Book #39: "Pride and Prejudice"

I've already talked about Jane Austen, and how glad I am to have given her another try after my first attempt. It made me think that perhaps I am not capable of judging a book on the first go-round, and that I should liken all books to Jane Austen, as it were. That led to a not-nearly-as-joyful experience, which, as I don't own the books in question, I shall tell here.

I had heard about "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer, but had never read them, due to my feelings about reading a series before it was completed. The fourth and final book had come out, and I was home for Christmas and away from my own library, so I thought I'd give it a shot. And the first one wasn't bad. I mean, it definitely wasn't great, but it was engaging enough to convince me to read the second book. Which was also fine, at least until the end. I didn't remember the third book at all when I was done with it, and the fourth book had a) so many plot holes and 2) such a TERRIBLE ending that I came very close to throwing it in frustration. (But for the book belonging to someone else...)

So okay, not my thing. Fine.(Incidentally, I am of the firm belief that you must read, or watch, or listen to a thing before you are allowed to criticize it. You can say, "Oh, it doesn't appeal to me" or something of that nature, but that is all you get to say. No judging without trying. This will be important in a minute.) Lots of other people liked it; I did not; the world goes on. But then I remembered Jane Austen, and I thought perhaps I should give them another go. 

And the second time around...they were even worse. Faults that I had been willing to accept on the first try became intensely annoying; faults that annoyed me on the first try made me CRAZY. (Seriously, "Breaking Dawn". So. Many. PLOT HOLES. I am being vague here for the sake of the seven people left in the world that haven't read the books/seen the movies, but if ever you have a free hour and would like to hear me expound on this at length, believe me, I have material.) I did remember the third book after reading it the second time, and actually thought some of its content could have been interesting in better hands, but overall...

So I decided I had done enough and resolved never to read them again. That is until I moved back in with my parents and had all my books packed up and hadn't gotten a job yet and had read everything else in the house. A third time only reinforced my opinion. I feel completely justified in saying, with a clear conscience, that those books are JUST AWFUL. The end.

But you know what's NOT awful? "Pride and Prejudice". It's not my favorite Austen book (that one is coming later) but it is easy to see why it is considered her masterpiece. I am a fan of funny and this book is loaded with it (usually voiced by Mr. Bennet, who is my favorite character.) When I read it the first time, I thought it was overrated; after the third time, I can report that, unlike "Twilight", this book gets better every time.

Author: Jane Austen

Potentially objectionable content: None.

Book #38: "Sense and Sensibility"

Back during my (very brief) college days, a co-worker found out that I had never read anything by Jane Austen, and said that I could not call myself a proper English major without reading her books. This was during my first bookstore experience, and as it happened we had a collection of her novels in stock for about...12 or 13 dollars? (It's been more than ten years. I'm guessing.) "Sense and Sensibility" was first, so I started there.

And was...not impressed. I'd seen the movie and loved it (particularly as it stars two of my favorite actresses, Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet) but none of my favorite lines from the movie were in the book. And her sentences were so LONG, and the punctuation was so old-fashioned (more on that when we get to Dickens). The only one I really liked at all was "Mansfield Park", which I'd never heard of before. I just couldn't see what the big deal was, and after "Emma", I gave up.

Several years later, while living in Utah, I started my first alphabetical reading project, and in the course of time came to Jane Austen again. I discovered, much to my surprise, that I actually quite enjoyed her books the second time around. In addition, I read the three I hadn't attempted before and discovered a new love (more on that later also).

So here we are on my third time around, and I am less surprised (but thoroughly delighted!) to report that I like it even more still. Though not quite as funny as "Pride and Prejudice" or "Emma", Elinor's internal snarkiness is fantastic, and there is drama and romance to boot. If you've never read any of her books, or read them and didn't like them, I would encourage you to give her a chance. I will always be glad I did.

Author: Jane Austen

Potentially objectionable content: Nothing to worry about here

Book #37: "The One and Only Ivan"

When I was in elementary school, my very favorite thing was book orders. Remember those? I used to pore over them, deciding which books I wanted (pretty much all of them), what our family budget would allow me to get (I have six siblings, at least three of which had book orders at the same time) and wondering whether what I ultimately got would last long enough to get me to the next month (pretty much never). When I went to junior high I assumed I had left book orders behind forever.

That is until last month. My sister-in-law, who may be my only relative with a comparable book addiction to my own, works at a day care and thus qualifies as a teacher. Meaning SHE HAS ACCESS TO BOOK ORDERS. And with that, she became my newest ally in increasing the size of my library. Because they get benefits for ordering books, it even counts as a good deed! It's for the children! I am (so far) managing to keep my purchases to reasonable amounts, but more disposable income + book order discounts = lots more books for me!

And thus my newest acquisition, the 2013 Newbery winner. The Newbery Medal has been awarded to "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" since 1922. Of those 94 titles, I have read 19, all of which I have thoroughly enjoyed, with one exception: Beverly Cleary's "Dear Mr. Henshaw". (Don't start with me. I love her. She's brilliant. That is not her best work. It's not even the best of the nominated titles that year, which in my opinion is "A Solitary Blue" by Cynthia Voigt. But that aside, she only won the award once, and it was not for the far superior "The Mouse and the Motorcycle", "Emily's Runaway Imagination" or one of the Ramona books. I'm annoyed by it. Clearly.)

Fortunately, I have no such feelings about Katherine Applegate. "The One and Only Ivan" is lovely. Profound, thoughtful and moving, with an interesting premise. Read it.


