tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90321166852339460832024-03-06T00:14:03.227-08:006 Years, 45,000 Pages"I envy not the fowl of heaven his pinions, far nobler joy to soar through thought's dominions, from page to page, from book to book!"
<br> -Faust (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) <br><br>
A woman's attempt to read one hundred works (45,000 pages) of classic literature before she turns 30!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-48354092562109707672016-02-18T09:54:00.001-08:002016-02-18T09:54:06.555-08:00Sense and Sensibility: 31% CompleteI am very much enjoying <u>Sense and Sensibility</u>. Although I usually prefer to read books <i>before </i>watching movie adaptations, there's something fascinating about reading the original story behind a familiar movie. I also have to say that I am impressed with Emma Thompson's screen play (which apparently took her five years to write!). She held very true to the book, with only a few small changes that I've found so far.<br />
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Because the story itself is so familiar to me, I'm finding myself focusing on different aspects of the book. One thing I was interested in is the physical distances that separate the locations in the book. Towards the beginning of the book, Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters are forced to move from their home at Norland Park in the county of Sussex to Barton Cottage near the town of Exeter in Devonshire. Although both Norland Park and Barton Cottage are fictional, the distance here is approximately 130 miles. Throughout the book various characters go to "town" i.e. London, which is about two hundred miles from Barton Cottage. The Jane Austen Society of North America has maps for each of Jane Austen's novels which show the locations of various estates and towns for each book. Those can be located <a href="http://www.jasna.org/info/maps.html" target="_blank">here.</a><br />
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Another fascinating aspect of this book (and many others) is the money. Jane Austen in particular frequently discusses the amount of money various characters "have" (few of them actually earn their money) per year. I referenced this website when I read <u>Pride and Prejudice</u>, but I once again returned to Eric Nye's site with the University of Wyoming which converts from historical British Pounds (by year) to current American dollars. That site can be found <a href="http://www.uwyo.edu/numimage/currency.htm" target="_blank">here.</a><br />
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I used the previously-mentioned website to calculate how much money John Dashwood and his stingy wife were debating would fulfill their obligation to Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters (in the end they decide that non-monetary assistance is more than generous). Initially Mr. Dashwood plans to give each of the three girls one thousand pounds. In 1811 when this book was published, that would be the equivalent of about $80,000 a piece. After objections from his wife, he lowers the amount to 500 pounds ($40,000) a piece. Then, when she's still unhappy, he suggests one hundred pounds per year to their mother while she lives. This is about $8000 per year (in addition to the five hundred pounds ($40,000) per year that the Dashwood girls receive from their father's estate). Then his wife argues that if their mother lives more than fifteen years then they would end up paying out even more than they would if they gave 500 pounds to each girl all at once, and "people always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them." So in the end he agrees that they will no doubt be very comfortable on their five hundred per year, and they would benefit more from small gifts and other assistance over the years.<br />
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Another thing that surprised me was the Marianne and Elinor are younger than I thought: Marianne is only sixteen (which makes me less judgmental of her dramatic "sensibility") and Elinor is nineteen (which makes her rather wise beyond her years).<br />
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And finally, a quote. In this scene Edward Ferrars has come to visit the family at Barton Cottage and seems melancholy and strange, which is perplexing and bewildering to Elinor.<br />
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"Elinor placed all that was astonishing in this way of acting to his mother's account; and it was happy for her that he had a mother whose character was so imperfectly known to her, as to be the general excuse for every thing strange on the part of her son."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-42060080233540677782016-02-16T17:55:00.000-08:002016-02-16T17:55:02.520-08:00Sense and Sensibility: BeginningUp next: <u>Sense and Sensibility</u> by Jane Austen. This is one of two Jane Austen books on my list and I've already read the other one: <u>Pride and Prejudice</u>. <br />
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<u>Sense and Sensibility</u> was Jane Austen's first published work, originally published in 1811 using the pseudonym "A Lady." It's the story of two sisters, Elinor (steady, thoughtful and serious) and Marianne (frivolous, dramatic and passionate) and their adventures (and misadventures) in love. <br />
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Several film and television adaptations have been produced, including a movie (which is fantastic, in my humble opinion) starring Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman (RIP).<br />
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The version I'm reading for Kindle can be found <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Sensibility-Illustrated-Jane-Austen-ebook/dp/B00NKTBZPW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1455673875&sr=1-1&keywords=sense+and+sensibility" target="_blank">here</a> and has 242 pages.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-36076178691447223142016-02-15T19:43:00.000-08:002016-02-15T19:43:04.070-08:00Common Sense: Beginning and 100% CompleteOver the course of a few hours yesterday and today, I read <u>Common Sense</u> by Thomas Paine. This was published anonymously as a pamphlet in January 1776, prior to the Declaration of Independence and a few months into the War for Independence. In it, Thomas Paine makes the case for separation from Great Britain.<br />
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This pamphlet was widely circulated and, compared to the population of the thirteen colonies, remains the most widely printed and circulated book in American history. Although it was originally published anonymously, it was only three months before it was discovered that Thomas Paine, at the time a 39-year-old activist, had written it.<br />
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Although one of the claims made about this pamphlet is that it was written in "common language" I found it to be less than light reading. I wouldn't say <i>difficult</i> to read, but I did find it a bit hard to grasp the arguments being made occasionally. Paine certainly pulled out all persuasive stops when it came to arguing the case for American independence, including arguing that it is unnatural for an island to govern and entire continent and that if God had intended for Britain to rule the colonies, he wouldn't have situated them so far apart geographically. Of course he made better, sounder, arguments as well and all in all I found it interesting to read what was in the minds of one of our Founding Fathers.<br />
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A few of what I found to be the more inspiring or at least interesting quotes:<br />
