The Affair that I didn't want to end

WOW! I just wanted that out right off the bat. Wow to Graham Greene's The End of the Affair. Wow to Colin Firth's reading of the book. Just wow.

This audiobook is the version of "unputdownable" for audiobooks. I started listening to it on my way to work from school and I didn't want to stop. I had to because of work but I listened it on my commute home and finished it within that day. After finishing it, I wanted to listen to it again. I don't know what kept me more enthralled, if it was the narration of Firth or the text itself. Even now, I have to remind myself of the hundreds of books in my TBR list to keep myself from listening to it again. 

I find this book atypical from the other 1001 books because the prose is "simple" compared to the majority in the list. And yet the impact is there. In fact, it is the candor that draws the reader in. 

This novel is exquisite and beautiful. It is that kind of book that entangles you. I felt acute sadness when it ended and just wanted it to go on. I am going to try and find the movie they made with Julianne Moore and see how that holds up.

Opening: A story has no beginning or end, arbitrarily, one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

Bullets to fill up the blanks

Let's do this:

• I have read 262 of the 1001 books so far. (Actually, it is 1300+ books since I combined 2008, 2010, and 2012 lists.) 
• Of the original 96 books to be read, 16 remains unread. I have swapped out most of those for other books in the list. 
• Also read a number of "pop" books. Just wanted to mix it up.
• Yes, I read the  "Fifty Shades" trilogy. I am a firm believer that you can only hate on something if you've actually experienced it. The whole series feels like 2 1/2 books too long and made me seriously re-consider my commitment on finishing books I start
• Read (more on, plowed through) the 1st book of Mortal Instruments. Life is too short to bother reading the rest. 
• Dan Brown's Inferno is a disservice to Alighieri
• Last year, I was able to fulfill my challenge of reading 140 books. This year, I decreased it to 120 books in anticipation of my MBA classes. 1st week of classes made me realize I need to scale it down even further.
• Goodreads is the BOMB!
• Thank you Amazon for creating the Kindle. The Paperwhite is definitely one of my essentials in life.
• Special mentions: 1Q84, The Luminaries, The Sense of an Ending, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Fahrenheit 451, Sputnik Sweetheart, The Satanic Verses, The Savage Detectives, All Quiet on the Western Front, For Whom the Bell Tolls,The Plague, Hell by Henri Barbusse
• To call James Joyce's Ulysses as "challenging" doesn't begin to cut it. Took me almost 2 months to finish. 
• Currently reading: The Bonfire of the Vanities
• Book Challenge for this year: Moby-Dick 

Sidebar:

• Transferred work this year (lot of big changes this year). 
• Was able to travel to Budapest, Singapore, and Guangzhou for work.
• Not really into Big Bang Theory anymore. Still love Sheldon Cooper, though.
• The engagement did not work out. Shit happens.
• In a relationship for almost 2 years. Just goes to show that shit happens for a reason.

The Two Kinds of Freedom

A book about the dystopian future, Handmaid's Tale made me realize that there are so many freedoms that I take for granted.   Gilead is the end-product of an ultra-conservative group's destabilization and call for a new world order.  It tells of a world without choice, especially for women.  Women were stripped of all properties and all rights and were treated as chattels, judged according to their use in society.  We have the Wives, the Marthas, the Handmaids, etc.

"There is more than one kind of freedom...Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it."

 
Given the amount of freedom that I am enjoying today, it haunts me to think that there might come a time where I will only have freedom from choice, instead of the freedom to choose.  I hope it never happens in my lifetime.  I hope it never happens...Period.

"You can wet the rim of a glass and run your finger around the rim and it will make a sound. This is what I feel like: this sound of glass. I feel like the word shatter."

Mao II: A Look on Terrorism and Mass Organization

Don DeLillo's 10th novel, Mao II deals with terrorism and mass media that were also the themes explored in his novel, Falling Man. 

"What terrorists gain, novelists lose.  The degree to which they influence mass consciousness is the extent of our decline as shapers of sensibility and thought."

