Booking Through Thursdays: So What?

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Is symbolism an older literary device, like excessive description, that is not used much any more? Do you think there was as much symbolism as English teachers seemed to think? What are some examples of symbolism from your reading?

Ah, symbolism, the bane of my English class existence. When I was in high school, a favourite English teacher of mine used to drive us crazy by asking the same question after each passage we'd read: "So what?"

Meaning, so what does this mean? What do you get from this part of the story? What else can you see in here?

Like I said, it would drive some of us crazy. Especially if the answers were never very clear.

While I was never one of those people who couldn't 'get' symbolism, I wasn't the quickest on the uptake. So I normally wouldn't pick up on it until after my teacher would explain it. However, over the years I've gotten a little better at it through self-study. I read The Odyssey as an adult and found the symbolism much easier to pick up than I would have as a child. I guess that really only comes through experience, though. If you read enough books, you start reading in between the lines yourself.

I still hate those individuals who seem to find symbolism in every book and don't hesitate to point it out. That's probably why I've never joined a proper book club. Eventually I'd want to throw the book at someone if I had to deal with that nonstop.

The last book I finished was The Reader by Bernard Schlink and I'm trying to think of what symbolism I can garner from that story.

Nope, nothing comes to mind.

Okay, so maybe I haven't gotten any better at identifying literary symbols over the years. Or perhaps the question posed is right—books these days are less likely to carry symbols, but somehow I doubt that. There are plenty of books written each year that you can read further into if you stop and look past the main plot.

Booking Through Thursdays: I'm Rich! Let's Go to the Bookstore

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Yesterday, April 15th, was Tax Day here in the U.S., which means lots of lucky people will get refunds of over-paid taxes. Whether you’re one of them or not, what would you spend an unexpected windfall on? Say … $50? How about $500? (And, this is a reading meme, so by rights the answer should be book-related, but hey, feel free to go wild and splurge on anything you like.)

It certainly depends on the windfall! As much as I love books, I don't know if I can lay down $500 on new books. Perhaps if I were able to find a complete set of Winston Churchill's memoirs (I have The Hinge of Fate...someday the rest will be mine!) in good condition, it'd be worth it to spend that windfall on books. Otherwise, I'd probably splurge on something else. A vacation is more likely.

How about you? Would you spend your tax refund on books? Or would you reserve it for something else?

Booking Through Thursdays: Oh, I'm a Book Slut

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…

1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
3. Is this normal for you?
4. Where do you keep your current reads?

If I could ever proclaim that I’m a slut, it would be because of books. And, for the record, I can’t actually call myself a proper slut as I’m a bit of a prude, even with the women’s fiction job. But! Books, well…they are my Achilles’ heel. Give me a stack of books and a hunk of man-meat and I’ll ask to read the back cover copy first before I make my decision.

That being said, yes. I read way more than one book at a time. I’ll read anything at any time. Currently, if you’ll look down to my Shelfari widget, you’ll see that I have five books on the go that I’ll admit to. That doesn’t account for the book in my parent’s bathroom (Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It by Geoff Dyer), or the book by my bed that I haven’t touched in about four months cause it’s really boring, the countless books in my office, or the others strewn around my apartment in various states of completion (I’m looking at you Absurdistan).

I’m perfectly happy to flit from book to book. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for that dark, wordy nine hundred page tome about the Middle Ages. Sometimes I need something light and airy. Right now I’m on a graphic novel kick. I’ve finally acquired several of the books from my Graphic Novel Challenge list and I’m busy getting through those. And where do I keep them all? Everywhere. A Scanner Darkly is hiding in my purse. I found a book in bed with me this morning, I rolled over and came face to face with the cheeky monkey gracing its cover like it was the morning-after and it’s time for that awkward conversation.

Thankfully, books don’t talk back (well, they can if you get the audio, but you know what I mean). And that’s why I’m more of a book slut than anything else.

Booking Through Thursdays: National Library Week

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

“I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?”

Oh, the public library. I have had a tumultuous relationship with my various public libraries as I’ve grown up. I suppose I should start from the beginning. But don’t worry—I won’t go through the entire sordid history.

