The Perfect Reading Space

Traditional Hall design by San Francisco Design-build Harrell Remodeling

“The Love of learning, the sequestered nook, and all the sweet serenity of books.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Yesterday on Twitter I saw this tweet from @buckeyegirl31:

I used to be able to read a book on one of my days off. Now I can't even finish a novella. I just can't find a good reading spot.
—Buckeyegirl31 (@buckeyegirl31) October 15, 2012

Colette is on to something here. I definitely need to feel settled in order to read. During the summer I usually read outside, but once it cools off, I start getting TENSE because I know my reading spot isn't going to work for me anymore (another reason to dislike fall). But suddenly I thought: maybe I could create my own reading spot inside! Here are some musts I need to search out for my own reading nook:

1. Good seating. I hate reading in my room because there's no place to sit.
2. Lighting, obvs. Preferably both natural and artificial.
3. A nice view or something nice to look at. I like to look up from my books once in a while (astonishing, I know), and when I do I want to know if it's day or night outside, and what the weather's like.
4. Proximity to other books. This isn't a deal breaker, but it is nice to contemplate one's books while one is reading a book. So meta.
5. Music. I like to listen to music while I'm reading, especially if the book I'm reading is a little sleepy.
6. A table or steady spot to put a drink and/or snack. I get really thirsty.
   

Another VERY important factor for all reading nooks is privacy. There's a reason why a lot people read in the bathroom, and it's not because they use the pages in books as toilet paper. If you start reading where people can easily get at you, you're going to be BOTHERED, like our friend M. Poirot here:


Don't let this happen to you.

A reading nook needs to either be hidden or out of the way enough that people won't notice you. For example, this reading nook, which I'm kind of in love with, is only accessible by ladder. This not only makes it private but easily defensible:

Traditional Staircase design by San Francisco Architect awarchitect.com

And this kids' reading nook is under a tent, which will probably be too claustrophobic for adults:

Eclectic Kids design

Finding a private or out-of-the-way space is where I'm running into difficulties on the reading nook front. Right now I'm thinking either a closet or the bathroom are the only likely possibilities (I hate reading in the bathroom, fyi. Not sanitary). I suppose if I got rid of all my CDs and found another place to store my guitar and files I could make some space for a chair in my bedroom. But then I would need to find a comfy-but-narrow chair.


Do you have a reading nook in your house? Any tips or ideas for someone who wants to create their own?

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Guest Review: REFLECTED IN YOU by Sylvia Day

I have a surprise for you all today: I received, unsolicited, Reflected In You from Penguin UK, and could tell immediately from the cover it was a Fifty Shades of Grey cash-in novel. Since we all know how I feel about Fifty Shades (review here), I didn't have much interest in Reflected In You. However, my mom enjoyed Fifty Shades, so I asked her if she wanted to read this book, and then if she wouldn't mind writing a review of it for my blog. She agreed, yay!


Christina's review of Reflected In You by Sylvia Day:

Having read all 3 of the Fifty Shades books, I started reading the 2nd book from Sylvia Day, Reflected in You. I enjoyed the Fifty Shades series quite a bit. The female protagonist was at least her own person. In Sylvia Day’s rendition, the female is whiny and annoying. Plus, the male lead is absent most of the 2nd book. Altho Sylvia Day is an astute writer, her series is whiny and annoying. Who would want to listen to all that angst??? And why can’t all the writers submitting their own renditions of E L James’ 50 Shades come up with their own story line?????

There you have it! Thank you to my lovely mom for reviewing this book for me. :)

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Review: LORD OF TEMPTATION by Lorraine Heath

Anne wants to visit her fiance, Walter, in the Crimea, but her brothers won't let her. So she hires a ship on her own, captained by the dashing pirate Crimson Jack (actually he's just a normal merchant captain, but let's go with pirate. ACTUALLY actually, he's Lord Tristan Easton, but his title was stolen from him when he was a teenager, and he's no longer welcome in Society or vice versa). Soon he and Anne are PLAGUING one another with their beautiful and attractive selves, he being all impossible man!-ish, she being all proper. Tristan sets the price of the voyage at a kiss, but he may be the one to pay--with his heart. If only could give up his true mistress, the sea!

