Okay wow. This week's Once Upon A Time was a zinger. I take back what I said last week. (Although the werewolf thing has been done before (see: every other modern adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood). But this time, around, their twist was good.
I don't really enjoy the main story thread in modern day Storybrooke, but i do like the side character stuff and I did like this week's fairy tale episode.
Speaking of fairytales, I really recommend this book: Truly Grim Tales by Priscilla Galloway. You know a book is good when you think about it randomly. I'm washing the dishes and suddenly I think of the prince in the Cinderella one (all of these short stories don't really tell you which fairy tale, they just hint at them). I love the weird Red-RidingHood themed one too.
And they're all in this detached, first person. It's just delicious, really.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
mockingjay *spoiler*
so, hunger games.
i didn't like mockingjay, all throughout.
was it just me or did she switch to first person?
that made things difficult.
collins is smart.
she kept you guessing.
before even reading the book, i told people, i didn't know how i wanted the series to end. i didn't know how the series could possibly end well.
i must admit the prose wasn't as riveting, there were no parts where the tears ran down my cheeks.
granted finnick and cinna all had places in my heart.. but for the most part, i impatiently skimmed through sections, bored by the training, bored by the angst, bored by misunderstanding.
and in the end, it made sense that she ended with peeta, no matter how much i preferred gale. again, that theme of complements and how gentleness overrides passion once again proves true..
something about humility, earnestness, humanity, weakness ..
in that twisted capitol. with twisted characters. twisted minds. and the only honest being is the purported villain snow. and the roses. and prim. and i knew the cat would come back. somehow somewhere. i knew that gale's anger would backfire. (being able to predict important devices.. if not the plot is something i can thank my grade school education) but collins was still subtle. this book was definitely heavier. something i appreciate about both collins and rowling .. is how they took a lighter book and definitely evolved it to make their audiences think.
hunger games. definitely a fun series. depressing. makes you think about people..
i love. scifi.
i probably wouldn't read this again.
i loved the first one the best. the second one was even more amazing in terms of torrents of emotions. the third was subdued emotionally, frustrating, but it ended well. and props for that.. for convincing me that this was the ending....
it doesn't help that midway through the book (begun around 3 am) it began to gently rain.............
oh dear.
6:37am. should i wake up?
i didn't like mockingjay, all throughout.
was it just me or did she switch to first person?
that made things difficult.
collins is smart.
she kept you guessing.
before even reading the book, i told people, i didn't know how i wanted the series to end. i didn't know how the series could possibly end well.
i must admit the prose wasn't as riveting, there were no parts where the tears ran down my cheeks.
granted finnick and cinna all had places in my heart.. but for the most part, i impatiently skimmed through sections, bored by the training, bored by the angst, bored by misunderstanding.
and in the end, it made sense that she ended with peeta, no matter how much i preferred gale. again, that theme of complements and how gentleness overrides passion once again proves true..
something about humility, earnestness, humanity, weakness ..
in that twisted capitol. with twisted characters. twisted minds. and the only honest being is the purported villain snow. and the roses. and prim. and i knew the cat would come back. somehow somewhere. i knew that gale's anger would backfire. (being able to predict important devices.. if not the plot is something i can thank my grade school education) but collins was still subtle. this book was definitely heavier. something i appreciate about both collins and rowling .. is how they took a lighter book and definitely evolved it to make their audiences think.
hunger games. definitely a fun series. depressing. makes you think about people..
i love. scifi.
i probably wouldn't read this again.
i loved the first one the best. the second one was even more amazing in terms of torrents of emotions. the third was subdued emotionally, frustrating, but it ended well. and props for that.. for convincing me that this was the ending....
it doesn't help that midway through the book (begun around 3 am) it began to gently rain.............
oh dear.
6:37am. should i wake up?
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
the mountain view public library
i love public libraries
i randomly ended up popping into the mountain view public library and decided to get my library card today
although my ID has my old address, i happened to have an old paystub from a check i deposited from work that had my current mountain view address
and voila!
i had a card!
the mountain view library is BEAUTIFUL, and i only moseyed around the first floor.
I checked out The Lightning Thief, an Ann Rinaldi book (best children's historical fiction writer EVER), a bilingual children's book (that my dad and i had a surprisingly interesting conversation about. dude my dad's so smart), and Revolutionary Road (DVD).
I was amazed by the amount of bilingual stuff that's there.
and it was so sweet seeing families with their kids reading books on the sofas and little nooks the MV Library provides.
There's free wireless from google there too.
and, yeah, i can't wait to go back.
i HAVE to go back - but I have to wait until 12/3 when my first application gets turned in.. otherwise i'll fritter away my time reading about Percy Jackson. It's fun. Gotta hand it to them.
OH AND i put Mockingjay on HOLD. FINALLY WILL BE READING THAT BABY SOON.
I bought some adult books to read... but yeah, i think YA fiction is just.. so much more interesting...
i randomly ended up popping into the mountain view public library and decided to get my library card today
although my ID has my old address, i happened to have an old paystub from a check i deposited from work that had my current mountain view address
and voila!
i had a card!
the mountain view library is BEAUTIFUL, and i only moseyed around the first floor.
I checked out The Lightning Thief, an Ann Rinaldi book (best children's historical fiction writer EVER), a bilingual children's book (that my dad and i had a surprisingly interesting conversation about. dude my dad's so smart), and Revolutionary Road (DVD).
