This week’s MM
Who, if anyone usually accompanies you to the library? Is it somewhere you go alone? Or is it a regular outing with family or friends? Which do you prefer?
When I do go to the library, it is usually by myself. I find it more of a solitary and more comfortable time if I’m not constantly overshadowed or pestered by another person – even if they are great friends or fellow book lovers. However, at times, particularly back at uni, I would go to libraries with friends but we would split up and do our own thing before meeting up again whenever we’ve all finished.
I have decided that for the second half of the year, I will attempt to only purchase second-hand books. It not only helps my hip pocket but it also supports the abundance of independent second-hand booksellers that I have re-discovered. However, I think I will exclude classics since they are readilly available and much cheaper first hand. But otherwise, second-hand all the way.
The Angel’s Game is the long awaited second book by the author who gave us the wonderful invention of the cemetary for books in Shadow of the Wind. While the Spanish and original version was published last year, most of the English speaking readers had to wait a year for the translation.
Angel’s Game is billed as the ‘prequel’ to Shadow and in some ways it is rightly so but it can also stand alone. This is the tale of David Martin and his struggle through life and his dream of becoming a published and respected author. Life has been hard on David and what he really needs is one good turn and a lucky break. He gets it eventually when he is commisioned by two manipulative publishers to write a series of penny dreadfuls under an assumed name. Throughout his life, David had been receiving sporadic letters from a mysterious, and evidently very rich, fan and patron of his work named Andreas Corelli. Correli maintains he is a French publisher although nobody has ever heard or seen him and mysterious circumstances surround his publishing house in France.
The plot thickens when David, near death from a brain tumour, receives an offer from Corelli, who finally visits David, to write him a book. It would be under his own name and he would receive a small fortune as an advance. David accepts and everything in his life begins to collapse around him.
This is certainly an enthalling and wonderfully plotted story set in gothic, pre-war Barcelona. There are some lovely continuities with Sempere and Sons bookshop and the Sempere family along with the revisit to the book cemetery. Throughout the book, I caught strong whiffs of Great Expectations, which is very obvious, Dickensian story elements and a bit of Paulo Coehlo.
However, I do think the editor didn’t quite do their job properly because some parts of the book didn’t feel ‘tight’ enough to me. Some parts dragged, particularly the beginning and I’m sure there were more parts throughout the book which could have been better edited. The ending was rather … sudden for me and caused some confusion. While Zafon probably intended on leaving an open ending with the rest quite self-explanatory, I would have at least liked a little bit of closure. It just grew a little frantic with possibly needless deaths. I remember scenes like this in Shadow towards its end also.
Despite that, I really did enjoy the book. I’ll have to reread Shadow since it’s been awhile. I’ve heard there are to be four books in this ’series’ so hopefully we’ll see one soon and won’t have to wait another five years.
This week’s BTT
Do you read celebrity memoirs? Which ones have you read or do you want to read? Which nonexistent celebrity memoirs would you like to see?
I don’t read celebrity memoirs since I’ve never been interested in them. I have only read Lauren Bacall’s memoir/autobiography. I guess I would like to read Julie Andrew’s memoir but I would prefer to read about memoirs about more … ‘ordinary’ people. I think a writer’s memoir would be much more interesting.
While discussing literature, philosophy, the ways of the world and the weather with a new friend, it occured to me that there is considerable gaps in my reading experience. I have mainly focused on contemparary books classified as ‘literature’ and the English, Greek and Roman classics. I had never heard of Don DeLilo until last year and nor did I pay much attention to post-modernist or science fiction novels. I’ve been trying to include more Russian and French classics into my readings. I’m not stuch in a reading rut but I’m mindful of trying to broaden my horizons and curious too. I’ve discovered some great names and titles from this friend and likewise for her (I hope).
New acquisitions this week (I really need to stop buying books…):
1. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
2. She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir
- Tim Winton has won his fourth Miles Franklin book award for Breath. I haven’t read many of his books aside for Dirt Music which won the Miles Franklin in 2002.
- This is the BIG news – the Tomorrow series will finally be made into a movie trilogy! They’re focusing on the first three books and will be written and directed by Stuart Beattie who also co-wrote the script for ‘Australia’. I hope it turns out to be wonderful.
I also bought some more of those orange Penguins which were further marked down. They are just wonderful although I’m pretty sure they will probably disintergrate in my hands in ten years time. New titles are:
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- The Surgeon of Crawthorne by Simon Winchester
- The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
- Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl
I must have almost half the available titles. I also got my Zafon which I’m very excited about.
I have been pushed to the limit these last couple of weeks and attempting to juggle everything in my life. At times I wonder when I became such a grown up when I remember very clearly I would not turn into one of those people where work is their life. But this is only for a temporary basis so I can live with it. It certainly gives me taste though.
