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_____ From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of B. Smith Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 5:12 PM To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: OT: Deriving Pleasure from Books read, and unread I have a huge to "To Be Read or Re-read" pile. Unfortunately it keeps growing because of all the other books I discover and purchase. The stuff on my bookshelf for immediate and near future reading: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (will be read over the holidays) The One from the Other by Philip Kerr. It's a continuation of his Berlin Noir series. Bernhard Gunther is a detective in WW II and post- war Germany. Dark of the Moon by John Sandford. It's a spinoff of the Lucas Davenport series. Rainstorm by Barry Eisler. The third book in the John Rain series. For More Than Glory by William C. Dietz. A good dose of military sf. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1. A really nice hardcove of Kirby's first batch of New Gods stories. Watchmen ( The Absolute Edition) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. This is the massive, slipcased, recolored hardcover edition that came out a couple of years ago. It's so lovely I can't bear to read it. My original single issues and well used and loaned trade paperback are there if I need a fix. The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks. My wife really liked the first book in the series The Traveler. I thought it was pretty by the numbers genre sf being presented as something else. I've decided to read book two to see who's right. ;) Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. I'll read it someday. I promise. Paradise Screwed: Selected Columns of Carl Hiaasen. I pick it up and read a few columns when I want a laugh. Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation by Karl Taro Greenfeld. I liked the book a lot but for some reason I've never finished it. --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:scifinoir2%40yahoogroups.com> ups.com, "ravenadal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In my lifetime, I have purchased scores more books than I will ever > read. Sometimes I purchase books simply because I love the idea of > the book. Other times I have purchased books because of their portent > (for instance, I own but have never read "Roots"). When "Waiting to > Exhale," or whatever black women were reading was hot, I would own a > "lending" copy and reap the benefits thereof. Lastly, I simply take > comfort in always something on hand, waiting to be read. > > ~rave! > > www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/art/chi- 1209_pressplaydec09,2,7668874.story > chicagotribune.com > LITERATURE > Deriving pleasure from books read, and unread > > By Patrick T. Reardon > > Tribune staff reporter > > December 9, 2007 > Click here to find out more! > > Readers know, and non-readers just don't get it. I'm talking about the > stacks of unread books that can be found scattered, like small > shrines, around the home of anyone who relishes the joy of the written > word. > > Maybe you have one by your bed, or next to your chair, or on a > windowsill. Maybe your stack is horizontal -- taking up a shelf or an > entire bookcase. Maybe, like me, you've got a lot of book piles. I've > had some books for decades, waiting to be read. > > For me, there are waves of anticipatory pleasure every time I glance > at these books, some dusty-topped, others fairly new to the heap, and > perhaps a touch of guilt as well -- seeing "Rough Crossings" (Ecco, > 2006), Simon Schama's study of the American slave trade, on top of > Norman Mailer's Egyptian novel "Ancient Evenings" (Little Brown, > 1983), on top of Rebecca Solnit's "Wanderlust: A History of Walking" > (Viking, 2000). > > What's nice about having so many books piled up is that there's > something there to match almost any mood I happen to be in. Recently, > for instance, I found myself mired in a fairly turgid examination of > the history of the Bible's Book of Revelation. Frustrated, I set it > aside and decided to dive into my book stacks. > > Almost at random, I grabbed " Amnesia Moon" by Jonathan Lethem > (Harcourt Brace, 1995) and began a quick, delightful run through four > very different novels. > > Lethem tells the sci-fi tale of Chaos, who, in a post-apocalyptic > world, hits the road in an attempt to discover what caused life to be > altered so drastically. Along the way, he realizes he's also trying to > figure out who he really is. It's a wonderfully inventive story that > constantly keeps the reader more than a bit off kilter, and Lethem > uses his plot as the backbone for a series of commentaries on modern > existence and the meaning (or lack thereof) of life. > > Forty years ago, Robert Heinlein tried this late in his career, > generally with ham-handed results. Lethem's characters, by contrast, > are never stick figures, and his writing is filled with constant > surprises. It works as science fiction and as serious literature. > > " The Catalans" by Patrick O'Brian, originally published in 1953 and > re-issued in 2005 by Norton, was the next book to come to hand, and, > although less satisfying than the Lethem novel, it was not without its > pleasures. > > O'Brian, who died Jan. 2, 2000, is known for his best-selling and > highly praised series of 20 seafaring novels centering on the > friendship of Stephen Maturin and Jack Aubrey, all of which I've read > with great relish, many of them more than once. The first of those > wasn't published until 1970, when O'Brian was 56. > > "The Catalans," written nearly two decades earlier, is the story of > Alain Roig, who, after spending much of his adult life in French > Indo-China, returns to his Catalonian village at the French-Spanish > border. He's there to confront his cousin Xavier over what their > family perceives is Xavier's disastrous plan to marry a much younger > divorcee. O'Brian devotes much of the novel to conversations that, > unfortunately, are presented for many pages like the dialogue of a > play, without the benefit of his considerable descriptive talents. > > Yet there are moments when he gives