A Truth Universally Acknowledged
So I believe I promised an explanation of my memory game. Far be it from me to keep this from you when I know y'all've been chomping at the bit for it...
So I may possibly have a bit of a book problem. They kind of go everywhere with me: classes, work, public transportation, concerts, movies, you name it; I can't stand the idea of being somewhere with a free minute, nobody to talk to, and nothing to read. I am, however, brutally impatient with my books: any lull in the story will send me straight to the back of the book where I will read the ending and then hate myself for it. So my theory goes something like this: if I read more than one book at a time, I can always just switch back and forth whenever I find myself getting bored and eventually finish both books the whole way through and feel all thrilled with my intellectual and cultural sophistication. :P
Except, as per usual, I had to get carried away. Currently I'm reading 12 books. So not only do I have firm assurance that I will never be bored, it's turned into a kind of memory game to see how many plotlines, settings, and characters I can keep in my head at one time without getting confused. So far I'm doing all right. I don't have to read them in any order and I don't have to read an equal number of chapters from each one. There are only four rules: 1)I must always be at the end of a chapter in one book before moving on to another book. 2)If I'm discouraged with a book then I don't finish reading it. No guilt allowed here. 3)When I finish one book, it gets replaced by a new book, thus keeping me at 12 until I decide to wind it down. Considering how stressed I've been lately, I think it may remain at 12 for awhile. It's such a relief after a long day to have oodles of books to choose from that have nothing to do with school. :) 4)No reading more than one book by the same author at the same time unless a special dispensation is made.
And because I know you're dying to know what they are and why I'm reading them:
1. THE YEAR 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger: American history majors have to get their knowledge of medieval times in any manner possible. Why should I feel shame?
2. SILAS MARNER by George Eliot: Didja ever see the movie A Simple Twist of Fate? It's based directly on this. Silly as it is to have to admit to being lured towards a classic thanks to a Steve Martin movie, that's how it happened. But damn Eliot takes forever with the backstory!
3. NORTHANGER ABBEY by Jane Austen: The only Austen book where I don't even know the basic plotline. So obviously that had to be rectified...
4. THE MOONSTONE by Wilkie Collins: A contemporary of Dickens, it's obvious that he too was paid by the word. But they're such good words!
5. O PIONEERS by Willa Cather: This was kind of a fluke. I had no idea it would so easily consume me; it's written so damn comfortably.
6. IMAJICA by Clive Barker: So when I was in the eleventh grade, I sat next to this boy in math class and we pretty much spent the whole damn time harrassing each other. Even then I was known primarily for my obsessive reading tendencies and he used to tease me about it like everyone did. Then one day he gets all serious and starts telling me about this book that just blew him away. I admit that was blown away--I didn't really think he ever read. So five years later, I picked it up at the BPL. And I think I may have to email Jon DiNapoli and thank him. Who knew?
7. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier: Always meant to read it and then heard the movie was coming out. I cannot watch a movie about the Civil War without reading the book first! As a future American history teacher, I would be, as Lilo so succinctly puts it, AN ABOMINATION! The language is so smooth and lulling, so that you don't even realize you've been sucked into a battle scene until you're dodging bullets and stealing the boots off of Union soldiers.
8. REBECCA by Daphne DuMaurier: You figure hey it was written years ago, the genre has long since been played out, I'll read it just to say that I did. And then you feel the flesh on the back of your neck start to creep cuz you just can't figure out how the damn woman died already!
9. AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS by Jules Verne: Yes, I know the story; yes, it's incredibly dated and a wee bit racist; but it's, well, , kind of flippant fun.
10. ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery: Of course I love it, of course I've seen the television version about a dozen times, but I own all eight books in the series and have never gotten through them all in a row. This time I will, oh yes, I will. BWAHAHAAAAA!!
11. JITTERBUG PERFUME by Tom Robbins: Robbins is like Vonnegut on an acid trip. How can that be a bad thing?
12. THE HISTORICAL FIGURE OF JESUS by E.P. Sanders: Working on paper about the relationship between Paul, the Gospels, and the metamorphisis (sp?) of Christianity into a religion from its origins as an offshoot of Jewish radicalism. Now I'm really interested. Of course I've now had the soundtrack to Jesus Christ Superstar in my head all freakin' day. Particularly King Herod (who died, I believe, the year Jesus was born, but what are facts to a man like Andrew Lloyd Webber?): "Come on, King of the Jews!" Over and over and over and over and over and ARRRRGGHHH!
