Daily Lit

I am sure I am among the last to know about this: Daily Lit.

They email you a page of a book a day. Some are free!

I picked a shortish Agatha Christie to start. I am not sure how I'll like the experience of reading via email, but I am willing to try.

Mitford Letters, Book Sale & A Borrower's Tale

I am a little frantic today. No time to write the hilarious post that came to me at about 3 in the morning about the "Three Thangs I Learned the Hard Way" challenge that Snacky Wombat tagged me on.

So, I share some fun stuff:

The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters. Doesn't that sound like a fabulous collection? BoldType has links to myriad reviews. (Oh, and if you haven't already done so, sign up for BoldType. It's a nifty little e-newsletter.)

NYRB Moving Sale. It's your chance to get a huge discount on some great titles.

"How A Recovering Bookaholic Recovered Borrowed Books: A Tale of Literary Redemption," by LK: Once upon a time, depending on how you look at it, a Recovering Bookaholic Kitten took the first step in giving up to a Higher Power: She marched virtuously to her local library, intent on getting a library card just in time to close up Library Lovers Month. She presented her neatly printed application and proper ID, only to be told by the librarian that she had four books outstanding...since 1997! Ms. Kitten didn't even remember setting foot in the library in 1997, much less checking out (and not returning) four books. She ducked her head, and disguising her tucked-tail between the legs as a daring fashion accessory, slinked out with great consternation and even sheepishness (which is difficult for a kitten to pull off). As soon as she returned to her lair, the kitten somehow managed to locate the outlaw books. Within 10 minutes. It was like she had a homing radar. This kitten has about 600 books all told), on six bookshelves, in absolutely no order. Our heroine triumphantly deposited the quad and tonight will return to the scene of the crime to get her library card. After all, she is a taxpayer. And it is amnesty week. (In reparation, she plans to donate a slew of books. This may divert some of the bad book karma to Barnes & Noble.) We hope she and future borrowed books may co-exist happily together. The end.

Blogger belched

I think Blogger had indigestion this weekend; my 3 most recent posts seem to have been passed.

Ah, well. Nothing lasts.

Your brain on books

From Laura Miller, in a Salon book review of Susan Jacoby's new book, The Age of American Unreason:

"I believe that reading fosters a particular mental stamina, discipline, creativity and flexibility that can't be acquired from other media. In a future dominated by complex social systems, technology and science, only people who can think in this fashion will have enough understanding of how the world works to actually run it. And to remain truly democratic, America should be made up of citizens who are able to think that way."

and

"As Jacoby astutely points out, reading does not "constitute a continuous invasion of individual thought and consciousness ... printed works do not take up mental space simply by virtue of being there; attention must be paid or their content, whether simple or complex, can never be truly assimilated." Unless you make a point of turning off the TV and putting the computer to sleep, they can easily fill up your day and mind, gradually atrophying the mental muscles uniquely exercised by reading. Abstaining, for many people, turns out to be as easy as bypassing a cupboard stocked with chips and cookies and snacking on carrot sticks instead. To hope that the American public will pick the nutritious but difficult over the easy and tasty is to bet on a losing horse."


Related links:
Twilight of the Books, New Yorker
Staying Awake: Notes on the alleged decline of reading, Harpers (by Ursula K. LeGuin; subscription required)
How Reading is Being Reimagined, Chronicle of Higher Eduation

From "Living Without Regret"

Happy Friday, everyone! Thanks again for all of your good thoughts and energy -- it means a lot. My dad is now out of the hospital and back into a rehab center. I think it will be more of the same for a while. Meantime, my mom is pretty much in meltdown. She is not visiting my dad, she lashes out verbally at everyone, and she is sinking into paranoia. Very difficult situation.

In the midst of all the struggle, there is reading. I am so grateful to have it in my life! (And you too, dear bloggers!) I am so grateful that people who have gone before me were courageous and strong and generous enough to put their words on paper.

Here are some excerpts from a painful yet helpful book, Living Without Regret: Growing Old in Light of Tibetan Buddhism by Arnaud Maitland. What makes this painful is the book's genesis: Maitland wrote it as a way to come to terms with his beloved mother's descent into Alzheimer's. He offers the wisdom of his own Buddhist practice as a way to readers to cope with the aging process (and life in general).

We can foster an attentive and interested mind by asking ourselves neutral questions, free from hidden prejudices or emotions: “How can I do my work better?” “Is there something we still need?” “What would benefit (the situation/person)?” Neutral questions like “what,” “why not,” and “how else” awaken awareness.

*****

The capacity for compassion is inherent in every human being, but it lies beyond the domain of the I. In the same way as egocentrism is a feature of the small mind, compassion is characteristic of the great mind. When we practice compassion, the boundary between self and others begins to dissolve, and the grip of I relaxes. We feel clear and at ease.

******

Change is the dominant flavor of reality. What if we could take taste change as if it were a delicacy? No longer would be have to cling to the illusion that ignoring time lets us hold it at bay. We could let go of the need for control, knowing that it serves only to mask fear of the uncertainty inherent in change. Instead, rejoicing in the fact that nothing is fixed, we could allow ourselves to yield to transformation. Change offers wonderment and vitality. Since everything is open, things can always improve: we can take refuge in that knowledge. Time is our partner and our teacher.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me

Emily Dickinson

Thoughts for Thursday - It's Thursday?

Oh, my, February is lurching by, and I'm struggling. Earlier this week, my father was readmitted to the hospital; he is weak and in ICU but most likely will go back to the skilled nursing facility in a few days. My poor dad! He must feel like a punching bag, what with all the moving and PT and tests and IVs.

This, plus the latest learning cycle on my relatively new job, has rendered my brain matter into kibble.

With a mind of mush, I'm in the pick-up-put-down mode of reading. Having picked up and put down several other books, including Chabon's Yiddish Policement's Union (fantastic writing, but too difficult for kibble-head), I decided to focus on books that I can read in chunks. And I'm trying to find books to make myself understand or come to terms with old age. Happily, there are books just made for that purpose! I'm delving into:

At Seventy: A Journal by May Sarton. She gives a special spin to the mundane and makes 70 look enviable.

Living Without Regret: Growing Old in the Light of Tibetan Buddhism by Arnaud Maitland. I'm 3/4 of the way through. This is great stuff. I will share some pearls of wisdom soon.

The Gentleman from San Francisco by Ivan Bunin. Short stories are great for short spurts of reading. I have been meaning to dip my toes into this one. Will also focus on the reading at A Curious Singularity.

Was it only last year I read my second volume of Proust, plus Henry James and Cervantes and Hugo? Wistful sigh.

Voting

Tomorrow is Super Duper mcWhopper Tuesday in California and the states. And I don't know who I'm voting for in the presidential primary. I formerly was an Edwards supporter -- I can't resist those populist messages. Now that he has dropped out, I don't know which Democrat to support (it goes without saying that I've never voted Republican, and I would never vote for John "Stay in Iraq for 100 Years" McCain). But between Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton -- geez I don't know.

But, I will get out the vote. I have 24 hours to figure it out!

Thoughts for Thursday - none!

I have been wanting to post here, but find my mind is not cooperating. This is usually when I go for the "tried and true" :: A List.

This time, I am listing my top "survivor" story categories. I like stories of people overcoming hardships, disasters, war. It gives me courage to face my own troubles, and it gives me great faith of the human spirit in the face of adversity. I tend to revisit these types of books when I'm dangerously close to feeling sorry for myself.

So, here's my list, definitely not definitive -- add your own! I'm always looking for new survivor stories!

LK'S TOP SURVIVOR CATEGORIES

1. WAR STORIES: The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank, Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski, and Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov. I probably have more of these kinds of books than any -- could there have been any more suffering than what people went through during the two World Wars? Man's inhumanity to man, especially in light of technological developments, is disturbing and horrifying and depressing. But, as these books show, some men truly rise above it. The abilities of these writers to overcome the unthinkable, through their lives and through their writing, are neverending lessons in courage.

