blasphemer!

I've been reading on Craig's blog about an attempt to have September 30 declared International Blasphemy Day. While I don't have any particular drive to blaspheme :) what I do find important about the idea of the day is that blasphemy is a matter of offence, and the truth is that it is not at all difficult to offend other people. Pretty much any religious idea or statement about religious doctrine or practice, for or against, can be deemed blasphemous by someone else. It is the nature of such things that where beliefs differ, offence will occur. People, generally, are easily offended.

On 9 July 2009, a law was passed in Ireland making blasphemous libel a crime for material "that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage". Matters held sacred by any religion: can you see how easily (and inappropriately) that law could be deemed to have been broken?

Some time before the law was passed, a debate was held at the Guardian Hay Festival between Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens. It was a wonderful rambling conversation that examined many different issues relating to religion and blasphemy. The whole debate is 78min and can be downloaded here, but this nine or so minutes below is a good representation of the kind of points they make. It is not important whether you are religious or not, atheist (as they both are) or not, offended by what they say or not. I think this debate would be thought-provoking for anyone on the subject of blasphemy.



From blasphemyday.com:

The primary focus of the Blasphemy Day movement and indeed this website is not to debate the existence of any gods or deities...

The objective of International Blasphemy Day is to open up all religious beliefs to the same level of free inquiry, discussion and criticism to which all other areas of academic interest are subjected.

Without honest, open discussion religion can become a fence within which freedom of mind and will is contained and captured. Questioning, criticism, accountability, doubt ~ all are necessary and should remain legal. This is not to say that inciting any kind of action or violence against believers or non-believers is okay. Other laws govern that kind of action in many countries. But the right to think and express those thoughts, whether warped or wonderful, should be protected by society and its laws.

What do you think? Let me know what you think about the debate, too, if you end up listening to it. And in the spirit of the day, I have a recommendation for anyone who knows the Old Testament in the Bible. You don't have to love it or read it every day; you just need to be familiar with it. I'd like to recommend The FOB Bible. From the linked page:

The Old Testament re-imagined through poetry, verse, closet drama, e-mail, and short story. At once irreverent, whimsical, sexy, feminist, and poignant, this ain't your mama's Bible, and you sure didn't learn this in Sunday school.

I find this description apt. I like the way the pieces explore and question various ideas in the Bible, and without the need to come to any particular conclusion. Not only that, but it's really well-written. Here's one reading ~ it's a fun one and pretty much the only of the Youtube readings that isn't mumbled or otherwise inaudible (favourite line is when New Testament god 'whistled in disbelief and the air around him filled with tinkling bells and minty freshness'). I really wish the one about Abraham was there. I love that one. I also have no doubt that it, and several of the other pieces, would be labelled blasphemous by someone, because the authors dare to think and feel and bring new perspective to old words set in stone. Enjoy.

two things a tattoo told me

I just saw this tattoo on the contrariwise blog (tattoos inspired by literature, song, etc) and I think my first response is a bit telling.

1. It bothered me that the line was straight instead of following the natural line of the arch of the foot. Aesthetically it's not as pleasing, but it also feels like they've tried to impose something rigid onto something free and flexible. Seems a shame given that the words themselves suggest a freedom to live as you choose without judgment or constraint.

2. It also bothered me (way more than it probably should have) that there is no full stop on the end of the sentence. For me to have it written without one, I would have had to make the first letter lower case.

It's a strange thing about rules when it comes to language. It's not just a matter of obeying the rules and I'm aware that language changes and develops over the years. But I really like the sense of order and 'rightness' that comes from grammar, spelling and punctuation rules. So much so in fact that 'correct' language that conforms to those rules is actually more beautiful to me.

It's the same feeling I get from using traditional poetic forms. I like free verse, I often use it myself, but sometimes when I force myself to be creative within a strict traditional form with a set rhyming scheme or other limitations, what I produce is so much better ~ more musical, more satifying to read aloud. The ideas have more clarity and the thing as a whole is more beautiful to me.

