Literary Stuff

I’ve never done a “meme” but Allison came up with one I find very interesting, so here it is.   

1. What is your favorite passage/line from a book?

I like the very end of The Poisonwood Bible but I am not going to type it out here.  Basically the spirit of the expired child lives on in the jungle, forever, in the form of a green mamba that bit her.  At least that is what I took from it.  It gave me all sorts of chills.

2. What do you consider the best film adaptation from a book? What do you think is the worst film adaptation?

Best: Probably the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I also recently enjoyed the live-action Charlotte’s Web, since it added to the book rather than taking away from or changing it.  Note:  Since becoming a mom I’ve seen about three movies, and two of them were animated.  So if my answers are lame, consider that the reason. 

Worst: There are oh, so many…since I can’t think of anything offhand, I’ll go with Grisham’s The Firm.  The book was so much better.  Another recent failure was Memoirs of a Geisha.  Great book, awful movie.

3. What is the first book you remember reading?

I remember reading a set of 1964 Childcraft books for hours on end.  I also had a set of Snoopy and Charlie Brown reference books that I loved.  But the first “book” book I remember reading was Charlotte’s Web.  I still have that copy, too.  It’s old and smells old.  The pages are *this close* to falling apart. 

4. Did you have a favorite kids’ book as a child?

Probably Charlotte’s Web, but I would have to say The Land of Oz was up there.  It’s part of the Wizard of Oz series, and I remember reading about the Gump, which was an animal made from a sofa, I think.

5. What book did you hate reading for a school assignment?

I really hated The Red Badge of Courage, and I hated Heart of Darkness.  I think that I should probably read them again, since I probably hated those books for interfering with my high school fun.

6. What is the most recent book you read (or are currently reading)?

I am re-reading One Hundred Years of Solitude at the moment.  I just finished The Echo Maker and Digging to America.  The next book up will be Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo.

7. What book would you most like to see turned into a movie?

I would like to see Cormac McCarthy’s The Road turned into a movie.  Part of me also wants Peter Jackson to make the Dark Tower series into something, but I’m afraid that whoever tries will screw it up.

8. What book did you cheat and read the “Cliff Notes” version?

The Great Gatsby.  It didn’t interest me in the slightest, so I tried Cliff Notes for the first time.  I should probably give this one another try, too.

9. What book would you never read again, no matter how much someone was going to pay you?

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor.  I should have known anything written by someone named “Flannery” was going to suck.  That said, I think I didn’t get it because I am not Southern.  We read this in the book club I used to be in.  Remind me some time to blog about my ex-book club. 

10. Are you more of a library or book store person?

Book store for sure, though I am trying really hard to become a library person.  When I was a kid I read 99% of the books in the Youth section of the Butte Public Library.  I even checked some of them out twice.  I enjoyed pulling out the card to see how many people checked it out since I had. 

11. Have you tried audio books? Do you like them?

No, I hate the very idea of audio books.  I don’t think they should count as reading.  Most of them have to cut out so much of the story to fit it on the tape.

12. Has any movie ever inspired you to then read the book on which it was based?

The only time I can think of this happening was the recent Capote fad, where I just had to read In Cold Blood.  I’m sorry I did.  It was a great book, and great movie, come to think of it…horrible true story.

13. Describe a passage from a book that made you cry.

The very last line in Charlotte’s Web never fails to get me.  “Charlotte was both.”  The Notebook made me bawl, I am ashamed to admit.  I have avoided all of Nicholas Sparks creations ever since.  I refuse to read books that I know will make me cry, such as the book about the dog (what was his name…Marley?).  I just won’t do it.  I am not a fan of feeling sad.

14. What is your favorite book series?

The Dark Tower.  I haven’t read a lot of series other than that, at least as an adult.  I was all about Sweet Valley High in middle school, though.  I want to read the Stephanie Plum books though.  Is that a series?  I like the idea of series.  I just never read them. 

15. Describe your favorite place to read.

The bathtub!  I read “just one more chapter” until the water is cold.  I also like to read on airplanes and in bed. 

 

Goodbye Kurt Vonnegut

 So it goes.

 

Ethnic

I just finished Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake.  It was a great book.  I love reading novels about other cultures.  The Namesake wasn’t necessarily about another culture, but the characters and many of the events were Indian.  It really gets me to thinking about the mystery of life, and why we end up where we end up.  Why was I born in Montana, USA,  while others are born in crack houses and mud huts and villas and flats and in refugee camps?  How does one end up being born here, versus Europe, Asia, or anywhere?  Fascinating. 

Does all this mean my heritage revolves around Wal-Mart, Burger King, and other grossly American ideas?  In The Namesake, the mother Ashima spends an afternoon preparing for a party, deep frying Indian food that I can’t pronounce, and wearing shiny saris and things that sound foreign and exciting.  I guess here in America we have Christmas cookies to fall back on–even though those are hardly made from scratch anymore, thanks to the tradition-sucking theives at Nestle’. 

The closest I have ever felt to “ethnic” was in third grade, when schoolmate Josh C. ran up to me on the playground of Emerson Elementary and said “My parents said your parents are pinko commies.”*  Had there been Internet, or even an old copy of the C volume of the World Book in our house then, I’m sure I would have ran straight home after school and Wikipedia’d the slur.  But at the time I felt kind of cool. 

Years later, when I found out what a pinko was, I wanted to run up to little Josh and pull a Stalin on his arse.

*Based on maiden name - Kovnesky

 

Veronica

I just finished reading an amazingly well-written novel - Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill. 

That is all.  It was so vivid that I had to come write about it.  That is all.

Now ask me if I have finished - er, started the book club book.  (no)

My excuse will probably be I had to work too much to read, but that isn’t really true.  I did have to work a lot, which compressed my free time into a peanut-sized module of air.  So I wanted to read something I got to pick and could finish at my leisure (I pronounced that in my head as leh-zzzzure) without being constrained to a deadline.

I hope I don’t get booted.  I am looking forward to next month’s Nanny Diaries.  I read most of it before, but it was quick and I don’t remember much other than it was funny.

TV note - I am totally in love with Grey’s Anatomy.  Why didn’t anyone tell me it was so good?  Thank goodness for TiVo, and my ability to function with little sleep for months on end.