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"It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies." (He may be a bit perturbed at the current state of affairs regarding unity in Washington D.C.)<br />
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"For myself, I fully and conscientiously believe, that it is the will of the Almighty, that there should be diversity of religious opinions among us: it affords a larger field for our Christian kindness. Were we all of one way of thinking, our religious dispositions would want matter for probation; and on this liberal principle, I look on the various denominations among us, to be like children of the same family, differing only, in what is called, their Christian names."<br />
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And finally, a vocabulary word: <i>sycophant</i>, meaning "a person who acts obsequiously toward someone I order to gain advantage." (I can think of a few less-refined synonyms for this, can you?)<br />
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I'll be delve into something a bit longer now. There's something exhausting about reading a bunch of short works. Up next: <u>Sense and Sensibility</u> by Jane Austen.<u></u>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-46773086330471730462016-02-14T17:53:00.000-08:002016-02-14T17:53:01.806-08:00The Murders in the Rue Morgue: Beginning and 100% CompleteIn just over an hour I knocked another "book" off the list: Edgar Allen Poe's short story: <u>The Murders in the Rue Morgue.</u> The version I have for Kindle can be found <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Murders-Rue-Morgue-Edgar-Allan-ebook/dp/B009QA3P0C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1455500405&sr=8-3&keywords=murders+in+the+rue+morgue" target="_blank">here</a> and comes out to 38 pages. <br />
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Edgar Allen Poe (of "The Raven" fame, among other classics) wrote this for <i>Graham's Magazine</i> in 1841, for which he was paid $56. It is a classic detective story in which an amateur detective solves the brutal murder of two women in Paris. According to Wikipedia, some consider this to be the first fiction detective story. <br />
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It's clear that the framework set forward in this story served as some inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. There is the brilliant, if slightly eccentric, detective who pieces together tiny clues missed by everyone else, and then explains them to his friend/narrator.<br />
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Here is one quote I particularly liked. I have a weakness for quotes which make me smile and feel like I know exactly what the author is talking about, often without knowing that others had the same experience. This was one of those moments:<br />
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"There are few persons who have not, at some point of their lives, amused themselves in retracing the steps by which particular conclusions of their own minds have been attained. The occupation is often of full interest; and he who attempts it for the first time is astonished by the apparently illimitable distance and incoherence between the starting point and the goal."<br />
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I learned a pair of vocabulary words: first, "egress" which means "the action of going out of or leaving a place," and "ingress" which is "the action or fact of going in or entering."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-8908730731501113592016-02-14T15:16:00.002-08:002016-02-14T15:21:46.026-08:00Rip Van Winkle: Beginning and 100% CompleteAs I mentioned at the end of my last post, I've decided to read a few of the shorter works on my list; looking at the spreadsheet I have with book lengths I noticed that I have at least half a dozen under a hundred pages. Because these are so short, I'm going to combine my "introductory" post with my "100% complete" post, since writing two blog post on a book that takes me an hour to read seems excessive.<br />
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The first one I tackled is <u>Rip Van Winkle</u> by Washington Irvine (also the author of <u>The Legend of Sleepy Hollow</u>). The Kindle copy I read can be found <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rip-Van-Winkle-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B00DY4ZL0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1455490497&sr=1-1&keywords=rip+van+winkle" target="_blank">here</a> and clocks in at 36 pages. The story was written in 1819 and tells the story of the kindly but lazy Rip Van Winkle, a villager in the Catskill mountains in the years prior to the American Revolution, who, while escaping from his nagging wife into the hills, falls asleep and wakes up twenty years later. <br />
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The story took me less than an hour to read, rather gratifying after some of the lengthier ones I've done! It was a cute story, easy to read, light-hearted, set down as a written version of an oral legend. I found it funny when I looked it up online to find details about it to run across the Spark Notes version. To me, it's one thing to read the Spark Notes for War and Peace or something and another to read them for a simple, easy-to-read, 36-page short story. But to each his own, I suppose. <br />
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A quick funny quote:<br />
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"I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home."<br />
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I also learned a few new words, along the vein of the quote, which were used to describe Dame Van Winkle: <i>virago</i>, which means "a domineering, violent or bad-tempered woman," and <i>termagant</i>, which means "a harsh-tempered or overbearing woman." Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-59755463308382019042016-02-14T08:39:00.000-08:002016-02-14T08:39:52.618-08:00All Quiet on the Western Front: 100% CompleteI read through this whole book in one and a half days, so no time for an intermediate blog post between beginning and 100%. I very much enjoyed it, certainly feel it deserves a spot on the list. There are two primary themes through the book: the emotional strength that, for better or worse, the soldiers develop in order to cope with the horror they are exposed to every day, and the difficult adjustment they make going from civilian life to military life, then back to civilian when on leave and back to military when leave is over. A sub-theme would be the companionship and comradery shared by the men; on more than one occasion, the narrator, Paul Braumer, compares this relationship to that of lovers.<br />
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There were many wonderful quotes in the book: I highlighted so many that I'm disappointed I don't have more blog posts about this book to share them. But I will have to choose a few.<br />
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This first one demonstrates the attitude which Paul maintains, sometimes with difficulty, throughout the book:<br />
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"I soon found out this much--terror can be endured so long as a man simply ducks;--but it kills if a man thinks about it."<br />
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Midway through the book Paul goes home on leave for two weeks to visit his parents. Both his parents want to know how it is, out there, at the front, and his responses and their reactions are fascinating. First, his mother,<br />
