I picked up my copy of one of my favourite books the other day, not to read it, but to just carry it around for a few minutes. Those of you who are bibliophiles will understand. Just peeking out from the pages was a piece of paper that had my list of my perfect man, from years ago. The first thing on the list was “I want a man who can tell me a story”. I love that list.
I am a romantic at heart. (not that I would announce that publicly) (Ooops!) You know, when you are sitting around with a bunch of friends, and the conversation lags a little, and someone asks you what are your three top movies of all time? I don’t always tell the truth but one of them is Out of Africa. I love that Meryl Streep could sit around a fire after dinner and tell the most amazing stories with just the first line given to her by someone else. Obviously Karen von Blixen was a master storyteller so her character in the movie had to be as well. I also swoon over the scene where Robert Redford washes Meryl’s hair in the garden – sigh!!
But seriously, I have always been attracted to people who can spin a good yarn – and I don’t just mean the knitters in my life. Thus my crushes on musicians like Paul Kelly and Tom Waits. I lust after Billy Connelly, Hans Christian Anderson and Dr. Seuss. Oh, I must throw Roald Dahl in there too. I love ted.com – my love of the 10 minute story is realized to the max here. If I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep I have a store of books on CDs and I often let Stephen Fry read me back to sleep.
OK – back to my topic. Lists!
So, finding my ‘my perfect man’ list got me to thinking about lists in books. I wondered how many other books I had squirreled away important lists in. I have sometimes been known to write my lists on the blank inside cover of a book. I have used lists as bookmarks - most of them lists of book I would like to read in the future!
There is a Seattle Librarian named Nancy Pearl who writes bestselling (in the USA – not so much here) books about book lists. She calls them “Book Lusts”. She is an incredibly well-read woman and has alphabetized her lists in strange and wonderful ways. A is for Action Heroes, etc. She has written 4 of them now – her latest is Book Lust To Go which is lists of books for travellers, vagabonds and dreamers (Cute!) Nancy also started a movement called ‘If All Seattle Read the Same Book’ which after 10 years or so is still going strong. Look it up! There are other books about book lists – Harold Bloom comes to mind and there are several others.
There are also books about lists and list making – lots of them. There are lists of favourite books all over the www – Amazon has a whole section called ‘Listmania’. There are even websites with lists of lists like listverse and toptenz. There are websites that help you make lists. There are websites for people who like to make lists. There are websites that explain how making lists can help your company make a lot more money. I even found a website that was a help group for people who are obsessed with making lists – you know, those people who have post-it notes all over their desks, houses and cars.
One of my favourite lists about books is the Banned Books List – which is changing all the time. Some of my favourite reads is on that list – Animal Farm, Dr Zhivago, Grapes of Wrath, The Satanic Verses, To Kill a Mockingbird and One Hundred Years of Solitude – they have all been banned somewhere in the world at one time or another.
Other lists I love to read are my favourite writers’ favourite books. For instance Peter Carey’s top two books are Madame Bovary and Tristram Shandy and Annie Proulx’s are The Odyssey and Tom Sawyer. I love this stuff. Actually, most of my favourite authors pick classics as their favourite books. Hmm. Don Quixote, Moby Dick and Emma are up there in a lot of their lists.
OK, that's enough of this silly blog talk, I need to get back to studying Othello (which by the way has a list of characters at the start of the book!) and Architectural Orders. Plus, I have too much to do other than studying, as well. Let’s see. First I need to make a shopping list, and second I have to pay some bills, third – I have to make a to-do list for my Literature essay .......
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
I was not immediately drawn to this book. I didn’t look at it out of the corner of my eye with longing as I read another book (book lovers will totally understand what I mean). I didn’t stroke its cover when I walked past it or flip through the pages when I happened to pick it up. I read it because my nephew recommended it to me – he is 13 by the way.
This book didn’t grab me straight away when I began to read it, either, but I am glad I kept going. It was a good read. That sounds blah and blasé but I’m not sure how else to describe it.
