Book Bingo Blackout: School's In!

 Unruly Reader strikes again! Isn't this school theme worthy of at least seven complimentary words that border on worshipful?  I'm totally enthralled.

Unruly has a description of each category/school subject:

I can see myself acing this challenge and going to the head of the class then graduating with honors. My plan is to come back and add updates here every month, so watch this space.

UPDATE:

January. Subject: Afterschool Special. Book: Demon Copperhead.

UPDATE:

February. Subject: Chronicles. Book: Spare.

UPDATE:

March. Subject: Band. Book: Young Man with a Horn

UPDATE:

April. Subject: Apple. Book: At The Edge of the Orchard

UPDATE:

May. Subject: Home Economics. Book: How to Keep House While Drowning

UPDATE:

June. Subject: Chemistry. Book: Lessons in Chemistry

UPDATE:

July. Subject: World Languages. Book: Happening

UPDATE:

August. Subject: Library Checkout. Book: Shy

UPDATE:

September. Subject: Modern Library 100 The Call of the Wild

UPDATE:

Subject: Drama Club Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Subject: Old School Sense and Sensibility 

Subject: English Lessons

Subject: Detention Five Days at Memorial

Subject: Elementary What Do We Know About the Winchester House?

In Which I Am So Glad I Don't Owe the Whole Internet Ten Dollars

July 30. I did it. I finally finished Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. We were together 2 months and 2 weeks. Now there's an Alexander Hamilton-shaped hole in my life.

That last day, I read about 40%. There comes a point when you can't stop reading, you don't want to stop and you can't dissemble. Even my mother was getting the stony eff-off-I-am-reading look. When that didn't work, I used subtler, more effective methods: I started reading aloud from Alexander Hamilton, and she wandered off to play Candy Crush then take a nap.

 I continued to read and read. Tears from eyestrain streamed from my right eye. Tired of wiping it, I covered it instead and continued with my left.

But never mind my eye. Alexander Hamilton! What a story Ron Chernow brings to life! Best of men and best of biographers. By the end, I was shedding more than eyestrain tears. I was a wreck.

After a halfway decent interval, I took a deep breath and took up the next book I'd slated for myself, Fallen Founder, a biography of Aaron Burr. After twenty minutes or so, I was thinking oh hell no. The premise of Fallen Founder is that Aaron Burr, like Dr. Pepper, is terribly misunderstood. Deep down, he was really a swell guy. I didn't stick around to find out. I don't give a damn if he was a Mary Wollestonecraft fan, or if he was president of her fan club. He shot Alexander Hamilton! My wrathful feelings towards Burr may cool off at some point. I don't know.

After a couple of days, I decided to do a reread of Gore Vidal's novel about Burr. After all, Vidal's portrayal is that of a villain (although an entertaining one, I hate to admit) in his hoary old age who is just as much of a scoundrel as ever. Besides, I've been missing Gore Vidal lately. I wish he were alive to make savage and witty remarks about the current political scene. Even better, Ron Chernow likes Burr.

Time to listen to the musical again.

A Look Back at My Nonfiction Year

Before Nonfiction November started, I read 32 nonfiction books in 2015. This pleases me. I need fiction like nobody's business, but I want to be perceived as a  nonfiction type.  I don't know why; perhaps I need a bookworm shrink.

Anyway, here are some of the nonfiction books that stood out for me, in both senses of the phrase:

The Book of Margery Kempe.
I got off to a rocky start in 2015. Tried to read like it was 1439, and I was just... WTF? and...No.

The Talented Miss Highsmith.
A great, gossipy and snoopy biography that sometimes bordered on creepy. The biographer carries around a pair of Patricia Highsmith's Levis! There's a video on YouTube. I cannot judge because I would totally be all over clothing belonging to Katherine Mansfield or Sylvia Plath, given the opportunity.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Oh, Marie Kondo. I could not have done that international move without you. Every time I fold an item of clothing, I thank you so hard.

The Millionaire Next Door.
So much interesting information, but dull, deadly prose, and all those tables! Reading this book was like kneeling in an ice-cold stream, panning for gold.

Hissing Cousins
A fun biography of first cousins Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth. I am enjoying this trend of saucy biographers.

