Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law.
Wuthering Heights, starring Kaya Scodelario and James Howson.
On the Road, starring Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund.
Wherein These Literary Movie Trailers Fight to the Death
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Tag Archives: Novels
I’m Reading a Dirty Book (and, no, it’s not Fifty Shades of… Anything)
I’m reading a dirty book and, no, it’s not Fifty Shades of…Anything. It’s worse. I picked it up last week at the dollar store. During check-out I hid it in the middle of a pile of cleaning supplies, but the cashier wasn’t fooled: she gave me side eye. Owning it makes me blush. I would never, ever be seen in public with it under my arm or nose. We’re friends, though, right? Right? Okay, good. I’m a bit shy about this sensitive subject, so I am going to divulge my secret in a photograph. Deep breath. Here it is: Continue reading
[Intermezzo] Five Minutes
After I fall in love with a book, whether it happens with the opening sentence or mid-way through chapter five, in an effort to finish it I operate at one of two speeds: molasses-slow or maniacally fast. The process is involuntary, organic: I don’t choose the rate, it chooses me. Whether I’m pulling apart paragraphs sentence by sentence, and sentences word by word, or running through chapters to the rhythm of a hummingbird’s beating wings, one thing is true: I’m savoring every moment, every thought, every element. The paths are different, but the enjoyment is similarly intense.
Reading is ritualistic, with individual ceremonies developing around each book: fugitive but nourishing, their ordered peculiarities decorate the mosaic of my days. Continue reading
Shopping for the Bookworm: William Faulkner Mini-Edition
I put together this edition for the purpose of showing off a painting that I adore! Lest you get bored, I padded it with a few more related products from Etsy. Enjoy!
William Faulkner Canvas by CustomLife-$359.00
What an inspiring, center-of-attention piece! I’m not sure how much writing I would get done with Faulkner lording it over me like that. I’m afraid I’d have to banish him from my studio. He would look wonderful above my bar, though.
William Faulkner Necklace by ART HISTORY NERD-$20.00
I love jewelry that hasn’t been mass-produced by the tens of thousands. It’s a good thing that I have self-control, or I would own way too many pieces featuring writers’ mugs. I like Faulkner’s pipe and pensive pose here.
The Sound and the Fury at Random Voyeur Vintage-$14.00
A handsome1956 edition of Faulkner’s 4th novel (originally published in 1929). I love old books. Okay, I love books in general. Older ones just happen to be my favourites. This volume, with its gold embossed spine, is no exception.
Original Illustration-William Faulkner Quotation by Obvious State-$24.00
Quote + Art=happiness.
A Partial Inventory of Gustave Flaubert’s Personal Effects
A Year in Books/Day 189: Virginia Woolf
- Title: Virginia Woolf
- Author: Mary Ann Caws
- Year Published: 2001 (The Overlook Press)
- Year Purchased: 2002
- Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
- About: The beauty of this volume is not in famed academic Caws’ disappointingly standard-issue prose but in the abundance of photographs decorating the pages. It’s a wee book you can read in an hour. The eclectic images of Woolf and her circle will make you pick it up again and again; most of the photos do not suffer from being over-published. They are fresh and compelling. My favourite is the back of a stripe-shirted (Dora) Carrington.
- Motivation: Virginia Woolf! There’s nothing more to it than that.
- Times Read: 2 or 3
- Random Excerpt/Page 36: “Monk’s House was a perfect place for living and for visitors, for Leonard’s gardening and their writing. Endless discussions took place there, some of which are recounted in Virginia’s letters. Work went on constantly wherever Virginia and Leonard were, whether in Hogarth House or Monk’s House.”
- Happiness Scale: 9 (for the photographs)
Daily Diversion #31: This is the easy time…*
Holed up in a beam of sunshine. Earl Grey on the side, steam lifting from its dark surface. A fugitive book that’s been on my to-read list for 9 years.
Wintering by Kate Moses
Captured from Daedalus for $2.98.Turned in to a reason to get up early, when the sun dazzles without heat. Doing its part to wake me. Efficient. Now I can read.
The perfect combination, rendered wistful. Out of reach.
In the company of words, time is pliable. Plastic. Continue reading
The Dead Writers Round-Up: 1st-3rd August
- Herman Melville was born on 8/1/1819. “A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.”
- James Baldwin was born on 8/2/1924. “Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.”
- Wallace Stevens died on 8/2/1955. “As life grows more terrible, its literature grows more terrible.”
- Donald Ogden Stewart died on 8/2/1980. Stewart was a playwright-turned-screenwriter. He won an Academy Award for his adaptation of Philip Barry’s play, The Philadelphia Story.
- William S. Burroughs died on 8/2/1997. “Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.”
- Ernie Pyle was born on 8/3/1900. “War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.”
- Joseph Conrad died on 8/3/1924. “An artist is a man of action, whether he creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of a complicated situation.”
- Colette died on 8/3/1954. “A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.”
- Flannery O’Connor died on 8/3/1964. “I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I am afraid it will not be controversial.”
[All images are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain.]
A Year in Books/Day 184: QB VII (or, A Book in My Collection I Do Not Like)
- Title: QB VII
- Author: Leon Uris
- Year Published: 1970 (Doubleday & Company, Inc.)
- Year Purchased: 1990s
- Source: Book Harbor, Westerville, Ohio
- About: QB VII is proof that I do not love (or even like) everything in my collection. There are a few odd volumes I’ve kept on after discovering I really do not like their contents. This is one of those rarities. I don’t object to the flashbacks, legal proceedings or courtroom setting; if I did, I never would have selected this for my initiation into the writings of Leon Uris. That bitch known as hindsight thinks I should probably have started with Exodus or Topaz, but it is far too late now. Continue reading
A Year in Books/Day 183: Tinisima
- Title: Tinisima A Novel
- Author: Elena Poniatowska
- Year Published: 1992/This Edition: 1998 (Penguin Books)
- Year Purchased: 2004
- Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
- About: Although she is now one of my favourite photographers, the image that introduced me to Tina Modotti was not by, but rather of, this magnetic and enigmatic woman. It was, of course, an Edward Weston.
Tina Modotti with her arms raised by Edward Weston (Source: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
I enjoy his work, but feel a resolute kinship with the art of the woman whose talent he encouraged. Tinisima, in translation from the original Spanish, is a fictionalized account of her turbulent, sacrificial, frustrating, many-faceted life. In a way, it is a more fitting tribute to its mysterious subject than any well-researched biography.
- Motivation: Having read Patricia Albers’ excellent biography Shadows, Fire, Snow a couple of years earlier, I was interested to see how a fictional account of Modotti’s life would play out.
- Times Read: 1
- Random Excerpt/Page 171: “Eight picture in one day! She always mulled over each shot, even visited the scene and studied the light at different times of day before shooting; she waited for the exact moment, the click ringing out in the sacred silence. Now he is telling her to press the shutter without thinking about the results, like the unconscious blink of an eye. That is journalism.”
- Happiness Scale: 8 1/2
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 