Bluestalking

A Preponderance of Pondering: or, Curiouser and Curiouser.

No time to pursue this week, but once I'm home from Booktopia with fellow blogger Bibliosue expect me to run off at the keyboard about this brilliant article from The Atlantic:

 

http://tinyurl.com/6m3fzxe

 

It's from 2001, and I've probably read it before, actually, but it's particularly striking now because the issue of literary/genre fiction continues to be debated - which is a good thing. It's given me much to ponder. It will probably resonate with lots of you, as well, unless you're unlike me and have waking moments in which you are not thinking about books. Or Sebastian Barry. Or books by Sebastian Barry. (SEE: Barry, Sebastian)

It's led me to wonder if a massive book blogger pow wow (I have NA genes, so don't EVEN think of going PC on me) isn't in order, a cross-blogular examination of what IS and IS NOT considered LITERARY, as well as how one determines QUALITY in BOOKS (perhaps a few HOURS spend on random CAPitalization would not be amiss, EITHER) . But this week I'm making like the White Rabbit so there's no time to go into any depth, especially on a subject as complex as this.

My head's stuck on the topic of packing: specifically, what clothing one needs for three days in the Deep South and how many books one needs to pack for two overnight train trips; minus what one buys while there; times hours spent conscious; minus trips to the bathroom and time wasted eating, looking out the window, noticing my environment, surreptitiously kicking obnoxious children, sounding an air horn in the ears of obnoxious children every time they nod off and conversing.

Sad news all around - I don't think I'll bring my laptop along, though the urge to live blog does pull strongly. Seeing as I often come  home with lighter loads than I leave - due to my unfortunate tendency to "hide things away" in hotel rooms, for purposes of "safety," then forget to find them again - I think it may be best I leave my poor pet at home. And, while I can blog from my Kindle it's unwieldy and frustrating. Something tells me by the time Suzanne and I make it back to the hotel at night we'll be half-dead, anyway, and while it could be fun to read a blog post written while I'm falling asleep I can see potential drawbacks to that as well. Like the lack of a sane reason for doing so.*

I may be able to hop past again before I'm off on our Wild Ride but if I do not please be safe while I'm gone. And, for the love of all that's holy, STAY INSIDE WITH THE AIR CONDITIONING BLASTING.

God bless us, everyone.

 

*I am in no way advocating the abuse of alcohol but it has crossed my mind live blogging while intermittently drinking shots of alcohol, over a set period of time, could produce truly entertaining reading. If by "entertaining" one means "humiliating" and "potentially fired from one's place of employment." Not to mention "evicted from one's home."

**This blogging methodology is otherwise known as "Ernest Hemingway."

How to make your blog audience (blogience?) love you

 

 

All you gotta do, apparently, is interview A.J. Jacobs. Who knew?

I don't check my blog stats (blats?)  every day, especially not when the weather turns warmer, because that's when everyone's out skipping through meadows, eating popsicles, doing everything but READING MY BLOG. My numbers turn rather grim the better the weather gets. So I guess that makes my audience cold weather friends.

Really, internets? Really? When the weather's lovely, don't you want to stop by and see what I'm posting, if it's something about a good book, a mournful complaint about losing my iPhone or view one of my photos?    

Really?

When I sats me down at the computer this morning - on this soggy, rainy day - I found this big, ole  surprise, along with my bowl of strawberry frosted mini-wheats: a major spike in my hits. Since I can see what posts you're visiting (I WATCH YOU THROUGH YOUR CURTAINS, TOO), I figured out within two pages of investigation that it was A.J. who brought you here.

A.J.!

Now, I don't mind that. Not at all. He's a sweetheart and I like him, too. For a real writerly fella he has no ego problem - especially not if he'll talk to me. But what do I do the other 364 days a year? Post a different photo of him?

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!

Ah, well. I guess book bloggers aren't necessarily the most exciting people on the planet. Sniff! There are loads and loads of us. Sniff! I know where I stand. I'll slowly walk away now, head bent,  tears dripping on my toes, and get my cup of coffee. I'll work on revising my review for Library Journal, then start reading something else. And you'll go back to watching today's top YouTube video, texting it up 'til it goes viral.

No, don't worry about me! I'm okay!

Sniff!

Book Blog Hop

I'm pooped out after cleaning all day yesterday, readying the house for the graduation party we're having for my daughter this coming Saturday. She's leaving high school behind, marching us straight into the poor house. We're becoming human ATMs - like we haven't always been - but now the numbers are getting a whole lot bigger. I didn't think ATMs were even supposed to dispense such large amounts of money.

Remind me how much I complained now when, in two more years, we have TWO children in college. I feel nauseous. Let's leave all that behind and try a bit of book bloggy fun, letting someone else do all the heavy lifting for a change.

Here's how Blog Hopping works: I start out at a random book blog and link to a post I enjoyed reading, one I'll also comment on at that blog. I'll peruse their list of recommended blogs and choose one, hopping over there, repeating the process. This is something I do for fun anyway, in my "free time" that isn't really free time so much as "blog addiction." May as well share great new sites with you all.

 

Ready? First Stop:

Beth Fish Reads: Reading, Thinking Photography

What I enjoy about her blog is how interactive it is, that she asks for contributions from readers to add to whatever the current subject matter may be. In this particular instance I'm referencing a post called "Weekend Cooking: Dinner with Friends":

"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page."

