A Game of Thrones Reading Challenge Discussion #1

Tags

A Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, George R R Martin, Reading Challenge

This is the discussion post for A Game of Thrones for the A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire Reading Challenge) hosted by The Lit Bitch.

The discussion posts will consist of five questions about the book which the challenge participant will answer.

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Below are the five questions posted along with my answer.

1.) Why do you think Ned insists on keeping Jon with the Stark family? Are Catelyn’s feelings really about Jon or do they have more to do with Ned’s refusal to tell her who the mother is? What does Catelyn’s treatment of Jon say about her own personality?

From what we have read about Ned Stark in A Game of Thrones, we know that he is an honorable man. I feel that something must have happened to Jon’s birth mother that made Ned take him home to live with his family.

With regards to Catelyn’s feelings about Jon, I think its just the fact that Ned had fathered a child in their first year of marriage and had the audacity to actually bring him home and raise him among their trueborn children. Plus the fact that Jon looks more like Ned than any of his other children.

“Many men fathered bastards. Catelyn had grown up with that knowledge. It came as no surprise to her, in the first year of her marriage, to learn that Ned had fathered a child on some girl chance met on campaign. He had a man’s needs, after all, and they had spent that year apart, Ned off at war in the south while she remained safe in her father’s castle at Riverrun. Her thoughts were more of Robb, the infant at her breast, than of the husband she scarcely knew. He was welcome to whatever solace he might find between battles. And if his seed quickened, she expected he would see to the child’s needs.

He did more than that. The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him “son” for all the north to see. When the wars were over at last, and Catelyn rode to Winterfell, Jon and his wet nurse had already taken up residence.

That cut deep. Ned would not speak of the mother, not so much as a word…”

…

“… It had taken her a fortnight to marshal her courage, but finally, in bed one night, Catelyn had asked her husband the truth of it, asked him to his face. That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. “Never ask me about Jon,” he said, cold as ice. “He is my blood, and that is all you need to know.”

“Whoever Jon’s mother had been, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away. It was the one thing she could never forgive him. She had come to love her husband with all her heart, but she had never found it in her to love Jon. She might have overlooked a dozen bastards for Ned’s sake, so long as they were out of sight. Jon was never out of sight, and as he grew, he looked more like Ned than any of the trueborn sons she bore him. Somehow that made it worse.”

I have always disliked Catelyn’s treatment of Jon. The child has done nothing wrong to hurt her other than inherit the looks of her husband. What does that tell me about her? That she is downright spiteful. She is admirable for what she would do for her children but to treat another human being as such is just not right. Her children have managed to accept him, why can’t she. Although it is practically within her rights to be mad as a legal wife but she can at least treat him somewhat nicely.

2) For those of you who haven’t read ‘high fantasy’, did you find this first book intimidating or challenging? What was the most difficult thing for you to understand/read in this series? Was it the prose, point of view, or the over all story etc?

I’ve read Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and each had its own challenges.  The thing with A Game of Thrones that it is so complex and laden with small clues here and there that make you go crazy.  Plus, I’ll be honest that I had a hard time keeping up with the multitude of characters, especially the minor ones.

3) What do you make of the direwolves? Are they a bad omen? Do you think the direwolves foreshadow the coming of something more sinister than the fight of the throne? In what ways?

I think that it is  sign that changes are about to come.  As the famous Stark saying goes, “Winter is coming.”  Benjen Stark did mention that they still here direwolves north of the Wall so that is proof that there are still direwolves.  Its just that the litter that they found was not anywhere near the Wall and killed by a stag nonetheless seemed to set the mood for ill tidings to come.

4) Aerys Targaryen (the mad king), raped Lyanna Stark and murdered her brother, and then attempted to murder their allies–the Starks, Baratheons, and Arryns rebelled and overthrew the king. Afterward, Robert was crowned king. How much of his actions now are still revenge orientated? Do you think he is justified in his hatred of the Targaryens? Do you feel his actions, past and present, are justified?

