Classics, a 10 Year Reading Project

When I turned 30 in 2011 I set a goal for myself to read as many 'classics' as I could before I turned 40.


This seems a daunting task, and I know I can't ONLY read classics, so I try to mix them in with the more modern books that appeal to me.


In 2011 I read 5 classics of the 21 books that I read in total during the year. Here are my quick review/summaries and I highly recommend that everyone read more 'classics.' It is surprising to me how relevant some of these are.


Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - I thought I would get bored with the book and never finish it. Instead, I was instantly entertained, curious, and interested in Jane, her surroundings, her view of the world, her cohorts, etc. The story surprised me a few times, and I never did get bored. The ending left a little something to be desired, and in a way I just wanted the story to continue. I wanted to know about her and Mr. R. growing into old age, and I wanted to learn about their children and wanted to meet Adele as a grown lady, etc. I take not wanting a book to end as a sure sign that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I can understand why this is a classic! (February 2011, 5 stars)


Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - I loved Lord Henry and his views on everything! the ending surprised me. (March 2011, 4 stars)


This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I didn't like this book nearly as much as I thought I would. I struggled to finish it even though I liked Amory and his adventures for the most part. (April 2011, 3 stars) 


Silas Marner by George Eliot - I was excited to read this book, as it came so highly recommended, but I was a little bit scared that it would be above my head, based on the person who recommended it. However, I really enjoyed this book from the start and loved all the characters. The general moral that I took from the story is that money can't buy happiness and to appreciate what you have and enjoy it to its fullest. (June 2011, 4 stars)


First Love by Ivan Turgenov - I think Novellas are the perfect length. Nothing gets too drawn out and nothing is too rushed. I thought this was a lovely little story about a 16-year-old's first encounter with love. Some really nice passages and a somewhat tragic ending. I liked this novella very much. (October 2011, 4 stars)

Do you have any classic or just very old amazing novels that I should put on my to-read list??

Year End Book Summary 2011

In 2011 I read 21 books. Not a stellar amount but at least it is consistent with the 20 that I read in 2010.


Some books I just jam through and some I lag and don't read as often as I should (as is the case with a book I am currently reading). I only gave 5 books a rating of 3 stars, most of them 4 stars, and only 5 with 5 stars.


Let me tell you about these 5 faves of mine.


Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - I set a goal for myself in 2011 when I turned 30 to read as many of the 'classics' as I could by the time my 40th birthday rolls around. I don't have a set list I am referencing but just when I hear about this book or that book or a book I never read but probably should have, I am making a note of it or downloading it to my kindle. This was the first classic that I read (mainly because I saw a trailer for a movie that came out in 2011 that looked good) and I was absolutely shocked at how much I loved it right off the bat. My instant reaction upon finishing Jane Eyre was this: I thought I would get bored with the book and never finish it. Instead, I was instantly entertained, curious, and interested in Jane, her surroundings, her view of the world, her cohorts, etc. The story surprised me a few times, and I never did get bored. The ending left a little something to be desired, and in a way I just wanted the story to continue. I wanted to know about her and Mr. R. growing into old age, and I wanted to learn about their children and wanted to meet Adele as a grown lady, etc. I take not wanting a book to end as a sure sign that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I can understand why this is a classic!

Tinkers by Paul Harding - I didn't know much about this book but for some reason I kept wanting to read it. Finally I dug into it and was so glad that I did. It was gorgeous and sad and as I wrote initially upon finishing Tinkers: About half way through this book I wanted to start over from the beginning and pay more attention. I will definitely be re-reading this one. 


The Help by Kathryn Stockett - I know everyone and their mother read this book in the last couple years and finally I gave in to the hype. I expected it to be hokey and ridiculous but instead I really loved it. I laughed, I cried, I didn't want it to end.


Room by Emma Donoghue - This was the first book I purchased for my kindle and it took me a few months to actually decide to read it because I was scared it would be too depressing. I loved it right away as is usually the case when I read books told from the perspective of a child. I find it so refreshing to look at things in a fresh, if slightly naive, light once in a while. While this story is pretty sad, Jack's view of his own life isn't and that is what kept it from being too hard to read. I really wanted to give Jack a big hug. I wrote when I had just finished reading Room:  I found it very easy to feel immersed in Jack's world. I could totally understand why he felt scared/anxious about everything, wanting to return to comforts he was familiar with, though they seemed crazy and scary to everyone else. I was a pretty scared little kid, very afraid of the unknown and quiet, so I could relate to Jack in a way. At the end of the book, I wished it would have kept going.