2.DISASTERS AT SEA: Titanic by Wyn Craig Wade and The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. I guess it's one of the most terrifying scenarios humans can imagine: Being stranded at sea. Titanic is endlessly interesting, because it is so unbelievable. Unsinkable ship strikes iceberg, sinks in less than 2 hours and kills thousands, including many captains of industry. The Perfect Storm is compelling because of the way Junger tells the story; swordfishing never was so fascinating.

3. TRIAL BY ICE (3-way tie) Ordeal by Hunger, George R. Stewart, Alive!by Piers Paul Read, and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I guess the moral of these tales is don't get caught in the snow. Seriously, the first two books, which I've read multiple times, are harrowing but really amaze me in terms of what humans are capable of when it comes to survival. Into Thin Air is more of a cautionary tale rather than a survival story, but it has its elements of heroism and endurance as well.

4. FAMILY MATTERS: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, A Shot in the Heart by Mikhail Gilmore, The Roosevelt Women by Betty Boyd Caroli, Nicholoas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie, Cheaper by the Dozen by Ernestine Gilbreth, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I'm sure there's more, but I'll stop here. These tales range from tales of complete dysfunction (Shot in the Heart) to healthy families pulling together in times of trouble (Cheaper by the Dozen)to crumbling dynasties (Nicholas and Alexandra. Nothing like reading about another family's dysfunctions to make you feel all smug inside! (Just kidding.)

World Lit Resource

Here's a terrific list of World Lit resources from Eva at A Striped Armchair.

Thank you, Eva!

Just a quick note: Got back from the 3-day flyback to my home to visit father and family. Very productive. I'm exhausted! Dad is making progress, but most likely will need to remain in some sort of skilled nursing care. Tough to get him and mom to grasp that. But, it's really a day at a time at this point...

Thanks again to everyone for their good wishes.

We'll be back to book blogging soon, I hope. Will I be glad when my brain can handle Proust again!

Any very rare men out there?

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive. Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Thanks to SFP at Pages Turned!

Austen Power! On Masterpiece Theatre

Time to lighten things up.

Have you seen this? PBS is running a Jane-a-thon, featuring ALL of their Jane Austen adaptations this month. Okay, it's too late to see Persuasion, but there is plenty of good programming left.

This is a fun site -- check out the men of Austen and the newsletter sign-up.

A loss for words

I've been wondering what to post here. It's only proper Netiquette, in my view, to follow up on my last blog post; I couldn't brush off a reply anymore than I could refuse to answer a sympathy card. I just am not clear about what to say.

I can and will thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes. Somehow, I feel there are many unseen hands strung all over the world for me, like invisible prayer flags. So comforting.

Beyond that, the news is uncertain. My father is in a skilled care facility (read: nursing home), where he will receive physical therapy to see how much mobility can be restored to him. At any moment, but no later than the next three weeks, he will need to be moved...somewhere. He will need care, and my mother can no longer help him by herself at home. His care may suck up every vestige of their combined savings, which would leave mother in the lurch for the rest of her life. It is not clear how long he will live. With skilled care, he could live another year or two. Or his heart could fail tonight.

I'm flying home to do what I can. My main goal is to say goodbye to my father.

Needless to say, most of my planned reading has screeched to a halt. I did find a book that provides some solace: Living without Regret.

I also find a measure of comfort in reading about how other people overcame difficulties in their lives: Isak Dinesen's bio by Judith Thurman and Maxim Gorky's memoir about his childhood are good company in this respect.

Thanks again, dear readers, for your thoughts. My life is teeter-tottering right now, but at some point it will tip upright and steady again. Words seem useless bits of flotsam right now, torn paper tossed into a wind.

Tough times

Dear Blogfellows,

I am having a bit of a time, I'm afraid. My father is very ill, and the family situation is rough. Blogging may be sporadic and fitful.

Please send positive thoughts and prayers our way.

A look back...and a look ahead

Happy 2008, everybody. I don't know about you, but I'm very glad the holidays are over and done with for another year. Frankly, 2007 was stressful. I switched jobs, for one thing -- and as I reread my journal, I realized that the year as a whole was riddled with anxiety. I took a major trip to Spain and Morocco -- a stress, yes, but a positive one. (Although getting traveler's sickness added a debit on the negative stress side.)

I thought I'd take a look back for myself at what I read this year. Although I lost my list when I had that Blogger sidebar snafu, I've recreated a fair proximation, give or take a few books. I am really impressed at what I managed to read in 2007, both in quantity and quality. One of my "reading resolutions" last New Year's Day was to read nightly -- and to read more classics. I can rightly say 'Mission Accomplished' on both counts. (Sans the aircraft carrier, of course.)

As for 2008, I have joined the Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge which, with Carl V.'s RIP Challenge, will probably be the most I will be able to manage. I'm straggling through Don Delillo's Underworld (I'm not finding the characters or story very interesting or progressing, but he's one of my "challenging" contemporary authors to read) -- as soon as I'm done (if I ever am!) I'm starting in on the third Proust volume, The Guermantes Way.

Below is my list of Books Read in 2007. Boldfaced titles are the ones I enjoyed and remembered most. The only "classic" that I did not enjoy was I Am Legend. I did not boldface Trilby -- it wasn't horrible; simply not in the same league as the others. All the rest were superb -- there is a reason they call them classics! Other thoughts on Reading in 2007:

* Joyous discoveries: Dracula -- a complete revelation. I didn't expect to enjoy this one as much as did. Runner-up: Hunchback of Notre Dame. I really struggled with the long detailed passages that took me out of the story. But the ending pulled everything together marvelously -- it took my breath away. Not many contemporary writers do that, you know!
* Authors to read more of: I just finished Murakami's After Dark -- it blew me away. I can't wait to read more of him. Alas, I cannot get my hands on my copy of Kafka on the Shore. Runner-up: Falling Man by Don DeLillo. I was intrigued by the fact that many DeLillo fans didn't like this book, and I admired it a lot. It seems that this book is not representative of his writing. So, it's time to read more...
* Best nonfiction: American Bloomsbury was a delight to read. On the other end of the spectrum, Imperial Life in Emerald City was disturbing to read...but worthwhile nevertheless.

As for this year, I just have one resolution to fulfill: Must*renew*library*card.

Cheers to reading great in '08!

Books read in 2007

Classic fiction
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, Marcel Proust
Trilby, George Du Maurier
Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
Dracula, Bram Stoker
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
Love in Excess, Eliza Haywood
Don Quixote, Book 1, Cervantes
Voyage in the Dark, Jean Rhys
The Subterraneans, Jack Kerouac
Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas


Modern/contemporary fiction
My Uncle Napoleon, Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi, and Dick Davis
Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood
Falling Man, Don Delillo
Slow Man, JM Coetzee
Memoirs of a Muse by Laura Vapynar
After Dark, Haruki Murakami
Windows on the World, Frederic Beigbeder
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Nonfiction
Assassin’s Gate, George Packer
Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Rajiv Chandrasekaran
A Strange Piece of Paradise, Terri Jentz
Jane Austen, Claire Tomalin
The Beautiful Cigar Girl, Daniel Tashower
9/11 Commission Report
Sleeping Where I Fall, Peter Coyote
Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire by Morris Berman
The London Scene: Six Essays by Virginia Woolf
The Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant
American Bloomsbury, Susan Cheever
Ghost Hunters, Deborah Blum
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown

Happy holidays everyone!

Wishing you and yours a merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Thanks to all of my fellow bloggers and readers -- you have enriched my reading life immensely, and for that, I am grateful.

Books I'd give for the holidays

There are some terrific ideas listed in my previous post. (Add yours, if you haven't already.)