Considering that the work was published in 1991, the novel is considered to be ahead of its time in foreseeing an age of terror and its effect on America.  One of the main themes explored in the novel is the "psychology of crowds" as seen in the mass cult wedding depicted in the first chapters.  I liked Falling Man more but I think the reason for this is because I will never forget watching on television the actual falling down of the two towers and I saw how this changed the world.

As to the title of the novel...

"Bill had his picture taken not because he wanted to come out of hiding but because he wanted to hide more deeply, he wanted to revise the terms of seclusion, he needed the crisis of exposure to give him a powerful reason to intesify his concealment.  Years ago there were stories that Bill was dead...they were not about Bill so much as people's need to make mysteries and legends.  Now Bill was devising his own cycle of death and resurgence.  It made Scott think of great leaders who regenerate their power by sropping out of sight and then staging messianic returns.  Mao Zedong of course..."

"We carry the dead with us only until we die too"

"Thus in the minds of the many does the one ramify and disperse. It does not last, it cannot, it is not immortality. We carry the dead with us only until we die too, and then it is we who are borne along for a little while, and then our bearers in their turn drop, and so on into the unimaginable generations...True, there will be something of us that will remain, a fading photograph, a lock of hair, a few fingerprints, a sprinkling of atoms in the air of the room where we breathed our last, yet none of this will be us, what we are and were, but only the dust of the dead."

 Winner of the Man Booker Prize and John Banville's 18th novel, The Sea is told in Max Morden's viewpoint.  Reeling from his wife's death, Max retreats to a cottage by the sea where he used to spend his summers.  It is there that we are taken in a journey through his recollections of his childhood summers with the Graces and the time before his wife's death.  The novel was poignant and honest and all praises for this book are well-deserved.

To love life for what it is....

A mark of a truly great book is when it makes you realize something about yourself and/or the world you live in.  The Hours by Michael Cunningham gave me something extraordinary.  It gave me a sense of normalcy.

"We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep. It's as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out windows, or drown themselves, or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us are slowly devoured by some disease, or, if we're very fortunate, by time itself. There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds & expectations, to burst open & give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) know these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning, we hope, more than anything for more. Heaven only knows why we love it so."
-Laura

The book is simply beautiful. The re-imagining of Virginia's life and its relation to Laura and Clarissa was exquisite

"To look life in the face. Always to look life in the face. And to know it for what it is. At last to know it is. To love it for what it is. And then to put it away. Leonard always the years between us, always the years. Always the love. Always the hours."
-Virginia

Twenty-one: Tess of 'd Ubervilles

Interesting Factoid?

The book was made into a movie by Roman Polanski.  He decided to make this into a movie because he was given a copy of the novel by his late wife the last time he saw her.

Impressions?

The whole time I was reading it, the only thing I can think about is how tragic the story is.  It tells of the loss of innocence, the loss of love and faith.  Tess is a compelling character and you can’t help but be haunted by her plight.

Most Memorable?

"Thus, the thing began. Had she perceived this meeting's import she might have asked why she was doomed to be seen and coveted that day by the wrong man, and not by some other man, the right and desired one in all respects..."

"You, and those like you, take your fill of pleasure on earth by making the life of such as me bitter and black with sorrow; and then it is a fine thing, when you have had enough of that, to think of securing your pleasure in heaven by becoming converted!"

Twenty-one: Sense and Sensibility

Interesting Factoid?

This is the first novel of Jane Austen and underwent several revisions before finally being published in 1811.  The first draft was finished in 1795 when Jane was only 19.

Impressions?

My first Jane Austen (I’m not proud).  This is the only book in this list with a happy ending.  Compared to the other books, this is actually light reading.  When I say light reading, I am in no way pertaining to the content but to the effect it has on me as a reader.  It was actually a welcome change from all the “heavy” reading I have been doing so far.

Most Memorable Lines?

“There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.”

