A Love of Books

I love books, but I love them for their words and the worlds they create, not for their physical form. I try to take good care of my books, but I don’t treat my books like precious antiques that my 20 month old daughter can’t touch.

I love that she loves books so much already. She comes to me throughout the day with a book for me to read to her. She sees me reading, and she sees her father reading. She can sometimes even point out whose book it is if she’s seen us with it a few times. I have shelves of classical literature and I let her play with them. (I do have to remind myself that they can be alphabetized again very easily, but I am not concerned for the physical book itself.) If she wants to carry around John Stuart Mill or Charles Dickens for half a day, I couldn’t be happier.

There are a couple of books that I am more careful with. I let her look at and turn the pages of my illustrated Complete Chronicles of Narnia, but I sit with her. But even that book is replaceable—these early formative years are not. I want my daughter to continue to love books and to have positive experiences with them. She may not turn into a literature nerd like me, but I’m doing everything I can to help instill a love of books in her, just as my mother did with me and all my siblings.

Ivy's Books

I finally finished organizing my books after our move. My To Be Read list includes 109 books--which judging by the number of books I've read this year will take me at least 2 years. I'm supplementing this reading with books by mail from the library.

My daughter has 190 books in her room. That makes me happy. If I do nothing else right, I know I'm doing one good thing for her. And it amazes me that among all these books, she can still find her favorites like The Best Mouse Cookie and any book with pictures of babies in them.

New Books

As wished, I got the first volume of the Autobiography of Mark Twain for Christmas. I've started the 57 page introduction. The text doesn't even start till after page 200! I'm excited to jump into it.

I also got a bookstore gift card (one of my favorite gifts). With it I got The Hunger Games and 20 Under 40, a collection of stories by the best new writers today. I'm excited to be introduced to some new writing and new authors.

What books did you get for Christmas?

Mark Twain Uncensored

This year marks 100 years since Mark Twain's death. Which means, per his willed request, his autobiography can finally be published. I can't wait to read the uncensored Autobiography of Mark Twain.

Volume 1 is slated for release next month and is going to be 743 pages. Talk about heavy reading! Can you imagine being responsible for editing and proofreading that thing?

Oh, to be studying American Literature in a university at such a time as this! I will have to content myself with reading it on my own and pester my husband with anecdotes and quotes. I have it on hold at the library, but based on the uncertainty of where we'll be living in the next weeks or months, I just might have to ask for it for Christmas.

Prince Caspian

I just finished reading the fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia aloud to my daughter. I love the movies versions of both The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. Though when I've recently read those two books, I've noticed how many differences there are between the books and the movies. But in this case, the differences aren't important because I think the movies capture the spirit and imagination and magic of the books.

I'm excited that we finished Prince Caspian because I know that we'll be able to get through Voyage of the Dawn Treader before the movie comes out this December. Which I'm excited about for more than just the fact that Ben Barnes, who plays Caspian, has a beard in the movie--but that helps.

Top Ten Classics

How do you choose the top ten classics of all time? How do you even choose 100?

Well, Penguin Books made a list of their top ten, and of course, they had many people dispute their choices. So they're allowing people to vote for their top ten out of 100 that they chose.

I had a hard time choosing a top ten, and I haven't even read half of their 100 (I've read 46, a book nerd like me could not resist counting). And once I voted, I looked back and noticed books that I hadn't noticed and might have been in contention. Oh well.

Good luck, Penguin Books. There will always be controversy (and publicity!) surrounding any list of classics.

What are your favorite classics?

Censorship and Ratings

Book people tend to get very worked up about the “C” word—okay, I’ll say it: Censorship. We’re against it, no question. And we get very worked up about it: next week is devoted to anti-censorship called Banned Books Week. I love taking time to think about some of the amazing pieces of literature that have been banned through time, and sometimes surprisingly, even today. I encourage you to browse through some of the lists of the most frequently challenged books. One of my favorite books of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird, is near the top of the list.

I recently came across a website that I’d never heard of before. It’s called Rated Reads and its reviewers attempt to give ratings to books similar to movie ratings, including the language, sexual, or violence content. Among a community of book lovers, it’s easy to get worked up about anything that looks like censorship. But along with believing in the right for people to write, publish, and read whatever they want, we sometimes forget that belief includes the right of people to not read something, or to not allow their children to read it, based on its content. (Just so long as they don’t try to stop others from reading it or having access to it.)

I don’t think I would use this site for myself, but I might use it before choosing a book for my church’s book club again (that ended awkwardly the last time because as an English graduate, I’ve apparently become desensitized to content that makes other uncomfortable). And if I haven’t read a book, I might check out a “rating” on it before deciding if my child is old enough to read it or to know if there might be some content that I want to discuss with them.

