Reading for Freedom

When we hear people on TV talking about prisons in Lebanon, we only think of: corruption, overcrowding, unsuccessful reinsertion, useless incarceration etc. These prison problems were never a priority or even a concern in my life. I am a common Lebanese citizen that has never had any interaction with prisons or prisoners, I have absolutely no juridical knowledge as well as no authority at all. All I ever wanted to do was to encourage people in Lebanon to read because it built me up and helped me many times and because I believe that it would help us as Lebanese solve many of our problems that stem from ignorance. Can you believe that an Arab individual on average reads only a quarter of a page a year compared to the 11 books read by an American and seven books by a British person?!!! (For reference click here). Most of you might be aware of the fact that reading can help make us better people as many studies confirm it (For reference: click here), but did you also know that reading might solve  some of the prison problems mentioned above???

 

Well it can and it will for I have decided to make this my goal to achieve.

 

 

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free". Frederick Douglass



How? Well, the idea is to offer inmates the chance to read for their freedom. Brazil is the first country to propose such program whereby prison sentence is lightened by 4 days for each book read and summarized. By doing so, prisoners who are offered the chance to read up to twelve works of literature (classics, philosophy or science) per year can reduce their sentences by up to 48 days a year.

Moreover, specialists find that a person who gets this opportunity isn’t just going to get a lighter sentence, but that they will also get to “leave prison more enlightened and with an enlarged vision of the world” (For reference click here). Similarly, ex convicts testify that the books they read in prison helped them become who they should have been and some have been even inspired to write their own story and make people aware of the mistakes they should not commit (For reference: click here and here). 
 

Based on all the above, this system seems suitable for countries with prison overcrowding problems as well as for those aiming at guidance and reinsertion of minors or majors with prison sentences. Therefore, I tried to find out whether we had something like that already in Lebanon and there wasn't. I did find out however, that book donation programs for prisons exist and that they have already done a great job supplying prisons with reading materials. In my opinion, and logically speaking, chances of book donations alone encouraging prisoners to read might not necessarily be high. However, if one offers prisoners the opportunity to read in exchange for freedom, then most certainly a great number will engage in reading for they will now have a "motivation" that is of critical nature to changing their bookless lifestyle.
I also enquired about the technical feasibility of the project and according to a friend of mine (and a professional in this domain) for this project to see the light, it has to be studied,  formulated as a law amendment material and submitted by the "human rights committee" for the parliament to vote on it (I am not sure I explained this well, but I hope you get the picture). Finally, the fact that this law is applied elsewhere makes the law studying and writing process easier and increases the chances of its approval.

This is not as impossible as it seems after all! So people let's make this project happen. Join in if you can help, let's think of a plan together. Feel free to tell me what I can or should do next and don't forget to spread the word. This project is happening starting of today.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

A Passage Reading from the Book "Loving Sabotage" by Amélie Nothomb

I have been planning to start this section for a while now and I finally did it! The idea is to share with you passages and poetry from the books I am reading and my favorite books/authors of all times. In doing so, I hope you get a taste from the books that are dear to my heart and maybe this could encourage you to reading them as well.  

 Here is the link in case the video doesn't work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1e6thFyt2w

This is my first video ever so I hope you will be kind on me. I have not practiced anything as you can probably see, because I  just wanted to be natural.I hope you liked this passage, this book was a kind gift from my friend M. El Zein. I will probably repost the passage read in French because I still like it more than the translated English version.

Finally I would like to thank my roommate Ghenwa "the crazy hipster" without whom this video would not have seen light. Thank you all for watching as well. Your feedback is most welcomed.

Art and Literature

Mczoum is one of the many people I met through the blog and facebook page. Soon enough, he became one of my dearest friends. I look up to him a lot as a person, as a reader and as an artist. Aside from being an attorney in law, he is a well read person who is very knowledgeable in German philosophy, History, French and Russian Classic Litterature, as well as Spanish and Arabic Poetry. Artistically, he is passionate about painting, lomography and iphone art. In fact, Mczoum has exhibited his photography work in many galleries around the world including Paris, New York, LA, Milano and Poland. I just love his work but apparently I am not the only one for he has been awarded several times. In case you are interested, you can check his gallery at the following link:

http://www.iphoneart.com/users/1433/biography

In May, Mczoum pointed out that book pictures posted so far on the blog did not reflect an investment of the bloggers. He was right. So far we hadn't taken book pictures ourselves or added our favorite quotes from the books. His remark lead therefore to the creation of a new page "Photos" where personally shot pictures of books will be added along with some of the favorite quotes from the corresponding book. Anyone can post here, so if you have some book pics and favorite quotes do not hesitate to send them to bookloverbookclub@gmail.com.  

Below you will find a sample of Mczoum's book pictures and favorite quotes that he kindly provided. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.

 “The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people.”

“She would have liked not to be alive, or to be always asleep.” 

“Do you know that it is in your company that I have had my finest thoughts?” 

"When I desire you, a part of me is gone."

 

"You can suffer nostalgia in the presence of the beloved if you glimpse a future where the beloved is no more” 

 "Until I was fourteen, I divided humanity into three categories: women, little girls and buffoons."

 “Because we don't have much time together, I will give you as much love in a year as I could give you in a lifetime.”

Book Lovers First Gathering

The net has been a great tool of interaction with book lovers, be it on the blog or on facebook. This pleasant experience has lead me to think that it was about time for book lovers to interact face to face. Therefore, I have suggested a meeting around drinks/coffee and snacks to talk about anything and everything related to books and reading. The idea was immediately highly welcomed and the gathering took place last Friday at Cappuccino, Zaytounay bay in Beirut.  This was honestly a very memorable event for me. I would like to just thank the book lovers that have showed up on that day. I was extremely happy to meet new faces and learn about each and every person, their reading interests as well as their preferences. The atmosphere was just magical. I'll let the pics say the rest although I am sorry some are not in them because we only took them at the end. 