I was amazed by the amount of bilingual stuff that's there.
and it was so sweet seeing families with their kids reading books on the sofas and little nooks the MV Library provides.
There's free wireless from google there too.
and, yeah, i can't wait to go back.
i HAVE to go back - but I have to wait until 12/3 when my first application gets turned in.. otherwise i'll fritter away my time reading about Percy Jackson. It's fun. Gotta hand it to them.
OH AND i put Mockingjay on HOLD. FINALLY WILL BE READING THAT BABY SOON.
I bought some adult books to read... but yeah, i think YA fiction is just.. so much more interesting...
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Fitting Sequence
The end of the first story:
These two things fight together in me as the snakes
fight in the spring. The water comes out of my
eyes; yet I laugh while it falls. Why?
I am two Mowglis, but the hide of Shere Khan is under
my feet.
All the jungle knows that I have killed Shere Khan.
Look—look well, O Wolves!
Ahae! My heart is heavy with the things that I do
not understand.
The beginning of the next story:Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.
Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow;
Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.Mowgli is a child/wild/wise/young/immature.
i wish he had a mother who could assure him with that lullaby.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
chills
MARLENE sits wrapped in a blanket and has another drink.
ANGIE comes in.
ANGIE. Mum?
MARLENE. Angie? What's the matter?
ANGIE. Mum?
MARLENE. No, she's gone to bed. It's Aunty Marlene.
ANGIE. Frightening.
MARLENE. Did you have a bad dream? What happened in it? Well you're awake now, aren't you pet?
ANGIE. Frightening.
-caryl churchill's top girls
ANGIE comes in.
ANGIE. Mum?
MARLENE. Angie? What's the matter?
ANGIE. Mum?
MARLENE. No, she's gone to bed. It's Aunty Marlene.
ANGIE. Frightening.
MARLENE. Did you have a bad dream? What happened in it? Well you're awake now, aren't you pet?
ANGIE. Frightening.
-caryl churchill's top girls
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Amazon Customer Service HAS IMPROVED A LOT!!!
Do you remember those days when there was no phone call or email button on Amazon.com? If you had a problem, you had a problem and you had to deal with it? I remember even reading an article about it, and curious, I went to look for a way to contact their customer service... sure enough, it was a crazy maze-y ordeal.
Today, I ordered three books through Amazon Prime... and lo and behold, realized i had sent it to my HOME address instead of my current one... I panicked. I needed those books ASAP in Irvine... and yet I couldn't change it.. it was "Shipping Soon" (which on a-whole-nother note, impressed me that they're really that quick).
I quickly scoured the confirmation email to see if I could contact anyone and there was a link on the bottom. Rather than going to the FAQs, I clicked a convenient, yellow "contact us" button, and after delineating my specific problem, opted to call them rather than e-mail them. I typed in my phone number and in two seconds, I got a phone call from amazon where I waited roughly a minute, and the customer service was so nice, personable, and genuinely seemed to be figuring out what to do (she was sort of "hmm"ing since it *is* amazon prime and that goes faster). She put me on hold after asking a few questions and even asked me, "well, if I *can* change it, which address should I send it to?" .. and then she got back to me with it fixed! Woo!
It was great and yes, I'm a satisfied customer.
Here's the customer service link! https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html
Today, I ordered three books through Amazon Prime... and lo and behold, realized i had sent it to my HOME address instead of my current one... I panicked. I needed those books ASAP in Irvine... and yet I couldn't change it.. it was "Shipping Soon" (which on a-whole-nother note, impressed me that they're really that quick).
I quickly scoured the confirmation email to see if I could contact anyone and there was a link on the bottom. Rather than going to the FAQs, I clicked a convenient, yellow "contact us" button, and after delineating my specific problem, opted to call them rather than e-mail them. I typed in my phone number and in two seconds, I got a phone call from amazon where I waited roughly a minute, and the customer service was so nice, personable, and genuinely seemed to be figuring out what to do (she was sort of "hmm"ing since it *is* amazon prime and that goes faster). She put me on hold after asking a few questions and even asked me, "well, if I *can* change it, which address should I send it to?" .. and then she got back to me with it fixed! Woo!
It was great and yes, I'm a satisfied customer.
Here's the customer service link! https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/general-questions.html
Saturday, July 3, 2010
harrypotter..
so when harry potter first came out, i was so meh about it.
i didn't even read it until book 3 came out.
then during a summer break at Cerritos at my cousins' place, I began reading books 1-3.
I was hooked.
Book 4 came out that summer and I checked it out from the library.
Then before book 5 came out, i reread books 1-4
Then before book 6 came out (my fav) i reread books 1-5
Then before book 7 came out (in COLLEGE) I reread books 1-6.
book 7 was slightly disappointing for me.
Anywhooz,
with the movies, with Movie 1, I went with my small group girls in high school and LOVED the quidditch.
For Movie 2, I watched it with my friend Ali Apple and her boyfriend and our little brothers.. we dressed up in capes and brought our own little animals (I an owl, she a cat).
but after Movie 3, I was over it.. the movies didn't compare to the books, I disliked the guy that played Harry, I was sad watching the movies and not seeing what I thought in my head.
BUT
I just saw the trailer for book 7.. WOW how time flew.
and I began literally squealing.