As an avid reader, I’m more likely to read a book right along with my child to determine its appropriateness, but Rated Reads offers an alternative to those who don’t have the time or inclination. My children will probably hate me for reading their English assigned books along with them in high school, but I plan on doing it anyway. Just to annoy them.

Review: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman is a book for book people. And maybe for people who want to understand book people.

I was a tiny bit skeptical going into this book because the whole book about books thing can be a bit overdone. You love books? So do I! What more is there to say about it?

But I thoroughly enjoyed every one of Anne's essays. They made me feel not so alone in the world. It's been a few years since I've been in an English Lit class, where almost everyone there is as nerdy about books as you are. Out in the real world, you begin to feel a bit out of place. But reading these essays made me remember that I'm not alone in my bibliophilia. In fact, next to Fadiman's thousands of books, my hundreds look puny. (I might have to remind my husband of that the next time he has to move my hundreds of books--I love you, honey!)

Each of her essays could be a good jumping off place for discussions about books and reading. And since I had no one reading them with me to have these discussions with, this blog might be subjected to a few thoughts that Fadiman's essays stirred up in my mind.

Newbery Goal Finished!

I set out to read all the Newbery Award Winning books when I was working in a middle school library. I had already read a handful of them, but between getting a bachelor’s degree, getting married, getting a master’s degree, and having a baby, it took me ten years to finish. As of this year, there are 89 Newbery Winning books. It’s going to be easy to keep up the goal with reading one book a year.

I certainly did not enjoy all the books. The best ones are those written in the last twenty years or so—those are the ones written for me. There are a few that stand the test of time, and even those I didn’t like told me something about the time period they were written in—it was a small window into what was considered the best literature for youth at the time.

Some people have asked if I read all the Newbery Honor books too. No, and I don’t plan to. I might occasionally seek out Newbery Honor books written in my lifetime, but there were some years that the winning book was painful to read—why would I want to submit myself to the runners up?

This long-term goal finished, I find myself a little lost. Not that there isn’t plenty to read, but do I set out to read another list? The Pulitzers? No, there are some on that list that I know I don’t want to read. Top 100 classic books? No, everyone’s list is different and none of them are my top 100. So I’m going to read whatever suits my fancy with one exception—I have begun reading the favorite books of people I know, of real everyday readers. So, what is your favorite book? What do you think everyone should read?

And since this post is not long enough, here is a recap of some of the Newbery Award Winning books. You can find a full list on the ALA Website.

Top 5 Newbery Winners I Loved as a Youth:
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley – I still read every book that McKinley writes. As a youth, I reread many of her books over and over again.
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle – This book crosses over as one of my all-time favorites. I read it at least once a year.
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell – I loved this story of a young girl who finds a way to live alone on an island. What young person doesn’t fantasize about that?
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare – My fourth grade teacher recommended this book to me, but I thought the title was weird and didn’t read it until a few years later. But then it became a favorite to read again and again.
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham – Not sure why I liked this one so much—the main character was a boy. But I read this one at least half a dozen times.

Top 5 Newbery Winners I’ve Loved as an Adult:
2010: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead – Beautiful and heartbreaking. This was the only Newbery Winner I read before it won.
2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – I'm a Neil Gaiman fan. And I love that a darker story won—it’s representative of the kinds of YA books that are being written right now.
2004: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo – If you watched the movie but didn’t read the book, shame on you. Read the book. 99% of the time, the book is better. And I love the illustrations.
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park – Beautiful story. I’ve only read it once, but the ending really sticks with me.
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar – I was first in line with my little brother to see the movie—which was almost as a good as the book. But the book is a different experience that should not be missed.

Other Newbery Winners that Stood Out to Me:
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson – This is a great book, but it took me at least half a dozen tries to finish it. I finally realized that it was a book I was supposed to do a book report on in front of my class in fifth grade, but I never finished it and so was humiliated in front of my class. So although it was short and an excellent story, it was one of the most difficult for me to read.
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes – I couldn’t help but laugh at the squeaky clean 1950s story of a brother and sister who lose their dog and worry that he was stolen. Their mother suggests that maybe they should lock the front door since there seems to be an “unsavory character” lurking around town.
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey – Completely disturbing. Spoiler alert: Follows a doll made of hickory with a nut for a head who is left outdoors for the winter. Ends with Miss Hickory making a stupid mistake and has her head eaten by a squirrel. Creeped me out—and they want our children to read this?
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis – I remember this book because I was studying to take the GRE while I was reading it and encountered many words that were on my vocabulary list in this book. Words that I was expected to learn to be a grad student were taken for granted in a book written for young readers over 70 years ago.
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James – Ugh. Not only an animal story from the animal’s point of view, but written in the voice of old western twang and slang. It hurt my editor’s brain to read this book.

