#JustSaying - Stay Calm & Read

Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash

Jennifer @HoldsOnHappiness wrote a post recently about keeping calm in a world suddenly gone mad. Her simple solution was to stockpile books, not toilet paper. And tea.

It would seem that all the end-of-the-world stories I've read over the years, have seeped into my subconscious, as I would have to self-isolate for well over a year before I even went close to running out of unread books or tea!

But it got me thinking, what WOULD I read if my family had to go into quarantine thanks to one of us being exposed to Covid-19?

Plagues and pestilence have been the scourge of human life since time began. Which reflects the extraordinary number of stories that have been written about this topic since then. As soon as we started recording and remembering stories, natural disasters got the starring role. For instance, plague and pestilence visit the characters on the battle field in Homers' The Iliad. You'll also find a far bit of this going on, with the whole wrath of God behind it, in the Old Testament stories as well.

Giovanni Boccaccio went there in the 1350's after the Black Death with The Decameron, as did Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. Daniel Defoe gave us Journal of the Plague Year written in 1722 and in 1826 Mary Shelley wrote The Last Man.

More modern takes include Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider (which sounds fascinating by the way - a 1918 Spanish flu story), Albert Camus' The Plague, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders, Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, Peter Heller's The Dog Stars, Chris Adrian's, The Children’s Hospital, Ling Ma's Severance, and Philip Roth's Nemesis (a polio outbreak story).

If man-made bio-disasters are more your thing then you could try Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake trilogy, Frank Herbert's The White Plague, Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, Dean Koontz' The Eyes of Darkness, Justin Cronin's The Passage and Stephen King's The Stand.

But would we really turn to plague-lit as a form of comfort during these trying times?

According to Buzzfeed last week, the 2011 movie Contagion is now the second most watched Warner Bros movie and the tenth most popular Apple iTunes movie. Maybe it should be reclassified as a documentary?

If I had 2-3 weeks off work, where I had to stay quietly at home I would have no trouble filling my time. I have several unopened jigsaw puzzle boxes, cupboards full of our favourite DVD's (for when Netflix falls over due to high demand!) and mountains of unread books. But I do feel sorry for my more extroverted friends. Two weeks stuck at home is their worst nightmare!

I might be tempted to reread King's The Stand. But I'd like to think I would use the time more fruitfully and finally tackle some of those more challenging books on my TBR like, Ducks Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann and Milkman by Anna Burns. Or maybe I will finally read all those delightful Angela Thirkell books stacked under by my bed for reasons of pure comfort and escapism.

Have you prepared your self-isolation reading list yet?
What are you looking forward to reading if you suddenly get two weeks at home?

For more Bookish Covid-19 posts try BethFishReads food post and Paula's positive spin here.

Books I Read in High School

JoAnn @Lakeside Musing has recently been revisiting her high school texts.
It got me thinking...and discussing with the family about the highlights of our school reading lives.
The tragedy was gradually revealed, though, as B21 and B18 shared not only their lack of inspiring, interesting school texts, but the utter dearth of said texts in the first place.

Mr Books and I, over 30 years after the event, could recall every single book, play and poet that we read for our HSC years, and with a little more effort we could also recall most of the books read throughout years 7 - 10 as well.

Whereas both boys only remembered their meagre list of texts thanks to our prompts.

It seems like the teaching of English no longer stresses, you know, actual reading!
The books selected, according to the boys, were ones that could be read aloud in class, as no-one was expected to actually, you know, read the books by themselves at home.

They also don't remember discussing the books except in terms of purpose and narrative style.
They memorised certain critical phrases and ideas that they then regurgitated in exams, with no idea what any of it meant.
They didn't even have to read the books in question as none of the exam questions or class discussions were actually about, you know, the story.
The book was selected purely as an example of a text type and that's all that mattered for the rest of the course.
The joy of reading and language was completely absent.
Author intent and individual reader experiences were irrelevant.

Neither boy now reads.

Which breaks my heart.

B21 used to be an avid reader, but a combination of getting his first smart phone in the middle of his high school years & the current mode of teaching English stopped all that dead.

