Lori’s Book Nook

Stolen from casa az, who plundered it from alejna

Four childhood books

• Freddy the Pig — don’t really remember much about the books, but that I used to love them. (Animal Farm always sort of freaked me out, with my Freddy background.)
• The Donkey Rustlers by Gerald Durrell. Again, I don’t remember much about the story, but I do remember taking it out of the library again and again.
• Paddington Bear — of course. I think he is the root of my love of the absurd…how can you resist a world where people don’t think twice about talking to a bear in a coat carrying a suitcase full of marmalade sandwiches, with bacon hanging out of it and dogs following him?
• No fourth comes to mind…the Hobbit, the Narnia books — all begun in my childhood, and continued to be read and re-read in my teens, my young adulthood, my middle ages, my dotage…

Four authors I will read again and again

• Robertson Davies (I’m with az here)
• Lois McMaster Bujold
• JRR Tolkien
• Jasper Fforde
• [This is all really quite random...there are 100s (10s?) of authors I would re-read again and again, I could continue this list on to the next page...]

Four authors I will never read again

I blank out the unpleasant in my life. I’ve not much interest in ever reading Dan Brown, Terry Pratchett (sorry az for putting those two in the same sentence), or Stephen King. Authors I don’t like, I just don’t remember.

The first four books on my to-be-read list

• Ulysses by James Joyce (az, alejna and I are threatening to read this together)
• Dante’s Inferno
• Plus a cast of 100s! Too many to list. (Wow. I’m being rather lazy with this one.)

The four books I would take to a desert island

• LOTR
• The complete Shakespeare
• Norton Anthology of Poetry
• a big blank book, with some pens

The last lines of one of my favourite books

• I don’t have any. Sorry to disappoint. Although I may think on this one, and change this some random morning at 4 a.m. when a line pops into my head and won’t let me sleep until I’ve added it here.

Anyway — tag yourselves on this one!

One obituary.

Did you know that the author of the classic “A Wrinkle in Time” wrote as much as she did (over 50 works published)? I must admit I was a fan of that utterly timeless classic, but never went further with her work.

I think I can credit this woman with my fascination with speculative fiction.

Rest in peace.

I found a guy I like online — the Burgomeister, and his books. Not only is he a reader, he’s someone who prefers to read online (I’ve been looking for one!):

I love the great novels on my computer screen because, for me, paper is passé.

So, here we’ve got a reader who has found a solution to the problem of friends borrowing books and not returning them. (I just realized last night that I loaned out my only copy of Sei Shonogan’s The Pillow Book.) He is lending out his ebooks to anyone who wants to borrow them.

Brilliant. Not only is he cool, he’s got similar taste in reading to me…lots of SF and such.

Go visit, follow his guidelines, and read.

How can I resist an //engtech contest?!? Especially one where I can talk about my other favourite thing — movies!

Okay — on to the list. Let’s assume that LOTR is in the list somewhere, but that it’s been over-blogged in the last couple of years. And when I say ‘memorable‘, I mean my memory!

No. 1

I Capture the Castle. The Dodie Smith book of the same name is a delight. It’s in diary form, written by 17-year-old Cassandra, who lives with her rather eccentric family in a broken down old castle. The strength of this rather quiet movie lies in Smith’s background as a playright (and writer of The One Hundred and One Dalmations) — I’ve never seen a movie capture the characters, plot, setting, and essence of a book so well. At no point does it slap you in the face and say “hey! I’m literary! Can’t you tell?” (Unlike the first Harry Potter film…which I watched, anticipating each scene: “Ho hum…now we’re going to get ___ scene.”)

No. 2

A Little Princess (the 1995 version). From the book by Frances Hodges Burnett. Okay, so they added a little dramatic ‘hanging-from-the-eaves’ scene — I don’t mind. At that point in the movie, you’re really in the mood for it. The Miss Minchin character is wonderfully done by the great actor Eleanor Brun. You feel for her and hate her at the same time — brilliant! The story-telling, the ‘magic’, and the relationship between all the girls is beautifully represented. And the colours…each scene is shot with either a dark, earthy green that menaces, or a sunny golden glow that, well, glows.

No. 3

The Power of One. Is this a great movie? No. It’s got some brilliant moments, but overall, I wish it had been more…meaty. Gutsy. Longer. The treatment of the material was sketchy — it’s obvious that Bryce Courtney’s greatest book needs to be made into a BBC mini-series (a la Dune or Gormenghast), not relegated to a shortish Hollywood film. But, they manage to get some of the best bits right in this one — it definitely captures the feel of the book, even though they totally botched the story.

