When books are more than just books

As I continue reading Lord of the Rings, I am getting further and further drawn into Middle Earth. My love for Sam Gamgee is growing very quickly, and I got chills while reading the stories told in the Counsel at Rivendell. Seriously--chills. I could think that I shouldn't have put off reading the book for so long, but on the other hand, I wonder if I needed to be where I am now to enjoy it as much as I am. It's been long enough since I've seen the movies that nothing from them is fresh in my mind (besides remembering Orlando Bloom as Legolas...), so I feel untainted as I read. I just came off reading another fantasy book that set me up for reading about lands unfamiliar to anyone but fans of the books, which prepped my brain for reading a lot of names of places that only exist on a hand-drawn map in an appendix. It also helped, I think, that I was ready to read a book that went into more detail about the fantastic journeys of the main character--if you remember from my last post, I mentioned that as one of the few things I didn't enjoy about A Wizard of Earthsea. I wanted more details from it, and Lord of the Rings gives me more detail about its story and characters. A lot more detail. So my brain and my book soul are happy.

It amazes me that we all have those books that we have to read at just the right time to really get the full impact of them. I have several books that sat on my shelves after buying them for a long time (or that sat on my books-to-read list for a long time), only to get picked up at just the right moment for me to enjoy them most. Books included in that category are Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier), The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Aimee Bender), Garden Spells (Sarah Addison Allen), Lake of Dead Languages (Carol Goodman), The House at Riverton (Kate Morton), The Secret History (Donna Tartt), Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows), Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), and The Inner Game of Stress (W. Timothy Gallwey)--among other great books. These--and others like them--are then the ones that I often talk about most and share most freely with friends. And yet they're often the ones that take me the longest to pick up.

I think that avid readers--or maybe it's just me--have a sort of book ESP. We know when we pick up a book or choose one from the store that it's going to change the game for us. Maybe the book is going to make us look at life differently or at other books differently. Maybe the book is that comforting friend we may need in a time of craziness. Maybe that book will serve as our private moment of escape when we need it most. Because of that special little bit of knowledge that largely remains unconscious, we avoid picking up the book until the right moment--whether it's a week or three years down the road. Then, when we do read it, it becomes a part of us. I can't look at some of the books on my shelves without being taken immediately to the feelings I had when first reading the book. I can't part with most of my books (even though books are heavy to move, and we seem to move a lot) because, to me, they are more than just books.

I also acknowledge here that I don't get that feeling about all books that end up becoming very special to me and were, in fact, impulse purchases that I read immediately after buying. The Help (Katheryn Stockett) and The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield) are examples of books like that. However, maybe that impulse is the same as the impulse I get to read a book I already own--maybe it's all connected.

I think people who read for the love of reading have a very special connection that non-readers just can't understand. That's why my husband can't figure out why I get miffed when I'm interrupted mid-chapter in a book that I've been buried in all day. That's why people don't always understand how hard it is for me to put down a book in the morning to start working on things that actually have to get done. Books feed my soul. And the really good books--the ones that touch me most--become a part of me. The characters cease to be words on pages and become role models, friends, stories of my own past.

That's some deep thought for a Wednesday morning... It's also completely different than what I had intended to write when I sat down to type a post. Funny how those things work.

My Fave Five: Spotlight on Authors

When it comes to my favorite authors, I am all about the girl power.  My favorite authors are all female: Daphne duMaurier, Carol Goodman, Sarah Addison Allen, Jennifer Donnelly, Marian Keyes.  Being a book lover has turned me into an author “groupie” of sorts: I regularly do searches on my favorite authors to see if they have anything new coming out or if they have an online presence I can be a part of.  When my friend request on Facebook was accepted by Sarah Addison Allen, I did a little dance. . .  Today I wanted to take a step back and shine a spotlight on my "Fave Five."

