Monday, March 10, 2008

Books, glorious books!



As you know I spend a lot of time sitting round waiting on Ditz & without the car a trip to the library to stock up on reading supplies is out of the question; I have no self control in a library & always borrow more than I could possibly carry. Sooo, I have resorted to Ditz's reading list. There are one or two books there I haven't read. Jean Craighead George's Water Sky is an absolute winner ~ & I'm no fan of books where things get killed. I know, I'm just a woos. I love books that teach without effort & without even seeming to & as we have watched (ok, I haven't but the rest of the house has) all the episodes of the crabbers on the Bering Sea my visual/spatial learner has plenty of pictures to go with the descriptions of life in the Arctic circle. I've suggested Dino read it when I'm done. I think he'd really enjoy it too.

The last book, the Cat Who Looked at the Sky, was one I thought I wasn't going to enjoy & ended up thoroughly loving. Odd writing style but it grew on me. Helps that I adore cats, so thanks, Siano.

I am also wading through Tracy Chevalier's ShiningBright; it's tough going. I should have learnt from her other books. Once she moves out of the medieval period she is never as engaging as when she stays within that time frame ~ & she is much, much better when discussing art than literature, or anything else for that matter. This has been mostly a terribly dull read ~ & about Blake too, of all people. Maybe it's because she tries too hard to be historically accurate ~ in which case she should take a leaf out of Phillipa Gregory's book ( the Other Bolyn Girl), write a rollicking good story & don't fuss over much about the history? Say I, who can't stand Stephen Lawhead for taking such huge liberties with the Arthurian period & will happily tell any unfortunate enough to mention they like him just how awful he is & all the things he's got so terribly wrong! Drives me wild, but then I know more about Pre~Christian Britain than I do about Elizabethan England. Did I mention I'm a fantasy reader who doesn't read much fantasy because it's all so terrible?! Fussy is my other name.

11 comments:

Mrs. Darling said...

Okay where have I been all my life? I havent even heard of those books!

Ganeida said...

Lol.The cat one is Australian; I would be very surprised if you had heard of it, let alone read it.

Chevalier wrote Girl with a Pearl Ear~ring ~ from which the movie of the same name was made. Gregory's The Other Bolyen Girl has also been made into a movie ~ just released I believe. I like history, hence the books I tend to read just because.

Don't get me started on Lawhead ~ just give him a big miss. He falls between both stools of fantasy & history & hence does neither well!

MamaOlive said...

ahem! ...I was going to be snarky about the Lawhead thing, but then I realized this was YOUR blog, after all. ...
I enjoyed several of his books, but he lost me when he did the 4th of the Arthur trilogy. Then he went all Catholic on the crusades books, and I haven't read any since. (I never cared for his love-scenes, either.) But still! It's not terrible.

I just don't have time to read much. Though I am learning how to read while exercising, so it may get better.

Ganeida said...

lol! Of all the people to pick a fight with ~ & it is just because I can't get past how downright wrong his history is. I mean, I've read Talisien & I KNOW he couldn't be in the time period Lawhead gives him. He would have done better to leave the historical figures out completely ~ but hey, Mark loved Lawhead & was oh, so surprised when I started aquainting him with some of the facts! My kids won't watch history movies with me either; I go ape when they get the facts wrong! Assuming I even know them but Arthurian Britain is my *thing* & I know more about it than any sane, right thinking person should & no~one should get their facts wrong by several centuries...

Constance said...

I understand your thinking. I get frustrated when people take liberties with facts and turn them and tweak them to where they're incorrect. Someone else will come along and read their stuff and start believeing that THAT is the historical fact!

My best friend Brenda illustrated this point beautifully. She & her sister were at the checkout at the grocery store where all of the tabloid magazines are, their headlines inticing you to buy them. Her sister reads those things and told Brenda that she buys them but doesn't take them seriously. Brenda was telling her that once that "information" gets into your brain what usually happens is somewhere down the road something will come up and you won't remember the source of your so called knowledge.

"You just know that you read something about so and so and they are...fill in the blank"

Just because it's in print doesn't make it truth!

I read your post from the weekend and I hadn't heard about a plane crash. Was it a commercial liner or a smaller craft?
Connie

Destination...Gloryland! said...

Thanks for checking up on me. I've been on a cleaning streak and we've had colds. I want to sit down and read. Maybe someday. :) I always enjoy reading about what you are up to.

Ganeida said...

Yay! Someone who understands me! Hugs for Connie! It was a light aircraft; the pilot tested these kit planes or something. He & his friend went into the sea off the Gold Coast, which is only an hour from here by road. The current moves at a good 6 knots so the wreckage could be anywhere by now.

Heidi, it is good to know you are ok. I check your blog regularly & when you weren't updating thought I'd best check on you. I don't like friends disappearing on me ~ not even blog friends.:)

MamaOlive said...

So, when are you going to write me a historically correct version? You got me all hooked on the novel you were working on, and then quit. I know you can, and surely you don't have anything else to do! Come on, please! Write me a book!

:-D

Ganeida said...

Olive, Olive, the last chapters are sitting here; I just haven't gotten round to typing them up for you & Molytail yet. I know; I'm awful. Time... When I do NaNo (yikes!) this year I'll dedicate it to you. Howzat? Your very own itty bitty book. And so you know why I was whinging, Arthur (evidence for his reality exists lol) was a late 5th century war lord/tribal leader. Talsien, who definitely was real & a real poet was, at the EARLIEST, 6th century, possibly an amalgamation of several poets & as late as the 13 century. You can see why my poor little brain was warping.

MamaOlive said...

>pouting< Well, if that's the best you can do...
lol.

I am convinced Arthur was real - I named my son after him! I actually hesitated to read the Lawhead account when I first saw his books in my Christian bookstore because I didn't want to spoil my personal mythology (Owed in a large part to Howard Pyle's work). But my boyfriend said it was good, so I gave it a try.
I hadn't heard of Taliesin before reading the book, but I do remember (now that you mention it) looking him up in the encyclopedia. (Remember when we had to look things up that way, instead of Google?) He was Welsh, right? I guess it never occurred to me to worry about him being in the wrong century. Give me a break - I was 16. :-)
Even then, I wondered at his putting Atlantis in there, but I guess the Fair Folk have to come from somewhere. And he had them travel a LOT for the time frame (seems to me), but that was trying to tie all the legends into one package. I remember coming away thinking, "So that's how we get all these ideas about Arthur!" Anyway...
Still friends?

Ganeida said...

Friends? But of course! What is friendship without a little friendly arguement (ahem) discussion. :)