Reading this Week
It's a nice Tuesday morning, and my summer here(I am done grading papers and have posted grades), I am ready to blog, read, and write. I have made Tuesday my official library day (because that's when the two Sacramento libraries in my neighborhood open for the week and I get to see what new stuff they have, what books are on sale in the Friends of Sacramento Library store, etc). Of course, I go to the library on other days too, but Tuesday has become important as it is also the day of premiers of books, magazines, videos, and CDs at places like Barnes and Noble and Borders.
It's time to read all the books that have accumulated throughout the academic year, and as I look at them, it's hard to decide which one to start with. I was going to start with How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom, but realized I have been reading parts of it throughout the year (it's a good starting point if you want to do informed reading, biased, of course, to Bloom's taste, but if you know him well, you also know that he has read a lot of very important writers, and even those writers he dismisses turn out to be worth reading as well); then I tried a short story collection, but I have too many of those I wouldn't know where to begin; so I told myself to do some non-fiction, to read a collection of architectural essays by the late Herbert Muschamp, entitled Hearts of the City--it will be a re-reading because the reason I have it in the first place is that I reviewed it for the San Francisco Book Review. At 887 pages, it is voluminous, but very well-written, loaded with information on American architectural trends since 1980.
But then I want to read something fun; I want to relax. I still haven't decided yet, but this morning I read a short story from Grace Paley's Later the Same Day. It's my first time reading a Paley story, and I may continue reading the collection.
The latest thing for me, in addition to reading, is listening to audio books while driving. Since I began, I have already listened to Dubliners, read by Jim Norton, Beloved, read by Toni Morrison herself, and now I am going to listen to the 29 CDs that contain Cervantes' Don Quixote. But, of course, this may never replace reading (the act of underlining your own text, writing notes in the margin...). What's funny is the moment I am done listening to a book, I want to go back and start re-reading the real thing. It's a lot of fun.
I think I will do something practical: I will not talk about the fact that I have to edit the stories I am putting together in a collection. That's part of life; you wake up, you do it, and you don't talk about it. Instead, talk about how you want to gain the courage to read two books you have always wanted to read, and each time you began you found them too practical to be useful or pleasurable. There is The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker, which argues that all the stories ever written, and all that are yet to be written, fit in only seven basic plots: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. About this book, Margaret Artwood has said, "A Wonderful undertaking...I am happy that people are once again looking at stories in this way." Each time I have attempted to read it in the past, I have found myself choosing to write first, and then, later, coming back to see what basic plot my story fits in, if any.
A related book I have owned since 1998 but have not read beyond the preface and introduction is Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. I know it has been a runaway bestseller in the United States, which is why I bought it, after a customer of the book store I work in said, "Read it." But back then I was also reading Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, after which Vogel modelled his book. Now, I might read it to see where my stories fit in the mythic journey idea."This book", writes Jeff Arch," should come with a warning: You're going to learn about more than just writing movies--you're going to learn about life!" Arch, the screenwriter of Sleepless in Seattle, is right; as I read it then, the book seemed to address all humans beings and their journey through life.
Basically, Joseph Campbell argued that there were many heroes in the cultures of the world, but on close examination, all of them were diverse versions of one hero repeating itself from society to society. Christopher Vogler, who has worked as a movie consultant in Hollywood, took Campbell's ideas and used them in the examination of movie scripts, and in The Writer's Journey, he shows us how such blockbusters like Titanic, The Lion King, Pulp Fiction, The Full Monty, Star Wars and others were conceived using the idea of the hero's journey, this hero with a thousand faces. I like his argument that Hollywood has been reproducing the same storylines since day one, just populating them with different versions of the hero. I find the idea similar to the one in Booker's book, except the latter clearly states that we have seven plots only to work with.
Then I said to myself, why not read a lighter book, The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers? Originally produced on PBS, it features conversations the two had between 1985 and 1986. So it's just like reading an interview or transcript of a television program. About this book, someone at the Cincinnati Post wrote: "The symbols of mythology and legend are all around us, embedded in the fabric of our daily lives, and the Moyers-Campbell dialogues are a welcome guide to recognizing and understanding their meanings."
Talking of books whose content first appeared on PBS, I am right now looking at a book entitled Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery by Charles Johnson et al. Of this book, Howard Zinn wrote: "Africans in America is a magnificent achievement, history at its superb best, brilliantly researched, poetically written....It is a perfect example of history as a work of art."
I will probably start with a collection of poetry. I am looking at C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans by Jimmy Santiago Baca and The Thorn Rosary: Selected Prose Poem and New by Eileen R. Tabios. I spent the weekend reading parts of the latter, so if I continue, that's likely to be the winner for now. It's an interesting piece of work, requiring and demanding undivided attention.
