Poetry, My Cell Phone and Mother's Day

I couldn't let National Poetry Month end without writing about poetry a bit more. I must have a much more sensitive soul than I thought.

Lately I've been thinking of e.e. cummings. Is he still popular? We used to get in Just-Spring all the time in school textbooks. In Freshman English, we read My Father Moved Through Dooms of Love -- that poem made me mix up cummings with Theodore Roethke because it reminded me of two of Roethke's poems, My Papa's Waltz and Where Knock is Open Wide.

Why e.e. cummings? It's because of my cell phone. I use my texting feature quite frequently, but I'm kind of a dolt with it. For example, I don't know how to do capital letters, numerals, commas, question marks, exclamation points, hyphens, colons, semicolons, or quotation marks. What *can* I do? What's left: Lowercase letters, periods and the "at" (@) sign. I received helpful instructions with my phone, but they were printed on a tiny brochure in 2 or 4 point, so I flung them somewhere one day during a headachy temper fit. I decided that I'd carry on and do my best, but my English major soul was embarrassed -- it was killing me to send out messages like this:

when will you arrive at gangnam station. im bringing the austen zombie novel. didnt remember about the drabble book...sorry.

her phone number is oh one oh four six five eight one two six one but shes in thailand now.

thanks so much for the pictures from my fortyeighth birthday party. what a great party. im so glad that we could get together. omg the cake was so delicious.

Don't your fingers just itch to fix those messages? Those are the type of sentences I assign to my Comp class for editing practice!

So anyway -- I was cringing every time I had to send a text, but then I thought: "WWeecD?" It hit me: cummings wouldn't bother with all that extra punctuation unless he felt like making one of his picture poems. He'd send out texts that looked exactly like mine and people would be damn lucky and happy to get them and maybe even decide to tattoo one of them on his or her forearm!

After that, I felt better. Now when I send texts, my sparse use of conventional punctuation feels voluntary and hip: In your face! I have an M.A. I've learned all the rules and taught them to a multitude of others. If anyone's entitled to break them, it should be me. What a badass I am.

What would we do without poetry? It truly is balm for our lives.

I've also been thinking of Philip Larkin. Earlier this month, I came up with an idea for the ultimate Mother's Day gift. It was such a great idea -- so literary and edgy and twisted that I couldn't bestow it on anyone. Only I could appreciate such a gift to its utmost. I got my spawn on the phone:

Me: Hello, Sweetheart! How's Mommy's Li'l' Angel?
Spawn: What do you want?
Me: Have you bought me a Mother's Day gift yet?
Spawn: No...should I?
Me: That's up to you, but I wanted to give you food for thought.
Spawn: A book? A movie?
Me: You might be embarrassed to...
Spawn: You want PORN?
Me: No! Gross! I want This Be The Verse needlepointed on a wall hanging or a pillow. An afghan would be OK, too.
Spawn: What's This Be The Verse?
Me: A poem. By Philip Larkin.
Spawn: I don't...wait -- is that the "Your parents fuck you up" poem?
Me: Yes, that's right... Isn't it brilliant? Aren't I brilliant? I scare myself sometimes!
Spawn: I don't know how to needlepoint.
Me: That's OK. This is such a great gift idea, I'm willing to wait for years while you learn or you start dating a woman who has needlepoint skills. Meanwhile, you can memorize it and call and recite it to me on Mother's Day. Isn't that perfect? You could also recycle and use it for your dad on Father's Day!!!
Spawn: Whatever.

Library Loot: The Secret Straightener

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I didn't mean to go back to the library so soon, but I had to give a 2-hour presentation about how to give an effective presentation, and I was stressed out about it. With an hour to kill before the dreaded event, what was the best place to chill out? I dismissed my Intermediate English Conversation students a trifle early and made a beeline for the Bybee-ary.

Once I was safely in the narrow aisles of the fiction section, I still couldn't relax. I couldn't concentrate on the titles before me. My eyes scanned the Ds. There were three volumes of Bleak House and two of them were pushed way back. The middle one protruded like an orthodonist's dream. All the volumes on the shelves seemed to be either leaning left or right like tipsy-going-on-drunk or shelved too tight as if the bookends were girdles. Some books had slipped behind other books.

What would Mrs. Freeman think of this mess? I wondered. Mrs. Andrea Freeman was the Head of Circulation when I was a 20-year-old circulation clerk/shelf jockey for Nye Library at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. She was in her late 30s -- tall, stunning, terrifying. Think Clair Huxtable and you'll have a perfect picture of Mrs. Freeman. She stood for no nonsense. Her library was a thing of joy and beauty forever. Every Saturday, we clerks had to go out and "read" the shelves. That meant pulling each book to the exact edge of the shelf -- not too far over or too far in -- and making sure that the titles were in perfect alphabetical/Dewey Decimal order. We also had to take care that the books were shelved neither too loosely nor too tightly.

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Mrs. Freeman stalked out to check on us at well-timed intervals, running her finger across the spines to make sure we'd dusted as well. Her sharp eyes could spot the slightest misplacement of a book. Those books stood as straight and as uniformly as soldiers. The odd-sized and oversized books had their own special section. Because of their ungainliness, they were a bitch to put in order and had to be neatened up constantly. Nothing was going to stand in the way of Mrs. Freeman's vision of precision.

I wanted to be a model employee for Mrs. Freeman, but too often she caught me sneaking and reading when I was supposed to just be reading shelves. How could my eye ignore those titles fairly screaming at me to give them a chance? I defended myself by saying that I thought I should be familiar with the books in case a patron asked me for a recommendation. Mrs. Freeman couldn't see it my way. "No one is going to ask you for a recommendation."

I also disturbed her sense of efficiency. Before the clerks took the books out to be shelved, we were to arrange them on the book cart in order. One day, I decided to spice things up by not arranging beforehand. I wanted to see how fast I could shelve with the books out of order. Mrs. Freeman caught sight of my cart as I wheeled past and made me put it right. I protested that I wanted to test myself. Mrs. Freeman shook her head. "What you want to do," she said, "is waste your energy and my time." Even though she found me deluded and disorganized, I think she liked me a little. To me, she was a goddess with the most perfect job in the world. I really didn't find her overly rigid -- she took great pleasure in seeing the yards and yards of books lined up to perfection and so did I.

She would have recoiled in disgust at the mess in the Bybee-ary, though -- not that she would have ever allowed such a travesty to occur. Mrs. Freeman would have swooped down on Douchebag and had him in a headlock on his first day or at least the very first time he did his sighing routine.

Remembering Mrs. Freeman, I found myself reaching out to fix the copies of Bleak House, then I straightened the whole shelf. After that, I moved on to the shelf below and soon, the complete section was straight. Already things were looking better. As I pulled each book out to the edge of the shelf, I thought about what Mrs. Freeman had said about not hooking your finger at the top of the spine and pulling the book out. "You don't want to do anything to weaken or damage the spine."

Not only were the shelves starting to look spiffy, I was beginning to feel a distinct lessening of my jitters. My heartbeat had slowed, my stomach had settled down and my mind was clear. Too uptight to look at titles before, they were now starting to jump out at me in that old familiar way and as I straightened, I grabbed these three:

Laura Ingalls Wilder and The American Frontier: Five Perspectives - Dwight M. Miller, editor. The scholarly papers in this slim volume were originally presented at a Laura Ingalls Wilder literary conference that took place at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library back in September, 1998.

