Bias

I finished a book this week, and I got my sewing machine back.

It's been a good week.

The book: Under the Net by Iris Murdoch. Before the Keen Reads project, I'd never heard of this author or the book. Now, I'd highly recommend both.

The narrator is Jack, a self-involved writer with lots of angst about his relationships with friends, women, even the lady who runs the local cafe. In the end, I didn't find him a sympathetic character at all, but much like The Sun Also Rises, his descriptions are supreme. The book is a gorgeous illustration of London and Paris, both places I love and dearly miss. His respect and passion for the cities ring clear.

He is so self-involved though that at times I wonder if Murdoch's narrator is a sociopath. There's no violence in this book; no foul play. But Jack is so consumed with what other people think of him, how it relates to his personal story, and he so direly believes in fate, that he risks his safety and freedom to fulfill what he believes is destiny. Sometimes, Jack can be a little much. He's definitely not someone I'd be friends with, and if he existed in my world, I'd wonder if he's a little looney.

So it's a quick read, with a beautiful sense of place and a intriguing narrator. I liked it enough that I'd want to read more Murdoch... though I must solider on through this list!

ON THE CRAFTY SIDE:

My sewing machine was in the shop for two painful weeks. Painful for me, not the machine. I got it back yesterday and spent the evening learning how to make bias tape. For the record, it isn't easy. Or, the instructions I'm following in this book are not entirely clear. The verdict is still out on that one.

I'll note there's nothing quite like a good novel to distract from a lack of sewing machine.

Foiled again, Kindle!

I finished A Game of Thrones: Song of Ice and Fire, so I spent my lunch break picking through the list for a new book.

I started this project intent on taking books out of the library, only to find that my local library didn't have most of the books on the list.

So I've turned to my handy dandy Kindle, and surprise! Many of the books aren't available there either.

What's the story here? I can buy The Belly Fat Cure  on my Kindle, but not Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer?

So I settled for Iris Murdoch's Under the Net, available on Kindle for $12.99.

With the sewing machine in the shop for the foreseeable future, I have plenty of time to read. More to come on the new book soon!

What Happened?

My friend recently emailed me to ask what happened to my reading project. In short, I moved house, started a new job, and stopped reading altogether. The longer story includes a diversion from the list, reading easier books, like Bossypants by Tina Fey. And, since I got back to Denver, I have been crafting again = highly distracting.

And it's summer, it's gorgeous out, and all I really want to do besides work is be outdoors, BBQ and garden!

So, I don't think I'll completely abandon the reading project. Though I admit I started Game of Thrones, which should keep me occupied for some time. I'll likely pick up the list again in the fall.

In the meantime, I want to use this blog for my multiple hobbies. So sometimes I'll write about reading. Sometimes I'll write about sewing/knitting/embroidery.

Yes, I am a big nerd -- and damned proud of it!

Assumptions

The Moviegoer is one of the books on the list that I had never heard of before jumping into this project. There's some mystique about a book one hasn't ever heard of. I suppose I expected it to be boring or difficult to read. I don't know why I make such negative assumptions, and The Moviegoer has proved me wrong.

It's by Walker Percy, the young man holding his leg up in the photograph; MD-gone-author and National Book Award winner. Randomly, it seems he went to medical school with my grandmother, and they probably lived in the same dorm.

So far, this is my favorite presentation of character. The protagonist and narrator is Jack or Binx, just turning 30 and floating between two families in Mardi Gras'd New Orleans. From my perspective - as a woman who just turned 30 - I find him curious and entirely unsympathetic at the same time. I love the feeling of discomfort that I get from Binx and his descriptions of the other characters in the book.

Now I proved my assumptions wrong, I am starting to wonder why my knowledge of literature is so incomplete. What else did I miss as an English major? It is true, I focused my studies on pre-19th century literature and poetry. But I am simply baffled that I hadn't even heard of this book before, not to mention others on the list that I won't prejudge so hastily. So here's the question: am I at fault, did I just not pay close enough attention or did I skip some good courses? or is there a major gap in what any average middle class American, even English majors, read these days?  

Help me pick my next book

Rainy weather is conducive to reading too, and I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn today. I agree, it is a must-read novel and deserves a place close to the top of my "second fifty" list.