So, this summer I'm going to re-watch movies 1-6... (b/c I didn't even see 4-6) and perhaps reread/skim thru Books 1-7... and PREPARE!! AHAHAHAHA
...........suddenly I'm thinking of "Don't Waste Your Life."
Okay, maybe I won't go crazy with the books b/c I don't have time, but definitely, one day, I want to do a movie marathon.
i didn't even read it until book 3 came out.
then during a summer break at Cerritos at my cousins' place, I began reading books 1-3.
I was hooked.
Book 4 came out that summer and I checked it out from the library.
Then before book 5 came out, i reread books 1-4
Then before book 6 came out (my fav) i reread books 1-5
Then before book 7 came out (in COLLEGE) I reread books 1-6.
book 7 was slightly disappointing for me.
Anywhooz,
with the movies, with Movie 1, I went with my small group girls in high school and LOVED the quidditch.
For Movie 2, I watched it with my friend Ali Apple and her boyfriend and our little brothers.. we dressed up in capes and brought our own little animals (I an owl, she a cat).
but after Movie 3, I was over it.. the movies didn't compare to the books, I disliked the guy that played Harry, I was sad watching the movies and not seeing what I thought in my head.
BUT
I just saw the trailer for book 7.. WOW how time flew.
and I began literally squealing.
So, this summer I'm going to re-watch movies 1-6... (b/c I didn't even see 4-6) and perhaps reread/skim thru Books 1-7... and PREPARE!! AHAHAHAHA
...........suddenly I'm thinking of "Don't Waste Your Life."
Okay, maybe I won't go crazy with the books b/c I don't have time, but definitely, one day, I want to do a movie marathon.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
reading reading lolita in tehran
so i'm sad as i near the end of the book (isn't that always delicious, regretting the end, but having to have a go at it anyway because you can't leave it unfinished? like life should be, no?)
reading about it makes me care more about Iran. Now, whenever I hear about news related with Iran, I think of the book and what I learned through that. Books are powerful.
On that note, do I like the smell of old books? It always icks me out. I always try to smell it to see if it has that spicy old musty smell laden with secrets... but really, it's just nasty. old dust. being handled. .. i think books have B.O.
Lastly: I'm excited to try my hand at Henry James and mayyybe give Nabakov another chance in Pale Fire. (Heck no am i reading Lolita again. no matter WHAT concessions she made about the sickness of the ordeal and how it's about this abuse of power etc etc... that subject material is le nasty)
reading about it makes me care more about Iran. Now, whenever I hear about news related with Iran, I think of the book and what I learned through that. Books are powerful.
On that note, do I like the smell of old books? It always icks me out. I always try to smell it to see if it has that spicy old musty smell laden with secrets... but really, it's just nasty. old dust. being handled. .. i think books have B.O.
Lastly: I'm excited to try my hand at Henry James and mayyybe give Nabakov another chance in Pale Fire. (Heck no am i reading Lolita again. no matter WHAT concessions she made about the sickness of the ordeal and how it's about this abuse of power etc etc... that subject material is le nasty)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
one of those days
it's amazing how nice i am to these grinning buffoons.
I look at them and I think, wow, you're not funny or cute.. and I'm RIGHT in front of you. what makes you think that I can't hear you?
like, i didn't yell. i just stared. i sometimes glared. i enunciated.
but i didn't like.. i don't know, try to tear them down with cutting remarks and then yell for my mom.
i just want to go home for today and send in a teacher... or do what Miss Nelson did and bring back Ms. Viola Swamp. But then again, I wasn't a Miss Nelson to begin with.
Anyway, I'm just amazed at how NICE i am because I sure was never this nice or patient to my brother and sister.
But yeah, today was just.. bad enough that I just grabbed a niuroumian bowl of watermelon (instead of the customary small fruit bowls) and came into my office to prep for the next class.
Staved off the desire to assign another essay out of spite.
Never act out of spite.
gahhhhh
I look at them and I think, wow, you're not funny or cute.. and I'm RIGHT in front of you. what makes you think that I can't hear you?
like, i didn't yell. i just stared. i sometimes glared. i enunciated.
but i didn't like.. i don't know, try to tear them down with cutting remarks and then yell for my mom.
i just want to go home for today and send in a teacher... or do what Miss Nelson did and bring back Ms. Viola Swamp. But then again, I wasn't a Miss Nelson to begin with.
Anyway, I'm just amazed at how NICE i am because I sure was never this nice or patient to my brother and sister.
But yeah, today was just.. bad enough that I just grabbed a niuroumian bowl of watermelon (instead of the customary small fruit bowls) and came into my office to prep for the next class.
Staved off the desire to assign another essay out of spite.
Never act out of spite.
gahhhhh
Thursday, April 29, 2010
i just got back from a wedding; so shoot me if i'm feeling a lil sentimental
"To you I shall say, as I have often said before, Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last; you will in the course of the next two or three years meet with somebody more generally unexceptionable than anyone you have yet known, who will love you as warmly as possible, and who will so completely attach you that you will feel you never really loved before."
- Jane Austen in a letter written on Feb. 20, 1816 to her cousin Fanny Knight
Is this too idealistic?
After all, if Becoming Jane is accurate, Jane's love life wasn't too successful either. (augh that movie made me cry)
Speaking of author biopics, who's excited to see Bright Star? Hot DAWG I love Keates! Intrigued by him ever since I found out in my Spring 08 Romantic Lit class that all the other romanticists looked down on him and likened his works to self-gratification (or the more lurid counterpart). Poor Keates. (although the actor who plays Keates is sort of a creepers... anyone seen Perfume? yagh)
- Jane Austen in a letter written on Feb. 20, 1816 to her cousin Fanny Knight
Is this too idealistic?
