My Blogging Plans and Reading Resolutions for 2010

Six months ago I began my blog.   In those six months my blog has become a very important part of my life.   I wish I had a detailed record of everything I have ever read to look back on and that is an important part of why people blog.   Some book bloggers in their teens and twenties now will go on to become famous 21th century writers and thinkers.   Future historians will be able to see everything they ever read and their thoughts on it.   So will they as their life advances and their children and grandchildren can also.   Many bloggers say they blog just for themselves or a few close friends and do not care if anyone reads their blog.   In some cases this is true but most of us want readers and love the sense of community book blogs create among people all over the world that all love books.   A lot of times I will read a blog post and think to myself "That post is like a small work of art itself".  On January 7 on my 6th month blog anniversary I will do a sort of look back at my first sixth months as a blogger.   I want now to look to the future.

The first thing I have to realize is that things can come along and change all your reading plans.  On Jan 1, 2009 I would have never dreamed that I would read over 40 Japanese novels that year.   Given this here are some of my hopes and plans for The Reading Life for 2010.

1. To complete all the 30+ reading challenges I have signed up for.    I hope and think I can do this while reading quality books I want to read anyway and I am maintaining full control over what I read etc.   I think these challenges can be completed in about 40 or so books.   I read about 130 or so in 2009 (and I slacked off a bit in the first half of the year!) so I will still have plenty of time for impulse reads and to go in new directions.   I fully intend to complete all these challenges but will not be stressed if I do not.   I also expect to sign up for more as the year proceeds as well as joining in some read alongs.   If I end up signing up for 50 challenges for 2010 that will be great fun for me.   The biggest challenge will be keeping records on all this and cross posting the reviews to the challenge blogs but actually I will find that sort of fun also.   I am sort of creating a challenge for myself to see if I can do all these challenges.   I know it may seem a bit crazy, compulsive etc to some and perhaps it is and that is ok!    I already have a mental list of about 50 books I want to read in the first few months of the year.
2. To try to set up a cooperative group of bloggers to review more Filipino novels.  Last year I posted on three Filipino novels set in WWII and sadly that seems to be near all there is to posting on Filipino novels in the book blog world.   I know there is an interest in this as these posts got many reads.   If you are interested in this project please let me know.
3. To continue on reading more Japanese Novels-to read any Oe or Tanizaki works I have not yet read.  
4. To read more new to me contemporary authors and to read more books by some of the wonderful writers that were new to me in 2009-Margaret Atwood, Marcus Zusak, Fan Wu, Anita Brookner, Jeannette Winterson, A S Byatt and others.  In my many years of near compulsive reading I only began to read modern literary fiction about two years ago so I am enjoying a lot of new discoveries that are old friends of other bloggers.   It is through book blogs I discovered these writers.
5. To continue to seek out and read as deeply as I can the greatest literary works of all times.    This gives you a basis for comparison as your reading life proceeds.   Reading too much lower quality literature (I know this may seem a bit elitist to some but that is ok also) is like a diet of twinkies and red bull.  
6. To read books from a wide variety of countries-my challenges will help me do this
7. To ponder hosting a read along of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End.   If you are interested in this please let me know.
8. To read more books about the reading life-the theoretical focus of my blog!
9. To have fun, be open to new ideas, learn something everyday (on a good day more than one thing!)   
10. To support the international community of book blogging through thoughtfull commentation on posts where I can.  

11     To expand on the concept of the bookish boy genre I used in talking about Club Dumas and Dance,   Dance, Dance.    

Mel u

      

December 2009 Reading Review

December 2009 was an excellent reading month for me.    I hope your month was great also.


Classics

1. Roderick Hudson by Henry James -early James-I have as a personal perpetual challenge to read all the fiction of Henry James and Edith Wharton
2. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin-a reread from 40 years ago

 Japanese Novels

1.  Nip  The Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe 
2. Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age by Kenzaburo Oe
3. The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata -reread
4. Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami

Oe  and Kawabata are both Nobel Laureates .  Some think Murakami will one day be the 3rd Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize.    Maybe in ten years but not sooner is my guess.


English Language Novels

1. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood-I liked it but I liked The Handmaiden's Tale more
2. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford-see my post please as I cannot really compress my thoughts on this novel into one line.
3. February Flowers by Fan Wu-coming of age story set in modern China-a good read for the 2010 GLBT reading challenge

Biography

1. The Man Who Killed Rasputin:  Felix Youssoupov and the Murder that Helped Bring Down The Russian Empire  by Greg King-also a good choice for the 2010 GLBT Challenge-interesting popular history for Romanov devotees like me.  
   

