Defined by Books

Simon of Stuck-in-a-Book tagged me in his ten books meme three weeks ago and I am only now getting around to posting; both another cookie crumbles and JoAnn of Lakeside Musings tagged me in the honest scrap "ten things" award so this is also a response to them with ten bookish things about me.

Simon's rules:

1.) Go to your bookshelves...
2.) Close your eyes. If you're feeling really committed, blindfold yourself.
3.) Select ten books at random. Use more than one bookcase, if you have them, or piles by the bed, or... basically, wherever you keep books.
4.) Use these books to tell us about yourself - where and when you got them, who got them for you, what the book says about you, etc. etc.....
5.) Have fun! Be imaginative. Doesn't matter if you've read them or not - be creative. It might not seem easy to start off with, and the links might be a little tenuous, but I think this is a fun way to do this sort of meme.
6.) Feel free to cheat a bit, if you need to...

Seeing as Simon fully sanctioned cheating ... I did. To be fair, I instinctively know where all of my books are so I couldn't have picked them unknowingly blind but I did choose them at random by looking at the bookshelves and quickly choosing ten books from ten different shelves, one or two of them as intentionally representative of something about me.

Everything I Needed to Know about Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume: this title is self-explanatory and true. I could have shared one of my Judy Blume books but instead I thought this was far more revealing about me. I loved Judy Blume as a girl and still hold a soft spot for some of her books (Just as Long as We're Together, Here's to You Rachel Robinson, Tiger Eyes, Deenie ...)

Trumpet by Jackie Kay: there are several books that I could have used to tell you that I am from Glasgow but none quite as beautiful as this one, in which the 1960s sections are set in my home-city (Kay also grew up there).

The Collected Stories by Katherine Mansfield: I was first introduced to Katherine Mansfield by a beloved English teacher at school who gave us "The Doll House" to read, which remains one of my favourite short stories because of its apparent simplicity yet also inexplicable quality. This book reveals not only a cherished bookish memory from school but also that I own a replica Victorian dollhouse (I used to own two, but my sister now has my first one) and collect miniature furniture, including books, a Swan Lake screen, a tiny Tiffany lamp (post-dating Victoriana but too cute to resist). Furthermore, it reveals my obsession with silver Penguin Modern Classics, of which this one is a favourite.

Bold Girls by Rona Munro: another set text from school (for Higher English), Rona Munro is a Scottish playwright although this play concerns four women in war-torn Belfast. I loved this play when I studied it and a friend bought me my own copy and wrote a dedication inside likening me to one of the characters (whose part I had read in class). I am a huge fan of drama; I don't read or see as many plays any more as I used to but I have a full shelf on my bookcases dedicated to plays and that doesn't include my numerous books by and about Shakespeare. I forget that readers of my blog probably don't know that I am an English Literature graduate (I also have my Master's) but it is an intrinsic part of me.

Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter: I couldn't define myself using books and not include Angela Carter. Anyone who doesn't know that I am a Carter devotee hasn't been reading my posts closely enough! Nights at the Circus was the first book of hers that I read and hence meaningful.

Mog's Christmas by Judith Kerr: along with Dogger by Shirley Hughes this was my favourite picture book as a child. My much-loved and dog-eared copy was handed down to my sister and is still at home but my boyfriend bought me a lovely mini hardback copy a few Christmases ago.

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose: another perfect gift choice by my boyfriend, this book is indispensable and I love close-reading a chapter at a time over and over. The subtitle is revealing as I am both of those people; the book sits on my writing shelf, where I have writing style handbooks, creative aids, and a number of short story volumes by writers included in the book.

The Brontës Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson: I began to consciously collect the original green-spined Virago Modern Classics in April 2008 and very early on I coveted an elusive copy of this book. Shortly after looking at expensive copies online, I went into an Oxfam Books in Glasgow, purposefully seeking a copy; I instantly honed in on a green spine (a skill known by all that collect these editions) and it was the one I was looking for! Priced at a wonderful £2.49. Very surreal and quirky, this book bears re-reading but I know that I am never going to part with it, even if Bloomsbury have re-issued it in a particularly lovely ice-cream copy.