 

Finally, book lovers, let's stay in touch for more fun gatherings in the future and hurray to meeting new readers in Beirut.

Mercure - Amélie Nothomb First vs Second Ending

Amélie Nothomb is my syndrome and my cure and the month of August is the month of Amélie Nothomb by excellence. Why? One could ask. The answer is simply because Nothomb publishes a new book every year on this month. The waiting period before the new book's release often brings back old memories and new discussions, and this is how I was lucky to meet two Nothombophiles just like me (Ok maybe not exactly like me, but still, the point is that they love Nothomb's books :D).

The funny thing was that both Boudi and Tonie's favorite book by Nothomb was "Mercure". When I read this book the first time, it did not mark me and I couldn't understand why people even like it, it didn't seem original to me. It wasn't until I read a professional review of this book that I completely changed my mind about it. This is literally how and when I learned to read between the lines and the importance of paying attention to the literary, psychological  and social value of a book, not only its plot and style. The review is written in French by a philosophy and letters PhD holder (Université catholique de Louvain) with whom I have discussed this book. To me the review is perfect in every sense of the term but you can check by yourselves at this link: 

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com.lb%2Fbooks%3Fid%3D2n3x-irBUMkC%26pg%3DPA235%26lpg%3DPA235%26dq%3Dnausicaa%2Bdewez%2Bmercure%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3DCbV7ZJsfuH%26sig%3DCUdYqmxmsKv1e2s6x8sIryii40Y%26hl%3Dfr%26sa%3DX%26ei%3DlgyxUdH1PMmWtQaQ0oDABA%26ved%3D0CEkQ6AEwBQ%23v%3Donepage%26q%3Dnausicaa%2520dewez%2520mercure%26f%3Dfalse&h=NAQGaWbY8

"Il nous est ordonné d'être jeunes et belles et, dès qu’il s’agit de tomber amoureuses, il nous est conseillé de ne pas tenir compte de ce genre de détail"

 

Briefly, the story is about a very pretty girl who is tricked into believing that her face has been mutilated so badly that she doesn't even look human anymore. Of course the old man that tricked her keeps her on an island, isolated from the world. He looks after her but he also has sex with her. The girl likes the old man as a father although he is almost as old as her grandfather. She hates however the sexual acts and maybe even more because she likes his paternal side. The book is a modified version of the Beauty and the beast or Esmeralda and quasimodo but with the hero being much older than the girl. The themes in this book include among others beauty, incest, age difference etc. One day the girl gets sick and the old man brings a nurse to look after her. The nurse discovers the truth and decides to save the girl. Nothing new? Nothing creative here one could say right? Wrong! Amélie Nothomb ends the book in two different ways:

Ending number 1: The nurse saves the girl, the girl learns also that she is pretty and they both spend their lives cruising happily ever after together as friends (or more, the author keeps it unclear).

Ending number 2: The nurse saves the girl from the old man only to take his place. The girl still thinks she is mutilated and she is not freed, however she seems to enjoy her captivity and life with her new aggressor: the beloved nurse. Beloved yes, the girl did not like the old man but she likes the nurse, in fact the two clicked ever since they met.

Automatically, the nurse's behavior in each ending makes her

1- A hero who is trying to do something good for the girl.

2- A selfish person who is trying to do something good for herself.

Amélie Nothomb wrote two endings because she couldn't choose one. I thought that she left it for the readers to choose the ending they preferred and I happen to have preferred the second one for the following reasons:

The main reason why I liked it is because whenever someone gives me two choices one that is realistic and one that is a bit exotic, I go for the exotic one. As I always say, if I want to read about real stuff I'd pick up a newspaper and not a book! However, even though I hate realistic events, I found that the second ending is the most realistic one, but not in a dull way. The second ending exposes the very true nature of human beings and that is: selfishness (For more insight on this matter refer to "the selfish gene" by Richard Dawkins). 

Also, heroism in my opinion, does not exist and altruism is nothing more than an invention or an illusion. The only real emotion that is innate to mankind is selfishness. It seems crazy said like that but let's take some examples: in a couple, you would say that a person that always tries to make the other happy is a proof that altruism exists. But a person in a couple unconsciously is trying to make him/herself happy because when the other is happy, the happiness returns back to him/her. Newton's third law seems to agree with this explanation for it states that "for every action, an equal and opposite reaction will take place" meaning that you receive what you give! This sacred Newton, who knew he was that tough?! Another example and I will stop to avoid too much digression: parents, often mothers are seen as the most powerful examples of sacrifice and altruism for they do anything for their children. THEIR children! yes, their half selves, their own genes! We are selfish, end of story. 

Another reason why I preferred the second ending is because it is the scenario of instinct overthrowing reason. Only something very powerful and overwhelming can lead to such case and the feeling after unleashing the instincts would be as powerful and overwhelming. In our lives, at least once, we all have given in to our instinct. If we remember that one time, and the powerful emotions that took over us when we unleashed our instincts, we should be able to better understand the power and beauty of the second ending.

Finally, I personally liked the second ending because it would have personally made me much more happier than the first, if I were to be the nurse. I mean who wouldn't want to have control, all the pleasure and no repercussions?

Now that being said, I think that we can prefer one conclusion or the other but at the end, Nothomb was right, both are necessary for the book. Nothing makes "Mercure" the great book that is is than having these two endings and giving us the freedom of choice. In both cases the girl is happy which is to say happiness can be achieved by different paths. 

P.S. If you have read the book, don't hesitate to let me know which ending you prefer and why?

