Courtesy of Maxqnz | Fifty Pachaas | Originally posted 5.22.2012

"If Wodehouse hadn't existed, it would have been necessary to have invented him."

Voltaire may not have said that, but I'm sure he would have done, given the chance. After wading through a fatiguingly mediocre Sapne Sajan Ke, I was desperately in need of refreshment, and the chance to return to Wodehouse was a blessing.

Wodehouse's writing is like a soufflé, light, insubstantial and airy, and guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of anyone who enjoys a sweet treat. Despite having read many of his books, including almost all the Blandings books, and most of the Wooster/Pelicans stories, I'd forgotten that I even had Piccadilly Jim until reminded of it by Dustedoff's excellent review review of the 1936 movie adaptation. Having "discovered" it, it's now one of my favourites, almost the quintessential Wodehouse.

One of the reasons that Wodehouse does generally not translate well to the screen is that his trademark style is not in the narrative, but in the descriptive parts of his works. An oft-quoted example of this is "if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled." Or, one of my favourites from this book, "it was his tendency, when he found himself in a sea of troubles, to float plaintively, not to take arms against it. To pick up the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and fling them back was not a habit of his." Phrases like that can't be brought to life onscreen, but they are what makes Wodehouse Wodehouse. So too are ridiculously complex and contrived plots, the sheer silliness of which make not smiling at them an impossibility. Even by Wodehouse's high standards, though, the farcical intricacy of the plot in Piccadilly Jim takes some beating.

Reading a Wodehouse story is liking pulling on a comfortable pair of slippers, you know exactly what you're getting into. True love will conquer all, but only after twists and turns that would make the Minotaur's head spin, and only after defeating women who make the Minotaur seem like a pussycat. In Piccadilly Jim the twists and turns include the delightful bonus of the lead character and hero of the story having to impersonate himself, a twist I don't recall from other PGW stories, and one that made me laugh out loud when I saw it coming.

In a world full of political darkness, economic uncertainties, and various grim horrors, it's therapeutic to turn the clock back a hundred years and just laugh. Wodehouse at his best is a master laugh maker, and Piccadilly Jim is Wodehouse at his best. If you haven't read it, do, and if you have, return to it when you need to rediscover your smile. I guarantee that reading Piccadilly Jim will leave you thoroughly gruntled.

Courtesy of 1 Book 1 Movie | 1book1movie | Originally posted 5.13.2012

It’s Mother’s day, so you know what that means? Another themed post! I thought I’d list some of my favorite movie moms. There are so many out there, either truly good moms, evil ones, crazy ones…I’m gonna list my favorites. For all the mom’s out there, hope you had a happy mother’s day!

1. Stepmom: Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts are the perfect combination for a tearjerker. Roberts being the stepmom, clashes with Sarandon in the beginning…understandable. The stepmom being a “cooler” younger woman, has a tough time winning over the kids and Sarandon. Fighting turns to friendship, the kids disrespect turns to love, which makes it really hard to watch, especially towards the end.

2. Mermaids: I love this movie: The 60′s, a promiscuous Cher as single mom, a teenage Winona Ryder and an even younger Christina Ricci. Also Bob Hoskins, as Cher’s latest love interest, and Jake Ryan from 16 Candles! Constantly moving, makes for a functional, dysfunctional family. Ryder’s character is obsessed with trying to be good and pure, and essentially, nothing like her mother…but as her mother says: “With half my chromosomes, that may be tough.” Hilarious, touching and just a movie I can watch over and over.

3. Anywhere But Here: Another single mother tale, starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. Complete opposites, from a small town in Wisconsin, end up in Beverly hills. The two clash about Portman’s future, especially since her mother pushes her failed actress dreams onto her.

4. Steel Magnolias: The movie you watch, when you want to cry. Starring Sally Field as the overprotective mom (for good reason!) and Julia Roberts and what she risks to become a mother herself. The best ensemble of female actors including Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, and Daryl Hannah.

5. Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood: A crazy woman…who probably shouldn’t have had children. Supported by her 3 best friends, creates a friendship known as the “Ya Ya sisterhood.” This is a flash back movie about a woman’s childhood and the memories she had of her depressed mother. Don’t get me wrong, she isn’t one of my favorite “good” mother’s, she’s under the crazy category, but the movie is entertaining and is another tearjerker. Stars Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, Ashley Judd, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight, Maggie Smith and the charming James Garner.

Here’s a great list with plenty more movie moms: http://www.greencine.com/central/momslist

Who are your favorites?

Courtesy of Bibliotechnicienne | Bibliotechnicienne | Originally posted 5.10.2012

In the not so distant future, China has emerged from the 2008 global economic meltdown unscathed and more prosperous than ever. The general populous is euphoric. Constantly. And yet one month is missing from the official record. Twenty-eight days to be exact. Newspapers have been destroyed. The online versions that remain have been altered to reflect that the economic meltdown and China’s so-called Age of Ascendancy happened simultaneously, without protest or disharmony. Few people remember the lost month and dare to question it. Why are there so few people who remember the chaos and protests, the same people who don’t feel the immense and unending happiness of the majority?

I liked this book. However I like the story behind the novel better than the actual book. It’s banned in China. The cover of the book proclaims it as “the book no one in China dares publish.” Who isn’t intrigued by a forbidden book?

Some books are translated into English from their original language and they flow. This is not one of them. I found some passages clunky and/or confusing, and I found myself re-reading many parts of the book for clarity.