Does anyone else find that? Not just with writing, but any art form? Also, if you were going to get a 'literary' tattoo, whch line/s would you choose and why?

surreal and funny harry potter conversation

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Harry Potter books 6 and 7.

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So Band Boy (who used to be Drummer Boy but sings and plays guitar now (18-year-old)) finally got around to reading the sixth book in the Harry Potter series, finishing a couple of days ago just in time to see the movie premiere (in just under five hours, yah). Last night we were talking about watching the trailer and seeing that one moment (1:53 in this linked video) where Snape says 'it is over' and feeling overwhelmed by the fact that this is the moment when he kills Dumbledore.

Now here's the thing. I'VE read the 7th book and I know that what Snape is doing there is heroic and painful and beautiful. However, Band Boy HASN'T read the 7th book and is under the impression that he has just read the big Snape revelation, the proof (FINALLY!) that Snape is eeeeevilllll.

So for the next ten minutes I'm having a conversation with him, trying to be as empassioned as he is about the fact that AFTER ALL DUMBLEDORE HAS DONE for Snape, after he SUPPORTED him when SO MANY PEOPLE said that he was still a death-eater and couldn't be trusted, that RAT BASTARD killed him!! And how this is the end of the (Harry Potter) world as we know it. And asking HOW HOW HOW could Dumbledore have BELIEVED him for ALL THOSE YEARS?

hehehehe

He is so going to want to kill me when he reads the 7th book. But I remember that moment of devastation on that balcony o' death when I was reading the 6th book, and I'm not going to take that away from him. It's a heart-wrenching scene, but it's also fantastic writing. And thank goodness they cast Alan Rickman as Snape.

Oh and can I just say how thrilled I am that Lupin's back again, and with David Thewlis still in the part. He's one of the reasons the third movie is still my favourite. I'll let you know if that changes after tonight. :)

book binge!

I'm hoping MaryP is cool with me squeaking in late for her April Book Binge, because I already added the button to my sidebar. :) This is the kind of binge I should get into more often!












Here are the rules:

1. For the month of April, keep track of the books you read.

2. On May 1, post your list on your blog.

Easy, no? You can write a review or reader response if you wish, but a list of titles and authors is also perfectly acceptable.

Three other points:

1. You may include books you re-read, so long as you re-read them in between April 1 and 30.

2. You may also include books you start but don’t finish, just note the page at which you gave it up. Something like, “Quit, page 47 of 322″.

3. Children’s books must be at least 125 pages long to be counted. (Books you read to your children, if they are at least 125 pages, would also count.)

I think this is going to be fun.

coraline

I'm so happy Coraline is being well-received (87% fresh at time of writing).

I'm glad that Henry Selick was the director.

I can't believe I have to wait until May 7 to see it in the cinema.

stronger than you think

I love these two print ads that the Kids Helpline has been running for a while. I've been meaning to post a photo of them for ages, but I had to find my card reader. Well here they are:

Click to see the poster larger. The slogan in the yellow box reads "You're stronger than you think." What a brilliant way (visually) to immediately deliver that message.



I'm posting them now for another reason. Neil Gaiman has won himself a Newbery for The Graveyard Book. I love this book (and I highly recommend listening to Neil read it on the audiobook) but the book being entertaining isn't the reason I'm glad it won this particular award.

I think the world is often a harsh place, especially for children. I sometimes feel like my life has been hard (woe is me), but the truth is that I never had to deal with even a small part of the truly terrible challenges that some children face growing up. I think those Helpline ads are amazing, because they're not just about helping kids understand that they are strong, but also that they are strong enough to ask for help when they need it and to deal with the fallout of doing so.

I respect the fact that Neil's children's books are centred around strong, curious, resourceful children who fear things that are worth fearing but are not defeated by those fears. Sometimes they rely on the strength of trustworthy adults. Sometimes that option is not open to them and they have to find the strength within themselves to move forward without that safety net. And Bod (The Graveyard Book), Coraline (Coraline), and Lucy (Wolves in the Walls (a picture book)) all face formidable foes ~ three dimensional villians with real power, acting out of genuine malice and/or evil design (okay the wolves are just wolves).

