|
I mentioned yesterday that I was going to put One Hundred Years of Solitude review up today, but I’m going back to Indonesia for my brother’s wedding tomorrow morning, it’s 12:20am, and I’m juggling far too many things right now, so I thought, why rush it? I’m gonna take my time writing later and I’ll be back before you know it. So happy reading, see you in 2 weeks!
Continuing my Best Books Project, this time it’s Claire‘s turn! (My project is a bit off schedule, but as long as I keep going, right?)
At first glance Claire and I may seem very different from the way we represent ourselves on our blogs, but we actually have so much more in common than I (or possibly anyone) thought. Claire is a big reader (around 650 books recorded) and she can be very convincing when talking about books she loves!
When asked about her favorite books ever, Claire couldn’t stop listing, so here’s her top 17! :)
1. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
2. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude, GGM
4. Love in the Time of Cholera, GGM
5. The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien
6. Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
7. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
8. The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
9. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
10. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
11. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
12. The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
13. How Late it Was, How Late, James Kelman
14. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima
15. The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
16. 2666, Roberto Bolaño
17. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
I have read and LOVED The History of Love, Wuthering Heights, and Life of Pi. So what are the chances I’d love any book from this list?! There are some on the list that have been on my mental tbr list, such as The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The House of Mango Street, I Capture the Castle, Great Expectations, and both Garcia Marquez. And the rests definitely intrigue me. There’s one though that I have no plan to read ever, which is Moby Dick. Haha. But who knows, maybe the day would come :)
If you paid attention to my side bar in the past few weeks, you’d know which one I chose to read for this round. Yes, yes, it’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Stay tune for my review tomorrow.
Have you read and loved any of the books on the list? Have you disliked any of them?! Do share!
Last week there was Graphics Festival at Sydney Opera House featuring a couple of graphic novels and movies folks. I was most excited about Shaun Tan and Neil Gaiman. Shaun Tan because, well, I adore his works beyond words. And Neil Gaiman, though none of his works have truly connected with me, he’s the type of author I’d love to meet in person.
So on Saturday night, hubby and I went to an orchestra based on The Arrival, Shaun’s wordless graphic novel (since I’ve met him, can we be on first name basis now?). The orchestra complemented the slides of illustrations from the book nicely. It was lovely.
But the real highlight for me, of course, to meet Shaun Tan in person! Gosh talking about nervous! Heart beating fast.. sweaty hands.. incoherent speech.. fangirl mode on. Luckily I managed to force myself to blurb out something like I’m the biggest fan of your work. He was being really nice, and replied back in a very normal way, so we actually had a nice conversation for a couple of minutes. I haven’t been to many authors’ signings, but I thought Shaun was extra nice. He actually talked to me like a completely normal person without fame vibe whatsoever and it didn’t feel like he was rushing so he could get on to the next person behind me, if you know what I mean. He actually spent some time talking to me even though there’s a long line for him!
When I said I loved The Arrival and Tales from Outer Suburbia, he said that his favorite book is probably Tales from Outer Suburbia. It was the one he enjoyed doing the most, and the type of book he likes to read as well, short stories and illustrations. Then I mentioned about seeing trailer of The Lost Thing and how awesome it looked. He thanked me and said it took them nine years to do the 15-minute short film (wow!). Said it’s gonna be out on DVD soon and that he thought I would love it. (obviously!) I also found out that The Arrival took him four years to complete (with one year of thinking and not exactly knowing what to do). Each page took about a week long. When asked how he came up with such beautiful illustrations, I overheard, he smiled and answered, just lots of practice really.
It was the best author night ever. I left with a huge huge smile on my face for the entire night :)
What’s that he wrote under the cute pet? (which he drew on the spot!) I was too nervous to pay attention at the time to ask!
Afternoon the next day I went to a panel titled The Evolution of an Idea, with Shaun Tan, Neil Gaiman, and Eddie Campbell. The length I went through to get the ticket to this event! I thought when and where else would Shaun Tan be in the same room as Neil Gaiman?! I just had to go to see them both!
Look at them side by side!
Lucky I managed to secure myself a spot! It was an awesome 90 minutes panel about evolution of ideas. Obviously Neil Gaiman was the most famous out of the lot (though I beg to see differently as Shaun is my star), so lots of questions were thrown at him. He struck me as being a shy guy for some reason, and impressed me for being very articulate and well-spoken. Shaun too, to my surprise. I guess I have preconceived notions that authors are generally articulate on paper, but not in person. Well they both defied the myth. To be honest Eddie Campbell wasn’t on my radar much. I heard of From Hell but that’s probably it, and I didn’t find him as interesting as the other two on the panel.