One part I re-read because it was heartbreaking. The main character, Lao Chen, is thinking about “90 percent freedom” which he believes he currently enjoys in China. The government is much more relaxed than they were in the past. So what if he can’t get some of the books he wants, that he could before the lost month? As a writer, he feels guilty that he hasn’t read many of the Russian classics. He can still access those. “It’s enough for me to have these classics, I don’t need too much freedom.” Perhaps they’re already at 95 percent freedom. Watching him slowly rationalizes that things are better than they were before, and he doesn’t need “too much freedom” and should be happy with what he has is tough to read. It’s a work of fiction, but it’s not hard to imagine that it’s true. If things are better than they were in the past, why would you want to stir things up by advocating for that final 5 percent of freedom?

While the story, and perhaps the translation could use a bit of polish, it’s a worthwhile read.

Book 19/50 for fiftyfiftyme.

Are you taking part in 50/50me? How are you doing so far? Any book recommendations?

Note: be wary of reading articles about this book before reading it. I found one in the Globe and Mail, and it contained a colossal spoiler. A spoiler from the last pages of the book. I won’t repeat it here (but I’ll email it to you, if you’re one of those people who can’t help but spoil things for yourself. I do that too, but this time the spoiling was inadvertent and unwanted.) So, in the event that other journalists are jerkstores, refrain from reading reviews/articles until after reading the book.

BOOKS READ:

• I Hunt Killers, Barry Lyga
• The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
• The Big Nowhere, James Ellroy
• Old Man's War, John Scalzi
• The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, Aimee Bender

MOVIES WATCHED:

• Damsels in Distress, Whit Stillman
• Lockout, Stephen St. Leger
• Love in the Buff, Ho-Cheung Pang
• Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
• The Raven, James McTeigue

A banner month as April contained virtually no missteps on the movie or book front! That's pretty rare right? Well, unless you count Lockout, which was only a filler film because I was movie hopping. I need more Guy Pearce as sarcastic anti-hero but the rest of the movie was horrible. Let's start with Love in the Buff, which was the reason I sat through three movies that day anyway.

I've seen my share of Chinese movies but they tend to be of the John Woo action variety or the Wong Kar-Wai stuff. Love in the Buff is a romantic comedy set in Hong Kong and Beijing and because it's not American, the beats are different. American romcoms haven't changed much in the past decade, so to get my fix, I may now have to turn to Asia.

Seeing as it's Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, let me just say that watching a movie with young-ish urban Chinese folk, wearing their bold rimmed glasses and drawing their fashion cues not from Williamsburg but from their own influences, was an eye-opening experience. The looks ultimately aren't that different but seeing a city full of young urban Asian people without knowing immediately what their fashion stereotype is was refreshing.

The last time I set foot in Asia was ten years ago, and I have no idea what the modern young population does there. After watching Love in the Buff, I kind of want to visit and find out. Note: This is a sequel to Love in the Puff, which has the two main characters meeting at an outdoor smoking area and falling in love. What's not to like?

On the books front, I finally got the chance to toss down The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, which I'd been saving for a rainy day. I'm a little tired of the multi-generational, interlinking stories type of book but Junot Diaz's novel is a must read. Big bonus for all his geeky comic book references. I mean, literature that incorporates Uatu the Watcher? I'm in.

At the end of the day, I thought Brief Wonderous Life was our generation's One Hundred Years of Solitude and I'll likely return to it at some point. Although I think I'd recommend his short story debut, Drown, first. Also, if you're looking to get a sense of Diaz's style, his short, "Miss Lora", was recently in this month's New Yorker.

And speaking of highly recommended shorts, Aimee Bender's The Girl in the Flammable Skirt -- which is not about Katniss -- was so great. I loved Bender's clean writing and the impactful nuance of her stories. It's been years since I've fallen so in love with a short story collection. This rejuvenated me. I had picked up The Girl in the Flammable Skirt thinking of another "Aimee" author, but I'm glad the mistake happened. Now I'm gonna get into Bender's latest, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, which is just one of those long evocative titles I love.

Last up, Damsels in Distress starring Greta Gerwig. I think you have to officially put "indie darling" when you talk about Gerwig but it's fully deserved. Anything Gerwig is in I'll watch, even the (mostly) disappointing Greenberg. If you didn't know, Gerwig starred in mumblecore-y movies like Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends and is now slowly making her way through still quirky yet more mainstream projects.

I was very impressed with writer/director Whit Stillman's script and can't believe I'd never heard about him. Movies with sour dialogue and dour worldviews are right up my alley and Damsels in Distress was a near perfect example of the form -- although I can see a lot of people not enjoying it. If you watch one of Stillman's films and love it, please befriend me so I can be less alone. Bonus: Analeigh Tipton, another high riser in my "who to watch" ranking, co-stars in Damsels.

May is the start of summer blockbuster season so my indie diet may have to take a back seat to special effects and superheroes. Fire up the popcorn please!

[Crossposted from www.jonyang.org]

Courtesy of Jen Fidler | Fiddy Two Cents | Originally posted 4.7.2012

"It was about damn time something happened."
-Lev Grossman, page 297

This book is 402 pages long, and even though that line appears on page 297, nothing remotely exciting happens until page 338. Seriously.

I'll just warn you now...I'm going spoil the living daylights out of this book. If you haven't read the book, I do not encourage you to try. However, if that warning isn't enough to convince you to not read this book, then you should probably stop reading this review right now.

Onward to the spoilers.

Let's start off by saying just what a miserable protagonist Quentin makes in general. There is nothing likable about his character. NOTHING. He is too smart for his own good. He only attracts other miserable characters. And there is not a single instance in this book where he does anything worthy of being the protagonist. He is not a hero, nor is he an anti-hero. He is simply the character that we follow for 402 pages. Which is 402 pages too many.

