Good books and bad spelling

So it was recently brought to my attention (by guess who? my mother) that I don't proof-read my articles so much. It's never really a shock when my mother is right. I just found a "you're" when it should have been "your". The horror! I couldn't feel sillier.

Something that I was also discussing with my mom (She's an avid reader too) is whether it's cool or not to not finish a book. I used to be of the opinion that I should finish it if I got far enough along, but I'm 276 pages into "Mary Anne" and for the life of me I can't seem to get motivated enough to read the rest. My mom was telling me about some woman who decided when she turned 50 that if a book didn't catch her interest in 50 pages she would move on. This woman also said that as she got older she would reduce the amount of trial pages to 49, 35, 30 etc. She's now about 80 and says she gives a book about 20 pages. By the time you're 100, she says, you can pretty much judge a book by its cover!


I guess I'm 25, so 276 pages should be enough of a trial! I felt because I had spent the money on "Mary Anne" that I should finish it, but I'm not curious enough to keep going. Who cares! I don't have time to waste! Life is short! So read good books! :D

Status update: Still reading "Yankee". It's one of those books that's got small condensed writing on each page so you think you're getting to the end, but you're not. So! Didn't finish it yesterday. But it gets better and better! Loving in!

Mary Anne

I've had a gay old time reading "Yankee" and I will surely finish it today. Just before starting "Yankee" I was reading Daphne du Maurier's "Mary Anne". Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" is hands down the best book I've ever read so I was really looking forward to reading another of du Maurier's novels. Set just after the French Revolution, "Mary Anne" is about a woman who falls on hard times when her stepfather leaves her mother and then she herself marries a man who turns out not to have any money. She later leaves her husband and begins an obsessive social climb. She eventually becomes the mistress of a prince of England. It's sounds super cool but I'm not crazy about this one at all. Du Maurier is an amazing amazing writer but Mary Anne is not a very loveable or in fact a very relatable character by any means. She's one of those people who just keeps doing bad things and can't stop. I hate those people! I had such a hard time watching that movie "Blow" with Johnny Depp for the same reason. But, I'm told there's going to be a murder soon, so that's what's keeping me going pretty much.

In the meantime I've been re-reading "Fortune and Fate" by Sharon Shinn and soon I'll be planning my next book. I don't feel like reading anything too dramatic--doesn't fit with the upcoming summer (I say upcoming because it's been raining like a bastard every day in Montreal these days). Any suggestions?

Mixing it on up!

Miss Viv makes a good point in the comment section below. I find it super important to alternate genres/writers so that you don't get sick of always reading the same thing, and also so you're not stuck in the same frame of mind every day. If you're always reading fluff then your head will stay in the clouds. It's important to throw a good political suspense or historical fiction in there for some perspective. On the other hand, if all you read is Sylvia Plath, then for the love of God pick up Bridget Jones' Diary or something!


I find it difficult to stay in the same attitude constantly, so if I'm reading a heavier novel, then I will often pick up something light at the same time. When I was reading Graham Greene's The Quiet American, I was at the same time reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Sounds mental, I know. But who wants to feel depressed all the time! Sometimes to keep a level head you need a little period romance/zombie-fighting action!


Find The Quiet American on Amazon

Yankee continued

Even after reading only 3 books of his, I know Kurt Vonnegut's style very well. It is no wonder that he idolized Mark Twain. I was moseying along just fine, laughing at the jokes, pondering the social-political parallels, etc. and all of a sudden I get to a chapter entitled "The Smallpox Hut". I felt like I'd been hit by a brick of pure depression. I hate it when people say that "something" is "something" personified, but I tell you, reading these guys is as close to a personification of life as one can get. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's boring, and sometimes it sucks the hairy bird. I'm loving the ride, people. Here's an absolutely beautifully written excerpt from "Yankee": (To those of you not in the mood for anything super depressing, look away, I'm warning you)

"Dead?" "Yes, what a triumph it is to know it! None can harm him, none insult him more. He is in heaven, now, and happy; or if not there, he bides in hell and is content for in that place he will find neither abbot nor yet bishop. We were boy and girl together; we were man and wife these five and twenty years, and never separated till this day. Think how long that is, to love and suffer together. This morning was he out of his mind, and in his fancy we were boy and girl again and wandering in the happy fields; and so in that innocent glad converse wandered he far and farther, still lightly gossiping, and entered into those other fields we know not of, and was shut away from mortal sight. And so there was no parting, for in his fancy I went with him; he knew not but I went with him, my hand in his--my young soft hand, not this withered claw. Ah, yes, to go and know it not; how could one go peacefuler than that? It was his reward for a cruel life patiently borne." -Mark Twain, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"

Comfort Shelf:

I've found it super important for me as a crazy reader to have "comfort books". Books that you can go back and read anytime and that instantly lift the spirits. So, not War and Peace. On my shelf lately is pretty much any novel by Sharon Shinn. Her stuff is action/romance/fantasy. Her first series is called the Archangel series (about angels!) which sounds much lamer than it actually is. It takes place on another planet humans have colonized thousands of years after Earth. There's a lot of action and politics in it but in every novel she puts a love story. This is TOTALLY my favourite kind of stuff. I love action movies and I also like romantic crap, so Sharon Shinn pretty much makes up my comfort shelf. Her second series is called The Twelve Houses series and I think it's even better than the angel books. It's kind of a Lord of the Rings-type story. Point is, they're light reading and highly entertaining so I want to read them over and over again. I would recommend either of these series to my girlfriends, they're awesome. I recommended them to my mom and she can't put them down. Sucker!

Start with book 1 of Archangel at Amazon

Start with book 1 of Twelve Houses at Amazon

Pilot: Yankee

May 21st, 2011 (end of days)

I should have started this blog when I began reading in the fall. I just moved into an apartment where I would have to take the metro (subway, as it's called by non-montrealers) to get to work an school. I was kinda sick of listening to my ipod all the time on the metro. Instead I decided to pick up a book! Anytime you're in a rut you can put your own feelings on pause for 10 minutes and be transported to a completely different place. It's a great time!

Mark Twain

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

'When I came to... there was a fellow on a horse, looking down at me--a fellow fresh out of a picture book. He was in old-time iron armour from head to heel, with a helmet on his head the shape of a nail keg with slits in it; and he had a shield, and a sword, and a prodigious spear... "Fair sir, will ye just?" said this fellow. "Will I which?" "Will ye try a passage of arms for land or lady or for--" "What are you giving me?" I said. "Get along back to your circus or I'll report you."'

This is my first Mark Twain and I'm almost half-way through. I bought it at a used books store ($2.50 woot!). Mark Twain is the hero of one of my favourite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, so I was eager to get into his stuff.

Mark Twain was born in Missouri in 1835. He wrote also "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" two novels that I will definitely want to read after I'm done "Yankee".

"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is exactly what it sounds like. A 19th Century American wakes up one day in 6th Century Britain just outside Camelot and is brought in as a prisoner of the court. The book is freaking hilarious. It's also a commentary on life in the Dark Ages in Britain. Twain makes the point that their fancy impressive-sounding language masks a profound ignorance. It is this ignorance that the protagonist sets out to change.

Tips for readers: For young people like myself the language is a little difficult to get through at times. But you can take comfort in the fact that, the protagonist is often confounded too! (That's kinda the point) However, if you can tackle Jane Austen you can handle Mark Twain.

I'll keep you updated as I read along!

Buy the book on Amazon