A couple of things I gathered from Shaun (which seems to be a misspelled Shawn or Sean, because that’s how you pronounce his name):
He started as an illustrator but always wanted to be a writer as well, because he wasn’t satisfied with just illustrating other people’s lines. On The Rabbits for example, he received a half-page fax with 16 lines from John Marsden for the script of The Rabbits. It took him a year to illustrate the book, while both of them later got the royalties, which probably didn’t feel fair to him. The idea of course is important, but the actual labour of writing is minimal compared to illustrating. Good for him to make the book his own at the end with his outstanding illustrations! Were the script given to a lesser illustrator, it would just be a bunch of indistinguishable rabbits and the book would be lost in the sea of the ordinaries. (Since then Shaun has gone to have his fully own written book: Tales from Outer Suburbia.)
A thread of conversation led Neil Gaiman to mention that he thought who you are as an author is shaped by things you digest before you’re twenty. Shaun quickly agreed. Said he used to really get into reruns of The Twilight Zone the tv series when he was about 11. He then went to the library and asked the librarians what genre The Twilight Zone was. It was science-fiction apparently and he was given a list of sci-fi authors, arranged alphabetically. He came upon Ray Bradbury and never got pass that. (funny!) Shaun read all Bradbury’s books and was completely immersed. (Note to self: read one of Bradbury’s books!) Another book he remembered was Animal Farm by George Orwell. (Note to self: read that one too!) His parents thought it was a children book and gave it for him to read. But just so you know he totally got it and could see who the pigs were on the school playground.
When talking about adaptation of his books, Shaun said he generally doesn’t have a lot of actions in his books and his characters are often nameless. He has always preferred “static images that linger.. like an echo of what happened”. Which doesn’t make it easy to adapt his books to other medium. In one case, The Arrival was adapted to a stage play in Canberra and they added a strong landlady character to create conflict with the main character. Gracious and humble he said if he had seen the adaptation before finishing the book, he would probably make it that way. It’s scary how in the process of creating a book, it could go a thousand different ways. Which path should I take? Which path is right? At the end you have to go with what you feel strongest for. Neil expressed his agreement.
What I gathered from Neil Gaiman:
That he never starts to write a script before he knows who the illustrator will be. It’s crucial to collaborate with the illustrator and adjust his writing in accordance with the strengths and weaknesses of the illustrator.
In his early writing career he wrote biography for Duran Duran..
There are about 60 people altogether working on The Sandman series.
One of the most interesting thing was probably the part where he told the story behind MirrorMask (note to self: watch the movie). Whereas any normal movie project starts with an idea, MirrorMask started with a budget. Dave McKean was given 4 million dollars to make a movie and he accepted, asking Neil to work together. The rest of the details were quite hilarious, I wish I could record everything. Oh he also talked about Stardust the movie (which I also haven’t watched. I do have the book on my tbr.)
It was a great afternoon. But have to say I was really disappointed that they almost literally ran out of the room as soon as the event ended. I brought Stardust with me (my American Gods didn’t arrive on time from Book Depo) and was kinda hoping that there would be signing at the end. They didn’t say there would be, but still I had my hope. Well, Neil disappointed me in that regards. What, is he too famous to do signing in Sydney? :(
I’ve made up my mind. If I could have ANY three authors for dinner, alive or dead, one would definitely be Shaun Tan. My admiration for him keeps going TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!
With so many toys coming into Mee’s headquarter in the past few weeks (MacBook, XBox360, Wii), something gotta take the backseat. Reading doesn’t, but I guess blogging does. Coincidentally I’m reading One Hundred Years of Solitude which takes a while to read, while I only have one book review in the backlog. What can I say, the universe just seems to conspire for me not to write anything.
Meanwhile, have you checked out the Booker longlist? This year I have read 1 book, which is a great improvement from the usual uum.. nil. I read The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas earlier this year and I’m glad to see it there, just so we have another Australian apart from Peter Carey (hasn’t he won enough?). There are some brilliant bits in the book and some boring bits, but all in all, a rather worthy read. Most Australians are quite surprised that the book gets so much attention overseas (what with Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and now The Booker), because it is soo Melbournians… I am too. I lived in Melbourne for 6 years before so it is a book I’m glad I read, but I’m not sure how other people relate to it. Perhaps UK’s contemporary suburban life is not that far off than what we have here down under.
