Nonsuch Book

the joy of the read aloud: christmas poems

 

There is something especially lovely and meaningful about reading aloud with loved (or liked) ones during the holidays. Away from the mall and the occasionally crass commercialism, the social demands, the craziness. Just beautiful words shared by the tree. This volume from New Directions is a personal favorite of mine. It is little - about 4x6 inches. Luxurious paper. French flaps. And full of good cheer. Put one in a stocking.

"Christmas Poems is a pleasing and diverse selection of classic holiday poems that goes all the way back to an eclogue of Virgil, moves along to a wide range of authors such as Chaucer, Herbert, Longfellow, Dickinson, Paul Dunbar, Rilke, Yeats, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, E. E. Cummings, Kenneth Patchen, Thomas Merton, Wallace Stevens, Marie Ponsot, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Frank O'Hara, Denise Levertov, and Bernadette Mayer. 

Beautifully designed, this New Directions gem (originally published in the 1940s and reissued in the 1970s) rings with the deep sentiments of the season and just the right splash of holiday cheer. 

Christmas Poems was originally edited by Albert M. Hayes and New Directions founder and publisher James Laughlin as A Wreath of Christmas Poems, and published as part of the "Poets of the Year" series in 1942. The collection was updated and revised in 1972, and selections for this newly revised 2008 edition have been chosen by the editorial staff at New Directions." (from the publisher)

And if you will indulge me a favorite: 

Little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid
look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy
then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud
and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"

e.e.cummings

sunday salon: twelve days of wodehouse and nancy mitford book lust

 

Let's cut right to the chase. I love Christmas with the unrestrained joy and optimism of a child. I make no effort to hide my enthusiasm, and openly invite the derision of those jaded types who choose to gently poke fun at my over-the-top love of the season of giving. I also love the work of P.G. Wodehouse whose writing style is a thing of great craftsmanship and beauty, whose humor is undeniable. So.... how do I make these two loves work together for a little holiday happiness? The Twelve Days of Wodehouse. The Overlook Press has been kind enough to partner with me for twelve days of Wodehouse giveaways from December 1-12. Just check back each day to see what the featured title of the day is, and enter. Every day if you want. Really. Because if you love Wodehouse or you want to love Wodehouse, you want the editions from The Overlook Press for the following reasons:

  

"On the 25th anniversary of Wodehouse's death, Overlook embarks on a program of handsomely packaged full-cloth editions of his novels, arguably the finest editions of the master ever published. 

Fans devoted to the master of comic fiction P.G. Wodehouse are legion. He represents an antic high point in the world of farce and social satire. Best known for the creation of two fictional worlds based on Blandings Castle and the Wooster-Jeeves gentleman-valet duo, Wodehouse is appreciated the world over for his exceedingly clever send-ups of the idle rich in Edwardian England. 

With each volume edited and reset and printed on Scottish cream-wove, acid-free paper, sewn and bound in cloth, these novels are elegant additions to any Wodehouse fan's library."

Enough said. Hope to see you on Tuesday for the first day of Wodehouse.

 

And just a quick couple of shots of book lust. Folio Society is offering these glimpses into English upper class eccentricity with these two Nancy Mitford editions. You either like them or you don't, but I find Mitford's novels a delicious bit of cotton candy. 

 

Holiday delights on Thursday, another section of family for turkey redux yesterday, the fun was never ending! But now the dishes are done, the extra wine glasses stowed away, and I will be in a state of slothful bliss today goofing off in pajamas and reading The Song Is You by Arthur Phillips. What are you reading in the Sunday Salon?

  

on howard's end is on the landing

 

"I love the book. I love the feel of a book in my hands, the compactness of it, the shape, the size. I love the feel of paper. The sound it makes when I turn a page. I love the beauty of print on paper, the patterns, the shapes, the fonts. I am astonished by the versatility and practicality of The Book. It is so simple. It is so fit for its purpose. It may give me mere content, but no e-reader will ever give me that sort of added pleasure."

