Ah Thursday! A happy day that means tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is very close at hand. I have a jumble of things this evening.
RIP Update
I am nearly done with Haggard’s She. I am alternately amused and appalled by it. I have also found the structure of the novel interesting because Danielewski’s House of of Leaves which I am also reading has a similar structure. Maybe structure isn’t the right word, frame or perhaps technique would be better. I find it fascinating that this very Victorian novel and a wacky postmodern novel both use manuscripts from a dead man to tell the story and each uses footnote comments from the inheritor of the manuscript to comment on the the text. It goes even farther than that in House of Leaves. But that I am reading two RIP books from different centuries that both use the same approach is fascinating. I’m not sure what else to say about that yet, perhaps there is a post about it after I finish both books. Oh and House of Leaves, had me feeling the chills in broad daylight.
Andrea Dworkin
I did some looking into various books of hers today and it turns out that someone has probably illegally scanned them and made them available online as PDFs. So if you are interested, download them while you can! The titles I am especially curious about at the moment are Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourse on Sexual Politics, Woman Hating, and Right-Wing Women. I have no idea how long these books will be allowed to stay out in the wild, so if you are interested, get them now.
Experimental Novels
Flavorwire has a list of experimental novels that are worth the effort in honor of the publication in the U.S. of A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing. I am proud to say the U.S. publisher is Minneapolis’s own independent Coffee House Press. Woo! I am very much interested in the novel. Has anyone read it yet?
As to Flavorwire’s list, I take exception to the “worth the effort” bit. Any good book is worth the effort, so what if it is difficult. The list is good in spite of that. I’ve not read any of the books on it though I have read other books by several of the authors listed. Does anyone have a favorite experimental novel (if that even really means anything) that is not on the list you would recommend?
Reading Insecurity
A somewhat amusing article at Slate, Reading Insecurity. What is it? That feeling that you are not getting as much from your reading as you used to. The worry that you aren’t reading as much and when you do read you are distracted. The belief that you spent all day lost in a book as a kid and can no longer achieve that level of reading nirvana. It isn’t a bad article as these things go.
Readathon!
I was just wondering the other day when the fall readathon was going to be because it has ben a couple years since I participated and I am in the mood. Then today in my feed reader, behold! Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon is scheduled for Saturday, October 18th. I have signed up and I am already wondering what I will read! Not only that I am wondering what delicious snacks I can get Bookman to make me to fuel my reading! I’m not sure which I am more excited about, the reading binge or the snacks.
Well, that should do it for now. Off to get in a little exercise and a little reading.
Ahahaha, I can identify with your reaction to She. Alternately amused and appalled was exactly how I felt about it. Oh, H. Rider Haggard.
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Jenny, glad to know I am not the only one with the same reaction to She!
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I am looking forward to your review of “She”.
Seems like no one reads classics anymore.
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booksandbuttons, I love classics and this time of year I love classic “horror” it is always interesting to see what sorts of things used to be considered scary.
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I’ve heard The House of Leaves is the scariest book ever. Doubt I have the courage to try it because even Stephen King can scare the beheck out of me.
Can’t wait for the read-a-thon, either!
Thanks for finding me on wordpress again! Xoxo
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House Of Leaves sounds wonderful! I like the idea of a readathon…. what would I read? I’d drag out my battered set of Funk and Wagnalls and see how far I could get!
Referendum is over. I think its a good result with both sides able to take something from it so I’m quite happy.
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Ian, House of Leaves has so many layers I didn’t expect it to actually be scary in spite of being warned by people who have read it. And really nothing has happened except new hallways appearing in the house in impossible places. But the possibility of being lost in your own house where you are supposed to be safe is pretty scary. Funk and Wagnalls! We had a set at my house when I was a kid. I used to love them. I heard the news about the referendum on the radio this morning. I’m glad you are happy about how things turned out.
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Yes, a vibrant Yes campaign which left ethnic nationalism behind. I am glad the union is still with us but the result looks like changing UK politics quite a bit over next few years.
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Bellezza, it’s still early in the book but yeah, House of Leaves is pretty creepy and technically nothing has happened yet but it seems to be an evil house story and those push my terror buttons. Glad I found you on WordPress and I hope it serves you well! 🙂
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You have nothing to worry about when it comes to so-called experimental novels. You can say “Yes, but I have read Sartor Resartus” and the other supposedly difficult novel will slink away in shame.