I think that it was Rhaegar Targaryen, the son of the Mad King, who was accused of raping Lyanna Stark by Robert Baratheon. The Mad King did have Brandon Stark and Lord Rickard Stark murdered. All of these events triggered the war that was won by Robert at the Trident when he killed Rhaegar Targaryen.

Robert still seems mad at the thought that there are still two living and breathing Targaryens yet he couldn’t do anything about it. I think that it was rather stupid that his hatred should go far down the family tree when the only person that had done harm to him were the Mad King and Rhaegar Targaryen. Both of which were now long gone.

I would consider his past actions to be rather justified because the Mad King did commit murder for no apparent reason. But his present actions are more of security for the throne as the Targaryens were the last ruling dynasty that they overthrew and could still lay claim to the throne.

5) How do you feel about Jon’s choice to join the Night Watch? Do you think he is giving up his life and his gifts/talents? Do you think his choice is an honorable one? How did you feel when the Lord Commander gave Jon his family sword?

I really felt bad that Jon Snow would want to join the Night’s Watch. But then again in a world where bastards are shunned, where else could he hope to go? As Ned said, “bastards can rise high in the Night’s Watch.” And we also know that for a fact because one of the leaders in the Night’s Watch was a son of a tavern wench (I’m forgetting the name). So, it was definitely an honorable move from Jon but just rather shocking that he would request to take the Black at fourteen years of age.

I also do not think that Jon was giving up his gifts and talents. I feel that they are of more use in the Wall where they defend the entire realm from forces that mean to do harm. Albeit scarier because they have to deal with supernatural forces as well but I find it to be real defending rather than fighting for lords who only want to play the game of thrones.

I think it was great the Mormont gave the sword to someone who can actually wield it. It belonged to his House and was last the possession of his son who dishonored the family by selling poachers instead of giving them to the Night’s Watch and is now in league with Daenerys Targaryen. Since Mormont mentioned that the sword was left forgotten until the fire, I think that it was right to give it to someone who could use it to defend the Wall.

Favorite passage?

There are lots to choose from.  Here are some:

Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.

---

Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.

---

The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

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Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.

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It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.

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Oh, my sweet summer child,” Old Nan said quietly, “what do you know of fear?
Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet
deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long
night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children
are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and
hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods

Musing Mondays [January 30]

Tags

Memes

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted at Should Be Reading.  This week’s question is

How far along are you in your current read before you start thinking about what you’ll read next?

Not far along. Its because I’m surrounded by books that even while I’m reading I get easily distracted and pick up another volume just out of curiosity.  I want to curb this habit actually because sometimes it ends up in me leaving the book that I am reading for a new one.  I’ve managed somewhat successfully this year.

Moby Dick Readalong Post #3

Tags

Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Readalong

This is the second in a series of four for the Moby Dick Readalong hosted over at The Blue Bookcase.

Click here to read Moby Dick Readalong Post #1.

Click here to read Moby Dick Readalong Post #2.

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This post concerns Chapters 56 – 93 of Moby Dick. This section of reading gives us an insight into what goes down during whaling and the process that is to be performed after the whale is killed. Melville also gives us some insight into the equipment used in whaling as well as describing in detail the parts of the whale like its head and its tail.

In Chapter 55, we read about the erroneous depictions of whales. In Chapter 56, Melville tells us about the seemingly appropriate depictions of whales but wonders why the French seem to get it right when they are not a known whaling country. In Chapter 57, Melville’s obsession with whales continues as he tells of whale figures carved out of wood and even goes as far as giving samples of how whales can be seen on geological formations such like ridges but he adds “But you must be a thorough whaleman, to see these sights; and not only that, but if you wish to return to such a sight again, you must be sure and take the exact intersecting latitude and longitude of your first stand-point, else so chance-like are such observations of the hills, that your precise, previous stand-point would require a laborious re-discovery.” He also adds that you can observe whale figures in the “starry sky.”

Melville then discusses about brit, which is a yellowish substance that right whales feed on. I also loved how this discussion of brit suddenly turned into a discussion of atrocities at land and at sea. “But not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien to it, but it is also a fiend to its own off-spring.” The video I saw of a pack of killer whales attacking and successfully killing a baby grey whale in the presence of its mother comes into my mind. It was really heartbreaking but its the way of the ocean. Anyway, moving on. Melville also compares this to us: “do you not find astrange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling oceansurrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of thehalf known life.“

The Pequod then hunt what they think is a whale but it turns out to be a giant squid.