And then there's the plot. Or lack thereof, for about 75% of the novel (as the cover proclaims it to be). Talk about a boring tale. The Magicians is broken into four sections. Book I introduces us to Quentin, a miserable S.O.B. with a giant chip on his shoulder and an IQ high enough to get him into any Ivy League school that he wants. But on the day of his Princeton interview, Quentin finds himself whisked away to Brakebills, Grossman's rip-off of Hogwarts. Instead of a sorting, Quentin is put through a magical SAT of sorts before being granted admission. Without even checking to see if this institution of higher magical learning is accredited, Quentin matriculates and the rest is torturous history.

So you're probably asking yourself about now, "Well, why did you read the entire book if it's just that painful?" Because I'm crazy. Obviously, there is something wrong with me. There are probably medications I can take, but instead I continually subject myself to horrible literature and films. Did you see that I read all of Modelland? Clearly. Insane.

But back to Quentin Coldwater and the Chamber of Ennui.

So at Brakebills (yes, this is still Book I), Quentin spends four years completing a five-year program where the magical curriculum covers everything from levitating marbles to copulating as arctic foxes. It's a progressive program. He becomes close friends with his classmate Alice, another special individual on the five-years-in-four-plan, as well as the other handful of miserable souls known as the Physical Kids. As far as I can tell, Grossman chose to name them the Physical Kids because 1) the magic they specialize in deals mainly with physical applications and 2) they just like to drink and fornicate. A lot.

There are two events that occur during Quentin's four years (and the books first 221 pages) that come close to being interesting for the reader. The first comes packaged in a chapter called "The Beast" and tells the semi-exciting tale of the day a random guy in a suit with a tree branch covering his face magically appears in one of the Brakebills classes and eats one of Quentin's classmates before disappearing inexplicably. You'd think that would be a significant incident, but no. Everyone reacts oddly calm about the whole ordeal, and the attack gets written off as just-one-of-those-random-moments-in-magical-life-sort-of-things. The other takes place when Quentin and the other fourth year students are hazed while studying abroad in Antarctica with a Russian magician who has a wicked sense of humor. The students are given an optional final exam where they are cast out into the snow naked and alone with only their magical prowess to survive a 500-mile trek to the South Pole. Although optional, Quentin signs up...because why not? Nothing else interesting ever happens. His journey is pretty much the most entertaining part of the book up to this point. Oh, except for that day the Russian magician transformed them all into arctic foxes and Arctic Fox Quentin and Arctic Fox Alice got it on. But that was just so disturbing.

Book I concludes with Quentin and Alice graduating (their only other friends having graduated the year before). As part of their commencement ceremonies, they each get a magic key back to Brakebills and a Cacodemon (a magical creature who will force its way out of your belly when summoned and try its best kill whoever you command...good for one time only!) tattooed into their back. And all I got at my college graduation was a diploma and a mini Etch-a-Sketch with RISD screenprinted on it. Bet that Cacodemon comes in handy. On to Book II.

Although only a quarter of the length of the first part, Book II really packs on the excitement. And by excitement, I mean more drunken debauchery. Brakebills, while impressive with its curriculum, has horrible job placement percentiles. Quentin and Alice, unemployed, join up with the Physical Kid pals (Eliot, Josh, and Jane) in Manhattan. With the exception of Alice (who uses her time to continue her magical studies and explorations), the gang spends its days sleeping and the evenings throwing elaborate dinner parties centered around enchanted ice sculptures of Leda and her Swan doing the nasty. Seriously Grossman, you have issues. ISSUES. Quentin and Alice are a couple, but they also have issues. Issues that are not made better when Quentin sleeps with Eliot and Jane following one of the aforementioned dinner gatherings. Before Alice has a chance to scream at and/or kill Quentin for his infidelity, their old Brakebill pal Penny (an almost member of the five-years-in-four-plan crew) shows up out of the blue and invites everyone to join him on an all-expense-paid trip to Fillory.

Fillory!

What is Fillory, you ask? Why Fillory is Grossman's version of Narnia. Throughout the previous 250 or so pages, Quentin constantly brings up Fillory and his love of the fictional fiction writer Christopher Plover. Look. Grossman even made up a fake website for the fake author: christopherplover.com. That's dedication. Or possibly schizophrenia. The stories are continually referenced as if we were all raised on the stories of Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter and their adventures through the Wardrobe into Narnia...er, I mean the Chatwin children and their adventures through the old grandfather clock and Fillory. Quentin just LOVED the books as a child...and as a teenager...and often finds himself wishing he'd find a secret passage into his beloved Fillory. But he keeps having to remind himself that Plover made Fillory up, as fiction writers do.

But no! Fillory is real! And Penny hasn't gone there on his own yet. But now that he's with his very bestest of friends from Brakebills (who coincidentally have far greater power than Penny ever will), they can all go together! Huzzah! With the exception of a quick trip to the Neitherlands for Alice and Quentin (where she maims but not kills the infidel), this is basically where Book II ends.

Book III. To Fillory and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale. Once again, Grossman rips off C.S. Lewis by blatantly patterning the Fillory journey on the Narnia tales. Quentin and co. manage to get their act together (finally!) and arrive in Fillory. They have no official goal for their trip; they just figure they'd see if they could track down the infamous Questing Beast or maybe see if the job of King or Queen of Fillory had any openings. They meet talking animals and trees. There are fauns and beavers (sound familiar?), too. Eventually, they are given a task: find Martin Chatwin's crown and reclaim the throne in the name of the Earth children. Because much like Narnia, Fillory can only be ruled by Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve. Just brimming with originality there, Grossman.