Screenshot from the Daphne duMaurier webpage, run by dedicated fans of her work

While Daphne duMaurier is in my Fave Five list (in fact, she tops my Fave Five list), my searches on her are not as frequent, as she is no longer with us to be writing new books or starting a new blog.  (Although, there is an annual duMaurier Festival I might need to start joining in on.)  I love her books because they are timeless, and I owe being able to include her in my list of favorite authors to my sister.  If my sister had not convinced me to read Rebecca, I never would have experienced duMaurier's ability to write mysterious and suspenseful storylines with beautifully marred characters.  Her books take me to a special place as a reader, and just holding a copy of Rebecca in my hands puts a smile on my face.

March is going to be an exciting month for me, with two new releases from the next ladies of my Fave Five: Carol Goodman’s Arcadia Falls and Sarah Addison Allen’s The Girl Who Chased the Moon.  (In fact, I just added a countdown widget to the right-hand sidebar for Allen's new book.)

Screenshot from Carol Goodman's website

Carol Goodman is an intriguing author for me because she weaves her interests (and education) in classical studies with modern-day plots.  When I read a Carol Goodman book, I find myself enjoying a story while learning something academic-y--that’s a combination I adore.  The first book I ever read of hers was Lake of Dead Languages, and as soon as I finished that book, I immediately called all my friends who enjoy reading and told them that they had to check it out.  I enjoyed that book so much, that when I stopped reading it in the late evening hours to sleep, I dreamt about the book.  I find myself wishing I could put me into her storylines, so her books stay with me long after I put them down.

Screenshot from Sarah Addison Allen's website

Sarah Addison Allen’s books are endearing to me because they weave together magical elements with reality so that you believe it’s possible to create potion-like results from cooking with flowers.  Her book Garden Spells was given to me as a gift, and it sat on my shelf for nearly a year before I picked it up.  I took it with me when I flew to Nashville to meet two of my friends for a girls' weekend, and on the way back, I finally cracked open the book.  I fell in love from the first chapter and was taken to a new world with her writing.  Yet again, as soon as I finished that book, I contacted all my reading friends and told them to immediately go out and get the book.  On her website, she states:

Garden Spells, my mainstream debut, didn’t start out as a magical novel. It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own...and my life hasn’t been the same since.

How could you not love an author who says something like that?  Allen's online presence is another thing that compels me to include her in my Fave Five.  When you can friend a favorite author on Facebook, you feel a special connection forevermore.

Screenshot of Jennifer Donnelly's website

I enjoy reading interviews with Jennifer Donnelly because she is so down-to-earth.  She is open about her struggles to balance work and home life--as a mother and author, she’s got obligations galore that I can relate to--on her notes she writes to readers (on her website), and yet she’s a multi-genre author who excels in writing children’s books, young adult fiction, and historical fiction.  Her ability to twine together research about historical periods with fascinating storylines amazes me.  The first book I read by her was Northern Lights, which is one of her young adult books.  When I finished that book, I was so intrigued by her writing that I bought Tea Rose, which is the first book of a historical fiction trilogy.  Part of my love for her books could be attributed to my love of history, but the majority of my love for her books is solely attributed to Donnelly's strong writing.

Screenshot from Marian Keyes's website

I was introduced to Marian Keyes by my friend Kirsty about five years ago.  The first book I borrowed from Kirsty was Sushi for Beginners.  As soon as I finished it, I bought a copy for myself and then borrowed three more books by Keyes.  I am slowly collecting all her books (though I’ve read all but one through borrowing from friends), and I am ecstatic about her newest release, The Brightest Star in the Sky.  One aspect I appreciate about Marian Keyes’s books is that she has brutally honest characters.  They have flaws, and Keyes exploits those flaws perfectly so that I, as a reader, do not judge the characters but root for them to get over the hurdles they are facing.  I love her books so much that I am trying to convince my sister (a fellow Keyes fan) to go on a “Keyes tour” with me, which would include stops in the locations featured in her books (including Dublin and London).