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"Suddenly my mother seizes hold of my hand and asks falteringly: 'Was it very bad out there, Paul?' Mother, what should I answer to that! You would not understand, you could never realize it. And you shall never realize it. And you shall never realize it. Was it bad, you ask.--You, Mother.--I shake my head and say, 'No Mother, not so very. There are always a lot of us together so it isn't so bad.'"<br />
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And his father:<br />
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"There is nothing he likes more than hearing about it. I realize he does not know that a man cannot talk of such things; I would do it willingly, but it is too dangerous for me to put these things into words. I'm afraid they might then become gigantic and I be no longer able t master them. What would become of us if everything that happens out there were quite clear to us?"<br />
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And finally, this quote made me feel lucky to have such a wealth of literature literally at my fingertips. I purchased a new Kindle this week: the Kindle Paperwhite, and having so many books in my hand at one time, access to far more than I could ever read in a lifetime, makes me feel so lucky compared with how it was only a hundred years ago or so.<br />
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"I used to live in this room before I was a soldier. The books I bought gradually with the money I earned by coaching. Many of them are secondhand, all the classics for example, one volume in blue cloth boards cost one mark twenty pfenning. I bought them complete because it was thorough-going. I did not trust the editors of selections to choose all the best. So I purchased only 'collected works.' I read most of them with laudable zeal , but few of them really appealed to me. I preferred the other books. The moderns, which were of course much dearer. A few I came by not quite honestly, I borrowed and did not return them because I did not want to part with them."<br />
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My plan next is to read a few of the shorter books/short stories on my list, just so I can check a few more off my list (since I've only read TWELVE out of a hundred). Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-58594124810009596292016-02-13T12:23:00.002-08:002016-02-13T12:23:49.429-08:00All Quiet on the Western Front: BeginningThe next book I'll be tackling is <u>All Quiet on the Western Front</u> by Erich Maria Remarque. It is the story of German soldiers in France in World War I, focusing on the physical and emotional stress they go through as well as their difficult transition from civilian to military life. <br />
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This book was published in 1928 in German and the author, Erich Maria Remarque was a German veteran of World War I so he knew what he was talking about. The version I'm reading was translated from the German by A.W. Wheen in 1929. <br />
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In the first year after the book was published, it sold 1.5 million copies. It was banned and burned by the Nazi's during World War II. The book was adapted into a film in 1930.<br />
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When I was a child I saw the film version of this book, but I feel it's high time I read the original: regarded by some to be the greatest war novel ever written.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-1552568212906685032016-02-12T09:52:00.000-08:002016-02-12T09:54:14.852-08:00Into Thin Air: 100% CompleteI finished <u>Into Thin Air</u>. Although it certainly is a fascinating and harrowing story, I still felt the writing left something to be desired. When the survivors finally emerged from Everest, when the deaths were counted and the living had survived, I felt as though this were a story of bad luck, of a storm which hit at the worst possible time and claimed the lives of several climbers despite the best efforts of many.<br />
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It seems, however, that Jon Krakauer thought his readership would have a different reaction. He ends the book first with a chapter detailing how hard he has taken the events, complete with difficulty sleeping, inability to go more than "two or three hours" without thinking about Everest and heavy survivor's guilt. I kept thinking throughout this section that he should probably seek treatment for <br />
PTSD. Then he finishes with a chapter explaining over and over that Everest is inherently dangerous, that even under the best of circumstances things go wrong, that, while the number of deaths in 1996 was the largest to date, the death rate (both deaths compared to number of people who climbed higher than Base Camp and deaths compared to people who summited the mountain) was actually slightly lower than over the course of Everest history. <br />
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Since I didn't get the impression that this tragedy was due (at least primarily) to human error, these long defensive sections struck me as unnecessary. <br />
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All in all my impression of the book is that it is a tragic and harrowing adventure story which was written too soon after the event by someone who hadn't yet sorted out how he felt about what had happened. Mr. Krakauer admittedly wrote this hoping for a cathartic experience and, whether he achieved that or not, it clouded up what could have been a more objective and better written story. I didn't feel like this deserved a spot beside many of the other books I've read on this project. <br />
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Up next: <u>All Quiet on the Western Front</u> by Erich Maria Remarque. <u></u>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-51752715018583794162016-02-07T18:37:00.001-08:002016-02-07T18:37:53.660-08:00Into Thin Air: 35% Complete<u>Into Thin Air</u> has proven to be an interesting book so far for a number of reasons. I was skeptical with the book after the first chapter or so, due to the defensive nature of the opening portion. As I said in my introduction to the book, there is some controversy regarding who was responsible for the deaths on the mountain in 1996, whether bad judgement was involved and, if so, whose. However, as someone previously unfamiliar with the story, I felt like the opening parts of the book were raw and defensive and not in a good way. I felt like Jon Krakauer was responding to attacks which I was completely unfamiliar with. He admits, in the introduction, that the writing of this book so soon after the traumatic events of 1996 (the book was published in 1997) was a cathartic experience for him and, it seems, a chance to respond to what he felt were unfair attacks on persons involved in the expedition. I'm still unclear as to what these attacks were, although I suspect it will become more clear later in the book. This defensiveness and anxiousness to respond to unexplained criticisms comes across as almost paranoid.<br />
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However, once past the opening section (the book starts on Everest, just prior to the storm, and then backtracks to lay down some history on the people involved), it is interesting, if light, reading. <br />
One thing I've enjoyed, rather unexpectedly, is reading about people who were household names when I was growing up, climbers such as Willi Unsoeld, Ed Viesturs and Pete Schoening. My father talked about them enough that I know their names like I know those of distant relatives or long-lost friends of my parents; they are familiar to me, although I was always a bit unclear on who they were, exactly, until now.<br />
