The Accidental Existence

This book should have been titled "The Accidental Existence".

“Bueller…Bueller.” We all know that boring professor from the totally awesome movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” The movie inspired its viewers to seize each and every day with laughter and spontaneity. The professor, however, was completely the opposite and could probably kill someone slowly with his dull voice and vacant face. Unfortunately the hero (if I can call him that) of The Accidental Tourist, Macon Leary, is, in my vision of him, a younger, unexpectedly handsome version of that very professor. His face is without expression, his voice is dreary and his very body is unfamiliar with any joyful life experiences.

Macon Leary is a sad man when we meet him in this story. His wife just asked for a divorce around the two year marking of his 10 year old son’s murder. He is numb and rightfully so. In the beginning of the story I did feel very sorry for him because of everything he’s been through. As the story continued Macon’s OCD behaviors surfaced and we were introduced to his familiar and neurotic siblings. They could argue for 10 minutes about whether or not to close a window and who, if anyone should do the closing depending on proximity, physical strength, pleasant temperature comfort levels and age. It was ridicules, but slightly entertaining.

At the end, Macon finally realized he had lived all his life without making any decisions and everything that came into or left his life was all by chance. I read a quote somewhere that said, “the brain likes decisions”. Well if that’ true then Macon’s brain must have been as mad as hell. The book ends with Macon realizing how his life has unfolded so far and in order to change anything he had to figure out what he REALLY wanted and what to do to get it. I was actually proud of him at the very end. As far as inspiration books about “Seizing the Day!” go there are better ones out there. I wouldn’t waste my time reading this one.

Please NO MORE TRAVELS!

About a quarter of the way through Swift’s, Gulliver’s Travels, I realized I DON’T LIKE GULLIVER. I don’t like his arrogance, I don’t like his family values, I don’t like his personality and I especially don’t like the way he writes. Gulliver went to school for medicine and was employed on ships traveling to various places around the globe. He just so happened to end up either shipwrecked, ambushed and whatnot to find himself on these mysterious islands apart from his fellow shipmates. He isn’t a writer, he’s a doctor and therefore does not know how to WRITE about his travels very well.

For instance, his first island was Lilliput, where the people were six inches tall. He went on and on about how big he was, how many supplies it took to feed him, house him, etc. On and on and on. He did have some unique experiences there since their culture was similar to the English (royalty, laws, etc.), but he didn’t keep my interest in describing any occurrences. It was more a dry account of the Lilliputians lives. Bor-ing. When he landed in Brobdingnag he was small and they were giants. Again he went on and on and on about the size differences. He described each item in a room, each bug on the ground and practically everything he encountered. Soooo repetitive. Thus far in the novel I was bored with Gulliver’s accounts and lack of personality and hoping it would get better.

The strangeness of his next tours and shipwrecks were in fact interesting, but still poorly described by Gulliver. He kept writing about how much of his story he was leaving out about because he didn’t want to bore the reader with ship traveling details. HA!

The last country he stayed in was the home of intelligent horses called the Houynhnms. They are the equivalent species of their country as human are to our countries (the dominant species). The Yahoos were a race of unrefined “humans” who were more like savage animals than rational beings. Gulliver stayed there for 5 years and ended up loving the horses and detesting the Yahoos. This is where I really started to disliked his personality. He was so overcome with the Houynhunm race that when he returned to England he wouldn’t even let his wife sit at the dinner table with him. He was discussed with her smell, her look and their children. He would literally get sick if near other humans and lived out his life thinking he was superior to these human Yahoos and detested anything they did or said. He resented and hated mankind.

He missed all the lessons he learned over his travels. Every country and their peoples have unique traditions, circumstances and values. It is important as a traveler to understand these differences and see and appreciate the history and reasoning behind the culture. Gulliver did that with every country he visited, but not with his home of England. He ended up hating his life instead of finding things to appreciate in it. On a family note, Gulliver would sail away on a trip, be gone for 3-5 years, have his adventure and make it back home to his family only to stay there for 3-6 months before leaving again. He said 6 months with his wife and children was long enough and his craving for travel overpowered any desire for home. He shouldn’t have married in the first place then. It irritated me that he even started a family and I felt so sorry for them.

Overall, I was disappointed. I was hoping it would be an adventurous book I could read to my children someday, but there is no way I could bore them with this book. In this case I think I’d just encourage them to watch the movie instead. OMG – I can’t believe I suggested that! Oh well. I hope Devon has a better experience than I did.

