The End of Magical Thinking

I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard a story about the trial of someone who caused a big commuter train wreck by parking his SUV on the railroad tracks in a purported suicide attempt.  The reporter mentioned that one of the survivors of that crash went on to die in an even larger commuter train wreck about a year later.  

It struck me that here was proof that the "logic" that if you survive something like that train crash once, you are safe from train wrecks in the future--a little piece of magical thinking I live my life by--is completely flawed.  

It reminded me of a scene in the movie version of John Irving's novel The World According to Garp, where a small plane hits the house that Garp and his wife are looking to buy, and Garp  says they should take the house, because it's "pre-disastered"--now nothing bad can possibly happen here!

Calling things "pre-disastered" has become a family joke, and I can still relate to Garp's attitude. 

The World According to Garp, John Irving's third novel, was a cultural phenomenon.  I was maybe 12 or 13 when the book was published, and I still remember the red, blue, and green foil covers of the mass-market paperback edition all over the book racks at my local drugstore.  It was one of the first grown-up novels I ever read, part of my introduction to serious fiction.  I was struck by the character of Garp, related to his fear of death, and loved the weirdness of the novel.  And even though John Irving and I have grown apart a little, stylistically, over the years, I still feel I owe him for shaping my reading life.

Do you remember the first books that bridged children's books and grown-up books for you?  What was your introduction to grown-up fiction?

Oh Happy Day!

A morning spent smiling through tears...

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I need your advice...

I'm committed to buying books for the holidays, as I've mentioned before, and I'm rarely at a loss for books to buy for any occasion. But I need a little help from you creative reader/blogger friends--I need suggestions for books for my son. He's 12 years old, and a good reader (thank goodness), but he has already read or outgrown many of the YA books I know.

He really loved the Harry Potter series, and Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider books. He also read all of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. He likes fantasy, and adventure, though I've had a hard time getting him to read the classics that I loved, like Treasure Island, White Fang, and the like.

I think he's ready for something a little more mature, but I'm not sure exactly what to get for him. My husband thinks he's ready for Stephen King, and he did read and get creeped out by The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

So, wise ones, what do you suggest?

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving morning and I'm already busy cooking the meal that will take hours and hours to prepare, and minutes to scarf down. But that's no reason to make it simpler, no! Let's add extra steps! This year I've brined my turkey for 24 hours--we'll see if it actually makes a difference. I've made apple, pumpkin and pecan pies, even though there will only be eight of us at table. It's more than a little crazy.

This year I feel both more thankful than usual and less conviction that I need an excessive meal to demonstrate it. But I do always enjoy the day, as a holiday of reflection (and hard work in the kitchen). And to assuage my guilt about the gluttony, I've packed a big bag of non-perishable food for the local food bank, which I've noticed has longer lines in front of it lately.

Last night I stayed up later than usual to finish Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and, as predicted, wiped away a tear. It's a coming of age story, more personal and less sweeping than her later book, Half of a Yellow Sun, but also benefitting from the rich setting of Nigeria during a time of turmoil. Maybe when I'm done cooking I'll have a chance to write a review...

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and hope you all get a little extra reading time in!

Go Vote

On this election eve, I watched this and got teary.

I think it's time for a little tikkun olam, healing the world.

Politics, Halloween and a couple of bookish links

I've been so distracted by the approaching presidential election that I have been neglecting my blog. That may be because the only reading I'm doing is on the political blogs. Late at night. Like a junkie. I'm not a math person, but I can rattle off polling numbers like an old pro...I can't wait for next Tuesday so I can resume some semblance of a normal life!

The other distraction from blogging at this time of year is Halloween. I happen to live in a neighborhood that pulls trick-or-treaters from all over, so Halloween around here is absolutely insane. No joke, I have to buy at least 1000 pieces of candy. And I don't go for the cheapo stuff, I like to give out what I like to eat--chocolate! So I spend the greater part of the week before Halloween at the discount store, picking up just one more bag of Halloween candy or decoration for the house, or last-minute flourish for the kids' costumes.

If you're an Obama supporter wanting to get into the Halloween spirit, there's a great website you need to check out: Yes We Carve. It has stencils! If you are a McCain supporter, not sure where you can go for Halloween inspiration...

As far as bookish links, here are a couple from boingboing provided by my friend Julie:

"How to make a purse out of a stack of old books."

"Tales of cranky booksellers."

Grammar-related laughs

I'm currently reading Lynne Truss's book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation a little bit at a time, trying to savor the essays and remember their lessons.

While I am not an official member of the grammar police, I do notice grammatically offensive signs all around town.

I came across a blog that makes fun of all those signs, and that really made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it with you. Here's the link: The "Blog" of Unnecessary "Quotation" Marks.

"Hilarious!"

"Enjoy!"

I won, I won, I won!

I really fell out of the blogging groove last week, partly because it was a really busy week for the kids, and partly because I was too busy obsessing over the upcoming election, and glued to the political blogs I've become addicted to. I'm not going to get (very) political here, but let's say I'm hoping this election brings big changes.