The TBR Triple Dog Dare Challenge

Yes, I'm brave enough to take the dare hosted by James at Ready When You Are, C.B.  It's not bravery I lack; it's perseverance; it's discipline; it's a good attention span.

To read only books I already own from Jan. 1-April 1 shouldn't be that difficult, right?  Yet for the past three years that James has done this challenge, I've let myself be distracted.  Last year, I only made it 11 books into the new year. I even remember the day: February 9, then I was blown off-course by A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, (and it wasn't even worth it).  I tried to right myself with a long-promised copy of Sharp Objects, but then Teri dangled the audiobook of Founding Mothers before me as well as an ebook of Where'd You Go, Bernadette -- What?  I was supposed to ignore lovely literary files dropping into my emailbox? -- anyway, that was that for the TBR Double Dog Dare.

Here I go again, but one thing that Operation Carb Face has taught me is that I need to mentally prepare. I've got 22 days. What steps can I take that will help me stick to my own shelves and not be beguiled by all the nice page-pretties that pop up on other blogs and on Goodreads and in a thousand other places?

November: A Plan Called Reading

I don't usually plan my reading.  It's purely a mood thing, but this month I joined a couple of challenges.  Plus, there are some other books I want to get to.  As a result, November finds me with a tidy little reading list:

1. Johnny Cash: The Life - Robert Hilburn.  I pre-ordered this book on August 28, then practically stood over my Kindle until I got the notice via email on October 31 that it was ready to be downloaded.  Then I devoured it in hungry gulps over a three-day weekend.   There are some scandalous bits about Johnny Cash's life, but for Hilburn, the music is the main thing.  He seems impatient when Cash is concentrating on endeavors (he's especially scornful of Cash's acting, calling it "wooden", which I thought was mean) other than honing his artistic vision.  The part in which Cash decides to become a Branson performer but almost simultaneously goes to California and meets producer Rick Rubin reads like a suspense novel.  Even though I knew how things came out, I was still all whew and wiping my forehead.  Devoted fans and more musically-minded, critical readers should both be pleased with this thoughtful, in-depth examination of The Man In Black.  It's obviously a labor of love.  I found myself favorably comparing Johnny Cash: The Life to Peter Guralnick's excellent two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love. (Kindle)


2. If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino.  This is one of the challenge books I'm reading with Care and Avid Reader.  So far, not so good.  This is my subway book, and it's got me dreading my rides to and from work.  I like Calvino's ruminations about being a reader, but this post-modern stuff of novels breaking off one after another is getting on my nerves.  I know I'm "supposed" to love it and think it's brilliant, and that I don't makes me feel all grumpy, unwashed and Philistine-like.  Still, I'm going to see it through till the end.  I want bragging rights, the snob cachet, and I also need more international authors on my year-end list. (Kindle)

3. The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk.  There's a group on Goodreads who is tackling the Pulitzer fiction list, and The Caine Mutiny (which won in 1952) is up for this month.  I've seen the Humphrey Bogart movie several times, so I'm wondering how it will differ from the book.  I don't know where I got it, but I seem to have a first edition of the novel.  It's got no dust jacket, and the spine has a water stain, but it's in pretty good shape.  I like the endpapers:  (Hardcover)

4. Shadow of the Moon - M.M. Kaye.  The last time my reading buddy, the fleet-of-eyeball (and apparently swift of eardrum too, since she's taken up audio books with great success) Teri came to visit, she brought this novel with her.  I can't remember if she said it's her all-time favorite, or among her all-time favorites.  From the looks of this volume, it's obviously got to be in her top five:

I've never read any of M.M. Kaye's work, but I'm confident I'll like Shadow of the Moon.  Teri has an excellent track record for recommendations.  Chocolat, Flannagan's Run, and In This House of Brede were all books she pressed into my hands that I enjoyed tremendously.  My only worry is that I'll misplace one of the sections of this book, or it'll come apart even further.  (Hardcover)

5. The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien.   They've got some tall, tall bookshelves in my university library; I'm guessing the top shelves are at least two feet above my head.  One day, I got tired of craning my neck and squinting to no avail, so I grabbed a step stool and found The Things They Carried, a book I've been meaning to read since it came out in 1990.  I've a little shy of it because it's gotten so much praise, but I'm ready now.  (Paperback)