Chapters 60, 62, and 63 details the equipment used in hunting whales: the line, the crotch, and the dart. In one of those chapters, we also learn the rather tiring job of a harpooner: “But however prolonged and exhausting the chase,the harpooner is expected to pull his oar meanwhile to the uttermost;indeed, he is expected to set an example of superhuman activity to therest, not only by incredible rowing, but by repeated loud and intrepidexclamations; and what it is to keep shouting at the top of one’scompass, while all the other muscles are strained and half started.“

I liked the bit of comedy inserted in between those three chapters above when Stubb kills a whale and eats its meat for dinner. The scene between him and the cook was particularly funny when he commanded the cook to lecture the sharks that are feeding on the carcass of the whale that he killed.

Melville then moves on to describe what I like to call “whale cuisine” and adds that only Stubb and the Eskimos (“Esquimaux”) are the only ones that remain who feed on whales.

The following chapters discuss the dirty business of getting the most out of a whale carcass. I really felt sorry for the whales back in the day because of what needs to be done to it.

The Pequod meet another whaling ship, the Jeroboam. Apparently there was an epidemic on board so its captain, Captain Mayhew, rows a boat to talk to Ahab. One of the men who was rowing the boat was a man who proclaimed himself to be the archangel Gabriel. Ahab asks about Moby Dick and Mayhew tells the story about one of their brew, Macey, drowned because they tried to hunt the whale. Out of the blue, Ahab remembers that they are bearing a letter for one of the crew of the Jeroboam and it just happens to be a letter for Macey.

In the chapter titled “Monkey Rope” the “love team” of Queequeg and Ishamel is brought back. Apparently they need to do this for “cutting in.” “It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both ends; fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded.“

Since the Pequod have a sperm whale, it is said that they should also hunt for a right whale so that the ship would not capsize. Stubb and Flask had the honor of killing a right whale and its head is lifted opposite that of the sperm whale’s. The two chapters that followed examined the differences between the heads of the sperm whale and the right whale.

The chapters that followed has Melville detailing the various aspects of the whale’s head. He then goes into a phrenological and physiognomic analysis of the whale. After which, Melville turns his attention to the whale’s skull.

They meet another whaling ship, the German whaling ship Jungfrau. Asked about the sighting of a White Whale, the captain says he did not see it. After, whales are sighted and they go hunting. The Pequod is able to capture one that is rather old.

Melville the digresses from the whaling profession to talk about the heroic history of whaling and also discusses the story of Jonah and the Whale.

Melville then jumps back to whaling and discusses the greasing of the underside of the boat. “To make them run easily and swiftly, the axles of carriages are anointed; and for much the same purpose, some whalers perform ananalogous operation upon their boat; they grease the bottom. Nor is itto be doubted that as such a procedure can do no harm, it may possiblybe of no contemptible advantage; considering that oil and water arehostile; that oil is a sliding thing, and that the object in view is tomake the boat slide bravely.“

The following chapters then describe the spout and the tail of the whale.

When the Pequod is sailing through Sunda, the Pequod encounter a group of sperm whales and are pursued by Malay pirates.

The next chapters describe groups of whales. On group are composed primarily of females with a male headmaster while the other group are composed of all males.

Melville also goes into discussing fishing laws of England.

The Pequod meet another whaling ship, Rose-bud and the Pequod ask about Moby Dick but they have not heard of him.

Melville also discusses ambergris, which is from a whale’s bowels but is used for perfume.

Melville dives again into the perils of whaling when he details that Pip, the cabin boy, jumps out of the boat in fear of the whale they are chasing. When he jumps out the second time, he is left to fend for himself while the others go hunt but they rescue him again.