~Kelly

This Cheese Didn't Cut It! And More...

Unlike Kelly, I seriously struggled with Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms and only made it through half of the book before I just couldn't force myself to pick it up anymore. I felt as though I was reading the same thing over and over and found the writing a bit disconnected and choppy. Therefore, I don't have much else to say about the book.

So far I have not had much luck with the more educational-type books. Between the travel book we read earlier this year (Roads to Santiago by Cees Nooteboom) and this one - I am just not enjoying them! I have high hopes for our next round of books, as we will be reading Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer, a book that has interested me for some time, and Medieval Cities: Their Origin and the Revival of Trade by Henri Pirenne, a time-period I find absolutely fascinating!

So to recap, we set out in late January on a mission to read a book from each of the genres listed in 501 Must-Read Books. Having finished the first round of eight books, we will soon begin round two:

• The Accidental Tourist by Anne Taylor (Modern Fiction)
• Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer (Travel Writing)
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (Children's Fiction)
• Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (Memoirs)
• The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne (Thrillers)
• Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne (Science Fiction)
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (Classic Fiction)
• Medieval Cities: Their Origin and the Revival of Trade by Henri Pirenne (History)

We are both extremely excited about this round and are looking forward to getting started. However, I have called a hiatus until I have reread the Harry Potter books so I can refresh my memory before going to see the new movie! I know - it's a bit selfish. ;) But Kelly is entertaining herself with some other books in the meantime as well and we will start The Accidental Tourist sometime next month.

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!

Just as Worms Come from Cheese, the Angels Come from God's Creation of Earth

First of all the title of the book was pretty intriguing. As I read on I was surprised how much I was enjoying its contents as well. I’ve never been interested in reading history books for fun. This book was trying at times, but mostly quite enjoyable, especially because it is a true study and account of this man’s trials. (During the Inquisition there were “court reporters” to transcribe every word, every movement, every deep sigh, every look and every scream of agony from trial to hanging of a convicted and condemned church offender.) Horrible!

The best way for me blog about this one is to tie it up in a nutshell first then pull out my favorite parts afterwards. So…in a nutshell the book digs into the trial of a 16th Century miller who has created his own views of the church’s role in society and the existence and truth of God. Several teams of Italian inquisitors attempt to understand this relatively uneducated man’s philosophies and decide whether or not he should die for his “betrayal of faith and God”. That said much of the book was a recount of exactly what transcribed during the two separate trials and because they didn’t have video, cell phones, hand held recorders and email in those days there was a lot of testimony for or against Menocchio, the miller, via personal interviews and he said, she said conversations. When I think about people recalling exactly was someone said to them two years ago on a random summer afternoon my first thought is that they were probably lying or mistaken. However, I thought about what the content of the conversations were and why they might, in fact, be extremely memorable to the common folk. It would be like a local man in a small town talking to everyone about aliens and how influential they have been on our culture and the world. I would defiantly remember such a conversation, especially if the facts and content were presented in such a way to make me change my own beliefs on the subject.

Menocchio was a miller unlike any other. Although he truly believed in God, he constantly questioned his societies interpretation of God’s will. He thought confession was made up by the priests who claimed to be closer to God than all others. While reading few books of other’s travels to distant countries he questioned why God would create societies elsewhere who practiced His love in different rituals and customs than the Italians. Menocchio was a man who had so many questions and no one to answer them. He sought his answers and his ideals in the FEW books he could find…one of which was the Koran that he said was a “beautiful book”. One of the chapters listed every single book the Inquisitors had confiscated from Menocchio’s home. They interrogated him relentlessly to call out the names of the people who sold or loaned him these books so that they may be summoned for questioning as well.

At the core of the two trials the same big question remained for the Inquisitors, Where did Menocchio get these ideals and opinions? If the church did not talk of it how did he come up with anything other than what they presented to him and the rest of the community as truth? I believe Menocchio’s self-created opinions scared the Inquisitors and the church more than any notion that Menocchio worshipped the Devil. If one uneducated man could have such contradicting ideas against the church, what would happen if more people began to think the same way? In my opinion the church was worried about losing control of their oh so faithful flock of needy peasants and commoners. Menocchio was imprisoned for a few years after the first trial, then released after a plea then sentenced back to prison after the second trial. He lost his job, his family, his need to read and wonder and died. I can’t remember how or where he died, but I think after his spirit was broken during the second trial he just couldn’t hold out any longer.

