Filed under: Books
Hey everyone! I’m finally ready to move to my new site! I’m still tweaking it here and there, but it is now ready for public consumption. Normally, a few words of farewell would be necessary, but since my new site is powered by WordPress it’s not that much of a farewell. More like an upgrade. 
So without further ado, my new website: www.whosabiblioaddict.com.
See you there!!!
On the awesomeness of Alison Bechdel and the history of sex in the twenty-first century:
Alison Bechdel, author of the incredible graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, has written the New York Times first graphic review of A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century: A Memoir by Jane Vandenburgh.
The review is below, but for a much larger, readable version of the review click here.
Filed under: Miscellany
Last time I posted I said I was taking some time off to work on my new blog. Well, a little over – what? – two weeks later I’m still working. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is going to take longer than I anticipated. And frankly, I’m going through blog posting withdrawal.
Why is it when I’m taking a self-imposed break from blogging it always seems as if I can never run out of things to talk about? Everyday, it seems, I’m running across some item or other that makes me think: Oooh! This would make an excellent post.
So I’m returning prematurely here. I’m still working on the creation of my new blog which I really hope to have done in a couple of weeks at the most. Until then, I’ll be here posting because it seems that I just can’t stay away!
Filed under: Books
On taking a bit of learning and reading break:
A few days ago I got the bright idea that it was finally time I owned my own domain name. I’d been putting it off for about a year now, but now the time was ripe. Except…
I somehow managed to overlook the fact that I hadn’t the SLIGHTEST idea of what having my own domain entailed beyond having my the site address at “www.biblioaddict.com” as opposed to “baddict.wordpress.com”. It never occurred to me before, but there really is good reason why people get paid good money to do this. In short, I need time, folks, to figure what the hell it is I’m doing.
In addition to that, I’ve got a number of good books going at the moment. To name a small few: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and Emma by Jane Austen. Between all this great reading and trying to climb the steep learning curve of domain ownership, blogging time is definitely get cut into.
So, instead of leaving BiblioAddict abandoned for lack of posts, I wanted to let you all know that it’s all for the greater good! Spring is just around the corner, you know? Whenever the suns starts shining and the tempeture rises, I always get the urge to start reorganizing my apartment and moving stuff around. Apparently, that includes my blog.
So, I’ll be back! Bigger and better hopefully. In the meantime, happy reading everyone. See you soon!
Filed under: Books | Tags: golden compass, his dark materials, philip pullman, the amber spyglass, the subtle knife
On His Dark Materials, the great love story:
I have been putting this off for some time now because, truthfully, no amount of words could express just how much I loved His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.
Before reading this trilogy, I wasn’t sure how I would respond to something that had been labeled children’s literature. After reading The Golden Compass it was abundantly clear that I could at least greatly enjoy reading children’s lit. Yet it wasn’t until about somewhere towards the end of The Subtle Knife that I learned it was within the realm of possibilities for me to actually love this trilogy.
A brief summary for those of you who may not be familiar: The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights) opens up set in an alternate universe similar yet incredibly different from our own. The most noticeable difference is that people’s souls take the visible form of talking animals, called daemons.
The main character is Lyra, a precocious young girl who one day saves who she believes to be her uncle from being poisoned. Soon after, her best friend Roger is kidnapped by “loppers” who, as rumor would have it, kidnap kids and take them to the North (pole) for weird experiments. Lyra vows to save Roger and embarks on an adventure to do so that eventually takes her all the way to the world of the dead.
But more rests on Lyra’s shoulders than just the fate of her friend. In fact, unbeknownst to her, the fate of entire worlds rest on her actions and the actions of another: Will, who is introduced in The Subtle Knife.
Words could not express how much I loved this series, so don’t be surprised if this is a pretty rambling post. At the conclusion of The Amber Spyglass I hugged the book close to my chest, infinitely sad that it ever have to end (not to mention, sad too because of the bitter-sweet ending!)
I think it’s interesting that much has been made of the controversial religious aspects of the trilogy when it seems to me hardly anyone talks about what I thought was the central theme of the book. It wasn’t God, it wasn’t religion, and it wasn’t even childhood, though those things do play a major role. It was, simply put, love. If nothing else, His Dark Materials is a love story.
And I’m not talking about the very real, heartrending love between Lyra and Will. I’m talking about love as a force that drives most of the the plot and the action of the books. Lyra’s quest to save her friend, a quest which takes all the way to the world of the dead speaks very clearly about the love that exits between friends.
Then there is complicated adult love (Mrs. Coulter and Asriel), love between mother and daughter, father and son, mother and son (Mrs. Coulter and Lyra, Will and his father, Will and his mother), and innocent romantic love (Lyra and Will).
The “temptation” that occurs in The Amber Spyglass is nothing more than a simple love story. It is a description of what it’s like to feel that little prick in your heart for the first time, the glory and the pain. It’s the story that tempts Lyra to see what’s already in her own heart – love for her own companion. It’s the story that essentially saves the world from destruction and gradual disintegration.
But there’s more. His Dark Materials is about love of life over fear of death, and knowledge over ignorance. His Dark Materials invites us to remember that this life is beautiful and that we should take joy in being a part of this grand universe: the air, the trees, the grass, the clouds, the wind, the dirt, the mountains, the animals, us. We are apart of one another, made up of the same atoms and that is a beautiful thing. Flesh, Pullman says, is a gift and we should glory in it – not be ashamed of it.
*spoilers ahead!*
Of all the characters, I thought Mrs. Coulter and almost to the same extent Lord Asriel, was the most complicated. She lies so well that I was often confused about what her actual motivations were. The ending of course validates her love for her daughter, but I thought it unclear as to how much that love motivated her previous actions. Did she really set out from the beginning to protect Lyra or was it all a lie as Lord Asriel assumes? And just what would she have done when she reached for her gun if they hadn’t been interrupted?
