When I was 14 I was put into the second level English class, while several of my close friends were placed in the top set. I remember when my friends in the other class were reading Wuthering Heights and would discuss Heathcliff during our lunchbreaks, and though it all sounded interesting I didn’t bother to read the book just to be able to contribute to their discussions.

We have a copy of Wuthering Heights here that my mum received while she was in a mail-order book club years ago, and I flicked through the book but didn’t wish to spoil its hard-backed perfection by reading it, so I borrowed a copy from the library. Then I decided not to read the library copy for some reason which I can’t remember. So I still haven’t read Wuthering Heights.

When I attended a writer’s course several years ago and was asked about my favourite books, I felt like a fraud for not having read many literary classics. Since then I’ve dutifully read Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, The Picture of Dorian Gray, etc.

Early last year, after reading Pride and Prejudice I decided that I should read Jane Austen’s entire oeuvre. I found that WH Smith had a special offer on her books, so I ended up buying Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey. However, after reading the last-mentioned novel I’ve gone off that idea.

Sometimes when I hear about how novel x was so influential on x genre I feel like adding it to my wishlist, but no one has time to read everything, and life is too short to read something that you wouldn’t enjoy. There are so many gaps in my knowledge, but I’m beginning to realise that the most important thing in the world is to know myself.

That said, it amused me to watch this video of authors talking about the books that they’re most ashamed of not reading. Reading the comments was even more interesting; one person had received an A grade on an essay about an unread book, and another person even admitted teaching a class on a novel that he had never read…

Every so often, while I was working at the evil uni I would send myself a package of books from Amazon. After I stopped working there and my finances went to hell I stopped treating myself to books from my wishlist on a regular basis.

I’d forgotten how nice it is to receive a massive pile of books, so this morning I revelled in that happy bibliotastic feeling when I received these inspirational texts. Yes, there’s a theme to my selections.

And there’s more to come.

I’m not looking forward to going to bed tonight. It’s going to be one of those humid nights where the bedsheets stick to your dampened limbs and you wake up feeling like you’ve battled against an army all night.

Just finished a book called The Musician’s Daughter by Rupert Holmes, which was very good. The original title of the book was Swing, and in their wisdom the publishers decided to change the title for their UK edition.

I guess that they were targeting a different demographic over here, trying to market the book as something akin to all those other books named after the daughter of a ‘memory-keeper’, or a pirate (which I recently read) or an abortionist. However, I felt that the original name was much more appropriate to the spirit of the novel. They also removed the complimentary CD of music which was attached to the original book. Sure I can download it from his website, but it’s not the same.

Moan, moan, moan. I know. My only excuses are the heat, and an annoying bellyache. Bedtime.

Samurai Frog recently wrote about a meme which involves the list of books which have been more frequently marked ‘unread’ on librarything. Perhaps they’re in line to be read or just tomes which look impressive on the bookshelf.

Unwashed philistine that I clearly am, I hadn’t even heard of some of them.

Code:
Read
Read for school
Started but unfinished
I’ll never read it, and will never own it
*I own and intend to read it at some point

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (I don’t know why, but I’d like to read it.)
Anna Karenina (ditto)
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude (I’d like to see what all the fuss is about)
*Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion (um, never heard of it)
Life of Pi: A Novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote (I’m looking forward to reading this at some point)
Moby Dick
Ulysses (Dubliners was enough for me)
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey (I’d like to read this someday too)
Pride and Prejudice (a satisfying read)
Jane Eyre (heart-wrenching)
A Tale of Two Cities (writing books always quote the first line of this, I want to read the rest)
The Brothers Karamazov (I’m curious)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (nah, mate)
War and Peace (maybe when I’m retired)
Vanity Fair (somewhat curious)
The Time Traveler’s Wife (amazing novel)
The Iliad (one day)
Emma (I have a noble mission to read all of Jane Austen’s books, so I’ll get to this one eventually)
The Blind Assassin (it’s a possibility)
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations (I should read this one)
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (with a title like that, who i am to refuse?)
Atlas Shrugged (I’m curious)
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (I doubt it)
Love in the Time of Cholera (I’m curious about this one)
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch (definitely one for the future)
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo (loved the film, definitely want to read the original)
Dracula (of course)
A Clockwork Orange (not sure I’d like it, but i’d give it a go)
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses (from what I’ve heard I wouldn’t like it)
*Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
*Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (one for my to read list)
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables (think I’ll watch the musical instead)
The Corrections (eh?)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (never heard of it)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
*Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita (diabolical, pure genius)
*Persuasion
Northanger Abbey (awful book)
The Catcher in the Rye (read it as a kid, then read it again last year - it was so true)
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down (the film was so sad)
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

What say you?

