AboutThoughts on books and the bookish life from an ardent bibliophile and former bookseller. The author, Lisa Guidarini, is the adult program coordinator for the Algonquin Area Public Library and reviews books for a variety of publishing house and periodicals. Lisa is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Categories
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The Book's the ThingThe Book's the Thing« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 » July 28, 2006 Crazy, Sensationalist, or a Consummate Fake?
No, not THAT author. This is another author completely, and her name is Kathleen McGowan. Her book The Expected One was self-published last year but sold only 2,500 copies. Now it's been picked up by Simon & Schuster and will be printed in 25 countries. So what makes this so controversial? It's just another Da Vinci Code knock-off, right? Well, yes and no. Not only has the author written another religious mystery on the same theme as Brown's book, but she also claims to be a direct descendent of the union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. No, really! How exactly does she know this? Well, that's when things get a bit weird. She has visions, you see, and Mary Magdalene has told her so. Nothing odd about that, now, is there? Her family and friends believe her, and this is what her editor at Touchstone/Simon & Schuster has to say: " Todd says she has no problem believing McGowan's claim that she descends from a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "Yes, I believe her. Her passion and her mission are so strong, how can she not be?" " Oh, of course! How can she not be... If she says so. Well, this book landed on my doorstep a few days ago, courtesy of Simon & Schuster. As it did arrive from the GREAT BEYOND I'm assuming I'm one of the CHOSEN. How can I not be? If I say so. I will be reading this one, out of sheer curiosity, and I'll let you know my honest opinion on it. You can be sure of that. Publisher's Weekly pronounced it mind-numbingly dull, but some other sources have praised it. I'll know soon enough. In the meantime, here's an interesting USA Today article on the subject of McGowan and her book.
Author Kathleen McGowan, true descendant or consummate fake? Posted by lisa at 9:23 AM | Comments (0) July 27, 2006 Canine Side-Trip Redux!Alright, I finished Marley & Me, and now I know what the fuss was about... It's a very sweet tale about one of the most rambunctious, undisciplined dogs you're ever likely to encounter. Grogan's style is very funny, though occasionally sappy, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that being a dog owner myself. Sometimes there's just no way around waxing sappy when talking about your pets. It has at least a three hankie finish, I'll warn you of that now. Dog lovers be prepared! But it does end on a high note, lest you think it's a downer. Though it's sad, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The verdict is a thumb's up for Marley & Me, for a lighter sort of summer read that animal lovers especially should love. And here's to you, Marley, and all other dogs with indomitable spirit. Now who's waxing sappy?
Posted by lisa at 6:02 PM | Comments (0) A Canine Side-Trip
What's that about? I'm taking a reading break from pretty much everything else in order to quickly read Marley & Me. Not generally one to follow trends, I just had to find out what's keeping this book on top week after week. Plus, the book was recommended to me by someone with very trusted reading taste. That's very often a determining factor for me. Reviews are all well and good, but the word of a trusted friend is vastly more influential. I'm about halfway through and I'm thoroughly charmed by Grogan's style, and by his pooch, as well. What a goofy, endearing dog! I can identify with some of it, though on a smaller scale, as I own a Jack Russell Terrier. Taffy could give Marley a run for his money on the issue of quirky behavior. What a nutbag!