I have read and enjoyed Lorraine Heath's novels in the past. I can't remember what those novels were at the moment, but I know they exist. I love novels set on ships (and with pirates, although once again I must reiterate that Tristan isn't a pirate), so I thought Lord of Temptation would be a sure bet. It certainly has all the elements of a historical romance romp--historomaromp?--but they never came together for me.

It wasn't because of the writing style, although sentences like this drove me crazy:

He wished the fire in the grate was producing writhing flames into which he could stare contemplatively rather than into her eyes.

Hm, yes. I wish the sun was emanating spring-like rays in which I could twirl ecstatically rather than sit inside. I wish the stove was cooking delicious comestibles with which I could quench my appetite rather than just watching the Food Network. There are so many things insentient objects could be doing right now to make our lives easier!

No, that didn't really bother me. But what did bother me was that the settings were never fully utilized. There was no sense of the mechanics of running a ship--Tristan mostly acted like he was on holiday and could whatever he wanted--and very little description of Scutari once Anne and Tristan reached it. Then they go BACK TO ENGLAND, and despite the fact that it was kind of like in Pirates of the Caribbean when they go back to the island, I was actually looking forward to their return because I imagined the London haute ton would be a familiar enough setting that the characters would have a solid setting to move in and established characters to interact with. But despite the addition of some entertaining impediments--namely Anne's brothers and an obsessed fangirl for Tristan--this part of the novel seemed to drag. I feel like Heath didn't do enough research for Lord of Temptation and that it could have been set at any time, in any place, with the result being that it feels a little phoned in, particularly near the end.


Lord Tristan (visual approximation)

As for the characters, Heath did a good job of setting up Anne's motivation for going from a proper engaged lady to someone willing to risk her reputation and carry on an affair, which is something that doesn't always happen in historical romances. But at the same time, I really don't need THAT much convincing someone is willing to have sex. Furthermore, I don't get what Tristan's appeal was at all, other than physically. And as this is a book and I can't see him, his bulging biceps and bright blue eyes don't really work as convincing features of attractiveness. Aside from his love of oranges, and the fact that he smelled like oranges (he was an orange, basically), there were no consistently distinguishing features of his personality; it seemed to change from scene to scene.

There's another thing that really bothered me about Lord of Temptation: this book would not pass the Bechdel Test (quick run down of the Bechdel Test if you're not familiar: the story has 1. female characters who 2. talk to other female characters 3. about something other than men). There is one main female character, and that's Anne. The three other minor female characters get about five pages between them, and when they do talk to Anne, all they talk about are men and how she needs to get married. So you're writing a book with a decidedly female audience, and STILL the story is basically all about dicks? It's a giant dick party! And don't even get me started on the fact that Anne "has" to get married because, well, she just does! Otherwise she's totally useless! And then (spoiler alert) she gets married. Uhg. Just kill me and get it over with.

Anyway. Lord of Temptation wasn't one of those Heath novels that I REALLY liked, although honestly it was okay. It was a little cheesy and predictable, but it wasn't boring (most of the time), so that was a plus; and I did have fun imagining Lord Tristan as an orange.

Thank you to TLC Booktours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review!

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Movie Review: THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM

Originally released: 2008
Starring: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano (the kid from Almost Famous), Yifei Liu
Directed by: Rob Minkoff
Based on: The Chinese classic Journey to the West (see review here)

Hey, readers! It's time for a new edition of Cheesy Movies Tasha Likes. I saw The Forbidden Kingdom playing on IFC really late one night and decided it sounded like the PERFECT MOVIE. Totally not shocking: I was right!



Jason is a Southie who gets picked on by bullies and loves martial art films. One day he finds a staff and is transported to Ancient China. He discovers his destiny is to return the staff to its owner, the Monkey King (see my review of The Monkey King here) so he can defeat an evil warlord and return power to the Emperor.