1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - I love everything Murakami does, and I might build him up a bit much to people sometimes because I just love his books so very much. Maybe he is not for everyone but I simply can't imagine someone not liking his style of surreal things taking place in a very realistic world. I had been waiting for this book to be released forever, in fact I preordered it about 6 months before it was released so I would be sure to get the first US edition. 1Q84 was not a disappointment and I read the more than 900 pages in one month, which for me is no small feat. My first impression upon finishing 1Q84 was this: I loved this book from the start, had a hard time putting it down, and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. This was a perfect combination of Murakami's amazingly magically surreal style and a sweet love story. I was sad to reach the end and could have read 900 more pages.


I really liked a lot of the other books I read in 2011, and honorable mention goes to Galore by Michael Crummey even though it was much different than I expected it would be. I also really liked The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins!


(If you would like to read reviews for all of these, here is My GoodReads page.)


Here is a fancy grid of the books I read in 2011:

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Random things

I don't have anything super important to post but since I am home from work due to a fine dusting of snow covering this fine city, I thought I ought to try to make some sort of cohesive blog post!

It is snowing like crazy outside, and I am so glad I stayed home from work. The coolest thing I found on the internet today while I was catching up on reading blogs is this super awesome stop motion video of a magical book shelf organizing itself!

The sheer patience and time it takes to create something like that is just astounding to me!

Tonight is a screening for the most recent film race that Matthew and I have participated in. I am super excited about this film and hope everyone loves it. I will post a link to the video when it is online. You can watch the one we did a few months ago here! I did most of the illustrations for it and am super happy with the way it turned out.

I finally listened to the new Radiohead Album, The King of Limbs, today and it is quite lovely. A little more mellow, ambient, toned down from In Rainbows but it is nice. I like it. It seems to fit my wintery mood of late. I intend to listen to it over and over and over again until I know it as well as In Rainbows which I LOVE.

I feel like 2011 is already zipping by and there are already so many plans for the rest of the year. Trips planned for March, May, July, August, October and December, not to mention all the awesome BBQs and hang outs that will be happening once summer hits! I can't wait. Sunshine that is actually warm! Quite a novelty.

In book news, I recently finished reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and was genuinely surprised at how much I loved it! I am excited for the movie, even though I have my doubts that the movie will stay true to the book. Here are a couple of quotes I liked: "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you." "Even for me life had it's gleams of sunshine." "Love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the wellbeing of one's companion."

I have made a sort of long-term goal (maybe ten years?) to read my way through as many of the supposed classics of literature as I can get through. In between each I will read something modern probably, just to break things up a bit and refresh my brain.

I am currently reading The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman and am about a third of the way through it so far. I like it just fine, am finding it easy to read and interesting, but it isn't blowing my mind or anything. Sort of comes across as a collection of short stories with loosely intertwined characters. We will see how it winds up.

What should my next classic be???? I have Picture of Dorian Gray and I think something by James Joyce on my Kindle so maybe one of those. I am completely open to suggestion on this, so help me out!

For Valentine's Day, my favorite gave me a Diana Mini. It is blue and covered in adorable little fluffy white clouds and I am anxious to see how the photos turn out! Another reason to wish for sunshine--prettier photos on real film! I will post some highlights here probably.

Ok going back to watching the snow and listening to jams. <3

Books read, 2010: A Memoir.

This post might be a bit obnoxious, and my original plan did not work because of java.

In any case, in 2010 I did not top my 2009 record of 27 books read, as I only finished 20 books. However, of these 20 I really loved a lot of the books I read and rated only four of them with a 3 or 2 star rating! I am a pretty generous rater, but still. 16 out of 20 books rated with 4 or 5 stars is a pretty good ratio if you ask me.

I reread a handful of books I have loved in the past this year which is something I don't normally do, but I am glad I did with these few (Kafka on the Shore, Geek Love, People of Paper) because I really do love them all!

Again I am not going to post reviews for every book, check out My GoodReads page to see more review type stuff. However, I will tell you about a few of my faves.