The book's not just about the dog. It's also about Grogan, his wife and their subsequent children. They adopt Marley as newlyweds, as a sort of nurturing test before they determine if they'll be good parents. So far one child has come along, and he's just as crazy about this big Lab as his parents. Shouldn't take me too long to finish the book, and it's a nice side trip. Posted by lisa at 9:14 AM | Comments (0) July 25, 2006 Book Lust, Book History and Everything in Between
From _The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop_: "It's not as if I don't have anything to read; there's a tower of perfectly good unread books next to my bed, not to mention the shelves of books in the living room I've been meaning to reread. I find myself, maddeningly, hungry for the next one, as yet unknown. I no longer try to analyze this hunger; I capitulated long ago to the book lust that's afflicted me most of my life. I know enough about the course of the disease to know I'll discover something soon." This quote could have come from my own autobiography, were I ever to feel compelled to write one. How comforting to know I'm not the only book addict on this earth, even in this age of reality TV when the average attention span is all of three seconds long. As someone who reads books about books compulsively, I'm always on the lookout for anything new in this genre. Often I'm disappointed by either lightweight content or lack of a really interesting style, but in the case of this book that wasn't a problem. This is a book that's both charming in style and very rich in content, something that's all too rare. Books like this need champions to proclaim their glory to the world. They're little books, from the standpoint of having to battle the heavy-hitting bestsellers, but huge books if you are anywhere near as enamored by books as Lewis Buzbee. And, if you were attracted enough to look this one up on Amazon, I can only trust you ARE enamored and I hope you'll not just read this one but comment on it wherever you can. This book deserves as wide an audience as it can get, but it's largely by word of mouth that so many small press books achieve that. So, give it a read and proclaim it to all the world! Don't make me beg... As countless other readers will likely find, I identified with so many aspects of this book, from the author's musing on the My Weekly Reader book orders from his grade school days through his various bookstore jobs. His wonderful sidetrips into the history of the book itself made fascinating reading, adding so much to what could have been a fine stand alone memoir of book lust and bookselling. Absolutely wonderful stuff, and a must for all the book-obsessed. Now comes my big decision, whether to hoard this book all to myself or set it free to delight my other bookloving friends. Though I'm torn, I think I will send it on. It pains me, but as Buzbee put it, "Reading is a solitary act, but one that demands connection to the world..." So, humbly, I send my copy of this book forth into the wide world, with the full knowledge that another copy of this book is only a One Click finger twitch away. Posted by lisa at 12:03 PM | Comments (0) Bohumil Hrabal
From Too Loud a Solitude : "If I knew how to write, I'd write a book about the greatest of man's joys and sorrows. It is by and from books that I've learned that the heavens are not humane, neither the heavens nor any man with a head on his shoulders - it's not that men don't wish to be humane, it just goes against common sense." I think I feel a new reading obsession coming on. Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer who wrote with "an extremely expressive, highly visual style." I'm not sure where I found the recommendation, but someone somewhere told me I should have a go at his Too Loud a Solitude. Luckily, I was able to track this one down via interlibrary loan as frankly book purchases lately have been just a bit out of control (mea culpa), and the bills for the next school year arrived recently. So, to whomever recommended Hrabal, THANK YOU. Too Loud a Solitude is about a man named Hanta whose job is to compact trash. He's been doing this particular job for 35 years, and though it may see a completely mindless, even menial job, the glimmering light is that part of the trash he compacts contains books. From this trash he extracts all sorts of volumes, bringing them home to add to the already huge piles of books in his home. He has books piled everywhere, even on a sagging shelf over his bed. Hanta is enchanted by books: "But just as a beautiful fish will occasionally sparkle in the waters of a polluted river that runs through a stretch of factories, so in the flow of old paper the spine of a rare book will occasionally shine forth, and if for a moment I turn away, dazzled, I always turn back in time to rescue it, and after wiping it off on my apron, opening it wide, and breathing in its print, I glue my eyes to the text and read out the first sentence like a Homeric prophecy; then I place it carefully among my other splendid finds in a small crate lined with the holy cards someone once dropped into my cellar by mistake with a load of prayer books, and then comes my ritual, my mass: not only do I read every one of those books, I take each and put it in a bale, because I have a need to garnish my bales, give them my stamp..." Though Hanta's boss thinks him an idiot, it very quickly becomes apparent he's anything but that. "I have a physical sense of myself as a bale of compacted books, the seat of a tiny pilot light of karma, like the flame in a gas refrigerator, an eternal flame I feed daily with the oil of my thoughts, which come from what I unwittingly read during work in the books I am now taking home in my briefcase. So I walk home like a burning house, like a burning stable, the light of life pouring out of the fire, fire pouring out of the dying wood, hostile sorrow lingering under the ashes." This is a beautifully written little book. I recommend it very highly.
Posted by lisa at 9:57 AM | Comments (0) July 20, 2006 More Amelie Nothomb!