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf: I adore this essay by Woolf and love to pick it up and luxuriate in her words and thoughts. As a feminist I love to read about Woolf walking on the lawn of Oxbridge and adore her creation of Judith, Shakespeare's sister. Although I am attached to this Penguin edition I am somewhat obsessed with the earlier purple and cream striped one; I own most of the Penguin merchandise that imitates the iconic edition: the bookbag, the notebook and poster and I covet the postcard and mug.

Love by Toni Morrison: this is the book I'd rescue from a burning building, not because of the book itself but the inscription inside; my boyfriend bought me this for our first Christmas together and wrote something beautiful to me. This is one of several books that have something meaningful written to me inside but this one, above the others, is incredibly special; if I shared it online, it would betray my boyfriend and I would never do that.

Did you learn anything new about me from this meme and did you notice that all of my books are written by women?

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Let's Call the Whole Things Off: Love Quarrels from Anton Chekhov to ZZ Packer (notice what the title cleverly does?) selected and compiled by Kasia Boddy, Ali Smith and Sarah Wood brings together some of the best short story writers on the topic of lovers' quarrels. Some of the writers I am very familiar with (Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf and Colette), others I had met but didn't know intimately or had been intending to seek out their work (Jhumpa Lahiri, Dorothy Parker and Natalia Ginzburg) and others I was completely unfamiliar with (ZZ Packer, Arnold Bennett and A.M. Homes). Some of the stories were in translation from Russian, Italian and Welsh, amongst others, and they were cleverly edited into sections -first quarrels, daily arguments, breaking up and the aftermath- and didn't quarrel but compromised and complemented each other.

The stand-out stories for me were "This Blessed House" by Jhumpa Lahiri, "He and I" by Natalia Ginzburg, "Lappin and Lapinova" by Virginia Woolf and "You Go When You Can No Longer Stay" by Jackie Kay; it was difficult to narrow it down in such a strong anthology but these four stories were particular powerful and evocative of the soul-destroying nature of quarrels or a relationship's demise. "This Blessed House" (taken from Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Interpreter of Maladies) is unique in that it takes a newly married couple -Twinkle and Sanjeev- who barely know one another as their marriage was arranged and examines their early days quarrels through which they grow to understand each other. Natalia Ginzburg is an Italian writer whose work I became aware of through the book group that Simon and Kim run; Ginzburg's A Place to Live: And Other Selected Essays of Natalia Ginzburg is a favourite book of one of our members, Armen, and now that I have had a taste of her writing I shall be seeking out more. Ginzburg has a unique style that I instantly admired from the opening lines:

He always feels hot, I always feel cold. In the summer when it really is hot he does nothing but complain about how hot he feels. He is irritated if he sees me put a jumper on in the evening.
He speaks several languages well; I do not speak any well. He manages - in his own way - to speak even the languages that he doesn't know.
He has an excellent sense of direction, I have none at all. After one day in a foreign city he can move about in it as thoughtlessly as a butterfly. I get lost in my own city; I have to ask directions so that I can get back home again.

One could argue that this is a description of opposites attracting or of couples growing estranged and no longer having anything left in common, they are so different.

Woolf's "Lappin and Lapinova" is brutal in its portrayal of a married couple once the honeymoon period is over. The sweet, affectionate way the newly married couple engage with one another is endearing; they liken one another to rabbits named Lappin and Lappinova, which they use as pet-names, and when this is lost, only a few years later, it was "the end of that marriage", a closing line that seems to be at odds with the nuanced writing of the story and yet I found it to be flippantly fitting.

"You Go When You Can No Longer Stay" very funny also brutally truthful. I know Jackie Kay's work from her beautiful novel, Trumpet, which I highly recommend; of the writer I know that she used to be in a relationship with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. "You Go When You Can No Longer Stay" is about the demise of a long-term lesbian relationship which opens humorously "It is not so much that we are splitting up that is really worrying me, it is the fact that she keeps quoting Martin Amis"; Amis is used effectively for comic relief throughout.

