On my reading break, anime frenzy, books read, and other miscellaneous things. April 10, 2013

These long breaks have become quite frequent for me, it would seem. I was so sure that I wasn't going to be a mom who gave up reading just because she had to look after her kids. I have heard so many friends and aunts talk about how they haven't picked up a book for years and years because their children keep them too occupied. I figured, though, that if one was determined to read one easily could. I suppose that is still true, but I'm not as determined as all that. Reading ought to be for pleasure (unless I'm reading for studies) and right now I am too tired to find pleasure in reading. Reading a page a day doesn't work with me. It takes me so long to get into the mood and rhythm of a book; and coupled with having to leave everything I am doing hanging every few minutes while I see to one or the other of my sons, reading simply isn't an option. It takes me more than double the time to cook a decent meal only because my children need my attention. So, in order to relax I have taken to scouring Youtube and re-visitng one of my guilty pleasures — anime.

Until a month ago it had been years and years since I had watched Japanese anime. My sister and I were (are still) avid fans, and we used to watch so much of these, discussing them over meals, on our way to school and back, and at night before going to sleep. I decided to re-visit them as an alternative to reading because they don't really require much effort from a tired mind, and they're fun. I have to admit I've been watching quite a LOT of it this past month-and-a-half. I've been re-watching some old favourites and discovering new ones. This phase doesn't look like it's going to die out any time in the immediate future. (I say phase because I tend to 'get into phases' a great deal.)

Out of curiosity, are there any anime fans out there in this book blogging world? Have you anything good to recommend to me? I'm not particular about genre if they have a good plot and wholesome story.

Back to what I've been doing instead of reading…I've also been working on a few cross stitch projects that I'm hoping to gift to family next month. Progress has been slow, but I'm confident they'll be ready in time for the gifting. Then there's all the excitement over getting my older son ready for school. I'm also thrilled that he has begun to enjoy Sunday School and I'm looking forward to taking him to Vacation Bible School this summer! I'm going to be super busy during that time, but I know I won't mind it one bit. Then there's the vacation with my parents that I am very excited about — fresh air, slow life, folks to talk to besides my babies…yay!

I have decided to take a break from reading for at least a couple of months or so. Like I say, I'm not much inspired to pick up a book these days because I'm either too tired or don't have the necessary time to read. I don't know if this would mean complete abstinence from books. Knowing me, the moment I say I'll do something I won't do it, and vice versa. :-/

In the meantime, a quick update on what I read last month — I finally finished the Anne of Green Gables series. I devoured Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside, and oh, I had so much to say then, I don't know if I'll remember it all when I'm finally up to writing the commentary! But I just loved reading this series, and hope to get back to it in another couple of years or so. Also, I never forgot the whole Classics Spin Challange. However, I did try my best to read Black Beauty and simply couldn't go any further than chapter 18. The reasons?

• I am not an animal person
• the book is an autobiography of an animal (the sort of thing we used to write in the 4th grade!)
• too simplistic in style and nature for an adult (or so I personally feel)

So, I decided to give it up. IF I ever get back to it, it will only be because my sons are interested in horses and have asked me to read it to them aloud. This book is getting crossed off my classics list! Sorry…I haven't the patience for it.

 

Last month I acquired a couple of books from a sale that I finally decided to give to my mom –

• Redemption by Leon Uris (sequel to Trinity)
• Taj by T N Murari (about Shah Jahan and the love of his life)

I hope to get to these some day….hope… .

 

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February Turn of the Century Salon: On Lucy Maud Montgomery February 28, 2013

I haven't done any solid reading for the Turn of the Century Salon, so far. But I have been continuing with my reading of the Anne of Green Gables series. I have just finished reading Anne of Ingleside, and am half way through Rainbow Valley. So, why does this matter?

Since we're reading and talking of writers from the 1880s to the 1930s I figured Lucy Maud Montgomery falls well within the timeline. I think, perhaps, this is the only Canadian literature I have ever read, and each time I pick up Montgomery, I long to see Prince Edward Island. I wonder…does the Island still look the way it seems to have during Montgomery's day? Or would it be sheer disappointment to look at it now after reading all that gorgeous, heavenly scenery in Montogmery's novel? I think more than the Anne series, it is the scenic descriptions of The Blue Castle that has stuck with me. Perhaps, because, I read it at a time when I was ready to appreciate pages and pages of words written only on the weather and the scenery. On re-reading some of the Anne books I found I took much delight in these pages, in absolute contrast to the boredom with which I flipped through them when I was in my young teens.

