My Ántonia

If we never arrived anywhere, it did not matter. Between that earth and that sky I felt erased, blotted out. I did not say my prayers that night: here, I felt, what would be would be.

-Jim Burden in My Ántonia by Willa Cather

As it nears one am, I'm slipping into the sneaky hours of the night, where I fall to thinking and reminiscing more than anything else. Germany's very close after seeing the picture above--these cherry blossoms are at Cologne's Japanese Cultural Institute, which is a five minute walk from where I studied. It's strange to think that Germany hasn't frozen in time since I left, and that the wintertime I left behind is no longer there.

But what will be will be, as Willa Cather puts so wonderfully in the novella I just finished. A great read. Beautiful. I'm not sure where Ms. Cather found her genius.

Two books down, nine hours to go!

Pages read: 301

Mid-way through the Read-A-Thon!

I finished Mockingjay, wrote a little review to be posted at a later date, and moved on to My Ántonia by Willa Cather. It's a short little novella, set in Nebraska in the early 1900s. And it's wonderful.

I love Willa Cather. She could write about a tractor and I would beg her to never let the passage end. I often find myself glancing up from a passage to mouth WILLA CATHER! with ecstatic joy. Her writing is sheer prose, sheer poetry, even as she details simple things like work in the fields or winter food intake. I have never seen another author so in love with nature (save maybe Thoreau or Emerson, but they're rather obvious about it). Cather's writing is the purity of nature, and this novel in particular makes me want to travel to Nebraska right this instant to see the red fields she so beautifully describes.

Anyway, on to the Mid-Event survey!

1. What are you reading right now?

My Ántonia by Willa Cather

2. How many books have you read so far?

This is still my second!

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

Oh, Willa Cather's writing is so lovely that this novella could last the rest of my life, and I'd be content.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

No, luckily my life has been quiet as of late (:

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

I was reading in the common room when a boy I've spoken with twice in my life approached me, said hello, made awkward chit-chat, and hugged me goodbye. It was very awkward, as I had been curled into a chair. I also do not know this boy. Why is he hugging me! Luckily he visited for only a short while, so my reading wasn't interrupted for long.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

How creative the mini-challenges are! I was expecting simply anagrams and word puzzles.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

More readers! Let's do it!

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

Wake up on time, er. I now have to go a couple hours over to still make the twenty-four hours! And make sure to stock up on snacks beforehand.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

Unfortunately, yes.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

Tea!

hello, fellow readers

Today is Dewey's 24-Hour Read-A-Thon! I'm Jessica, and this is my blog, a rose is a. I wanted to introduce myself now, as suggested by Sheston  over at the Read-A-Thon, but I won't post frequently until later tonight. By then, I'm sure my attention span will be fried from too many words or literary characters, and I'll be jumping for a chance to write a post. Can't wait to get further into the Read-A-Thon! Feel free to leave me a message and say hello (:

(Oh, and currently, I'm finishing Mockingjay, the third and final installment of Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games. It's a lovely way to spend my morning.)


1)Where are you reading from today?

My dorm room! It's rainy today, so my bed is super cosy. In a few hours, I'll make tea and relocate to the common room. It's always very quiet there.

2)Three random facts about me…

I love muffins more than cupcakes. I am forever trying to see Damien Rice perform live. I also studied in Germany last semester, and it changed my life.

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?

Five! Although one is half-finished. I mentioned my choices in a previous post, here.

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?

My goal is simple. Don't fall asleep! (All too easy when it's dark outside and lovely and warm inside.)

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?

This is my first time, and I'm learning as I go (: Looking forward to another year, though! (I say with the early alertness of hour four, er...) 

If I ever do have children, it will be so I can buy and force-feed them childrens books (like this beautiful set of Roald Dahl stories) with an aplomb I never had.

As I grow older, I've tried to recapture my childhood, or at least define what it meant to me. My friends often speak of Disney movies or the games they played with their osiblings, but I never had these things, largely because I didn't want them. My only love was books, and my strongest memories are of the days I spent curled into the couch, reading Nancy Drew and the The Baby-sitters Club. I had a penchant for Archie comics, and I checked the local drugstore at least twice a week for new volumes.