Other highlights in the anthology were stories all by writers familiar to me; "The Gilded Six-Bits" by Zora Neale Hurston is a story in Ebonics that tells of a married couple's quarreling as foreplay until the wife's infidelity ceases their quarreling; "Pillow Talk" by the fabulous Alasdair Gray is short and bittersweet -a husband awakes to accuse his wife of leaving him and after she confesses that she wishes he could, he realises it was a dream; "Mr and Mrs Dove" and "A Letter" are written by two of my favourite short story writers -Katherine Mansfield and Colette- and, although not my favourites, each are perfected as always and evocative of playful quarreling; "Here We Are", written by the delightful Dorothy Parker, tells of the petty arguments and jealousies played out between a new couple on their wedding day.

I recommend this volume for its versatility in storytelling, its collection of highly-accomplished writers of the short-story form and its compelling subject matter of lovers' tiffs. This was one of the few short story anthologies that I have been able to read cover to cover without becoming frustrated by its contents.

Katherine Mansfield

During Persephone Reading Week I started to read Katherine Mansfield's Journal and realised that to truly appreciate it I needed to reread those Katherine Mansfield short stories I have loved and read those that are to me. Mansfield has been a popular blog topic in the last couple of weeks and I was inspired to pick up one of my volumes of her stories. Upon doing so I wanted to reread "Bliss".

"Bliss" reminds me of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. ‘I was jealous of her writing. The only writing I have ever been jealous of,’ so said Virginia Woolf of her friend, contemporary and rival Katherine Mansfield, but only as a posthumous accolade; before Mansfield’s death their relationship was fraught with bitterness and envy. Such a self-deprecating and modest admission to make when one is the female writer at the forefront of the Modernist movement. To read now, that Woolf was jealous of a contemporary’s talent, is as startling as reading the same of Shakespeare. Woolf was the most innovative in style, influential in feminism and literary mode, and as equally famous and infamous of all female writers from the twentieth-century, if not the literary canon. Yet, she was envious of Mansfield; perhaps if the latter had lived to realise her potential , instead of dying tragically young, she would now have held this mantle.

She would certainly be worthy of doing so; her writing and use of language is stunning and her stories each perfected pieces of art. I love her short stories and I have a love-hate relationship with the medium; Katherine Mansfield see-saws heavily on the love side.

I was first introduced to Katherine Mansfield by a beloved English teacher at school who gave us "The Doll House" to read, which remains one of my favourite short stories because of its apparent simplicity yet also inexplicable quality. Mansfield often features details and symbols that resonate within the reading but elude definition; the reader is unable to full grasp the significant meaning of the symbol as with the pear tree in "Bliss" and the little lamp in "The Doll's House", not strictly symbolic as they are not representative of a specific thing but freely open to interpretation, like Woolf's lighthouse, which she meant "nothing by".

Mansfield often employs abrupt beginnings that jar - the reader has to be alert and questioning from the outset, sometimes they even begin with a conjunction. She disposes of tedious descriptions/back story and launches into the midst of the action. Mansfield prompts examination at level of the word: semiotics, word choice and syntax. In "Bliss" she begins in medias res:

Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at-nothing-at nothing, simply.
What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly by a feeling of bliss-absolute bliss!- as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe? ...

Immediately I questioned who is Bertha and why is she so blissful? The word bliss and its derivatives are repeated and emphasised throughout the story and begin to describe a sexual awakening and longing for her husband, her best friend. Bertha is brimming over with emotion, desire and the search for fulfillment, a rite of passage that comes to realisation "For the first time in her life Bertha Young desired her husband." Mostly I hoped Bertha would remain in her blissful state but predicted that in the denouement she would be crushed and she is... by an ironic blow.

You can read "Bliss" online here. Please do or alternatively read a volume of her stories.

Recent Acquisitions...

Yesterday I splurged a little and bought one book I have been wanting to read for some time; another that it a previous Man Booker winner and a title that my friend raves about; and a third Pulitzer-winning novel that was marked down by 75%! Each in a different bookshop.