My earliest memory of the library was of my first library card. A true rite of passage, we were assigned our first library cards in the first grade. I was lucky enough to go to school within walking distance of the nicest, prettiest library you could find in an East Toronto suburb. To this day, I still frequent the same library. Of course, none of the librarians recognize me since I was knee-high to a grasshopper when I first patronized the branch, and it’s been at least ten if not fifteen years since then.

Still, it fills me with joy to go back to the same library where I fell in love with the written word. While things may have changed a little since those first tentative years, I can still find anything I need in that branch. And if it’s not there, I can certainly put it on hold. At first I devoured old copies of Asterix comics, Baby-Sitters Club adventures, and Goosebumps, but eventually I branched off—I found the non-fiction section, romance novels, mysteries, magazines. I would spend whole summers in that tiny branch.

And I've certainly given my library card a work out; if I’m in a reading mode, it’s hard for me to curb how many books I take out. Over the years I’ve learned to be prudent though. The first and only time I ever found myself faced with a $90 library fine (because I refused to return the books…oops!), I knew I couldn’t let that happen again. I’m happy to report that it’s never happened since. *knocks on wood*

When I first moved back to Toronto, I couldn't afford cable. The library kept me from going insane with it's DVD collection and it introduced me to such memorable characters as Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable, and Audrey Hepburn. Everyone should watch old movies. They are amazing.

Now I’m happily in between two really great libraries: Main Street and Beaches. I couldn’t live without my local public library because it’s like a bottomless bag of crack—without it I would be strung-out and broke from all the books I’d buy (and I still buy a lot of books.)

Image Source: Chuck Kahn

Booking Through Thursdays: Worst Best Book

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

What’s the worst ‘best’ book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. I read this when I was about twenty I think, so maybe I didn’t like it because I could no longer relate to Alice. Or maybe I just didn’t like the way she was portrayed? I don’t know. My friend TJ absolutely loves this book. In fact, I read her copy of it.

Normally I like things that have a tinge of mystery around them. I’m fascinated by celebrity deaths, mysterious disappearances, etc. But even that didn’t help this book. The story was just flimsy. She starts off as a pot-smoker and turns into a full-on drug addict? I think it’s just a scary story meant to keep kids on the straight and narrow. Which is fine, but it’s not a very good story.

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. I know…this is supposed to be The Book. Countless people consider this as their book. But I just didn’t understand it. I couldn’t relate to this upper middle-class snotty kid who has no interest in doing anything and holds everything in disdain. The kid needs a good smack.

I guess it doesn’t help that I didn’t read this as part of my high school English curriculum. I read it by myself because I was told by everyone—including TJ—that this was The Book. I guess I needed that extra education to really appreciate the book. Reading it alone just made me mad at Holden!

Booking Through Thursdays

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Collectibles:
• Hardcover? Or paperback?
• Illustrations? Or just text?
• First editions? Or you don’t care?
• Signed by the author? Or not?

I’ll pretty much collect any and all books that fascinate me. I don’t really have the money to collect valuable books right now, but that doesn’t stop me from collecting. I have a pile of moldering old books I got from an estate sale. Seriously. They are actually moldering. The spines are crumbling, the pages are transluscent and I’m fairly sure the covers have been nibbled by mice. And they’re probably not worth much, but they make me happy so I keep them.

And I always keep my author-signed books. Most of them are specifically addressed to me, so they're not valuable to any one else other than...you know, the army of other Olgas!

Image source: heidiologies

Booking Through Thursdays

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or you just put it where it falls on?

Ooh this is a great question! I used to have a pretty mundane order to my bookshelf; paperbacks on top, trade in the middle, and hardcovers on the bottom.

One day I was looking at the shelf and thought, "God, this looks boring." So I came up with the idea of colourcoding my shelves.

I'll give you a minute to laugh at my intense nerdiness.

It took about an hour or so, with the help of A, my best friend, but we did it. We colourcoded my bookshelves! They run from white to black and span two bookshelves. I think it looks great, except it's a bit more haphazard, and it's difficult to put books back onto the shelf. Plus, I broke apart series, like A Series of Unfortunate Events, to fit the colour-scheme, which I wasn't terribly happy to do, but felt it would look best entirely colourcoded. The final drawback is that it's difficult to put new books onto the shelves because they're pretty much packed to the gills. Fitting even a single book would mean snaking the entire collection down some shelves, and that's a lot of work in a small space.

