Top Ten (Supposedly on a) Tuesday: 10 Books I Am Looking Forward to Reading in 2011 December 27, 2010

Although I haven’t planned a complete reading-list for 2011 (it usually is disastrous if I do as I never follow time-tables!) I do have a few books I intend to read next year. Among them are the following that I am really excited about.
This list is no particular order of preference.

1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages! I’d borrowed this from an aunt a couple of years ago, and it is still sitting in my shelf. I guess, anything by Dickens, as always, makes me ponder and debate within myself before I open a work of his to begin reading. With this particular novel, I had the misfortune of hearing an outline of the story from my mom, and then promptly decided that I could never read it – its ending isn’t happy enough for me, you see. But I took a sneak peek at the first page sometime last month, and am now very excited about reading it!
2. Caesar by Colleen McCullough - It belongs to the Masters of Rome series and I think is the fifth of seven books. I read Caesar’s Women sometime in June and loved it! McCullough has a beautiful writing style and I love the way she writes history. Her Author’s Notes at the end where she describes any ‘historical’ changes she might have made to lend flavour to her story add to how believable her works can be. Apart from this, Julius Caesar is an awesome personality from history to read anything about. I’m just thrilled about diving into this one!
3. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare - So, I love reading anything about Caesar, hence this play. This is also what I’ve listed under the Shakespearean challenge and I’m really glad I came across this challenge or Shakespeare most likely would never have featured in next year’s reading list! I recall having studied the famous speech by Anthony in Shakespeare’s tragedy, the one that begins “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!” – such a beautiful and powerful speech. I’m dying to find out how the Bard dealt with the whole.
4. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - I had seen the final few BBC episodes based on this book over a year ago, and so became rather curious about Gaskell. The last few months in the book blogging world and on Goodreads have piqued my curiosity even further and I’m looking forward to discovering what all the fuss is about.
5. The Good Earth by Pearl Buck - My mother has been after me for years to read this one. For some reason that I cannot explain, I’m excited that I’m finally going to! Never having read anything that has China for a setting I’m thinking this is going to be an awesome experience!
6. Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart - The book following The Crystal Cave in her Arthurian series is bound to be as exciting as the first. Merlin comes to life as a young intellectual and we watch him grow in such a way as to incite the legend of his magical powers. I’m eager to read more of him!
7. The Last of the Mohicans by J Fenimore Cooper - This is another book I’ve been meaning to read for the last four years. I got to watch a bit of the movie and liked the storyline. Having bought the book as a present for mom, I’d made a mental note to read it myself. This would be my first American literature book with American Indians in it! (Actually, I haven’t read much American Literature, come to think of it….)
8. The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone - It’s all about Michael Angelo, the famous Italian painter. Enough said.
9. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - I watched the movie when I was around eleven years old, and was quite put out by the story. Or, you could say, I hated that Scarlett made a fool of herself over a married man, never understood how much Butler loved her, and then lost him in the end only to wind up alone. When you’re a kid, you love happy endings. My bitter disappointment was enough to keep me off the book…until now. Like I mentioned before, I’ve reached a stage where happy endings in books don’t matter any more; it’s the prose and the style. So, I’m off to give this one a try!
10. Byzantium by Stephen R Lawhead - I love the way he writes. It’s picturesque without being wordy and appeals to all the senses. And….it’s Byzantium!

Literary Blog Hop: Underappreciated Titles! December 23, 2010

The Literary Blog Hop is a weekly event hosted by The Blue Bookcase. 

This week’s question is

What Literary title do you love that has been under-appreciated? We all know about the latest Dan Brown and James Patterson isn’t hurting for publicity. What quiet masterpiece do you want more readers to know?

Two pieces of fiction came to my mind the moment I read this question – The Song of Albion trilogy by Stephen R Lawhead and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Both books fall under the fantasy genre and are absolutely exceptional. I do not know, for a certainity the amount of attention Clarke’s book has had internationlly, but I do know that her book is not widely heard of where I am. As for Lawhead, he does not seem to be well-known, but those who read his works love them.

Mr Norrell

Of the one - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a thousand-odd page novel that describes a make-believe magical revival during the very real era of 19th century England, set during the Napoleanic wars. At this time magic as an art is no longer practiced. It has  

become a scholarly endeavour bogged down by the lofty protocol of the academia. Only one magician knows how to use magic. Mr Norrell. However, there soon rises another magician – a protege of the former, and with different views and philosophies on how and when to use magic, these two soon become rivals. The novel reads like it has really happened – history, complete with footnotes and references. It is completely dark, full of an other-worldly atmosphere that is very remiscent of fairy folklore – something that is rarely felt in most present day fantasy.

