Teaser Tuesdays: The Lover

This week my teaser lines come from The Lover by Marguerite Duras. And once again I'm cheating a bit - more than two lines, and these lines are the opening sentences of the book, so they're really not random. But they do sort of reach out and grab you:

One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place a man came up to me. He introduced himself and said, "I've known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you're more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Ravaged." [p.3]

Makes me think of all those great French cinema stars - Jeanne Moreau or Simone Signoret, or even Catherine Deneuve. I once had someone tell me I had the face of a ravaged 8-year-old. Or maybe it was ravished. No, probably not that. Well, neither of those sound like compliments, do they?


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or participate yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page. You also need to share the title of the book that you're getting your "teaser" from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given! Please avoid spoilers!

Tuesday Thingers: SantaThing

Tuesday Thingers is hosted every week by Wendi of Wendi's Book Corner (thanks, Wendi!), and this week her question is about LibraryThing's Christmas gift-giving feature, SantaThing: "Have you ever participated in SantaThing (it is in its third year)? If so, what did you like? Dislike? Are you planning to participate this year?"

I remember SantaThing from last year, but haven't participated. Don't know that I will this year, either. I never really feel very confident about buying books for others, unless I know the other person really well. I don't hesitate to recommend books, but I'm more reluctant to engage in the actual thrusting-upon routine.

And Christmas gift-giving in general can be very traumatic for me – I tend to obsess about finding the perfect gift until the whole activity becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. (OK, I'm neurotic. I admit it.) I'm still considering, but right now I'm thinking that SantaThing might turn into PressureThing, and that's not really something I want to take on!

New Authors Challenge 2010

Well, I was going to give this one a miss because I figured there was no way I would ever be able to read enough new authors in one year to complete the challenge. But after looking at my reading list for this year, I realized that at least twenty or more of the works I read in 2009 were written by new-to-me authors.

So I'm signing up for the New Authors Challenge. It runs through 2010 and it's being hosted by Jackie at Literary Escapism. The idea behind the challenge is pretty simple (which I love, of course) – just commit to reading 15, 25, or 50 authors you've never read before. Think I'll play it safe and just go for 15 to start. After January 1st, I'll be updating my progress on my challenge blog.

The Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge 2010

This is one I could not possibly resist. I had so much fun reading all the books for the 2008-2009 edition of the Thriller & Suspense Challenge, that I'm already looking forward to the Thriller & Suspense 2010 Challenge. It's being hosted this time by Book Chick City, and runs from 1 January to 31 December, 2010. Participants will read twelve books from a number of different sub-genres (see the list here), and the rules are very loose:

"You don't have to select your books ahead of time, you can just add them as you go. Also if you do list them upfront then you can change them, nothing is set in stone! The books you choose can crossover into other challenges you have on the go."

To read more about the challenge, or to sign up, just visit the challenge announcement page here.

I have a number of mysteries/thrillers/suspense novels I was hoping to read this year, but never got around to; so I'll start my list with those, and add to it later. So far, here's what I've got:

1. The Atlantis Revelation. Thomas Greanias
2. The Book of the Dead. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
3. The Forgery of Venus. Michael Gruber
4. Lethal Legacy. Linda Fairstein
5. The Lost Symbol. Dan Brown
6. Mr. Murder. Dean Koontz
7. 
   
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As we go along, I'll be updating all the challenge info on my challenge blog (here); and I'll try to remember to update this post, too. Now I can start looking around for the rest of the books for my list. And I think I enjoy that almost as much as reading the books themselves (more, in some cases).

Booking Through Thursday: Posterity

Do you ever have that dream where you're taking a final exam for one class or another, and when you sit down to go to work you realize you haven't done any of the reading, or attended any of the classes, and don't have even the slightest idea how to answer any of the questions? Well, I haven't had it in quite a while, although it used to be one of my recurring nightmares. And that feeling of panic and frustration that accompanies the dream? Well, that's exactly how I felt when I read this week's Booking Through Thursday topic.

Here's the question: Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?

I feel like I've stumbled into English Lit 101, and you know what? I'm just not ready for this!

So I'll just say that, if I felt qualified to answer it, my response to the first part of this question would be a definite maybe. See, I'm not a big Dickens fan – never have understood the adulation there. And as for the Brontes – well, they wrote a couple of great books (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre), but I really don't think the rest of their output comes up to that level. I can't help thinking that they're actually remembered more for their interesting life stories than for their literary achievements. Jane Austen, on the other hand, is truly one of the greats and no, I don't think there's really anyone writing today who's in her class.

I do believe there is some very fine writing around today – worth reading and remembering and passing on to posterity. But with the future of the book and the future of reading as we know it being debated and researched and pondered in every university, publishing house, book store, and literary or educational establishment on the planet right now, I would not dare make any predictions about what or who will be read a hundred years from now. Let's just hope the human life forms who are still around in 2109 will still be able to read for pure enjoyment or personal enlightenment. And that they'll still have that same passion for reading. But right now, it's hard to be optimistic.

The Chunkster Challenge: Wrap-Up

The Chunkster Challenge 2009 officially ended November 15th, so I'm just a wee bit late in getting this posted. I read several books that would qualify for this challenge, but haven't reviewed all of them. Here's the list (with links to those I have reviewed):

Angels & Demons. Dan Brown (approx. 550 pages)
The Angel's Game. Carlos Ruiz Zafon (544 pages; 470 pages, ARC)
Brimstone. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (512 pages)
Dance of Death. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (451 pages)
The Fire. Katherine Neville (451 pages)
Rabbit Is Rich. John Updike (467 pages)

This was a fun challenge, and it reminded me how satisfying it can be to get involved in a nice, long novel. When I signed up, I was only aiming for the Chubby Chunkster level (just two books), but over the nine months of the challenge I seem to have been quite a glutton for chunksters. I ended up reading six of the things – so I guess I've landed smack in the middle of the Mor-book-ly Obese category!

I want to say thanks to Dana for hosting the challenge, and also that I'm sorry to hear that she's had problems along the way (hope everything gets worked out soon). Also want to thank all the other participants for reviews and recommendations – quite a few more titles got added to the ever-expanding TBR list, and I'm assuming that's a GOOD thing!

And for information about the 2010 Chunkster Challenge, check with Wendy at A Novel Challenge (here).

WWW Wednesdays: 18 November 2009

WWW Wednesdays is a new meme hosted by mizb17 over at Should Be Reading. It asks three (3) questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

And my answers for this week:

Currently (still) reading: Stardust by Joseph Kanon.

Recently finished? Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow (review to come – soon, I hope!).

Reading next? Ignorance by Milan Kundera, The Old Maid by Edith Wharton, The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, and The Lover by Marguerite Duras.

Now, let the world know what's on your reading list. Just click here.