B18 always struggled to get into reading.
He just didn't see the point of it.
After constant trying, we finally found that he enjoyed stories like Wonder by R. J. Palacio, but as many of you probably already know, books like Wonder are not very common in the junior fiction market.
Since his high school years, anything to do with reading or books has been anathema for him.
Any need or desire he may have had for stories, magic or imagination he found in movies and getting lost in another's world now happens via games like Fortnight.

Given the amount of joy, comfort and companionship that books and plays and theatre have given both Mr Books and I over the years, we wonder what the boys will turn to during their own future times of need.

Perhaps, we're being old fashioned fuddy-duddy's.
Maybe the wonderful world of new technology, AI and AR will provide our Gen Zedder's with their own kind of joy, comfort and companionship?

I'm also forgetting, that during my school years, our parents were worried about the effects of television on our minds and lives.
Schools had stopped teaching grammar and our parents generation was horrified.
What were we doing to our kids and what did it mean for the future?

Maybe, I am now simply on the other side of the generational divide.
Oh the irony!

I just hope that I live long enough to enjoy watching our Zedder's angst over the educational standards inflicted on their oh so modern kids.

My School Texts

Poets

Andrew Marvell

John Donne

Judith Wright

Novels

Pride and Prejudice

Emma

The Great Gatsby

To Kill A Mockingbird

Lord of the Flies

And Then There Were None

Plays

Major Barbara

Saint Joan

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

King Lear

Merchant of Venice

Romeo and Juliet

Macbeth

Mr Books

Poets

(A) Judith Wright

John Donne

Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge

Novels

1984

Grapes of Wrath

Pride and Prejudice

Brave New World 

Swallows and Amazons

To Kill A Mockingbird

Plays

King Lear

Merchant of Venice

Macbeth

Under Milkwood

Streetcar Named Desire

The Importance of Being Ernest

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

B21

Poets

Robert Frost

(A) Peter Skrzynecki

Novels

Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time
Catcher in the Rye

Holes

Plays

(A) Gary's House

Merchant of Venice

Midsummer Night's Dream

(A) Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

B18

Poets

Robert Frost

Novels

Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time
(A) Sabriel
(A) The Rabbits by John Marsden & Shaun Tan

Plays

(A) Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

He also recalls that early in Yr 7 or 8 he may have watched a TV version of a Shakespeare play.
It may have had fairies in it, but he can't really remember.
And he doesn't care.

#justsaying

#JustSaying

There are times in life when everything feels like it's getting away from you. 

I'm in the middle of one of those times right now. 

(At least, I hope it's the middle and not just the start of something bigger!)

My head space is full of routine stuff, life stuff, work stuff, planning stuff, organising stuff and I'm finding it hard to find time for creative stuff, reflection and personal growth.

Every time I think about my blog, I experience stress. 

Reviews are piling up - I'm simply not in the right space to write them. 

But I want to write something. 

I need to write.

Could my inner creative side be in revolt? 

No more reviews; it's time to write something else? 

Except a huge part of me wants (CRAVES) this place that helps me keep track of my reading life. 

I like having this 8 year old record of my book journey. 

I'm reading much more mindfully than I ever have before and I'm loving it. 

But I'm making more time for reading, than I am for reviewing. 

What I need is to find a way to make this easier for myself.

I need to let go some of the stuff cluttering up my head space.

And I want to write something, anything; even if it's just another list!

Books Read But Not (Yet) Reviewed

Narrow Road to the Interior by Matsuo Basho

My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan

The Annotated Persuasion by Jane Austen & David M, Shapard

Just Flesh and Blood by Jane Caro

Books I'm Halfway Through

The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham (by next book club book)

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo x3  (readalong)

Last Stories by William Trevor

The Best Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant

Love and Freindship and Other Youthful Writings by Jane Austen

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne

Books I've Just Started

The Compete Maus by Art Spiegelman

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch (readalong)

Stalled

Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John  Matteson

Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor

12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson (perhaps I should uninstall this one!)

Basho The Complete Haiku

Mirror Sydney by Vanessa Berry

Bookish Things I'm Looking Forward To

Readers Imbibing Peril (R.I.P XIII)

Seasonally speaking, this particular event always feels a little wrong to me. 