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The writing in this book is as unexceptional as the story is interesting. It's not bad enough to be distracting, but it certainly pales compared to the one I just finished: <u>Cry, the Beloved Country</u> with it's beautiful prose. The <i>story</i> may be a classic, but so far the book is not one I'd add back on the list. So finding quotes I want to share with you has been difficult. This one was simply astounding to me:<br />
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"By 1996 Hall was charging $65,000 a head to guide clients to the top of the world. By any measure this is a lot of money-it equals the mortgage on my Seattle home-and the quoted price did not include airfare to Napal or personal equipment."<br />
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Not only was this astonishing because of the cost of climbing Everest (20 years ago) but the fact that his mortgage in Seattle was $65,000! Assuming he means the price of his house when he purchased it, not what he has left to pay on his mortgage, this is mind-boggling to me. For reference, the median home price right now in Seattle according to Zillow is $530, 100 (one of the reasons I moved out of the city!)<br />
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Finally, today's vocabulary word is "peripatetic" which means "traveling from place to place, esp. working or based in various places for relatively short periods."<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-42916444676339601322016-02-05T17:02:00.002-08:002016-02-05T17:03:02.376-08:00Into Thin Air: BeginningThe next book I'm going to read is also the most-recently-written book on my list (I think): <u>Into Thin Air</u> by Jon Krakauer.<br />
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This is a non-fiction work, one of only a few on my list, and was published in 1997. It has been adapted into a TV movie by the same title and the story it covers is also the basis for the 2015 movie <i>Everest</i>. This book is a true story about a storm which hit Mt. Everest in 1996 and resulted in the deaths of eight climbers and the injuries of several others. Jon Krakauer was present on the mountain at the time of the storm as part of a writing assignment for <i>Outdoor</i> magazine, and wrote the book about his own experiences.<br />
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I chose this book because I was familiar with it but had never read it. My father was interested in mountain climbing and climbed Mt. Rainier twice when I was a child and my grandparents were mountaineers as well. So while I have a passing familiarity with the challenges of climbing Everest (I did a report on George Mallory and Andrew Irvine when I was in junior high), I am looking forward to reading this true story of a harrowing climb of the world's tallest mountain. <br />
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I am also vaguely aware that there is some controversy surrounding Krakauer's account of what happened on the mountain, however, I have intentionally not researched the topic, preferring instead to approach the book with an open mind. When I have finished it, I do intend to read more about this aspect of the story, and I will let you know what I find.<br />
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I purchased this book for my Kindle, the version I am reading can be found <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Jon-Krakauer-ebook/dp/B000FC1ITK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454720042&sr=8-1&keywords=into+thin+air+kindle" target="_blank">here</a>, and it has 405 pages.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-8770764669857125302016-02-04T09:55:00.000-08:002016-02-04T10:04:42.738-08:00Cry, the Beloved Country: 100% CompleteI finished <u>Cry, the Beloved Country</u>, two years after I began it. All the way through, since I picked this book back up, I've been trying to put my finger on "what is the book about." I wanted to find the root, the topic, of the story and I couldn't. There is much complexity here, topics of race relations, religion, politics, family, and crime run through the story. But on page 247 (out of 251) it hit me. The book is about a relationship between two men: James Jarvis, a white, albeit progressive, landowner, and Stephen Kumalo, a black Zulu reverend who lives nearby. <br />
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Midway through the book Kumalo's son murders Jarvis's son during a burglary gone bad and is sentenced to death. As Kumalo wrestles with losing his son in this way, Jarvis has also lost his son. Despite the incredible divide separating them based on race and class, the two men show immense compassion and connection with each other. The beautiful part here is the subtext of their conversations. They speak kindness and friendship without breaking convention. It is clear that both men appreciate the other's part in their complex relationship, but this appreciation is never voiced. I loved this complexity and depth so much that I felt emotional reading their conversations, despite not being able to identify the emotion. I found one example of that here. In this quote, Jarvis and Kumalo are speaking about Jarvis's grandson, the young boy of his murdered son, a child whom Kumalo has befriended. (Note: there are several Zulu forms of address in this book, including umnumzana, meaning "sir.")<br />
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"And then Kumalo said, Indeed, I have never seen a child as he is.<br />
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Jarvis turned on his horse and in the dark the grave silent man was eager. What do you mean? he asked.<br />
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-Umnumzana, there is a brightness inside him.<br />
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-Yes, yes, that is true. The other was even so. (NOTE: Jarvis is speaking of his dead son, when he says "the other."<br />
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-And then he said, like a man with hunger, do you remember?<br />
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And because this man was hungry, Kumalo, though he did not well remember, said, I remember."<br />
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This passage also illustrates the unique formatting style of this book, without quotation marks. And another quote, after this passage when Jarvis leaves:<br />
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"...Kumalo cried after him, Go well, go well.<br />
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Indeed there were other things, deep things, that he could have cried, but such a thing is not lightly done."<br />
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Paton uses this phrase "not lightly done" several times during the book to point out times when characters may have wanted to break custom or convention and chose not to, or even chose to.<br />
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This book was very enjoyable, beautifully written, deep and thought-provoking. I'm very glad I came back to it, as it will rest in my heart for a long time after I've finished it. Highly recommended.<br />
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Next up: Jon Krakauer's <u>Into Thin Air</u>!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-90446393696171887172016-02-02T16:10:00.001-08:002016-02-04T09:56:03.757-08:00Project, revisitedWell, it's been two years. Two long years as I crept closer to thirty without doing much reading, at least project reading. <br />
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In the past two years I finished nursing school, became licensed as an RN and now I'm working as a nurse. So I've decided to revisit the project. I doubt I'll be able to finish the list before thirty, considering I now have fewer than three years, but at least I can get a little closer!<br />