Literary Masterpieces 3: The Maltese Falcon - Richard Layman, editor. I'll probably never find out who, but someone in my library or somewhere on campus has got a mad-on for The Maltese Falcon.

James Bond and Philosophy: Questions Are Forever - Jacob M. Held and James B. South, editors. Simply irresistable! The acknowledgements section is entitled "Oh, Spare Me This Sentimental Rubbish" and the footnotes are freshest and zingiest this side of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

I didn't really want to stop straightening shelves, but it was now almost time to go do the presentation. I was calm and ready for anything. Did this count as therapy? Had I stumbled onto something equally old and new and wonderful? If so, I'm all for it, I thought, making my way up to the self-checkout machine.

1930s Challenge

Nymeth has come up with a beaut of a challenge -- read books that were written in the 1930s or take place during the 30s. Here's her plan:

Three months (April 18th – July 18th);
You’d only need to read a minimum of one book, though you’d of course be welcome to read more than one;
No need for a sign-up post or a reading list;
Just enter your name, read your book(s), and then come back and leave Nymeth a link to your post about what you’ve read.

I am definitely in. The 1930s part piqued my interest and the gorgeous button above clinched the deal. It blew my wig, to use a bit of slang from the era. A little worried that I wouldn't have anything suitable on hand, I went home and studied my shelves fiercely. There's a nice little pile there!

Books written and originally published during the 1930s:

1931 Susan Spray - Sheila Kaye-Smith. I bought this because I couldn't resist a title with my name in it.

1932 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons. City girl meets her nutty country relatives. Who could pass that up?

1932 Mutiny on The Bounty - Nordhoff and Hall. My friend Bronson, who reviewed the Pete Duel biography in a posting last year sent me this book.

1934 Tender Is The Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald. I was feeling cantankerous when I bought this book. Everyone else was racing to watch or read Benjamin Button and I was feeling the Fitzgerald love too, but I just couldn't go with the crowd.

1935 It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis. Gotta lotta Lewis love.

1935 BUtterfield 8 - John O'Hara. After being dazzled by another great 1930s novel, Appointment In Samarra, I wanted to read O'Hara's follow-up.

1937 The Road To Oxiana - Robert Byron. My friend and fellow CRACKED SPINZ bookworm Alex loaned me this book.

1937 The Late George Apley - John P. Marquand. One from the Pulitzer pile. I remember the rush I had when I found this under a huge dusty stack of books at the used bookstore in my hometown and it only cost 54 cents!

1938 Thimble Summer - Elizabeth Enright. This children's literature is a gift from my friend and fearless BOOKLEAVES leader, Veronica. She also included a cute bookmark from her trip to Boracay.

1939 Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo. This novel was so incredibly ahead of its time.

Also, I have a book set in the 1930s:

Out Of The Dust - Karen Hesse. 1998 Newbery Award winner. This copy has an interview with Hesse, the text of her Newbery Medal acceptance speech, Depression-era photographs, a recipe for homemade applesauce and a cultural capsule of what life was like in 1934, when this novel takes place.

Since this challenge started almost a week ago, I need to shake a leg and get started. I may miss out on some doss or get behind the grind but this is too swell to pass up. So what's your story, morning glory? Are you in or out? Abyssinia!

Library Loot: Cowboys and Diaspora

My library's 4th floor is the damnedest thing. I'm sure that all the stuff I'm finding there has been on the shelves for years, but during each visit something different floats into my line of vision. In my last blog post, I called it a messy stew. This time, I'm thinking compost pile -- the staff must turn it over at regular intervals. Also, how could so much crap look like rich nutrients for the brain?

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Today's mission was simple: Go in and get The Borrowers. It's there; I had it out last year. Except it wasn't there when I eagle-eyed the shelves. This was no easy task because one of the student workers was in my way and breaking my concentration as he shelved a paltry armload of books and sighed mightily all the while. I wanted to snatch the pile from him with an exasperated Give me those, you #*$%&&& douchebag! and do the shelving myself, but part of me couldn't help but be impressed with such suffering. I nearly expected to hear this next:

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So what did I grab this week? Funny you should ask. Ever since I read then watched The Way West, I've been in a vaguely cowboy-ish frame of mind. Maybe it's because CRACKED SPINZ is reading Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian for our April book club meeting. Maybe it's because I thought I was going to have to do battle with my graduate school class last night about attendance and turning in assignments. On the way from my office to that building the theme from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly kept playing in my head:

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Happily, there was no unpleasantness and the graduate students and I were able to resolve things amicably but a combination of factors like that can linger. Perhaps that explains the swiftness with which Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey and The Warrior Path by Louis L'Amour busted off the shelves and into my book bag. I didn't do any clocking, but it was probably 8 seconds. Incredibly, I've never read a genre western before. Should be interesting.

I also grabbed a short (autobiographical?) 1997 novel entitled A Cab Called Reliable by Patti Kim about a Korean family who emigrates from Pusan to Arlington, Virginia. Stories of immigrant families are so rich; I don't think I could ever tire of them.

Top 100 Children's Literature Books

I don't know how or where this list originated, but I found it at Book Nut. Melissa has done very well, reading 81/100. Not only that, she's read every one of the top 25. I had hoped to make as well of a showing, but no joy. Less than half.

I've been able to read for over 40 years now! I read all the time when I was a kid! Why are there so many gaps in my children's literature reading? I believe that part of it is because I actually preferred biographies when I was a child. Beverly Cleary novels were great, but nothing satisfied like a biography. I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder but that was practically biography.

Later, in middle school I went back and filled some gaps (like the Betsy-Tacy series, Harriet The Spy, Zilpha Keatley Snyder's novels) then forgot all about children's literature until my son graduated from picture books to chapter books. Thanks to him, I filled more gaps. The fearless leader of BOOKLEAVES, Veronica, has a fondness for children's literature and I've been able to do some catch-up there, but this list still has more holes than Swiss cheese.

The beauty part is that for some reason, children's books are so available and very affordable here in Korea -- both the classic and the new. With a little effort, I could fill these holes faster than a bored 4-year-old with a metal colander and a fresh can of Play-Doh. Possible project for the next Readathon?

I wonder what Peter over at Collecting Children's Books thinks of this list. Has he read all 100? Would he notice any skewing towards particular authors? Would he hone in on any glaring omissions? I'm wondering where Lassie-Come-Home and Old Yeller are. What about My Friend Flicka? Where's Linda Sue Park? What about Sounder?

Here's the list and my explanations, rationalizations and assorted blather.

100. The Egypt Game - Snyder (1967). YES. In seventh grade, I went through a ZKS stage. This novel was good, but I preferred The Witches of Worm and The Headless Cupid. Snyder has such a cool, creepy, disaffected feel.

99. The Indian in the Cupboard - Banks (1980) YES. It didn't rock my world, but my son defends it, saying it's a masterpiece compared to the movie.

98. Children of Green Knowe - Boston (1954) NO. I've never even heard of this book.

97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - DiCamillo (2006) NO. DiCamillo's on this list a lot, isn't she? Do you think that number will drop back a little over the next few years?

