June 8, 2006

Mrs. Dalloway

I just finished re-reading Mrs Dalloway. I started it last on May 17 2000 (which I only know because I wrote the date inside the cover) and there were no found objects inside, but on Pg 59 I had written “Your prism grasp” in red ink, which was a piece of a poem I once had. I have a recollection of having read part of this book on Toronto Island, but I could just be making that up. And when I read this book then, six years ago, I found it extremely hard going. I read it because it was Mrs Dalloway, so of course I was supposed to read it, but I must confess to not having enjoyed it. I had read To the Lighthouse previously, in fact I studied it in classes for three of my four years at university, and I appreciated that book, but tackling Mrs. Dalloway on my own was perhaps too ambitious. (This is very embarrassing, but the truth). The text was so dense and wobbly, full of twists and turns and I didn’t concentrate enough to follow. I didn’t really get it, to be frank. So I can say that I had read Mrs. Dalloway, to the extent that I had turned the pages to the end, but I was hardly captured. This time was different. First, in my course “Virginia Woolf: Essays and Short Fiction”, I learned how to read Woolf, for I feel there is a knack required for it. I’ve become more familiar with Woolf’s own concerns, socially and aesthetically, which does have a bearing on this work. And of course, because I am re-reading, I am reading far more carefully than I usually do, already aware of the ending so not needing to charge through to uncover it. Attentive enough to follow all the twists and turns, but oh the prize you get for doing just that! Mrs. Dalloway is a love song to London, a story about being, about getting old and who you love. The entire spectrum of human experience, caught- if that could be thought possible. This, my friends, is a book.

June 7, 2006

Further

My new Taddle Creek arrived yesterday and it’s really wonderful. There is really nothing so delightful as reading material in the post. Here for the top ten passionate women authors. And here for the Toronto Book Awards. Now re-reading Mrs. Dalloway, and it’s enthralling, as I will be reporting here soon.

June 6, 2006

Imagine if..

CSI Miami met Eastenders? If Horatio Caine had a showdown with Phil Mitchell in Albert Square? Oh how positively delicious to fathom. I can now sort of almost understand a bit why one would write fan fiction. Kind of.

June 6, 2006

Orangey Range

The wonderful Zadie Smith wins the Orange Prize for the very wonderful On Beauty.

UPDATE: And they’re making a movie about last year’s winner, the stunning We Need to Talk About Kevin.

June 4, 2006

The Robber Bride

I just reread my first book. I finished The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, which I read in 1994 and liked. Significantly, I found a one dollar and a two dollar bill inside it, as well as a bookmark from Victoria College. And so, when I last read this book I was fifteen, and I suspect just awed by a window into the weird and sordid world of adulthood. This time around, I caught the more subtle details and was able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each of the characters, and that Zenia was one hundred percent pure evil. It’s difficult, when you are younger, to evaluate characters like that. Good or evil, twenty-six or sixty-two, they were all sort of the same. They were Women!. I got more of a sense of the greater themes of the work, the significance of war in particular. The book started off slow for me but once I got into the backstories, I was hooked. An excellently constructed narrative. I enjoyed it very much.

June 4, 2006

The Ideal Occupation

Of note, I made a brilliant salad for dinner with feta, watermelon and pumpkin seeds. We were dubious, but it turned out to be a taste explosion. Oishi desu! Also, I bought a new CD today for the first time in ages. I bought the new Zero 7 album, and it’s wonderful wonderful good. I bought their “Simple Things” back when we lived in England, and it’s one of the few albums we play absolutely regularly. Their new CD “the garden” has met all my expectations and then some. It’s different from “Simple Things”, a little less chilled out, with more a sense of humour. They’re a collective and listening to their stuff is like listening to a variety show, especially with the new album. It got a fairly favourable review in The Globe yesterday, though they didn’t like it as much as I do.

I spent a wonderful day with two of my oldest and dearest friends today, cruising a rainsoaked Queen Street. Consumerism will be the death of me. Lately I’ve been mad about cake stands. And I am obsessed with pickled beetroot.