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I'm starting back in with <i>Cry, the Beloved Country</i> (luckily my trusty Kindle still remembers where I left off: at 56% complete). I had to refresh my memory a little to remember what was going on, but I'm starting back in! <br />
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I'll try to update again soon.<br />
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Cheers,<br />
<br />
AnnaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-67321071934564324552013-12-28T15:18:00.002-08:002013-12-28T15:18:11.299-08:00Cry, the Beloved Country: 29% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now that I have read almost a third of this book, I know what my mom meant when she said this was one of her "beautiful books." The poetry and description in this book are gorgeous and very old in it's style. It reminds me of parts of the Old Testament of the Bible in many ways.</div>
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I can think of no better way to demonstrate the lilting nature of this book than to give you part of the very first paragraph in it.</div>
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<em>"There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into this hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. The road climbs seven miles into them, to Carisbrooke; and from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa."</em></div>
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I love that phrase, "lovely beyond any singing of it." Singing has such a way of evoking the emotional side of beauty, so for something to be lovely beyond any singing of it is beauty indeed.</div>
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I also ran into an interesting thing. The quote from the book reads,</div>
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<em>"I persuaded him to open a Post Office book, and he already has three or four pounds in it."</em></div>
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I would not have had any idea what a "Post Office book" was if I had not been recently watching the BBC television series "Lark Rise to Candleford" which takes place in the late 1800's in England and in which the Post Office plays an important role. From watching that show, I knew that the Post Office often served as a sort of bank for rural customers who could not access an actual bank. A little more research taught me that this system was implemented first in England in the 1860's to promote savings among the poor. Deposits were limited to thirty pounds a year and a total balance of 150 pounds. Systems like this still exist in Japan (where the post office was the world's largest savings bank in 2008), Germany, China, Brazil, India, South Africa (where <em>Cry, the Beloved Country </em>takes place, of course) and several other countries. This information was obtained from, and more information can be found, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_savings_system" target="_blank">here.</a></div>
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The vocabulary word for today is "kloof" which is actually an Africaans word (interesting side note: according to the Foreign Service Institute, which ranks difficulty of language learning for English-speakers, Africaans is the easiest language for English-speakers to learn). Kloof means, "a steep-sided, wooded ravine or valley" (definition from the New Oxford American Dictionary).</div>
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And finally, many congratulations to Carrie, winner of our holiday giveaway! Thank you to everyone who participated!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-33824532144883181962013-12-27T16:05:00.000-08:002013-12-27T16:05:10.957-08:00Cry, the Beloved Country: Beginning<div style="text-align: justify;">
The next book I will be reading is <u>Cry, the Beloved Country</u> by Alan Paton. This book tells the story of a black priest in South Africa who is searching for his son in Johannesburg. The book was written and published just prior to the institutionalizing of apartheid in South Africa and it speaks out against the practices of segregation and discrimination. Alan Paton grew up in South Africa and drew heavily upon his experiences to write this book.</div>
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When I told my mom that I was reading this book next, she said, "Oh! That's one of my beautiful books!" The book describes South Africa in such a way that people have referred to the country as one of the characters in the book.</div>
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This book enjoyed immediate success following it's publication in 1948 and in South Africa it has sold more copies than any other book besides the Bible. I thought it appropriate to read this one now after the recent passing of Nelson Mandela.</div>
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The copy I have for Kindle can be found <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cry-Beloved-Country-Alan-Paton-ebook/dp/B000FBJHL2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1388189029&sr=1-1&keywords=cry+the+beloved+country" target="_blank">here.</a> It has 320 pages.</div>
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Happy New Year! What are you hoping to read in 2014?</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-45224320125784694212013-12-24T10:16:00.000-08:002013-12-24T10:16:05.941-08:00The Phantom of the Opera: 100% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well I finished <u>The Phantom of the Opera</u> just in time for Christmas! I really enjoyed the last portion of the book; it was suspenseful and fascinating. Since I haven't seen any of the movies in a very long time, I didn't actually remember what happened, so I was on the edge of my seat toward the end.</div>
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One of the things I especially enjoyed, was that at the end of the book there are three chapters which are supposed to be a written narrative of events written by the Persian about his encounters with the opera ghost. Although Gaston Leroux wrote the whole story, he did a fantastic job of changing his narrative style while writing as the Persian which is a difficult thing to do as a writer. The Persian writes with a much less detached and more passionate style than the rest of the book.</div>
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To show this, here's a quote from the Persian's portion of the book:</div>
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<em>"For we not only saw the water, but WE HEARD IT! ... We heard it flow, we heard it ripple! ... Do you understand that word 'ripple?' ... IT IS A SOUND WHICH YOU HEAR WITH YOUR TONGUE! ... You put your tongue out of your mouth to listen to it better!"</em></div>
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The vocabulary word for today is "mountebank" which is "a person who deceives others, esp. in order to trick them out of their money" (definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary).</div>
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Very happy holiday wishes to you and yours! Up next? <u>Cry, The Beloved Country</u> by Alan Paton.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-11621702150464903532013-12-19T15:47:00.001-08:002016-02-04T09:56:17.545-08:00The Phantom of the Opera: 71% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'm almost to the three-fourths mark in <u>The Phantom of the Opera</u> and I'm still enjoying it. One thing I particularly like is how Leroux often breaks down the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience which adds to his attempt to present the story as an actual non-fiction history of what happened. This is something that's rather rare in literature and I enjoy it.</div>
