The CC Bookshelf

[Sampaguita]

Awwww. I didn't mean to spoil it... I was just talking about the first few pages of the book.

I'm the wrong person to ask about Jessica Hagedorn. I can never read more than a couple of pages of hers at a time. I don't think she's American by birth... If I'm not much mistaken, she moved here in her late teens or early twenties. I met her once at Berkeley, she's really nice and I felt bad that I couldn't read her books. I'm told "Gangster of Love" is pretty good, but I haven't been able to get my hands on anything but "Dogeaters."

Isn't dog-eating a class thing? I think that's what my mom told me when I was little. She told me that only the really poor eat it... Or those guys that drink copious amounts of alcohol. I could be wrong. I remember eating balut when I was very young, and I enjoyed it then. But now that I'm older I get squeamish about it. And I've never ever liked "chocolate meat." The one time I tried it as a child was because my Catholic father wanted to see how mad my Seventh-day Adventist mother would get.

There are very few Filipino-American writers whose stuff I can stand: Peter Bacho; Carlos Bulosan; Eileen Tabios; Shirley Ancheta; and myself (though my fiction and poetry are as yet unpublished). But that's because I like my literature to move fast.

[lizifer]

yeah i can see what u mean about robin being a 9year old cc. there are some things about robin i can imagine being the same as little cc!

i read a bit more of it today, things are fitting into place now, characters being established, so far a good book
i'm seeing bits of allison in myself now, especially how she loves to sleep!!

[Sampaguita]

Poor Allison... I can see why she loves to sleep-- I wonder if her sleepiness was very purposeful on Tartt's part.

What do you think of Edie? And personality-wise, Pem vs. Danny? And do you think *ahem* did it? Or have you read enough of the reviews to know it already? God, I love this book! (But TSH was better.)

[lizifer]

hhhhmmmmm edie, i'm not sure if i like her or not. one page i'll like her, next page i won't!!

i like pem cutis is a very likeable character i think so is hely.

i haven't really thought about who did it but i guess *ahem* did! i tried to avoid reading anything that will indicate the ending of the book!!

i need to read tsh when i've read this

[MsPoet]

Ok really, I haven't read much lately except for magazines so I'll do another "theatre" type listing here.

Books most recently read Am in the middle of reading the ALIAS Companion. The most recent novel I read was Abarat by Clive Barker (anyone else read that?)

Funniest books ever read Matt Groening's SCHOOL IS HELL and LIFE IS HELL books; The Princess Bride (more stuff happens than in the movie), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the HP books, and The Onion's Finest News Reporting

"Most beautiful"/books I've carried around with me The Illuminated Rumi; Suzan Scalora's books; The Giant All-Color Book of Fairy Tales; The Kingfisher Young People's Book of Space; Tolkien--The Illustrated Encyclopedia; The Kabbalah Decoder; The Way of the Wizards

Books I LIVED LOTR, The Mists of Avalon, the HP books

Book in my bookcase that has such adorable photos in it, it could be entered into "The Book With The Cutest, Most Adorablest Photographs in All of Bookdom" contest Klond**e&Snow at the Denver Zoo (they were baby polar bears)

Beloved books from my childhood The aforementioned book of Fairy Tales; Shel Silverstein, and Roald Dahl's Charlie books (with the OLD drawings; I've seen the new ones; they ----!)

Favorite cryptozoology and metaphysical books Sea Serpents, Sailors, and Sceptics; The Holographic Universe

Books of which I spoke to the author on the phone Crimes of the Heart and The Miss Firecracker Contest (yes, I know, they're plays )

Book that was autographed by the author The Final Days of Seinfeld

Book I convinced the seller to lower the price Shakespeare IDENTIFIED

Oldest book/most recent book The oldest book I have is from either the late 19th century or the first decade of the 20th. The most recent book I bought was the movie book for Catch Me If You Can.

Book I found extremely useful/beneficiary The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran; Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston

Book first introduced to me by my heart&soul Einstein's Dreams

Donna

P.S. Yes I know "adorablest" is not a word.