So, was it a worthy endeavour to colourcode my books? Dunno. I'm still undecided as to whether I want to keep it; it certainly looks nice, but it might be best to just revert back to the original organization.

The Rise of Digital Books—Should the Printed Book be Worried?

The topic at Booking Through Thursdays is one that I have already covered briefly in a previous post, but I think it bares rehashing. Ebooks are here to stay. Digital media is here to stay. I think that is something that we all have to get used to. Some people are already embracing the technology full tilt, while others are…dubious to say the least.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. I’m curious about ebooks, although I haven’t actually read an entire one. I don’t own an ebook reader because I believe I have to make a conscious decision to go digital, and that time hasn’t come yet. I work in digital and internet in publishing, though. I’m part of the publishing world that is trying to convince readers that digital production is where books are headed to.

And the funny thing is, I can see it working.

When I first started my job, I was dubious to say the least about digital books. The only time I’ve ever read a digital book is on my computer, and I nearly went blind from the experience. It’s hard reading from a computer screen.

But when you shrink that computer screen down to the size of, say, a paperback novel, the argument starts to take a different shape.

And then there’s the iPhone. That shiny beacon of forward thinking is the advanced guard, the first in a long line of a new generation of personal computers that have the potential and the capability of convincing the world that you can read a book digitally. BlackBerry has already come out with a competitor called the BlackBerry Storm, and I dare say by the end of 2009 most major cellphone manufacturers will have a similar model. This is where we are headed, and it’s full steam ahead.

The iPhone is the greatest enemy to the printed book.

But that isn't to say that the print book is about to go extinct. I think there will always be a following of the printed word, but—as with everything else threatened by a newer, shinier version of itself—that following will gradually shrink over time. It may take generations, but it might happen.

Think about it—technology is guided by convenience. So, in twenty years time, when everyone is hooked into their personal mobile computers (because, essentially, that is what an iPhone is, is it not?), what will the reader be carrying? An iPhone AND a book, or just an iPhone with fifty books loaded into it, perfect for every mood, along with the capability to download another fifty in ten minutes, should her mood change?

I'm conflicted. I want to believe that the printed word is not dying, but it's hard to see the evidence to the contrary. I feel like I'm just clinging to my library at a moment when I should be embracing the changes.

So what will happen to the book? I predict the printed word will have a renaissance—the book will become a collectible once again. Books will be made with care, with proper material that can stand the test of time. Because if people aren’t buying throwaway paperbacks anymore, you need to change the look of them. Convince people that your books are worth the paper they are printed on again. Remind us why we covet the smooth, bleached pages, and the alluring scent of the ink.

Digital books are here to stay, but they won’t kill the printed book entirely.

Booking Through Thursdays

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

Since “Inspiration” is (or should) [be] the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

Good question! My reading is mostly inspired by a combination of friends and my own stumblings through the internets. I'm basically a sponge, and it takes very little to get me to try a book. If you like it, or if you think I will like it, I will likely put it on the TBR pile. Alternatively, I read a lot on the internet as well.

When I lived in Hamilton, I used to go on the public library website and search through the new books, placing holds on things that looked interesting, or just writing them down on my list to come back to another day.

And when I worked at Chapters? Those were heady days...I never had so many recommendations from people in my life! It was truly amazing working in a bookstore because I got to talk about books with everyone (apart from those poor souls looking for webkinz.)

These days a lot of inspiration comes from the challenges I've joined, and the people at work who love to read as much as I do.

So you can see, my inspiration comes from many sources. Every book has potential, as far as I'm concerned.

Booking Through Thursdays

Booking Through Thursday asks:

If you’re anything like me, there are songs that you love because of their lyrics; writers you admire because their songs have depth, meaning, or just a sheer playfulness that has nothing to do with the tunes.

So, today’s question?

* What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a specific group or writer … have words that you love?
* Why?
* And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them?

You don’t have to restrict yourself to modern songsters, either … anyone who wants to pick Gilbert & Sullivan, for example, is just fine with me. Lerner & Loewe? Steven Sondheim? Barenaked Ladies? Fountains of Wayne? The Beatles? Anyone at all…

This is an excellent question! I love to sing, and songs with memorable lyrics tend to stay in my playlists much longer than songs with memorable melodies. There are songs that have been in my iPod Alphonse for years because I love to sing the lyrics.