Just looking at the screenshots from the authors' websites can give you an idea of the diversity represented by my Fave Five:  I like a variety of styles, and these ladies produce quality work that boosts my 'joie de lire.'  Who is in your Fave Five?

Happy reading!

It's All in the Name... Or is it?

The other week I was participating in a Twitter conversation (in the #YAlitchat, which takes place every Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. EST); the topic was how writers choose to name their characters.  I won't get into my own naming practices here; I've started yet another blog to track my writing journey, Jessie's Writing, so check there for a future posting on my own personal naming habits.  The talk of how we choose to name characters, though, made me start thinking about the names of characters in some of my favorite books.

I remember when I was younger reading an interview with R.L. Stine; he said that some of his characters had their names because his kids had started their own business at school, "selling" other kids the ability to have their names appear in one of their dad's future books.  I'm not sure how serious he was about that, but I think the philosophy behind it represents one type of naming practice: books that have character names that don't necessarily "mean" anything beyond, "Well, a character has to have a name, right?"  Quite honestly, as I'm reading, usually the names don't speak to me unless I have prior attachments to the name.  As shallow as it makes me sound as a reader, I'll try out any book that has a character named Lucy simply because I'm infatuated with I Love Lucy.  And so for most books, I don't think too deeply about why the author chose a particular name for a particular character, and I'm not sure a lot of books actually have significant reasons.  In saying that, though, I don't mean that I ignore names altogether; in fact, some of my favorite books do have rather significant meanings behind the names, and I revel in that as a reader.

In the book Bitter Sweets (by Roopa Farooki), a character sums up the inspiration for the rest of this post quite nicely (taken from page 60):

Ricky-Rashid had an unconscious Dickensian belief that the name unveiled the soul; no man named Uriah Heep would ever be a romantic hero, no boy named Twist could expect a straightforward life.

Ricky-Rashid's thoughts continued, letting readers know that for him, "a rose by any other name" would not in fact still be a rose.  And so, it's all in the name.  Or is it?

On one end of the spectrum is Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier.  When I picked up the book, I assumed the main character's name was Rebecca; after all, it would make sense that the name on the cover of the book matched the name of the main character.  As I read, though, I found out that Rebecca was the name of the main character's husband's first wife (in other words, Rebecca was the first Mrs. de Winter while the main character is the second Mrs. de Winter).  I was nearly finished with the book before I realized the main character wasn't named.  She was called "Mrs. de Winter," but her first name is never provided.  I delighted in the mystery having no name presented--it only let me know so much about the main character even though I was able to read her thoughts and interactions with other people.  There was something about not knowing her name that kept part of her character a secret from me, and I liked that secrecy--that intrigue.  The primary significance of the names in this book is represented by the lack of a name for the main character.  That raises the question of whether it can really be all about the name if not all characters even receive names.

On another end of the spectrum is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.  In her books, names reflect the characters but do so in such a way that readers may not be able to recognize the relationship on the surface.  If you take the time to look up the origins of the names, though, they are the character in word form.  The names are characters all by themselves.  I found a website that provides meanings of the names for all the primary characters (and even some not-so-primary characters) in the books.  I have to admit that the first time I read the Harry Potter books, I didn't think too hard about the names--I just let myself get lost in the story.  It wasn't until I was teaching a Study of Words course that I began to realize just how many Latinate roots the unique words in Harry Potter had (e.g., the names of spells).  Then I started researching more about the names of characters in the books and found just how intricately J.K. Rowling had worked to shape the names of all her characters.  For example, the following is taken from the website provided above for the names of the Harry Potter characters:

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore: His first name is from the Latin word alba, "white." His last name, according to Rowling interviews, is Old English for "bumblebee." In color symbolism, white often stands for purity, so the headmaster's name suggests honor and a hard-working nature ("busy as a bee").

I don't have the type of reading habits that make me take into account all the details and ask what they might be symbolic of; instead, I tend to read for the pure enjoyment of reading.  And yet, names really are fascinating when authors integrate them so well into the plot that readers don't feel the strain from the struggles the author must have gone through to get all the names "just so."

