A List of Lists: Reading Challenges

I am a huge fan of reading challenges. Oh, who am I kidding. I'm a huge fan of challenges in general - especially when I come across them in list form. If there's a list of things that need to be ticked off, then by golly I will try to do that.

Working in the library means that yes, I have access to and often read a lot of books. Why not make a list of them, or read particular ones? Why not try to expand my reading repertoire?

Thus began my main reading challenge - a family wide one (we're very bookish) with a whole bunch of relatives all seeking to mark off a list to see who can finish it first. ("It's not a competition though!")

And, because I like to make life hard for myself, I also set my own personal challenges - another 3 in fact -

Dana's Reading Challenge List

1. The family 'Reading Challenge' - 52 Books in Different Categories
2. Adult Fiction - 26 books, one for each letter of the alphabet
3. Young Adult Fiction - 26 books, one for each letter of the alphabet
4. Children's Fiction - again, 26 books, one for each letter of the alphabet

Why, Dana? Why do you do this to yourself? Especially the books in alphabetical order, and in YA and Children's? Well, I'll tell you why - in another list!

• Forcing myself to go by letters means I'll probably pick up books I wouldn't think of, just because the letter won't have anything I normally read;

• This situation - "This looks like such a lovely book... BUT it's children/YA fiction." should happen less. Why not judge a book by its cover and read it for that instead of whats on the inside (or who it's 'meant' for)?

• Being a young(er) library assistant means that when kids or teens need a recommendation, co-workers often send them to me for help.
  Having a limited knowledge of children/teen fiction means that I've steered too many kids towards 'popular' series - The Hunger Games, Geronimo Stilton, anything by Robert Muchamore for someone after 'action-y books'. While the books are popular for a reason, I'd like being able to cater to a kids preferences better. If they've read The Hunger Games, Divergent series, The Maze Runner - what can they read next? What else is there? You know, I don't know... But I'm hoping reading 52 books that aren't adult will help me find out.

• Also, I like lists. Did I mention I like making lists, and crossing things off of lists? 

So I figure, since I've made so much work for myself already, I might as well make a little more and share my reviews with you as well every so often (as I share them on my family 'Reading Challenge Page' on facebook anyway).

But not today. Today I'll just share the original Reading Challenge with you. Let me know if you have any challenges of your own going on! Or, if you have any recommendations (for example, I'm not a fan of classics, so if you have a favourite then let me know, because choosing it myself would just be 'whatever-classic-is-the-shortest') for either the categories OR the alphabet ones I'm doing. I've already started, and have crossed some off, but don't let that stop you from giving me your opinions!

Or anything else to do with lists, or goals you have in mind to complete by the end of the year. Because, as I said - I love lists (and I can't be the only one).

Sneak Peak: Poldark:Or Brooding Men In Tight Breeches

Tall, dark and brooding .  It's a thing.  A very valid thing.

And if it's your kind of thing then the new version of Poldark is just what you've been waiting for.

There are men in tight breeches giving manly stares and women, who act all damoselling (it's a word, at least in my world it is) and wear dresses where breathing is most likely a problem.  There's also love lost and love found and treachery and hard times and of course the beautiful Cornish scenery which is swoon worthy all on its on.

And then there is Aidan Turner, he of Being Human and Hobbit fame, who is most definitely swoon worthy if tall, dark and brooding is your thing.  Throw in a couple of shirtless scenes (and yes there are some) and I'm sold.

And if you find that waiting week by week is just a bit too long to go for your fix then you'll be very pleased to know that there is a whole series of books about the Poldark family and their friends starting with Ross Poldark by Winston Graham.  And even better there is the original series, Poldark,which we have at the library on DVD.

Swoony feels all round.

Your Favourite Media

An interview with myself in which I ask myself about my reading habits. So meta!

Hello. What is your favourite kind of media?

Books! Hands down, it’s books. I mean, you can’t live without music, and I love blogs, but books are my number one.

Where do you get your books from, the library? Or do you buy them?

I get most of my books from the library. I sometimes buy books but usually after I’ve test-driven a library copy first.

So you re-read books?

Sometimes. I mostly read nonfiction, so if I buy a book I’ve already read it’s for future dipping-in, rather than for reading it again from cover to cover. I like to have books around.

What do you mostly read?

Mostly nonfiction. My favourite books are ones about interior decorating, but anything might take my fancy: architecture, art, photography, craft, biography, history, science, social issues, fashion, whatever.

Do you ever not finish reading a book?

Yes, all the time. There are too many excellent books in the world to waste time on lame ones.

How many books do you usually have on your library card at a time?

You can only get out 35 books at a time, so I’m usually in the 30s. It’s probably a good thing that there’s a limit to how much you can borrow at one time. And thank goodness for due dates! Deadlines are great for getting books read.

I hear that! What do you think of e-books?

I think e-books are great for books that don’t have pictures. I like being able to touch a word and get the definition, and I like the iPad for reading at night. If it’s just text, like a novel or a biography, then e-books are excellent for that.

So you read e-books yourself?

Sometimes, but only for books with no pictures. Don’t laugh.

