Alright, alright. I know most of you out there are probably wondering what's become of me.
Well, to put it bluntly, I've been busy. I've had a whole pack of choir things to do, and frankly, I've been somewhat lazy. So, in order to jumpstart this project back into submission, I have done a couple of things. First, I have decided to leave the Thick Important Books alone for a bit (other than Crime and Punishment, which I'm still working on reading)
Second, I have watched a couple movies of books that I've read, and I'll post about them in the coming days.
Don't worry! I haven't forgotten or abandoned this. I just needed it to be kick-started. I think we're good now.
On to the books! In my attempt to read something and finished it, I picked up The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. A few years ago, this was made into a movie with Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway (a personal favourite) and honestly, I was rather enthused to get to read the book.
It didn't disappoint. Now, I have to put a disclaimer in here. This is not the same sort of book as the ones that I have read so far. This book, as amusing as I find it, is not great literature, nor does it pretend to be. It's a teen book, for kids who dream of being princesses themselves. I freely admit a bit of princess dreaming myself. Who doesn't want to be told that they are actually a princess?
Well, that would be one Mia Thermopolis, a gawky girl who just wants to pass her algebra class. She writes about all the issues about being a princess that no one ever thinks about, such as the press, and the people who only want to be her friend because she has Status. I admit that I was rather amused and proud of a girl who could tell the ruler of a country to their face that they could basically take the succession and shove it.
The book itself is written in one of the oldest styles of literature, first person letter. Well, in Mia's case, it's first-person diary, but the idea is the same. The main character is telling the story in their own words to the readers. There were a couple times in the book that I wanted to hit Mia upside of the head and tell her to open her eyes, but hey. No one can talk to fictional characters, right?
All in all, it was a good light read, and something that I was glad to have to re-boot this project. *sigh* I guess I'm stuck going back to Crime and Punishment and War and Peace now. Drat.
Days: 342
Books: 97!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Detour! Memoirs of a Geisha.
Alright, guys. This is the long-awaited post about the book I read, oh drat, about a week ago. So, if you will excuse me for being absent for a few days, let's get back into the blog, shall we?
Memoirs of a Geisha was written in the late 90s about a fictional geisha, or artist/entertainer in Gion, Japan in the 1930s-1940s. It was slightly controversial when it originally came out because the author had interviewed an actual geisha for research, and fictionalized quite a lot about the situations and the mores of the lifestyle.
All in all, I really liked this book. First of all, it is written in a flowery, interesting style, but nothing too heady or over-the-top. It's a very lovely break from thick Russian books. As to the actual plot, it's a somewhat typical coming-of-age story, where the girl has one dream throughout her life, and through a quirk, achieves it in the end. The best part of the book, I think, was all of the descriptions of life in Japan, and the intricacies of what it really is to be a geisha. The descriptions of tea ceremonies, kimonos and dances were, frankly, quite lovely.
The protagonist says many times that a geisha is not a prostitute, she is an artist, dancer, and entertainer first and foremost. However, it seems through other things that the author says, one of the functions that a geisha performs is sometimes having sex with men with whom they have an ongoing financial arrangement. These men, called dannas think of the geisha as their mistresses. Also, when a girl is ready to lose her virginity, men bid on that, almost like an e-bay auction. This is one of the most controversial parts of the book, as ex-geisha have come out and said that the truth of the matter is absolutely nothing like that at all. Interesting at the very least.
Possible prostitution aside, it is a quite lovely book that kept me reading and kept me interested.
Tomorrow, I promise, we'll get back to War and Peace!
Days: 349 (eek!)
Books: 98 (It'll be there for a while.)
Memoirs of a Geisha was written in the late 90s about a fictional geisha, or artist/entertainer in Gion, Japan in the 1930s-1940s. It was slightly controversial when it originally came out because the author had interviewed an actual geisha for research, and fictionalized quite a lot about the situations and the mores of the lifestyle.
All in all, I really liked this book. First of all, it is written in a flowery, interesting style, but nothing too heady or over-the-top. It's a very lovely break from thick Russian books. As to the actual plot, it's a somewhat typical coming-of-age story, where the girl has one dream throughout her life, and through a quirk, achieves it in the end. The best part of the book, I think, was all of the descriptions of life in Japan, and the intricacies of what it really is to be a geisha. The descriptions of tea ceremonies, kimonos and dances were, frankly, quite lovely.
