I FINISHED IT!!!!

We drove down to California last week to attend my Great Uncle's funeral and I was stuck in a car for almost 30 hours total.  I finally finished Pillars of the Earth!!!

What a great book!!   I will write more on it soon, I just wanted to post that I finally finished it!

The Kindle

For my 36th Birthday my husband bought me a Kindle.  I've been saying for a while that I wanted one.  I've priced them a bit, but just never bought.  Finally I have one!  Unfortunately, this means I haven't read Pillars of the Earth since.... oops.

I only have 100 pages left... why can't I finish this book?  It's a great book, obviously written by a man, with very masculine tendencies, but a great story.

I will finish it this weekend!  I must!  I've been reading if for a VERY long time!

-- since I got the Kindle, I've read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.   Not on this list as they are newer, but I like them a lot!

Pillars of the Earth - Continues

Yep, still reading Pillars of the Earth.  I'm enjoying it, but it is such a large book I find it awkward to read.  It really makes me think that I would love a Kindle.  Not sure if anyone is reading this, but if you are, and if you have a Kindle, let me know what you think. 

Back to the book... there is all sorts of scheming and backstabbing.  The author finally started telling the story from the point of view of a female character ... and she was promptly raped.  At first I was really upset by this, but he is starting to turn it around.  Showing how this tragedy has inspired her to be more self reliant and strong... of course, it is a bit sexist to think a girl needs tragedy to inspire her.   Hmmm  I'll have to think about this more. 

Either way, I like the character and I'm rooting for her. Go Aliena! 

Movies & TV shows 41-60

I definitely watch more TV and movies than I read... that's not good. 


41. Anne of Green Gables -- I watched this on PBS when I was a kid... I'm excited to read the book!

47. A Christmas Carol -- there have been so many versions of this.  Most recently I watched Scrooged w/Bill Murray (wasn't even Christmas time).  I've seen the old scary one too, I didn't enjoy that one as much... but I can appreciate it for what it was.  There was even a Mickey's Christmas Carol!  This story has been made and remade so many times, but it really is a good story.

 51. The Secret Garden -- I remember watching this when I was about Jr. High aged or maybe younger.  I was so amazed by the garden and what they did. It also made me want to travel... I wanted to see both England and India where the TV version started.  At the time it was just the perfect story to me.

53. The Stand:  I'm sure the miniseries probably wasn't a great cinimatic feat, but I hadn't read the book yet and I thought the story was just great!  Like most people I find that  there is just something about stories about the survivors of an apocalyptic event.  What if the world as we know ended... what would I do... where would I go? After seeing the TV series when I was in highschool, I picked up the book, but didn't finish it.  I finally finished a few years later when I was in college.  Perhaps I'll read it again for this project since its been so long.

That's it for 41 - 60.  Did they make a movie for The Count of Monte Cristo?

And ... I'm back

So, It has been quite the semester for me.  I took two classes, bought a house, my husband graduated from college, and had a new boss...  so I finally picked up Pillars of the Earth again yesterday and read 100 pages!! 

It was beyond wonderful to sit and read for pleasure!  I haven't been able to do this is such a long time. 

The book is really quite enjoyable.  Generally speaking I don't read many books set in the past, which really makes no since since I was a history major in college and love learning about the past.  There are times when I find Mr. Follet to be a little bit too descriptive so I skimming but for the most part I haven't needed to do so.  Perhaps this will change, but so far I can really tell that the book was written by a man.  Most of the points of view given so far are mens'.  For example when he is telling the story of Tom Builder and his brood, even though he tries to tell it from many points of view, I would say that more than 70% of the time it is from men's viewpoint.  I don't think this is a bad thing, just an observation.

 

"He had been granted his life's wish-but conditionally."   --- I've only read up to page 200, but I really find the story of Phillip inspiring.  He is so naive, but also ambitious.  He agrees to support the Archdeacon to take over as Bishop when the Bishop passes, but then finds out that he has been duped... the Bishop had already passed.  But even in doing so, he really wants to revitalize Kingsbridge... of course this is where you see my naivety... I believe the best in people as well.  Even though I know that Phillip will has the best of intentions, I also know that he has some pride as well.  But I tend to only see the best of intentions. 

Good book so far!

Movies & TV shows 21-40

22. Gone with the Wind:  In middle school we had a substitute teacher once who told us the story of  Gone with the Wind one lunch break while we were stuck in the classroom due to bad weather.  She was a great story teller and it was a great story, I just fell in love with it.  Of course, she didn't finish the story, just told us about the 1st half or so of the 1st part of the movie.  I think maybe we watched it in class after she told the story?  I'm sure, but if she didn't then I talked my parents into renting it shortly thereafter. 

