where everyone falls.  It is interesting when I am reading these books and I happen upon another set in a similar time period.  Last year I read a nonfiction book, Court Lady and Country Wife, which was about two 17th century sisters in England.  I'm trying to put myself back in that time frame.  In any case, even though I know there will be plenty of tension and turmoil in this family drama, things will end well and the Morlands will continue on (for another 20-odd wonderful novels more).

Ready for another gentle read, I thought it was time to start Louisa May Alcott's Little Women which Our Coffee Rings book group is reading this month.  I have never read Alcott (or at least the entire novel--perhaps some children's version at some point), and I have been looking forward to this.  My only fear was that it might verge a bit on the saccharine, as I always think of the March sisters as being so perfect.  However, my first taste is not one that is overly sweet (Jo balances things out nicely).  Although it definitely has the feel of a young person's book, I know I will appreciate it too.  This word is on the corny side--but I think "delightful" would be representative of this book.   Another good  read to lose myself in.  When was the last time you pictured a 16-year old girl as someone like Meg?  Although she denies it, she actually still enjoys "dressing up frolics".  It is nice to escape into a world that is safe.  Okay, I know the Civil War is in the background--anything but safe.  But we all know how Little Women will end, so in that I feel safe.  Sometimes you just need books like these....

If it's atmosphere you want...

...atmosphere you will get in Bram Stoker's The Mystery of the Sea!  I am not very far into the book--it has been slow going for me.  As much as I am finding that I really love Victorian literature, sometimes it can be rather dense reading and I have to really concentrate--at least to start out.  Also it seems to go better when I read a small chunk (a few chapters at a time at least) rather than a few pages here and there.  Only five chapters in and already there has been the gift of second sight to our narrator, Archibald Hunter.  There is an old woman, Gormala,  who can foretell death--and seems to keep popping up everywhere he goes.  And now  I (along with Archibald and Gormala) have just witnessed a procession of ghostly figures...

"Up the steep path came a silent procession of ghostly figures, so misty of outline that through the grey green of their phantom being the rocks and moonlit sea were apparent, and even the velvet blackness of the shadows of the rocks did not lose their gloom."

I am curious about all the appendices (full of ciphers) at the back of the book--I am assuming to help solve the mystery of the sea.  Perhaps a Spanish Galleon and a sailor will come into play?  I will be finding out! 

Since I am reading the Stoker at a snail's pace (or so it feels like), I also started Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue (The Dupin Tales).  A few interesting facts about Poe: he was the son of idigent actors, had to leave school due to gambling debts, married his cousin when she was not yet 14 (!), and he publicly feuded with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (and I swear there was some sort of court case, but now I can't find where I read that).  In any case, he sounded like an interesting fellow all around.  And I plan on reading his one novel when I finally break down and start buying books again!  Until then I will have to satisfy myself with his short stories (I have another book set aside for just that purpose). 

The Poe book I am reading is a lovely Modern Library edition that has three stories--along with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", there is "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter".  I believe he based his second story on an actual murder that was never solved.  He changed the setting to Paris, and M. Dupin was born.  M. Dupin reminds me quite a lot of Sherlock Holmes.  In this first short story, Dupin will solve the crime almost exclusively from the facts in the newspaper clippings he reads using "ratiocination" or analytical deduction.  I seem to be going further and further back in terms of detective stories.  Just when I thought I went back to the beginning there is always someone else who wrote them first! 

Memory dislikes motion, preferring to hold things still

I am always amazed by how much an author can fit into one small book.  How many ideas or images or feelings.  John Banville's The Sea deserves a second reading.  I am very ambivalent about this book, however.  Truthfully I did not like the narrator, Max Morden.  As the story went on I even began to dislike him more.   Did the ending redeem him in my mind?  I guess it made him more human at least.  There were a couple of twists at the end, which I am not entirely sure what to make of.  This book is beautifully written though, and for that reason I would like to reread it.  Not the least for all the references he makes to the artist Bonnard.  Apparently there were also references to Shakespeare, Proust and a few other artists as well, which I either missed or just read over without making much note of.

This happens to be one of the 1001 books included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.  I like what the editor had to say about it in the brief essay about the book:

"Banville's prose often has something of the miraculous to it, and the miracle here is its capacity to use words to produce images, to find beneath the constant movement of the everyday, an attitude, or glance, or shape that seems suddenly, magically present.  The novel depicts the ugliness of death and of bodily decrepitude, as it conjures the experience of loss with an uncanny intensity.  But if this novel is about death and the steady humiliation of dying, it is more than anything about the power of memory, and of art, to catch at something that doesn't die, something as immune to death as innocence."