But the quest for the crown is not a simple one, so the gang needs guides. And the guides are instantly provided for them. As everything has been easily given to them over the past 300 pages or so. Because who would want to read a book where the heroes actually have to do work? The guides, Dint and Fen, bring them to Ember's Tomb, where it is strongly believed that the crown resides. Dint and Fen are also handy at killing vicious Attack Rabbits and Ferrets, too. Something Brakebills did not provide training in.

Anyhoo. They arrive at the tomb, which reeks of Tolkien's Moria. (Seriously Grossman, did you even try to come up with something on your own?) The tunnels seem abandoned, but soon the the fellowship is attacked. The first attack is reminiscent of a Final Fantasy fight sequence, where Grossman assigns each of the characters a distinct attack move (Fen: Attack, Alice: Cacodemon, Jane: Run). The second attack is far more enthralling (and, oddly enough, starts on page 338...see above). The second battle marks the first time in the entire book where the Brakebills alum have to do anything of importance. It's actual work. And it was actually interesting.

I'm actually going to refrain from giving too much detail regarding the following 40 or so pages, as it's the only part of the book that is really worth reading. So for those of you who haven't read the book yet, I recommend you open to page 338 and start reading from there. To those of you who have read the book, all I can say is...do you feel as dirty as I do?

But the story doesn't end in the tunnels. Oh no. Instead, Quentin finds himself trapped in Fillory while the surviving Scoobies return to Earth. In a complete break from character, Quentin goes after the Questing Beast and wins three wishes. His first two wishes are basically a bust, but he uses his third wish to return home. And so concludes Book III.

Book IV is basically the beginning of the movie Wanted, but with rock-star magicians instead of bullet-bending assassins. Now back home, Quentin has chosen to leave behind his childish magical ways and enters (gasp!) the work force. He has an office job. It sounds boring (imagine that). But the very last few pages bring back a few of the Physical Kids (now with flying powers and spandex!) trying to convince Quentin to return to Fillory with them. Although he's hesitant at first, he eventually takes the plunge, as Grossman does have a sequel. Which I am refusing to read.

So there you have The Magicians. That took me way too long to read. Mostly because I didn't want to. I'm still questioning why I trudged my way through it. While not wholly convinced, I'm going to go with...I did it so I could write this amazing review. Yeah. That's it.

For the record, if they ever make a movie out of this book, I refuse to see it.

Courtesy of Heather | Fifty/Fifty...Really? | Originally posted 4.8.2012

The scarves at left are souvenirs of a Pony Express mail service that runs through Payson, AZ. It's one of the reminders our enduring love for the Pony Express.

I've been interested in the Pony Express since I was a little kid. I remember reading a children's book about it that belonged to my father when he was little. Of course, in high school, I enjoyed watching The Young Riders on television.

When I heard about a lecture on the Pony Express at the National Postal Museum last year, I knew I wanted to attend. The lecture took place close to the 150th anniversary of the end of the Pony Express. The lecture was a talk by Christopher Corbett about his book Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express. I bought the book, and got it signed by Mr. Corbett after the lecture.

Basically, everything we know about the Pony Express is wrong. Most of what we remember is myth and legend passed down across generations. The Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company (the Pony Express) was a private operation fast mail service of Russell, Majors & Waddell. It began in 1860 and was over and done with by 1861. The central overland route went from St. Joseph, MO through Kansas and Utah territories (never Arizona) and on to Sacramento, CA. The riders generally were not orphans. Even though it cost $5 an ounce (in 1860 dollars) to mail a letter, the operation never made any money, and the telegraph put an end to any need for it.

Accurate records are few, but Corbett does a good job of sifting through all that's been written about the Pony Express and figuring out what's probably true and what couldn't be true and how we got to the current story we all know. In addition, he looks at how the legend grew. Buffalo Bill Cody, never a rider - he was 11 or 12 at the time - did a lot with his Wild West Show to secure a place for the fast mail service in our collective memory. There were also many books and inaccurate movies and TV shows. Of The Young Riders, Corbett said it was "a farrago of nonsense" (a phrase I really need to use whenever I can). But, I'm sure I wasn't watching it for its historical accuracy.

Corbett does a good job bringing the characters associated with the Pony Express, either truthfully or fraudulently, to life. It was an exciting time in history, and an amazing feat to carry mail by horse and rider across half the country in ten days. And, it was fun to read about it. This much I know to be true.

Courtesy of Stuart | Likhaavat | Fifty Pachaas

I joined the fiftyfiftyme challenge to have the incentive I needed to read more books. I also saw a chance to pursue my other hobby, Hindi films. Joining the challenge is the perfect opportunity to watch more of them, and to promote them.

Although I’m of Anglo-Indian descent, I didn’t get into watching Hindi films until my late 30s. Before then, if I’d been asked what Indian films were all about, I probably would have said “song and dance”. It’s that stereotype I hope to challenge here.
Indian films are often marked by their use of musical numbers, but to define them by that is to do them an injustice, and anyone who dismisses them for that reason is doing themselves a disservice.

I love old, classic Hindi films, where the songs are an integral part of the storylines, and the poetry of the lyrics is sublime. Quite possibly my favourite film ever is Pyaasa, a masterly example of how traditional Hindi musical cinema can reach the heights of art cinema. In more recent times, films like the Oscar-nominated Lagaan and 2011’s Mere Brother ki Dulhan have shown that song and dance are still relevant and productive elements of Hindi films.