In comparing the two differing styles of naming characters, I am not sure which author had a more difficult task: J.K. Rowling, who hand-crafted all her characters' names, or Daphne duMaurier, who hand-crafted the story in such a way that the lack of a first name for her main character would not be a glaring distraction to the novel.

What books come to mind for you when you think of memorable character names?  Which authors, in your opinion, use interesting character names?

Happy reading and analyzing character names!

Weekly Poll 11/4/09

The poll question from last week was...

As a reader, is writing style or plot more important to keep you hooked on a book?

• style
• plot

The results were that 67% feel writing style is more important while the remaining 33% feel plot is more important.

My first reaction was that I wasn't sure which I would answer--good style without a plot driving it feels kind of pointless while good plot with no style is just downright painful.  Luckily, I had a week to figure out which I felt, in the end, was more important in my own 'joie de lire.'

In this entry, I'm defining style as including word choice and sentence structure, which then affect dialogue, character development, and descriptions.  Plot, on the other hand, includes the basic plot (i.e., what happens), including the chosen characters and settings.

First, I want to backtrack to what I said in Monday's MadLib post about the MadLib feature making me slow down and analyze writing style more thoroughly.  I had a difficult time using Rebecca for the passage for my MadLibs feature because as I was picking out words to delete, I noticed that Daphne duMaurier has little to no adverbs in her writing.  Noticing that reminded me of writing guides (e.g., Stephen King's On Writing) that warn writers against using too many adverbs (or other modifiers, for that matter).

Compare the feel of Rebecca's opening lines to those of Twilight, and you might start seeing why writing guides would warn authors of becoming too attached to modifiers if those authors want to achieve literary status (versus Blockbuster-type status).  Not only did duMaurier not use an abundance of modifiers, but she also used sentence structures that don't lend themselves to deleting words to insert new words.  In other words, her sentence structures are unique and beg to remain in their original form.  Again, thinking about style got me questioning whether I thought style or plot was more important.

Books that become part of my "favorites" list are those that have both style and plot working for them: Rebecca, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Harry Potter (all seven of them), and The Help by Kathryn Stockett, just to name a few.  If, though, I had to choose between reading bad plot/good style and good plot/bad style, I think I would rather read the book with a questionable plot but good writing style.

Unfortunately, most of the books I could come up with for this post were on the other side of the coin: good plot/bad style.  For example, I can't get past Dan Brown's writing style to enjoy his books, yet I am enthralled by his plots (and thus happy that his books have movies made out of them).  I had previously said that I'm not a fan of Mary Higgins Clark's writing style, but I love her books because the plots draw me in.  Her writing style doesn't distract me from the plot--it just doesn't move me, either.

Recently I've read a few books whose plots I didn't think were anything I would've been interested in, but I ended up enjoying the books because the writing style was so amazing.  The plots aren't "bad," but they alone wouldn't have kept me reading the books.  The first is Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, and the second is Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki.  When reading those books, I kept reading not because the plot had sucked me in so much that I just had to know what would happen next but because the style had sucked me in so much that I just had to know what the author would write next.

Another blogger, Livia Blackburne, posted "Genre, writing, and cliche, oh my!" this week, in which she explored the notion of writing within a genre while remaining fresh.  The reason I bring that posting up here is that my thought on it is that authors who write well can get away with using clichés or spotty plots while authors who do not write well better have a bang-up plot to keep readers going.  One of the clichés listed for chick lit is having a fabulous gay friend or witty banter in a coffee shop; my first thought was of Marian Keyes, who writes chick lit and has the fabulous gay friend showing up in her plots.  Yet, she does it so well that I don't notice I'm reading what could, in fact, be an instance of a cliché for her genre.

Thank you to all my voters this week, and the new poll question of the week is up in the left sidebar.  Vote by next Wednesday, when I'll post on the results.

Happy reading, whether you're reading for the book's style, plot, or both!