Books my Mother Loaned Me
Feb. 4th, 2005 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
library_mamaI didn’t make it to the library to check out books even once while I was off – imagine the deprivation! Fortunately, my mother brought me nice books to read. Thank you, Mommy!
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi Though I’ve been a reader all my life, I’ve never really gotten into too much Classic Literature – mostly, it just seems so depressing. This book might just convince me to go back to those classics, as Nafisi describes her experiences leading a small group of women in reading English classics. (And we though those books were hard going, as native English speakers!) Throughout the lives of the women, their lives in the restrictive society of post-revolutionary Iran are seen through the prism of Lolita, Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby. This book has been hanging out on paperback bestseller list for a while now, and it deserves its success. It really is phenomenal.
Brave New Family by G.K. Chesterton, ed. Alvaro de Silva I must confess, as a Protestant, and raving liberal Protestant at that, I was at first hesitant to read this book of essays by the acclaimed Catholic author G.K. Chesterton. It turns out that Chesterton and I have more in common than I’d thought. I really enjoyed reading his thoughts on the value of family and small town life – namely, that one must learn to get along with people different from one’s self. In the city, he argues, one naturally gravitates towards similar people. I also agree with his emphasis on the value and importance of motherhood, though not that any other employment a woman could have must be less fulfilling. But then again, if the choice at the time was factory worker or staying at home, he’d probably be closer to right. I had to stop reading when he started talking about the evils of birth control, though. And yes, I am willing to see myself as part of the surplus world population. The introduction by de Silva, about how nobody has values anymore, I also skipped. If you’re less liberal than me, or are willing to read selectively as I did, you too might find some nice food for thought in this book.
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi Though I’ve been a reader all my life, I’ve never really gotten into too much Classic Literature – mostly, it just seems so depressing. This book might just convince me to go back to those classics, as Nafisi describes her experiences leading a small group of women in reading English classics. (And we though those books were hard going, as native English speakers!) Throughout the lives of the women, their lives in the restrictive society of post-revolutionary Iran are seen through the prism of Lolita, Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby. This book has been hanging out on paperback bestseller list for a while now, and it deserves its success. It really is phenomenal.
Brave New Family by G.K. Chesterton, ed. Alvaro de Silva I must confess, as a Protestant, and raving liberal Protestant at that, I was at first hesitant to read this book of essays by the acclaimed Catholic author G.K. Chesterton. It turns out that Chesterton and I have more in common than I’d thought. I really enjoyed reading his thoughts on the value of family and small town life – namely, that one must learn to get along with people different from one’s self. In the city, he argues, one naturally gravitates towards similar people. I also agree with his emphasis on the value and importance of motherhood, though not that any other employment a woman could have must be less fulfilling. But then again, if the choice at the time was factory worker or staying at home, he’d probably be closer to right. I had to stop reading when he started talking about the evils of birth control, though. And yes, I am willing to see myself as part of the surplus world population. The introduction by de Silva, about how nobody has values anymore, I also skipped. If you’re less liberal than me, or are willing to read selectively as I did, you too might find some nice food for thought in this book.
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books
Date: 2005-02-09 03:25 am (UTC)Having read 'Reading Lolita in Tehran' I agree that it is simply an amazing view of life unlike anything that I can imagine. The relationship of their lives viewed through the books they read or vice versa the books they are reading viewed through the traumas and joys of there lives is a unigue view of literature that frankly I view mostly as crap. Although I do now have to go back & read the ones I've missed before actually saying that. I found two things most interesting, 1)her style of writing where its more like free thinking and what she happened to remember one day from the next instead of really a day to day story. It made it more interesting. 2)the different ways of teaching the stories to her classes. The trial of the Great Gatsby was fabulous and I think goes farther than anything else in showing how far a person can go to try and pass on a love of something. The one thing I didn't like was the belief that the women ultimately were responsible for their own mistreatment-I had issues with her reasoning.
As for G.K. Chesterton I'll have to check that out it sounds vaguely interesting-and frankly it can't be more unfoundedly opinionated than 'Harry Potter and the Bible' which needs to be read with a whole shaker of salt in order to keep your sense of reality.
Cheers
Tiff