Best Loved Books of 2008

My choice for one of the best picture books for the little ones: Bats at the Library by Brian Lies. But then, I don't spend as much time with picture books as I should.

Speaking of um ... the library,

These paintings of best loved librarians or patroness types seem to grace every library. I always try to dress like this when I go to the library, hoping to be mistaken for some rich, possible patroness type.


As a kid library lady portraits always unnerved me a little bit. Thank goodness they were never in the children's room. At least these two are smiling in their portraits.


Some of the books of 2008 :
Library Journal's list.

The Best of 2008 according to The Statesman.

Top ten list of Young Adult books from 2008

A few days ago I read a young adult book (12 & Up) just because I hadn't read one in decades. The formula is still the same, ("I am not having this baby at the prom! get me to the hospital!") but I was lucky to get a well-written one. It did strike me as odd that none of the young adults had cell phones. Next time I'll check the copyright date to be sure I'm reading a book from this era. The author, Sarah Dessen has newer books (the latest published in 2008) but I just grabbed a book at random. I'm going to try and check out some of the sub-categories in teen fiction (vampire novels, vampire drug novels, vampire graphic novels, vampire pregnancy novels and so forth.)

I haven't really been reading much Sci Fi, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Thrillers, Chick Lit, Romance, True Crime, Poetry or Erotica either, so that's one thing I want to do in 2009. So many categories out there.

Resolution: Read books from all genres. Be more open to every category.

I read very few newly published this year, I was all over the place, reading wonderful books published in 1903, 1962, 2003, 1886, every year but 2008 it seemed. So I need to read more current stuff.

Resolution 2 : Read a newly published book once in a while.

Walking into a New Year

Grey Owl was a popular writer, assumed to be at least half native American. He arrived in Canada as a teenager and lived in the woods. After his death in 1938, his friends were shocked to discover he was a white man from England named Archie. He was a generous man and a dedicated conservationist.

One essay by Grey Owl chronicled a series of casual, unwise decisions he made: to stay too long at one cabin, ignoring some small problems which led to his becoming ill and partly lame, and deciding to walk across a frozen lake at night in a blizzard to get to a surveyor's camp. He became snow blind, frostbitten and completely lost. The essay was so terrifyingly well-written I had to remind myself - he obviously lived to tell the tale. Still, the short essay was very educational, because had he died, he acknowledged, it would have been due to his own foolishness. He refused to listen to his inner voice, and took risks he normally wouldn't have taken. He noted that carelessness can cause more trouble than bad luck or misadventures.


Finally! Easy reading while on the treadmill. I can make the font size larger, turning pages is no longer an ordeal, and times flies when I'm reading.

The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson (I sampled this one and it's very entertaining - enough that I want to buy it.)

Walking by Henry David Thoreau (I'm currently reading this one, forty nine cents on Kindle.)

On Foot: A History of Walking by Joseph Amato (This one got such excellent reviews; I hope to find it at the library.)

Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit (A complete history)

The Walker's Literary Companion (Editors: Gilbert, Robinson, & Wallace)
Jane Austen, Basho, Charles Dickens, Rilke, Baudelaire, Whitman, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Frank O'Hara, Eudora Welty, Pablo Neruda, Dylan Thomas, Ray Bradbury, Sylvia Plath and others on rambles, strolls and hikes. (This one has to be good.)


John Burroughs (conservationist, naturalist) b. 1837, was a pioneer of the new school of nature writers. I've been able to find most of his essays and poems online at various sites.


My father considered a walk among the mountains
as the equivalent of churchgoing.
- Aldous Huxley

Books in the News Vol 1

The Financial Times had a great book section this week, including a short story by T.C. Boyle. I love reading newspapers and can't imagine reading them on a Kindle. I like spreading them out over the kitchen table while having a cup of coffee.


The Wall Street Journal's list was pretty interesting too. On their shelf: Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon by Mark Bostridge, Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles, and Lush Life by Richard Price.