Apart from that, one book that piques my interest the most is Room by Emma Donoghue, and I know I’m not alone in this. Looks like Room starts popping up everywhere on the blogosphere. I’m not however rushing to buy and read it. I’m more likely to sit back and watch the battle field from the side, waiting until the dust settles before approaching any of them.
This month of First Tuesday Book Club features One Day by David Nichols. Now the premise of this book intrigued me very much:
“After graduation from university, Emma, with her youthful aspirations and good humour, shares a night of passion with the shallow and vain Dexter. In a series of annual updates spanning 20 years, we return to the two friends every June 15. We follow their lives as they travel their own paths, intersecting and deviating along the way. As the years tick by, it becomes clear that they are happier, better people when they are together than when they are apart.”
Really, I was hoping this could be the second The Time Traveler’s Wife. But alas, (most of) the panel hated it. I highly trust Marieke and Jason, since they’re always honest and spot-on. Jennifer likes too many books including the not-so-liked ones, so I take her opinions with a grain of salt. Possibly as the main host she can’t butcher a book too much. Or she just has a bubbly personality that doesn’t allow her to be mean to any book.
Marieke started her opinion by saying “I hated it so much. I thought it was a smug, unfunny, unlikeable book about two smug, unfunny, unlikeable people.” (I love her) In the whole show Marieke, Jason, and Wendy (guest) just went on and on about how they hated the book, it’s so funny. Rob (also guest), as the only person apart from Jennifer, who liked the book, actually started talking to the audience instead of the panel (like he’s meant to)! Appealing to the audience to convince them to read the book!
I laughed so much during this segment. Must be one of the funniest episode of First Tuesday. You can watch it online here (12:21).
The second segment features Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth, Marieke’s pick. I am now absolutely convinced that I need to read this book.
“First published in 1969, Philip Roth’s novel is the story of Alexander Portnoy, a young Jewish American who, on regular visits to his therapist’s, pours forth a rambling biography of his early childhood and teenage years. His tale is one of a strict upbringing, a raging libido, sexual guilt, compulsive masturbation and an overbearing mother. Unhappy with his parents and his sex life, Alexander’s confession becomes a comic attempt to cure himself of his one overbearing ailment, his Portnoy’s Complaint.”
You’re not convinced? Well watch the episode online (7:34)! They unanimously loved the book. Marieke this time started with “I just could kiss every page.” Very convincing Marieke. Then the rest of the panel just raved on and on about it.
Must. Read.
Have you read Portnoy’s Complaint or other Philip Roth‘s books? Which one would you recommend?
Are you planning to read any of the two books? Did I or they change your plan?
This must be the bleakest graphic novel/manga I have ever read. I was intrigued when I saw this copy at Sydney Japanese Foundation Library. The book is designed and edited by Adrian Tomine (whose Shortcomings I have yet to read), and includes Tomine’s introduction.
Yoshihiro Tatsumi is known as “the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics”. In 1957, he coined the term gekiga to differentiate the gritty, naturalistic style of cartooning he helped pioneer from that of the more commercial, youth-oriented manga. From the Introduction by Tomine:
“As plans for this translation project began to get off the ground, it soon became apparent that a comprehensive reprinting of Tatsumi’s work would be literally impossible. With a career spanning from the 1950s to the present day, and with a work ethic that yielded up to twelve pages in a week (and, with the help of assistants, fifty pages in one night!), Mr. Tatsumi has produced a mind-bogglingly immense body of work. So this will be a selective survey of his best work, beginning, at Mr. Tatsumi’s request, with the year of 1969. Our hope is to release one volume per year, each focusing on a single year in Mr. Tatsumi’s career.”
So Push Man and Other Stories is Tatsumi’s best-of collection from 1969. It contains slice-of-life portrait of grim life of Japanese working class (or what they literally call “salary-man”). The stories were originally published in a bi-weekly magazine called Gekiga-Young, a minor young men’s magazine with limited print runs. Tatsumi was only given 8 pages per issue because he had no reputation as a manga artist at the time. So most of the stories in this collection (16 altogether), except for a couple, are super short. Too short in fact that I found myself flying through the pages, hungry for more. I read this thick volume in almost one sitting, almost unheard of me.