In Sydney, spring is desperately trying to make itself known.
The days are lengthening, I'm being woken by bird song every morning and the bulbs & blossoms are suddenly popping open.
There's a sense of waking up, emerging, and a sense of all things fresh and new.

Reading gloomy, dark, spooky stories feels like a good wintry thing to do; not a good sunny days, bursting with the joy of new life thing.

I'm sure we will have another bout of cold weather before true spring arrives; another grey, gloomy weekend when reading a gothic thriller will be just what the doctor ordered AND if that happens, then I will gladly, willing tackle Peril the Third and read one book for this 2 month challenge. 

#Victober

I discovered this on Goodreads and thought it might be a nice way to read another book from my CC List #2. The Victorian era goes from 1837-1901. I have 3 possibilities. 

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (1887)     (this could also help me with R.I.P. XIII)

Little Doritt by Charles Dickens (1855 - 57)

Basil by Wilkie Collins (1852)

The 1944 Club

I've never been organised enough to join in this challenge before, but I have 2 books on my TBR pile first published in 1944.

The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell

The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves

FrankenFest

A chance to read Frankenstein in October (another R.I.P. XIII possibility)?

A copy has just made it's way onto my TBR pile, so maybe....

Tags

I was recently tagged on Twitter to name 3 books that made me stay up reading long into the night (thanks Kate).

Last night I read until 1:30am because I finally got to the exciting part in The Secrets She Keeps.

Last week it was The Annotated Persuasion.

But then I would have to think long and hard to remember a third....

On Instagram Fanda challenged me with this list:

Favourite Fantasy:
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy

Favourite Sci-fi:
anything by John Wyndham

Favourite Contemporary:
Liane Moriarty

Favourite Romance:
The Ladies of Missalonghi

Favourite book from 10 years ago:
is this favourite book that I READ in 2008 or favourite book first PUBLISHED in 2008?
2008 is pre-blogging days and I simply cannot remember everything I read back then.
I remember rereading Jane Eyre for my book club and I started Max Gallo's Napoleon series.
I also read Geraldine Brooks People of the Book (I went to a local book event and got a signed copy).
Published in 2008 but read and loved later, were The Hunger Games and Olive Kitteridge.

Favourite book from the last 100 days:
Too hard to pick just one, so here's five favourites.
Taboo
Lenny's Book of Everything
Northbridge Rectory
Sugar Money
Pachinko

The thought of hunting down these books to take a pic of them was too much to bear!

Feel free to consider yourself tagged.

Phew!
That's not in my brain any more.

Maybe there will be some space for creativity, reflection and personal growth today?

#justsaying

One of those days....

I'm having one of those days, when I WANT to write, but have done everything possible to make it NOT happen.

I started two posts (another JA on the screen post & another CBCA post) early this morning but neither were working so I cleaned the kitchen instead - top to bottom - the silver is gleaming, the splashbacks are sparkling and all that crappy stuff (a broken magnet from the fridge, dead batteries, dust gathering mini-candle holders (used once) & some kind of screw/hook thingy) that were cluttering up the edges - GONE! With bonus points for emptying the food & rubbish bins as well.

Which made me realise I needed to do a grocery shop that included a tour down the cleaning aisle, via a stop at my favourite cafe on the way. A load of washing, a few chapters of my book over lunch, followed by cleaning out the kettle and sorting out the wine & shoe cupboard (a new delivery (of wine not shoes) arrived yesterday).

I sat down to write again, but got distracted by emails and online banking before deciding to clean up the apps on my phone. The whole time, with one ear tuned to the radio to hear if anything else was happening with the leadership challenge (groan) happening in Canberra.

Enough was enough, so I swept the front porch and watered the garden and pot plants.

And guess what?

I still WANT to write, but what to write?

Isn't it awful to have the desire, but not the creative flow.
To be willing and able, but not inspired.

What to do?

Publish this.
Shut down the keyboard once again.
Hit the pavement.
Get some fresh air.
Smell the roses (or the new spring blossoms at least).
Get moving.
Try again later.

What do you do when you want to write but the muse goes missing?
#justsaying

The Ides of March

I've had a peculiar day.

