Reading Challenge: The Results

Currently Reading: The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

So the short month of February has come to a close and March is already trucking along at a terrifying pace. The shamrocks, leprechauns and excessive amounts of green have quickly replaced the red hearts, cupids and excessive amounts of pink; the population anxiously – and impatiently – awaits the Groundhog’s prediction of early spring to come to fruition; and the sun is beginning to push its way into longer and longer days.

It is the end of the shortest – and yet somehow the longest – month, and so too is it the end of my blog reading challenge.

It occurred to me that with my last challenge, the results were readily known. It was easy to know whether or not I failed because the nine products of the challenge were publically posted. However, this reading challenge of reading four books in the month of February produced results that were off (the computer) screen. And as I’m sure you’re all just dying to know all about my reading habits, I thought I should perhaps dedicate a short blog post to the results.

Plus, this way I get the satisfaction of saying:

I DID IT!!! J

That’s right! I read four books in February! Although, I didn’t exactly stick to the pace of reading one book a week. In fact, I wonder a little bit whether or not I should consider this challenge successfully completed because I feel I may have cheated a little. After all, I started my first book (The Return of the King) two days before January ended and the last book I read was The Old Man and the Sea, which took all of 24 hours to finish. However, I’m considering the challenge a victory because I did make a small dent in a fifth book (the one I’m currently reading) before February passed into March.

In case you’re wondering what books made the reading list – and what books you can expect posts about in the coming weeks – I’ve listed them below.

1. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

3. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

4. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

I really enjoy setting these personal goals related to my reading and writing so I expect this won’t be the last. If you have any suggestions of reading or writing challenges I might take on, please let me know!

You Never Get Over Your First Love – Too Bad Mine is Fictional

Currently Reading: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Full disclosure: I got this idea from an article someone posted on Facebook from a site called Hello Giggles. If you’d like to read that article, I’ve included the link below:

http://hellogiggles.com/literary-crushes-objectifying-the-men-of-books

In the Hello Giggles article, the author describes all the literary men she has crushes on, including such dashing figures as Mr. Darcy and Mr. Rochester as well as some slightly more unorthodox love interests like Wolverine from the X-men comic strips.

So this article got me thinking. I’ve long known that fictional men – both in literature and in film – have essentially ruined my chances at being satisfied with a real-life relationship. They are dreamy, intelligent and strong. Furthermore, they always know just what to say or do to make the heroine – and the reader – swoon in a way that no real person ever possibly could. 

But who, specifically, got the ball rolling and set the bar too high?

I started going over all my favorite romance stories in my head, trying to decide which ones I thought were the greatest; which men were the ones I wanted to leap off the page and carry me off into the sunset. Naturally, some of the men on the Hello Giggles list popped into my head. I mean, what woman isn’t in love with Mr. Darcy? And I’ve already explained how I want a man to love me the way Mr. Rochester loves Jane Eyre in my post about that book.

I thought of some more obscure love stories, like the one between Daine and Numair in the Tortall books Wildmage series (books by Tamora Pierce that are not widely known but are intensely loved by its followers). Their first kiss was a long awaited scene for me, as the two maintained a platonic relationship for the majority of the four-book series, and I remember repeatedly reading it as an adolescent.

As I went through all these men trying to piece together my own list of literary crushes, I realized that I loved them, but only with their heroine. Although I love Mr. Rochester for the way he loves Jane Eyre, he’s too rough around the edges for me. I’m elated every time Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy end up together, but I wouldn’t want to marry Mr. Darcy myself (I know. I may have to give up my second X-chromosome for that confession).

Over and over, I really looked at each of my literary dream men and came to the same conclusion. Out of all these handsome, brave, and romantic men, the only one with whom I couldn’t find a fault is the first one who popped into my head; practically the first romantic hero I ever encountered:

I am and always will be in love with Prince Charmont from Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted.

Yes, that is a children's/young adult book.

