Dear Faithful (and transient) Readers,
This week I won an award from my University for an essay I wrote. "What fun!" you must be saying, and right you are. But, better than just fun for me, is the fact that part of my prize was a gift bag full of books from the University bookstore (superb). Now, it just so happens that I already own a copy of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy, (and yes, I wept like a willow while I read) and so, I thought to myself, "I will give this book away."
I would like to give it to one of you, dear readers. I delight in going to the post office, wrapping things in brown paper, and sending them off through the mail. It makes me ridiculously happy. So, I think you should write me/email me about one of your favourite books and why it makes you so happy you think you might split your skin, and I'll send the most convincing person (or, by chance only person) my book, free of charge!!!!! Plus, I'll go buy your book and read it if I haven't yet.
What fun, hey?
(The essay. Night Swimming)
17 comments:
What glorious fun!! Congratulations, Angela. Can you post the essay? (Or have you already?)
I may try your contest, if I can sit myself down to do it. Thanks for offering.
thanks deanna, it's the one i wrote about my mom called "night swimming"
oh, but you gotta tell me what your favourite book is (or one of them). just a few sentences gushing on how it saved you from the drabbery of every day life, or somethin'. you know?
oh, I love a contest! I'm going to go and peruse the shelf right now!
I have to peruse the shelf because right now I'm thinking about several fantastic books and of course I can't decide unless I go and caress the cover of each and decide which feels the nicest. (That's if your competition extends to Australia... expensive postage there I'm thinking!)
ahhh what the heck, cecily. i do love to drop things in the mail!
Congrats!! That's so cool!
Hmmm, I think I already have that book, I really think so, but I'm not 100%. Shoot, just trying to think of my favorite book... actually, now that I stop and think about it, there's this collection of Edgar Allan Poe stories I have, it's my favorite, at least my consistent favorite, if that makes sense. I tend to be wishy-washy with favorites :)
edgar allan poe, huh? i don't think i've read him since i had any idea what made good writing. i'll have to dust him off and give him another whirl.
thanks!
Ah, your essay made me happy when I read it (both times). I've blogged in reference to your contest, but I just did my own thing, since I wasn't into TV this evening.
So many books to write about; so little time.
Thanks, Angela, for reminding my brain of all the books I've read that have moved me in some way. So many many books.
Can't choose only one - the others would be hurt. sniff sniff
You are sweet and generous with your offer.
My favorite book ever was the one penned by my daughter, Tigerlily when she was in 5th grade. It's called "Undercover Angels" and is about the secret lives of mothers everywhere. She wrote it for an audience of children. She even drew the cutest illustrations for it.
It is the sweetest story I have ever read, and it reminds me how our kids watch everything that we do, and not only that- but they also record and interpret how we live our lives. They are always watching even when we don't realize it.
After I read her book, I cried for hours at the beauty of her story, and then I went to the dollar store and bought a million small photo albums and became her publisher. I made a gazillion copies and we passed them out to friends, family and strangers.
A week ago, one of my girlfriends (who still has little ones underfoot) said to me, "you know, Tigerlily's book is my kid's favorite book and I read it to them all the time."
It's become a classic in a very short time.
Alexandria, as she likes to be called now, is currently on the verge of her junior year (high school) and has continued to develop in her LOVE of reading, and writing. She is the queen of short stories,but has been faithfully working on a novel since she was 14.
She is the most amazing and prolific writer of our time, and she's beautiful too.
Love, paj
Oh this is fantastic, Angela. A very fun idea indeed....I hope you post the answers you receive.
I didn't caress the covers, just decided that since I can only think of two books, and one of them was perhaps personally significant rather than magnificently written (Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood) I should opt for the other that I remember finding incredible. So East of the Mountain by David Guterson it is. A few years old now, which shows you how long it is since I did serious reading, or any reading...
I'm sure there are other fantastic books I've read, but they sit at the edge of my consciousness, out of reach. Oh well.
paj,
that was fantastic! thank you. i'd love to read it sometime. maybe it's time you get yourself down to the dollar store and pick up a few more photo albums.
leisel,
i'm glad you like the idea, soooooo, what's one of your favourites then?
thanks cecily!
East of the Mountain. i'd love to know what makes it one of your favourites.
Oh yes! I hope you get around to reading Poe again! Some of my favorites of his are the following: Ligeia, Berenice, William Wilson, Pit and the Pendulum... well, I could list quite a few others, but those are among my favorites. You are right about Annie Dillard, I mustn't shy away from getting her books just because I already have so many!
thanks sebastien, i'll add them to the pile. good glory, if the reading stack tips over on me in the night while i sleep my nose is a goner for sure.
Hmmmm, what did I like about "East of the Mountain"? Without pulling it out and reading it again (though I'm seriously wanting to now!)... it was the journey it recounted that captivated me.
Here is this old codger, intent on killing himself because he's been diagnosed with cancer and he's a doctor so knows exactly how it will end for him. He packs his gun and off he drives to do himself in. And there follows a review of his life. It's like a journey within a journey as he thinks back on what's happened, what he's done and makes decisions about his immediate future in light of the past. East of the Mountain was a rich book...
...most probably it was the way it resonated with my own journey that stayed with me. Not as an old codger diagnosed with cancer and about to kill myself of course, but at the time I was reviewing events from my past and trying to find meaning in them. I liked the meaning he found as someone who had experienced far more of life than I have.
If I wrote about the wonderful prose contained within, I'd be lying... I have only vague recollections of it (I suspect it was fine though). It was the deep message of the book that so caught me that when I lost a copy to a friend who never returned it, I made sure I bought another copy for my own private collection.
Enough said!
thanks cecily,
i think i'm the same way. of course i can't love a book if the writing is junk, but the books that stick to my guts are the ones with a journey that reflect my own somehow. i've said it a million times and i really wish i remembered where i read it first, but the idea that that which is most personal is most universal has stuck with me for years and informed not only the way i write, but the way i try to translate and distill the world into simplified motives i understand.
phewf.
that was a long, ego-centric sentence/statement, but, dig?
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