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All the way through this book there are references to the Labyrinthine underground levels of the Paris opera house. I love the idea of mostly forgotten people wandering around in the annals of the earth. I don't know (perhaps some of you do!) how realistic this is, or if there actually are subterranean levels of the opera house, but I enjoy the descriptions. Here is one paragraph that I particularly enjoyed with regards to the necessary but unglamorous jobs in the lower levels of the opera house:</div>
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<em>"They were the door-shutters, the old, worn-out scene-shifters, on whom a charitable management had taken pity, giving them the job of shutting doors above and below the stage. They went about incessantly, from top to bottom of the building, shutting the doors; and they were also called 'the draft-expellers,' at least at that time, for I have little doubt that by now they are all dead. Drafts are very bad for the voice, wherever they may come from."</em></div>
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At the end of the previous paragraph there is a footnote which reads, <em>"M. Pedro Gailhard has himself told me that he created a few additional posts as door-shutters for old stage-carpenters whom he was unwilling to dismiss from the service of the Opera."</em></div>
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The word of the day is "astrakhan" which is "the dark curly fleece of a young karakul lambs from central Asia" (definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary). In the book there is a Persian who wears a astrakhan hat. At one point Leroux points out that, <em>"It was an infringement of the rule which insists upon the tall hat behind the scenes; but in France foreigners are allowed every license: the Englishman his traveling-cap, the Persian his cap of astrakhan."</em></div>
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Less than a week left to enter my holiday giveaway for an illustrated copy of <u>A Christmas Carol</u> by Charles Dickens!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-60001154378273052752013-12-13T10:24:00.002-08:002013-12-13T10:24:43.215-08:00The Phantom of the Opera: 27% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got a lot of reading done yesterday so I'm now over a quarter of the way through <u>The Phantom of the Opera</u>. I'm enjoying it a lot; it's funny in parts and sometimes a little creepy! I'm also glad I read <u>Faust</u> before this one because the operatic version of that work is the opera they are performing in this book (at least so far). So when they make reference to it, I actually know what they're talking about!</div>
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I have a couple of funny quotes for you today. First of all:</div>
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<em>"None will ever be a true Parisian who has not learned to wear a mask of gaiety over his sorrows and one of sadness, boredom or indifference over his inward joy."</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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Secondly,</div>
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<em>"'Reputations are easily obtained,' replied Moncharmin. 'Haven't I reputation for knowing all about music? And I don't know one key from another.' </em></div>
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<em>'Don't be afraid: you never had that reputation,' Richard declared.'"</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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The vocabulary word for today is "reticent" which means, "not revealing one's thoughts of feelings readily" (definition from the New Oxford American Dictionary).</div>
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Don't forget to enter my holiday giveaway!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-14551895799296380792013-12-11T11:22:00.001-08:002013-12-11T11:22:29.853-08:00The Phantom of the Opera: Beginning<div style="text-align: justify;">
So after my poll ended in a three-way tie, I decided to read <u>The Phantom of the Opera</u> by Gaston Leroux next. This book was originally published as a serial in 1909 and originally sold very poorly. It tells the story of the famed "ghost" of the Paris Opera House and the ghost's relationship with the beautiful soprano Christine Daae.</div>
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There is a 1986 musical version of this book with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber which is the longest running show in the history of Broadway. There is also a film version of this musical that was released in 2005 starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum which I have actually never seen (I'll have to watch it after I finish the book). In addition there is a silent film version of the book from 1925 with Lon Chaney which I watched as a child and a 1943 film version with Claude Rains.</div>
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This book was originally written in French and the version I have, (which is free for Kindle <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Phantom-Opera-Gaston-Leroux-ebook/dp/B0084AXZRI" target="_blank">here</a>) appears to have been translated by Kate McMullan, Lowell Bair and Peter Neumeyer. On my Kindle the version has 500 pages and will probably take me longer to get through than the last book!</div>
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One last thing: you will notice on the right side of the page there is a HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY for an illustrated copy of Charles Dickens' classic holiday tale: A Christmas Carol! This is very exciting and the first of what I hope will be many giveaways that I will be able to host. There are multiple ways to enter and if you follow me on Twitter or are a fan on Facebook then you are already eligible for one or more entries! So throw your hat in the ring and good luck!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-19231142306562352092013-12-09T16:39:00.000-08:002013-12-09T16:39:02.150-08:00A Farewell to Arms: 100% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
I raced through <u>A Farewell to Arms</u> in about 36 hours. I really enjoyed it, even though it has a sad ending (I'm actually kind of glad I knew the ending before I started it because I was prepared!). Be warned, however, this blog post contains some spoilers, so if you haven't read it and spoilers bother you, don't read ahead!</div>
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About halfway through the book, Catherine becomes pregnant. Then she proceeds to drink alcohol throughout the rest of the pregnancy. Now I realize they didn't know as much about fetal alcohol syndrome and I also realize that in some parts of the world the admonition of women not to drink when pregnant is not so strictly maintained as it is in the US, but it still made me cringe every time. Case in point:</div>
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<em>"'Don't we have a fine time?' Catherine asked. 'Look. Let's go some place and have beer instead of tea. It's very good for young Catherine </em>[the baby]<em>. It keeps her small.'</em></div>
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<em>'Young Catherine,' I said. 'That loafer.'</em></div>
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<em>'She's been very good,' Catherine said. 'She makes very little trouble. The doctor said beer is good for her and keeps her small.'"</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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The nurse in me was thinking, "It keeps her small, alright. They call that low birth weight and it's NOT a good thing!"</div>
