Reading on Mondays

What I’m Reading on Mondays.

Finished:

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. I read it before I went and saw the play with Cate Blanchett as Blanche!

Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl. This has been my travelling book and short stories are perfect for it. Each story was captivating and thrilling while at the same time able to be picked up and put back down. This book just cements Roald Dahl as one of the best and most creative and imaginative writers ever. He’s also very sly and manipulative as a writer too.

Reading:

Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland. I’ve been waiting for the right moment to start this because I don’t want to put it down. It’s also a large paperback so it can’t be carried around in my bag.

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. Ongoing relationship with all things existentialist.

Bibliotopia, or, Mr. Gilbar’s Book of Books and Catch-all of Literary Facts and Curiosities compiled by Steven Gilbar. A marvellous little book I found at the book stall in the Sydney Theatre while waiting for the play to start. It has little facts and figures of bookish things. Very American biased but still fun to read. It’s designed to be picked up and put down.

Literary Eye Candy

For fans of Neil Gaiman or just books in general, check out Neil Gaiman’s private library. See it and weep.

Booking Through Thursday

This week’s BTT.

What’s the most enjoyable, most fun, most just-darn-entertaining book you’ve read recently?

(Mind you, this doesn’t necessarily mean funny, since we covered that already. Just … GOOD.)

Most of what I’ve been reading (and tend to read) are somewhat…dire. However, I have been reading Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected for my ‘tram’ book. It’s fabulously fun, clever and witty and the endings are always superb and ‘unexpected’ I guess you could say. They’re a collection of short stories so they’re perfect for travelling with.

Musing Monday

This week’s MM.

Do you find yourself forming trends in your reading? Is this a conscious act, influenced by either your own interests or current publishing fads?

I don’t usually have a trend when reading but I do go through phases. I went through a classics phase, Sensation fiction phase, *cough* Dan Brown phase *cough*, Indian writers phase, Agatha Christie etc. Many of those phases were brought on by subjects done in uni and that had spurred my interest. Currently, while I’m still reading other books, I’m in an Existentialist phase and trying to get my hands on a lot of the works by Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and also trying to discover new existentialist writers. However, I start to feel a little guilty at being so narrow with my choices that I soon feel compelled to break up trends and go read something entirely different.

I’m not at all interested in publishing fads. In fact, if I do notice a fad happening, I won’t touch it with a ten foot pole.

Review: ‘The Outsider’ by Albert Camus

*WARNING – spoilers*

Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.

The defining opening lines of this classic existentialist novella succinctly illustrates the state of Meursault’s mind. The mother is such an revered figure in our society that when a child does not know, or is so indifferent, towards their mother’s death, alarm bell rings in the reader’s mind that there is something odd about this man.

As the novella progresses, we see that Meursault is a unique man. He listens to his body and is highly attuned to its needs and wants. He feels like smoking so he’ll smoke. He wants to feel the fluidity of water so he’ll go for a swim. He feels like making love so he sleeps with a pretty girl who has been reacquainted with him the day after his mother’s funeral. There is no explanation for Meursault’s actions because there is none. He simply acts and is and there is nothing unauthentic about him. He rarely, if at all, thinks for the consequences and lives in the moment. This will be his downfall.

After a string of events, Mersault shoots dead an Arab on the beach. His defence is that the sun blinded and overpowered him. The magistrate is willing to accept Meursault’s reasoning except for the extra shots Meursault fired at the victim after it was apparent he was dead. Meursault cannot explain it.

The trial turns into somewhat of a farce as Meursault curiously examines the proceedings and watches the expressions of those present. Everybody has a front, an act. As the trial progresses, the court hears that Meursault did not properly demonstrate that he had mourned his mother but that he went swimming, saw a funny film and took a girl home. In the end, Meursault realises that he is on trial for not conforming to social norms and that he is on trial for not mourning his mother, firing the last shots into the dead victim and for his indifference towards the world. He realised the truth of the world, saw the world and society for what is was and saw that regardless of what he did, or how well he played the social game, everybody was eventually going to die and everything will disappear.

The Outsider is somewhat a desolate novella but it resonated with me. This was my first re-reading after working with it in Year 12 English and new things have struck me. Meursault will appear differently to every reader – some will view him as an unrepentant murderer, even mentally ill or somewhat heroic. I perceive him in the latter because it is incredibly brave for someone to refuse to conform. This is a terrific piece of work and writing, or my translation, is wonderful and fluid. The sentences are simple, short and staccato which helps ease readers into Meursault’s mind.

