So. It's come to this.
For this part of the challenge, I've decided to finally tackle J. R. R. Tolkien's classic, Lord of the Rings. Why does this book intimidate me, you might ask? It's not the length, I can assure you of that. I was in elementary school for the first half of the Harry Potter series, and the length was no issue back then. In fact, the reason this book intimidates me dates back to elementary school...
A friend of mine was a huge Tolkien fan. For his birthday party, his family recreated the Unexpected Party from The Hobbit and we dined as the dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf did (replacing wine and beer with punch and root beer, of course). The games that we played included a scavenger hunt for The Ring, and whacking a giant spider pinata that was laid out in a web made of rope. I'd never read The Hobbit, so some of the magic was a bit lost on me, but it was an amazing party all the same. This friend recommended - demanded, really - that I read Lord of the Rings if I liked Harry Potter so much. The first movie had come out recently, and I'd seen and enjoyed it. Why not read the book, I thought? So my parents bought me a very nice box set of the books (really, it's one huge book, but it's generally broken up into three when it's published) and I started out on my adventure through Middle Earth.
Oh. my. gosh. The book was so far above my reading level. I could barely get through it. I remember complaining to my teacher that the Council of Elrond chapter was unbearably slow. (The scene in the movie had been so short! How was I to know that in the book, they sat and talked for like 300 years?!) She suggested that I read the first few sentences of a paragraph and then skip it if it seemed unimportant. But the paragraphs were all a whole page long. And the text was small, so small, that a page unbroken by line breaks and paragraph indentations took me half an hour to drag through.
Somehow, I managed to get through the whole book. I'm fairly sure that I got at least part way through the second book before giving up. I have no memory of the second book - even the first book is proving to seem mostly new to me, except for the general flow of events which I know from the movie. For years, I told myself that I'd try the books again some day.
And then I read The Hobbit in the 8th grade (three years after struggling through LotR). I'd heard that that book was written in much easier language, intended for a slightly younger audience. I figured I could handle it - and my sisters probably forced it on me, fed up with me rereading Harry Potter yet again. But even that one was hard for me to get through. I did finish it, but when the first movie came out around eight years later, I was like, huh, I don't really remember much about this at all. When I heard that the movie was incorporating a lot of Middle Earth history, mainly from The Silmarillion, I headed out to the bookstore and bought both The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.
That summer, I read The Hobbit. It was quite enjoyable, the experience made even better by the fact that I read it at my apartment's poolside, in the late summer when very few students were around making lots of noise. (Can you tell what kind of college student I was?) I started the Silmarillion during the following school year, but gave up after a few pages. This needed to wait until I didn't have homework, classes, work, and film shoots hanging over my head.
It's been almost four years now. In that time, I've thought about re-tackling Lord of the Rings, but it's just kind of sat there in my mind, all dark and mysterious and full of very long sentences and difficult language and the world's most boring chapter ever.
Well, that was then. I'm about halfway through The Fellowship of the Ring (and they're NOT EVEN IN RIVENDELL YET), and while it is a bit sticky for me, I'm definitely enjoying it! My edition of the book has an introduction written by Tolkien himself, and he admits to being more interested in the linguistics and history of Middle Earth than the action. That is very obvious when you read the book. I can follow his sentences much better now that my reading level has improved, but the action is definitely slow. I don't blame the movie for making the journey from Hobbiton to Rivendell seem to take only a day or two, because it's been almost two months since Frodo and friends left Hobbiton, and they're not yet in Rivendell after 206 pages. A great many days of those two months has been described in great detail, even if nothing more happens than the hobbits walk a long distance and are very hungry, tired, and scared.
So, I'm getting through the book. Not as easily as I flew through the last book in my challenge, but much more easily than I did at the age of 10. Tolkien's writing style doesn't intimidate me the way it used to, but it certainly does seem to drag compared to the pace at which I'm used to action rolling out in books.
I know that so far for this challenge, I've been writing a post about a book only after I finish it, but I have a feeling that I'm going to write a few more posts as I go through this series. I have lots of thoughts that I like to write down, and I get the feeling that I'll be too impatient to write them all in a draft and publish them all at once. In any case, I'm only halfway through the first third of the book, and look how much I've already rambled! I'm sure that anyone reading this would hate to read all of my thoughts for the next 1,012 pages!
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Saturday, March 19, 2016
2016 Reading Challenge: A book you've read at least once
Looking through my moderately small book collection, it was obvious which book I should read for this challenge: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. My Mom brought it home one day when she was working at Borders. At the time, it was just another book I had never heard of that she figured I'd like. And not only that, but the author had been there signing books, so she snagged a copy for each of my sisters and got them all signed!
I probably put off reading The Book Thief for a while, since it was likely during the school year and I was busy with everything, including assigned reading. (I actually struggled to do well in English class, harder than I had to struggle to do well in AP Calculus - reading is one thing, but analytical writing is, for me, far more difficult and annoying than finding the derivative of sin x squared plus y cubed.)
