Picturing the Words

Day 22 – Favorite book you own

Little Women -- not for the story, although it is one of my favorite "classics," but for the edition I own.  This was a gift edition from my parents and it is beautifully complemented with charcoal and watercolor illustrations by Tasha Tudor.  The soft, gentle artwork enhances the soft, gentle story and makes the book a delightful experience for me.  Of all my books, this is the one volume that gives me the most pleasure when I see it on the shelves, the one volume I am happiest to see when I get home.

Finding Runaways

Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood

This would probably be a toss up between Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go and Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny.  Both were frequent requests for reading aloud.  Cars and Trucks and Things That Go had the advantage of finding Goldbug in the pages, so not only were the stories fun, but there was an activity to keep the book even more interesting.  The Runaway Bunny was a very simple story of love, and the illustrations were beautiful.  Both still rank as some of my favorite comfort reads.

Loving the Story

Day 20 – Favorite romance book

I am not a reader of books traditionally categorized as "romance."  I think all told I have read maybe four.  Which is not to say I have not read books that involve a romantic story line.  Both the Anne of Green Gables series and Emily of New Moon series by L.M. Montgomery feature long-reaching multi-book romantic story arcs.  Louis May Alcott's Little Women features romantic story-lines for the main characters.  Most of the cozy mysteries I read have a romantic element.  Romance is harder to categorize than bookshop designers think.  But for all the non-romance romances I have read, my favorite is the romantic story-line in the later Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The courtship of Laura and Almanzo has been one of my favorite since I first read the books in grade school.  It may be an over-simplified and condensed for a happy-ending loving reading populace, rather than an accurate account of factual events, but it has been, and still remains, my favorite literary romance.

Screening the Pages

Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie

Kevin Sullivan's production of Anne of Green Gables is excellent.  Rob Reiner's version of The Princess Bride is a cult classic.  There was a very good made-for-television version of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler starring Lauren Bacall.  Hallmark Hall of Fame productions did exceptional interpretations of both Sarah, Plain and Tall (which far exceeds the book) and What the Deaf-Mute Heard (filmed as What the Deaf Man Heard).  Ida Lupino directed a great version of Life with Mother Superior as The Trouble with Angels.  And there is no one who can question Rosalind Russell's portrayal of Mame Dennis as the definitive character bought to life in Auntie Mame.  But I think my favorite book turned to a movie is Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (brought to screen by Don Bluth as the animated version The Secret of NIMH).  It has everything you want in a film version of the book.  It is not exactly the book, but then no movie interpretation is.  This adaptation comes the closest to visualizing my enjoyment of the book.

Disappointing Words

Day 18 – A book that disappointed you

Most of my books disappoint me, but only because they end.  (Come on, you readers out there know the feeling of disappointment when you come to the end of the current adventure, especially ones that you want to go on and on.)

But for a book that I was looking forward to reading and was then disappointed that I had:  The Road to Wellville.  I begged and begged for this book, to read in advance of the movie, and Santa Claus brought it to me.  I was so excited to read the book.  Then I did.  And wished I hadn't.  I was so disappointed by it.  It took me months to finish, and I devoured at least eight other books in the meantime, as well as completing my hardest semester in college which culminated with not one, but two, speeches!

Quoting the Best

Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book

I listed 15 favorite books, but I am not going to find 15 favorite quotes from them, because the truth is my favorite quote from a book is not from one of my favorite books.  So I will go with my favorite quote:

The competent man can be more dangerous than the witty one.

The Two Georges, Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove 

Paws-ing for Applause

Day 16 – Favorite female character

I'm not sure she counts in the traditional sense, but my favorite female character is Mrs. Murphy, from Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown's mystery series.  I know she's a cat, but I really enjoy her adventures, and she is a very well-written cat.  After all, leisure reading should be enjoyable, even if it is a bit anthropomorphic.

Yummy Candy

Day 15 – Favorite male character

This is hard.  I enjoy following the adventures of so many characters -- Gilbert Blythe, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, Hercule Poirot, Athos, Milo Dodge, Myles McHale, James Qwilleran (with Koko), Mike McQuaid, and Justin deQuincy.  But I think my favorite so far has been Erast Fandorin in Boris Akunin's books.  There is something very likeable and loveable about Erast.  I am not sure if it's the time period, the details of his character, or the adventures he has, but Erast is my kind of mind-candy.