And there you have it for me. But not for everyone. Howard's End is on the Landing has been blogged about so extensively that I paused before posting about it, but chose to because I enjoyed it so much. And want to contrast my experience with those that did not find it the little gem of a read that I did. 

Susan Hill, author and publisher of some fame, decided to write a memoir of sorts about "a year of reading from home," a year without new book purchases where the reading material would be culled from her own shelves. The book is divided into short chapters about the reading directions the year followed, and includes many stories of her personal interactions with authors of note. The majority of the material discussed is in fact re-reads, a point of criticism for some, but an experience that I envy and that is working its way into my head as I decide what the new year might bring to my reading life.

A read as personal as this one will find its most welcoming audience amongst those of similar literary tastes whose reading life has followed a similar path. For me, there were enough loves shared here (Virginia Woolf, pop-up books, picture books, Wodehouse, Trollope, Dickens, Murdoch and all the poetry plus more) that Hill's attentions to authors and books with which I was not as familiar inspired an interest in me to try them as I by then trusted her taste because of the number of likes we held in common. I could even forgive her that reluctance to read Proust.

Also loved the meandering nature of the book. I could imagine Hill wandering through her home looking through her randomly shelved books for nothing in particular, and being struck by points of interest as letters and notes long-forgotten or misplaced fell from between pages. As memories from a bookishly privileged past stopped by for a visit. Some took exception to her lack of a clearly delineated plan, and craved a more explicit view of the year's reading experience. A list at the beginning was desired instead of a list arrived at by year's end as Hill realizes that she wishes she had more time to indulge her reading experiment. However, I have a high threshold for chaos. I also do not organize my books in any particular order, and casually re-meet them from time to time in unexpected places. I tend to not make lists. And tend to engage in a stream-of-consciousness game of associations from one text to another.

The chapter that brought me the most satisfaction, "Slow, Slow, Slow-Slow, Slow," has also been a point of contention among book bloggers as Hill expresses concern over what she calls a "strange competitiveness" amongst our set to consume as many as twenty books a week as if the activity is a competition, its results to be recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. She believes:

"The best books deserve better. Everything I am reading during this year has so much to yield but only if I give it my full attention and respect it by reading slowly. Fast reading of a great novel will get us the plot. It will get us names, a shadowy idea of characters, a sketch of settings. It will not get us subtleties, small differentiations, depth of emotion and observation, multilayered human experience, the appreciation of simile and metaphor, any sense of context, any comparison with other novels, other writers. Fast reading will not get us cadence and complexities of style and language. It will not get us anything that enters not just the conscious mind but the unconscious. It will not allow the book to burrow down into our memory and become part of ourselves, the accumulation of knowledge and wisdom and vicarious experience which helps to form us as complete human beings. It will not develop our awareness or add to the sum of our knowledge and intelligence. Read parts of a newspaper quickly or an encyclopedia entry, or a fast-food thriller, but do not insult yourself or a book which has been created with its author's painstakingly acquired skill and effort, by seeing how fast you can dispose of it."

Ouch. A wee bit high-handed. But I am buying it. And re-evaluating my own habits as a result.

The beauty of the book blogoshere is the diversity of opinion. Where would all that amusing, diverting, engaging sparkly conversation come from if it were not for our willingness to disagree... respectfully. I enjoyed the thoughts of all those who felt this book a disappointing sell-out with a great cover. But I really enjoyed it. The perfect small read for the holiday small moments in which we sneak in our reading. Reminding me of family around me and family now gone who read and failed to organize that reading life much in the same way that Hill does (or does not). Not challenging. But charming.

more of books do furnish a room by leslie geddes-brown

Was very excited about this book even before I saw it up close and personal. Now that I own it, my enthusiasm for it is not a bit diminished. This is not a design book in the conventional sense. Bibliophiles are accustomed to interior designers who purge your collection from view in order to achieve their design. Where knickknacks displace your grandfather's Dickens collection. But Geddes-Brown reveals a love for the book in her introduction that set me immediately at ease.