I know I read this book for the first time over the summer. I know I read it curled up in my pink butterfly chair. I probably read it while listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack on repeat. This was my CD of choice at the time. Even now, I usually listen to the Hans Zimmer Pandora station, which plays a lot of songs from the four Pirates movies.
The Book Thief had me captivated immediately. Never in my life had I read a book with such strong imagery. On this read, which is at least the third time I've read the book, I couldn't stop crying through the first few chapters. Partly because I got emotional remembering myself curled up in my chair, most likely stroking my kitty Miles absentmindedly as he sat curled in my lap. Partly because I knew about all of the sad things that were coming. But mostly, because the book is so god damn beautiful that every bit of imagery had my eyes welling up. And there is a ton of imagery in this book. Voices personified more than I have ever seen in any other book. "She seemed to collect the words in her hand, pat them together, and hurl them across the table," p 35, is one of my favorite examples.
Of course, it's always hard to read about Nazi Germany, even if it's a beautiful story from the perspective of a preteen. This time, there was a passage that truly scared me. To set the scene for those who haven't read the book:
During the first air raid in the town of Molching, several families are huddled in an air raid shelter. They are all holding hands, silent, waiting for the raid to end.
"Did they deserve any better, these people?
How many had actively persecuted others, high on the scent of Hitler's gaze, repeating his sentences, his paragraphs, his opus? Was Rosa Hubermann responsible? ... Or Hans? Did they all deserve to die? The children?" (p 375-6.)
This passage always made sense to me when I read the book before. But never has it actually resonate with me before. Replace the name Hitler with Trump, and... well... you can probably figure out the rest. Reading this passage, I couldn't help but to envision a dark, scary future in which Trump is President and there is a second Civil War, and a group of people in Trump-America are huddled together, hoping not to die together, each unsure of how much of a part in this war each of them has.
Okay, I don't want to get too political here, but it had to be said. Moving on.
"There are lines on his cheeks. They look drawn on and, and for some reason, when I see them, I want to cry. It is not for any sadness or pride. I just like the way they move and change" (p 527).
This line made me cry a little. Because I realized that I am just like Liesel in that regard. Sometimes, I like something so much that I cry a little. A line in a book. The swell of notes in music - even in action movie soundtracks or pop songs, sometimes. A new scent that flows in through the open window. A loving hug, in real life or in a movie. People gathered together in the town square, singing Jingle Bells after Santa lit the Christmas tree. (That one happened this past Christmas.) Some things in life are so pretty, or nice, or normal, that I take a quiet moment to appreciate them, and my eyes water either a little or a lot. (Usually a lot.)
It's worth noting that The Book Thief is one of the only books-to-film that was truly perfect. Yes, the film cut out some scenes, but it's a 550-page book. The 2013 film really managed to capture the sad beauty of the book. That's the best way I can describe the tone of this book: Sad, beautiful. Tragically beautiful. Beautifully sad. Sometimes sad, sometimes beautiful, sometimes both at once. It's a book that really makes you feel. It's a book where, every few chapters, there's a sentence so beautiful, so powerful, so tragic, that you just have to stop reading and bask in it for a few moments before moving on. I won't quote any of those sentences here because it's unfair to pull them out of context and plaster them on to your screen, especially surrounded by my awkward, stumbling, rambling sentences. (I say that with all the pride in the world for my writing style, and perhaps a bit of inspiration from Zusak's style.)
I think I've said all that needs to be said about The Book Thief at this point, though I know I could ramble on about my love for the book for pages. If you haven't read this book yet, read it as soon as humanly possible. If you have read it, read it again when you get the chance. And watch the movie after you've read the book, because it's good enough that it won't ruin your image of the book.
I haven't quite decided which challenge to do next! It will likely be one of the following:
-Six Characters in Search of an Author, Luigi Pirandello - a book I can read in a day
-Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkein - a book that intimidates me (yes, all 3 books!!)
-Too Far, Rich Shapero - a book that I previously abandoned
I've made my decision of what to read for most of the rest of the challenges, but I don't own any of them so I'll finally have to pay a visit to my library - which is only about two blocks away! And for the life of me, I don't know what to read for a book that was published before I was born. There are just way too many classics to choose from! (Scary thought: there are children at the appropriate reading level who could choose Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for that challenge. Eeek!)
I probably put off reading The Book Thief for a while, since it was likely during the school year and I was busy with everything, including assigned reading. (I actually struggled to do well in English class, harder than I had to struggle to do well in AP Calculus - reading is one thing, but analytical writing is, for me, far more difficult and annoying than finding the derivative of sin x squared plus y cubed.)
I know I read this book for the first time over the summer. I know I read it curled up in my pink butterfly chair. I probably read it while listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack on repeat. This was my CD of choice at the time. Even now, I usually listen to the Hans Zimmer Pandora station, which plays a lot of songs from the four Pirates movies.
The Book Thief had me captivated immediately. Never in my life had I read a book with such strong imagery. On this read, which is at least the third time I've read the book, I couldn't stop crying through the first few chapters. Partly because I got emotional remembering myself curled up in my chair, most likely stroking my kitty Miles absentmindedly as he sat curled in my lap. Partly because I knew about all of the sad things that were coming. But mostly, because the book is so god damn beautiful that every bit of imagery had my eyes welling up. And there is a ton of imagery in this book. Voices personified more than I have ever seen in any other book. "She seemed to collect the words in her hand, pat them together, and hurl them across the table," p 35, is one of my favorite examples.
