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 ;)  

 

 

 

  

Life of Pi - The movie

Sometimes, I watch the movie without reading the book. And then I regret it! This is defenitely one of those moments.

 

Life of Pi is one of the most amazing stories ever! What a brilliant author Mr Yann Martel! and I doubt anyone could have directed the movie any better than Mr Ang Lee. I haven't read any books by the former and I have to say that the only movie I watched by the latter was "Brockeback Mountain" which I am not so fond of. "Life of Pi" the movie however, is a one of a kind piece of work! Below you'll find my review which is like most of my previous ones a spoiler so you have been warned.

The story starts with a reporter trying to interview a man who supposedly has a story that will make him believe in God. It is not clear whether the reporter is in quest for God or whether he is looking for a catchy story or whether he was just intrigued by this man for being known in his society for some story. The reason driving this reporter to meet the man remains mysterious all during the movie and I believe it was left unexplained for a purpose. By doing so, the writer or director (I don't know who exactly) guarantees that everybody will listen to the story. Everyone for a different reason. It personally worked on me, I directly felt involved. What the protagonist had to offer was very intriguing and my reaction was like: A story to make one believe in God??!!! Bring it on!

 

Pi (whose name made me remember Paris :( ) met God by discovering Hinduism, Christ and then Allah. It was a very creative way to convey the message that religions have a lot in common. However, what I hated is that on this one hand you have the religions/religious represented by the nice boy and on the other you have the severe scientist atheist father. Now this bothered me a lot because niceness is not related to religion. Everybody should be aware of this by now!
 

To cut the story short: on the way to Canada, the ship sinks and Pi survives only to find himself trapped on a boat with a bunch of animals from the Zoo. Then everyone dies except for the Tiger and Pi who's trying to avoid himself getting eaten. The sotry focused on the turmoils of this journey which ends by survival of both the kid and the tiger. What marked me most was the originality and the suspense in this story. At one point the movie was like Noah's Ark because the family and the animals board together on a ship. But then again it was a ship wreck story so in a way an Ark revisited tail and hence the originality.

If the boy had been stuck with people I would have defenitely left the movie theater. But he was stuck with animals and some dangerous ones too. This was so unpredictable and very exciting. But come to think of it, humans and animals are alike and I often have the feeling that we live in a Zoo. At the end, when the boy is in the hospital being interrogated by insurance company staff, we will learn that surviving with animals may not be that different or any worse from surviving with humans. In fact, we will get to decide or choose whether the boy survived with animals or whether his other story about the cook, the sailor, and his mom surviving with him is true. I chose the second story, the realistic one. I was caught off guards when the alternative story was introduced. It was very unexpected and yet so obvious! The father even says it at the beginning of the movie "when you look at the animal you are seing your own reflection" meaning that there was no tiger, Pi was seing his own reflection! The father was a wise man and a practical man, he represents science critical thinking and without his teachings, Pi would have never survived.

Finally, from this whole movie I thought the island part or the ideas behind it were the best. At this one point after both the boy and the Tiger have reached the bottom and nearly died, they stumble upon a mysterious island. The island is peaceful, magnificent and full of food for both. However, it later turns out to be carnivorous but one can survive for as much as wanted on this heaven-like island. Pi comes to the conclusion that the island or if you want, this sort of life will consume him and he decides to leave and take unknown risks rather than stay alone in his happy space. I personally understand Pi: there's a big difference between surviving and living. If one only lives for his comfort he will be consumed. Also, one can never live alone: The other must be present or heaven isn't worth much. My interpretation of this island was that it represented a depression phase that Pi went through before really getting over this whole journey. He had to leave it to heal, just like sometimes overwhelmed people plunge into depression before coming out of it to live a better life.

 

Was this really a story that can make one believe in God? I don't think so. God had nothing to do in  it. I just found this link to be so far fetched. I mean, who can really  claim such thing???
Nevertheless, this remains one of the most amazing stories that I will never ever forget.