Guilty Pleasure Reading...

So I love reading (hence the blog) and I do love reading a good good book, but there is also something so good about a book that isn't that great but makes you feel great.  These are my guilty pleasures--I know they aren't well written, classics or timeless.  They will flit away like the seasons but, for me, these books manage to eek out space on my bookshelf even when I'm consolidating and storing up most of my literary treasures.  Why?  Because some days you just want to curl up with a book where good wins, love triumphs and everything ends in a way that makes your chest feel warm. 

1. Pretty much anything by Sophie Kinsella but my favourite is definitely The Undomestic Goddess.  It wins with me because the heroine isn't as silly as Becky Bloomwood (ie, the Shopaholic) or as random as some of Kinsella's others.  And I like the classic tale of finding yourself where you least expect it.  And finding love there too.  
2. Twilight.  Ooof.  There you go.  I said it.  I like Twilight.  To be clear, I know this is not a well written book and I know, trust me, that this is a fad.  But the part of me that loved playing house and make believe as a child still likes to imagine a world where other forces are at play--funky, handsome, romantic forces.  You might think less of me, but I'm okay with that.  No need to justify the guilty pleasure read--we all have them!  Sometimes you just want to enjoy a classic werewolf-vampire-love-triangle and I certainly do. 
3. Gemma Townley's The Hopeless Romantic's Handbook.  Not actually a handbook for romance, but a super sweet story where people put some of their power to good use--a nice little addition to an otherwise fluffy experience.  And, despite the inclusion of Twilight, you'll note a general theme of liking British Chick lit.  There is something endearing about reading about love in a different cultural vernacular.
4. Books about food.  Yummmm.  I like to read about good food that I'll likely never make/eat but I love to swallow words that make my mouth water.  Best example lately, The Food of Love by Anthony Capella.  A retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac that might be a bit over-sexualized, it still describes food in a way that made me want to eat offal (that would be organ meat--brains, livers, hearts, pancreas) and had me rethinking how I order coffee.  I also read The Hundred Foot Journey which wasn't as much a love story as The Food of Love but was definitely filled with yummy, yummy food.  But if you are looking for real books about food, I would suggest Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie (which I've mentioned before). 

If I think of others, I'll add them!  Afterall, we all want something light and delicious to read from time to time, don't we?

Happy reading!

When Art and Economics Clash...

Well, I just devoured Happiness Economics by Shari Lapena.  This book is one that came highly recommended by my favourite local, independent book store...but I couldn't bring myself to buy something quite so unknown.  Even though my local library didn't have it, they were very obliging and ordered it in for me (such a great system--I am practically on a first name basis with the Acquisition person). 

Touted as a great Canadian lit, I was a bit worried Happiness Economics would be dark (for some reason I associate Canadian literature with being dark--which I blame on reading A Cure for Death By Lightining at 15).  After reading a good chunk of The Tiger, I was very much in the mood for something lighter and a bit closer to home.  Afterall, Russian environmental and interpersonal politics are fun, but not light. 

Now, back to the book at hand.  Set in 2008 Toronto (note the timing--impending market doom), this book tells the story of a lost poet, his over-achieving wife, and the children caught in between their parents' struggles.  Enter Lily White, muse to poet and nemisis to wife, who will start a chain reaction of change in everyone's life. 

Good read, solid read--nothing too heavy but still not fluff--I read it in a day (while baby slept) and found myself living day-to-day with the characters.  Also, it made me want to read poetry (which I rarely do). 

Recommend?  Yes.  Best book ever?  Not quite.  A glimpse into the problems of division of art and the marketplace?  Absolutely.

Enjoy!

Going, going, gone...

In Canada Reads 2012 news Prisoner of Tehran is already out of the running and I am disappointed.  Then again, I still have many of the books to read.  But I do think it is an important book...and CBC must agree as it made the top 5. 

The Tiger is chilling and gripping so far, but I am going to have to return it to the library without completing it, which have to find it from another source.  Perhaps this dilemma is when the e-reader would be handy!  Who knew Russian politics (both governmental and environmental) could be so engrossing? 

Another book complete! The Game is done...

Canada Reads #2 Complete!

I finally finished The Game by Ken Dryden.  It took me forever and ever, amen.  I’m not a slow reader—actually, I probably read too quickly to a fault most of the time.  But this book was slow going for me. 

I think there was a basic problem: this book has been written for hockey fans in the 1980’s and I am neither a) a huge hockey fan or b) aware of what hockey was like in the 1980’s/living in the 1980's.

Ken Dryden is writing for people who want to understand the nuance and rhythm of the game – but the writing was almost prohibitive if you weren’t terribly well-versed in hockey names/personalities of the mid-century game.  And while my FIL knew every single person, I struggled with who was on what team.  And when I am having trouble following the train of thought, I tend to feel frustrated and give up.  But I didn't.  And I'm glad I  stuck it out.  Either Dryden got more interesting, or I was better able to engage the subject matter, but the end was better than the beginning. 