Of course, it's always hard to read about Nazi Germany, even if it's a beautiful story from the perspective of a preteen. This time, there was a passage that truly scared me. To set the scene for those who haven't read the book:
During the first air raid in the town of Molching, several families are huddled in an air raid shelter. They are all holding hands, silent, waiting for the raid to end.
"Did they deserve any better, these people?
How many had actively persecuted others, high on the scent of Hitler's gaze, repeating his sentences, his paragraphs, his opus? Was Rosa Hubermann responsible? ... Or Hans? Did they all deserve to die? The children?" (p 375-6.)
This passage always made sense to me when I read the book before. But never has it actually resonate with me before. Replace the name Hitler with Trump, and... well... you can probably figure out the rest. Reading this passage, I couldn't help but to envision a dark, scary future in which Trump is President and there is a second Civil War, and a group of people in Trump-America are huddled together, hoping not to die together, each unsure of how much of a part in this war each of them has.
Okay, I don't want to get too political here, but it had to be said. Moving on.
"There are lines on his cheeks. They look drawn on and, and for some reason, when I see them, I want to cry. It is not for any sadness or pride. I just like the way they move and change" (p 527).
This line made me cry a little. Because I realized that I am just like Liesel in that regard. Sometimes, I like something so much that I cry a little. A line in a book. The swell of notes in music - even in action movie soundtracks or pop songs, sometimes. A new scent that flows in through the open window. A loving hug, in real life or in a movie. People gathered together in the town square, singing Jingle Bells after Santa lit the Christmas tree. (That one happened this past Christmas.) Some things in life are so pretty, or nice, or normal, that I take a quiet moment to appreciate them, and my eyes water either a little or a lot. (Usually a lot.)
It's worth noting that The Book Thief is one of the only books-to-film that was truly perfect. Yes, the film cut out some scenes, but it's a 550-page book. The 2013 film really managed to capture the sad beauty of the book. That's the best way I can describe the tone of this book: Sad, beautiful. Tragically beautiful. Beautifully sad. Sometimes sad, sometimes beautiful, sometimes both at once. It's a book that really makes you feel. It's a book where, every few chapters, there's a sentence so beautiful, so powerful, so tragic, that you just have to stop reading and bask in it for a few moments before moving on. I won't quote any of those sentences here because it's unfair to pull them out of context and plaster them on to your screen, especially surrounded by my awkward, stumbling, rambling sentences. (I say that with all the pride in the world for my writing style, and perhaps a bit of inspiration from Zusak's style.)
I think I've said all that needs to be said about The Book Thief at this point, though I know I could ramble on about my love for the book for pages. If you haven't read this book yet, read it as soon as humanly possible. If you have read it, read it again when you get the chance. And watch the movie after you've read the book, because it's good enough that it won't ruin your image of the book.
I haven't quite decided which challenge to do next! It will likely be one of the following:
-Six Characters in Search of an Author, Luigi Pirandello - a book I can read in a day
-Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkein - a book that intimidates me (yes, all 3 books!!)
-Too Far, Rich Shapero - a book that I previously abandoned
I've made my decision of what to read for most of the rest of the challenges, but I don't own any of them so I'll finally have to pay a visit to my library - which is only about two blocks away! And for the life of me, I don't know what to read for a book that was published before I was born. There are just way too many classics to choose from! (Scary thought: there are children at the appropriate reading level who could choose Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for that challenge. Eeek!)
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
2016 Reading Challenge: A book you've been meaning to read
Sometime over a year ago, I found out that Colin Mochrie had written a book. Being a lifelong fan of Whose Line is it Anyway?, I was immediately interested. Then I read the description - a collection of short stories in which Mochrie takes the first and last sentences of several famous books/stories and makes up his own story in between. Absolutely brilliant, I thought. I need to read it.
Well, no libraries around me have this book. The bookstore at which I used to eat lunch every day when I had a job didn't have it, either - even though they have plenty of fiction, and plenty of books written by celebrities! My Mom actually captured my unhappiness at this lack of fiction by Mr. Mochrie when she visited me last fall:
She thought she was just getting me happy to be in my favorite bookstore, but nope, I was scowling because they didn't have Not Quite The Classics by Colin Mochrie.
Anyway, Christmas 2015 came and went, and my Mom got me an Amazon gift card! So I finally decided to buy the book, especially since it meant fulfilling another check on the 2016 reading challenge.
Oh my gosh. I super enjoyed this book. The short stories were even less related than the ones in Haunting Experiences, so it was even easier for me to put the book down for a few hours (or days) to do other stuff. This proved to be both good and bad: I never felt even a little taste of a cliffhanger, but I also went a whole week without reading this month. I know, not horrible, but that was about 5 more days of TV binges in a row than I'd like! After all, I'm trying to wean myself back in to reading, not off of it.