The protagonist says many times that a geisha is not a prostitute, she is an artist, dancer, and entertainer first and foremost. However, it seems through other things that the author says, one of the functions that a geisha performs is sometimes having sex with men with whom they have an ongoing financial arrangement. These men, called dannas think of the geisha as their mistresses. Also, when a girl is ready to lose her virginity, men bid on that, almost like an e-bay auction. This is one of the most controversial parts of the book, as ex-geisha have come out and said that the truth of the matter is absolutely nothing like that at all. Interesting at the very least.
Possible prostitution aside, it is a quite lovely book that kept me reading and kept me interested.
Tomorrow, I promise, we'll get back to War and Peace!
Days: 349 (eek!)
Books: 98 (It'll be there for a while.)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
War and Peace: Days the first.
Sorry for the disappearance, guys. I'm currently visiting my parents for T-giving, and... well, it doesn't matter. Let's just say that life reared its nasty little head. I have been reading, not as much as I'd like, but I did finish a book (more on that when I get back and can actually have the book in front of me.) and I'm working on the Huge Ponderous Russian Tome.
My first thoughts about War and Peace are actually quite simple. What the heck? The book starts in the middle of things, at a salon in Russia, where half of the dialogue is in French with English footnotes, and people are talking about everything from the usual 'who's marrying who' to what's going to with Bonaparte and France.
Just like Anna, Tolstoy seems to love bouncing back and forth between people, situations, and times. He introduces both major and minor characters with the same brush, sometimes even making minor characters seem more important than they turn out to be, such as the woman running the salon in the first few chapters. This even got so bad that at one point, I needed to turn back and re-check out who one of the characters was.
I'm still giving it a chance, but I'm thinking that I'm not going to like it as much as Anna. I guess we'll see.
Days: 355
Books: 98 (I did finish one, really! Just... it'll be written about later.)
My first thoughts about War and Peace are actually quite simple. What the heck? The book starts in the middle of things, at a salon in Russia, where half of the dialogue is in French with English footnotes, and people are talking about everything from the usual 'who's marrying who' to what's going to with Bonaparte and France.
Just like Anna, Tolstoy seems to love bouncing back and forth between people, situations, and times. He introduces both major and minor characters with the same brush, sometimes even making minor characters seem more important than they turn out to be, such as the woman running the salon in the first few chapters. This even got so bad that at one point, I needed to turn back and re-check out who one of the characters was.
I'm still giving it a chance, but I'm thinking that I'm not going to like it as much as Anna. I guess we'll see.
Days: 355
Books: 98 (I did finish one, really! Just... it'll be written about later.)
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Do Not Adjust Your Set
Due to some unexpected connectivity fail, the blog is on hold, likely for the next three or four days. Never fear; I will still be reading, and still finding things to share with you all.
Next, I'm tackling Memoirs of a Geisha. If I finish that before I come back, I'll be returning to the land of Ponderous Russian Tomes and taking on War and Peace. The usual book information will go up when I'm back.
Days: 359
Books: 99
Next, I'm tackling Memoirs of a Geisha. If I finish that before I come back, I'll be returning to the land of Ponderous Russian Tomes and taking on War and Peace. The usual book information will go up when I'm back.
Days: 359
Books: 99
Friday, November 20, 2009
Anna Karenina: The End!
This has been a trip, let me tell you. However, I have to say that the end is a bit anti-climactic. Anna herself, and the entire situation surrounding her death is barely discussed. It is said (through a secondary character, even!) that her baby daughter went to be raised by her husband, and her lover went off to the war with a regiment. Oh, la. How... non-interesting. The rest of the book is mostly full of Levin's seemingly interminable musings on the nature of God and religion.
Now, I'm up for a philosophical argument as much as the next person, however, some of the arguments that he makes just don't make a whole lot of sense to me. Perhaps I was just wanting to be done with the book and not read philosophy in the last few pages. I do know that I was very much longing for an answer to some of my questions about Anna. Perhaps I didn't want them to make sense because I wanted something else. Who knows.
All in all, I really did like this book. It explored some interesting themes, not to mention just plain had an interesting plot. As an author, however, Tolstoy did frustrate me more than a bit. His sense of timing and coherence when it came to characters and plots was confusing sometimes. I would be thinking that a good amount of time had passed, and then someone was still pregnant. What the heck? Not to mention, at one point, he simply stops mentioning Anna's daughter in the middle of an important scene that has to do with her future. I didn't know for -chapters- that the girl was even still alive. That would take maybe one sentance, to have the coherence that I would have liked. Still, the book was enjoyable and I was glad to have read it.
