Book # -1...or something

One of the books from the list which I had already read was the Time Travellers Wife - hasn't everybody? I resisted reading it for ages because it was populist, everyone was reading it, and I hate following the crowd, but then I gave in and LOVED it. So why write about it today? I wasn't planning to write about all of the books I read pre-challenge, but I've just watched the film and it reminded me of all the reasons that the book is fantastic.

The film was a good one to watch - absorbing, a little bit emotional, fairly well cast. It took a little while to adapt to the American accents...I didn't realise until the film started that I had read the book entirely in an English accent, even though it was set in Chicago! As with so many film adaptations, though, they left out almost all of the elements that made the book memorable and (at risk of sounding like a total girl) heart-rending. The period between Clare and Henry meeting in "real time" and getting married, in the film, passes in two scenes. In the book, this is one of the formative periods where you grow to understand the relationship between them, the tensions of planning for the key events of life...the true depth of relationship and passion. I remember the passion between them as being compelling, a core part of the novel, and this hardly featured in the film at all. Without this, and with much of the interaction with other characters (Clare's mother, Kimy, the women from Henry's pre-Clare life), it became difficult to truly care, and I think the emotional involvement came mainly from the understanding of the characters, and expectation of events, gained from the book.

I did genuinely love that book, and not just in comparison with the film. It's one of the few books that has made me cry (and I mean sob) on public transport, and despite the totally unrealistic concept it is based on, it is somehow very believable. It also gives an interesting take on free will, from a different angle than the usual predestination/free will debate. There is the question of cause and effect - Henry convinces Dr Kendricks to work with him on the basis that he is already working with him and therefore he must agree - and inevitability - Henry is already married to Clare when he is visiting her as a small child, and therefore does she have any choice but to marry him? It is also a brilliantly constructed, very well written, cracking good read. Definitely recommend it; try to read as much as you can in one sitting (it's really hard to follow if you read in short bursts), and don't necessarily bother with the film!

Book #1 - done!

It's been a hard slog, but I've finished the Grapes of Wrath. Given that the blurb on the back describes it as "A terrible and indignant book", I perhaps should have guessed that it wasn't going to be a joyous and uplifting read! I can certainly appreciate the quality of the writing - Steinbeck's descriptions of scenery, people and travel are immensely evocative. I have a tendency to skim over descriptions in general, looking for the action, but his descriptions did make me pause and visualise. Having said that, I struggled to motivate myself to progress through the book, I think because there is a sense, from the very beginning, that the Joad family's quest for a new life in California is futile & doomed - even though they express hope, there is very little optimism or hope within the novel. I know that this is the fundamental point of the work, and it is a pretty accurate depiction of the period, but it makes for quite heavy reading. I can sort of appreciate the sense of purpose that is restored to Rose of Sharon in the (slightly disturbing) end scene, but it is one of those novels that leaves so many loose ends...it feels a bit like Steinbeck created as many scenes of dashed hopes as his imagination/patience could handle, got a few characters out of the picture and swiftly concluded the story. But then (I've used the word "but" far too many times for elegance here, which does make me question who I am to critique a Pulitzer Prize winner!) the loose ends, the disappearances and the lack of a happy ending are all fairly true to life for the time - the displaced families in America in that period would have become separated in their quest to scrape a living and there wasn't a happy resolution where they got their little white house, steady work and settlement!
Which leads me to thinking - is it shallow of me to only really enjoy a book if it has a degree of optimism, and a genuine resolution at the end? A happy ending isn't essential (although I have to say I quite like them), but at least a sense that the central tension of the novel has been resolved and brought to a close!

So, that was the Grapes of Wrath. I suspect it won't be on my list of all time favourites but I'm glad I finished it. Onwards and upwards...maybe something more cheerful next!

Grapes of Wrath

I love how books capture the imagination. I've told a few book-loving friends about my mission, which has instantly sparked list comparisons, recommendations, offers of books to borrow, and a couple of copy-cat projects (not that my idea was in any way original, I hasten to add).

I feel reassured to have discovered fellow Dickens-haters and slightly confused as to how anyone can number George Eliot amongst their favourite writers - no offence, Nuneaton, but studying Silas Marner twice in two years kind of killed her for me. Apparently Middlemarch is better - I shall soon be able to confirm this!

