Category: Literature

Reading Update

Posted on by Dana

I will finish Moby Dick tomorrow when DailyLit sends me the final 252nd installment of that novel. I began reading it back in April I think, receiving one installment each day. Some time in August, I found it difficult to keep up, and I wound up reading perhaps the whole week’s installments on Saturday or Sunday, but I was able to catch up, with a few lapses, beginning in September. Now I’m almost done, and I think it will feel weird not to receive Moby Dick in my e-mail inbox anymore. On the other hand, on Monday, I will begin Ulysses, and I’m looking forward to reading what many critics call the quintessential novel of the twentieth century.  If I don’t elect to receive more than one segment a day, it should take me about one month shy of a year to read Ulysses.

I haven’t progressed very far lately with Jane Eyre due to time constraints. I am hoping that after next week, fewer demands on my time due to my sponsorship of an organization at school will be made.

[tags]jane eyre, moby dick, reading, literature, ulysses[/tags]

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Prison Performing Arts

Posted on by Dana

My local NPR station broadcast a rerun of This American Life last night that made me stop cold and listen. The episode, entitled “Act V,” centered around a drama program that serves prisons, exposing inmates to Shakespeare through performance. Click on the plus sign to listen to the program.

Download link

Stories like this are why I wanted to teach literature.

Crossposted from huffenglish.com, my education blog.

[tags]drama, hamlet, literature, npr, performance, prison performing arts, shakespeare, this american life[/tags]

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Possession

Posted on by Dana

PossessionI rented the movie Possession from Blockbuster earlier this week and just now got a chance to watch it.  I read the novel upon which the movie is based, A. S. Byatt’s Possession, some seven years ago upon the recommendation of my husband (I loved it, and if you are a lover of literature and/or the Victorian era, you will, too).

I found the movie to be a faithful rendition of the novel, with some changes that I didn’t mind and that didn’t alter the storyline significantly.  The actresses who played Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow), Christabel LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle), and Blanche Glover (Lena Headey) were all especially well cast.  While Aaron Eckhart wasn’t how I pictured Roland Mitchell, he was good in the role.  In fact, I suppose the most major change in the story was altering Roland’s nationality from British to American.

All in all, if you haven’t seen it and want to curl up with a smart, bookish movie this weekend, go see if you can find it at your video store.

Bonus: Here’s a great reading group guide for the novel, which you should really read.

[tags]possession, a. s. byatt, dvd, film, movie, review[/tags]

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R.I.P. Update

Posted on by Dana

I am in the middle of Jane Eyre.  I have to say two things.  First of all, it took me a while to get into this book.  I started liking it once Jane arrived at Thornfield.  Second, Brontë’s children strike me as entirely false.  They are either too good or too bad, and they’re all too smart.  What I mean by that is that I don’t think any kid talked like Jane or her friend Helen, even in the Victorian Era, and I didn’t believe them as characters.

And in case you care, Moby Dick is finally getting really good — I just read the part when Captain Gardiner of the Rachel was turned away by Ahab, who refused to help look for Gardiner’s missing son.  I got goosebumps over these lines:

But by her still halting course and winding, woeful way, you plainly saw that this ship that so wept with spray, still remained without comfort.  She was Rachel, weeping for her children, because they were not.

What a great biblical allusion.

I am afraid I won’t finish my R.I.P. Challenge by Halloween, but I am going to finish it nonetheless.

[tags]literature, r.i.p. challenge, reading, jane eyre, moby dick[/tags]

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Ten Questions: A Bookish Meme

Posted on by Dana

Sylvia is up on the most interesting (to me) memes. Hmm… could be because they’re mostly about books! She found this one via Stefanie; it was invented by Kimbootku.

  1. Hardcover or paperback and why? I like paperbacks for lower cost, holding in the bed, and lighter weight for carrying around with me, but if I really like a book and want it to keep, I prefer hardcover.
  2. If I were to own a bookshop, I would call it… I always liked “The Tattered Cover,” but that one’s taken. There used to be one here in Atlanta called “The Cup and Chaucer,” which was also great. There’s one down the street called “Coffee Buy the Book” — it’s a cute new/used bookshop in a Victorian house. I can’t think of a good name right now. Maybe “All the World’s a Page.” That one just came to me. Yeah. I like it.
  3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is… from The Great Gatsby:

    Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. … And one fine morning –

    So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

  4. The author (alive or dead) I would love to have lunch with would be… I have to pick William Shakespeare, but I would love to have tea with J.R.R. Tolkien, and a nice breakfast with Jane Austen. Oh, and dinner with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Who could pick one?
  5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be… The Harry Potter series.
  6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that could… I’m going to steal Sylvia’s idea of a dictionary.  It would be cool to be able to tap words in a book and get the definitions, sort of like you can online.
  7. The smell of an old book reminds me of… The nice library near my grandparents’ house; the library isn’t open anymore (I don’t think), but I was allowed to ride my bike there or walk there once I was old enough, and I spent many happy hours poking around the stacks and drinking hot chocolate in the snack room downstairs.
  8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title) it would be… I really like Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility, but I think I’d also like to be Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series or Morgaine from The Mists of Avalon.
  9. The most overestimated book of all time is… That’s a tough one.  The Da Vinci Code is such a favorite with so many people, but it’s so poorly written, particularly with regards to character development.  Wooden characters.  Cardboard stand-in characters.  Ugh.  Characters are the most important part of a book!
  10. I hate it when a book… has typos or grammar mistakes, especially if it’s on the part of the author.  I can’t stand to read Philippa Gregory because of her comma splice problem.  I also don’t like the non-period dialogue, but that’s beside the point.  Her plots are pretty good, and I like her characters.

I tag any folks out there who are interested in books.