I personally did not enjoy this as much as the previous readings. I dunno why. I enjoyed the previous digressions. But I did have a lot to think about the past week, so maybe it affected my reading somewhat.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Discussion Post #5

Tags

A Midsummer Nights Dream, Reading Challenge, William Shakespeare

This is the fifth of six posts on A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of the Reading Shakespeare A Play A Month Reading Challenge hosted by Risa of Breadcrumb Reads.

Click here to read the first discussion post.
Click here to read the second discussion post.

Click here to read the third discussion post.

Click here to read the fourth discussion post.

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We are finally here at the last act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  I actually just made this post so that there will be a balance of posts on the play as for the next play, there would be only one and will be be about the entire play and not a post after every Act.

In this Act, we get to see the play that the laborers had rehearsed.  Before that, Theseus and Hippolyta discuss the events that the four young lovers related to them about what happened to them in the forests.   Theseus dismisses it as a dream.

The play out on by the laborers turn out to be comical and while the laborers are performing the play, we also get to hear the comments from the nobles, which weren’t exactly complimentary.

After the play, Oberon and Titania come to bless the marriage of the three couples. Puck is left behind to deliver his message to the audience and think of what has happened as a dream.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear;
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.

This act further reiterates the theme of dreams.  Theseus dismisses the story of the four lovers as a dream and Puck addresses the audience no less that what they have witnessed was actually just a dream.

Game of Thrones Progress Post #4

Tags

A Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, George R R Martin, Readalong

This is the third of four read-a-long updates for the Game of Thrones Readalong hosted over at BaffledBooks.

Click here to read the first progress post.

Click here to read the second progress post.

Click here to read the third progress post.

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We have finally come to the end of A Game of Thrones! I’m already excited to be picking up the next book, A Clash of Kings.

A lot of things have happened here and there are still a lot of unanswered questions.  Anyway, let’s see what our eight POV characters were up to:

Sansa Stark – The only Stark left in King’s Landing (well Arya is still technically in KL but she’s out of the castle).  The King is dead and Cersei wastes no time in declaring Joffrey the new king.  Despite my obvious dislike for Sansa, I can’t help but feel sorry for her when she pleads that her father be shown mercy.  And despite not being locked in a cell, she is practically a prisoner of the Lannisters at KL.

Sansa finally shows some spine when she told Joffrey that her brother Robb might give her his head as a present.  That of course, earned her a bruise on the face as Joffrey had Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard reward her with a slap.  We also learn that Sandor Clegane, the Hound, can be rather kind or is feeling sorry for Sansa for being maltreated by Joffrey.

Eddard (Ned) Stark – Ned is a prisoner at KL and is being accused of treason.  Alone in a dark cell, he remembers the events of the past and the tourney at Harrenhal to be exact.  He was 18 at the time and remembers Rhaegar Targaryen winning the joust and presenting the queen of beauty’s laurel in his sister Lyanna’s lap.  The flowers: “winter roses, blue as frost.”  He is also haunted by his sister’s last words in a “bed of blood”: “Promise me, Ned.“

He gets a visit from Varys, who has disguised himself, who tells him that he should denounce everything that he has said and maybe his life would be spared and he would live out the rest of his days on the Wall.

Catelyn Stark – Robb and the bannermen of House Stark and House Tully are at war with those that are on the side of House Lannister.  They desperately need to pass through The Twins (controlled by House Frey) to get to Riverrun.  The Frey’s have exacted a toll on those who would pass but Catelyn offers to speak to Lord Walder Frey since he is a bannerman for House Tully.  After some haggling, Lord Frey agrees to let them pass.

At Riverrun, their army was able to defeat those of Jamie Lannister’s, because they weren’t expecting it, and actually take him captive.  Catelyn finally gets to see her father, Lord Huster Tully and Robb is declared as King in the North.

Jon Snow – Jon’s hand was burnt when he set fire to the drapes in Lord Mormont’s room to kill the wight.  Mormont, as a token of his appreciation, offers the sword that has been in his family for generations to Jon Snow.

After hearing that Robb has led an army into battle, he decides to desert the Night’s Watch and aid him.  He is successfully stopped by his brothers in the NW as the punishment for desertion is death.  He has a chat with Maester Aemon who reveals that he is a Targaryen and can understand why Jon would want to run away and help his family.

