Anna Karenina: check! (again)

I finished Anna Karenina for the third time, and am now ready for the movie to come out next month.  I've already written papers and journal entries on this book for school twice, so I don't want to rehash it here, but I will leave you with a couple of my favorite quotes from the book before I move onto Sherlock Holmes.

The first comes early on in the book, where Anna is surrounded by society people who are talking about someone who had recently had an affair.
"What I think is," said Anna, toying with the glove she had pulled off, "that there are as many minds as there are heads, so there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts." (p. 163 )


The next one comes from a visit between Dolly and Anna after she has been shunned from society.
"No, no, tell me what you really think of my position.  What is your opinion of it?" she (Anna) asked.
...
"I don't think anything," she (Dolly) said.  "I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be." (p. 709)


The third comes from Dolly's visit to Anna's house toward the end of the book, when she feels uncomfortable with the company and wishes to go home.
"Dolly did not feel particularly cheerful while they were playing.  She did not like the flirting Veslovsky carried on with Anna and the general unnaturalness of grown-up people carrying on a children's game in the absence of children.  But not to disconcert the others and to while away the time in some way or other, she joined the players and pretended to be enjoying herself.  All that day she had the strange feeling that she was taking part in a theatrical performance with better actors than herself and that her own bad performance was spoiling the whole show" (p. 733)

I could definitely relate to the third one especially.  Next time I update it will probably be about Sherlock Holmes (or Cloud Atlas, which I recently received as a random gift).  Ciao!

Anna Karenina

So rather than read another book off the list, why not read one I've already completed...twice?  Apparently Anna Karenina is coming out on film (again) this November, and since it's one of my favorites (besides Gone With The Wind, Because of Winn Dixie, and Charlotte's Web) I decided to reread it and prepare for its upcoming film (re)debut. (There were a lot of parentheses in that paragraph, my apologies).

Currently I'm about halfway through, and I just realized that I hadn't updated since what was technically still spring.  That means I spent the summer doing.......ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  My plan was to finish LOTR (success rate over the past 2 years for that plan, 0%, or maybe even negative.  It's a pretty poor plan since it never works), but like all past attempts, it failed.  Then a friend alerted me to the new Anna Karenina movie, and here I am.  On page 450 of 940, so almost half.  Yes, I am that person who not only reads a Russian novel on summer vacation, but REreads a Russian novel on summer vacation.

So far we have rejected Levin, in-debt Oblonsky, oblivious on purpose Dolly, cheating Anna, wimpy Karenin, and annoying Vronsky.  Also frail Kitty, almost forgot about her.  They are all at a dinner party (except Anna and Vronsky) and Levin is about to propose to Kitty again.  Hopefully everything works out this time.

I don't often reread books, mostly because there are so many I want to read for the first time, but I do love picking up a book I've enjoyed in the past.  It's like visiting old friends and reminiscing about old times.  I had a kid tell me once, when I asked if she wouldn't mind rereading a book for class that she had read on her own, "a favorite book is like an old friend."  How true she was!  Other books I've reread include Harry Potter and.....I'm not sure what else.  Any of my favorites I guess.  I plan to reread Gone with the Wind at some point.  Maybe next summer.

Reading Anna Karenina has made me very curious about War and Peace.  I love Tolstoy's writing style, and as long as I keep a character list, I should find it just as enjoyable (except for it's obvious length, which in my copy is 1256 with a 102 page epilogue....so 1358).  That will be quite a project!

After I finish AK, I have a couple books in mind to tackle next.  I normally would say Return of the King, and if I get in a mood where I just want to get it over with, I may just go for it.  Another option is Les Miserables, since the movie for that is coming out in December, although that's another long one that I'll definitely have to commit to.  I also still have Middlemarch sitting here, as well as Midnight's Children, and a couple others that are not on the list.  Other options include finishing up the Narnia series.  We'll see what happens with them.  But anyway, here it is September 1st, and I've still only read 2 books from the list.  This one doesn't count either since I've already read it.  So I'm pretty confident that I won't be meeting my goal, but if all goes well I'll maybe get to 5.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

So, not a classic, but good nonetheless.

Also not a classic, but amazing.  I finished this a few months back on audiobook, but never put the picture in.

I've definitely been slacking on LOTR, and that is definitely next because it's been at least 2 years that I've been working on that series and am anxious to cross #2 off my list for good!  I did watch the movie recently so I'm ready to go, but just can't bring myself to start it.