No. 4

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Is this movie based on the biography Dorothy Parker: Oh What Fresh Hell Is This? by Marion Meade? [ooo...a triple whammy. A movie based on a biography of a famous writer!] It doesn’t say that the movie’s writers used the book, but it is the most common biography on Parker, and many of the anecdotes from the book are reproduced verbatim in the movie. (Of course, that means nothing, as all of her friends were literary, everyone in that crowd wrote everything down…) Anyway, it’s a great film, representing the life and times of a great if tragic woman, played with utter perfection by the indomitable Jennifer Jason Leigh!

No. 5

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Okay, I’m cheating on this one. In a sense, the movie came first. But, the author of the movie (and the supposed file cabinets full of material on this character), Earl Mac Rauch wrote a ‘novelization’ of the movie, like no other I’ve ever seen! Usually, a book-from-a-movie is a scene-by-scene rehash of the action. Cheesy. Badly written. Who reads them??? (Okay, I admit, the first book I read in Portuguese when I was living in Brasil was the novelization of ET…and I highly recommend them to language learners because of their screen-to-print regularity.) But this one is different — written from the point of view of one of the main characters, it’s his version of events. And, it’s as wonderful as the film. (If I have to convince you, you’re really not a geek.)

What are your movies?

Have you ever picked up a book by Sheri S. Tepper?

Known for her women-centered novels, like The Gate to Women’ Country (1988), Tepper’s writing is so much more than her early feminist sf roots. Oh, all of her books expand upon themes that are obviously dear to her heart — women’s issues, the environment, the evils of religious extremists — but her writing is so much more.

Her books are virtually indescribable.  How do you explain a book in which such unusual events take place?

“Well, her book Grass is about this planet where, uh, there are these things like, uh, horses, but they’re not horses, see? They’re malevolent beings that take control of their riders…”

Merely describing a Tepper book makes it sound so flat, so lame. But she can truly make it happen, make you feel the wonder, and the fear, along with her characters.

I just finished reading (and re-reading) her book The Visitor (2002) — a pre- and post-Apocalyptic story of magic and religion.  I was trying to explain it to my husband, in terms he would understand: “It’s like Terry Pratchett meets Stephen King.” Very off-the-wall unusual things happen, and it’s quite scary in spots. Again, inadequate.

Most of her books are stand-alones (very important to many readers, in this world of series after series) — even the books in series (like Grass (1989), Raising the Stones (1990), and Sideshow (1992)) are often essentially stand-alone.

Warning – to truly appreciate the book The Family Tree (1997), do not read anything about it prior to opening it up. You’ll ruin a wonderful moment if you get a spoiler.

So we did it. Traveled all the way to Portland, OR, to visit Powell’s City of Books…a mecca of sorts in the book world.

Was it worth it? Well, it was raining in Portland, so it wasn’t like we were going to do any other sightseeing. We’d woken up late in our campground, which was not in itself a bad thing, but instead of breakfast we had brunch…and we ended up driving all the way home that day/night, instead of either camping in the wet or getting across the mountains and setting up camp at night.

But, I’m not answering the question. Yes. It was worth it. It’s a fabulous bookstore. It makes me happy knowing that there exists a place I can get numerous John Fante or Lawrence Ferlinghetti books, should I need to. It had 4 copies of one of the books on my wishlist, Ursula LeGuin’s Dancing on the Edge of the World…now no longer on my wishlist, but in my library.
Another treasure that is now in my library, for a great price, is the New and Collected Poems: 1931 - 2001 of Czeslaw Milosz, Polish poet & Nobel Prize winner. One of the reasons I wanted a book of his poetry was A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry — a collection he edited. The choices he made, and his commentary, put him firmly in the category of Poets I Like.

I will leave you with one of his poems, entitled A Boy.

A Boy

Standing on a boulder you cast a line,
Your bare feet rounded by the flickering water
Of your native river thick with water lilies.
And who are you, staring at the float
While you listen to echoes, the clatter of paddles?
What is the stigma you received, young master,
You who are ill with your apartness
And have one longing: to be just like the others?
I know your story and learned your future.
Dressed as a Gypsy girl I could stop by the river
And tell your fortune: fame and a lot of money,
Without knowledge, though, of the price to be paid
Which one does not admit to the envious.
One thing is certain: in you, there are two natures.
The miserly, the prudent on against the generous.
For many years you will attempt to reconcile them
Till all your works have grown small
And you will prize only uncalculated gifts,
Greatheartedness, self-forgetful giving,
Without monuments, books, and human memory.

