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How to Read a Novel Like a Professor

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:38:17 -0400

How to Read Novels Like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form

Thomas C. Foster

I love books about books and reading. I couldn't resist checking out How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster when I saw it at the library Monday. It has the added bonus of being highly recommended by my mom, who enjoyed his other book (How to Read Literature Like a Professor) as well.

I'm only 86 pages in so far, but I love it. It's very readable, it doesn't feel stuffy or textbook-ish. It covers the basics of literary analysis, but explores each aspect in a fun way, with many examples. It's a refresher in what to look for while you're reading to help understand all aspects of how the author is telling the story. It's already given me a deeper understanding of why I like my favorite novels and what factors contributed to my dislike of others.

One thing that reading books about books/reading inevitably does for me is add numerous other books to my To Be Read list, which I never object to but really isn't necessary, since it's already miles long. Still, I can never resist, and I've found wonderful books this way. It's sort of incestuous, really.

So far I've already felt the desire to read The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, the poem "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" by Craig Raine (which I have since read, online), The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and something (probably Portrait of a Lady?) by Henry James.

Here are some of my favorite Books about Books/Reading:

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (probably added the most of any of these to my TBR list)
So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson

Some Books about Books/Reading that are on my TBR list:

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster (I can already tell I'm going to need to read the other one, too)
Shelf Life by Suzanne Strempek Shea
A Gental Madness by Nicholas A. Basbanes
How Beautiful it is and How Easily It Can Be Broken by Daniel Mendelsohn (not entirely about books, but many of the essays are)

I'm always taking recommendations for more books about books/reading, so if you know of a good one, please let me know. :)

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The Month of Re-reading

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:33:03 -0400

My posting has been sparse lately, as a direct result of the olympics. For that matter almost all of my regular activities have taken the back burner to the olympics, first and foremost: sleep.

However, I’ve been thinking about the subject matter of this post for a while now. There are lots of book challenges out there in the blogosphere, and I don’t normally participate in them because of how rotten I am at sticking to a set list of books to read during a particular time frame. I’m getting a bit better, but I still need flexibility.

So I decided to think of my own challenge, one that I would be more likely to meet. More importantly, it’s a challenge I desperately need.

My challenge is this: Spend a full month reading nothing but books I’ve already read before. Not just any previously read books either, books that I list among my favorites but that I have only read one time.

With a never ending list of books to be read, it can be hard to take time out to re-read your favorites. I do it now and then, but they are sprinkled into the lineup of new books, and are usually few and far between. But it’s important to re-read your favorite books and get to know them better. It’s a luxury and it’s wonderful because you already know you’re going to love it.

I have somewhat randomly chosen the month of October as my Month of Re-reading. Mainly because I wanted to do this soon, but September is quite busy and I don’t want to compromise the number of books I can read for this challenge.

Here is a list of the books I would like to re-read:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
The History of Love by Nicole Krause
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut

This list is just a starting point, I can add to it and read what I’d like from it. The first three listed are my biggest priorities.

If you would like to take the plunge too, and have your own Month of Re-reading, I heartily invite you to join in. Pick any month you choose, and any books you’d like. If you decide to give it a try, please let me know - I’d love to hear stories from others who try this out too.

I’ll post more in October once I begin, and I plan to do some posts that speak to the experience of reading these favorite books of mine again.

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Thoughts after reading Twilight

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:08:09 -0400

This post is going to be pretty short, and will contain no spoilers. Several people are interested in Twilight but haven't read it yet, and I don't want to give away the plot. (There are many other reviews and sites out there that will happy to do that for you, if you choose.)

I finished Twilight on Friday, it took me about 2 days to read, despite the fact that it's 498 pages. That's because I could not seem to stop reading it. I started this book expecting a light read that would hopefully be engaging and fun to read, and that probably had a lot to do with how much I enjoyed reading it. If I were to go in expecting a series I would love as much as Harry Potter (the series it inevitably, and unfairly gets consistently compared to), I would have been disappointed.

I was surprised just how engaging it was - almost immediately I fell under its spell and didn't want to stop reading. To others like me who have no prior interest in vampires, I can attest to the fact that it did not at all hinder my ability to get engrossed in the story or enjoy it and all of the characters.

I could say more about it, but I'm not sure I'd like to or that there's a point. If you're curious about the series, I recommend it. It would make a great book to bring on vacation, it's the kind of guilty pleasure reading that makes time fly and would be perfect on a plane/car/train trip. Further incentive to try it out (and what was a big factor in my decision) - Amazon currently has the paperback for $6.04, which is the cheapest price I've seen for it.

At Strand on Friday I picked up New Moon, the next book in the series. I want to read it right now, but I'm trying to make myself finish Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee first. I really liked the first 100 pages, but then somehow it lost my interest and I've only managed to read 16 pages this entire weekend. I'm hoping it picks back up.