Books I've Read Over and Over

It's hard for me to choose just three from this week's Book List question of which three books I've read over and over. So I cut out those that I read over and over as a child and chose three that I read at least once a year as an adult.

1. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
The story draws me in, and the language makes me keep coming back for more.


2. Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard
This slender book takes place over three days--November 18, 19, and 20. And I try to read it every year on those dates.



3. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
This is a cross over of books I've read over and over both as a child and as an adult. I can't quite explain why I come back to it over and over. It's familiar and comforting and fantastic every time I read it.



What three books do you read over and over?

Books I'm Intimidated By

I don't often do these, but I loved this week's question from The Book List. It asked what three books you're intimidated by.

1. Anything by Charles Dickens. I've read A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations is one of only about a dozen books I took with me on this move in the hopes that I'll actually read it. My difficulty with Dickens is that I know the stories are awesome, but man is it hard for me to plow through the language.

2. The Death of Adam by Marilynne Robinson. Her novel Housekeeping is at the top of my favorites list, but when I read her nonfiction book, I could just feel how inept my mind was next to hers.

3. The Fairie Queene by Edmund Spenser. An epic poem written in the 1590s. Need I say more?

What books intimidate you?

Bookshelves

“I had always thought of my books as fairly private things, not for display, but the ability to show them off seemed crucial to Gilkey. Then again, a wall in my living room is covered with bookshelves, and everyone who visits can see what I have read. If I am honest with myself, I must admit that to some degree my books are badges….” From The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

Only once in my adult life have I had the space to have all of my books out on shelves. Most of the time, the majority of my books have had to sit in boxes in storage units and closets or shoved under the bed. Even when all my books were out on shelves, I chose carefully how they were displayed.

My best friends were on the nightstand or on a shelf near my bed—the books I read and reread until they fell apart and I had to buy a new copy. These included Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, and my Robin McKinley books.

The books that made me look smart were on display in the front room where people would look at them to see what kind of a person I was and am. Here I displayed poetry by Emily Dickinson and Pablo Neruda, classics by Dickens and Dostoyevsky (whether I’d read them or not), anthologies of Shakespeare and Poe, stacks of books by Southern Gothic writers like Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner, and the translated classics like the Odyssey and Dante’s Inferno.

And now that more and more of my bookshelves are being taken over by baby toys and board books, I’m even more particular about what stays and what gets boxed up. I love to look at other people’s bookshelves to learn more about them by what they read. What do your bookshelves say about you?

Review: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

"This book belongs to none but me
For there’s my name inside to see.
To steal this book, if you should try,
It’s by the throat that you’ll hang high.
And ravens then will gather ‘bout
To find your eyes and pull them out.
And when you’re screaming
‘Oh, Oh, Oh!’
Remember, you deserved this woe."
--Warning written by medieval German scribe

I recently read a fascinating nonfiction book: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett. A book about loving books. How can you love a book too much? Well, I don't think I can, but some of the real life characters you'll find here do. The people this book followed were interesting and often inexplicable.

Beyond the intriguing story, this book made me examine my own relationship with books. I'll leave those thoughts for future posts, but to sum up my review of the book: If you like books, you should read this book.

Newbery Review: ...And Now Miguel

...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold won the Newbery Award in 1954. And much like the 1953 winner that I just reviewed it is a coming of age story about a young shepherd boy. Maybe shepherd boy stories were common in the 1950s.

Miguel comes from a family of shepherds and his greatest wish is to join his father, uncles, and older brothers in the mountain where they take their sheep to graze each summer. Throughout the book, Miguel struggles with what we have all gone through as adolescents--he is no longer content to be a kid but he is not yet old enough to join the adult world. He finds himself constantly in between, not one thing or another:

"Gabriel laughed because it was good and because it was so easy. That's the way it was with Gabriel. Everything that he wants he can get. With Pedro, it is the opposite. Everything he has is enough. Both of them, they are happy. But to be in between, not so little anymore and not yet nineteen years, to be me, Miguel, and to have a great wish--that is hard."

It's a wholesome story about a boy who loves his family and wants to find his place in it. I was surprised at the use of the word "jackass" in the book, but maybe it wasn't as offensive in 1954. In the end, Miguel learns to be careful what you wish (and pray to your patron saint) for.