My favorite of the (previously unread) books that I read this year was Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. While I did not bother to write anything about this book when I originally finished it, I would like to say now that this book surprised me by making me laugh and cry, and I really thought the description on the cover and on amazon did not do this book justice at all. Beautifully written and I really did not want it to end, which is how I feel about all of my favorite books. Recommended to me by my Mostly Stitches counterpart, Vanessa.

My second favorite was No Wolf by Richard Stofle. Now I may be a tad biased because I have worked with and known Mr. St. Ofle (as he is known in certain circles) for quite a few years by now. But, again I have to say that this book surprised me. I did not know that Richard had this very creative and entertaining and interesting and heart wrenching writer inside of him. If I haven't recommended this book to you in the past year, now is the time. I would loan it to you, but struggling artists and what not, you should just buy it. (You can also read a chapter of the book on that website if you wish!)

My third favorite was The Secret History by Donna Tartt. This book had been recommended to me by a friend multiple times over the past few years and for some reason I never picked it up. It sounded too pretentious, too deep, too hard to read. But instead I found it immediately interesting, pretentious in the best almost comical way, and perfectly dark. I read it extremely quickly, loving every page. Definitely read this one if you haven't! And thanks again Mandy for recommending it!

Honorable mention goes to What is the What by Dave Eggers. I don't even care if half of it is made up, I enjoyed it even though it made me very sad. The hopefulness was astounding.

I got a Kindle for Christmas from my most favorite person so if you are wondering what to get me for my birthday (January 27th, I'll be 30!), Amazon.com gift cards or items from my Wishlist or even just book recommendations are more than a girl could ever want.

Now here for a lovely grid of the 20 books I read in 2010.

Books read 2010

Michelle's favorite books »

Happy reading!!
p.s. this is my 100th post on this blog!

Maybe there's a trapdoor under my chair, and I'll just disappear.

I was pretty sad to hear today that J.D. Salinger died.
He has been one of my favorite writers ever since the first time I read Franny and Zooey.
I have read Franny and Zooey more times since then than any other book and I have recommended it to more people than I can count.
I loved Catcher in the Rye also, and all of his short stories make me smile.
But Franny and Zooey will always be my favorite, as will Mr. Salinger.

R.I.P., Buddy.
<3

p.s. I'll catch up on photo blogging soon, I promise.

A new year, an attempt at resurrecting a blog.

I cannot believe how infrequently I have been posting over here. I fully intend to make 2010 a much more productive year in terms of this blog, Mostly Soup, creative outlets, my Etsy shop, maybe a redesign of my website, etc. I am going to be doing the Photo a day challenge for 2010 and I will post a weeks worth of photos at a time most likely, as I will not be able to post every day, knowing myself.

But for my first blog post of 2010, I am going to do a summary of all the books I read this year, as that has been probably the most consuming aspect worth blogging about in 2009. Since I was unemployed from January to July, I had plenty of time for reading and rediscovered how much I love to read, and was able to continue at a pretty steady pace throughout the last half of 2009. 27 books total!

Thanks to GoodReads I have been logging all the books I have read because I never would have remembered all of these on my own. I do not think I have ever read as many books in a year as I did in 2009, and maybe that can be another goal of mine for 2010, to top my 2009 books read number. In any case, here we go:



I should probably write a short summary or review of each of these but I really don't want to. It's my blog, I'll do what I want! :) If you have questions about a specific book I would love to elaborate. My brain is just not up for 26 summaries right now. And yes I read Oryx and Crake twice. The second read was to refresh my brain after reading Year of The Flood. The second time made me love it even more.

Here is the list, with my ratings.

12/16/09, On Love by Alain De Botton, 4 stars
12/3/09, Into The Beautiful north by Luis Alberto Urrea, 4 stars
11/22/09, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, 5 stars
11/15/09, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, 4 stars
11/8/09, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
10/16/09, The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
10/16/09, Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 3 stars
10/3/09, 1984 by George Orwell, 5 stars
9/12/09, Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov, 4 stars
9/4/09, Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote, 4 stars
8/21/09, Everything is Illuminated by JOnathhan Safran Foer, 5 stars
7/28/09, Drown by Junot Diaz, 3 stars
7/21/09, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, 4 stars
7/15/09, Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk, 4 stars
7/1/09, Below the Root by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, 4 stars
6/6/09, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, 5 stars
6/2/09, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, 3 stars
5/19/09, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, 5 stars
5/1/09, Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin, 4 stars
4/21/09, The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, 5 stars
4/9/09, Forever by Pete Hammill, 3 stars
4/1/09, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, 5 stars
3/20/09, Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, 5 stars
3/10/09, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3 stars
3/1/09, Girlfriend In A Coma by Douglas Coupland, 4 stars
2/7/09, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
1/15/09, Fugitives and Refugees, A Walk In Portland, Oregon by Chuck Palahniuk, 5 stars