"So while many authors treat books with disdain (and disapprove of books furnishing a room), the jumble of volumes by a writer's desk, the way books are used to prop up uneven desk legs or signal dangerous holes in a carpet, are far better than treating them with a conservator's cotton gloves. Books are there to be read - and to furnish a room."

 

The author asserts that books belong in every room of a house. The manner in which you choose to organize them may reveal as much of your nature as the titles themselves. Look, for instance, at the photo above to see how a minimalist might display their books. They may reside in plain view as you see on the top deck (that is unless the well-hidden blinds are pulled down) or rest behind doors as you see below. Whatever your style, you will probably find it depicted in at least one of the gorgeous photos in this book. The prevailing theme is that the books are the furniture, the anchors, the means by which we personalize our spaces whether you collect rare incunabula or paperback bodice rippers.

 

The assumption is that the book is a focal point of your decor. Even it's image creeps into spaces that do not hold actual books as seen in this photo of some tempting wallpaper - "Bibliotheque" by Brunschwig et Fils. So if books in the bathroom seems a reasonable idea...

 

Or the stairwell in your home calls out for books ...

 

Or you can think of no finer way to welcome people into your home ...

 

Well then, you may want this book. A lot. Books Do Furnish a Room by Leslie Geddes-Brown is written and delivered with the most engaging images just for bibliophiles. The gentle madness. The need to make room for our papery friends. Justified within the pages here in a no-excuses, indulgent voice that already seems to understand your bookish needs. A design friend not foe.

sunday salon: the san francisco panorama

 

Sunday newspapers have been elevated to ritual among many of us print junkies, but the disappearing sections (my well-loved Washington Post Book World for example), the disappearing newspapers for that matter have left many of us scratching our heads a bit. Is this the inevitable replacement of one form of information sharing with another? Are the print versions of these publications at risk of slipping away because they ceased to re-invent themselves as readership sensibilities morphed into visually oriented, short byte appetites? Are they just too expensive to produce compared with the relatively small cost and green benefits of digital versions?

Along comes the fine folks at McSweeney's (Dave Egger's small literary magazine turned independent publisher that embraces whimsy, well-chosen words, fine design and nuttiness) to say that this need not be. There is room for both print and internet publications, but the newspaper must do what the internet cannot if it wants a seat at the table. To illustrate their point, next month they are publishing a one-shot deal newspaper, The San Francisco Panorama. A "huge and luxurious broadsheet," the Panorama has brought together the work of the best designers, writers and artists of all kinds. Just check this out if you are skeptical. An "omg moment" as my middle schooler would say.

 

It will be delivered automatically to McSweeney's subscribers, available in bookstores around the country, and may be purchased directly from the publisher. First week of December. Now some of you may be saying that this looks fantastic but is not a practical answer to the issue at hand - the disappearance of print media. It is not intended as an example of what might be published on a daily basis though. It is an over-the-top illustration of what newspapers might be. Of the types of things they can do that the internet cannot. Print is not disappearing. It is being given a grand opportunity to re-invent itself, to return itself to art form. Or at least that is my belief. How do you weigh in on the topic?

Today I will finally be picking up Susan Hill's Howard's End Is On the Landing. And doing a little blog housekeeping. Have not really kept well-updated of late. The stuff of life dictates the schedule. What will you be reading in the Sunday Salon today?

bookish friends for the wee ones

 

This week was action-packed at work: my usual duties plus the Julie Andrews author visit; Family Reading Night where we welcome hundreds in for books, dinner, and literacy based fun; and yesterday I took two teams to a US geography tournament at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Can't quite get my head out of wee one mode so I have decided to share a little wee one knowledge just in case you have started holiday shopping with a young person in mind. Because, of course, books make wonderful presents. These gift suggestions reflect not only my own personal tastes but also my experience working with children. If they won't read it then what's the point, right?

