and this is what it is like...

day #2: a book that you’ve read more than three times

meme list can be found here.

day#2: a book you’ve read more than three times

there are so many books i’ve read more than three times. i can’t even think.  doubel act (by jacqueline wilson) was the first one, which is odd, because i hated everything else the woman ever wrote except the lottie project. all the harry potter books.  the lord of the rings. more recently the perks of being a wallflower.  plus many, many other things when i was a child.

but the one i keep coming back to is:

jane eyre by charlotte bronte.

jane and i had a troubled beginning.  there was this beautiful hard back copy that sat in our living room.  i saw the orson welles film sometime when i was around eight or nine, and was captivated. immediately, i wanted to try to read the book.  but i couldn’t get along with the beautiful hard back. something about it just didn’t agree with me. it wasn’t until my mum gave me her old copy from school that, suddenly, everything clicked. the copy was old. the copy was falling apart (since then, some of the pages have fallen out, and the spine cover has actually fallen off too). it was orange. it was hideous.

it was perfect.

who doesn’t know the story of jane eyre? it has everything. orphans, religion, romance, betrayal, crazy attic wives, the works! it’s all so over the top and it’s fantastic.  bronte creates this real feeling of repressed feelings, if that makes any sense.  jane has moral boundaries for herself and by god will she stick to them.  i like that in a person.  maybe it’s why omar is my favourite character from the wire. though i am not directly comparing the two in any way. that would be weird.

anyway.

i much prefer charlotte’s writing to emily’s, at least in terms of emily’s one novel, wuthering heights. charlotte’s is expansive and over-the-top without being so bleak and morose and (in places) utterly batshit as emily’s. jane eyre is first and foremost a look into jane’s head, and secondly - but not any less importantly - a really good, compelling story. it is also very much of its time.  the religious aspects, i feel, have to be read in the context not only of charlotte’s life as the daughter of a minister, but in the context of that period in english history.  i feel in this novel, moreso than any of her other, charlotte allows the plot to overcome the religious aspect in the novel. it’s certainly far more palatable in that respect than any of her subsequent novels, if one can call “the professor” subsequent.  

it’s my comfort book. it’s the book i can open at any page and start reading and feel like i’m at home.  it’s the book i take everywhere. it’s nowhere near the BEST book i’ve ever read. but it does exactly what i want it to. i will read it over and over and over and never tired of the world the charlotte created (i might have to get myself a new copy though).

if you are a reader, come in… or, book post #1

Day 01 – Best book you read last year
Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
Day 03 – Your favorite series
Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favorite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favorite writer
Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 – Favorite male character
Day 16 – Favorite female character
Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time

(props to whoever came up with this meme, i found it floating around on the big wide web)

so, i’m pretty much finished with uni for the next few weeks, so you can expect some actual posts on here! i didn’t expect this year to be so hectic.  i thought i would post more.  hopefully this will spur me on.  maybe not, but at least i tried.

anyway! here is the thirty-day book meme!

day #1: your favourite book you read last year.

okay, i’m going to take a teensy liberty with this one and read it as, “within the last year”.  because honestly?  i cannot remember a single thing i read last year except atonement, which i hated.  it’s partially because i didn’t catalogue anything on goodreads up until midway through this year, and partially because so much happened since september last year that i actually haven’t got the memory space for anything unless i write that shit down. 

however, by far and away the best book i have read this year is perdido street station by china mieville.

as far as i can tell, china mieville has a big, big world inside his head.

this book is set in one city.  just the one.  there’s pretty much no outside involvement, unless you count the place where yagharek comes from, and that’s only really mentioned.  but this city is huge.  it’s truly massive.  there’s the ribs, and the university district, and the place where all the hipster bug-people live, and perdido street station itself, and a thousand other things, plenty of which i probably didn’t even pick up on.  the city is dark and dingy and murky and yet has this magical, alluring something about it.  imagine a place with cactus people, and humans with bugs for heads, called khepri, and people made out of water, and regular humans, all together, all struggling for something…

i can’t even begin to describe what this book is about without ruining it entirely.  i’ve seen some reviews describe the plot as “meandering” and i just can’t agree.  i was gripped from the very first moment, first by a sense of apprehension, then foreboding, then outright dread.  in its essentials, the book follows a scientist, a man named Isaac dan der Grimnebulin, who conducts his research in a dingy set of rooms in the university district. one day, a garuda - essentially a humanoid bird - comes to him, asking for help.  this garuda has been stripped of his wings, and wants to find a way to fly, truly fly. isaac has his own problems: his girlfriend is a khepri, AND an artist, and their relationship is becoming a little strained.

i loved the characters in this book.  i loved all of them, even the horrible ones.  mieville has this way of humanising characters that you wouldn’t imagine it would be possible to humanise.  i find it difficult to connect to a book if there’s nothing i can relate to about any of the characters - whether it be in their characters themselves, or the things they represent (see brideshead revisited for a good example of the latter).  where characters lack a human aspect it rarely works.  look at spock, or k-pax, or the iron giant.  they work because they’re humanised in the very best sense of the word, despite not being human themselves.  they’re given an empathetic quality.  mieville achieves this in spades, particularly with the garuda and the khepri.  again, it’s hard to describe without spoiling the book, but the arcs of lin, isaac, and yagharek were dark, and addictive, and excellent.

the crown of mieville’s achievement with this book, though, are the words themselves.  as is probably reasonably obvious, i’m a sucker for beautiful prose.  what makes a book really shine for me are the words in themselves, the way they’re put together.  it’s a little bit like music and a little bit like alchemy.  again, this isn’t to everyone’s taste, but mieville’s extensive vocabulary makes this novel into a creature of beauty.  the writing is somewhat lyrical and always magical.

if i’m not coherent, it’s because i’m a little bit in love.

the reason i have tried so hard to avoid spoilers is because i want everyone to read this book.  okay, not everyone is going to like it.  it isn’t for everyone.  but it deserves tried.  and i’m pretty sure some of the rest of you will fall in love like i did!

***

that last part should also serve as a warning: from tomorrow on, there will be spoilers. 

also, hugebigmassive thanks to Craig, who introduced me to this book in the first place.  must be love :)