The BFG, Laura Day and OZ

I haven't been postign a lot, but I have been reading. Rather than do a bunch of seperate posts I'll just summarize.

I finally read the BFG by Roald Dahl. So many people ohh and ahh over this book and somehow I missed this book when I was growing up. I had bought it for my 9 year old to read and thought this would be the perfect time for me to read it too. Two hours later and I don't see what the big deal is. It's a cute story, but I think I missed the magic by reading it at age 34 instead of 8. Reading it as an adult I loved the way Dahl makes the BFG talk. It was ingenious. Only a linguist could have come up with his perfect giant dialect. The only onther thing I want to point out that is a bit nitpicky is if the giant is so opposed to giants eating people and even touches on Sophie eating pigs and calls her out on it, then why does he eat eggs and bacon at the end? I would have figured him for a vegetarian.

I read a book on intuition by Laura Day. I didn't figure this book was really worth a review. This is a book I would classify as 'common sense'. We all have intuition and some of us listen to the hints we are given and some of us don't. What  I didn't buy was looking for signs and symbols in everything we do. I don't think we should seek out those signs. If they aren't obvious then they aren't real signs as far as I'm concerned.

Best book these past few weeks has been Finding OZ. It's a biography of sorts of Frank Baum. It is absolutely fascinating. It combines history, political and social, and just a really great biography with an everyman story. I haven't quite finished it yet. I'm really into it and he hasn't even started to write the book yet. I'll keep you posted.

Writing has been slow going. I just about decided that I was going to give up on trying to write since all it seems to do is make me feel guilty for not producing more. I was going to try and focus all of my attention on one of my other businesses. That was until I got the NaNoWriMo e-mail appeared in my box and then a friend mentioned it again on FB. I am tempted. It officially starts on Sunday so I have until then to decide. It would be fun and I know I would finally get a chunk down on paper, but we'll see. My other business really needs some desperate attention and if I start writing furiously next month that business will get set on the back burner until probably January. Not necessarily a good idea. I guess I'll just see how I feel on Sunday and roll with it.

Wuthering Heights

No photo today for this book.

I really don't get Wuthering Heights. I picked it up to read a good githic novel. I vaguely remembered reading it when I was a teenager, but it didn't really leave a mark on me, so I decided to read it again.
I have now remembered why it didn't leave an impression. This book is horrible. I don't get the love story. I don't get the ghost story. It just seems like a long meandering family history. The family tree is so confusing and the names so similar that a family tree has to be provided at the beginning of the book. I was still referencing it during the last 30 pages of the book to remind myself who was who's kid.

I read the introduction in my edition and read a theory that Emily Bronte started it and that Charlotte Bronte finished it. I think I believe that this is a real possibility. The beginning of the novel is so all over the place and only about half way through does it seem to find it's style. There is less dialect in conversation, and the characters seem to start moving in a direction. There was a real line that was drawn thru the book and it could very well have been an author change. Add that to the fact that it was Charlotte that brought the book out after her sister's death and I don't see how Charlotte couldn't have added her own shine to her sister Emily's book. Without argument Charlotte was the more talented sister. It wasn't until just a couple of months ago that I read Jane Eyre for the first time and I can honestly say that it is one of the best books I have ever read.

I so wanted to love this book. It is beloved by so many and I wanted to love it too, but I just couldn't do it. maybe if I pick it up again in another 20 years it will strick a chord with me then, but so far I've got nothing for it.

Isis by Douglas Clegg

I found this book advertised in a strange location.....on Perez Hilton.com. Not the place I usually find books, but there it was on the smaller side ads showing it's beautiful cover and I was sold. I looked up Douglas Clegg and saw he was the writer of a bunch of cool horror books and thought this might be pretty good.

It's a tiny little book, more like an elongated fairy tale then a whole book. Overall it was good, but I would have like to have seen it as a whole book. It felt too compact. The message of the book was awesome. What happens after you bring someone back from the dead? What happens if you wish them back to you in any form? I loved that part of the story. It's a different way to think about returning from the dead. Since I am also reading Wuthering Heights (which I'll review later this week) I saw a lot of parallels between the two stories. There is a love so deep that you can't live without the person you are missing and you ask for them to haunt you.. Not a good idea I would say.

I recomend it, but get it at the library like I did. I wouldn't really call it an instant classic, so you don't really need it on your library shelves. The drawings are amazing so if you're into illustration then buy it, otherwise just check it out from the library.

Slacker

I'm slacking and playing way too much solitaire on my i-phone and not reading, and spending too much time on Perez Hilton to write. It goes that way sometimes. Besides those distractions I have also been fairly busy with my real paying work and of course my family. I'll get back to it I swear. I'm still reading Wuthering Heights mixed with How to Write Romance. I'm just taking it slower than usual. I've got a ton of great books on my desk, but I just can't get through them quick enough what with the new fall TV season having started and all.

Candy Girl Diablo Cody

Okay so I read this book a while ago, but I have to bring it back out. I love Diablo Cody (aka Brooke Busy). This book made me start reading again a few years ago. I've read Jen Lancaster and other bloggers turned memoirists and no one spoke to me the way Diablo did. She's hilarious, smart, and tells it like it is. She doesn't write about regular female fluff, but the good hard core stuff beneath all that feminine fluff. I like a book that brings the hard core sex stuff into everyday life. You think it, she writes it. Sex is part of life whether we talk about it or not. I think Diablo brought a thinking girls perspective to the sex industry.

Since reading this book I've become a Diablo Cody fan. I follow her tweets, which are hilarious. I haven't seen Jennifer's Body yet, but will on DVD. (I have kids). I just wish Diablo would bring her awesome writing powers back to another book.

This would have to be one of my favorite books of all time.