6. An Abundance of Katherines - John Green.  The latest Rainbow Rowell novel, Landlines, doesn't come out until July of 2014.  My strategy is to make do with John Green novels until then.  (Paperback)

7.  The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards.  I got this book from my friend Val.  I've been reading it on an occasional basis.  The writing is beautiful, but it's very much a "women's novel". (Paperback)

8.  Jenny & The Jaws of Life - Jincy Willett.  I found this one at the November Busan Book Swap. It's a  collection of short stories first published in 1987 and brought back into print 25 years later, thanks to the hearty endorsement of David Sedaris.  If Sedaris likes these stories, that works for me.  I also couldn't resist this cover: (Paperback)

Who knows what other books will creep onto this list between now and the 30th?  Not that I want to deviate, but what *should* creep onto the list?  Whaddaya got?

The Western Challenge

May is galloping by and I've only just now gotten started on C.B's Western challenge. This morning, I cracked open Willa Cather's My Antonia. Except for the short story "Paul's Case", I haven't read any of Cather's work. I can't believe my oversight; this is beautiful stuff. I'm her newest fan.

That Olympic Feeling: The Canadian Reading Challenge

Although I've still got a long trek (snowshoes, where are my snowshoes?) I feel as if I'm finally making some progress with the Canadian Reading Challenge.

1. The Paper Bag Princess (children's picture book) - Robert Munsch. I'll love him forever.

2. The Cellist of Sarajevo (novel) - Steven Galloway. I was underwhelmed when I first read this novel and irritated that the title character was more of a symbol than an actual person that readers got to go, but now that the book has settled in my mind, it seems to keep improving and I found myself recommending it the other day. It's funny how some books will sneak up on you like that.

3. Divisadero (novel) - Michael Ondaatje. When Ondaatje abandoned the Anna/Claire/Coop story that begins this novel and started doing intricate and interlocking loops back into the past, I went along but not willingly. I love looking for meanings and patterns and repetition as much as the next reader, but I also want a fairly linear storyline and to see the characters I initially invested in through to some sort of conclusion, whether it be satisfying or unsatisfying. An irritating reading experience; I was left feeling like the most unsophisticated of readers.

4. A Boy Of Good Breeding (novel) - Miriam Toews. Toews relies too much on quirky charm but I'm still eager to read the whole of her canon.

5. Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition (nonfiction) - Owen Beattie & John Geiger. This is far and away my favorite of the Canadian reads so far. In 1845, Sir John Franklin set out to find the Northwest Passage with his two ships the Erebus and the Terror and a crew of 129 men. (With ship names like that, wouldn't you have been tempted to turn back?)

When no one had heard or seen them by 1848, search parties were organized. The ships were never found, but there was evidence the whole party had perished. No one could understand why, since they'd shipped out with plenty of provisions, including thousands of pounds of that newfangled invention, canned food. (So new that the can opener hadn't yet been invented.) For years the question persisted: Was it blundering incompetence or something else?

Fast-forward to the early 1980s. Forensic anthropologist Owen Beattie took a team back to the Arctic and dug up and examined 3 of the victims, who were perfectly preserved in ice. Mystery solved -- cutting-edge technology was their undoing. The cans had been improperly sealed by the manufacturer and Franklin and his men died from lead poisoning.

First published in the late 1980s, Frozen In Time was updated and re-released in 2004 with a lively introduction by Margaret Atwood (I'd recommend saving it till the end of the book). The book is illustrated with photos and maps. Some of the graphic descriptions of the fate of Franklin's men aren't for those with a weak stomach. Incredibly engrossing; a perfect winter read.

Really Reely Reading

I'm really looking forward to C.B.'s challenge. Haven't yet decided how many books and movies I'm going to read and view, but this is a tentative starting list of books and movies that I haven't experienced yet but want to:

1. Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince -My son has the book and probably the movie. Even if he doesn't, it's not hard to find.
2. No Country For Old Men -both book and movie are easily findable here.
3. Gone Baby Gone -I hope I can find this Dennis Lehane novel. My son has a DVD of the movie.
4. Slumdog Millionaire - I have the book and the movie should be easy to locate.
5. The Mosquito Coast - This novel has been on my TBR for a couple of years, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to find the movie easily.

