BookLust

Tiny Blast From the Past

Sorry for the lack of posts; swamped yet again. Will get back on track tomorrow, promise!

In the mean time, for your viewing pleasure, my kindergarten picture in all my funny-face glory.

What the Dickens is your Favourite?

If you look at the sidebar where I list what I'm reading, you can see that I've been digesting Dickens' Bleak House for quite some time now. And I'm sure it will be quite some time before I'm finished it. But I will finish it this time, dammit! Third time is a charm, right?

Twice before I have attempted to read Bleak House, and twice before I have failed. I confess I have little patience with reading books that are over 900 pages long. It's not that the story and characters aren't interesting, it's just that there's so damn much of it. And I guess it doesn't help that I find the main character, Esther, to be such a bloody pill. Does anyone else feel that way? Don't you notice that the nasty characters in Dickens' novels are just so much more fun to read about?

I also must confess that I haven't read nearly enough Dickens in my life. I hope to rectify that situation over time. Quite frankly, I find his life story to be much more interesting in some ways than the many stories and novels he wrote during his lifetime. Dickens was such a mass of contradictions. Great concern for the state of the poor, and very criticial of those who only valued the mighty dollar, yet so obsessed with making and having money himself (sometimes I think he based Scrooge on his own character). So critical of hypocrites and elitists in his novels, yet he himself was a great snob in many ways, and lived a priviate life in his later years that he desperatley tried to keep hidden (he pretty much left his wife for a much younger woman).

What I find even more interesting is that so much of this sense of injustice sprung from an event in his youth, which didn't even last that long, but marked him for life. That's the story of when he was forced to work in the blacking warehouse at the age of 12, putting labels on bottles, because his father (a man who could never handle money) had ended up in debter's prison. I had always assumed he stayed in that warehouse for years, but it was only a few months, but that's all it took to change Dickens forever. Who knows what went on during that time, for Dickens never shared the details of it, and in fact, kept that story of his childhood secret for a very long time. We get second-hand accounts of it, in a way, by reading novels like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.

Yes, I really must expand my reading of Dickens. So far I've read Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and all the Christmas Stories. Not much, really, when you think about how much the man produced. So far I think Oliver Twist is my favourite, because I find the nasty characters in that novel to be so delicious. Fagin and Bill Sykes make for great reading. And Nancy is quite an interesting woman, considering how overall I think Dickens' women are quite uninspiring.

So how many have you read? And what the Dickens is your favourite?

Seen in a Bookstore 5

Staff member in bookshop has a never-ending supply of doggie cookies which he shares with all the book-lovin' pooches who enter the store.

How sweet is that?

It's Turkey Time

Wishing all my friends south of the border a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Party Like a Cartoonist

I'm now part of the new executive for the Canadian Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. Specifically, I'm the Secretary and the Treasurer. Sounds a lot more important than it really is. One of the best parts of this job is working with the new Chapter Chair, Sandra Bell-Lundy, organizing any special cartoonist events. Friday night was our annual Christmas get-together to meet up with old cartoon friends we haven't seen in a while, as well as meet some talented new faces. Plenty of fun and conversation ensued, trust me.

I look drunk in this photo, but I'm really not. Honest.

Cross Country Panic

Can you believe this? Just about all of my books have been carefully packed away, and ain't that the time when I get contacted by a producer from CBC Radio's Cross Country Check-Up, who are looking for book-lovers to talk about their favourite books on the biannual books show.

If all goes well, I'll briefly be on CBC Radio One this Sunday, about 5:00pm, talking to the witty and wonderful Mr. Rex Murphy about a few of my favourite books.

If you're interested in listening to the program, here are the frequency listings for Canada.

I'm not a religious woman, but I feel compelled to say this:

Please God, don't let me screw up.

UPDATE:
For those who missed the show, as well as those who just want to hear my delightful voice over and over again, there's already an archive set up from the show. Scroll down to the November 20th show. My segment starts at 56:20 (just about half-way) and lasts about 10 minutes.

You know, not until I started to listen to the beginning of the show did I realize that I was one of the special guests being interviewed. Here's the list of the other guests on the show:

Barry Callaghan
Writer, editor and founder of Exile: A Literary Quaterly, and author of Raise You Five: Essays and Encounters 1964-2004

Noah Richler
Journalist, broadcaster and author of the forthcoming Literary Atlas of Canada

John Vaillant
Author of The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed and winner of this year's Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction

David Lyle Jeffrey
Distinguished professor of literature and the humanities, Baylor University, and author of Houses of The Interpreter: Reading Scripture, Reading Culture

How the hell did I get invited to this party? And I'm the only woman guest! Holy crap!!!

