So, a while ago, I supposedly brought my book log over.
And then promptly forgot about it.
Today, I was all set to update on the comics front and decided that I should at the very least do a little write-up on the books I've read or am reading, so as not to seem like a complete geek girl. Hopefully, more detailed posts coming on a few of these. Don't hold your breath, though.
***
Reservation Road: As mentioned before, this packed a punch, not just because of the topic, but the way the event and the subsequent characters' reactions were written. It was a stark, cold novel without actually being stark or cold in writing, if that makes sense. I keep going back and reading snippets that still wrench my gut unpleasantly, but I almost can't help it.
Revolutionary Road: Let me first get this out of the way: I loved this book. Not at all forgiving of its characters' flaws, it nevertheless made them sympathetic. The theme of frustrated hopes and aspirations, and of finding out that you not and never will be special, is an easy one to identify with, but this book does so much more with representing it; it lives it out in between those pages.
That said, the book ended in a way--or, specifically, had an event towards the end--that, put simply, infuriated me. Mind you, the actual last chapter or so did much to redeem that particular twist (I especially liked the tie-up with Shep Campbell's character). I've since calmed down, but the general sentiment I wrote in an e-mail still remains. I do think this something I want to write about, eventually.
(Oh, spoiler warning, if you have not read the book or seen the movie; it does give the ending away):
"Finished Revolutionary Road while waiting to pick up J__ from his indoor kiddie soccer class (excellent for wearing down a kid) and are you FUCKING KIDDING me, that is how he decides to end the novel? I am so pissed off right now--at the ending, I can still appreciate the wonderful, insightful writing up to then--because GAH, how typical. Why is that 3/4 of male authors writing about frustrated and emotionally/mentally/physically thwarted strong minded women think the right, 'real' ending is through a tragic act, preferably at the woman's hand, directed at herself? It was annoying when they did in the 19th century and doubly annoying now. You know what a real frustrated and thwarted woman does? She sucks it up and almost always plods miserably on, without breaking away spectacularly. And when she does,the very, very few times she does, it's not at that dramatic a cost. Men like to think it is, to soothe their wounded egos. If she moves on, believe me, she is going to do it with as little fuss as possible so as not to have any ripples dragging her back, and certainly not in a way that completely defeats her leaving, if and when she works up to it. What is this fascination with making the woman die?"
You can see that is is GREAT FUN to be on the receiving end of an e-mail from me. Doesn't that just make you want to be added to my e-mail contacts?!
The Reader: This was read at a bit of a breakneck speed during a recent dropoff at B&N store, while the boys ran errands, so I could sniff at new books and touch shiny, smooth covers and spines to cheer up (and if you think I am kidding, then you really don't know me). Oh, and read or buy (or both) some, too. It grabbed me and was--in spite of the underlying topic, which is always sobering--a page turner. I read up some more on the author and the book itself, the last day or so, and it turns out that Bernard Schlink, the author, was typically a writer of detecive novels, a style that clearly carried over to this one. There are also a number of nuances in language that are lost in translation, starting from the very title itself (Der Vorleser apparently translates to a reader who is does so out loud), as well as the use of chiasmus (isn't that a lovely word?) to mirror the parallel themes in the plot itself. I think I am going to read this one again.
Before the Chalet School - The Bettanys of Taverton High: I knew I was going to like this, because my other favorite 'fill-in' Chalet book was also written by Helen Barber. I enjoyed the balance of school and family life in this one, which was much more evocative of the earlier Chalet books by Brent-Dyer herself (which also explains why all but one of the fill-ins are from the earlier period of the series--the latter part became so tedious with the same, recurring school themes and very little in way of family or social events outside of the school). It's also nice to go back and read about the headstrong Madge of earlier times, before she faded into the background as the good wife, later on, and to be reminded of how Joey was precocious once without being insufferable. All in all, a very good addition and something I suspect EBD would have approved of, herself.
Le Petit Prince: Picked this up at the Friends of the Library shelf for 50 cents and was, admittedly, stoked to find that I could still easily read the French. There really is a different in reading it in its native language versus in English; I'm not French, obviously, but certain nuances (that's the word of the night, isn't it?) in the tone of the Prince talking to Saint-Exupery are lost in the translation. Interestingly, the Farsi translation, which I also read years ago, is much more attuned to those nuances.