 

Hop!

A Tale of Three Cities

Never been here before but check out her post re: what books she's received through the mail lately. It may make you weep (I know it did me...). Some good stuff here, like Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat, which I'd never even heard of. And I enjoy Muriel Spark very much:

 

  "Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants' office for sixteen years. So she leaves everything behind her, transforms herself into a laughing, garishly-dressed temptress and flies abroad on the holiday of a lifetime. But her search for adventure, sex and the obsessional experience takes on a far darker significance as she heads on a journey of self-destruction. Infinity and eternity attend Lise's last terrible day in an unnamed southern city, as she meets her fate"

Guess who's just added yet another book to her TBR list?

 

Hop!

A Literary Odyssey: My Journey Through 250 of the Classics

Linking to her post on Shusaku Endo and his book Volcano:

 

"A volcano resembles human life. In youth it gives rein to the passions, and burns with fire. It spurts out lava. But when it grows old, it assumes the burden of those past evil deeds. It turns deathly quiet as we now behold it. Nevertheless, a human being is not entirely like the volcano. When we grow old, will cast a backward glance upon our lives, becoming fully aware of our mistakes."

 

I tried commenting on her post but, Reader, I am embarrassed to say I could not figure out how to do so. I tried the usual way I go about it, which is straightforward, but I didn't receive a comment box. Never mind, though, there's so much here to skim through. She's a sweet person with a huge love of reading the classics and posts about books acquired, book lists, etc. She also participates in lots of literary challenges, which is one thing I sorely lack. Check out this other post on one of those, The Classics Club. These people put me to SHAME!

 

Hop!

The Classics Club originates on the A Room of One's Own blog. To join, you make a list of 50 classics you plan to read within five years, including an ending date. This you post on your own blog. You link your list to Jillian's blog and every time you finish reading and commenting on one of these classics you link back to her blog, to make the whole process interactive. It makes more sense if you read her directions!

 

And I think this may be a fun challenge to join. Classics are my first love and I only came to contemporary literature a few short years ago. Talk about your steep learning curve...

I still read some classics - mostly for the Classics Book Group at the library - but nothing at all like I used to, when I read them almost exclusively.

So, Jillian... A List of 50 you say...

 

One more... HOP!

Musings is one of the many, many blogs participating in The Classics Club challenge. So, I swung from that vine and wound up reading this post, in which she shares thoughts on Elizabeth Taylor's A Game of Hide and Seek:

"Taylor’s writing is exquisite.  The story unfolds very slowly, with the rich observational detail Taylor is known for.  And it’s emotionally intense as well. In the first part, the reader feels the pain of young love — we want Harriet and Vesey to accept the love they feel for each other, and live happily ever after.  We feel pain in the awkwardness of their parting, and the pain returns when they meet again in middle age.  By that time, I had come to appreciate her marriage to Charles.  I was caught up in Harriet’s dilemma, simultaneously wishing for things that might have been, and wanting to maintain the comfort and security of her family life.  The ending is ambiguous, and yet felt completely right."

 

She also references a bio of Taylor I didn't know existed!:

 

 

This is the danger of blog hopping: it adds to your TBR list exponentially.

 

 

 

The Other Elizabeth Taylor by Nicola Beauman

Amazon's info:

This is the first biography of one of the greatest English writers of the last century. Betty Coles became Elizabeth Taylor upon her marriage in 1936. Her first novel At Mrs. Lippincote's appeared in the same year (1945) as the actress Elizabeth Taylor was appearing in National Velvet. Over the next thirty years, "the other Elizabeth Taylor" lived and worked in Buckinghamshire and published several titles of fiction. Nicola Beauman's biography draws on a wealth of hitherto undiscovered material.

Nicola Beauman is the author of A Very Great Profession: The Woman's Novel 1914–39, Cynthia Asquith, and Morgan: a Life of EM Forster. She founded Persephone Books in 1999.

 

I enjoyed my romp past a few bookish blogs. I'll have to do this more often. I've clearly never gotten out enough and have become pretty insular. I visit loads of other bookish blogs but usually lose them after one visit and can't find them again. This exercise forces me to slow down, for one thing, and to record my hops. Plus, see what's out there as far as all the fun challenges, what others are reading and what not.

Hope you enjoyed it as well and will visit some of these lovely sites.

 

 

In the blink of an eye

Life has changed, just like that. In predictably unpredictable fashion illness has hit our family swiftly and cruelly.

For the foreseeable future posting will be sparse. It may be good therapy for me to write when I can, at least once a week to say "this is what I'm reading." But beyond that will be difficult. For now, what I need is the simple and mindless, when I'm not handling the essentials. Reading, playing a pop the bubble app, watching stupid TV and the occasional movie are all I can manage.

And no, I'm not the one who's ill so please don't worry about that, as I know some would.

Thank you for your patience.

Get out the vote!

If you look to my right sidebar you'll see a button announcing my nomination as a Top Writing Blog. If you click on that you may vote for me (me! me!) which would be much appreciated.

This award competition operates via Chicago voting rules, meaning you can vote as many times as you'd like before the deadline, which will continue through February 3, 2012 at 5 PM EST.

Also as per Chicago tradition, the deceased are more than welcome to cast their ballot. We don't even require a pulse, one of the reasons we're one of the greatest cities on earth.

I'm Lisa Guidarini and I approved this message. Thank you and God Bless America.