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happy new year!
Dec. 31st, 2014 03:13 pmWill anyone be sad to see 2014 go? I know basically no one who had a good year. My year was not great, sort of blah at best, but all sorts of loved ones had fairly terrible years. Good riddance, I say, and may 2015 bring better things.
I had a nice Christmas. Just me and my parents this year, since relatives, for various reasons, opted not to or couldn't come. I got my dad a Ken Burns box set called "American Lives" and we watched the one about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Super interesting, with lots of stuff I didn't know. I don't read much, if any, non-fiction, but it makes me want to read up on all that stuff. My mom got me a book about Lucretia Mott, so I will start there, once I am ready for a new book.
I am currently reading Little Women for the first time. Unbelievable or no, I just never read it before, just never got to it. The copy in the house growing up was my sister's and dunno, it just never happened. But man, it is delightful. Nearly from the first chapter, you are like OHHHHH, this is why this book is so beloved. Although it does make me want to invent a time machine so I can go back to Louisa May Alcott and convince her that JO AND LAURIE BELONG TOGETHER, DAMMIT.
It's another example, though, of the tenet I have come to believe: Most classics are classics for a reason. A decade ago or so, I started doing a rota of reading different sorts of books: a French, a German, a classic, a contemporary, a mystery, and a sci/fi fantasy. (Theoretically I read one of each before doing another from the same genre, but in practice the scifi/fantasy ones outnumber the others because those tends to come in series, not standalones, and it's my rota; I'll do what I want.) It was mostly started to keep me reading in French and German after college, instead of just the easy stuff, mysteries and scifi/fanstasy, but one of the big benefits has been all the classics I've read and loved. Little Women being the newest on the list. Some classic hold up better than others, but I find the ones that don't hold up as well are largely because of outdated race/gender/social attitudes, not flaws in the writing itself. It's because of this rota that I sat myself down and made myself read Middlemarch, Watership Down, Beloved, The Bell Jar, and Lolita, among others, and how fucking awesome are those books? Middlemarch would be one of the books I would choose to make everyone read if I were ruler of the universe. It would be mandatory. I have a hard time getting other people to read it, though, and I think it's because it's hard to believe it's not like eating your vegetables -- a good-for-you book. That's what I thought going in, too, but I want to shout from the rooftops, it's not vegetables, people, it's fucking creme brûlée! I don't know why it doesn't have more vocal champions, but I'll keep doing my part to spread the word, at least.
Stay safe if you are out on the roads tonight, and happy new year everyone!
I had a nice Christmas. Just me and my parents this year, since relatives, for various reasons, opted not to or couldn't come. I got my dad a Ken Burns box set called "American Lives" and we watched the one about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Super interesting, with lots of stuff I didn't know. I don't read much, if any, non-fiction, but it makes me want to read up on all that stuff. My mom got me a book about Lucretia Mott, so I will start there, once I am ready for a new book.
I am currently reading Little Women for the first time. Unbelievable or no, I just never read it before, just never got to it. The copy in the house growing up was my sister's and dunno, it just never happened. But man, it is delightful. Nearly from the first chapter, you are like OHHHHH, this is why this book is so beloved. Although it does make me want to invent a time machine so I can go back to Louisa May Alcott and convince her that JO AND LAURIE BELONG TOGETHER, DAMMIT.
It's another example, though, of the tenet I have come to believe: Most classics are classics for a reason. A decade ago or so, I started doing a rota of reading different sorts of books: a French, a German, a classic, a contemporary, a mystery, and a sci/fi fantasy. (Theoretically I read one of each before doing another from the same genre, but in practice the scifi/fantasy ones outnumber the others because those tends to come in series, not standalones, and it's my rota; I'll do what I want.) It was mostly started to keep me reading in French and German after college, instead of just the easy stuff, mysteries and scifi/fanstasy, but one of the big benefits has been all the classics I've read and loved. Little Women being the newest on the list. Some classic hold up better than others, but I find the ones that don't hold up as well are largely because of outdated race/gender/social attitudes, not flaws in the writing itself. It's because of this rota that I sat myself down and made myself read Middlemarch, Watership Down, Beloved, The Bell Jar, and Lolita, among others, and how fucking awesome are those books? Middlemarch would be one of the books I would choose to make everyone read if I were ruler of the universe. It would be mandatory. I have a hard time getting other people to read it, though, and I think it's because it's hard to believe it's not like eating your vegetables -- a good-for-you book. That's what I thought going in, too, but I want to shout from the rooftops, it's not vegetables, people, it's fucking creme brûlée! I don't know why it doesn't have more vocal champions, but I'll keep doing my part to spread the word, at least.
Stay safe if you are out on the roads tonight, and happy new year everyone!
