Currently, Iran is a topic on many minds, and Reading Lolita in Tehran offers an interesting peek into life in Iran during the revolution. I'm sure that this book is especially interesting to those who wish to understand the confluence of Islam, politics, and gender. Certainly, it's treatment of the subject of the veil is much more insightful than one would get from the most recent Sex and the City film. However, to me anyways, Reading Lolita is primarily a book for book lovers and literature for literature lovers. It appeals not only to the bibliophile in me (it after all encouraged me to ACTUALLY READ Lolita, rather than just say I should do it "someday"), but also to the lexophile.
"I step into the dining room with eight slim-waisted glasses whose honey-colored liquid trembles seductively. At this point, I hear Yassi shout triumphantly, "Upsilamba!" She throws the word at me like a ball, and I take a mental leap to catch it.
Upsilamba!--the word carries me back to the spring of 1994, when four of my girls and Nima were auditing a class I was teaching on the twentieth-century novel. The class's favorite book was Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading. In this novel, Nabokov differentiates Cincinnatus C., his imaginative and lonely hero, from those around him through his originality in a society where uniformity is not only the norm but also the law. Even as a child, Nabokov tells us, Cincinnatus appreciated the freshness and beauty of language, while other children "understood each other at the first word, since they had no words that would end in an unexpected way, perhaps in some archaic letter, an upsilamba, becoming a bird or catapult with wondrous consequences."
No one in class had bothered to ask what that word meant. No one, that is, who was properly taking the class--for many of my old student just stayed on and sat in on my classes long after their graduation. Often, they were more interested and worked harder than my regular students, who were taking the class for credit. Thus it was that those who audited the class--including Nassrin, Manna, Nima, Mahshid and Yassi--had one day gathered in my office to discuss this and a number of other questions.
I decided to play a little game with the class, to test their curiosity. On the midterm exam, one of the questions was "Explain the significance of the word upsilamba in the context of Invitation to a Beheading What does the word mean, and how does it relate to the main theme of the novel?" Except for four or five students, no one had any idea what I could possibly mean, a point I did not forget to remind them of every once in a while throughout the rest of that term
The truth was that upsilamba was one of Nabokov's fanciful creations, possibly a word he invented out of upsilon, the twentieth letter in the Greek alphabet, and lambda, the eleventh. So that first day in our private class, we let our minds play again and invented new meanings of our own.
I said I associated upsilamba with the impossible joy of a suspended leap. Yassi, who seemed excited for no particular reason, cried out that she always thought it could be the name of a dance--you know, "C'mon, baby, do the Upsilamba with me." I proposed that for the next time, they each write a sentence or two explaining what the word meant to them.
Manna suggested that upsilamba evoked the image of small silver fish leaping in and out of a moonlit lake. Nima added in parentheses, Just so you won't forget me, although you have barred me from you class: an upsilamba to you too! For Azin it was a sound, a melody. Mahshid described an image of three girls jumping rope and shouting "Upsilamba!" with each leap. For Sanaz, the word was a small African boy's secret magical name. Mitra wasn't sure why the word reminded her of the paradox of a blissful sigh. And to Nassrin it was the magic code that opened the door to a secret cave filled with treasure."
I love this kind of word-play! To me the word upsilamba evokes sweaty summers in the gymnastics gym. It's the sound you make as you leap for the high bar at the end of an exhausting workout, and you realize half-way up that your hands will hit the bar, but you will not be able to grasp it. It's a half grunt half exhausted sigh-- Upsilamba!
What image/sound/etc. does upsilamba evoke for you?
Monday, June 21, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Memoirs
When I lived on the OTHER side of Wright St. and was childless, I loved to take late night walks in neighborhoods near downtown. I was fascinated by the glimpses I would catch of other people's lives through their apartment windows. Did they have photographs or paintings (or batik cloth) on the walls? Were their shelves full of stacks of books or rows of DVDs? I loved to see the myriad way people utilized their balconies. Did they have one covered with window boxes? Did they have a great chair to sit and read on? Was it a collection of bikes and other athletic gear? I was fascinated by what these glimpses told me about the inhabitants of these dwellings. In the same way, memoirs can be fascinating because of that glimpse they give you into the way other people live. These are the titles from the memoir section of 501 Must-Read Books.