The Stranger Next Door by Amelie Nothomb First off, must correct a grievous error I keep making. Amelie Nothomb is NOT FRENCH! She was born to Belgian parents while living in Japan. She speaks French, it's true, along with at least a couple of other languages, but she's actually Belgian if one takes her parentage into account. Alright, that's out of the way and I feel better... Just please excuse if you find this error here, or anywhere, in future. Here's a link for an article about Amelie Nothomb published just today in the Independent. What an intriguing person she is. Intriguing in an eccentric/bordering on neurotic sort of way, just this side of nutty, that is. She seems to have a certain Holly Golightly character, mais non? No wonder she writes the way she does, and long may she continue. This latest Nothomb read is probably my favorite so far. I'm not sure how she did it, but she managed to make this tale of incredibly obnoxious neighbors positively chilling. It's not Stephen King chilling, but still it manages to really give one a turn. It will make you look at your neighbors in an entirely different way, at the very least. I think this Amazon review captures it well: From Library Journal A retired high school teacher and his wife buy a house in the country that appeals to them as the house for their golden years. They have been deeply in love since early childhood and look on each other not only as spouse but as each other's child and parent, heart and soul. This should-be idyllic scene is rent by the oppressor, in this darkly comic case an obese, irascible, grimly taciturn neighbor who appears at their door daily for a two-hour "visit." Husband and wife try a variety of coping strategies as the infernal visitations accumulate: gallantry, absurdity, rudeness. All is recounted with a straightforward grace that provides readers with a front-row seat at this black comedy of modern manners. This is the first of the young and already prolific author's books to appear in the United States. Readers will eagerly anticipate more.?Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., Cal. The book has a sort of Kafkaesque feel, or a surreal quality that's both menacing and entirely ridiculous, at the same time. You ask yourself why this couple doesn't just eject the man, but they do make an effort only to be foiled time after time, mostly by their own sense of moral decency. It's really a fascinating psychological portrait, and I'd recommend this most highly of all Nothomb's works I've read so far. Putting it simply: very good stuff! Posted by lisa at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) July 19, 2006 Tim Coates - British Public Library Advocate
Here's a bit from his bio: " Tim Coates is a former bookseller who has become a well-known advocate for improvements in public-library service. He was the first U.K. bookseller to open an all-night bookstore with a cafe, sofas, and the comfortable style we now associate with bookstores around the world. In his current work, he strives to bring the same customer orientation to libraries. Since 1999 Tim has pursued library improvement at the local and countrywide level by urging improved book ranges, longer hours, and more welcoming buildings. He is the author of "Who's in Charge? Responsibility for the Public Library Service," a report which is used now in many countries to assess public-library services, and he is working on a training guide for library managers as well as an updated edition of his “Who’s in Charge” report. He is a consultant who provides guidance to local councils and to departments of government. " I'd recommend swinging past his blog if you have any interest at all in the plight of public libraries in the UK. You never know, some of it could actually be applicable to libraries here in the States, too. He writes extensively on a broad range of topics, knows lots of people and is very interesting in his own right. Check him out if you get a chance. Posted by lisa at 11:39 AM | Comments (0) July 18, 2006 You Didn't Hear This Here...
I don't think I'll have to clue anyone in on who she is. In fact, there's a really good chance at least half of you own the action figure inspired by her. I know I do. I have the DELUXE model (don't be jealous) complete with library backdrop, desk, computer, book cart and books. I also own both her books but, you may be surprised to know, have actually restrained myself and not bought the accompanying journal. The real reason for that, though, is it's too small to hold the amount of books I feel the need to write about. Otherwise you can safely bet I'd have the journal, too. I was tempted to take Nancy on vacation with me back in June, but I resisted. I took Shakespeare and Jane Austen, instead. And I have the photos to prove it. Ms. Austen most unfortunately fainted from heat prostration somewhere between Arches National Park and Grand Canyon, but Mr. Shakespeare is made of sterner stuff. (Just in case you needed to know that, for research purposes.) But anyway, Nancy Pearl has come up with a list of books that are a good excuse to stay home from work to read. Here's what she came up with: Fiction The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. Pantheon, 2006. I have to say, I haven't read one of these but the Brockmeier's been on my TBR (To Be Read, which is an acronym you may as well memorize as it'll be coming up with great regularity here) since the first reviews came out. Ditto the Donna Tartt. She writes southern gothics that have gotten absolute raves, and I do admire a good southern gothic. I wouldn't be one to question Nancy Pearl (though I did actually catch a - brace yourselves - MISTAKE in her second Book Lust) so I trust her judgment these would be good titles to stay home and read. Again, not that I advocate playing hooky! I'm left wondering what my own list would be, if I were of such dubious integrity as to do something SO ENTIRELY WRONG as pretending to be sick in order to read, of course. Will have a think on this and post results soon. If anyone else feels moved to do so, as well, just send me a note and I'll mention your thoughts, as well. Until then, thinking caps on!
Posted by lisa at 5:59 PM | Comments (0) July 13, 2006 The World of Rare Books, or Buddy Could You Spare £ 2.8 M?