But I can't help it! I will always want a man like Prince Charmont, aka Char. He’s gentle and kind yet strong enough to fight trolls. He’s brave and diplomatic, considerate and even-tempered - all the perfect traits for the leader of a kingdom. However, what makes Char my one true literary love is that underneath all his properness, he’s still just a kid at heart. 

I desperately want a man who knows how to be an adult in the right situation, but will still use his buttons as a trail when we explore an abandoned castle; a man who will slide down a stair banister with me, catch me at the bottom and then cry, “Again!” I love Char for his eagerness to laugh and to make others laugh. 

I also love Char for writing letters. I’m sure it’s just another indication of my obsession with words, but I love that he takes the time to write, sharing his days, thoughts, and faults in detail, things I can barely get some guys to tell me, let alone commit to paper.

So no matter what else happens, I will never get over my first fictional love. I will always dream of receiving a letter that ends:

“Love (it is such a relief to pen the word!), love, love – Char” (pg. 182).

Reading Challenge and Recommendations

Currently Reading: The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

Hello everyone! After the success of my November challenge for myself – nine new blog posts in one month – I’ve decided to take on another one. However, this time I’m switching my focus. Instead of setting a writing goal, I’m turning my attention to my reading habits. Thus do I embark on my February challenge:

One Book a Week for this Geek! Four for February

Why yes. I am proud of that title.

And more importantly, that’s right! I’m determined to read one book for every week in February (i.e. four books for the month). I figure that was a fairly normal reading pace for me in college so it can’t be too hard an undertaking. Yet, it will hopefully help me to fulfill a personal goal, which is spending more time with my nose in a book rather than with my eyes glued to the TV. Fortunately, my favorite television shows are making it easier and beginning to endlessly suck… but that’s a rant for some other time and a different blog.

So with The Return of the King as my first book for the month (despite beginning it two days ago, in January), I will read four books in February. Furthermore, I’m holding myself accountable for this goal by proclaiming it on my blog, which, theoretically, means I’m holding myself accountable to others.

In the meantime, since this is likely to decrease my posting for the next month, I decided I’d give some more reading suggestions for you to fill the time in my absence. Again, the summaries come from the books’ back covers.

1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

“Pi Patel, a God-loving boy and the son of a zookeeper, has a fervent love of stories and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family and their zoo animals emigrate from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship. Alas, the ship sinks – and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi. Can Pi and the tiger find their way to land? Can Pi’s fear, knowledge, and cunning keep him alive until they do?”

I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear or not from the five or six times I’ve mentioned Life of Pi in this blog, but I really love this book. It’s beautifully written and despite the lack of action, Martel does a great job of making the plot compelling. But the reason I keep mentioning this book is that it keeps me thinking and guessing after the fact. I’ve read it twice, my best friend has read it four times and we still find new nuggets of metaphor and meaning each time we read it. It’s not a great book to read over an extended period, in short intervals, but it’s a wonderful novel, especially when you have a chunk of time to dedicate to it.

2. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

“With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning.”

It’s been a while since I’ve read this novel so the details of it are a little fuzzy. What isn’t fuzzy is how wonderful and complex the characters and stories are; how tragic and romantic the plot is. Even if you’ve seen the movie, it’s nothing compared to the book. In fact, part of what I find so frustrating about the movie is that it barely touches on the depths of the characters I loved best, Hana and Kip. Believe me, there’s a reason this novel is a prizewinner and is taught in so many English courses.

3. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

“We hear the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. Unfortunately, Sister Mary Loquacious of the Chattering Order has misplaced the Antichrist. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles. And the representatives from Heaven and Hell have decided they actually like the human race…”

This recommendation is partly for my friend who is reading this for her book club as encouragement. It really is awesome. If you are at all a fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you will certainly enjoy Good Omens. It has the same style of humor, subverting expectations, playing with words and cleverly reworking one of the most well known stories – the story of the Apocalypse. It’s light and fun reading, despite centering on such a morbid topic. 

Here’s hoping these suggestions will entice you to also put your nose in a book this coming month.