The Emily Blog

It’s Thursday morning but both Frans and I, randomly, have the day off. I’m having tea in the living room with my laptop, listening to the guy who cleans the yard crash around outside and mumble to himself. I think he’s mumbling obscenities, but I can never quite make them out. Frans is still in bed – for him, it is a borderline miracle to still be asleep at 9am, so I’m going to leave him alone as long as I can. Given the opportunity, I think I could sleep for about three days straight with no problem, but he’s usually awake by 6. Not always bright-eyed and/or bushy-tailed, but once his brain starts rolling it’s nearly impossible for him to fall back asleep.

Enough about sleeping habits. This is supposed to be a post about books. Without further ado, then, my current thoughts on books:

• I’m really enjoying Nigel Beale’s blog. Books, photos, musings, interviews. Unfortunately the photos don’t come through in the RSS feed (at least not on Google Reader) but it’s nice to pop over and browse the actual blog once in a while.
• And have I mentioned I LOVE Open Letter Books? Not just because they publish and write about great books, but also because they’ve sent me TWO freebies already. I just received Jerzy Pilch’s The Mighty Angel in the mail as a result of a giveaway on Facebook. How cool is that? I’m looking forward to reading it, but might save it for the Midwest Trip in July and focus on library books for the next two weeks.
• Words Without Borders is also fantastic. I’m halfway through their Pakistan issue, wishing they published a print version just so I could have a hard copy (yes, I know I COULD print them out myself). They also talk about extremely interesting things on their blog – for example, the fact that Dover has just published Emily Ruete’s Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar, which was originally published in German in 1886 and is apparently the first (auto?)biography ever of an Arab woman. Yes, I want a copy. Now.
• Ooh, what else? How about this: Tony (of Steph & Tony Investigate) has written an awesome review of Angels and Demons (the movie), which includes an evaluation of Tom Hank’s hair. I’m sure I’ll see the movie someday, but between their review and Bob Mondello’s review on NPR, I’m certainly not going to pay theater prices for it. As I’ve told my sister more than once: “Dan Brown? Don’t get me started on Dan Brown.” And then I roll my eyes dramatically. For effect, you know?
• One last thing, as this is getting pretty long. I just got a copy of Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers from the library – I had requested it after reading an interview with Aslam in the Asia Literary Review. I’m loving the book so far – it’s about a Pakistani immigrant community in England and is beautifully written.

I think that’s all for now, as far as books are concerned. Frans is awake and it’s time for breakfast on our newly-rejuvenated back patio.

“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

In no particular order:

1. Silence by Shusaku Endo
2. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
3. Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra
4. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
5. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
6. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
7. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
8. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
9. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
10. Matilda by Roald Dahl
11. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
12. The Odyssey by Homer
13. The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis
14. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
15. Beowulf (Rebsamen’s translation)

Ooh, this was a nice little exercise . . . this is an insanely random list, but all these books have been very important at different times in my life (and now). A lot of pleasant/curious/interesting memories were triggered while I was thinking about these.

I decided a while ago – wow, okay, a LONG time ago – to take part in the Lost in Translation Reading Challenge. I posted a list of six translated books that I intended to read in 2009. I was very excited to read these books, and we already owned quite a few of them. But then plans changed. New books showed up in my life. Chamoiseau didn’t really work out (maybe I’ll try again next year). I have read a couple spectacular translated books, but I have not completed a single book on the original list. So here’s the New and Improved Lost in Translation reading list. I probably shouldn’t plan on this being the final version, either.

Already read:

• The Conqueror by Jan Kjaerstad. I was lucky enough to win an advance copy from Open Letter Press. This is the second in a trilogy, but even on its own it was a wonderful experience. The first originally-in-Norwegian book I’ve read.
• Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy. Okay, I’ll admit it: I was initially attracted to this book because it’s about a linguist. And it sounded a little creepy, but in a good way. Loved it; plan to re-read it again when I am traveling myself.

Still to read:

• Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (translated from Gikuyu) – hey, this was on the original list! I recently read his book Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature and that (which was written in English) discusses the story and motivations behind his choice to write in Gikuyu. Totally looking forward to this one.
• 2666 by Roberto Bolano – is it one book or five?! Whatever. I just learned that Claire of kiss a cloud and Steph of Steph & Tony Investigate! are co-hosting a read-along of this book. The plan is to complete one section of it every month, starting in May. I think this is a good/interesting approach, as it sounds like Bolano intended for all five parts to be published separately.
• NPR got me all excited about Independent People by Halldor Laxness. Bring it on, Iceland!
• Tied for spot # 6 are Vilnius Poker (Ricardas Gavelis), Out Stealing Horses (Per Petterson), The Seducer (Jan Kjaerstad), and The Vagrants (Yiyun Li). Stay tuned.

Re. the previous post, calling Silence a hard book and then totally and miserably failing to explain what I mean . . .

Hard books are books that hurt but are good. Books you almost wish you hadn’t read but you will probably read again. Books that lurk in the back of your brain. Examples? Well, Silence, as I said. And The God Of Small Things. Those are the first two that come to mind.

Frans and I try to keep all the books we own cataloged in LibraryThing. I’ve been watching lately as our book count approached 600 and then today – wham! – there we are at 600 books! The one that tipped the scale is Gavan Daws’s Honolulu: The First Century, which I picked up at Barnes and Noble today for a class assignment.

I’m hoping we can weed out at least a few books before the move; if so, we’ll have to celebrate #600 all over again after we get to San Francisco and embark on a post-grad-school book-buying rampage.

Inspired by a Books of 2008 post at a just-discovered blog of a high school friend, I’ve decided to keep a running list of my 2009 reading adventures. See the little tab up at the top of this page that says “Books of 2009″? Click that. It’ll take you to the list.