Books To Read While You Wait For Me To Write A Novel

I have read plenty of horrible books in the past. But my latest discovery (apparently now a major motion picture) has left me seriously wondering: can I write a better novel?

The plotline of the story is technically good. But the language…. Whether it’s because the author is Irish and the dialect is dissimilar to what we are used to in the United States, or because the writing is truly horrible, but I just can’t get through more than a page without thinking how “corny” a phrase or a scenario is. Why am I still reading the book? Because the plotline is technically good! Which is exactly my problem: if I decided to write a novel, what would it be about?

Granted, my own life provides ample material for a multivolume work. But somehow, I am highly reluctant to offer certain carefully-unpublicized details of it up for the general publics’ leisurely perusal on its daily commute. (Something tells me though that those details would be exactly what brings high-profit royalties to amateur authors).

Whilst I ponder the possibility of truly putting down a pen to paper and whipping out a masterpiece of never-before-seen calibers though, here is a list of ten books that I think are worth your time which are already published and available for your perusal on a daily commute:

1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It sounds like a fat uninteresting book. In reality it’s a very easy light read. Although yes, quite chubby for a book.

2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. The movie is also good.

3. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. Cliché, but seriously… the depth of his though and psychological analysis is mind-blowing. If you can, read it in Russian. So much gets lost in translation…

4. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. It’s an adventure story. Will keep you hooked for hours! (Also best to read in French though.)

5. Voices from Chechnya by Politkovskaya. She was killed for reporting the truth. Not for emotionally feeble. You might find yourself coming back to it again and again.

6. The Alchemist by Pablo Coelho. You can finish it in an hour (unless you’re trying to read it in Spanish with no previous experience in the language…) and gain profound wisdom from it. Although I’d advise to be well-established in what you believe before you take on the magic volume. Some wisdom should always be taken with a grain of salt…

7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This book definitely leaves a lasting impression.

8. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. This book will drive the clash between traditional and western medicine home. You will cry.

9. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. I don’t know why I liked this book. It was weird. But I just did. Maybe because I didn’t HAVE TO read it.

10. The Bible in a language you understand but have never read in before. It makes the familiar passages stand out in an entirely different light.

Happy Reading and look out for that novel of mine!

A Writer Reads

My prolonged silence on this beautiful outlet of expression can be once again explained by a desire to catch up at work. But realizing that this will never happen in a million years (for the most of which, unfortunately, I wouldn't be here to live...), I have decided to finally come back. It's no matter though. Since I specifically never promised to write any number of times a day/week/month, I'm free to have absolutely no guilt about not doing it for such a long time. So I'm not sorry that I haven't been writing, and I don't apologize. :)

In the past couple weeks I have made a capital improvement on the affairs of my mind. I've determined to spend the time at work... working, to spend the time at night sleeping, and to spend the idle minutes on the bus reading for pleasure (the horror!). So, equipped with a library card, I ventured out for a walk around Fremont one rainy afternoon (the first and the last of many planned walks, as darkness literally unexpectedly fell upon me due to time changing, thus nipping in the bud any good intentions I had for exploration of the city or for exercise.) The final destination was Fremont Public Library -- a Mediterranean style, artsy casa, that miraculously held the book I researched and wanted to read next.

The book is written by Anne Bronte -- the youngest of the Bronte sisters (Charlotte Bronte -- "Jane Eyre" and Emily Bronte -- "Wuthering Heights,") slightly overshadowed by the other two's successful works. But authors like her are exactly my specialty: not as famous siblings, not as popular works, and not as explored countries are all the types of literature that totally enthralls me! Most of the "weird" works I've read ended up being just that: weird. "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," however, was impressive, and so much more. The fact that it's not as highly acclaimed as the works of Charlotte and Emily Bronte leaves the world completely missing out on the talent of the author and the brutal reality of her time period.

Highly controversial in its time, the novel is about a woman who chooses to flee her alcoholic and emotionally abusive husband and support herself and her child by selling art. The rumors of the town in which she settles, however, quickly find their way into her lonesome abode, as she becomes the center of speculation and gossip of nosy neighbors. Perhaps the most controversial part of the novel is the fact that its main character, Helen, THINKS independently of any male who tries to dominate her life -- be in uncle, husband, friend or pastor. For most of the novel, her body is subdued in obedience and humility. But it's her spirit that can't be broken by anything that comes her way. Anne Bronte's style is amazingly ahead of its' time as well. And such expressions as "she was seriously annoyed" are almost amusing to find in the book, considering it was written some 150 years ago.

Helen's character is definitely easy to relate to, especially in her thoughts on faith and legalism. She is a model of strength and independence, both of existence and of thought. And unlike Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind," Helen keeps her values and principles intact while fighting for that independence. Instead of going on and on about the virtues of the author and of her character, I'll just list the quotes that I liked most from the book. They're applicable. That's the best part.

"...and if he had kept his distance I never would have hated him. As it was, it was almost impossible to help it; for he not only bothered me with the infliction of his own presence, but he kept me from the enjoyment of more agreeable society."

"Is it that they think it a duty to be continually talking, and so never pause to think, but fill up with aimless trifle and vain repetitions when subjects of real interest fail to present themselves? or do they really take a pleasure in such discourse?"

"I am so determined to love him -- so intensely anxious to excuse his errors, that I am continually dwelling upon them, and labouring to extenuate the loosest of his principles, and the worst of his practices, till I am familiarized with vice, and almost a partaker in his sins. Things that formerly shocked and disgusted me, now seem only natural. I know them to be wrong, because reason and God's Word declare them to be so; but I am gradually losing that instinctive horror and repulsion which were given me by nature, or instilled into me by precepts... "

"I was infatuated once with a foolish, besotted affection, that clung to him in spite of his unworthiness, but it is fairly gone now -- wholly crushed and withered away; and he has none but himself and his vices to thank for it."

All quotes from Bronte, Anne. "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall." The Modern Library: New York. Random House, Inc., 1997.