People have been sharing their tales of woe and weirdness with me all day.

Acquaintances, not quite strangers on the street, but close enough, sharing intimate, private details with me. I've been hugging people left, right and centre and listening to the most extraordinary stories.

All of this weirdness got me thinking about the Ides of March.

The day that Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.

It was obviously a very weird day for Caesar and the Roman Republic as well.

A major turning point in history, in fact.

Where Rome moved from being a Republic (albeit a Republic fraught with internal tensions) to a fully fledged Imperial Empire by 27 BC.

A period of civil war, executions and unrest followed Caesar's death, until his great-nephew and adopted son Octavius was able to consolidate his power base and take control.

500 years of the Roman Republic over, just like that.

In a blink of an eye.

The Death of Caesar (1798) by Vincenzo Camuccini

Change has been on my mind a lot lately.

The passing of time, the march of generations, yet the continuity and sameness of it all.

Things that once seemed so important and necessary and definite have faded, been forgotten.

Other ideas and feelings have become the important things to hold on to.

Yet these too will pass.

All those people, the regular folk, the Plebeians of Rome, spent their days going around doing their daily thing. Working, eating, spending time with family. Worrying if they had enough food, frightened when someone got sick, hoping that all those people running around trying to rule Rome didn't muck things up too much.

Just like us.

All their fears, loves, dreams, hopes and concerns are now nothing to us.

They were important to them at the time, just like ours are to us, but one day they will all be gone too.

Empires, republics and nations come and go.

Just like us.

Rulers, leaders, dictators and tyrants come and go.

Just like us.

One day, this time will be but a blink in the eye of history.

Our stories will have disappeared as too our fears, loves, dreams, hopes and concerns.

Why hold on to the shitty stuff?

Let it go.

If all we've got is this brief time, this brief, always changing time, then why not hold onto the good stuff? 

Honour our sorrows, not wallow.

Learn from our trials and tribulations, not ignore.

Acknowledge our fears, then laugh at them.

Hold on to all that is good.
Fight for kindness, peace and safety.
Revel in love, beauty and hope.

Let go of all that is holding you back.

Et tu.
Et te.

#justsaying

Just Saying - ARC's and DNF's

I've been thinking about what, if any, difference it has made to my reading habits working in an Indie bookshop.

Before I was a bookseller, I knew nothing about ARC's (advanced reading copies). Each and every book that I purchased was a precious thing, new or used. I would spend hours browsing, to-ing and fro-ing about which book/s to read next. The local library was my testing ground for new authors and recommendations and book borrows from friends supplemented my own growing library of favourites. Word of mouth and synchronicity was my was usual approach to finding new books.

If I bought a book, I read it through, regardless. DNF (did not finish) was not an option. I finished every book I started (eventually).

However since working in a bookshop the whole wide wonderful world of ARC's and gratis reads has opened up to me. Suddenly my shelves (cupboards, under the bed and bedside chair) were overflowing with options that I hadn't had to pay for.

Many times, this process revealed amazing new authors and stories that I might never have picked up otherwise. And that is, of course why publishing companies release ARC's. Word of mouth and personal recommendations are still one of the biggest ways to get a book 'out there'.

But I've also had lots of duds. And for the first time ever, I've failed to finish books that I started. Personally this has been a struggle. So much time, money, energy and effort has gone into putting this particular book in front of me, I feel obliged to finish it. Perhaps it's just a slow start, maybe I'm not in the right mood to appreciate it, perhaps the amazing, insightful ending is worth the hard slog to get there?

For years, I ploughed through books that weren't working for me. Until a colleague, who had been in the book industry a lot longer than me, told me to stop. Her view was that no book was ever going to suit every reader. And that is was actually my bookseller's duty to only read books that interested me so that I could happily, faithfully and genuinely recommend them to our customers. My sense of relief was immense!

However, I've finessed this idea somewhat over time.

It is not necessarily a bad thing to not finish a book. The DNF's may not be my cup of tea, but by reading a few early chapters, I get the gist of the book and get a feel for which kind of reader I could recommend the book to. Also, by working out why I didn't like a book, I can honestly let readers know what my concerns were and they can chose whether or not it is something that is a problem for them too.