Jonathan Strange

With so many pages to go through, I never once felt its length. I found it, at once, a delight and yet subtly interspersed with the element of horror. Little by-stories inserted into the footnotes added to the overall atmosphere. In short, I have never read anything like it. Personally, I would consider this book, up there with the canon of fantasy literature.

And of the other - While I might refer, now to Lawhead’s Song of Albion series, I would have to say at the very outset, that what I have read of him places him up with fantasy literary writers, in my book. This particular series is the only one of its kind that Lawhead has ever written, yet it is incredibly beautiful. The story is of a whiny, young, Oxford history student, who finds himself in the Otherworld to get his friend back. However, once on the otherside he is hindered by many factors and is forced to become a man. From a man, he becomes a warrior and a king. It is upto him, Llew, to restore the balance between the world he comes from and the world he has come to love – a balance whose scales have been dangerously tipped by the corruption that Llew’s Oxford friend has brought with him.

The whole story is rather Celtic in nature and full of an etherial, otherworldly quality. When I read this trilogy I could feel myself being lifted to heights of wonder and joy, and then dropped down into the pits of horror and dismay. Lawhead’s language is contemporary, but so craftily used that it is very lyrical. There is music in the words and the soul of the story. The Song is the very essence and life of the world of Albion, and it is also the pulse that throbs through this trilogy.

A warning: to those of you who would like to give the Song of Albion a go, the first hundred-and-fifty pages are rather slow, as they set the outline for the rest of the story. After that you begin to experience the magic.

My 2010 Reads Survey December 20, 2010

Hosted at The Perpetual Page-Turner
Many of the books I read this year were re-reads. I shall try to answer this survey without including those.

• The Best Book of 2010 I’ve narrowed the best down to three. I doubt I could break it down further to one, because these really stand out!
  The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
  Caesar’s Women by Colleen McCullough
  Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Worst Book of 2010 I would have to say The Black Arrow by R L Stevenson. It was nothing but a dead bore!
• Most Disappointing Book of 2010 Georgette Heyer is one of my favourite authors. But I have to say, I was truly disappointed in her mysteries. I felt that once you’d read one, you really read them all. If we’re, then, looking for a book here then I would go for Penhallow. I know it is said to be one of her best mysteries, but having just finished Death in the Stocks, I found that they were too similar and so I never completed it! Perhaps, I will try it again sometime…
• Most Surprising (in a good way!) Book of 2010 This is definitely Bram Stoker’s Dracula! I never ever thought I would read this book since I dislike horror. But after reading so much about how good it was in so many blogs and reviews I figured I’d give it a go. I’m soooo glad I gave it a try!….It was actually quite beautiful! And though many have complained that the end was rather too tame, for someone as chicken as me, it was perfect!
• Book You Recommended to People the Most in 2010 Okay, I’m going to have to bring in a re-read here. I found myself telling many folk new to Heyer to read Friday’s Child. A lovely, frolicking, enjoyable way to be introduced to this particular writer.
• Best Series You Discovered in 2010 Again, this is rather a tough decision. Mary Stewart’s Arthurian series and Colleen McCullough’s The Masters of Rome series run head-to-head. But I really want to mention The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Volume I by Diana Wynne Jones – it was such a strange, intriguing piece of fantasy.
• Favourite New Authors You Discovered in 2010 Mary Stewart and Colleen McCullough (I’d read her Thorn Birds years and years ago but had never finished it properly since I was too young to appreciate it, so this year’s read counts as a first!)
• Most Hilarious Read of 2010 I would have to say Cotillion by Georgette Heyer. I read it for the first time this year and found it a real riot! It’s taken its place among my Heyer favourites.
• Most Thrilling, Unputdownable Book in 2010 I’d have to say Stoker’s Dracula again! Perhaps, the first three books of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan might also fall in here, but Dracula definitely takes the cake!
• Book You Most Anticipated in 2010 Hmm…I don’t think I ever anticipated any of the books I read this year.
• Favourite Cover of a Book You Read in 2010 All the Heyer Arrow books are lovely, but if I were to pick one out of something besides Heyer it would have to be this one:

A picture of dignified Sydney Poitier in To Sir, With Love.

• Most Memorable Character in 2010 Oh, this is definitely Caesar from Caesar’s Women!
• Most Beautifully Written Book in 2010 Refer to my Best Books of 2010. They all take the cake of the written style!
• Book that had the Greatest Impact on You in 2010 I doubt anything made a grand impact on me. Unless, the best three can be said to have done so.
• Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Until 2010 to Read! Nothing here, I’m afraid!