Now though, more than ever, Hindi films cover a wide range of genres, and many have no songs at all. Hindi cinema has everything from superb Shakespearian adaptations such as Maqbool and Omkara to bawdy farces and pratfall style comedies like the current box office hit, Housefull 2. In the course of my fiftyfifty challenge I will be watching comedies, thrillers, biopics and social issue dramas, in addition to the “song and dance” romances that many think are the sum total of “Bollywood”.

I will also be watching many films that are not “Bollywood” at all. That term has made a place for itself, and is a convenient catch-all for mainstream commercial Hindi cinema. Indian cinema is so much more than just Bollywood. Hindi cinema itself includes many films that are outside the mainstream of Bollywood. Some examples from the last few years are Shor in the City, Dor and Dhokha Every major Indian language has its own film industry, and the biggest of the South Indian languages have cinematic cultures as distinct from the Hindi industry as their languages are. My focus is on films in Hindi, since I have almost enough comprehension to get by without subtitles, but I hope to include some films in Malayalam and Bengali as well.

For those unfamiliar with Indian cinema, a key mantra to remember is this: SLUMDOG IS NOT BOLLYWOOD AND BOLLYWOOD IS NOT SLUMDOG

India is a huge country, where diversity is perhaps the only constant. The same is true of its films. From the internationally-acclaimed works of Satyajit Ray to small gems like I am Kalam, from Hindi masala standards like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge to the quietly thought-provoking Malayalam Adaminte Makan Abu, from the Elvis-like swagger of Shammi Kapoor to the moustachioed machismo of the one and only Rajnikanth, from the piercing genius of Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics and the magic of A.R. Rahman’s music to the unflinching honesty of Nandita Das’s social issue films, Indian cinema really does have something for everyone, and I hope that many fiftyfifty participants will include India when selecting films for the challenge.

A sample list of some Indian films I enjoyed:

• Pyaasa, Lagaan
• 1947:Earth
• Kannathil Muthamittal
• Adaminte Makan
• Abu, Firaaq
• Amar Akbar Anthony
• Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge
• Maqbool
• Jab We Met
• Wake Up Sid
• I am Kalam
• Road: Movie,
• Junglee
• Mere Brother ki Dulhan

Check out more of Stuart's views and reviews on his Hindi cinema blog, Likhaavat!

Courtesy of Hannah | mclicious.org

For me, the 50/50 challenge is more about the movies than the books. Having read 163 books in 2011, I’m quite close to 50 books already, and I will easily surpass that goal. More broadly, I like the idea of 50/50 because it makes me think that I can use it to actually read less, and to watch more movies than television shows—all things that will bring me to working on my ability to have sustained focus on one thing, not divided focus among twelve Firefox tabs.

But I can only go so far with that. My instinct is always, always, always to read voraciously. But in recent years, incidentally as I have become more reliant on my Goodreads account, my drive to finish books, and to have intelligent thoughts about what I read, has taken precedence in my reading habits. That, plus college general education courses and intellectual friends and family members and attendance at keynote addresses and much, much more have broadened my interest in more and more subjects, making my to-read list inevitably and exponentially larger than my have-read list.

I thought coming up with a major or minor or two, as the website suggests, would be excellent. But I’ve already forgotten what I set out to do. When I reviewed my first personal blog post about this challenge today, I was surprised by how many vague themes I had suggested for pursuit. Documentaries, non-fiction, history, diversity—all interesting themes worth looking into, all things that I generally do strive to read. But I can’t major in anything. And I’ve finally been able to qualify why.

Nicholas Carr is a writer who has studied brain plasticity and the Internet. As you probably know, people blame the Internet for shorter attention spans, a dip in people’s interest in long books or long articles, and general inattentiveness. I think there is certainly a lot of truth to that, but I have to give a lot of credit to the Internet for opening up my mind and reading list to far more subjects and genres than I read when I was young. Part of that is growing up, sure, but I would have far less awareness of the theorists, experimental creative writers, sociological concepts and ethical dilemmas that I now enjoy reading, thinking, and writing about if it weren’t for the inattentiveness that the Internet fosters. I realized, while reading Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (The Atlantic Monthly, July 2008), that the greatest gift the Internet has given to people who were already interested in the pursuit of learning and intellectual expansion is hyperlinks.

You know how in the past few years, it’s become commonplace for blog posts, online newspaper articles (even those that are exact reprints—or pre-prints—of the offline articles) and e-mags to make reference to other resources through hyperlinks? It’s like the update of footnotes, and it’s far more useful, because it gets you the referenced resource right then, rather than a citation. I love those. It’s because of those that I discovered what are now my favorite blogs and websites and news sources. It’s because of them that I have discovered artists and musicians and writers that I now love or want to discover. My to-read list, as well as my blog roll and iTunes catalog, have increased so much over the past few years largely due to my Internet reading. And it’s great, really. I’m a lot smarter now, I think, and I read a lot more than just fiction, which is a good thing, I think.

But it’s also why I can’t major in anything. While I have general interests and goals that will always subtly inform what I choose to read next, I can’t read everything on my list related to one interest fast enough. By the time I get through one book, I will have read a hundred news articles and blog posts that have turned me on to something else interesting, and I’ll already be adding those authors and theories to my list. I’m always both behind and ahead of myself, and even if it means I sometimes miss out, I mostly like it. Because I know a lot of stuff, and I keep finding out that there’s more to know.

And check out Hannah's companion piece here: how my to-read list works.