There are some great points about superstition, luck and the strange culture of professional sports (dynamics between teams, managers, coaches; the locker room during practice, before, during and after games; and what its like to be 'on the road').  Dryden also makes great points about the interaction between sports and money.  These topics certainly were interesting…if a bit long winded.   I also appreciated his explanation of how the game developed (the history geek in me loves a historical recap) but I didn’t need all the stuff around it. 

The book was missing was a consistent thread to hold on to.  I often lost sight of where I was, what had happened and where I was expecting to end up.  The content seemed much more commentary than story driven, which is fine, but a central strand to hold onto can really help the inexperienced (ie, me) engage the commentary being provided on a certain topic (in this case, hockey).  Perhaps more of a base story would have helped with all the moments I really had no idea what was going on. 

Okay, so The Game is not getting my vote (not that CBC is asking me) but I am better versed in hockey culture and history—which will come in handy hanging out with my husband, father in law and brothers in law on the couch enjoying a hockey game.  And that is always a good thing! 

Next up: The Tiger by John Vaillant.  The subtitle: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. I’m both completely intrigued and a *little* scared!

The Classics

I have always wanted to be the very well-read person who has read all the classics.  Well-versed, well-spoken, well-aware of literature both past and present: that has always been a dream for me.  But, in reality, there is so much to read that I certainly don't get to it all.  And some classics have gone beyond me -- Middlemarch was more than I could handle, Vanity Fair did me in as well.  But Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Bronte sisters are all people I get a long well with.   In Canadian literature, I love Robertson Davies and Lucy Maud Montgomery, Jane Urquhart and many others. 

But how do you keep up with the classics?  Some of them are really tough slugging.  Tonight at Book Club we are discussing four staples of literature: Nabakov's Lolita, Henry James' Daisy Miller, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.  I have read all of them now (not all in this past month!) and find such disparity of experience.  I do have a long lasting love for Pride and Prejudice but Lolita, I could certainly do without.  I guess I'm not sure what makes something a classic and what causes a short lived literary life.  And what I consider to be a classic is such a creation of my culture, my setting, my exposure.  What are the books that trascend these societal constructs?   And do I have the literary stamina to endure stories that have been considered timeless but seem tiring to me? 

What are your classics?  What books would go with you to a desert island?  What makes them so important? 

The Game...

So I was hoping The Game would be great.  I was sceptical, yes, but I was hoping to be wrong.  I like it when books/movies/events prove me wrong (confession: I might have a *slight* leaning towards scepticism).  But I am always good with learning to appreciate something new and I was truly ready to be surprised by the hockey book.  But, alas, I have not been.  It has been slooooow going.  Slow.  The book claims to be the best hockey book ever written.  That must be a very, very low bar.  Hopefully hockey writing has improved since 1983. 

But I won't quit.  I will see it through.  The last twenty pages I read have been the most interesting so far--talking about the shift in sports from athlete to celebrity and the impact of big business on the game.  This little section has been quite compelling and thought provoking.  But it is half way through the book and I'm not sure twenty pages of good reading justifies 300 pages of writing. 

Also, goalie masks from the 1970's are a little scary.  Just saying.  I think I'm a bit afraid of Ken Dryden now. 

To e-read or not to e-read?



My favourite!



I love books!  I love the smell of books, the feel of crinkly library coverings in your hands, the satisfying moment a book is opened for the first time.  I also love the feel of an old, worn book that's like a friend who always makes you feel comfortable and at home. 

I love kids books, with bright colours, soft paints and important messages.  I love cookbooks with tasty looking food.  I love the glossy pictures in the middle of biographies and history books.  I doubt that I will ever not love the feeling of a book.

But, I'm realistic.  I no longer use a Beta VCR, my DVD player is on the way out and will likely hang out in the same technological purgatory as my walkman, discman and early iPod.  That's the way we do life--progress.  And I can't ignore the progress of the e-reader and the tablet.  To imagine that we'll do away with these nifty hand held devices and will stick with large desktops seems a bit  a lot naive.  BUT, will we do away with books?

I don't think we will--even people with e-readers and/or tablets still have books.  I do, however, think most of will end up with some combination.  I'm still not entirely sold on the e-reader.  One of my cooking favourites, Alton Brown, always admonishes single-use kitchen utensils.  That's kind of how I see the e-reader--a single-use tool.  However, e-readers now have much higher functionality along with all the reader-friendly features we are just starting to see on the more standard tablets (like battery life and lighting). 



I am all ears for ideas, opinions and ways to engage this technology.  What do you think?  Do you love your e-reader? Why?  Do you read on your tablet?  Why or why not?

I'm guessing at some point, we'll end up with a version of a tablet in our home.  I'm hoping it will be good for books (actually, that might be the tipping point on which one I buy).  I'm well aware that while I love reading books, lugging around The Game is a bit heavy, especially when you are also lugging around a small person (or two!). 

I'd love to hear your thoughts! To e-read or not to e-read?