I visited the Persephone shop in Bloomsbury first of all and purchased Katherine Mansfield's Journal, which has been at the top of my wish-list recently. It was a fly-by visit (preventing me from splurging further) as I took the scenic route and managed to become somewhat lost; as I was late to meet a friend my visit was execution only and I found the book, looked for the Persephone bookbag and was disappointed to find a plain, beige, jute one rather than the pretty grey, paid and departed. Just as well because when it comes to Persephone books I resemble a child in a sweetshop.

Later on in the evening I popped into Foyle's on Charing Cross Road for a wander and to buy The Bone People by Keri Hulme. I had already checked that they had it in stock on the website as I am desperate to read this after discussing the Man Booker winners recently. This novel from New Zealand won the Booker in 1985 and my friend, who read it last year, really raved about it so I needed to lay my hands on it quickly (and the library doesn't have a copy).

Another friend and I then popped across the road and into Borders so that I could sneakily read the Johnny Depp feature interview in this month's US Vanity Fair (£4.50 for a magazine cannot be justified, even if it is imported and contains the luscious Mr Depp). As we entered I spied copies of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout with huge "75 % off" red stickers on the front cover; I calculated that the book would cost £1.75 and that was an offer I couldn't refuse. This novel in stories has been appearing across the blogosphere since it won the Pulitzer and I am looking forward to reading it.

Moreover, as I am discussing recent acquisitions, I should really show off the beautiful Viragoes I have managed to acquire over the last few weeks. My Virago collection has bred and spawned since last I spoke of it, mainly through immense generosity from members of the librarything Virago group and from eagle-eye spotting out and about and on ebay. Most of my Virago collection is shown in the photographs at the bottom of the page. The titles pictured immediately below are the ones I acquired recently, all ones that I was anxiously on the look out for and I can't wait to read them, but first I have to tackle and overcome the huge pile of library books calling to me, "read me, Seymour, read me".

Books, Books, Books...

I feel guilty completing another book-related meme when I have been so undisciplined reviewing books recently ... it's fun though. I found this on Simon's blog today and couldn't resist.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Angela Carter, most definitely, as I have duplicate copies and more or less everything written about her. I also have a lot of Colette books, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and every book by Toni Morrison (including a signed copy).

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, with three copies. I have the one pictured above -bought on a trip to London in '98- with a fabulously salacious cover, a newer Penguin Classics edition (they are all actually Penguin) that is included in my Penguin Banned Books boxset and the beautiful -and exceptionally useful- The Annotated Lolita. This is tied with three copies of Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop, all Viragoes, including the fabulous 30th birthday Virago hardback fabric edition.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Somewhat, especially ending with "of", which is a pet-hate.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
After watching the wonderful TV series, Lost in Austen, recently, I would have to be cliched and say Mr Darcy; I probably have been since 1995 when I watched the BBC adaptation with Colin Firth.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Hmmm, I don't re-read as much as I would like... any of the favourites below are a good bet.

6) What was your favourite book when you were ten years old?
Charlotte's Web by E.B. Smith.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
I'm usually quite particular with what I read, spending my time with books that I've been wanting to read for some time, but within the last year I wasn't too impressed by The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams; there's only so much one needs to know about moths, unless you are a lepidopterist.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
It's been a good year for reading but recent read Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie was astonishingly evocative and Lady Rose & Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson, 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff and The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim were all thoroughly enchanting.

9) If you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be?
Like Simon, I "don't really like the idea of forcing everyone to read a book" but I often encourage (usually by buying them a copy) people to read The Red Tent by Anita Diamant as well as frequently voicing the praises of Angela Carter.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
There are many deserving writers ... I would like to see another woman win as there have only been three females to win since its inception. I would also like to see it given to Salman Rushdie, however "popular" a choice he may be. Also, can it be given posthumously? If it can then I'll go out on a limb and say that it will be given to John Updike or JG Ballard this year.

Oh, I would ADORE if Terry Pratchett won it! He is so under-rated amongst the high-browers and literary snobs but is exceedingly worthy.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Most have been ... I am looking forward to the forthcoming big screen adaptations of The Time Traveller's Wife, Cheri and The Lovely Bones.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Um, again most have been... I enjoy seeing how movies of books adhere and translate to or deviate from the literature.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I have a hopeless retention for dreams.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Probably the Twilight series! Sometimes lowbrow "popcorn" is needed though -it satiates but isn't exactly filling or nutritious, and is simply indulgent.