Mormont then has a chat with Jon and tells him of his plans to go beyond the Wall in search of Benjen Stark and asks for Jon’s support.  Jon accepts that the Wall is now his place and agrees to go on the quest.

Tyrion Lannister – Tyrion gets his taste of battle and comes out just a little wounded.  House Lannister and troops won a battle against the bannermen of the Stark’s and Tully’s but also find out the Robb Stark was not one of the attacking troops and that he and his men have crossed the Twins and have taken Jaime captive.

We also find out in this POV that Renly Baratheon has wed Margaery Tyrell and that the Tyrell bannermen has pledged their loyalty to Renly who has claimed the Iron Throne as his.  Curious as to why.  It is Stannis’ by right as the older brother.

His father, Tywin, decides to send him back to KL to rule in his stead as Hand of the King.

Bran Stark – Bran has dreams of his father in the crypt at Winterfell.  Oddly enough, his younger brother Rickon had them too.  Maester Luwin decides to put peace in the mind of the child and takes him to the crypt to show that Ned Stark wasn’t really there.

Through this POV, we also learn a bit of history of the children of the forests and the First Men, from whom the Starks are descended.  We also learn a little Stark history.

Arya Stark – She hunts pigeons and tries to sell them in exchange for food.  She follows the crowd that have gathered at Baelor’s Sept to hear Ned Stark confess his sins and pledge his loyalty to Joffrey.  Ned does so but Joffrey demands his head and Ser Ilyn Payne, the King’s Justice, beheads Ned with Ned’s own sword.

It is odd that he confesses false sins knowing his character, but then again, if it was for life one must do what one needs to do.  But despite that, Ned has to die with the stroke of the sword that has killed many Night’s Watch deserters.

Arya does not see the beheading because Yoren of the Night’s Watch tells her to look away.  She is later taken in by Yoren, who is scouring KL for possible recruits for the Night’s Watch.  However, Yoren wants her to pretend to be a boy.

Daenerys Targaryen – Khal Drogo is severely wounded in battle and she asks for anything that can be done to help save him because if he dies, she has nothing as the Dothraki follow only the strong.  She asks Mirri Maz Duur to perform black magic to save the khal.  Despite being warned that the price for a life is death, she agrees.

She heads into labor as Mirri Maz Duur performs her magic.  Unfortunately, her son did not survive as the death that needed to be paid for her husband’s life was her son’s.  Khal Drogo survived but he was no longer strong and cannot walk unaided and therefore cannot ride, hence his army deserted him.  Knowing that her husband is practically dead, she smothers him with a pillow.

She then plans a funeral pyre for Khal Drogo.  She has his bloodriders kill a horse, as is Dothraki custom, to burn with him in the pyre.  But she also instructs that Mirri Maz Duur be put on the pyre as well.  Mirri Maz Duur suspects the reason and tells he that her plan won’t work.  She takes her dragon eggs and places them in the pyre and lights a fire.  She asks that Drogo’s bloodriders pledge their lives to her but they do not bow to a woman.

She steps into the flames BUT comes out unscathed with three dragons.  The bloordriders then pledge their lives to her.

Danaerys showed that she can be ruthless as well when she had Mirri Maz Duur burn in the pyre.  But then again, the woman practically killed her unborn son.  Well, it was partly her fault as well, but whatever … we have three dragons!

Friday Five [January 27]

Tags

Memes

Friday Five is a weekly meme hosted at Kate’s Library where bloggers share what they have been reading for the week.