The Forbidden Kingdom has two actors whom I love in the same face space: Jet Li (LOVE him, love love love) and Jackie Chan (did you ever watch that cartoon with Jackie Chan? It was just me? Okay then). Basically, you don't need any other reason to watch this movie, but I'll give you some more anyway: IT IS HILARIOUS AND AWESOME. Michael Angarano rocks the mullet-with-pony-tail combo, shows his "powerful staff" to the token female character, Golden Sparrow, way too many times; there's a woman with purple hair; and Liu Yifei almost makes out with every guy in this movie except Jackie Chan, all while playing a musical instrument.



This movie caters to American tastes, for sure. There's little talk of Buddhism, which is the original message of the story of The Monkey King, and there's an almost self-conscious cheesiness to it, especially the Boston scenes. If you even casually watch kung-fu movies like Kill Bill or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the sets and set-up to the story will feel very familiar to you, but in a good way that really lets you appreciate the story.

The only thing that made me grimmace was when Jason decided to return to South Boston after having awesome adventures in Ancient China. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? But I suppose they had to end the movie somehow.

If you like kung-fu movies, especially cheesy kung-fu movies (but really any sort of kung-fu movie), you should definitely check out The Forbidden Kingdom. It is super-accesible and fun.

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TSS: High School Reads

I've been seeing a lot (well, maybe two) mentions of high school books on twitter and the blags recently. I think everyone has issues with assigned reading, even people who enjoy books--perhaps particularly people who enjoy books! If you know what you like, you want to be reading it and not something you don't enjoy. Sometimes books can surprise you, though, and that makes a big impact, especially when you're at an impressionable age.

The following books are ones I read in high school that I found surprisingly enjoyable.

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas  I had no idea what to expect from this novel, but how can anyone not love this tale of adventure and revenge? The Count is super-sexy, and hangs out with awesomely exotic people. This is definitely one of the best books I had to read for high school.
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck  Honestly, this seems exactly like the type of book I would hate out the wazoo, but I really connected with the characters and the sense of being completely displaced. I still wonder what happened to Tom. I loved him.
• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton  When we did a unit on American literature, our English teacher said we could pick out some of the books. Naturally I had ideas! The Age of Innocence was one of the books I suggested, and I was the only person in the entire class who liked it. I didn't just like it, I loved it! I literally read the whole thing in one sitting. The rest of the class, not so much. Even my friend told me she gave up and just watched the movie. WTF. Sorry you don't like awesome, friend.
  
• A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs  Another book I suggested for American literature was something by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I was actually thinking of Tarzan when I mentioned him, but our teacher assigned A Princess of Mars instead. The plot of this book sounds super-cheesy when it's summarized, but it's extremely entertaining and totally worth picking up. Way better than the movie John Carter, fyi.
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe  This is another book I normally would never pick up, but was part of our unit on African literature in high school. I'm not sure I would say I enjoyed this novel, per se, but it was one of the most affecting books I've ever read. It's all about how fear influences people's actions, and it gave me a lot to think about in my own life. This is the type of novel I would recommend as required reading for everyone.
  

What were some reads from school that surprised you? Are there some books you wish had been required reading?

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Review: TELLING LIES FOR FUN AND PROFIT by Lawrence Block

I wasn't going to review this book, even though I thought it was excellent. Why? It's definitely a classic and it's something I think every writer should read, but I'm not sure if non-writers would have any interest in it. Probably not. But then Telling Lies for Fun and Profit is so entertaining it might capture the interest of those who aren't its intended audience.

Lawrence Block published his first novel at the age of nineteen (a lesbian erotica, in case you were wondering) and has written about a bazillion novels and short stories since then, so the guy's walked some literary miles. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit is a collection of essays he wrote for Writer's Digest about the craft of writing, and they range from the philosophically abstract (like Sunday writers, see here) to the technical and specific (such as using pronouns, see here). Even though certain aspects of the book are dated (it was first published in 1981), there is a lot of food for thought in this book for writers to chew on.

