Yann Martel is my God

I have been keeping track of the website www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca for a while now. Yann Martel is truly brilliant and deserves all the acclaim he can get. The concept is simple: Yann Martel is justifiably angry at the piddly amount of funding Prime Minister Stephen Harper is doling out for the arts in Canada and so he is attempting to educate Mr. Harper. Every other Monday Yann Martel sends him a novel with a letter explaining it in the hope that Mr. Harper will learn and appreciate something outside of his busy and self-promoting life. Yann Martel has promised to continue Mr. Harper's education for as long as he is in office. Yann Martel's peaceful protest is truly remarkable and worth supporting!

Physical vs. Electronic Texts

Recently So Many Books wrote about The Library in the New Age by Robert Darnton. I clicked on the link to read it myself and was pleasantly intrigued. The article discusses the changes in information as well as its reliability throughout time and as we move towards a more electronic era. Will libraries eventually become obsolete due to advancements in technology such as Google?

I mused on this for a while. When I was in university I secretly grumbled at the antiquated professors that would not allow me to use internet references within my papers. I used to do the majority of my research online because of its convenience. I could Google a subject and within specific pages I could do a search for certain keywords. I didn't need to riffle through book after book trying to find the areas that were pertinent to my paper. I love being in libraries but I use them in a different manner. Libraries are for research that has no time limit and not for deadlines. I suppose that in this heavily caffeinated world using a library has a snail's pace in comparison to Google. We're too impatient to wait and search slowly.

I have tried to read electronic books because they are rampant on the internet but I just can't get the hang of it. It's uncomfortable to sit at my computer for that length of time and eventually I start to feel cross-eyed. I've even tried printing but it still isn't the same. Books are meant to be enjoyed from a comfy chair with the book in my hand (and yes, the smell of a book is integral!)

Inspiration from Other Blogs

I was just perusing the latest addition from Stuck in a Book. They are answering questions regarding favorite authors and it definitely got me thinking. My favorite authors have changed over the years and I think it is interesting how tastes can change; are they reflections of my life at the time? are they evolutions? All I can fathom is that, well...I'm not entirely sure! I tried to answer the questions that were on that blog and I was unable to do so and so instead I have just ambled on about my favorite authors.

The books that have changed my life are so countless it would be boring to list them all here. Let me burden you with a few though, just for fun!

I first read Jane Austen when I was little. I can remember being in the store with my mother when she bought them for me: Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice. I fell in love with that period. I still have it etched in my mind. What I would give to be Elizabeth Bennett! Especially if Colin Firth were my Darcy!

Naturally, next I must write about the Bronte's! When I was in Haworth a few years back, I was struck by how simple and isolated their lives must have been and suddenly had a new appreciation for their work! Ms. Jane Eyre what your inspiration must have felt like!

Next, would be during high school, when I found Jack Kerouac! Oh the freedom of his spontaneous prose! I romanticized the act of hitchhiking until the reality of the dangers fell back into my mind. I still read his books and can't put them down. I'll place Allen Ginsberg in this paragraph too! Howl made my heart quake. It is Walt Whitman for the rest of us in the real and untranscendental realm!

I have to put Meave Binchy in here too! I know it's just fluff but my God that woman is one hell of a story teller! I picture her weeble self reading her stories to me while I sit at her knee in a quiet country kitchen!

In university I found my love of stream of consciousness. William Faulkner's Sound and Fury and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse are brilliant. I find solace in knowing that everyone else's mind is as erratic as my own!

I read Jodi Pocoult's My Sister's Keeper and have recommended it to EVERYONE! I can't get over the depth of her characters. All parents try to do their best and this brought that fact into my mind in a startling manner.

Martin Amis's Times Arrow is still one of my all time favorites! Everyone has heard the rumors that at your death your life will flash before your eyes...but what if it goes in reverse!? The greatest things in your life will look like atrocities and vice versa!

If you haven't read any of these authors or if you haven't read any of these books PLEASE pick them up! They truly are lovely, thought provoking, and just plain brilliant!

In re-reading this post, I realize what an eclectic bunch this is!

A New Earth

Yep, I hopped on the Oprah bandwagon and am doing her online classes. I started to do this the first time around but got too busy. Instead, I will attend her summer school workshops. I'll write more about this one another time!

