Why Read Classics?

Remember how I joined that Classics Club thing awhile back? The one where you read 50 classics in the next five years? Yes? Well they ask a sort of meme question every month and this month's question is:

Why are you reading the classics?

What a good question, eh? Why indeed. I must ponder.

1. Reading classics makes you smart! These books make you think and make you wonder about things and give you fuel for small talk. They even make you catch all the references in shows like Gilmore Girls. Classic books tend to  have substance and usually, you have to work for it... which... in the end... makes you smart.

2. The classics have all the best characters. Whether you love them or hate them, you have to admit, the characters found in classic books are memorable. Mr. Darcy, Pip, Heathcliff, Mr. Thornton, Jo and Laurie, Tess... just to name a few. I find myself falling in love (or hate as the case may be) over and over and over again.

3. Classics, by their very nature, are still relevant today. There's something to learn from these books, the moral of the story if you will. Even today, years later, that still holds true.

4. Why not? I mean, if you cut them out of your reading buffet, you'll be missing so much! None of us wants to do that now, do we? We want to read ALL the books! Some (a lot) of my very most favorite books are classics and to think that I may have missed them if I wasn't keen on reading classics just makes me shudder.

5. Bottom line: It's fun to read the classics! Sometimes it's also a little hard, but in the end, you feel such a sense of accomplishment. And often, you have a movie to watch that goes with the book. And you've got to admit, that's fun!

Do you read the classics? Why? Or... why not?

Guest Book Review: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I'm happy to have a special guest reviewer join me here on the blog today! Please welcome my son, Dev! He has just recently read Life of Pi for his senior high school English class. As part of their reading experience, the class has been assigned to do a project of some sort relating to the book. I suggested the idea of posting a review here on the blog. With some reluctance he has agreed. We would love to hear your comments and he's also agreed to answer and respond to them, so please... help us with this assignment and let's get a discussion going!

His review:

Book: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Genre: Award winning literary fiction
Rating: ★★★☆☆

The Life Of Pi is a novel about a religious young boy named Piscine Patel who grows up living in a zoo in India. Because of people making fun of his name, Piscine shortens his name to Pi. Due to political issues rising in India, Pi’s dad decides to move to Canada and sell all of their animals. They load their ship, The Tsimtsum, with all their animals and set off across the Atlantic. For some unknown reason the ship sinks, and  Pi is left stranded in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra and an adult Bengal tiger.

I did not think this book was anything special until the very end. I was not all that interested in Pi’s survival techniques and the descriptions of his surroundings, and since this is all the book consisted of from when the ship sinks to the end, I did not think the story was particularly interesting. Also,  many of the descriptions seemed to be overdone and bordering on childish. For example, when Pi is describing the sea life he starts out by saying, “The sea is a city”. This is a great first line and creates a vivid mental picture which the author could have used to his advantage. However, Martel then goes on for a page and a half talking about all of the similarities between the sea life and a bustling city. I think that all this extra description is unnecessary and does not add to the initial picture provided by the first couple of sentences. Then, Martel finishes this description by saying “It was amazing and awe striking”. By this point in the description, this last sentence is completely obvious and should not have to be stated. It is this kind of childish writing throughout the book that started to turn me off. 

At the end of the book is when I started getting genuinely interested in the story. When Pi tells the alternate story to the Japanese interviewers, it completely changed what the book was about. It started me thinking about how the two stories can be looked at as the same and how that can be applied to almost any other story or situation. I find this interesting because it shows how the truth does not always look the same.

Bottom Line: I liked the moral of the story, not necessarily how he presented it.

Other reviews:

I can’t say I enjoyed it – although I did respect the writing and felt it was one of those novels which should be read and digested, and then read again. From Caribousmom

Yann Martel mixes realism and magic to just the right degree, allowing his readers to suspend their disbelief to the degree that everything that happens seems possible. From Book Chase

Yann Martel’s talented use of the English language brings the reader directly into the story with words which awaken all of the senses. From The Literate Mother

The ending didn't do anything to redeem the book in my sight – I thought it was just okay. From Books and Movies

I had no idea going into this book that it would fill my mind with so many deep thoughts and questions. From Books: A True Story

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? 

What a Bookstore!

For fall break my family and I (well... two kids of the family anyway, we left the college kids to their work and school) took off for a quick and fast and furious road trip to Portland and the Oregon Coast. Love that area of our country. Just love!

Anyway, one thing on our to do list was visit Powell's City of Books! Sadly, I had no idea this bookstore existed last time we were in the area (15 years ago.) But this time, I knew and I went!

They said I'd be overwhelmed and boy, were they ever right! Wow. I can't even describe it, but I'll try. It's huge. There's a ton of books. Everything is organized by room, with different topics and sorts of books in all the different rooms, color coded, three or four levels (I don't even know, I didn't get that far!) Used books and new books all mixed up together.

And tons and tons of people! It was crazy crowded.

