My Turn of the Year Readathons: Wrap Up

The turn of the year has been quite exciting, in terms of my reading life. I have done two readathons, the first one was My Personal Readathon on 30-31 December 2013 with my fellow (mostly) Indonesian bloggers, and the other was The 2nd Annual Classics Club Readathon on 4th January 2014. A bit details of them:

My Personal Readathon

It was a 36-hours readathon, beginning at 8 am on 30th December, until 8 pm on 31st December. I have prepared two books for this event:

 

I began at sharply 8 am with Aesop's Fables, but after few hours I was getting bored (it contains so many fables with very similar topics), so I decided to read the two books simultaneously. I was glad to find that The Jungle Book was very amusing, so I made it a sweet refuge whenever I found Aesop's Fable slightly irritating. I restrained myself to only read one chapter of The Jungle Book before going back to Aesop's Fables. And doing this, I have successfully finished the two books (total 441 pages) three hours before the readathon was over. I was thinking about grabbing another book, but could not decide which one, so in the end I ended my readathon anyway. I was satisfied with the result, especially as I have been neglected The Jungle Book for few years, before finally had chance to read it, and found it a new treasure! Here is my review of The Jungle Book; while Aesop's Fables' would be following.

2nd Annual Classics Club Readathon

I have enjoyed our last year 1st readathon, and was very excited when The Classics Club announced this event for the second time. But unfortunately for me, it didn't go as I have expected. It was a 24-hours readathon, and I planned to continue the book I have been reading since 1st January: Roman Lives by Plutarch.

The time difference made the readathon slightly more interesting. I chose to begin at 8 am my time (GMT+7), as I would have go to bed earlier for the Sunday early morning mass. I began at page 54, and planned to read until around 8:30 pm. However, an unexpected thing took place, my mom got another asthma attack, and despite of her usual medications, she still could not breath easily. My dad and I was rather panic as it has been many years since my mom's last attack. I contacted our family doctor who knows my mom's asthma history, and luckily her practice was opened that day (Saturday afternoon). And so we immediately rushed to the doctor, and in the restless hours in the waiting room, I could not think of reading any book. I continued my reading only after settling up everything for my mom when we were home again, and I could only manage to finish that night at page 138.

Preparing for the readathon, with a glass of water, a pot of Elle & Vire
Fraise Strawberry yoghurt, and the Roman Lives on my side table
in my bedroom:)

The second day, after Sunday mass, I was quite busy with household works my mom usually takes, so I had only limited time to resume my reading, and must take a stop at page 174. So, with all the obstructions, I have managed to read 120 pages (at least I have read four of the eight Lives, and am now excited to get into the four remainings: Sulla, Pompey, Cesar and Antony!). I have expected more than 200 pages, but I am glad anyway because I can read classics with all of the clubbers around the world, which is a rare and exciting chance! 

Here are my answers to the questionnaire:

What book(s) did you read during the event?

Roman Lives by Plutarch

What book(s) did you finish?

None... :( I only managed to read 121 of 608 pages.

What did you like about our event?

The feeling of togetherness, that although I read alone in my bedroom, I know that many of the clubbers around the world are reading with me at the same moment.

Do you have suggestions for future Readathons through The Classics Club?

As we are spreading in different time zones, how about stretching it to 36 hours rather than 24 hours?

Would you participate in future Readathons?

Yes, definitely!!

Anything else you’d like to share? (Favorite quote from your reading? Funny anecdote from the event?)

"While doing wrong was demeaning, and doing good when there was no risk involved was unexceptional, it was an indication of true virtue to do good when there was a risk involved." ~ Metellus

Thanks again for The Classics Club for hosting it.

What about you? Have you enjoyed your readathon? How many pages/books you have managed to read?

The Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling amazed me once again with his fables. After Just So Stories last April, now he amused me with the even better one: The Jungle Book. The main story of it is of Mowgli, a little boy who is adopted by a pair of wolves after his parents died. When Mowgli first appears before the wolves’ cave, Shere Khan—the Bengal tiger—is haunting him to make him his dinner. Father Wolf saves him, and brings him to the wolf pack conference. He is at first rejected by the forum, until Bagheera—the black panther—guarantees him. Bagheera then becomes Mowgli’s best friend, along with Baloo—the bear—who teaches him the law of the jungle.