Professional Review of The Arch and the Butterfly by Mohammed Achaari

I have published my personal input on this book previously on this blog. But a few days ago, a friend stumbled upon a professional review of this book that I found was more than excellent. I couldn't but share it with you guys, so here is the link:
http://www.alimbaratur.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1184:-r--&catid=14:2010-08-07-22-48-22&Itemid=16
Kudos to the brilliant author on her more than wonderful review and I am from now on a fan.
Hats off

The Words by Jean-Paul Sartre

This 200 pages book hides inside a 10 000 pages literary text. How is this possible one could ask? I have no freaking idea! This is why Sartre is Sartre I guess. Erratum, that sentence should have stated this is why Sartre the Great is Sartre the Great as I have decided to "literary" refer to him from now on. Reviewing "the words" could lead to the writing of a 100 PhD dissertations and a lot more essays. I have been struggling to write something about it for long and finally decided to take that leap of faith to see where my thoughts (nothing more) would take me so here it goes.

 

 «J'ai commencé ma vie comme je la finirai sans doute : au milieu des livres. Dans le bureau de mon grand-père, il y en avait partout ; défense était de les faire épousseter sauf une fois l'an, avant la rentrée d'octobre. Je ne savais pas encore lire que, déjà, je les révérais, ces pierres levées : droites ou penchées, serrées comme des briques sur les rayons de la bibliothèque ou noblement espacées en allées de menhirs, je sentais que la prospérité de notre famille en dépendait...»

"The words" is an autobiography written by Sartre the Great and we (him and I) have never been properly introduced before. It wasn't until a dear friend kindly offered me this book that I got the chance to discover Sartre the man and Sartre the writer. I have separated the two because I have clear distinct feelings for each. I do believe the man had a lot to do with Sartre becoming the Great author/philosopher he is and the aim of the autobiography itself was to show how one lead to another. Written at the age of 59, Sartre retraces back the first 10 years of his life, claiming that he knew back then that he wanted to become an author because of the influence of his grandfather and everything he read as well as his first attempts of writing. The influence of the family and the grandfather is present in the whole book which is divided in two parts entitled "reading" and "writing", respectively. From the organization one can tell that this book is logical and well structured and clearly shows the importance of family more than anything else in Sartre's decision because of its presence in both parts of the book. However, I found this autobiography to be too well organized and clear for my taste which made it hard for me to believe that it was genuine and honest as autobiographies should aim to be. Besides, I believe that Sartre was lying on two major issues one of which is more clear and evident than the other.

First, it is quasi impossible for someone to remember all the books read during childhood or at least as much books as those mentioned in this autobiography. I mean seriously, the other day I tried to remember the books I read the past month alone and I just couldn't remember anything! It was only after I consulted Goodreads that I was able to answer this question. So claiming that one recalls the book read 40 years ago is total bogus to me. No doubt about it!!!

Second, I am pretty sure that no one has an idea about what he/she wants to become when they get older. Let's assume some do, I am sure the idea would not be as clear and extremist (oh yes we'll get back to this) as that presented by Sartre. A child is a vessel for a thousand and one ideas a day while here Sartre presents himself as a one idea/goal/aim child. He also awkwardly views literature as a religion, his grandfather as a Priest (sometimes also God) and himself, the miracle child that has to write because literature needs him, because the world needs him. Said by a child, this might sound kind of cute, but you just feel that  this arrogance cannot be that of a child but rather that of a successful intelligent yet obnoxious and shallow kind of a MAN.This further hints that the story we are reading is a fake one.

I am not evaluating the literary value of this book or Sartre the Great. It is absurd as I mentioned before. All the successes and intelligence in the world do not however justify the arrogance and pretentiousness of a man. Sartre the man, was full of that! He tries to dissimulate it in the child in him but I think he failed to convince me at least. Writing an autobiography by itself tends to stem in many cases from arrogance. The art of autobiography can also stem from other needs such as trauma or historical recording of events etc. In fact, it is for these reasons that some of my favorite literary books are autobiographies. However, Sartre was 59 when he decided to write about the reasons that made him become an author. Put into context, this book is the fruit of an arrogant big shot who feels the need to let people know how he became the successful man he is. To this aim he invents or reformulates his childhood story because one can just feel him lying as mentioned before. He fails however to overcome his arrogance at many instances starting from the moment when he starts detailing his genealogy. Seriously, what's wrong with men and family trees!!! Nothing justifies his choice of elaborating on his family tree at the very first pages of this book except extreme arrogance. The other major arrogant point was him believing he had to write to save humanity. Can someone be any more delusional than that? Please!

I am not sure if Sartre was self aware of the image he was giving of himself. But I believe that probably he was and he found nothing wrong in being arrogant. One cannot judge a literary masterpiece based on the character of its writer I agree, but I still believe that modesty in addition to the intellectual capacity makes the most captivating writers ever and probably the smartest (those who brag on the opposite fall in the annoying category).

In conclusion, reading this book made me discover two Sartres, Sartre the man and Sartre the Great. One I loved and one I hate. Sartre the Great will never become one of my favorite authors because of the man I discovered behind. I cannot dare to deny Sartre the Great of his rightful literary and intellectual value. Then again some books' influence on you just cannot be detached from their authors' influence. But one thing is sure, I will not forget the Sartres.

The Book of Mirdad - Mikhail Naimi

Mikhail Naimi is a prominent Lebanese author of the early 20th century. He is known for being one of the founders of the movement for the rebirth of Arabic literature presided by Gibran Khalil Gibran. Some people believe he was the best Lebanese writer of his era. I sincerely do not wish to think for a second that he might have written another book as horrible as this one. With all objectivity, this book is what I call a mutilation to writing and an offense to readers. The author should have been ashamed of himself upon writing this book which he clearly wasn't for he had insisted on publishing it in Lebanon after failing to do so in London.

 The only nice thing about this book was the cover.