I was very happy to open the mail yesterday, because with it came a copy of UK poet Roger McGough's The Way Things Are that I WON in a giveaway at The Octogon. Leah also sent me a lovely magnetic calendar which I will put on my fridge come 2009. Thanks so much, Leah! I never win anything, so this really made my week!

As many of you already know, Dewey is hosting the semi-annual 24 Hour Read-a-thon again this weekend. I have always wanted to participate in this event, and I've never been able to, as my youngest is too young to foist on anyone for that long, and I'm chauffeuring my middle one and eldest to football games, swim meets, bar and bat mitzvah celebrations, etc. on the weekends. But I'm looking forward to the day I can read for 24 hours, as you might imagine. So I'll be sending my best wishes to all the readers who participate--go, team, go!

July Odds and Ends

I am reading Joseph O'Neill's Netherland, and I am enjoying it very much. It is a post-9/11 story, but told by an ex-pat Dutchman who was living in New York at the time. I'm finding that looking at New York through the eyes of a sojourner during that particular time period is very interesting.

On my trips around the web, I noticed on The Diary of Samuel Pepys that the plague is plaguing London during July in 1665, which is sobering. Every generation has its scourge, I suppose, but reading about the plague definitely de-romanticizes the times before antibiotics.

My sister-in-law, who lives in the Boston area, and who we were visiting when we went to Walden Pond in June, sent me this funny article in a Boston website about Thoreau's popularity waxing and waning over time. Apparently, we missed the annual meeting of the Thoreau Society, which gets together at Walden Pond in July. And, according to the article, Thoreau is getting popular again due to the "simplicity movement" that is going on. I've thought the same thing--Thoreau seems to make sense at a time like this, when we're all trying to find ways to be kinder to our beleaguered planet, and when modern life seems at its most complicated, difficult and dangerous...

Grammar Power!

There's a little car I sometimes see parked in my neighborhood with a great personalized license plate. It reads GRMR PWR. Now, I could be misinterpreting it, but I call it the "grammar power" car. It's an unassuming little vehicle, but I like to imagine it's the transportation for a grammar-correcting superhero. Maybe his name is "Captain Apostrophe". Maybe he's riding around town, correcting the grammar, spelling and punctuation on all the billboards and signs, keeping the public safe from split infinitives. Wouldn't that be great?

Connectivity Woes, and Two Memes

Wow, I'm so dependent on the internet.  Our cable was out for over 24 hours (ack!), and since we are connected to the internet by cable modem, this did not only affect our TV (which was no problem), but it kept me off the internet (which was a big problem).

First of all, my parents called me about a half hour after the cable went out.  They had just left our house, having driven down from the Bay Area for a weekend visit.  They were on highway 5, near Magic Mountain, and the traffic was at a dead stop, and had been for about 20 minutes.  What was going on, they asked me.  Could I turn on the TV or the radio and find out?  

I turned to my normally trusty computer, and it was no go.  Not connected to the internet.  And of course, turning on the TV, I saw that the cable was out.  So I turned on the radio.  But there was no info on any of the traffic reports.  Turns out the highway was semi-closed--the highway patrol was leading cars, 500 at a time, over "the grapevine", a mountain pass that sometimes closes during storms.  But I was unable to get that information myself--I had to get it from someone with DSL :)

Anyway, no email, no blogging, no internet for 24 hours made me rather cranky.  But I'm back...

I’ve been tagged for two memes, Eva’s Meme, and the Eight Random Things About Me meme. I saw Eva’s meme when she created it, and I thought it was really cool, because the questions were so interesting and involved! So I’m happy Iliana tagged me for this one, so I can answer those great questions now.

Aloi also tagged me for The Eight Things About Me meme. It’s one I’ve definitely done before, but which I will do again now. Not only do I like the idea that this has been wending its way around the internet for months, if not years, I also like that I have been given another chance at answering its questions—maybe I will be more interesting, or say something new, in my answers this time. I hope the meme continues on and gets back to me again, eventually!

Here’s Eva’s Meme:

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews? Off the top of my head, I’m going to say Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood (sorry Aloi!  Her really interesting review is here). Though I enjoy Atwood’s writing, something about what I’ve read about this dystopian book has turned me off. And that’s despite the incredible reviews. But I’ll probably shake off my irrational dread and read it (and like it) anyway.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be? Predictably, I’d probably have tea or dinner with Elizabeth Bennett, Anne Elliott and Elinor Dashwood. But then again, I thought maybe I should mix it up a bit, and rather than having Austen heroines together, I should throw an Austen heroine in with someone from another time period, or another genre…hmm…how about Anne Elliott, Atticus Finch, and Sherlock Holmes. This got me thinking, wow, would these characters even have enough in common to have a meal together? I mean, maybe it’s better to stick the Victorians together…

Okay, this is obviously overthinking it. But it did lead me to a list from NPR, the 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900, which was interesting. I was happy to see The Dog of Tears, from Jose Saramago’s Blindness, on the list. But I digress…

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave? Moby Dick seems to be the most common answer I’ve read, and it works for me, too.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it? When I was younger I used to pretend I’d read more of the great Russian novelists. I’ve never read Dostoyevsky, but I hinted that I had, always thinking to myself that I would get to him eventually. Not so far!