Banville manages to seamlessly venture from the past to the present.  While he does use a lot of words that I was unfamiliar with, the prose didn't feel choppy.  This is my first experience reading Banville.  I am not sure if this is typical of his work or not.  Do authors write like this consciously--to set themselves apart from the reader, or it is just normal?  I am not a writer, so I am not sure how much just comes naturally and how much is written with the desire to (sorry, for lack of a better way of saying it) show off.  Of course some of this is just my perception as a reader and what I am bringing to the book.  Perhaps a second read will clarify what I feel.  I am not really giving you a very good review, but so much as been written about it, I don't feel I can say anything new and enlightening.  It is a thoughtful book, though, and I do recommend it. 

Only 4,337 Pages to Go

These are my current reads (links in the sidebar).  Yes, I know.  No need to say anything at all.  I have too many on the go at once.  Even I know that.  I started thinking that if I could finish War and Peace, which is my longest book, I could concentrate on the rest afterwards.  A mere 976 pages stand between me and the end!  I'm honestly not sure how many pages I average a day reading, but if read at least 65 pages a day, I could be done in only 16 days.  September 20.  Sooner if I managed more pages (though I might be a tad bit generous here). Which made me wonder how many pages I have left in all my books.  Yes, that would be only 4,337 pages.  65 days.  I could conceivably be done with both stacks by November.  If I didn't start anything new.  (What are the odds of that happening?  Not very good I have to say).  I guess my best bet is to whittle down the stacks once again before starting any new books to a more respectable number (keeping in mind that my idea of respectable is probably more generous than the average reader).  And by the way I finished the Banville book today (must ponder that one for a few days--it is churning about my head right now), and the James Joyce book on the top of the stack isn't technically a current read.  The next short story that we are reading is "The Dead", which is the last story in this book (hence its place in the pile).  So I might not actually be starting anything new anytime soon, but I can think about what might be next up: The Three Musketeers (yes, I broke down and bought the new translation...), and The Mists of Avalon and of course my R.I.P. books!  I suppose I should go unplug the TV for the duration, shouldn't I.

I couldn't resist sharing a photo of Dulce.  Is this not the picture of contentment?  A sunny window, breezy, and not too warm.  Yes, life is good.

Always Without Fail...

Sometimes I think I get a little too lost in books and movies.  I don't just read or watch them, I immerse myself in them.   With books especially--if it is well written, and I spent hours and hours reading it, I feel transported to another time or place.  This weekend I watched Tristan and Isolde, not once but three times.  I am no movie critic, I can only say if I liked something or not.  And this movie, I liked.  It was next in my Netflix queue.  Actually it just sort of sounded interesting so I added it--I really didn't know much about it at all, and when it came up I had thought of moving it back down the queue and requesting something else, but I was too late.  So it was more a matter of watching it to get my money's worth.  I guess I did, eh.

When it is a movie that I get sucked into, I immediately want to transform the experience into a reading opportunity.  So what did I do?  I went through my shelves looking for my Arthurian books--since that is the closest I will come (I know I don't have any books about Tristan and Isolde specifically).  Same time period, knights of the round table and all that.  I have only ever read the Mary Stewart books on Merlin, which were wonderful.  I managed to accumulate a few others along the way however.  Of course I have Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, a few of Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles, two out of three of Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles (the last two authors thanks the owner of the bookstore where I used to work--he was a great fan of Arthurian tales and both authors came highly recommended), the first two of  Rosalind Miles's Guenevere trilogy, T.H. White's The Once and Future King, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon.  What do you think--good selection?  Hopefully all are worthwhile reads.  I really need to get to some of them, but that won't happen until I dig out from under my current (towering) stack of current reads.  I know there have got to be lots of Arthurian fans around--am I missing something really good?  I need to see what literature there is about Tristan and Isolde.  Books are so escapist for me.  I truly don't understand people who don't like to read.  Surely they simply don't know what they are missing.  What story is your escapist story?  As you can tell, usually mine is something long ago and far away.

A little side note--my other movie this weekend was Robert Altman's Gosford Park, which someone recommended in a comment some time ago.  Whoever that was--Thank You.  Another excellent film!  This is an upstairs/downstairs country house murder mystery.  So very well done!  I don't think I would like to be a "downstairs" person, but the "upstairs" people didn't really have much to recommend them either.  Maggie Smith--what a snob you are!  All of them were!  I watched this one twice (partly because there was so much conversation, and so many characters and so much going on Ifelt I didn't get it all the first time through).  This one is going right on my wishlist.  What can I say--escapism.

Slaves to Read Indiana Next...