96. The Witches - Dahl (1983) NO. What I really mean is NOT YET.

95. Pippi Longstocking - Lindgren (1950) YES. I loved how Pippi had her own house and was strong enough to lift a grown man over her head and all of her other eccentricities. I kept wondering why Tommy and Annika's mother didn't butt in more, but I was glad she didn't.

94. Swallows and Amazons - Ransome (1930) NO. I've never heard of this book.

93. Caddie Woodlawn - Brink (1935) YES. Caddie was a lot like Laura Ingalls, so I liked her.

92. Ella Enchanted - Levine (1997) NO. I could be persuaded to read it, but I probably won't on my own.

91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Sachar (1978) NO. But anything by the author of Holes is more than OK by me!

90. Sarah, Plain and Tall - MacLachlan (1985) YES. Good thing it's such a short book because it's a little slow-moving.

89. Ramona and Her Father - Cleary (1977) YES. One would have thought that Beverly Cleary would fall out of step with the times, but she kept rocking it hard.

88. The High King - Alexander (1968) NO. I've seen Alexander's books, but have never been interested.

87. The View from Saturday - Konigsburg (1996) NO. Hey, why isn't Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth on this list? That was a hilarious book!

86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowling (1999) YES. This is my favorite of the five HPs I've read.

85. On the Banks of Plum Creek - Wilder (1937) YES. Anything Wilder is wonderful, but I'd really rather see The Long Winter here. On second thought, it is fun to watch Laura bring it to that little snob Nellie Oleson.

84. The Little White Horse - Goudge (1946) NO. I'm starting to feel the pinch of ignorance.

83. The Thief - Turner (1997) NO. This is part of The Queen's Thief series. I wouldn't mind giving it a try.

82. The Book of Three - Alexander (1964) NO. Maybe I'd like Lloyd Alexander if I tried him. I don't know. Sigh.

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81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Lin (2009) NO. But if I see it, I'm seriously thinking of grabbing it.

80. The Graveyard Book - Gaiman (2008) NO. Someday, I must get around to Neil Gaiman. If I don't, I think my book-twin will disown me.

79. All-of-a-Kind-Family - Taylor (1951) NO. How did I miss this one? If I'd seen it when I was in elementary school, I would've been all over it. I loved "olden days" stories.

78. Johnny Tremain - Forbes (1943) NO. Another NOT YET.

77. The City of Ember - DuPrau (2003) NO. I'm not familiar with this book, but my son says there's a movie version.

76. Out of the Dust - Hesse (1997) NO. Yet another NOT YET. I love Depression-era stories.

75. Love That Dog - Creech (2001) NO. But/It looks as if/It could be/a really fun/Read

74. The Borrowers - Norton (1953) YES/NO. I checked it out from the library during 2009 and got sidetracked around page 50. I'll get back to it, especially since it's a library book which makes the price right.

73. My Side of the Mountain - George (1959) YES. I read it a couple of years ago, but I fear that I read it too late in life. I'm sure I would have loved it when I was younger.

72. My Father's Dragon - Gannett (1948) NO. But a book by Ruth Stiles Gannett can't be anything but good. I was totally charmed by her illustrations in John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat.

71. The Bad Beginning - Snicket (1999) NO. I'm sure I'd like it, but then I'd feel compelled to read the rest of the series which provokes me in a negative way.

70. Betsy-Tacy - Lovelace (1940) YES! Hooray for Betsy and Tacy and Tib, too!

69. The Mysterious Benedict Society - Stewart ( 2007) NO. I could be persuaded, but you'd have to work at it for a while.

68. Walk Two Moons - Creech (1994) NO. But I could be easily convinced.

67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher - Coville (1991) NO. Oooh, it sounds so cute! Who can resist a title like that?

66. Henry Huggins - Cleary (1950) YES. Mrs. Reed, my 3rd grade teacher started reading it to the class one day. I guess a few kids were acting up because she got mad and stopped. She never picked it up again. I had to leave my beloved biography section and track it down in fiction so I could find out what happened next, which got me into the wonderful world of Cleary.

65. Ballet Shoes - Streatfeild (1936) YES. I also read and enjoyed Dancing Shoes.

64. A Long Way from Chicago - Peck (1998) NO. I keep circling this in the bookstore. One of these times I'll go for it.

63. Gone-Away Lake - Enright (1955) NO. I'm pleased but surprised that Elizabeth Enright has made such a strong showing on this list.

62. The Secret of the Old Clock - Keene (1959) YES. But my favorite Nancy Drew book is the next one, The Hidden Staircase.

61. Stargirl - Spinelli (2000) NO. I read a book a few years ago by Spinelli called Who Put That Hair In My Toothbrush? The novel featured a brother and sister who took alternating chapters and were always bickering. It wasn't very interesting to me, and the cover illustration of a hair carefully entwined in a toothbrush put me off of Spinelli, perhaps permanently.

60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - Avi (1990) NO. I just read Kidnapped this year, so I think I'd enjoy this book.

59. Inkheart - Funke (2003) NO. Can't seem to summon any interest.

58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Aiken (1962) NO. Well, I read the first chapter while killing time in the library back in 8th grade and have never gotten back to it. As I remember, it was quite dramatic. I'd try it again.

57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - Cleary (1981) YES. [insert more gushing about Beverly Cleary here]

56. Number the Stars - Lowry (1989) NO. But one of the number-one books of my childhood was The Silver Sword a.k.a. Escape From Warsaw, so I'm sure I'd love this one.

55. The Great Gilly Hopkins - Paterson (1978) NO. I've read Jacob Have I Loved and Bridge To Terebithia and enjoyed them both, so there's no reason not to give this one a shot. From her description, Gilly Hopkins reminds me of Queenie Peavy, a book I read in elementary school.

54. The BFG - Dahl (1982) YES. Hooray for Roald Dahl, the kid version and the adult version. The fiction author and the memoir writer. Heart, heart, heart. Now, if only I could stop mangling this title, constantly referring to it as the BFD.

53. Wind in the Willows - Grahame (1908) NO. I feel kind of illiterate, admitting this.

52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007) NO. But I can fix this straightaway! This is one of the few children's books in that messy stew of a fiction section at the Bybee-ary.

51. The Saturdays - Enright (1941) YES. In 5th grade, I read and loved this book. We had to do book reports and I stood up in front of the class and practically pleaded with them to read this book. I also asked them to stop calling me Susan and start calling me Randy, after the younger Melendy girl.

50. Island of the Blue Dolphins - O'Dell (1960) NO. This is another one that I keep telling myself I'll get around to. NOT YET.

49. Frindle - Clements (1996) NO. But it sounds like fun. I wish "frindle" were a word -- it would be a bingo in Scrabble.

48. The Penderwicks - Birdsall (2005) NO. Is this a movie? I seem to remember seeing something like the described plot during a recent airplane ride.

47. Bud, Not Buddy - Curtis (1999) YES! This is the last children's literature book I read, and it was terrific. Lines from it run through my head constantly and I'd read it again in a heartbeat.

46. Where the Red Fern Grows - Rawls (1961) YES. Old Dan and Little Ann!

45. The Golden Compass - Pullman (1995) NO.

44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Blume (1972) YES. I'm still a mixture of horror and laughter when I recall how Fudge swallowed Peter's miniature turtle.