What were the people who published the book thinking at that time? Were they that blinded by his name and fame or were they just that bad at evaluating texts? I tell you one thing, they should have followed the Brits and spared me this great pain I felt while and after reading the book!

The book of Mirdad was a masterpiece until Mirdad opened his mouth. I cannot describe you my disappointment. I got seriously hooked on to the story as soon as a man decided out of nothing to go up a mountain taking the hard road, the road of no return. As he climbed, I felt my reading pleasure going crescendo with him. When he arrived at the top, I saw myself standing next to him. He dies and resurrects and I follow him. Then all of a sudden, I felt as if someone pushed me off the top of the Everest into the 7th hell below. The pleasure of reading, the creative and surprising encounters or misencounters that lead to the delivery of the book of Mirdad, and the petrification of the messenger priest all vanish as soon as Mirdad enters the scene. There was no more plot in the book, I wasn't reading a story anymore but rather listening to gibberish talk by the author or Mirdad (it doesn't matter). My personal interpretation is that the character reflects the author's perception of himself: someone who has something to say about everything. Unfortunately, as a reader I found that all that was said had no added value whatsoever because the ideas were pretty much reformulations of previous teachings from the Bible, Coran and almost every religious book. Can you imagine the horror in reading the "deja" heard about stuff that Mirdad had to say about any subject imaginable? He had to have a word about prayer, love, judgement and many many other stuff including IRONICALLY silence (He couldn't just shut up now could he?)!

What was more annoying than Mirdad talking is that he had a pattern-like way of talking: All Mirdad had to do to put up a sentence was to combine several adjectives that mean the same thing and then add to those the opposite adjectives. Everything I read was pretty meaningless. Not only the book story was bad but the writing was even worse! I was suffering, agonizing at every single page turn but I kept going because I thought that the book cannot finish with Mirdad speeches alone. I was waiting for Mirdad to come back, for the man who turned to stone to be freed, for anything that doesn't come out of Mirdad's mouth! The story could have been much better if only the ending was different alas, I was disappointed again and Mirdad kept moralizing until the end. Let me tell you that I had to go through a seriously intensive reading cure program to heal from this book. Thank God I feel much better now, in case you were wondering.

Now on a different issue, I have to say that some people I have discussed the book with, told me it reminded them of Jesus and that they felt as if the book indeed was spreading some teachings they already know. I agree with them on that for I have to admit that I instantly remembered the teachings of Jesus although I felt that there were no two persons more different than Mirdad and Jesus. How could one even confuse the two? Jesus is good and rarely talks while Mirdad is a devious a** who never stops talking with his arrogant tone, and the worst is that he's plagiarizing! It's funny that the Brits' reason for rejecting the book' s publication was that they were afraid that the book's aim was to spread new religious ideas or if you want old religious ideas by a new prophetic figure. Nonsense! Mirdad is so despicable that it makes it so easy to resent him and his teaching than to follow him one bit!

To conclude, I believe the author committed the worst imaginable sin in writing and that is publishing a book that is intended deliver to people a person's own morals and views on life and its hurdles. This automatically dethroned the author from his title in my eyes. How arrogant can one be to think that people would be interested in what He or his character think about every possible subject? Can someone please explain it to me?

The Arch and the Butterfly by Mohammed Achaari

I have mixed feelings about this book. I wasn't quite captured after the first reading, but scanning through the book again made me see it from a completely different perspective. I was deeply touched by the words the author had put next to each other and the ideas he had exposed and reflected upon. This isn't any ordinary, easy or straight forward book as it might seem, but it's rather a valuable Moroccan historical, social economical as well as philosophical chef d'oeuvre to say the least. No wonder this  book won the Booker prize in 2011. The prize had nothing at all to do with me choosing the book  to read. With all due respect to the juries and organizers of this prestigious award, I chose this book because the author is Moroccan and Morocco has a very dear place in my heart. If you have visited or lived in that country you would definitely understand. Who knows maybe you might even experience the same joy I felt every time the author mentioned the name of a city, especially my most favorite one: the one and only "Marrakesh" or as I like to call it " the city of one thousand and one nights".

! إن الخروج من الطفولة هو التكرار الأبدي لمسألة الخروج من الجنة

Growing out of childhood is the eternal repetition of leaving heaven

My first impressions of the book were pretty negative as mentioned above, because mainly, I was unable to tell what was the story all about or even follow it. At one point I thought it was about Youssef, at another that it was about his son who died in Afghanistan or his dad or his gay friend or his other friend and his sister. I even thought it was a book about repression and corruption in Morocco. At the end I figured it out, but in between there was too much digression in the plot that made the book confusing and boring at several instances. It's such a shame that the beauty of the book decreased as the author increased the number of characters.

Moreover, the author presented Youssef in a very peculiar way: sometimes he was a cruel son, at others he was a husband void of love. Then he was this lover who apparently had two women in his life. Youssef had many personality traits one would hate him for and no charisma to get you attached to him. If we want to summarize it, for me he was totally despicable and I believe that because I hated him, my judgement of the book was seriously affected. I was biased: I hated the book while reading it because I hated the main character.

But then again, after I had finished it, and on my second evaluation, I have found the beginning and end of this book to be among the best ever written (or the best that I have ever read). What better way to captivate the reader than to start telling the story of a man who has lost all emotional feeling as well as the sense of smell? Who has ever imagined such character?  Who would not want to know what is going to happen next? The brilliant idea gave rise to a very fertile space for writing and imagination that literally took over me while reading the book. Also, the strength and beauty of the end (that arouse from the surprise effect and the connections that were established/completed) reflected the strength and elegance of the author's pen as well as his creativity. I will not give any more detail about the ending because there was too much ingenuity put into it that in my opinion, deserve not to be spoiled. (Yes, it's that good)

What I liked most in this book was discovering this interesting, intellectual person that wrote it. His own life experiences, education, travels as well as jobs (former minister of culture among others) can be felt in his book. I also greatly appreciated the ideas or reflections on different subjects that he successfully enriched his text with (numerous new ideas that could take more than one review to address).

