A Life Profound

For a free spirited artist, I really like lists.  Not all lists, but some lists.  For instance, I love Reading lists and I am obsessed with books of book recommendations.  Here’s a some that I own:

• Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt
• Honey For a Teen’s Heart by Gladys Hunt
• Honey for a Woman’s Heart by Gladys Hunt
• Read for Your Life by Gladys Hunt and Barbara Hampton
• Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
• How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell
• The Joy of Reading by Debbie Dunca
• All Through the Ages by Christine Miller

My latest obsession began when I discovered 1001 Books you Must Read Before you Die.  I don’t own it as I am trying to really weigh every book purchase that I make.  That doesn’t mean that I haven’t bought any books but I am just trying to decide what to spend money on.  The library has this book and the list is on line at Listology.  Maybe if I found it used for a great price, I might purchase it.

I began working through the list from the end to the beginning in January.  Why from the end to the beginning?  That’s just the way I do things.  If you knew me well, you wouldn’t even have to ask!

On my sidebar, you can see the books I have read already this year.  If nothing else, this book has inspired me to read again, a love that I had not made time for recently.  I read a lot online, keeping up with news and stuff but I have lost the joy of getting lost in a book.  Unfortunately, none of the books I have read this year have really given me that experience.  I pretty much slogged my way through them … all the while knowing that I should be practicing the Rule of 50 by Nancy Pearl (the author of three more book recommendation books … Book Lust, More Book Lust and  Book Crush)

“Believe me, nobody is going to get any points in heaven by slogging their way through a book they aren’t enjoying but think they ought to read. I live by what I call ‘the rule of fifty,’ which acknowledges that time is short and the world of books is immense. If you’re fifty years old or younger, give every book about fifty pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100. The result is the number of pages you should read before deciding.

We won’t talk about how close I am getting to having to read less than fifty pages before deciding.

So far, I haven’t read anything that was must-read.

Never Let Me Go almost was a possibility when I thought there was going to be a strong case made that creative pursuit is an intrinsic part of our being.  But soon, I came to realize that the purpose of the those in the book was not that at all and their accomplished demise left me feeling empty.

Next on my list was Saturday by Ian McEwan.  I knew this as the author of Atonement, which I haven’t read yet but is on the list but I was looking forward to reading this one.  I became lost when a racquetball game went on for several pages without adding any further movement to the storyline … a storyline that really didn’t start developing until two-thirds into the book.  It was juts too slow for me.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith was next.  I found the storyline of the book a bit stretched and cumbersome and the characters were thin.  Too many times, characters were speaking in a voice that did not their history and who they were.  The most memorable quote comes from a sideline character about this Rembrandt sketch:

“everybody finds it technically good but visually disgusting.  Many famous men are repulsed.  A simple naked women is apparently much more nauseating than Samson having his eye put out or Ganymede pissing everywhere.  Is she really so grotesque?  She was a shock, to Katie, at first .. like a starkly lit, unforgiving photograph of oneself.

“for you are of the earth, as my nude is, and you will come to this point too, and be blessed if you feel as little shame, as much joy, as she”  unadorned, after children and work and age, and experience … there are the marks of living.

Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee started out so much better.  I was hopeful until midway through when it all took a strange turn and I didn’t like it from there until the end.

Then there is The Sea by John Banville which is a Man Booker prize winner.  This line appears on page ten, “The past beats inside me like a second heart” and I was captured, expecting to be pulled through this book with similar expressions.  I was disappointed, yet again as the book dragged on and the line between speaking of the past and speaking of the present was confusingly pale.

The Red Queen captured me and gave me incentive to learn more about Korean history.  It is really two stories in one book and I found each compelling.  However, the end of the modern story was unbelievable to me and didn’t resolve how or why the two stories were ultimately connected.

Now I am reading The Plot Against America and so far, it is my favorite.  I like reading the alternative history and speculating how different our life be now if one significant change is made.

I know that I haven’t really written reviews of these books but just gave my barest like or dislike opinion.  Book reviews are not my forte at all.  I like reading them just not writing them.  If you are looking for that, you can check out the Amazon links I have provided or the book-list books I have linked above.

That’s all for now … I am off to the store and the hope of finishing Plot Against America today.

Grace and Peace!