“Elinor had not needed ... to be assured of the injustice to which her sister was often led in her opinion of others, by the irritable refinement of her own mind, and the too great importance placed by her on the delicacies of a strong sensibility and the graces of a polished manner. Like half the rest of the world, if more than half there be that are clever and good, Marianne, with excellent abilities and an excellent disposition, was neither reasonable nor candid. She expected from other people the same opinions and feelings as her own, and she judged of their motives by the immediate effect of their actions on herself.”

Twenty-one: The Age of Innocence

Interesting Factoid?

The Age of Innocence – Although the book also serves as a sort of commentary on the high society with its its use of irony and other literary tools, Edith Wharton considers this novel as an “apology” for how brutal her other book (The House of Mirth) was.

Impressions?

I loved this book.  I loved the way Edith Wharton played with language and the barely veiled contempt for high society.  I can’t wait to read The House of Mirth

Most Memorable Lines?

“In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs…”

“It would presently be his task to take the bandage from this young woman's eyes, and bid her look forth on the world. But how many generations of the women who had gone to her making had descended bandaged to the family vault?”

Twenty-one: The Trial

Interesting Factoid?

The actual novel was never completed by Franz Kafka.  He instructed his friend Max Brod to burn the manuscript upon his death.

Impressions?

Although it is unfinished, the novel is still powerful.  Maybe that is part of the reason why it has made such an impact.  The fact that we would forever wonder what it could have been otherwise

Most Memorable lines?

“It’s sometimes quite astonishing  that a single, average life is enough to encompass so much that it’s at all possible ever to have any success in one’s work here. On the other hand, there are also dark moments, such as everyone has, when you think you’ve achieved nothing at all, when it seems that only the trials to come to a good end are those that were determined to have a good end from the start and would do so without any help, and all the others are lost despite all the running to and fro, all the effort…”

Twenty-one: A Clockwork Orange

Interesting Factoid?

In one of his other works, Anthony Burgess has stated that he is prepared to repudiate this novel because of the danger of it being misunderstood. 

Impressions?

Like the movie, the book was really violent but contrary to what other people might think, the book does not actually promote violence.  For me, it is actually about the concept of good and evil.  If someone does not have a choice but to do good, will it even count?  The concept of a clockwork orange also made a strong impression on me.  Organic on the outside but mechanical on the inside.

Most Memorable Lines?

“When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man”

“Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some ways better than a man who has the good imposed upon him”

“The attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation”

Twenty-One: Falling Man

Interesting Factoid?

There is a performance artist in the book that suspends himself upside down wearing a business attire reminiscent of a photograph by Richard Dew.  Don DeLillo claims that he did not know that the title of the photograph is also Falling Man

Impressions?

A couple of firsts with this book.  First novel I read that is related to 9/11 and my first Don DeLillo.  What can I say, it was an awesome first impression and I can’t wait to get started with both Underworld and White Noise.

Most Memorable lines?

“There were people shouting up at him, outraged at the spectacle, the puppetry of human desperation, a body’s last fleet breath and what it held.  It held the gaze of the world, she thought.  There was the awful openness of it, something we’d not seen, the single falling figure that trails a collective dread, body come down among us all.”       

“But does a man have to kill himself in order to count for something, be someone, find the way?”

Twenty-one: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Interesting Factoid?

This book along with its author Zora Neale-Hurston almost slipped into “oblivion”.  It took the efforts of Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, to renew interest in Neale-Hurston and her works.

Impressions?

I liked how the author used the vernacular of that time to make the story come alive.  I know that there were people who actually criticized the use of the language as mocking but I don’t believe that Zora meant it to be that way.  For me, it gave it color (no pun intended)

Most Memorable lines?