My short list is below, books I'd give for the holidays to:

Fellow book bloggers (books that aren't widely known but that I've really enjoyed): Daughter of Earth by Agnes Smedley; Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner by F.X. Toole; and The House of Exile by Nora Wahn.

My 12-year-old niece: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (oh, that she would read it!)

My 10-year-old nephew: Day of Infamy by Walter Lord or The Winds of War by Herman Wouk (tough call--he likes WW2 video games, and these books might be a little advanced for a kid--but this IS a wish list)

All my relatives who don't read because they don't make time for it: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (serves 'em right)

All my friends who don't read because they don't have time: Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (if they read the first page, they'll be hooked)

Books I'd want for myself: Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee (by the way, the New Yorker has a fascinating review by James Wood)

What books would you give for Christmas (or Hanukkah)?

Here are two holiday questions I hope you all will answer:

1. Which book(s) would you give for Christmas/Hanukkah?
2. Which book(s) would you most like to receive for Christmas/Hanukkah?

Maybe we can get a really nice list together!

A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

What a charming, delightful book. The language is beautiful, as one might expect from Dylan Thomas. Moreover, there is a melancholy sense of nostalgia to it, the feeling you get as an adult remembering your childhood days of innocence and play.

I was so delighted by the illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman. Apparently, she was an illustrator for Cricket magazine and book illustrator extraordinaire. I am including an example of her work in this post, but I don't think it is nearly as charming as the illustrations for the Thomas tale.

Here is part of the text, which takes place at the end of the day when the family gathers for storytelling. The setting immediately brings on another memory. (The description of the gas meter ticking really got to me. It's such a fine detail -- something so small and specific you feel as if you had been there. The fact that this leads into another memory, makes it even more bittersweet: A child remembering his own childhood. You just know he is growing up!) You'll find the full text here. If nothing else, I hope you can listen to Thomas read his tale. There's something about a poet reading his words that brings the whole expedition to life.

Bring out the tall tales now that we told by the fire as the gaslight bubbled like a diver. Ghosts whooed like owls in the long nights when I dared not look over my shoulder; animals lurked in the cubbyhole under the stairs and the gas meter ticked. And I remember that we went singing carols once, when there wasn't the shaving of a moon to light the flying streets. At the end of a long road was a drive that led to a large house, and we stumbled up the darkness of the drive that night, each one of us afraid, each one holding a stone in his hand in case, and all of us too brave to say a word. The wind through the trees made noises as of old and unpleasant and maybe webfooted men wheezing in caves. We reached the black bulk of the house. "What shall we give them? Hark the Herald?"
"No," Jack said, "Good King Wencelas. I'll count three." One, two three, and we began to sing, our voices high and seemingly distant in the snow-felted darkness round the house that was occupied by nobody we knew. We stood close together, near the dark door. Good King Wencelas looked out On the Feast of Stephen ... And then a small, dry voice, like the voice of someone who has not spoken for a long time, joined our singing: a small, dry, eggshell voice from the other side of the door: a small dry voice through the keyhole. And when we stopped running we were outside our house; the front room was lovely; balloons floated under the hot-water-bottle-gulping gas; everything was good again and shone over the town.
"Perhaps it was a ghost," Jim said.
"Perhaps it was trolls," Dan said, who was always reading.
"Let's go in and see if there's any jelly left," Jack said. And we did that.

Always on Christmas night there was music. An uncle played the fiddle, a cousin sang "Cherry Ripe," and another uncle sang "Drake's Drum." It was very warm in the little house. Auntie Hannah, who had got on to the parsnip wine, sang a song about Bleeding Hearts and Death, and then another in which she said her heart was like a Bird's Nest; and then everybody laughed again; and then I went to bed. Looking through my bedroom window, out into the moonlight and the unending smoke-colored snow, I could see the lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long, steady falling night. I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept.

The pleasure of pulp

Here's an interesting article from Bookforum about the nigh-forgotten genre of pulp. (Plus, you gotta love the illustrations.)

For example, did you know pulp fiction was written by men while almost all the classic English crime writers were middle-class women? It's interesting to observe how the crime genre of dainty Agatha Christie and dire Dorothy Sayers stowawayed across the Atlantic and morphed into the gritty American pulp of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. And why and how did crime and pulp hold sway over readers from the 20s through the 60s? Author John Banville speculates that:

Crime fiction flourishes in hard times. The fiction reflects the times, and the times color the fiction. There is a rawness in the pulp stories, even those by “literary” writers such as Chandler and Hammett, that is not due entirely to the exigencies of the marketplace. At their best, and even, perhaps, at their worst, these yarns express something of the unforgiving harshness and dauntless optimism of life in America in the decades between the wars. Of course, the plots are almost uniformly absurd.

There is some sort of grim fascination for me with scar-faced criminals and brooding detectives and loose women with felt hats and guns in their purses (tucked right next to the bold red lipstick). I can't get enough of James Cain, for instance: do yourself a favor and when you're in the mood for a martini, read Mildred Pierce and then rent the movie with Joan Crawford.

The anthology, The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, sounds tantalizing. Do you suppose I'd shock Santa if I asked him to leave a copy of The Book of Pulps in my fishnet stocking?

What I'm Reading

Oh, I haven't posted much about books because I'm reading like a veritable demon! So, I thought I'd do a post about what I'm reading...

Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo. At the halfway mark. I loved it until Hugo just veered into lengthy descriptions of architecture and religion. I resent his interrupting the fascinating plot and wonderful characters, even if I do see why he is doing it.

A Child's Christmas in Wales,Dylan Thomas. I received this yesterday and tore right through it. (It is a children's book after all.) The illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman are truly dazzling -- they really make the book. I thought the text gorgeous in spots, and will do more on this post, but the first reading puzzled me slightly.

Out of Africa, the Untold Story, Linda Donelson. I found this in a used bookstore -- obviously it was marketed to capitalize on the film. But, I really enjoyed reading about Karen Blixen and her turbulent life. I think all of her travails with relationships somehow speak to me just now. To wit (and I paraphrase):

On describing the relationship between men and women, she says: "Men are guests and women are hostesses." And she asked a man, "What do guests want?" The man said, "We want to shine, to be welcomed, to be appreciated for who we are and to be given a chance to be at our best....what is it that hostesses want?" To which Blixen replied, "To be thanked."

Isn't that brilliant? I found another book on Dinesen: Isak Dinesen, The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman. This book, which I've just started, gives more reference to Blixen's literary leanings.

All of which means, I have to dig out all of my Dinesen books: Out of Africa, Shadows on the Grass and (I think) Winter's Tales.

A me-me-me meme

I was tagged by Hallie over at Belles and Whistles, so here we go...

5 things I was doing 10 years ago
1. Working in another division of the company I now am at today!
2. Probably dealing with my winter blues
3. Writing short stories
4. Hanging out with friends and avoiding relationships
5. Basically, doing everything I'm doing today, only 20 pounds lighter and with two different cats in the house


5 things on my to-do list today
1. Drafting text for a work project
2. Going to gym (which I did, only I found out it closed!)
3. Drinking lots of water (I just drank some more)
4. Eating well (oatmeal for breakfast, soup for lunch, and probably some veggie concoction for dinner)
5. Searching those horrid online dating sites fruitlessly (went on one called Ethical Singles yesterday. The only guy in my age range wrote in his subject line "Capitalism must end!" Uh, I'll pass...


5 things I would if I were a millionaire
1. Buy a house.
2. Set up a scholarship fund for writers.
3. Travel!
4. Hire a personal trainer and dietician.
5. Invest wisely.

5 things I'll never wear again
1. My favorite size 6 little black dress.
2. Neon
3. Palazzo pants (does anybody else remember those? See the little drawing above.)
4. Anything that reveals anything in the vicinity of a midriff
5. Platform shoes

5 favorite toys
1. Barbie dolls
2. Scrabble
3. My stuffed animals, especially Bess and Pinkie
4. Card games
5. Clue

5 bloggers to tag


Tara at Books and Cooks
Charlotte at Charlotte's Web
Kirsten at Nose in a Book
D. Chedwick

And anyone else who wants to take a stroll down memory lane with this meme!