After all, if Becoming Jane is accurate, Jane's love life wasn't too successful either. (augh that movie made me cry)
Speaking of author biopics, who's excited to see Bright Star? Hot DAWG I love Keates! Intrigued by him ever since I found out in my Spring 08 Romantic Lit class that all the other romanticists looked down on him and likened his works to self-gratification (or the more lurid counterpart). Poor Keates. (although the actor who plays Keates is sort of a creepers... anyone seen Perfume? yagh)
Monday, April 12, 2010
difficult decision
AT GCA we're preparing for Reading Emphasis Week and as a teacher here, we're all required to submit a small summary of our favorite childhood book.
You know how freaking hard that was?
I was perusing Goodreads.com, clicked the "children's literature" tag and went through lists rating each one I had read.
I narrowed down to Judy Blumes, Beverly Clearys and Roald Dahls. Those were definitely favs. I wasn't a super fan of picture books ever.. I think, I was discontent with how some picture books had fun stories but ugly pictures, while other picture books promised such adventure and the story was boring.
Like who cares about if you give a mouse or cookie or how much a bunny loves a rabbit etc? No goodnight moon for me.
But I still read them.
I think I have a huge thing for fairytales and myths though. Particularly the story of Cinderella and Cupid and Psyche. and i LOVE absolutely LOVE re-workings and re-tellings... LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
Cinderella:
Mom's stories of Cinderella and kongji and patjji.
Ever After
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Ella Enchanted
Disney
Cinderella Story
and now the KDrama "Cinderella's Sister" is... <3
Cupid and Psyche
the greek myths
The Golden Ass
Til We Have Faces
Me encanta stories.
And that idea of an orphaned daughter, a prince, a fairy godmother, a glass shoe, a midnight curfew. Magic.
You know how freaking hard that was?
I was perusing Goodreads.com, clicked the "children's literature" tag and went through lists rating each one I had read.
I narrowed down to Judy Blumes, Beverly Clearys and Roald Dahls. Those were definitely favs. I wasn't a super fan of picture books ever.. I think, I was discontent with how some picture books had fun stories but ugly pictures, while other picture books promised such adventure and the story was boring.
Like who cares about if you give a mouse or cookie or how much a bunny loves a rabbit etc? No goodnight moon for me.
But I still read them.
I think I have a huge thing for fairytales and myths though. Particularly the story of Cinderella and Cupid and Psyche. and i LOVE absolutely LOVE re-workings and re-tellings... LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
Cinderella:
Mom's stories of Cinderella and kongji and patjji.
Ever After
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Ella Enchanted
Disney
Cinderella Story
and now the KDrama "Cinderella's Sister" is... <3
Cupid and Psyche
the greek myths
The Golden Ass
Til We Have Faces
Me encanta stories.
And that idea of an orphaned daughter, a prince, a fairy godmother, a glass shoe, a midnight curfew. Magic.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Time Magazine's All-Time Top 100 Novels from 1923-the Present (2005)
This list came out 5 years ago.
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
I didn't like how they didn't exactly outline the CRITERIA for how they chose.
But then again, can we simply just put it on that Pritchard Scale? (ten points for those who know what movie i'm referencing! hehe)
Anywhooz; Crossed out if read; Bold if heard of it/want to read; Italics if I heard of/own it but don't want to read it.
**** out of four.
* = hate it
** = okay
*** = would read it again
**** = LOVE IT!!!!
The Complete List In Alphabetical Order
The Adventures of Augie March
Saul Bellow
All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral
Philip Roth - technically "read" it for class. didn't really though
An American Tragedy
Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm
George Orwell **
Appointment in Samarra
John O'Hara
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume **1/2 .. hehehe. "I must, I must, I must increase..." hehehehehhe
The Assistant
Bernard Malamud
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien
Atonement
Ian McEwan
Beloved
Toni Morrison ***
The Berlin Stories
Christopher Isherwood
The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood - love her.
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder
Call It Sleep
Henry Roth
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger *1/2 (it used to be a HATE; but this year i changed my mind coincidentally)
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess
The Confessions of Nat Turner
William Styron
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen
The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon
A Dance to the Music of Time
Anthony Powell
The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Willa Cather - well actually CURRENTLY reading it.
A Death in the Family
James Agee
The Death of the Heart
Elizabeth Bowen
Deliverance
James Dickey
Dog Soldiers
Robert Stone
Falconer
John Cheever
The French Lieutenant's Woman
John Fowles
The Golden Notebook
Doris Lessing
Go Tell it on the Mountain
James Baldwin
Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell - too long
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck - except honestly, never liked any steinbeck before..
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald ***1/2 really do love it.. but not YUM. you know?
A Handful of Dust
Evelyn Waugh
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter
Graham Greene
Herzog
Saul Bellow
Housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson
A House for Mr. Biswas
V.S. Naipaul
I, Claudius
Robert Graves
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison - i started reading this in high school; i don't remember anything; it was HARD and blah. graded a bunch of AP essays on it for CCS tho..