Next stop: The popcorn aisle at E-Mart.

2010: Lots More Library Love

For regular readers of NWB, this cannot possibly come as a surprise. Perhaps I should retitle this blog "Naked Without Libraries".

In the upcoming challenge, there are four levels:
The Mini – Check out and read 25 library books.
Just My Size – Check out and read 50 library books. (This is the level I'm going for, since I successfully completed my goal of 25 in 2009 even though I didn't start till late March or early April.)
Stepping It Up – Check out and read 75 library books.
Super Size Me – Check out and read 100 library books.
Aim high. As long as you read 25 by the end of 2010, you are a winner.

3. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Young Reader – any book as long as it is checked out from the library count. (That's nice about the re-reads. Could come in handy.) Checked out like with a library card, not purchased at a library sale. (My faculty ID card doubles as a library card.)

4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed. (That's good -- new stuff seems to pop up on the shelves all the time. There are also plenty of classics that I haven't gotten to yet. My Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm is wriggling with joy.)

5. Crossovers from other reading challenges count. (Whew.)

6. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010. (I'll be ready with a big old stack o' library love!)

Library Challenge Complete!

Back last May, I joined J. Kaye's Support Your Local Library Challenge. After several months of library looting, I began last weekend to tally up what I had checked out and read from my library so I could see how much of a push I needed to finish To my surprise, the total was at 24, and I had pledged to read 25 library books in 2009.

Today, I completed this challenge. I'm offering up my sweet success as a tribute to the library I waited and longed for during my first four years in Korea. Although I won't have any classes in the building next semester, my library is only a 3-5 minute walk uphill and I'll be making fond and frequent visits. My library. I'll never get tired of saying it.

Perhaps even more than the reading, I've had fun scanning the shelves and shelves of books in Korean and picking out what's available in English. Every visit has been a treasure hunt. Odd and enjoyable. Check out what I checked out:

1. The Hidden Flower - Pearl S. Buck

2. In Dubious Battle -John Steinbeck

3. Lost Names - Richard Kim

4. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

5. The Snows of Kilimanjaro - Ernest Hemingway

6. The Moon and Sixpence - W. Somerset Maugham

7. Howards End - E.M. Forester

8. Native Son - Richard Wright

9. The Just and the Unjust - James Gould Cozzens

10. Yang The Youngest and His Terrible Ear - Lensey Namioka

11. Fox Girl - Nora Okja Keller

12. A Step From Heaven - An Na

13. Little Women and the Feminist Imagination

14. The Classic Era of Crime Fiction

15. Carver Country

16. The Benchley Roundup - Robert Benchley

17. Jane Eyre's American Daughters

18. Shaking The Nickel Bush - Ralph Moody

19. The Underground Stream: The Life & Art of Caroline Gordon

20. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway

21. Make-Believe: The Story of Nancy & Ronald Reagan

22. Daydreams and Nightmares: Reflections On A Harlem Childhood

23. Huey Long: The Kingfish of Louisiana

24. Reading In The Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom

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25. Discovering The Maltese Falcon And Sam Spade - Richard Layman (ed.)

It's Aboot Time! Complete Canadian Challenge Bookshelf

I've got all my Canadian books now and I'm ready to read. Actually, I got a little too enthusiastic and ended up with 14. Here's the complete list of what I'll be tackling from here to Canada Day:

Moral Disorder - Margaret Atwood

Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood

The Tent - Margaret Atwood

Wilderness Tips - Margaret Atwood

A Mixture of Frailties - Robertson Davies

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway

The Diviners - Margaret Laurence

Among The Shadows - L.M. Montgomery

Emily Climbs - L.M. Montgomery

The Paper Bag Princess - Robert Munsch

Coming Through Slaughter - Michael Ondaajte

Divisadero - Michael Ondaajte

The Tenderness of Wolves - Steph Penney

Gone To An Aunt's: Remembering Canada's Homes For Unwed Mothers - Anne Petrie

Building Canadian

My approach to the new Canadian Book Challenge is a little different this time -- I'm building a stack of Canadian reads and when I get a stack of 13 books by or about our neighbo(u)rs to the north, I'll plunge in and start reading. Sad to say, I'm almost two months late getting started; I'll have to read like hel...Halifax.

