Happy New Year! One day, not long ago, I sat down with the intention of writing down a definition of bibliophilia. What came out of the exercise was this little poem. I hope you like it.
Bibliophilia
Books in the windows, books on the floor, Books fill my shelves and block up the door. Books in my bedroom, books in the hall, Books on the tables and up against the wall. Books in the attic, books on the stairs Books in the bathroom, books on the chairs. Books in the kitchen, books on my bed, Books in the basement, books I haven’t read.
I’m cozy and content in my quiet world of books, I turn and read my pages in several little nooks. I am relaxed and happy in my comfy little nest, I read at least a book a day, it’s what I love the best. I feel alive and happy with my eyes fixed on a book, I do my daily reading and sometimes forget to cook. Some would say that all those books are keeping me in thrall, I’ll be very old and gray before I’ve read them all.
Copyright by Bibliophile
Week 45: Letters to Alice, on first reading Jane Austen
Author: Fay Weldon Year published: 1984 Pages: 156 (pocket book) Genre: Literary essays and criticism Where got: Public Library
About the book: I came across this book in the literature section of the public library, while browsing for quick reads (I’m slowly reading a long non-fiction book and like to relax between sections with short novels). Although Letters to Alice… is shelved under General Fiction in the Germanic Languages (Dewey class 830), the suggested classification on the book’s publication information page is Dewey class 823.7, which is the classification for Jane Austen studies.
At first glace the book seems to be a hybrid of fiction and non-fiction, and therefore rather hard to classify under the clear-cut Dewey system. It’s classifiable as fiction because it is written in the form of an epistolatory novel, as letters to Weldon’s imaginary niece who stands in for the common reader, and it’s classifiable as non-fiction because it contains a non-fictionalised retelling of historical facts (Jane Austen’s life and times) and speculations about the nature of reading, the writer’s craft and the relationship between reader and writer. But is it really non-fiction, and is it really about Jane Austen?
I’m not so sure. It seems to me that if the framework of the book is fictional, the rest is too, that is, Aunt Fay in the book is not Fay Weldon, but someone who just happens to have certain things in common with Fay Weldon – a fictional version who is in some ways different from the original and who may have opinions different from Weldon. It’s hard to tell without knowing her personally, but in an aside to the dedication, she calls the book an epistolatory novel and the characters fictional, which tells me that the contents are more or less fiction, so why not the narrator as well? (She doesn’t exactly mention Aunt Fay, but hints at her being fictional too). Jane Austen is mentioned often, and her life story is retold in broad strokes and the social conditions of her era are discussed, but the text is no more an analysis of Austen’s work than it is of writers, readers, writing and reading in general. The opinions expressed may be those of Weldon, or of the fictional Aunt Fay. Not having read any of her non-fiction, I can’t really say for sure how fictional or non-fictional the book is, but it is fun to speculate.
Technique and plot: Whatever may be said about the fictionality or non-fictionality of the book, it is an interesting study of writing and writers, reading and readers and the relationships between them. For Jane Austen enthusiasts it will not cast any new light on that sainted author, and some might in fact be upset with Weldon about personal remarks she makes about Austen and certain aspects of her writing (especially those who do see her as Saint Jane). The book is written in a light, somewhat irreverent and chatty style, as letters to a budding young writer and student of English Literature who is struggling with her studies and writing her first novel. Although we only ever see one side of the exchange, there is a story – of the developing relationship between Alice and Aunt Fay, and the process of Alice’s writing.
Rating: A light and somewhat enlightening study of authors and readers and the relationship between them. 4 stars.
Year published: 1995 Pages: 313 (pocket book) Genre: Crime thriller Subgenre: Romance Where got: Public library
I had been hearing about J.D. Robb’s Eve Dallas series for several months before I finally decided to check it out. I like crime mysteries, but since I gave up on Patricia Cornwell’s books about medical examiner Kay Scarpetta (the books got tedious when her personal life started taking over the stories), I have not read many hard or realistic crime stories, preferring so-called cozies with private detectives, amateur sleuths and accidental investigators, little violence and even less gore (Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Lilian Jackson Braun and the like). This may be about to change, since I recently came across a trove of books by Ed McBain, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich and Ruth Rendell, which I fully expect will make good reads.