Going back to my impression at the beginning of the post, the book is surprisingly grim, with numerous sexual elements and violence, “both refreshing and unsettling” according to Tomine, to which I have to agree. The illustration style is very simple. The main character is always a man, who almost looks the same in all the stories, and eerily, rarely talks, which makes the underlying silent resignation from and frustration of life strongly resonate throughout the book. The title story is about a pushman (you know how in Japan they have official pushers to push people into the overcrowded trains?). Many, if not all, of the stories revolve around hopelessness of everyday’s life and often end in death, murder, or suicide.
There’s an interview with the author at the end of the book and when asked about his influences in general that had a significant impact of his work, Tatsumi answered police reports and other human interest articles in papers, and that he hardly read any manga. Little wonder then that reading this book almost feels like reading crime newspaper, full with events and crimes that are hard to believe, but you know they must be happening somewhere in the society. The stories are highly unsettling, but really addictive. I likened it to watching a train-wreck. You know it’s horrible and probably haunts you for a while, but you can’t look away.
I think it needs a lot of courage to produce this kind of work and I commend Tatsumi for that. He himself doesn’t feel very secure however, noting at the end of the interview “I myself am a very normal person. Please do not interpret these stories as representative of the author’s personality.” I’d be worried too if I were him. I mean I don’t even dare to summarize you the stories. If you’re curious, Drawn Quarterly, the publisher, provides one complete story as a preview (click the pdf file on the side), so you can check that out.
The Push Man and Other Stories is quintessentially Japanese, the darker, perverse side of it that is. Recommended for the freshness, the boldness, and the absurdity of it all. But the sensitive and the faint of heart must stay away. Will I read more Tatsumi’s works? Uum.. YES. I’m dying to read A Drifting Life, his massive 800+ page autobiography (in comic form, of course).
1969 (Japanese), 2005 (English), 202 pp
Pushman and Other Stories is included in Time’s Top Ten List for Comics.
Star interview for 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival
About.com 3 pages interview (also at 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival)
Challenges
Graphic Novels 2010 (book #9)
Have you read the book or Tatsumi’s other books? Let me know!
Russian literature is something I’m completely unfamiliar with. So when The Classic Circuit announced Tour on Imperial Russian Literature, I knew I had to partake in some way. I wouldn’t have enough time to read a full-length novel (what with Russian novels all look so freakin thick), so I was looking for short stories. I went for the names I recognized. Since I’ve read a Chekhov’s story before, it was either a Tolstoy’s or a Dovtoyevsky’s for me (only after a few searches did I start to spell his name properly). A quick search on Stanza brought me to Best Russian Short Stories on Project Gutenberg, compiled by Thomas Seltzer, which looks promising. This collection features The Christmas Tree and The Wedding by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, God Sees the Truth, But Waits by Leo Tolstoy, and many others. The introduction by Seltzer struck me: 
When the Englishman Dickens wrote with his profound pity and understanding of the poor, there was yet a bit; of remoteness, perhaps, even, a bit of caricature, in his treatment of them. He showed their sufferings to the rest of the world with a “Behold how the other half lives!” The Russian writes of the poor, as it were, from within, as one of them, with no eye to theatrical effect upon the well-to-do. There is no insistence upon peculiar virtues or vices. The poor are portrayed just as they are, as human beings like the rest of us.
However at the end I settled on the story in DailyLit’s Classic Shorts: Eight Stories for the Summer because it came at a great timing and I love their format more. The Russian shorts featured in the collection are A Doctor’s Visit by Anton Chekhov and Ivan the Fool by Leo Tolstoy. So Tolstoy it is. I’m thinking it’s also good to dip my toe in the water before reading Anna Karenina next year.
Ivan the Fool is surprisingly simple story. It reads almost like a children folktale/fairy tale. Three brothers with different ideals go their own separate ways. One with an ambition to conquer, one to be wealthy, and the last one–the Fool–pursues nothing but happiness in simple life. The devils try their hardest to create troubles for the brothers as they’re not happy to see peace.
Curious about what was behind the story, I quickly googled it, to find University of Adelaide website (which looks great) that has the story available online. According to the unknown translator’s preface:
The story of “Ivan the Fool” portrays Tolstoi’s communistic ideas, involving the abolition of military forces, middlemen, despotism, and money. Instead of these he would establish on earth a kingdom in which each and every person would become a worker and producer. The author describes the various struggles through which three brothers passed, beset as they were by devils large and small, until they reached the ideal state of existence which he believes to be the only happy one attainable in this world.