Three songs come specifically to mind, and I can even pinpoint the lyrics that I love. These are:

Ryan Adams’s Let it Ride—this entire song is fantastic. Twangy, dirty country; Ryan Adams tends to polarize people, they either love ‘im or hate ‘im. I lean more towards loving him. How can you not when he croons songs like these:

27 years of nothing but failures and promises that I couldn't keep / Oh lord, I wasn't ready to go / I'm never ready to go

That line specifically (and others that follow in the same song) fall off the tongue so easily that it’s difficult not to sing along with him. I picture myself as a barmaid-cum-country-singer whenever that song rolls around and I get to singing.

Then there’s a newer song in my playlist. City & Colour is a one-man band by the name of Dallas Green of Alexisonfire fame. If you’re into Canrock, you’ll know him well, but if you’re not, then…you’re missing out! Beautiful voice often coupled by just a guitar, he’s a great mellow singer-songwriter. Perfect for when you’re chilling at home, or (like I was when I first listened to his second album) on a long cross-country driving trip.

This song hits write at home because it describes me so well. Observe:

At least I know I'll never sleep at night. (Sleep at night) / I'll always lie awake until the morning light. (Til the morning light) / This is something that I'll never control. /My nerves will be the death of me.
Good melody, and lyrics I can relate to. This will be in my playlist for years to come.

Finally, the last song that I could think of is by my all-time favourite band Nine Inch Nails. Only was released on the With Teeth album, and I can recite the following to you as a poem if I didn’t know how to sing it:

Well the tiniest little dot caught my eye / And it turned out to be a scab / I had this funny feeling / Like I just knew it’s something bad / I just couldn’t leave it alone, kept picking at that scab / Like it was a doorway / Trying to seal itself shut / But I climbed through

Oooh gruesome imagery, eh? I love it.

Booking Through Thursdays

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

It’s a week or two later than you’d expect, and it may be almost a trite question, but … what were your favorite books from 2008?

For someone who hasn't been tracking every book she's read in 2008, this is kind of a hard question.

For light and fluffy reads, I would have to go with Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave. A good mystery, and really good chemistry between the characters made it an instant fave with me, and I've started to convert people as well.

For nonfiction, hands down, it has to be Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. Informative, inspiring, horrifying, yet uplifting. It made me want to hide in a farmer's market and not come out until the spring.

Booking Through Thursdays

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

So … any Reading Resolutions? Say, specific books you plan to read? A plan to read more ____? Anything at all?

I only have one reading resolution this year--do it more often. Some people say I already read too much, but frankly I don't think there is such a thing. Perhaps my resolution should be that I would like to read more of my own writing? So I secretly want to write my own novel. Who doesn't, frankly.

As for things I really want to read, I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Deanna Raybourn's Silent on the Moor. Lovely series, can't wait to have it in hand.

Booking Through Thursdays

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

What are the most “wintery” books you can think of? The ones that almost embody Winter?

While I haven't finished reading it, I would say Orhan Pamuk's Snow is probably the winteriest book I can think of. It's still on my TBR pile, as I had borrowed it from the library and couldn't finish it in time before it was due back (and with a 100+ person waiting list, I couldn't renew it). What I remember vividly from the first chapter was the description of a remote Turkish village, covered in a thick blanket of snow, as we are introduced to Ka, the poet who has finally returned after twelve years of exile. It was so wildly different from the image I have of Turkey in my own mind, that it stuck firmly. It's hard not to when the story begins thusly:

The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver. If this were the beginning of a poem, he would have called the thing he felt inside him the silence of snow.

With that, I bid you a Merry Christmas. :)

Booking Through Thursdays

Booking Through Thursdays asks:

1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?

(I’m guessing #1 is an easy question for everyone?)

2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?

1. No, not at all. However, this has improved over the years. Looking back two years ago I would have emphatically said no because I was still in school, and consequently mired in required reading and seminar notes. Now, I at least don't have as much homework to do. Still, there are never enough hours, are there?

2. I would read more nonfiction if I had more time. Although, I may just be saying that. There are lot of nonfiction books in my TBR pile, but they always seem to fall shorter than the fiction. I guess I just like escapism a lot more than furthering my knowlege. Is that sad? I don't think so. I read enough nonfiction to keep satisfied for now. *points to current Shelfari icon*