Even though I'm not really a bookseller any more, these things still catch my eye. This copy of Shakespeare's First Folio went up for auction today at Sotheby's and has been sold to a London bookseller for £ 2.8 M. Estimates for the sale were in the area of up to $ 6 M, so this auction actually fell a bit short. As it was sold to a bookseller, though, that suggests it will be sold again in the not-too-distant future. This is not a complete copy, as one of the front endpapers is reportedly missing. Also, the original Ben Jonson poem has been replaced with a 19thC copy. There are scribbles in the margins, circa the 1600s, with comments like "similie," as though some 17thC school child was reading this for a homework assignment. Still trying to get my mind around that concept. There are somewhere around 200 copies of this particular volume in existence, which makes it technically not even rare, but the bulk of those books are in university, museum and private collections. Original 1623 editions don't come up on the market very often, thus the hefty price tag. The only people with access to most of the other copies are scholars, or those given special permission to handle the books. Welcome to the world of rare books, where supply and demand rule. The price of any rare book is determined by what the market will pay. There are price guidelines, but they are only that. If you have the right product for sale in the right market there's no telling what it will fetch. When I was a bookseller I handled some rare books, but unfortunately nothing on the scale of a First Folio. I did once arrange for a collector to be united with some rare William Blake books with gorgeous illustrations like these:
These were actually early 20th century copies, but of such fine quality they were valued in the thousands. They were by far the most expensive, and also possibly the most beautiful, items that passed through my hands. The books passed from an antiquarian seller through me, and I checked to assure everything was in order with no pages missing, nothing not as described, etc. Shipping those on to the collector meant wrenching them out of my hands, but wrench I did. The oldest books I've handed would either be a partial set of the works of Jonathan Swift, or a first edition of Fanny Burney's novel Camilla, both from the 18thC. What makes the Burney truly interesting is the fact it's from the same circulating library Jane Austen used, and her name is listed among the subscribers in the back of one of the volumes. In the 18th century books were so tremendously expensive your average middle class family couldn't afford to own very many, thus the popularity of these circulating, or lending, libraries. The choice was basically either feeding and clothing your family or owning books, so most middle class families chose the former. However, for a more reasonable fee one could sign up for a circulating library and virtually rent books. Even these would have been somewhat expensive, so books were loaned around the household so everyone could read them before they were sent back. Then the next set of books would be sent, and so on.
Another item in my collection is given its value due to a note tucked inside. The book itself isn't particularly valuable. It's one of what's referred to as a uniform edition, or a set of complete works of an author published in the exact same binding, same dust jacket, etc. In this case it's from a set of the works of Virginia Woolf. What makes the book exceptional is a note from Leonard Woolf, widower of the late Virginia, found tucked inside. The note was written by Leonard to someone who wrote asking where she could find a particular Virginia Woolf essay, and the book it's tucked inside contains the essays she's seeking. It's written on the Woolf's stationery, in Virginia's trademark violet ink (which would quite possibly have been inside one of the late Virginia's own fountain pens), with their address imprinted on the notepaper. Still, due to the fickle nature of book collecting, Leonard's note isn't worth a fraction of what it would be had Virginia penned it. Leonard's a mere accessory, but the fact the ink was hers boosts the value. Not even a nutshell explanation of rare book selling, but this is a taste of it. I'm sure I'll have more blog postings on the subject sometime in the future. It's a strange and fascinating profession, with lots of quirky variables. There aren't too many Shakespeare First Folios out there, but there are plenty other great finds if you have the patience to look. Posted by lisa at 3:35 PM | Comments (0) July 12, 2006 Get Caught Reading
Yet further proof, as though we needed it, that the Jack Russell Terrier is an intelligent breed of dog. In this photo I surprised her while she was reading a non-fiction epic. Or is it a work of genealogy? When she's done I'll ask for her review. P.S.: Am now mad with power as I've finally figured out how to add photos to this blog!
Posted by lisa at 11:48 PM | Comments (0) Library Night at the Cell
Thursday, July 6 was Library Night at U.S. Cellular Field. Tickets were half price, and the seats were actually pretty decent. We were on the lower level (row 33ish) out in the left field area. Whether fortunately or not, we were safely out of foul ball range. The good thing is no potential for being hit on the head by balls travelling at 100 mph, but the bad thing is no free souvenirs. Oh well. Cheers erupted when the Library Night image came up on the screen, which is a good indication a lot of library staff took advantage of the great deal. Not far behind me there was a gentleman randomly yelling out, "Librarians are people, too!" Incidentally, there was an awful lot of beer sold at the game. I'm a White Sox fan, so it was pretty cool being close enough to the players to actually see their faces. We were above the White Sox bullpen and got a good look at A.J. Pierzynski putting on his catcher's gear and warming up the pitchers. We were also in range of Scott Podsednik, but unfortunately we were removed from the heart of the action. When you're that far away from home plate you can't heckle the umpire for bad calls. That takes away a lot of the fun, but we were still happy to be there. I'm not sure, but I think I also sighted William Shakespeare on the field:
A great time was had by all. GO WHITE SOX!