Courtesy of Cindy | Cindy's 50/50 Challenge | Originally posted 2.26.2012

I feel as if I have lived part of my life under a rock. I had never seen The Sound of Music until last night. I don’t know how that is possible. I spoke to my mother this morning and she was surprised to hear this; she has watched it several times. After talking about this with my mom, I recall leaving the room when the theme music for programming my parents watched began to play (I Love Lucy and Mash come to mind). Well, that might explain my childhood and adolescence, but I have long outgrown those years. Where have I been?

I don’t hear people discussing this, but it seems to me most people have seen this movie. I pinned The Sound of Music on my Pinterest board last night and it has been repinned over and over with comments of how it is a favorite. My friend Kelly wrote, “LOVE this movie! I’ve been on the Sound of Music tour twice in Salzburg. Plus I saw the movie in London (2001) at a theatre with sing along & all kinds of fun interaction, kinda like Rocky Horror Picture Show (I’ve heard— haven’t seen it). First time I saw this movie was when I was about 10 years old & stayed home sick from school at my grandma’s. :-)” I would love to do this! What a great experience (not the being sick part).

Let’s start with what I did know about the movie before my first viewing last night. I had seen Andrews sing and dance to “The Sound of Music” (I had no idea this was the very beginning of the movie, I always assumed it was somewhere in the middle). I also knew it won several Academy Awards. That is it.

On to things I didn’t know. Christopher Plummer (starred opposite Julie Andrews) was a very handsome fellow with a wonderful voice! I thought the song “ My Favorite Things” was a lovely little tune that comes around every Christmas to assist us with our shopping lists (I finally know where it originated). What shocks me most is that this famous musical is based on real people. Maria Von Trapp’s memoirs were created into a book and then later Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote music and lyrics to the now infamous musical. The musical fairy didn’t create this after all. I had no idea!

I never declared a major/minor when I first signed up for the 50/50 challenge, but I have now decided to declare a major in Musicals. I need to crawl out from under the rock and see some of these wonderful classics. I give The Sound of Music five stars. I will definitely see it again and I hope I will be fortunate enough to see it on stage one day.

Some of my favorite lines from the movie (none of the quotes below are interrelated, I just like them):

Kurt: Only grown-up men are scared of women.

Maria: You know how Sister Berthe always makes me kiss the floor after we’ve had a disagreement? Well, lately I’ve taken to kissing the floor whenever I see her coming, just to save time.

Kurt: I haven’t had so much fun since the day we put glue on Fräulein Josephine’s toothbrush

Maria: [saying her bed time prayers] I forgot the other boy.

Courtesy of Mike | Reading Mike | Originally posted 2.11.2012

One Way to Get Book Recommendations from Friends Without Their Knowledge

A while back on Fiftyfifty.me they posted a theme idea about recommendations. I'll admit that since I already have such a large to-read list, I generally just nod and smile politely when a book is recommended to me. Occasionally there is an exception, like from my mom or brother. Although truth be told their last few recommendations are still sitting on my bedside table, unread. Or if someone recommends something already on my to-read list, the book may be bumped closer to the front of the list.

The Fiftyfifty post is correct, recommendations aren't for the weak of heart. For book lovers, you run the risk of discovering someone you know has terrible literary taste. Or, perhaps worse for the book snob, someone you know is better read than you are. But it also represents a challenge to broaden your horizons.

The other day, while browsing some friends' lists on Goodreads, I had an idea. I noticed each of these friends, when comparing books we both had rated, were never more than one star off on our ratings. Sure, sometimes my five star book was only a four for them, and the book I thought was a two made it to three in their rating, but we were never that different. It made me wonder what I would think of their favorite, five star books.

What I decided to do, instead of asking for a favorite, was semi-randomly select a five star book from these three friends on Goodreads. I say semi-randomly because, in order to make it a bit of a challenge, I wanted to make sure these were books not already on my to-read list. They needed to be books I probably wouldn't read normally.

So I now have three new books checked out from the library. The first was a five star book from my college friend. We sat through many physics classes together, but I also enjoyed discussing books with her. I recognized several of those books on her list, but I settled on Touching the Void, by Joe Simpson, a survival story of a mountaineer in the Andes. I've heard coworkers discussing this book, and the movie based on it, before, but I was never motivated to pick it up.

The second was from my cousin. Almost everyone in our extended family is a reader, so I knew my cousin would have some good books on her list. I chose The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. This book has popped up here and there in reviews and blogs I've read, and while it's looked interesting, I've never considered reading it before. Based on her review, it looks like my cousin really enjoyed this book.

Last was from my brother. This was a bit harder to pick since a lot of his five star books are already on my to-read list, or at least they are books I could see myself picking up on my own. I've noticed our tastes aren't that different, although growing up he leaned more towards the fantasy side of things, where I read more sci fi. Anyway, I picked Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory.

I have read Graham Greene before. The one I remember was The End of the Affair, which was well written, but failed to make me care about the mentioned affair or its end. My brother, a self proclaimed Greene fan, says that one was probably his least favorite, but The Power and the Glory was much better. I said at the time that I would be willing to give Greene another go, but I've never felt the desire to pick up one of his books since then. We will see how this goes.

I'll admit I'm looking forward to reading these books. It should be an interesting twist to the fiftyfifty challenge.

Courtesy of Jennifer Fischetto | www.jenniferfischetto.com | Originally posted 2.29.2012

Book number seven in the FiftyFifty.Me challenge and the Book Chick City challenge is: Project 17 by Laurie Faria Stolarz.

