July Wrap-Up 2016 | Part 1

[@KrystalLynne]

I absolutely love your wrap-ups -- you manage to not only tell us what books you read, but also start a meaningful discussion and, well, just want me to read ALL THE THINGS. Thanks for sharing!

[@KrystalLynne]

P.S. Just officially bought my first copy of Huck Finn thanks to you ;)

[@alltheshelves9142]

I think you're really going to like it! I know how you feel about reading all the things...booktube is so dangerous that way!

[@KathleenAnnBooks]

Okay, you've convinced me to reread Huck Finn and I never thought I would say that. I too, read Tom Sawyer when I was young and loved it but Huck Finn, which I read in high school, never resonated with me at all. So your thoughts on this one compel me to reread this one and see what I missed.

[@moonspell6759]

thankfully I finally found this channel; I've been slowly trying to find something like this. But there are so darn many people doing 'library' tours and bookshelf tours, most of these are young adult books. I'm glad to see people still read books, but I've seen toooooo many young adult books. I wanna hear about Updike, Hardy, Defoe, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Tolstoy, Bukowski, Tom Robbins, Irving, Lethem.....etc.

[@kimpatton]

I love Bird by Bird! She is smart and sassy and the writing advice is spectacular. I love how she is very honest with the very bad, first drafts :-) That has helped me a lot. On Writing was super fun as well- very helpful to writers. I appreciated your honest review! Thanks for a good video- your voice is calm and soothing and I enjoy hearing your take!

[@timetoread1795]

Bah. I have never read any Mark Twain, lol. Oye vey. I am embarrassing.

[@alltheshelves9142]

You're not embarrassing! But there is a lot of Twain to choose from and, from what I read, it's all worthwhile.

[@ThatsWhatSheRead]

I love that you have a best friend reading club!! That's awesome. I agree with you. I didn't like Ruth's chapters at all. I wanted more of Nao, but like you I also wasn't a fan of the ending.

[@alltheshelves9142]

It's the best book club. We have other people that sometimes want to join us (including our husbands) and we always refuse to let them into our very exclusive club. haha. But it's fun to have something with just us.

[@littlespider9]

That's funny, just yesterday I was looking at Bird by Bird on my shelf and thinking that I really need to pick it up soon. And yay, Huckleberry Finn! I completely agree that Twain really covers a range of tones and emotions throughout the book. The moment where Huck decides he "knowed Jim was white inside" always gets me a little choked up, if I'm honest.

[@alltheshelves9142]

There were so many moments like that! Jim's story about his deaf daughter broke my heart!!!

[@MarieBergCarlsen]

I have Ozeki on my shelves waiting for me to pick it up heheh - now Im feeling less inclined :P Ive also never read Huckleberry Finn but this really made me want to pick it up - I dunno, I guess I always thought it would be a sort of boring read heheh :) Great video! xx

[@alltheshelves9142]

The dialect in Huck Finn makes it a hard read, but it's definitely not a boring one. Because it's this adventure story that moves from one conflict to another, there is always something fun happening.

[@OliviaReadinglikeamadwomanPope]

Excellent reviews. I felt exactly the same about A tale for the time being. Throughout reading I was waiting for point, but it was never revealed. Very glad to hear someone talk about Bird by bird as well, and I completely understand what you mean about the hippy dip side of her. Personally I love her, but she's definitely not for everyone. :) also, your book club sounds like the best! :D

[@alltheshelves9142]

Yes, it's not that I disliked Bird by Bird, it's just that I recognized that it wasn't really for me, you know? My book club is the best!! Last night we went out for sushi and talked about books. So good.

[@katehowereads]

Huckleberry Finn is one that sounds so fun! I might just be lazy and wait until Peter's old enough to have it read aloud to him.

[@alltheshelves9142]

I think it would be a really fun one to read aloud. And with your Southern roots I bet you could do such a good job with that dialect!

Great video (as always :-))! I really loved A Tale for the Time Being & I didnt have the same problems with the different voices or the postmodern aspect of it. For me it was (also) a book about the relationship between writer and reader which I thought was quite fascinating . If you are interested, Ozeki talks about the reason for her choices re 'Ruth' and the blurred line between fiction & non fiction: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2GQXqyXnZx-bbc.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thanks for the recommended video! I am definitely interested in hearing her reasoning because I did feel like there was something I missed in that choice!

[@RunwrightReads]

I've never read Bird by Bird but it's definitely on my list to read soon. Maybe on my next trip to the bookstore. I read Huck Finn in January. It was actually my second book this year and while I was surprised I had never read the book as a kid, I thought about it that I wouldn't have appreciated it as then.

[@alltheshelves9142]

I definitely didn't appreciate it as a kid - though I do remember feeling a sense of accomplishment when I finished such a difficult book, you know?

[@nikkivenable3700]

I read Huck Finn every summer!!! It makes me tear up just thinking about it. It's full of nostalgia. I recently bought the Everyman Edition. If I can afford it, I always buy these editions. Oh my. The covers are gorgeous. Huck Finn in particular is perfection. If you wanted or had time, I'd love a full video on this book! I didn't like Bird by Bird. And Ozeki? I bought it based on the glowing reviews, now I'm really...not...in...a...hurry.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Did you see that I have the scholastic version? It was the same I had as a kid and it's terrible. No margin space, thin pages...really bad. But it was also, like, four dollars, so I probably shouldn't complain.

