Much Madness is Divinest Sense

OK, I read two installments of Ulysses — I actually didn’t finish the second — and decided it’s not for me, so it’s off my list.  I decided to read Jane Austen’s Emma instead — a book I have actually been meaning to read for some time by an author I know I’ll like.  As a wise person once told me, life is too short to read books you don’t like.  If a book doesn’t grab me in 50 pages, it’s not going to grab me, and likewise, if it puts me off in one or two, it will most likely not woo me back.  Ah, one should be so wise in all matters of the heart.

[tags]literature, reading, ulysses, james joyce, emma, jane austen[/tags]

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]

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]

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]