Well that makes so much sense! Thank you Mr Unknown Translator.
If Anna Karenina is as easily readable as Ivan the Fool, I’d nothing to worry about!
1863
Don’t know how I missed this, but I was so excited to find out about this short a few minutes ago! The short is part of Sydney Film Festival last month and will take part in Melbourne International Film Festival later this year. It is based on Shaun Tan’s book The Lost Thing (1999). He’s been working with a Melbourne-based small team from 2002 to 2010 for this 15 minutes short. It’s 3D with 2D hand-painted textures. Like all Shaun Tan’s I think it’s amazing! Love! I haven’t read the book, but I will surely do so now, and also look for the film!
Find out more about the film from Shaun Tan’s website (many images from the book, concept arts, and the film)
The official website www.thelostthing.com (A very pretty site!)
It’s mid year so it seems like a good time to wrap up some challenges I’ve completed!
Once Upon a Time IV ended on 20th June. I read 6 books that fall into category folklore, fantasy, fairy tales, or mythology, so I actually completed Quest the First (5 books) despite aiming for just The Journey (1 book). I did not even try for the challenge, so I guess fantasy and the likes are really in my comfort zone. Thanks to Carl for hosting this always fun challenge! Books read:
Apart from the books above I also read 1 short story (apart from 10 Angela Carter’s short stories in The Bloody Chamber): The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North Park after the Change by Kij Johnson (4/5)
My favorite is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Brilliant, brilliant work! The Bloody Chamber warrants a special mention too. It was my first Angela Carter and I think I will enjoy more of her works. And Pride of Baghdad for its excellent artwork!
Book Awards IV officially ends in November 2010, but I’ve completed it with flying colors as award winners are really my thing. But the challenge seems to die down. I haven’t seen much update from either the host or the participants. I decided to wrap this up and stop keeping track.
Books read:
My favorites are A Fine Balance, Waiting, and Flowers for Algernon, all amazing for completely different reasons.
China Challenge officially ends in September 2010 but I decided to wrap this up too now because the next level is 10 books and I don’t think I’m gonna get there. I personally really enjoyed this challenge and will try to incorporate Chinese books in my future reading every once in a while. I completed Fast Train to Shanghai level which requires 5 books (but uum.. I forgot the nonfiction. Oops.)
I really enjoyed all the books here. If I have to pick the tops of the lot it would be Waiting and Love in a Fallen City.
I have more challenges to wrap up, but I really need to sleep so those’ll do for now. Did you join any of those above? How did you go?
Some post-challenge pondering: Though I love challenges, I think from now on I’m gonna pass any challenges that are longer than a couple of months, especially the ones that go for a year long. The excitement dies down pretty quickly, and the initial intention to share reads with readers that have the same interests don’t really work out well. After two months or three everybody seems to have forgotten about the challenge and we never hear from each other again. Do you think that’s true? Do you forget about the challenges you join after a couple of months? Do you make effort to visit fellow participants of the challenges you join? Do you expect the host to give you a visit once in a while? What do you hope/expect to get out of challenges?
What one picture would you choose to represent your reading taste without a book in it? Simon of Stuck in a Book started the wave a while ago and I saw many who have responded to the challenge, which I loved to see (list here and pic compilation here). I know I’m awfully late, but it is something I’ve been thinking about and can’t possibly miss to contribute!
I’ve decided to settle on this painting by Salvador Dali. I saw this painting so many years ago, when I was a teenager. At that time I didn’t know who Salvador Dali was, never paid any attention to paintings, and didn’t know who painted it. Just last year I stumbled upon Destino, an animated short, collaboration by Disney and Dali (you can check the video on youtube). Only after learning more about Dali did I find out that he was the painter of the painting I fixed my eyes upon almost a decade ago. Boy how it stuck on my mind. I remember staring at it for at least a couple of minutes at some random small store which I just went in by chance. Didn’t quite make out what it was, but I was absolutely enchanted by it. It probably remains the only painting that is engraved in my memory from my teenage self.
What does it have anything to do with my reading taste, you ask.
I love books that are memorable and long lasting. I love books that make me think, challenge my world, and come up with a new reality. Books that are haunting, bold, and different. Books that grab my soul and don’t let go.
Books that make me go Wow.
