Thursday, July 11, 2013

"rc-5": The Unofficial Reading Challenge

Remember how I decided I wasn't going to do a reading challenge this year and then I realized that the reading challenges mattered?  Well, unofficially I still have a goal of reading 20 books this year, and I can't help but want to blog about it, so whether we call it rc-5 (Reading Challenge 5) or not, here goes...

"rc-5" (read 20 books in 2013)

  1. Grace by Grace Coddington
  2. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
  3. Onward by Howard Schultz
  4. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris
  5. Quiet by Susan Cain
  6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  7. The perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  8. Please Sir, I Mean Ma'am by Marion Walker Garland
3 non-fiction, 5 fiction.  Here are some brief thoughts on all of them.

Grace: The memoir by Grace Coddington, Fashion Director of American Vogue.  I fell in love with Grace when I first watched "The September Issue", and then fell in love over and over again as I re-watched the doc.  Her memoir was great - written interestingly, and she's lived about a million lives for my very meager one.

The Hour I First Believed: Oh Wally Lamb, how you totally nourish me.  His books just do things to me that no other books - except maybe John Irving's - can.  I was so delighted recently to hear that he's about to release another.  Anyway, THIFB was another brilliant one from him; a fascinating look at how the lives of those involved with the Columbine shootings were dramatically changed.  I highly recommend!

Onward: As a "fan" of Starbucks, it was very interesting to read Onward, the story of Starbucks, but more specifically the story of Starbucks during its trying times from about 2007-2010.  So yes, it was interesting, and interesting to learn about the development of certain products (Via, Clover...), but it was just so self-congratulatory!  I maybe learned a few good habits of a CEO, but... ugh!  Stop patting yourself on the back, Howard.  It's not becoming.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: Totally different than Onward, and refreshing!  I love David Sedaris, and SSC is his collection of the antithesis to Aesop's Fables.  They're stories of animals in bizarre and hilarious human-like situations.  A fun, quick read!

Quiet: This took me a while to get through; not because it wasn't interesting, but more because it was very heavy.  That said, it was fantastic!  It's about the power of introverts in a world that favours extroverts.  It's about how this came to be, and how introverts can best manage in the (North American) culture as it is today.  There's also this wonderful and moving section near the end on how parents and teachers can best work with introverted children.  There were some things that really hit close to home, and it was a wonderful and worthwhile book.

The Great Gatsby: I was assigned this during my undergrad but never finished it.  After a few false starts over the years, I finally read it, and I really enjoyed it.  I've heard it referred to as the Great American Novel, so I was really surprised at how dark and pessimistic it was.  Perhaps pessimistic is too harsh a word, but I thought it would be a lot more "rah rah America!" than it was.  That said, it was an excellent look at an interest time period in American history, and I really enjoyed the book and its many symbols.

I also went and saw Baz Luhrmann's movie adaptation of the book last week, with Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway.  I thought it was a great interpretation.  Very true to the book, a confident and consistent visual style, and it really brought the most memorable scenes from the book to life.  It also made some things make more sense, which is always a good thing.  I'm glad I finally got to reading it.

The perks of being a wallflower: I moved onto this next, which was a total change of pace.  TPOBAW was a re-read for me, and it was more intense and dark than I remembered... maybe I didn't get all of it the first time around.  Anyway, it really is a great read; I like an epistolary novel... mostly because it allows me to call back on my (worthwhile) English degree and use the word "epistolary", but also because it breaks things up easily, gives you a sense of the protagonist in a different respect, and definitely changes things up after The Great Gatsby.  Anyway, it's a charming and equally sad story, but I enjoyed it the second time around.

Please Sir, I Mean Ma'am: This book was totally different.  My Dad gave me this book to read.  It's a modestly-published (and unfortunately poorly edited) book written by a woman who taught for 30 years at the school where I work (and which my Dad attended back in the 60's).  It was an all boys' school back then and the woman who wrote the book (Marion Walker Garland) was the first female teacher.  It's fiction though, but I use that term loosely.  Names are barely changed, and circumstances are likely very close to the truth.  It's about her experience as a female teacher, the stories of the boys, and the general goings-on of the school.  It was enlightening as a staff member, and really just charming.  Not a great novel by any stretch, but a really enjoyable read.  I wouldn't recommend it though, because I doubt the charm translates if you have no connection to the school.

And so there you go!  My eight books so far in the year.  At this rate I could hit 16, but maybe I should take the rate up to the next level.  20 books in 2013 is in my sights yet!!!



Currently reading... The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton (and the most recent issue of Toronto Life)

Upcoming posts... How I intend to make life not consist of work and then laziness

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