I sampled the Hunter S. Thompson biography via Kindle and decided to borrow it from the library. It was very interesting, but after awhile I got tired of the stories of Hunter's drug-fueled antics (which sometimes involved firearms.) Although Jann Wenner did an excellent job with the book, I'd rather read Thompson's writings.

"Hunter was a genius who revolutionized writing in the same way that Marlon Brando did with acting, as significant , essential, and valuable as Dylan, Kerouac, and The Stones." ~ Johnny Depp




I read this memoir and never got around to reading the sequel (in the sequel Fox meets Marlon Brando and they have a brief fling.) Years later, Courtney Love is going around saying she might be Brando's granddaughter, and the name Paula Fox keeps coming up. It turns out that Fox is Love's maternal grandmother. I don't know if the Brando claim is ever proven, but I do plan to read more by Paula Fox in 2009.

The Children's Room

Yesterday we drove out to the country village of S. and visited their nice little library.



My little nephew *Noddy Boffin, asked me why two of the statue children weren't reading their books. I explained to him that reflection is a part of enjoying a good book, stopping to think about something you've just read, I added. He thought about it and nodded. He said that he reflects too, when he reads.



It was nice to spend an hour in the cheery children's room on a foggy gray day.



We would have liked to have the time to sit and read all of these. The biography collection was huge.


*not his real name.

Inscriptions & Gadgets

How could Kate part with this book inscribed by the delightful Megan? (It was a nice illustrated dictionary of art and artists.)

Shaw once ran across one of his books in a used bookshop. It was inscribed to an acquaintance of his. To X, with esteem, George Bernard Shaw. Shaw bought the book and added to the inscription ~ With renewed esteem, George Bernard Shaw. Then he saw that it was delivered once again to X.








Reading Gadgets: Books without Paper:

I was watching the editor of publisher's weekly talking about e books a few days ago. She said e books, are wildly popular with people in publishing, as well as the average readaholic, and that they still only represent a tiny percentage of what people read. They haven't had a negative impact on the publishing industry.


Compare: See the Sony Reader, Kindle, and Iliad

The Kindle is not the most expensive, and is the the only one of the three with wireless connectivity.

Reading online sources:

Gutenberg: Thanks to this site I just sort of stumbled upon a story I'd been looking for over the years. In high school I saw a short film that I liked a lot and never could recall the title. But I always remembered the storyline. While scrolling through Gutenberg I came across Ambrose Bierce, and thought "Hmmm... I'm not familiar with him, think I'll check out some of his writing." And as it turns out he'd written the short story that had been turned into the short film I'd seen in school. I'd thought "Incident" was in the title when it was actually "Occurrence." An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. You don't need an e reader to read it though, you can just click on plain text and read the story on the spot on your computer. (Looking at Bierce's online bio I see that there was a French film version: La Rivière du Hibou (1962.) and a Twilight Zone TV episode based on the story as well.)


Japan's Cell Phone novels are mainly written by high school and college-age girls, but the original posting site was set up by a middle aged man who wrote a novel on his cell phone and posted it. Some cell phone novels get published and some make the bestseller list (since cell phone novels fans often buy the printed book to show their appreciation and friendship.)

The cell phone novel craze will never threaten authors. Banana Yoshimoto said that while she has no interest in reading them, they do have value to young girls. "Youth have their own kind of suffering, and I think the cell phone novels have become an outlet for their suffering."

Book TV & More

I watch Book TV.

There, I've admitted it. Book TV bores the pants off most people I know, but I still have a fondness for it. I like listening to some author talk about his book on the Nerve Center . It's interesting to get some of the story from the author's mouth. It's great when the author is Maya Angelou or Chinua Achebe. On January 18th & 19th Barack Obama (taped in 2004) will be featured on Book TV talking about his memoir "Dreams from My Father."


Another stack of cookbooks, and The Wine Bible.

The Wine Bible is mine, and the cookbooks are my S.O's. From this stack, He recommends Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop, The Middle Eastern cookbook, and any of Keith Floyd's cookbooks.
( Keith Floyd on chip pan fires.)

The Wine Bible is a fun and informative read.




Button Update: (Saw the movie Benjamin Button yesterday) Not much like the short story, but we gave it 4 stars.