The other day I came across a post on Liane’s blog about a list of 1001 books which apparently must be read before we all die. I’ve only read 21 of those books so far, and only recognised the other ones which had been made into movies. The shame of it.

Thinking about it though, quite an industry has been created in the world of books and lifestyle television to extoll the importance of reading a certain 1001 books, of visiting 1001 particular places, of viewing 1001 paintings, etc. Obviously it wouldn’t be reasonable to expect someone to watch 1001 movies, but if someone were interested in doing so it would have to become their life’s work. No marriage could survive the pressure of visiting 1001 gardens or 1001 natural wonders; no normal career could accommodate such a task.

So are these books an impossible challenge or a burden? As we age will we look upon that hardback book on our coffee table and like the clich� says, regret all the things that we haven’t done? Will we really care that we haven’t swum with dolphins or read Ulysses?

Maybe I’m thinking too deeply about this issue, perhaps they are simply an easy way to experience those experiences vicariously. Instead of reading 1001 books, we can read or just dip into this single tome and feel more informed and enlightened. Instead of visiting Monét’s garden in Giverny, we can look at a double-paged spread of the Bridge over a Pool of Water Lilies, and express the notion that one day we’ll go there and see it for ourselves. Instead of going to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, we can admire her from oceans away (though I can confirm that it’s definitely not the same as seeing that little portrait in person).

In addition to what we can do in person, we are able to enjoy a sort of virtual experiencing. We can imagine ourselves in any situation, in any place which has been recorded in ink or online. There may be a time when we may not need to leave our homes to explore the world via virtual reality. Imagine it; I could visit the Grand Canyon, while Becca from Chicago checks out the Tower of London. Sounds cool, but I prefer to give my passport an airing from time to time. Real experience may be limited, but it’s never limiting. It’s the usual message of quality over quantity.

I decided to search the Itunes shop for songs entitled Before you die, and came across the following song by a guy called Mr Moods. I listened to his album and ended up buying the whole thing, it’s a chilled-out mélange of trip-hop and hip-hop.

Mr Moods: Before You Die

I’ve just written a post for the Spring Reading Challenge, about a book I recently read. Go and check it out (plus the other great posts). Do it now!

Pinched from China B

Using the book you are currently reading:

1. Take the book. Turn to page 123.
2. Skip 5 sentences.
3. Post the next three sentences.

I’m currently reading The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith

Here’s the excerpt:

She reached across and laid a hand upon his wrist. He looked down at where her hand rested.
“You mustn’t be sad, Rra,” she said.

A few weeks ago I noticed that one of my goals for 2007 had been to read 50 books.

I’m happy to tell you that I’ve actually read 85 books.

Sure, some of them were easy reads, but I needed some filler to clear my head after some of the more intense novels.

Have you succeeded with any of your 2007 goals?

Last Sunday I went to visit my grandma who lives in East London.

As I left my home that afternoon I discovered the thick mist which had descended over the city and lasted all day. (People from other countries seem to think that London is always foggy, but it’s quite rare really, and mostly happens on the odd winter morning.) Anyway, I felt like I might have entered the Victorian London of the novel that I’m currently reading, The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox.

On the train into central London I noticed that some (presumably) young vandal had written “BELIEVE SANTA EXISTS” plus something about BSE (mad cow disease) on a window opposite me. I felt compelled to take a pic of it with my camera-phone.

What a lovely sentiment, spreading the joy of Christmas to children everywhere. It’s just a shame that the perpetrator felt the need to damage public property to convey the message…

After visiting my grandma and making my journey homewards, I alighted from the train and left my home station. It was about 6pm, and there were plenty of people around. As I passed a nearby supermarket I heard a loud and unusual sawing noise. I looked towards the source of the sound and realised that it was being caused by a young man sawing through a bicycle chain outside the store, with a couple of mates assisting in the operation. One of them looked at me. I looked away and continued home.

Now I realise I should have gone into the supermarket and told a security guard about the situation, but at the time I wasn’t thinking in that way. I just wanted to go home. Someone who would be bold enough to steal a bike so blatantly might have been prepared to turn violent. I just hope they got caught before they rode off. No thanks to me though.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS VERY BAD DESCRIPTIONS OF SEX. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

Fifteen years ago the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award was born. Its aim: “to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it.”

At the very least, this award shows how difficult it can be to write a decent sex scene. In the writers’ defence, I must say that I’ve just finished a book which was nominated for this award last year, A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. When reading the selected scene in context, it fit perfectly with the overall tone of the writing and characterization. When taken in isolation though, it was ridiculous. (more…)