The image above is the cover image of Jerry Pinkney's The Lion and the Mouse. Drop. Dead. Gorgeous. A nearly wordless re-telling of Aesop's fable of the same name, this book is set in the African Serengeti. The landscapes and the animals are captured in watercolors that practically leap from the page, that appear somehow illuminated by the color choices and dimension achieved. Each child that has picked up this book to tell me the story has succeeded beautifully. The story is that well-conveyed in images alone. The trick is getting the book out of their hands when their storytelling task is done. Can you say Caldecott? Ideal for ages 4-6 or anyone that appreciates superior illustration.

 

 

A beautiful selection for the fairy tale lover. "In exquisite three-dimensional scenes, Jane Ray retells and illuminates the story of Snow White, creating a gift book worthy of a fairy tale. Once there was a beautiful girl with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as dark as the winter branches. In six intricate spreads, delicate paper layers let children peer in the palace window at the wicked queen with her mirror, watch Snow White run to the house of the seven dwarves, and gaze as the prince wakes her in her coffin. As the familiar text unfolds on flaps evoking stage curtains, the scenes play out in dioramas of rare depth and beauty." (from the publisher)

 

David Carter is a genius of pop-up books but White Noise, the last installment in his color series, is not just entertainment for the young reader. It is book sculpture. Irresistible! 

 

Do you know that over half of a frog's bones are in its feet, and they use their feet like hands? Pick up Frogs by Nic Bishop and you will tune into this and a whole lot more info about the popular amphibian. The close-up, amazing photography of frogs from all over the world will appeal to the nonfiction lover on your list.

  

For older readers, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly is about a turn-of-the-century young lady who dreams of living in a tower of books, spurns the conventional expectations of young womanhood, and embraces the natural world as young scientist - with a little magic thrown in. My second choice for the 9-12 year old group is Kate DiCamillo's new novel, The Magician's Elephant. This author knows children well, and her stories draw them in to magical scapes without a trace of pandering or excess sentiment. And kids love that. This new story of an orphan boy who seeks to know if his sister is still alive delivers the reader to a fortune teller for help who offers an unusual answer that an elephant will deliver him where he needs to go.

Wow. This is a lot longer than I intended. And I could go on and on. But these are the standouts of late. Great books for small hands.

julie andrews is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in dc

 

Have you ever been a bit anxious about meeting an author or other famous person you admire because you wonder how they can ever measure up to the ideal in your head? When I found out that Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, would be visiting our school to read and chat with our kids, I was over the moon. But could this woman be as charming, gracious and commanding a presence in the flesh as she is in my imagination? Well, in a word, yes. 

Look at this photo above. This was taken when they were watching some of the kids perform a very enthusiastic version of "Do-Re-Mi." How many times this woman must have heard this song but her and Emma's reaction was so joyous and nurturing that those children looking down from the stage at them will never forget that moment. Trust me. I heard all about it today. Over and over again. How about this photo of a few of the kids at work? 

 

The reading of select poems from the new book, Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies, was a fantastic hit with the kids (and the adults). This mother-daughter pair is perfectly in-sync with one another. This is not just a reading. This is performance art. And even the youngest sensibilities get that. This is also a beautiful treasury. The array of poems from various authors including our two guests is wonderfully complemented by the watercolor illustrations by James McMullan. The cd in the back was a big hit with the kids too. They liked it before the visit yesterday, and they LOVED it today. Think Christmas. Especially for language-loving families.

 

So I suppose it is time to wind up the gushing. Did I mention how wonderful they were answering the children's questions? She thinks she prefers writing to acting - her own words versus someone else's. How lovely they were to everyone they encountered? Sigh. It was just magical. 

Then this. On the way out, she noticed a cockroach book on the library shelf that is a total gross-out favorite with the boys at my school. She stooped and looked for a minute but did not pick it up. She walked a few steps and then stopped, turned and looked at me and said that cockroaches are one thing of which she is terribly afraid. She shared how she was once making a movie with her husband, and screaming at the sight of one was quite easy for her, perhaps her best acting ever. We all laughed and appreciated the fact that someone else might have said "Blake Edwards" instead of just my husband, "Victor/Victoria" instead of just a movie. Now, of course, I need to see the movie again. And to obtain quite a few more titles from the Julie Andrews Collection for the students at my school. They are demanding them. Loudly. They are a little smitten right now. As we all are. Sigh.