glimpses of his skill, such as his > account of Alain's painful struggle in front of dozens of family > members to carry a vat of grapes down the steep side of a hill. Anyone > who has ever decided to show off by carrying an object that turned out > much heavier than expected knows the feeling. > > While "The Catalans" is from early in O'Brian's career, Muriel Spark > was at the height of her powers in 1963 when she published " The Girls > of Slender Means," still available in paperback from New Directions. > > The book, set in London in the final months of World War II, is > centered on the May of Teck Club, a rooming house for "ladies of > slender means," almost all of whom are in their 20s -- and at least a > little bit mad. But that's true of the book's other characters as > well. They're all a little gaga, a little sensible, a little heroic, a > little confused -- well, a lot confused. Their personal lives are as > disrupted and uncertain as the world after six years of war. > > Spark writes with a light comic touch, but there's an undertone of a > kind of existential desperation. Even so, the characters muddle > through as best they can. There are minor and major tragedies, love > affairs, a live bomb and what may have been a religious conversion. > But mostly they live their lives -- as do we all. > > I had owned the Spark book for a long time, but the final novel I > picked up, " All Passion Spent" by Vita Sackville-West (first > published in 1931 and still available from Carroll & Graf), was fairly > new to my stacks. > > If you're not familiar with Sackville-West and her writing, you're > missing out on a lot. > > Born into British aristocracy -- she grew up in a stately 15th Century > mansion that had been a gift to her family from Queen Elizabeth I -- > Sackville-West was deeply in love with her husband, Sir Harold > Nicolson, a prominent British politician. Which might not sound like > much, except that, throughout her life, she took a series of lesbian > lovers, including Virginia Woolf, while Nicolson had his own string of > homosexual affairs. Nonetheless, as their son Nigel Nicolson showed in > his 1973 book "Portrait of a Marriage," theirs was a match that was > exceedingly happy and successful, if unorthodox. > > Not that you need to know any of that to enjoy Sackville-West's > poetry, non-fiction and novels, of which "All Passion Spent" is a > sparkling example. > > The title is ironic. Lady Slane, whose much celebrated politician > husband has just died after long, eventful life, including a stint as > prime minister, is 88 years old and is seen by her elderly children as > a doddering non-entity. Yet after a lifetime in her husband's shadow, > she seizes on her sudden freedom to begin to rediscover the life she > gave up more than half a century earlier when she agreed to marry. > > I can't tell you how many times during my reading of the novel I > couldn't help but smile at some penetrating self-insight of Lady > Slane, or some gently jarring plot twist, or some delightful exchange > between characters, such as when one of her sons says to a sibling, > "Mother is a person who has never had her feet on the ground. > Cloud-cuckoo-land -- that's Mother's natural home." He just doesn't > get it, but the reader does. > > After finishing the novel, I ordered a copy of Sackville-West's 1942 > novel, "Grand Canyon," about a Nazi invasion of the U.S. It will take > its place in my stacks of books, and every time I notice it, I'll know > the pleasure of looking forward to reading it. > > - - - > > Sampling the goods > > Four novels, four very different worlds. Here are some excerpts: > > "Amnesia Moon" by Jonathan Lethem > > "Chaos didn't want to have to look at the McDonaldonians while he ate. > Boyd leaned back in his seat and grinned ... 'These cats are from the > mountains, man. They probably dropped out of kindergarten. Probably > never even seen television. We're talking Appalachia here, man. > Tobacco Road. They came down here to the Strip and got jobs for > three-fifty an hour and it's all they know. The company rule book is > their bible. So when everyone cleared out of the Strip, these cats > just stuck, because they didn't know anything else ... I call them > McDonaldonians because that's where they live now -- McDonaldonia. > Just another little pocket of weirdness.'" > > "The Catalans" by Patrick O'Brian > > "Another twenty [steps]. Could he manage another twenty? They could > see him now from the top: he appeared from that distance to be going > quite well; his perpetual deviations from the straight line and his > tiny shuffling paces could not be seen from there. His face could not > be seen, either, deathly pale under the dust, fixed, eyes exorbitant, > no conscious expression of any kind, a face of intense and beaten > suffering." > > "The Girls of Slender Means" by Muriel Spark > > "[Dorothy's] voice from the wash-room distracted Jane: 'Oh, hell, I'm > black with soot, I'm absolutely filthington.' She opened Jane's door > without knocking and put in her head, 'Got any soapyjo?' It was some > months before she was to put her head round Jane's door and announce, > 'Filthy luck. I'm preggers. Come to the wedding.' Jane said, on being > asked for the use of her soap, 'Can you lend me fifteen shillings till > next Friday?' It was her final resort for getting rid of people when > she was doing brain-work." > > "All Passion Spent" by Vita Sackville-West > > He looked almost tenderly at Lady Slane's pink shaded lamps and Turkey > rug. If one wanted beauty, one had only to rest one's eyes on her, so > fine and old and lovely, like an ivory carving; flowing down like > water into her chair, so slight and supple were her limbs, the > firelight casting a flush of rose over her features and snowy hair. > Youth had no beauty like the beauty of an old face; the face of youth > was an unwritten page. Youth could never sit as still as that, in > absolute repose, as though all haste, all movement, were over and done > with, and nothing left but waiting and acquiescence." > > ---------- > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Copyright C 2007, Chicago Tribune > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
