THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED, CONGRATULATIONS TO “Katie” AND “Brendan” FOR WINNING THIS CHALLENGE. SEE MAIN PAGE FOR THE NEXT OPEN CHALLENGE.
The Mixed Bag Challenge: a new question each week for the 15 weeks leading up to the Festival. Prizes include a bag for the best each week, and a raffle chance at Festival event tickets for each entry.
This week’s challenge, for Valentine’s Day: 5. What’s the story of your book crush?
Deadline: Feb 18, Noon. New challenge then.
7 Comments
February 14, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Long ago, when I was seven and had just moved beyond the « Look. Look. See Spot run. » stage of learning to read, my mother started reading me chapter books – one chapter a night before I went to bed. One of the first books she chose was “Heidi”. Not the simplified version seen too often today, but the real thing with hundreds of pages and every (translated) word that Johanna Spyri had penned. A black and white sketch at the top of each chapter and four or five full page color illustrations scattered through the book were all the visual aids there were. I loved Heidi’s story and one day, just before dinner, asked Mummy to read me some more “Now”. She explained that she was busy making dinner and I’d have to wait until the usual time. But I couldn’t! So I decided to read it myself. I can’t remember how long it took me, but I did finish it. And when it was over, I read it again immediately. By the end of the second reading, I had a friend for life. And could no longer be convinced that any book was beyond my understanding or appreciation. I still have my copy of ‘Heidi” and read it again every couple of years. I still cry at how homesick she was in Frankfurt, saving up white bread rolls for the Grandmother. And I cry again when Clara comes to visit in the Alps and, after several weeks of good country food and air and the Grandfather’s exercises, learns to walk again. And I’m still pretty amazed to think that I managed to persevere through all those words to get into that other world that so entranced me at such a young age.
February 16, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I have two books which really changed the way I think about life. In high school, I read All’s Quiet on the Western Front. Before that, I had been a typically enthusiastic romantic about war. Remarque’s book really made me consider the toll that violence takes on the people involved.
In college I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Again, I thought I had some understanding about prejudice and discrimination. Malcolm X really opened my eyes.
These books I love for their power. Many other books have made me laugh and cry. I always remember these, though as ones which went right to my heart…and gut.
February 18, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Once in my youth I was among the stacks reaching ing up for a volume by O Henry when I noticed it was braced by an unusual, twisted-like bookend which as I looked appeared to grow larger and larger. Then suddenly it hit me.
February 18, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Once in my youth I was among the stacks reaching up for a volume by O Henry when I noticed it was braced by an unusual, twisted-like bookend which as I looked appeared to grow larger and larger. Then suddenly it hit me.
February 18, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I like Voltaire’s Candide, the critique of blind optimism, maybe because I’m a bit of an optimist. The main character’s journey–impossibly unfortunate yet convincingly poignant–wear down his confidence in an early lesson he learns from Dr. Pangloss, a philosophy that we inhabit the “best of all possible worlds.” He learns a wiser middle way in a world he should be wary of; I never put a trowel in the ground of my yard without thinking of his famous last line and new lesson: “We must cultivate our garden.” I have a Josef Beery print on my wall that says the same thing.
February 18, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I’d like to say that my book crushes have taught me something grand about life, yet, I seem mostly drawn to tragedy. My favorites include Catcher in the Rye, Lolita and the Sound in the Fury. There is one book, however, that has inspired me to lead a better life: The Alchemist. It encourages one to accept their circumstances, work hard, and always keep an open mind. I just hope at the end of my life I’m happy with the treasure I’ve uncovered.
February 18, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Well, I can’t compete with Sandy. But I once read three books right around the same time — Shamrock Tea by Ciaran Carson, The Horned Man by James Lasdun, and Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald — all very different, but all founded on the idea that the world can sometimes seem like nothing more than a magical accumulation of strange connections and coincidences. Sebald uses moths, Lasdun unicorns (!), and Carson — my favorite — bees to help illustrate the point:
“The seething comb of black and amber bodies seemed without purpose, but he knew that this was far from the case: by dancing, by touch, by scent, by the vibrations of their wings, bees communicated a map of the immediate nectar-bearing countryside.” And they do all this, Carson alliteratively explains, with eyes that operate on “a high flicker-fusion frequency.” In other words, their vision consists of “isolated frames connected by darkness.” It’s up to the bee, then, to connect the dots.
This is a certain kind of writing, and way of thinking about writing, and thinking about the world, that I fell in love with that summer.