Light in August
William Faulkner
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis ****
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov * 1/2 (it's gross)
Lord of the Flies
William Golding **
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien ***
Loving
Henry Green
Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis
The Man Who Loved Children
Christina Stead
Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie - own it; tried to read it a few times now; meh.
Money
Martin Amis
The Moviegoer
Walker Percy
Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch
William Burroughs
Native Son
Richard Wright
Neuromancer
William Gibson
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
1984
George Orwell **
On the Road
Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey **1/2
The Painted Bird
Jerzy Kosinski
Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov
A Passage to India
E.M. Forster
Play It As It Lays
Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint
Philip Roth
Possession
A.S. Byatt
The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark
Rabbit, Run
John Updike
Ragtime
E.L. Doctorow
The Recognitions
William Gaddis
Red Harvest
Dashiell Hammett
Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates -er, i just wanna watch the movie. HEHE
The Sheltering Sky
Paul Bowles
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut - is this good? i'm ambivalent.
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
The Sot-Weed Factor
John Barth
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner - own it, no particular desire to start it..
The Sportswriter
Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
John le Carre
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston **** LOVED IT
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe ***
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee ****
To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller
Ubik
Philip K. Dick
Under the Net
Iris Murdoch
Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry
Watchmen
Alan Moore; Dave Gibbons
White Noise
Don DeLillo
White Teeth
Zadie Smith
Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys
***
Meh; so lots i haven't ever heard of; few I've read; few i've heard of and don't want to read.
It's annoying how catcher in the rye and 1984 and animal farm are up there. read all three freshman year and disliked all of them.... wondering though; if it's also because i really disliked the teacher; recently reread catcher in the rye, and it was more tolerable.
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
I didn't like how they didn't exactly outline the CRITERIA for how they chose.
But then again, can we simply just put it on that Pritchard Scale? (ten points for those who know what movie i'm referencing! hehe)
Anywhooz; Crossed out if read; Bold if heard of it/want to read; Italics if I heard of/own it but don't want to read it.
**** out of four.
* = hate it
** = okay
*** = would read it again
**** = LOVE IT!!!!
The Complete List In Alphabetical Order
The Adventures of Augie March
Saul Bellow
All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral
Philip Roth - technically "read" it for class. didn't really though
An American Tragedy
Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm
George Orwell **
Appointment in Samarra
John O'Hara
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume **1/2 .. hehehe. "I must, I must, I must increase..." hehehehehhe
The Assistant
Bernard Malamud
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien
Atonement
Ian McEwan
Beloved
Toni Morrison ***
The Berlin Stories
Christopher Isherwood
The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood - love her.
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy
Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder
Call It Sleep
Henry Roth
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger *1/2 (it used to be a HATE; but this year i changed my mind coincidentally)
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess
The Confessions of Nat Turner
William Styron
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen
The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon
A Dance to the Music of Time
Anthony Powell
The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Willa Cather - well actually CURRENTLY reading it.
A Death in the Family
James Agee
The Death of the Heart
Elizabeth Bowen
Deliverance
James Dickey
Dog Soldiers
Robert Stone
Falconer
John Cheever
The French Lieutenant's Woman
John Fowles
The Golden Notebook
Doris Lessing
Go Tell it on the Mountain
James Baldwin
Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell - too long
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck - except honestly, never liked any steinbeck before..
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald ***1/2 really do love it.. but not YUM. you know?
A Handful of Dust
Evelyn Waugh
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter
Graham Greene
Herzog
Saul Bellow
Housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson
A House for Mr. Biswas
V.S. Naipaul
I, Claudius
Robert Graves
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison - i started reading this in high school; i don't remember anything; it was HARD and blah. graded a bunch of AP essays on it for CCS tho..
Light in August
William Faulkner
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis ****
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov * 1/2 (it's gross)
Lord of the Flies
William Golding **
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien ***
Loving
Henry Green
Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis
The Man Who Loved Children
Christina Stead
Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie - own it; tried to read it a few times now; meh.
Money
Martin Amis
The Moviegoer
Walker Percy
Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch
William Burroughs
Native Son
Richard Wright
Neuromancer
William Gibson
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
1984
George Orwell **
On the Road
Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey **1/2
The Painted Bird
Jerzy Kosinski
Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov
A Passage to India
E.M. Forster
Play It As It Lays
Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint
Philip Roth
Possession
A.S. Byatt
The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark
Rabbit, Run
John Updike
Ragtime
E.L. Doctorow
The Recognitions
William Gaddis
Red Harvest
Dashiell Hammett
Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates -er, i just wanna watch the movie. HEHE
The Sheltering Sky
Paul Bowles
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut - is this good? i'm ambivalent.
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
The Sot-Weed Factor
John Barth
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner - own it, no particular desire to start it..
The Sportswriter
Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
John le Carre
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston **** LOVED IT
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe ***
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee ****
To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller
Ubik
Philip K. Dick
Under the Net
Iris Murdoch
Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry
Watchmen
Alan Moore; Dave Gibbons
White Noise
Don DeLillo
White Teeth
Zadie Smith
Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys
***
Meh; so lots i haven't ever heard of; few I've read; few i've heard of and don't want to read.
It's annoying how catcher in the rye and 1984 and animal farm are up there. read all three freshman year and disliked all of them.... wondering though; if it's also because i really disliked the teacher; recently reread catcher in the rye, and it was more tolerable.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
*yawn*
i'm tired of reading all those articles about how books will be replaced by the kindle/ipad/[insert electronic device here].
it gets me all riled up unfortunately.
i'm tired of reading all the refutations as well.