I slid my uber-sweaty feet into my snow boots just long enough to give myself a good kick for not attending to my northern bookpile while I was in the United States. There's no excuse for neglecting the Canadians; they were everywhere. My mom and I bonded by watching The Bachelorette on Mondays and I also tuned in to Jeopardy! every chance I got. One episode I saw even had a male contestant who was Canadian. (Forgot what province, sorry.)

Alex Trebek so wanted his fellow countryman to win. I was kind of pulling for the guy myself. When he went into the red after being too bold with his Daily Double wager, I groaned an epithet I picked up from my Canadian co-workers and Alex was overcome with patriotism, entreating him to "Stay positive! There are still plenty of clues on the board!" Unfortunately, it was not to be. The show ended with an American winning and poor Alex looked like he had a lump in his throat the size of a hockey puck.

Ever since returning to Korea, I feel you again, Canada. I have 7 books in the challenge pile so far. I've been scanning my library's shelves for Canadian reading, but no joy. When I get paid, I'll most likely go oout, fortify myself with some poutine and seize the remaining 6 so I can get finally get started on this challenge before the snow flies.

The Pile (so far):
1. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
2. A Mixture Of Frailties - Robertson Davies
3. The Diviners - Margaret Laurence
4. Among The Shadows - L.M. Montgomery
5. Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje
6. The Tenderness Of Wolves - Steph Penney
7. Gone To An Aunt's: Remembering Canada's Homes for Unwed Mothers - Anne Petrie

I'm a slacker but I've got spirit, eh?

Library Challenge

During my latest round of blog-hopping -- my preferred form of exercise -- I saw that Carrie K had joined the Support Your Local Library Challenge hosted by J. Kaye. Without warning, I was catapulted ass-over-teakettle into challenge-land once more. It was that accompanying picture of the Folger library that did it. Ooooh, those shelves...I needed to be fanned, and vigorously.

I like J. Kaye's challenge because I'm really REALLY enjoying having a library again and because there are 3 different levels of participation: Read 12, 25 or 50 library books during 2009. I'm not as brave as Carrie K, who's going for 50, but I'm already at 7 (I've been tracking them in my sidebar under Library Loot), so 12 seems laughably timid. I guess that leaves 25 books. It's doable.

I'm not going to prepare a to-be-read list because I never know what's going to pop up on those bilingual and beloved shelves. Ever since watching that Zola biopic, I've had my eye on a Zola biography nestled in the French Lit section. Also, this might be the year that I finally buckle down and read The Forsythe Saga, which I can count as 3 books.

There's a slightly uneasy feeling that I'm letting myself get over-challenged again. I need to hurry and finish the Canadian challenge by July 1. I have the summer to do the Eco Reading Challenge, which is off to a good start as I'm halfway through Salt by Mark Kurlanksy. I got a little slothful on my Pulitzer Project Challenge (too bad stockpiling Pulitzers like mad doesn't count for anything!) but I'm getting back to good by reading the 1928 winner, The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder.
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Although I wanted to, I never joined that challenge in which one reads books by or about U.S. presidents, but it's hanging there so attractively in my peripheral vision. Its august image trembles in my bookwormy heart.

Going Green(ish)

Although my work with my challenges has been middling of late, I succumbed to a new one: Chris over at Book-A-Rama is hosting The Eco Reading Challenge. During these next few months, one can read 1-5 books, fiction or nonfiction, about things relating to the environment. After staring at my shelves for a few days, these are my choices:

1. Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind's Relationship with Earth's Most Primal Element - Suzanne Staubach.

2. Salt: A World History - Mark Kurlansky. Ruby Rambling generously bookcrossed this book to me a couple of years ago. I loved Cod; I don't know why it's taken me so long to get around to Salt.

3. The Edge of The Sea - Rachel Carson.

4. The Log From "The Sea of Cortez" - John Steinbeck. In 1940, Steinbeck and his biologist pal, Ed Ricketts went out on a sardine boat looking for marine invertebrates on the beaches in the Gulf of California. I've been circling this book for several months. The Eco Reading Challenge provides a great excuse to add to my Steinbeck collection.

