Owner: pages turned URL:http://pagesturned.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 13:28:58 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: I've kept an online reading journal/commonplace book since the fall of 2004. I'm partial to contemporary literary fiction, but I also enjoy the classics as well. Site statistics:Click here
All the running you can do 2008-03-04 18:04:00 It's Looking-Glass time and I'm feeling a bit pawned. To run fast enough to get anywhere, I'm going to need a blogging break.If I'm not back by Easter, throw a few dyed eggs through the mirror at me, okay? I promise not to tell Humpty Dumpty.See you in a fortnight or Ellie's the Red Queen! Read more:running
Library Leap Day 2008-02-29 17:53:00 Remember how we started painting walls and installing hardwoods the week before Christmas?We move very slowly.And when we're not moving slowly we often ignore the job at hand (and hope the other won't call us on it) and do nothing at all. We have ignoring chaos down to a fine art.Tomorrow we're getting back to work. We have to move the furniture out, instead of moving it from one end of the room to the other, and sand the floor and do all the prep work it might need. I assume we'll be doing staining and steel wooling and waxing in the evenings through most of next week.So this library haul is downright ridiculous. When am I going to have time to read?God's Bits of Wood. Sembene OusmaneIn the Driver's Seat. Helen SimpsonGods Behaving Badly. Marie PhillipsAll Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Read more:Library
No title 2008-02-29 10:48:00 Many years back, a couple of friends and I drove through Roland Park and Anne Tyler's neighborhood in Baltimore. We'd have wrecked on the spot if she'd happened to be outside, of that I have no doubt.Now her lovely stone house is on the market. I wonder why no one thought to take a photo of her bookcases? Perhaps the realtor is of the same sort that sold Shirley Jackson's house?
No title 2008-02-28 19:29:00 Probably not a good idea to write my six-word memoir after a conversation with my sister, but here goes:Only sane one in the family.
Sunday Salon: A Catch Up Post 2008-02-24 18:54:00 My, how time flies. Has it really been ten days since I last posted? I have no interesting tale to account for my absence; life proceeded as usual but somehow without any blogging taking place.I have been reading. After a war-heavy first-half of the month, I decided I needed something lighter, less serious than what had come before. I opted for Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, which was just the ticket until the very end. Drat that second world war--along with childbirth-- for spoiling the fun.I then moved on to nonfiction--after reading a couple reviews of Susan Jacoby's latest, I decided it was time to take Freethinkers down from the shelf. I've read through the chapter on Lincoln and will continue on at a slow pace. I can't decide if I want to buy a copy of The Age of American Unrea Read more:Catch
, Salon
, Sunday
After the honeymoon, etc. 2008-02-14 11:35:00 I had a post ready for today, but I liked this suggestion from Chris even better, so … thanks, Chris!Here’s something for Valentine’s Day.Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back? I'm either pretty loyal or my favorites are fairly consistent because I can't think of anything that applies here. I have read mid-career books I consider so good that I'm convinced the author can never write anything else that comes close; unfortunately, that has the effect of stopping me from reading the books that come after. . . I haven't read any Ian McEwan since Atonement topped my favorites list of 2002 and I haven't read any Barbara Kingsolver sin
Half of a Yellow Sun 2008-02-14 06:15:00 I lucked upon a pristine hardback copy of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow
Sun in the used bookstore not long after its 2006 publication date, but I let it languish on a shelf of unread hardbacks until Sunday afternoon. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down.Master was a little crazy; he had spent too many years reading books overseas, talked to himself in his office, did not always return greetings, and had too much hair.Thirteen-year-old village boy Ugwu becomes the houseboy for a Nigerian mathematics professor who hosts political discussions regularly in his home. Ugwu realizes quickly how lucky he is: he gets to sleep in a bed and his master intends to educate him. Before long Olanna, the professor's lover, joins the household and begins teaching at the univ
Sunday Salon: People of the Book 2008-02-10 11:36:00 "Well, from what you've told me, the book has survived the same human disaster over and over again. Think about it. You've got a society where people tolerate difference, like Spain in the Convivencia, and everything's humming along: creative, prosperous. Then somehow this fear, this hate, this need to demonize 'the other'--it just sort of rears up and smashes the whole society. Inquisition, Nazis, extremist Serb nationalists. . . same old, same old. It seems to me the book, at this point, bears witness to all that."~~~Of course, a book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand. The gold beaters, the stone grinders, the binders, those are the people I feel most comfortable with. Sometimes, in the quiet, these people speak to me. They let me see wha Read more:Salon
, Sunday
No title 2008-02-08 13:55:00 Bill Moyers asks, What one book do you want your next president to read?