Thoughts for Thursday - Moroccan Mint Tea

Have you all been following Maud Netwon's posts of Recipes from Writers? It's great.

Here's one that especially caught my eye. It was one of the most enjoyable things about my Morocco visit.

Laila LaLami's Moroccan Mint Tea:

Boil water in a kettle. Pour a little hot water in a tea pot to warm it up, then pour it out. Put in a rounded tablespoon of Chinese gun-powder green tea, then add a full handful of fresh mint. Add sugar to taste. (Most Moroccans like their mint tea extra sweet and would use about five tablespoons of sugar in a mid-size tea pot.)

Add boiling water, gently stir, and then let sit for about five minutes before serving (in a small glass, never in a cup.) If you like your tea pretty strong (i.e. Sahrawi style) place the tea pot directly on a very light fire and wait until foam forms at the top, then remove from the stove and serve. That’s about it.

This infusion is perfect with holiday cookies, or alone. I haven’t yet managed to screw this one up, and if I can make it, then, really, anyone can.

Planning a plan

The illustrious Bloglily asked fellow writers (including me, and boy do I feel like a sham) how they go about planning their novels.


Naturally, she and a few other authors have posted some nifty replies.

I'm still planning mine...

See, I don't really have a plan, and that is part of the trouble. To wit:

Plan A: In 2000, I quit my full-time job to freelance, because I had gotten some encouragement from some major authors and their agents. I was supposed to work on The Novel. Well, I was so freaked out by not having steady income, that I pretty much just focused on that. Now, in my defense, I did have a sort of a plan: I managed to join 3 different editing and writing consultant places, covering both coasts, which found me jobs for a small fee. That left me time to 1) write and 2) find other jobs. Which sort of worked til 9/11.


Plan B: When I found a full-time job after 9/11 I still managed to write and do many writing-related activities. I wrote and published several short stories, managed to win some fellowships and travel abroad, and somehow by a miracle, yet another agent contacted me about...The Novel. And, somehow I managed to work on The Novel--but in an uncomfortably haphazard way. That is, I did some free-writing and then I tried to come up with a plan. And then I reworked the plan. And then I reworked the plan. Soon, I was working on the plan more than...The Novel. Then the job became a nightmare of overwork, which left me little time for anything other than plugging the constantly sprouting holes in my soul from which the job sucked all life force.

Which leads me to...

Plan C: Okay, as most of you know, I quit said-nasty job and fled back to the erudite University environment, which has a comforting amount of vitality, learning, and stimulation. Hurray! Though this job has had a strikingly difficult learning curve (okay, I had to learn about 5 different computer applications), I can feel the life force of my soul returning. Therefore, I will be soon coming up with a plan to share with Bloglily and all of my fellow writers out there.

Until then, I am going to rip off ideas from Bloglily, Hob, Debbie, Nova, Relaxed Dad, Mike, and all of the others who post some plans out there. Courtney, are you listening?

Seasonal Invitation: Reading A Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

'Tis the season to explore holiday-related literature!

I invite you to join me in reading and/or listening to Dylan Thomas' "A Christmas in Wales." Just the thing to curl up with in front of a crackling hearth, with a cup of eggnog, hot chocolate or mulled wine.

I will be reading the version illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. I will follow that up by listening to Thomas read in the audio version. You can download this for free at Salon.com.

I will post my impressions December 14. You can email me your comments or links to your posts, comment here or comment on my December 14 post. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Peace on earth to everyone. Hope you can join in the merriment.

Friday Buzz: Joseph Conrad

This is an excerpt from an interesting Guardian article on Joseph Conrad, another author I'd like to explore more, especially The Secret Agent.

For Conrad, none of the big stories, from Christianity to communism to psychoanalysis (he met a disciple of Freud's in 1921 and was extremely scornful of the books lent to him), provided adequate explanations of selfhood. He had seen the decline and fall of too many men who put their certitude in equality or justice or liberty tout court. His fundamental position is revealed in a letter to his friend, the socialist Robert Cunninghame Graham:

Life knows us not and we do not know life - we don't even know our own thoughts. Half the words we use have no meaning whatever and of the other half each man understands each word after the fashion of his own folly and conceit. Faith is a myth, and beliefs shift like mists on the shore; thoughts vanish; words, once pronounced, die; and the memory of yesterday is as shadowy as the hope of tomorrow.

But behind the modernist sentiments and fabulous sentence-making, there is something else going on: an idea of moral and cultural dialectic, a sense of virtue as relative rather than fixed and static. By its nature, such a conception of virtue is likely to appear in negative form. As Conrad put it in his 1905 essay "Books": "To be hopeful in an artistic sense it is not necessary to think that the world is good. It is enough to believe that there is no impossibility of it being made so."

Thoughts for Thursday - Pan con tomate

I couldn't eat a whole lot in Spain due to the traveler's bug, but I could eat this. It's tasty, fast, simple. Thought I'd share with you today. Trust me: Delicioso!

slices of thick, rustic style bread
cloves garlic peeled and cut in half
small ripe red tomatoes cut in half*
extra-virgin olive oil
coarse salt or sea salt

*For the best flavor, use vine-ripe tomatoes, preferably home grown ones.

Grill the bread approximately 2 to 4 minutes per side on a barbecue or toast it lightly in the oven. Bread doesn't need to be toasted, either.

Next rub 1/2 clove of garlic over one side. Use a fresh piece of garlic for each slice.

Rub a cut tomato over the bread, pressing firmly to push the pulp into the bread, until the toast is covered with tomato; discard the skins and remaining pulp.

Drizzle olive oil over the bread and tomatoes; sprinkle with salt and if you'd like, add a couple grinds of fresh pepper. It's fun to serve guests with their own slices, garlic, tomatoes and a supply of olive oil and salt so everyone can make their own.

I suppose you can add manchego cheese, chorizo, or jamon -- but it's really quite good on its own.

Reading Dangerously...I like it!

Now that I'm back and refreshed (more on my vacation later this week, I promise! I actually need time to absorb all of the experience before I can write about it.), I've been chomping at the bit to get to a scholarship year -- that is, a year of writing and reading at a top level. Now that I work at a top University, I will access reading lists of the master's and PhD candidates. (Who knows? Maybe I can become a PhD candidate myself.)

Two ideas I like: Estella and Heather's "Year of Reading Dangerously." Okay, while I may pick and choose which novels in my 12 months, I admire their choices and will try to read along at least some of the time.

I also like this from Deweymonster: Reading from the New York Times Most Notable 100 Books of 2007.

I will probably combine the two.

In addition to continuing Proust, finishing Don Quixote and dipping into the NYT Most Notables, I want to tackle authors I've feared, classical literature, medieval literature, literary criticism, contemporary authors who are considered great, and some new names. Some of these authors include:

James Joyce
Homer
Virgil
Rabelais
Milton
Chaucer
Don DeLillo
Toni Morrison
Virginia Woolf
Philip Roth
Salman Rushdie
Stewart O Nan
Ismail Kadare
Orman Pahmuk
Gary Shteyngart
Voltaire
Goethe
Gogol
Willa Cather
Margaret Atwood

I wanted to write them down for posterity, so I have a list to work with for the upcoming year.

Plus, I've started Hunchback of Notre Dame, which so far, I love.

Girona, Spain II

Girona, Spain

This is a sculpture we saw in Girona, Spain. I have not been able to find out anything about it so far...but naturally I love it.

Postscript: Thanks to D. Chedwick, I found this link about the sculpture. I can't speak Spanish, and all I get out of the text is a bunch of PR about reflecting the cultural life of Girona. Can anyone else translate this? I was hoping it had something to do with writers who wrote even during Franco's rule.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Spain reading: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hola! The Kitten is back from vacation, with much to report. We begin with the novel I read on the trip, of course!