Book jacket blurb:
High atop Hathorne Hill, just outside of Boston, sits Danvers State Hospital. Built in 1878 and closed in 1992, this abandoned mental institution is rumored to be the birthplace of the lobotomy. Locals have long believed the place to be haunted. They tell stories about the unmarked graves on the premises, and of cold winds felt throughout its underground tunnels. And then there are the treasures found inside, eerie remnants of its former patients: journals, hair combs, bars of soap, even old medical records--all left behind for trespassers to view.

On the eve of the hospital's demolition, six teens break in to spend the night and film a movie about their adventures. For Derik, it's an opportunity to win a filmmaking contest and save himself from a future of flipping burgers at his parents' diner. For the others, it's a chance to be on TV, or for a night with no parents. But what starts as a playful dare quickly escalates into a frenzy of nightmarish action. Behind the crumbling walls and down every dark passageway, these high schoolers will unravel the mysteries of those who once lived there and of the spirits who still might.

My Impressions:
The blurb sounds amazing, I enjoy Laurie's writing and the book is labeled horror, so I expected a great fright. I got a mediocre one. I think my expectations were off. In a few places where it headed in the direction to scare, it ended up being jokes. There were some eerie instances, and had I actually been in the hospital, I would've crapped in my pants, but they didn't touch me as a reader. Again, I believe it was my expectations. I wanted bone chilling horror, with dramatic events, and what was written was a lot more realistic. Had I gone into this expecting reality, I may have "enjoyed" it more.

As for the rest of it...the writing is great. It's due to Laurie's fantastic writing in a short story in the book I reviewed, 666: The Number of the Beast, that I sought this book out. The six teens were interesting. My favorites being Liza and Mimi, with Derik as a close third. I'd call Derik the protagonist, but the entire book is told in alternating (no sequence), first-person chapters from the various kids. A few of them, like Tony, Chet and Greta only receive a few chapters each, while Liza, Mimi and Derik tell their story in more. Each chapter is labeled by each POV, so there's no confusion. The only drawback is at times, I felt there were too many people in my head.

I found myself enthralled by the life stories of Liza, Mimi and Derik, and I couldn't wait to find out where the book ended for them, their emotional arcs. I also couldn't wait to find out answers for many questions regarding the patients (one in particular) who once lived in the hospital. Although the book ended well with the arcs, I was disappointed with the other and left with unanswered questions. Since they didn't pertain to the main story, the book was not a let down.

All-in-all, it's a good book that I recommend to those who enjoy YA suspense with horror elements. :)

BOOKS READ:

• Legend, Marie Lu
• How a Book is Born, Keith Gessen
• The Fault In Our Stars, John Green
• A Visit From the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

MOVIES WATCHED:

• A Separation, Asghar Farhadi
• Chronicle, Josh Trank
• Answer This!, Christopher Farah
• The Secret World of Arrietty, Hiromasa Yonebayashi
• Act of Valor, Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh
• The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius

Don't you hate it when something you've been looking forward to doesn't live up to expectations? Like you leave the theater or get to the last word wanting the experience to have been so much better. Either the hype ruined it or the thing in question just wasn't good enough to warrant the excitement in the first place.

I guess what I'm talking about isn't run of the mill experiences but greatness. For example, I wanted A Visit From the Goon Squad to be great. I wanted The Fault in Our Stars to be great. I even (somewhat illogically) wanted Chronicle would be great. But they all disappointed in some aspect. From now on I'm thinking I should start tracking how good I think something is going to be versus they actually end up being.

For example, I had low expectations for Act of Valor. Basically I just wanted to see some firefights and live out Modern Warfare 3 on the big screen. Bang bang, mission accomplished. After the credits rolled, I couldn't gush enough about how good Valor was, how it exactly met my expectations, and by extension I emerged extremely happy. Was Act of Valor a good movie? Not really. Would I recommend it to most of my friends? Probably not. But due to the middling expectations I set beforehand, it was a fantastic experience.

In contrast, Jennifer Egan's 2011 Pultizer Prize winner was the first book I bought on my Kindle awhile ago and I'd been saving it for when I needed something fantastic to end a month on. In baseball terminology, I was preparing the cleanup hitter in my batting order. Egan was my Barry Bonds and I thought she was going to bring February roaring home.

Instead, A Visit From the Goon Squad was a solid effort but no grand slam. The much lauded chapter told in Powerpoint slides was indeed innovative and fun, but everything that came before and afterwards disappointed me. Egan's writing is smooth, her ability to tell twelve different stories with twelve different voices is impressive, but much like with Hyperion last month, the degree of difficulty and technical execution didn't move me in any way. I need great books to move me and make me want to return immediately.
[Crossposted from www.jonyang.org]

Sometimes you just hit a bump in the road when it comes to reaching your reading goals. So we asked your fellow FiftyFifty.Me’ers what they’d recommend to get your reading off and running again. What books kept them up at night, what books do they love recommending to other people? The discussion took place on our Goodreads page, but for those of you who missed it, here’s that list.

For shorthand, let's just say now that The Hunger Games is the ultimate definition of a lifesaver book; you're likely to go on and devour the trilogy over a span of 48 hours like every other reader out there. So if you haven't read that one, consider starting there.

Want to stay highbrow but still page-turning? Susie G. recommends Cannery Row, Camus’ The Stranger, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, or “anything by JD Salinger or F. Scott Fitzgerald”. Lauren agrees, and added Lord of the Flies to the list. If you somehow managed to skip that one in high school, maybe your time has come. Think of it as the literary LOST.