Shere Khan is angry of losing Mowgli; he wants to kill him but could not do that as long as Akela becomes the leader. Right after Akela is dethroned by his people, they repel Mowgli who is not a wolf like them—thanks to Shere Khan’s provocation too—and Mowgly doesn’t have any choices than leaving the jungle to live with his own kind. So now Mowgli must live by his own while Shere Khan keeps haunting him. At the end, Mowgli must have a fight with Shere Khan; what will he do? And will he survive it?

Thanks to the Disney version of Mowgli, I used to imagine The Jungle Book as childish as what we see on TV. But I was surprised and amazed at the same time, finding that the original story is much deeper than that. What Kipling portrayed in The Jungle Book is what we find in our own world. How difficult it is for us to accept others who are different from us, who have not the same origin or culture. We used to be suspicious of them, that we could not see a villain with wicked plan among us, because he is ‘one of us’; just like the wolves who blindly trust Shere Khan more than Mowgli.

The fight of Mowgli and Shere Khan is both thrilling and emotional. It is in difficult times that love and friendship would be purified. I was touched by Bagheera’s and Baloo’s love to their little friend, and their respect to old Akela. Kipling also highlighted how men praise freedom, but at the same time they could not live without a leader. The law of the jungle is something we should adopt in our society too; look how the entire animals work together to help Mowgli, although he is not their own kind. Humanity surmounts differences. The goods fight together against the bad, each contributes his talent.

Apart from Mowgli’s adventure, this book also contains three great fables. There is Kotick—the white seal—who persistently searches a new saver home for his people after he saw his friends being slaughtered by men. It portrays our society too; we often refuse to see the injustice among us, just because it ‘has been like that for a long time’. Most of us accept that as faith, and we surrender our dignity and life in the hand of more powerful authorities. When there is finally someone brave enough like Kotick, who is willingly to take risks for our salvation; instead of helping him, we laugh at him as a foolish dreamer. That makes us an easy victim of colonialism and oppression.

The second one is about a young mongoose called Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, who is carried away by flood—separated from his parents—to a bungalow, where he is finally adopted by a human family as a pet. From his new friends in the garden—a tailorbird and a mouse—he gets acquainted with a pair of huge cobra: Nag and Nagaina (they reminded me of Voldemort’s Nagini! :D). The cobras plan to kill the humans for taking the garden which they have been previously dominated. Rikki-Tikki is angry when he overhears their brutal plan, so he builds a strategy to fight both cobras. The attack scenes are quite horrible; I was shivered imagining how the family must have been terribly terrified while a huge cobra suddenly showed up while they were dining. You would not know whether you should run away or keep still; well…normally you wouldn’t escape that brutal attack, if you don’t have a protector. Rikki-Tikki is an example of real hero; even though he is a stranger, he fights bravely to save the family and the inhabitants of the garden, simply because it is wrong to kill the innocent who is weaker; and so it is his duty to protect them.

The third story is my most favorite: the story of Little Toomai, the son of an elephant hunter. His father drives Kala Nag—an old elephant, the cleverer and most senior among the others. One day the boss, Peterson Sahib, is amazed by Little Toomai, and professes that one day he might become a good elephant hunter. When Little Toomai asks his permission to enter the stockade (which is normally too dangerous for a little boy), he promises that he can do that only after witnessing an ‘elephant dance’, which in their culture means ‘never’. It is believed that numbers of elephants sometimes dance in a clearing. Nobody has ever seen it, but some flattened grounds are the proof.

One night Kala Nag seems to ‘hear the call’ from the native elephants. He slips out of his pickets, and picks Little Toomai on his back as the boy is excited to go with him. Kala Nag walks towards a clearing up in a hill where many other elephants are gathering too, while Little Toomai is watching silently from the elephant’s back. There he witnesses the elephants stamping their feet up and down, making the ground tremble; that is the elephant dance, a dance no other human being have ever seen.