The plot was original, for me anyway – an alternate world of Seattle where a catastrophic event caused by a person the main characters’ family has released a toxic, zombie making gas which has been contained behind a massive wall. The wall surrounds most of downtown Seattle.
The characters were engaging – I won’t go into them all but one of the two main characters is a woman, Briar Wilkes, who is just trying to bring up her son in very difficult circumstances and gets sucked into an adventure she doesn’t want to have. She is easy to connect with and relate to.
The setting/place was well written and well developed. The feel of Seattle, where it is set, was correct – grey and drizzling days.
I don’t know. I’m not sure what it was about the book that just didn’t absolutely thrill me. It is worth reading, especially if you like sci fi and fantasy. It is worth giving to your teen reader – lots of moral fibre in the adventure here. It is worth passing on once you have read it if you like to re-gift books. You know when David doesn’t much like a movie and Margaret thinks it’s great and they both give it a 3.5? This book is that movie – and I am David and Margaret in the same body. No– I don’t have a dual personality but ... well, let’s just leave that there for now.
The interesting part for me was all the stuff I learned that surrounds this book. First of all, I never knew there was a bicycle called a ‘Boneshaker’. It was one of those old ones with the huge front wheel which was made out of wood. It was the first bike with pedals. It was the precursor of the Penny-farthing. Not pertinent to the book but interesting all the same.
The other interesting thing I found out about is the literature sub-genre call ‘Steampunk’. It is a sub-genre of Science Fiction, one which is defined by using alternate histories of real places, usually set in a 19th century-type world. This genre sets stories in the past with a view of current technology as something of the future – things like dirigibles, early computers, and early weaponry. It is right alongside Cyberpunk, with a few key differences. And this genre has been around since the 80’s – where have I been??
Steampunk comes from writers whose heroes are the likes of Jules Verne, H G Wells and Mary Shelley. I have read some books which this movement have claimed as it own –Mervyn Peake’s trilogy Gormenghast, Mortal Engines and Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve. I have seen movies that belong to this genre too – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen being one. There are website devoted to Steampunk – www.steampunk.com and www.steampunkworkshop.com. There is fashion and Art called Steampunk. There are Steampunk groups and Steampunk tree houses. There are Steampunk events and Steampunk conventions. There is Steampunk music.
I am impressed and I can’t wait to explore this all a little further. I will read another Steampunk book to get an even better feel for the genre. And, I will let you know what I think about that book as well, as soon as I know what it is and read it.
In the meantime, Boneshaker is probably a very good place to start. It is an engaging, fun book with lots of great characters. If you have trouble imagining the ‘look’ of the book just put Steampunk in your search engine of choice and click on Images. You will get a much better idea of the atmosphere of the story and probably enjoy it more.
This book didn’t grab me straight away when I began to read it, either, but I am glad I kept going. It was a good read. That sounds blah and blasé but I’m not sure how else to describe it.
The plot was original, for me anyway – an alternate world of Seattle where a catastrophic event caused by a person the main characters’ family has released a toxic, zombie making gas which has been contained behind a massive wall. The wall surrounds most of downtown Seattle.
The characters were engaging – I won’t go into them all but one of the two main characters is a woman, Briar Wilkes, who is just trying to bring up her son in very difficult circumstances and gets sucked into an adventure she doesn’t want to have. She is easy to connect with and relate to.
The setting/place was well written and well developed. The feel of Seattle, where it is set, was correct – grey and drizzling days.
I don’t know. I’m not sure what it was about the book that just didn’t absolutely thrill me. It is worth reading, especially if you like sci fi and fantasy. It is worth giving to your teen reader – lots of moral fibre in the adventure here. It is worth passing on once you have read it if you like to re-gift books. You know when David doesn’t much like a movie and Margaret thinks it’s great and they both give it a 3.5? This book is that movie – and I am David and Margaret in the same body. No– I don’t have a dual personality but ... well, let’s just leave that there for now.