Honestly, I think it's because people have nothing to say so they drum up the same tired predictions over and over again so they can hit their quota and take home a paycheck.
Because we all know that half the predictions will be wrong and then 50 years from now, used as an example of how we never imagined "such and such" could have existed and even refuted it!.. I mean that's what we do now isn't it? Pick-and-choose research.
it gets me all riled up unfortunately.
i'm tired of reading all the refutations as well.
Honestly, I think it's because people have nothing to say so they drum up the same tired predictions over and over again so they can hit their quota and take home a paycheck.
Because we all know that half the predictions will be wrong and then 50 years from now, used as an example of how we never imagined "such and such" could have existed and even refuted it!.. I mean that's what we do now isn't it? Pick-and-choose research.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
What book should (not) have a sequel written?
Nots:
1) To Kill a Mockingbird - o wait someone already did!
SHOULD
1) i just really miss Harry Potter.....
2) guiltily another twilight novel might be fun although i thought the ending finish was great
3) calvin & hobbes.. oh why did you stop?
4) wow basically i just want continuations of random stuff that certain snobs wouldn't even consider literature! hahahahah.....
oooh i want ..
The Incredibles sequel
another XMen
oh and random people that make me perk up my ears/eyes
Tim Burton
Baz Luhrmann
jean-pierre jeunet
pedro almodovar (except for him i'd only perk up.. wouldn't watch..)
michel gondry
hayao miyazaki
brad bird
1) To Kill a Mockingbird - o wait someone already did!
SHOULD
1) i just really miss Harry Potter.....
2) guiltily another twilight novel might be fun although i thought the ending finish was great
3) calvin & hobbes.. oh why did you stop?
4) wow basically i just want continuations of random stuff that certain snobs wouldn't even consider literature! hahahahah.....
oooh i want ..
The Incredibles sequel
another XMen
oh and random people that make me perk up my ears/eyes
Tim Burton
Baz Luhrmann
jean-pierre jeunet
pedro almodovar (except for him i'd only perk up.. wouldn't watch..)
michel gondry
hayao miyazaki
brad bird
Thursday, December 17, 2009
so
Reading short stories from LM Montgomery and getting teary after each story.
I wondered in the MRT, why I get teary.
Perhaps the idea of people learning gratitude makes my heart ache a little.
When I was little I prided myself in being a rock. I didn´t cry. I looked down on my mom´s constant crying (praying, movies, talking, sharing) and I was definitely uncomfortable when others cried.
I cried only in movie theaters in that safe haven of dark and make believe.
Now, I tear up a lot. Maybe I'm more my mom than I thought; or I guess tears don't equal weakness to me anymore.
Watched Becoming Jane last night. Felt so hopeless and helpless for Jane Austen... yet also drawn to her situation. I always like to imagine myself in the heroine's shoes (provided she's a heroine i admire).
Lastly:
I think the reason that Christian fiction fails is because they are usually stories with the supernatural element of God. Yet, why read make believe when you can read truth? For every Christian romantic novel out there, you have five real stories of how so and so met their true love. For every adventure Christian novel out there, you can get a bunch of memoirs and biographies of true wars and daring escapades and displays of human weakness and dependence on a God of strength.
That's why I think for Christian books to succeed they need to be very allegorical and fanciful. Plus those are just the best.
Last Lastly:
I was reading a correspondence between a friend and i a few months ago and was just kicking myself in the foot over how he listened to me and responded in a way that was kind to my nonsensical ranting despite his mindset being completely different from mine. And yet during "his turn" I was so quick to judge and teach instead of listening and loving. I wish i hadn't done that.
I wondered in the MRT, why I get teary.
Perhaps the idea of people learning gratitude makes my heart ache a little.
When I was little I prided myself in being a rock. I didn´t cry. I looked down on my mom´s constant crying (praying, movies, talking, sharing) and I was definitely uncomfortable when others cried.
I cried only in movie theaters in that safe haven of dark and make believe.
Now, I tear up a lot. Maybe I'm more my mom than I thought; or I guess tears don't equal weakness to me anymore.
Watched Becoming Jane last night. Felt so hopeless and helpless for Jane Austen... yet also drawn to her situation. I always like to imagine myself in the heroine's shoes (provided she's a heroine i admire).
Lastly:
I think the reason that Christian fiction fails is because they are usually stories with the supernatural element of God. Yet, why read make believe when you can read truth? For every Christian romantic novel out there, you have five real stories of how so and so met their true love. For every adventure Christian novel out there, you can get a bunch of memoirs and biographies of true wars and daring escapades and displays of human weakness and dependence on a God of strength.
That's why I think for Christian books to succeed they need to be very allegorical and fanciful. Plus those are just the best.
Last Lastly:
I was reading a correspondence between a friend and i a few months ago and was just kicking myself in the foot over how he listened to me and responded in a way that was kind to my nonsensical ranting despite his mindset being completely different from mine. And yet during "his turn" I was so quick to judge and teach instead of listening and loving. I wish i hadn't done that.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
twi-blight
http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=22-08-024-f
this was a fun read because
* interesting points
* well read/informed/researched
* interesting, plausible readings of the text
* not the normal blah blah psychosocio musings of why people like Twilight.