Fifteen Number Ones

Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer

Ohh, this picking favorites thing is never easy, and since I listed 15 authors as my sometime favorites from all that I read, I suppose I have to pick 15 favorite books.  (Well, I don't have to, but since I cannot narrow the list down to just one author, there is no way I can narrow this list down to just one book.)  I have not read everything by any of the listed authors, so my answers may change as I read more of their work.  Based on what I have read so far, my favorites are:

1. Kerry Greenwood -- Earthly Delights
2. Jasper Fforde -- Lost in a Good Book
3. Mary Dahiem -- The Alpine Nemesis
4. Susan Wittig Albert -- Love Lies Bleeding
5. Lauren Willig -- The Seduction of the Crimson Rose
6. Carola Dunn -- Death at Wentwater Court
7. L.M. Montgomery -- Anne of the Island
8. Mary Stewart -- Airs Above the Ground
9. Camille Minichino -- The Boric Acid Murder
10. Susan Vreeland -- The Girl in Hyacinth Blue
11. Maeve Binchy -- Light a Penny Candle
12. Agatha Christie -- At Bertram's Hotel 
13. E.L. Konigsburg -- The View from Saturday
14. Rita Mae Brown (and Sneaky Pie Brown) -- Cat on the Scent
15. Marian Babson -- The Diamond Cat

Picking Favorites

Day 13 – Your favorite writer

This changes by the day -- usually it's whoever I just finished reading.  Right now, I am tearing through books by Kerry Greenwood and Jasper Fforde.  I'll read anything they wrote.  But I have also gone through phases loving Mary Daheim, Susan Wittig Albert, Lauren Willig, Carola Dunn, L.M. Montgomery, Mary Stewart, and Camille Minichino.  Susan Vreeland, Maeve Binchy, Agatha Christie, E.L. Konigsburg, Rita Mae Brown (and Sneaky Pie Brown), and Marian Babson have landed on the list as well.  I really can't pick a favorite.  There are far too many good books out there by far too many good authors to pick only one.

Growing Up

Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore

I don't really have one.  I have books I know I may never to read again, but I really don't have any that I used to love but do not anymore.  I have some guilty pleasure books left over from my teen-age years -- fluff teen-age romance, boarding school adventures, etc. -- and some read-aloud books I could not bear to give away, but none that I can say I don't like anymore.  It's a bit like growing up to me.  My thoughts and views have changed, and my library has changed with them.  That does not mean that I have not kept the old favorites, just that new interests have replaced them on the to-be-read list.  I keep those favorite books, because I never know when I need to remember who I was then, to help remind myself who I am now.

Turning Off the Road

Day 11 – A book you hated

While I can't really put into words how much I did not like Jane Eyre, and not counting any books I was required to (and possibly did not) read for any classes or ones I did not finish, the single book I hated was The Road to Wellville.  It was a truly awful book.  I bought the book in connection with the movie that was based on it, I hated the book so much, I never even bothered seeing the movie.  The plot wandered, the characters were not engaging, and I learned more about yogurt enemas than I ever thought possible, and much, much more than I ever wanted to know.  I persevered through the book, but in the end, the truth is that I hated it.

Favorite Old Friends

Day 10 – Favorite classic book

The Three Musketeers.
I discounted anything I had to read for any class.  I think required reading is an immediate death sentence for any book.  And most classics that English departmental curricula force upon students are crap no one would read otherwise.  I read The Three Musketeers because I wanted to.  The Disney movie was coming out, and the local Wal-Mart had the movie tie-in edition on sale for like $5.00 and I thought, why not?  I tore through it in three days when I should have really been studying for finals.  I fell in love with Athos and learned to really care for Porthos and d'Artagnan.  I count them as treasured friends.