I’m not laughing?

Anyway, I don’t think that, for example, coffee table books could really work on e-readers. Like, if there are a lot of photos or pictures I’d rather look at them in a big glossy tree-book. But I love e-audiobooks, especially about science or history or something, if it’s told in an interesting way. And podcasts! Yeah!

Where do you get ideas for what to read next?

I read the Auckland Libraries New Book Lists every month and have a bit of a reserving frenzy. I also get ideas from magazine reviews, and stuff I see in bookshops or read about on blogs. Or word of mouth. Just anywhere, really. I have a bit of FOMO about books and a bit of anxiety if I’m behind on my reserving.

Anxiety?

Yeah totally. Being at the bottom of a long line of holds is…challenging! I like to have a lot of books at home, all the time, and lots of books coming in. A big fear of mine is being stuck somewhere with nothing to read. And don’t even get me started on magazines. American Vogue, British Vogue, Australian Vogue, there’s a new issue every month! Vogue anxiety, I has it.

What is your favourite book?

That’s like asking someone who their favourite child* is! I’ve thought about this before, and while I can’t seriously pick just one book, I’ll say ‘Pineapple: King of Fruits’ by Fran Beauman.

Is that a book about pineapples?

Well, yes. But it’s also about history, trade, colonialism and horticulture. It was one of the first nonfiction books I read that just sparked something in me, where I just thought “Yeah! Nonfiction is for me!”

You’re a total nerd.

What’s your point?

Do you keep track of all the books you read?

Yes I do. I have Library Thing account where I record nonfiction books I’ve read that I really like. But I’m way behind on updating it, so I also have lots of lists. Like, a lot of lists. I have list anxiety.

Would you like to tell me anything else about your reading habits?

Once I brought a wheelie suitcase to the library with me to pick up all my holds. It was one of my cleverest ideas ever!

Thanks for sharing your favourite media here at PopculturAL. Readers, stay tuned for the next exciting instalment of Your Favourite Media, where I will interview someone who is not me. Honest.

*I do not have a favourite child, but I concede that it might be whichever one is asleep.

GNU Terry Pratchett

When I hear people mention things about fantasy, my knowledge is pretty much limited to fairy tales, those little ones with badass chicks on the front or Terry Pratchett. And even about those things, I hardly know much of outside of the books I've read. I don't really care much for the lives authors have outside of writing the books I love - except for if they're writing their next book and when can I have it.

However, just because I don't know jack about the world of authors and what they do, it didn't stop me from shedding a tear or two earlier this month when I found out that Terry Pratchett died.

I know nothing about him, except that he wears wide brimmed hats, appeared as cameos in film versions of his books and that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's (courtesy of one of my great reader friends who was devastated at the news). I know nothing about the guy personally and I know nothing about who he was as a person - but I did know that he wrote very, very amazing books.
So, I won't pretend I know him and write about how amazing he was and how he changed the world, whether he did or not. I'll write about the only thing I feel at liberty to write about.

His books have a magical kind of power. Discworld, his main series (which can also be read as stand alone novels) is a mess of hilarious illogical logic and such detailed and reasonable chaos that you either had to put the book down because it was too much to grasp, or fall directly down the rabbit hole into the most amazing, well put together world that you can actually imagine co-existing with ours in some kind of crazy parallel universe. Funny, stupid, wise, heartbreaking, all rolled into one.

The first Terry Pratchett book I ever read was Going Postal (the second word will link you to the film instead of the book, as the first does). As such, it holds a special place in my heart as my favourite book in the Discworld series. No, I haven't read all of them - I just checked Wikipedia and I've only read 11 out of the 41 listed there (did I mention I don't keep track of this stuff?). Anywho, Moist von Lipwig's adventures into being a Postmaster was my first adventure into Discworld, and I still haven't left.

Moist is a scruffian big-time crook, who likes to have money, and lots of it. He likes it especially if it comes out of others pockets - which he often dips into. When finally caught by Lord Vetenari, he has the choice of either dying or facing the ultimate punishment... Becoming the Postmaster of Ankh-Morporks run-down and shabby postal office.

His first in the Discworld series, The Colour of Magic (also a film), is literally about the very first tourist Ankh-Morpork has ever seen, Twoflower. As he wanders about in pursuit of fun and wonder (ie. dragons, barbarians, bar fights), his travel guide, the not-wizard Rincewind of Ankh-Morpork is driven around the bend by the constant shenanigans Twoflower gets them into, and he tries very hard not to let them get killed. That's it. No epic romance or spell-flinging swordfights (or not very many, at least) and yet it's everything that there is to love about the Discworld.

Which, by the way, is the (flat) world, on a disc, on the back of four giant elephants, on the back of an even bigger, great turtle flying through space.

I'm pretty sure Terry Pratchett is the only author who can think up the Discworld and still make a reader believe it, make them say, 'Okay, I get that. I see how that can work'.