Many thanks to Chris for coming up with such a good idea. Should I warn my bookish brain that it's about to expand? This will also help me with my nonfiction numbers -- I'm aiming for 50-50 this year with fiction and nonfiction.

Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge Completed!

Today I finished Let's Eat Korean Food by Betsy O'Brien and also finished The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge. This is so unlike me. My Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm looked up bewilderedly and said, "Bybee?" "Tuffi," I replied, just as taken aback as she was.

Still on the culinary high that M.F.K. Fisher induced with her little slice of perfection, Consider The Oyster, I was pleased to see oyster dishes (kul in Korean) mentioned twice in Let's Eat Korean Food:

"Raw oysters with kimchi are the filling for salted cabbage leaves in kul possam (fresh oysters in cabbage roll) which is like a quick kimchi sandwich."

"Orikul Chot (Salted and spiced oysters): Oysters are salted for three days then seasoned with red pepper powder, sugar, garlic and ginger.They are stored in a jar in a cool place until required."

I can't help but wonder which of those two recipes M.F.K. Fisher would have liked better.

Let's Eat Korean Food starts out with a historical look at Korean cuisine, some helpful information about dining in a Korean restaurant, an explanation of the more popular seasonings that go into Korean food, then a comprehensive overview of some of the most popular dishes here. Each chapter has a "Connoisseur's Choice" section, and I was pleased to see some of my favorites described in mouth-watering detail. The book ends with a look at what is usually served on big feast days. Let's Eat Korean Food is illustrated with excellent pen-and-ink drawings that help you recognize a certain dish at first glance. O'Brien is no M.F.K. Fisher, but her descriptions are clear and precise. A tasty read, highly recommended!

New Book Resolutions

We're already a few days into the new year and I haven't made a thing that even remotely resembles a resolution. I've shoved my Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm into a closet (if you call her "Tuffi" it makes her really mad!) and now it's time to get down to work:

1. Complete Middlemarch. I've already started my 10-year reread, but have gotten a little sidetracked by Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

2. Finish the Canadian Book Challenge. I'm stalled at book #4. According to John's rankings, I've been a New Brunswicker for months!

3. Read more Pulitzers. Easy enough -- I've been building my Pulitzer shelf for the past couple of years and now have an excuse to go out and buy another. The next (February 15th, if you're in Seoul) book group selection is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Yes! I haven't read this book since the late 90s and I'm looking forward to revisiting what feels like an old friend.

4. Make frequent use of the library at my new university. Finally getting a library in Korea, even if it turns out to be a little haphazard, is one of the best Christmas gifts I could have received, even if I can't open it until March 1st (start date).

5. Complete the Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge. I've chosen 3 books for this: Consider The Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher, Fried Eggs With Chopsticks by Polly Evans and Let's Eat Korean Food by Betsy O'Brien.

6. Study Korean. Not formally, but learning a few more nouns and verbs would be helpful.

7. Keep challenges manageable. Yeah, I know. How long will that resolution last? That "books about presidents" challenge looks so tempting.

8. Be less of a slob about writing reviews. The amount of catch-up on my plate is incredible. I won't run out of things to blog about.

9. Read more internationally. Always worth striving for, even though I always fall short.

10. Let non-fiction rule this year. Or at least break even.

I can hear a faint scratching from the closet. Tuffi must be taking notes.

Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm

Hello Book Bloggers:

Well, Bybee's at it again...or NOT at it, as the case may be. More precisely, she's fallen asleep with a fresh copy of Middlemarch across her face. Trust me -- you don't know her like I do -- it could just as easily be a copy of People magazine that she's polluting with her slumber breath.

Shudder. What do I care? Bybee's newest exhibition of sloth gives me a chance to get at this keyboard and give you the skinny on what this girl decidedly did not accomplish this year. Call me a Tough & Cool Inner BookSNOB, will you? I have impeccable taste and a an ironclad sense of literary purpose! Plus, sleeping and eating don't always have to be be so firmly on the front burner, now do they?

Let's look at Bybee's challenges for 2008: She somehow muscled her way to 100 books. She did well on her Pulitzer reading, but she's hobbling through the Canadian challenge, and someone did not eat her Wheaties for the Orbis Terrarum and In Their Shoes Challenges. And the Graphic Novels Challenge? Please. It was like she slept her way through that whole affair.