Stop it already 2008-02-06 18:00:00 Is everyone else getting spammed by Xulon and Outskirt presses this week or did I bring this plague of locusts upon myself by mentioning last Friday that I'd been raised by fundie Baptists and had a friend who'd gone to a Christian college (he's partial to the Spaghetti Monster these days)?No, I will not review vanity press books. I don't give a flip about your relationship with Jesus or your advice on how to improve my life, I don't want to read your testimony, and honestly, when you tell me you can control the weather by speaking to it a la Jesus, I think you're batshit psychotic. No wonder you had to self-publish.I'm not your target audience, people. Sorry if that hurts your special little feelings, but hey, the truth shall make you free.
No title 2008-02-05 19:34:00 Guess where we're going this fall (hint: it isn't Utah).Guess what we're going to do.Click here to see if you were right.Jealous?
Our Horses in Egypt 2008-02-04 21:39:00 I had to leave the library and hide out in my car this afternoon to keep from making a spectacle of myself. I'd told myself I was a lot tougher than I was back in my Black Beauty days, when I'd become distraught over the fate of poor Ginger every single time, but the closer I came to the end of Rosalind Belben's Our Horses
in Egypt
, the more fragile I became. By the last page I was sobbing aloud.Thank goodness for parking lot privacy.History: Horses were requisitioned from the English countryside as military mounts near the beginning of World War I. Many of these horses died on the ships or during battles or succumbed to illness, poor conditions, starvation, exhaustion. At the end of the war, 22,000 horses who had managed to survive the Palestine campaign were left behind in Egypt by the W
January recap 2008-02-01 15:48:00 Ack. What kind of book blogger am I? It's already the first of February and what have I told you about the books I read in January
? Absolutely nothing. I keep waiting for the perfect time to do the perfect write-up, and that just isn't going to happen.So we'll all have to make do with a pull quote and brief comment or two. Yes, the books deserve better, but that's why I'm so behind in the first place.~~~'You're always talking about God,' said Laura. 'What does he say about this? What about caring when a swallow falls?''He may care for each individual woodcock,' said Nikolia, 'but for the destruction of one system by another, that is part of his plan. There is such war between nations, between empires. And take heed of what this little war, this woodcock shoot, really is. Men who are threat
Quirky 2008-01-31 05:27:00 This week’s question is suggested by (blogless) JMutford:Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?It depends upon the skill of the writer, I think. Anne Tyler wrote the best quirky characters of all back in the 70s and 80s--the Tulls, the Pecks, Macon Leary, Charlotte Emory, Jeremy Pauling. I've just finished Jessica Mitford's Hons and Rebels, a memoir of growing up in an extremely eccentric aristocratic family, that I loved and I would actually come down completely in the Quirky = Good column were in not for awful, awful fare like Billie Letts' Where the Heart Is. I'm sad to report that plenty of People Who Are Not Me enjoy Let
Celebrating Patry Francis 2008-01-29 17:27:00 As for Ali, the only time she noticed my existence was when she passed the desk, calling out one of her ebullient morning greetings. She never stopped and asked me to copy handouts or research something on the computer like the other teachers did. And even when she did eat in the lounge, Ali blithely ignored the groups who clustered together around Formica tables, complaining about troublemaking students or aides who weren't doing their jobs. Ali never attempted to penetrate the well-established circles like most newcomers did. Instead, she cheerfully greeted everyone, then buried herself in one of the books from her backpack--usually novels with unfamiliar titles. Occasionally, she took out a book covered in a rich red silk and wrote in it quietly in her corner. She'd write a bit, then ch Read more:Francis
Eva's Meme 2008-01-27 13:55:00 Eva's Awesome Reading MemeWhich book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews? I cringe away from red covers, pink covers, and geisha books written by men. Cover photos of hanks of hair squick me out, too.If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be? I'd love for Augustus McCrae to come to tea at Margaret and Helen Schlegel's. Margaret and Helen would probably prefer a confab around a camp fire, but I don't trust Gus quite enough to risk it, considering how caught up he's going to be in being the center of attention.(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until
No title 2008-01-26 16:32:00 "Lolita" is the smartest book.