The 'Other Mother' in Coraline is so creepy (you'll never look at black buttons the same way again) and Bod's family have just been murdered when The Graveyard Book opens. I found it interesting when Neil commented that adults see Coraline as a horror story, whereas children tend to see it as an adventure. I'm sure the same is true of the Newbery winner. Just as well, or these would be the best children's books that children would never get to read, because they'd be too scary!

I think his books empower children and I like that Neil doesn't presume to talk down to his audience just because they are children. And yes, I know he isn't the first author to write stories about brave children or scary villians, but the deceptive simplicity of the language (remember the way it felt the first time you read The Alchemist?) ~ the way the words lend themselves to being read out loud ~ the balance between humour and intrigue and drama ~ as well as the strong storylines, all come together to create delightful reading. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

why bella irks me

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I'm always saying that Bella (Twilight series) annoys me. Here's a couple of specific examples of why. (The punctuation isn't right, I'm transcribing from the audio.)

1. If Bella had a theme song, it would be called, 'How can he love such a worthless girl?'

Edward: You weren't going to let go. I could see that. I didn't want to do it. It felt like it would kill me to do it. But I knew that if I couldn't convince that I didn't love you any more, it would just take you that much longer to get on with your life...

But I never imagined that it would be so easy to do. I thought it would be next to impossible; that you would be so sure of the truth that I would have to lie through my teeth for hours to even plant the seed of doubt in your head. I lied and I'm so sorry...

But how could you believe me?! After all the thousand times I've told you I love you, how could you let one word break your faith in me?...I could see it in your eyes, that you honestly believed that I didn't want you any more. The most absurd, ridiculous concept - as if there were any way that I could exist without needing you.

She then starts crying, because his declaration makes her assume that she is, as she thought earlier, just dreaming. He then spouts even more sappy stuff about how he loves her, will always love her, thought about her every second he was away from her, etc. This makes her believe him less, not more.

Edward: You don't believe me, do you? Why can you believe the lie, but not the truth?

Hmmm. Why indeed, Edward? Good question.

Bella: It never made sense for you to love me. I always knew that.

I have real issues with the heroine of this story - a girl who is written up as the epitome of sacrifice for the sake of love - having NO DISCERNABLE SELF ESTEEM. Is that WHY she sacrifices everything for him...because HE deserves everything and SHE deserves nothing?

2. The pot calling the kettle a martyr.

Bella is talking to Edward about him running off to get killed because he thought she was dead.

Bella: This has to stop now. You can't think about things that way. You can't let this...this guilt rule your life. You can't take responsibility for the things that happened to me here. None of it is your fault. It's just part of how life is for me. So if I trip in front of a bus, or whatever it is next time, you have to realise that it's not your job to take the blame. Even if I had jumped off that cliff to die that would have been my choice...

I know it's your nature to shoulder the blame for everything. But you can't let that make you go to such extremes. It's very irresponsible.

W...T...F...??? Bella does this throughout ALL FOUR BOOKS. She takes the blame for everything. Things other people think and feel, things over which she could not possibly have any control, things that happen accidentally, deliberate pre-meditated decisions made by other people. EVERYTHING. I'm surprised she doesn't blame herself for bad weather. Or good weather. Or when the weather doesn't match the forecast.

I cannot count the number of times I have wished she was in front of me while I'm listening, so I could slap her every time she says something stupid or pathetic. (This book is not helping my goal to be more patient.) Of course if she was, she'd be dead by now and Edward would have to kill me. And that would be bad.

twilight revisited

I've been reading Twilight again - well, listening to it actually. Last time I read it really fast, mainly because Bella's constant whiney martyrdom is so irritating. However, my favourite kids are currently obsessed with it, and I missed so many details the first time that it's hard to participate in their conversations about it - the book, the movie, comparing the book and the movie. I decided it wouldn't cost me too much holiday time to just read the thing again.

I've thought several times that the writing is not as bad as I first thought. In fact, wherever Bella isn't rambling about how perfect and beautiful and amazing Edward is, or about how hopeless and ordinary and insignificant she is, some of the writing was downright good. Of course as I'm typing this, Bella is under the impression she's dying and is now talking about an 'angel' saying her name...Edward of course. After I got through rolling my eyes I spent some time controlling my gag reflex - so sickeningly sweet.