There are 13 short stories in Not Quite the Classics. Inspiration comes from all walks of life: Sherlock Holmes, The Cat in the Hat, The Great Gatsby, Slaughterhouse Five, etc. While I haven't read every book behind Mochrie's stories, I think he did a great job of capturing each individual author's voice/style. The few I have read include T'was The Night Before Christmas, The Great Gatsby, and 1984. Each of Mochrie's stories were written in a style that reflects the style of the original author. His Holmes in A Study in Ha-Ha was particularly convincing - I couldn't help but imagine Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman acting out the absurd plot! (Two things on that - one, I say absurd in the most loving of ways, it being Derek's and my word of choice to describe anything silly, hard to believe, cartoonish, or amusing lately. And two, I have never read any of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels, but I watch BBC's Sherlock religiously. BBC, if you're reading this, please secure the rights from Mr. Mochrie and produce a special acting out "A Study In Ha-Ha"!!!)
I can't even pick my favorite of these stories. Is it his version of Ernest Thayer's "Casey at the Bat," of the same name, in which the narrator quickly divulges into an epic tale about Casey the hockey player of NHL fame? Or perhaps Mochrie's version of Orwell's famous "1984," "The Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Fourth," a hilarious tale that takes place in a magical land filled with the most convoluted and twisted history I have ever read? Or maybe it's "Re: Becker," which draws its first and last lines from Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca," detailing the journey of a man set out to fulfill his late friend's last request regarding his ashes. Each of the thirteen short stories in this book had me laughing out loud at least twice, if not more. I even snorted at one of them.
I'm so, so glad that I read this. I'm so, so glad that Colin Mochrie wrote this. Colin, I know you say in your introduction that you dislike work and that writing is a lot of work; still, should you ever feel inclined to write another collection like this one, I beg that you do not shy away from that urge.
Well, no libraries around me have this book. The bookstore at which I used to eat lunch every day when I had a job didn't have it, either - even though they have plenty of fiction, and plenty of books written by celebrities! My Mom actually captured my unhappiness at this lack of fiction by Mr. Mochrie when she visited me last fall:
She thought she was just getting me happy to be in my favorite bookstore, but nope, I was scowling because they didn't have Not Quite The Classics by Colin Mochrie.
Anyway, Christmas 2015 came and went, and my Mom got me an Amazon gift card! So I finally decided to buy the book, especially since it meant fulfilling another check on the 2016 reading challenge.
Oh my gosh. I super enjoyed this book. The short stories were even less related than the ones in Haunting Experiences, so it was even easier for me to put the book down for a few hours (or days) to do other stuff. This proved to be both good and bad: I never felt even a little taste of a cliffhanger, but I also went a whole week without reading this month. I know, not horrible, but that was about 5 more days of TV binges in a row than I'd like! After all, I'm trying to wean myself back in to reading, not off of it.
There are 13 short stories in Not Quite the Classics. Inspiration comes from all walks of life: Sherlock Holmes, The Cat in the Hat, The Great Gatsby, Slaughterhouse Five, etc. While I haven't read every book behind Mochrie's stories, I think he did a great job of capturing each individual author's voice/style. The few I have read include T'was The Night Before Christmas, The Great Gatsby, and 1984. Each of Mochrie's stories were written in a style that reflects the style of the original author. His Holmes in A Study in Ha-Ha was particularly convincing - I couldn't help but imagine Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman acting out the absurd plot! (Two things on that - one, I say absurd in the most loving of ways, it being Derek's and my word of choice to describe anything silly, hard to believe, cartoonish, or amusing lately. And two, I have never read any of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels, but I watch BBC's Sherlock religiously. BBC, if you're reading this, please secure the rights from Mr. Mochrie and produce a special acting out "A Study In Ha-Ha"!!!)
I can't even pick my favorite of these stories. Is it his version of Ernest Thayer's "Casey at the Bat," of the same name, in which the narrator quickly divulges into an epic tale about Casey the hockey player of NHL fame? Or perhaps Mochrie's version of Orwell's famous "1984," "The Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Fourth," a hilarious tale that takes place in a magical land filled with the most convoluted and twisted history I have ever read? Or maybe it's "Re: Becker," which draws its first and last lines from Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca," detailing the journey of a man set out to fulfill his late friend's last request regarding his ashes. Each of the thirteen short stories in this book had me laughing out loud at least twice, if not more. I even snorted at one of them.
I'm so, so glad that I read this. I'm so, so glad that Colin Mochrie wrote this. Colin, I know you say in your introduction that you dislike work and that writing is a lot of work; still, should you ever feel inclined to write another collection like this one, I beg that you do not shy away from that urge.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
2016 Reading Challenge Review #1: A book I've owned but never read
For my first challenge this year, I went with a book I own but have never read. It's called Haunting Experiences: Encounters with the Otherworldly and it's by Michelle Belanger. I know I already wrote a little bit about this book, but now that I've finished it I wanted to give my final thoughts.