The interesting part for me was all the stuff I learned that surrounds this book. First of all, I never knew there was a bicycle called a ‘Boneshaker’. It was one of those old ones with the huge front wheel which was made out of wood. It was the first bike with pedals. It was the precursor of the Penny-farthing. Not pertinent to the book but interesting all the same.
The other interesting thing I found out about is the literature sub-genre call ‘Steampunk’. It is a sub-genre of Science Fiction, one which is defined by using alternate histories of real places, usually set in a 19th century-type world. This genre sets stories in the past with a view of current technology as something of the future – things like dirigibles, early computers, and early weaponry. It is right alongside Cyberpunk, with a few key differences. And this genre has been around since the 80’s – where have I been??
Steampunk comes from writers whose heroes are the likes of Jules Verne, H G Wells and Mary Shelley. I have read some books which this movement have claimed as it own –Mervyn Peake’s trilogy Gormenghast, Mortal Engines and Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve. I have seen movies that belong to this genre too – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen being one. There are website devoted to Steampunk – www.steampunk.com and www.steampunkworkshop.com. There is fashion and Art called Steampunk. There are Steampunk groups and Steampunk tree houses. There are Steampunk events and Steampunk conventions. There is Steampunk music.
I am impressed and I can’t wait to explore this all a little further. I will read another Steampunk book to get an even better feel for the genre. And, I will let you know what I think about that book as well, as soon as I know what it is and read it.
In the meantime, Boneshaker is probably a very good place to start. It is an engaging, fun book with lots of great characters. If you have trouble imagining the ‘look’ of the book just put Steampunk in your search engine of choice and click on Images. You will get a much better idea of the atmosphere of the story and probably enjoy it more.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
I need a book as much as I want a book
I’ve brushed my teeth, cleaned my face, got my glass of water and let the dogs out for a final pee – I’ve completed my night time routine, in other words. I am really tired, in fact, I can hardly keep my eyes open. I fall back on my most comfortable pillow, I pull my lovely quilt up to my chin, sigh deeply expecting sleep to overcome me with sweet repose.
Still. Wait. Sigh again. Think of black. Wait. Breathe. Did I...? No, it’s not important right now. Breathe. Wait. I need to.... No, it can wait till tomorrow. Open eyes. Stare at ceiling. What? Now I’m wide awake again. Crap! I need to go to sleep – I know I am really really tired. No good. Now, I’m awake and my mind is going 100 miles an hour again. Crap!
This is when I need a book. I need a story to stop me thinking about my own life for the 10 minutes it takes me to fall asleep. I need to read about something completely out of my own reality to get me to sleep – life in Japan in the 1800’s, building a house in Wyoming (Annie Proulx’s new book Bird Cloud), travels thru Mexico (Oh, Mexico by Lucy Neville is now on the bed-side table too), whatever. I need to have something that I can read and drop to sleep knowing that I can pick it up again tomorrow night and not have to even remember what I read the night before if I don’t want to.
I need a book to make me feel safe. It is like an appendage for me. I have had a book on the go since I was 6 (and believe me, that’s a long time ago) (not the same book, silly!) and now I actually get a bit of a panic attack if I finish a book and don’t pick another one up straight away. This does not apply to textbooks, by the way.
I have friends who are readers – I have written about them several times already – who do not need to be reading a book at all times. And when they tell me this it makes me a bit anxious for them. How do they go to sleep at night? What do they have to look forward to? I even have a friend who says that sometimes reading junk mail at night is all she can handle! I am assured by another friend that he falls to sleep seconds within his head hitting the pillow. In a way I am jealous of them. It must be nice to be able to turn your brain off so efficiently that going unconscious is a breeze. But in most ways I do not envy the wonders they miss when reading a book at night.
I get a little restless sitting for too long during day light hours. I never just watch TV without knitting or doing some other activity because it feels like a bit of a waste of time to me (and I get antsy). I hardly ever just sit and listen to music without engaging in another activity at the same time – dancing being one of my favourites. I will never reach Nirvana by means of meditation – darn! But a great book and a cuppa on a rainy day is a dream come true. That is the time I want a book.
