neda's blog

Fourth Week-Fourth Book

Last week, I finished reading "Await Your Reply". I also listened to "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Therefore, if I want to count, I could say I read two books which would be a good record for me. Although,  F was out of town and I was alone and literary had nothing to do in the weekend except reading and listening to my books. Still I am going to give some credits to myself.

This week is the fourth week! I wanted to read "State of Wonder" but when I checked our library it has 46 holds. Instead I start reading "You Remind Me of Me" by the same author as "Await Your Reply". I am getting use to his  style of writing. Many characters with their own stories would be the beginning and in each chapter you will face and learn another story about their livings. Somehow their lives would meet and you can connect everybody to each other.

Now, I am content and satisfied with myself. So, I am thinking maybe it would be a good idea to add something else to my project or start another project. I guess I have more than enough time, just need to be motivated and try hard. I am thinking about a writing project. Writing 500 words a day for three months and see if my writing gets any better. I would choose three months, because three is my number and right now I think it would be enough time to figure out if I can improve by this exercise or I need to do more.

 

review

I love goodreads.com, between all the websites I am using as a user GoodReads is one of the best. I always try to keep track of my reading and GoodReads makes it much easier for me.

Today I was thinking about how many books I have read so far in 2011 so I was checking my GoodReads. Recently, they have added another button, "stat", so you can easily checked how many books you have read or how many pages. In average, I read 22 pages everyday in the past seven months. I thought I have read more but apparently I was wrong. 

Second Week, Second Book

Last week, I read and mostly listened to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". It reminded me of my childhood when I used to watch its cartoon with my sisters. No need to say it is a very well-written book, plus you can finish it maybe in one day if you have enough time. Thanks to Librivox for having its audio book, I could have knitted the shawl I am making for F while I was listening to the audios. 

For the third week, I chose to listen to "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and because I am not sure if I can count listening to the books as reading them, I am also reading "Await Your Reply" by Dan Chaon. 

First Book, A Visit from the Goon Squad

I just finished my first book, A Visit from the Goon Squad. I did enjoy reading it however, having so many stories and characters in different times was kind of confusing. Today after I finished reading the book, I searched a little bit  and read some critics. It wasn't just me, many people in GoodReads wrote how hard was for them to keep track of everyone so they would jump back and forth in order to remember everyone. I didn't do like them. When I was reading the book I knew I should do the same but at the same time I was feeling I should remember! I need to remember! Most of the times I would recall the characters after a while. Somehow with me being confuse I was a little slower than usual. Luckily the book wasn't long (less than 350 pages). 

The novel has won so many prizes including Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Another interesting thing about the book is the author used PowerPoint for writing one of the chapter. 

The unusual format of the novel, taking place across multiple platforms, has led some critics to label the novel "post-post modern". Many critics were impressed by some of Egan's experiments with structure, such as a section formatted like a PowerPoint printout.

 

summer project

I was reading Paula by Isabel Allende. I finished it last week while I was staying at my friend's place. Allende is one of my favorite author, every time I pick up one of her works I would get stunned and can't stop reading it. It took me two weeks to finish the book, because I can't read all days long. I wish I was a teenager once again and could read as much as I want everyday without being responsible or worried for anything. However, anytime I was free and could concentrate, I read Paula. It was one of the best book I have ever read. It also made me motivated to write my own memoir more precisely. 

After I finished reading Paula, I chose "So Many Books, So Little Time". And because of all the things I have heard about it, I thought it should be a great book. But as soon as I started reading it, I got disappointed. As much as I wanted to read, I couldn't get the whole story. I love the idea of reading a book in a week and writing about it. But I didn't like how the author wrote about her chosen books. Her way of writing about the books didn't make me interested in reading the books. Sometimes it was not even clear if she really enjoyed doing the project.  Maybe I was not in a right mood! However, reading 90 pages of the book made me to decide to do the same, to read a book in a week and write about it. This week is the 1st week and I am reading  "A Visit from the Goon Sqaud". I am happy about my choice.  I want to finish it until Friday so I could write about it on Saturday.

drowning by one forgotten memory

I was reading Paula by Isabel Allende. At the beginning of the book, she starts telling her daughter about her family, some of the family members who has never met. She tells Paula about one of her brother's childhood (Paula's uncle), how smart he was (and probably is), how he could calculate numbers easily and recited long poems when he was just 5 years old.  As I read these passages, suddenly I remembered a day when my mother and I were shopping in a store, at the end there was a guy who worked in the cashier had some difficulties to sum up all our expenses, he said "I am gonna get a calculater," and then I (as shy as I was back then) with a very down noise said "the sum is... " he was shocked, he asked my mom "how old is she?", and then he calculated the sum and saw for himself that I was right. I have completely forgotten that day, but Allende with her magic tone brought me everything about that day. I remember how my mom proudly looked at me and told the guy :"she is 7 years old." I remember the guy gave me my favorite candy as a prize and from that day, whenever we went to that store if he was there, he would give me the same candy. and in some occasion he would tell his coworkers about how fast I was.

Booker

I was reading about Booker Prize and then I saw the final list of contenders for the Man Booker International 2011. The list is:
Juan Goytisolo (Spain)James Kelman (UK)John le Carré (UK)Amin Maalouf (Lebanon)David Malouf (Australia)Dacia Maraini (Italy)Rohinton Mistry (India/Canada)Philip Pullman (UK)Marilynne Robinson (USA)Su Tong (China)Anne Tyler (USA)Wang Anyi (China)

The 4th and 5th have almost the same family name. David Malouf is an Australian author but of course he has a  Lebanese root. It somehow interested me, two person with the same family name were in the booker list in the same year. 

What Books Are You Reading?

I started to choose which books I am going to read each month and write about them at the 1st of each month. In this way, maybe I am pushed a little bit and don't to leave a book unfinished.  For March I wanted to read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Island Beneath the Sea". Fortunately I finished reading both of them and enjoyed them a lot, specially I really liked the second one, it is a very well written book beside it was helping me to understand about the difficult life and time for colored people in 200 years ago in America. 

Now I am reading "The Help". This book seems a bit long so I guess I am not going to finish it in March. I should find more fun books for April. The good point is I have so many books on my iPad so I can easily choose some books from them.