I would have liked this book a lot better if Ms. Belanger wasn't so concerned with making sure that the reader believed her. She admits in the introduction and the conclusion that she has struggled her whole life with the question, What will people think?, so I can see why she would be so self-conscious. Still, if you're writing a book about this stuff (and this was not her first book about her experiences with the Otherworldly), I feel like you should turn off that inner commentary. In the conclusion of the book, she says she struggled against "the instinct to place qualifiers at the start of every chapter and to apologize for the extraordinary aspects of [her] claims" (p 250). Well, she may not have placed qualifiers at the start of every chapter, but in my opinion she placed far too many of them in the middle of chapters instead.
Many of her experiences involved other people. Many of these people were also psychics, or else they were Wiccas, or else they were simply very open to the Otherworldly. But some of the people in her stories were devout non-belivers. And she made a point of telling us this. In the middle of the spooky action. It interrupted the story every time. Something odd is happening, and Michelle's friend turns to her -
And then we get her friend's backstory about how s/he is a devout Catholic and has never, ever believed in ghosts or hauntings. It's as if Ms. Belanger were saying, "Okay, I know this is hard to believe, but if THIS PERSON knew that something Otherworldly was happening, you'd better believe it wasn't all in my head!"
It actually got pretty frustrating. Why not place these qualifiers at the beginning or the end of a chapter? If these were fictional stories, those background details would almost definitely be in the exposition rather than during the climax. It totally interrupted not only the heat of the moment but the flow of the story.
Still, the stories were pretty interesting. My favorite story actually made me choke up a little. This one happened to her mother as a teenager. Michelle's mother took violin lessons from an elderly man, and sometimes she would sit in the hall for a good 10 minutes of her lesson time just to listen to her teacher play on his own. One day, after her teacher had been in Europe for some weeks, she sat in the hallway for almost half an hour listening to him play when the owner of the music store saw her. He informed her that her teacher had passed away shortly after returning from Europe. The two of them went into the music room to find it empty, save for a package that the teacher had dropped off before passing away - a violin that he'd bought for Michelle's mother. This story truly spoke to me because of my connection to music. I never took private lessons, but I played the viola for 11 years starting in the fifth grade. My dad plays the violin, my sister the cello, and my other sister the violin. Music has always been a huge part of my life, and Ms. Belanger's description of the violin's sound for those who aren't familiar with it was absolutely beautiful. The thought of an old violin teacher's spirit playing one last song for his favorite student is not hard for me to believe.
So, anyway, my overall rating of this book is 2.5/5. It was interesting and overall enjoyable, but the author's obsession with not sounding crazy detracted from many of the stories. I can understand her concern, but I also wish she'd done a better job at putting a lid on her concern. After all, most people who read this book are likely to be either firm believers themselves, or willing to suspend their disbelief for the purpose of being entertained. The latter would have been much easier for me if she were not constantly reminding us that it were true and she were not "a nut" (her own words). Most books leave me with a certain feeling that I can't quite put into words - slowly closing the back cover, I usually sigh and think about the beauty of the book, re-feeling many of the emotions that I felt throughout. But when I finished this book, the only feeling I had was, "K."
I'm much looking forward to my next book in the challenge! I'm reading Not Quite the Classics by Colin Mochrie. This one has been on my to-read list since the moment it came out, but I haven't been able to find it in any libraries or book stores near me. My Mom gave me an Amazon gift card for Christmas so I finally decided to order the book!
I would have liked this book a lot better if Ms. Belanger wasn't so concerned with making sure that the reader believed her. She admits in the introduction and the conclusion that she has struggled her whole life with the question, What will people think?, so I can see why she would be so self-conscious. Still, if you're writing a book about this stuff (and this was not her first book about her experiences with the Otherworldly), I feel like you should turn off that inner commentary. In the conclusion of the book, she says she struggled against "the instinct to place qualifiers at the start of every chapter and to apologize for the extraordinary aspects of [her] claims" (p 250). Well, she may not have placed qualifiers at the start of every chapter, but in my opinion she placed far too many of them in the middle of chapters instead.
Many of her experiences involved other people. Many of these people were also psychics, or else they were Wiccas, or else they were simply very open to the Otherworldly. But some of the people in her stories were devout non-belivers. And she made a point of telling us this. In the middle of the spooky action. It interrupted the story every time. Something odd is happening, and Michelle's friend turns to her -
And then we get her friend's backstory about how s/he is a devout Catholic and has never, ever believed in ghosts or hauntings. It's as if Ms. Belanger were saying, "Okay, I know this is hard to believe, but if THIS PERSON knew that something Otherworldly was happening, you'd better believe it wasn't all in my head!"
It actually got pretty frustrating. Why not place these qualifiers at the beginning or the end of a chapter? If these were fictional stories, those background details would almost definitely be in the exposition rather than during the climax. It totally interrupted not only the heat of the moment but the flow of the story.