I like the story mostly because of the mystical air surrounds the elephant dance. Kipling writes wonderfully Kala Nag’s journey in the dark and foggy night when the jungle seems to be alive, and especially when the elephants start moving, ‘talking’, and finally dancing for two hours, making the ground a dance floor. The sensation is really amazing!

And finally I closed the last page of The Jungle Book totally entertained and amused. Bravo to you, Mr. Kipling, for making my end of year reading so enjoyable, intense, and interesting. Without any doubt, I grant five whole stars for The Jungle Book. Really, I have never thought that I would love a children book (which I have never read as a child) this much!

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*I read the translation edition from Atria (part of Serambi Publishing group)*

*This book is counted as:*

64^th book for The Classics Club Project

History Reading Challenge 2014 – Master Post

Attention! Passengers on board of the Sail to the Past: History Reading Challenge 2014….it’s time for us to start our yearlong voyage. For you who haven’t got the ticket subscribed for this voyage, please do so in the sign up post. You can also find all detailed information about this challenge in the same post.

There will be two linky below this post, the first is for REVIEWS, and the second one is for ANALYSIS. Be careful not to put your linky in the wrong place!

Just to remind you, if you’d like to challenge yourself to analyze the history you’ve just read, I have provided several questions that you can pick randomly. Please check it in the sign up post. The analysis is optional, and you are free to pick the questions that suit you. If you are doing WEM project, you might post the questions in more than one post—it’s OK, you CAN put more than one analysis post for every book in the linky.

There will be two giveaways at the end of the challenge, one for review posts, the other for analysis posts.

Every two or three months (depending on my schedule), there would be check-in posts here. Maybe it’s just to check how far our progresses are, or whether we have problems with a book or two, or anything I can think of then. So it’d be better to follow me or this blog one or other way, so you’d be updated of every news. You can also follow my twitter: @Fanda_A, I'll twit about this challenge using hashtag #HistoryRC.

Now, let us just kick-off the challenge, and start the reading!

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LINKY FOR REVIEWS

LINKY FOR ANALYSIS POSTS

Book Kaleidoscope 2013 – Day 5: Top Five Most Favorite Books

And here we are…..on the last day of 2013, and this would also be the last post of Book Kaleidoscope 2013, as well as my last post of year 2013. It has been another great year in term of reading, I have read 54 books; 34 of them are classics (63% of my reading is of classics…yay to me! :D). Most of the books are great, I have conquered (at last) two chunkster I’ve been dreading all these few years: War and Peace and Moby Dick, but both are proved to be great books. It’s quite difficult to pick only 5 from these tough candidates, but at last I came to this…

5. Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw

I am very grateful that I decided to read one of Shaw’s plays: Saint Joan. It is so inspiring and enjoyable. Joan’s character is lovable; she is far away from your image of a saint (well, at least mine :D). She is naïve, witty, enthusiastic, and very brave. Her lines are very deep, inspiring and touching. The other characters are interesting too. In fact, this is the best play I read this year, and becomes my favorite after Julius Caesar.

4. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

David Copperfield is the most intense novel of Charles Dickens I have ever read so far, and certainly becomes my new favorite. Dickens wrote it from the heart, he seems to pour down his childhood burden onto this book. I could sympathize with David so much, it feels like reading Dickens’ diary. It is well written too, with not too much blabbing like in Little Dorrit, for instance. I would love to reread it again some other time….

3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I have a feeling I could never completely ‘move-on’ from The Great Gatsby. This is the second time I read it, and it still amazed me. I love especially Fitzgerald’s beautiful narration and his metaphors (a lot of it!). I think this novel would never bore me, and I will love to read it every two years or so… :)

2. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

How can we not love Moby Dick? It is epic, adventurous, and makes you think at the same time. The Shakespearanish style Melville sometimes used makes it more lively and colorful; and when Moby Dick finally appeared, it is epic and unforgettable. Captain Ahab’s character only adds the uniqueness of this novel.