So anyway, I'm done now. Any suggestions for new books once I finish with the old are always greatly appreciated. Believe me when I tell you that I will not tire of this quickly.
So I may possibly have a bit of a book problem. They kind of go everywhere with me: classes, work, public transportation, concerts, movies, you name it; I can't stand the idea of being somewhere with a free minute, nobody to talk to, and nothing to read. I am, however, brutally impatient with my books: any lull in the story will send me straight to the back of the book where I will read the ending and then hate myself for it. So my theory goes something like this: if I read more than one book at a time, I can always just switch back and forth whenever I find myself getting bored and eventually finish both books the whole way through and feel all thrilled with my intellectual and cultural sophistication. :P
Except, as per usual, I had to get carried away. Currently I'm reading 12 books. So not only do I have firm assurance that I will never be bored, it's turned into a kind of memory game to see how many plotlines, settings, and characters I can keep in my head at one time without getting confused. So far I'm doing all right. I don't have to read them in any order and I don't have to read an equal number of chapters from each one. There are only four rules: 1)I must always be at the end of a chapter in one book before moving on to another book. 2)If I'm discouraged with a book then I don't finish reading it. No guilt allowed here. 3)When I finish one book, it gets replaced by a new book, thus keeping me at 12 until I decide to wind it down. Considering how stressed I've been lately, I think it may remain at 12 for awhile. It's such a relief after a long day to have oodles of books to choose from that have nothing to do with school. :) 4)No reading more than one book by the same author at the same time unless a special dispensation is made.
And because I know you're dying to know what they are and why I'm reading them:
1. THE YEAR 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger: American history majors have to get their knowledge of medieval times in any manner possible. Why should I feel shame?
2. SILAS MARNER by George Eliot: Didja ever see the movie A Simple Twist of Fate? It's based directly on this. Silly as it is to have to admit to being lured towards a classic thanks to a Steve Martin movie, that's how it happened. But damn Eliot takes forever with the backstory!
3. NORTHANGER ABBEY by Jane Austen: The only Austen book where I don't even know the basic plotline. So obviously that had to be rectified...
4. THE MOONSTONE by Wilkie Collins: A contemporary of Dickens, it's obvious that he too was paid by the word. But they're such good words!
5. O PIONEERS by Willa Cather: This was kind of a fluke. I had no idea it would so easily consume me; it's written so damn comfortably.
6. IMAJICA by Clive Barker: So when I was in the eleventh grade, I sat next to this boy in math class and we pretty much spent the whole damn time harrassing each other. Even then I was known primarily for my obsessive reading tendencies and he used to tease me about it like everyone did. Then one day he gets all serious and starts telling me about this book that just blew him away. I admit that was blown away--I didn't really think he ever read. So five years later, I picked it up at the BPL. And I think I may have to email Jon DiNapoli and thank him. Who knew?
7. COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier: Always meant to read it and then heard the movie was coming out. I cannot watch a movie about the Civil War without reading the book first! As a future American history teacher, I would be, as Lilo so succinctly puts it, AN ABOMINATION! The language is so smooth and lulling, so that you don't even realize you've been sucked into a battle scene until you're dodging bullets and stealing the boots off of Union soldiers.
8. REBECCA by Daphne DuMaurier: You figure hey it was written years ago, the genre has long since been played out, I'll read it just to say that I did. And then you feel the flesh on the back of your neck start to creep cuz you just can't figure out how the damn woman died already!
9. AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS by Jules Verne: Yes, I know the story; yes, it's incredibly dated and a wee bit racist; but it's, well, , kind of flippant fun.
10. ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery: Of course I love it, of course I've seen the television version about a dozen times, but I own all eight books in the series and have never gotten through them all in a row. This time I will, oh yes, I will. BWAHAHAAAAA!!
11. JITTERBUG PERFUME by Tom Robbins: Robbins is like Vonnegut on an acid trip. How can that be a bad thing?
12. THE HISTORICAL FIGURE OF JESUS by E.P. Sanders: Working on paper about the relationship between Paul, the Gospels, and the metamorphisis (sp?) of Christianity into a religion from its origins as an offshoot of Jewish radicalism. Now I'm really interested. Of course I've now had the soundtrack to Jesus Christ Superstar in my head all freakin' day. Particularly King Herod (who died, I believe, the year Jesus was born, but what are facts to a man like Andrew Lloyd Webber?): "Come on, King of the Jews!" Over and over and over and over and over and ARRRRGGHHH!
So anyway, I'm done now. Any suggestions for new books once I finish with the old are always greatly appreciated. Believe me when I tell you that I will not tire of this quickly.