I'm definitely reading more widely since being a bookseller, especially contemporary, debut authors across all genres and age groups. These are the authors who the publishers are usually keen to get 'out there' via ARC's. Creating a buzz around a new book before it hits the shops, is good for everyone concerned...as long as it's genuine.

I've broadened the range and type of book that I would normally have read, but my basic criteria has remained the same. The book has to grab my attention, I have to feel impatient to pick it up again each day and it has to create a world for me to fall into or give me characters to love and hate and live with through their trials and tribulations.

The glut of ARC's that can swamp the back office of a bookshop sometimes feels like a cheapening of the reading process though. All those books that I'm only half-interested in, waiting to be opened, read and loved, can feel like clutter rather than something worthy of my attention.

Abandoning books at the 50 page mark has also become my thing. If it hasn't grabbed me or convinced me by page 50, then hasta la vista baby! Life's too short to read a boring book. It's not as if I don't have something else to fall back onto.

Does reading a book you haven't paid for and don't have to return change your reading experience? Does it enhance and expand your reading? Or does it lower your expectations?
#justsaying

Just Saying...

I am truly delighted that George Saunders has won an award for his fabulous book, Lincoln in the Bardo. I loved it from start to finish and it deserves to be inundated with accolades and prizes.

But I also loved Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire just as much, but for very different reasons (review still to come). I was terribly disappointed that it didn't make the shortlist as I feel that it deserved a chance to be shown off to a wider audience. The kind of audience that being shortlisted for a major award can give you.

I like to read books from authors all around the world. But there is so much choice, which can make it hard for me to decide which book I should try next.
Longlists and shortlists help me narrow down the choice.

If you'd like to read more award winning books from around the world try these awards and prizes -

Stella Prize (Australian women writers)

Walter Scott Prize (historical fiction from Commonwealth countries)

The International Dublin Literacy Award (world literature including translated works)

Women's Prize for Fiction (women's writing worldwide)

Miles Franklin Literary Award (Australian literature)
Man Booker International (translated works worldwide)

Giller Prize (Canadian literature)

Crossword Book Awards (Indian literature)

Costa Book Awards (UK & Ireland, all ages)

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (worldwide, children's literature)

Prize for South Asian Literature

The Jerusalem Prize (worldwide, for works about the freedom of man in society)

Nobel Prize for Literature (worldwide for a body of work)

New Zealand Book Awards

This is just the tip of the award winning iceberg.

If you're lucky enough to be able to read books in other languages, there are oodles and oodles of awards and prizes for you to check out too.

#justsaying

Just Saying...

...that I, for one, am thrilled and delighted that Kazuo Ishiguro has been named this year's Nobel Prize for Literature recipient.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 was awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".

I loved and adored The Buried Giant in 2015 and The Remains of the Day is one of my favourite reads from 15 years ago. 

Never Let Me Know was one that I felt rather more ambivalent about but I have high hopes for Nocturnes, An Artist of the Floating World and The Unconsoled on my TBR pile.

The Guardian's article about Ishiguro's win is here, Japan Times here and NY Times here.

#justsaying

Just Saying

This quote popped up on my facebook feed during the week. The problems of NOW have been swirling around in my brain ever since.

We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infintesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. 

We have no present. 

Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. 

We are therefore out of touch with reality. 

We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.

― Alan W. Watts (Become What You Are, 1955)

I love the idea of NOW and being present in the moment. I've even managed to do so on many occasions. But I get confused about how reflection and planning fit into this idea of NOW.

The only place we can physically be is HERE & NOW, but we have minds. And those minds can wander off all over the place.

I feel that we should use those minds - to reflect on past mistakes, successes and problems to help us manage the stuff that pops up NOW. Those fickle minds can also help us plan for and imagine a future so that we can set up stuff NOW that might be useful later on. In another NOW.

Being HERE & NOW is peaceful, but is it practical?

We cannot relive our memories or inhabit the future, but can we not experience happiness NOW by remembering some of those sweet times past and dreaming about the ones to come?

If NOW is all we have, what's the point of having a memory and an imagination?

#justsaying