Feature: Speaking of Pet Peeves Austen Paranormal Fan Fiction Takes the Cake! December 10, 2010

I first read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice when I was doing my eight grade, and I fell in love with it. I’ve read it a countless number of times since then. Added to that I have read Emma and Persuasion and enjoyed them. Most obviously and naturally there are others who love Austen too (one can not ignore the number of blogs that are dedicated to her!). However, should that automatically act as a precedent to numerous volumes of Austen fan fiction flooding the market?

I will admit at the very outset that I have not read any of these fan novels. I was tempted to read one or two and see if Austen’s well-loved characters had been treated well. But, having come across titles like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (they’re making a movie out of this?!?) and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and other horrors of this kind I feel like Austen’s works are simply being besmirched. Perhaps I would have liked reading a sequel that went well with her works, but complete distortions which I have only ever read on Fanfiction.net (when I was going through a silly phase a few years ago) have simply gone beyond the bounds of fan craze.

I look at the current trend of popular culture and see this morbid fascination for the paranormal. People no longer want to keep their wishful, fantastic, fanatic dreams to themselves it would seem. Personally, I think this trend is rather unhealthy. At this point I would like to point you towards this post by Patrick of THE LITERATE MAN. Although it is mostly about Meyer’s Twilight Series it is a way better expression of the direction the current book market has taken.

What started this mini-rant above was a post at AUSTENPROSE. Austen fans are celebrating the author’s birthday on 16 December with a blog tour and they have interesting prizes for those who would like to take part in the tour. It was not the post itself that got me ranting but the reminder of the paranormal books and the fact that I had just come over from reading afore mentioned post at Patrick’s blog.

Literary Blog Hop: Literary Pet Peeves! December 9, 2010

I came across the Literary Blog Hop only a day or two ago and realised that I would so much like to be a part of it. It’s nice to get to know other people who love to read the classics and literary fiction, not to mention their thoughts on these. This particular blog hop poses a question each week for interested persons to answer.

This week the question is:

What is one of your literary pet peeves? Is there something that writers do that really sets your teeth on edge? Be specific, and give examples if you can.

I have a few literary pet peeves, but the one that I would like to mention is this – reams and reams of prose  with no dialogue to add variety and liveliness. I have come across writers who embed their dialogue in the prose which does nothing but making reading an absolute monotonous affair. I have in mind Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. I was tempted to read the book after watching the movie (starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder). But I hadn’t gone more than six or seven pages into the book before I decided I couldn’t read any more. Conversation was completely absent, although the characters were conversing within the narrative.

I do feel bad for not having read the book through (and I intend gritting my teeth and giving it another go), but the style simply put me off. I guess, a sub-category for this would be lengthy sentences that form huge paragraphs in themselves. It’s a wonder writers who write this way don’t lose their train of thought half way through their sentence!

Does anyone else put a book aside because of endless prose and one sentence paragraphs?

Speaking of Classics, the Victorians Have a Challenge All Their Own December 8, 2010

Yep! It’s funny. I’d been thinking of running a Victorian Women Writers’ Challenge for the new year. But I had second thoughts ’cause I wasn’t too sure if I would do a good job of running the challenge! Therefore, I’m really delighted to learn that Bethany of words, words, words has decided to run the Victorian Literature Challenge.

The challenge is to choose from one of four levels that will give us a set number of Victorian books that is to be read by the end of 2011.

I have decided to go for the second level that Bethany has called Great Expectations. So, I’m expected to read 5-9 books. I have, already, a huge pile of Victorian novels sitting in my bookshelf. So, if I’m able to go through more than a few of them I might increase the level on this challenge.:)

So far, I’ve read:

1. A Tale of Two Cities
2. Agnes Grey
3. Peter Pan
4. The Age of Innocence  
5. …
6. …
7. …  

Any Challenge that Involves Classics is a Must Try! December 8, 2010

Back to the Classics Challenge 2011 is being run by Sarah from Sarah Reads too Much. I am very interested in this challenge for two reasons. One. Because I love reading the classics and it is my personal goal for the next few years to catch up on all the reading I have missed for the past few! Two. I love the manner in which the challenge works. There’s some sort of theme or prompt that each book must follow. Finding one that fits the bill is a challenge in itself!

Sarah is running this from 1 January 2011 till 30 June 2011. And following are the book goals:  

• A Banned Book: The Scarlet Letter
  
• A Book with a Wartime Setting (can be any war): Gone with the Wind 
• A Pulitzer Prize (Fiction) Winner or Runner Up:  The Age of Innocence 
• A Children’s/Young Adult Classic: Peter Pan
• 19th Century Classic: A Tale of Two Cities
• 20th Century Classic: The Great Gatsby
• A Book you think should be considered a 21st Century Classic: The Kite Runner
• Re-Read a book from your High School/College Classes: Persuasion

That’s 8 books in all for the challenge. Am really looking forward to it!