Finally the major point I would like to highlight, is that the book might come in handy for those who wish to visit the monuments of Volubilis, a roman city near Meknes, between Fes and Rabbat. My mom being a history teacher and having passed her passion over to me, I found a lot of pleasure in reading this part of the book, especially because I haven't been to these sites yet. I can only thank the author for making this part as clear and enjoyable as it can get and kudos for all the elaborate historical, archeological as well as touristic detailed description. The author's effort and skills really worked on me for I felt as if I had literally flown over to Volublis, physically exploring the city before getting back to my bed to finish the book. It was just heavenly.

Hope this helps you in your reading decisions.
Isabelle

Agatha Christie

Hello readers, today I want to tell you "my story" with my favorite author, Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976), who is by the way the best selling writer of all times.

I was only 10 years old when I discovered Agatha's world. I was bored with no books, so my mom suggested reading "Murder on The Orient Express" and that was the official start of a life time love story between me and Mrs. Christie.

Agatha Christie

The world of Agatha is really amusing: crimes, detectives, police, and lots of details. The most valuable thing in her literature is the way she creates her plots and links them to human nature understanding. There is a lot of ingenuity in her style. Detective Fictions in general depend on cheep excitement, but Christie took that genre to another dimension. She wrote stories about "human nature", whereby the crimes are only master keys to unlock the mysteries inside every single one of us.

I read about 40 to 50 Agatha Christie novels so far, but I couldn't solve any of them by myself. She always succeeded at fooling me that I felt I was so stupid. Nevertheless that was very inspiring for me as a writer. She herself didn't believe she could ever write a story. She got a very bad cold one day and was forced to stay in bed for a couple of weeks. Her mom asked her to try writing, that's somehow was the first sparkle in her impressive carrier: 66 novels and 15 short story collections. She sold more than 4 billion copies, and holds the world's most-widely published books record as well as the most-translated individual author. Her books have been translated into at least 103 languages. Finally, her stage play The Mousetrap holds the record for the longest initial run (1952 - now) at Ambassadors Theater in London.

I have to admit that Agatha is one of the reasons behind my love for England. She described that far cold and cloudy country so eloquently that sometimes I feel I know it like the palm of my hand. I have only visited England through books, hers in particular. Maybe my thoughts about England are a little bit outdated for I always imagine myself travelling in a SLOW train in the middle of nowhere in the English country side, drinking a DECENT cup of tea, and complaining about the bad weather.

Slow Train

I highly appreciate the characters in Agatha's books. They are full of life due to the abundance of details especially the protagonists.  The Belgian detective Hercules Poirot (33 of Christie's novels and 54 short stories) and Miss Jane Marple (12 of Christie's novels and 20 short stories) for instance, were both old and super smart. They solved lots of crimes by just meditating and thinking. The other characters are important as well, especially for the comedy that reflects Agatha's sense of humor. The funniest character in my opinion is Ariadne Oliver (a friend of Poirot, who is the fictional Agatha as she is a weird writer too). Oh, by the way I believe that all of Agatha's characters are real and I still think that I can meet Poirot or Miss Marple on the streets.

Agatha wrote about people in many strange places and eras: ancient Egypt 3000 years ago, or Baghdad after the world war II, or even in a stopped train in middle of Europe. This makes it hard for me to choose my favorite book. However, I guess "Murder on The Orient Express" is my most favorite as it introduced me to Agatha. I adore a couple of other titles like "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" and "And Then There Were None" as well as her first published novel "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" that was rejected by 6 different publishers before it became an international hit in 1920.

Murder on The Orient Express

I don't know what to add more. Everything mentioned above are the most important things in my experience with Agatha. However, I want to ask you all about your experience with Agatha. Have you ever read any of her books? What do you think about them? Don't forget to tell us more about your favorite authors as well.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

"God in heaven, to what extremity I had come!" cried the lonely desperate man living in a harsh cruel material world. This man is the main character in Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun’s (1859 - 1952) masterpiece: "Hunger". What else to expect from the lips of a poor columnist who suffers homelessness, poverty, and hunger in the cool streets of Christiania (the old name of Oslo)?

From bad to worse, the nameless hero of this novel spends his days wandering the streets, trying to make his living with little success. He blames his bad luck for his suffering. He tries journalistic writing which ensures him a little income from time to time in order to pay his debts and buy some food. The funny thing is how much he always spends on charity, thast reminds him of his "nobleness", "honor" and "humanity".

When all the doors are closed, with no money in his pockets, and no roof to protect him from winter’s harsh cold, he gets to know exactly how real hunger feels like. Shirtless, living on the streets and too proud to let himself degrade to the level of begging or stealing, he will have long uninterrupted days without a crumb. He reaches an advanced stage of rave and idiocy, but the Divine Providence helps him after all, sending him away on a departing ship to leave behind him the scary city and the ghost of hunger that is on the hunt for a new victim on the streets.

The novel was published in 1890, and had a wide fame all around the globe. It is considered today as one of the best classics ever written. It is behind Hamsun’s literary success and has even earned him the Nobel Prize of literature in 1920.

In “Hunger”, Hamsun started a new literary revolution, a totally innovative type of writing that is based on internal dialogue, one that dives so deep in the human mind and its floating ideas. We could call it "the psychological literature", which later, strongly influenced other writers like Virginia Woolf and Henry James.

Hamsun is believed to be the godfather of the modern literature. He considers that the main purpose of literature must be "Describing the whispers of the blood, and seeking the bone marrow" while focusing on the various intricacies of the human reason. On this, says the great American author Ernest Hemingway: "​​Hamsun taught me how to write." All those characteristics appeared for the first time in "Hunger".