The Story: Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the New York police is called to a murder scene where a young prostitute has been brutally murdered with an antique handgun. The dead woman was the granddaughter of an ultra-conservative US senator who immediately begins to meddle in the investigation, making things difficult for Eve. The prime suspect is sexy billionaire Roarke, whose personal interest in Eve also makes things difficult for her, especially after she embarks on a sexual relationship with him before he is quite cleared of suspicion in the case. He is eliminated as a suspect after two other prostitutes are murdered in the same way as the first, and begins to actively take part in the investigation.
Technique and plot: The story takes place in the near future. Even so, this is just a futuristic novel, not a sci-fi one. The focus is on people, and technology is always in the background and presents a believable evolution of modern technology. This is really a regular crime thriller in futuristic packaging – the people are the same as in stories happening in any century, the motives behind crimes are the same as they have always been, and in this particular book, even the murder weapons are standard, modern crime novel issue. The futuristic surroundings merely make the story a bit more exotic than if it had taken place in modern times. Relationships are important: inter-familial, between co-workers and between friends and lovers. Eve’s trust issues and Roarke’s feelings for her come across as realistic – it’s not quite love at first sight like in many romances, more like lust that evolves into love as they get to know and trust each other. As this is the first book in a series, some room is given to the surroundings, the technology and so on, but it is cleverly interwoven into the narrative and so there are no long and boring descriptive passages like sometimes happens in sci-fi books, especially by new writers. Robb is a skilled writer and was writing romances and romantic suspense books as Nora Roberts for many years before she started this series. There is therefore no beginner’s flavour to the book.
I am definitely going to check out the next few books in the series. Robb has been turning out two Eve Dallas books a year since this one, and it remains to be seen if they start declining at some point or if they only continue to get better...
Rating: A good futuristic crime thriller with a romantic touch. 4 stars.
I’ve decided to drop the book of the week because I just can’t concentrate on it.
It’s unfortunate when such an interesting subject gets written about in a less than interesting way. No subject needs to be boring if the writer knows her/his craft. Even economics can be made interesting to a layperson by a skilled writer, but if the writer is not able to write interestingly, the text can turn out dry as a mummy.
For some reason, academic writers seem to especially adept at writing boring texts. It’s almost as if in the land of Academia it is forbidden to write texts that can keep a person’s attention for more than five minutes at a time. In my opinion, academic writers should take lessons from writers of popular non-fiction, because it is definitely not serving Education when the text books are so boring that the students fall asleep reading them.
I plan to try again on my summer vacation when I have more time and fewer other things on my mind, and will review it if I get round to it.
Try as I may, I can’t get into this book. I read a few pages and find myself dozing off. In 5 days I have only got as far as finishing the introduction and chapter 1. I may have to declare my first failure of this challenge – but first I’m going to browse a few pages of each chapter and see if it gets better.
It’s not that it isn’t interesting – it is – but it’s so dry, it’s like being in the desert with only salt water to drink: you desperately want it, but it isn’t good for you.
Full title: Tourists with Typewriters – Critical reflections on contemporary travel writing Author: Patrick Holland & Graham Huggan Year published: 1998 Pages: 261 Genre: Historiography, criticism and history Sub-genre(s): Travel writing Where got: National/University Library
Whenever I go browsing at the National/University Library I come across books on all sorts of interesting subjects. One of my haunts is the travel and geography section, where I have found many great reads about travel, which is without doubt my favourite genre. The last time I visited the library I ventured into the literary theory section, where I found this interesting book about travel writing and writers. The bibliography alone has given me a substantial number of books to add to my TBR* list. *To Be Read
Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark. The pleasure they give is steady, unorgastic, reliable, deep and long-lasting. In any library in the world, I am at home, unselfconscious, still and absorbed. - Germaine Greer
I'm taking a one-week break from the challenge because I have an exam on Thursday and need time to prepare. I'll probably post some reading and/or book quotations in the course of the week, but no reviews. I'll be back with the challenge next Saturday.