The Shadow of the Wind is a fabulous read! Considering I got stricken for a day and a half with a severe travel bug, the novel was also a lifesaver. Diverted me from my illness.

I'm not much of a reviewer (I say, why not read the book?), but to sum up, this is a Gothic/mystery/love story all rolled up into one twisting, turning tale. The hero is Daniel Sempere, whom we meet as a young boy in post-Civil War Barcelona. His father introduces Daniel to a mysterious bookstore called The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where the boy chooses a book called The Shadow of the Wind. Daniel loses himself in the novel and becomes caught up in learning more about its mysterious author, Julian Carax. Ruiz Zafon takes us through Daniel's intriguing journey and rites of passage.

If the plot doesn't grab you, first check your pulse for vital signs. Then simply enjoy the characters, which are some of the most memorable and vividly drawn that I've read in modern literature. Daniel is a sympathetic, intelligent and interesting hero to follow, and all sorts of interesting, shadowy and complex figures crop up throughout Daniel's adventure. Most interesting to me is Fermin Romero de Torres, who plays a sort of Pancho Villa. He's a brilliantly realized, unique character.

As an added bonus, the book included a walking tour of Barcelona!

Thanks to Stefanie for the reading suggestion! You don't have to go to Spain to enjoy this one...

Thoughts for Thursday - Cool link

This is my final post before my two-week vacation...so I'll leave you with a cool link provided to me by an anonymous friend. Here is a description of what you'll find:

Welcome to the ArcaMax Book Club. We offer the largest collection of free classic books by email. Sign up to as many classic books as you want. For each subscription, you'll receive the full text free by e-mail -- one chapter per day. You'll also get weekly updates of the newest books.

Personally, I am not sure I could read Dracula by email! But for plays, poetry, and short stories, this seems like a viable format. It also is a way to check out classics you're unfamiliar with.

The site has some fun features, too -- forums and quizzes. Take this one to test your knowledge of poetry! (I'm pretty sure I will stink; I've never been good at pulling quotes out of my arse.)

Happy reading in the meantime! See you soon!

Happy Halloween from The Literate Kitten

Today I went to work dressed as a middle-aged disgruntled employee.

Have a boo-tiful day!

Suggestions for Spain reading?

Next week I'll be Spain and Morocco. Not a moment too soon. I feel like a marathon runner on her last lap.

I'm so frazzled I can't even focus on which book I'll take with me for travel reading. So, I thought I'd ask you, my industrious blog readers, for suggestions.

The thing is, the book must be light to carry. (Not light to read necessarily!) I will be packing as little as possible, as I will be taking at least 4 flights during my visit, plus a train ride or car drive.

I ordered Beau Geste, in hopes of it being delivered before I leave. Don't you think that would be an interesting book to read?

Any other ideas? Many thanks! I look forward to posting pix and info about my trip.

Thoughts for Thursday: What's in the news

Hi, everyone, and thanks for hanging in with me. I've experienced a steep learning curve with my new job (which I started Aug. 1), and the fall is when I tend to feel more sluggish. Just to explain the relative paucity of posts.

Today, I'm focusing on tying the news to books.

And, of course, we've all heard about the Southern California wildfires. I know several people who have been affected by the fires, and my sympathies are extended to the thousands who are suffering loss.

For the rest of us who are only experiencing fire primarily through TV, a book that gives you the experience from a smoke-jumper's point of view is Norman MacLean's Young Men and Fire. This is a gem: thoughtful, well-researched (if loosely edited; MacLean died before it was finished), and unforgettable. From Publisher's Weekly:

On Aug. 5, 1949, 16 Forest Service smoke jumpers landed at a fire in remote Mann Gulch, Mont. Within an hour, 13 were dead or irrevocably burned, caught in a "blowup"--a rare explosion of wind and flame. The late Maclean, author of the acclaimed A River Runs Through It , grew up in western Montana and worked for the Forest Service in his youth. He visited the site of the blowup; for the next quarter century, the tragedy haunted him. In 1976 he began a serious study of the fire, one that occupied the last 14 years of his life.

Other books I've read concerning fire:

Fire and Fog, Dianne Day. A detective novel featuring a heroine who surives the 1906 earthquake and fire. I'm not a genre reader, but this one gives a good feel for what it must have been like to have experienced the quake and fire. And a pretty decent story, decently written.

San Francisco is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires, Dennis Smith. Firefighter-turned-writer Smith gives some interesting accounts of the famous disaster, though Smith isn't the best writer in the whole world. (Report from Ground Zero was...not a favorite. I'm sure Simon Winchester's Crack in the Edge of the World is equally good if not better -- I haven't read it yet, though.) Still, it's an amazing story no matter how many ways it's told.

Odds & Ends

Hello, just thought I'd take a quick moment to point out some interesting posts I've read:


1. LK got a mention on Austenblog.com! (See Weekend Bookblogging, Oct. 14, 2007.) This is a really great website for all things JANE.

2. Danielle has posted some wonderful observations about The Horla, one of my horror short picks and this month's selection over at A Curious Singularity.

3. I didn't like I Am Legend, but here's an objective, interesting take on the novel from Biblioaddict. (Plus an interview with Matheson!) I guess this novel got under my skin, despite the fact that I personally had issues with it. Can't give up on Matheson yet.

4. Punctuality Rules! Great site, courtesy of Pages Turned.

5. In preparation for my upcoming trip to Spain (less than 3 weeks!!!), I'm reading Barcelona by Robert Hughes. I am planning to write a travel article on my visit, but it seems Hughes has covered just about everything! A little hard going, but great resource for anyone who may be traveling to Barcelona.

Readers Choice Horror Short Stories

Thanks for the great response on horror short stories! Here is the list I have compiled. If I’ve missed anyone, please leave a link or your story choices in the comments. I haven’t decided on which one(s) I will be reading – there are so many good ones…probably The Body Snatcher, plus something by M.R. James, which Eloise from By the Book Piles highly recommends.

Lots of good stuff for next year, too.

Deborah at Book Rage
Don't Look Now, Daphne DuMaurier (Deborah says this story and The Blue Lenses, which was one of my picks, is in the anthology Echoes from the Macabre)
An Unlocked Window, Ethel Lina White
The Jolly Corner, Henry James
The Turn of the Screw (novella), Henry James

Eva at A Striped Armchair, with her comments
The Cask of Amontillado. Edgar Allen Poe. I found this incredibly creepy, and I'm pretty sure it gave me nightmares for quite awhile.
The Birds, Daphne du Maurier. You can tell I didn't read a lot of horror short stories before the R.I.P. II challenge!
The Lovely House, Shirley Jackson. (see above)
Riding the Bullet, Stephen King. I think King is scarier in short story form than novel form, and a lot of the stories in Everything's Eventual were creepy. This one has stayed with me, though.
Snow, Glass, Apples, Neil Gaiman. Oh my gosh-this is easily one of the creepiest stories I've ever read. It actually made the hair on my arms stand up.
The Thing in the Wood, A.S. Byatt. Also a very spooky tale, one that I still remember vividly after six years.