When the movie began the teenagers sitting next to me were texting and giggling. They were pretty quiet about it though, so it wasn't very distracting. After fifteen minutes or so they appeared to be mesmerised and had put their cell phones away. At the end, one of them whispered "Wow."





We all enjoyed it a lot, and agreed that time itself was like a character in the film. And speaking of time, no one thought it was too long, which is usually a complaint when a movie runs over two and half hours. It didn't remind any of us of Forest Gump at all even though it is compared to Gump since it was created by the same screenwriter (Eric Roth) and there are a few superficial similarities ( A man's life story, southern accents, a mother who reminds her son that surprises in life are unavoidable. )
It was a very different story, though.

Julia Ormond helps narrate the story of Benjamin's life while sitting in a hospital in New Orleans. Outside, Hurricane Katrina is just getting started.

Cate Blanchette plays Daisy
( a wonderful young lady, later to go through a sort of diva phase, raving about sexual freedom and banned D.H. Lawrence novels to a very reserved Benjamin. Benjamin is not naive or innocent, but has a definite set of values.)

Benjamin is elegant from beginning to end, he's a gentleman even as a little old child sitting and reading Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Benjamin is a perceptive, soulful and serious person who is accepted by those around him, no matter what age he is or what he looks like.

Daisy and Benjamin first meet when they are both 7 years old. They read Kipling's Just So Stories together (a book that they'll return to a few more times as they age in opposite directions.) *Jared Harris as Mike, had a great style that reminded me a bit of the late Robert Shaw.

Impeccable art direction and casting, a great fantasy with interesting special effects. I've never been a fan of Brad Pitt until now. Elegance.



Eric Roth on how he felt about adapting an F. Scott Fitzgerald story:

"It was a little daunting because he’s 100 times the writer I could ever be. On the other hand, I did some research on sort of what the story was to him because I didn’t want in any way to mess with his legacy. The best I could tell from talking to his biographers of him is that this was kind of a whimsical piece for him. He just needed some money. It wasn’t something that he took deadly serious. He took the effort to write it up in a magazine. It wasn’t even a short story, it was a magazine article really. A number of other writers had tried to do this in various ways. They had all taken different approaches within the story itself. And so, I felt the freedom to take off with my own imagination. And what was left was still the most important thing, which was his idea through actually Mark Twain."

*Roth was thinking of Jack London's writing when he worked on the scenes that included Jared Harris as Mike.

Childhood Favorites

This is still my favorite Little Golden Book. The writing is superb, as are the illustrations. (This was my introduction to Richard Scarry's artwork.)


Right on Archie! Love is where it's at!




Once I discovered underground comics there was no going back to Archie Comics. I liked going to the East Village to buy The Freak Brothers by Gilbert Shelton, Slutburger by Mary Fleener, and anything by Robert Crumb.


Crumb exposed Frosty the Snowman as urban guerilla.



A few years ago I read this book (mainly because the title was so good.)

~ Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me ~

but I can't recommend it.

The documentary film Crumb (1994 Sundance Winner) is worth seeing.

Benjamin Button & Shakespeare

We're planning to see the film Benjamin Button on Christmas morning. When my S.O. mentioned that it was based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, I was surprised. I didn't remember it, but there it was, just four feet away in a volume of his short works that I picked up at a book fair for a dollar. When I think of F. Scott's short stories, Bernice Bobs her Hair pops into my head.

Years ago I gave a Christmas gift of an audio book (Fitzgerald's flapper stories) to a confirmed non-reader. She drove a lot, alone in the car. After many months she mentioned the stories to me. "I lost interest every time I tried to listen. It seemed old fashioned or something... I thought how boring -- then one day I listened to it and realized the stories were fascinating!"




Christmas 1999 ~ I receive a book of words.



and phrases


Coined by Shakespeare. A nifty little book.

A Readable Feast

A sumptuous story. Zola's Le Vendre de Paris.



I found this book when looking through a pile of cookbooks. It's a fun read. I waved it at my S.O. as he walked past, wondering if I had given it to him one Christmas. He said he bought it, had enjoyed it, and we could give it away. "I'll send it to Tut Tut." I said.