The last in my favorite series in the Discworld of his (the Tiffany Aching series) was his last book he ever managed to write, and is planned to be published this year posthumously. If you ever feel the need to pick up one of his books, I suggest starting with The Wee Free Men, the first in that series. Its under Teen Fiction (and in some cases, Children's) but don't let that fool you. It's as amazing as any others of his. If you feel the need, order some of his books - read them for the first time, or the fifth time. Read all of them, or only one.

Why would a criminal taking over a post office be interesting? Why do you need to know what a tourist gets up to on his first OE? Why do I care what Death the Reaper is doing on a farm or dressed up as Santa the Hogfather (again, a film) or how a sports team made of incompetent wizards does? The answer is, I don't know. I don't know how it could pull me in as much as it did - it just did. That is the power, the magic of what Terry Pratchett did. And this is what I, and all of his fans all over the world, will miss.

'Certain things have to happen before other things. Gods play games with the fates of men. But first they have to get all the pieces on the board, and look all over the place for the dice.' - Soul Music

Shaking hands with Death - Sandara

Cats, books, love and eco-feminism.

I've been thinking a lot during the past few months about animals. How much they mean to me, and to us all. I grew up with one parent whose often very small flats were packed to the rafters with greyhounds and whippets, which accounts for the fact that most of my life I have been a dog person. Last year, my flat took in a cat that I immediately dismissed as 'rude' and 'snobby' (cat like) because she didn't leap into my arms immediately or respond to my meowing. However, tentatively, Lacey warmed to me and I to her. She was my first love of the cat world, and I became reliant on her companionship - I adopted her when our flat broke up and she moved house with me, and it became a source of pride to look after her well and see that she was happy, buy her the best kitty biscuits and make sure her fur was brushed. I felt like a grown up, and was glad to have a dependent. She was empirically and objectively the best cat to ever live, and when she was hit by a car the day before Christmas last year, her death really devastated me. I'm still heartbroken and I don't think I will ever be able to love another cat. I spend a lot of time looking at our pictures together, and watching the one video I have of her licking my eyelids.

This post is dedicated to her, and to all animals domestic and wild. At about the same time that Lacey entered my life, I had my job interview at Parnell Library and while I was there I borrowed a book which caught my eye, and which started something of a breadcrumb trail of fiction and non fiction, which fit very well with my romance with Lacey. That book was A New Zealand Book of Beasts, which is a wonderfully absorbing overview of the myriad roles of animals in the lives of New Zealanders. Covering animals in farming and agriculture, domestication and companionship, and representation in literature, art, and mythology, I found this book to be a very rewarding and compelling lesson in our cultural history. There are thrilling facts about the relationship of ancient Maori to our bird-life which blew my little mind, some adorable anecdotes, a look at the work of such beloved names as Janet Frame and Witi Ihimaera, and most importantly the ethical aspects of human-animal relations offer significant insights to some of the political characteristics of New Zealanders as a people. I would recommend this to vegans and vegetarians, agriculturalists and art historians alike, and it is a book that has had a lasting impact on my imagination and critical bearings.

Second in line in my breadcrumb trail of books about animals was The Postmodern Animal by Steve Baker, a treasure I found shelving in the basement not too long after finishing A New Zealand Book of Beasts, drawn in by the very appealing of a shark with a crudely executed painting clamped between its jaws (very cute). A more specifically art-focused collection of essays, Baker explores the animal via the lens of Postmodern theories of identification and creativity in a variety of mediums, including performance art, sculpture, and fiction writing. For fans of Derrida, performance art, body politics and so forth - another effectual and enjoyable collection of essays.

Thirdly, as I was growing weary of the academic and conceptual, I turned to the work of Megan Mayhew Bergman on a recommendation from a library patron. Not only was it like a soothing balm to my brain after my non fiction binge, to my delight (I do love serendipity) it tied in with everything I had been reading and thinking about, and perhaps because it is Mayhew's craft, everything I had been feeling. Birds of a Lesser Paradise is a collection of short stories which focuses on the inner lives of a handful of women, each with reference to their relationship with the animal world. A woman compelled to visit the once loathed pet parrot of her now dead mother. A woman affianced to the landscape and wildlife of the swamp but divided by her father's deteriorating health and dreams of capturing an endangered species. A recovering alcoholic who searches for redemption volunteering in an animal shelter. Mayhew traverses companionship, independence, motherhood, identification and subjugation in a way that is deft, simple, yet rarefied and almost spiritual. Birds of a Lesser Paradise reveals, as do A Book of New Zealand Beasts and The Postmodern Animal, the complex and profound relationships we have with animals, and the interweaving strands of political, historical and cultural relevance that make them up but often go unnoticed. Beneath the subtle prose lies encouragement of radical ecological and feminist theories, and I was not surprised to learn that Mayhew is married to a veterinarian and lives on a small farm in Vermont (a dream existence if I were ever to picture one). I was also not surprised to discover that her latest collection of short stories published January of this year, Almost Famous Women is just as exquisite to read. A glimpse into the private lives of extraordinary women who were nonetheless only a footnote in the lives of larger personalities, it is just as touching and attentive as Birds of a Lesser Paradise.

So! Go forth, read, and give some extra attention to your animal friends. And here is Lacey, R.I.P