Food for the Soul

July 7, 2010

I grabbed these three books at B&N a few days ago, and got them for less than $15!  (I can't remember the exact price).  They had their "Buy 2 BN Classics, Get 1 Free" deal going on, and I have BN membership so I was able to get the brand new copies for relatively cheap.  I am going to start Bleak House very soon and hopefully get around to the other two books, too.  It's been absolutely exhausting nowadays - the job at the learning center is getting more hectic than ever, and my internships are starting to pick up speed as well!

My trip to Westside Pavilion that resulted in my buying of these three novels resulted in a few revelations: 1) the parking in Westside Pavilion, although free, SUCKS.  That parking lot is SO confusing.  I got lost trying to look for my car even though I made sure I remembered the way I entered the mall and the parking level & number...and then while trying to get out of the parking lot, I went the wrong way in a turn (there were NO signs whatsoever) and then I had to back all the way back with all these cars waiting and...it just sucked.  2) Friends are like wine, even the ones you weren't that close to back then.  3) I need to be around people that like reading.

I met up with an old high school friend that is leaving to join the U.S. military tomorrow - we had tried to meet up, like, five times in the past three weeks but something always prevented it from happening (mostly due to my really bad memory and my recent sickness).  Although we didn't really do much during our short meeting, it was meaningful.  It's so nice to just meet up, not do anything and just catch-up with life.  Childhood friends - the people that knew me before college - have a way of touching a completely different side of me.  They know me in such a different level.  I just can't explain it.  There's less pretense, more realness.

In my little trip to BN with him, we enjoyed short conversations and shared book recommendations.  We discovered that we both adored Les Miserables and enjoyed Dickens.  We talked about Orwell, Voltaire, books that made us think, book that we thought were lacking.  I think these types of conversations feed my soul.  I need more of that in my life.

1984, Summer, and...Wales

June 21, 2010

So I realized that for some unknown reason, my blog (since I put up the new layout) is no longer showing the dates... So I must now get into the habit of writing them manually above every entry.

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Bleak House - Charles Dickens

Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

Animal Farm - George Orwell

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

I finished Orwell's 1984 today.  I must say, as a Communication major, it struck me as a novel that was a must-read.  Crazy stuff.  I must say the conclusion was kind of confusing and also slightly disappointing - but that must be due to personal bias.  Nonetheless, a powerful novel.  I'm really glad that I picked it up this summer.

So I decided that this summer will be dedicated to ME.  (Well, to a certain extent).  The 30 minutes I spend everyday is not to "prove" to anyone - it's for me.  And by shifting my focus that way, I found that I have more peace than ever.  At least, the most peace that my circumstances at the moment allow me to feel.

^ Penn Abroad Stuff

I received these three booklets in the mail yesterday, and I just glanced through the Green Booklet just now - it has a  ll these useful and cute lists of stuff (including a chart of "What the Americans Say" vs. "What the British Say").  According to this Booklet, the British apparently call "Dessert" "Pudding". Hum.  I don't know how accurate this is or if I'd even attempt to memorize them (I think that personal experience would probably be better), but it's interesting nonetheless! It's definitely got me more excited to prepare for Wales!

Honestly, a part of me feels like summer is a drag.  Maybe it's because I'm working on 2 internships and a job and (honestly) not feeling too fulfilled by any of them right now, but things are looking to be kicking off very soon!  I am enjoying the sunshine and the friends (friends are like wine, SERIOUSLY) - as well as exploring the city that I grew up in as a twenty year old.  That means lots of cafe dates and trying out new things, which I think is very good for me.

Anyway - so getting these pamphlets in the mail about my future adventures to come next semester was a good shift in mind from my summer mentality.  I absolutely cannot wait to be in Europe, although it is very nerve-wracking! 

Wuthering Heights

I finished the book in about 1.5 days. Starting the book, I never thought that I'd get to a point where I couldn't put it down, but hey, life's full of surprises.

I remember the best English teacher I had ever had - my AP English Literature teacher during senior year - recommended the book as a "must-read for girls who like love stories". I had meant to pick it up earlier, but it so happened that I ended up reading it this summer, 2 years after I had first heard the recommendation.