My bedtime ritual is when I need a book. I don’t look at this as a negative thing. I see it as a joy. The neighbourhood lights are all out. There is no one I need to talk to. Nothing I need to do other than scrunch down in my comfy bed, turn on the bedside lamp and learn, love and live with my fictional friends (even if it’s nonfiction like the book I am reading at the moment called ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot about the American woman who’s tumour cells, named HeLa cells, have been instrumental in medical research all over the world).
Even though I need my night book I am not looking to change this state. I love it and wish this much pleasure to everyone. The only time it is a problem is when I am somewhere, trying to go to sleep without a book. But that hardly ever happens. Almost always there is something to read everywhere. In an hotel I can call the desk and they will send up a magazine or a newspaper. Most people have books in their house I can borrow if I am a book-less guest. Camping – maybe not so much – but there is usually someone willing to tell a story or two to help the sleep process (and the last time I went camping was a thousand years ago and this status is unlikely to change!). If I am in an hotel in a foreign country where books are banned and there is no one to talk to – well, I guess I will just have to stay up all night. Might not be the worst thing that has ever happened to me. But, tonight, I will be cleaning my teeth, washing my face, getting a glass of water, taking the dogs out for a last pee, and getting into bed with my book.
Need/Want = who cares? Good night, reading light, sleep tight.
Still. Wait. Sigh again. Think of black. Wait. Breathe. Did I...? No, it’s not important right now. Breathe. Wait. I need to.... No, it can wait till tomorrow. Open eyes. Stare at ceiling. What? Now I’m wide awake again. Crap! I need to go to sleep – I know I am really really tired. No good. Now, I’m awake and my mind is going 100 miles an hour again. Crap!
This is when I need a book. I need a story to stop me thinking about my own life for the 10 minutes it takes me to fall asleep. I need to read about something completely out of my own reality to get me to sleep – life in Japan in the 1800’s, building a house in Wyoming (Annie Proulx’s new book Bird Cloud), travels thru Mexico (Oh, Mexico by Lucy Neville is now on the bed-side table too), whatever. I need to have something that I can read and drop to sleep knowing that I can pick it up again tomorrow night and not have to even remember what I read the night before if I don’t want to.
I need a book to make me feel safe. It is like an appendage for me. I have had a book on the go since I was 6 (and believe me, that’s a long time ago) (not the same book, silly!) and now I actually get a bit of a panic attack if I finish a book and don’t pick another one up straight away. This does not apply to textbooks, by the way.
I have friends who are readers – I have written about them several times already – who do not need to be reading a book at all times. And when they tell me this it makes me a bit anxious for them. How do they go to sleep at night? What do they have to look forward to? I even have a friend who says that sometimes reading junk mail at night is all she can handle! I am assured by another friend that he falls to sleep seconds within his head hitting the pillow. In a way I am jealous of them. It must be nice to be able to turn your brain off so efficiently that going unconscious is a breeze. But in most ways I do not envy the wonders they miss when reading a book at night.
I get a little restless sitting for too long during day light hours. I never just watch TV without knitting or doing some other activity because it feels like a bit of a waste of time to me (and I get antsy). I hardly ever just sit and listen to music without engaging in another activity at the same time – dancing being one of my favourites. I will never reach Nirvana by means of meditation – darn! But a great book and a cuppa on a rainy day is a dream come true. That is the time I want a book.
My bedtime ritual is when I need a book. I don’t look at this as a negative thing. I see it as a joy. The neighbourhood lights are all out. There is no one I need to talk to. Nothing I need to do other than scrunch down in my comfy bed, turn on the bedside lamp and learn, love and live with my fictional friends (even if it’s nonfiction like the book I am reading at the moment called ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot about the American woman who’s tumour cells, named HeLa cells, have been instrumental in medical research all over the world).