1. La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola

If you are a follower of my blog, or have been reading my posts often, you would not surprise to learn what novel—or rather from which author—would claim the first place in my bookish year of 2013 (by the way, his novel was also my favorite for 2012!). He is, of course, Émile Zola. And La Bete Humaine is another intense and sharp novel from Zola. It speaks a lot about human nature, and how modernization is like two sides of a coin; it brings prosperity on one side, but also moral corruption on the other. So, it’s not because Zola is my favorite author, but because this book is really awesome, that I awarded La Bete Humaine as…..

What are yours? Share in the linky below!

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Book Kaleidoscope 2013 – Day 4: Top Five Underappreciated Secondary Characters

Day 4 of Book Kaleidoscope is the freebie day, you can create whatever top five bookish criteria you want to feature. For me, it’s the underappreciated secondary characters. After having praising five ‘shinning’ male (or female) characters in Top Five Book Boy/Girl Friends, now it is fair to make room too for secondary characters to shine a bit in Book Kaleidoscope. They are not what the books are about, but without them, perhaps our heroes/heroines won’t be what they were. Here are my picks:

5. Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby

Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway (2013)

I imagine Nick Carraway to be an innocent man who has been molded by his family to be a straightforward man with good moral. In the middle of the jazz age, while people seek only their own pleasure, Nick looks queer in his own principle. And that is why he is a perfect choice to narrate The Great Gatsby, to point out the irony between the good and the bad. Apart from the enigmatic Jay Gatsby, Nick should be appreciated more as he is the only one who could see what’s good in Gatsby.

4. Starbuck in Moby Dick

Leo Genn as Starbuck (1956)

It is quite funny that two of Moby Dick’s central characters are either the antagonist or only the silent narrator. So, if I must pick a favorite, it would be the secondary character, Starbuck, the only man in this novel who has good conscience. Starbuck is the chief mate, not distinguished in any sort, but he consistently keeps his conscience and principle throughout the story. Starbuck is the most intelligent man on board, apart from Captain Ahab. I admire him because he is very brave; has the courage to reprimand his captain because the captain would do something evil, even though he is alone (the others, either taking side of Ahab or don’t take any side). He is my hero from this novel!

3. Pierre Sandoz in The Masterpiece

This is Zola, and I always imagine Sandoz
as Zola himself

Although The Masterpiece is regarded as Émile Zola’s most autobiographical novel, it is not in the main character (Claude) that Zola’s personalities appear; it is in the secondary character, Pierre Sandoz, Claude’s best friend. Sandoz is portrayed as an amiable and enthusiast young man, loves socializing and is always attentive to his friends. He loves to have small dinner party at his house every week, and the habit continues after he is married. To his friends, Sandoz is like a father or big brother who is always ready to protect them from world’s cruelty. It’s impossible to not feeling warm every time you read about Sandoz, because that’s how he is. I’m just wondering, whether Zola is really like a guy like that, if yes, I would love him ever more!

2. Robin Ellacott in The Cuckoo’s Calling

Robin is Cormoran Strike’s secretary. She is an attractive young woman, and is interested in detective and investigation. Robin is proved to be very efficient, sharp, and has a natural talent of a detective. She is a woman with principle and dignity; and although she is an employee, she let her boos know that she deserves to be respected properly. She does not like gossips or sneaking around his boss’ privacy, and although her boss is not treating her very well, she keeps defending him, as a secretary should do to her boss and her institution. I like Robin a lot, and really want to be like her. Talking about Robin, doesn’t she remind you of someone familiar….uhm…Hermione Granger, perhaps? So, do you think Emma Watson would be a good choice to play Robin Ellacott? :)

Emma Watson as Robin Ellacott, will you agree?

1. Tommy Traddles in David Copperfield

While David Copperfield—whose life is told in this book—has no distinguished personalities, I like Tommy (Thomas) Traddles much better than David. Traddles is good-humoured, lively person; he is persevere against hardship, and always knows what he is doing. Traddles is also a good friend, faithful, and always helpful towards others. In short, he is a guy who always makes our days fun. But more than that, Traddles can become serious and responsible while attaining some important matters. He helps his friends in needs silently and joyfully. Therefore I crowned him as…

What are you featuring today in Book Kaleidoscope? Or do you have any favorite unappreciated secondary character too? Share it in the linky below!