Posted by lisa at 8:21 AM | Comments (0) July 10, 2006 What I'm Currently Reading: Snowed Under by BooksJoy of joys, returning to the library on a Monday morning and finding some of my interlibrary loan books have arrived! Today's haul included: The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates Classic Crimes (NYRB Classic) by William Roughead The Whistling Seasonn by Ivan Doig I admire JC Oates tremendously, though she has a great capacity for frightening the bejesus out of me. If you haven't read her I'd ask for a recommendation before plunging into her works, for the simple reason she can be brutal. She wrote one book about a canniabalistic serial killer (Jeffrey Dahmer was her "inspiration" for lack of a better term), and I had a very hard time getting through that. Like Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, the writing's masterful but the subject matter is as grotesque as you're probably imagining, and then some. She writes in a variety of genres, though, in case such dark fiction isn't your preference. There are her young adult novels, her gothic romances (more literary than a Harlequin, I assure you!), her short stories (many of these are frightening, as well) and her incredible output of non-fiction/essays, etc. If you haven't noticed, she's everywhere. I respect Oates partly because of her incredibly prolific output, but mostly because she has such diverse talents and can seemingly write equally well in any genre. However, she did once publicly rip apart a book edited by someone I know and respect in, of all places, the New York Review of Books. Hardly gets more embarrassing than that, or more public, but thankfully he's enough of a veteran to take it all with a grain of salt. I really think I was more bent out of shape than he was. There was also a film waiting for me this morning, The Story of the Weeping Camel. This one was recommended very highly in another library's newsletter. This from Amazon: Plot Synopsis: Springtime in the Gobi Desert, South Mongolia. A family of nomadic shepherds assists the births of their camel herd. One of the camels has an excruciatingly difficult delivery but, with help from the family, out comes a rare white colt. Despite the efforts of the shepherds, the mother rejects the newborn, refusing it her milk and her motherly love. When any hope for the little one seems to have vanished, the nomads send their two young boys on a journey through the desert, to a a backwater town in search of a musician who is their only hope for saving the colt's life. Sounds like a great one to watch with the kids. Ding dong! The UPS man (who resembles Richard Gere VERY strongly, apropos of nothing) has just brought me a new review book from Simon & Schuster, Disobedience by Naomi Alderman. It's a finalist for the Orange Prize. Or it was, as I'm 99.9 % sure this year's Orange Prize has already been awarded. I am, once again, snowed under by books. You may not be surprised to know I consider that a good thing! Posted by lisa at 3:19 PM | Comments (0) July 6, 2006 Amelie Nothomb
Amelie Nothomb has a reputation in Europe for being a "precocious" and very talented writer. I hadn't heard of her at all until a friend with ILT (impeccable literary taste) waxed rhapsodic about a recent Nothomb binge she undertook. Having read one of this author's works, my ILT friend assured me, there was simply no stopping until she'd continued through them all. My ILT friend and I are prone to binge-reading (and I'm frankly highly suggestible by nature), and it didn't take long for me to check the library's online catalog to see what titles were available within the system. And, impressively, there were lots to choose from, both in Nothomb's native French and also in translation. I chose three titles that sounded good, and ordered those straightaway.
The book reminded me, in some ways, of the film Lost in Translation. It had that general sort of humorous edge to it, with a dash of surrealism thrown in for good measure. Definitely not a pedestrian, run of the mill sort of novel. It nudges more into experimental fiction, yet it's also very far from what I'd call Ulysses Syndrome. I have a definite limit when it comes to reading this sort of post-modern, experimental writing, and Nothomb thankfully never quite pushed me out of that comfort zone.