Mel u

Aussie Author Challenge 2010

Once again my morning reading of the items in my Google Reader in box brought me news of another new reading challenge that I wanted to join.   It is The Aussie Author Challenge 2010 hosted by Booklover Book Reviews.   The rules are pretty simple.   There are two levels of commitment.  At the Tourist Level you are asked to read three books by three different Australian authors.   At the Fair Dinkum Level you are asked to read eight books, of which five must be by different authors.   A link is provided giving reading ideas and the challenge host will be doing features periodically on different writers from Australia.  (I am hoping we will learn Marcus Zusak has another book coming out soon!)   I have noticed my blog has a lot  of visitors from Australia so I decided why not and I will commit to the tourist level.   Marcus Zusak has one book in print I have not yet read and if I cannot get it I would love to reread  The Book Thief.   Geraldine Brooks of People of the Book has two historical novels that look great.     I ask any Australian visitors to please give me some ideas also.  

Mel u

"Moonlight Shadow" by Banana Yoshimoto

Moonlight Shadow by Banana Yoshimoto ( 1988, 44pages, translated from Japanese by Megan Backus) is a beautiful story about loss, young love, and loneliness.   It is published as a companion piece along with her longer work Kitchen.  (It was her decision to publish the works together).

The central character of this short novella is a 20 year old woman.   She has just lost the first love of her life, Hitoshi.    They had four years together.

After all, we were still young, and who knows whether it would have been our last love?  We had over come many first hurdles together.   We came to know what it is to be tied to someone and we learned to judge for ourselves the weight of many kinds of events-from these things, one by one, we constructed our four years.   Now it is over, I can shout it out:  The Gods are assholes!-I loved Hitioshi-I loved Hitioshi more than life itself.

 Time goes on.   Our lead character meets the younger brother of Hitoshi, Hiiragi whose girl friend has recently died.   He wears the school dress of his deceased love as living memorial to her even though all in his family beg him not to do this.   I will not relay all that happens as I know a lot of people are going to one day read this story.   Much of the beauty of the work of Yoshimoto can be found in these closing lines of Moonlight Shadow:

One caravan has stopped, another starts up.   There are people I have yet to meet, others I'll never see again.   People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through.  Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent.  I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes.

Of the four works of Yoshimoto's I have read, this story seems to most directly express the themes of Yoshimoto. 

One thing I really liked in this book were the closing remarks in which Yoshimoto (I really feel it would be ok to call her "Banana") does the normal thanking of her publisher and her father (a well known Japanese academic).   What touched me was the thanks she gave to the other women who worked as waitresses with her as she wrote this story and Kitchen.   She thanks her boss at the restaurant for giving her some freedom to write on the job when work with slow.   To me the works of  Banana  Yoshimoto are like a funny gentle friend that is far wiser than you might first guess.     I have her on my read everything they have written list (in reality all that is translated into English) along with Kenzaburo Oe and Junichiro Tanizaki.

A link to all of my posts on Japanese Literature is here

Mel u

"Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age" by Kenzaburo Oe

 Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age!  (translated from Japanese by John Nathan, 258 pages, 1986)  is the seventh work by Kenzaburo Oe that I have read.   In every post I have tried to voice my great respect and admiration for the work of Oe.

Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age!  makes use of a story line that very much mirrors the life of Oe.   It centers on his relationship with his brain damaged son and his life time love for the poetry of William Blake.   The book can be seen almost as a commentary on the Prophetic Books of Blake.    Oe is not simply reminded of Blake's poetry by events in his life but he sees his life through Blake's poetry.   I was very touched by the moment in the book when the narrator tells us of the time he came to realize he would be reading the poetry of Blake the rest of his life.  Oe talks not only about the poetry but about learned works on the Prophetic Books of Blake.   The narrator, who we can call Oe (normally I resist reading first person narratives autobiographically but in this case we have no choice) recalls an incident during WWII when a Japanese Army officer ordered his father (too old for military service) to demonstrate how a machine that strips bark from trees works.  (That was the Oe family business.)   The machine was meant to be run by two strong young men.   The father was ordered to work it by the very abusive army officer.   Barely able to control his anger the father demonstrates the machine in use.   Oe tells us how the emotional and physical stress of this event brought on the early death of his father.   He then related this to an incident in which William Blake and his wife have a conflict with a military officer over the political views of Blake and Blake is arrested for a physical attack on the officer.   Oe gives a very honest account of his relationship with his mentally handicapped son, his wife, and his other two children.  

My Favorite Reads-Part 3-

Favorite Reads (other than Japanese)  Second Half 2009

In My Favorite Reads Part 1 I talked about the books I read in the first half of 2009, before I began my blog in July 2009

In My Favorite Reads Part 2-I spoke of my favorite Japanese reads among the 40 or so works on which I have posted on in 2009

Now in the last part of The Reading Life Best Reads of 2009 part 3 I want to talk about my favorite non-Japanese reads from July 7 to now.   I am still reading and hope to post on two more books by year end but both are Japanese works.