Anyway, we took pictures:

Here's the corner of the building as we approached.

The main sign.

The list of where to find things.

Looking down over into the kids/YA room... of which this is just a tiny tiny part!

The stacks.

And stacks.

Just one shelf of Sense and Sensibility. The Jane Austen section was huge.

Me and my son posing in the fiction room
. I've got my little stack to buy, he's got some manga in his.
(Also, you can't see it here, but he's wearing his Dr. Who shirt and got
tons of comments all throughout the store.
Then we found they even have
a whole Dr. Who section!)

In line, I'm pondering the t shirt options.

And this is the t shirt I ended up with. :)

And the books I bought for myself... I'll be meeting Jonathan Maberry on Sat.
The other one was a used one in the Printz section, and
I think this guy is married to Robin McKinley. I'm curious!
Then we got the manga book for my son, and The Mark of Athena for my daughter. 

Bottom line: It was worth it!

Have you been to this book store? How would you describe your experience?

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Fantasy Authors

Today's list over at The Broke and the Bookish is to list our favorite authors in whatever genre we choose. Here's what I've decided on:

My Top Ten Fantasy/Speculative Authors
(at least at this very moment.. right now.)

1. Brandon Sanderson
2. Melina Marchetta
3. Maggie Stiefvater
4. Patrick Rothfuss
5. Erin Morgenstern
6. Dan Wells
7. Neal Shusterman
8. Megan Whalen Turner
9. Patrick Ness
10. Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hmmm... I could go on..... and I know I've forgotten lots....

What authors would make your list for this genre?

Happy Readathon!

Sadly, I won't be joining in with the readathon fun this go around. I'm off making family memories instead. But I AM reading... a bit. Here's what I'm working on, or almost working on, which would be what I'd be reading if I WAS doing the readathon,

Good luck to everyone today with all your reading goals!

Book Review: Sulan by Camille Picott

Book: Sulan by Camille Picott
Genre: YA Dystopian
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
For: Fun
From: Amazon Kindle Library

After Jenny's raving review (and we all know her raving reviews are quite rare!) I had to find a copy of this book to see if I agreed! So I found it on Amazon, available for free from the Kindle Library. Sweet!

This is a story about a girl, Sulan, living with her mom who goes to school through the virtual technology. (I seem to be reading about this ability a lot lately! Is this truly our future? I'm starting to think maybe so...) Life in the world is getting more tumultuous and all she really wants to do is learn how to fight and protect herself. She knows that her mom has a past where she was a fighter, and she wishes her mom would teach her, but her mom refuses.

So, she takes things into her own hands and goes to a virtual club place where if you "get in" you can learn all about fighting. And she has a special secret that will help her, even in a virtual world. And she finds a special friend there who also helps her.

But then the unrest in the society rapidly changes for the worst and Sulan is forced to use her new found skills a bit sooner than she expected.

Wow, it is quite the page turning story! And beautiful fighting? Can fighting be beautiful even? Sort of Ninja-ish mixed with dancing? Yeah that. It also reminded me a bit of Ender (sorry Jenny, it really did!) because of the whole genius-kid-wanted-by-the-government thing.

I totally enjoyed the characters in this story, very unique and memorable. And of course there's two boys for Sulan... though I think the second boy is still quite in the background. There's always the next book though! However, I'm still quite intrigued by the first boy, BUT there's something up with him and we are totally left hanging about what that might be!

Next book please!

Bottom line: I totally enjoyed it. Lots of fun!

Other reviews:

I've been in desperate need of a book that made me actually want to use any spare time I had for reading and, boy, did I find it. From Alternate Readality

I can still remember the final cliff hanger leaving me yearning for the next episode of this YA cyperpunk, dystopian, near-future, sci-fi story. From Joystory

Sulan is extremely entertaining with an exceptionally captivating storyline. I'll admit I was immersed in Sulan's world and upset when this first novel ended. From She Treads Softly

I kept going though, telling myself, "Just one more chapter." Well one turned into two turned into finishing the book in one night. From Bookworm 1858

Sweet Author Signings

It's been a crazy week of author signings!

First, Rob Wells launched Feedback:

This is when he's telling us about his health struggles,
that happened all during the writing of Feedback.

At the signing table!

My book!
I read it already and need to review.

Then Maggie Stiefvater came to the neighborhood on tour for The Raven Boys:

This is when she is telling us about Gansey's shoe.

At the signing table!

My copy of The Scorpio Races, which I confessed to her
was my favorite of the bunch.

Then we were treated to an appearance of Lois Lowry, one of only five authors who has won the Newbery Award twice!

Here's a bunch of us bloggers waiting, waiting, waiting.
(If I wasn't so tired at the moment, I would add names and links!)

This is when she is telling us about how The Giver, and its series came to be.

At the signing table!

My copy of Son, which I plan to read this weekend!

What fun we are having around here! And it's not over yet... stay tuned for more author encounters!