Beautiful Songs of Greatness

Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

This is hard for me to answer, as I don't really read many books I think I won't like.  The only ones recently I have taken a chance on were for last year's Spring Book Challenge:  Child 44, Bel Canto, and The Night We Met.  All three of those were recommended by other people, and I read them on their advice.  Of those, the one I thought I would dislike most was The Night We Met -- it was a puff piece comedy romance; certainly not my style of book, but fun nonetheless.  I really enjoyed the fluffy romp.  Sometimes it's fun to have something light and inconsequential to read.  I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say I ended up loving it.  That distinction would have to go to Bel Canto.  I am amazed at how much I loved this book.  I thought I would hate it -- it was a bestseller and it seemed like everyone had read it.  That is an immediate turn off to me.  I bought it from the "Buy 2; Get 1 Free" table at Borders only because I already had two books, my younger brother had recommended the book to me, and it would fit a category I had open.  I really thought it was going to be a struggle to get through; that I would slog through it only to finish it for the Challenge.  I was so very wrong!  It's a great book!  It is now one I recommend to people.

Going Against the Grain

Day 08 – Most overrated book

This is hard for me to answer, as I don't really read bestsellers and nothing turns me off a book so much as everyone talking about it.  But if I were pressed, I would have to say Jane Eyre.  I hated the book.  I slogged through it.  I didn't like the plot.  I did not find the characters engaging.  I found it very difficult to muster any care or concern for either Jane or Mr. Rochester.  I just didn't care.  It was a well-written book, but it was a terrible well-written book.  I just cannot understand how anyone could enjoy it.

Sharing Words with the World

Day 07 – Most underrated book

Hands down it has to be The View from Saturday.  I picked this up because I had read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver by the same author.  It was an amazing book.  I had not seen or heard anything about it, and in fact, still have not seen wide press about this it.  Which is sad, because this book had such an impact on me.  I want to share it with everyone I know -- to the point that I have actually given it as a gift to most of my friends.

Tearing Up the Pages

Day 06 – A book that makes you sad

If you had asked me this as a child, it would have been either Charlotte's Web or Little Women.  The former had me crying myself to sleep for just about a week after reading.  The latter was so upsetting that I was an adult before I read past the part where Beth dies all the way to the end of the book.  As an adult, my answer is two different books, but for the same reason -- Dewey:  The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World and A Mango Shaped-Space.  I am sure you can guess why each was so upsetting as to bring me to tears.  I made the mistake of reading both in the lunchroom of my office.  I had a very hard time explaining to my non-reader co-workers what was so upsetting about the words on the page.  I am not recommending that you not read these books, just that if you do so in public, be prepared for people to think you are crazy.

Happy Days

Day 05 – A book that makes you happy

I'm not sure if this means happy to read or happy to own; but I am going with happy to read.  And in that case, I am going to answer The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book.  I miss reading Calvin and Hobbes in the paper everyday.  I am glad I have a book of strips to read any time I want -- yes, I know the strip is available online, but I also like having a book to flip through and enjoy.  Sometimes, simple things like being happy should not be subject to a battery meter or an internet connection.

Best Friends

Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series

Anne of the Island, without question.  I enjoy the earlier two when Anne is growing up, but I really enjoy Anne of the Island the most.  The characters are well-established and, without giving away too many spoilers for those who may not have read the series, this book lays the foundation for the rest of the series in a delightfully satisfying way.  This is the book in the series that falls open to a particular passage so that I can find just the chapter I want when I need a quick shot of reminding that everything will turn out all right in the end.  It's the book I turn to when I need comforting from the forces of the world.  It is my security blanket book.  And an excellent chapter in Anne's life.

Serial Novelizations

Day 03 – Your favorite series

This is hard to answer.  Most of the books I read are part of a series.  But if I have to pick just one to read over and over, the one that would be included in my desert island books, I would have to answer L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.  The book snob in me hesitates to answer that, as I should have something better, more literary, but the truth is I can always read and re-read the Anne series.  It is my go-to comfort series when I need a dose of literary friendship.

The Lost Art of Fact Checking

Australia's Fairfax Media has announced that the company is firing the subeditors -- all their fact researchers and copy editors -- at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (Melbourne) and instead outsourcing these positions.  They say this is a measure that must be taken due to the steady decline of newspaper readership and sales.  They say what they are doing is "investing in journalism."

