My apologies. I was not really thinking when I answered the limited discussion involving your reading covered by the discussion here as I know from our discussions on Tolkien and others that you were more widely read than was herein indicated. I was just enrapt by the continuing but limited nature of this present discussion. I should have followed a sign my mother had : Be certain brain is in gear before mouth - or. in this case, fingers - are in motion. Sorry.
Amy----- Original Message ----- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 8:00 PM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters
Dear Amy and Booksharian Friends,I didn't make my points very well. as 4 of the 5 favorite Shakespeare plays I mentioned are tragedies. I read a wider range of truly great lit than most people I've met. One or two books making a particular tragic or caughtionary point are enough for me. Besides, I register the presence of tragedy in its limitless forms by observing real life to a fault, and reading nonfiction and following current events. Because I have such an affinity for animals and have always been sensitive to the need to protect their habitats and treat them humanely, reading Moby Dick, in my case, would be overkill.I continue to read the classics and current literary work because I love the flow of language, but I can't let reading depress me too much or interfere with my decision to believe in and contribute to overall goodness.I wish I were in a book group slated to discuss the Alchemist's Daughter. because I'd be interested in what people think about that ending.I'm half way through Bel Canto and am in high suspense about what is going to befall the houseful of hostages, the boy soldiers and the generals. See, I do take some reading risks but I also don't mind being known as someone who prefers happy endings.I read tons of fluff, Some Stephanie Plum and Agatha Raisin would be good about now.Don't be too heartbroken on my account, Amy, I note many of your comments and book recs and will read some of them. I've read 3 of the books you mentioned in your post about southern writers.I love discovering so many, many books on these lists. keeping in mind that we all have unique reading thumbprints.Always with love, Lissi----- Original Message ----- From: "Amy Goldring Tajalli" <agoldringtajalli@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 5:08 PM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunkstersYou break my heart. If you limit yourself to books that end happily you miss most of the truly great literature. And if you omit all stories that include the deaths of animals you also limit yourself to the books which are the most effective and forceful arguments against the killing of animals - especially against the unnecessarily and brutal killings. No book is as forceful in today's climate against the murder of whales as Moby Dick even though it was not intended as such. And that particular whale has defended himself remarkably as well as the fact that there is more meaning in the book and whale than just a simple whale story.I am sorry you hated the Shakespeare tragedies and histories. King Lear is best seen or listened to - I used the Shakespeare society recordings when studying for my doctoral and it made a world of difference in my understanding and appreciation of some which I had previously studied but also increased my love of the ones I already knew. While the ending of Lear is heartbreaking, it is also just - except, perhaps for Cordelia's. Like all great tragedies and tragic heroes, Lear is responsible for his own death. To truly appreciate great tragedies, even in novels, try reading Aristotle's Poetics. It is not long and although he was specifically writing about Sophocles' Oedipus he set the definition and rules for all great tragedies and tragic heroes. It is why and how English teachers differentiate between tragedies and other dramas.Great characters and great stories - plays and novels and even poems like those of Homer and Dante and Milton - teach us about ourselves and people like us. Don't say they are not like us before you do some deep thinking. You may surprise yourself by your thoughts.AmyP.S. The only character whose death haunted Dickens, and it did for the rest of his life, was Nancy in Oliver Twist and yet that book had a happy ending.----- Original Message ----- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 2:44 PM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunkstersDear Cindy, Katie The blanks are to prevent spoilers.By all means skip "The Old Curiosity Shop," which had Dickens sobbing loudly in the streets, "I've killed blank blank! I've killed blank blank!" I love and cry through Nicholas Nickleby as much as Amy, so you'd best stay clear of that one, too!Katie, I'll be curious to hear how you like the drama and historic setting of, "The Robe." The writing tone is already dated, but that's part of the charm of books for me. I love hearing voices and perspectives from current to way back. This is part of the reason I'm such a supporter of book preservation. Deceased authors speak to any of us interested enough and lucky enough to find their books.Old movies are similar and include visions as well as voices of the past. I really appreciate almost any kind of historic preservation. I feel Bookshare lets me take part in preserving books, one at a time. I still gnaw on the worry of who can and will preserve Bookshare's massive archive.Rick, are any animals killed in Billy Budd? I ought to read something by Melville, and since I can't read about killing a whale, maybe I could get through Billy Bud.Casandra, Sherry and other lovers of Shakespeare, I'm with you. I can't think of a Shakespeare play I don't like, but McBeth, The King Henrys, King Lear and Twelfth Night are way up there.My take on required reading is that it's one of the functions of education to expose students to ideas and material they might not discover on their own. I don't need a teacher to require me to read books I already know I'll like and read school or no school. Because I really like classics, I didn't mind being required to read them. It's unrealistic to expect every student will like every book that's required reading. I was shattered by The Red Badge of Courage. I would never have read it unless I had to, but it forced me to think seriously about the nature and consequences of war. I might resent being required to read a half dozen books about war, but reading one book about it helped expand my awareness and forced me to grow up a little more.Another point in favor of required reading is that sometimes students discover they really like a book they'd have never considered reading themselves. They discover authors or genres they will go on to seek out in their free reading time.With a book the whole class is required to read teachers can give students ideas about identifying writing style and literary devices like word use, characterization, elements of plot, etc. They give them experience on being more observant of what they are reading, putting the book in historic context, applying its contents to themselves