[@alistair1888]

A Tale for the Time Being. I read it a year or two ago and although I liked it (3*) I wasn't 'blown away' by it. It was a sort of buddy read with an 'on-line friend' who is French and lives in Japan. (I liked it more than she did) Apparently, they don't have French maid cafe's in Tokyo. :) Ruth Ozeki does seem to put a lot of herself into her characters, the other one I've read 'My Year of Meats' also had a main character called Ruth. And I believe she lives in British Columbia Canada. (My Year of Meats is better.) I did like the 'fantasy island' quips.

[@alltheshelves9142]

That so cool to get the perspective of someone living in Japan while you were reading it. And really??? They don't have those French maid cafes??? Did that at one point? It just seems like such a weird thing to make up... Good to know that My Year of Meats was better. I thought the premise to that one sounded interesting.

[@bedmadrid5958]

I really love the idea of the "best friend book club". :)

[@alltheshelves9142]

It really is the most fun.

[@LauraFreyReadinginBed]

I say hippy dippy! but I am an old (well, over 30, so, old for Booktube haha). so strange that I can't remember the end of A Tale For. .. i listened to it on audio, read by the author (natch) & she did a great job. it's one of my favorite audio books, in terms of narration, and I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much in print. my library book club criticized A Tale for being too "woo woo" which I think is basically hippy dippy. . they couldn't handle the zen stuff. ..

[@alltheshelves9142]

haha. I guess I'm old too, then! Good to know that the audiobook is good - I really like when authors read their own books (though sometimes it really backfires). The zen stuff was a little obnoxious to me too, if I'm being honest. I just thought it seemed a little superficial.

[@SoulStainedInk]

The idea of reading a book together and then having a meal themed around that book is AMAZING!!! If my best friend would actually read the book, I would LOVE to do that. Huckleberry Finn is such a hard book. I think I read it around 3rd grade as well and I loved it but I loved it more for watching Tom and Huck because it allowed me connect more to the story.

[@alltheshelves9142]

yeah, I'm really lucky to have a BFF that also enjoys reading. We have different taste, so we take turns picking books, but try to keep the other person in mind. I never saw Tom and Huck!!! That's the one with JTT, right? I loved him...I'm not sure why I didn't see that one....

[@nicolaspoblete2087]

A very dear friend of mine recommended me Bird by bird and, since it had been so important to her, I read it but couldn't connect with her views, which I found quite cliséd and even corny. I have the feeling she is in a frequency similar to Isabel Allende... not my cuppa!

[@alltheshelves9142]

Yeah. I thought it was corny too. It motivated me, but then I was kind of ashamed that it did. haha.

[@tortoisedreams6369]

I always felt that Twain was trying to humanize African Americans in HF, for a population that didn't always see the whole picture, and to start the story as engaging and funny would bring readers in and make them stay for the moral lesson. At times Twain's lesson is more subtle than he's given credit for. Today, it's easy for us to view this with greater perspective, but in his time I believe Twain was saying that Jim's life mattered.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Yes, but I do think that the book is more of a complicated discussion of American values beyond race, too.

[@Alan-wd7wv]

I agree with you on Time Being. I thoroughly enjoyed the Japanese section but the Canada part just seemed wedged in. I remember there was this really didactic part towards the end where she basically says "oh btw here is what the book is about, cool huh?". An overhyped one here on booktube. You do the best reviews btw :)

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thanks! I can kind of see what Ozeki was doing with the injection of herself into the narrative, and I don't think the book would have gotten as much attention if those sections weren't juxtaposed with the Japanese scenes, but by the end it just seemed like a neat trick. Not really substantive.

[@thisisyrrobotfriend]

Bird by Bird rubbed me the wrong way big time but (and I hate to admit any positives) I did like the advice of holding up a 1" frame and writing just what is there. I also was not the biggest fan of how pleasantly things shake out in Tale for the Time Being but I did like Ruth's narrative as much as I liked Nao's, and I think that her sections provide answers to "what is it to be an author, to direct a narrative?" kinds of questions and illuminate all the quantum time zen stuff in the appendices. Though maybe it was a bit far reaching for her to tackle those ideas :)

[@alltheshelves9142]

I liked that 1" frame advice too. And I think it can even work when you're writing essays or scholarly work, so that's helpful for me and students. I still just don't know exactly how I feel about the many worlds theory parts of the book. I just wish she could have trusted her readers to get her ideas without her being so expository about it.

[@Cetoniinae]

I see I really need to get around to reading Huckleberry Finn in the near future!

[@alltheshelves9142]

yes! It's so good!

[@BookishNorth]

I read Hucklebury Finn as a kid, and I loved it back then. But now you made me want to read it again as an adult. I can't remember the dialect part of it, but at that age I read it in translation. I kind of want to go back and find the edition I read now to see how that was solved. Translating specific dialects is a challenge with no perfect solution.

[@alltheshelves9142]

It would be such an interesting book to read in translation. I have no idea how a translator would pull that off....or if the effort is even worth it? The story is good and all, but I do think the dialect is it's distinguishing, more important feature!

[@BookishNorth]

+All the Shelves More often than not translators will translate into a dialect of the language they are translating into, at least in Norwegian. But that will never have the same tone as the original. Other times they ignore the dialect and translates into standarized language, and I suspect that was the case for the edition I read. It might even have been abrigded.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Interesting! I wonder how many books I've read in translation (admittedly, there aren't many) have originally been in some kind of dialect...