I disagree.

Living in New Orleans for the first 37 years of my life, where the newspaper was known, to locals at least, by the not so-loving-nickname The PITS (a scrambling of the initials of The Times-Picayune States-Item, which is what the paper was named for a good bit of my childhood), I am used to poor researching and copy editing.  The paper has been known to run articles with the word "and" hyphenated.  I kid you not.  Every article in The Times-Picayune is a fun, and often futile journey, across a sea of letters trying to be something other than the mangled English than they are.

With that background, I see Fairfax Media's decision to sack the subeditors as one more nail in a coffin of reporting using proper language skills and researched facts.  I can only see this decision leading to newspaper articles, in the not-too-distant future, being text-speak opinion editorials.  I fear for future generations who will have news reported as poorly written based-in-fiction 140-character status updates.

This past Sunday brought the 2011 TV Week Logie Awards show here in Australia.  Pop sensation Katy Perry was an entertainer on the broadcast.  She appeared on the red carpet entering the hall in a knee-length green dress with a photograph silk-screened on the front.  The photograph in question was Man Ray's Le Violin d'Ingres (Ingres's Violin).  It's a famous photograph.  It was featured heavily in the souvenir items during an Art Deco Exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria three years ago.  (I know this because I visited the exhibit, and remember commenting to my dearest about the photograph.)  I was sure that the next day, when I looked up the newspaper fashion reports of the event, at least one article would comment on the photograph.  I was sadly mistaken.  I found an article from The Daily Mail's website which described the famous photograph as a "rather eye-catching print."  Admittedly, The Daily Mail is a tabloid newspaper, but still, I expected better of their fact checkers.  Other newspaper fashion reports declared the dress to be "butt crack chic."  I would have thought that fact researchers and copy editors would have determined, as I did, that the photograph on the dress was actually a print of a Man Ray work and the articles would have then passed that factual knowledge on to the readers.  And while I know this example is puff piece entertainment reporting, that is no excuse for not getting the facts, when such facts are readily available with a simple Google search using the terms "violin woman picture."

I can only assume The Daily Mail, like The Times-Picayune, has beaten Fairfax Media to the punch and has sacked their subeditors.

All of this leads me to ask the questions:  When do we stop this dumbing down of the world?  When do we say enough is enough?  When do we value accuracy and grammar above the bottom line?  How can we as consumers indicate our distaste for the substandard product that is being foisted off as news?  How do we get the point across to media outlets?  Boycotting the papers will only cause more cuts and further reduced standards.  It is a no-win situation.  How can we ever say we are properly educating our children when we mutely accept such dereliction of duties?  How do we demand better?

Visits with Old Friends

Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times

I can't pick just one book for this.  I have a stable of books I re-read often, if only to re-acquaint myself with old friends.  Admittedly, most are books I have had since childhood, but they are still good friends and deserve a visit now and then.  In no particular order:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta von Trapp
The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
Emily's Quest by L.M. Montgomery
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

Adventures in Waiting

So today I had a first experience in my new home.  I went to see a doctor.

After a little under a week of sniffles and a weekend of a rapidly disappearing voice and increasing cough, my dearest called the local clinic and got me an appointment.

I am used to the US medical system, under private PPO insurance, so I am used to making an appointment with a specialist directly, not having to go through a GP to get a referral to a specialist.  Additionally I am used to having my insurance billed, and then about a month later, getting an invoice for the uncovered amount directly from the doctor's office.  I have also had the same doctors (specialists) for the past 18 years at least.

First observation -- the office was well-run and organized.

Second observation -- I did not have to fill out the clipboard of forms that are common to US doctors' offices these days.  I didn't have to wade through HIPPA forms, or 8-10 page check-box medical history forms, or designate a person to whom the doctor can talk about my medical information.