I have been musing on the best way to do this without killing the enjoyment of reading for the next year or so - I love reading, and find that it is the best way I have of switching off from work, retreating into my own world, and refreshing my mind, but I do tend to struggle when I know I _have_ to finish a book. So, I think multi-tasking is the way to go...if I always have two books on the go (probably Shakespeare and A. N. Other) there will be a sense of respite. It might sound odd, but I think it will work for me!

So, Grapes of Wrath so far. I have to say, it hasn't instantly grabbed me, but I perhaps haven't given it a fair shot as I've mainly given it 10 minutes at a time before falling asleep. Evocative descriptions of scenery, definitely - I can see the scenes clearly - but nothing has really happened yet. One list-reader said this was her favourite book of the 100 - high praise! - so I'm sure it will pick up - more to follow!

Book #1

And just to demonstrate that I am doing something about this - first up is the Grapes of Wrath, mainly because we have it and so I can start straight away! Thoughts to follow...

The BBC's top 100 books

I don't know whether it's the start of the new decade, but this year seems to be the year of the list, with friends trying to achieve 52 in 52 (books or games, in as many weeks), or 101 in 1001 (tasks on a list, in 1001 days). I don't quite have the time or imagination to do either of these, so I've decided to set myself a task that I have already more than half completed - is this cheating? :-)

In February last year, the BBC published a list of the top 100 books to read before you die, reckoning that most people would have read 6 or 7 of them. At the time, I'd read 52, and so felt smug at being very well read. A year on, and I have only read two more, so have decided to publicly set myself the challenge of reading the rest. I'd like to say that I'll do it by the end of the year; not sure how realistic that is given that I have to go to work as well, and the Complete Works of Shakespeare are on the list (thankfully I've already read the Bible) but we'll see!

So, the list. As a starting point, the ones in red are the ones I've read, and I'll update them into blue as I read more. This is going to challenge me in overcoming my prejudices (I have tried time and again to read Dickens, and never enjoyed it, and I have never wanted to read Lord of the Rings) but hopefully give me a focus for reading - I read extensively and quite randomly, and generally not books of the highest quality!

1. Pride & Prejudice
2. The Lord of the Rings
3. Jane Eyre
4. Harry Potter series
5. To kill a mockingbird
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four
9. His Dark Materials
10. Great Expectations
11. Little Women
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
13. Catch 22
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca
16. The Hobbit
17. Birdsong
18. The Catcher in the Rye
19. The Time Traveller's Wife
20. Middlemarch
21. Gone with the Wind
22. The Great Gatsby
23. Bleak House
24. War and Peace
25. The Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy
26. Brideshead Revisited
27. Crime and Punishment
28. Grapes of Wrath
29. Alice in Wonderland
30. The Wind in the Willows
31. Anna Karenina
32. David Copperfield
33. The Chronicles of Narnia
34. Emma
35. Persuasion
36. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
37. The Kite Runner
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
39. Memoirs of a Geisha
40. Winnie the Pooh
41. Animal Farm
42. The Da Vinci Code
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney
45. The Woman in White
46. Anne of Green Gables
47. Far from the Madding Crowd
48. The Handmaid's Tale
49. Lord of the Flies
50. Atonement
51. Life of Pi
52. Dune
53. Cold Comfort Farm
54. Sense & Sensibility
55. A Suitable Boy
56. The Shadow of the Wind
57. A Tale of Two Cities
58. Brave New World
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
60. Love in the Time of Cholera
61. Of Mice & Men
62. Lolita
63. The Secret History
64. The Lovely Bones
65. Count of Monte Cristo
66. On the Road
67. Jude the Obscure
68. Bridget Jones' Diary
69. Midnight's Children
70. Moby Dick
71. Oliver Twist
72. Dracula
73. The Secret Garden
74. Notes from a Small Island
75. Ulysses
76. The Bell Jar
77. Swallows and Amazons
78. Germinal
79. Vanity Fair
80. Possession
81. A Christmas Carol
82. Cloud Atlas
83. The Colour Purple
84. The Remains of the Day
85. Madame Bovary
86. A Fine Balance
87. Charlotte's Web
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
90. The Faraway Tree Collection
91. Heart of Darkness
92. The Little Prince
93. The Wasp Factory
94. Watership Down
95. A Confederacy of Dunces
96. A Town Like Alice
97. The Three Musketeers
98. Hamlet
99. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
100. Les Miserables