The things I do for those kids...

twilight movie

Okay, I've been as wicked an anyone else at mocking the Twilight books. Regardless (does anyone else hate it when people write 'irregardless' when they mean 'regardless'?) of the fact that I've read all four of the books and can honestly say I enjoyed them, I did it in spite of Bella being a whiney girl and the author totally wimping out in the fourth (and last) book of the series when it came to giving Bella everything she wanted without any real sacrifice. She was prepared to give certain things up, but was never called upon to do so. She also never had to take responsibility for the selfish side of her choice (Meyer gave her extraordinary control and therefore the fact that she willingly chose to become a vampire knowing it could mean that she killed humans as an out-of-control newborn vamp was conveniently brushed under the carpet). And don't get me started on the huge build-up to the war that never happens. The book was much weaker for her (Meyer's) cowardice.


Having said all that, can I just say that the Twilight trailer rocks and I can't wait to see the movie?!! I admit I was concerned when the first poster I saw (<---this one) made the supposedly beautiful-beyond-comprehension Edward look sick and pasty, but he looks decent in the trailer. I think Bella is perfectly cast. She actually comes across in the trailer as being stronger and more confident than the character is in the book, but I have no issue with that alteration. It will be a better movie that way.


What the heck is up with the Australian cinema release being 11 December...almost a full month after the US (17 November)? Too cruel.

stuff white people like

Finally, the mystery is solved. The author of Stuff White People Like is in fact...white. It's been a topic of hot debate in the comments on the site. It was my first guess, though he writes like an (amused) observer. But I knew for sure he was white when I heard he got a book deal. 'Cause it's not racist if one of your own is mocking you, right?

Well, racist stereotype or not, it's bloody funny. ^_^

p123 line 5

Why not? Not exactly tagged, but Jeff kinda opened it to the crowd. I usually avoid this meme, but I like the old-fashioned language in the book I'm reading right now, so I thought I'd take a chance on it.

Here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest book. If you are currently reading something, that'll be fine too.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your Blog along with these instructions.

5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet I know that is what you were thinking!

6. Tag 5 people.

Here's the passage, from Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh:

Soon from the disorderly slum of her bedroom Virginia emerged spruce as a Halberdier.
'I hope you haven't made them too strong, Tommy. You know how I hate strong cocktails. Guy, your moustache.'

Actually my favourite passage (so far) in the book was right at the beginning, describing a couple on honeymoon:

Everywhere the fortunate pair were praised and petted but all was not entirely well with them. No sign or hint betrayed their distress but when the last wheels rolled away and they mounted to their final privacy, there was a sad gap between them, made by modesty and tenderness and innocence, which neither spoke of except in prayer.
Later they joined a yacht at Naples and steamed slowly up the coast, putting in at unfrequented harbours. And there, one night in their state room, all at last came right between them and their love was joyfully completed.

There are a few reasons I like it: firstly I think I just wasn't expecting that kind of detail in a book published in 1952. Secondly it was a sweet reason for them to decide to keep a house in that part of Italy. And thirdly I think it's clever how Waugh makes it perfectly clear what the problem is, without ever losing that old-fashioned delicate way of describing it. I guess it's just something you wouldn't read in a book nowadays, certainly not said in the way that it was.

Tag 5 people. Yeah, when do I ever really do that? Do if it takes your fancy.

checklist for happy harry potter news

Podcast featuring JK Rowling up at Leaky Cauldron.



Leakycon happening in May 2009.

HP Book 7 being made into two movies...yah! For once no complaining about how much they've cut out.


Return of David Yates as director for both films.



Return of Steven Kloves as screenwriter for both films.



Being filmed at the same time. No odd age differences...good.


WAAAAAAAAIT A MINUTE!!!!!! WTF???

Part One due November 2010, and Part Two, May 2011

Excuse me? We have to wait TWO YEARS after movie 6 to see number 7??? Have they lost their minds?
It's TOO LONG, dagnabbit!