Photos by Rebecca Roth courtesy of the Convention Center Community Association, CCCA

diary of the book lover

Friend Molly sent me this slideshow link a while back, and I promptly lost it somewhere on my desktop. Hopeless.  But I have found it now. Loved the red books best. Visit here to enjoy the images in larger sizes.

sunday salon: nabokov in a specimen box, naughty reading, and mary poppins

Favorite book design blog, The Casual Optimist, tipped me off to these Nabokov re-designs this week. They look like actual specimen boxes, don't they? Have to hold one to sort out how this type of dimension is achieved. It fascinates me. Check out the slide show of all cover designs at Design Observer. Here's another:

 

And another:

Art director John Gall says of the project: 

"Nabokov was a passionate butterfly collector, a theme that has cropped up on some of his past covers. My idea was also a play on this concept. Each cover consists of a photograph of a specimen box, the kind used by collectors like Nabokov to display insects. Each box would be filled with paper, ephemera, and insect pins, selected to somehow evoke the book’s content. And to make it more interesting… I thought it would be fun to ask a group of talented designers to help create the boxes."

Believe that the release date is any time now (smart given the release of the new Nabokov novel) but have inquired with the publisher for a little clarity on that. Seemingly available from the usual supect online purveyors but these images correspond with much older publication dates. Confusing. Please weigh in if you know more?

Another conversation starter from Simon at Savidge Reads this week when he posted about Wetlands by Charlotte Roche:

It is a book that made me think about what constitutes a graphic, open and supposedly feminist coming of age story (though if this is what girls are going through around the world heaven help us) or a book designed to sell on how shocking and explicit it is.

Where do you weigh in on this? What is your comfort level for erotica in a read?

Finally, Julie Andrews is coming to my school this week to read with the kids. Beyond excited. Will let you know how it goes.

And those are my random thoughts for the week. Am currently reading all over the place. Dipping into short stories by Lydia Davis and James Lasdun. Still enjoying Beg, Borrow and Steal. And pondering what to write about oh-so-wonderful new John Irving. What are you reading in the Sunday Salon today?

 

woolf in winter: an invitation

 

"I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards—their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly on imperishable marble—the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.” Virginia Woolf

Reading Virginia Woolf. In the heart of winter. With friends who are both coming to this modernist master for the first time and those who will be enjoying the consuming stream-of-consciousness prose as repeat readers. Four of us would love for you to join us as we spend January and February reading through four Woolf novels - Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando and The Waves. The hosting-posting schedule is as follows:

Sarah ~ Mrs Dalloway (Jan 15) 

"Heralded as Woolf's greatest work of fiction, "Mrs. Dalloway" is not only a thorough rendering of a vivid human life, it is the outline on paper of human consciousness. In this vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway readies her house for friends and neighbors as she is is flooded with remembrances of faraway times."

Emily ~ To the Lighthouse (Jan 29) 

"The most autobiographical of Virginia Woolf's novels. It is based on her own early experiences, and while it touches on childhood and children's perceptions and desires, it is at its most trenchant when exploring adult relationships, marriage and the changing class-structure in the period spanning the Great War."

Frances ~ Orlando (Feb 12) 

"Originally published in 1928, this classic story by Virginia Woolf was modelled on her friend Vita Sackville-West's personality. Orlando chooses her own sexual identity as she lives through three centuries as both a man and a woman."

Claire ~ The Waves (Feb 26)

"Conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature and the passage of time. This book presents a searching exploration of individual and collective identity, and the observations and emotions of life, from the simplicity and surging optimism of youth to the vacancy and despair of middle-age."

Please join us? For one or for all four novels makes no difference. Claire, Sarah, Emily and I would love to read with you, would love your insights for what promises to be some great conversation. Look out for posts from all in the next few days. And just say "yes."