and their present culture and expressing their opinions about it.. If teachers present a variety of kinds of books than I would hope not all of the students would like all of them. Reading what they don't like helps kids define their personal taste.I sound like an education apologist, don't I? I also sound as if I've forgotten I'm retired. Please don't mind me. You know books and teaching are close to my heart and that I really respect everyone's right to read what they like.Because I proficiencied English in college and Kiddie lit was my only required English class, I didn't take any college lit. If college was cheap enough, I'd love to take some lit classes now. Amy, I'd take a Faulkner class or two from you.Thank you Amy, Susan L, and Shelley for the encouragement to read Bleak House which I downloaded last night.Shelley, I expected I'd like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and was surprised when I didn't enjoy it. Is the Lightning you like, the book by Dean Koontz? If so, I liked it too, and also liked Strangers by him and loved Watchers.Can you tell us who wrote, "Night," and, "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle," and a little more about them?.I've downloaded Islandia which Brian Miller recommended. The synopsis says the author was a lawyer who unexpectedly wrote this novel about an elaborate invented society in the southern hemisphere protected by mountains. It's history, and culture are so well developed that the author is compared with Tolkien. Except that the place and society are invented, I don't think this a fantasy or quest novel. I get the idea that the man who discovers Islandia wants to stay there.Rick, even though you didn't like it, I have to read Barnaby Rudge , to meet the blind villain. Really, Dickens wrote so many memorable villains, I think it's kind of cool he gave blind fictitious characters an equal opportunity to be bad guys.Mitchner's Texas was an entertaining read. What I learned was that pecans don't just grow in Mississippi! Cindy Ray, I think I'll try his Alaska, next. Since I love the cold so much, it will comfort me during Ohio's hot, humid, summer. Since Bookshare's copy is only rated good, I've added a request for a BSO of Alaska to the wish list.According to Booksharian suggestions I've also downloaded Mrs. Mike and its sequel Memoirs of Cleopatra, Desiree The Fourth World, Suggested by Pennina----- Original Message ----- From: "Grandma Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 2:02 AM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunkstersI'm glad to hear so many good things about Bleak House. I haven't read that, or the Old Curiosity Shop. The only Dickens book I liked were Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. The others were too sad and, perhaps the word is grimy, for me. I like books set in older centuries but the ones that deal with the upper classes and nobility. Ordinary, and especially lower class life, make me too sad and uncomfortable. sigh Cindy --- "Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Bleak house was fantastic, I read it on cassette in High school. Shelley L. Rhodes M.A., VRT, CTVI and Judson, guiding golden juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc. Graduate Alumni Association Board www.guidedogs.com More than Any other time, When i hold a beloved book in my hand, my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free. - Helen Keller----- Original Message ----- From: "Estelnalissi" <airadil@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 6:03 PM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters Dear Casandra, Amy and Summer Readers, Casandra, I hoped it was a matter of time until David Copperfield was mentioned. I read it for fun in seventh grade. Then it was the longest book I'd ever read. It was 10 volumes and in an English edition which had larger pages than the NLS books. I was enthusing to a sighted friend that I was reading a book that was, I think, about 1200 pages long in braille and she said in a bored voice, "Why would you want to do that?" It really brought home to me how people's reading and minds run along such different tracks. I agree with Amy that "The Old Curiosity Shop is really worth reading. Have you read that one yet? Dickens is one of my very favorite authors. If you are interested in him as an individual or artist, you might want to try the book I validated, "The Mutual Friend," by Frederick Busch. It's pretty literary, gritty, poetic in a ruthlessly realistic vein, informative about Dickens' time and haunts, and is irreverent to say the least, but, for a Dickens fan, it was never dull and it's yet another book I'll never forget. Amy, I haven't read Bleak House, yet. I hope Bookshare has it so I can read it in braille. For the first time I've topped out my download quota, so Bleakhouse will have to be July reading which is no problem because I already have way more than I can read in the meantime. If you and Kenneth ever run out of books about Faulkner to submit, keep in mind I'd love to read anything you scan or validate about Dickens. Always with love, Lissi----- Original Message ----- From: Amy Goldring TajalliTo: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 5:27 PM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters If you haven't already read them you might also give The Old Curiosity Shop and Bleak House a look. But then, I am working on the complete Dickens. I am Making up for years lost. Amy----- Original Message ----- From: Kasondra PayneTo: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:50 PM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: a fun topic, summer chunksters I read David Copperfield on my own during the summer after my freshman year of high school. I loved it! I still love long classic books like that. I am the same person who read the entire Bible from cover to cover in two weeks when I was fifteen. I have thought of reading War and Peace or the entire Lord of the Rings series on my bus trip to the NFB convention. First I have to finish the three books I am reading. Kasondra Payne No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.16/849 - Release Date: 6/14/2007 12:44 PM--------------------------------------------------------------------------------No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.15/848 - Release Date: 6/13/2007 12:50 PM To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to bookshare-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the Subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.____________________________________________________________________________________Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games.http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=monopolyherenow To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to bookshare-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxPut the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the Subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to bookshare-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the Subject line. 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