“She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up and put away in her heart where he could never see them.  She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen”

“…their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His.  They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God”

“…love ain’t somethin’ lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing tuh everything it touch.  Love is lak de sea.  It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore”

Twenty-One

00As usual, I have been pretty behind in updating the blog in terms of the books I have read so far.  The thought of not being able to accomplish what I have set out to do has been in the back of my mind for quite some time.  The thought nags me at the oddest hours and in varying degrees that I just have to do something about it.  I have just finished Wuthering Heights this morning and with that, my list now totals 14 which is frankly overwhelming.

So here is how it would work.  

7 books.

3 questions. Interesting Factoid? Impressions? Most memorable lines?

Start.

Getting in touch with the "Tookish" side in me

Every once in a while, when you are least expecting it, you stumble upon a book that inadvertently captures you in ways that you can't imagine.  That was the case for me and The Hobbit.  It has been a while since I last posted anything here and as can be expected in such a prolonged absence, I am about five books behind in terms of blog entries.  I know I should really set out in catching up with those entries first but I just finished The Hobbit and I haven't been this excited about a book for a while now.

Simply put, this book took over my imagination and awakened in me a sense of adventure.  I actually lament over the fact that it is only now that I read it.  The book was written by Tolkien for his own children and was the predecessor for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Considered a classic in children's literature, I can attest that this can still be enjoyed by all ages.  I was actually postponing the reading of this book.  Although I have read my share of fantasy fiction, I know that there are books that can be quite daunting.  My own experience with the Lord of the Rings is a proof of that.  The only reason that I started it was because we watched the Fellowship of the Rings last Sunday and after finishing "Falling Man" yesterday, I decided I might as well re-explore the world of Tolkien's Middle-Earth.  And boy, what an experience it was.

I was so immersed in this other world made up of elves, dwarves, trolls, orcs and I found myself rooting for Bilbo and his company.  The experience was amazing.  After finishing the book, I was reluctant to let go and there were moments that I even considered re-reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy but of course this will have to wait given the number of books that I have on my plate right now.  I have to content myself in re-watching the trilogy and rooting for the movie adaptation of this book to be finally made.

I am humbled by this book and the only fitting tribute that I can give it is that I will give my nephews and the other children in my future a copy of the book when they reach the age of twelve.  Hopefully, it fires up their imagination and sense of wonderment as it did mine and instills in them a sense of adventure and boundless opportunities.

Making a case for the Ipad

Blogging can be quite tricky sometimes, especially if you're trying to be consistent.  My previous posts have mostly been on my personal impressions on the books I am reading as part of my goal for 2012.  The hard thing for me is that there are times that I am able to think of what I want to write about a particular book or thing but I am not able to do so because I am in the mall or whatever and then when I do get the chance to sit down and write, I find myself staring blankly and trying to squeeze out every word.

I guess that makes a good case for getting myself an Ipad.  Bwahaha. I was skeptical about this when it was first introduced (and the fact that the name tends to remind people of something else does not help) but thinking about it, it would certainly be more economical than getting a Kindle. 

The Ipad would have been especially useful last weekend.  Last Thursday, we suddenly decided to go to the province because of the declared holiday on Friday.  I have already finished The Age of Innocence and Their Eyes were Watching God and was supposed to blog about it over the weekend but our change of plans made it impossible to do so.  The lack of internet connection could account for that.  Flashes and glimpses of what I want to write about those two books haunted me during the long weekend.  Oh well, I guess that is the sacrifice one has to pay.  That and about a thousand bucks. hehehe  It was well worth it because I finally got the chance to get some rest and relaxation away from the distractions of the city.  Sometimes I get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the Internet age that I just want to "disconnect" myself from everything.  No facebook, no twitter, no YM, no cable tv, no nothing.

I was also able to finish Sense and Sensibility during the trips to and from and the down times (somehow, there are a lot more of these when you are in the province..hehehe).  All that seafood (and well food in general) also goes a long way to make up for whatever inconvenience.  The only real downside is that the fact that I spent the whole three days doing practically nothing made the monday blues yesterday even more acute.  But as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Journeying with Stephen Dedalus

James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel that tells of the early life of Stephen Dedalus.  The last name of the protagonist alludes to Greek Mythology's Dedalus.  Like Dedalus, Stephen in the story works on bulding "wings" so that he can do away with the things that he thinks is holding him back like religion, society, and family from his aim of being a true "artist".