Still, the stories were pretty interesting. My favorite story actually made me choke up a little. This one happened to her mother as a teenager. Michelle's mother took violin lessons from an elderly man, and sometimes she would sit in the hall for a good 10 minutes of her lesson time just to listen to her teacher play on his own. One day, after her teacher had been in Europe for some weeks, she sat in the hallway for almost half an hour listening to him play when the owner of the music store saw her. He informed her that her teacher had passed away shortly after returning from Europe. The two of them went into the music room to find it empty, save for a package that the teacher had dropped off before passing away - a violin that he'd bought for Michelle's mother. This story truly spoke to me because of my connection to music. I never took private lessons, but I played the viola for 11 years starting in the fifth grade. My dad plays the violin, my sister the cello, and my other sister the violin. Music has always been a huge part of my life, and Ms. Belanger's description of the violin's sound for those who aren't familiar with it was absolutely beautiful. The thought of an old violin teacher's spirit playing one last song for his favorite student is not hard for me to believe.
So, anyway, my overall rating of this book is 2.5/5. It was interesting and overall enjoyable, but the author's obsession with not sounding crazy detracted from many of the stories. I can understand her concern, but I also wish she'd done a better job at putting a lid on her concern. After all, most people who read this book are likely to be either firm believers themselves, or willing to suspend their disbelief for the purpose of being entertained. The latter would have been much easier for me if she were not constantly reminding us that it were true and she were not "a nut" (her own words). Most books leave me with a certain feeling that I can't quite put into words - slowly closing the back cover, I usually sigh and think about the beauty of the book, re-feeling many of the emotions that I felt throughout. But when I finished this book, the only feeling I had was, "K."
I'm much looking forward to my next book in the challenge! I'm reading Not Quite the Classics by Colin Mochrie. This one has been on my to-read list since the moment it came out, but I haven't been able to find it in any libraries or book stores near me. My Mom gave me an Amazon gift card for Christmas so I finally decided to order the book!
Sunday, February 7, 2016
2016 Reading Challenge: A book I've owned but never read
Derek and I went to Jamaica for a friend's wedding in January. I brought three books with me for the long plane rides, figuring I'd want some variety in my entertainment: a book I've owned but never read, a book I've read before, and a book I can read in a day. Well, on the flight there, I ended up crocheting the whole time (I needed a cute little phone cozy to match my dress for the wedding!), and on the way home I was so exhausted and half-sick that I slept the whole way. I read about 10 pages of the first book on my list, but I didn't have the energy to keep my eyes open.
When we got back, I admit I procrastinated with reading for a while. But now I'm already almost halfway done with my first book of the challenge!
The book I chose is one of only two or three books that I own and have never read. My Mom got it for me who knows when - she used to work at Borders and would come home with books all the time. (In her words, she was like an alcoholic working at a liquor store. In my words, she was the worst kind of -holic because she brought her habit home to her kids.) :)
Haunting Experiences: Encounters with the Otherworldly by Michelle Belanger is proving to be a great book to ease myself back in to reading. One of the reasons that I've put it off so much in recent years is because I used to binge an entire book in a day - we're talking books like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a full 734 pages which were not intended to be read in just one day. But Haunting Experiences is a collection of short stories, each of which are only about 10-15 pages long, so it's very easy for me to read a chapter or two and put it down. No cliffhangers keeping me sucked in and making me forget about cooking dinner!
The book is supposedly all true. Ms. Belanger is a psychic and she has had many experiences with hauntings - ghosts, negative energies, poltergeists, etc. As much as I've always been a firm believer in faeries and certain kinds of magic, I just have a hard time with the word "psychic." I can't help but to associate the word with the type of person who was at my high school graduation party, who told me such shocking things as "many big changes are coming" and "big things are headed your way." Wow! These things were in my future the night I graduated high school?!
Anyway, whether you believe that the stories are true or not, it's an entertaining book. Sometimes I feel like Lucy Ricardo when she is so engrossed in reading The Mockingbird Mystery that she accidentally eats her cold cream, and then gets such a scare when Ricky calls to her that she throws her book out the window! The stories are just scary enough to keep me turning the page without being so scary that I can't sleep at night. But, because each story is only 10-15 pages long, the suspense never builds up so long that I forget to do anything important!
I'm very happy with my first selection for the 2016 reading challenge. And I can't wait for my next eleven books!
When we got back, I admit I procrastinated with reading for a while. But now I'm already almost halfway done with my first book of the challenge!
The book I chose is one of only two or three books that I own and have never read. My Mom got it for me who knows when - she used to work at Borders and would come home with books all the time. (In her words, she was like an alcoholic working at a liquor store. In my words, she was the worst kind of -holic because she brought her habit home to her kids.) :)
Haunting Experiences: Encounters with the Otherworldly by Michelle Belanger is proving to be a great book to ease myself back in to reading. One of the reasons that I've put it off so much in recent years is because I used to binge an entire book in a day - we're talking books like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a full 734 pages which were not intended to be read in just one day. But Haunting Experiences is a collection of short stories, each of which are only about 10-15 pages long, so it's very easy for me to read a chapter or two and put it down. No cliffhangers keeping me sucked in and making me forget about cooking dinner!
