My Book List

My summer list is narrowing! Ok, I haven't read much yet, don't judge. When I'm not unpacking and catching up on Doctor Who, I'm reading Easy to Kill by (guess who) Agatha Christie. Starting a familiar book is like slipping into a warm bath. I knew I was home as soon as started reading it. I just reorganized my bookshelf and I'm here to tell you that it's more good looking than ever. And one my dear friends at college gave me an American must-read book list to make me get over my aversion to American Literature. The irony is getting too much for me. Here is her list! :

1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Catcher in the Rye
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
4. Fahrenheit 451
5. Invisible Man
6. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
7. The House on Mango Street
8. The Sound and the Fury
9. Catch-22
10. Call of the Wild (okay, this is not really in my top 10, but I'm shocked at how many people haven't read it!)

I of course have read Mockingbird, 451, Huck Finn, Mango Street and Call of the Wild, but the rest are yet to be read. And at least 3 or 4 of them are on my big list. Score! So here is my list forming for the summer.

1. Oedipus Rex

2. Cuckoo's Nest

3. Invisible Man

4. Sound and the Fury

5. Catcher in the Rye

6. Catch 22

7. Shakespeare

Not that anyone reading this will really care, but it makes me feel better to make a list now and then. And I've decided to add to my repertoire of memorized Shakespearean monologues/soliloquies. Suggestions welcome. :)

Prosody

For some reason, I feel melancholy this evening. Don't read too much into it, but it's here. So I have some poetry, two of my favorites in fact, to illustrate my mood.

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

WHEN I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high pil`d books, in charact'ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,	5
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And feel that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,	10
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink. John Keats Too bad I fail at formating on blogspot.

Research paper. Minus the Research. On electronic paper.

Hi.

My name is Melora.

I'm an English major.

And I think the Bible is a pretty amazing piece of literature.

Now, this isn't just because I'm a Christian, though this is certainly true. The Bible is objectively an amazing piece of literature. For one, it's the only piece of ancient literature consistently read by people who don't have a doctorate in literature or archaeology. Now, I have no sources to back me up in this..essay..., but most consider, say, The Canterbury Tales or "Caedmon's Hymn", or gasp, Shakespeare to be fairly ancient. Well, those are still centuries into the C.E. Think earlier. The Odessey? Plato? Aristotle? Congratulations! We've reached before Jesus' birth, into the B.C.E. Now think earlier. Wait...weren't there only cave drawings? That's an exaggeration, but the truth is that the general knowledge of Great Works before the Greek/Roman era is sketchy at best. Except, for the most part, the Bible. Regardless of the date the early works were actually written, the Bible traces a history from the beginning of time to roughly 95 A.D. which has been proved fairly accurate from archaeological sites and other ancient civilization's documents. Whether most of Genesis was literal, physical, metaphysical, figurative, allegorical, grammatical, or metaphorical, an Egyptian find dates an "Israelite nation" with in its borders around the time of the supposed Exodus. But we like to argue, so let's say that the Bible is mythology and fiction and simply based very loosely around real world events.Still, the quantity and quality of the Bible far outweighs any other ancient document. Sometime, take a look at the Israelite and monk scribe process. It's quite a painstaking procedure and a rather fascinating process. The accuracy is so complete that the Dead Sea scrolls only differ in a couple words from the copies we have today. The accuracy rate in major Greek/Roman works pales by comparison.

Now, say you aren't very impressed by all that above. You must be a huge Homer fan or someone who reads way too many ancient documents for your own good. (I understand, I have Caedmon's hymn on the background of my computer as well.) Maybe - hopefully - this appreciation of literature in general will compel you to look twice at the content of the Bible. Let's say Genesis and Exodus and even Numbers and Joshua is pure mythology. Wow. Those are some awesome stories. Actually, the creation myth has strong similarities with the Enuma Elish and Greek/Roman myth. Also the "Noah and the Flood" story is similar to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Please, just imagine the 10 plagues for a minute (or ten). A George Lucas movie version might have a larger revenue than 2012. Actually, it would be much better. The stories in the Bible are epic. And I think I'm gonna pick on Leviticus for a second. Yeah, it's not the funnest book to read in the Bible. (Or most fun. Pick your poison.) But the laws actually make sense. The animals the Israelites were restricted from eating are commonly associated with disease that can be combated by measures like fully cooking food - knowledge and practices that wouldn't be fully observed centuries ago. The laws on letting the lands rest every 7 years is pretty smart too. The problem of crops stripping the soil of nutrients wasn't recognized and dealt with by crop rotation until the last several centuries. A field left sallow for a year would help restore the nutrients. All of the laws also focus on the well-being of the community, which practically is a very good thing. The Bible also contains many different literature forms such as poetry, which is quite good. It's overarching and connecting theme from book to book and century to century is staggering. Even Animorphs lost it eventuutally. The Bible, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, depicts the same God over and over. That amount of consistency and dedication should impress anyone at least a little bit.

No, the Bible is not the only ancient religious text in the world. And I'm not trying to prove that other ancient texts aren't awesome or worthy of mention. But the Bible deserves recognition as a piece of literature that has withstood the test of time and has literary merit and, dare I say, beauty in its text. No matter what you think of Christianity, at least consider its text to be one of significant literary merit.

Thank you, Shakira

Shakira gave me the greatest metaphor for my life at the moment. Literary lesson for today: poetry can be found anywhere. Right Smokebullets?

I didn't come on to rave about Woka Woka, but I do want to say that now is the time to start compiling my summer reading list.

It will reach my 50 book goal.

It will include at least 5 plays (for a burgeoning theatre major I'm very lacking in this area).

It will include at least skimming over Les Mis again.

It will include my favorite poet of the moment: Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Saying all this, any suggestions?

