Returns: About Rereading

I checked in at the Booking Through Thursday blog, which is the host for a weekly book meme or blogging prompt. Here is this week’s prompt:

What book(s) do you find yourself going back to? Beloved children’s classics? Favorites from college? Something that touched you and just makes you long to visit?
(Because, doesn’t everybody have at least one book they would like to curl up with, even if they don’t make a habit of rereading books? Even if they maybe don’t even have the time to visit and just think back longingly?)

I find myself returning to books that sparkle with contemplative prose. Many stories have stayed with me over the years but certain books have really stuck with me because of how the stories were told. Without further ado, I give you my treasured list and urge to grab these reads:

CROSSING TO SAFETY by Wallace Steger. The intense narrative power of the quiet prose brings into life a friendship between two married couples. It’s really a love story, not in the sense that it explores romantic dialogues and actions, but in the sense that it explores private lives. In the guise of friendship, sustained through births, outdoor adventures, job losses, war, moving, unrealized dreams, and thwarted ambition, Stegner offers, with an uncanny sensitivity, a glimpse of the physical and emotional intimacy in marriage that go largely unspoken out of respect and loyalty.

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A tragic love story that takes place in a society of which the values have gone awry. Gatsby is a man of desperate love who has been blinded by rotten values. He doesn’t know that while pursuing his dream, it’s already behind him and that Daisy will always be like that green light at the end of the dock in an unreachable distance. Fitzgerald’s language once again proves that his prose is unfilmmable, without the latest release of the film adaptation.

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro. Subtly plotted, this novel gives the impression that characters and scenes in the beautifully paced novel become no more than mouthpieces and backdrops for Ishiguro’s concern for the human condition: A desire to exceed one’s limitations. We are all obsessed with the upstairs-downstairs world as Downton Abbey has brought to life, but Stevens is, to me, the most capable butler in service. Not only is Stevens loyal to a fault, his former employer, Lord Darlington, however decent, honest, and well-meaning he was, was also playing a dangerous game by allowing himself to be used as a pawn in Hitler’s schemes.

THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov. What good is good without evil? This novel gives you the best answer in the backdrop of Stalin Soviet Union. Despite the atmosphere of terror that deepened all through the years he was working on the novel, the book takes on a surprisingly light tone, one of multifaceted humor, without compromising its philosophical depth. It is Bulgakov’s embittered and sarcastic response (and indictment) to his era’s denial of imagination and its wish to strip the world of divine qualities.

THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco. This is the one book that hits me by this author. It deals with issues from an age of classics; so in other words, because it’s set in Medieval times, is written in Dark Age vernacular and includes historical details worthily accurate of the respected academe Eco is. It is not just an exciting DaVinci-Code-style historical thriller, but also a densely layered examination of stories about stories about stories, of symbols about symbols about symbols, of the meaning behind meaning behind meaning.

Read Like a Man

To be a man is not to be rooted for a baseball team and playing hoops, Esquire magazine comes up with an unranked, incomplete, utterly biased list of the greatest works of literature ever published. This list has probably made its way around the blogging sphere since it was published back in 2008 for the magazine’s 75th anniversary. How many have you read? I boldfaced the ones I have – 28 in all.

1. The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow – high priority on TBR pile
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain – read it in high school, not thrilled
3. Affliction, by Russell Banks – want to read
4. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
5. American Pastoral, by Philip Roth

6. American Tabloid, by James Ellroy
7. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner – doesn’t measure up to Crossing to Safety
8. As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text, by William Faulkner – one of the most difficult books
9. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
10. Blood Meridian, Or, the Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy – don’t care for McCarthy

11. The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
12. The Call of the Wild, White Fang, & To Build a Fire, by Jack London – read it in high school, zzzZZZ
13. Civilwarland in Bad Decline: Stories and a Novella, by George Saunders – never heard of this
14. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
15. The Continental Op, by Dashiell Hammett

16. The Crack-Up, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
17. Deliverance, by James Dickey
18. Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac – don’t care for Kerouac
19. Dispatches, by Michael Herr
20. Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone

21. Dubliners, by James Joyce – not as difficult as Ulysses
22. A Fan’s Notes: A Fictional Memoir, by Frederick Exley
23. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway – boring
24. Going Native, by Stephen Wright
25. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, by Flannery O’Connor

26. The Good War: An Oral History of World War II, by Studs Terkel – really want to read this one, enjoyed Working
27. The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck Centennial Edition (1902-2002), by John Steinbeck – my favorite is East of Eden, this list seems to pick the wrong books all the time
28. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
29. Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga, by Hunter S. Thompson
30. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

31. The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
32. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones – want to read
33. Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings, by Jorge Luis Borges – Borges is a genius
34. Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison
35. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families, by James Agee – only read A Death in Family

36. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
37. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
38. Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis – want to read
39. Master and Commander, by Patrick O’Brian – want to read all his books
40. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie – read Satanic Verses and had since stayed away from him

41. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville – absolutely the most boring book ever
42. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
43. Native Son, by Richard Wright – violent
44. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey – fun
45. Plainsong, by Kent Haruf – heart-warming story

46. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain – want to read
47. The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene – want to read
48. The Professional, by W. C. Heinz
49. Rabbit Run, by John Updike – maybe, not thrilled about the witches
50. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates,

51. The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe
52. A Sense of Where You Are: A Profile of William Warren Bradley, by John McPhee
53. The Shining, by Stephen King – creepy
54. Slaughterhouse-five, by Kurt Vonnegut – want to read
55. So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell – again, this is not my favorite of Maxwell, try
Folded Leaf

56. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
57. A Sport And a Pastime, James Salter
58. The Sportswriter, by Richard Ford
59. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John Le Carré
60. The Stories of John Cheever, by John Cheever – want to read

61. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction, Tim O’Brien – one of his best novels
62. This Boy’s Life: A Memoir, by Tobias Wolff
63. Time’s Arrow: Or the Nature of the Offense, by Martin Amis
64. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller – one of the books I meant to read for a long time
65. Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry

66. Underworld, by Don DeLillo – meh…overrated
67. War And Peace, by Leo Tolstoy – not my favorite, try Anna Karenina
68. What It Takes: The Way to the White House, by Richard Ben Cramer
69. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories, by Raymond Carver
70. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami – not thrilled about this one

71. Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson – want to read
72. Winter’s Bone: A Novel, Daniel Woodrell
73. Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin
74. Women, by Charles Bukowski

Not my kinda reading. I find it very strange to read a must-read list without a single woman on it. This is not biased? To me this list is more likea self-fulfilling thing. Or maybe men get caught up in ideas of ‘manly books’, whereas women (and some excellent men) will generally pick up whatever’s nearby and looks good. Wait, Flannery O’Connor is a woman. So either they don’t realize this (in which case shame on them for not doing their research) or they think she’s the only woman worthy of attention!

50/50

I checked in at the Booking Through Thursday blog, which is the host for a weekly book meme or blogging prompt. Here is this week’s prompt:

My brother-in-law turns 50 this weekend. So, in his honor, please pick up your nearest book or whatever book you’re currently reading, and turn to page 50 and then share the first 50 words with the rest of us.

The book is Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen. A new chapter begins on page 50:

I woke the next morning determined to take Belinda up on her other suggestion—the one for gainful employment. Armed with Belinda’s glowing recommendation, I sat facing the head of personnel at Harrods. He was eyeing me suspiciously and waved the letter in my direction. “If you had indeed proved so satisfactory, why did you leave this position?”

This book is the first of Royal Spyness Series. Unlike the Maggie Hope Series by Susan Elia MacNeal, (I just finished the second book, Princess Elizabeth’s Spy), Rhys Bowen’s a lighter mystery with a touch of humor and clever satire. She’s recruited by Her Majesty, not MI-5, to spy on the divorced American woman who is the latest flame of her son. Bowen’s is more an old-fashioned whondunnit, less the twists and turns of MacNeal’s internationally plotted conspiracy against the throne.

Unread, Forgotten, Dusty

A coworker and I talked about books that were intriguing enough for us to buy in the first place but that somehow we never got to read. I’m sure many readers have books that are collecting dust on our shelves unread. But what happened to the books that had obviously lost the appeal? Forgotten, banished, and set aside, they are not even in the TBR pile.