(Unless she's already read it.) Trillin made me want to travel to New Mexico to eat sopaipillas (which I've only had once ~ in Texas) and posole, which I've never tasted.

here's an excerpt (I am too lazy to type it ~ you can click on it for easier reading.)

Hard to Read & Easy to Carry

I found this bestseller hard to read, hard to get interested in, hard to enjoy. Yet so many people loved it! What's wrong with me? My Significant Otter also lost interest in it after a few chapters. What's the deal? Then we tried to watch the movie. Zzzz. What's wrong with us?

I found the postcard in an antique store. The owner and I puzzled over it. Hard to read.
You can click on the postcard to make it easier to read.

This is all I can make out:

Sat. evening arrived safely about 7 o'clock after a lovely ride
we enjoyed the pageant. Saw Kate Felt & Mrs. Drew
and sister who sat behind us. Mrs. Felt had come over
from Brattleboro Vt. sunday 8 am sitting under some pines in -?-
now where Mr. Head is boarding. & We may stay to dinner.
-?-in Keene at The Cheshire.
Laure (?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





So Very Portable

The Modern Library hardcovers. I collected them because they were small, sturdy, and unabridged. My Sig. Ott also collected them, so when we met we were very pleased to see we shared a fondness for these little books. They're roughly 5" x 7". We used to pick them up for a few dollars apiece, but now I see them going for ten or twenty sometimes.

Are You Somebody ?

It felt honest and true. A keeper. I want to meet Nuala O'Faolain.


An OK read, felt real in some parts and too dramatic in others. Must be hard to grow up proud and privileged and write a memoir about how tough life is and how depressed you are. I felt afterwards I was being judgmental, because it was a somewhat interesting read and it seemed as if she hadn't gotten any love at all as a child.


I enjoy reading memoirs even though at times I've discovered that they contained outright lies. Editors have told authors to be more self deprecating, more of a loser, or asked them to make the people around them seem crazier by making up stuff--(Ed: What if you had her always eating dog kibble as a snack? That would certainly get the reader's attention! Author: Uh, What?! Okay ... hope she doesn't read the book, though.)

Most memoirs seem to swing back and forth: the author is conceited here, and depressive there. a loser in one chapter and a winner in the next. They can be annoying and inspiring and pitiful ... and that's how life is. When reading I try to give the author the benefit of the doubt.

I read that singer/actress Dolly Parton wrote her autobiography out in long hand in several notebooks. Then she went to a lonely cabin and read them aloud to herself. Then she burned them in the fireplace. The end. She thought about the conceit and self pity, the boasting and the nasty secrets revealed about herself and others and decided it was too much B.S. to put out there.


Some fine memoirs include:

The Orchard by Adele Crockett Robertson


Road From Coorain and
True North by Jill Ker Conway

I also enjoyed Anthony Quinn's memoir, One Man Tango



If you have a good book to recommend, please do.

What I was Reading...

The summer before last I was reading, among other things,

Virginia Woolf's masterpiece Night and Day

With its classic comic structure, minutely observed characters, and delicate irony (it has) invited comparison to the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen. ~ Rachel Wetzsteon


Henry James In the Cage ~ a very interesting novella: a treat if you like Henry James.



I found these books at my local Barnes & Noble, and not having seen the titles before, grabbed them while I could. Why are they still hanging around when I'm trying to clear out bookshelves? Well, the authors-- hard for me to part with anything by them, (and there is the possible limited availability of these titles to consider) and also because I may want to enjoy a re-read someday.

Reading this Weekend

Starting on the novels of Victor Hugo. Thought I had tattered paperback copies of some of his works, but didn't.

Reading Anxiety

Besides constantly nagging my poor mother to buy me must haves like Nancy Drew Mysteries, poetry books, and two sets of encyclopedias... there was the Scholastic Book Club order form.