Author: Katherine Applegate

Potentially objectionable content: Animal neglect

Book #36 "Candy Freak"

I left my job at the bookstore just over a year ago, after working there for three years and nine months. I started part-time and eventually moved up to full-time work as the children's lead, which was simultaneously one of the best and most frustrating jobs I've ever had. There's nothing like seeing a kid become interested in books for the first time and knowing you played a part in that. Also, the annoying adults who cannot remember the title or author or basic plot of a book they heard about on Ellen six months ago (or maybe it was The View. One of them talk-show things) but somehow expect you to know and get downright snippy when you can't...in the children's department, they are parents who say things like, "I've got a ten-year-old boy that doesn't like to read. Can you come up with something that will work?" It's a challenge. It's rewarding. It's delightful.

But my particular experience was hampered by corporate mandates that discouraged thinking outside the box and a manager who managed to quash every ounce of creativity I managed to express. So I finally had enough and left to work in credit card collections, which sounds like it would be awful and really (really!) is not. It has its moments, to be sure, as does any job (particularly one that requires any level of dealing with the general public) but the pros far outweigh the cons. One of those benefits is VTO (Voluntary Time Off) in which the powers that be will permit you to leave early if it turns out they're not as busy as they anticipated. Which is how, Saturday afternoon, I found myself at a $3.99-for-all-used-books sale.

Here I would like to pause for just a moment to acknowledge my sisters, who aid and abet my book addiction. My youngest sister (the Jukebox), who has the burden of living with the library, is my frequent (albeit occasionally reluctant) accomplice. She has spent many hours assembling shelves, cataloging books, and listening to my unrepentant zeal on the topic with only the smallest amount of annoyance. My other sister professes not to understand why I NEED the books with me all the time, but then brings me a box of Sweet Valley High books from a garage sale and tells me about a new book website she found. (I haven't looked at it yet. I wanted to get this done first.) My sister-in-law just reintroduced me to an exciting and enticing world, which I will talk about in the next entry.

And at work, I have my friend the Activist (she's passionate about causes), who texted me Saturday to let me know about the sale. The Activist and her husband are book addicts too, which is always nice to find in friends. (Though Activist Husband did greet my appearance at the sale with, "If you are here to steal my books, I WILL CUT YOU." I think he was kidding. Mostly. Bibliophiles get very possessive sometimes.) Also, I assumed the Jukebox would not be happy about YET MORE BOOKS coming home with me, but her reaction could best be described as resignation ("I've resigned myself to the fact that there's no stopping you") and an order not to go crazy (which she defined as "buying more than ten books".)

I didn't. I bought four, one of which I already had, so I gave it to her. (And yes, I do have a list, and yes, I have it on my phone, but I had just doubled my shelf space and redone my categories so it wasn't up-to-date.) The other three were a collection of humorous essays, a volume to complete a series and this one.

I actually read this book when it came out, back in 2004. At the time, I was attracted both by the title and the portion of the book dedicated to my native Idaho (even if the candy bar in question, the Idaho Spud, has never appealed to me.) I was surprised this time around by the amount of introspection and life-evaluating to be had from a book about candy. It's also informative, amusing and occasionally profound.

Author: Steve Almond

Potentially objectionable content: Some language, coarse jokes and the author hates coconut, which is...weird.

Book aborted

This blog is about reading my library in alphabetical order, and in the beginning I thought every entry would be my thoughts on a particular book, whether an old friend or a new one. And I almost didn't write this, because...look, I love to read, okay? I read pretty much every chance I get. Magazines, Internet articles, video game manuals, it's all fair game to me. I have learned something valuable from just about everything I've ever read. So when I find a book I just can't make myself read, I see it as something of a personal failure. For whatever ridiculous reason, I feel like I should be better than that, somehow.

But I eventually decided that this was really supposed to be about the reading experience, and discovering your limits is part of the experience. I discovered years ago that the limit of my patience (not my most notable quality) was reached in trying to slog through Victor Hugo. (I no longer own anything by him, and I will talk about that at a later date.) I was able to reconcile myself to that...eventually.

Learning it really is perfectly okay to just say, "You know what? This isn't for me" is part of the experience too. It doesn't say anything bad about the author, or the book itself, or about you. There are simply too many books and not enough time, and choices will eventually have to be made. So to Rita Askew, author of "Kind of Kin", I would like to say two things. First of all, thank you for helping me get to this place in my life. And secondly, I'm sure you're a delightful person and your book is lovely. But you know what? I'm sorry. It just isn't for me.

Book #35: "Guitar Boy"

Back at book #5, I mentioned ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) as one of the perks of working in a bookstore. Another one of those perks is strips, which are mass-market paperbacks that are returned to the publishers. The company I worked for allowed each employee to take home five of these a month, so I had yet another way to increase the size of my library.

Side note about ethics here: the stripped books I own would have been destroyed anyway, so I feel okay about saving them from death. Also I plan to replace all my strips with purchased copies as I find them, partly because I do want to give the authors their money and partly (to be perfectly frank) because stripped books are not as aesthetically pleasing as I would prefer.

This particular book was one of the forsaken orphans. I was working as the children's lead bookseller at the time and was always looking for new things to recommend, plus music-referencing titles are always appealing to me. It is a sweet, occasionally somewhat bleak story about love, music, survival, standing up for what you believe in-in short, about life. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone, with the caveat that some of it (mother being in a hospital, angry/borderline abusive dad) might be a bit much for young readers.

Author: Mary Jane Auch

Potentially objectionable content: See above-mentioned adult themes