2010 release date did NOT make the cut!

gosh but I hate waiting

Review.

And the reason I must immediately make plans to go to Melbourne in May:

Hi Neil,

Is it true you will be in Australia in May, 2008?

Cheers,Yoomi

Reply:

It is, it is. I'm out in early May for a conference on children's literature in Melbourne, and I'll do a couple of signings while I'm there. Details to come very soon.

harry potter and the non-spoilery post

I've just added a comment to my post on predictions for the 7th Harry Potter book and just reposting the comment here:

I got some things right, some not. There weren't so many surprises, no, but I think that was mostly (for me at least) because so many possibilities had been thrown out there that anything that eventuated had been foretold by someone, at some point. The wandlore aspect was new and interesting (and clever). The Dumbledore backstory revelations were more distracting than interesting, though everything played it's part in the end. I pretty much loved everything else. I thought the last six or so chapters are the most fun I've had reading in a long time. And I use the word 'fun' loosely, as I wept through a lot of it.

I'd say more but I'm trying not to give spoilers.

Like many fans I was very concerned with who JKR was planning to 'kill off'. In the end it didn't matter. What I found was that while some of the deaths were upsetting (read: had me openly weeping) in the end they made the writing better. To never lose a character you love is to read with too much emotional safety. It dilutes the story and trivializes the fears of the characters because in your head there's always a voice assuring you that they are worrying about nothing.

JKR didn't allow us that kind of certainty and the book was much better for it. There was actually one point where I read something that indicated that someone had died and the way I read it had me thinking it was one particular character that I really did not want dead. I literally put the book down in my lap and just breathed for a minute, because right then I just couldn't bear to keep reading and find out that it was so. Luckily for me I returned to the book to find that I'd made a mistake. Didn't make the actual death in question any less sad though...

It's really difficult to say anything about the ending (last few chapters) without including spoilers, but I will say that:

(a) I loved it
(b) I was highly amused by it when I realised how certain hotly debated topics in the HP fan world had panned out. I can't elaborate, but there were even some points where BOTH sides of a debate ended up being right. Brilliant! :) And finally,
(c) my one beef with it was that I think it contradicted something really important in the 5th book. But that's something for me to beat out with other people who've already read the book. They may be able to persuade me otherwise. Maybe.

If anyone else has read the book I'd love to hear what you thought, but please preface any comment containing a spoiler with this heading: ###SPOILER### If you posted about the book, feel free to comment with a link to your post.

outraged over austen

This story just has me floored ~ not the fact that they would reject the work (plenty of good authors get rejected) but moreso the fact that 17 publishers couldn't recognise Austen's most famous works at a glance. Good grief, this is their industry, and even if they (amazingly) aren't well read, there have been several movies made of these works. Have they been living in a cave?

Modern publishers 'reject' Jane Austen

She might have sold millions of books in the past 200 years, but a daring experiment has found Jane Austen would struggle to secure a book deal today.

David Lassman, a frustrated author and director of the Jane Austen Festival in the English town of Bath, sent off manuscripts featuring several chapters of Austen's most famous work to 18 publishers and agents, claiming it was all his work.

To his amazement all publishers rejected the manuscripts, and most failed to spot that he had ripped off opening chapters of Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

"I was staggered," Lassman told The Guardian newspaper.

"Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the English canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen's work."

Lassman decided to send off the manuscripts, which contained only slight alterations to Austen's words, in frustration at having his own original thriller rejected.

"I know it isn't a masterpiece but I think it is publishable," he said.

"Yet nobody wanted it. I was talking with some friends and we wondered if Jane would find a publisher or agent if she were around today."

Apparently not.

harry potter and the previously mentioned locket

Ooh, I think one of my theories just got a little backing from JKRowling. Here's the new adult version cover for the 7th Harry Potter book, featuring a locket. Hmmm.




I have three theories on what will happen in the third book. The first two I've had since I read the 6th book, the third is more recent.