From here, I'm taking a couple days' break and reading something else, and then off to the land of War and Peace! Look for a new book tomorrow!
Days: 360
Books: 99 (!)
Now, I'm up for a philosophical argument as much as the next person, however, some of the arguments that he makes just don't make a whole lot of sense to me. Perhaps I was just wanting to be done with the book and not read philosophy in the last few pages. I do know that I was very much longing for an answer to some of my questions about Anna. Perhaps I didn't want them to make sense because I wanted something else. Who knows.
All in all, I really did like this book. It explored some interesting themes, not to mention just plain had an interesting plot. As an author, however, Tolstoy did frustrate me more than a bit. His sense of timing and coherence when it came to characters and plots was confusing sometimes. I would be thinking that a good amount of time had passed, and then someone was still pregnant. What the heck? Not to mention, at one point, he simply stops mentioning Anna's daughter in the middle of an important scene that has to do with her future. I didn't know for -chapters- that the girl was even still alive. That would take maybe one sentance, to have the coherence that I would have liked. Still, the book was enjoyable and I was glad to have read it.
From here, I'm taking a couple days' break and reading something else, and then off to the land of War and Peace! Look for a new book tomorrow!
Days: 360
Books: 99 (!)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Anna Karenina: Day the Third
Well, what I at first thought was just going to be a more-than-slightly gritty comedy of manners is turning into something much more powerful.
I haven't finished yet, I have one fairly short part left, but I stopped reading, and felt like a two-by-four had hit me upside of the head.
The story has swung back more completely to Anna and her quasi-husband Vronsky over the past few parts. While Anna is at Vronsky's estate, she seems happy, radiant, and surrounded by people who don't seem to be bothered by her 'situation' as Vronsky's lover and not-quite-wife. However, this false cheer disappears when she goes back to Moscow to live with Vronsky in the city. While in the city, though, everything falls apart. Anna gets jealous of Vronsky for every little thing, and everything starts spinning out of control for her. She goes and sees her best friend, saying goodbye, and then in a haze of non-understanding of what she's doing, goes for a train ride, and throws herself in front of the train.
What? She -had- talked about death before, but this is a bit... out there. Alright, hold on, though. Tolstoy masterfully describes the emotions and feelings of someone going through a mental and emotional breakdown. From the jealousy to the numbness, and the dis-jointed way of thinking about things, and the non-awareness of the effect it would have on anyone else, Tolstoy seems to truly understand what could drive someone to do that. It's really powerful to see it open up, and then just... happen. Usually, at least in modern fiction, someone steps in before something actually happens. In fact, earlier in the book, Anna was certain that she was going to die, and then she took a turn for the better, and everything evened out.
So, it's interesting. I can't really say my final thoughts on the book until I finish it, but for now, as I've been hit by a two-by-four, I think I'll step back from Anna for the day.
'Till then, Comrades!
Days: 361
Books: 100 (frelling still.)
I haven't finished yet, I have one fairly short part left, but I stopped reading, and felt like a two-by-four had hit me upside of the head.
The story has swung back more completely to Anna and her quasi-husband Vronsky over the past few parts. While Anna is at Vronsky's estate, she seems happy, radiant, and surrounded by people who don't seem to be bothered by her 'situation' as Vronsky's lover and not-quite-wife. However, this false cheer disappears when she goes back to Moscow to live with Vronsky in the city. While in the city, though, everything falls apart. Anna gets jealous of Vronsky for every little thing, and everything starts spinning out of control for her. She goes and sees her best friend, saying goodbye, and then in a haze of non-understanding of what she's doing, goes for a train ride, and throws herself in front of the train.
What? She -had- talked about death before, but this is a bit... out there. Alright, hold on, though. Tolstoy masterfully describes the emotions and feelings of someone going through a mental and emotional breakdown. From the jealousy to the numbness, and the dis-jointed way of thinking about things, and the non-awareness of the effect it would have on anyone else, Tolstoy seems to truly understand what could drive someone to do that. It's really powerful to see it open up, and then just... happen. Usually, at least in modern fiction, someone steps in before something actually happens. In fact, earlier in the book, Anna was certain that she was going to die, and then she took a turn for the better, and everything evened out.
