Nonsuch Book

weekly geeks: quote a day

This week's Weekly Geek assignment calls us to post a quote each day this week. Theme or no theme, something of personal significance, something that just strikes your fancy. The choice is yours. I have chosen to post Marcel Proust quotes because I am about to ask who might want to join me reading through In Search of Lost Time. Six of you (you know who you are) have already expressed interest. Now to get this together for tomorrow's Sunday Salon. I feel so full of purpose!

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;

 they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” 

Marcel Proust

weekly geeks: literacy initiatives

 

This week’s challenge is to choose a political or social issue that interests you, and explain a little bit about it.

Bloggers have a keen understanding of what it is to have a voice, a forum for discussing the things that are most important to us as individuals and as a society. But what if we could not fully participate in that open discussion because our literacy skills did not measure up to the perceived norm out in the blogosphere? What if some of us came from high-poverty homes without books in them, without role models with a firm command of language, and then attended schools where our basic literacy needs again were not met? What if we were judged by the biases of the middle class yet given few of their advantages and tools with which to succeed?

The photos in this post were taken on Martin Luther King day at a volunteer National Service Day project we organized at the school where I teach. We promoted the event as a readathon. Come on in to school on your day off, receive a copy of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, and, along with our volunteers, read as much of one book as possible over the course of the morning. We registered the event and attracted MANY more volunteers than we actually needed. People who were in town from all over the country for the inauguration came through our doors to read with our great kids. Asbury Methodist Church bought all the books, an outstanding act of generosity. Local businesses and organizations donated food and drink to keep everyone going. And our kids read. And read. And kept reading those books long after the event was over.

Don't ever underestimate your ability to touch the life of a child. There are literacy initiatives in every area of the country that could use your help. There are under-funded schools all over the country that could use your skills as a volunteer. Or you could donate funds to a stellar organization like First Book (these people are rock stars in my eyes) so that children in under-served communities can have books in their homes.

Part of this week's geeky task was to share books that relate to your stated social concern. I drafted a list really quickly (so many great titles), but then decided to scrap it. Instead, I thought I should ask everyone what it might feel like to want or need information, and not have access to it or the ability to read and comprehend it if you could lay your hands on it. So important to help give a voice, to give access to a book that might point a child to all the possibilities in life, to all the things they might become.

dewey's weekly geeks: judge a book by its cover

This week it's all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?  

"If I know a song of Africa, of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers, does Africa know a song of me?" Karen Blixen

Organizing books this week, I discovered I have multiple copies of Out of Africa, Karen Blixen's memoir of her time in Kenya as an aristocratic owner and operator of a Kenyan coffee plantation. The many covers of this book that have appeared since its publication in 1937 seem to reflect three different themes in the text: the exotic appeal of the "otherness" of Africa; a pastoral and familiar ideal to Western sensibilities that reflects the intrusion of colonization; or a photo of the author signaling that this piece is biographical. A few odd covers including the movie tie-in seem to suggest that there is a love story between these covers but that is actually the stuff of the Academy award-winning movie and not this book. 

Also interesting is the fact that most US editions list Isak Dineson (pen name) rather than Karen Blixen as the author. An attempt to link the book with the successful fiction products from the author? And finally, the title in French, Danish, and several other languages translates to The African Farm rather than Out of Africa. This focuses the text on a static location and an appreciation of Kenya rather than the possibilities of movement or exodus suggested by the Western title.

My favorite two covers are the first two featured in the mosaic at the top of this post. The first actually reflects an accurate landscape complete with workers, and the handwriting suggest the journaling that will be found inside. The second is the original cover from 1937 that has been re-released in recent years. The colors suggest the traditional and a pastoral ideal of the time but elements of Kenya are still represented there. I also have a weakness for the nostalgia of original covers.

Today in Literature posted an interesting piece this week about a lunch hosted by Carson McCullers in 1959 so that Karen Blixen could meet Marilyn Monroe. For those of you who would not be caught dead with a tabloid or People magazine in your hands but enjoy a bit of literary gossip, you should check this out. The eccentric Blixen makes for a great story.

classic reviews from the atlantic

Weekly Geeks have spent the week trading stories of their experiences with the classics. Many have detailed their reading experiences, their trepidation about certain authors or hefty tomes while others have reluctantly admitted to avoiding the classic read at every turn. Then lo and behold, today I come across an archive of original reviews on The Atlantic website. Curious to see how Great Expectations was received in September 1861? The Bostonians in June 1886? Lolita in September 1958? Well, I certainly was. And there went my free moments of today - well spent. Go ahead. Click away from me and start reading.

dewey's weekly geeks: the classics

This week on Weekly Geeks...

