Just for Fun, Book Survey

I admit - I stole this from Not Enough Books - but I loved the questions and wanted to answer them as well.

Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?
Fantasy. I do like mystery/suspense books like Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier or even Jane Eyre, but not gory horror. I’ve learned to like Fantasy more since reading all of the Harry Potter books and the Chronicles of Narnia. Honestly, I’m often intimidated by the length of many fantasy novels and series.

Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
I’m not really sure what the difference is between trade and mass market paperback, but I prefer paperbacks over hardbacks. Hardbacks look better on your bookshelf but if you’re buying books on a student’s budget, and hauling them around with you all the time, paperbacks are a must. I avoid movie-related book covers, they look tacky.

Amazon or brick and mortar?
Brick and mortar, I like to browse.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Neither, I prefer local stores – think Little Shop Around the Corner in You’ve Got Mail – but I haven’t found one for new books in Nashville. So I shop at Borders. I’m actually not sure where the Barnes and Noble is in Nashville. I also got a Border’s Rewards card this year – the more books you buy, the more discounts and coupons you get. I’ve saved quite a few dollars since I joined!

Bookmark or Dogear?
Bookmarks often consisting of receipts, post-its, gum wrappers or whatever else is lying on my bedside table.

Alphabetize by author, alphabetize by title or random?
As of right now my library consists of piles of books on my floor in my cramped room. But if I had a bookshelf I’d say random. Too much else to do than to sit around alphabetizing!

Keep, Throw Away or Sell?
I keep most and sell some.

Keep dustjacket or toss it?
Keep the pretty jacket.

Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Usually read with it, unless I’m borrowing someone’s book.

Short story or novel?
I prefer novels, though short stories are great for teaching and writing.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
I’m a huge Harry fan.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
Depends on the book. If the book has shorter chapters I’ll always hold out for the break.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
Dark and stormy sounds a lot more interesting

Buy or Borrow?
Buy and build a library.

Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?
Mostly recommendations and browsing.

Lewis or Tolkien?
Lewis, though I still haven’t read the LOTR series so it’s hard to say.

Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)?
Collection

Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Probably tidy ending.

Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?
Really whenever I can find the time but ideally at night before bed.

Standalone or Series?
Standalone. There are too many different authors out there to stick with one for so long – then again I’ve fallen into many great series and loved them.

New or used?
At the moment, used, but when I’m making a salary I’ll probably upgrade.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith – great Southern writer

Top 5 favorite genre books read last year (in no particular order)?
A lot of these were for school, but here goes.
1. Frankenstein
2. Dracula
3. A Small Place
4. The Kite Runner
5. The Poisonwood Bible


Top 5 favorite genre books of all time (in no particular order)?

This would take forever to decide, so here a random list of favorites off the top of my head…

Pride and Prejudice
The Giver
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
A Midsummer Night’s Dream


5 favorite genre series (in no particular order)?
Harry Potter!

The Play's the Thing

Although I’m posting this week later than I’d promised, I still pat myself on the back for finishing my first non-school related book since I started this blog. A family wedding last weekend set things back a bit, but I hope to keep a better pace in my reading endeavors from now on. Death of a Salesman was an brief, enjoyable and thought provoking read. Arthur Miller’s simple plot and language bored me at first, but once I started to recognize the deeper questions about success, the American Dream, families and other areas I discovered a more interesting depth in the play.

My reading was also aided by the occasional discussions I listened to in my class of 12th graders at Hillsboro High School, where I am currently doing an observation two hours per week. I particularly benefited from seeing the students act out the play in class as they read it. As with any play, it’s better to see it performed or hear it read aloud than to read it silently; thus, seeing and hearing Miller’s lines read by the students helped me to gain a better sense of how the scenes might be performed. I also had the privilege of listening as Mrs. Bradshaw guided her students through productive discussions about the major themes and questions guiding the play, as well as through Miller’s uses of theatrical conventions to convey his message. Although I only listened to two of the discussions, I have still used them as a springboard for my thoughts. When Mrs. Bradshaw asked students to identify major questions the play addresses, I was impressed with the astute questions they came up with. Here is a sampling:

How does one lie build on another?
How long can one survive on a life built on lies?
Do people ultimately get what they deserve?
What is the American Dream and how does it work?
How does perception take precedence over reality in the play?
(What the characters want to see vs. what is real)
How does the past shape the future?
Does personality trump everything else in life?
How is success defined?
Who is the true failure: Willy or the American Dream?

Death of a Salesman is rich with material for discussion including Miller’s rendering of contrast and repetition in the play, the characters, the use of time in the play, the music and countless other aspects. Quoting Hamlet: "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." Indeed, Miller catches the conscience of Americans in the 21st century just as he did 50 years ago with through his portrayal of Willy and other characters' obsession with popularity, success and money. Considering the limited time I have to spend, I will focus on this one major question in the play for my post: What is the value of life in America, and is it superficial? Even though the play was published in 1949, I believe that this question and others still apply to our society today.