1. Paula, Isabel Allende
2. Journal Intime, Genri-Frederic Amiel
3. Aubrey's Brief Lives, John Aubrey
4. Confessions, Augustine
5. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone de Beauvoir
6. My Left Foot, Christy Brown
7. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Benvenuto Cellini
8. The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinurus, Cyril Connolly
9. Boys: Tales of Childhood, Roald Dahl
10. My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell
11. An Angel at My Table, Janet Frame
12. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
13. Journals 1889-1949, Andre Paul Guillaume Gide
14. Poetry and Truth: From My Own Life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
15. Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments, Edmund Gosse
16. Ways of Escape, Graham Greene
17. Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin
18. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
19. Pentimento, Lillian Hellman
20. Childhood, Youth, and Exile, Alexander Herzen
21. The Diary of Alice James, Alice James
22. Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, Carl Gustav Jung
23. Diaries 1919-23, Franz Kafka
24. The Story of My Life, Helen Keller
25. The Book of Margery Kempe, Margery Kempe
26. I Will Bear Witness, Bictor Klemperer
27. In the Castle of My Skin, George Lamming
28. A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis
29. The Towers of Trebizond, Rose Macaulay
30. The Journal of Katherine Mansfield, Katherine Mansfield
31. The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
32. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
33. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette
35. My Place, Sally Morgan
35. Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited, Vladimir Nabokov
36. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, Azar Nafisi
37. Memoirs, Pablo Neruda
38. Portrait of a Marriage, Nigel Nicolson
39. Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
40. Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
41. Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
42. Diary, Samuel Pepys
43. Letters, Pliny the Younger
44. Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
45. Words, Jean-Paul Sartre
46. Journal of a Solitude, May Sarton
47. Walden, Henry David Thoreau
48. De Profundis, Oscar Wilde
49. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
50. Autobiographies, William Butler Yeats
I could think of no better book for a Busy Bibliophile than to read Reading Lolita in Tehran: a Memoir in Books. I am currently reading it, and I must say, not only am I enjoying it as a memoir, it is also piquing my curiosity regarding other "Must Read" books on my list. Do you have a favorite memoir? Have your read any of these? Let me know what you're thinking.
1. Paula, Isabel Allende
2. Journal Intime, Genri-Frederic Amiel
3. Aubrey's Brief Lives, John Aubrey
4. Confessions, Augustine
5. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone de Beauvoir
6. My Left Foot, Christy Brown
7. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Benvenuto Cellini
8. The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinurus, Cyril Connolly
9. Boys: Tales of Childhood, Roald Dahl
10. My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell
11. An Angel at My Table, Janet Frame
12. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
13. Journals 1889-1949, Andre Paul Guillaume Gide
14. Poetry and Truth: From My Own Life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
15. Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments, Edmund Gosse
16. Ways of Escape, Graham Greene
17. Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin
18. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
19. Pentimento, Lillian Hellman
20. Childhood, Youth, and Exile, Alexander Herzen
21. The Diary of Alice James, Alice James
22. Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, Carl Gustav Jung
23. Diaries 1919-23, Franz Kafka
24. The Story of My Life, Helen Keller
25. The Book of Margery Kempe, Margery Kempe
26. I Will Bear Witness, Bictor Klemperer
27. In the Castle of My Skin, George Lamming
28. A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis
29. The Towers of Trebizond, Rose Macaulay
30. The Journal of Katherine Mansfield, Katherine Mansfield
31. The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
32. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
33. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette
35. My Place, Sally Morgan
35. Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited, Vladimir Nabokov
36. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, Azar Nafisi
37. Memoirs, Pablo Neruda
38. Portrait of a Marriage, Nigel Nicolson
39. Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
40. Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
41. Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
42. Diary, Samuel Pepys
43. Letters, Pliny the Younger
44. Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
45. Words, Jean-Paul Sartre
46. Journal of a Solitude, May Sarton
47. Walden, Henry David Thoreau
48. De Profundis, Oscar Wilde
49. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
50. Autobiographies, William Butler Yeats
I could think of no better book for a Busy Bibliophile than to read Reading Lolita in Tehran: a Memoir in Books. I am currently reading it, and I must say, not only am I enjoying it as a memoir, it is also piquing my curiosity regarding other "Must Read" books on my list. Do you have a favorite memoir? Have your read any of these? Let me know what you're thinking.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Novel T-shirts (Ha! Ha!)
I was flipping through my Real Simple magazine, when I found the most adorable T-shirts. If you are a bibliophile and a clothing horse (like myself), you have to check out http://www.outofprintclothing.com/ . This site sells men's and women's T-shirts with the cover art from well-known literary works on them. Better yet, for every shirt you purchase, the company donates a book to a community in Africa. Cute clothes, books, and doing good? I LIKE it!! Now...the only question is who can I sucker into buying one of these beauties for me? (Man, I wish I knew about this site BEFORE Mother's Day). And which one do I want-- 1984, The Catcher in the Rye, Atlas Shrugged? Seriously..I love these shirts.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The Scarlet Letter- I SWEAR...the dog did eat my homework.