1. In book 5, when they were clearing out the Black house, they found many kinds of items. One was simply described as "a locket they couldn't open". Now Kreacher was quietly pilfering items from the house so they wouldn't be destroyed or gotten rid of. I think that locket is going to turn out to be the last horcrux. In fact, beyond that, I think this is going to play out into a similiar scenario as the one created by Tolkien in Lord of the Rings, where it is Frodo's mercy towards Gollum that brings success to the mission in the end. Gollum's leap into the fiery pit couldn't have happened if Frodo had not spared his life. That previous act of kindness saved Frodo from destruction when he was unable to save himself (being now fully under the spell of the ring). Now I don't think Harry is going to be under any spell, but I do think that the ties to Kreacher that he chose not to sever are going to become important in what happens in regards to finding that locket and in Harry gaining possession of it.

2. I think Snape is good and loyal to Dumbledore. I think that it will eventually be revealed that Snape told Dumbledore about the unbreakable promise and that Dumbledore asked him to, if the time came, be the one to kill him, because he believes that Draco can be saved from becoming like his mother and father.

3. I think Snape is going to be one of the characters that dies, and I think that his death will occur either just after we discover the truth about him, or as a result of him saving Harry. I agree with the people who have speculated that Severus was in love with Lily Potter and that even though he hates Harry for looking so like his father, he feels compelled to save him because Harry has Lily's eyes.

Any of you Potter fans out there have any theories of your own to share? It won't be very long until we can find out whether we guessed right or not. ^_^

books read, or not

Book meme from Jay, who didn't tag me, but I tend to borrow any meme I think is fun anyway.
Bold print means I've read it, italics mean I'd like to, and like the two memesters before me in the line I've added some titles of my own. I think this is some kind of 'best books ever' list. I've added books I found profoundly interesting, but didn't stop too long to think - they were the first ten that came to mind. Don't think of them necessarily as recommendations. Palahniuk in particular is not for the faint-hearted, though he'll make you think for weeks afterward.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) (Jay, it's nothing like the movie Pi. That movie was one of the most fascinating things I've ever watched, but it nearly did my head in. And it was so random me even seeing it either - was bussing from Sydney to Adelaide, stopped in Melbourne and was trying to kill about five hours before getting on the next bus. Wandered into an independent theatre a little sleepy from the 11 hour bus ride and suddenly that movie was melting my brain. Can't quite imagine it in book form.)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom) Read this last month actually.
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) Movie was corny sweet.
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) Interesting ideas, but that whole 'never allows anyone to edit her work' thing really didn't work in her favour.
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) Deceptively simple. My favourite of all his books.
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) Sounds depressing.
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) Even though it also sounds depressing.
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) Rand is tedious.
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) The only Anne Rice book I've read, though I do love vampire stories.
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo) Saw the stage musical, which was wonderful.
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) I wanted to like it a lot more than I did.
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) Heard this title so many times and seen it featured so many times in movies as someone's favourite book, I really must find out what all the fuss is about.
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) No interest whatsoever in reading this. Hated the movie, especially the ending which I found annoying in the extreme (it WASN'T a good enough explanation for what he did and he should never have been with her in the first place).
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) Also highly recommend the movie version with Gary Sinise and John Malcovich - brilliant and very true to the book.
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMavrier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) Read this last month, too.
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) Rumble Fish was good, too.
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) Atrocious fiction masquerading as insight.
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

101. Lullaby (Chuck Palahniuk) Explores the way that we borrow from ancient cultures without any real understanding or respect for the place of the things we borrow in their original culture. Interesting take on sound pollution, too. :)
102. The Beach (Alex Garland) The movie was okay, but the book is beautiful to read, especially as a writer - clean, efficient writing, very nice.
103. Wild Swans (Jung Chang)
104. American Gods (Neil Gailman) Gaiman is always good fun and has a vivid imagination.
105. The Golden Compass (aka The Northern Lights) (Phillip Pullman) The whole 'His Dark Materials' series is very interesting. I am so excited that they are finally making movies of these books. Can't wait to see it all on the screen (Iorek Byrnison!), even if it does basically paint God as a 'history is written by the victor' type victor of the war in heaven.
106. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Fannie Flagg)
107. Lord Foul's Bane (Stephen Donaldson)The first of (currently seven, eventually nine) books. I actually don't like Donaldson any more, don't read his books, and even find the writing in this series a little pretentious, but it is still some of the best world building I have ever encountered. His are the best Giants ever written, the Haruchai/Bloodguard fascinate me, the Ranyhyn, forestals, Waynhim, etc, etc.
108. Tomorrow When the War Began (John Marsden) First of a seven part series. All good.
109. The Owl Service (Alan Garner) Read this when I was young and loved it.
110. Farenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