Contents and review: A critical and analytic look at the Golden Era Hollywood musical as a genre. Feuer examines some conventions and formulas of the genre, how the earlier musicals refer back to stage shows, vaudeville and revues, while the later ones refer back to the earlier ones. She examines the importance of the songs, the standardized romantic storyline of the musical comedy, and in a postscript chapter takes a brief look at some post-Golden Era musicals and gay readings of the old musicals (especially those starring Judy Garland).
When I started reading this book I expected to find some insight into the musical genre and what makes musicals enduring and endearing to audiences. What I found was an attempt to analyse certain isolated themes and techniques of the genre.
The book is an academic work written for academics, and therefore full of academic and technical jargon. For persons who have read little or nothing about literary analysis and literary theory, it is – I wouldn’t say exactly useless, but rather not as useful as it could be. For film students it gives a valuable insight into the genre, albeit not a very complete one.
For me, it has mostly been useful in drawing my attention to musicals I would like to watch.
Rating: An academic look at the movie musical as a genre. Not rated.
P.S. I am quite surprised that neither Grease nor Saturday Night Fever - both very popular movies that have attained cult status - rate a mention in the text, as the former is so clearly both a parody and a celebration of the genre, and the latter subverts and deviates from many of the genre’s conventions.
In my review of Anne of Green Gables I mentioned that I had read the four Anne books that have been translated into Icelandic. Since I really prefer to read books in the original language whenever I can, I decided to read them again in English, and try to find the ones that I had not read before. Luckily I found the first six on the Project Gutenberg website and the remaining two in the library.
Discussing the books with someone on an online reading forum, I discovered that the books were not written in chronological order. Anne of Windy Willows actually takes place between Anne of the Island and Anne’s House of Dreams, and Anne of Ingleside between House of Dreams and Rainbow Valley.
The books are, in order of publication, with links to the text on the Gutenberg website:
(The last two are available from the Australian Gutenberg site, copyright laws being different in Australia than they are in N-America and western Europe where those two books are still under copyright.)
Anne is also mentioned in The Chronicles and Further Chronicles of Avonlea and I think also in The Story Girl and perhaps other books by the author, but those are not part of the Anne canon and so will not be included in this review.
Unfortunately, because the books are not written in chronological order, Montgomery gives away certain things about some of the books that were written earlier but fit later into the chronology. Most are mere foreshadowings, but at least one of those revelations is a megaspoiler which somewhat marred my reading of Rilla, so if you decide to read them chronologically, you have been warned.
If I were to rate the books separately (in chronological order), I would say that the first is the best, with the quality steadily falling until the bottom is reached with Anne’s House of Dreams. All the books are sentimental to some degree and pathetic fallacy rears its ugly head in nearly all of them, but in the melodramatic and rather unlikely storyline of Anne’s House of Dreams both sentimentality and pathetic fallacy are over the top. The weather nearly always seems to reflect people’s moods and feelings, the pathos sometimes becomes so overwhelming that I found myself scowling over it rather than crying like I was supposed to, and there are just too many coincidences. If you decide to read the series, don’t stop after this one, because they get better. And don’t skip it, because it gives some necessary background to several characters that appear in the later books. After House of Dreams, the quality increases, until it peaks again with Rilla which is nearly as good as, but quite different from, Anne of Green Gables.
Out of the whole series, the first and the last (chronologically) are my favourites. They are both coming of age stories, the first of orphan Anne Shirley and the second of Anne’s youngest daughter, Marilla. Anne grows up in an innocent age that has now been irretrievably lost, and Rilla in an age of war where the world was losing the last of its innocence. Anne comes from a bad place to a good one and Rilla leaves her childhood innocence behind and has to grow up faster than she was expecting. Those experiences make better persons of them both.