I almost regret not publicizing my thoughts about Twilight in a coherent manner just to say "What you're writing is NOT NEW!" to all those twilight critics out there.
oh well, they write it better/more concisely/humorously than i do.
anyway, ultimately, lately, i've been anti-Twilight.
It's fun to like the characters, it's fun.. but i think for me, I was just really profoundly affected when I first read the four books. (I actually physically got sick from not sleeping and my grades fell). and then let us NOT get into the emo-ness. LOVED the phone talks with beth tho.
Anyway, I see my 8th graders devouring those books, gushing over Taylor Lautner and stuff, and honestly I really don't like Twilight anymore.
It's one thing to eat ice-cream for lunch for a week; it's a totally different thing when you feed that to your kids.
Not that my students are my kids, but I just don't want them to get the wrong idea, to get messed up by idealizations from books, and to read the CRAP that's in there too (like the 4th book is way too inappropriate for middle school kids.. and come to think of it, maybe it's too inappropriate for older girls like me too..)
Anyway, i hope this is my last twilight-related post.
so embarrassing and lame that i know this.
but for me, i acknowledge it as an entertaining series.. what i don't like is when people blindly LOVE it.. because there is just so much wrong with it. i'm glad other blogs/magazines have pointed them out.
for now, i'll just post links instead of writing something substantial on my own.
this was a fun read because
* interesting points
* well read/informed/researched
* interesting, plausible readings of the text
* not the normal blah blah psychosocio musings of why people like Twilight.
I almost regret not publicizing my thoughts about Twilight in a coherent manner just to say "What you're writing is NOT NEW!" to all those twilight critics out there.
oh well, they write it better/more concisely/humorously than i do.
anyway, ultimately, lately, i've been anti-Twilight.
It's fun to like the characters, it's fun.. but i think for me, I was just really profoundly affected when I first read the four books. (I actually physically got sick from not sleeping and my grades fell). and then let us NOT get into the emo-ness. LOVED the phone talks with beth tho.
Anyway, I see my 8th graders devouring those books, gushing over Taylor Lautner and stuff, and honestly I really don't like Twilight anymore.
It's one thing to eat ice-cream for lunch for a week; it's a totally different thing when you feed that to your kids.
Not that my students are my kids, but I just don't want them to get the wrong idea, to get messed up by idealizations from books, and to read the CRAP that's in there too (like the 4th book is way too inappropriate for middle school kids.. and come to think of it, maybe it's too inappropriate for older girls like me too..)
Anyway, i hope this is my last twilight-related post.
so embarrassing and lame that i know this.
but for me, i acknowledge it as an entertaining series.. what i don't like is when people blindly LOVE it.. because there is just so much wrong with it. i'm glad other blogs/magazines have pointed them out.
for now, i'll just post links instead of writing something substantial on my own.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
scholastic book clubs
btw, do u guys remember scholastic book club catalogues? i miss those. i remember poring over them w/ sibs, circling books, waiting w/ bated breath for my mom to choose which books she'd order... and THEN those fateful days, when our teacher would call our names and give us a package of books.
i remember that's when i got chronicles of Narnia. I began reading The Magician's Nephew in fourth grade and grew so bored of it.. it was stinky and boring. I think I tried to reread it a few times.. maybe in 6th grade I really got into the chronicles... perhaps I began with the second book or something.
I remember the boxed set illustrations always intrigued me; it had a picture of the unicorn from the Last battle. there was a gold chain around its beautiful white neck with some blood on the tip of its horn. chilling and beautiful. at least to a child's eyes.
i remember alllll my boxcar children books from that.. i remember wanting to join the bookclub where if you paid 4.99 a month, you'd get a special book a month and some sort of special toy.
I think i got all the Dear America diaries thru Scholastic book Club. I LOVED those books. They were more expensive - 9.99 each I think. I remember once my sister and I surveyed our collection and realized we had over $100 worth of Dear America books!
we also had a buttload of American Girl books too. Addie. Samantha. Kirsten. and of course Felicity. Who could forget her? Forget all the rest of the American Girl books... these were the OG.
those yellowing, colored newsprint catalogues. <3 and then the book fairs, where when you were in 5th grade, you were allowed to "volunteer," I loved book club.
I loved my school library, and the librarian, Mrs. Kay Cook. her name was Kay Cook! When we went to the library, she would read to us a story, then we would pick a book to check out. my mom used to pick us up late, so my sister and I would wait in the library and read. I'd sit in the far left corner where all the mythology was. I think that's where most of my mythology knowledge is from (except for the weird specific stuff I got in college). I think that's also where chinese mythology was kept too.
I remember reading stories of oranges, of a girl whose asian mother and american father fell in love in Asia and the father learned how to use chopsticks and the woman made a nest of mashed potatoes and put peas on it like eggs in a nest, but found that was only a british custom.
i remember
:-)
i remember that's when i got chronicles of Narnia. I began reading The Magician's Nephew in fourth grade and grew so bored of it.. it was stinky and boring. I think I tried to reread it a few times.. maybe in 6th grade I really got into the chronicles... perhaps I began with the second book or something.
I remember the boxed set illustrations always intrigued me; it had a picture of the unicorn from the Last battle. there was a gold chain around its beautiful white neck with some blood on the tip of its horn. chilling and beautiful. at least to a child's eyes.
i remember alllll my boxcar children books from that.. i remember wanting to join the bookclub where if you paid 4.99 a month, you'd get a special book a month and some sort of special toy.
