Things I like this week

• This edition of songs of innocence and experience, with Blake's illustrations

• Black nail varnish

• The new yorker fiction podcast

• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark

•  The Penguin Shakespeare editions. I have King Lear and The Tempest is on my wishlist

• A tumblr dedicated to Coralie Bickford Smith

Bright Star

'Bright Star', the 2009 film by Jane Campion, explores the relationship between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Having studied Keats in school, I wasn't sure whether the experience of his poetry was 'ruined' for me, but if it was, this film saved it. Not only are Keats' poems beautiful, but his love letters, some of which are used in this film, are also beautifully phrased. And of course there's the tragedy of his young death.

'Bright Star' is beautifully shot (see the pictures above) and it really stays with you after watching. I'm not sure if I've seen a film so inspired by art, which just adds another layer to the viewing experience. Usually I'm skeptical about films about writers; they can be terrible. But I felt like this film wasn't trying to be a truthful account of their relationship (it certainly wasn't realistic), but to portray something intrinsic about it in an artistic way, which makes sense considering the subject matter.

I particularly liked the soundtrack, which featured the actors reading some of Keats' poems. Heres Bright Star, the film's namesake.

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite
The moving waters at their priestlike
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death. 

What I've been reading

I've just finished two novels, so it feels like a good time to sum up my reading over the past few weeks.

• Possession, A.S Byatt 

This was a christmas present and a book I'd been really looking forward to. I had such high expectations (it won the Booker prize), although unfortunately I was disappointed. The modern day characters didn't interest me, the plot was formulaic and the poems were imitations. I can see why Byatt did this, but I found myself wondering why I didn't just read the poems she was mimicking. So thats one positive consequence- I decided to read some Victorian poetry.

• Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee

Disgrace is one of those books you are always being told you should read- and I can see why. I think people can easily be put off by the main character, disgraced professor David Lurie, but I don't think the point of the novel is to like him. Regardless Disgrace is very thought provoking about a whole range of issues, and strangely moving.

• Fingersmith, Sarah Waters

I suppose I have developed an affection for the Victorian period, so I decided to read Fingersmith, a sort of historical crime fiction novel. I thought the first plot twist was brilliant, and I like novels which show two characters' perspectives on the same story. But I felt like the rest of the novel was disappointing in comparison.

• The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House is a short novel about, as the title suggest, a haunted house. It was not as scary as I thought it would be, it was more a story of gradual descent into madness. I love the subtlety and ambiguity of Jackson's writing, although I prefer We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

• The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

I had been meaning to read The House of Mirth for a long time, and I thought because of this it might be a chore to read. However I was presently surprised: it was much cleverer and more interesting than I imagined. It's not a perfect novel, but so many aspects of it are fascinating, and Lily's situation is so tragic.

• Burial Rites, Hannah Kent

Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, the last person to receive the death penalty in Iceland in 1828. Agnes is placed with a rural family awaiting her execution, and visited by a reverend. In the months leading up to her execution, Agnes tells her story. I really enjoyed this book, even though I felt the conclusion was a little weak. It really emphasised the importance of stories, and the Icelandic setting is particularly interesting to me.

The Examined Life, Stephen Grosz

This is a book I've been interested in for a while, so I was delighted when I stumbled across it at the library and started reading it with high expectations. I enjoy reading about human psychology: I think its one of the appeals of fiction for many people. And The Examined Life does have quite a literary feel- Grosz sometimes explains states of mind with references to literature- Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Melville's Bartleby and even a Dr Zeuss poem.

Although it is non-fiction, The Examined Life reads like a book of short stories, so it has that hit or miss quality. Some of the chapters are very stimulating, others just feel like mildly interesting anecdotes. They are very concise, which is a good thing for the most part, but they do run the risk of being too simplistic. Is "You do this because of your parents" a complex enough explanation for someone's behaviour? Of course I know next to nothing about psychoanalysis, but I just wanted something with more depth. Maybe a longer explanation of a particular case study would have been more appropriate for me.

One of the descriptions used to sell the book on the inside front cover was 'aphoristic' and I agree with this, although I'm not sure if its a good thing. It comes back to the complexity issue. Although I should note that the chapters are grouped by theme- 'Beginnings', 'Telling Lies', 'Loving', 'Changing' and 'Leaving'. Maybe considering the stories within their place in these themes creates a multi-faceted picture. For example, ways of coping with loss, change, and sadness are repeated motifs.

I may have been harsh on this book but I do want to convey that I enjoyed it. It's an easy read, but still manages to be thought-provoking, and the sheer amount of case studies means you are bound to find something that interests you, or even something you recognise in yourself. 'How a fear of loss can cause us to lose everything' and 'How lovesickness keeps us from love' were particularly interesting to me.

If, like me, you can get this book from the library, I would recommend giving it a go. But had I paid full price for it I may have felt I little disappointed. If you have read The Examined Life, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

2014 Challenges

I'm new to this book blogging thing, but I had no idea there were so many yearly challenges. I've always thought new years resolutions were pretty arbitrary (making a change in your life takes dedication over a long time, no matter what the date), but I'm very impressed by the creative ways that book bloggers plan to read over the next year. Reading about challenges of course made me want to enter them, and why not? These are the ones that stood out:

2014 Chunkster Challenge

There don't seem to be many requirements on this one. A 'Chunkster' is any book over 450 pages, which actually includes quite a lot. I'm going to aim to read 5 chunksters, including Middlemarch and Anna Karenina.

Back to the Classics 2014 Challenge

This is an interesting one- you are required to read books written before 1964 in specific categories:

A 20th Century Classic

A 19th Century Classic 

A Classic by a Woman Author

A Classic in Translation  

A Classic About War  

A Classic by an Author Who Is New To You

There are some optional categories as well, but at the moment I'm content with focusing on these six. The categories really get you thinking about what to read- I've already started planning (and hopefully some will overlap with the chunksters challenge!).

2014 Shakespeare Reading Challenge

This challenge is actually perfect for me- I've been saying I need to read more Shakespeare for ages, and I really want to properly read his plays. The edition I currently own is from the 1940s and is falling apart, so I don't think I'll feel guilty about buying new editions of some of the plays. I'm aiming for the lowest level, 'Occaisional theatre-goer', which requires reading 1- 4 plays (But we'll see if I manage more than that)

2014 Victorian Reading Challenge

Victorian novels are currently my favourite, so I felt like I just had to enter this challenge. The goal is to read two or more Victorian books. I was already planning to read more Thomas Hardy (Far from the Madding Crowd, The Woodlanders), George Eliot (Middlemarch, Silas Marner) and the Brontë sisters (Agnes Grey, Villette, Shirley), but I also want to try some new authors. I've only read a bit of Dickens and I've never read Wilkie Collins. Anyone have any suggestions?

Classics Club

This is something I see a lot of people doing and I think its a great idea. I do already have a list of books I want to read (it's very long), but as soon as I read one I add three more. Setting 50 or 100 books to read over 5 years seems like a good way to recognise an achievement (because 100 books is an achievement) and feel like you are getting somewhere with your reading. I'm currently working on a list.


I really only intended to enter a couple of challenges but it seems like I was sucked in! I may be taking on too much for my first year of doing challenges, but I feel like they will give me an extra push to read within difficult categories.