I feel a little odd admitting that I most enjoyed the novel's portrayal of poverty. The Nolans live very poorly but find simple happiness in things like a clean shirt, a cup of coffee, or a library book. The imagery is vivid.

So, on to the next book, and I have to go back to The List. Help me decide what to read next. I have three books on the list in the house now. In no particular order:

Lolita

Catcher in the Rye

The Moviegoer

My thoughts: a) I've avoided Lolita for about a decade and a half now and should probably dive in; b) I've read Catcher in the Rye before, but after A Tree, I would welcome another coming-of-age novel; c) The Moviegoer is very short, and otherwise I know nothing of it.

Outdoor reading

I took this photo today - dressed in flip flops and a t-shirt. I read on the porch while the dogs sunbathed.

Hard to believe it's February!

Procrastination

I can't motivate to read. Even though I love the current book, even though I have time. I constantly wonder why it's so hard to just sit down and open a book. I have plenty of excuses. I tell myself it'll make me tired and I'll just end up falling asleep. I tell myself I won't have enough time to read an entire chapter (and it really irks me to stop mid chapter). Or I want to work on my knitting instead. And the perennial excuse, it is so much easier to just turn on the TV or waste time on the Internet. I don't even have my cable hooked up, and I still manage to watch hours on end of Farscape and Doctor Who... instead of reading.

And I spent 15 minutes just now reading about procrastination on the web. 

I'm about a quarter of the way through A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, which is the first friend recommendation I added to the list (thanks JMZ). I love the characters and their voices. The family's poverty communicates essential truths about the complexities of life. The images are so rich - the meat on their table; the clothes on the dapper father; the Williamsburg street life.

I hear that many people read this book in their younger years, and I do recommend picking it up again - or if you're like me, trying it for the first time.

That is, if you can get over your own procrastination traps.

Woolfed-out

I just finished Mrs. Dalloway this past week, and it was a doozy. I am Virginia-Woolfed-out, for the time being (To the Lighthouse is on the list, and I will read it eventually).

Here's what I didn't like about her -- a) the stream-of-consciousness style; b) most of the characters, particularly Septimus; c) how the book managed to sprout 10 new pages for every 10 I read. Remember that feeling you got in high school, reading Watership Down or something similar, and the book just would never end? Well, that's what Mrs. Dalloway did to me.

I've never liked stream-of-consciousness, whether it be Joyce's writing in Ulysees or Kerouac with On the Road (the former is banished from the list because I refuse to read it again; the latter is on the list, and I hope to like it this time). But what bothered me most about Woolf was that her stream-of-consciousness didn't feel genuine. I was not convinced that she understands what a World War I veteran (Septimus) would think on the day he kills himself. I've read too much WWI poetry and current war writings, and this just didn't feel authentic to me. So it irritated me.

I think there's brilliance in the way Woolf constructs the plot and weaves the characters together. I can tell why this is on anyone's "best of" list - though on my "best of," it will sit at last place until I read something that irritates me even more.

Some of you suggested I keep my own tally, as I read through the list. So far, that makes:

1) The Sun Also Rises
50) Mrs. Dalloway

I look forward to filling in the rest. 

PS. This month, I also listened to Water for Elephants on CD, which I would recommend to anyone looking for a page-turner. The CD version was particularly well read.

Really want to give Virginia Woolf some love...

I'm honestly sad that I don't like Mrs. Dalloway. I always wanted to like Virginia Woolf, but nothing she's written has ever appealed to me. It's also disappointing because she's one of the few female authors on my list. And I am vaguely annoyed that she appears twice on the list, so even when this book is through, I'm stuck with the other one. So in some ways, Virginia Woolf is setting a new precedent for the project: I will finish each book even if I dislike it immensely.

I have to admit, too, that I did not read anything off the list during the bulk of my vacation. I brought Mrs. Dalloway and The Moviegoer (thanks to Johanna for lending them), but I couldn't push myself to do it. I did, however, manage to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special, twice; muscle through almost all of Torchwood; listen to Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon & The Fifth Horseman by James Patterson.

Oh, and I finally saw Serenity and liked it, even though I can't get into Firefly. But tomorrow it's back to work, so too, back to the project!