In middle school, I only fell more deeply in love. I began to develop a rather proud and haughty demeanor as I read "adult" novels like those by Stephen King or Robert B. Parker. John MacDonald's old-school Travis McGee, floating on his house boat, shocked, amazed, and often bored me. Most important was Robert Crais's Elvis Cole series, which both saved me and changed my life. I still have a soft spot in my heart for these detective novels, especially those by Mr. Crais.

But it wasn't ever enough. I would visit the bookstore three or four times a week (to the horror of my mother's purse), but it wasn't enough.

If I ever do have children, I want to give them all the stories I wasn't able to reach. I want to share with them the beauty of words, and let the words show them the beauty of the world.

Here's to young love and literature, eh?

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-A-Thon!

See here the inspiration for this blog: Dewey's 24 hour Read-A-Thon! This Saturday, I'll devote an entire day to reading books and drinking green tea. I'm already reminiscing over the days in middle school when I'd stay up late on a school night to finish a book that would change my life. This happened constantly, always with the sandy eyes, the fuzzy edges of exhaustion, and the pins and needles in the arms. At the end of the novel, even at five am with the birds chirruping outside my window, I'd be wide awake, alive with the story and the characters. Losing those moments was one of the hardest parts of growing up, I think.

I finally had another one of these nights last night, reading The Hunger Games, which is YA fiction and glorious. A friend laughed when she found how I had spent my night, saying that her sixth grade sister loves the books, but Collin's series is wonderful, and I wouldn't lose that exhilarated five-am feeling for anything.

What I've tentatively set aside for Saturday:

 

My Ántonia by Willa Cather.

Ever since I read O' Pioneers in my freshman year of college, I've been in love with Cather's writing. She writes about nature as if it the most precious thing in her life (an ideal with which I agree wholeheartedly), and her first novel's heroine, Alexandra Bergson, is one of the most pure and beautiful characters I've ever encountered. I bought this copy of My Ántonia almost a year ago; I can't believe I've left it alone for so long!

Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon.

The artwork on the cover is what drew me in, but the introduction was a stunning follow-up and a good look at the meaning of literature. Is literature defined as entertainment of any worth? Chabon says yes. I have yet to dive into the novel's collection of short stories, but I'm hoping to finally finish it this Saturday!

 The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

Dover thrift editions are my loves. I bought my edition of The Awakening in a tiny New England book store last month, although I've been aching to read the novella for years. I only learned of the plot last week, though. So much for being a dedicated English major!

 Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin .

I heard Mr. Mortenson speak this past Monday, and he is perhaps one of the most unassuming and wonderful men I've had the pleasure to shake hands with. I've read half of this non-fiction work, which concerns his progression from a mountain climber to a reformer of education in Pakistan (and now Afghanistan). Mortenson is both a wonderful and inspiring man, and his book is an equally  inspiring read.

Into the Wild by John Krakauer.

This has been sitting in the common room of my dorm suite for ages, and I can't wait to steal it for a few hours and devour it. And once I've finished, I can finally allow myself to see the film!

the case of the missing books

I wanted some lighter reading than the 3000 page tome I'm reading for my Critical Methods course, so I searched the library for Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games. Although listed as available, the book had mysteriously disappeared. Strangely enough, this keeps happening to me....last week, Greg Mortenson and David Relin's Three Cups of Tea went missing from both libraries in town.

To console myself, I went through every book in the library's browsing room--all 1000 or so--and left with Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger, which has been getting a lot of press recently, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. I often pretend that I like Ishiguro more than I actually do....but music, nightfall, and loneliness. What could be better?

An Essay on Criticsm

Alexander Pope was only twenty-two when he wrote An Essay on Criticism, a beautiful, 744-line poem of heroic couplets. Through his study of good criticism, Pope tells us that we must understand nature before we can write well.

The Sound must seem an Eccho of the Sense.
Soft is the Strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth Stream in smoother Numbers flows;
But when loud Surges lash the sounding Shore,
The hoarse, rough Verse shou'd like the Torrent roar.

Pope makes me wonder what I'm doing with my life. Do writers sometimes intimidate you, reader? Because for me, this happens all the time.