Newbery Goal Renewed

I'm going to buckle down and do it. I'm going to finish my goal to read all the Newbery Award winning books. I only have about a dozen left. And since I don't know where I'll be living six months from now, I want to take advantage of the Washington County Cooperative Library System while it's at my disposal. Some of the older Newbery winners are hard to find and I don't want to be held back by not being able to find a copy of a book.

Yes, I'm left only with books that look dreadfully boring. And yes, today I started reading a book about a boy whose best friend is his pet llama. But I shall persevere and be victorious.

The Classics: A Wrinkle In Time

Today I finished reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. I’ve read it countless times since my first reading when I was around ten years old. Like any great book worth rereading until your childhood copy falls apart and you have to buy a new one, I learn something different with each reading.

This time I really noticed Meg having to grow up in the truest sense. It’s when she realizes that her parents don’t have all the answers and can’t make everything right again. In her quest to find her father, Meg is certain that in finding him, he will be able to solve her problems both on Camazotz and on Earth.

“Despair settled like a stone in the pit of Meg’s stomach. She had been so certain that the moment she found her father everything would be alright. Everything would be settled. All the problems would be taken out of her hands. She would no longer be responsible for anything.”

When faced with life-changing decisions, I think we all have some small part of us that longs for the day when the big decisions were handled by someone else. If we don’t have to make our own decisions, we won’t have to be responsible for those decisions. And if things don’t work out, it’s always easier to have someone besides yourself to blame.

But the tragedy of Camazotz is that no one makes their own decisions. Which makes everyone exactly like everyone else. And as Meg shouted while resisting IT, like and equal are not the same thing.

And the Newbery Goes To...

I've had a goal that I've slowly been working toward for years--read all of the Newbery Award winning books. I have a handful of older ones that look dreadfully boring to me left to read. The best part about the goal is reading the newest winner each year.

This year I actually read the book before it won the Newbery, so I'm ahead in that respect. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead was a very touching book and I'd recommend it even if it hadn't won the Newbery.

Read more about this year's winners here.

Books I Read in 2009

Booking Through Thursday Question: What were your favorite books of the year?

I have a friend who is a poet and artist. Years ago she told me that when she had her son, she could no longer write or paint. So when I became pregnant I expected that I would stop writing for a time. What devastated me is that I actually stopped reading too. I can’t pinpoint the reason. It’s not that I didn’t have time, though I do obviously have much less of it. But it took months after my daughter was born this past May for me to actually start reading books again.

Happily I am back to reading and loving it (the challenge now is stopping my 7 month old from eating the books). Hopefully one day I can start writing again as well. In the meantime, here are a few of the best books I read in 2009 and a look toward 2010.

Fiction:
- Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison (heartbreaking, but beautiful)
- Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan (I always like Amy Tan)
- The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (I read this after becoming a mother and that made a big difference in how I felt about it)

Nonfiction:
- Live Through This by Debra Gwartney (Portland, OR local author)

Young Adult and Children’s:
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (this year’s well deserved Newbery winner)
- When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
- Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (I jumped on the Shannon Hale bandwagon—review to follow soon)
- Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales by Lucy Cousins

I don’t usually make New Year’s Resolutions, but I don’t mind setting a few challenges for myself that are book related.

1) Finish reading all the Newbery Award Winning books (this has been a goal of mine for years now, and I’ve been stuck with a handful of particularly boring looking ones).

2) Read more local authors. I love to support local bookstores (it’s easy when you live near a Powell’s), but I’d like to seek out and read more local authors too.

3) I joined a challenge to read 100+ books in 2010. I fell far short of that in 2009, but if you don’t make the goal, you can’t get there.

Buy a Book, Give a Book

My List

When Johnny Cash’s daughter, Rosanne Cash, told him that she wanted to be a country singer, he gave her a list of 100 essential songs to listen to as she began her career. An NPR article about her new album called “The List” asked readers to post a list of essential songs they would leave to their children.

I love music, but only in the way that everyone loves music. I am by no means a musician and have no great attachments to a list of songs. Some people I know would be appalled at this, but I listen to music for the words more than the tune. (Which is why I love Tori Amos, Dar Williams, and Ben Harper. Their songs tell stories.)

But I do have a list of literature that I want to pass down to my children. I could make my own top 100 list if I took the time, but that would really be self-indulgent. So here’s a list of the first few books that came to mind:

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Proof by David Auburn
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

I feel that these are all great works of literature. But more than that, I read them at a time when they deeply touched me and have stayed with me. It’s like a song that brings you back to a certain time or experience. I remember what was happening in my life when I read each of these books for the first time and how they carried me through the difficult times. Maybe I’ll take the time to write about my experiences with some of these books.

But for now, what interests me is: What’s on your “list”? Is it made up of books or songs or something completely different?