[lizifer]

since donna but her clildood books up here i will too....
*meg and mog...about a witch and her cat, i had the whole set but i can't find them now so want my parents to buy them again for me!!
*puddle lane....there were 4 levels of reading in the collection and when i was little and my parents read them to me i'd know if they'd missed a word out, i had every book memoried! still have the books! the main character was a wizard.
*pongwiffy....another few books about a witch
*the worst witch....again books about witches

seems every cildhood book i read involved witches and wizards

[Catriona]

Hey Ms. Poet, you like alot of the same books I do! I ama huge Mists of Avalon fan, I actually took a course here at the university that was centred around the book; the course was called "The Women of Arthurian Legend." We actually got to talk about a whole bunch of Guienevere books in that class. Also, the Princess Bride is as funny as heck! Just as funny, if not more, than the movie. And the "School is Hell" book is tres funny. my boyfriend's friend showed me his dog-eared copy, and I laughed so much. I didn't know anyone else even knew about that book. So many good things to read....

[Mandragora]

Donna... your heart&sould introduced you to "Einstein's Dreams"? He must be SPECIAL, haha. Oh well, I haven't met a GUY who's read this, I only know very few people who actually did.

I quite like going through Nick Bantock's "Griffin and Sabine" books... very arty. This medium pretty much gave me an idea when I was seriously thinking of writing a novel... which I have no idea what will happen to THAT.

My favorite book as a kid were those Hans Christian Andersen books, especially "The Little Match Girl". I ALWAYS cry at that story, even up to now. I believe fairy tales are very integral to growing up, though I once had this discussion with a friend when we analyzed those nursery rhymes... they're quite disturbing. Ring-a-ring-a-roses is said to be a death/funeral chant. Humpty Dumpty broke his neck/shell. Jack broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after, and then afterwards we all go , "La, lala, lala, lalaaa!"

I find Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole Diaries really funny. I only got two of those, and I always read it when I need some dry Brit humor. I am starting to get accustomed with the Brit sense of humor, with the help of Adrian Mole and that incredible movie, "The Full Monty". "Bridget Jones's Diary" made me really laugh too.

By the way, regarding the dog-eating thing, yes, it is true that those guys, or say, men who drink on the streets are usually on the prowl for loose dogs and... cook it. I know that 'chocolate meat', actually it's dried and clumped blood of... I am not sure if it's pig's or chicken's or cow's... I am quite fond of eating that sometimes, especially those other street foods like chicken feet, chicken head, intestines... do I start to sound too GORY? Well, we are all culturally diversed, actually when I start to REALLY travel I am thinking of going to Mongolia and try sheep's eye. I think somewhere in South America they eat hamsters, so...

Oh well, one of my hobbies everytime I'd go to the bookstore is to look for "The Book of Answers", ask a question, open it, and ta-da! An answer! I don't really want to buy a copy, I'd probably get dependent on it, and it's silly and dangerous. I might say that the answers I got are very relevant, so I think it doesn't hurt to just ask now and then.

[dulcinea]

oh yes. i do love the direction conversation has taken here

hmm... books that have moved me recently... well, i finally ploughed my way through the lotr trilogy, and you wouldn't believe how many words i'm eating right now. i adored it. the two towers was definitely my favorite volume - i literally could not breathe when i finished, it was such a whirlwind.

i'm also a bit of a dune fan, and children of dune was utterly heartbreaking. the others were intriguing, delving your way into this new world, discovering the tangled webs of commerce and politics that had developed around it... then, in children, you suddenly get smacked across the face with sympathy for these characters that up until then have been little more than pawns in this universe-sweeping chess game. and my favorite character dies. my favorite character *always* dies. i cried like a little girl who's just dropped her cookie in a mud puddle.

life before man, by margaret atwood. her grasp of the intricacies of human relationships is unmatched, in my opinion. she is my goddess.

as far as all-time favorites, which have never faded and will never fade - les miserables, by victor hugo. i discovered the musical first, being a huge musical geek, and started reading the book in grade seven. it took me about four months, naturally, but it was well worth it. once a year i reread the unabridged version, and i get something new out of it every time.