As a result, I’ve been a little out of the bookish world. Just some tidbits here:
- Two new Poirot stories have been uncovered from Agatha Christie’s holiday house. They’re short stories, sketches Christie made, before they’re turned into novels. These will be included in a book on Christie with reproductions of her notebooks that will be released this September.
- Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s newie, The Angel’s Game, is FINALLY out in Australia. I’ve waited a year for this translation (the Spanish version was released last year) so I’m very excited to read it. However, I must get a copy first!
- I finished reading Lucky, Alice Sebold’s memoir. It’s one of the most traumatic books I’ve ever read. Sebold is a swift writer and manages to hook you in despite the horrible events that happens to Sebold. I highly recommend it but I don’t recommend reading it before work!
Life has caught up with me and I’ve been crazed by stress. However, I’m not crazed enough to not appreciate new books. 
I was strolling around Borders and saw they were having a special on the Orange Penguins if you bought three. Who was I to protest? It was difficult picking out the three. I chose:
1. Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
2. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
3. The History of Sexuality by Michel Foucault
I also would have liked In Cold Blood by Truman Capote but I guess that can wait another day. I love these Penguins! I can’t wait for the new batch to be released.
This week’s MM
Do you remember how you developed a love for reading? Was it from a particular person, or person(s)? Do you remember any books that you read, or were read to you, as a young child? (question courtesy of Diane)
My parents weren’t, and still aren’t, big readers but mum did always encourage me to go to the library which was only a 2 minute walk from our place. I remember one of the very first books I read by myself (well, I followed the words while listening to a cassette) was Noisy Nora. I moved along to various picture books but I remember that I was never really interested in picture books and I’d skip that section and go browse through the YA section even though they were still pretty difficult. Much of my childhood was consumed with YA series – Goosebumps, all of Sweet Valleys, Baby-sitter’s Club, Baby-sitter’s Little Sister, etc. Sweet Valley was the major player though along with Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton.
Reading was never difficult for me and I never struggled with it. In primary school, I was always chosen to help other kids read, and when I was older, to go listen to the preps read. My love for reading was probably cemented after reading Roald Dahl’s Matilda though. Wonderful story and pictures.
Be still, my pounding heart.
Penguin has released a series of blank notebooks with the covers of popular works. It looks exactly like the orange, classic Penguins except now you can pen your next masterpiece in it. It’s a fantastic idea and I can’t wait to go and grab a few of these spendiferous notebooks although it will look like you’re scribbling away in a copy of the actual book (a big, bibliophile no-no) to the unsuspecting public. If you don’t fancy being constantly intimidated by Virginia Woolf and George Orwell while you’re penning the next great classic, there’s also the choice of having a series of Penguin spines as the cover.
I’m very excited! And, of course, it’s obviously another way for Penguin to make quick bucks. We all know stationery freaks, writers and bibliophiles won’t be able to resist.
And they even have matching sets of pencils!
I would like the matching mug too, please.
All from Notemaker.
This week’s BTT.
Mariel suggested this week’s question
Book Gluttony! Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?
Oh dear. My eyes are definitely much bigger than my book belly and if what I’ve amassed, and continue to, transpired into reality, I’ll be deader than dead! I would have exploded with all these little books flying out of me like colourful confetti. I made an effort to stop buying books I knew I wouldn’t read immediately last year, and it did work because my collection hardly grew, but my book purchases for English Lit. offset those book buying urges. This year, and more recently (say…yesterday), I’ve been purchasing so much more books and I have made up some very good excuses during the line at the register (to stimulate the economy! to keep my literary mind active! reading is fun! books are purdy! no, you’re not poor – just monetary challenged! it’s buy-10-get-1-free!).
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about boys and reading…
Have you ever finished a book, then turned around and immediately re-read it? Why? What book(s)? (question courtesy of MizB)
There have been books like these in the past where I immediately flick back to the first few chapters and skim through them again but their titles elude me. I’m a Harry Potter fan and one of the reasons I love them is the way Rowling leaves little obscure clues throughout her books that lead up the big reveal. That makes it fun and exciting and it’s interactive in a particular way. It’s also very clever of Rowling as a way to encourage readers to re-read her books.
The most recent book I can think of is Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I was truly bowled over by the story and writing that I immediately flicked back and started over. It’s now one of my favourite stories.
Otherwise, the sheer amount on the TBR pile pretty much leaves little time for re-reads although I am currently re-reading The Ghost Writer by John Harwood. It was so good I remember zooming through it and being scared pantsless by it. I’m still scared the second time round because I’m anticipating what’s to come.