She is a ridiculous book.
“Seems like no one reads classics anymore.” ha ha ha ha ha ha!
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Tom, you are very kind. Sartor Resartus was quite the challenging book! In some ways it is harder than Joyce’s Ulysses.
She is most definitely a ridiculous book.
As for classics, I know one person who pretty much reads nothing but. His blog’s called Wuthering Expectations 😉
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Oh ‘She’! It was my favourite novel as a teenager – possibly because there was a very blockbuster type film doing the rounds as well. I haven’t read Haggard since then but suddenly I’m getting an urge. I may have to go and dig out my old copy for the weekend.
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Alex, there was a blockbuster film of She? Oh my. I just read the other day that his novel When the World Shook has been reprinted by a publisher doing a series on early science fiction.
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Never heard of those experimental novels with one notable exception – I happen to be reading the Ali Smith novel. It’s too early to gauge whether it’s an experiment that works though.
Thanks for the link to the article on reading insecurity . Some of this info about how we read differently and absorb info less when it is on line was the key point of a book called The Shallows. Quite disturbing.
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BookerTalk, I hope you are enjoying the Smith novel. Ah, The Shallows, yes I read that one. Carr is overly pessimistic I think, but he does make some good points.
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I agreed with a lot of his comments since I’ve found that I do skim more when I read on line. But yes it was a bit all doom and gloom
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Yes, depending on what I am reading online I will skim too, but it doesn’t translate into causing me trouble reading books or having attention problems, at least for me.
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That Reading Insecurity article wasn’t bad at all, and I definitely get that insecure feeling sometimes. I go through phases where I just can’t focus for long periods or with much intensity on what I’m reading. I don’t attribute it all to digital media though–there’s always something to be distracted by. Pre-Internet I could watch crummy TV all day instead of reading. And these days all my pesky adult responsibilities are a distraction too. But the difficulty is a problem when it keeps me from reading some of the more challenging books I know I would enjoy. (And I end up blaming myself when I do read something “difficult” and don’t get it.) This is one of the reasons I’ve been thinking about mindfulness this year.
I did think the way the author pegged the piece to readers’ ages and basically ignored anyone older than Gen Y was strange. I know lots of middle-aged and older people who complain of the same thing. But I also now that long ago had a conversation with some young-ish Boomer colleagues who were completely ignorant to the existence of Gen X. (My age puts me in the dead center of that generation, so that was startling.) People just don’t notice what isn’t immediately around them, I guess.
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Teresa, I think we all go through phases when we find it difficult to focus for long periods. I get a restless sort of feeling now and then and can’t sit still to do anything. Like you, I don’t blame it on digital media especially since I had the same sorts of phases before I even owned a computer. And I hear you on those pesky adult distractions. I did find the age cut-off a bit of a bother in the article too. Age and technology matter less and less these days. It’s not so much a matter of age any longer but engagement with digital technology and I think most people are in it deep. You had a Boomer colleague that didn’t know about Gen X? Huh. As an X myself I too would be surprised by that!
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I have not participated in Dewey’s Read-A-Thon for a couple of years, but like you I was looking forward to it this year. It will come toward the end of an extremely busy time for me, so it will be nice to sit and read. Hearing all of you talking about House of Leaves will make me check my library for a copy. I’m looking for something scary – although I could always watch the news.
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Grad, a readathon reward for you! That will be very nice. Heh, the news these days is definitely more scary than a horror novel.
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My library has “A Girl Half…” and I looked at it–even checked it out, but I think it is just not for me. I always think maybe later, when I am in the right mood, but I am not sure I will ever be in the mood for it–though I have heard good things about. I know my limitations however…. Did you plan your RIP reads like that? It’s actually a fun idea and it will be cool when you are writing about them to compare! Must check out that reading insecurity article–sounds like something that I can relate to at the moment!
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Danielle, it’s good to know your limitations though who knows, as you said, you might find yourself in the right mood to give it a try sometime. I did not plan my RIP reads like that, it was a serendipitous pairing. I love when those happen!
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