I’ve enjoyed reading about the Book a Day Challenge in the Globe, and particularly appreciated John Allemang’s reflections of his endeavour at one hundred books. Though no book-a-dayer myself, I did embark upon my own reading marathon this year. Initially, I just wanted to keep a list of my reading, which was inspired by Annie Dillard’s own “Books I’ve Read Since 1966”. However quantifying my reading got me ambitious. I decided to read 200 books this year, though it looks like I will only get to about 160. (Full time work interferes with my leisure time in a way I never thought was possible). I’m currently reading my 71st book, and it’s been a bit of a ride (as much as reading can be considered a ride. I need to get out more). I particularly liked these lines from Allemang’s article:

Now, I have to admit that if you devote yourself wholeheartedly to reading, an occupation that was held up as an ideal when I was at school, you end up losing contact with humanity — but only the living and breathing version. There isn’t a day when I don’t feel immersed in the world, reading about the search for a lost Caravaggio in the wilds of Italy, or the desperate struggles of the Impressionists in Paris, or what it was like to grow up in backwoods Texas, or do battle in Algiers, or be Catherine Deneuve.

and

My interpersonal skills, a bit dubious at the best of times, have certainly not improved. The general verdict around the house is that while the gentle art of reading has calmed the road-rage side of my temper, it’s given me a lot less to say in response to the question, “So how was your day?” Of course we readers find that sort of thing a little too banal anyway. After you’ve read Intuition, Allegra Goodman’s novel about the inner workings of a cancer-research lab, small talk seems even smaller — and not many table companions want to hear about John Daly’s four wives.

Ivor Tossell wrote a great article on MySpace (the ugliest thing to ever happen to The Internet). I enjoyed The Missionary Position in The Nation, by Laila Lalami of Moorish Girl, a Muslim woman on Muslim women. Another marathon reader, Jane Smiley in The Observer.

June 2, 2006

The treasures that they hold

As I mentioned before, I really loved Other People’s Bookmarks, the article from last fall in The Believer about objects found in books. However, one’s own bookmarks are inclined to be just as interesting. And rediscovering them is one of the many perqs of The Great Summer Re-Reading Project, though my found objects aren’t always technically bookmarks, but often things I slip between pages for safekeeping and then forget about. Tonight I found both a one dollar and a two dollar bill inside Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride. Oh books, what troves you really are.

Speaking of books, Stuart is currently reading my copy of This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall. What an absolutely hilarious book. And unbelievably, written by a thirteen year old boy.

June 2, 2006

Corporate Accountability

I’ve developed an alter-ego of late, and I bet you didn’t even know. I’ve become something of a corporate governance warrior, and you can learn a little bit about the sort of work I’ve been doing in yesterday’s Globe article, Missing link: CEO pay and results. Wayne Roberts in Now thinks that moves toward corporate accountability are fundamentally useless but then again he would, and his article does have some interesting bits.

June 1, 2006

The Great Summer Re-Reading Project

First, about Missing Sarah by Maggie de Vries. It was a really wonderful book. It was well written, informative and poignant. I will admit to being one of those who never very much considered the missing women from Vancouver. They were a mass, a rather sordid mass at that. And this book brought one of them very much to life. She was a person, with a family that loved her terribly, and miss her still. And we have to know that, beyond the sensationalist tabloid articles. What a journey it was to, to learn where Sarah de Vries came from and how she ended up where she did. That one of these murdered women was Jean Little’s niece. This book forced me to put aside my gut reactions to these issues and to understand how truly complicated and difficult they are to consider. It was a really sad and wonderful story. Not bad for a book bought just because it had a Penguin on its spine.

And tomorrow is the first day of the The Great Summer Re-Reading Project. I got the idea last fall, when I was contemplating all the books I want to read, and was bowled over by the books I want to re-read on top of that. Which is my priority for the next three months. I am going to re-read all those books I should have read more carefully before, the books that my older self will interpret differently, the books I read for class that I may have missed the point of, books I’ve read but only so long ago that I don’t remember anymore, and books I feel I am in a better place to understand now. This is exciting because it means I am not going to spend any money on books this summer, which is a good thing at the moment, and also because it’s a really interesting way to approach a book. I am only going to read books I the circumstances of having read the first time, and compare those, on top of the actual reading experience. And hopefully the books are going to open up whole new stories I never even considered before.

(In mini break news, we are going away for our first wedding anniversary, which is in three weeks! I am so excited. We’re renting a car and hitting the road, and spending the weekend in Prince Edward County!)

May 31, 2006

Trailer

Lionel Shriver writes, therefore I read. Just what ties McClelland & Stewart and Random House of Canada. Margaret Atwood at the Hay Festival. I, who am ace, scored 9/10 on the cbc.ca music duo quiz.

It’s hot and I have taken to drinking beer on the porch whilst wearing a bathing suit. This doesn’t bode well for my neighbourhood social status. Especially since I live in the house with no lawn.