As for Lord Asriel, I found him the most inscrutable, which I suppose is very true to his character. One of the weaknesses of the series is that it’s never really explained why he sets out to destroy the Authority or how he even gets the power to build the army that he does.
I also found it interesting how Will and Lyra in many ways mirrored Lord Asreal and Mrs. Coulter. Both Will and Asreal are fierce warriors, and both Lyra and Mrs. Coulter are accomplished liars. What was fascinating was that, through Will and Lyra you could see how Lord Asreal’s and Mrs. Coulter’s relationship might have been if maybe they’d trusted a litle more and been less cold and calculating.
And isn’t it funny how, in the end, both of these couples who mirror each other in so many ways, must part just as soon as they acknowledge that love? Lord Asreal and Mrs. Coulter through death; Will and Lyra through the inconvenience of having to live in different worlds? Perhaps, Pullman’s point here is that love is not easily found but it’s easily lost. And that we should cherish every day we’re allowed to bask in the gift of love, even if it’s just for a moment.
In the end, after all the battles and all the journeys – the world is not saved through might and great thinking. It’s saved through love. Lord Asreal and Mrs. Coulter defeat Metatron through love. Only that could have forced them to do what they did. Love for their daughter and love for each other. Finally, Will and Lyra stop the departure of dust with their love.
*spoilers ended*
So I could talk about the religious elements in the trilogy – the God, the Regent, the angels, the sin – and about what that all means, but I won’t because to me all that is incidental, though never uninteresting. I don’t know Pullman’s mind but I suspect that he didn’t set out to write a political book so much as he did a love story.
Or maybe his intention was to do both. I don’t know. All I know is that I adored this trilogy. It broke my heart (I cried and cried at the end!), but all great love stories do, if only because they have to end.
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Yearling Books / May 2003
$22.50
Filed under: Books | Tags: geroge orwell, Jane Austen, pride and prejudice, the bible, the book bench, The Guardian, tolstoy
On pride, prejudice, Guitar Hero, a make-believe rock band, wearing “in the Library,” and how to properly butcher a book:
I know, I know. I ‘ve been pretty MIA of late, but if reading’s a good excuse then that’s exactly what I have – a good excuse. I’ve been unable to pull my nose out of Pride and Prejudice long enough to sleep, much less post.
When I haven’t been devouring my very first Jane Austen book – and at this point it will not be the last – I’ve been, I’m almost sorry to say it, caught up with playing Guitar Hero: World Tour. Our new favorite thing is to invite friends over for dinner on Friday nights and play Guitar Hero (for which we now have two guitars and mic) to the great annoyance of our neighbors, I’m sure.
Whoever invented that game is a genius. If you’ve ever rocked out to your favorite song with a broom for a guitar and a hairbrush for a mic, trust me, you’ll love this very addictive game.
But this is suppose to be about books! I dug myself out of my little reader’s hidey-hole because I came across two bookish links which I wanted to share. Perhaps one of these will make you smile on this very cloudy hump day here in D.C.
Via The Book Bench: Have you ever wandered between the aisles of your favorite used bookstore or library basking in the smell of leather binding, faded ink, and old yet dignified dust? Have you ever wished you could carry that smell around with you wherever you went?
Well, wish no more, because CB I Hate Perfume has invented a perfume called “in the Library,” which purports to replicate the very smell of being in a library. This sort of reminds me of that episode of “Seinfeld” in which Kramer comes up with the idea of replicating the smell of the beach: on the face of it, this seems like a pretty dumb idea. After all, who wants to walk around smelling like old leather and dust?
As it turns out, maybe me. And a whole lot of other people obsessed with that musty, dusty smell. And if the perfume isn’t appealing enough, the home spray certainly is. I may be ambivalent about putting that scent on my skin, but my home – my home is different beast altogether.
On another note, have you read George Orwell’s 1984? I haven’t (it’s on The List), and according to a poll just held in the UK, a lot of other people haven’t either but like to pretend they have.
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four comes top in a poll of the UK’s guilty reading secrets. Asked if they had ever claimed to read a book when they had not, 65% of respondents said yes and 42% said they had falsely claimed to have read Orwell’s classic in order to impress. This is followed by Tolstoy’s War and Peace (31%), James Joyce’s Ulysses (25%) and the Bible (24%).
Now, while I can’t claim to have lied about reading any of the above books, I can claim to have done this:
For anyone who has received a book as a gift with an ever-so-slightly thumbed feel to it, your suspicions are probably correct. A total of 48% of people admit buying a book for someone else and reading it first…
Would I be wrong if I said I do this just about every time I buy a book as a gift for someone? (Confession: I read more than few stories in Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhouser before I gave it to BibloGuy for whom it was originally intended.) If the gift is a book I haven’t read the temptation is just too great! I am, in my defense, very delicate with them – no cracked spines or dogeared pages – no sticky notes, even!
And yes, I along with 62% of the people in the poll, admit to turning the corner of the page to keep my place. Francesca Simon, creator of the Horrid Henry children’s books considers dog-earring a mutilation. “I would never do that, what’s wrong with using bookmarks – tickets, pieces of paper?”
Well, I use those too. Mine is probably a greater crime: I don’t dog-ear to keep my page – I have bookmarks for that – I dog-ear to mark favorite passages and lines. Thus, a book I’ve particularly enjoyed could be mutilated on every other page by a little folded corner. What can I say? I like to butcher my books with a good, unabashed interactive read. Besides, you know, the are mine. Now, library books are a different story.
Now, back to the hidey-hole I go. Hopefully, the next time I pop up it’ll be with a book review. I’m working on it.