As a whole the book was really great. It was out of the usual genre I read and I really liked the stimulation it provided for my own ideals of the church and God and how it related to my life. The everlasting belief Menocchio has is that we should love thy neighbor more than we love God, because in the end God had disguised himself as our neighbor.

~Kelly

A Classy End

If the main female characters, Margaret and Helen, could see the world today I think they would want to be a part of it. The male lead, Mr. Wilcox...not so much. Sisters Margaret and Helen were rich, yes, but also lived in a time when women were just beginning to voice their educated opinions about culture, society, poetry and their place in the bustling city of London. The story was gentle look into appreciating nature, the value of a loved home and the quality of one’s character and morals. Woven in between those lines was the story of two women finding their place in a “man’s world” and being respected there.

Howard’s End was not a page turning thriller, but it was a refreshing breath of classic language. I found myself getting lost in its simple words, basic moral reasoning and overwhelming gratitude for land, life and enriching adventures.

~ Kelly

Getting to The End

I feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over in my reviews - I appreciated (insert title here) as a (insert genre here), however it was a bit difficult to finish. I promise I don't feel this way about all of the books that I read! I just seem to have struggled with some of the ones on our list. E.M. Forster's Howards End is clearly a classic for a reason - the portrayal of sisters Margaret and Helen Schlegel, two fairly independent women for the early 1900s, is done extremely well.

I usually enjoy getting into a book, and this one was no exception. We were introduced to the characters with a series of letters sent between the sisters while Helen is away visiting a family they met while on vacation. As the story unfolds, the relationship between the Schlegels and the Wilcox family becomes more intertwined. Older sister Margaret befriends Mrs. Wilcox while Helen avoids the family after falling in, and then embarrassingly out of, love with the younger brother in a period of just a few days. In the meantime, the Schlegels meet a young man from a lower class, Mr. Bast, and try to help him however they can--including encouraging him to quit his job based on information from Mr. Wilcox about the company where Bast worked.

Long story short, there is a lot of narrative and not much plot. The funny thing is, I didn't feel as though it was too descriptive...just too long for so little "action." I really enjoyed the writing - here's a conversation between Margaret and Mrs. Wilcox that I bookmarked:

"Inexperience," repeated Margaret, in serious yet buoyant tones. "Of course, I have everything to learn--absolutely everything--just as much as Helen. Life's very difficult and full of surprises. At all events, I've got as far as that. To be humble and kind, to go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them, to remember the submerged--well, one can't do all these things at once, worse luck, because they're so contradictory. It's then that proportion comes in--to live by proportion. Don't begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed, and a deadlock-- Gracious me, I've started preaching!"

"Indeed, you put the difficulties of life splendidly," said Mrs. Wilcox withdrawing her hand in the deeper shadows. "It is just what I should have liked to say about them myself."

The book slowed down tremendously for me mid-way through and stayed slow until close to the end when it finally picked up again. I didn't feel that I needed to stop reading it, but for a few days I wasn't as excited when I went to open it up. However, I thought Forster closed the story well with a little flash forward so we would know the characters' fates. I would recommend Howards End to people who enjoy slower-paced books and/or stories that broach social class and gender issues.

I Almost Got Lost in the Darkness!

H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr Moreau was extremely weird - there's no other way to describe it. I had heard of this classic and knew it was a bit dark, but I was not expecting this. As Kelly said - it's just plain creepy! As such, I enjoyed the book, but was also happy when it ended. It is about a man named Edward Prendick who is shipwrecked and ends up on a small island in the middle of nowhere with two other men and a lot of other creatures that look a bit like men. We come to find out that the creatures are Dr Moreau's creations - animals that have been vivisected and put back together to resemble humans.

As Kelly explained, the reader learns about Moreau's experiments as Prendick does...and we become increasingly nervous and concerned along with him too! Moreau has essentially pulled animals apart and then put them back together using parts of other animals to make them look human. He even wires them to speak and think like humans - brainwashing them with a set of rules to follow called "The Law" - so that they will not rise up against him.

Like I said before - I liked the book, but am not sure I would recommend it as readily as Kelly did. I had moments where I needed to put it down because I couldn't stomach what I was reading. I realize it's a science fiction (emphasis on the fiction part!) but I would only suggest it if you're into darker themes as well.