43. Ramona the Pest - Cleary (1968) YES. There are so many memorable scenes: The Qs that looked like cats, "What's a 'dawnzer'?" The little girl with the springy curls, a quarter after 8 = 8:25. Heart, heart, heart.

42. Little House on the Prairie - Wilder (1935) YES. This is the best-crafted of the series, with journeys on either end of the book. Garth Williams' illustrations are brilliant.

41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Speare (1958) YES. Another one I read when I was too old. Kit didn't captivate me. It felt as if Speare was trying too hard to create a plucky heroine. Also, the scene near the end where the husband finally grows a pair and tells his unpleasant wife off in front of the whole town smacked of 1950s television.

40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum (1900) YES. Surprisingly, I read this before seeing the 1939 film version, so I was quite critical of the movie at first. I have since grown to love and revere it on its own terms. That was my only outing with Baum, though.

39. When You Reach Me - Stead (2009) NO...NOT YET.

38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix - Rowling (2003) YES. I really don't mind Rowling hogging so many spots on the list. She helped make reading cool to kids that would never have considered such a possibility. Also, once upon a time, she was an EFL teacher. Go, Jo!

37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Taylor (1976) NO. But I want to.

36. Are You there, God? It's Me, Margaret - Blume (1970) YES. I really didn't like it at all. I read this one in 6th grade and I thought Margaret was nutty for wanting breasts and her period.

35. HP and the Goblet of Fire - Rowling (2000) YES.

34. The Watsons Go to Birmingham - Curtis (1995) NOT YET. I really want to read this book.

33. James and the Giant Peach - Dahl (1961) YES.

32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - O'Brian (1971) NO. I'm not really interested.

31. Half Magic - Eager (1954) NO. Another book I've never heard of.

30. Winnie-the-Pooh - Milne (1926) YES. Gorgeous stuff.

29. The Dark Is Rising - Cooper (1973) NO. I don't know anything about this book.

28. A Little Princess - Burnett (1905) YES. This is my favorite of Burnett's books.

27. Alice I and II - Carroll (1865/72) NO. The stench of my own illiteracy is starting to gag and overpower me.

26. Hatchet - Paulsen (1989) YES. I read this during the first season of Survivor. A year or so later, I bought the audiobook and taught the novel in my ESL class. We finished up by watching Cast Away.

25. Little Women - Alcott (1868/9) YES! I love this book. If I were ever to start an Odd Shelf, it would consist of all versions of LW in every possible language.

24. HP and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling (2007) NO. I read 1-5. Are all of the HP books on this list but one?

23. Little House in the Big Woods - Wilder (1932) YES. I love Pa's family stories. He's such a prominent character in this novel, obviously the parent Laura identifies with.

22. The Tale of Despereaux - DiCamillo (2003) YES. I didn't like it -- found it annoying from beginning to end. If it hadn't been a book group book, I would've abandoned it. No taste for any further forays into the DiCamillo canon.

21. The Lightning Thief - Riordan (2005) YES. Another book group selection. This one's a winner. The stories of encounters with the gods are updated creatively and winningly and the whole story of Percy Jackson the demi-god has a pleasurably grubby middle-school feel. I didn't like that they're high-school age in the movie.

20. Tuck Everlasting - Babbitt (1975) NO. I'm not familiar with this book.

19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl (1964) YES. I didn't encounter Dahl until middle school, but it was love at first sight. This was the book that started it all.

18. Matilda - Dahl (1988) YES. My son and I read this one together. Fun.

17. Maniac Magee - Spinelli (1990) NO. If I take on 24 hours of children's literature for the next Readathon, I might toss this one in the pile. Maybe.

16. Harriet the Spy - Fitzhugh (1964) YES! This book has become part of my landscape; it's practically internalized. I can't even describe how much I love it. Jill from BOOKLEAVES suggested this as a future read. I'd be up for that. I guess I won't get into my bitterness about the movie version.

15. Because of Winn-Dixie - DiCamillo (2000) NO. I like dog stories, but I don't have any plans to read this book.

14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling (1999) YES.

13. Bridge to Terabithia - Paterson (1977) YES. One of the few books where I was totally caught unaware by a plot twist. Sucker punched. Very effective, terribly moving.

12. The Hobbit - Tolkien (1938) NO. My secret shame. In high school, I loved a boy who loved this book and I couldn't even read it for him.

11. The Westing Game - Raskin (1978) NO. I'm not sure it's my type of book.

10. The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster (1961) NO. I want to -- I just haven't yet. I want to find out what's to become of Milo.

9. Anne of Green Gables - Montgomery (1908) YES. I finally got around to the Anne series a couple of years ago and enjoyed it so much. I'm contemplating a visit to PEI.

8. The Secret Garden - Burnett (1911) YES. I like the concept of how working in the garden improves Mary and the other children within and without, but the execution left me a little cold.

7. The Giver -Lowry (1993) NO. NOT YET. This is one of my son's favorites.

6. Holes - Sachar (1998) YES. By force. My son pressed his library copy into my hands one Sunday evening and said: You've got to read this book. Read it now. Read it. So I did, and I'm glad. The movie adaptation is excellent as well.

5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Koningsburg (1967) YES. I thought Claudia was so clever, deciding to live at the museum. I remember entertaining similar plans after reading this book.

4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Lewis (1950) YES. Narnia doesn't thrill me; I probably read this too late in life. All I can see is the allegory.

3. Harry Potter #1 - Rowling (1997) YES.

2. A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle (1962) NO. My son told me that Junot Diaz was visiting a university or college and asked the assembled students who the villian was in AWIT. No one knew! I guess I wouldn't have either.

1. Charlotte's Web - White (1952) YES. A whimsical story with drama, a fair-sized dash of sly Yankee humor and an author who was a master word craftsman and as if all that weren't enough, an illustrator who was a star. This book is perfection.

National Poetry Month: Casey At The Bat

Love has its sonnets galore. War has its epics in heroic verse. Tragedy its sombre story in measured lines. Baseball has Casey at the Bat."

- Albert G. Spaulding, sporting goods magnate (who is also famous for saying "When you play baseball, use my balls.")

Casey At The Bat by Ernest Thayer is my all-time favorite poem. I find it a truly moving epic, complete with the flawed hero of the title and the Greek chorus of baseball spectators who are in evidence right from the first stanza ("a sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.") to the last ("There is no joy in Mudville...)

In spite of the unsatisfying outcome, there's a lovely sense of balance -- Flynn (the "lulu") and Blake (the "cake") do more than is expected ("Flynn let drive a single to the wonderment of all/And Blake, the much despis-ed tore the cover off the ball.") while "Mighty Casey" does less than expected.

What's the deal with Casey? Is he a tragic flawed hero who comes up against unconquerable dark forces (the pitcher, the umpire) or is he just an insufferable, arrogant tool? Has he been blinded by the fans' adoration or has his hubris been lurking since way back in Little League?

In one of our first glimpses of Casey, he rubs his hands with dirt then wipes them on his shirt. Is the dirt/shirt stuff mere showboating? Is it a way of getting into "the zone" sort of the way some players tug at their crotches or readjust their wristbands before stepping into the batter's box? Is it a ritual that he feels compelled to go through to appease the gods of baseball? Does he resemble Antaeus, who got his strength from the earth? Does he just want to get a good grip on the bat since batting gloves won't be invented until well into the next century?