The book is supposedly all true. Ms. Belanger is a psychic and she has had many experiences with hauntings - ghosts, negative energies, poltergeists, etc. As much as I've always been a firm believer in faeries and certain kinds of magic, I just have a hard time with the word "psychic." I can't help but to associate the word with the type of person who was at my high school graduation party, who told me such shocking things as "many big changes are coming" and "big things are headed your way." Wow! These things were in my future the night I graduated high school?!
Anyway, whether you believe that the stories are true or not, it's an entertaining book. Sometimes I feel like Lucy Ricardo when she is so engrossed in reading The Mockingbird Mystery that she accidentally eats her cold cream, and then gets such a scare when Ricky calls to her that she throws her book out the window! The stories are just scary enough to keep me turning the page without being so scary that I can't sleep at night. But, because each story is only 10-15 pages long, the suspense never builds up so long that I forget to do anything important!
I'm very happy with my first selection for the 2016 reading challenge. And I can't wait for my next eleven books!
2016 Reading Challenge: Challenge Accepted!
I used to read a lot, but then I stopped. I wrote out a detailed post about how much I used to read and all of the excuses that I made for not reading so much anymore, but it turned out to be pretty depressing. To sum it up: college, work, and new hobbies took up so much of my time that I allowed them to almost completely replace leisurely reading. In 2014 I re-read the Harry Potter series and Mockingjay - the most books I'd read for pleasure in one year in a long time. Last year started off strong - I read four books in less than two months, none of which I'd ever read before - but then more excuses came along and I didn't read for the rest of the year.
Towards the end of the year, I started seeing the 2016 reading challenge floating around on Facebook:
A lot of my friends, who are avid readers, were pretty excited about it. I was interested as well, but nervous because it had been so long since I actually read 12 books in one year. (Not counting the semester I took two classes on Classical mythology, wherein I read at least 15 books and plays.) But my friend Elizabeth told me not to worry about last year, and I realized that she was totally right! Last year is last year, and this year is going to be this year.
In order to encourage myself to read more, I bought a bookshelf from IKEA and strategically placed it next to my TV. Hopefully, seeing the shelf full of welcoming books will help me to keep myself from binge-watching shows and do some reading instead.
I haven't quite chosen all 12 books yet, but I will blog about the challenge as I go along! Will you challenge yourself this year, too?
Towards the end of the year, I started seeing the 2016 reading challenge floating around on Facebook:
A lot of my friends, who are avid readers, were pretty excited about it. I was interested as well, but nervous because it had been so long since I actually read 12 books in one year. (Not counting the semester I took two classes on Classical mythology, wherein I read at least 15 books and plays.) But my friend Elizabeth told me not to worry about last year, and I realized that she was totally right! Last year is last year, and this year is going to be this year.
In order to encourage myself to read more, I bought a bookshelf from IKEA and strategically placed it next to my TV. Hopefully, seeing the shelf full of welcoming books will help me to keep myself from binge-watching shows and do some reading instead.
I haven't quite chosen all 12 books yet, but I will blog about the challenge as I go along! Will you challenge yourself this year, too?
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Spontaneous, happy nostalgia.
Many eons ago (somewhere around my junior year of high school), I was given a copy of Wreck This Journal. It's an awesome book that encourages creativity and destruction. Each page has a suggestion of how to destroy it. I recently found it, and as I go through each page and read every doodle, it's bringing back so many memories. I wanted to share some of the thoughts and memories.
This one was fun. I remember doing this pretty clearly. I had a lighter in my room for candles and incense. I went to the bathroom sink because I was afraid. First I cautiously burned the bottom right corner and blew the flame out - cool! Then I burned the top right corner, blew it out, and gained confidence. Then I decided to be cool and burned the center of the page. It spread quickly and freaked me out. So I threw the book in the sink and turned on the water, and then I decided to never set fire to anything else ever again. Besides candles and incense.
I made a Star of David out of tape and pieces of my hair, because why the heck not?
"my name is kate and I have an electric blue soul!"
"It kind of looks like Ben Duchan wrote this which is sad on his part" (Ben was my best friend. His handwriting was atrocious."
"let's see... douglebutt Swagglebutt poopadoop finklebutt" (these were words that Ben used randomly. Swagglebutt, as many of you know, is now my internet persona.)
"Hi Kate <3 Merritt" (Merritt wrote that.)
"poopadoop" (again? okay, high school Kate, okay.)
"When I write w/ my Left hand I BUSCUITS" (written by Allison, upside-down for some reason.)
I remember this day pretty clearly as well. We were all sitting around the Drama Hall waiting for our director, because we THOUGHT there was rehearsal for our play, but the director never showed up.
"You suck! (not you, Kate) *cries* It has been an hour and 15 min since JFlo was supposed to be here. He said he thought we wouldn't show up if he didn't post anything on the board. STUPID DIRECTOR! *cries* *cries*"
I'm pretty sure Merritt wrote that page. It looks an awful lot like her handwriting.
Out of everything, this one is probably my favorite. I didn't bother to write much on this page, but what I did write, I love very much.
"It's Christmas Day 2008 and I love everybody =D then I got some chocolate <3"
"Wall-E is teh b3st movie EVARR! ^_^"
"I <3 Nickie :)"
Okay, that last one isn't really accurate anymore, as Nickie was my high school boyfriend. But it's still just such a nice little page. Such nice thoughts.