It also doesn't help that I have been caught up in the adventures of Lisbeth Salander.  I just finished The Girl Who Played With Fire on Friday, and have already started The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.  It's one of those books where I'm glad that I wasn't into the series while it was still being released because at the end of book 2, I ABSOLUTELY had to get my hands on book 3.  I didn't think book 2 was as good as 1, so I'm glad I didn't buy it, but it was still good once it got going and now I definitely have to find out how everything turns out in the third one.  Hopefully it won't take me over a month to read like the second one.

As we've already established, my next book after Hornet's Nest will be The Return of the King.  After that, I have no idea.  I have many on the shelf still that need to be read (at least 4 from the list, and 3 others that are classics also but not on the list.)  However, I've been feeling a little spontaneous lately, and am thinking that once LOTR is done, I may just start generating random numbers and reading whatever pops up.  I'll leave it to the fates at random.org.  If I were going to start one today, it would be...#71 Oliver Twist
(blah)

We'll see how that works out.  I'll redo it when I'm choosing for real, though.  As in, after I finish LOTR, which realistically may be in November.

Speaking of months, It is now June, and while it is not quite halfway through the year, it's close enough where I can do a count of the books I've read in 2012 so far and see where I stand.  So far I've read:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Pride and Prejudice
(Prince Caspian--only partly counts because I haven't finished the series yet)

So, I guess my number so far is 2.  Let's hope I read more by the end of the year because that is pretty pathetic so far.  Oh well.

Another task I have ahead of me is choosing a book for a car trip I'll be taking in a few weeks.  Hopefully it will be something that the library will have on CD unabridged.  Looking at the list, I'm thinking that His Dark Materials, Narnia, or any other of the random ones that I don't know may be good choices.  We'll have to see.  Last time I went I think I had The Great Gatsby with me, which was OK but not the best choice for a car trip because there was a lot of description that I would have normally glossed over, like the chapter that only named who was at a party.  I'll have to pick something with a little less symbolism and more action.  It will probably be The Golden Compass, but I'll decide closer to when I will be traveling.

Anyway, the plan is to read more than 4 books this year.  Hopefully around 10.  But we know how that goes...

Prince Casipan: Check!

Book 4 of The Chronicles of Narnia is now complete. I'm still not able to check a number off my list, but I'm making progress.


I'm really tiring of this series. The first two books were pretty good. The third was terrible. This one was mediocre, so I'm hoping for something better from the remaining three. Actually the copy I finished had the first chapter of book 5 in it, and that seemed pretty good so far, so I do have hope. However, I'm just not sure. There's only so many Narnian battles that I can read about.

I'm also about halfway through the audiobook of The Help. I know it's not on the list, but it's pretty excellent so far, and I'm hoping I can finish that up by the end of the week.

I also watched The Return of the King a few days ago when I was not feeling well, and am feeling a little more ambitious on the Lord of the Rings front, too. Now that I know what is going to happen and it has been refreshed in my mind, I'm almost ready to start. I just have to commit to reading it, and will have to refrain from reading the first two chapters and then letting it sit for several months, only to forget what has happened so far. My only wish is that the stories were integrated like in the movie, because the task of reading a few hundred pages of what happens to Gandalf and company seems daunting because what I really only care about is Frodo and Sam (and Gollum). Oh well. Hopefully it won't be as bad as what I'm anticipating.

So, hopefully up next is Return of the King and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Hopefully I'll finish both of these series up this spring and move on to better things, like Jane Austen (kidding!). But seriously, I'm excited to move on from all the ones I've been trying to finish for the last year, and on to new and/or random ones that I haven't explored yet. It's always fun to find out what each story is about, since titles can be mysterious or misleading.

Off to the library! Toodles!

Pride and Prejudice: Check!

Finished Pride and Prejudice. My overall impression: meh. Definitely way overrated and overly popular for what it is. But it was pretty good I guess, and not as difficult to get through as I thought it would be. (It wasn't a walk in the park either, though).

I'm currently also in the middle (and by middle I mean 30 pages in) of Prince Caspian, book 4 in the Narnia series. I'm hoping to finish that pretty quickly a) because it's a children's book, and b) so that I can get on with the rest of the series (although to be honest I was never super interested in that series anyway. Oh well).

Other options include Return of the King and a few others. Mainly those two, though.

Pride and Prejudice

I started reading Pride and Prejudice about 24 hours ago and am already 15% done. (If I had a nickel for every time that happened...) For all my dreading of Austen and agony of suffering through this book in AP English, it's not actually as bad as I had anticipated. I really am attributing this to the edition that I happened to find at the library.