[tags]literature, books, meme, reading[/tags]

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Rebecca

Posted on by Dana

RebeccaI finished Rebecca in a marathon reading session today — I know I read over half the book. I think it’s right about that point in the story when the novel becomes impossible to put down.

Though this novel is just the sort that is right up my alley in a variety of ways, I had not read it before, and I’m not sure why. I know I had plans to read it… eventually. I’m really glad I did because I loved it.

If you are unfamiliar with the basic plot, Rebecca is told from the viewpoint of a young woman who marries the fabulously wealthy and mysterious Maxim de Winter. The narrator is never named, which was a clever device of writer Daphne du Maurier’s — it plays up the omnipresent specter of Rebecca, Maxim’s perfect, deceased first wife.

Du Maurier’s excellent descriptions brought Manderley, the de Winter ancestral mansion, to vivid life, and the story was well constructed. I was pleased to find some of my predictions came true, but many twists and turns made it impossible to see how it would end. In addition, her characters were realistically painted and seemed to walk right out of the pages into the flesh.

The only real criticism I have to offer about the story is that I felt it took a while to get into. Once Maxim and the narrator marry, the plot moves along nicely, but the beginning was somewhat slow; however, it might have been necessary to build slowly in order to give the reader the necessary information, and, I might add, perhaps mislead the reader a bit about the characters in order to retain the ending’s surprise. I should also add that my particular copy, the mass market paperback, was rife with annoying typos. Of course, you pretty much get what you pay for with mass market, so perhaps you would do better to buy the trade paperback or hardcover, both of which might have fewer typos.

I’m really glad I chose to read this novel for the R.I.P. Challenge. It was an excellent story. I am going to run out and rent the Hitchcock movie and hope that it does the book justice, for I’ve not seen the movie either.

[tags]rebecca, daphne du maurier, r.i.p. challenge, literature, review, book[/tags]

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Autumn is Here

Posted on by Dana

After a month with days of 100°+ temps, I guess I wondered what fall would look like this year, but it seems to be arriving on schedule (for these parts anyway).

It makes me happy to see autumn again. It’s my favorite season. I wish Georgia had more of a fall, but at least it has one.  It does, however, have way too much summer, and I’m always very happy to see the summer go.

Perfect weather for curling up with my R.I.P. Challenge books!

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Stephenie Meyer Book Signing

Posted on by Dana

Last night, Sarah, Maggie, and I arrived at 6:30 for Stephenie Meyer’s 7:00 Q&A and book signing. I overheard one of the employees tell an elderly man who was looking for someone that there were over 2000 people at the signing. When the employees were ready for the crowd to get in line, a male employee on the microphone said “When I tell you, I want you to turn around and move back… Sort of like an army… An army of teenaged girls.” And boy were there a lot of teenaged girls! Some boys and grown women too, most of them accompanying teenaged girls. Lots of girls had made shirts for the occasion, and they were all so creative! I wish I had been able to get more pictures of the shirts. We waited in line for over two hours for Sarah to get her books signed.

Meyer Signing

This pregnant woman was really cute. Her tee-shirt had an arrow pointing toward her belly that said “Edward Cullen, Jr.” Edward Cullen is the romantic male lead of Twilight.

Sarah holding her books

This is Sarah holding her copies of Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse to be signed.

Maggie being patient

Maggie was so good and so patient. She wanted to go, and she didn’t really understand what the fuss was, but she was suitably impressed by the fact that she was in the vicinity of a writer, and she caught the eye of a policeman, who smiled at her.

Copies of New Moon audiobooks

There were actually quite a few copies of the audiobooks for sale, too.

Closer…

We were about 10-15 minutes from the front of the line when I snapped this photo.

Sarah getting her books signed

At last! Sarah gets her books signed by Stephenie Meyer. This is as close as I was allowed to get with a camera. The ladies on the left were very friendly fans in their early 20’s who chatted with us as we waited in line. Ms. Meyer looked very tired already at this point, and I estimate we were in the latter part of halfway through the line. I would imagine she signed until 11:00.

Sarah getting her books signed

The books along the back are all copies of Eclipse.

What the pictures don’t capture is the virtual sea of red, white, and black in the crowd — the colors on Stephenie Meyer’s book covers — and the loudness of all those excited girls. They kept screaming! One would have thought a rock star was in the building! Frankly, it made me tear up — the fact that kids were excited about an author and her books. I’m such an English teacher geek.

Update, 4/16/09: Comments on this post are now closed.

Update, 6/30/09: I am not affiliated with Stephenie Meyer. I went to a book signing a few years ago as I described in this post, but this is my personal blog and is not associated in any way with Ms. Meyer. I do not know when and where she will sign books. I repeat, I do not know when and where she will sign books. I suggest you check out her own Web site for that sort of information. Any contact I receive regarding Ms. Meyer’s book signing activities will be ignored.

[tags]stephenie meyer, twilight, new moon, eclipse[/tags]

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Stephenie Meyer

Posted on by Dana

I went to Barnes and Noble about 12:30 P.M. today to get a ticket for Sarah’s place in line to meet Stephenie Meyer and get her copy of Eclipse signed.

According to Ms. Meyer’s website, the bookstore would begin issuing color-coded tickets at 11:00 A.M. I figured I would be one of the early birds, coming a scant hour and a half after the store began issuing tickets. Not so. Sarah will not be dead last in line, but she will be squarely in the middle with her red ticket.

Stephenie Meyer ticket

I guess I’m clueless, but I didn’t realize she was quite that popular! Steve did a quick Amazon search and let me know that her current release, Eclipse, has a sales rank of #13 in books, while New Moon is ranked #26. Twilight is still a respectable #58, despite the fact that it was released in hardcover two years ago.

I’m glad I had the day off for Rosh Hashanah, or who knows what color ticket Sarah would have!

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