I also find the everyday-ness of the books, cozy, re-assuring, charming and funny at times. One speaks of novels representing their time and age. How much do Montgomery's novels stay representative of P.E.I. and a tiny community of people? As I mentioned in my last review (on Anne of Ingleside), there is much about the tales of this community that rings true with all small towns. City people never know what is happening in the lives of their neighbours. It would be surprising if they even know the names of the people next door! However, in a small town, names of new neighbours are known even before they move in; their family history is the talk of the neighbourhood before a week is up; and all the juicy details of the many lives of every family in that town is public property. Trust me. I'm not speaking off the top of my head. My parents are leading retired lives in a lovely little town. As a child I disliked going there because every one seemed to think it was their business to talk about the things we did and wore. But as an adult I feel the charm of such a place. A walk down a short lane would take at least twenty minutes, because every few feet you meet with someone and stop for a brief chat of that day's news (I think newspapers are redundant in such places!). People drop in for some amiable gossip every day. Sometimes, you're the one doing the dropping in. The sense of community is strong, and while it can be tiresome that people know all your business, there is also a strong support system for people who need it. It's a quiet place, where time strolls leisurely through the town unlike in the city where it is rushing through constant traffic, trying desperately to allow space for a life. It's a place where one can go to recuperate, to relax, breathe in some fresh air, enjoy the beauty of the surrounding hills and fields. Yes, I know what Montogomery is talking about in her novels, and while P.E.I. might be thousands of miles away from where I am, it's little towns-folk are no different from the ones of the litte town this side of the world.

I have never been one to discover the life of the writer behind a novel. But often I find myself wondering about Lucy Maud Montgomery. What was her life like? Was she like the story girl? She must have been. What made her decide to be a full time writer and forgoe a family? Why could she not have had both? Would she then have ended up like Anne? What was her inspiration? Did writing provide her with a joy for living?…because her novels are always so full of life, imagination and adventure. And speaking of her books being representative of some lives, I love how her stories are so wholesome. There are wedding, births and deaths in equal number, and they all are so true of life. There is a huge spectrum of the manner in which various marriages work or don't work, the many deaths, the reactions to various folk, some people become endearing, others are tiresome, and others just grown on you. Perhaps, when I'm done with the Anne series I might try my hand at The Alpine Path…an autobiography of L M Montgomery.

 

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“Dubliners” for Irish Short Story Month February 28, 2013

I didn't think I would be taking part in Mel U's Irish Short Story Month this year. Then I noticed my copy of Joyce's Dubliners and realised that I could probably use this as an opportunity to read a few short stories from this collection, if not all of them. It has been a long while since I've read any short stories. I hope Joyce won't be a put off. However, I'm feeling a bit confident about it because the handful of reviews I have read on this collection sound quite positive. Also since I'm going ahead with this I figured I would count this in for a long post for The Turn of the Century Salon. And, I did consider counting this for A Modern March, but I figure I will stay out of that particular event since I might not have more to add to it.

I'm also, currently, in the middle of The Celtic Twilight by W B Yeats. I was hoping to finish it by the end of March, and so am wondering if I could count it towards Irish Short Story Month as well. However, it is not a series of short stories, but short non-fiction episodes of folklore that Yeats had picked up from conversations with others. They're incredibly interesting, though, and a great read for those interested in faerie folklore.

Are any of you taking part in the Irish Short Story Month? It's a great way to get introduced to Irish writers. It's amazing how many great ones are our there! Have you been reading anything Irish lately?

 

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Anne of Ingleside February 27, 2013

Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not sure, now, what it was that had put me off reading the sixth book in the Anne series. I was inclined to be querulous about it, to go all out and tear it to pieces. Perhaps it was the knowledge that this particular book was written years after the original six, and so I was afraid the old charm could not be maintained. Perhaps it was my experience of Anne of Windy Poplars which was the other book of the series that was written years after the original six — I had found it to be a bore, I had found it too saccharine, and there were just too many people and too many kindred spirits.

So, my experience through the first few chapters of this book was simply so-so. I had a moment of ranting when I wrote the following:

There are many times when I do dislike Anne Blythe. She is nice when it is convenient for her. And as long as folk are going along with her fantasies she is absolutely peachy. The incident of the obituary really put me off. So, here was a woman who wanted something pretty said of her dead husband. She obviously had loved him in her own way, and had understood that he was of a gentle, poetic nature, unlike herself who was something of a peasant woman. Wanting something special written about her husband, and not thinking the regular kind of obituary good enough for him, came to Anne Blythe. Anne writes a poetical piece, with no substance I might add, and gives it to the woman who says admiringly that it is 'sprightly' (which offends our poet who cannot understand a person who does not speak her language and interests). When the obituary is put in the papers it is found that there is an extra verse tagged on to the end of the poem, that is specific about what this man meant to his wife. Anne and the entire Ingleside household is offended. I thought that unfeeling and selfish. Anne Blythe gets on my nerves, she does! If a person isn't her kindred spirit then they are simply labeled unworthy of any consideration. BAH!