I'm thinking about giving in and starting New Moon tonight, and then bringing Disgrace with me to work so that I get a solid half hour a day of reading it on the train each day. I should be able to finish Disgrace by the end of the week if I do that, and then I can read New Moon at home. But that was my plan last week while starting Twilight, and I couldn't bear to leave it at home.

PS - I am very excited for the movie.

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Twilight

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:44:08 -0400

Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)

Stephenie Meyer

When something gets a lot of hype, I tend to get a little resistant to it unless I'm already "a part of it" - so to speak. I got into Harry Potter just a smidge before the maddness, so I was able to unabashedly join the mayham. I still have not, however, seen Titanic.

The main reason I have not read the Twilight series though, despite the fact that I love YA Lit, is that I am uninterested and indifferent to vampires, and for a long time the Twilight books were just vampire books to me. It was easy to keep up this mindset since I have a lot of other books and media to consume and distract me from anything I'm not interested in.

However, the hype for the fourth and final book, Breaking Dawn, that was released Saturday made me miss the Harry Potter release parties and the fun and anticipation surrounding the release of a long awaited next installment. Plus, I began to admit that there must be more to the Twilight books than just vampires, since so many of my trusted reading buddies on RBC have read and loved the series.

I picked up Twilight, the first book in the series, at a bookstore last week and read a few pages from the middle. It seemed like I would enjoy it. What completely sold me on trying out the series was that Amazon had the paperback on sale for only $6. It arrived today, and I intend to read it this month. I'll post about it as soon as I finish it.

The only thing that's a little discouraging is that I've seen a lot of very negative reviews of Breaking Dawn so far. If I do like Twilight, it will be a bummer to read the whole series and be unsatisfied with the final book. I have not yet heard the thoughts of RBCers that have finished the book though, and I'm very interested in hearing what they think. So if you are one of the RBCers I'm talking about, I hope you'll leave me a comment when you're done with Breaking Dawn and let me know if you liked it. Especially since I will probably be wary of the threads about it in the forum, since I won't want to see spoilers. :)

............

Today I got thinking about my resistance to "hype" because I read a blog post on a publishing company's blog by a girl who is considering giving the Twilight saga a try. Like me, hype can turn her away from trying something. Despite deciding to possibly read Twilight, she said in the post that she still maintains a strict "no-harry-potter-4-life" policy. (The publishing company's blog that I was reading obviously wasn't Scholastic or Bloomsbury.) Reading that, my first thought was how narrow minded and ridiculous she sounded to me. How sad to deny something to yourself (even if you don't realize you're missing out) just because it's popular. I felt bad for her, because I know what a special place Hogwarts and the entire HP world holds in my heart, and how I feel cozy and contented just by picking up any one of the seven books and reading. How sad to not even give it a chance, to just read the first book, only because it's hyped. After reading that post, I made a concious decision to make more of an effort not to get discouraged by hype. I know it's said often - but things that are wildly popular are wildly popular for a reason: many people love whatever it is, and chances are you might too.

Who knows, maybe I'll even watch Titanic someday soon. :)

PS - I just read the blog post I referenced above, and I'm not actually sure it's a girl writing it. So just thought I should put that disclaimer out there.

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Polysyllabic Spree: July 2008

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:41:41 -0400

Books Purchased: July 2008

Books Purchased:
*The Hours by Michael Cunningham
*The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
*The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
*Lanterns and Lances by James Thurber
*The Road by Cormac McCarthy
*From Time to Time by Jack Finney
*The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood
*Jeeves and the Tie That Binds by P. G. Wodehouse
*The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
*Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
*Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
*The Inn at Lake Divine by Elinor Lipman
*The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
*The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse
A Taxonomy of Barnacles by Galt Niederhoffer
Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman (not pictured, at work)
The Trouble With Poetry by Billy Collins
Novel Destinations by Shannon McKenna Schmidt & Joni Rendon
A Reader's Delight by Noel Perrin
Shelf Life by Suzanne Strempek Shea
Who the Hell is Pansy O'Hara? by Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy
A Journey into Dorothy Parker’s New York by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick

*This list is pretty embarrassing in size, but in my defense a great number of these were purchased for $1 or $2 at the Friends bookstores at the Kalamazoo Public Library and East Lansing Public Library, or acquired with trade in credit from the Book Nook in Cadillac, Michigan. I’ve put an asterisk by all books I got for $2 or less, or with credit. I also got great deals on all the others (except the last two).

Books Read: July 2008

Books Read:
American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (re-read)
The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse
Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
Emma by Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Here are some thoughts on the books I’ve read that I haven’t already blogged about:

American Bloomsbury was fascinating.. I read some user reviews on Amazon and apparently there are a few factual errors in the book, which is disappointing. Apparently later editions of the book correct the errors. Nevertheless, I loved the book, and I plan on reading many more books about Literary Concord.

