I dithered over buying this book for the longest time. I was always worried that it would be a bunch of wonky things that wouldn't speak to me. Instead, it was interesting. It had funny moments, and touching moments, and moments when I was nodding my head and saying to myself, "This is what I was trying to say in this or that article." I really enjoyed it, and it made me wish that I'd auditioned for the production of The Vagina Monologues that I'd noticed advertised at my university in third year. I took the tag, but never followed up on it, and reading the book made me wish I had.
The Secret Language of Girls, by Josey Vogels
Another book I picked up and set down countless times, this one was funny. It delved into subjects that are difficult to discuss in groups of guys (my usual crew), and it again had me nodding my head in agreement at times. It talked of how it is that women communicate, why relationships with women are important, and how it is that women relate to one another, both in their private lives and their business lives.
One of the parts that made me laugh the hardest was the "glossary" at the back, "explaining" how it is that men ought to interpret such common phrases as "I'm fine" and "That feels good." I wished in a way that she'd discussed issues of sex and how women discuss sex a bit more thoroughly, because I think it would've been hilarious to read her take on it, but no matter. I highly recommend both books.
posted by Jen on 10:31 PM
Sunday, August 10, 2003
The Classics
The last little while has seen me make a concerted effort to read some of the classics that I never read and feel I ought; especially if it means helping out my writing.
I've read a few classics in the past: Watership Down, by Richard Adams, which I simply adored. I highly recommend this book every chance I get, and I plan to reread this and Animal Farm, by George Orwell, in the near future. The grammatical phrasing on that one might be kinda weak; I read Animal Farm years ago, and I enjoyed it.
Anyhow, I recently read Dracula, by Bram Stoker, and I enjoyed it. It's an epistollary novel (welcome to my English classes and them staying with me), which seemed to be a fairly common occurance in the older genre. It's interesting to see how vampires have evolved since their "creation" through Stoker, and particularly how they're treated by Stoker and by someone more current, such as Joss Whedon, with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, both the movie (which I haven't seen) and the television show.
During my consumption of Dracula, I took some time to read Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Again, it's interesting to see how Mr. Hyde is portrayed differently in movies and subsequent treatments as from the book. The book is quite short, and easy to read; in fact, nearly half the story is told after the main character has died, which was a neat way to learn about him. It's an interesting take on the dual nature of people, and of how repressing all of our negative characteristics can lead to problems.
From there, I moved on to H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Again, an interesting novel; well, novella, really. I had no real preconceived notions about the book, and I've certainly not seen the movie, but time machines are a common concept in television, movies, and books since. Wells' story was again told in flashback -- a story within a story, as my high school English teacher was fond of saying (as in the case of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness) -- and it was not what I expected. I'm not sure what I expected, but the story I got wasn't it. Wells' view of the need for work and the threats that pure leisure lives can pose was interesting considering the near-snobbish main character.
Last night, I finished Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I'm not generally a fan of dystopian literature; The Lord of the Flies was a turn-off to me, if I may be honest. I found Huxley's treatment of women in Brave New World to be somewhat dismissive, and I don't know if that was simply my reading of it, or if he was actually against women. The concept of freemartins, and women being entirely responsible for birth control, not to mention the fact that Linda was hideous, bloated and ugly, whereas Lenina was somewhat dippy, and couldn't "see" the same things that Bernard, Helmholtz, and John "The Savage" could see.
I'm sure I should've gotten much more meaning out of some of the conversations that took place in the book -- deep meanings about life, the universe, and everything -- but frankly, I'm reading for entertainment or enrichment first. I'm not studying these books for a class, or anything like that, so I'm getting out of them whatever I feel like getting out of them. :)
posted by Jen on 8:14 PM