I think i got all the Dear America diaries thru Scholastic book Club. I LOVED those books. They were more expensive - 9.99 each I think. I remember once my sister and I surveyed our collection and realized we had over $100 worth of Dear America books!
we also had a buttload of American Girl books too. Addie. Samantha. Kirsten. and of course Felicity. Who could forget her? Forget all the rest of the American Girl books... these were the OG.
those yellowing, colored newsprint catalogues. <3 and then the book fairs, where when you were in 5th grade, you were allowed to "volunteer," I loved book club.
I loved my school library, and the librarian, Mrs. Kay Cook. her name was Kay Cook! When we went to the library, she would read to us a story, then we would pick a book to check out. my mom used to pick us up late, so my sister and I would wait in the library and read. I'd sit in the far left corner where all the mythology was. I think that's where most of my mythology knowledge is from (except for the weird specific stuff I got in college). I think that's also where chinese mythology was kept too.
I remember reading stories of oranges, of a girl whose asian mother and american father fell in love in Asia and the father learned how to use chopsticks and the woman made a nest of mashed potatoes and put peas on it like eggs in a nest, but found that was only a british custom.
i remember
:-)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Same Premise; Different Conclusions
"Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?...I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with emaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here. Do you understand what I am saying? .... I did not want to sound morbid. I only wanted to tell you that I am doing things I consider very important now. If I could not do these things, my life would have no value. Merely to live, merely to exist--what sense is there to it? A fly also lives." - (Potok, 217)
"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." - James 4:14
"Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.' " - James 4:15
"I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath." - Job 7:16
""If I should wash myself with snow / And cleanse my hands with lye, / Yet You would plunge me into the pit, / And my own clothes would abhor me. / For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, / That we may go to court together. / There is no umpire between us, / Who may lay his hand upon us both. " - Job 9:30-33
""Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah." - Psalm 39:5
"And now, Lord, for what do I wait? / My hope is in You. / Deliver me from all my transgressions; / Make me not the reproach of the foolish. " - Psa 39:7-8
"Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow." - Psalm 144:4
"Stretch forth Your hand from on high; / Rescue me and deliver me out of great waters, / Out of the hand of aliens / ... / I will sing a new song to You, O God; / Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You, / Who gives salvation to kings, / Who rescues David His servant from the evil sword. / Rescue me and deliver me out of the hand of aliens," Psalm 144:7, 9-11
Reuven's father comes to understand that life itself is short. That importance does not lie in life itself but the human being, the soul, that inhabits that life. Yet as a result of this premise, he assumes that he must DO.
It is true that life is transient and that it is the being that matters more than the life; the soul prevails over breath. And yet because of that we must praise Him who gave life; how can we repay; how can we earn; how can we MAKE our lives worthwhile when we had no hand in its creation in the first place? We cannot simply walk up to the giver of life, we cannot assume that we can make our lives worthy... and for that I am so very thankful and relieved.
"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." - James 4:14
"Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.' " - James 4:15
"I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath." - Job 7:16
""If I should wash myself with snow / And cleanse my hands with lye, / Yet You would plunge me into the pit, / And my own clothes would abhor me. / For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, / That we may go to court together. / There is no umpire between us, / Who may lay his hand upon us both. " - Job 9:30-33
""Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah." - Psalm 39:5
"And now, Lord, for what do I wait? / My hope is in You. / Deliver me from all my transgressions; / Make me not the reproach of the foolish. " - Psa 39:7-8
"Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow." - Psalm 144:4
"Stretch forth Your hand from on high; / Rescue me and deliver me out of great waters, / Out of the hand of aliens / ... / I will sing a new song to You, O God; / Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You, / Who gives salvation to kings, / Who rescues David His servant from the evil sword. / Rescue me and deliver me out of the hand of aliens," Psalm 144:7, 9-11
Reuven's father comes to understand that life itself is short. That importance does not lie in life itself but the human being, the soul, that inhabits that life. Yet as a result of this premise, he assumes that he must DO.
It is true that life is transient and that it is the being that matters more than the life; the soul prevails over breath. And yet because of that we must praise Him who gave life; how can we repay; how can we earn; how can we MAKE our lives worthwhile when we had no hand in its creation in the first place? We cannot simply walk up to the giver of life, we cannot assume that we can make our lives worthy... and for that I am so very thankful and relieved.
186-190
from The Chosen written by Chaim Potok gave me shivers. Or warm bursts of surges out my chest up into my face and made my eyes feel fuzzy.
i love it when books do that.
i love it when books do that.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
15 books 15 minutes
Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books you choose.
1. Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
2. Bible - God
3. 12 Ordinary Men - John Macarthur
4. Battling Unbelief - John Piper
5. Anne of the Island - LM Montgomery
6. Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli
7. The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (7 books. so shoot me)
8. Til We Have Faces - CS Lewis
9. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
10. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - JK Rowling
11. Lies Women Believe - Nancy Leigh Demoss
12. Give Me This Mountain - Helen Roseveare
13. Decision Making and the Will of God - Garry Friesen
14. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
15. Captivating - Stasi Eldredge (b/c it was so bad ... I'll probably never forget it... first time I ever read a book like that ... claiming to be filled with truth, but actually full of laughable misinterpretations (but also some good points.. not enough to outweigh the ridiculous))
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