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1. Lemony Snicket Gives Love Advice on Twitter.  I enjoyed reading his responses to the questions that were thrown at him.
2. Book awards and nominations.  The winners for the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Award were announced.   The nominees for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award have also been announced.  I loved these lists because I found a couple titles that I might add to my ever growing TBR list.
3. Inspired by Edith Wharton.  Since January 24 is Edith Wharton’s 150th birthday, author Lev Raphael writes about how her works have inspired his literary career.  I’ve discovered new titles while reading this article as well. This has also inspired me to finally pick up Age of Innocence and House of Mirth, both of which have been sitting on my shelves and gathering dust.  This line was enough to pull me in: “awed by her wit, her powers of description, and her sharp eye for hypocrisy and foolishness.“
4. Virginia Woolf: Provocative quotes for her 130th birthday.  January 25 was Virginia Woolf’s 130th birthday.  So I scoured for some articles and saw this.  I like this quote: “Better was it to go unknown and leave behind you an arch, then to burn like a meteor and leave no dust.“
5. What is a classic? A nice post by Jillian on defining a classic.

Charles Dickens Month Post #4

Tags

Charles Dickens

This post is the fourth of five for Charles Dickens Month hosted by Amanda over at Fig and Thistle.

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This is my very late Charles Dickens post.  I was over at The

Dickens at work in his study at Gad's Hill Place. _The Guardian_. Photograph: Rex Features

Guardian and looking over their articles for the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens and found a couple that I’d like to share here.

The first is about the story that “inspired” Charles Dickens to write a version and publish it in Four Ghost Stories in 1861.  The word “inspired” is enclosed in quotations because according to Thomas Heaphey, Dickens plagiarized it.  Thomas Heaphey was an artist and he claimed to have come up with the narrative about seeing a beautiful ghost who wanted her picture sketched.

Another article is about Dickens and his minor characters.  I liked what he had to say about characters:

Dickens had, and has, the ability to catch life on the hop. He sees things that other writers miss. He might have been a neurologist, so accurate are his descriptions of nervous tics and sudden, seemingly inexplicable, outbursts of temper. He records truncated, illiterate speech like a rescuing angel, as is the case with Jo, the crossing-sweeper, who is one of his grandest creations.

…

He is the chronicler of everyday lunacy, that state of near-madness the hurt and dispossessed assume as a carapace to protect themselves from the sane enemies in their midst.  He is not afraid to suggest that there are human beings who are skin deep.

The last article I’m going to share is about Charles Dickens and interior decorating. Apparently, he had a knack for interiors.  Me, I was already drooling when I got to the picture of his library.

The Library at 48 Doughty Street, London. _The Guardian_. Photograph: Charles Dickens Museum

I also knew through browsing the Charles Dickens @ 200 series at The Guardian that there is a new Charles Dickens biography by Simon Callow called Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World.  Here is the product description from Amazon.co.uk:

An entertaining biography of Charles Dickens by one of our finest actors

Acclaimed actor and writer Simon Callow captures the essence of Charles Dickens in a sparkling biography that explores the central importance of the theatre to the life of the greatest storyteller in the English language.

From his early years as a child entertainer in Portsmouth to his reluctant retirement from ‘these garish lights’ just before his death, Dickens was obsessed with the stage. Not only was he a dazzling mimic who wrote, acted in and stage-managed plays, all with fanatical perfectionism; as a writer he was a compulsive performer, whose very imagination was theatrical, both in terms of plot devices and construction of character.

Like many actors, Dickens felt the need to be completed by contact with his audience. He was the original ‘celebrity’ author, who attracted thousands of adoring fans to his readings in Britain and across the Atlantic, in which he gave voice to his unforgettable cast of characters.

In Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, Callow brings his own unique insight to a life driven by performance and showmanship. He reveals an exuberant and irrepressible talent, whose ‘inimitable’ wit and personality crackle off the page.

And that’s my Charles Dickens post for this week.

Booking Through Thursday [January 26]

Tags

Memes

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme about books and reading. This week’s question is:

What’s more important: Good writing? Or a good story?
(Of course, a book should have BOTH, but…)

This is an interesting one.  But I think that if an author gets the writing down, a good story would follow.

Literary Birthday Reading Project [January 25]

Tags

Robert Burns, Virginia Woolf, W. Somerset Maugham

(This post is meant to go up on the 25th and this is actually the first time that I’ve tried this kind of thing so I’m hoping it works)

It was Edith Wharton‘s birthday yesterday and when I found out that it was a day apart from Virginia Woolf‘s, something clicked in my head and out came a personal project.  This personal project is to read anything by or about the author who is celebrating his or her birthday on the day.  Given that it only spans a day and I do have an eight-hour job, it would most likely turn out to be reading something about the author.  But I did tell myself that if the author celebrating a birthday has a short story or a collection of short stories, I would read one.

