Booking Through Thursday, on an 'Inspiring' week

The question before the panel this week is:

Since “Inspiration” is (or should) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

Well, this is a hard question for me. I even looked at a few other blogs to see how other people had interpreted it. I don't really know what inspires my reading. I read, in general, because it feels good, and because it's something I've always done. I don't remember learning how to read. I don't remember not being able to read. I knew how to do it by the time I started kindergarten, and it's something I've always done for fun. Furthermore, I don't get people who say things like "I don't like books." Isn't that a little like saying "I don't like movies," or "I don't like television?" All books are not the same. There's at least one out there for everyone, and probably a lot more than one.

What inspires me to read a specific book? I don't really know that either. A great title will often hook me. A writer's reputation will often inspire me to give a book a try, as will seeing the movie or TV show the book became. In the case of nonfiction, of course, it's usually the subject matter that gets me.

I guess that, in general, I read for all the usual reasons. To experience something outside of my own life. For entertainment. To learn something. Most of all, I guess I've just always found it pleasurable. It's a good way to relax, it's something you can do anywhere, and when you're not feeling well, it's something you can do from your bed.

More Tales of the West

Earlier this week, I found a few minutes to go to the library. For someone without a job, this was a ridiculously busy week for me (too bad none of the stuff I did pays anything, oh well). I was racing against the weather this week -- the schools were actually closed here today, not because of snow, but because of the cold -- and when I got to the library, I found myself racing against time itself. I had only one quarter, good for fifteen minutes of parking, and found fifty more cents in my car. I had to race in, wind smacking me against the face, run through the whole Wal-Mart sized library to the front desk, have my fifty cents turned into quarters, then race back out, wind still smacking me in the face (how is that even possible?) and deposit them in the meter.

I also forgot to bring my bags, which meant I was limited to what I could carry out. Despite all this, I remembered my New Year's book Resolution, took some deep breaths, and thought about what I was selecting, rather than just grabbing. Hopefully, they won't be so deadly dull that I lose interest in the books to the point where I forget to bring them back and wind up owing them $20.

My choice of which one to read first was easy, as I had a seven-day book in the stack. Fine Just the Way It Is is E. Annie Proulx's third book of Wyoming Stories. Her first book contained the famous "Brokeback Mountain," but there are lots of other stories in all three books that are every bit as good as that one.

I just finished this book, and have come to the conclusion that her stories can be a dangerous read for a lifelong Easterner during the winter months, when it's too cold to go outside at all. It's easy to miss the point of the story for the descriptions of mountains and cattle and country roads. Next thing you know, a story about the land killing off every character in the story has you perusing usajobs.gov for ranger positions in Alaska and Montana.

This book is no exception. Most of the stories don't have an ending that could be remotely construed as positive. The stories span from the pioneer times to modern times. The two best stories in the book, "Tits-Up in a Ditch" and "Them Old Cowboy Songs" serve as the bookends of time (excepting the one, very short story about a hunt during primitive times, inspired by cave paintings). They're actually sort of parallel. The introduction to "Them Old Cowboy Songs" states:

There is a belief that pioneers came into the country, homesteaded, lived tough, raised a shoeless brood and founded ranch dynasties. Some did. But many more had short runs and were quickly forgotten.

Wiht both couples, circumstance combines with a few unfortunate choices to guarantee them a short run. Archie and Rose McLaverty marry young and homestead a property, but make the fateful decision to separate for a time so that Archie can find work, even though Rose is pregnant. In modern times, the early marriage of love-starved Dakotah and servant-seeking Sash fails to work out, but each one's independent decision to join the military winds up sealing them together anyway.

The book is worth picking up for these two stories alone, but it contains many other good ones. I loved the two main characters in "The Testimony of the Donkey," a man and woman from utterly different backgrounds bound together by their shared love of hiking. It also had a sad ending but a beautiful, immersive description of the wilderness. "Family Man" was also good, if a bit anti-climactic. I liked the idea of the rest home for elderly ranchers that actively "promoted smoking, drinking, lascivious television programs and plenty of cheap food. Neither teetotalers nor bible thumpers signed up for the Mellowhorn Retirement Home."