The Scholastic Book Club gave me much anxiety as a child. We'd get the book descriptions and order form and I'd start to feel dizzy. I'd want many of the books listed. My mother would only allow me to order one or (rarely) two. Bargaining with her was like going in to ask the boss for a raise every few weeks, and the boss just dreads seeing you, sometimes feels sorry for you, but no way in hell are you getting that raise.

Try to explain to a hardworking mom just why you can't live without Silly & Annoying Jokes & Riddles or yet another book about teenager who discovers she's adopted and has a meltdown. There were some kids at school who never ordered a book, but I only noticed the kids who flaunted the fact that they had ordered six books. (Six books!) I never ever ordered more than two books, and I agonized over the order form for days ~ like a true readaholic drama queen. Nevermind the fact that there were better books at the library. The Scholastic Book Club was like a cult and I was a fully hooked follower.

It's summertime and Holly is going away to college in the fall. She stops going steady with Bernie, meets Tony, and then uncovers a secret that threatens to shatter her life !

Reading & Food #1

One of the most interesting cookbooks I've come across is this one by Henry Hill (watch the film Goodfellas to see Henry as played by Ray Liotta.) Henry loves to cook, and while in the government's witness protection program, there were times when he was limited to buying groceries at the 7/11. As he moves around the USA he adapts his favorite recipes, and still manages to have wonderful Italian meals.

The main thing here is that the recipes all work and are crowd pleasers. When he can, Henry prefers to use the best ingredients and he certainly knows what he's talking about when it comes to food.

Also Cooking for Blokes by Duncan Anderson and Marian Walls is fun and useful. A great gift for any bloke.

Craig Claiborne's Kitchen Primer is a must for someone just starting out, but also useful for the more experienced as well.



When you move to the suburbs, whaddya get as gifts? books on cooking and books on gardening. After a few years, you start clearing some of them out. At one time we had hundreds of cookbooks, and I sold an ancient copy of "The Joy of Cooking" at a yard sale. My significant otter noticed the lack and purchased a new copy. Why? Because it tells you how to cook a squirrel.


(Index from The All-Purpose Cookbook Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker.)


As well as instructions on how to skin said squirrel.

(Illustrations in The... Joy of Cooking were done by Ginnie Hofmann and Beverly Warner.)

note: Gray squirrels are best, those little red ones are gamey and not very plump.

From The Library

I grabbed the Judi Dench biography quickly and left the Library. Later I realized it was about her career as an actress rather than a typical bio. It was still interesting, covering her career from it's beginnings until sometime before she did the movie *Chocolat with Juliette Binoche and Alfred Molina (and Johnny Depp. )


John Miller wrote the book (The proper title is: Judi Dench with a crack in her voice) and he also co-wrote John Gielgud's memoir An Actor and his Time. (which I plan to check out in the future.)

The Christian Science Monitor got it right when they said this book was "Compelling reading for anyone intrigued by actors and acting..." I am interested, but not intrigued, and so...








*When I was at Waterstones Bookshop in Belfast they had a huge sale going, and I got Chocolat and several other books by the same author (Joanne Harris) at a price I couldn't pass up. Her books are great for foodies to read. I spent a quiet afternoon in a hotel reading her novel Coastliners while a storm raged outside.

Kindle Reading

Currently reading Bird by Bird (Anne Lamott) Saw it on another blogger's desk , and 2 minutes later I was reading it thanks to the Kindle. I'm just dipping into this one every few days, and already have learned a lot from Lamott.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

just finished reading:

Captain Burle , The Death of Olivier Becaille , and Fécondité (all by Emile Zola)

Zola is a favorite of mine, and I liked finding things I hadn't read yet. Kindle has good collections of classics at bargain prices, so I'm enjoying a lot of essays and short fiction as well as some novels I'd never heard of before. The short work "The Death of Olivier Becaille" was a good read, and very chilling ~ it leaves the reader with many questions and would be excellent for a book group to discuss.

Captain Burle is a cautionary tale, and Fécondité (translated as Fruitfulness) shows the sweetest side of Zola, the man who loved children and mother earth, the man who had hope. Of course historical facts, politics and social commentary are all mixed in -- it was eye opening as all his works are.