Thayer doesn't let his readers/listeners know if Casey is facing a pitcher unfamiliar to him. This would be a key to his behavior. He took that first pitch, which turned out to be a strike. Perhaps he wanted to check out this guy's style. Perhaps he was trying to psych the guy out by projecting a wealth of confidence. There are those who feel that he should have been looking for the first pitch to be a fastball and swung at it, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Damn nice of him, too, to soothe the crowd and dissuade them from killing the umpire.

Pitch #2 is where things get a little iffy. Casey "ignores" that second pitch, which is right up the pipe, as noted by the eagle-eyed umpire. Does Casey think that the combination of being part of the visiting team, seeing the crowd's response to Casey, observing Casey's unafraid bearing and hearing the shouts of the volatile crowd is going to rattle the pitcher and make him lose his stuff? Perhaps Casey was gambling that the second pitch would be called a ball and he would have more time at the plate. If it's a gamble it doesn't pay off. One thing we must give Casey props for -- even though he's got his faults and foibles and a hatful of bad decisions, he never argues with the umpire. In fact, when his "maddened thousands" of fans yell again, Casey gives them such a big STFU look that they are properly awed into silence. He may go down swinging, but he's sure as hell not going to get tossed from the game.

Casey is the one that's rattled now. He hasn't had a chance to see all of the tricks in the pitcher's bag. His unrestrained body language says it all (his teeth are clenched in hate/he pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate). The pitcher might as well get comfortable and have himself a snack since he's gotten up into Casey's kitchen and Casey is preparing to whiff something up.

The lines leading up to Casey's being caught looking have a compressed feel -- the reader or listener can feel the tension: (And now the pitcher holds the ball and now he lets it go) Everyone in that long line all the way back to 1888 is holding his or her breath and then: "And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow." Such a delicate little diss, as far as disses go, but so potent. Ernest Thayer really knew how to hurt a guy. But he was a fan, and fans hurt, too.

So what about Casey? I decided to ask 3 people (one for each strike) what they thought:

Person #1: Casey's a big prick! He went out there all cocky and wasted two strikes then whiffed. Serves him right. He's no hero -- he might be if he had swung at least once, but he didn't even try.

Person #2: Casey did right to take that first strike because it signalled confidence to the pitcher. Should he have swung at the second one? Maybe he was acting a little Hollywood.

Person #3: I think Casey's fans are responsible for his behavior. It's a very co-dependent relationship.

I feel such a mixture of frustration and affection for the guy. Damn, Casey. The table was set. That's the thing about a classic epic poem -- the table is set and the spectators roar and Casey gives Mudville joy then no joy in quick succession for all of eternity.

The First Book I Ever Loved

Pulitzer Fiction: The New Kid On The Block

I've never heard of this novel, but I'm very much looking forward to acquiring it for my Pulitzer collection and reading it. That cover's pretty anemic, though.

This is what I like about the Pulitzers. Since we haven't got access to a nominees list, every year is a surprise and often, a fresh discovery.

NANOWRIMO types: Take note and take heart: Tinkers is apparently a first novel and Paul Harding struggled for several years to find a publisher.

Readathon: The Finish Line

Pages read: 47
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 2

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 11.5. I couldn't go another step. I needed sleep.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I haven't read him, but I noticed that John Green got a lot of love during this Readathon.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? No.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The challenges and alphabetizing the readers' names.

5. How many books did you read? 3 books and a tiny amount out of two others when I was finicky and couldn't settle.

6. What were the names of the books you read?
St. Mawr - D. H. Lawrence
Yi Sun-Shin -Korean Spirit and Culture Series (no individual author listed)
A Wish After Midnight - Zetta Elliott

7. Which book did you enjoy most? St. Mawr

8. Which did you enjoy least? The other two books broke even.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Skim through the postings and try to find some sort of comment hook and respond at least partially to what readers talked about or photos they posted in that hour or perhaps a previous hour.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? It's likely that I'd participate again and be both a reader and a cheerleader.

Readathon: Hour 23

Pages read: 25
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 0

I'm almost done with A Wish After Midnight. It feels like I've been Readathoning all my life. I'm reminded of when Haruki Murikami wrote about running one of those triple marathons. First you're OK, then you hurt like hell, then you hate the whole process, then you shift into another zone and it's all OK again.

57 minutes left to get this book done. I'm there.

Readathon: Hour 22

Pages read: 10
Snacks: Cokesicle
Blogs visited: 2

I'm reading A Wish After Midnight and mean to finish, but I'm also letting the clock run out. For example, the TV came back on during this hour. I'm not discussing the novel as much as I discussed the other books I read because I want to give this one a full-blown review in its own post. I will say that it's perfect for the Readathon. Zetta Elliott is dealing with some heavy subjects, but her prose style is smooth and extremely easy to comprehend. She makes it look so easy.

Readathon: Hour 21

Pages read: 15
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 2

My Cokesicle should be about ready. The trick is to leave it in the freezer long enough for it to be the consistency of a Coke Icee from 7-11.

The crunchiest thing in the apartment right now has got to be my eyeballs.

Readathon: Hour 20

Pages read: 31
Snacks: 1 apple, sliced
Blogs visited: 2

I'm still reading A Wish After Midnight. Looks like it's a time-travel novel. Cool.

I should be reading Sea of Poppies or Blood Meridian. Both are book group books. The meetings are in 7 and 10 days, respectively.

Readathon: Hour 19

Pages Read: 10
Snacks: Chocolate
Blogs visited: 2

I walked down to the store since there's another Cokesicle in my future. The air is cool and the sky is a strange grayish but light-streaked color. Wild weather coming?

Readathon: Hour 18

Pages read: 54
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 3

I'm still working my way through A Wish After Midnight. If all goes well, this will be book #3.

Readathon: Hour 17

I didn't get anything read during this hour. Instead, I talked to my son who's been doing battle with a kidney stone for almost two weeks now.

Readathon: Hour 16

Pages read: 10
Snacks: More of that wonderful pizza
Blogs visited: 3

I had to get a little more active this hour so I washed the dishes and started a load of laundry. I closed the patio door since there's a bunch of guys in the parking lot idly revving their motors, talking loudly and hawking up choice bits of ....lung, judging from the sound.

Readathon: Hour 15

Pages read: 11
Snacks: A hella delicious veggie pizza...red peppers, orange peppers, eggplant, zuchinni, crisp crust & not too much cheese. Bliss.
Blogs visited: 8

Opening the patio door to let the fresh breeze in really helped. So did the pizza. I feel as if I can go the distance now.

I visited blogs then grabbed a few more pages of A Wish After Midnight. It's really engaging.

Readathon: Hour 14

Pages read: 0
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 21

I'm excited that during my cheering duties, I ran into Fiona's blog -- Book Journeys She's also here in the ROK. Her coolness knows no bounds. How do I know? She's got my girl-crush...I mean, she's got the Nancy Pearl Librarian action figure on display in her room.

When I feel more coordinated (probably tomorrow), Fiona's going on my blogroll.

Readathon: Hours 12 and 13 zzzzz

Yes, it's true. I napped. A deliberate act, but I still feel embarrassed.