22. Harry Potter and the Socrcerer's Stone, 23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:  grouping these three together seemed prudent.  Although, my favor Harry Potter movie was the Prisoner of Azhkaban.  I loved the change to the darker story, less childlike.  The new set of the Hogwarts was fantastic and really showed how Hogwarts is just off on its own, not really a part of anywhere else. 

25. The Hobbit:  Saw the cartoon when I was a kid, sorry Andrea - I spit hot cocoa all over her back because Gollum scared me so much... Still really dislike Gollum.  Not excited about reading this book.

30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:  There are so many versions of this, and generally I try and watch them all.  I've seen the cartoon, the TV Mini-series, the Sci-Fy channel's reimagined Alice (which I loved), and tried to watch the new Tim Burton movie... but I've fallen asleep watching it twice.  Its just a little too out there for me I think.  I like 'different' and 'outhere' but there needs to be a reason for it, this one just seemed to be different for different's sake.

33. The Pillars of the Earth:  Currently reading - saw the first two episodes of the miniseries. 

35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: This is another movie, where I very much like the original and just had a really hard time with Tim Burton's update.  The original is just the very weird, musical, dark movie with amazing bright and happy parts to it.  I still have dreams of scoping marshmellow creme out of the spot of a mushroom. 

40. Emma:  I know that I have seen Emma - but I honestly don't remember it from Sense and Sensibility and a few others that all came out around that same time.  I guess I'll watch them all again after seeing the movie. 

Up next week:  41 - 60.  Still reading Pillars of the Earth, but I've only read about 10 pages in the past two weeks.  

A little bit further along

I'm enjoying Pillars of th Earth so far.  I started watching the mini-series a while back and saw the first two episodes and really like it.  I remembered at that point that I had the book, and that I should probably read the book first so I stopped watching the rest of it.  I've read about 100 pages or so, and its well written, but I just don't have time for much pleasure reading.  I'm still not up to the point where I was in the TV show though, looking foward to blazing new territory soon. 

This got me thinking about movies I've seen based on the books on the list.  Here are the books/movies 1 - 20 that I've seen:

1. The Lord of the Rings:  This is one of those backwards ones where I'm so glad I saw the movie first.  I NEVER would have made it through the book.   They are stuck in the damn Old Forest with Tom Bombadil for what seemed like an eternity, had I not known there was more story - that was amazing - to come I probably would have put the book down right then.

3. His Dark Materials: I've seen The Golden Compass...  I think I enjoyed it at the time.  It made me think - "I bet I'd like the books" but - it really didn't stick with me because all I remember is a polar bear and Nicole Kidman as a very bad woman. There is some controversy surronding these books and how they were 'anti-religon' or was it 'anti-christian' - but really that just makes me want to read them more.

4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:  I started to watch the movie -- but fell asleep...

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:  I've read all the Harry Potter books and seen all the movies... so I have a hard time remember what was in the books vs. what was in the movies.  The Goblet of Fire was such a long book, I know they had to cute out a lot of stuff.  It did introduce America to Robert Pattinson though, such a cutie!

6. To Kill a Mockingbird:  Amazing book, amazing movie, not much else to say.

9. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe:  confession time - I read this book in the 3rd grade, so I honestly didn't remember much of it until I saw the movie.  It was funny how it all came back to me, the story that is.  There is also some religous controversy with these books, with the promise of the return of the king, even though I'm not Christian I still think its a very entertaining and fun story for children.

16. The Wind in the Willows: Does the cartoon count?  I really like "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" at Disneyland!

17. Great Expectations: I saw the version they made about 10 - 15 years ago.  I haven't read the book, and I went to the movie with someone who had read the book many times and had to listen to her remark on every little thing in the movie. 

18.  Little Women:  I read this book one winter when we were snowed in at home in Foresthill.  I think I was about 15 or so.  I enjoyed the movie as well, Winona Ryder pre-shoplifting, did a good job as Jo. 

I'll write about the next 20 books in next weeks blog. 

The Federal Landscape: An Economic History of the 20th Century West

Well, Since I don't have much time for reading Pillars of the Earth (only up to page 80 or so), I thought I should blog about the book I did manage to read! Gerald Nash is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of New Mexico.  I had to read this book for my History of the West, since 1900 class I'm taking here at the University of Idaho.  This is not a book review, but merely my own thoughts after reading his book.  For a description of the book click here:  http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid1271.htm

There is a perception of the rugged, individualist Westerner - out make it on their own, do it their own way, pull themselves up by their bootstraps, etc.  However after reading Gerald Nash’s book that perception erodes away rather quickly.  In fact just reading this book, I realize how much the Federal Government has shaped my own life as a westerner.  My grandfather was stationed in San Diego, bought one of the federally subsidized suburban homes.  And even now sixty years later, I am using a FHA loan to buy a 1950’s rancher style home. 

