The Bookshelf Project #17

This week's pictures of bookshelves are from Thomas, a fellow who writes one of the most insightful book reviews. Check out his blog here.







I love his collection, especially his classics! I'm particularly envious of his Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time books. And I could see that he'll be needing more bookshelves soon!

What do you think of his bookshelves, dear reader?

Good news, good news

People who are into intelligent and racy reading may actually live longer. At least that is what's implied here. This is exactly what I need to hear, especially after knowing that the word "unfriend" is probably here to stay. Since I plan to read all of Collins's novels and Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, I figured I need to live until I'm 80, at least.

I wonder what constitutes "intelligent and racy" reading though. I bet Hawking's A Brief History of Time (which I haven't read) counts for intelligent reading. Are the Gossip Girl novels considered racy? And, can we actually have a book that's both intelligent AND racy. Hmmmm... Offhand, I think I've read lots of racy novels: Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins, and Harold Robbins.

Any suggestions on intelligent and racy reads, dear reader?

Unfriend

The New Oxford American Dictionary has picked its word of the year, and that word is "unfriend." When asked as to the criteria for choosing that ghastly word, it cited that "unfriend" is very current and has the potential for longevity. I just cringe reading about this piece of news.

I'm not a language purist and I love how dynamic English is, but celebrating a grammatically incorrect usage of a particular word does not bode well for the next generation. I'm not comfortable with using the word "friend" as a verb, much less its negative. Surely we can think of other quirky words that appear frequently this year which are used correctly.

How long before "unfriend" finds its way into fiction and (gasp!) our textbooks? Would our children and children's children ever learn that the true context of the word does not necessarily involve social networking sites? Argh...

How about you, dear reader? Are you peeved about this word? Or is some other word bugging you? Let me know. Perhaps we can "friend" each other in Facebook.

Novellas by Collins (part one)

I can't get enough of Collins's works lately, and what better way to get my Collins fix than by reading his shorter works. Collins's novellas still have his trademark narrative -- the pervasive atmosphere of dread and malice and a touch of elegant mystery elements. If you haven't read Collins yet, dear reader, then I suggest you check out these three novellas.

Oxford World's Classics collected three of Collins's most famous novellas -- Miss or Mrs?, The Haunted Hotel, and Guilty River. Miss or Mrs? and Guilty River can be read in one sitting, as each averages 100 pages long. The longest, The Haunted Hotel, runs for 160.

Miss or Mrs? is a fast-paced novella. It puts all our contemporary thrillers to shame. Collins combines the elements of fraud, murder, secret marriage, and blackmail to create 80 pages of one wonderful narrative. Marriage is a major theme especially in Collins's later works, and in Miss or Mrs?, marriage again plays a prominent role. In England during the mid-1800s, marriage was one way of obtaining a respectable income and we see how the novella's villain, Richard Turlington, hopes to pay off his business debts by marrying into a well-to-do family.

The Haunted Hotel is a very atmospheric read. It seems like a ghost story at first, but the reader is really in for a surprise. If you've read The Moonstone, which many people consider as the first detective novel, you know what I mean. The novella is very eerie and it's episodes of hauntings in the Venetian hotel are indeed hair-raising. Again, murder figures prominently in this work, with the scene of the murder (a room in the hotel) serving as the setting for all those mysterious ghostly apparitions.

I still haven't finished Guilty River though. But I just wanted to immediately share how I had a fantastic time (again) reading Collins. Now I know why he was the most popular novelist during his time. At one point, he even surpassed his good friend Charles Dickens in book sales.

Read these novellas if:

1. You want to sample Collins's wonderful works.
2. You're craving for well-written thrillers.
3. You can't get enough of sensational fiction.

Another list

Image from The New Yorker

Telegraph just came up with a list of 100 books that defined the 2000s. Check it here. This decade, the noughties, hasn't been a very good reading year for me, as I used to read at least 250 books every year during the 90s. Now I just average around 50 in a year. (Oh, how work gets in the way of reading.) Still, I was surprised that I've read 56 of them!

I'm not really a big fan of lists as they seem to be very subjective. And I think I'm not sure yet as to how a book can define a decade. Should it rank in a bestseller list? (Probably, since The Da Vinci Code is #2, Twilight is #32, Jamie Oliver's The Return of the Naked Chef is #46.) Should it be political? (Yes, as apparently, Obama's Dreams from My Father is #2.)

The list, however, did get me to think of the best books that I've read in this decade, which is quite challenging. Telegraph did include three of my favorite books so far -- Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White (#91), Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française (#87), and Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (#4).

How about you, dear reader? Are there books you've read in the 2000s that particularly stand out? I'd like to know about them.

The Bookshelf Project #16

This week's pictures of bookshelves are from Alexander. For his collection, Alex mentions that:

• The bigger books in the centre from left to right are design/architecture/world history/aviation/miltary/transport/star wars (I am secretly a big fan) and sheet music books (next to the piano!).
• Third from bottom row: art/more smaller architecture books/more world history (I love history on ancient civilizations and cultures) and under the sheet music section I have school yearbooks and souvenir brochures that I have amassed.
• The bottom two rows on the left and centre sections are photograph albums (another meticulous hobby of mine - on the spines I have the flags of the countries visited displayed in that album.) The right section has dictionaries and some more miscellaneous reference books.

Such a diverse collection, don't you think? And I love that the bookshelves cover the entire wall! What do you think, dear reader?

I will conquer my fear

I will conquer my fear and finally read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I won't cringe at all those instances of British politeness. I will read passages of old 19th century English as if they were the latest bestselling thriller. I will not be bothered by all those gossipy characters. I will not be put off by uptight British gentlemen who seem to be above everybody else. I will read Pride and Prejudice if it's the last thing I do.

I've no cboice in the matter really. The book club that I'm a part of is discussing P&P on November 21, and I've already confirmed my attendance. That was the easy part. Now all I have to do is read that bloody novel. And while I think that the movie with Keira Knightley was wonderful, I doubt if just seeing the adaptation would be good enough for the book club members.

I've been very vocal about my aversion to Austen, despite some of my friends mentioning how good her novels are. I guess we all have our literary pet peeves, right? I'd like to know yours, dear reader.