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights explores the dark side of love, as young lovers' destructive love ends up destroying not only their lives, but (basically) everyone in their lives as well. However, I do not think it is fair to blame all the terrible things that Heathcliff ends up doing on his love for Catherine - the treatment Heathcliff received from Hindley and others largely contributed to his desire for revenge. That brings up another theme of the book that I picked up on - the terrible nature of human beings on self-righteousness and hatred. The book exposes the cycle of hatred - related to the capacity people have deep within to do evil. Heathcliff was abused most terribly by Hindley, which led to his desire of revenge, to not only kill Hindley but to take all of his possessions and destroy him in the process. Heathcliff responds to evil with evil, not only affecting those directly responsible for his nature, but also negatively impacting the future generation.

Heathcliff's malicious nature can be exposed not only by his terrible treatment of Hindley's son - Hareton - but also through the way he essentially destroys his own son - Linton. In the process of doing so, he destroys Isabella, his wife, and attempts to take the young Catherine (the daughter of his own beloved) into misery as well.

I think most people would agree that the entire book and story centers around how Heathcliff and Catherine's love is so powerful that it destroys so many lives. I think that their childhood sweetheart love might have ceased to become love once it got to a point of destruction - it became an infatuation, an obsession, engulfing their lives as well as the lives of everyone they could drag down with them.

Why must their love be so destructive? It honestly really puzzled me as I read through the novel - why is Heathcliff completely obsessed with Catherine? Is it possible for one to be so "crazy in love" to the point that it becomes an unhealthy infatuation? What is it about Heathcliff and Catherine's love that leads them to throw away everything else in the process, including their own children? (It's obvious from Heathcliff's treatment of Linton that this is true in his case; it is also true in Catherine's case since she knew that she was pregnant with a child and pretty much had no desire to live anyway).

It seemed to me, as I was reading through the novel, that Heathcliff's and Catherine's love for each other was very much so idealized, mostly because their love was forbidden due to societal expectations and...honestly a part of me feels like the characters (or perhaps just Catherine) put up walls that did not exist in between their love. I mean, really, she could have just ran off with him anytime in the beginning of the novel. I was reading up on the topic and scholars have said that it was because their love was stagnant that it ended up being so destructive. They refused to change. I think that perhaps they refused to change because they idolized an ideal version of their love.

Nearing the end of the novel, I was so sure that it was going to end up on a depressing note with everyone but the narrator (Mr. Lockwood) and story-teller (Nelly Dean) dead - but I was in for a pleasant surprise. The story ended on a positive note, with young Catherine and Hareton falling steadily in love - not a firey, passionate type of love but a steady love that magnifies over time and undergoes change. I guess that might be the key moral of the story then.

All the other characters end up being destroyed because of their firey, passionate love that borderlines obsession [Catherine<->Heathcliff, as already discussed; Edgar->Catherine; Isabella->Heathcliff and Young Catherine->Linton (this almost happened)]. Or perhaps it's just that the initial (Catherine<->Heathcliff) love is the root of it all that destroyed the rest of the individuals involved in the ordeal.

I think the timing of my finishing this novel is very interesting because I have had very recent talks with friends and my sister about marriage - all of us agreed that a relationship that can grow over time is much more healthy for marriage than one that is full of vigor and fire in the beginning. Blehhhhhhhhhh.

And now I'm thinking, 'Wow, growing up really sucks'. I kind of want to go back to those immature times when I dreamed of my own Disney prince in shining armor. Now I know how crazy and complicated "love" can be. And also I am realizing that "THE ONE" might not actually exist, but there are just multiple possibilities. I can already hear certain friends going, "maybe that's because you haven't met the one yet". Blahhhhblahblah.

Wow, too much thinking at 3 in the morning. Clearly, that must be it...

Regardless of whether any of this blabbering might make sense or not in the morning, here is the updated summer list, with Wuthering Heights bolded to indicate completion:

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Bleak House - Charles Dickens

Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

Animal Farm - George Orwell

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

I shall make another trip to B&N in the afternoon to pick up another book off this list.

100 Books

So this is BBC's list of "100 Books to Read Before You Die"...

I think this summer will be a great time to buckle down and get to it. Bolded = already read. Italicized = will attempt to finish it before summer 2010 ends.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

• Honestly I did not particularly enjoy this book, but I'm planning to give it another try very soon...I find Jane Austen's writing style irritable.

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

• I could never bring myself to read through this series. I shall attempt again soon...

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

• I started on this book, wrote a book analysis on it (without having finished it)...I've always meant to re-read the book in its entirety but have never gotten around to it. I think this will be one of my starting summer books this year.