[Sampaguita]

OOOH! "Mists of Avalon" !!! I loved that book, but it's been 5 years since I've really read it.

My favorite scene in that book is probably the love scene between Morgaine and Kevin. And I hate how he sells out their heritage in the end (because from Morgaine's point of view, we're really supposed to feel betrayed).

Lancelet (I can't remember the spellings in this book) is a jack*ss. He is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not worth all the grief that Morgaine and Gwynefar go through. And I can't stand Gwyn. I don't see how any of the men can love her. She's so closed-minded and cowardly. Darn Lance and Arthur's hero complexes. And I thought Kevin was better than what he turned into.

That book left me with SUCH a bittersweet feeling. Argh!

[MsPoet]

The Mists of Avalon---it's been about 8 years or so since I read it. I should read it again (after I read the HP books, to figure out more clues )....

Catriona, the "Women of Arthurian Legend" course sounds great! Especially considering I practically minored in women's studies, I would've loved it.

Mandragora, he certainly *was*/is (I suppose; lol) special. He also wanted me to read Love Story, but I didn't want to (he even read some of it over the phone to me one night <g>).....

Dulcinea, we share an admiration for Margaret Atwood! ;D She does somehow make the simplest things/situations fascinating....I read first "The Handmaid's Tale" for one of my women's studies classes. I loved it so I got more books. Cat's Eye particularly sticks in my mind......I haven't read her latest, tho.

Donna

[Scarlett]

I finished "The Wave" yesterday!!"The wave" is only the german title and I don´t know the Englsih but it is about a teacher and his class and he told them about Hitler and they didn´t believe him and so he started a project.The project was called "The Wave" and it was like Hitler and his men but the project goes ´the wring way.........................
It was such a d**n good book and today I started a book about romantic. It is called "Melusine-The world needs romantic"
It is really lovely!! ;D

huggggz!!
Viki

[Mandragora]

Wow, quite a number of you guys are into the Arthurian stories... any suggestions how to get into it? What's the first Avalon tale one should read? Thanks

[Catriona]

Oooh, I have so much to talk about the Mists of Avalon and Arthurian legend. Yes, I was upset about Kevin at the end too. We had alot of discussion in our class about the gay/lesbian relationships in the book (since our professor was gay) and we agreed that Marion Zimmer Bradley was anti-male because none of the men ever find happiness in the book.

Finally, someone who agrees with me about Lancelet! All the girls in my class were like, oooh, "I loved Lancelet in Mists of Avalon!" and I was like, "what are you talking about??? He's a friggin nancy boy!" We all agreed, however, that Gwen was annoying. My professor said he actually throws the book at the wall whenever there's a scene she's in.

Also, my class all agreed that this is the order you should read the books in: read the Guinevere trilogy by Rosalind Miles first to get a good perspective on Lancelot, then the Guinevere series by Sharan Newman to get a good perspective on Lancelot. (You will hate Morgaine by the end of these!) However, Morgaine will be redeemed in the Mists of Avalon if you read that last. It is easily the best book out of all of them. We all agreed in my class that having read it first it spoiled the rest of the books. It's so awesome and female-empowering!

So, those are the books I recommend. It's also interesting to go back to the originals by Malory and Tennyson and see how the modern women authors have updated the misogynistic viewpoints. Oh yeah, this is also off-topic, but has anyone seen the Mists of Avalon? It was AWEFUL! Michael Vartan may be cute, but he blew it as Lancelot. I read an interview with him about the movie, and he sounded like such a knob!

[dulcinea]

cat's eye is probably the second most important book in my life, after les miserables. the mirrors that book held up to my childhood were almost terrifying. i would sit up at night reading it and crying until i almost couldn't take it anymore... and then read the same scene over and over again until i was able to take it.

*sighs*

how i love margaret atwood.