The Dead Writers Round-Up: 18th-21st July

  • William Makepeace Thackeray was born on 7/18/1811. “A good laugh is sunshine in the house.”
  • Jane Austen died on 7/18/1817. “A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.”
  • Clifford Odets was born on 7/18/1906. “Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills.”
  • Hunter S. Thompson was born on 7/18/1937. “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
  • Hart Crane was born on 7/21/1899. “Love: a burnt match skating in the urinal.”
  • Ernest Hemingway was born on 7/21/1899. “As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.”

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All images are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain.

 

A Year in Books/Day 172: Who the Hell is Pansy O’Hara?

  • Title: Who the Hell is Pansy O’Hara? The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World’s Best-Loved Books
  • Authors: Jenny Bond & Chris Sheedy
  • Year Published: 2008 (Penguin Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2008
  • Source: Unknown (I think it was a gift from my Mom)
  • About: Think of this volume as a book version of one of those biographical dictionaries of famous people and you’ll know what you are in for. Continue reading

Shopping for the Bookworm: NovelPoster Mini-Edition

You’ve probably seen text-based artwork by now. Although my favourite site, Etsy, has some lovely examples, today I am spotlighting a couple of images from NovelPoster. In addition to the artwork shown below, they also offer posters of Pride & Prejudice, the Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn and The Wizard of Oz. Enjoy!

The Great Gatsby by NovelPoster

The Great Gatsby by NovelPoster. $40.

The grey-ish background is actually comprised of the full text of the books.

20,000 Leagues by NovelPoster

20,000 Leagues by NovelPoster. $40.

Images courtesy of novelposter.com.

A Year in Books/Day 159: Emily Brontë

  • Title: The British Writers’ Lives Emily Brontë
  • Author: Robert Barnard
  • Year Published: 2000 (The British Library)
  • Year Purchased: 2012
  • Source: The Book Loft, Columbus, Ohio
  • About: I’m no Brontë virgin. There are many biographies of the famous literary family. I’ve read a lot of them, cut from various cloths. This entry in The British Library Writers’ Lives series is different from any of the others I’ve read. Focusing on middle daughter Emily (she of Wuthering Heights), it completes the feat of being a wonderful introduction to first-timers while bringing something new to the party for veterans. It is steady and insightful without ever resorting to the wild-child mystic trope that has followed Emily’s ghost around for decades. This biography is packed with original photographs, drawings, manuscripts, artwork and letters, which lend it a vivid immediacy that longer works often lack. It is a quick, quick read that you will want to return to time and again.
  • Motivation: I bought this volume to continue my love affair with dead writers and classic literature.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 38: “There is a touch of cracker-barrel philosopher about this, as if Emily is only happy dealing with strong personal emotion when she can don a Gondal mask as a partial cover for her feelings. Confessional poetry was never to be her forte.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 155: The Trouble with Thirteen

  • Title: The Trouble with Thirteen
  • Author: Betty Miles
  • Year Published: 1979 (An Avon Flare Book)
  • Year Purchased: 1986
  • Source: Book fair at an authors conference
  • About: This one is obviously left over from my extreme youth. The plot is simple-the growing pains of two twelve-year-old girls. Even though I was of an age with the heroines, I was intellectually years beyond this book; I read it in half an hour, and immediately returned to better things. I’m fairly certain that the “honesty” of this slim volume was pretty quaint when it was first published in the late 1970s. Even though there is a quote from the Christian Science Monitor on the cover comparing Miles to Judy Blume, that is some real nonsense. However, I bought (and kept) it for a very specific reason. See below to find out why. Continue reading

A Year in Books/Day 152: Heidi

  • Title: HEIDI FILLE DES MONTAGNES
  • Author: Adapted from the novel by Johanna Spyri
  • Illustrations: Steffie Lerch
  • Year Published: 1969 (Gautier-Languereau-Paris)
  • Year Purchased: 1970
  • Source: My mom brought this back from an extended stay in France, well before I was born.
  • About: Heidi, the plucky Swiss girl who goes to live with her grandfather, is one of the most famous characters in kiddie literature. There have been many film interpretations, including a 1937 version with Shirley Temple. This little book, in French and meant for early readers (or those just learning the language), was adapted from Spyri’s 1880 novel. It is highly abbreviated, and features sweet illustrations.
  • Motivation: My mother bought this for her younger sister, who gave it to me years later. It quickly became a favourite. I still have it-although it is rough around the edges from repeated childhood readings. It was, and remains, well-loved.
  • Times Read: Countless
  • Random Excerpt:

    Heidi

    Heidi

  • Happiness Scale: 10++

A Year in Books/Day 101: A Treasury of Peter Rabbit and Other Stories

  • Title: A Treasury of Peter Rabbit and Other Stories
  • Author: Beatrix Potter
  • Year Published: No copyright date noted.
  • Year Purchased: The year I turned five.
  • Source: According to the inscription, this was a gift from my Aunt Lauree.
  • About: Every classic Beatrix Potter story is in this volume, including ‘The Tale of Two Bad Mice’*. Maybe it was just me, but I did not like Tom Thumb and his wife, Hunca Munca. I thought they were creepy, but I loved, loved, loved the rest of the book. I loved it so much I even wrote in it (very unlike me). I’ve managed to keep it in my possession for three decades (very like me). Her illustrations are enchantingly timeless.
  • Motivation: I was a girl. I loved animals and, at five, I had already been reading for two years.
  • Times Read: Hundreds during kindergarten alone. I was an obsessive reader even then.
  • Random Excerpt: “The water was all slippy-sloppy in the larder and in the back passage. But Mr. Jeremy liked getting his feet wet; nobody ever scolded him, and he never caught a cold.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10
  • * Having just spent a minute re-reading this story, I stand firmly by my initial assessment: it is scary and horrible and undeniably sad.

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A Reading List a Mile Long: Books I Wish I Was Reading Right Now

My love for lists is not at all casual; I’m serious, hardcore, obsessive with my list making and  maintenance. As a writer, publisher and all-around busy person without an assistant, I make and refine several a day. Every day. It keeps me focused and on-track, whilst allowing for instant gratification when I finish a task and cross it off. The swoosh of a sharpened pencil across the paper is never more satisfying than when eliminating a line from a list. Continue reading