Booker Prize Shortlist 2009

This year’s Booker Prize shortlist has been announced. The list looks really good and looks much better than previous years. The titles are:

• The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
• Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The entire list is now on my TBR list. They all sound fascinating particularly The Children’s Book. Wolf Hall probably has the best cover. However, the list appears to favour more prominent and established authors – or perhaps that a coincidence.

Life Defined by Literature

I’ve snipped this from Paperback Reader. Looks like immense fun (the book geek that I am).

Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.

Describe yourself: The Reader (Bernhard Schlink)

How do you feel: The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)

Describe where you currently live: Love in a Cold Climate (Nancy Mitford)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Truman Capote)

Your favorite form of transportation: 4.50 from Paddington (Agatha Christie)

Your best friend is: Lucky (Alice Sebold)

You and your friends are: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll)

What’s the weather like: Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

You fear: The Plague (Albert Camus)

What is the best advice you have to give: Let the Right One In (John Ajvide Lindqvist)

Thought for the day: This is How (M.J. Hyland)

How I would like to die: Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

My soul’s present condition: Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)

That was pretty hard! Leave a link if you decide to do this too. I’ll be interested in your replies.

And here’s a quiz via With Extra Pulp about your reading personality.

Your Reading Personality: Eclectic Reader!

You read for entertainment but also to expand your mind. You’re open to new ideas and new writers, and are not wedded to a particular genre or limited range of authors.

Well, that was interesting. The book quotes were all so fabulous I wanted to pick them all.

Friday Finds

This week’s Friday Finds.

What great books did you hear about / discover this past week? Share with us your FRIDAY FINDS!

Been on a little book shopping spree lately which even includes a new small bookcase!

• The Lucky Country – Donald Horne
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Age of Reason – Jean-Paul Sartre
• Lord of the Flies – William Golding
• The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
• Carry Me Down – M.J. Hyland (still waiting for it in the post though)

Booking Through Thursday

This week’s BTT.

What’s the biggest book you’ve read recently?

(Feel free to think “big” as size, or as popularity, or in any other way you care to interpret.)

I’m going to interpret this questions as ‘popularity’ big. I haven’t been reading as much lately but I did finish M.J. Hyland’s This is How yesterday which was absolutely spiffing. The book has been reviewed in all the literary magazines and columns so I guess it is pretty big at the moment.

The Disillusionment of Borders

I was going to title this post ‘The Rape from Borders’ but perhaps it might have been a little too extreme.

Having received a gift card for my birthday (hoo-rah!) for Borders, I was no doubt in a hurry to spend it – even after all the books I’ve recently bought. I went in after uni and decided I might settle for the 3-for-2 promotion to get more bang for my buck. Well, the selection was dismal and that idea was soon forgotten.

So I proceeded to browse through the stacks, and because I actually had money to spend on whatever I wanted (kind of) I looked at each shelf carefully rather than skimming. I started at ‘A’ and by the time I got to ‘C’ I was suffering neck pains and feeling quite nauseaus from constantly squatting down to the see the very bottom shelf – where all the good literature happened to be shelved. The placement is horrendous and the short shelves makes browsing annoying. Skimming is fine, but it makes it hard work for browsing.

I found a few books I would have liked to get but the prices Bordesr charge is riddiculous! Prices have obviosuly been inflated. I would rather go buy from independent bookstores at those prices.

The final disillusionment came when I looked for several books and authors – M.J. Hyland, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre – (yes, I was probably slightly too optimistic) and found that they were not stocked by Borders. I think I found one extrememly tattered copy of Sartre hidden away on one of the bottom shelves.

I was never particularly fond of Borders but now I don’t think I’ll be able to shop there again. They were pretty good for the more popular reads but with such bad placement, inflated prices and lack of stable literature (not too mention somewhat rude service) I don’t think I’ll go there again after the gift card has been used. I finally understood why some  bloggers and friends say they feel slightly ‘dirty’ shopping in Borders. It’s back to independents and Book Markets for me!

Note: the Borders I went to is located in central Melbourne so you would assume it’ll be the premiere of all Borders…