Kailana at The Written World
The Body Snatcher, Robert Louis Stevenson

Kate at Kate’s Book Blog
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Kate also mentioned a novel called The Victorian Chaise-Lounge)

Ex Libris
The Jar, Ray Bradbury

Orange Blossom Goddess at Library Ladder
The Water Ghost of Harrow Hall, John Kendrick Bangs

Snacky Wombat at Minus the Spine
Condemned door or The Bestiary, Julio Cortazar

Eloise by the Book Piles, with her comments
Number 13, MR James. My absolute, number one, favourite ghost story. A hotel guest in room number 12 finds he has a bizarre next door neighbour.
Carmilla, J Sheridan Le Fanu. Seminal vampire story, quite long though for a short story.
The Judge's House, Bram Stoker. A young man rents a house to get some work done but is annoyed by a rat. Scary with a shocking ending. Brilliant.
The Picture in the House, HP Lovecraft. I think this scared me more than any other story has ever done. A young man shelters in a run down house where he finds a valuable book open at a certain picture.
The Strange Case of M Valdemar, Edgar Allen Poe. This is a truly ghastly story, and thought-provoking, as the best Poe stories always are.
The Kit Bag, Algernon Blackwood. Very very creepy. A real hairs-rising-on-the-back-of-the-neck story.
To be Taken with a Grain of Salt, Charles Dickens. A classic tale of retribution from beyond the grave.
The Grey Woman, Elizabeth Gaskell. This is a terrific piece of nail-biting gothic horror as a young woman makes a bad marriage.
The Open Door, Charlotte Riddell. The tale of a young man who decides to solve the mystery of a house where a door just won't stay closed. I enjoyed it immensely. This is in the Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories (as is the Blackwood) which is a very good collection.
The Canterville Ghost, Oscar Wilde. Very funny and quite poignant, as a ghost comes face to face with the modern world.

A Civilized Book Site

Hello, and thanks for your good wishes. I had a chance to sleep off the worst of whatever on Friday.

Just wanted to share this cool site with fellow aficionados of literary travel guides and such: The Little Bookroom.

How can anyone resist a title like the Civilized Shopper's Guide to Florence?

Or notecards fashioned after old romance book jackets?
(Just HAD to include the one to the right!)


Lots of fun, check it out.

Friday Buzz - Neil Gaiman story

Oh, it's Friday and I'm fighting a cold and the week has been stressful. So, what is the best cure? A good story of course!

This is a Neil Gaiman story A Study in Emerald.

What I like is the presentation and how it matches the language. Clever, funny. Yay.

Thanks from BiblioAddict, where I purloined the link.

Everybody have a great weekend!

LK’s Horror Short Story Short Challenge

Welcome!

The goal of this challenge is to give eager readers an easy way to discover new authors, new genres, and the delights of the short story.

Here’s how it works: Below are my picks for Top 10 Horror Short Stories (in no particular order). I use the term “horror” broadly: This list actually encompasses not only true horror stories, but also classics, gothic, science-fiction, and the macabre. Simply pick one that you vow to read sometime during October. (Some even have links to full online text.) This was a difficult list to compile, and by no means is it complete! These are some ones that jolted me enough to leave their mark, even after many years.

Let me know which pick you choose by leaving a comment. Also, let me and other readers know which stories you like that don’t appear on my list. Or leave me a link to a post of your own Top 10. I will post the list of Readers’ Choice mid-October.

I’d also like to know what you thought of any story. You can email comments to me at writerlylife at yahoo dot com.

Happy reading, everybody!

LK’s Horror Short Story List

(Some stories are available as podcasts at Classic Tales. Thanks, Verbivore!)

1. W.W. Jacobs, The Monkey’s Paw. Straightforward but unforgettable horror classic. Be careful what you wish for…


2. Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher. I was torn between this story and The Cask of Almontillado, which actually is (to me) scarier. But The Fall of the House of Usher is perhaps the first short gothic tale and one of Poe’s great works of craft, characterized by many as a story wherein each and every detail is relevant.

3. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappacini’s Daughter. This story is the stewpot of horror tales: smatterings of fantasy mixed with dashes of gothic, simmering with sexual undertones. Toss in a Faustian father and season with plenty of symbology. (Hey, what about a Rappacini's Daughter Bed & Breakfast?) Bon appetit!

4. Shirley Jackson, The Lottery. Often anthologized, this story is considered a masterpiece of the literary short story genre. And it happens to be authentically creepy.

5. Jerome Bixby, It’s a Good Life! I read this in one of Alfred Hitchcock’s anthologies when I was a kid, and I never forgot it. (Too bad Haley Joel Osment is all grown up. He would have made a perfect Anthony!)

6. Philip K. Dick, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. This tale gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” (The film Total Recall was based on this work.) I’m not a sci-fi buff, but Philip K. Dick is a master storyteller, particularly in the difficult arena of short science fiction. This particular story is sometimes categorized as a novella, rather than a short story – I’m including it here nevertheless because Dick simply must be read.

7. Guy de Maupassant, The Horla. For the truly twisted, check out this author, who has written a whole slew of fantastic and often macabre tales. This one happens to be a psychological tour-de-force about madness.

8. Isak Dinesen, The Monkey. This peculiar yet brilliant story of a prioress matchmaker is a study on the nature of change. From the collection Seven Gothic Tales. Here's a quote from the story: "beware … of people who have in the course of their lives neither taken part in an orgy nor gone through the experience of childbirth, for they are dangerous people..." Now, how can you NOT read this?

9. Daphne du Maurier, The Blue Lenses. I read this as a child, and it really got to me. Simple, well-crafted, utterly terrifying and quite satisfying story about the recuperation of a woman who has had eye surgery. This story is included in a 1959 paperback called The Breaking Point (republished in 1970). I couldn’t find text online, so I will mention another du Maurier story that you might be able to find more easily. It’s called Don’t Look Now, and although I haven’t read it, Danielle of A Work in Progress raved over it, so I’m sure by her recommendation, it’s a fine example of du Maurier’s work.

10. Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I confess, I have a weakness for this descriptive, atmospheric story and its beleaguered hero, Ichabod Crane. More folktale than horror story, this really captures the essence of early America, with its tug-o-war between civilization and wilderness.

RIP Challenge #3 - I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Atmosphere: Riddled with holes
Chill factor: Tepid
I hate to dump on a novel so many sci-fi/horror readers respect. But I didn't much care for this one.

To sum up the plot, a lone survivor of a plague and vampire infestation tries to...well, survive.

On the plus side, that is a somewhat intriguing plot. The character also does some investigative work on what makes vampires tick, and the resulting information is imaginative.

That's about it for the plus side.

On the minus side: Well, where do I begin? First of all, the survivor just happens to be a white adult WASP male, Robert Neville. And he happens not to be incredibly likable, at least for this reader. This is unfortunate, since we are pretty much in his head for the entire journey. Neville is portrayed in two dimensions: he's a prototypical male human and he's intelligent. Oh, and he really hates the smell of garlic. But, does he develop empathy for the vampires he kills (some of whom happen to be acquaintances)? Sort of. Does his character improve with the isolation he endures? Naw. Does he find some sort of redemption in his suffering or that of the vampires? Apparently not.

Supposedly the "grim irony" of the novel is when a new breed of human -- vampires who develop a resistance to the things that ordinarily kill vampires -- decide that he's the outsider and must be annihilated. Which would be a ironic and satsifying if the book had built up to that moment; in other words, if we would have seen Neville's character change from fright to a sort of empathy that is a saving grace of humanity, to a desire to help the poor creatures...But the author doesn't do that. Instead he resorts to keeping his hero trapped in his male sexuality and self-pity. I mean, what does the fool do with all of the solitude and time??? Why was there relatively little soul-searching and philosophical musing (Thoreau he is not)? Why didn't he try building "safehouses" around to extend his perimeter? Why didn't he pursue a cure sooner? And why did the only person with any empathy turn out to be a woman who was one of the new species (and what was her motive, other than what the author implied that Neville was a prototype WASP male, therefore a "good catch")? Okay, that's harsh. But, Neville certainly didn't woo Ruth (a ham-handed Biblical name) with his charm and character. And he supposedly is smart enough to learn about biology and chemistry and how to fix a generator, but he couldn't figure out Ruth was a spy? I mean, I saw that coming from a dozen pages away. Neville even has a few "Why didn't I think of that sooner?" moments to explain plot gaps, which is a really lazy device on Matheson's part.

