Monthly Archives: September 2007

Catching up with the classics

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Ever since graduating college I’ve been trying to catch up with reading all the classics I’ve wanted to read, but never encountered in my education.

Last fall I worked on this goal as well, and finally read several great books including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, This Side of Paradise, and Madame Bovary.

This fall my goal is to read one classic book per month in September, October, November and December.

The books I’ve chosen are:

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I’m going to start with The Age of Innocence.

Here’s hoping I do better with this than my summer reading list!

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Summer Reading Recap

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Well, at the beginning of the summer I made a list of books I’d like to read over the summer.

As with most of my books to be read during a certain time period lists, I strayed well off the list most of the summer. I think next time I make a list (and perhaps I’ll make a Fall Reading List soon) I will keep it much shorter. I’ve realized that making a longer list leaves no room for impulse reads, which are inevitable for me.

The official dates of my summer reading list were from May 25 (start of Memorial day weekend) to September 3 (end of Labor day weekend).

Here’s how I did, completed books are crossed off:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (started, but have not finished yet)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Palm Sunday by Kurt Vonnegut
Fates Worse Than Death by Kurt Vonnegut (finished on September 7)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Issacson
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

42% finished.

Here are the other books I read this summer that were not on my list:
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
The 13 Clocks by James Thurber
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
Uncommon Arrangements by Katie Roiphe

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Madeleine L'Engle 1918-2007

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“But they never learned what it was that Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which had to do, for there was a gust of wind, and they were gone.”
-A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L’Engle passed away last night, leaving us with over 60 published works, including some of the most enjoyable science fiction books ever written.

She also created one of my favorite characters in all of children’s literature, Charles Wallace.

She was a gifted and imaginative writer, and I’m happy she was able to share her stories and that her books have stood the test of Time.

Madeleine on writing:
“There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. It’s the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it’s for only half an hour — write, write, write.”

Madeleine on Books:
“A book, too, can be a star, ‘explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,’ a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

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Book Design: Half of a Yellow Sun

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I’ve been wanting to read Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for many months. Almost immediately after it was published I started seeing all sorts of rave reviews, from a variety of reputable sources. It also won the Orange Prize for Fiction.

That’s why I was very startled in Barnes and Noble when I stumbled across the just released U.S. paperback sitting on a table.

It’s 100% different from the U.S hardcover. (And in my opinion, bad different.) This surprises me because of how critically acclaimed this book was when it was released last year. Normally, if a book generates a lot of good buzz, or wins a major award, publishers like to keep the cover recognizable. That way, people who heard some of that good publicity might say, “Oh yeah, here’s this book, it’s supposed to be good, and oh great! – it’s in paperback now! Now it’s cheap enough to take a risk and buy it.”

An example that comes immediately to mind is Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. That one had a lot of great buzz surrounding the hardcover’s release, and the paperback looked identical.

So the decision to change the cover so dramatically was surprising to me, for that reason. Additionally, while there is nothing really wrong* with the paperback cover, it’s so boring. I feel like I’ve seen this book cover a million times before.

I guess this means that when/if I buy this book, I’ll have to hunt down a hardcover copy. I don’t judge books to read based (solely) on the cover, but I do base which edition to add to my collection based on the cover/design. :)

Here are the covers….what do you think?

*By “nothing really wrong” with the paperback, I mean nothing wrong except that after seeing the hardcover and several foreign editions of the book, it’s the only one that displays a full yellow sun, rather than a half. Interesting. Very rebellious.

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Mini-Review: Palm Sunday by Kurt Vonnegut

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This weekend I finished Palm Sunday. I started it right after Kurt died and have been slowly savoring it every since. It was easy to spread it out because it’s, as he says, an autobiographical collage.

It includes many gems; it was great fun to read some of the speeches he’s given over the years. It would have been amazing to see him speak in person.

The book starts off a little slow with his genealogy, as written by a friend of the family. But despite being slow, it was still fascinating. The rest of the book he weaves together speeches, stories, and other writings. One of my favorites was the speech he gave at the yearly banquet at the Cornell Daily Sun.

Definitely a must read for all Vonnegut fans. I’m now reading the “sequel” – Fates Worse Than Death.

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Polysyllabic Spree – August 2007

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Books Purchased:

Books Read:


I did really well with not buying so many truckloads of books this month. Also, of those three books, I’ve already read two (Clementine and Thunderbolt Kid) so I only added one new book to my heaps of books that need to be read.

Unfortunately, I did not read many books this month. I guess that’s due to two incredibly busy weekends, and a new computer. Hopefully September will be better. Also, all the books I read this month were from the library.

My complete Polysyllabic Spree.

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Yod Hunt #4 Entry

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I tried to make my desk look as natural as possible.

Egg – 2 eggs over easy
Cat – The Daily Kitten on my computer screen
Bubble – 2 packs of Juicy Fruit bubble gum (by candle)
Kid – Framed photo of my little brother
Computer – My iMac
Fruit – 2 packs of Juicy Fruit bubble gum (by candle), Apple computer
Black – cell phone, picture frame, moleskins, Apple computer logo
Fire – Candle
Paper – Books, assorted letters and paper
Sleep – My computer is being put into sleep mode (see upper left)

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