The two stories that I didn't get at all, "I've Always Loved this Place" and "Swamp Mischief" were written from the Devil's point of view. In the first, he and his assistant do a walk-through of Hell with a complete remodel in mind. In the second, they have some fun with a Park Service ornithologist who was caught wishing for the appearance of a deadly and dangerous bird so that management would be more inclined to listen to him. I guess they're all right, and they certainly had some clever aspects (emailing Satan at devil@hell.org). I just didn't really think that they fit in with the rest of the book very well.

Overall, I think I prefered Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 to this book, but it certainly doesn't make this book bad. It was a wonderful read, as her work usually is. I reccomend checking this one out.

Late Again...Booking Through Thursday and a look back

This week's BTT:

It’s a week or two later than you’d expect, and it may be almost a trite question, but … what were your favorite books from 2008?

(It’s an oldie but a goodie question for a reason, after all … because, who can’t use good book suggestions from time to time?)

Most of the books I read in 2008 weren't new, but of the ones that were new to me, I liked The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova a great deal. I enjoyed it for its fresh take on a topic that's been absolutely done to death, for its prominent use of primary source research, and for its journey into a part of the world that I personally never gave much thought to visiting. Parts of the book could not have made the Eastern European countries sound more appealing if they'd been written by the National Tourism Board. Kostova took classic elements of the Dracula story and gave them new life and heart. There are three scenes which involve stakes to the heart, but rather than seeming cheesy and cliche, the first two bring tears to the reader's eyes, and the third is suspenseful and ultimatley triumphant. So this was one of my stand-out favorites among the books I read in 2008.

For nonfiction, The Medici Conspiracy was a standout for me last year. Many people who saw me with the book assumed it was like The Da Vinci Code. But Giacomo Medici is an actual, modern person and the kingpin in an antiquities smuggling and forgery ring that has spread all over the world and infected some of the most respected museums. The dust from this conspiracy has yet to settle. Many of the key players are still on trial in Italy and Greece. Many of the objects have yet to be authenticated or traced. Entire areas of scholarship on Greek and Roman art have been called into question. Journalists Peter Watson and Cecelia Todeschini trace the history of the conspiracy and its players.

Overall, though, 2008 was a disappointing year in books for me. I was looking back over my blog for the past year -- my God, I read a lot of crap. There was the awful book about the gay figure skaters, the formulaic book about the wacky Southern females on a cross-country road trip, that Wendy Wasserstein book that I couldn't even finish, that Tony Horowitz book that actually killed my desire to read or blog for almost a month, the boring and heartless Charity Girl, the whiny Summer People... very few literary bright spots in an overall bad year. 2008was a terrible year for a lot of people, and I was one of them. And apparently, even books didn't help.

A New Feature: LD's cool stuff

Man, I wish I'd thought of this one during NaBloPoMo. It was actually inspired by tikiranch, whom you must visit if you haven't done so yet. His blog made me realize that I have some pretty cool stuff too, and that I should share it with the whole internet, rather than have it sit around the house, unappreciated by everyone but me, and occasionally a cat who needs something to knock over.

So, my first item is something I found this summer at the local flea market. It's a wonderful place, with three large buildings, two buildings consisting of bays with roll-up doors, and rows upon rows of ancient folding tables covered with equal parts goodies and crap. This item stuck out like a jewel. I've never seen anything like it before or since. The first time I saw it, no one was around and it wasn't priced. I imagined it must be rather expensive, since it was so unusual. A few weeks later, it was back. I told the man watching it that I'd seen it a few weeks ago and hadn't been able to get it out of my head. He told me that the time I'd seen it was the only other time he'd brought it. Deciding it must be fate, we struck a deal for $15 and it's graced my dining room ever since.

It's apparently an advertising/storage piece for pharmaceuticals. After I bought it, I googled the company and learned that Bauer and Black were in business in Chicago during the early twentieth century, operating under that name from about 1901-1928. The Pure Food and Drug Act, referenced on the chest, was passed in 1906, meaning that this was produced somewhere between 1906 and 1928 (I'm guessing more towards the early range, though, because it seems likely that as time went on, there'd be no need to advertise compliance with a particular law, it would just be assumed).



It's not in the best condition, but it's a very interesting piece nonetheless. In case it's not obvious from the picture, it's constructed of a very flimsy, thin sort of wood and covered in paper on all sides but the bottom. It's a minor miracle to me that the piece survived at all. But still, it's one of those things in my home that I enjoy looking it literally every time I see it, that's never quite blended in to the background. I hope you enjoyed seeing it, too.