Ernest Hemingway

The protagonist’s thoughts and reflections create a deep connection between man and the nature around him and in fact, Hamsun ensured that his character reaches delirium in that wild, crazy and merciless winter.

In spite of all the tragic events in the days of hunger, the novel is totally far from the blue sad writing style. Comedy is strangely present in the weird ideas that cross the journalist’s mind. That was actually one of the best things about the book. I enjoyed black comedy situations spread all over the pages.

The peculiar thing about "Hunger" is the loneliness in the hero's life: he has no family or close friends. In a way, he represents the poor human that lives inside every single one of us. By representing the nameless character as such, the hunger is no longer physical but it also becomes a hunger of the soul. Hunger therefore will also reveal an ugly truth about the human nature of people nowadays.

The philosophy of Hamsun is a reaction to the materialistic thinking that invaded the world at the beginning of the last century. This shows how he was affected by senior philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer or Friedrich Nietzsche, and former authors like Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky‎.

At the end, I just wanted to say that "Hunger" is really a great book. It is original and unique. I guess without doubt it deserves to be on the New York Times' list of 1001 Books that must be read before death. I am just glad to share this book and my experience with it. Hope you like it as much as I did. 

L'évangile selon Pilate - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

For those of you waiting for posts from Isabelle, I was kindly invited by her to contribute to this blog, so bear with another voice for a while :) I just finished a book recommended by her and would like to share my review here, as brief as it may be. I am not a fan of long reviews which go into details that I don 't necessarily need. When I look up a book, it's mostly because of THAT sensation the reader felt which clearly oozes from their personal reviews. I am basically summarising what got to me hoping it might interest you as well. 

Isabelle already mentioned "L'évangile selon Pilate" in an earlier post and I really wish I had read it earlier. The author deals with the necessity of doubt and reason, most imperatively, in the context of the history of the bible. Divided into three sections, we find three "heroes" realising their true potential, going against audiences that do not necessarily appreciate their inner dialogues. Throughout the three stories, a lot is revealed about human nature, and its resistance, its need to rationalise all events. This gives flavour to the biblical tales told, to which we feel no attachment at all. Emphasising the rationality and human emotions of different random events leading to an epic event is what this story reminded us of, as the secret to great storytelling. A small term mentioned towards the end of the second part perfectly describes the condition in which the three "unsung" heroes find themselves in "troubled yet never convinced". Maybe this is the take-home message of this book, that you need only to be troubled to start your journey towards fulfilment. 

Here's my original review in french:

Il fallait livre ce bouquin avant mon âge (23!). L'auteur traite la nécessité du doute et du raisonnement même, et impérativement, dans l'histoire biblique. Divisé en trois blocs, on retrouve trois "héros" réalisant leur potentiel, tout en s'enchainant contre une audience qui n'apprécie pas vraiment leurs dialectiques intérieures. Dans les trois histoires, beaucoup se révèle à propos de la nature humaine, de sa résistance et son besoin de rationaliser tout évènement. Ca donne du gout à ces histoires dont on se sent détaché, puisque l'élément raisonnable et humain est rendu aux circonstances qui ont abouti a l'épopée. Un petit mot vers la fin de la deuxième section décrit parfaitement la condition des trois caractères "troublé jamais convaincu". Peut être c'est mon message de cette oeuvre, qu'il faut juste être troublé pour enfin se réaliser.

First mention of the blog in media

This is a great day because the blog has been mentioned for the first time in media. It seems that working hard pays off. At this link you can find out what the press had to say about the blog:
http://www.almodon.com/Media/Articles/%D8%A7%D8%A7%D8%A7

Here' s also a glance of what the article looks like:

I am really flattered, although the title seems too generous. This blog is not about challenging other blogs, it' s just a way of expression, an escape in Beirut from all life hurdles towards something good, peaceful and beneficial. I am thankful for the support and appreciation of all those around me and for all the blog readers and followers on facebook.

A big thank you from the heart.

 

Tip of the day: Date a girl who reads

Hasan, a new and special friend whom I got to know through this blog, has just shared this awesome text with me. It was written by Rosemarie Utcquico, a young Filippino author, in response to Charles Warnke’s "You Should Date An Illiterate Girl". I am not going to comment on the atrocities that are found in that cheap and shallow text or the petty life it describes! I'm just glad that someone stood up to him and defended us, lady readers of the world from this nonsensical and unnecessary attack. Now if you haven't been with a reader before (male/or female), then I think you should read this text and discover how it would be like to have that sort of person in your life.

 

 

 

 

"Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes".

 

What are you waiting for? Go for readers; they're sexy even after they've spoken! :D

Under a Glass Bell - Anais Nin

My best friend Elia, who is also one of the few persons whose opinion I trust, recommended this book to me. She was in her Nin phase and I thought I'd give it a try too. When I started reading it, I was very surprised. My first impression was that I can't understand anything! I like clear plots and these short stories were everything but clear. I tried to analyse what was happening and realized that they were written in such way on purpose. It is not simply the author's mark; because half way through the book we discover another writing style, the ordinary straight forward one which was as good as the latter, if not better. In my opinion, the author's aim in the first few short stories was not to give the reader something obvious that can be easily enjoyed. Instead, she wanted him/her to read for the sake of the printed words and not the story itself. The beginning and the ending are not per say, important to her in these stories as much as being able to convey the feelings, and that I confirm she did excellently!
 

 

 

Even though I did not follow the plots quite well, this did not stop me from re reading many passages over and over again because they were just mind blowing. I knew from the beginning that I was dealing with a strong author. Then half way through the book, I had more than my dose of satisfaction. The stories were clear, and I was able to appreciate every written letter. I highly recommend that you read these three stories: Hedja, The mouse, and Birth. The first talks about an oriental woman and her confidence issues. The second is about a maid and her life fears and finally the third deals with Nin's abortion. Described like that, you'd think nothing is original. I beg to differ. You just have to take my word for it and read them for yourself to see. Just amazing!