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book? Nope, can’t think of anything. But like Robin, I’ve had the opposite experience, where I’ve read something intriguing about a book, and brought it home, only to find that I’ve read it before. Whoops!

You’ve been appointed Book Advisor to a VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP) Hmm…it’s a tough call. Even though I should probably go with something more remedial, I'm going to say Middlemarch, because you get social commentary, an engrossing narrative, and some characters you love and some you love to hate.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with? I’m going back and forth between French and Spanish, but I have to say Spanish. There are so many books I wish I could read in the original languages, but I think the preponderance of those books are in Spanish.

A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick? I guess I’d have to say Persuasion, by Jane Austen. It’s one of my comfort reads, a book that I reread every once in awhile anyway. And it’s not that long, so it wouldn’t take up much of my reading year ☺

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)? The book blogging community has “pushed my reading borders”, too, in many ways—I’m reading new genres and participating in challenges, for example. But I think the most important thing is that I am finding people who are passionate about particular books that I had never even heard of before. I’m really widening my reading horizons by taking bloggers’ recommendations.


That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free. At one time I might have conjured an old-fashioned library straight from an ancient castle, but now I’d go for comfort. I want lots of natural light, a beautiful view out the large windows, comfortable seating, all my favorite books and more—books recommended by friends, books I’d love to read some day, books I may never read. Oh yes, and unlimited and extremely fast internet access ☺


Now for Eight Random Things About Me:

1.  I only speak one language—English—and I wish I spoke more languages. I would love to speak Spanish, French, Italian, or maybe Japanese. However, I’m not willing to put in the time now, maybe because I know how much easier it is to learn languages when you’re younger. I’m afraid my aging brain will let me down!

2.  I do most of my reading in bed. After the kids are asleep, I don’t watch TV or do the dishes, I get into bed and read. My TV watching has really slowed over the last few years. Who has the time? I feel like a favorite TV show is a big commitment I’m not willing to make. But my reading keeps on at a steady pace, because I’m willing to get into bed a little early.

3.  I may not watch much TV these days, but one of my favorite indulgences is to go to a matinee movie and have popcorn and soda for lunch. Maybe candy, too. I love the feeling of leaving the theater after a daytime movie—the slight disorientation you feel coming out of a darkened theater into the daylight. It is such an indulgence, and it doesn’t happen often, but I do love it.

4.  I love my Mac. I don’t even know how to use a PC. Back in the old days, when I worked in an office, I know I used a PC, but that was in the days of MS Dos, and the whole thing was a mystery to me. Obviously I’m not computer savvy. I wish I knew more about the technical side of blogging. If anyone has any blogging resources (for dummies) to recommend, I’m all ears.

5.  I’d love to take a course on digital photography. I love to take pictures, but again, I wish I knew more about the technical side of photography. Maybe I should take a class in digital photography given in Italian. Then I could kill two birds with one stone.

6.  I make a mean pecan pie. And I’m willing to share the recipe.

7.  I like to eat breakfast food for dinner.

8.  I wish my husband and kids liked long car trips as much as I do. I look back fondly on my family vacations spent driving to Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe, Palm Springs, Disneyland…

Now it’s time to tag people. But since I’ve seen both these memes on so many of my blogging friends’ blogs already, I’m going to take the easy way out and say, if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged. I mean it—do these memes, they’re fun! Then let me know, so I can visit and read your answers ☺

Reading on a Cloudy Day

We're having a little bit of cold weather here in Los Angeles, and I'm realizing that my blood has thinned significantly since I lived in colder climes. Okay, I've never actually lived anywhere really cold. I grew up in the Bay Area, which is rainier and colder than Southern California, but it only snowed twice there in the whole time I was growing up. Still, I used to ski, and I've spent plenty of time on the east coast during the winter. I used to love the cold. Now the thermometer is hitting 55 degrees outside and I'm turning up the heat and wearing my warmest sweater around the house. I'm officially a wimp. And just look what's going on around the rest of the country--check out Stefanie's blog for the freezing evidence.

But this kind of showery, partly-cloudy weather--an "open and shut day", my friend J. would say--is perfect for reading--indoors, curled up on the couch, possibly with a cup of hot chocolate. It's a good thing my morning plans cancelled and I can sit down with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I have not gotten far into this one, but I do like it so far. There's a vaguely menacing feel to the action, however, that has me on edge. I know this isn't going to be a cozy novel.

That's why I keep alternating it with L.M. Montgomery's Anne's House of Dreams (Anne of Green Gables, No. 5), the fifth novel in Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series. These books were a favorite of mine when I was a child, but I never read past the first three books, so I'm picking up where I left off. It's nice to be transported back to Prince Edward Island with feisty Anne, but it's surreal to juxtapose this with Murakami.

My hat's off to my husband, who cleaned out our garage office with a vengeance. Now I have about 25 books to list on BookMooch, and he set up a nice, safe shelf to keep them on so I won't lose the books or ruin them somehow in case a moocher wants them.