How do you feel about classic literature? Are you intimidated by it? Love it? Not sure because you never actually tried it? Don't get why anyone reads anything else? Which classics, if any, have you truly loved? Which would you recommend for someone who has very little experience reading older books? Go all out, sell us on it.

Not just one loaded question but a whole host of them. So much here depends upon how one defines "a classic." Is a classic a work that has simply stood the test of time? Does it have to be well known? Is a classic something that sits only in the hallowed halls of academia or could it have been the New York Times bestseller of its day? If an author has written a number of works commonly acknowledged to be classics does that author's entire body of work then become identified as classic. For instance, are all of Hemingway's books classics? Sorry to complicate today's fun, but one could write all day to address the queries posed above.

Of course I love classic literature in whatever way we choose to look at what that may comprise. I grew up in a house full of books, many of them the classics of literature inherited from my grandfather's library. When this is the case, kids just read with little need to make the same distinctions of quality that adults love to make. Kids read what interests them. And I read and read and read until I developed a very clear idea of what interested me in a book or in life in general. Classics played a huge role in this development most likely because classics, or books that have stood the test of time, endure because they travel the entire expanse of human experience. So they represent not only what is familiar to you but the possibilities that you had never conceived of prior to picking up that book. Or in today's politically correct language, an education or reading life well-versed in classics lends an appreciation for "the other" that may have otherwise been lacking. Or if you are a child, they may very well point the way to everything you might become.

Obviously, I need to put the brakes on this line of thought because any conclusion (if indeed possible to conclude such a line of thought) is hundreds of pages away from this point. What I would like to suggest (and plug as the questions encourage) is that we all seek out a "classic" that has endured the test of time but out of the spotlight. The mosaic I placed at the top of today's post is comprised of four different cover designs for the same book - The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic. All four are current editions and yes, that is a Penguin Classics edition in the second spot. This book has remained in print here and in the UK (where it was published under the title Illumination) since its original publication date in 1896. It's popularity has come and gone in small quiet bursts but here it is today introduced by noted academics and Joyce Carol Oates as one of the most worthy additions to the American canon, a gem of American literary realism.

This is one of my favorite books and maybe I will blog about it soon, but for now, just know that this story of a young Methodist minister that loses his way addresses questions of the reconciliation of faith and intellect, the role of organized faith, and the perils of self-deception that still resonate today. Check it out for free at Project Gutenberg.

What unheralded classic is among your favorite reads?

Let's say you're vacationing with your dear cousin Myrtle, and she forgot to bring a book. The two of you venture into the hip independent bookstore around the corner, where she primly announces that she only reads classic literature. If you don't find her a book, she'll never let you get any reading done! What contemporary book/s with classic appeal would you pull off the shelf for her?

Going with the "books that have stood the test of time" idea here, I would say that A.S. Byatt, Umberto Eco, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez will live on in their words long past their lifetimes. Safe bets for dear cousin Myrtle.

dewey's weekly geeks: amazing bloggers

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. 

There are so many remarkable blogs out there right now with truly amazing production value that it is difficult to pare a favorites list down to just a few. I think that I am always drawn to the personal though. I am looking for personal voice from the blogs I read regularly. Looking for that sense of shared interest although not necessarily shared viewpoint. Given that...

My friend, Molly Irwin, has a visually gorgeous and content moving blog that I visit every day. Her welcome states, "Here you'll find creative pursuits of all kinds, including paper, photos, paint and textiles, plus a heaping tablespoon of daily life." Her banner also hints at content - "molly irwin 2009 * fresh ideas, new interpretations, fun collaborations, more mediums." This is not a biblioblog although she does make books. Molly is a graphic designer / marketer extraordinaire. What she does remind all of is the importance of living the authentic life, of writing our own story. An important message for all us uber-readers - write your own life. Don't let someone you read write for you.

Among us book bloggers, my favorite is Cornflower. She was one of the first biblioblogs I discovered, and I love her voice. So distinctive a read, so real without any hint of manipulation. She does not seek to direct her readers so much as share her stellar insights into literature and other creative interests just as they come to her. On the first of this year, she spun the book portion of her efforts into its own dedicated space on Cornflower Books. Her home arts live and grow on the original blog still.

Some recent favorites include Claire at Kiss a Cloud and James at Ready When You Are, C.B. Both have the singular talent of "thinking out loud" that lends such spontaneity, honesty and personality to their memorable insights. What can I say? That sense of blogger community that Dewey fostered so well originates from personal connection for me. Check out what appeals to everyone else at the new site for Dewey's Weekly Geeks.