Booking Through Thursday, a 2009 first

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to stop neglecting my poor blog. So, here I am, posting something for 2009. It's a Booking Through Thursday and it goes like this:

Happy New Year, everyone!

So … any Reading Resolutions? Say, specific books you plan to read? A plan to read more ____? Anything at all?

Name me at least ONE thing you’re looking forward to reading this year!

My main reading resolution is to stop flaking on my library books. I'm horrible. I'm surprised they don't have my picture behind the counter. I'm surprised they haven't called the cops on me like they did to one woman earlier this year that I read about. I returned four books last week that were 16 days overdue each. Yikes. Why? I just forgot. So I'm going to stop doing that.

I am also going to be braver. About a year ago, I checked an H.P Lovecraft book out of the library. I read one story and was so scared that I locked the book in my car overnight. I didn't even want it in the house. I'd like to say I returned it the next day. The truth is that it fell under the seat and I returned it six weeks late. But anyway, I watched some H.P Lovecraft movies on Halloween and liked them, so my sister got me a book of his short stories for Christmas. That's right, now they'll be in the house all the time! I've read two of them, and they were both pretty good: one was about a cannibal, and the other one was about an undead guy. I don't know if I can hack the one called "Rats in the Walls," but I'm going to read the rest of them.

I want to read some of the books that have been lurking unread on my shelves for years. I recently rearranged my bookshelves to have all of the unread ones together, and they took up their own whole shelf. I'm really missing out, either on wonderful books, or on much-needed shelf space. My goal for 2009 is to start finding out which.

Another goal is to simply find more new stuff to read. There's nothing that I'm hotly anticipating. Im not sure why. So I'm going to work on keeping up with new books better, discovering new authors, trying new things. That's not a bad new year's resolution on the whole, to try new things. We'll see!

It's the Little Things That Count

I've clearly been a pretty unsinspired blogger lately. I could offer a variety of excuses: The Holidays made me do it, No Good Books, Blah With Life, etc. None of them are really true, and I think it's just that after forcing myself to write every day for a month, when most days I didn't really want to, I still needed a break.

But I decided to post today, to close out 2008, and also to share with anyone who may read this blog a new favorite site of mine!

I love collecting stuff. I always have. I have a collection of mid-twentieth century salt-and-pepper shakers. I have a collection of gargoyle figures. At my parents' house, I have stored away my collection of wooden Welsh love spoons (mostly bought in the Wales shop at Disneyworld). I have a very small collection of clocks made by the Telechron company. I get a lot of this stuff at a huge flea market in my area, often for very cheap (I estimate that I have about 30 salt-and-pepper shakers, and I probably have only spent about $60 on this collection).

But when I'm out there, I often see lots of other cool stuff that I wouldn't know quite what to do with. Sometimes, one of the tool vendors that my dad likes to check out will have a bunch of rusty old nails in a very cool box. There's another vendor that always has a huge box of greeting cards from the fifties and sixties. Or, mixed in with a bunch of costume jewelry on the dollar table will be a name tag with an interesting logo. I usually pass this stuff up, thinking "What would I do with it?"

Well, the Tikiranch knows. You take it home, dust it off if need be, and post it on one of the coolest websites ever. I came across the Tikiranch about a year ago, via Bighappyfunhouse (another favorite of mine) but I've recently become semi-obsessed, adding it to my daily blog rounds and now, to my sidebar. I even love the name, "Tikiranch," evoking as it does a bunch of tiki gods wearing cowboy hats and roping cattle. The site is very simple, but it makes me happy every day. The stuff he finds is aesthetically pleasing, definitely, but I also see a deeper message, of finding value in the small stuff. Most people who bought them new probably threw away the box that these gloves came in, even though it's got a cool look to it. It's inspired me to think a little differently about what's trash and what's treasure, and to try to enjoy the small things as much as Tikiranch does.

But if you just like looking at cool old Santa stuff, this is also a good site for you. Check it out, as my New Year's gift to all of you...you won't be disappointed!