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The vocabulary word for the day is "puttee" which means "a long strip of cloth wound spirally around the leg from ankle to knee for protection and support" (definition from the New Oxford American Dictionary).</div>
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So now I have to decide what book I want to read next. For today, you can vote for the book you think I should read next on poll on the right hand side of the page. I'll let you know how the poll turns out in a couple of days!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-44428363276708130702013-12-08T12:43:00.000-08:002013-12-08T12:43:02.828-08:00A Farewell to Arms: 42% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'm really enjoying <u>A Farewell to Arms</u> so far. Hemingway's writing is so raw and terse and real. The fact that he was an ambulance driver himself during the first world war means that his descriptions of the front are realistic and detailed. I'm racing through it and I expect to be done in the next day or two. After <u>Faust</u>, it almost feels like reading children's literature.</div>
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I chose the quote for today because I think it is representative of Hemingway's writing; the way he chooses words and phrases that <em>show </em>how the characters feels. In this piece, Lt. Henry is getting to know Catherine Barkley.</div>
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<em>"I held her close against me and could feel her heart beating and her lips opened and her head went back against my hand and then she was crying on my shoulder. </em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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<em>'Oh, darling,' she said. 'You will be good to me, won't you?'</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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<em>What the hell, I thought. I stroked her hair and patted her shoulder. She was crying."</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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The way he says he thought "What the hell" and the way he says, twice, that she was crying, brings to mind that combination of frustration and confusion that many men feel when women display unexpected emotions.</div>
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Because this is so much easier to read than <u>Faust</u>, I know most of the vocabulary words, but there are a few words borrowed from Italian that I had to look up. So today's word is "carabiniere" which means "a member of the Italian paramilitary police."</div>
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I expect that I will be finished with this very soon, so now I just have to decide what I want to read next. Suggestions?</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-34373951736745705482013-12-07T17:33:00.000-08:002013-12-07T17:33:45.682-08:00A Farewell to Arms: Beginning<div style="text-align: justify;">
The next book I will be reading is <u>A Farewell to Arms</u> by Ernest Hemingway. This book was written in 1929 and was Hemingway's first best-seller.</div>
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It is a love story between Lt. Henry, an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army during World War I and a British nurse: Catherine Barkley. </div>
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An interesting fact: in the first editions of the work, certain swear words (I'm too much of a lady to name them here!) were replaced with dashes. This book has been adapted for stage, screen and radio, including a 1932 screen adaptation which was nominated for an Academy Award.</div>
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I have read one piece of Hemingway's before: <u>The Old Man and the Sea</u>. I was in high school and any ironic symbolism was completely lost on me and I hated it. I thought it was the stupidest story and for a long time I used that and Steinbeck's <u>Grapes of Wrath</u> as proof that most American literature was horrid. However, having said that, I am much older (and I hope, wiser) now and with a little relevant life experience and appreciation for hidden messages in literature, I think I have a decent chance of enjoying this one.</div>
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I'm reading a hard-copy version of this, specifically the 2003 paperback version published by Scribner. The copy is a little worn around the edges, but since I bought it for two dollars at a book sale, I don't really mind. This merely allows me to feel more comfortable folding down page corners and leaving it splayed open on the coffee table while I get another cup of tea. This copy has 332 pages, and because it's much easier to read than <u>Faust</u>, I'm anticipating that I'll get through it pretty quickly.</div>
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Happy reading!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-73637657264440887892013-12-07T12:47:00.000-08:002013-12-07T12:47:25.005-08:00Faust: 100% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well, I whizzed through the last bit of <em>Faust</em> and finished it up late night. Overall, I'm glad I read it, although I won't say it was my favorite book on the list. I did find the second half easier to read and understand than the first, although I'm still sure I missed a lot. If I were going to read it again, I would try to find a version that had more footnotes (mine had a few here and there, but not much), because frequently there were references that I didn't understand.</div>
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The final quote for <em>Faust</em> is rather a long one, but I thought it was both funny and philosophical (if that is possible). In this quote, Faust is speaking with Margaret, the innocent young girl he woos and whose life he basically destroys. She has asked him if he believes in God, and he has hemmed and hawed around the question, and here he tries to explain that perhaps he believes in God but by other names.</div>
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<em>"</em>Faust: <em>Then call it what thou wilt, </em></div>
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<em>Joy! Heart! Love! God! </em></div>
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<em>I have no name to give it! </em></div>
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<em>All comes at last to feeling; </em></div>
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<em>Name is but sound and smoke,</em></div>
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<em>Beclouding Heaven's warm glow.</em></div>
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</div>
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Margaret<em>: That is all fine and good, I know,</em></div>
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<em>And just as the priest has often spoke,</em></div>
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<em>Only with somewhat different phrases."</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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Of course this question of whether the principle of a rose by any other name smelling as sweet applies to God, is a theological and philosophical question that goes far beyond the scope of this project, but I mostly found Margaret's response funny; that the priest says basically the same thing, but the phrases he uses are a little different.</div>
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</div>