I'm only kidding, it is not the dogs' fault that I have not written in so long. (Although I do like to blame most of the household problems on the dogs). And I really did finish reading The Scarlet Letter ages ago. It's just that, in true Busy Bibliophile style, I just haven't made the time to sit down and write about it. This is a long-standing problem with me. As a kid, I always loved to participate in our town's summer reading program. Every summer I would sign up and be SO excited to start reading. As a matter of fact, most summers I actually won those reading programs. But here's the thing, I won them based on the number of books I would read in May...and maybe part of June. Part of the program was not only reading the books, but writing a little summary of them to turn in as proof you'd read them. I generally tired of this quickly, because the writing slowed down my reading. Usually I picked reading another book to writing about the one I had just read. So you can see that not much has changed with me since childhood.
Right now is garden time as well. I have a 25 by 32ish plot at my mother's house. Our agreement is I plant it and buy most of the seeds and plants. She helps every now and then (watering mostly) and gets to share in the harvest. It's a pretty good arrangement, since I live in a rental with a rather shady backyard. This means that if the weather's nice and I'm not working, I am at my mother's house playing in the dirt. So far I've planted lettuce, spinach, potatoes, broccoli, brussel sprouts, beets, bunching onions, and strawberries. Onion sets, tomatoes, green beans, lima beans, sweet corn, and pumpkins are still to come. Last year was our first year growing pumpkins, and we got a 70 lb. pumpkin! I know my husband is itching to top that. So between my naturally tendency to try and skip the writing to get to the reading and a rather sizeable garden, you might be able to understand how I've put off writing a blog entry for so long. And if you don't believe that...my chihuahua ate my blog entry.
Right now is garden time as well. I have a 25 by 32ish plot at my mother's house. Our agreement is I plant it and buy most of the seeds and plants. She helps every now and then (watering mostly) and gets to share in the harvest. It's a pretty good arrangement, since I live in a rental with a rather shady backyard. This means that if the weather's nice and I'm not working, I am at my mother's house playing in the dirt. So far I've planted lettuce, spinach, potatoes, broccoli, brussel sprouts, beets, bunching onions, and strawberries. Onion sets, tomatoes, green beans, lima beans, sweet corn, and pumpkins are still to come. Last year was our first year growing pumpkins, and we got a 70 lb. pumpkin! I know my husband is itching to top that. So between my naturally tendency to try and skip the writing to get to the reading and a rather sizeable garden, you might be able to understand how I've put off writing a blog entry for so long. And if you don't believe that...my chihuahua ate my blog entry.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Classic Fiction
I have FINALLY started on my third book. I decided to choose a book from the Classic Fiction section of 501 Must-Read Books-- The Scarlet Letter. While I won't go into details about this selection, I must say I am enjoying rereading this staple of high school literature classes. Once again, for your convenience I will list the books from this category:
1. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Anon
2. The Thousand and One Nights, Anon
3. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
4. Old Goriot, Honore de Balzac
5. Bathek: an Arabian Tale, William Beckford
6. Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon
7. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
8. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
9. The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
10. The Canterbury Tales, Georffrey Chaucer
11. The Collected Stories, Anton Chekhov
12. The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton
13. Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, John Cleland
14. The Moonstone: a Romance, Wilkie Collins
15. The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
16. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
17. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
18. The Christmas Books, Charles Dickens
19. Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
20. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
21. Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life, George Eliot
22. Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
23. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
24. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
25. Howards End, E.M. Forster
26. North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell
27. The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
28. The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith
29. The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
30. King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard
31. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
32. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
33. Moby-Dick, or The Whale, Herman Melville
34. The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
35. The Iliad, Homer
36. Les Miserables (The Wretched), Victor Hugo
37. Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
38. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
39. Bliss and Other Stories, Katherine Mansfield
40. Utopia, Sir Thomas More
41. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Edgar Alan Poe
42. In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
43. A Sicilian Romance, Anne Radcliffe
44. Clarissa, Samuel Richardson
45. Waverley, Sir Walter Scott
46. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley
47. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
48. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
49. Dracula, Bram Stoker
50. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
51. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
52. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
53. Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope
54. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
55. Candide, or Optimism, Voltair
56. The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole
57. The Hose of Mirth, Edith Wharton
58. The Picture of Dorain Gray, Oscar Wilde
59. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
60. La Beter Humaine, Emile Zola
Looking over this list, it both excites me and fills me with dread. So many books on here I've told myself I'll read "someday"-- Frankenstein, Gulliver's Travels, Madam Bovary, Fanny Hill, The Thousand and One Nights.... Others are like old friends (I once took a literature course in college, because I knew The Great Gatsby would be on the syllabus). Others I am not looking foward to at all. I attempted to read Heart of Darkness once...I think I got to page three. And I'm sure this is considered sacrilege, but I have to confess that I've read Wuthering Heights before, and I didn't really care for it. But this little project is an adventure for me, and I'll see what happens. I may enjoy myself!
1. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Anon
2. The Thousand and One Nights, Anon
3. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
4. Old Goriot, Honore de Balzac
5. Bathek: an Arabian Tale, William Beckford
6. Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon
7. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
8. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
9. The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
10. The Canterbury Tales, Georffrey Chaucer
11. The Collected Stories, Anton Chekhov
12. The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton
13. Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, John Cleland
14. The Moonstone: a Romance, Wilkie Collins
15. The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
16. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
17. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
18. The Christmas Books, Charles Dickens
19. Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
20. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
21. Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life, George Eliot
22. Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
23. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
24. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
25. Howards End, E.M. Forster
26. North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell
27. The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
28. The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith
29. The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
30. King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard
31. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
32. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
33. Moby-Dick, or The Whale, Herman Melville
34. The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
35. The Iliad, Homer
36. Les Miserables (The Wretched), Victor Hugo
37. Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
38. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
39. Bliss and Other Stories, Katherine Mansfield
40. Utopia, Sir Thomas More
41. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Edgar Alan Poe
42. In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
43. A Sicilian Romance, Anne Radcliffe
44. Clarissa, Samuel Richardson
45. Waverley, Sir Walter Scott
46. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley
47. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
48. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
49. Dracula, Bram Stoker
50. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
51. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
52. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
53. Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope
54. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
55. Candide, or Optimism, Voltair
56. The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole
57. The Hose of Mirth, Edith Wharton
58. The Picture of Dorain Gray, Oscar Wilde
59. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
60. La Beter Humaine, Emile Zola
Looking over this list, it both excites me and fills me with dread. So many books on here I've told myself I'll read "someday"-- Frankenstein, Gulliver's Travels, Madam Bovary, Fanny Hill, The Thousand and One Nights.... Others are like old friends (I once took a literature course in college, because I knew The Great Gatsby would be on the syllabus). Others I am not looking foward to at all. I attempted to read Heart of Darkness once...I think I got to page three. And I'm sure this is considered sacrilege, but I have to confess that I've read Wuthering Heights before, and I didn't really care for it. But this little project is an adventure for me, and I'll see what happens. I may enjoy myself!
Monday, March 15, 2010
July's People
Ugghhh! Forgive me for such a short post. March is my birthday month, and as such it has been one busy month for me. Live music, frisbee in the park, wagon rides, goat petting, cupcake eating, coffee drinking and general lazing have taken up good chunks of my time. And then there's the triumph of my son FINALLY starting to pee in the potty. Sure, I've had a lot of fun, but it's taken me forever to get around to writing this blog entry. Please forgive me if it's short and sweet; it is not a reflection upon the quality of the novel.
July's People is actually a fascinating look at South Africa during apartheid, and the relationship between a white couple and their African servant. The Smales consider themselves to be very liberal, but when racial warfare breaks out and they have to flee to July's village, a spotlight is shined on the role race plays in their relationship. It is definately an interesting read.
Hopefully, I will be selecting another novel shortly, but who knows-- garden-planting season is upon us. And last I checked The Victory Garden book was not on the list of 501 Must-Read Books.
July's People is actually a fascinating look at South Africa during apartheid, and the relationship between a white couple and their African servant. The Smales consider themselves to be very liberal, but when racial warfare breaks out and they have to flee to July's village, a spotlight is shined on the role race plays in their relationship. It is definately an interesting read.
Hopefully, I will be selecting another novel shortly, but who knows-- garden-planting season is upon us. And last I checked The Victory Garden book was not on the list of 501 Must-Read Books.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Modern Fiction
I have begun reading (or rereading, as the case may be) July's People by Nadine Gordimer. This is from the "Modern Fiction" section. I don't want to go into details until I have finished the book, but I will list the books in this section so you can get a feel for what it entails.
1. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
2. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amando
3. Le Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournier
4. Take a Girl Like You, Kingsley Amis
5. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
6. Surfacing, Margaret Atwood
7. The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
8. Tales of Odessa, Isaak Babel
9. Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin
10. The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
11. The Regenerational Trilogy, Pat Barker
12. Herzog, Saul Bellow
13. Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
14. Nadja, Andre Breton
15. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
16. The Naked Lunch, William Burroughs
17. Possession, A. S. Byatt
18. If On a Winter's Night a Traveller, Italo Calvino
19. The Outsider, Albert Camus
20. Auto da Fe, Elias Canetti
21. Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
22. The Kingdom of this World, Alejo Carpentier
23. The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
24. What We Talk about When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver
25. The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Carey
26. Journey to the End of Night, Louis-Ferdinand Celine
27. Soldiers of Salamis, Javier Cercas
28. The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
29. Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee
30. Cheri, Colette
31. Victory, Joseph Conrad
32. A House and It's Head, Ivy Compton-Burnett
33. Fifth Business, William Robertson Davies
34. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
35. Underworld, Don Delillo
36. Seven Gothic Tales, Isak Dinesen
37. Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Doblin
38. Once Were Warriors, Alan Duff
39. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
40. The Lover, Marguerite Duras
41. The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence George Durrell
42. The Name of Rose, Umberto Eco
43. The Neverending Story, Michael Ende
44. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
45. The Wars, Timothy Findley
46. The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford
47. Wildlife, Richard Ford
48. A Passage to India, E. M. Forester
49. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
50. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
51. The Blue Flower, Penelope Fitzgerald
52. From the Fifteenth District, Mavis Gallant
53. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
54. Our Lady of the Flowers, Jean Genet
55. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
56. July's People, Nadine Gordimer
57. FerdyDurke, Witold Gombrowicz
58. The Tin Drum, Guenter Grass
59. Hunger, Knut Hamsun
60. The Blind Owl, Sadegh Hedayat
61. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
62. The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse
63. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
64. A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes
65. The World According to Garp, John Irving
66. Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood
67. The Remains of the Day, Kazui Ishiguro
68. Ulysses, James Joyce
69. The File on H, Ismail Kadare
70. The Trial, Franz Kafka
71. It, Stephen King
72. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
73. The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa
74. The Diviners, Margaret Laurence
75. Women in Love, D. H. Lawrence
76. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
77. The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
78. Changing Places, David Lodge
79. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, J. N. Machado de Assis
80. The Cairo Trilogy, Naguib Mahfouz
81. The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer
82. The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
83. Embers, Sandor Marai
84. Life of Pi, Yahn Martel
85. Cakes and Ale, W. Somerset Maugham
86. The Group, Mary McCarthy
87. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson Mccullers
88. Enduring Love, Ian McEwan
89. The Sea of Fertility, Yukio Mishima
90. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
91. Cold Heaven, Brian Moore
92. Beloved, Toni Morrison
93. The Progress of Love, Alice Munro
94. The Sea, the Sea Iris Murdoch
95. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
96. A House for Mr. Biswas, V. S. Naipaul
97. The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brian
98. A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor
99. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
100. Where the Jackals Howl, Amos Oz
101. The Messiah of Stockhold, Cynthia Ozick
102. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
103. Mr. Weston's Good Wine, T. F. Powys
104. The Nephew, James Purdy
105. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
106. Barney's Version, Mordecai Richler
107. Hadrian the Seventh, Frederick Rolfe
108. The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth
109. The Human Stain, Philip Roth
110. The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
111. Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo
112. Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan
113. Short Stories, Saki
114. Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
115. Staying On, Paul Scott
116. Austerlitz, W. G. Sebald
117. Last Exit to Brooklyn, Husbert Selby, Jr.
118. Unless, Carol Shields
119. The Magician of Lublin, Isaac Bashevis Singer
120. The Engineer of Human Souls, Josepf Skvorecky
121. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
122. The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
123. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
124. Sophie's Choice, William Styron
125. Perfume, Patrick Suskind
126. The Confessions of Zeno, Italo Svevo
127. Declares Pereira, Antonio Tabucchi
128. The White Hotel, D. M. Thomas
129. The Master Colm Toibin
130. Felicia's Journey, William Trevor
131. The Palm-Wine Drinkard, Amos Tutuola
132. The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
133. Couples, John Updike
134. The Time of the Hero, Mario Vargas Llosa
135. In Praise of Older Women, Stephen Vizinczey
136. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
137. Voss, Patrick White
138. Memoirs of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar
Yikes! That's quite a list. I thought I was fairly well read, but I can see that I have clearly missed some very important authors. How is it possible that (to the best of my recollection) I have never read Steinbeck, Joyce, Faulkner, Hemingway, and a host of others? And just the title of the section is intimidating-- "Modern Fiction." It feels like something you would write a thesis on-- "Defining Modern Fiction." On the less intimidating fron there are some familiar faces here. I had to smile when I saw Things Fall Apart on the list; everytime I see that title, I hear it in my head as pronounced by a certain Nigerian professor I had. Never fails to produce a smile. I wonder if a few years will deepend my understanding of novels such as A Hundred Years of Solitude, Lolita, or Beloved, all of which I have not read since college or before. I guess I'd better start reading. I have a big job ahead of me.
1. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
2. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amando
3. Le Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournier
4. Take a Girl Like You, Kingsley Amis
5. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
6. Surfacing, Margaret Atwood
7. The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
8. Tales of Odessa, Isaak Babel
9. Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin
10. The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
11. The Regenerational Trilogy, Pat Barker
12. Herzog, Saul Bellow
13. Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
14. Nadja, Andre Breton
15. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
16. The Naked Lunch, William Burroughs
17. Possession, A. S. Byatt
18. If On a Winter's Night a Traveller, Italo Calvino
19. The Outsider, Albert Camus
20. Auto da Fe, Elias Canetti
21. Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
22. The Kingdom of this World, Alejo Carpentier
23. The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
24. What We Talk about When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver
25. The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Carey
26. Journey to the End of Night, Louis-Ferdinand Celine
27. Soldiers of Salamis, Javier Cercas
28. The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
29. Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee
30. Cheri, Colette
31. Victory, Joseph Conrad
32. A House and It's Head, Ivy Compton-Burnett
33. Fifth Business, William Robertson Davies
34. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
35. Underworld, Don Delillo
36. Seven Gothic Tales, Isak Dinesen
37. Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Doblin
38. Once Were Warriors, Alan Duff
39. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
40. The Lover, Marguerite Duras
41. The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence George Durrell
42. The Name of Rose, Umberto Eco
43. The Neverending Story, Michael Ende
44. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
45. The Wars, Timothy Findley
46. The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford
47. Wildlife, Richard Ford
48. A Passage to India, E. M. Forester
49. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
50. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
51. The Blue Flower, Penelope Fitzgerald
52. From the Fifteenth District, Mavis Gallant
53. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
54. Our Lady of the Flowers, Jean Genet
55. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
56. July's People, Nadine Gordimer
57. FerdyDurke, Witold Gombrowicz
58. The Tin Drum, Guenter Grass
59. Hunger, Knut Hamsun
60. The Blind Owl, Sadegh Hedayat
61. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
62. The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse
63. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
64. A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes
65. The World According to Garp, John Irving
66. Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood
67. The Remains of the Day, Kazui Ishiguro
68. Ulysses, James Joyce
69. The File on H, Ismail Kadare
70. The Trial, Franz Kafka
71. It, Stephen King
72. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
73. The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa
74. The Diviners, Margaret Laurence
75. Women in Love, D. H. Lawrence
76. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
77. The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
78. Changing Places, David Lodge
79. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, J. N. Machado de Assis
80. The Cairo Trilogy, Naguib Mahfouz
81. The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer
82. The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
83. Embers, Sandor Marai
84. Life of Pi, Yahn Martel
85. Cakes and Ale, W. Somerset Maugham
86. The Group, Mary McCarthy
87. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson Mccullers
88. Enduring Love, Ian McEwan
89. The Sea of Fertility, Yukio Mishima
90. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
91. Cold Heaven, Brian Moore
92. Beloved, Toni Morrison
93. The Progress of Love, Alice Munro
94. The Sea, the Sea Iris Murdoch
95. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
96. A House for Mr. Biswas, V. S. Naipaul
97. The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brian
98. A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor
99. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
100. Where the Jackals Howl, Amos Oz
101. The Messiah of Stockhold, Cynthia Ozick
102. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
103. Mr. Weston's Good Wine, T. F. Powys
104. The Nephew, James Purdy
105. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
106. Barney's Version, Mordecai Richler
107. Hadrian the Seventh, Frederick Rolfe
108. The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth
109. The Human Stain, Philip Roth
110. The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
111. Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo
112. Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan
113. Short Stories, Saki
114. Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
115. Staying On, Paul Scott
116. Austerlitz, W. G. Sebald
117. Last Exit to Brooklyn, Husbert Selby, Jr.
118. Unless, Carol Shields
119. The Magician of Lublin, Isaac Bashevis Singer
120. The Engineer of Human Souls, Josepf Skvorecky
121. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
122. The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
123. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
124. Sophie's Choice, William Styron
125. Perfume, Patrick Suskind
126. The Confessions of Zeno, Italo Svevo
127. Declares Pereira, Antonio Tabucchi
128. The White Hotel, D. M. Thomas
129. The Master Colm Toibin
130. Felicia's Journey, William Trevor
131. The Palm-Wine Drinkard, Amos Tutuola
132. The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
133. Couples, John Updike
134. The Time of the Hero, Mario Vargas Llosa
135. In Praise of Older Women, Stephen Vizinczey
136. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
137. Voss, Patrick White
138. Memoirs of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar
Yikes! That's quite a list. I thought I was fairly well read, but I can see that I have clearly missed some very important authors. How is it possible that (to the best of my recollection) I have never read Steinbeck, Joyce, Faulkner, Hemingway, and a host of others? And just the title of the section is intimidating-- "Modern Fiction." It feels like something you would write a thesis on-- "Defining Modern Fiction." On the less intimidating fron there are some familiar faces here. I had to smile when I saw Things Fall Apart on the list; everytime I see that title, I hear it in my head as pronounced by a certain Nigerian professor I had. Never fails to produce a smile. I wonder if a few years will deepend my understanding of novels such as A Hundred Years of Solitude, Lolita, or Beloved, all of which I have not read since college or before. I guess I'd better start reading. I have a big job ahead of me.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Charlotte's Web
