Happy 2007!
After getting seriously off track with regards to writing in 2006, I'm hoping to improve in 2007. A very busy advertising job can certainly create time constraints that are never anticipated.
For the two or three of you who have ever followed along as I've written in this space, you'll know that it's my goal each year to read 50 books over the course of the year and then write about them here at this spot. While I was able to finish my 50 books, the writing, as the title of this blog indicates, was not such an easy task. Reading can sometimes be a very private thing, and putting one's thoughts out there is fairly daunting. Also, I'm frankly not very organized most of the time.
And so it is that I feel a bit rescued by the terrific Web site BooksWellRead. This free online journal is in the Beta stages and it's a great time to go ahead and start your own journal. They have already taken a couple of my suggestions as far as tiny little improvements and it's a place a frequent fairly constantly. For anyone who enjoys reading and listmaking, it's a veritable paradise. As such, I've been able to go ahead and rate all the books I've read over the past few years (I started keeping a log in 2004) and journaling about the books most recently read. I'll take some of that content and transfer it here but for those who like to play along, my username at BooksWellRead is moogle, and you can search for people by that category and mark them as friends or favorites. You can post your own usernames below assuming I can get the comment feature working here.
Below are comments on Books #1 and #2 for 2007. Forty-eight more to go!
Borstal Boy, by Brendan Behan
Brendan Behan, the dramatist, poet, novelist and member of the Irish Republican Army, shares his experiences as a youth who was sentenced to a Borstal (reform school). The IRA occasionally used youths to carry out some of their plans, and Behan was caught after being in possession of explosives that were to be used for the IRA S-bombing campaign. He is first sent to a prison where he awaits his sentence, and he meets a London youth named Charlie who will eventually be his "china" (closest pal) throughout his incarceration. Through his tales of his imprisonment, we learn a great deal about the boy that Behan was, and honestly other than a couple of fights, his experience isn't particualrly harrowing. What we do see is that Behan had an amazing ability to adapt and to dominate any room he was in. It's clear that even as a youth, he had a talent for writing (he won an essay contest at the Borstal and never had a doubt but that he would) and his appetite for books is insatiable. The book is a straightforward, thoroughly readable piece of work.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
In the past year or two, I've become quite interested in the literature of the Harlem Renaissance (for more information on this era/movement, read the excellent young adult book Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill). This era, which saw a blossoming of art, literature, music and culture in the African-American community, took place right after World War I and was centered in New York City. Famous writers of the time include Nella Larsen, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Walter White, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston, whose novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is the subject of this entry.
This heartbreakingly poignant novel centers on the growth of its female protagonist, Janie, as we see her move from a childhood amongst a white family (she is stunned when she sees a picture of herself with the group, realizing that she is black) to her arranged marriage to a man whom her grandmother selected for her. She then runs away with a snazzy, smart man who becomes mayor of the town where they choose to take up residence. In neither of these cases does she find the love that she so desperately desires. It is a younger man who goes by the dubious moniker of Tea Cake who finally makes her heart soar, though their together is turbulent and the reader is constantly left wondering if he is the man she believes him to be.
The style of the book is fairly ingenious, moving back and forth from eloquent descriptive prose to more down-to-earth dialogue. The reader grows with Janie; she is an entirely sympathetic character in a book that is a joy to read.
Be sure to return here frequently as this week I'll have some Sundance links that should be awesome. Also, check out our front page as we currently have two giveaways going.
After getting seriously off track with regards to writing in 2006, I'm hoping to improve in 2007. A very busy advertising job can certainly create time constraints that are never anticipated.
For the two or three of you who have ever followed along as I've written in this space, you'll know that it's my goal each year to read 50 books over the course of the year and then write about them here at this spot. While I was able to finish my 50 books, the writing, as the title of this blog indicates, was not such an easy task. Reading can sometimes be a very private thing, and putting one's thoughts out there is fairly daunting. Also, I'm frankly not very organized most of the time.
And so it is that I feel a bit rescued by the terrific Web site BooksWellRead. This free online journal is in the Beta stages and it's a great time to go ahead and start your own journal. They have already taken a couple of my suggestions as far as tiny little improvements and it's a place a frequent fairly constantly. For anyone who enjoys reading and listmaking, it's a veritable paradise. As such, I've been able to go ahead and rate all the books I've read over the past few years (I started keeping a log in 2004) and journaling about the books most recently read. I'll take some of that content and transfer it here but for those who like to play along, my username at BooksWellRead is moogle, and you can search for people by that category and mark them as friends or favorites. You can post your own usernames below assuming I can get the comment feature working here.
Below are comments on Books #1 and #2 for 2007. Forty-eight more to go!
Borstal Boy, by Brendan Behan
Brendan Behan, the dramatist, poet, novelist and member of the Irish Republican Army, shares his experiences as a youth who was sentenced to a Borstal (reform school). The IRA occasionally used youths to carry out some of their plans, and Behan was caught after being in possession of explosives that were to be used for the IRA S-bombing campaign. He is first sent to a prison where he awaits his sentence, and he meets a London youth named Charlie who will eventually be his "china" (closest pal) throughout his incarceration. Through his tales of his imprisonment, we learn a great deal about the boy that Behan was, and honestly other than a couple of fights, his experience isn't particualrly harrowing. What we do see is that Behan had an amazing ability to adapt and to dominate any room he was in. It's clear that even as a youth, he had a talent for writing (he won an essay contest at the Borstal and never had a doubt but that he would) and his appetite for books is insatiable. The book is a straightforward, thoroughly readable piece of work.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
In the past year or two, I've become quite interested in the literature of the Harlem Renaissance (for more information on this era/movement, read the excellent young adult book Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill). This era, which saw a blossoming of art, literature, music and culture in the African-American community, took place right after World War I and was centered in New York City. Famous writers of the time include Nella Larsen, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Walter White, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston, whose novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is the subject of this entry.
This heartbreakingly poignant novel centers on the growth of its female protagonist, Janie, as we see her move from a childhood amongst a white family (she is stunned when she sees a picture of herself with the group, realizing that she is black) to her arranged marriage to a man whom her grandmother selected for her. She then runs away with a snazzy, smart man who becomes mayor of the town where they choose to take up residence. In neither of these cases does she find the love that she so desperately desires. It is a younger man who goes by the dubious moniker of Tea Cake who finally makes her heart soar, though their together is turbulent and the reader is constantly left wondering if he is the man she believes him to be.
The style of the book is fairly ingenious, moving back and forth from eloquent descriptive prose to more down-to-earth dialogue. The reader grows with Janie; she is an entirely sympathetic character in a book that is a joy to read.
Be sure to return here frequently as this week I'll have some Sundance links that should be awesome. Also, check out our front page as we currently have two giveaways going.
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