Ok that's the end of this nerdy book post. Any book recommendations?

Jeez Louise.

I can't believe it has been a month since I wrote in here. Jeeeez. What a slacker. Well what can I blog about, if anyone is even reading this.

My sister is engaged, so I am going to visit her this weekend. I am really looking forward to it because I will get to spend the whole weekend with her rather than trying to fit visiting with her into whatever else I have planned when I visit Sacramento. I will be on her turf (Santa Rosa) and catering to her whims. I hope I survive.

My house is in disarray, as two people are moving out, me and the other lovely lady are switching rooms, and two new people are moving in. Also the new roommates have a cat! Really anxious for all of this moving stuff to be over so I can settle into having my own room for the first time in almost a year. Crazy.

I recently read The Time Traveler's Wife, and then saw the movie a couple days ago. I have very mixed feelings about it all. The book I liked. I really loved it at first, time traveling, mixed up story line, likeable characters. But then I got a little bored with it once reality kicked in. The trailer for the movie has the most horrible song ever in it, making the movie look extremely over the top cheesy, which is what I was afraid they would turn it into. Focusing more on the Romance than the Time Travel. I guess that's what sells. My biggest problem with the movie was just that, but I went into it expecting that. They rushed through all the parts and aspects of the book that I liked and focused mostly on the "reality" which was what kind of bored me in the book. But overall, I think the movie did a good job of bringing to life a portion of the book, but it just wasn't completely encompassing of the full story. If that makes sense. However, I know that a movie that completely translated from the book would be impossible to make since the book spans such a huge amount of time. I could probably go on and really pick the movie apart, but I won't. I liked it. Didn't love it. The book is way better and way more interesting.

Went to see Julie and Julia with V. Very inspirational and once this heat goes away, expect Mostly Soup to be updated like crazy! Haven't been much into cooking at all in the heat.

Went to the Oregon coast recently with my favorite of favorites, and did not want to come back. One day I will live at the beach. One day.


Ok, that's enough outta me.

P.S. If you haven't already, check out Topical Thursday. Really fun blog with lots of great artists contributing! Sort of honored to even be part of it!

<3M

Gotta get me a bird seed shirt.

So I guess this is turning into a Book Blog. I have been using Goodreads.com to keep track of all the books I have been reading lately. So far, in 2009 alone, I have read 10 books. Last year, I read a total of 8 books the entire year. Crazy how much more time I have to spend on reading since I am not really working at the moment. I love books.

Anyways, the most recent book I read was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer.



I never read Everything is Illuminated, but I probably will soon. I really loved this book for so many reasons. It is told mostly from the perspective of a very smart, very scared, very curious 9 year old boy. I love stories told from kids perspectives, probably because I really don't remember how I felt about stuff when I was a kid. But what I liked more than Oskar's story was the story that was woven in about his grandparents. How they met, how they felt about each other, how they felt about love, and life, and how they lived. Another thing I liked about the book, is that there were photos thrown in here and there. I wish more books had photos. Not of people but of places and images that invoke a feeling. My favorite little story that was told to Oskar and Mr. Black was from a woman who never left the Empire State Building. The picture posted in that section was just so perfect, it made me feel as if I was there with them, hearing her story. Most of the book made me sad, just because it is a lot about loss and almost all of the characters are grieving, but I also laughed a little, and just really enjoyed every page. Most of all I think this book made me realize that I need to appreciate a lot of the little things I tend to overlook. Not an easy task.

This & That

It has been ages since my last post, and I guess it is because being unemployed, I feel like I don't have many new and exciting adventures to post about. I basically read a lot, walk a lot, internet a lot and do stuff in illustrator once in a while. The last book I read was just so great that it deserves it's own blog post.