Block himself says he sometimes contradicts himself (he does), and there are things I find hard to believe or just didn't agree with (no rewriting Block, really?), but agreeing or disagreeing isn't really the point of the book. Nor does Telling Lies for Fun and Profit aspire to teach anyone HOW to write a novel, though Block does offer his own ideas about that. Instead, as Sue Grafton puts it in the introduction, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit is a comfort read for writers--just like any of his fictional characters, Block makes his own experiences relatable and universal. A lot of books about writing only address the difficulties, with the end result of making aspiring writers eager to get a job in a retail or accounting. Block doesn't ignore the difficulties at all, but he does make them seem completely normal and, thus, surmountable.

Block's writing style is also really entertaining and fun to read. I LOL'd several times, and even when I wasn't, I was very engaged. Not to say this is an easy read--it took me about a month to work my way through Telling Lies because some of the essays are really challenging and take some time. But when I was reading I was completely entertained, not something that can often be said for non-fiction. There were also times when I felt like Block was being a bit patronizing toward women, but I'm going to write that off as more of a generational thing than misogyny on his part.

Anyway, I'm really happy I bought Telling Lies for Fun and Profit. It gave me a lot to think about, and was very inspiring. I can see myself rereading this over and over and taking different things away from it each time. I would recommend this book to anyone who considers themselves a writer.

Some passages I particularly liked:

...when I want to write and can’t write I find myself possessed of murderous rage.

I don’t finish half the books I start nowadays, and a good many get hurled across the room after a couple of chapters.

Akin to the nonsense about formula, these same non-writers assume that the development of a series character is a major step toward success, financial security, and a final solution to the heartbreak of psoriasis. “Once you’ve got a character,” they say, “all you have to do is write about him for the rest of your life.” Terrific. Once you’ve got a pair of running shoes, all you have to do is leg it from Hopkinton to Boston. Once you’ve learned the Australian crawl, all you have to do is swim the Channel. Once you’ve hit puberty—oh, never mind.

And his name is Dan Brown:

The unspoken premise in “I wish I had your self-discipline” is that anyone with my self-discipline could do what I do, that a persistent chimpanzee could match me book for book if he could just sit still long enough and work the space bar with his non-opposable thumb. [Did Lawrence Block invent the infinite monkey theorem?]

On pseudonyms:

I had a letter just the other day from a woman intent upon keeping her true identity a secret not only from her readers but from her prospective publisher as well, and wanting to know how she could do all this without getting into a tangle with the tax authorities. I assume she has her reasons.

On acting professionally:

I’m not sure there’s any good sense in imposing questions of ethics upon a profession which has muddled along for centuries without any.

On titles:

Years ago, when I spent a year reading slush at a literary agency, it sometimes seemed to me as though a full forty percent of the stories I read were entitled “As the Twig Is Bent.” Another thirty-five percent were called “So Grows the Tree.”

Is Twins a good title? Or The Thorn Birds? Or The Shining? How about Coma, perhaps the first novel ever named for what it induces?

On feedback and reviews:

If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. If you don’t want the peaches, leave off shaking the tree. And if you can’t bear disapproval, keep the stuff in a locked drawer.

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A Bookish Holding Pattern

Dante with his book in Purgatory, Agnolo Bronzino, c. 1530

You know how planes will circle above an airport, waiting to land? Well, that's kind of where I'm at with my reading right now.

I'm currently reading a book at the pace of a snail, 0-10 pages a day. I have no desire to find out what happens next or to even continue reading it at all. Basically I'm waiting to start a book I REALLY want to read. But I'm having so much trouble getting settled into a book I don't want to start a book that I'm really looking forward to. So I just keep crawling through the book I'm not interested in, waiting for another book to come along.

Even when I do pick up the occasional book in a burst of optimism, I give up because I decide it's either really stupid or that I'm not in the mood for it. When I do finish a book, I have no opinions or feelings about it and no desire to review it AT ALL. I feel like I'm a self-imposed book Purgatory.

What's your book holding pattern, and what do you do (if anything) to snap yourself out of it?

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