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

• For my generation, I really think this is a classic series in that we totally "grew up" with the characters in the book. I will forever tell my future kids about waiting every summer for a new book to be released...I'm still kind of sad that it's over.

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

• One of my favorites. I taught it last summer to a group of high schoolers who totally did not even give the book a try (sigh), but I think some of them got the core message of it. And for that I am happy. It's astonishing how much you can learn from actually teaching the book...it was very interesting to see it from the other side.

6 The Bible

• I've actually read it cover-to-cover, but I definitely was not reading it the way I was supposed to be reading it. I think going through the Bible will always be a persisting lifetime goal.

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

• I hear that this is a depressing book, but I would like to read it this summer before I leave to the UK in the hopes that I will be able to visit the place that inspired the author when I am abroad.

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

• This book is referenced so much that it's quite a surprise I haven't read it yet...will try this summer.

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

• I think this was the first book of Dickens I had ever read (I believe it was in 7th grade?). And I read it probably three or four more times since then. It's kind of one of those books that I feel has been over-read in my life...if such a thing can exist.

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

• I think I finished this in the sixth grade? I kind of want to pick it up again just because I don't remember much from the book, but its thickness deters me...

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

• I remember being so angry at the end of this novel. I can't remember if I read it in the 11th or 12th grade, but this book made me so depressed that I don't think I can bring myself to pick it up ever again...

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

• Still haven't gotten around to this book!! I shall this summer...

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

• My face just cringed at the title. One day....

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

• I still can't believe I haven't read this yet...

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

• Another book I've been meaning to pick up...

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

• Such a charming book. I LOVED this book when I first read it during 8th grade and became super attached to it ever since. I cried like a baby the first time around. I think it'll always remain as one of my favorites.

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

• I have mixed feelings about this book. Don't know why.

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

• I have this love and hate relationship with Dickens where I totally love some of his novels and can't stand others. I hope this one will be of the former.

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

• Totally attempted to read this book; one of my Dickens failures. I'll try again someday..

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

• I think I read this as a child but never really fully understood all of its connotations. Will reread this summer.

34 Emma – Jane Austen

• I don't know if I can ever pick up Austen again...

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis

• Same as Chronicles of Narnia

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

• Read this last summer because I had to teach it. I cried like a baby, even though I would never admit that to my summer kids. I will never be able to forget my mischievous boys going, "WTF? That's so messed up, Teacher!" and "I HATE ______". What a heartbreaking story...

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

• I totally have mixed feelings about this book, too.

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell

• I need to get to this!!!!!

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

• Why is this on the list...?

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

• I was wayyy too young when I read this...

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

• Judging from how reading Tess went, I don't know if I can ever pick up a Hardy book again...

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

• I read this for the first time last summer because I had to teach it, and I am so glad I did. I'm also happy about the way my English class reacted to the book. They were (by far) my favorite class and I was able to (hopefully) imbed some great themes about the human nature from the book into the kids.

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

• LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. I have read it probably more than five times in the past few years, and this book has been the center of numerous essays throughout my high school years. There's something so remarkable about the ending that captures me every single time I read it.

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

• I've totally been hesitant to read this book because it seems heartbreaking. Maybe this summer is the right time...

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

• Again, I was forced to read this book because I had to teach it last summer. I think it's such a powerful book.

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

• I have two copies of the book and totally mixed feelings about it.

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

• I picked it up in the 10th grade and was like "WTF" and immediately put it down. Since the movie is coming out soon, I think I am going to pick it up this summer.

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

• One of my favorites, for sure.

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

• Another Hardy book...

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

• I attempted. Like 10 plus times. (Not even exaggerating). I just can't bring myself to read it...

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

• One of my favorites. Is that weird? I found the story meaningful and charming.

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

• Childhood favorite, anyone?

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White

• Delightful.

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

• One of my favorites. I think I want to give it another read this summer..

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare

• I actually read this for the first time in the 12th grade, and I thoroughly enjoyed it - even though I totally thought I would hate it...

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

• My ultimate favorite. If someone asks what my favorite book is, this is always the answer. I want to re-read it someday..

28/100. That's kind of bad.

Here's the list for this summer:

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Bleak House - Charles Dickens

Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

Animal Farm - George Orwell

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

Hopefully this little blog post will keep me accountable :)