"I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile, and cunning."

The book traces Stephen's journey through his formative years.  I was amazed at Joyce's use of language to depict the growth of the character.  As the character matures, the words used for the narrative becomes more complicated.  The thought process also becomes more complex.  Stephen studied in a boarding school when he was young and was heavily influenced by the Catholic faith.  As a teen, he tries to reconcile his physical desires with his faith.  Stephen eventually abandons everything in favor of pursuing his dream of being an artist.


"I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."

I liked the book because I think it more or less captures the process of self-discovery that we all go through. As Stephen puts it: "I was not myself as I am now, as I had to become."  

Falling in love with A Room with a View

I am not a big believer in coincidences but there are times that life seems to work in mysterious ways.   Last Wednesday, I talked about my experience watching Daniel Day-Lewis in There will be Blood.  At that time, I was reading A Room with a View by E.M. Forster.  Imagine my surprise when I learned that Daniel actually played Cecil Vyse in the movie adaptation of the book.

For me, the book is a love story, first and foremost.  It is the story of Lucy Honeychurch and how she attempts to reconcile her passions against the repressed society and its definition of what is polite and proper.

 Although I don't believe that there is complete freedom in our society compared to that of our ancestors, I am no less thankful that I do not have to deal with the same limitations.
Mr. Emerson accurately describes how archaic society can be:"Do you suppose there's any difference between Spring in nature and Spring in man?  But there we go, praising the one and condemning the other, ashamed that the same work eternally through both"

Making things more complicated for Lucy is her feelings for George, a man frowned upon by the polite society. 
"The contest lay not between love and duty. Perhaps there never is such a contest.  It lay between the real and the pretended, and Lucy's first aim was to defeat herself"

One of the things that I will always remember about the book is how some people can only be associated with "rooms" and some people can be associated with "views".  Rooms represents constraints and the need for structure while views are represented in the book as freedom and spontaneity.  There are also some people who are only made to be acquaintances and can never know anyone intimately.
"He’s only for an acquaintance. He is for society and cultivated talk...He is the sort who are all right so long as they keep to things—books, pictures—but kill when they come to people...Every moment of his life he’s forming you..."

As I said earlier, this book for me is a love story first and foremost so I don't have to expound on what happened in the end.  Besides, I really would recommend that one reads this book for oneself.  That is how much I love this book.  I just wish I can find a copy of the movie.  I want to see if I will be just as in love with the movie as I am with the book.

Catching Up: The Great Gatsby

The novel captures the decadence of post-World War I American society and is considered to be an example of the Great American Novel. It has been included as required text for most high schools and colleges in the US. An interesting tidbit about the book is that there was a time that the author wanted to call the book "Trimalchio in West Egg"

One of the things that struck me was the narrator's description of Gatsby's dream and eventual fate. "...and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." There are dreams that we hold sacred in our minds, picturing over and over again our moment of attaining it but when you finally achieve that dream, you realize that the dreamer that you were and the person that you are now cannot be reconciled anymore.

So, there, that's 7 down and only 89 more to go (hehehe).

Catching Up: The Island of Dr. Moreau

The Island of Dr. Moreau holds the distinction as being one of the few science fiction novels in my list.  This story vividly describes the experiences of Edward Prendick and his observations of another man's quest to "humanize" animals by performing vivisections on them. Although Moreau succeeds in making them walk upright and gives them a grasp of human language and comprehension, they revert back to their animalistic tendencies.

When Prendick finally returns to human society, he had a hard time assimilating himself with other people. "I could not persuade myself that men and women I met were not also another Beast People, animals half wrought into the outward image of human souls, and that they would presently begin to revert..."  I cannot help but wonder, are we not all beast people inside, capable of reverting at any moment?