What the Body Remembers

I have read this novel before and absolutely adore it! It's a beautiful story about the power of women through their strength, weakness, love, and malice with a beautiful exotic background that crosses through interesting historic moments. I found out that the CBC has featured this book on their program "Between the Covers". With each new episode they read the next chapter. They're about a third of the way through the novel and so I downloaded some of the archived podcasts and am trying to catch up. I have never really gotten interested in audiobooks because part of what I like about reading is the feel of the book in my hand. So with this podcast, I'm leaving my comfort zone slightly. There's nothing like having a story read aloud. When I'm on my own, I like to read aloud, I like to feel the words and not just hear them in my head. This podcast brings me back to being a kid and having my father read to me before bed! Also, I listen to it when I'm on the treadmill and it helps me turn a normally dreaful time into an enjoyable one!

Harry Potter

I just finished reading the Harry Potter series. It was like putting on an old comfy pair of socks on a cool evening! I had read them before as they were published but since the last book was published I had wanted to read them in succession. I can't believe the difference it made in the story as a whole! When each new novel came out I found myself delving into the grey matter of my brain to remember bits and pieces that were being referred to. It was refreshing to be able to enjoy them without that strain on my noggin.

I had an English teacher once who said that every novel should be read twice: once to understand the plot and once to see what the author is doing. The second time around I was able to notice how Rowling was setting things up for the end as far back as the first book.

The third novel is easily my favorite. The character of Sirius is soulfully haunting to me. I cried when when he left the pages and always hoped for more of a background explanation on his character. The third book is the dawn of a more adult style of writing and definitely a more adult subject matter. I'm glad I wasn't reading this book as a child because the execution in it and definitely the Dementors would have kept me up at night staring terrified into the dark corners of my bedroom!

The fourth book is probably my least favorite. It dragged on and on and on! In hindsight I wonder if it was pumped full of filler to satisfy our hunger for more and keep us feeling sated for a little longer while Rowling had a hiatus between novels.

The fifth book made me wonder why Rowling had portrayed Harry Potter as being so angry. He's either yelling at someone or brooding over something for the entirety of the novel. It's almost draining to the reader! I understand that Rowling was trying to portray how angry and alone some teenagers feel but to me it was excessive.

Permit me a small aside here regarding the fifth novel. This novel came out when I was on holiday in Britain. I couldn't help but notice how many people were reading it! I was in Bath and at the Roman Baths and all around the outskirts were a sea of people with yellow book jackets in front of their faces. They were standing in an amazing piece of history and instead of drinking it all in they were walking through it blindly with their noses in a book! It was a funny sight to see indeed!

It will be interesting to see how the sixth book is adapted for film. It's mostly the story of Tom Riddle and all of the information is very pertinent and I fear that it will be glossed over in an attempt to put the emphasis on the Draco Malfoy issues and the Horcrux adventure.

The main feeling I got from the final book was how sad Dumbledore's life was. In all the previous books he was a formidable character and in this one he was almost pitiable. The dichotomy was overwhelming. I'm glad Rowling included the '19 years later' portion. It was nice to see the characters all grown up and to see them come full circle with a different vantage. I have always secretly wished that Hermione and Harry would get together. They seem far better suited to each other. Besides that, I always thought that Ron was gay! I don't know why I got that impression but I did. It was said in an interview with Rowling that Dumbledore was gay and I must say that tidbit went over my head! Just because he doesn't have a wife and kids he's gay? Well then under the same logic so are the majority of the characters! Ridiculous!

I know I am meant to be strictly writing about the novels but at this point I'm going to chat about the films too. I am very happy with the way they have been adapted for the big screen. Of course, we lose something in translation but we gain something too! The sets were incredible and I must say my imagination didn't do portions of the book justice! The actors have crept into my psyche. I can't help myself picturing the actors while I read the books! I hear that the final book will be made into 2 movies. I'm glad about that. It's true; there is too much going on that can't be purged from the plot. My vote is that they will end the first film after the scene when they finally find the sword!

Latest Venture

This is a new blog for me and I'm quite thrilled about it!!! I have a degree in English Literature and have been wondering how I can use it again. I loved being in university; it felt like a four year book club! I miss it and I suppose that through this blog I hope to rekindle what I found in myself there. So...here goes nothing...!!!

PS - Please bear with me while I iron out the kinks.