Even though I need my night book I am not looking to change this state. I love it and wish this much pleasure to everyone. The only time it is a problem is when I am somewhere, trying to go to sleep without a book. But that hardly ever happens. Almost always there is something to read everywhere. In an hotel I can call the desk and they will send up a magazine or a newspaper. Most people have books in their house I can borrow if I am a book-less guest. Camping – maybe not so much – but there is usually someone willing to tell a story or two to help the sleep process (and the last time I went camping was a thousand years ago and this status is unlikely to change!). If I am in an hotel in a foreign country where books are banned and there is no one to talk to – well, I guess I will just have to stay up all night. Might not be the worst thing that has ever happened to me. But, tonight, I will be cleaning my teeth, washing my face, getting a glass of water, taking the dogs out for a last pee, and getting into bed with my book.
Need/Want = who cares? Good night, reading light, sleep tight.
Monday, February 14, 2011
What to read Next?
What to read next?
If you are anything like most serious readers (and most not so serious readers too) you have a pile of books sitting next to your bed, in the hall, in the back room, etc., waiting to be read. Deciding which book to pick up, or to put on hold at the library or buy online depends on lots of different things. But how do you decide?
I have a lot to say about reading and books and a lot of questions as well. I take a lot for granted and I would like to understand more. For instance, why do people read fiction as opposed to non-fiction? Why is someone drawn to only war books, or westerns, or historical romances?
But the topic of the choice of the 'next book' is very interesting. People have all sorts of reasons for deciding on the next book. Some have a list and stick to it. Some decide on the spur of the moment. Some depend on other people to give them books to read and some depend on the bookstore to tell them what is good.
For me, there are several processes to consider. The first one is what book I just finished. Often I follow up a very difficult or time consuming book with an easy read. It can't be a flippant read, or a mindless read, just something lighter and, most of the time, shorter - less of a commitment. This gives me time to feel in control again. I can put it down easily and do the chores or visit the friends that I have neglected while reading the last book. Often it is young adult fiction. Now, don't scrunch up your nose! Some of the best books I have ever read have been considered young adult fiction by the unknowing - The Book Thief, The Hunger Games, The Giver, His Dark Materials series, even To Kill a Mockingbird. The chance that a so called 'kids' book will fulfill my needs is great.
I also keep an eye on several of my favorite authors and what they are up to. Three good books puts them on my list. If they have written two great books and one dud I still keep an eye on them but I won't go out of my way to get their next book and it won't have pride of place in my to-be-read-soon pile. I will read anything that Annie Proulx writes. Alice Munro, Peter Carey (although I haven't read Parrot and Olivier in America and I was so disappointed with His Illegal Self that he went to the bottom of the pile!), Tim Winton, Elizabeth Knox, Haruki Murakami, Salmon Rushdie, Neil Gaiman, Cormac McCarthy and Markus Zusak are a few I will mention. Tom Robbins used to be up there but he has had two duds, in my opinion, so he is in the wait-and-see pile now (and I have loved him for so long - sigh!).
There are also authors I have never read that are on my best friends' lists - Saul Bellow, Christopher Isherwood, David Foster Wallace, Kingsley Amis and Martin Amis. I have books by all these authors and they are absolutely high on the list but other reads just seem to get in the way.
There are also, just as an aside, authors that will never have a place on my bookshelf ever again. Margaret Atwood and Marion Halligan and two (sorry!). Well, maybe I ought to just leave that subject alone for now?
I wander through my favorite bookstores when I get the chance. I look at my favorite bookstores online to see what they are advertising as good reads. I take recommendations from several friends who have similar taste to me. I read newspaper reviews in the NY Times and most of the Australian papers. I read whatever my literature professor has assigned for class and I try to read the highly recommended suggestions, as well. Oh, and literature prize winners get a place on my list.
I have added classics to my list this year and have over 100 out-of-copyright classics on my ebook reader. I am in the middle of Madame Bovary at the moment. Actually, I haven't read it for a few weeks so I will probably have to start again, but I love it.