For Jay's list and added items: http://feverdog.blogspot.com/2007/04/book-meme.html
And Treespotter's: http://treespotter.blogspot.com/2007/03/on-nats-book-list.html

love and other near-death experiences

Long ago Roofshadow asked what I wanted for Christmas and I directed her to my Amazon wish list. Very handy things they are ~ I'd ordered off hers in the past and it's fun to send something you know a person will like for sure. I had no idea which item she'd sent and basically forgot about the whole thing...

until last week when one of Mil Millington's novels arrived in the post. Meeeeerrry Christmas! I've wanted to read Mil's novels, having been a fan of his website (and newsletter) Things my girlfriend and I have argued about for a long time. From what I've read his first two novels are funnier than this one. All I can say is that they must be pretty funny, because this has me laughing out loud. I'm about halfway through and in no rush to finish because I'm enjoying it too much.

The premise is actually quite interesting. Rob (the main character) is supposed to meet a jazz musician for an interview. His fiance insists that he take back some crappy towels that he bought on special, and he makes the seemingly unimportant decision to do it on the way to the interview instead of on the way back. As a result he gets caught in traffic and isn't there when an oil tanker ploughs into the hotel and kills everyone, including the guy he was to meet. From there he becomes mentally paralysed every time it comes to making seemingly inconsequential decisions (one of the funniest scenes in the book so far is one where he is trying to decide whether to use a blue pen or a black pen to fill in a form). Because a minor decision had such a huge impact (saving his life) he now feels like any minor decision could mean the difference between life and death, but because the decision is by definition minor, he has no way of judging which decision would be best.

The book is so visual, I can see it all as I read it. it makes me wonder how long it's going to be before someone decides to make one of his novels into a movie.

a small box of deep despair

...was waiting in my mailbox when I got back to Canberra today.

Now don't get me wrong. I will be reading The Rape of Nanking and Sex Slaves: The Trafficking of Women in Asia. I just won't be reading them in the same week...lest I off myself.

I'm guessing these are not the books Bob Thiele and George David Weiss were reading the week they penned:

I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world

but I may need to listen to that song afterwards just to remind myself that there is also beauty in the world.

Edit: Okay help me out people. I just had such a vivid flashback of that line, "there is also beauty in the world." Can anyone tell me which movie I'm deja vu-ing? Google is being uncooperative.

PS...thanks for the books jojo. ^_~

things I r-r-r-r-really like

I've been meaning to do this meme [name 10 things you love, starting with a certain letter that was chosen for you] for the longest time, but somehow roofshadow just seemed to hit upon a letter (r) that didn't immediately flood me with ideas. 'P' for example, let's see, punk, pistacchios, Picaso, pale pallour (think vampires), pencils, Potter, poetry, passion, purple and political philosophy. Those took about 2min to compile; I've been thinking about 'r' for a month now. But here goes.

1. rock
I like most kinds of music, but I always come back to rock. At the moment I'm drawn to bands like Nickelback, Powderfinger and Jet. Actually Jet are playing the Big Day Out this Friday in Adelaide (will post on that later). Live rock is the best.


2. romance
Flowers, etc, are nice, but romance for me is all about connection and knowing that the person you love understands you. I am a big fan of the mix tape (even if it's now burned on CD it should still be referred to as a mix tape), the leaving of notes, and the well-crafted romantic surprise. And with Valentine's Day coming, here's a tip for all you boys out there who don't know what the heck you're doing: LISTEN. I know it's difficult, but you will get soooo many romance points for doing this. If it is clear from your Valentine's gift that you heard and remembered something she mentioned or pointed out previously, trust me, this bodes very well for you. Sadly you now have only six days till the 14th. I hope this tip didn't come too late for you.