I'm still floating on air....

Another Sneak Peak

Here's a couple of spreads from my third illustrated children's book. It will come out the end of the year I've been told, but only for little Japanese children who are learning English, I'm afraid! One of these days I hope to illustrate a mainstream trade children's book, so everyone can buy a copy!

There is always that great sense of relief when the book is finally done, but it is soon replaced by great misery with the fear that one will never get another children's book job again....

Welcome to the neurotic world of me.

BiblioQueria 13

That has got to be one of my most treasured cartoons. Scanned from my most treasured cartoon book, A Century of Punch, published in 1956 by William Heinemann Ltd. I just might have to have that book buried with me when I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Ahhh.... parents reading to their children. Cherished moments in life. That is, if you can remember those moments! I caused a moment on the weekend, when I mentioned to my mother that I did not recall her ever reading to me when I was a kid. She was not amused. She bloody well did read to me when I was young, thank you very much. Well why can't I remember? I asked. Her only explanation? She started when I was very young, and well, I took to reading like a duck to water, and seemed perfectly happy managing on my own, at an early age. Why should she cramp my style? Fine. I just wish I could remember. You know why?

My mother has a wonderful reading voice. She reads clearly, with perfect pace, intonation and expression. And her soft, lilting Jamaican accent is just the icing on the literary cake. I only really took notice of her delightful reading voice a few years ago. It was close to Christmas, and my mom decided to read my brother's young twins a story. She picked one of my favourties, Freddy The Pig by Walter R. Brooks. We were all relaxing in the rec room of my brother's home, the fireplace was warm and toasty, my mom sat in the big armchair with the twins snuggled around her, and I lay on the rug, closed my eyes and felt like I was a carefree child again, as my mother's voice gently wrapped around me like a soft warm blanket. I simply did not want it to end. Is that odd behaviour for a 40-ish woman?

Yes, it's important to be able to read on one's own. But look at the price I paid for my independence! All those stories that she read to me, that I can't remember!

And so my questions (yes, plural) to you are ....

Do you remember being read to as a child? and Would you like to be read to now, as an adult?

To Pack and Not to Pack

I just finished Jane Smiley's Good Faith, and I gotta say, what the hell is so good about this book? Quite frankly it was a chore to read. But I hate not finishing books, and even though I had a pretty good idea of how the story would end, I still had to read the whole damn thing just to be sure. I dunno. Perhaps I didn't like it because I'm not that fascinated with the world of money and power and real estate. Or perhaps because of the fact that I did not like one single character in the book, or even find them remotely interesting. Or perhaps it's because the 80's are just best forgotten. If anyone else enjoyed this book, then please tell me why.

So anyway, now that this book is finished, it will now be packed away with all the the many other books that I will not be able to access until the end of January. So can you imagine my dilemma? What do I pack, and what do I set aside for reading until the very last damn minute? This is a make or break decision, folks, because once that tape gun goes over those boxes, there's no turning back. I will not re-open a box, no matter how desperate I am. (I think).

So here is a list of some of the books that I have decided are just too interesting to pack in a cardboard box just yet (and yes, in hindsight, Good Faith could have been packed away much earlier).

Dorothy Parker: Complete Stories
Things You Should Know: A Collection of Short Stories by A.M. Holmes
Is Sex Necessary? Or Why You Feel The Way You Do by James Thurber & E.B. White
First Writers edited by Kellye Aitken, Sue Goyette, and Barbara Scott
Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times edited by Kevin Smokler
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Mailman by J. Robert Lennon
Nothing That Meets The Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith

I have been hearing some very good things lately about Bel Canto, so that's next on the list. Hopefully Ann Patchett will have what it takes to remove the bad taste of Jane Smiley from my mouth.

Apparently There is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch

Yesterday I had lunch with cartoonist friend Sandra Bell-Lundy, creator of the wonderful strip Between Friends. While I was waiting for her in the pub, I noticed a quote on a chalkboard. One of the waiters said that if I could name the author of said quote I would get a free lunch. The quote was:

First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.

Well, I got it right. So it just goes to show you what reading can get you, folks: the occasional free lunch.

Oh, and the man behind the quote if you didn't know was F. Scott Fitzgerald.