In addition, I find the questions about the value of life in America particularly compelling considering my own position as a young person aspiring to discover the worth of my own life and future. Is the American Dream really money and popularity? And is our society really one in which someone would resort to suicide because of their ultimate depression about failing to achieve the popularity and money required by success? All in all, this play reveals some depressing truths that are important to consider. I sympathized with Willy and his frustration with his failure as a salesman – Everyone to some extent, myself included, wants money and to be liked. But do these really matter? I tell myself to ignore what other people think of me, but do I mind when lots of people like me or praise me for something I do? Of course not. All humans seem to have an innate desire for acceptance and recognition; it’s in our blood.

I also have to consider: Are these issues more severe today than ever before? In our culture where plastic surgery and perfection of looks is a norm, where consumerism is expected and promoted, and where it seems to be harder and harder to make enough money to be satisfied (I’m getting my 2nd degree but will still be far from rich), why do humans still tend to set themselves up for disappointment by wanting these superficial things? Arthur Miller doesn’t seem to know the answer and neither do I, but he does point out important truths in this great play. I would love to see it performed – this makes me wish they had done it at Westminster, back in the day.

Shopping for lit

In effort to begin my quest of reading, I ventured into Bookman/Bookwoman Rare & Used Books in Hillsboro Village a few days ago. Walking through the tiny, two-room shop felt like browsing in the attic of an elderly librarian. Although cramped beneath low ceilings and bookshelves packed with layers upon layers of books, I enjoyed the cozy and mysterious atmosphere of the space and felt it was a refreshing change from the commercialized layouts of chain bookstores. After half an hour perusing the shelves, I narrowed down my selections to three purchases: The Scarlet Letter, Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Sun Also Rises. I have started reading Hawthorne and I plan to read The Sun Also Rises while I’m in Spain over my Spring break (in 20 short days!). I’m also reading Death of Salesman and hope to post about my first finished book by this Wednesday. Wish me luck!

Choosing to read the good books

“Under the pomegranate tree,” I see the slippery red seeds of the pomegranate fruit, rich with antioxidants, a symbol of hope in Christian art, and the favorite spot for reading for the characters in Khaled Hossein’s The Kite Runner. Considering that The Kite Runner was the last work of fiction I read for pleasure (that is, excluding what I am reading for classes), I thought the phrase made an appropriate name for my blog. In his novel, Hossein tells the unforgettable experiences of Amir, a boy growing up in modern Afghanistan. Much of the book’s action focuses on the drastic events surrounding the Taliban’s occupation of Afghanistan and its impact on Amir and his servant and best friend, Hassan. But before the boys face tragedy, loss and separation, they enjoy reading together up on a hill, seated beneath a pomegranate tree. Amir reads to Hassan from the Persian epic, the Shanamah, helping his uneducated friend experience the joys of literature. In America today, we believe that no citizen should be denied an education like Hassan in the novel; thus, every child has access to a free public education where he or she can learn to read. I hope to take a part in this in the near future, after I complete a Masters program in May 2008. But before I play the part of a teacher helping students to bolster their reading and writing skills, I hope to sit beneath my own pomegranate tree and soak up as much literature as possible.

Therefore, I hope to use this blog as a motivational tool for myself and as an outlet for my reflections on what I read, see and experience in my daily life. I have always been an avid reader, yet I have felt that in the past I sometimes read the “fine” books instead of the “great” books available. I have fallen into reading what people have told me to read instead of what I truly wanted to and knew I should be reading, particularly as an aspiring English teacher. In recent years I have chosen bestsellers such as The Nanny Diaries, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and all of Dan Brown’s books over classics and modern/contemporary masterpieces. While I often enjoyed such easy reads and found them interesting, I’ve known that there are so many other great books out there that I still haven’t read: Great Expectations, Moby Dick, Beloved, The Things They Carried and a host of others. When I came across the Thoreau quote, “read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all,” I knew I’d found my mantra. So, welcome to my own personal reading circle, an independent book club so to speak, and please join in if you wish! I hope to read one book per week, though I realize this is an ambitious goal for a graduate student already overloaded with reading on a daily basis. We’ll see how it goes, and if you have any speed-reading tips please let me know.

My initial book list (in random order):
The Death of a Salesman (Miller)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving)
Beloved, The Bluest Eye (Morrison)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston)
The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)
The Lord of the Rings (trilogy, Tolkein)
A Room of One's Own (Woolf)
Moby Dick (Melville)
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway)
Great Expectations (Dickens)
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
As I Lay Dying (Faulkner)
The Things They Carried (O’Brien)
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Madame Bovary (Flaubert)
Bridge to Terabithia (Paterson)
The Unvanquished (reread, Faulkner)
Persuasion (Austen)