I think by the end of the week I will be reading a hard copy of African Roar, the new collection of African short stories which I co-edited with Ivor W. Hartmann.
This, therefore, is a possible list of books to read this week (yes, this week).
It's time to read all the books that have accumulated throughout the academic year, and as I look at them, it's hard to decide which one to start with. I was going to start with How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom, but realized I have been reading parts of it throughout the year (it's a good starting point if you want to do informed reading, biased, of course, to Bloom's taste, but if you know him well, you also know that he has read a lot of very important writers, and even those writers he dismisses turn out to be worth reading as well); then I tried a short story collection, but I have too many of those I wouldn't know where to begin; so I told myself to do some non-fiction, to read a collection of architectural essays by the late Herbert Muschamp, entitled Hearts of the City--it will be a re-reading because the reason I have it in the first place is that I reviewed it for the San Francisco Book Review. At 887 pages, it is voluminous, but very well-written, loaded with information on American architectural trends since 1980.
But then I want to read something fun; I want to relax. I still haven't decided yet, but this morning I read a short story from Grace Paley's Later the Same Day. It's my first time reading a Paley story, and I may continue reading the collection.
The latest thing for me, in addition to reading, is listening to audio books while driving. Since I began, I have already listened to Dubliners, read by Jim Norton, Beloved, read by Toni Morrison herself, and now I am going to listen to the 29 CDs that contain Cervantes' Don Quixote. But, of course, this may never replace reading (the act of underlining your own text, writing notes in the margin...). What's funny is the moment I am done listening to a book, I want to go back and start re-reading the real thing. It's a lot of fun.
I think I will do something practical: I will not talk about the fact that I have to edit the stories I am putting together in a collection. That's part of life; you wake up, you do it, and you don't talk about it. Instead, talk about how you want to gain the courage to read two books you have always wanted to read, and each time you began you found them too practical to be useful or pleasurable. There is The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker, which argues that all the stories ever written, and all that are yet to be written, fit in only seven basic plots: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. About this book, Margaret Artwood has said, "A Wonderful undertaking...I am happy that people are once again looking at stories in this way." Each time I have attempted to read it in the past, I have found myself choosing to write first, and then, later, coming back to see what basic plot my story fits in, if any.
A related book I have owned since 1998 but have not read beyond the preface and introduction is Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. I know it has been a runaway bestseller in the United States, which is why I bought it, after a customer of the book store I work in said, "Read it." But back then I was also reading Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, after which Vogel modelled his book. Now, I might read it to see where my stories fit in the mythic journey idea."This book", writes Jeff Arch," should come with a warning: You're going to learn about more than just writing movies--you're going to learn about life!" Arch, the screenwriter of Sleepless in Seattle, is right; as I read it then, the book seemed to address all humans beings and their journey through life.
Basically, Joseph Campbell argued that there were many heroes in the cultures of the world, but on close examination, all of them were diverse versions of one hero repeating itself from society to society. Christopher Vogler, who has worked as a movie consultant in Hollywood, took Campbell's ideas and used them in the examination of movie scripts, and in The Writer's Journey, he shows us how such blockbusters like Titanic, The Lion King, Pulp Fiction, The Full Monty, Star Wars and others were conceived using the idea of the hero's journey, this hero with a thousand faces. I like his argument that Hollywood has been reproducing the same storylines since day one, just populating them with different versions of the hero. I find the idea similar to the one in Booker's book, except the latter clearly states that we have seven plots only to work with.
Then I said to myself, why not read a lighter book, The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers? Originally produced on PBS, it features conversations the two had between 1985 and 1986. So it's just like reading an interview or transcript of a television program. About this book, someone at the Cincinnati Post wrote: "The symbols of mythology and legend are all around us, embedded in the fabric of our daily lives, and the Moyers-Campbell dialogues are a welcome guide to recognizing and understanding their meanings."
Talking of books whose content first appeared on PBS, I am right now looking at a book entitled Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery by Charles Johnson et al. Of this book, Howard Zinn wrote: "Africans in America is a magnificent achievement, history at its superb best, brilliantly researched, poetically written....It is a perfect example of history as a work of art."
I will probably start with a collection of poetry. I am looking at C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans by Jimmy Santiago Baca and The Thorn Rosary: Selected Prose Poem and New by Eileen R. Tabios. I spent the weekend reading parts of the latter, so if I continue, that's likely to be the winner for now. It's an interesting piece of work, requiring and demanding undivided attention.
I think by the end of the week I will be reading a hard copy of African Roar, the new collection of African short stories which I co-edited with Ivor W. Hartmann.
This, therefore, is a possible list of books to read this week (yes, this week).
Comments