Perhaps even all of this could have been redeemed if there was a gloriously written sentence or well-turned phrase or two. Alas, not a one.

This is why I tend to stay away from the genre stuff. I simply require something other than plot from my reading. Or, at least, if a plot has to carry the whole shebang, it better not have any damned holes in it.

I'm not giving up on Matheson yet. I will see what his novella Hell House has in store.

RIP Challenge #2 – Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Atmosphere: Austen-tacious

Chill factor: Tickles the funnybone

Possibly this novel is Jane Austen at her worst. Yet, Jane Austen at her worst is quite better than most authors at their peak. Her subtlety, craft and observations are nonpareiled.

Northanger Abbey is a parody on many levels: the touted gentility of British gentry is exposed as greedy and false, living life as a fiction is exposed as ridiculous, attributing our own motives to others is exposed as naïve at best and dangerous at worst. But the parody that concerns the RIP Challenge, of course, is the parody of Gothic literature.

This element didn’t start kicking in until book 2, when Catherine Morland, the novel’s heroine, is invited to Northanger Abbey. Having read Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, Catherine eagerly awaits her visit to what she imagines is a place full of mystery and adventure. At this point, Jane Austen really hits her stride.

During the ride to Northanger Abbey, the owner’s son (and her romantic interest), Henry Tilney plays on Catherine’s romantic notions with a riotous parody of the Gothic novel, virtually a play-by-play account of a heroine’s stay in a Gothic castle. Here is an excerpt:

“Nothing further to alarm perhaps may occur the first night. After surmounting your unconquerable horror of the bed, you will retire to rest, and get a few hours' unquiet slumber. But on the second, or at farthest the third night after your arrival, you will probably have a violent storm. Peals of thunder so loud as to seem to shake the edifice to its foundation will roll round the neighbouring mountains -- and during the frightful gusts of wind which accompany it, you will probably think you discern (for your lamp is not extinguished) one part of the hanging more violently agitated than the rest. Unable of course to repress your curiosity in so favourable a moment for indulging it, you will instantly arise, and throwing your dressing-gown around you, proceed to examine this mystery. After a very short search, you will discover a division in the tapestry so artfully constructed as to defy the minutest inspection, and on opening it, a door will immediately appear -- which door, being only secured by massy bars and a padlock, you will, after a few efforts, succeed in opening -- and, with your lamp in your hand, will pass through it into a small vaulted room."

This build-up is followed by a disappointing first glimpse of Northanger Abbey:

As they drew near the end of their journey, her impatience for a sight of the abbey--for some time suspended by his conversation on subjects very different--returned in full force, and every bend in the road was expected with solemn awe to afford a glimpse of its massy walls of grey stone, rising amidst a grove of ancient oaks, with the last beams of the sun playing in beautiful splendour on its high Gothic windows. But so low did the building stand, that she found herself passing through the great gates of the lodge into the very grounds of Northanger, without having discerned even an antique chimney.

This is funny stuff. Austen goes on and on with the anticipation and disappointment, the ideals and the stripping of those ideals for the remainder of the novel. I was startled at the denouement of this novel – which I won’t spoil for you here – but it really was an Austen coup, a perfect intersection of her main themes of reality versus fiction, gentility versus greed.

Of course, it ends in typical Austen fashion, rather abruptly and neatly, with everyone happily married. But, after all, you're on the Jane Train.

Thoughts for Thursday - Chugging

You know, I am pretty brain dead at this point, and all I can say is: Thank GOD once again for RIP Challenge! It's such a fun activity to look forward to this time of year. I'm midway through Northanger Abbey (waiting for the Gothic to kick in), and I'm still looking for my copy of I Am Legend. In between I snuck in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, which, like Dracula, is so different from many cinematic adaptations I've seen that it was quite a satisfying literary discovery.

Events reminder!

Take the Horror Short Story Short Challenge (see post above) & while you're at it, why not write one? Carl V. is hosting the Tiny Creepy Story contest over at Stainless Steel Droppings.

RIP Challenge - #1: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Atmosphere: Extreme Goth

Chill factor: Sufficiently spine-tingling

I've never been a fan of Dracula; somehow, the image of him, with his Brillantined-hair, cape, and bad manicure, appealed far less than Mary Shelley's creature with its zipperneck, green complexion, and droopy eyes.

But, then, that just goes to show how my ideas of these famous monsters was influenced by Hollywood.

Reading Bram Stoker's version has been a revelation: I get it!

Let's get the mechanics out of the way, and say that old Bram's plot was tight as rigor mortis. His prose goes purple now and again, and the dialog is frequently overwrought and stilted. But you know what? It works!

And I think that is because Stoker had gotten such a handle on this character. Count Dracula is the archetype of all time. And, with Stoker's skillful plotting, he sucks the most out of it (bad pun intended). Let's take a look at a few broad interpretations that can be applied to this story:

1) Count Dracula represents counter forces (Eastern Europe versus Western Europe) that threaten the stability of civilization.

2) Dracula is the "other," the "dark force," symbolic of foreigners, the underclass, the physically or socially repressed.

3) Dracula is a morality tale, good versus evil.

What gripped me throughout was, of course, the subliminal notion of sex. Dracula represents not only the repressed sexuality of the heros in the tale, but also the fear/threat of the sexual female. Here's some insight from Carol A. Senf, 'Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror':

'On the surface the novel appears to be a mythic re-enactment of the opposition between Good and Evil because the narrators attribute their pursuit and ultimate defeat of Dracula to a high moral purpose ... Yet, in spite of the narrators' moral language, Stoker reveals that Dracula is primarily a sexual threat, a missionary of desire whose only true kingdom will be the human body. ... Neither a thief, rapist, nor an overtly political threat, Dracula is dangerous because he expresses his contempt for authority in the most individualistic of ways - through his sexuality. In fact his thirst for blood and the manner in which he satisfies his thirst can be interpreted as sexual desire which fails to observe any of society's attempts to control it - prohibitions against polygamy, promiscuity, and homosexuality.'

Definitely a story that transcends mores of any particular time. I'm very very glad I read it, and now I'm interested to read how other authors handle this tale -- and which interpretations they choose to emphasize. I may swap out my choice of Lisey's Story with King's Salems' Lot or maybe an Anne Rice novel. I will be checking out Carl V.'s recommendations, as well as what people are reading over at RIP-ing Yarns.

Reminder: October 1 is the start of the Horror Short Story Short Challenge! I'll list my Top 10 picks on this site. Just choose one from my list that you vow to read. Leave the name(s) of horror short stories you like that weren't on the list, or post your own top 10 and leave me a link. I'll compile all the readers' lists and post the reader choices mid-October. Hope you'll join in!

What Knopf editors had to say

Nice essay on the publishing biz in the NY Times. Check out what Knopf editors had to say about some works that passed through their hands:

The rejection files, which run from the 1940s through the 1970s, include dismissive verdicts on the likes of Jorge Luis Borges (“utterly untranslatable”), Isaac Bashevis Singer (“It’s Poland and the rich Jews again”), Anaïs Nin (“There is no commercial advantage in acquiring her, and, in my opinion, no artistic”), Sylvia Plath (“There certainly isn’t enough genuine talent for us to take notice”) and Jack Kerouac (“His frenetic and scrambling prose perfectly express the feverish travels of the Beat Generation. But is that enough? I don’t think so”). In a two-year stretch beginning in 1955, Knopf turned down manuscripts by Jean-Paul Sartre, Mordecai Richler, and the historians A. J. P. Taylor and Barbara Tuchman, not to mention Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” (too racy) and James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room” (“hopelessly bad”).

But, before all you writers get too excited, the essayist also had this to say:

Actually, darts like these turned up less frequently than I expected. Even in the rejection files, where negativity reigned, the great bulk of the reader’s reports seemed fair-minded and persuasive. Put simply, a rejected manuscript usually appeared to deserve its fate.