The reason this subject has come up is that I have just finished my 'interim' book - a silly fantasy called The Magician's Apprentice by Trudi Canavan. It was one of the books in the 50 books I won last year. I didn't want to let go of the David Mitchell I finished a few days ago, but I have to be reading a book at all times. This one was on the floor with the rest of those books and just happened to end up in my hands. I won't review it - it is the typical fantasy book - not that I know that much about the genre. An orphan in a made up world, who has special powers, saves the day in the end. It was easy to read and had enough (just) to keep my attention through my jet lag.
I have to start Othello for my class which starts this week, but I need a night time read. Do I feel like a substantial read or a light-hearted read? Do I want to be swept away to another country, read about someone's real life, immerse myself in a mystery or pick up one of the library books that are due back tomorrow? I would love to know how you pick your next book. Really!
OK - I think I will decide right now as I write. It is between The Eagle of the Ninth - a children's fiction book written in 1954 about Romans and Britains in the 2nd century (there is a movie coming out soon) or Boneshaker - another kid's book highly recommended by my 13 year old nephew. So which one of these will fit better between Architecture of the World and Spanish Verbs?
I think it will be Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Done!
If you are anything like most serious readers (and most not so serious readers too) you have a pile of books sitting next to your bed, in the hall, in the back room, etc., waiting to be read. Deciding which book to pick up, or to put on hold at the library or buy online depends on lots of different things. But how do you decide?
I have a lot to say about reading and books and a lot of questions as well. I take a lot for granted and I would like to understand more. For instance, why do people read fiction as opposed to non-fiction? Why is someone drawn to only war books, or westerns, or historical romances?
But the topic of the choice of the 'next book' is very interesting. People have all sorts of reasons for deciding on the next book. Some have a list and stick to it. Some decide on the spur of the moment. Some depend on other people to give them books to read and some depend on the bookstore to tell them what is good.
For me, there are several processes to consider. The first one is what book I just finished. Often I follow up a very difficult or time consuming book with an easy read. It can't be a flippant read, or a mindless read, just something lighter and, most of the time, shorter - less of a commitment. This gives me time to feel in control again. I can put it down easily and do the chores or visit the friends that I have neglected while reading the last book. Often it is young adult fiction. Now, don't scrunch up your nose! Some of the best books I have ever read have been considered young adult fiction by the unknowing - The Book Thief, The Hunger Games, The Giver, His Dark Materials series, even To Kill a Mockingbird. The chance that a so called 'kids' book will fulfill my needs is great.
I also keep an eye on several of my favorite authors and what they are up to. Three good books puts them on my list. If they have written two great books and one dud I still keep an eye on them but I won't go out of my way to get their next book and it won't have pride of place in my to-be-read-soon pile. I will read anything that Annie Proulx writes. Alice Munro, Peter Carey (although I haven't read Parrot and Olivier in America and I was so disappointed with His Illegal Self that he went to the bottom of the pile!), Tim Winton, Elizabeth Knox, Haruki Murakami, Salmon Rushdie, Neil Gaiman, Cormac McCarthy and Markus Zusak are a few I will mention. Tom Robbins used to be up there but he has had two duds, in my opinion, so he is in the wait-and-see pile now (and I have loved him for so long - sigh!).
There are also authors I have never read that are on my best friends' lists - Saul Bellow, Christopher Isherwood, David Foster Wallace, Kingsley Amis and Martin Amis. I have books by all these authors and they are absolutely high on the list but other reads just seem to get in the way.
There are also, just as an aside, authors that will never have a place on my bookshelf ever again. Margaret Atwood and Marion Halligan and two (sorry!). Well, maybe I ought to just leave that subject alone for now?
I wander through my favorite bookstores when I get the chance. I look at my favorite bookstores online to see what they are advertising as good reads. I take recommendations from several friends who have similar taste to me. I read newspaper reviews in the NY Times and most of the Australian papers. I read whatever my literature professor has assigned for class and I try to read the highly recommended suggestions, as well. Oh, and literature prize winners get a place on my list.
I have added classics to my list this year and have over 100 out-of-copyright classics on my ebook reader. I am in the middle of Madame Bovary at the moment. Actually, I haven't read it for a few weeks so I will probably have to start again, but I love it.