I'm seriously wondering if Miz B is really just a pretender to the shelves. Here's a choice bit of gossip: She forgot (she says) to admit to yet another DNF: She was reading What Maisie Knew by Henry James at Project Gutenberg, and got bogged down and quit right about the time Maisie's father and her former governess got hitched. She said defensively that the combination of reading James and reading him online was too much -- it gave her the headache from Hell. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but after Poor Widdle Susan DNF'd Mr. James, she hid out in the bathroom with a Taylor Caldwell novel for a while. Not tough! Not cool! Wussy!

Bybee also made some resolutions last year. Let us re-examine some of her rash statements as she rounded the bend into a New Book Year all those months ago:

"I want to complete all my challenges and if I don't, then I want to do a conspicuous amount of heavy lifting on them." I've probably already said enough, but entre nous, I didn't see any major eyestrain or sweat stains going on this past year.

"This is the year I'd like to get serious about building up my Don Robertson collection." She did buy The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, but nothing else by the great Mr. Robertson. To be 100% fair, her credit card company went belly-up a couple of months ago, which put a severe crimp in her Internet shopping, but still...by abebooks.com, I sat down and wept.

"Read more books from other countries." You can take the bookworm out of her native country, but you can't take the native country out of the bookworm. I beseeched Bybee to read Balzac, to read Things Fall Apart, to crack open that Murakami novel she was supposed to read for book group, but she just turned up Abba's Greatest Hits even louder and buried herself in her damn Pulitzers. Yes, I realize that Abba's Swedish, but don't think I didn't notice what she was really doing.

"Read more Korean literature." I'm not a complete Bookbitch. Good on Bybee for spotting that article in The Korea Herald about Park Kyung-ni, who, Bybee subsequently discovered, wrote The Great Korean Novel -- Toji. I'll admit that copies of this book are expensive, but think of the bragging rights! Think of being able to strut your cultural sensitivity towards those who might style her (us) as unrefined, unwashed waegooks (foreigners). Talya offered to lend Bybee volume one of this work, but Bybee's been less than aggressive about taking Talya up on her offer. If I were running this sorry show, I'd be camped on Talya's damn doorstep till I had Toji in my hot little hands.

"Delve into more books written before the 20th century, or at least try to go back 100 years to 1908." Would you be so good to pass me that bottle of witch hazel? I find that if I dab it on my temples, the pain recedes slightly. Three books! Only three! I saw what was happening all year -- there was good old Bybee, blithely kicking up her slightly meaty heels in the 21st century, then she tried to mollify me last fall with back-to-back readings of Great Expectations and Persuasion! Then she threw me some weak-assed shit at the very end of December with The Oregon Trail! Who's sorry now? January 1st found Bybee skulking into Kyobo bookstore, buying the only available copy of Middlemarch for our tenth-anniversary reread, then over to Youngpyoong bookstore, where she found a copy of The Octopus (1901) by Frank Norris. How long will this show of repentance last? I'd like to drop the Bronte canon on her pointy little head while she's asleep.

"Keep chipping away at the Pulitzer fiction list." Bybee read 8 of these in 2008, which is respectable. She's a quirky bookworm; she likes what she likes. I just wish she were both quirky and lofty. Maybe with a little push she can be.

The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge

I really tried not to join any challenges for 2009, but Book Nut made this sound so irresistible. Just my cup of tea. Easy, too. Piece of cake, so to speak. I don't think I can fail at this one:

Rule 1# The challenge runs from January 1 - March 31. (No cheating or starting before!)
Rule 2# You must read 3 books. After that, it's up to you how much you want to read.
Rule 3# The books must: Have a food name in the title OR be about cooking/eating OR have a place name in the title OR be about a specific culture OR be by an author whose ethnicity is other than your own.
Rule 4# The books must be middle-grade and on up, but can be either fiction or nonfiction.

This challenge not only screamed my name, it knocked me down and began chewing on my forearm. Now that I've succumbed, it's like dominoes; I'll be tumbling for those other challenges dancing in front of my eyes. Sigh. Stay tuned.

