Books

I recently finished reading Ascending Peculiarity:Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey by Edward Gorey and Karen Wilkin. I seldom meet people who have heard of Edward Gorey. Ben introduced him to me when we started dating. Since then, I have been a big fan. The first thing I read by him was: The Gashlycrumb Tinies. I admit, his stuff is a bit macbre. His stuff is also, humorous, thought provoking, and bizarre. I love it. My favorite story by him is The Doubtful Guest. (You should read it! It's really short!)

Back to the book...
This book is a compilation of interviews that Gorey gave during his writing career. I learned a lot about his life, influences, work ethics, and other random tidbits. Despite being known as a recluse, he did give a lot of interviews. I enjoyed reading this book. I feel like I can understand his work a little better than before.

Here are some quotes :
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"One of the great deprivations of my life is that I never learned how to make papier-mache, and now it's too late. And everyone else was always making three-dimensional relief maps out of flour and water, and I was never taught to do that."
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"I was the kind of kid who thought it funny to throw an epileptic fit on the bus ."

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of course I had to include this one.........

" And I'm very fond of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I recommend that highly to everybody."

I have finally finished a book. I was worried for a while. I sarted a bunch of books, but I couldn't get through them. For Christmas I got Ben the book: The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman. It was one of those presents that was sort of for both of us. A week or so after Christmas we bought The Illusionist. We had seen it in the theatre and loved it. After watching it again, I was motivated to pick up the Houdini book. Since then I haven't been able to put it down, despite the dirty looks from Ben.

There was absolutley nothing ordinary about Houdini's life. From his flying escapades (He was the first person to fly an airplane in Australia) to his unbelievable escapes (from handcuffs to daring underwater feats). I was expecting an interesting read about magic, I got much more than I expected. I highly recommend this book. If you are up for something a little different, you'll really enjoy this book.

Now Ben can read it

I just finished reading Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, for the second time. What an awesome book. Ben got me hooked on Salinger by having me read Catcher in the Rye (many years ago). This book is all about the dialouge. I don't think I have ever read another author who writes dialouge so well. Through the dialouge he paints each character so vividly.

Even though the characters themselves seem so unrelatable to me, I somehow feel so close to them. I don't quite know how to describe it. You guys will just have to go read it (if you haven't yet).

Here's a little blurb from it;
I love this, I laughed out loud when I read it:

"She was gone about five minutes. When she returned, she had the particular facial expression that her eldest daughter, Boo Boo, had once described as meaning one of only two things: that she had just talked with one of her sons on the telephone or that she had just had a report on the best authority, that the bowels of every single human being in the world were scheduled to move with perfect hygienic regularity for a period of one full week."

I read this book many years ago. Ben had found out that a song by The Cure titled "Charlotte Sometimes" was based on a book. So, of course, we had to read it. It is a wonderful book. Written for ages 10-14, but anyone can enjoy it. I love books that suck you in, and you totally feel like you are another character in the story watching the plot unravel. I am not good at summarizing stories, so I thought I would post the lyrics to the song.

Charlotte Sometimes
by The Cure

All the faces
All the voices blur
Change to one face
Change to one voice
Prepare yourself for bed
The light seems bright
And glares on white walls
All the sounds of charlotte sometimes
Into the night
With charlotte sometimes

Night after night she lay alone in bed
Her eyes so open to the dark
The streets all looked so strange
They seemed so far away
But charlotte sometimes did not cry
The people seemed so close
Playing expressionless games
The people seemed so close
So close
So many
Other names

Sometimes i'm dreaming
Where all the other people dance
Sometimes i'm dreaming
Charlotte sometimes
Sometimes i'm dreaming
Expressionless the trance
Sometimes i'm dreaming
So many different names
Sometimes i'm dreaming
The sounds all stay the same
Sometimes i'm dreaming
She hopes to open shadowed eyes
On a different world
Come to me
Scared princess
Charlotte sometimes

On that bleak track
(See the sun is gone again)
The tears were pouring down her face
She was crying and crying for a girl
Who died so many years before...

Sometimes i dream
Where all the people dance
Sometimes i dream
Charlotte sometimes
Sometimes i dream
The sounds all stay the same
Sometimes i'm dreaming
There are so many different names
Sometimes i dream
Sometimes i dream...

Charlotte sometimes crying for herself
Charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself
But it's always with love
With so much love it looks like
Everything else
Of charlotte sometimes
So far away
Glass sealed and pretty
Charlotte sometimes

I actually bought this book for Elise and Jake to read. Jake had read Dragon Rider, which is also by her. I had read The Thief Lord. Inkheart had been sitting in my bookcase for a while. The other day I decided to read it. I finished it that day, and the next day I went and bought the second book Inkspell. These books are charming and captivating. I have really enjoyed reading them. The characters are well written and the plot is pretty unique(which is hard to come by in a juvenile fantasy book). There is supposed to be a movie of Inkheart coming in 2007. I can't wait. I highly recommend these books. I think I'll read Dragon Rider next.

I bought a new book. I found it on amazon. I had read Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss and really liked it. My new book was listed as a "those who have bought this, also bought this other book". I have actually found a lot of books that way.

This book is about exactly what the title says. The author lists tautologies and then writes a little humorous remark about them, along with any similar tautologies.

Here are some of my favorites:

Armed Gunmen
When you need to distinguish between two gunmen,
one of whom is missing a couple limbs.

Forcible Rape
When permission to rape isn't granted.

Black Crow
The outcast in those large albino flocks.

Jewish Rabbi
More authentic than a Catholic rabbi.

Married to Her Husband
The fate of a wedded wife.

It's a really cute book. I recommend it.

I have decided to take a break from the current biography I am reading. I think I will read a fantasy book. A trip to Borders may be needed. I haven't bought a fantasy book in a while. Hopefully it will get me back in a reading mood. It's been a couple months since I have done a good amount of reading. I'll just ignore the several unread books I have at home, and make a trip to the book store. I love to buy books. If only I had endless supplies of cash and time.

One of my favorite biographies is Alexander Hamilton by Rob Chernow. I have really enjoyed the founding father biographies, but this one is my favorite so far. It was a pretty easy read for a biography. Like many of the other founding fathers, his accomplishments are astounding. What I like about this book is, at times, it almost reads like a soap opera. There was parental misconduct, adultery, bribes, and adventure. Who doesn't love a good duel ? This was a book in where I actually had to hold back tears at the end. I need to read this one again.

I have become addicted to biographies. My latest venture is Titan by Ron Chernow. I like it so far, but it is a little overwhelming. I think I may need to take a break from it and read something else for a little while. There is a lot of stuff in it that I am not that familiar with. It really gets into the development of Rockefellers' business empire, and some of it is a little over my head. I enjoy the characters, and it has been interesting to see the birth of a monoply. Hopefully I can make it to the end of the book.