The reason this subject has come up is that I have just finished my 'interim' book - a silly fantasy called The Magician's Apprentice by Trudi Canavan. It was one of the books in the 50 books I won last year. I didn't want to let go of the David Mitchell I finished a few days ago, but I have to be reading a book at all times. This one was on the floor with the rest of those books and just happened to end up in my hands. I won't review it - it is the typical fantasy book - not that I know that much about the genre. An orphan in a made up world, who has special powers, saves the day in the end. It was easy to read and had enough (just) to keep my attention through my jet lag.
I have to start Othello for my class which starts this week, but I need a night time read. Do I feel like a substantial read or a light-hearted read? Do I want to be swept away to another country, read about someone's real life, immerse myself in a mystery or pick up one of the library books that are due back tomorrow? I would love to know how you pick your next book. Really!
OK - I think I will decide right now as I write. It is between The Eagle of the Ninth - a children's fiction book written in 1954 about Romans and Britains in the 2nd century (there is a movie coming out soon) or Boneshaker - another kid's book highly recommended by my 13 year old nephew. So which one of these will fit better between Architecture of the World and Spanish Verbs?
I think it will be Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Done!
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell
A black butterfly lands on the White stone, and unfolds its wings.
Seagulls riot in the dusk above a boat hidden by the Sea Wall.
Each man takes one of the long-stemmed glasses: they clink rims.
The new maid appears with slippers, warm water and a towel.
These are just 4 of the hundreds of lines written in the Haiku style as part of the narrative of this book. Oh my, that sounded just like the beginning of a lit paper that I would write for my uni class. And, I wouldn't want to dissect this book like I would have to if I was studying it. This is a book to float away with. This is a story to dream about. This is a tale to remember fondly for years to come. This is a novel to sing and sigh over. This is one of 'those' books for me. It is sublime and divine. It is David Mitchell at his best.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is a story about a Dutch clerk in the early 1800s who has traveled to Japan aboard a Dutch trading ship when Japan was closed to all foreigners. Mitchell is a master of description and right from the start I, as the reader, felt I knew the island of Dejima and its inhabitants intimately. The characters come alive so vividly that when I closed this book I felt like I was interrupting their lives and putting them on hold until I could come back to them. I felt guilty leaving them alone between the closed pages for so long while I attended to other, more important things in my life at the time.
It took me 5 weeks to read this book - not because it was hard to read or long or tedious. Not at all. But, I was enjoying my family and friends in another country and could not give it the attention it deserved. I arrived home yesterday and I have read non-stop and, sadly, finished the book. It was an absolute priviledge.
OK - I know it sounds like I am in love with this book and I am going overboard. Maybe I am a little. But honestly, it was such a pleasure to read this story that I am sticking to my guns on this one.
Mitchell is a fine craftsman. I count Cloud Atlas as one of my canon. If you haven't read it - please do. His other books - number9dream, Ghostwritten and Black Swan Green have also been delightful reads. But The Thousand Autumns has topped them all, for me. This book is the outsider's look at Japan in the 19th century and it is
fascinating.
One of the names for Japan is the Land of a Thousand Autumns. Jacob De Zoet is pulled into the life of Japan and, unlike his Dutch comrades, embraces it and tries to learn from it. There are several other equally interesting characters - the burnt medical student on the island, the European Doctor who has adopted more refined ways, the Magistrate of the town, and more - all are brought vividly to life and all have engaging stories to tell.
But the most interesting aspect of this book is its rhythm. As I was looking back through it to find my favorite Haikus I started reading lines that, obviously, all have the same amount of syllables. There are hundreds of them. They are not obvious as you are reading the novel as they are often just mundane statements - "Jacob can tell from Hanzaburo's response that the news is bad", "Jacob opens his Psalter, but is too agitated even for David's verses", "A night-soil man's buckets, swinging on his pole, stain the air". I think that the Haiku epitomizes the feel of the Japanese - simple, profound, thoughtful, gentle. Mitchell has achieved an air of all of these principals in his writing by composing so many lines in the style, that the book just takes on its own meter and flow and we are soothed and connected to the words.