Stefanie tagged me to choose the next book that the Slaves of Golconda will be reading.  I posted a few reading possibilities recently, and in the end drew George Sand's Indiana out of a hat.  Of course I always agonize over decisions like this.  It isn't just a case of I hope I will like the book, but I am choosing something that others will read as well.  Will everyone like it?  Will it be a good book for discussion?  The only guideline is that we have been reading classics each time around.  Since we have had a good share of male authors lately, I thought it was time to read a woman author, and I had wanted it to be an international author as well (non-American, and non-British--since we have concentrated on these types books).

So it is with some trepidation that I announce the Slaves will be reading Indiana by George Sand! According to 500 Great Books by Women (a wonderful reference book by the way):

"Indiana is the first of many novels written by George Sand, a woman whose behavior was often considered more shocking than her writing. Seen as a denouncement of marriage when it was published, the novel is the story of a naive, love-starved woman abused by her much older husband and deceived by a selfish seducer."

Shall we say posts will be due October 29?  Of course anyone is welcome to read along and post about the book and discuss--please consider it!  The text of Indiana is available online here.  There is still a lively discussion going on at The Metaxu Forum over our latest book by H.G. Wells.  You can also read individual posts on the book at The Slaves of Golconda blog. 

A Few Thoughts on What I am Reading Now

1.  Why, Mr. Tolstoy, in War and Peace, when you mention Princess Lise do you need to point out her downy upper lip?  Not just once, to get a feel of what she is like or looks like, but every time she steps into a room, and sometimes more than once while she is there?  Some women do have a bit of facial hair.  We really don't want to be reminded of it.  For example:

'Marie, my dear,' said the little princess shortly after breakfast on the morning of the 19th of March.  Her little downy upper lip rose as always......"

Please.  Can't you mention her lovely eyes or how she waddles when she walks since she is so greatly pregnant, or any other feature...but once is really sufficient.  I am now officially 1/4 of the way into the book!  I still don't know who I really like in terms of characters, but I am enjoying the story.  The batter of Austerlitz is finished, there has been death, parties, a marriage and even a duel.  Things are progressing nicely!

2.  I know I have already said more than once that John Banville's The Sea is beautifully written.  And it is.  Well, what I understand of it anyway.

"In the flocculent hush of the Golf Hotel we seemed, my daughter and I, to be the only patrons."

Huh?  Flocculent. Now there's a word you hear on the bus every day.  In the flocculent hush of the #2 afternoon bus... There have been a few words that I have had to look up.  Actually I sort of gave up looking them up as there are more than a few and I don't always have a dictionary handy.  There was a whole passage that I wanted to share, but now I can't find it.  isn't that always the case.  The story is narrated by Max Morden who returns to Ballyless after the death of his wife.  This is where he spent summer holidays as a child.  I am sorry to say that I would not have liked Max Morden as a child.

"For my part, although I am ashamed to say it, or at least I should be ashamed, what Myles put me most in mind of was a dog I once had, an irrepressibly enthusiastic terrier of which I was greatly fond but which on occasion, when there was no one about, I would cruelly beat, poor Pongo, for the hot, tumid pleasure I derived from its yelps of pain and its supplicatory squirmings."

Ugh.  What a nasty child.  I hope no one I know did this as children to their poor pets.  I am trying not to let this shade my enjoyment of the story, but Max, you are on thin ice.  I hope you treat your daughter and (did treat) your wife better than your dog. 

3.  Remember those fun lists we made of books we want to have on a deserted island?  Can I change one of my choices?  I want to take a copy of Robinson Crusoe.  Betteredge was right--all life's answers can be found in this book.  This is a veritable smorgasbord of what to do to survive.  No wonder people ate it up when it came out.  It must have sounded so true and accurate.  And who else had been marooned--who's to doubt him.  I will definitely be picking up Moll Flanders and Journal of a Plague Year.  And I have even gotten used to all the capitalizations--I don't notice them anymore when reading. 

4.  Lastly--Edgar Allen Poe.  I started my first R.I.P. challenge book, Bram Stoker's The Mystery of the Sea.  So far it has lots of wonderful descriptions of Cruden Bay where the story is set thus far.  It also has lots of small print.  I think in order to get all five of my books read, I will have to read this concurrently with another book from my list (the rest are fairly short).  I pulled out the shortest of the group, Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue to just get a head start on reading the introduction.  Did you know that Poe wrote a novel?  Apparently the Modern Library has published it, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.  The description: "After reading an 1836 newspaper account of a shipwreck, Edgar Allen Poe penned his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.  It is the story of a stowaway on a Nantucket whaleship who finds himeslf enmeshed in the dark side of life at sea: mutiny, cannibalism, savagery, and death."  Hmm.    I might just have to read a few short stories from this anthology (it has one of my favorite stories of all time "The Cask of Amontillado"!!) to round thing out.  Now to just finish a few books from my current reads pile!