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Upcoming Readatons

Next week I am going to have two readathons. The first one is what I call My Personal Readathon, something that I'll be doing with a few of blogger friends (you are welcomed to join, if you like). It is a 36 hours readathon, starting at 8 am (GMT+7) Monday morning (30th December 2013) and ends at 8 pm Tuesday night (31st Desember 2013). The detailed info is here.

I have prepared these two books for 36 hours:

Yes, I'm going to have light reading to close this year. And if I have finished them before the readathon ends, I might add another light book, The Call of the Wild, for instance...

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After closing 2013 with a few light readings, I would be ready to welcome 2014 with another readathon, The 2nd Annual Classics Club Readathon. It will be held on January 4th, 2014, for 24 hours. 

I have been eagerly to start the new year with my history book:

What do you plan for the turning of the year's read? Would you join any of the readathon? ;)

Notes From Underground

Although it is a very short book, Notes From Underground is far from light reading. I have started it last year, but had to stop at first chapter as I did not get what it is about. This year my friend enticed me to read it together, as it should be a good book. I took her challenge, and braced myself to read from the beginning, to get through the point where I have stuck last year, and to keep on reading—whether I understand it or not—as I believe I will get on it eventually after some chapters. Although I could not say I like it after finishing the book, I still feel grateful that I have at least tried it. It is my first encounter with Dostoyevsky anyway, and although I didn’t enjoy Notes From Underground, I like the way he writes, and would certainly read his other novels (I have Crime and Punishment in my TBR pile already).

Notes From Underground is told from first person point of view, and written as a kind of diary of the male narrator (I will call him ‘the narrator’). The narrator is a man of forties, lives in a wretched house which he calls the underground. He is a spiteful man, and from the beginning he has been bursting spiteful expressions about everything. He does not hate someone or something in particular, but he hates the world he is living. Odd as it was, I kept reading, and only after reaching the middle part, that I began to have a clearer image about this narrator.

He feels different from others because he is more intelligent and more superior to others. I think it is because he put himself above others, that others see him strange, anti social, and expel him for good. He despises the way they live, yet he yearns to be part of them; there is a paradox and self-denying here! The narrator often pictures it as tooth-ache; you hate the pain, yet you enjoy people’s attention; you want the ache stop, yet you regret it when it stops because you’ll lose people’s attention when you are recovered.

At first I thought this book is about a political criticism, but apparently it is more psychological (and philosophical?). I think it criticizes how men always want to be independent—which he calls freedom—while in reality, he also likes to be controlled; to be in orderliness. They despise law, but at certain point they demand to be regulated by it. Men are too tied to rules and are afraid to be free. They see people who don’t live by the same rule as weird. This is what the narrator feels; just because he doesn’t agree with others’ way of life, they see him as a fly. He longs to be free but couldn’t, and that makes him a despiteful man.

The narrator knows he is at an equal level with his friends but he always resentfully surrenders to their power. He does once an experiment by not yielding when passing a gentleman, shoulder to shoulder on the street; it is very difficult for him because in the end he always involuntarily yields. The narrator also talks much about consciousness. Here are several interesting quotes that makes you think more about human and society.

"To be too conscious is an illness.”

“Man has preferred to act as he chose and not in the least as his reason and advantage dictated.”

“What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead.”

“Man lives to make roads and to create, but why has he such a passionate love for destruction and chaos also?”

“He loves the process of attaining, but does not quite like to have attained.”

“Through civilization mankind becomes softer.” ~ Buckle

“You boast of consciousness, but you are not sure of your ground, for though your mind works, yet your heart is darkened and corrupt, and you cannot have a full, genuine consciousness without a pure heart.”

Can you guess what all these are about? I have a vague idea, but still could not grab the whole idea. I might not reread this book, but I would certainly love to read more from Dostoyevsky.

Three stars for Notes From Underground.

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*I read ebook from Feedbooks dot com*

*This book is counted as:*

63^rd book for The Classics Club Project