I actually finished the first of my 501 books, Charlotte's Web, awhile ago but am just now taking the time to write about it. It was every bit as charming as I remember it. The part that really stood out for me was young Fern and her love of the animals. I had to smile at the part where she tucks young Wilbur into her doll carriage next to her baby doll. As a young child I had two black cats, and I enjoyed treating these poor, unfortunate creatures as babies. As a matter of fact, my doll stroller had some severe scratches inside from where I had tried to swaddle our male cat, Sam, and give him a ride. Apparently cats are less cooperative than piglets. I also enjoyed sewing clothes out of paper for my little female cat, Phoebe. Sadly, my mother could find no photos of these, although I know they existed. Phoebe was much more cooperative about being dressed up and photographed than Sam was about being wrapped up and pushed in a stroller. When I was eleven, my parents gave me a Rottweiler-mix puppy as a belated birthday present. I named him Dreamer, for his very active sleep life-- he ran, barked, grumbled, etc. when he slept. Just like Wilbur, Dreamer had been raised on a bottle. Unlike Wilbur, he grew to prefer orange juice to milk. And just like Fern did with Wilbur, I took him everywhere. I once heard said that a dog lover will always have a dog, but they will only have one dog who is THE dog. Dreamer was THE dog for me, and I'm grateful for all 14 years I shared with him.
Me (at age 11) with Dreamer
(Please ignore the hair. My mother was under the illusion that she could cut hair...And that bangs would be a good look for me)
Me (at 25) with Dreamer
(You can see by the bandana that I enjoyed dressing him up too)
Monday, February 22, 2010
Children's Fiction
After a great deal of thought, I've decided to start my reading with Charlotte web. First, I had better share a little bit about my process of book selection. Being a "Busy Bibliophile" I decided to start with books that I already own. After all, if I love them enough to have bought them, I love them enough to reread them. My next thought was about order. 501 Must-Read Books is broken down into categories (Children's Fiction, Classic Fiction, History, etc). I certainly did not want to read an entire category, before moving onto another category. I think that might get overwhelming (I could easily picture myself giving up mid-History). So for now, I will be haphazardly selecting my books, choosing what strikes me at that moment. Coincidentally, this is how I have my bookshelves arranged. Sure my husbands Ted Dekker might be next to The Devil Wears Prada, but that means I am always surpised when I walk to my bookshelves to select a book.
Since I'm starting with Children's Fiction, I thought it might be appropriate to share what books are included on the list.
1. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
2. Fairy Tales, Hands Christian Andersen
3. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
4. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
5. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
6. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
8. Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi
9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
10.Sophies World, Jostein Gaarder
11. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Alan Garner
12.The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Graham
13.Children's and Household Tales, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
14.The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Mark Haddon
15.Emil and the Detectives, Erich Kastner
16.Just So Stories, Rudyard Kpling
17.The Complete Nonsense Book, Edward Lear
18.A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle
19.The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
20.Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren
21.Dr. Dolittle, Hugh Lofting
22.At the Back of the North Wind, George Macdonald
23.Nobody's Boy, Hector Malot
24.Winnie-the-Pooh, A. A. Milne
25.Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
26.Five Children and It, E. Nesbit
27.Tom's Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce
28.The War of the Buttons, Louis Pergaud
29.Fairy Tales, Charles Perrault
30.The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
31.The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
32.Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
33.Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
34.Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fant, Mordecai Richler
35.Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J. K. Rowling (I think I'll be reading the American version)
36.The King of the Golden River, John Ruskin
37.The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
38.The Human Comedy, William Saroyan
39.The Misfortunes of Sophie, Comtesse de Segur
40.Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
41.And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street, Dr. Seuss
42.Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
43.The Golem, Isaac Bashevis Singer
44.Heidi, Johanna Spyri
45.Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
46.The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R. R. Tolkien
47.Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers
48.Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
49.The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White
50.Rebecca of Sonnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin
51.The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Oscar Wilde
At first I was startled by what I thought was a glaring omission; how can they leave of the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. However, I'm guessing they did not classify those books as children's "fiction", being largely autobiographical, and so they were left off. But I have to say, I read and reread those books as a little girl. If I remember correctly, I had read the entire series by the end of secone grade! Another childhood favorite of mine, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler also did not make the list. I'm excited about reading the others to see how they stacked up against it. As a child, the idea of running off to live in an art museum was very appealing.My husband was surprised that there was no Shel Silverstein on the list, and I have to say I agree. His books are definately part of the fabric of my childhood, and my goal is to have all of them for my son's enjoyment some day.