Montgomery had a wonderful talent for description, not only of people, but also of places, nature and weather. Many of her nature descriptions are wonderfully sumptuous and evocative. She writes some splendidly humorous descriptions of people and situations, and occasionally she manages to write about sad things without being overly sentimental.
Rating: A great series for those who like to read family sagas and tales of past times. Not rated.
21. You plan your trips abroad around visits to bookshops 22. Your family always know where you are when they lose you at the mall: browsing in the bookstore 23. All the librarians at every branch of the municipal library know you by name 24. You can't pass a bookstore without going in 25. Your family communicate with you with written messages
Author: Jane Feuer Series: British Film Institute Cinema Series Year published: 1982/1993 Pages: 154 Genre: Cinema history and criticism Sub-genre: Musicals Where got: National/University Library
I came across this interesting volume while browsing at the library. As someone who possesses a growing collection of musicals and watches them frequently, I am naturally interested in the subject, which is why I picked it as the book of the week.
Contents, technique and effects: This isn’t a scientific book. Roach writes from the point of view of an informed and slightly prejudiced layperson about the natural and “unnatural” things that can happen to people’s bodies after they die. The description of what happens if nature is allowed to take its course – decay - is brief and tied in with the use of human cadavers in forensics research. The treatment of cadavers in mortuaries – cosmetic touch-ups and embalming - is discussed in the same chapter and there is also a chapter on methods of disposal, other than burial, such as cremation, liquification and composting. The rest of the chapters are about how scientists and doctors use donated cadavers and body parts in such varied fields as life saving body-part transplants, plastic surgery courses and anatomy classes, automobile and air-crash research, forensics and ballistics research. Other chapters contain historical accounts of all kinds of crazy and weird (and occasionally quite useful) stuff – including body-snatching and mellification - people got up to with cadavers in the name of science, medicine and religion. As far as I can see, the only widely known practice that is not discussed is mummification, although the (stomach-churning) use of mummies in medicine is mentioned.
All in all, this is good reading for people who are curious about these things, but not curious enough to want pictures and details. Roach speaks of the dead with respect and has a few words of sarcasm for people who mistreat (by that I mean "use them unnecessarily or disrespectfully")dead bodies and/or torture animals in the name of research.
As I said earlier, Roach writes in a journalistic style that fits the subject and makes the book more accessible to the public than a purely dispassionate and dry scientific style would have. There is humour in the book which sometimes comes across as flippant, but also breaks the seriousness of the text. The flippancy seems to be mostly in the first chapters, but there is humour throughout the book, although not the laugh-aloud kind. Roach is not afraid of revealing her own preconceptions and prejudices and makes fun of herself and her near obsession with morbid subjects throughout the book.
Although the subject is morbid at first glance, there is actually nothing morbid about the book. It is, in fact, strangely upbeat and enlivening, especially for someone like me who is going through the grieving process for a loved one. Knowing what happens to the body after death is helping me to let go, which is a good thing, a part of the healing process.
Rating: An interesting and enlightening look at what can happen and what does happen to our bodies after we die. 3+ stars.
16. Your favourite phrase is “just one more page” 17. You go away for the weekend and pack 5 books, a toothbrush and one pair of socks 18. You keep books in the bathroom 19. You talk about the characters in the book you’re reading as if they were real people 20. You haven’t watched TV for ages because you’re too buisy reading
I participate in link exchanges, but only with book and reading websites. Requests for link exchanges can be posted in Comments. I DO NOT exchange links with commercial websites, so don’t ask.
About me
What this blog is about:
Reading and books.
If you’re wondering about the name 52 books, it stems from a book-a-week reading challenge I set myself. The challenge is over, but I'm still reading, and will continue to blog about the books I read and my reading experiences, and other stuff connected with books and reading.
I rate the books (if I feel like it), giving them stars ranging from zero to 5.
Books I have already read (sporadically updated):Cover gallery
Note: Some of the entries are linked to the months the reviews appeared in, because I made several entries for each book. I have marked those reviews with an asterix (*). If you want to read the whole review from beginning to end, you must scroll down and read from the bottom up (but you probably already knew that ;-) >