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Our final vocabulary word for <em>Faust </em>is "expiate" which means "to atone for (guilt or sin)." (definition from <u>The New Oxford American Dictionary</u>).</div>
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</div>
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Up next I'm tackling: <u>A Farewell to Arms</u> by Ernest Hemingway.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-27507244783239805022013-12-05T13:43:00.002-08:002013-12-05T13:43:36.886-08:00Faust: 68% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had a chance to get a lot of reading done at work today, so I'm over two-thirds of the way through <em>Faust</em>. I can't tell if the story is getting easier to understand or if I'm just getting better at reading it, but it seems like I'm getting more of the story now than I once was. One of my clients at work (I'm a caregiver for elderly people) is very well-read and of German ancestry, so I mentioned to him today that I was reading <em>Faust</em> and he said, "Wow, I read that. It's kind of hard to understand, though, isn't it?" so I felt a little better about my lack of comprehension!</div>
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I have two quotes for you today. The first one is by Mephistopheles, in which he is upset about something and he says,</div>
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<em>"Oh, to the devil I'd give myself instanter, if I were not already he!"</em> </div>
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In the second, Mephistopheles says, </div>
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</div>
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<em>"Such love-sick fools will puff away sun, moon and stars and all in the azure,</em></div>
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<em>To please a maiden's whimsies, any day."</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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The vocabulary word of the day is "ennui" which means "a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement" (definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary).</div>
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Before I go, I had to tell you about a great bargain I got on books yesterday. I work at a retirement home, and they had a book sale, so of course I couldn't resist going to check it out. I ended up spending only six dollars and I got an anthology of humor pieces from <em>The New Yorker</em>, a copy of Hemingway's <em>A Farewell to Arms </em>(which is on the list!) and a copy of <em>The Scarlet Letter </em>with a copyright date of 1919! All in all, a pretty successful book-shopping trip, I think!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-38108117925588951672013-12-04T11:33:00.000-08:002013-12-04T11:33:18.354-08:00Faust: 48% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now that Faust has sold his soul to the devil, he and Mephistopheles are cavorting around the countryside with Faust getting his wishes granted, more or less.</div>
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In this scene, Faust has asked to be younger (interesting to note that people's top wishes haven't changed a whole lot). Mephistopheles tells Faust he has a way to do that, and his instructions are:</div>
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<em>"Out to the fields without delay,</em></div>
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<em>And take to hacking, digging, planting;</em></div>
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<em>Run the same round from day to day,</em></div>
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<em>A treadmill-life, contented, leading,</em></div>
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<em>With simple fare both mind and body feeding,</em></div>
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<em>Life with the beast as beast, nor count it robbery</em></div>
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<em>Shouldst thou manure, thyself, the field thou reapest;</em></div>
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<em>Follow this course and, trust to me, </em></div>
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<em>For eighty years thy youth thou keepest!"</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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Of course Faust doesn't much like his suggestion, but Mephistophales's description of the "simple," idyllic life of a farmer reminded me of Leo Tolstoy's depiction of Konstantin Levin's life on the farm in <em>Anna Karenina </em>(I confess, after I read that book I wanted to move to a farm, even though I grew up on one). It also points out the human desire to get things without working for them.</div>
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The word/phrase of the day is "as lief" which means "as happily or as gladly" (definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary).</div>
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Before I sign off for now, I want to suggest a holiday gift idea for new parents/grandparents or anyone who has care of small children. I am convinced that my love for reading, and indeed the ease with which I communicate can be traced back to the fact that my parents faithfully read to me from the day I was born. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Read-Aloud-Handbook-Sixth-Edition/dp/0143037390" target="_blank">The Read-Aloud Handbook</a> outlines research that demonstrates how beneficial reading to kids can be and is a wonderful gift for anyone who has influence over children!</div>
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Happy Holidays to one and all!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9032116685233946083.post-58027655306008083942013-12-01T14:39:00.002-08:002013-12-01T14:39:17.769-08:00Faust: 41% Complete<div style="text-align: justify;">
First of all, I want to thank all of you for checking in on my blog! In November I had a six month high in terms of page views, so thank you! </div>
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I have finally reached the point in the play where Faust sells his soul to the devil. I think this story is meant to parallel the story of The Fall from Genesis. Faust's motivation to sell his soul is his own boredom with life and with his limited knowledge, coupled with his own pride. At one point Mephistopheles is talking, under the guise of Faust, to a student scholar who comes seeking advice from Faust and he writes in his book: <em>Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum. </em>Now I took Latin for a number of years in school but it's gotten pretty rusty, so I had to look this one up. It seems this line is actually from Genesis 3:5 and means "You will be like God, knowing good and evil."</div>
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I have flagged so many good quotes, but I think I'm going to give you this one, which sums up the essence of Faust's deal with the devil. Mephistopheles says,</div>
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"I to thy service here agree to bind me,</div>
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To run and never rest at call of thee;</div>
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When over yonder though shalt find me</div>
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Then thou shalt do as much for me."</div>
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I have also run into a large number of vocabulary words, including "ennui" which is "a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation of excitement" and "soporific" which is "tending to induce drowsiness or sleep" (definitions from the New Oxford American Dictionary).</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0