(In general, Farsi translations of French classics have always seemed to me to be more accurate than English ones. I've always wanted to flesh out that theory a bit more, seeing what similarities in language structure? colloquialism? culture, even? would make it so. Some day, when I have time...)
Usual New Year's rereads: Worthy of a separate post, but over the years, I've started rereading a few books at the beginning of each year (well, usually starting a couple of days before Christmas Eve). I suppose it's a way of leading into the new year with the assurance of the old. Anyway, the books were, as usual, The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood), The Shell Seekers (Pilcher), The King Must Die (Renault), Shake Hands Forever (Rendell), Savushun (Daneshvar), the Janie Johnson series (Cooney), the entire Trebizon series (Digby), and the novella collection of Asya/First Love/Spring Torrents (Turgenev). In case it wasn't apparent, the last time this list was added to was a long, long time ago. But it's like comfort food for the soul, and just as you can't call it the same mac 'n' cheese comfort food if you switch out the bright yellow fake cheese with something all grown up and snooty, I can't switch out books and still have it have the same sense of warm, welcome familiarity.
With the exception of the YA stuff, which I know can't be everyone's cup of tea, and the Pilcher one, which seems to send almost all my male acquaintances, and some female ones, into convulsions--mostly, I suspect, because of their snottiness about supposed 'good reads' than anything else--I'd recommend the rest to anyone. They're all enjoyable reads.
***
I didn't mention another book which I've been reading on and off, for about two months now, because the whole reason of why I am taking my time with it is something that I could write pages and pages about. In fact, I spend as much time writing notes about it as I do reading it, and am planning to transcribe them when I am done. It's one of those books that makes me, solitary reader that I am (and like being), miss having someone who would enjoy talking about it as much I as do, while I am reading it, very much.
***
There, I think I've appeased the red-headed stepchild enough. Out to traffic to play again, it goes.
Showing posts with label Chalet series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chalet series. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, June 27, 2008
Collective minds
Okay, so this is a duplication of something I wrote a couple of years ago elsewhere. It's a good foreword to my little obsession that is collecting anything Chalet school related (as well as other British schoolgirl story collections and series). It gives good context to the posts I have on the back burner about the current state of affairs, that I hope to get around to finishing and publishing, one of these days.
____Oct 2006____
When I first started seriously collecting my Chalet series books (and, from there, all printed matter associated with the series, such as 'fill-in' books and biographies and other series by EBD that referenced characters from the Chalet series), eBay was my primary source for acquisition. This was before the GGBP started reprinting the hardback version of the series in trade paperback format (the paperbacks published by Armada and HarperCollins were slightly to severely abridged, depending on the book), so there were a lot of serious collectors who turned to eBay as one source--sometimes their only source--of finding the books. This was especially true for collectors not living in the U.K., who didn't have the luxury of coming across the books at jumble sales or even, for the earlier books in the series, in pristine reprinted paperback format at the local WH Smith.
After a while I got to know the IDs of the people who were building up their collections, like me, as well as the resellers who would put up their surplus copies of the more readily available books for bidding. The resellers also started, around late 1999, to list the rarer paperbacks and even hardbacks, after seeing--as we all did--the bidding frenzy that went on over those particular books. I remember watching the 'Chalet Series-Rare Item!' auctions with as much concern as the ones I was participating in; as a beginning collector, the prices were too steep for me and I figured I'd concentrate on building up what I could of the series through the cheaper paperbacks, before looking at the buying the rarer ones (forget about hardbacks; the prices were way too high and they come up for bid far too infrequently to make it seem like a worthwhile effort). Even so, I'd look at the rare items listings and watch, with a nervous thrill, as a small group of people would battle it back and forth right until the very end, driving up the price higher and higher. I still remember how I watched that first listed paperback copy of "The Chalet School Reunion" sell for $74.00. I could almost hear the gasp from the other people who were no doubt tracking the bids and wondering who the lucky--and insane--winner was.