It has also had very large effect on my professional experiences as well.  Before working for the University, I worked for companies that sold private health insurance.  Henry J. Kaiser, an industrialist who helped to found the Kaiser Permanente medical plan also received millions of dollars in government contracts, building ships and homes among other things (pg 45, 58) I also work at a research University, which may have benefited from the public private partnerships that grew in the West during the 1950s.  And I know that we are currently benefiting from that as so much of our budget comes from federal grants and contracts.

The town I grew up in was in the Tahoe National Forest.  People flocked to each summer to raft, fish, camp, and hike – all a part of the federal landscape.  In the 1970s a dam was in the beginning stages of being built.  Construction was halted due to a number of reasons including the need for additional ground/earthquake studies and quickly escalating costs that the Federal Government could no longer afford.  It became one of those projects that were a casualty of loss of enthusiasm by Congress.  However, all those who now enjoy the canyons and whitewater don’t mind so much.

The growth and economic successes and failures in the west have been intricately linked with the Federal Government.  The development of the highway system, which Nash touches on throughout the book, but probably could have devoted a little more time too, shaped the western culture in the 20^th century, it also shaped much of the way we current eat (McDonald’s for example). 

Nash’s book summarizes and links together just how much the West relied on Federal support, somethingthat while living in the middle of this support I don’t think most people realize.  I know I didn’t. 

School + Work + Buying a House = no pleasure reading time

I started reading The Pillars of the Earth, but I've only got about 50 pages into because I've been having to read so much for class.  I'm taking two history courses this semester at the University of Idaho.  History of Secret Societies and Conspiracies... COOL class, and History of the American West since 1900 which I am also enjoying.  But this means that I don't get to do as much pleasure reading as I had hoped. 

I am reading:

The Federal Landscape: An Economic History of the Twentieth-Century West, Gerald Nash
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Mike Davis
Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
Los Angeles and the Automobile, Scott Bottles

And a few others.  Good thing I like to read.

Memoirs of a Geisha

I didn't quite know what to expect from this book.  I had a friend once tell me that they were glad they had read the book because the movie was bad.  Not seeing the movie I was just hoping the book was good as well. 

Just based on the title, and truly not knowing what a Geisha was I jumped in.  Even though it is written as a memoir it is truly fiction.  I'm just amazed that Arthur Golden was able to capture some of the thoughts of a little girl or an apprentice Geisha.  The book starts when young, grey eyed Chiyo is just a fisherman's daughter in a rural Japanese fishing village.  As her mother is ill, and her father is unsure how to take care of two young daughters, she and her sister are sold, Chiyo to a Okiya to become a Geisha, and her sister into prostitution. 

Set in Japan, starting just before WWII gets heated, I loved the prospective this novel gives.  How did WWII affect the lives of a Geisha?  Their lives, like everyone else's changed dramatically during this time.  But even throughout the book the narrator, Sayuri,  clarifies that while their lives had changed, it was obviously not as much as those around them. 

Not knowing the history of Geisha, I felt like I was reading a swan song to the time of the Geisha. Even she ended up in New York City.

This book really is one of the better books I have read.  Of course it is 20th century historical fiction - of course I love it.

Although, I wonder if as a feminist I'm 'not supposed' to like it.  I mean, it is all about the objectification of a woman.  Sayuri's sister is sold in straight prostitution, and eventually runs away, but we never find out how her life turned out.  The story leads you to believe that Sayuri leads a better than she would have had she stayed in her fishing village and lived her life as little Chiyo.  Instead, the man of her dreams saves her from a horrible life as a maid, pays for her training, and even eventually (through a VERY roundabout manner) takes her to NYC for her to live out her life there.  Something of a "Pretty Woman" or  "Cinderella" story, just set in the geisha district of Gion in Kyoto Japan. 

I've already started another book.  This time I will be reading Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.  It is a rather long book, so I'll try and post more often as I'm reading it. 

BBC Book List

Many of my friends have been posting the BBC best 100 books list as a Facebook note. The Facebook note says something like: The BBC estimates that most people have only read 6 out of these 100 classic books. How many have you read? Then people go through and mark how many they've read. Now, I've read more than 6, but it reading the list made me realize, wow - there were a lot of books that would probably be considered 'Classics' that I haven't read. So, I'm going to read them!

Here is a list of all the books: Those in RED I've already read.


1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Wow, only 16. And since 4 of them are the first 4 Harry Potter books... yikes! I need to get reading!

I find it interesting that I've read On the Road, but not a Brave New World... I meant to read it, I really did. Also, I've read Good Omens, but not 1984 or anything by Jane Austin?

So, this blog will chronicle my goal to read these books. I'm not going to read them in any certain order, just what sounds good next. I plan on checking in at least once a week with my thoughts.

First up: Memoirs of a Geisha (acutally I'm almost finished with this book, I started a few weeks ago)