May. 17, 2011 at 2:01pm
Currently re-reading Pride and Prejudice. Just got to Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth, and I really need to stop being so freshly amazed at Austen’s writing with each word I read. Each pause to circle my eyes back around a certain staggering phrase just to gawk at her use of elevated diction impedes my finishing this sooner — I need to move onto my other books.I am then going to re-read Ender’s Game because of news that this book will hit the big screen; it’s going into production within the next year. If you haven’t read this book and you’re a guy, you should pick it up and give it a go! You’ll love it. I’m not even trying to be markedly sexist by saying, “This is a man’s book and you little ladies can run along and read P&P.” But it’s a futuristic science fiction novel about the world’s top children training at Battle School in preparation for an invasion by an insectoid alien race. Pride and Prejudice is about a lower class girl and a wildly wealthy gentleman who grow to fight against the pride and prejudices within their social circles along with their own personal pride and prejudices because of their intractable love for each other. Some books just do not scream “gender neutral.” But FOR THE RECORD, I am totally against “guys should read this, girls should read this.” You should just pick up any damn book and read; it makes you a better person. Unless it’s Twilight. You dump that in the trash.I will then tackle Infinite Jest by one of my absolute favorite authors, David Foster Wallace. It’s a huge novel at over 1,000 pages, but I heard it’s hilariously funny and cannot wait to curl up with it. Wallace, along with Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver, has shaped the way I write and think about short stories forever. I live and breathe in their stories. He was a professor at the ever prestigious Pomona College in my hometown, Claremont. He walked the streets I walk everyday. He became severely depressed in the later years of his life and subsequently hanged himself. What a tragic loss for the writing community. Truly one of the biggest influences in modern writing!

Currently re-reading Pride and Prejudice. Just got to Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth, and I really need to stop being so freshly amazed at Austen’s writing with each word I read. Each pause to circle my eyes back around a certain staggering phrase just to gawk at her use of elevated diction impedes my finishing this sooner — I need to move onto my other books.

I am then going to re-read Ender’s Game because of news that this book will hit the big screen; it’s going into production within the next year. If you haven’t read this book and you’re a guy, you should pick it up and give it a go! You’ll love it. I’m not even trying to be markedly sexist by saying, “This is a man’s book and you little ladies can run along and read P&P.” But it’s a futuristic science fiction novel about the world’s top children training at Battle School in preparation for an invasion by an insectoid alien race. Pride and Prejudice is about a lower class girl and a wildly wealthy gentleman who grow to fight against the pride and prejudices within their social circles along with their own personal pride and prejudices because of their intractable love for each other. Some books just do not scream “gender neutral.” But FOR THE RECORD, I am totally against “guys should read this, girls should read this.” You should just pick up any damn book and read; it makes you a better person. Unless it’s Twilight. You dump that in the trash.

I will then tackle Infinite Jest by one of my absolute favorite authors, David Foster Wallace. It’s a huge novel at over 1,000 pages, but I heard it’s hilariously funny and cannot wait to curl up with it. Wallace, along with Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver, has shaped the way I write and think about short stories forever. I live and breathe in their stories. He was a professor at the ever prestigious Pomona College in my hometown, Claremont. He walked the streets I walk everyday. He became severely depressed in the later years of his life and subsequently hanged himself. What a tragic loss for the writing community. Truly one of the biggest influences in modern writing!