Apparently, the first Westerner to write Haiku was a Dutchman living in the real-life circumstances of Dejima trading post. In my small internet search about Haiku I found bloggers who journal only in Haiku, Haiku 'movements' in North America, knitting patterns call Haiku and many other interesting sites. This is clearly an art that has been embraced by people the world over and must have an appeal to many. This book will have just such an attractiveness to anyone who reads it.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is lovely and the only way it could have been better would have been if I had read it sitting next to a Koi pond under a blossoming cherry tree.
Seagulls riot in the dusk above a boat hidden by the Sea Wall.
Each man takes one of the long-stemmed glasses: they clink rims.
The new maid appears with slippers, warm water and a towel.
These are just 4 of the hundreds of lines written in the Haiku style as part of the narrative of this book. Oh my, that sounded just like the beginning of a lit paper that I would write for my uni class. And, I wouldn't want to dissect this book like I would have to if I was studying it. This is a book to float away with. This is a story to dream about. This is a tale to remember fondly for years to come. This is a novel to sing and sigh over. This is one of 'those' books for me. It is sublime and divine. It is David Mitchell at his best.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is a story about a Dutch clerk in the early 1800s who has traveled to Japan aboard a Dutch trading ship when Japan was closed to all foreigners. Mitchell is a master of description and right from the start I, as the reader, felt I knew the island of Dejima and its inhabitants intimately. The characters come alive so vividly that when I closed this book I felt like I was interrupting their lives and putting them on hold until I could come back to them. I felt guilty leaving them alone between the closed pages for so long while I attended to other, more important things in my life at the time.
It took me 5 weeks to read this book - not because it was hard to read or long or tedious. Not at all. But, I was enjoying my family and friends in another country and could not give it the attention it deserved. I arrived home yesterday and I have read non-stop and, sadly, finished the book. It was an absolute priviledge.
OK - I know it sounds like I am in love with this book and I am going overboard. Maybe I am a little. But honestly, it was such a pleasure to read this story that I am sticking to my guns on this one.
Mitchell is a fine craftsman. I count Cloud Atlas as one of my canon. If you haven't read it - please do. His other books - number9dream, Ghostwritten and Black Swan Green have also been delightful reads. But The Thousand Autumns has topped them all, for me. This book is the outsider's look at Japan in the 19th century and it is
fascinating.
One of the names for Japan is the Land of a Thousand Autumns. Jacob De Zoet is pulled into the life of Japan and, unlike his Dutch comrades, embraces it and tries to learn from it. There are several other equally interesting characters - the burnt medical student on the island, the European Doctor who has adopted more refined ways, the Magistrate of the town, and more - all are brought vividly to life and all have engaging stories to tell.
But the most interesting aspect of this book is its rhythm. As I was looking back through it to find my favorite Haikus I started reading lines that, obviously, all have the same amount of syllables. There are hundreds of them. They are not obvious as you are reading the novel as they are often just mundane statements - "Jacob can tell from Hanzaburo's response that the news is bad", "Jacob opens his Psalter, but is too agitated even for David's verses", "A night-soil man's buckets, swinging on his pole, stain the air". I think that the Haiku epitomizes the feel of the Japanese - simple, profound, thoughtful, gentle. Mitchell has achieved an air of all of these principals in his writing by composing so many lines in the style, that the book just takes on its own meter and flow and we are soothed and connected to the words.
Apparently, the first Westerner to write Haiku was a Dutchman living in the real-life circumstances of Dejima trading post. In my small internet search about Haiku I found bloggers who journal only in Haiku, Haiku 'movements' in North America, knitting patterns call Haiku and many other interesting sites. This is clearly an art that has been embraced by people the world over and must have an appeal to many. This book will have just such an attractiveness to anyone who reads it.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is lovely and the only way it could have been better would have been if I had read it sitting next to a Koi pond under a blossoming cherry tree.
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