Enjoy.

Interesting how the genre of SF has changed over the years. No, I’m not going to start a history lesson…go to Wikipedia for that.

But, what do they really stand for, those two letters? Science fiction? Speculative fiction? Science fiction & fantasy? Does it matter?

The point is, the literature of alternate views of reality is a wonderful thing…a laboratory of possible outcomes, a playground for ideas, and a place where absolutely anything goes. In my bookmarks, I’ve been holding on to a useful one, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. The main page has a great list of upcoming releases, in all forms, including audio. [So now I really know what my bookstore isn't stocking!]

While I’m on about releases and new books, have you folks been to Baen’s Free Library? It’s a great marketing ploy (and a transparent one, if you read the first page), but there’s one point that’s not made there:

How many people are really likely to read a book online?

I might read the first chapter, get into it, and decide to buy the book (or find it at the library), but I don’t see myself reading all of it while sitting at my computer.

Questions for the public: Do you read books online? On your computer, your PDA, whatever. If so, why? How? How many? Is it better than a physical book (perish the thought!)?

Obviously, I’m biased to the ‘real thing’. I want to hold a book in my hand, curl up in a comfy chair (or flake out on the sofa, or sit up in bed…), and turn pages. I’ve read a book once on the computer, as an experiment. It was The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting.

Found this concept on Chelsea’s Blog on Vox. I’ve never really thought about this, but here are some of her faves:

7. Mercutio, from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Although Romeo has become synonymous with romantic lovers, he never did much for me. Far from being loyal, he actually strikes me as inconstant; if it hadn’t been for the forbidden nature of his and Juliet’s relationship, they would have been over each other within two weeks, tops. But Mercutio- there’s loyalty. He’s well aware of the stupidity of the feud but remains loyal to the Montagues nevertheless, ultimately laying down his life. The cynical bitterness of the character is also intriguing, as is his obvious intelligence and his sharp sense of humor.

6. Rhett Butler, from Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Rhett Butler is the only traditional romantic hero to appear on this list; he’s pretty much the prototypical rakehell that’s starred in every Harlequin or Mills & Boone romance since then. Scarlett was absolutely crazy not to recognize what she had; Rhett may not be perfect but he was perfect for her. Like he said, they were both “scoundrels.” His devotion to his daughter was also charming; his brokenness after the death of Bonnie Blue remains one of the most heart wrenching things I’ve ever read.

5. Inigo Montoya, from The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern abridged by William Goldman. Westley is nice, I suppose, but at his core he’s pretty dull, and why he loves Buttercup (who may be beautiful but is as dumb as a box of hair) is beyond me. Give me the tortured soul of Inigo Montoya, seeking to avenge his father by killing the six-fingered man. Inigo’s athleticism, skill, and dedication are all worthy attributes.

I don’t think I’ve ever crushed on a literary character. I have favourite heros, of course. Samwise Gamgee, Zorro,  Miles Vorkosigan, and Friti Tailchaser to name a few.  But I am curious about who other people have had crushes on. Share them with me.

Today would be a good day to comment on the classic SF genre of dystopian lit. You know the books: 1984, A Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale…books about totalitarian governments that use media manipulation and torture, among other techniques, to control their populations.

Why today? If you’ve been sleeping the last couple of days, then you may have missed the scary news that the Shrub, and the USA, are well on their way to bringing the nightmare of the dystopian world view to reality…the Powers That Be can now torture to their cold hearts’ content. Here’s raincoaster on the topic, and Metro.

On a related note, here is Creatrix on the state of art education in the USA — a report that again makes me glad I don’t live there.

Dystopian literature is supposed to be a labratory for what should not be, not a blueprint for the way a government could function…

Are you new to SF (SciFi/Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction)? Wondering where to start?

I just found the index of the 100 science fiction books you just have to read, and it’s quite comprehensive.

And, I’m (only slightly) embarassed to say, a lot of these books I haven’t read, although I’ve been meaning to, really. True classics, all — award-winning or deeply influential (or both!).

Plus, the list is a lie, in a sense. While some of the authors are listed twice (Ursula Le Guin and Isaac Asimov to name two), the list does not take into account the fact that, like chips & popcorn, you can’t just stop after one. You just can’t read Foundation without wanting to dive into the trilogy. One Darkover book will drag you into all of them.

This ain’t a list of 100 books, it’s potentially a list of 500+.

So enjoy, but beware!