On with his project then.  January 25 is a day shared by Robert Burns, Virginia Woolf, and W. Somerset Maugham just to name a few.

Virginia Woolf is one who I have heard so much about yet have never read even one of her works.  Nicole Kidman even won an Oscar for portraying her in a movie I have never seen and whose book I have never read.  Sads.  Anyway, I browsed over at eBooks @ Adelaide and Project Gutenberg and between the two of them, there are a few eBooks that I can read.  I saw that she has a couple of short stories that I might read from Mondays or Tuesdays OR A Haunted House and Other Short Stories.  She also has a couple essays that might be interesting: The Common Reader: First Series, A Room of One’s Own, The Common Reader: Second Series, Three Guineas, and The Death of the Moth and Other Essays.

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet whose name I have been familiar with since high school.  His name is associated with Auld Lang Syne and I just cannot remember if we tackled any of his poems. I might read a poem of his for his birthday.  Anyway, there are a couple of articles up on Robert Burns and I’ll share some of them here:

• Invasion of the Bard: How the rest of the world was influenced by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns Dinner.  This one was really interesting to read about.
• Scots vote Tam o’ Shanter favourite Robert Burns poem
• Poor Robert Burns. He deserves better than this

Portrait of W. Somerset Maugham, by Carl Van Vechten. _Wikimedia Commons_.

I own a book written by W. Somerset Maugham and that is Of Human Bondage, which consequently I have not read which I got it at a second hand book shop.  As per my googling, the W in W. Somerset Maugham is William.  I have also encountered his name through quotes included in recent articles that I have read.  Some of those quotes include this one on writing: “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”  I also liked his take on skipping/skimming from this article on The Guardian because according to Maugham, “a sensible person does not read a novel as a task. He reads it as a diversion.” I actually don’t know yet what I would do for W. Somerset Maugham.  Maybe I’ll settle for a biography on Wikipedia or I’ll try to find something.

Top Ten Tuesday: Classics I Want to Read in 2012 [January 24]

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Memes

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is a freebie! We can choose what we want to make a list about.  I chose to list the classics that I REALLY want to read this year.

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1. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy.  I am reading this as part of a read-a-long for this year and I am rather behind BUT I did finish Volume I last year before I heard of the read-a-long.
2. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy.  Another chunkster.  I have the book but I have never read it.
3. Middlemarch, by George Eliot.  I’m participating in a read-a-long for this year but I am awfully behind.  I read the Introduction of the Oxford World’s Classics that I have and I was really intrigued.
4. Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.  Again, I have joined a read-a-long for this and I am still very behind.
5. In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust.  This is really heavy reading but I want to experience reading.  There is a read-a-long for this in honor of his 90th death anniversary but I have not yet signed up.
6. The Brothers Karamazov OR Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  I think its about time I read either one or both.
7. Bleak House or Our Mutulal Friend, by Charles Dickens.  I have stated in this blog about my desire to read either of the two titles or both because I just love a little mystery.
8. Ulysses, by James Joyce.  Uh oh.  Why do I keep choosing chunksters? I don’t know.  Its size intrigues me and the fact that it all happens in a day. I have the free ebook version but I’m planning to buy the physical book so I won’t hurt my eyes.
9. Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray.  I think that its about time that I get this off my TBR shelf.  Its been there since I was college! (I think or since I got my first job which was four years ago. Uh oh.)
10. Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding.  I purchased this book because it was mentioned in that Jane Austen movie that starred Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy. P.S. I like James McAvoy and his character mentioned it.  So… I know I’m crazy. Its also about time since its been on my shelves as long as my copy of Vanity Fair.

There are lots more that I want to read like Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence or House of Mirth in honor of her 150th birthday and The Lord of The Rings, by JRR Tolkien in honor of his 120th birthday.  LOTR is considered a classic right?