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Ooh, I have NO idea! Something I read for my Master's degree, probably. Most likely secondary crit such a Cixous, de Beauviour, Lyotard, Foucault ... highbrow yet accessible but with difficult -yet highly interesting- concepts.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
The Winter's Tale, which is one of my favourite Shakespearean plays.
I also saw a fabulous -but definitely obscure- adaptation of The Tempest with puppets.

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
A bit of both ... I've read more modern Russian than I have French but I am a huge fan of Colette and Anais Nin so probably the French.

18) Roth or Updike?
I want to read both.

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
I've heard good things about Sedaris.

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare.

21) Austen or Eliot?
Definitely Austen.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
So many gaps along the way ... Proust and Tolstoy and Joyce. I've read some Joyce but I managed to bluff my way through two degrees without reading Ulysses, something that used to make me proud.

23) What is your favourite novel?
I seldom play favourites -because I simply can't whittle it down to just one- but the following make it to my top however many: Nights at the Circus, The Bloody Chamber and Wise Children by Angela Carter; Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier; I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith; Pride and Prejudice and Emma by Jane Austen; The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark; Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov; Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie and on and on ...

24) Play?
By the Bog of Cats by Marina Carr; Lovers by Brian Friel; Tally's Blood by Ann Marie di Mambro; Oleanna by David Mamet and the amazing The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, as well as the afore-mentioned The Winter's Tale.

25) Poem?
I'm not a huge poetry fan but I love "Kubla Khan" by Coleridge and several poems by W.H. Auden, Sylvia Plath and Edwin Morgan.

26) Essay?
A Room of One's Own and a number from Flesh and the Mirror (collected essays on Angela Carter).

27) Short story?
"The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and "The Company of Wolves" by Angela Carter will duel it out to the end of time for more than equal a place in my heart and I hold particular affection for 'The Doll's House" by Katherine Mansfield, which is a wonderful study of the cruelty of children.
Furthermore, I recently read Neil Gaiman's short story, "A Study in Emerald", and was blown away, so that makes the list, as does Colette's The Cat.

28) Work of nonfiction?
Oh ... Lorna Sage's Moments of Truth and Angela Carter's collected journalism, Shaking a Leg.

29) Who is your favourite writer?
Angela Carter, which probably won't come as a surprise.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Stephenie Meyer - I may guiltily enjoy the Twilight books but she can't write, in the literary sense of the world, and the franchise is way too hyped (hence the haters).

31) What is your desert island book?
I think it would be the collected stories of Colette.

32) And... what are you reading right now?
Currently I am about to pick up another book as I finished Sputnik Sweetheart last night. I also have a couple of short story collections (Katherine Mansfield and Neil Gaiman) to finish, one probably today, and a book on writing, which I am savouring slowly.

Reading Notes

I was having an email discussion with my friend this morning about what we were currently reading (prompted by an email from me to say that he must read Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie - blog post forthcoming). He happens to be currently reading four books and I thought that my reply would make for a good blog post today.

Normally I read one book at a time but, coincidentally, I am also reading four books at once just now:

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Something Childish But Very Natural by Katherine Mansfield
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (I am listening to the audiobook -read by Neil- and reading along.)
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

How unlike me to :

1. Be reading more than one book at once
2. Be reading such a lot of short stories (I love short stories but sometimes I struggle with the form ... I think because they are so short (go figure) and, unless written by a great writer, fail to grasp my attention. Katherine Mansfield is the first short story teller who I recall enjoying, in 3rd year of secondary school, and I love Neil Gaiman, whose short stories are fabulous.)
3. Be reading non-fiction. I love reading about books though and I am particularly into my writing just now, so this book is of great assistance (and prompted me to pick up Katherine Mansfield again as it's been a wee while since I read any). This book was a birthday gift from my boyfriend last year and is proving to be practical, interesting and invaluable. It also tickles me that the author of this guide has the surname Prose, hee.