Tonight I'm reading Les Miserables because I've always wanted to. I wish I was clever enough to read it in French, but unfortunately I don't know French so if I wish to actually understand what it is I'm reading (and I do), I must read it in my native tongue. At the airport last week I picked up a novel in Spanish. My Spanish is better than my French.
Once, I decided to take one year and read nothing but women writers. It was so compelling I actually went two years, and I discovered some amazing, inspiring ladies. Lately I've been thinking of taking a year to read nothing but Pulitzer Prize winners. I was just scrolling through the list of fiction and I'm pleased to see I've already read several. I knew I had good taste.
And then there were some, such as Empire Falls, that I was surprised to see on the list. Who decided that was a winner?? Maybe I'll have to read it again to see what I missed in it the first time. At least The Davinci Code isn't on there.
Do you ever feel an over-powering lust for books, as I do? I have several shelves of books waiting for me to read them. I can make myself actually salivate just by standing there reading the titles. I wish I could read them all at once. Sometimes I'll see the cover of a book somewhere and I simply must have it. I've found that it's better to just go straight to Amazon and just order the damn thing than to try and put it out of my head. And of course, amazon.com is just rampant with pictures of the covers of books. Yeah, so I rarely get away cheap when I've put the A word on my browser.
My most cherished book in all the world is a worn volume of Shakespeare given to me by my freshman English professor at Oklahoma State. I won't say why, but it's very sentimental. (Okay, no~~! I did not shag my college English professor! She was a woman, her name was Alison McGinnis.)
{This blog brought to you courtesy of a two-hour, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt this morning to find an out-of-print book called 1960's Hairstyles after glimpsing the cover/title at Sex-Kitten. I will have no peace until I have found that book--nay until I OWN that book and place it lovingly on the shelf with the other 247 books I intend to read someday.}
Lately (like, for the past couple of years or so) I've been writing down all the words I come across in my reading that I must look up in the dictionary. I find it interesting to see them all collected together on a page. Here are a few:
deracinated - to remove or separate from a native environment or culture; especially : to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from;
ipso facto - "by that fact" As in "He doesn't like the Beatles, ipso facto, he is musically retarded.
vagina dentata - Latin for "toothed vagina" or "vagina with teeth." The vagina dentata appears in the myths of several cultures. It reflects the threat posed to men by sexual intercourse. They enter triumphant and leave diminished. It's a favorite theme of artists and writers (see the drawing attached above; the artist is "Mister X.")
hegemony - leadership or dominance, especially that of one nation or state over others.
shibboleth - any phrase or custom peculiar to a certain party or class.
stevedore - a longshoreman. (The context of this one is kind of funny--it was in reference to a woman who ate like a stevedore.)
Once, I decided to take one year and read nothing but women writers. It was so compelling I actually went two years, and I discovered some amazing, inspiring ladies. Lately I've been thinking of taking a year to read nothing but Pulitzer Prize winners. I was just scrolling through the list of fiction and I'm pleased to see I've already read several. I knew I had good taste.
And then there were some, such as Empire Falls, that I was surprised to see on the list. Who decided that was a winner?? Maybe I'll have to read it again to see what I missed in it the first time. At least The Davinci Code isn't on there.
Do you ever feel an over-powering lust for books, as I do? I have several shelves of books waiting for me to read them. I can make myself actually salivate just by standing there reading the titles. I wish I could read them all at once. Sometimes I'll see the cover of a book somewhere and I simply must have it. I've found that it's better to just go straight to Amazon and just order the damn thing than to try and put it out of my head. And of course, amazon.com is just rampant with pictures of the covers of books. Yeah, so I rarely get away cheap when I've put the A word on my browser.
My most cherished book in all the world is a worn volume of Shakespeare given to me by my freshman English professor at Oklahoma State. I won't say why, but it's very sentimental. (Okay, no~~! I did not shag my college English professor! She was a woman, her name was Alison McGinnis.)
{This blog brought to you courtesy of a two-hour, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt this morning to find an out-of-print book called 1960's Hairstyles after glimpsing the cover/title at Sex-Kitten. I will have no peace until I have found that book--nay until I OWN that book and place it lovingly on the shelf with the other 247 books I intend to read someday.}
Lately (like, for the past couple of years or so) I've been writing down all the words I come across in my reading that I must look up in the dictionary. I find it interesting to see them all collected together on a page. Here are a few:
deracinated - to remove or separate from a native environment or culture; especially : to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from;
ipso facto - "by that fact" As in "He doesn't like the Beatles, ipso facto, he is musically retarded.
vagina dentata - Latin for "toothed vagina" or "vagina with teeth." The vagina dentata appears in the myths of several cultures. It reflects the threat posed to men by sexual intercourse. They enter triumphant and leave diminished. It's a favorite theme of artists and writers (see the drawing attached above; the artist is "Mister X.")
hegemony - leadership or dominance, especially that of one nation or state over others.
shibboleth - any phrase or custom peculiar to a certain party or class.
stevedore - a longshoreman. (The context of this one is kind of funny--it was in reference to a woman who ate like a stevedore.)