Looking back, I still see my point as valid, but…I realised that quite a bit of the episodes revolving around Anne (save the last one) I found rather annoying. However, most of the chapters in the books revolve around Anne's children. These chapters are an absolute delight. We grow to know the Ingleside children (except for Shirley, the third boy and last but one child of the family) deeply — their interests, their quirks, their little foibles, and troubles. Anne makes for a lovely mother. She always seems to know how to work with her children and help them solve their tiny-people problems. However, she isn't perfect, and I think the incident I loved best with Anne was the last one in the book with Gilbert. It was so normal. This was a normal marriage, where, when work takes over one's life, one can some times forget the simple pleasure of a loving spouse.

I think one can tell that once I was well into the book I began to relax and enjoy it all. I found I loved reading of the so many tales, the gossip and rumours about folks of Four Winds Harbour. I wondered what it would be like to live in the small town my parents have retired to. Exactly like Four Winds, no doubt! It's a place where one gets to hear what's happening in every single family. It's deliciously scandolour to go home and hear all the 'gossip'. This is the sort of book one should really enjoy for its everyday-ness, it's little stories that make up the lives of ordinary people in an ordinary society.

I am so eager to delve into the last two books of the series. Having got to know Jem, Walter, Di, Nan and Rilla in Anne of Ingleside, I am looking forward to adventuring with them through Rainbow Valley, and then re-acquainting myself with an older Rilla and Walter and Kenneth Ford in Rilla of Ingleside. This last book was my first of this series, and as I remember it, perhaps to remain my favourite. I hope.

 

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The night-ness of trees. February 27, 2013

L M Montgomery's novels are filled with imagery like these. I thought this one so true I simply had to record it on the blog!

Beyond, through the trees, they could see the moonlight shining across the level summer fields. But the little path was shadowy and narrow. Trees crowded over it, and trees are never quite friendly to human beings after nightfall as they are in daylight. They wrap themselves away from us. They whisper and plot furtively. If they reach out a hand to us it has a hostile, tentative touch. People walking amid trees after night always draw closer together instinctively and involuntarity, making an alliance, physical and mental, against certain alien powers around them. — (pg 89, Chapter 13-The House on the Hill, Rainbow Valley, Book #7 of the Anne of Green Gables series)

 

 

 

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The Classics Club: Question for February February 20, 2013

What classic has most surprised you so far, and why?

 

I believe it has to be Three Men in a Boat.

Mom had this book in her shelf for years and years and I never bothered to pick it up because…well…three men in a boat doesn't really sound like much fun. For one thing, I know nothing of boats. For another, a story about three men confined in one space? How boring!….or so, I had thought until I finally picked up this book.

I cannot tell you what prompted me to read it finally. I hadn't a clue what it was about, save for what the title said…and that it was humorous — though I was quite skeptical about that. (I had conveniently forgotten having read essays by Jerome K Jerome and finding them hilarious.)

However, having once picked it up I found myself laughing so much (more than I have done over a book in a very very long time!), nodding in agreement with much of J K Jerome's little snippets of life-sayings, and being quite blown away by how wonderfully, and beauteously poetical Jerome was prone to get. I was also quite startled to find that it was actually a creative travelogue of a journey down (or was it up?) the River Thames. Had I known this, again, I might never have touched this book. But having learnt of it only on the reading, I was really glad of it, and it has actually inspired me to pick up and read other creative travelogues! My first book in 2013 was Around India in 80 Trains, and I am hoping to read some William Dalrymple in the near future, plus I have also been inspired to give Around the World in 80 Days a go.

So, there you have it! In a nutshell — Three Men in a Boat which turned out to be a fun romp down the R. Thames and inspired me to start reading other creative travelogues.

Have any of you read Three Men in a Boat? What did you think of it? Do you read travelogues? What's your take on this non-fiction genre?

 

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The Classics Spin Luck of the Draw — Black Beauty! February 18, 2013

So, the drawn number is 14 and I am to finish Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. I began this early in the year to take part in the Children's Classic Literature Event but never got around to going past the first 15 chapters. I guess this is mainly due to the fact that I don't usually take to stories about animals, and couple with being and autobiography, plus written with simple language meant for children, I'm finding this one a bit difficult for me. However, with the goal of finishing it by April 1st ahead of me, I hope to finally cross this book off my list.

And, just for fun, I went onto a random number generator site to see, if I felt like it, what my next two books from this list could be. I drew #13 and #17 — Ben Hur and The Help, respectively. I'm not sure I'll follow through, but it's fun to just have these lined up for in case I feel like a bit more challenge after the short novel on Black Beauty.

Have you read Black Beauty before? What's your take on children's books about animals?

 

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