The book begins with a very young couple who are expecting a baby. The wife is all of about 19 years old, and the couple lives with the young woman's parents as they are nowhere near being able to support themselves. In her ninth month of pregnancy the woman, Lucette, gets in an argument over names for the baby. When her husband expresses his desire for what she considers very pedestrian names, Lucette shoots him dead. The rest of the book deals with the daughter of this union, born in the prison in which Lucette is serving her sentence for murder. Lucette names her daughter Plectrude, despite the protests of the doctor and guards in the prison, who warn her she'll be made fun of mercilessly for such a strange name. But Lucette is insistent. Plectrude is a dancer, with "a dancer's eyes," and has no aptitude or really any patience for anything else. She's driven to become a dancer, starving herself to fit the role of the tiny, graceful ballerina. The rest of the book outlines Plectrude's legacy, as the daughter of the not quite of this world Lucette, and the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.
Young Amelie, until the age of three, thinks of herself as God. She doesn't make a noise, or even move a muscle, until age two and a half. Her parents call her "the Plant." In other words, she takes in food and grows, but she has no more interaction with them than a houseplant. Inexplicably, one day Amelie sits up and begins screaming. She barely pauses to take a breath until the arrival of her grandmother, who hands her a piece of white Belgian chocolate. Amelie is finally transformed into a normal toddler, learning to talk and walk, thanks to the Magic of Chocolate. What happens in the rest of the book is quite possibly even more strange and wondrous than in the early part, and once again Nothomb leaves us uncertain whether we should feel happy or unsettled. Her prose style is, throughout all the books, impressive. I may read yet more by Nothomb, but after an evening spent reading three of her books I'm feeling mentally drained. It may be a while before I try her again, but I'm thrilled to have found such a singularly interesting writer I'd never heard of before. I recommend you step out of the mainstream comfort zone of fiction and give her a try. And if you do I'd love to know what you think. Posted by lisa at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) July 5, 2006 Libraries Going the Way of the Dinosaur?Lots of looming issues on the subject of the future of the public library, to put it mildly. Sarah Long's recent theme of the month article addressed this issue and it really hit home. If you haven't read it yet please have a look: Newspaper and magazine articles about the survival struggles of libraries here and abroad seem to be popping up all over the place. Could that be a good thing? This is a recent article published in the _Guardian_ (UK), a publication very involved in matters bookish (thus a pet favorite of this reader): If you finish the article without hyperventilating at the mention of the number of public libraries closing in the UK I'd be very surprised. Not only are many of them already closed, but there are dozens more "to be reviewed." Very dire words. What's possibly even more frightening is the UK has a higher percentage of readers than the US. I don't have the figures at hand, but I've read many articles on the subject through the years, and that fact gives me pause. If a population with a greater percentage of serious readers is finding its public libraries irrelevant then what hope does the attention-challenged US population have? Maybe we should start a new reality series, "Survivor: Public Library." Then maybe we'd get the attention of the public. Or, maybe, "Lost: In a Public Library." That'll make 'em tune in! Or not. In any event, it's complacency that's the real demon. If the issue's avoided it really will go away. The libraries, that is, if the institution as a whole can't find a way to make itself dynamic and vital. Posted by lisa at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) July 3, 2006 Gender Differences in Novel ReadingIs there a difference between what men and women look for in a novel? Apparently so, according to at least one study conducted this year in the UK. The researchers found, among other things, these contrasts between the sexes: " Women readers used much-loved books to support them through difficult times and emotional turbulence. They tended to employ them as metaphorical guides to behaviour, or as support and inspiration. "The men's list was all angst and Orwell. Sort of puberty reading," she said. Ideas touching on isolation and "aloneness" were strong among the men's "milestone" books. " The _Guardian_ (UK) published the resulting two lists of top 20 favorite novels, one reflecting the choices of men, and the other the top choices of women. Perhaps surprisingly (or perhaps not), there was little overlap between the two lists. Here they are: MEN'S LIST 1. Albert Camus - The Outsider WOMEN'S LIST 1. Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre My own top 20 list would draw partly from both of these two lists, and add titles not mentioned on either. It would also most likely fluctuate depending upon which day you asked me, and what sort of mood I was in. That's one thing about these lists of favorite books. I doubt there are many people who'd list the same 20 without fail, unless they'd spent an awful lot of time thinking about the subject and weighing their opinions in the past. So, if you asked me today, this would be my top 20 list (not in any particular order): LISA'S LIST 1. Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse Not surprising I'm heavy on British fiction and heavy on southern fiction, with drops of Russian and Latin literature thrown in. That sounds about right. Anyone else have a Top 20 list to share? I'd love to hear from you!
Posted by lisa at 9:52 AM | Comments (0) |
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