Readathon: Hour 11

Pages Read: 8
Snacks: 1 apple
Blogs visited: 1

I found a YA novel on my TBR that I've been meaning to read and review. It's called
A Wish After Midnight. The author is Zetta Elliott. Genna Colon is 15 years old and lives in a slum in Brooklyn with her mother and her two brothers and sister. Her mother works double shifts as a nurse's aide at the hospital. Her father walked out years ago. Her abuela just moved back to Panama. Life is rough, but Genna's been tossing coins in a fountain every day and making wishes.

Readathon: Hour 10

Pages read: 48
Snacks: Lots of water this hour
Blogs visited: 5

I finished the book about Yi Sun-Shin. Incredible guy. Action-hero tough: When he was 28, he went to take his military exam. In the middle of the exam, he fell off of his horse and broke his leg. He braced himself on the good leg and quietly splinted and bound the broken one with a branch from a willow tree. If I gave this book/this national hero a song as is suggested in one of the challenges, it would be I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty.

Readathon: Hour 9

Pages read: 0
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 10

As Stevie Smith might say under different circumstances, not reading, but cheerleading. I'm working my way through the D's right now. Couldn't leave Demi a well-deserved comment. Her word verification only shows up slightly.
That last hour went very quickly. I enjoy interacting with other readers. There's also the fun of discovering new books to read.
Well, back to work...sis boom bah.

Readathon: Hour 8

Pages read: 40

Snacks: 0

Blogs visited: 1

Switching around again, I began reading a short (88 page) history/biography of the great Korean naval war hero Yi Sun-Shin. Admiral Yi (1545-1598) saved Korea at least twice from total Japanese invasion. He was a master strategist and brilliant innovator. He helped to design Kobukson, or "Turtle Ship", the first ironclad warship in the world.

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Yi is often compared with Nelson and Togo, but his record is actually even more successful than theirs. He was also a staunch patriot. Because he didn't work overtime to curry favor with royalty and politicians, he was often out of favor. One king actually demoted him all the way down from his top position to a common foot soldier. When the king realized his mistake (nearly losing Chosun Korea to Japan in the process) he hurriedly reinstated Yi Sun-Shin, who returned, not bitter, only happy to serve again.

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Yi died nobly in battle but he kicked some serious ass for Korea. According to this book, my university took a nationwide poll back in 2005, asking Koreans who they considered the greatest figure in Korean history. Yi Sun-Shin won with more than 43% of the vote.

Readathon: Hour 7

Pages read: 15
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 4

I'm having a little trouble settling on a new book to read. For the last hour, I've been paging through a little gem that I borrowed from Alex called The Wordsworth Book of Intriguing Words by Paul Hellweg. Right now, I've got kopophobia = fear of fatigue. I've discovered that I'm a logolept = a word maniac. Somehow, I already knew bibliophile = one who loves books. A little later, I'm definitely going for the apples and peanut butter snack because I most assuredly do not have arachibutyrophobia = fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of my mouth.

Readathon: Hour 6

Pages read: 22
Snacks: Salad (carrots, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes)
Blogs visited: 0

For my second book, I thought I'd try The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith. I'm 4 chapters in, but don't know if I'll stay with it for this Readathon. I may have to back out of the 18th century if I get too tired.

Thanks to the friends and cheerleaders who have popped in to say hi and give encouragement. I'm going to read for a couple of more hours, then I'll be out there cheering.

Readathon: Hour 5

Pages read: 47
Snacks: 2 hardboiled eggs (I'm starting to feel like Cool Hand Luke: "I can eat 50 eggs.")
Blogs visited: 1

I finished St. Mawr. Lou decided back in England that her new life motto was going to be Noli me tangere, and she's sticking with it. Traveling in the Southwest, she finds a 60-year-old ramshackle ranch high in the mountains outside of Santa Fe and buys it for $1,200. She vows to her mother that she'll be happy there, that the land has a spirit that will save her from the cheapness of people and life. It's a beautiful speech, but Lawrence undercuts it by giving a brief history of all the people in the past 60 years who also loved the the ranch and tried to put the mark of civilization on the place but nature and the elements finally wore them down.

Lawrence must have had mayonnaise on his mind, because he uses it in two expressions during this story: "...rather like an eggshell in the mayonnaise", meaning to feel or be out-of-place and "For two days, mother and daughter ate in the mayonnaise intimacy of the dining room." I guess that means that they're eating with a lot of people, but those people are strangers to them.

I like this little novel much more than I believed I would.

Readathon: Hour 4

Pages read: 60
Snacks: Cokesicle
Blogs visited: 0

St. Mawr's in Texas now. Much to the surprise of Lewis, St. Mawr has become immediately interested in a filly on Mrs. Witt's ranch. Back in England, St. Mawr refused to be bred.

Poor Lou. England sucked but Texas sucks just as much. England felt like a cardboard life and Texas feels colorful but flat, like the cover of a Zane Grey novel. Where is the place that won't suck? Lou and Mrs. Witt are hitting the road again, heading to the Great Southwest.

Readathon: Hour Three

Pages read: 56
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 0

Poor St. Mawr. According to Lawrence, it's not his fault that he's an unpredictable stallion. All his life (he's seven years old) he's been patiently waiting and hoping for someone noble to ride him, but except for Lewis the groom, no joy. Instead, he got Rico, Lou's husband who has no sensitivity towards horses (he prefers cars) and causes himself to be injured by pulling St. Mawr backward on top of him.

Luckily, Rico gets away with only a couple of broken ribs and a broken ankle. He wants the horse to be shot, but his friend and neighbor, Flora Manby (interesting last name) persuades him to sell St. Mawr to her and she'll have him gelded. She actually says she's wild to do it. Lewis, Phoenix, Mrs. Witt and Lou get wind of this plan and it is decided that Mrs. Witt and Lewis will ride St. Mawr into Wales. There is a brief discussion about the good guys and the horse all hitting the trail for America.

Readathon: Hour Two

Pages read: 42
Snacks: Another hardboiled egg and more water. I noticed that I had half of a small bottle of Coke left so I stuck it in the freezer so I can have a Cokesicle in a few hours.
Blogs visited: 1

I can't help smiling when I think of Lawrence writing about a mother and daughter -- the mother is 50 and the daughter is 20-something, both beautiful -- sleepless and lammenting that there are so few "real men" in the world. They can see this with their "third eye" (intuition). A real man would be like the Great God Pan before he fell to the level of goat-satyr. Both Lou and Mrs. Witt got pretty weepy, imagining "an unfallen Pan." Right now, the whole lot of characters and some new minor ones are on a horseback trip to The Devil's Chair, which seems to be on the border of England and Wales. They're being led by Lewis, the Lawrence stand-in for this novel.

Readathon: Hour One

Pages read: 98
Snacks: The most mangled of my hardboiled eggs with a little salt and pepper; a glass of water
Blogs visited: 0

I started out the Readathon with St. Mawr, a short novel by D.H. Lawrence. Everyone's battling everybody: Men vs. Women, Humans vs. Animals, True Englishmen vs. Colonialists, Upper class vs. working class...it's a little exhausting. Lawrence is hitting the reader over the head again and again with his ideas and he's doing my pet peeve for him: he's made yet another character an artist. Luckily, this character, Rico, isn't really very good so when Lawrence comes off a little diffident, it works out OK.