What is most telling, I think, is that the publisher's eye is so buggedly fixed on the current market, which is a fickle, ever-changing beast.

Dracula & Frankenstein: Puritan nightmares?

I'm slowly making my way through Bram Stoker's Dracula. Two things occurred to me:

First: Aren't Dracula and Frankenstein the absolutely perfect monsters for the Puritans -- and by extension, the American psyche? I mean, monsters representing sex and technology. I suppose the Victorians could be said to be struggling with these mighty issues as well. I don't think it's coincidence that the two emerged in literature at about the same time.

Here's something interesting I found about the Dracula/Frankenstein link:

In the summer of 1816, Lord Byron and his doctor, John Polidori, were residing at the Villa Diodati where they were visited by Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin (who would soon become Mary Shelley) and Claire Claremont. One evening, after a collective reading of ghost stories, Byron suggested that each member of the party write a story of their own. Two tales that changed the face of Gothic fiction were inspired by this challenge. Mary Shelley began Frankenstein, while Byron wrote a fragment about a nobleman named Augustus Darvell who contrives to return from the dead. Later that year, Polidori used his employer’s unfinished work as the basis of a novella: Lord Ruthven -- who bears an intentional resemblance to the notorious Lord Byron -- is a jaded, charismatic nobleman who must feed upon the blood of the living in order to continue his unnatural existence. Polidori’s creation became the prototype for most subsequent literary vampires, ranging from Count Dracula to Lestat.

Here's another interesting tidbit:
In the meantime, another English author had taken the vampire theme to a new height--or length, at least--in his 800-page novel entitled Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood (1847), published anonymously but now reliably attributed to James Malcolm Rhymer (1814-1881), a prolific writer of horror and adventure fiction. But a more serious predecessor of Stoker was the Irish author, J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), whose 1872 Carmilla focused with great insight on the psychology and shifting emotions of his characters, and used familiar settings as well as the devices of gothic fiction. Stoker, who reviewed drama for the Le Fanu's Dublin Evening Mail, is quite likely to have encountered Carmilla. A scholar who has written extensively on Dracula and related horror fiction places Le Fanu in a pivotal position in the evolution of a whole genre: "Le Fanu's interest in the processes of the mind opened the way for the scary psychological fiction that came after him: Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Stoker's Dracula (1897), and Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898)" (Leonard Wolf, Dracula: The Connoisseurs' Guide, New York, 1997, p.111).

The second thought that surfaced in my pea-brain relates to the issue of scariness. Dorothy W. over at Books and Bikes brought this up when she read Dracula, and it stuck with me. Now, I happened to think Stoker's description of Dracula extremely vivid and sufficiently spine-chilling. Much more so than Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. (I really am at a loss to figure out how the book version was translated into the screen version. The two seem so different.)

But, to concur with Dorothy W., Dracula (so far) isn't all that scary. It's fun to read, but it all seems so tame. Which got me to thinking: Not many books these days scare me, except ones about war and Bush. What does it take to scare readers in this 21st century, full of lights and sounds and gadgets that hunt down ghosts in the rafters? When we have the full-gore power of TV and movie images and switch-flipping light and sound..can books really force us enough into our imagination for a good scare? What do you think readers? Are we too jaded and plugged in to be scared of things that go bump in the night?

The mother lode

Since I haven't finished any books to discuss, time for a little navel-gazing.

I have lucked upon the mother lode of books: The Friends of Berkeley Public Library Bookstore.

They have the most fabulous free cart, from which I've filched:
Birds of America, Lorrie Moore
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Proust, the Early Years, George Painter
Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood
George Sand, A Biography, Curtis Cate

And this is what I've found on their shelf of 3-for-$1 books:
Miss Alcott of Concord, Marjorie Alcott Worthington
9/11 Commission Report
Best Short Stories of The New Yorker (1922-1940)
Alfred Hitchock's Stories My Mother Never Told Me

I try not to get too greedy, selecting books I really want to read or ones that are out-of-print or hard to come by. I plan on returning as many of the free books as I can, once I've read them. Otherwise, my apartment floors will start sagging under the weight!

My wish for all you readers out there is that you find your own mother lode nearby!

Books for the 6th anniversary of 9/11

This is borrowed from Dan Froomkin:

New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani reviews Jack Goldsmith's new book, "The Terror Presidency."

"The portrait of the Bush administration that Mr. Goldsmith -- who resigned from the Office of Legal Counsel in June 2004, only nine months after assuming the post -- draws in this book is a devastating one. It is a portrait of a highly insular White House obsessively focused on expanding presidential power and loathe to consult with Congress, a White House that frequently made up its mind about a course of action before consulting with experts, a White House that sidelined Congress in its policymaking and willfully pursued a 'go-it-alone approach' based on 'minimal deliberation, unilateral action, and legalistic defense.'
"Similar portraits, of course, have been drawn by reporters and other former administration insiders, but Mr. Goldsmith's account stands out by virtue that he was privy to internal White House debates about explosive matters like secret surveillance, coercive interrogation and the detention and trial of enemy combatants. It is also distinguished by Mr. Goldsmith's writing from the point of view of a conservative who shared many of the Bush White House's objectives. . . . But he found himself alarmed by the Bush White House's obsession with expanding presidential power, its arrogant unilateralism and its willingness to use what he regarded as careless and overly expansive legal arguments in an effort to buttress its policies."

In an excerpt from his book on Slate, Goldsmith writes: "Why did the administration so often assert presidential power in ways that seemed unnecessary and politically self-defeating? The answer, I believe, is that the administration's conception of presidential power had a kind of theological significance that often trumped political consequences. . . .
"But the Bush administration's strategy is guaranteed not to work, and is certain to destroy trust altogether. When an administration makes little attempt to work with the other institutions of our government and makes it a public priority to emphasize that its aim is to expand its power, Congress, the courts, and the public listen carefully, and worry."
Or at least they should.

Salon's Rob Patterson talks to Robert Draper about his new Bush book, "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush." Says Draper: "A lot of Americans and people all over the world are taught to just say, 'I'm sorry I screwed up. I've learned from my mistakes, and I will try to do better.' For all of the other aspects of this president that I think are very emotionally honest that I witnessed, that was one aspect that is not -- his difficulty to own up to his mistakes. I think in a way he's like a baseball umpire who feels like if you call a ball a strike, you've got to stick to that. Otherwise people will question you. They will think that your equivocation is a sign of a lack of certainty. . . .

"I think where the rubber meets the road there is that Bush, for all of his talk about him being so comfortable in his own skin, possesses insecurities like the rest of us. And Bush, due to his insecurities, really doesn't like to be challenged. . . .

"This is a guy who really possesses a lot of insecurities, and I think that's why he evinces this sort of incuriosity. There are only certain kinds of challenges that he can deal with. What is admirable about Bush is also part of his insecurity. I think because his insecurity drives him to want to be relevant and want to do big things, he's willing to throw the ball long. And I think that because of that, history is not going to judge this man with indifference. They are not going to judge him as Franklin Pierce. He is either going to go down in history as a disastrous flop or a really monumental president."

Salon also has an excerpt from John W. Dean's new Bush book: "Broken Government."

RIP Challenge is here!

This blog appears to have fallen on some hard times. I've sorely neglected posting because I've got an Everest-steep learning curve at my new job.

However, I must acknowledge the beginning of Carl V.'s RIP Challenge. This was great fun last year, and this year's challenge promises to be a second terrific chance at getting your thrills fix as the autumn chills set in.

I'm opting for the Wimp Option, also known as Peril the First: Read four books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories that you choose.

My picks for 2007:

1. Gothic fiction: Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
2. Classic fiction: Dracula, Bram Stoker
3. Contemporary horror: Lisey’s Story, Stephen King
4. Mystery/horror: Alfred Hitchcock presents Stories My Mother Never Told Me

I'm still going to host in October the Horror Short Story Short Challenge...stay tuned...