***
Right from the very beginning, if I ever got outbid on an item (and I frequently did; it took me a while to catch on to what the general going price was for each book), I would check out the ID of the person who outbid and see what else they had purchased before. I wanted to know why they were interested in that book: were they an avid Chalet collector or just a a general collector of girls' school series? Was it someone who was starting out like me? Given that I only bid on paperbacks in new or as new condition--no breaks on the spine being a key requirement of the book I was willing to purchase--I knew the person outbidding me was also, like me, as interested in the condition of the book as in buying the book itself. Which meant they were either an anal beginner collector like me, or someone replacing older, more battered versions of their possibly completed collection. I could even tell, in some cases, how far along the series some of the people were, because we all started to follow a certain pattern when it came to choosing which items to bid on. Although I never liked being outbid, I minded much less when it was one of my 'fellow' collectors; I knew that the book would be as much cared for and enjoyed as if I had bought it myself. Occasionally, though, I would get into a bidding war with someone whose profile would baffle me as to their interest in the book. There'd be no purchases to indicate this person had ever had an interest in the series, or sometimes even books, prior to this bid. Why, I'd wonder, were they so gung-ho on getting this particular book? Was it for someone else? Was it someone who typically bought their books elsewhere and had just decided to use eBay this once? More importantly, why didn't they stop upping the price--didn't they know I deserved the book more than they did?!
***
In August of 2000, right before I was leaving for my wedding, the unthinkable miracle happened and I was able to purchase the entire series in paperback format from someone who had decided to list it as one bulk item on eBay. I'd already collected a little over a third of the series by then, but I didn't care: this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. One that I almost didn't get to take, either; I had been so busy the weeks leading up to the wedding, between doubling up on my MBA classes so I could take time off for the honeymoon, and a huge project at work and, well, the wedding planning itself, that I'd stopped looking at eBay for about a couple of months. On the morning of my wedding, I was ready and dressed by 9:30AM (I did my own hair and makeup, which is to say there wasn't a lot to do) and was waiting around, with my family, for L. and his family to show up, so we could do the more formal pictures before the wedding. I needed something to do to kill time so I started surfing and checking out eBay. Lo and behold, there was the item. I sat there for about a minute, wondering if I should try outbidding the latest offer. The doorbell rang, my sister yelled for me to get off the computer and get ready to get married, and with about 30 seconds left on the auction, I bid the absolutely largest amount I felt comfortable with, hit okay, turned off the monitor, and ran downstairs. It wasn't until later that night, when we were back from the reception and packing for the trip to Mexico, that I remembered to check and saw that I'd won. L. says he's not sure what I was happier about that day: that the wedding had gone off without a hitch or that I won the entire series in one fell swoop. I suspect he knows the true the answer to that.
***
I use eBay a lot less these days, because I buy all the GGBP reprints and fillers from a reseller I got to know through eBay. I've also pretty much bought all the related and associated books from either her or my acquaintance R.--who I also met through eBay and who sells secondhand books as a hobby--or directly from the publishers. There are still a few related books, though, that though reprinted by GGBP several years ago, are not available through any resellers (GGBP has no plans to reprint for the foreseeable future) and for those I still check eBay once in a while to see if anyone has decided to give them up from their own private collection. I've got two right now that I'm bidding on, except that I got outbid about an hour ago. I'm a seasoned hand at this and I am pretty sure I will get them in the end, although probably for the very highest limit of what I am willing to pay, unfortunately. But I really want to know is: why does someone who is fixated with Acorn Computers, especially the BBC Micro, want to buy a book about British schoolgirls from the 1930s?
10/14/06
____Oct 2006____
When I first started seriously collecting my Chalet series books (and, from there, all printed matter associated with the series, such as 'fill-in' books and biographies and other series by EBD that referenced characters from the Chalet series), eBay was my primary source for acquisition. This was before the GGBP started reprinting the hardback version of the series in trade paperback format (the paperbacks published by Armada and HarperCollins were slightly to severely abridged, depending on the book), so there were a lot of serious collectors who turned to eBay as one source--sometimes their only source--of finding the books. This was especially true for collectors not living in the U.K., who didn't have the luxury of coming across the books at jumble sales or even, for the earlier books in the series, in pristine reprinted paperback format at the local WH Smith.