I think that Lewis, the groom who has been with St. Mawr since he was a newly born colt and understands him completely, is the Lawrence character because he's Welsh, has cool appraising gray eyes and a tangle of black beard. He is praised by Mrs. Witt as being "a real man." There's another groom named Geronimo Trujillo (nicknamed Phoenix) who is half-Spanish, half-Navajo and shell-shocked from the recent Great War. So far, he sticks out in the novel like a sore thumb. It will be interesting to see what Lawrence does with him.

The Road To The Readathon

About 15 minutes till the trouble begins -- so far, I've had a couple of setbacks, but they've been minor.

Yesterday, I went back to my library to pick up The Complete Novels of Dashiell Hammett and Clear Pictures, a memoir by Reynolds Price. When I got to the self-checkout machine, she turned against me in my time of need. Apparently, She Means Business about the 10-book limit.

Since the Readathon begins at the end of the day here instead of the beginning, I have to make sure that the day before consists of plenty of rest, so I stayed up till dawn reading Sea of Poppies and watching The Trouble With Angels, then slept most of today. I regret that I didn't get out to get Brie or Asian pear, though.

After I woke up in the late afternoon, I watched more TV and played online Scrabble. I caught most of The Crucible and then saw that Twilight had just started on another channel. While doing this, I started the hardboiled eggs. Unfortunately, I got interested in all of these activities and didn't monitor the boiling/cooling time on my eggs, so they're a little mangled but still edible.

I've never seen or read Twilight before. I'm following Alex's reading of the book on youtube, and I thought he was just being delightfully snippy, but no. It's not my thing at all. The vampires have just played baseball during a thunderstorm and had an encounter with...other vampires? Evil dark forces?...but never mind. I'm done. Goodbye, Twilight, hello Readathon!

Readathon: Cheerleading

My plan for the Readathon is 8/8/8: Read for 8 hours, cheer on other Readathoners for 8 hours, then go back to reading for the last 8. This system usually works pretty well for me.

There are hordes of cheerleaders this year! We've been organized into 4 teams, named after Romantic poets: Keats, Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth. I'm on Team Byron, and I'll be cheering for readers whose names begin with D-J.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the Romantics and I always thought that Byron was a bit of an ass, but I must also admit that I find his portrait pretty damn easy on the eyes.
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According to the website, 320 bookish types have signed up to read for 24 hours. If you listen closely, you'll be able to hear the whispery sound of pages turning all over the world this weekend.

Readathon: Snack Coach

I don't know about you, but I can't go into a Readathon lightly. I have to think about what to read and what to wear and sometimes, I even get a haircut for the occasion. Somehow it seems that when I'm freshly shorn, the words sink into my brain so much easier because my scalp feels so light and cool.

I also try to think about what to eat. During the Readathon last October, I neglected this important aspect of the game and suffered the consequences as a result. I was low-energy, often cranky and fell asleep early on, losing consciousness for four hours. In Hour 19, I had a similar episode that lasted about 20 minutes.

Fortunately, I posted my snacks each hour and Sandra, my wonderful BOOKLEAVES friend analyzed my food lists and pronounced them "sub-par convenience store pap." She suggested that next time I treat myself to "something more gastronomically stimulating." I didn't have to think twice. I asked her to be my snack coach and she kindly agreed. Here's her advice:

Sandra: OK, light on the carbs, heavy on the proteins, especially when you're already feeling sleepy. Fruits are carbs, but they're also refreshing and make you feel rejuvenated, so fruits are OK in moderation, mostly to cleanse your palate and make you feel good.

Apples with peanut butter (your idea) is good. The protein will counteract the nap-inducing carbs. Another good fruit to eat is Asian pear because you need something sort of exotic to rub it in the faces of all your readers who aren't expats. Asian pear is so beautiful and juicy and palate-cleansing and refreshing.

For luxury with a shot of protein, I would really recommend some cheese or at least that brie-in-a-can. I know it's crap but it's all we've got here. Or instead of that, but in the same price range, some E-Mart sushi. Either the sushi or the cheese would be a big splurge--either one would be close to 10,000 won. You need some pampering.


For more protein, I'm thinking tuna. Do you like it? Some hate it, I like it. Koreans have interesting canned tuna--have you ever tried the kind in hot sauce? There's one in barbecue sauce too. You can eat it plain or you can mix it in with some cooked rice, so simple to prepare you won't even lose your place on the page.

Do not neglect the important food group called chocolate. I know I said no carbs, but I was exaggerating. A little chocolate might be just what you need at 3 in the morning. Go with a Crunky Bar or Atlas (Korean Snickers doppelganger). Speaking of Snickers, if you can get a little packet of nuts, that's another good protein-laden snack. Sunflower seeds are good too, but can be hard to eat while reading.

Drink plenty of water, just like the running marathoners. Have on hand some juice. I would not overdo it with the coffee but I think you're going to want some. If you're going to do outings, going to a coffee shop might be a nice pick-you-up or go to a nearby smoothie place or something. I think going out to eat something or drink something will give you some variety and fresh air and motivation. If you feel like falling asleep at 3 in the afternoon, maybe you should take your book out to a cafe.

Marathoners also load up on carbs before they run--you could do that too! A big huge plate of pasta before the marathon starts, but not during. It will make you too sleepy.Do you ever buy the meat-on-a-stick in the E-Mart deli? I know, a lot of it is processed meat, but it's very tasty. It tastes good cold or microwaved.



Hard boiled eggs! Cook them ahead of time and have them waiting in the fridge. With lots of salt and pepper they are so delicious. I have a fool proof cooking method so if you want tips, just ask.

Yogurt! Crudites. You need some vegetables, and I'd recommend before the marathon starts, cut up some raw veggies and have them on standby. Cucumbers, red peppers, carrots. If you also have some lettuce leaves washed and ready, you could use them to wrap up gobs of the tuna, if you're going to eat it. You're going to have your frozen pizza on hand too, right?

Use the food to reward and motivate yourself, use it to wake yourself up (when you get sleepy stick with protein). Try not to overdo the coffee or it might bother your stomach and make you feel crazy. In the wee hours you'll be happy to have some nice food as a reward.

Susan: Great ideas! I love tuna. I had 2 kinds of tuna things this week -- cucumber sandwiches with tuna salad filling and tuna patties. I also buy hot spicy tuna regularly.

I'm stocked up on frozen pizza. I bought 3...they're called Pizza Italiano and the package says they're made in Italy.

Ooooh, I love Brie! (and this is the perfect time to indulge and not feel guilty) Asian pears make me feel like an international woman of mystery. The E-Mart sushi is nice.

I've never tried meat on a stick.

I'll make a last-minute run for vegetables on Friday after work. Luckily, I have some Ranch for dip.

Hardboiled eggs -- and I could check some Raymond Chandler out from the library!

Thanks so much for your much-needed help and your brilliant advice, Sandra -- I owe you one. This should be my most successful Readathon.

Library Loot: Readathon On My Mind

With the Readathon only days away, I did a more thorough stalking of my library on Monday during my hour break between classes. Prowling through the stacks (trying hard not to disturb nappers and couples making out), I wandered through what felt like acres and acres of books in Hangul. Every time I started to feel kind of mournful at the thought of never being able to read any of this stuff, I'd hit strange little pockets of English-language books. I also checked out the children's literature situation more closely. There are numerous books of how to teach CL, but relatively little of the genre itself. Every now and then I'll find the odd picture book mixed in with usual casserole of Korean and English fiction.

