New Books!

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.

Musing Monday

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.

Penguin Cover Notebooks (!!!)

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.

Booking Through Thursday

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!).

Review: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s & other short stories” by Truman Capote

It was a warm evening, nearly summer, and she wore a slim cool black dress, black sandals, a pearl choker. For all her chic thinness, she had an almost breakfast-cereal air of health, a soap and lemon cleanness, a rouge pink darkening in the cheeks … A pair of dark glasses blotted out her eyes. It was a face beyond childhood, yet this side of belonging to a woman.” – p. 17.

Truman Capote’s classic masterpiece is narrated by an unknown writer. The only name he is ever associated with is ‘Fred’ which Holly Golightly christens him with. Sprightly and energetic, ‘Fred’ recalls the days of his relationship with Holly while they were neighbours living in downtown New York. Holly’s eccentricities intrigued the lonely and quiet writer and, together, they strike up a heartwarming but mismatched friendship. Holly, a prostitute, although it is never explicitly stated, and gold digger remains ambiguous and mysterious despite her verbose and flighty nature. Hints of physical abuse, and later sexual abuse, in her childhood are also insinuated. Her materialistic and occasionally insensitive nature is contrasted against her close bond with her absent beloved brother who is serving in the army and is intellectually slow.

This short story is truly amazing. It’s been a long time since I’ve been blown away by such deft and brilliant writing. In only 100 pages, Capote creates such vivid characters, voices, images and worlds. The character of Holly. although perhaps intended to be unlikable, is so well drawn by Capote who is careful to counteract her hardness with soft touches here and there.

This is truly an amazing piece of work – my mouth is still gaping. Aspects of it remind me also somewhat of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

I have been putting off writing a review for this because I felt I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. I also came to the story as a complete novice since I’d never seen the movie either. All I knew about the tale was the black dress and pearls. Having seen the movie after reading the book, I can I much prefer the book although I did enjoy the movie.

The three other short stories in the same volume are also brilliant and really brings home Capote’s genius. Such slight stories in such varying environments they all capture the essence of the world it embodies. House of Flowers paints the life of a prostitute in the Caribbeans who leaves her position to marry. With a mix of mysticism and witchcraft weaved in, it is truly different from Tiffany’s. A Diamond Guitar depicts the life in an American prison farm with undertones of racism. Finally, A Christmas Memory is one of the most poignant and saddest stories I’ve read. It simply tells of the close bond relationship between a young boy and a very old woman.

Four such remarkable and different stories, all wonderfully told. The best $8 I’ve ever spent!

Musing Monday

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.

Musing Monday

This week’s MM

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your tbr pile…

How many books (roughly) are in your tbr pile? Is this in increasing number or does it stay stable? Do you ever experience tbr anxiety in the face of this pile? (question courtesy of Wendy)

I think I am very close to being crushed to death by my ever growing TBR pile – metaphorically of course. There’s a pile by bed (there’s around 5), there’s the pile on the desk and little piles scattered around my room on various furniture (around 25), then there’s all the books that are waiting patiently on the shelves (my brain will burst if I try to give a number). Not to mention all the books that I still want to read which aren’t even in the house yet.

There’s no set order in what I read next. My feelings change every time I go pick up a new book to read and I go with that. I do sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the magnificent books I’ve still to read and wondering when I will get the chance to but that soon goes away.

The Private Library

Here is a very nice link to a blog that details the ideas, methods, history and everything in between in the world of book collecting for readers like ourselves.

http://www.privatelibrary.typepad.com/

There are even links to shelving ideas and library designs. Marvellous!