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.


My dear friend Olivia recommended this book to me quite a few months ago, and she has never steered me wrong. I loved this book instantly, and the main character, Sally Jay, was just so adorable and funny from the get go. All the characters are quite quirky and the way Miss Sally Jay describes them all, along with herself, just made me giggle and grin throughout all 200 something pages. I finished the book within a week, and that is because I was trying to take my time so it wouldn't end too quickly. I think this will be one of those books I remember for a long time and re read often, not to mention that I have already been recommending it to people left and right.

I love books written during the 50s and 60s about that time period, and this book was no exception. If only I had a time machine...

Name that book

Yesterday I got a part of a quote stuck in my head, and just found the rest of it. Then I looked through my now mostly defunct livejournal and found some other quotes from books I have read over the years. Made me want to re read a bunch of books. See if you can guess what books these quotes are from!


-"Everything today has been heavy and brown. Bring me a Unicorn to ride about the town." (Bring me a Unicorn, Anne Morrow Lindbergh)

-"I was having a wonderful time and the whole world opened up before me because I had no dreams." (On the Road, Jack Kerouac)

-"Never drink diet soda. It shows you have no nerve. Only drink real colas, caffeine-packed energy drinks, or vitamin water. Hate champagne, because that's what everyone expects you to love. Energy drinks are the best party drinks. You never get tired. You never have a hangover. And you can make fun of all the loaded people who think they're clever but are really acting stupid." (Paris Hilton, I forget the title)

-"We accept the love we think we deserve." (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chobsky)

-“Everything everybody does is so—I don't know—not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and—sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way.” (Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger)

-"Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart." (Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami)

-"There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behavior and claim originality according to the fashionable eccentricities of their time. They claim brains or talent or indifference to mores in desperate attempts to deny their own mediocrity. These are frequently artists and performers, adventurers and wide-life devotees. Then there are those who feel their own strangeness and are terrified by it. They struggle toward normalcy. They suffer to exactly that degree that they are unable to appear normal to others, or to convince themselves that their aberration does not exist. These are true freaks, who appear, almost always, conventional and dull." (Geek Love, Katherine Dunn)

-"Nobody believes the identites we've made for ourselves. I feel like everybody in the world is fake now - as though people had true cores once, but hucked them away and replaced them with something more attractive but also hollow." (Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland)

-"I thought how strange it had never occurred to me before that I was only purely happy until I was nine years old." (The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath)

-"Hysteria is impossible without an audience. Panicking by yourself is the same as laughing alone in an empty room. You feel really silly." (Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk)


I wish I had documented more quotes that I have liked from books. Need to start doing that.

New House

Soooo this past weekend Jessie and I moved into Vanessa and Holly's house in NE Portland!



The move went extremely smoothly and we are settling in nicely. It is a little odd living in a house that I have hung out at often for the past year. odd but not bad. just still getting used to calling this place home. You can see more pictures of the place here.


on a completely unrelated note, I just finished reading a book called Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro.



I had been wanting to read it for awhile, so when I came across it in V's stack of books I snatched it up. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was an easy read. I liked but didn't love it. I like the way the author didn't really reveal what was going on right up front, but sort of snuck little clues in as the story went along. The ending made me cry just a tad and the main point of the book was pretty interesting. I am glad I finally read this book, but it just didn't blow me away.


Well that's all the new and exciting news I have! Happy happy happy!
<3

Book VS Movie, Revolutionary Road

I was super anxious to see Revolutionary Road, the movie, but decided to read the book first. I sped through it and loved every page. I found it hard to put down and it even made me cry. I saw the movie yesterday. I think it was a pretty good translation from book to film, but having read the book I just felt like I knew way more about the characters than was presented in the movie. Their thoughts and feelings and what they wanted to say but didn't. I think the common belief is that interior monologue in movies cheapens it somehow, but I think it can add a lot sometimes. I mean how were we to know that Shep loved April until he told her so, when in the book that fact is made clear quite early on. I could nit pick this to death, but I won't. Overall I really liked the movie. The dialogue was pretty much straight out of the book and that is what I was hoping would remain unchanged. Also, who doesn't love Kate Winslet? And her really cute outfits! Definitely go see the movie but you should probably also read the book first.