After careful consideration, I presented the shiny, happy self-checkout machine with 3 books:

1. Little House On The Prairie: A Reader's Companion - Virginia L. Wolf. According to the dedication, "Wolf" is not the author's birth name. Aren't you wildly curious to know if the author hesitated or rushed headlong into that married name? I try to put myself in her shoes: What if Mr. Sontag or Mr. Glaspell had appeared at my door instead of Mr. Bybee?

Anyway, this book is a scholarly analysis of the 3rd book in the Little House series, but the author also maintains an ongoing discussion of all the novels. She provides a good deal of historical context, which I appreciate. There is only a brief mention of The First Four Years; she doesn't count that since it was published after both Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane had died.
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Speaking of Rose, Virginia Wolf addresses the debate swirling around the "authorship" of the series, and arrives at the same satisfactory conclusion that I did several years ago: Laura was strong on storytelling and weak with craft and Rose was the opposite -- they complemented each other perfectly. Finally, at the end of this study, there is an promising-looking appendix that provides ideas on how the Little House books can be used in school.

2. St. Mawr - D.H. Lawrence. I wasn't familiar with this title by Lawrence. It's a short book and the first couple of pages read nicely, so I decided to give it a go. From what I gather, it's about a bored and rich young woman, newly married, who buys a horse (the title character) and finds that he is much more interesting and vital than her husband or the other men in her social set. Was Lawrence having a bit of fun? Will I be exposed to a degree of Ick factor? I'll let you know, but I suspect that sometimes you should just say neigh.

3. Some Tame Gazelle - Barbara Pym. I know I like Pym. I remember reading Excellent Women back in the 1990s, but I can't remember anything but faded spinsters and gentle comedy. Maybe I just wasn't reading her at the right time of life. This short novel about two spinster sisters who befriend the new curate in their parish looks like refined fun. Perhaps it will end up being an antidote to St. Mawr. (I shouldn't be that way, but I know Lawrence. In my mind, I keep seeing the fig-eating and nude wrestling scenes in the film version of Women In Love.)

As always, I left behind a few treasures. In particular, I wanted The Collected Works of Richard Wright, The Hammett Collection, and The Forsyte Saga, but they're all Chunky Monkeys. I was already weighed down with textbooks and papers to grade, so I had to pass, but I'll get back there once more before closing time on Friday.

March: Buying

It didn't happen all at once, but when it was time to flip that calendar page from March to April, what was the damage? 8 books. Gasp.

So far this year I've bought 20 and read 30. The good news is that I'm reading faster than I'm buying, although this month was neck and neck. Check out what came home with me and let your eye skim over my spirited but mostly lame rationalizations:

1. Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan. I got this for BOOKLEAVES' March 28 discussion. New book.


2. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy. I got this for CRACKED SPINZ book group. I'm feeling intimidated by the thought of reading it. New book.




3. Word Freak - Stefan Fatsis. I've already read it, I have a copy of it back in my US collection, I didn't need it, but I flat don't care. I love this quirky look at life on the Scrabble circuit. New book.




4. Market Leader - David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent. This is the textbook I'm using for my Business English class. I discovered after my students had bought their books that we were working out of two vastly different editions, so I needed to update. Business English is not my favorite class to teach and I can't usually warm up to that genre of textbook, but I really like Market Leader's nifty little articles about international businesses, the colorful layout of the book and there's a sample CV that's not difficult for my students to follow for their final project. There's an accompanying CD as well. The Market Leader authors are from the UK and I've almost forgiven them for hiring voice actors who feel that a harsh, flat, grating series of noises is what passes as an American accent. I've taught this book so often that I can almost cozy up to it like a "real" book instead of a textbook. For example, I often wonder if co-author Simon Kent feels left out because he's not named David and the book title inspires me to start humming Subterranean Homesick Blues then snarling out with my best Dylan imitation: Don't follow leaders! Watch your market leaders! New book.

5. Dictations For Discussion - Judy DeFlippo and Catherine Sadow. Out of the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing), listening is kind of like the shy kid who gets ignored. I'm trying to teach more listening comprehension activities this semester. The beauty part is that they're all dictations about 'controversial' topics, so it's easy for me to whip up a few discussion questions for later in the class. The book's not perfect though -- a little too American-centric. New book.

6. The Complete Idiot's Guide To American Literature. One of the Korean professors in the English department assigned this book for his class. I saw some of my students carrying it around. Beguiled by the trademark orange and blue cover and the cute picture of Edgar Allen Poe on the front, I bought a copy at the bookstore during one of my planning periods. It's really fun. I'd forgotten that Ichabod Crane's horse was called Gunpowder. There's also a chapter about Naturalism that knocked my socks off. New book.


7. Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh. This is the novel we'll be discussing at the BOOKLEAVES meeting on April 18. New book.

8. My Autobiography - Charles Chaplin. Big score!!! The last time I saw this book was a little over 2 years ago and the price was about 27 USD. Thanks but no thanks. Then, last Sunday when the BOOKLEAVES crew (Veronica, Sandra, Shanna, Bernadette, Jill and myself) was in Kyobo buying Sea of Poppies, I saw it in a smart Penguin edition. Chaplin's young-man face is large on the cover and he's not wearing that annoying toothbrush moustache. He looks smokin' hot, which is something I never thought I'd say about Sir Charles. Shifting it from one hand to the other and cooing over it, I still hesitated to buy. Quickly bored with my googly eyes and indecision, Veronica did a price inquiry. Less than 8 USD. That's more like it! New book.

March: Reading and Reviewing

Eight books this month. Going back to work kind of messed with my zone, but maybe I can get it back again during the upcoming Readathon. Meanwhile, here's what I read in March:

1. Don't Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball - Mark Ribowsky.
This biography is also an excellent look at the history, the evolution, the significant players on and off the field, the conflict and finally the dissolution of Negro baseball, often referred to as "blackball." Sometimes Satch seems a peripheral figure.


2. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James.
Earlier this month, I babbled about how impressed I am with this short novel and my new attitude about "The Master".

3. Zoom - Istvan Banyai.
I have no words. Just imagine a picture of my brain crazy-happy and expanding like nobody's business.

4. Grendel - John Gardner.
The story of Beowulf from the monster's point of view. Gardner did a much better job fitting the parallel views together than Gregory Maguire did for the Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked.




5. Dodsworth - Sinclair Lewis.
Getting back to Sinclair Lewis after a few years was like coming home, putting on my comfortable clothing and relaxing into my favorite chair. Now I need the movie version and a big bowl of popcorn and jalapenos!

6. Virginia Woolf - Hermione Lee.
A brilliantly conceived and executed biography. There is no danger of praising it too much or too highly.

7. The Way West - A.B. Guthrie, Jr.
I was mildly dissatisfied with this western offering. I kept thinking about what Larry McMurtry would have done with this trek to Oregon.


8. Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan.
Five stories (two of them novella-length) chronicling the hardships in poverty-stricken, war-torn areas of Africa. Akpan's stories, which are narrated by children and adolescents, have a raw power. A difficult read, but I'm glad that I experienced this book.