1. The book everyone is reading or recommedning.
I sometimes succumb to the popular opinion and sheep syndrome. Even though I know better about my taste, I still buy books that everyone is reading or talking about. Well—not Fifty Shades of Grey although a girlfriend who has never toughed a book is reading it. I’m talking about those phenomenal bestsellers that Hollywood quickly bought off the copyright to make a movie out of them. Like A Kite Runner. The Life of Pi. These books largely remain unread.

2. The book is dirt cheap.
Ever felt left out if you can’t make it to the $1 book sale at the local charity or library sale? When books cost no more than pennies and nickels, I tended to be much less selective. The result is a stack of books that I felt half-hearted about. The bargain bin can be dangerous because you never realize how quickly that pile builds up.

3. The book is a giant, intimidating-looking tome.
One day, I will read Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, and Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. But to give me the credit, I have survived The Fountainhead (which I loved), and this year American Tragedy and The Secret History. At this point I don’t even want to think anything by Proust! It’s such a commitment to tomes.

4. The book is a classic, meaning an obligation.
I don’t know why I still feel obliged to reading books that bored the hell out of me in school. Just because something is shelved under classics doesn’t mean I have to read it. I enjoyed The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities, and The Sound and the Fury but I shouldn’t read everything written by Fitzgerald, Dickens, and Faulkner? One day, I’ll get to Les Misérables. (See #3)

5. The book is written by an author whose other work(s) I like.
Sometimes buying the entire oeuvre is a big mistake. I should have left Umberto Eco alone after reading, cherishing, and loving The Name of the Rose. Most of his other novels I cannot even get through the first chapter. Focault’s Pendulum is flat out boring and pointless, a huge mess. Cloud Atlas is another one, and the film doesn’t help. David Mitchell is the kind of author whom you just have to read one and you read them all. Number 9 Dream is gathering dust.

Monday This and That

I checked in at the Musing Mondays blog, which is the host for a weekly book meme or blogging prompt. Here is this week’s prompt:

Describe one of your reading habits. Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s). What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!

I usually don’t start a book—specially a tome—toward the end of the month knowing I cannot finish it. I was trying to fill the two remaining days of the month with a book. Stehpen King’s Carrie answered that call. It’s very fast-paced book about a shy high-school girl, who uses her newly discovered telekinetic powers to exact revenge on those who tease her. The appeal lays more in the setting than the paranormal power for me. These are high school kids and they are kids who don’t know better of the consequences. A new film adaptation starring Julienne Moore as Margaret White will release this October.

This week’s shopping spree concerns Rhys Bowen. I’m indebted to the bloggers who pointed me to Bowen’s Royal Spyness Series, after my review of Susan Elia MacNeal’s Mr. Churchill’s Secretary. Bowen’s series features a penniless twenty-something member of the extended royal family in 1930s London. The first three are now sitting on my shelf: Her Royal Spyness, A Royal Pain, Royal Flush, along with MacNeal’s sequel Princess Elizabeth’s Spy.

Sporting

I checked in at the Booking Through Thursday blog, which is the host for a weekly book meme or blogging prompt. Here is this week’s prompt:

Do you read books about sports?
How about AT sporting events? (Kid’s soccer practice?)

Both in and out of the pages sports is my weakest link. I’ve never been good at sports. I avoided PE and found validation in academics and arts when I was a kid. Growing up I didn’t want to play the same game as the other guys. I just don’t have that sports gene in me. Now I peruse Men’s Health scrupulously for nutrition and workout tips. The two sports-related books I read were fiction: The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren and The Dreyfus Affair by Peter Lefcourt. By coincidence they both involve a gay relationship. As for during sports events, I usually bring a book or two to the dog show and a baseball game.

Grabbers

When I don’t have the list of books with me, I browse the A-Z fiction section. When I am pressed for time, I scour and see what spines catch my eye. When I’m feeling random, I peek at the new book section. Sometimes the opening line of a book would just grab me by the nostrils. Grabbers are usually the tell-tale sign of a good read. To me they are way more convincing than the hype created by publishers in collusion with the media.

The Dinner by Herman Koch
“We’re going out to dinner. I won’t say which restaurant, because next time it might be full of people who’ve come to see whether we’re there.”

Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann
“I seriously need to get out of Beijing.”

All That Is by James Salter
“All night in darkness the water sped past.”

Mr. Churchill’s Secretary: A Novel by Susan Elia MacNeal
“Half an hour before Diana Snyder died, she tidied up her desk in the typists’ office of the Cabinet War Rooms.”

Double Thursday

I checked in at the Booking Through Thursday blog, which is the host for a weekly book meme or blogging prompt. Here is this week’s prompt:

What’s the last book that made you spring to your feet, eager to spread the word and tell everyone how much you enjoyed it?

Mrs Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn. The book about Her Majesty making a journey to Edinburgh on a whim shares the same wit and humor of Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader. I usually don’t purchase new hardcover but I had good feeling about Mrs Queen Takes the Train when I first saw it. I bit the bullet and took it home, saved it until my getaway weekend. I enjoyed every page of it. Having grown up in Hong Kong, which was a British colony, I always have a sentimental attachment to everything British. When the movie starring Helen Mirren came out a few years ago, I went to see it several times, saving the nuances and cadence. I always thought a novel needs to be written that would measure up to the film and your book is it!

I saw a Latin edition of “The Hobbit” last time I was at the bookstore. Do you read any foreign languages? Do you ENJOY reading in other languages?

Since I mostly peruse books in the English language, my foreign language is my native language—Chinese. There is no shortage of literature in Chinese language, especially classical and archaic texts, period and epic pieces, as well as history. I also read in Japanese but mostly periodicals.

New Books

I checked in at the Musing Mondays blog, which is the host for a weekly book meme or blogging prompt. Here is this week’s prompt:

Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s). What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!

Recent purchases on a whim when I browse at Barnes and Noble while waiting for the dog to be groomed. Mr. Churchill’s Secretary sounds interesting and it’s a debut. Velvet Rage is required reading for all gay men. Death Comes to Pemberley is yet another Jane Austen fan-fiction/spinoff that my book club has chosen. I would not have picked it up and I am right. The “mystery” is set in 1803, six years after the wedding of Elizabeth and Darcy, with ample space given to catching us up on the recent doings of the Bennet family. On the mystery side, there’s plenty of action, from the discovery of Captain Denny’s body, through a trial, assorted deceptions and mix-ups, and love affairs. It’s a weak cup of tea. So far I feel the book lacks wit and suspense. It’s another book club selection that disappoints. I gave them benefit of the doubt for the recent Dreams of Joy since its predecessor, Shanghai Girls was just brilliant. But two not so good books on a roll make me second-thought about quitting the club. The social company is what tethers me right now.

Foolish and Farcical

I checked in at the Booking Through Thursday blog, which is the host for a weekly book meme or blogging prompt. Here is this week’s prompt:

What’s the silliest (most foolish?) book you’ve ever read? Did you enjoy it?

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka is a wonderful farce that I enjoyed tremendously. An 84-year-old widower fell in love with a 36-year-old gold-digging blonde named Valentina. Valentina pulled her wits’ end to eke out as much money as she could from the gulliable old man who, despite his unquenchable lust, did truly take sympathy of her.

No car! No jewel! No clothes! (She pronounces it in two syllables–cloth-es) No cosmetic! No undercloth-es!’ She yanks up her t-shirt top to display those ferocious breasts bursting like twin warheads out of an underwired, ribbon-strapped, lycra-panelled, lace-trimmed green satin rocket-launcher of a bra. (99)

Together the old man’s two daughters collected evidence and petitioned to court for an injunction that would kick her out of the house, and reported to Home Office the absence of a genuine marriage. Foreseeing that she would lose the appeal on a rejected visa renewal, and perhaps hearing the distant tinkle bell of money in a divorce settlement, the cunning Valentina changed tack. She eavesdropped his conversation and photocopied legal correspondence between Nickolai and his solicitor. Her goal was to avoid at all costs giving him grounds for divorce in order to buy time to prove somehow he is ill or of an unsound mind. Then she would be able to collect settlement benefits.

The book is not silly but the old man is. It’s hilarious to see the tug-o-war between the gold-digging blonde and the sisters.