Double Play

I needed something frivolous and fun after The Road, and JPod by Douglas Coupland certainly filled the bill. This is only my second outing with Coupland, so I don't know if he's a one-note writer, or the two books I've read have just been similar. JPod feels like it it should be subtitled All Families Are Psychotic, Too!

The 20-something narrator, Ethan, works for a company in Vancouver that designs software games. He's a programmer stuck in JPod, where everyone has the same last name. The best part of the novel was when the six JPod workers, who have a lot of free time, make up bizarre contests, like writing ads to sell themselves on eBay or writing to Ronald McDonald to explain why they are the ideal mate for him. I was a little less amused later in the book when the JPodders were challenged to find the non-prime number in a string of numbers that goes on for more than ten pages, but was gratified to get that list of 972 3-letter Scrabble words (with one phony).

Ethan's parents were cartoony as hell, straight out of Arrested Development. I couldn't really get interested in them (even though they were Boomers) because it seemed like Coupland was trying too hard to make them do as many strange things as possible. Another thing that made me feel meh was when characters would refer to Douglas Coupland novels, then later on, he showed up as a character in JPod. Much too sitcom-ish.

I loved all of the pop culture references. Since Coupland and I are almost exact contemporaries, (19 days apart) his references and my schemata hit it off immediately. I also found myself wanting to needlepoint a pillow with Ethan's comment about humidity: I hate humidity. It feels like a thousand strangers touching me. I wish I'd had that back last summer while I was melting.

I'm willing to read another novel by Coupland. What can you recommend of his that is chock-full of pop culture, lots of smartasses that you'd almost recognize from real life, but goes a little easier on the presence of flat and cartoonish characters that run all over Hell's half-acre? Also, please -- no more self-referential stuff. But I wouldn't mind another Scrabble list.

Getting this one read felt good, because it helped me out with 2 challenges: The Second Canadian Book Challenge and The Orbis Terrarum Challenge.

Catchup About The Catchup

I made some plans at the beginning of the week, and this is how it all went:

1. I planned to catch up on my reading. I'm nearly done (100 pages to go) with A Spectacle Of Corruption and although I didn't plan to, I read Plainsong by Kent Haruf this week as well.

2. I took a cold, hard (dare I say glacial?) look at my challenges.

Graphic Novel Challenge: I made a huge mistake right from the get-go by listing GNs that I planned to buy and read. Buying somehow got put on the back burner. After I read The Snowman, I'll be abandoning this challenge with a great deal of sadness and frustration.

@@@ 100 Books Challenge: It's late September and book #75 is nearly done. I still have quite a way to go to reach 100, but the Readathon's coming up, and that concentrated reading time will be helpful. I talk about this challenge so much that I MUST complete it -- even if sleep has to take a backseat.

@@@ Orbis Terrarum Challenge: 9 months, 9 countries, 9 books. I've read 5.

@@@ Canadian Book Challenge 2: I'm going to read JPod by Douglas Coupland next because I have it double-listed for this challenge and the Orbis Terrarum Challenge. Although this challenge runs well into next year, I still feel breathlessly behind in my reading.

@@@ In Their Shoes Challenge: Slow but steady progress, but I don't think I'll finish. Still 7 books to go. Was I too ambitious with my list of 15 books? Although I'm surprised and disappointed with myself, no white flag. I'll keep on keeping on.

 @@@ The Pulitzer Project: This is ongoing, and I'm happy with the progress I've made this year. 5 books and soon 6, when I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy for book group. Can you believe that I first (unknowingly) embarked on this list 30-something years ago with Gone With The Wind?

3. I planned to catch up on my reviews. Gulp. I've got a block about The Omnivore's Dilemma. I loved it too much. The same thing happened to me with How To Cook A Wolf. I'm also trying to write a favorable review of Persuasion, but it's hopelessly entangled with my diss of The Jane Austen Book Club since the members of BOOKLEAVES experienced these together at the last meeting.

4. I planned to make a special shelf for prospective Readathon reads. This is shaping up nicely. So far, I've got a biography of Princess Diana, When You are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris, The Innocent Man by John Grisham, Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones, The Snowman by Milo Manera, Anne Of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery, How Koreans Talk by Sang-Hun Choe and Christopher Torchia, and Books by Larry McMurtry.