I am also a big fan of the fanciful, piratey kind of romance. Everyone needs a bit of swashbuckling in their lives.

3. rain
Soft rain, hard pelting rain, rain drumming on the roof...basically every rain cliche in existence. I love going to sleep listening to the rain. Rain can be destructive but right now in our drought-stricken country it's the sound of salvation falling over the land. My favourite rain memory is swimming in the ocean while the rain poured down, surfacing from under the big salty waves, lifting my face to the fresh water that seemed so warm in comparison to the sea, drinking deep.


4. research
I used to work in a job where I just dealt with whatever was in front of me ~ invoice to be produced, phone call to the answered, figures to be compiled. Then I went back to university (lots of research) and became a part-time research assistant to boot. I then taught for three years, but now I work doing research and policy formulation. I really like that kind of work ~ finding information, analysing what you find, recognising connections, working out where the gaps in your information are, consulting people, producing papers or legal instruments, turning the research into the realisation of your policy objectives. I sometimes miss teaching, but I'm okay with the job I have now, too.

5. reality
I read fantasy, I watch fantasy, I've edited fantasy and I occasionally play around with writing fantasy, but I don't live in fantasy. People who do drive me a little nuts. I have some sympathy for people whose realities are so harsh they want to escape from them, but I can't help but think that life would be a better place if we faced more and didn't lie to ourselves.


6. reality tv shows

Yes, I'm kidding.

6. reading
I learned to read so early that I don't remember it at all. I do remember trawling the school library for fiction I hadn't already read and staying up way too late because I couldn't put a book down. I remember my mother finding me distraught and weeping one day and being most disgusted to discover that I was crying over something that happened in the book I was reading. My dad taught me to read. He told stories more often than he read them, but he always bought me books.

7. rhyme
Rhyming poetry, skipping chants, scavenger hunt clues. Rhyme has such a nice sense of containment, closure, not symmetry but some word like it that I can't think of right now. I really enjoy trying to write poetry with set rhyming schemes like Vianelles, Sonnets, that kind of thing. The challenge of writing within strict rules seems to bring out more creativity in me and I'm often surprised by what I write.

8. rythym
At some point I worked out that the reason I preferred to be on the hard rock side of the hard rock/heavy metal divide was because there was so much good drumming and less screaming guitar. I love to dance and I find it really easy to memorise things set to music with a beat. A few years ago in Japan all my years of loving rythym led me to the Wadaiko (traditional Japanese drumming) club where Matsuura-sempai taught me to pound out a rhythm. There's nowhere for me to pursue this kind of drumming in Canberra, but if I ever do make the tentatively-planned move to Sydney or Melbourne, part of my choice of location will be proximity to a Wadaiko club.

9. rest
"I believe the world is sick with exhaustion and dying of restlessness. While it is true that periods of weariness help the spirit to grow, the prolonged, ongoing state of fatigue, to which our world seems to be rapidly adapting, is ultimately soul destroying as well as earth destroying. The ecology of evil flourishes and love cannot take root in this sad situation. Tiredness is one of our strongest, most noble and instructive feelings...

Yet tiredness has become a matter of shame! This is a dangerous development. Tiredness has become the most suppressed feeling in the world. Everywhere we see people overcoming their exhaustion and pushing on with intensity - cultivating the great mass mania which all around is making life so hard and ugly - so cruel and meaningless - so utterly graceless - and being congratulated for overcoming it and pushing it deep down inside themselves as if it were a virtue to do this." (Mr Curly)

10. random acts of kindness
Being kind to your friends is too easy, being kind only to those you think deserve it implies an unattractive layer of judgment, being kind to your enemies is admirable, but random acts of kindness clear away all the guff ~ one human being being kind to another, that's all. Suddenly we're all just people and there's goodness to be shared and we don't need a reason to share it. It's nice.


If you would like a letter please indicate so in a comment. You can either just add your 'ten things' later in the comments or make a post on your own blog and then give out some letters of your own.