December + January Reading

I'm stillll readin'! (slowly yet steadily).  
One and half more books down (still reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72) and a whole bunch more to eagerly dig through and mentally digest.  (I've got a medium sized stack of new books from Christmas that are patiently waiting to be opened, read, and cherished).  I do happen to really enjoy reading my books slowly.  It sometimes feels like I'm cultivating a stronger relationship with them; taking the time to really dwell in the written world I'm reading and learning to love/appreciate the characters you seem to mentally walk with through the book.  Yes, I'm becoming a book nerd. 

I started the yellow book above, Weird Like Us, in December and finished it sometime in early/mid January.  This was definitely a book I wanted to not end as I contently went from chapter to chapter, thinking of some of my own past bomenian-like experiences.  As you can guess, I loved this book!  I recommend this book to all my friends and to anyone who feels even the slightest bit alternative/bohemian in their lifestyle (I can get really picky about what books I read, so the ones I do are worth it in my opinion).  The book felt open and diary-like as Powers relates her real-life experiences and memories to the different expectations of popular American culture, finding your "place" in life, and of growing older.  

One of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much was Powers bringing up things that our common culture classifies as beneath it, such as: dumpster diving, curb hunting the suburban streets for discarded treasures waiting for trash removal, cultivating your wardrobe from thrift store and consignment shops, or occasionally having a little grass.  I felt connected in some of these similar practices, because I have personally chosen that lifestyle.  I'll admit the majority of my wardrobe comes completely from a local thrift store (where all the proceeds go to assisting the homeless in the area) and I love it;  I've lived in a tent for a month in a friend's backyard (when my old lease was up and I couldn't find an apartment in time).  I've dumpster dove for food and have found some absolute gems along the curb, including six old boxy television sets I used for my senior exhibition for my BFA.

I absolutely love the feeling of upcycling and reusing; especially when it's full circle like donating and shopping at a thrift store/consignment shop.  I also like keeping a small container garden on little balcony I share and buy organic, when I can afford it. This is just the lifestyle I choose to lead as I continue to figure out what ideals I want to try/keep/discard as I get older.  I do have goals to be more self-sufficient, resourceful, and less wasteful;  I want to learn to distinguish food in nature and to continue to learn, and grow, and appreciate the simple things that I feel our popular culture is stifling.    

-Caroline

November Reading

It's December and I'm still trucking along with my reading.  The end of November felt like it flew by for me.  Black Friday and on has been mainly spent assisting consumers with their Christmas needs at my job.  I have, however, been able to absorb, and love, every minute spent reading and mentally visualizing each word of the two books I have pictured above, even though I've slowed down a bit in pace.  I truly enjoy the anticipation to read more and more as I mentally latch unto to the protagonist and imagine their experience in the text as if it were real.  That feeling when you want to continue and keep reading on to the end; when the book is thinning towards the back cover and really you want the opposite so that you'll stay in mentally in this written world. 

I didn't always read this consistently.  College kind of dampened my personal reading when I struggled to finish assigned reading as well as numerous art projects on top of it.  And I'll admit I've also pushed reading aside at times when I was in relationships.  Movies were just more crowd-pleasing.  I still watch movies with Greg as well as read for personal enjoyment.  Since I found inspiration in an old Jack London novel, Adventure, in the Syracuse Regional Market, among a lot of aged German books, I have been reading and craving more books; especially those written by Americans from the twentieth century.  

Shown top to bottom:
          On The Road by: Jack Kerouac (currently reading)
          Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey into the American Dream 
                  by: Hunter S. Thompson

I loved reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  I enjoy the way Hunter S. Thompson writes in the way that it feels personal-almost like a diary from a witness.  I'm intrigued by his writing and the experiences he's lived through America and Puerto Rico.  Fear and Loathing is absurd and doesn't stray far from the outskirts of Las Vegas and the Nevada desert.  It was above all interesting adventure of a read of a lot of drug and alcohol consumption, interpretations of trends in America from an opinionated sociological perspective, and the quintessential search for "The American Dream."  Kerouac has been spot on fantastic and an equally intriguing read based on America in the late 1940s.

I hope you're reading an equally enthralling book that keeps you anticipating the next pages and prolonging those last pages that edge the back cover.  I'm also very open to suggestions from other twentieth century writers on their own search for an America and how they fit into that place.  

-Caroline

The Sea Wolf

I literally just finished yet another wonderful Jack London creation, The Sea Wolf, on Sunday.  My personal copy of the book is a softened and yellowed-with-age paperback printed in 1965, though it was originally written in 1904.  It was a valued find at Books & Melodies, a local used/vintage bookstore (that also sells used records).  It's a great used bookstore that is filled to the brim with great books for excellent prices (by excellent I mean cheap).  I don't hold a strong preference to paperback books, but I do enjoy the malleable feeling a book acquires from age as well as the softening of its pages.  

There's something intimate in becoming completely enthralled in an exciting read.  Bending the pages around the spine and curving the paper.  Consuming the text to satiate one's mind.  It's such a different feeling from the new laser-printed books you can easily find at your local Barnes & Nobles.  Blah!  Give me aged pages and lost spelling (dated).  Intricate vocabulary and gripping mental imagery.