Little Heathens is a memoir about growing up on an Iowa farm during the depression. Times were certainly tough for everyone’s finances, but it seems like living on a farm ensured that everyone had plenty to eat, despite any economic problems. What makes Little Heathens so fun is that it’s not a downer depression-era book. Mildred Armstrong Kalish had an absolutely wonderful childhood on the farm, and she lovingly describes her daily life, family members, and the farm.

July marked one year since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was thinking about this and realized that I had not re-read it since I marathon read it in less than 24 hours after it was released. So I decided to re-read it, trying to go a little slower this time. I still found myself rapidly turning the pages during the tense parts, unable to slow down because I got so caught up in the action. I had so much fun reading this again. It made me want to re-read the entire series again, 1 through 7, like I did leading up to the release last year. I think I’ll wait a bit longer to do that, since I need to tackle these huge stacks of un-read books.

The Code of the Woosters was my first Wodehouse. The first of many, many more that I plan to read because this one was so hilarious. It’s wonderful to discover you love an author that wrote close to 100 books.

Embroideries was an impulse buy at Strand one day, and I read half of it on the train home. It’s a short little book, I would describe it as graphic novel equivalent of an essay. I really liked it though, and recommend it to fans of Persepolis.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love was amazing. It was a little strange to read, since lately I’ve been reading much longer short stories. I had to adjust to how short his stories are, and how inconclusive most of them are. But I love his style, and I like how human they are. It’s like peeking in the windows of strangers at night. The details vanish before you’re tired of the subject, but what you see is always real and fascinating. I need to purchase his other collections. It’s a bit odd that there’s no mammoth collection of complete stories. Or maybe there is and I just haven’t seen it.

I got through most of A Natural History of the Senses right after I got it, and then somehow got sidetracked with 72 pages left. I picked it up at the end of this month and finished it. I love her writing style and it fits perfectly with the subject matter of this non-fiction tribute to the five senses.

The Jane Austen Book Club was a treat after reading all six of Jane Austen’s novels. I’ve been wanting to read it since seeing the movie (which I loved), but I wanted to read her entire oeuvre first. It was an extremely cozy book to read, and made me wish my best friends were closer so we could do the same thing.

The wonderful thing about Jhumpa Lahiri is that a reader who has never read one of her books could pick up any one of her three books and be wowed and want to read the others. They all are fabulous and hold up in comparison to each other. Many of my favorite authors have one or two books that are better than the others and that I would recommend others to read first. I loved Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake so much that I should have been antsy about Unaccustomed Earth. But for some reason I wasn’t; I trusted her and she didn’t let me down. My favorite stories were the last three in the collection, the ones about Hema and Kaushik that broke my heart. Overall, I’m partial to The Namesake, most likely because it’s the only novel and I got more attached to Gogol, but I highly recommend all three of her books, in any order.

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Emma and Northanger Abbey

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:05:34 -0400

Emma

Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen

This week I finished Emma and Northanger Abbey. These were the last two Jane Austen novels that I had not read. I loved both of them, but I'd rank Emma 5 of 5 stars and Northanger Abbey 4 of 5.

WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUT BOTH BOOKS BELOW

I found Emma to be a more perfect and complicated novel. I knew she was not going to end up with Frank Churchill, but I did not have a clue how Miss Austen was going to transfer my strong affections from Mr. Churchill to Mr. Knightly by the end of the novel, so that I would be satisfied with the ending. However, transfer them she did, and I was pleased with the result. Mr. Knightly is no Mr. Darcy or Captain Wentworth, and it is a bit creepy that he's so much older than she is and has loved her since she was 13. But not nearly as boring or as wishy-washy as Edmund in Mansfield Park. It was also exceedingly funny; Mrs. Elton is perfectly horrid and all the more humorous for it. But I think what I like most about the novel is Emma herself.
She is such a great character - bold, funny, smart, good tempered andacutely aware of her failures and shortcomings (after the fact). She’s so sure of herself that it makes it all the more interesting when her plans go awry.

It was very easy for me to love Northanger Abbey. Catherine is so fond of novels and it affects her thinking and has humous consequences. However, Isabelle and John Thorpe were the most loathsome characters I encountered while reading any Jane Austen novel. They weren’t comically terrible (like Mr. Collins, Mrs. Elton, or Mary Musgrove), they were just completely horrid. I really like Henry, he’s an excellent love interest. But the resolution was underwhelming, considering how painful Catherine’s removal from Northanger Abbey was. Also lacking was the final culmination of Henry’s declaration of love. It did not hold up compared to Captain Wentworth’s letter, or Mr. Darcy’s second confession of love to Elizabeth. Despite all this, I greatly enjoyed the book. I liked that it moved quickly and was pretty suspenseful. (I did have to google “pump room” though, and find out exactly what it was. The name sounds horrifying.)