I was planning to arrive about a half hour before the appointment in order to have time to complete all the forms I am used to filling out.  Still reeling from the formless check in, I followed my dearest to the exam waiting area and sat down.  I was stunned when I was called to the exam room before I had even read 2 words of my book.  I was equally amazed that there were no paper records.  Everything was computerized.  I was queried about my symptoms, asked what usually happens when I present with these symptoms -- my US ENT and I have a fairly good history and both of us know the routine.  I very rarely left his office without a prescription for antibiotics and a steroid injection.  Naturally I assumed this was the way that this visit would go.

I was very surprised.  I was seen first by a medical student -- this was not an issue for me, I have no objection to being used as a test subject for doctors in training;  how else do they become doctors?  -- and he did a preliminary symptom work up, querying me about the symptoms and taking a cursory look at my throat. My US ENT would usually take a look up both nostrils, in my ears and then down my throat. And naturally, my US ENT had my medical history as a result of the clipboard full of forms I had filled out or updated in the waiting room.  While he did ask if I was allergic to anything, I was truly shocked that neither the medical student nor the doctor when I saw him, asked me the question I was expecting... neither asked if I was or could be pregnant or the date of my last period.  That is almost a standard question for female patients at new doctors in the US as far as I can tell.

After the med student had a look at everything, he went to get the supervising doctor, who came in and queried the student as to what he did.  The student had not had a listen to my breathing, so I inhaled deeply four or five times while he got cozy with the stethoscope.  After a few more questions from the supervising doctor, mainly about the antibiotics I am used to being prescribed in the US, and a discussion of whether my US ENT used a steroid injection or a course of oral prednisone, I was handed a prescription for  an antibiotic and instructed to call back if I am not better by mid-week.

I stopped at the check-in desk to pay the bill on the way out and I was done in about half an hour.  My dearest then suggested that we drop the prescription off at the dispensary and see about getting it filled.  I used a locally-owned independent pharmacy in the US, and never had to wait more than 20 minutes for a prescription to be filled.  In fact, several times I walked out of national chain pharmacies when I had "emergency" prescriptions on the weekend and I was told it would be over an hour to get them filled.  I was genuinely surprised when the pharmacy clerk told me that it would be about an hour to get a frequently prescribed antibiotic filled.  I was really expecting while-you-wait service I was used to in the US.  Okay, new plan.  We headed off for an early lunch (potato pie and a meringue kiss for me; vegetable pastie and a latte for my dearest) and wandered back to the dispensary about 15 minutes before the hour had past.  I wandered through the shop while waiting -- finding a few things I thought I would have to import surreptitiously -- and picked up my prescription before heading home.  Price wise, the prescription was about what I would have paid in the US, given my insurance's prescription plan and the fact that my pharmacy always charged the lesser amount.

On the whole, I was pleased with the service I received, both at the clinic and the dispensary.  There are glaring differences between the system here and the system I am used to in the US, but I think more of that is down to the fact that I have been a patient of the same doctors for at least the past 18 years, and we have a good working relationship.  In fact, seeing the new doctor here makes me miss my US doctors -- some of whom had gone beyond mere service providers and had become friends.  It also made me realize even more than I already believed that is not health care that needs to be reformed in the US.  There is nothing wrong with the CARE provided.  The problem in the US lies in the delivery and payment methods.  Health CARE reform is not what is needed.  Health INSURANCE reform is.

Last Year's Pages

Day 01 – Best book you read last year

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

I was truly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book and how much it drew me in.  I picked it to read as part of the Spring Book Challenge last year, took it with me on a cruise and spent a sea day in cozy nooks all over the ship tearing through it.  My younger brother had recommended it to me when a customer had given it to him as a gift, but the book snob in me balked at reading a current bestseller, so I hesitated to read it then.  I am so glad I finally picked it up.  I recommend it to everyone now.

30-Day Book Challenge

Last year, I participated in a reading challenge at a book-related message board I frequent. I did not complete the challenge in the time allowed, but I had a great time and read several books I would never had even looked at otherwise. This spring, the message board has another challenge going.  I am participating there, but I thought I would cross-post here as well, if only to have everything all in one place.

Readers are invited to participate or just to follow along as I post my answers over the next month or so.  The message board is doing the 30-days as weekdays only, so I will post at that schedule.

30-Day Book Challenge
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