Finally, I just wanted to say that this book might be one of the hardest to explain. If I were to simply describe it, I would say that the first half of it if can be compared to abstract paintings: Unclear but beautiful (see exhibit A). The second is more like clear normal paintings  (see exhibit B) that are just perfect for my taste. The authors excelled in both types: Chapeau!

Exhibit A

 

Exhibit B

 

 

My syndrome

I have tried to hide it for as long as I could but I just cannot fight it anymore. My name is Izzy and I am Améliesque! Stay calm, bare with me the few digressions, keep reading, and you'll understand my syndrom.

 

My symptoms started 4 years ago when I borrowed a movie at the Institut Français (Centre Culturel Français back then, mission previously etc. And by the way, does anyone know why the name keeps on changing?) Anyways, this movie, "Stupeur et tremblements" by Alain Corneau (still can't believe he's gone :( and just in case you're interested check his last movie "Crime d'amour" one of the best works ever) and starring the more than BRILLIANT Sylvie Testud (I love you!) litterally changed my life.

The plot was captivating and the turn of events was such an original one. This movie was based on Amélie Nothomb's novel by the same name which also won the "Grand Prix de l'Académie Française". Curiosity lead me to check the author's books and before I realised it, this innocent curiosity developped into addiction.
What do I mean by addiction? Nothing much. I just read her 21 books, I write to her, I've been quoted in one of the books about her and recently for my birthday this was my cake:

 

Without my friend JM this cake would have never seen the day, thank you again so much!
 

This blog will have a whole section about this author and her books. She deserves a blog at least, but I will try to give her justice as much as I can on this page. I believe Amélie is the drug no one can resist. Sooner or later you will all become "Améliesque" like me and life would never be the same again.



L'Évangile selon Pilate - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt - Part 1

My amazing little brother Jean-Pierre (Yo2borni Nchalla) has been wondering why I haven't posted any reviews lately. Well honestly, I have several reviews in mind for books that I have read in the past months, and books that I am currently reading but the real reason why I am inactive is because I wanted to re/read this book and review it before anything else and this is why:  

Let me just invite all French educated people to read L'Évangile selon Pilate by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt during these two weeks. I mean there's a new Pope and it's almost Easter time, so what better time to reading this book? It doesn't matter if you're Christian or not, if you're a believer or not, this book is written very intelligently. It's like a Sherlock story but even better. I'll review it as soon as I'm done re/reading it. If you read it along too, I think you might enjoy the review even more. But for now just let me tell you the story behind me reading this book for it is a precious one to me.

(Now remember when I talked about the bad choice of cover image of "A thousand splendid suns"? This is totally the opposite. This is the perfect cover for this book where you can see Pilatus presenting Jesus to the people of Jerusalem. The painting is by Antoni Ciseri and is entitled "Behold the man")

In summer 2009, I was on my way to Morocco with my family to spend summer at Dad's. The plane got delayed because Moroccan pilots were on strike to denounce the air company for its unfair treatment and discrimination towards them and to demand to be treated equally to their foreign colleagues. Bottom line is that we had to wait eight long hours at Rafik Hariri International Beirut Airport before we could board our plane. It's while I was waiting there that I saw a very sweet girl (you know who you are :) ) reading this book and in a few words only she got me very excited to reading it too.

Got back from Morocco at the end of the summer and I didn't forget about the book but was postponing it for later because I had a lot of other books in my hand. Then, suddenly, I learned that the author was coming to Beirut for the 16th salon du livre Francophone edition. Beirut was the world capital of the book that year as well. There it was, by pure serendipity I got to read the book and meet the author! Below are pictures of the book signing and the dedication and a few words about the plot of the book because I really want you to read it!

(I know I look terrible, long story :D)

The idea of the book is very original. On one hand, Jesus (Yechoua), is telling his story and on the other you have the Roman prefect of Judaea investigating the disappearance of the body of Yechoua from the tomb. The novelty is that we only know what the Apostles are telling us about Jesus, in this book Schmitt is imagining how Jesus's life would have been like and what feelings and thoughts would have crossed his mind. I really loved this touch. Now for the investigation about the disappearance of the body from the tomb, I personally don't know anything about it. Whether it really took place historically or not, but it is so logical that one gets the feeling that everything written in this book is true. The author really succeeded at deceiving us into believing that what he imagines and is telling us did really happen. This is brilliant! I have read two books  by Schmitt (this one and "Lorsque j'étais une oeuvre d'art") and in both I found a brilliant writer who always gives you a lot of new ideas to think about. It wasn't until I read this book for example, that Jesus, Pilatus and other characters from the Bible became fully human to me!

I do remember however that I didn't like that the book was mainly based on dialogues, but I also believe that this was the only way a plot like this could be written.

Now, that's all I remember about the book. The review will come soon. Meanwhile, you all are urged to read it. It's a short and creative book with a special flavor. Try it!


     

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Everybody around me is buzzing about Khaled Hosseini's new book "And the mountains echoed" which is to be released on may 21st. So what is this all about? Should we/you be waiting for it like everybody else? I can't answer on your behlaf, but I know that I will not be waiting for this book! This post aims to explain to you why I will not also read the new book.

So I have read Hossaini's two books, "The kite runner" and "A thousand splendid suns" and I can honestly say that I was disappointed, twice. I have read "The kite runner" a long time ago which means that I don't see myself fit to review it, so here's instead my review of "A thousand splendid suns" which is the reason that made me make up my mind not to read the third book by the author.

 

Firt thing I would like to mention is that this book was a Christmas gift from my two favorite tutorial students ever. I loved the gift more than anything in the whole world and I loved reading the book because it was from them. But when it comes to reviews, I have to be objective and straight forward so here it goes.