Words and phrases I now use too much, as a result of spending over a month engrossed in three Jane Austen novels: exceedingly, loathsome, irksome, pray tell me, upon my word, obliging and indeed. If only I could always stay immersed in Jane Austen’s world. :)

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The Lion and the Mouse

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:17:31 -0400

The Lion and the Mouse

By now most everyone has heard about the controversial New Yorker cover featuring the Obamas. But did you know that same issue has a wonderful article inside about the rise of children's literature and children's libraries in the US? The article centers around Anne Carroll Moore, E. B. White, Katharine White, Ursula Nordstrom, and the publication of Stuart Little.

It's a fabulous article, and you can read it for free online here.

Ursula Nordstrom, on what qualified her to edit children's literature:
"Well, I am a former child, and I haven't forgotten a thing."

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I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:53:59 -0400

I Capture the Castle

I fell in love with this book after reading the first sentence. It is:

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

The (very high profile) quote on the cover ("This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met.") by J. K. Rowling is spot on.

The novel is written entirely in wonderful first person narrative. The narrator is a 17 year old girl named Cassandra Mortmain, who tells us about a year in her life and the life of her family in the old castle they call home. She tells us her story in the form of journal entries, filling up three journals by the end.

I know it's cliche, but I literally could not put this book down. I even took it with me to the fireworks on the fourth of july, with a book light. I had to sleep with it by my pillow at night.

This is now one of my very favorite books of all time. I fell in love with the writing style and how perfect her descriptions of her emotions are.

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Polysyllabic Spree June 2008

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:13:17 -0400

I've returned from Michigan, unscathed from the midwest's absolutely crazy thunderstoms on the 2nd. I had a lovely time, and read 3 books. My policy on Polysyllabic Spree posts is that it's always Better Late Than Never.

Books Purchased - June 208

Books Purchased:

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
March by Geraldine Brooks
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
Truman Capote Conversations edited by M. Thomas Inge
The Stories of Mary Gordon
Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson
American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever
More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl
Every Book Its Reader by Nicholas A. Basbanes
The Jeeves Omnibus by P. G. Wodehouse

This is quite a stack, but due to an excellent Friends of the Hoboken Public Library Book Sale, and some excellent finds at Strand (plus an extra 20% off), I was able to purchase most of this stack at spectacular prices. Please pardon me while I indulge in posting the exact amazing price I was able to purchase these: I Capture the Castle: $1; The Sunday Philosophy Club: $1; Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: $1; March: $1; A Passage to India: $1; The Perfect Summer: $2.50; American Bloomsbury: $6; More Book Lust: $6.80; Every Book Its Reader: $3.20; The Jeeves Omnibus: $7.50.

(Just wait until you see July's stack of books purchased. Eeeep. It's already huge, due to going home and visiting the amazing Kalamazoo Public Library Friends Book Store and the amazing Book Nook in Cadillac.)

Books Read - June 2008

Books Read:

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Dancing Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
The Solitary Vice Against Reading by Mikita Brottman
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

I had a decent reading month as well, both in quantity and quality - I greatly enjoyed each of the books I read this month. I read two books on my personal Summer Reading List (Mother Night and The Joy Luck Club) which keeps me on track for completing my list. I especially enjoyed reading both Penderwicks books. I miss the Penderwicks dearly, and am excited that there will be more. I highly recommend The Penderwicks to anyone who enjoys reading children's literature.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames was very enjoyable as well. If you like David Sedaris, you'll like this book. If you've never read him before, I recommend starting with a different one, probably Me Talk Pretty One Day. His newest book is best enjoyed with a rich background on his life and the people in it, you'll find it more interesting and charming.

Mansfield Park marks four out of six Jane Austen Novels read. It is my least favorite without a doubt, but I'm glad I read it, and I enjoyed it all the same. (Emma is next, started it tonight.)

The Solitary Vice Against Reading is a "book about books" book. If you like Books About Books, you will likely enjoy this one as well, except for the part two thirds of the way in when she tries to convince you that you should be reading more true crime books and case studies.

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Reading Update

nobody@vox.com(Emily) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:35:15 -0400

Mother Night

Kurt Vonnegut

I'm only 71 pages into Mother Night so far, but I'm already getting an inkling that it might be my favorite Vonnegut yet, which is no small compliment.

I'm also still churning along in Mansfield Park. It's getting much more interesting, but I still have over 100 pages to go.

I started Anne of Green Gables on the way home from the Strand yesterday, but I think I'll put it aside until these two are done.

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