I'm also excited to share some of these stories with my son. I will of course be buying him his own copy of Where the Wild Things Are. I'm looking forward to sharing some of the fairy tales of the Grimm's Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen-- show him the real stories, not the sanitized Disney version. By the time I'm done with this project, he may be old enough to have chapters of Treasure Island or Harry Potter as his bedtime reading!
Since I'm starting with Children's Fiction, I thought it might be appropriate to share what books are included on the list.
1. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
2. Fairy Tales, Hands Christian Andersen
3. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
4. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
5. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
6. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
8. Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi
9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
10.Sophies World, Jostein Gaarder
11. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Alan Garner
12.The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Graham
13.Children's and Household Tales, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
14.The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Mark Haddon
15.Emil and the Detectives, Erich Kastner
16.Just So Stories, Rudyard Kpling
17.The Complete Nonsense Book, Edward Lear
18.A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle
19.The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
20.Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren
21.Dr. Dolittle, Hugh Lofting
22.At the Back of the North Wind, George Macdonald
23.Nobody's Boy, Hector Malot
24.Winnie-the-Pooh, A. A. Milne
25.Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
26.Five Children and It, E. Nesbit
27.Tom's Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce
28.The War of the Buttons, Louis Pergaud
29.Fairy Tales, Charles Perrault
30.The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
31.The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
32.Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
33.Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
34.Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fant, Mordecai Richler
35.Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J. K. Rowling (I think I'll be reading the American version)
36.The King of the Golden River, John Ruskin
37.The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
38.The Human Comedy, William Saroyan
39.The Misfortunes of Sophie, Comtesse de Segur
40.Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
41.And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street, Dr. Seuss
42.Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
43.The Golem, Isaac Bashevis Singer
44.Heidi, Johanna Spyri
45.Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
46.The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R. R. Tolkien
47.Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers
48.Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
49.The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White
50.Rebecca of Sonnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin
51.The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Oscar Wilde
At first I was startled by what I thought was a glaring omission; how can they leave of the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. However, I'm guessing they did not classify those books as children's "fiction", being largely autobiographical, and so they were left off. But I have to say, I read and reread those books as a little girl. If I remember correctly, I had read the entire series by the end of secone grade! Another childhood favorite of mine, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler also did not make the list. I'm excited about reading the others to see how they stacked up against it. As a child, the idea of running off to live in an art museum was very appealing.My husband was surprised that there was no Shel Silverstein on the list, and I have to say I agree. His books are definately part of the fabric of my childhood, and my goal is to have all of them for my son's enjoyment some day.
I'm also excited to share some of these stories with my son. I will of course be buying him his own copy of Where the Wild Things Are. I'm looking forward to sharing some of the fairy tales of the Grimm's Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen-- show him the real stories, not the sanitized Disney version. By the time I'm done with this project, he may be old enough to have chapters of Treasure Island or Harry Potter as his bedtime reading!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
501 Must Read Books
For quite some time now, my husband and I have had these two books on our bookshelves-- 501 Must-Read Books and 501 Must-See Movies. From time to time (or once every 6 months, when I get the inclination to dust), we take them down, flip through, and compare notes about who has seen/read what. These are hardly definitive lists, but we enjoy looking through the books and it usually sparks a lively conversation. Several nights ago we were doing just that, and I once again came to the realization that there are some really great books I just haven't read yet. Now, as a full-time working mother of a two-year old, I could blame this on being busy. But let's face it, I have managed to re-read the entire Confessions of a Shopaholic series TWICE in under a year. Apparently, it's not that I'm not making time to read; I'm just not making time to go to the library, the bookstore, or pay a late-night visit to Amazon. So, with no time frame (because I can only imagine how long it will take me to read 501 books), I plan on reading all 501 books in 501 Must-Read Books. Care to watch the insanity ensue?
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