So, it's interesting. I can't really say my final thoughts on the book until I finish it, but for now, as I've been hit by a two-by-four, I think I'll step back from Anna for the day.
'Till then, Comrades!
Days: 361
Books: 100 (frelling still.)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Anna Karenina: Day the Second
Life goes on, reading goes on, and Anna certainly isn't getting any less interesting.
I am, however, going back to my original idea of this being closer to Jane Austen than anything else. People are getting married, breaking up, talking for pages about how they don't know if they're in love with someone anymore, that sort of thing. I don't fault them for it, honestly, but it's getting a bit old.
Now, allow me for a moment, to talk about one of the main themes of the book: Religion. Almost all of the characters in the novel talk incessantly about God and at least go through the trappings of religion. However, most of the characters either don't seem to follow what they're saying or they just plain don't care. For example, Dolly notes that her children haven't taken communion for a year. Anna's husband worries at first, not about her immortal soul, but about how society will see Anna's infidelity. He sees religion not as something to be believed, but something to be known, something to do because society tells him to. This starts to change for him where I currently am in the book, as he seems to turn more to belief and practice, however, there is still an underlying belief that religion is necissary in society.
This is not the place to discuss religion in society, however, I am very intrigued by the contrast between the characters who seem to actually believe and act on those beliefs and those who seem to go through the motions for society's sake. Another stark contrast is at Levin and Kitty's wedding, where Levin is thinking Kitty knows and understands everything the priest says, and her actual thoughts are somewhere closer to 'ooooh, the pretty poetry'. Levin is struggling with his beliefs, trying to actually understand what is going on, and Kitty is more caught up in the emotional moment, and not really understanding anything. Another example is where Kitty's friend Varenka helps people at the spa because she feels that is what she should do. Kitty tries, but fails, mostly because she isn't fully into it. Some of this might change in the last three parts, as I am not really certain where it is going, but it is very interesting to note at the very least.
This time period (contemporary for Tolstoy) was a time where religion was a strong and important part of society. He does seem, however, to be noting distinctly the difference between people who actually practice what they believe and people who just go through the motions.
So, if you'll excuse me for getting slightly controversial, that issue just begged to be spoken about.
Onward and upward! Hopefully next time I'll actually have the book done!
Days: 362
Books 100 (Still!)
I am, however, going back to my original idea of this being closer to Jane Austen than anything else. People are getting married, breaking up, talking for pages about how they don't know if they're in love with someone anymore, that sort of thing. I don't fault them for it, honestly, but it's getting a bit old.
Now, allow me for a moment, to talk about one of the main themes of the book: Religion. Almost all of the characters in the novel talk incessantly about God and at least go through the trappings of religion. However, most of the characters either don't seem to follow what they're saying or they just plain don't care. For example, Dolly notes that her children haven't taken communion for a year. Anna's husband worries at first, not about her immortal soul, but about how society will see Anna's infidelity. He sees religion not as something to be believed, but something to be known, something to do because society tells him to. This starts to change for him where I currently am in the book, as he seems to turn more to belief and practice, however, there is still an underlying belief that religion is necissary in society.
This is not the place to discuss religion in society, however, I am very intrigued by the contrast between the characters who seem to actually believe and act on those beliefs and those who seem to go through the motions for society's sake. Another stark contrast is at Levin and Kitty's wedding, where Levin is thinking Kitty knows and understands everything the priest says, and her actual thoughts are somewhere closer to 'ooooh, the pretty poetry'. Levin is struggling with his beliefs, trying to actually understand what is going on, and Kitty is more caught up in the emotional moment, and not really understanding anything. Another example is where Kitty's friend Varenka helps people at the spa because she feels that is what she should do. Kitty tries, but fails, mostly because she isn't fully into it. Some of this might change in the last three parts, as I am not really certain where it is going, but it is very interesting to note at the very least.
This time period (contemporary for Tolstoy) was a time where religion was a strong and important part of society. He does seem, however, to be noting distinctly the difference between people who actually practice what they believe and people who just go through the motions.
So, if you'll excuse me for getting slightly controversial, that issue just begged to be spoken about.
Onward and upward! Hopefully next time I'll actually have the book done!
Days: 362
Books 100 (Still!)
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