The library that I go to is generally not as well-stocked as other branches, but it was the closest, so I stopped in on the way to dinner. The website said that they had a copy in, but when I got there I couldn't find it. I checked the young adult paperback racks a few times, and finally found a copy. I think I was expecting a penguin edition or an old one with tiny print and yellow pages. However, the copy I found was kind of an over sized paperback that claimed it was the "insight edition." As I looked inside, I saw that every page or so had a note in the margin from the publisher, including things such as historical notes and tidbits about Austen's life. The notes are almost like footnotes, except much more accessible, and on the side of the page rather than the bottom. For me, the notes are WONDERFUL because they help keep my attention on the story and give background that is generally lost on me.

It also helped that I was hired to do nothing but read today, so I got 10 or so chapters done. It's actually a more interesting story than I originally thought in high school. But we'll see. I won't write my opinion of Darcy at this point because people would probably come after me with pitchforks or something. I'll have to see if he's really any better than Rhett Butler, who is much more interesting than a grumpy rich dude with lots of books. (cue Anchorman reference: I'm very important. I have many leather bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany. Haha, I wish that was in the editors notes).

Anyway, I'm hoping to finish this book before February is over. It might be fun to finish while I am recovering from wisdom tooth surgery.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Check!

I just finished THGTTG this morning (title is too long to write out every time). The beginning was entertaining and captivating, but as the book went on, it got a little too involved and strange for me. I think part of it was that this book is actually part of a long series, and so not everything could be resolved in the first book. However, it was a fairly quick read, with many many short chapters, so while it was not challenging, it was kind of hard to keep track of. I guess science fiction is not really my thing, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

My next book I think will be Pride and Prejudice. We'll see, though. I know how things turn out when I plan to do something...

The Giver

Today I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. I had not intended to read an entire book today, especially such a heavy book, but I was subbing in a middle school and was basically overseeing study halls all day, so I found a book in the room and started reading. The book that I found was The Giver.


I read The Giver in middle school, too. I remember starting it in fifth grade and being confused, but then finishing and liking it when we read it as a class in sixth grade. I remember being confused by the ending though, and was hoping that when I finished, I'd have a more definitive answer about what happened. Even though it's not the most uplifting book it was definitely interesting to read, and I noticed much more than I did (or remembered that I did) in middle school.

Basically, The Giver is about a boy named Jonas who lives in a controlled society where no one sees colors, there are no feelings, and the society is run by a very strict set of rules. At age twelve, children become adults and get assigned to jobs in the community. Jonas gets selected to be the new Receiver, a very honored and respected position. There is only one Receiver in the society, and he (or she) is in charge of holding all memories for the society. Jonas becomes the new Receiver, and the old Receiver becomes known as the Giver. The Giver transmits memories to Jonas of things he has never before seen or experienced, from simple things like colors, snow, sun, and sledding, to pain and war. Jonas is not allowed to speak about any of his training or new memories to anyone, so as a result he forms a special bond with the Giver, while simultaneously feeling more and more isolated from his family, friends, and community. Eventually, Jonas finds out that if he leaves the community, the memories will leave him and find homes in the people of the community. Jonas and the Giver decide that the would be beneficial to everyone because people should know about good and bad things, and not be kept from knowledge. Therefore, one night Jonas escapes his house. He takes with him a baby, named Gabriel, who has been staying with Jonas's family for extra care before he is given to a family. The evening before Jonas escapes, Jonas's father tells the family that Gabriel will be released (aka euthanized) because he cannot sleep through the night, despite so much extra care. Jonas decides to save Gabriel's life and therefore takes him along when he runs away. For the first few days, there are planes out searching for Jonas, but after a while the planes disappear, and Jonas and Gabriel get farther and farther from the community. They get very hungry, and the weather gets cold. They are very cold, and at the end stumble upon a sled at the top of the hill. They get on the sled and go down the hill. The ending is unclear whether Jonas is lucid or living within his memory. He has either escaped and found a new community that may take him and Gabriel in, or he and Gabriel have frozen to death.

Despite reading this book at age 11 and now mid-20's, the ending is no more clear. There's evidence either way, but no definitive proof about what actually did or, to disprove something, did not happen. It's hard to say if this story had a happy or sad ending because it's unclear what actually happened. If Jonas made it to another society, it would be a happy ending, but if he died it would be sad. Either way, he got his wish of choice and free will, and the choice to die/leave was all his own, and if he died, at least he died experiencing life, sensations, and colors. Either he died living or he is still living.

Even though it was a children's/young adult book, it was still very thought provoking. It's a book that makes you appreciate the way things are in your society now, and reminds you not to take things for granted, even simple things like color and love. So even though I didn't set out today to read a book, I did, and it was refreshing.

(I am also in the middle of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with Pride and Prejudice up next. More to come!)