Party Like It's 1994

Well, as you can see, I took a breather from this after NaBloPoMo, for several reasons. One is that I'm just busier. I was playing in two orchestras this season, so I had two rehearsals a week to make, plus job hunting, getting ready for the holidays, etc. But I guess mostly it's because NaBloPoMo just wasn't that enjoyable for me this year and that it sort of killed some of the fun of the blog for me. Also, I haven't been reading anything spectacular. I've got For Whom The Bell Tolls going, but it's going kind of slowly and I couldn't really even state an opinion about it at this point.

But I picked up an old favorite this week, and felt like writing about it. I remember when I first got Girl by Blake Nelson. It's hard to believe that was almost fifteen years ago. I really enjoyed the book, and I'm pleased to say that I still do.

I don't know how much other people would like the book anymore. For teenagers today, it would probably seem like an artifact. Maybe in the future, it will be routinely assigned in history classes for students to learn about life in the 1990s, although there is an awful lot of fucking in it.

At base, it's a coming of age story. It's written in the vibrant voice of Andrea Marr, exactly as she'd tell the story verbally. Andrea's just a cool person. the back of the book says that it "chronicles Andrea's jittery journey from suburban mall to Portland's thriving underground rock scene -- and back again, as she discovers sex, betrayal and even love." And I guess that's as good a summary as any. Andrea is very energetic, and her run-on, breathy sentences tingle with such excitement that even a routine trip to the local after-school hangout seems like a momentous event. In her life, it is. Similar to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it's about someone in the process of becoming who she's going to be, and seeing the whole world open up before her, bit by bit.

I was a little older than Andrea when I read the book, but it still resonated for me. I was also buying lots of clothes from thrift shops, going to see local bands, hanging out in coffee shops and meeting lots and lots of interesting people. I didn't then and don't now agree with all of her choices. I think she sort of "sold out" towards the end, as she started spending more time with a more conservative preppy crowd. I also think that she let her best friend Cybil go too easily, after Cybil's band took off and scored a record deal in Seattle. She played fast and loose with some of the men in her life, too.

But it never kept me from enjoying the book. Andrea reminded me somewhat of my best friend at the time, and when I gave her the book and told her that, she was a bit offended by the comparison because she thought Andrea was a slut. But what attracted me to Andrea -- and to Karen too -- was her energy and her love of life. Andrea's a character that pops right off the pages and inspires you, even if you're not exactly sure how. Karen was a lot like that too, and I think she felt better once I told her
that.

I was interested to see what had become of Blake Nelson, and how others viewed the book. Amazon.com shows that he's written several other books about teenagers since Girl's debut. There were two editorial reviews that completely opposed each other. One pointed out that it was more authentic than many teen books which came off more like catalogues than anything else ("Jenna called me on my iPhone and wanted to go to Starbucks, and I told her I was watching Surivivor but she insisted so I threw on my Gap jeans and my favorite American Eagle t-shirt and finished my Coke and ran downstairs to find my sketchers and beg my parents for the keys to the Jetta..."). They also pointed out ("they" being Publishers Weekly, I should have said that from the start) that the book didn't encourage judgement and captured the inconsistency of emotion.

Kirkus Review was fairly scathing, accusing Nelson of "bad valley girl parody" and superficiality. They also stated that the Cybil character wasn't developed enough, for allegedly being andrea's best friend. Some of these are valid criticisms, but I had an issue with the way they kept saying the book was about "teenage rebellion." Like the "teen angst" tag they tried to hang on Wallflower, it trivializes the experiences. I guess it's an easy way to dismiss a book you don't care for, but I thought it was horribly inaccurate in this case. There's little hint of Andrea wanting to 'rebel'. She doesn't spend a lot of time around her parents, but she does value the opinions of most of the adults she encounters. There's an early scene where she wears one of her thriftstore dresses out to Cybil's first big show. Her mother sees her and is horrifed. She ultimately lets her wear it, with a parting shot along the lines of "If you want to dress like a clown, that's your problem." It rings in Andrea's ears the entire way to the club, and she's a wreck by the time she gets there. That's not the point of view of someone who's out to 'rebel'.

Andrea is just seeking out alternative ways of living. When you're a teenager, the way most adults live looks mind-numbingly boring. They spend a lot of their time at some job, a good chunk of the rest of it doing things like maintaining the house and paying bills, and most of their so-called "free time" watching TV or reading stuff. Andrea's asking the age-old question "Is that all there is?" in her own way.