After a while I got to know the IDs of the people who were building up their collections, like me, as well as the resellers who would put up their surplus copies of the more readily available books for bidding. The resellers also started, around late 1999, to list the rarer paperbacks and even hardbacks, after seeing--as we all did--the bidding frenzy that went on over those particular books. I remember watching the 'Chalet Series-Rare Item!' auctions with as much concern as the ones I was participating in; as a beginning collector, the prices were too steep for me and I figured I'd concentrate on building up what I could of the series through the cheaper paperbacks, before looking at the buying the rarer ones (forget about hardbacks; the prices were way too high and they come up for bid far too infrequently to make it seem like a worthwhile effort). Even so, I'd look at the rare items listings and watch, with a nervous thrill, as a small group of people would battle it back and forth right until the very end, driving up the price higher and higher. I still remember how I watched that first listed paperback copy of "The Chalet School Reunion" sell for $74.00. I could almost hear the gasp from the other people who were no doubt tracking the bids and wondering who the lucky--and insane--winner was.
***
Right from the very beginning, if I ever got outbid on an item (and I frequently did; it took me a while to catch on to what the general going price was for each book), I would check out the ID of the person who outbid and see what else they had purchased before. I wanted to know why they were interested in that book: were they an avid Chalet collector or just a a general collector of girls' school series? Was it someone who was starting out like me? Given that I only bid on paperbacks in new or as new condition--no breaks on the spine being a key requirement of the book I was willing to purchase--I knew the person outbidding me was also, like me, as interested in the condition of the book as in buying the book itself. Which meant they were either an anal beginner collector like me, or someone replacing older, more battered versions of their possibly completed collection. I could even tell, in some cases, how far along the series some of the people were, because we all started to follow a certain pattern when it came to choosing which items to bid on. Although I never liked being outbid, I minded much less when it was one of my 'fellow' collectors; I knew that the book would be as much cared for and enjoyed as if I had bought it myself. Occasionally, though, I would get into a bidding war with someone whose profile would baffle me as to their interest in the book. There'd be no purchases to indicate this person had ever had an interest in the series, or sometimes even books, prior to this bid. Why, I'd wonder, were they so gung-ho on getting this particular book? Was it for someone else? Was it someone who typically bought their books elsewhere and had just decided to use eBay this once? More importantly, why didn't they stop upping the price--didn't they know I deserved the book more than they did?!
***
In August of 2000, right before I was leaving for my wedding, the unthinkable miracle happened and I was able to purchase the entire series in paperback format from someone who had decided to list it as one bulk item on eBay. I'd already collected a little over a third of the series by then, but I didn't care: this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. One that I almost didn't get to take, either; I had been so busy the weeks leading up to the wedding, between doubling up on my MBA classes so I could take time off for the honeymoon, and a huge project at work and, well, the wedding planning itself, that I'd stopped looking at eBay for about a couple of months. On the morning of my wedding, I was ready and dressed by 9:30AM (I did my own hair and makeup, which is to say there wasn't a lot to do) and was waiting around, with my family, for L. and his family to show up, so we could do the more formal pictures before the wedding. I needed something to do to kill time so I started surfing and checking out eBay. Lo and behold, there was the item. I sat there for about a minute, wondering if I should try outbidding the latest offer. The doorbell rang, my sister yelled for me to get off the computer and get ready to get married, and with about 30 seconds left on the auction, I bid the absolutely largest amount I felt comfortable with, hit okay, turned off the monitor, and ran downstairs. It wasn't until later that night, when we were back from the reception and packing for the trip to Mexico, that I remembered to check and saw that I'd won. L. says he's not sure what I was happier about that day: that the wedding had gone off without a hitch or that I won the entire series in one fell swoop. I suspect he knows the true the answer to that.
***
I use eBay a lot less these days, because I buy all the GGBP reprints and fillers from a reseller I got to know through eBay. I've also pretty much bought all the related and associated books from either her or my acquaintance R.--who I also met through eBay and who sells secondhand books as a hobby--or directly from the publishers. There are still a few related books, though, that though reprinted by GGBP several years ago, are not available through any resellers (GGBP has no plans to reprint for the foreseeable future) and for those I still check eBay once in a while to see if anyone has decided to give them up from their own private collection. I've got two right now that I'm bidding on, except that I got outbid about an hour ago. I'm a seasoned hand at this and I am pretty sure I will get them in the end, although probably for the very highest limit of what I am willing to pay, unfortunately. But I really want to know is: why does someone who is fixated with Acorn Computers, especially the BBC Micro, want to buy a book about British schoolgirls from the 1930s?
10/14/06
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