Jenne, one of our literary experts, recommends these “old school page turners”:
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
The Brothers K by David James Duncan
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Shogun by James Clavell
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by HF Saint
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
anything by Peter O'Donnell (the Modesty Blaise series) or his pseudonym Madeleine Brent (incredibly addictive gothic novels)
anything by Nevil Shute or Ira Levin

My (Lilly’s) personal insta-recommendation list:
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (long but super page-turny)
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
The Dirt by Neil Strauss (anything from our Celebrity Trash Book Club, really)
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Meg Cabot’s “Boy” trilogy (yes, it’s chick lit, and yes, you’ll live)
Mortified (but only if you want to laugh like a maniac in public)
The Thorn Birds
East of Eden (Steinbeck, yes, but it’s juicy!)

Thank you to everyone who participated in the “Lifesavers” conversations on Goodreads, including but not limited to: Jenn, Irene, Angela, Camilla, Roopsi, Jenne, Beth Anne, Selina, and Melanie. A partial list of compiled recommendations from them follows – keep checking back on the website and at our Goodreads group for additions and more comments from your fellow bookworms!

Cannery Row 
Cruddy 
The Book Thief 
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 
The Catcher in the Rye 
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz 
The Picture of Dorian Gray 
The Stranger 
Never Let Me Go 
The Poisonwood Bible 
Watership Down 
I Am the Messenger 
The Great Gatsby 
Lord of the Flies 
Pattern Recognition 
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 
About a Boy 
Alias Grace 
Interpreter of Maladies 
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius 
I Capture the Castle 
The Green Mile 
Middlesex 
The Marriage Plot 
Geek Love 
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War 
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories 
Haroun and the Sea of Stories 
Straight Man 
Their Eyes Were Watching God 
The Buddha of Suburbia 
Anita and Me 
The Farming of Bones 
Passing 
The Inheritance of Loss 
Out Stealing Horses To Siberia 
The Summer Book 
The True Deceiver 
Fair Play 
A Winter Book: Selected Stories by Tove Jansson 
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
No One Thinks of Greenland by John Griesemer
Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis
Becoming Alien by Rebecca Ore
Leaps of Faith by Rachel Kranz
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
 anything by Francesca Lia Block

Described (by Jenn) as “short but good”:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 
The Cement Garden Slaughterhouse-Five 
The Member of the Wedding 
Cold Comfort Farm 
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks 
The Moviegoer 
Black Water 

Some sci fi under 300 pages from Bill:
Fight Club 
Starship Troopers 
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 
Slaughterhouse Five 
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom 

Essays and short stories 
Naked Pictures of Famous People 
Mental 
Who I Was Supposed to Be: Short Stories 
Slouching Towards Bethlehem 
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) 

Want some nonfiction?
A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations by Cintra Wilson
Word Freaks by Stefan Fatsis
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
Positively 5th Street by James McManus
Role Models by John Waters (yes, that John Waters!)

Needs some pictures? Check out one of these graphic novels:
Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie 
Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton TravisLast Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies 
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic 
Persepolis 
Castle Waiting 
Fun Home 

May the reading be swift and the enjoyment great.  Let us know what you think of these selections, and comment if you've got some go-to recommendations of your own!

Courtesy of Resolute Reader | Resolute Reader | Originally posted 2.7.2012

If I was being brutally honest, I'd say that Ready Player One is a vehicle to deliver a particular kind of self-satisfaction to a geeks of a certain age. Or at least those who'd like to think they are. While the story is quite novel, the real satisfaction in his book is spotting and getting the references. As a result the story has a number of plot holes, or deus ex machina which complete the story. But that's not the point. Ready Player One is the sort of read that takes the reader along, rather than trying to deliever a fully rounded plot.

Set in the fairly near future, Earth has become an over-populated, ecological disaster zone. High prices for fossil fuel have meant that the vast majority of the world's population rely utterly on government handouts to survive, or a life of crime. As always a few have made it very rich and corporations run roughshod over people in order to maximise their profits.

As a solution to this misery, a ruclusive video-game designer, obsessed with the culture of the 1980s, creates OASIS, an alternate reality world. This multi-verse has many planets. Players can go to lessons there, move around the planets and, should they earn credits and XP, they can in turn purchase upgrades and expansions, giving them more powers and abilities. OASIS itself is a fully functioning alternate reality. Sex, violence and work exist here. Avatars fight each other for points and prizes, rather than merely points. The creator, James Halliday became the richest man on the planet, and his libetarian, benevolent views have sought to keep OASIS accessible to all.

With his death, Halliday unveils a quest. Those who find the hidden Easter Eggs can inherit his vast fortune. Such a implausible hope inspires millions of people to spend their lives mastering 1980s culture to search out and understand the clues in the hope of freeing themselves from poverty. Of course the corporations too are in on the games, they can afford to pay underlings to learn about obscure computers games, or the lyrics to 1980s songs.

And its here that this bizarre plot actually works. Rather than this becoming some strange work of fiction based on a World Of Warcraft storyline, the internal references to Midnight Oil (The Beds are Burning), the awful sequels to Indiana Jones (post Crystal Skull) and so one are enough to hook those of us who remember the 1980s, or some of it. There is also plenty here for the contemporary geek - who wouldn't vote for Cory Doctorow to be in charge of their online multiverse?

The rag-tag bunch of social misfits to try and solve the clues and win the prize, the vision of the internet / OASIS as some sort of anarchic alternative to reality, and the faceless corporations that kill on a whim are not particularly new, but Ready Player One works, rather surprisingly and make for an amusing Back to the Future type of distraction for a few hours.