I also just realized I haven't actually shared my 100 book list for your perusal and purveyance. I should do that.

Another side note: next semester I will be taking Advanced Composition and Renaissance and 17th Century Literature (minus Shakespeare), and I am very excited for both classes.

Some Wishes, Wants, and Wequests (as they say in Spanish)

I realized today what I want. Something that's been hitting me over the past...Oh I don't know...several months, and culminated in the past few weeks. I want to write. I'm not saying I'm good and I'm not saying anything I do write will be worth a flip. I'm saying that the gift of being able to write something beautiful and amazing would be greater than any gift anyone could give me. Shakespeare and all the others were right. A thing of beauty is a joy forever, and to write something beautiful, something that would someone would love or hate, to write something that would make someone stand back and say...there...there is an idea. There is a surprising lack of options in this world in the terms of it has all been done before (thank you barenaked ladies) but you'd be surprised at the new or renovated vehicles in which these ideas arrive. And an idea doesn't have to be new to be good. So, in an effort to actually keep true to whatever I am trying to do here, I leave you with this:

A priest to the confessions of this world:

To hear the heartache - bitter memories

I cannot heal the gaping wounds so bold

And so I hide within my rectory

Against the troubles of this life to arm

Would take an army sure and strong - to heal

Takes more strength than to place the scars of harm,

To conquer hate takes more than cold sharp steel.

The dark and dismal hold of hurt is tight

And rips the hope from minds already weak

But dark is counterbalanced by the light

And goodness - Godness - into dark will leak

To trust int he Almighty with all my might

Will bring these dark confessions into right.

A Prayer For OWEN MEANY

I was told: Read this book. It will make you cry. It didn't make me cry, though I was trying very hard not to at the time. Though this novel by John Irving did take about 2 months to finish, it was a very worthwhile read. A brief summary: This is an account of Johnny Wheelwright's life as it connects to the life of one OWEN MEANY. Both boys grow up together and share the normal experiences of two awkward children, except for one vitally different event: the death of Johnny's mother. And OWEN MEANY had some sort of hand in it (I'd rather not give away too much of the plot, even though for the first 50 pages, you may doubt it's existence). The plot is includes a search for Johnny's father and the face that OWEN is haunted by the divine. If you are looking for a light read exempt of theology and other heavy matters, this isn't the book for you. The book doesn't deal with the question of whether God exists so much as how God exists.

Let me talk about Johnny. It's funny how easy it is to forget the supposed main character's name. This is due to the fact that a narrator wouldn't refer to himself in first person, and because John Irving wants to assert very subtly that Johnny, in fact, is not the main character. OWEN is. Johnny is exceedingly average: average intelligence, average extended family, average and mild. He grows up to be an English teacher in Canada and very single.

Let me talk about OWEN MEANY. I may be confusing those of you who haven't read this book by my caps lock. Those of you who have read it have probably grinned by now. I will explain. OWEN is extraordinary in almost every sense of the word. He is absolutely brilliant, compassionate, and very concerned with doing the right thing in the right way. He also has a special kind of charisma that either draws people to him or frightens them away. Part of that is his voice. His voice is so soft and high that he is forced to yell everything he says in order to be heard and he transfers this quality to his writing - writing everything in CAPS LOCK. In fact, every time he communicates in the book, vocal or written, it is in all caps. This odd puny quality matches his body structure; it is so light almost anyone could lift him, and sometimes did. And yet he works in a granite quarry which his family owns. The weak is strong.

This novel focuses on OWEN MEANY and his goal in life. As the novel progresses, you are very aware that OWEN has a special connection with God and divines from him, slowly, his fate. I would really like to say more about OWEN MEANY'S purpose, but that gives away a lot. Anyhow, A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY IS A VERY GOOD BOOK. IT WILL BRING MANY QUESTIONS AND IDEAS ABOUT LIFE AND FATE AND GOD INTO LIGHT AND WILL DEFINITELY MAKE YOU THINK. PLEASE READ IT, WHETHER OR NOT IT MAKES YOU CRY.

This has been a good week.

NO, this post isn't about a book I've read or some some sort of nice analysis. Though I have read A Prayer for Owen Meany recently and it will be appearing in a post down the line...I think I kinda decided Grendel didn't quite get that privilege. Time difficulties. I also read the nonfiction book How to Become a Writer or How to write fiction or Something Like That. It was proclaimed, oddly by the writer of Grendel, to be the Strunk and White of writing fiction. Written in the 20s or 30s, it was very good and focused a lot on the writer's disposition and good writing habits. Overall, quite wonderful. I would go more in depth, but I gave it away, as I would do to all my books if I weren't quite so in love with them. BUT. This post is about how this has been a very good week for me as far as books are concerned.

1. Far from the Madding Crowd. Thanks to Sheffield's Antique Mall in Collierville and fifteen dollars, I am the proud owner of my favorite Thomas Hardy novel. It is a very pretty 1932 edition. I loooooovvvvee this book. It is the sole reason why I keep on reading Hardy novels...hoping they'll be like the first I read. None have measured up so far.

2. Les Miserables. My lovely, beautiful friend Zach has most kindly given me his copy of Les Mis. Naturally, I am ecstatic. I cannot wait to dive into the novel I left behind 2 months ago...

3. One of Our Thursdays is Missing. BAAAaahahernar;j!!!!!! That stands for OH MY GOODNESS JASPER FFORDE IS MY FAVORITIST!!!!! This novel is the 6th in the Thursday Next series. My brother went to his booksigning in St. Louis. He got me an autographed copy for my birthday!!!!! In three weeks I'm going to have it to hold and to read. I'm veryveryveryveryveryvery excited. Thursday Next!!!

For good measure: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a good week.

!