There are two things that I liked about this book: the title and the cover page image, although the author is not to be credited for the latter one. Annoying thing however, was that I didn't see at all how the cover image related to the story. Is there a reason why this image was chosen paticularly??? I don't know for sure, but I believe that this choice was bad from an intellectual perspective because one cannot relate it later to the book. Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but I feel that if one really cares about his book, at least he should have the decency to make an effort to choose an appropriate image that relates to the story and not any stereotypic one, an image that will just do.

 

To be really fair, I did like one more thing about this book: The protagonists are women and they are themselves telling their stories. I believe for a male writer to speak in the words of a woman is very hard, especially because one has to think like a woman to know what she would say and men usually can never do that :D (right ladies?). However, I found the writer to be very successful in his task, in his double difficult task one should say, since he did speak in the words of two women and not only one and did it in a very good way.

 

Briefly, (as usual meaning this won't be so brief :D, at all!) the story tells the life events of two girls with a large age difference having very different characters and completely different backgrounds. The older girl is forced to marry a widow that is a bit older than her. Several years later, the younger girl is also forced to marry him too. The man is an asshole to say the least. At the end, the man is killed by mistake, one of the girls sacrifices herself and the other finds happiness, leaves the country and returns several years later to do just charitable work and remembers her good old friend.

 

In this book, we do not only follow the adventures of the Afghani protagonists, we find ourselves taken in a descripticve and historical trip which retraces in details the culure of this country, the destructive war, the warlords and the misery etc. However, the style used to convey the story was very ordinary, the events were very predictable (I did predict one of the girl's mom's suicide, that the boyfriend of the other girl was not killed as she had thought, that the girls escaping the horrible husband are gonna get caught etc). One major issue for me (and this is very personal) was that the book lacked music. I can't remember at all a single quote about music anywhere (or about books as a matter of fact). Knowing that I PERSONALLY really enjoy books that introduce me to new music or litterature works, "A thousand splendid suns" failed to personally please me or at least mark me. I usually mark the pages that I find really good while reading, so that sometimes my books look more like accordons than anything else :D. However, the only page that I marked in this whole book was the one where we learn about how the book got its name.  

From a technical perspectve, there was nothing creative in this book and I noticed a lot of similarities with the author's first one. Hosseini has a very clear pattern in writing: He writes about harsh subjects (war related atrocious death accidents, marriage to teens, revolution, violence, martyr etc) Also, in both books you have the character leaving the country and coming back to remember the sacrifice of a very honorable dead friend. Some of this stuff is defenitely real, but I never enjoy real books and I always say that if I want such stuff, I'd just read the newspaper or a scholar book. The creativity and the style are very important to me. The shocking truth affects me in real life but never in books. I hate when a book's strength is only based on how horrible the events it describes are!!! And this is what the book is only about. There was no magic in it and I demand MAGIC!

 

For all of the above, I hereby declare that unless you convince me that the new book is really different from the two previous ones, I shall not read it! 

The Little Prince - Best Dedication

I had a very nice comment last time from a visitor on the blog (you know who you are :)) and automatically I was curious to check out her profile and that's when I discovered that one of her favorite books was "The little prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Now a lot of us must have read it or seen the movie adaptations. I first read the book when I was very very young and I can't even remember the last time I've seen it on TV. 

 

I had forgotten a lot of details of the story until a couple of years ago when I stumbled upon the book again and that is when I made great amount of discoveries regarding the plot, the author and many other things. This is not technically a review of this book because I believe I need to re read it once again if I ever want to give it justice (which I doubt anyone really could). But for now, I just wanted to share with you the thing which struck me like lightning when I stumbled upon the book the second time in my life and that was awkwadely the author's dedication. Maybe I never read the dedication the first time, maybe I was too young to remember it or to understand it but one thing is sure: I have never liked a dedication before in my life and I'll never ever forget this one. I hope that you'll enjoy discovering/rediscovering it as much as I did so here it goes in both French and English versions:

 

A Léon Werth. Je demande pardon aux enfants d'avoir dédié ce livre à une grande personne. J'ai une excuse sérieuse : cette grande personne est le meilleur ami que j'ai au monde. J'ai une autre excuse : cette grande personne peut tout comprendre, même les livres pour enfants. J'ai une troisième excuse : cette grande personne habite la France où elle a faim et froid. Elle a besoin d'être consolée. Si toutes ces excuses ne suffisent pas, je veux bien dédier ce livre à l'enfant qu'a été autrefois cette grande personne. Toutes les grandes personnes ont d'abord été des enfants. (Mais peu d'entre elles s'en souviennent.) Je corrige donc ma dédicace :

A Léon Werth quand il était petit garçon

 

 

TO LEON WERTH. I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up. I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children--although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication:

TO LEON WERTH
WHEN HE WAS A LITTLE BOY

Now I really hope you felt the same as I did (maybe not as emotional though :D) upon reading the dedication. I also hope that if you haven't read this magical and one of a kind story full of imagination that you do it. After all, the author, and especially this book did not only mark me but rather marked the world entirely. France had even a 50 francs banknote and a very lovely one designed in their honor where you could see the portrait of Saint Exupéry, the little prince, the snake and the elephant and many other elements from the story in addition to the plane in which the hero author/pilot died in 1944. What a shame the Euro banknotes aren't dedicated to influential artists/ scientists like the Franc bills were! I just think it would be amazing if countries everywhere designed at least one banknote honoring an author/ or a book. It would just be heavenly for me, after all, look for yourselves and you'll see how pretty that 50 francs bill was. Oh and one last thing: Which authors would you think are worthy to be on a banknote? Doesn't have to be a writer from you country, choose any country. I know who mine would be but I'll only share if you do it first ;)