Most of the books I read since my blog began I have posted on.   I should note that when I fail to write a post on a book I have read, it is not a negative comment on  the book. 

There were three works I read in this period that I somehow could not bring myself to do a brief blog post about.   I will try to say why now.

1. A Sentimental Education by Gustav Flaubert-This well might be a better novel than MB.   The editor of the book in the Oxford Classics edition  flirts with the idea that it is better than War and Peace but never fully embraces the idea.   Maybe you think Flaubert is an ice cold Olympian.   Those who know or have read only MB  will be shocked how full of the love of the pleasure of life A Sentimental Education is.   I am going to reread it pretty soon and feel then I can do a post on why I like it so much.    If you are in a personal quest to experience the greatest works of literature ever written, my advice is to read this book as young as you can so you have a standard to hold other works up to.
2. Keepsake by Kristy Gunn-The only post on this work that would do it justice would be to scan it all in and post the whole thing.   Gorgeous prose
3. Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli-young adult-deeply moving story about the Warsaw Ghetto-I love the last five pages so much I have reread them numerous times.   If  I had done a blog post right after reading this all I would have probably said would come down to "Do yourself a favor, read this book this week so the rest of your life you can have it in your head".

Best Blogged on Books

1.  The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (books in no special order)
2. Barefoot in the Park:  A Filipino WWII Childhood by Barbara Ann Gamboa Lewis.   This book deserves a high  place in the YA literature of WWII-
3. The PowerBook By Jeannette Winterson
4. Balzac and  the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Siuji
5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry
6. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
7. A Start in Life  by Anita Brookner
   
8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Anne Shaffer and Anne Borrows
9. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton-unlike pretty much everybody else I do not see the deepest meaning of this work in its social commentary
10. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
11. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford-can hardly be over praised
12. I am the Messenger by Marcus Suzak-I know this is a quirky pick but read it if you liked The Book Thief .

Of my  top 12, 9 are by women.   This just happened by accident.

Only Real Advice I Offer From These Lists

If you are serious about experiencing the best literature the world has to offer, then read A Sentimental Education and The Good Soldier.   (This will not be a task, they are both hugely fun reads.) 

My best by far non-fiction read of 2009 is Flaubert:  A Biography by Frederick Brown-just what he says about Ivan Turgenev, a good friend of Flaubert, is fascinating.  

What are your favorite reads for 2009?   

Mel u

TBR (To Be Read) 2010 Challenge

Mizb's Reading Challenges is hosting the 2010 TBR Challenge (To Be Read).   Basically this involves reading 12 books that you have wanted to read for a long time.   This seems a perfect way to motivate one to do what you want to do anyway.   The rules are on the challenge link.



Ok simple enough.   My only hesitation at first in joining this challenge as it is very much like Bibliophile by the Sea's Read Before I Die 2010 Challenge which asks you to pick 10 at least books that you have wanted to read for a while with the same rule that you cannot change your list.  (This is reasonable as one could  claim they completed the challenge just by naming the first books they read  for the year as their picks).  Some readers like to be very spontaneous in what they read and others like to plan long in advance.  I am somewhere in the middle.  Both of these challenges allow overlap so I at first thought  "OK just add two books to the ten you picked for the Read Before I Die Challenge and this is done and within the rules of both challenges".  On further thought I decided to pick 12 new books for the TBR Challenge.  I will use the books on my Read Before I Die challenge list as my alternatives for the TBR Challenge.

My 12 Books (in random order)

1. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rusdie-my first of his books-1/14
2. The Tenant of Windfell Hall by Anne Bronte-my first Anne Bronte
3. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson-read 1/4/10
4. Some Do Not by Ford Madox Ford
5. No More Parades by Ford Madox Ford
6. A Man Could Stand Up by Ford Madox Ford
7. The Last Post by Ford Madox Ford (4 to 7 make up the four novels in The Parade's End tetralogy-I hope to host a read along on this work once I read it the first time.    It is four novels published independently that came to be know under the collective name of The Parade' End.   Anthony Burgess has said the combined work is the finest ever English Language novel.  Other have said it is half genius and  half a messy bore.
8. Wide Sargossa Sea by Jean Rhys  1/6/10
9. A Personal Matter by Kenzabuo Oe
10. Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
11. Tales of Ise by Arihara no Narihira 1/2/2010
12. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

All of these books fit well into other challenges I am signed up for so it does not actually add  a lot to the number of books I need to complete my 2010 challenges and everyone I for sure want to read.

I thank Miz B for hosting it and look forward to reading the posts it will produce.

Jan 1-2010  number 11-Tales of Ise

I will track my progess on this Challenge on My Challenge Tracking Page and list the individual books I read for it here as the year goes on.   

Mel u