The book follows a young gentleman in his mid-thirties, Humphrey Van Weyden, the scholarly protagonist and his voyage from a sinking passenger ship to being rescued and then imprisoned on a sealing schooner by the name of Ghost.  Captain Wolf Larsen, a cook, six to eight mates, and six seal hunters make up the sealing schooner that are all 100% testerone and 100% souls of the sea.  The theme of life and death is always prevalent and is also classified as the cheapest currency in existence.  Wolf certainly calls the shots on board the Ghost, and exercises his philosophies of human life, existentialism, and the views of 19th century theorists (for he's not only super-strong and sea-experienced, he's also well read).   

This is a book filled to the last page with nautical terms and life confined to a small buoyant vessel in the Pacific Ocean.  I was also happily surprised to find out the physical story in the book was printed to the very last page!  That may seem like piddly-posh to most people (or everyone)-I was honestly really astonished; one usually sees advertisements for other books, printing information, or even just four or five blank pages at the very end of a bound book after the story has ended.  I also really enjoy the small bits of 19th century romance from a man's perspective through Jack London's books.  Three I've read so far (Adventure, The Sea Wolf, and Valley of the Moon) have small examples of innocent appreciation and curiosity of the opposite sex. 

I was captured by it to the very last page and like the rest of Jack London's books, I loved this one dearly.  If you have yet to read any of Jack's books, please give it a second chance.  His work is a milestone in American Literature (in my personal opinion) and I believe every American should at least know who he was and a little of his writing.

As you've probably guessed I'm quite passionate about Jack London and have been completely absorbing myself in his writing.  I love the feeling of falling in love with how an author writes and how he/she makes you feel when you read his/her work.  Sometimes, you just find that one particular author that knocks your socks off-and you're addicted!  I hope you share the same sentiments about a favorite author(s).  

Happy reading!
-Caroline

October Reading

 

The end of October is looming.  Gregory and I have been watching the Halloween movies up until the fifth one (the sixth deals with occult stuff that creeps me out too much).  My point with all this is "looming" makes me think of Dr. Loomis, Michael's doctor and psychatartist who is always trying to put an end to the mayhem.  I wouldn't say I like these movies, or any of those other typical scary slasher films, but my boyfriend does and I make it through them.  He picks the scary Halloween films and I pick the kid-friendly ones.  Think Hocus Pocus and Nightmare Before Christmas.  I have, however, been steadily reading and wanted to update from the month of October to share some great reads!

Shown top to bottom: 

          The Call of the Wild and Other Short Stories by: Jack London 

          The Sea Wolf by: Jack London (currently reading)

          White Fang by: Jack London

          Pattern by: Orla Keily

          Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha by: Dr. Ben Reitman

                    (which, actually is considered fiction, but is based on real people 

                     and experiences in hobo life and train hoppin' between the World Wars)

I finished reading all the remaining short stories during the month of October, though I did have The Call of the Wild and Other Short Stories by: Jack London listed in my September reading post.  An Odyessey of the North, To the Man on Trail, To Build a Fire, and Love of Life were great,and completely enthralling reads.

All of these books listed above, with the exception of Orla Keily's Pattern, which is based upon her experiences becoming a textile designer, are categorized as fiction, yet I wouldn't whole-hardheartedly consider them simply as that.  As you can see, I've been reading even more Jack London as my love for him and his writing continues to grow.  I honestly, don't think I'll be satisfied until I read every bit of writing he has created.

It's such a grand season to curl up with a good book and a mug of hot coffee, warm mulled cider, or hot chocolate!  I wish you many a good read and adventure as we begin to shift into November.

Happy reading!

-Caroline

This year so far in books read

I should have taken note in June (a half way point through the year) to look and see exactly how many books I've successfully read through and how many more I can squeeze in before December ends the calendar year-whoops!  Well, I did not and I am instead, I'm taking inventory now. 

Shown top to bottom: 
          Jack London: Sailor on Horseback by: Irving Stone
          The Call of the Wild and Other Short Stories by: Jack London
          Adventure by: Jack London
          The Valley of the Moon by: Jack London
          Lives of the Artists by: Calvin Tomkins
          The Old Man and the Sea by: Ernest Hemingway 

I technically have yet to finish all of the short stories that are in the same paperback collection as The Call of the Wild.  There are six stories in all that presented in this order: 
          The Call of the Wild
          Diable-A Dog
          An Odyessey of the North
          To the Man on Trail
          To Build a Fire
          Love of Life 

I only read through the first two and am a pausing point in the third.  I really want to get To Build a Fire, but I don't want to rush through the others and not respect their literary worthiness.  As you can most likely conclude, I am infatuated with the late Californian writer, Jack London, and the adventurous life he lead.

I have been dedicating my lunch breaks to complete reading, though I honestly don't read as much outside of these breaks (I'm going to work on this).  Almost six books down and I'm going to set an official goal to read four more by the end of the year!  

Happy reading!
-Caroline