No title 2008-01-20 16:20:00 I've intended to join The Sunday Salon since the moment I heard of it--an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book sounds perfect to me--but I told myself I'd postpone participation until after we'd finished the bedroom renovations. But the renovations are dragging on--L. needs to buy more wood to complete the closet and dressing area and then let it acclimate before we can sand, stain, wax, etc.--and I can't deal with the mountain peak of old clothes currently on the bedroom floor for very long without being overcome with allergies, so here I am, avoiding sorting (gah, I hate clothes), tissue box at hand, at least for awhile.I've finished only three books so far this year and have yet to write about any of them des
Let them eat cake 2008-01-17 09:38:00 I'm a desultory cook; uninspired, rather resentful that the onus of meals defaults onto my leave-me-alone-and-let-me-read shoulders. Of course I breastfed my babies; it was the easiest way to avoid the kitchen entirely.Unfortunately, my husband would rather subsist on peanut butter sandwiches three meals a day than cook, and neither of the kids turned into a hybrid vigor in the culinary department, so I trudge on, turning to Fanny Farmer or one of the spiralbound church- or community-group- issued publications from my hometown when I feel obligated to produce something that's more than merely edible. Pathetic, c'est moi.But for Christmas I got a KitchenAid stand mixer and after a few days of admiring its color, I concluded that to justify the amount of counter space it was consuming I'd be
No title 2008-01-16 10:22:00 Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant.Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all menYou are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.How Rare Is Your Personality?
January books 2008-01-14 17:55:00 New books!The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. Nancy Mitford. Am I the only one who's never read a book by a Mitford?Darkmans. Nicola Barker. I know some thought this one should have beat out the Enright for the Booker.The God Delusion. Richard Dawkins. I'm glad I waited for the paperback; Dawkins responds to negative reviews the hardback received in a new preface. No mention of Marilynne Robinson's smackdown, however. . .The Country of the Pointed Firs. Sarah Orne Jewett. For one of my many reading challenges.Goldberg: Variations. Gabriel Josipovici. Josipovici's name has shown up on various blogs the last couple of years and in a manner that's always left me feeling intimidated. I decided to see if that intimidation is warranted.An Absolute Gentleman. R.M. Kinder. A review cop Read more:January
No title 2008-01-14 12:05:00 David Masello on E.B. White:Reading an essay by White is akin to exploring a Colonial-era house to which many wings have been added over the years. In a readerly walk-through, you take a step up or down, follow a dark hallway to a room that was once a porch, duck your head as you re-enter an original part of the house with wide-planked floors that slope. His windows would be the kind fitted with wavy, Bull's-Eye-glass panes that reveal what is beyond, but with an added dimension. His essays ramble in ways that make you want to follow along. He never strays far from the primary topic, and every detour he takes is compelling.
Once Upon A Time the Second 2008-03-20 16:58:00 Carl's second annual Once Upon A Time Challenge starts tomorrow. I'm hoping to complete Quest the First--five books from the mythology, folklore, fairy tale and fantasy genres--but it's nice to know that there's a Journey category with a commitment of only one book if I should fall behind.My five selections:Gods Behaving Badly. Marie PhillipsThe Annotated Alice. Lewis CarrollGirl Meets Boy. Ali SmithSummerland. Michael ChabonThe Once and Future King. T.H. White Read more:Second
Easing back into blogging 2008-03-19 12:20:00 Four links:Did They Have Fanfic in the Middle Ages?Yet anyone who's read the Canterbury Tales knows that the thing needs footnotes aplenty just to begin to get all the inside jokes and pop cultural references. Chaucer may not be obsessed with the A-Team or Strawberry Shortcake, but he's still unable to get through a paragraph without a sly aside that requires you to have read the Romance of the Rose or Boethius in order to understand.Have you heard about the novelists' strike?A report published last week by the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication found that the strike has thus far had an economic impact of approximately 0.00 to 0.01 percent. In addition, consumer habits remain unaffected, with 0 percent of those polled saying their reading habits had changed "sign
A case of guilt 2008-04-04 04:56:00 Last weekend I pulled a goodly portion of my unread hardbacks off the doublestacked shelves in the study and corralled them on a wicker etagare in the bedroom. I'm calling the collection my Case of Guilt. If these books are the first things I see when I walk into the room, surely I'll want to read them next, surely I'll not be as quick to order additional hardback brethren for which there is no room. At my current rate of speed it would take me at least a year to get through them all and shouldn't that realization be deterrent enough?I hope I won't reach the end of the year and realize what I've really assembled is a Case of Neglect. If so, I'll need to turn these shelves into, say, a favorite authors showcase and turn these books back into the herd. Read more:guilt
Lit-Ra-Chur 2008-04-03 17:10:00 When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?) Prostitutes.Seriously.My daughter, who'll graduate from college next month with a degree in Slavic linguistics, started reading Dostoevsky back in 8th grade. At some point in 9th grade she informed me that she'd determined the distinguishing element that separated a work of literature from mere fiction:It had to have a prostitute in it.Such a witty girl.Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must? Something else my daughter told me.She took an intro to philosophy class (discussed Dostoevsky's prostitutes with the instructor), then told me she'd figured me out: I was a hedonist.What took you so long? I ask
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