"well it mostly smells like burning, but I tried using Dragon's Blood incense." - 1/5/09
"cherry hemp lotion!" -1/8/09
Sadly, five years later, neither scent has stuck. The page just smells like paper. This page is sliced because a previous page says to cut through several layers of the book.
This is from the same day as the Negative Thoughts page.
"24 minutes since Jody was supposed to be here. Freshmen doing Jumping Jacks. Now Jody is 31 minutes late... Merritt trying to find his number"
"now he's 47 minutes late. Merritt is going to sew my book." (there is a page that says "Sew this page!")
"45 minutes late. he's not coming."
"53 minutes late! we're waiting for our parents to get us."
"now it's been 91 minutes and I'm home and Jody sucks."
It's worth noting that this means we Drama Kids sat around in the school for an hour after school ended, waiting for rehearsal. Because we were all so committed to theater that waiting around for AN HOUR when we could be home snacking, doing homework, or watching TV was totally acceptable.
The title page. (Sorry that these pictures are so out of order.) Allison drew a little dude shouting "I'M A PURPLE!" And she drew the little farting guy. I'm pretty sure I did the rest on this page.
The first instructions page. It's pretty hectic, but allow me to guide you through the chaos.
First drawing you have is a red toaster with a piece of toast in it, then in blue it says "there's a button on the side if it pops up too soon push down again MAKE TOAST!" It's from a song that some radio DJs make up or something. I was pretty obsessed with it for a while in high school.
There's a giant piece of toast with melty orange butter in the middle. Not sure why, probably because of the YEAH TOAST thing.
A little green cucumber thing, it's from Family Guy when Peter Griffin tries to create a dancing cucumber toy that's basically a vibrating dildo.
Along the side is a kitty that Merritt drew.
Someone - maybe Allison? - wrote "sparta!"
Several different types of smiley faces.
and at the bottom, I drew a Star of David, wrote yay, and filled in a few of the letters.
So there you have it, some highlights from my copy of Wreck This Journal. It was a really fun journey down memory lane looking through the pages of this book. And there are enough empty, undamaged pages left for me to make more memories!
"It kind of looks like Ben Duchan wrote this which is sad on his part" (Ben was my best friend. His handwriting was atrocious."
"let's see... douglebutt Swagglebutt poopadoop finklebutt" (these were words that Ben used randomly. Swagglebutt, as many of you know, is now my internet persona.)
"Hi Kate <3 Merritt" (Merritt wrote that.)
"poopadoop" (again? okay, high school Kate, okay.)
"When I write w/ my Left hand I BUSCUITS" (written by Allison, upside-down for some reason.)
"You suck! (not you, Kate) *cries* It has been an hour and 15 min since JFlo was supposed to be here. He said he thought we wouldn't show up if he didn't post anything on the board. STUPID DIRECTOR! *cries* *cries*"
I'm pretty sure Merritt wrote that page. It looks an awful lot like her handwriting.
"It's Christmas Day 2008 and I love everybody =D then I got some chocolate <3"
"Wall-E is teh b3st movie EVARR! ^_^"
"I <3 Nickie :)"
Okay, that last one isn't really accurate anymore, as Nickie was my high school boyfriend. But it's still just such a nice little page. Such nice thoughts.
"cherry hemp lotion!" -1/8/09
Sadly, five years later, neither scent has stuck. The page just smells like paper. This page is sliced because a previous page says to cut through several layers of the book.
"24 minutes since Jody was supposed to be here. Freshmen doing Jumping Jacks. Now Jody is 31 minutes late... Merritt trying to find his number"
"now he's 47 minutes late. Merritt is going to sew my book." (there is a page that says "Sew this page!")
"45 minutes late. he's not coming."
"53 minutes late! we're waiting for our parents to get us."
"now it's been 91 minutes and I'm home and Jody sucks."
It's worth noting that this means we Drama Kids sat around in the school for an hour after school ended, waiting for rehearsal. Because we were all so committed to theater that waiting around for AN HOUR when we could be home snacking, doing homework, or watching TV was totally acceptable.
First drawing you have is a red toaster with a piece of toast in it, then in blue it says "there's a button on the side if it pops up too soon push down again MAKE TOAST!" It's from a song that some radio DJs make up or something. I was pretty obsessed with it for a while in high school.
There's a giant piece of toast with melty orange butter in the middle. Not sure why, probably because of the YEAH TOAST thing.
A little green cucumber thing, it's from Family Guy when Peter Griffin tries to create a dancing cucumber toy that's basically a vibrating dildo.
Along the side is a kitty that Merritt drew.
Someone - maybe Allison? - wrote "sparta!"
Several different types of smiley faces.
and at the bottom, I drew a Star of David, wrote yay, and filled in a few of the letters.
So there you have it, some highlights from my copy of Wreck This Journal. It was a really fun journey down memory lane looking through the pages of this book. And there are enough empty, undamaged pages left for me to make more memories!
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