Abandoning books

Just wondering what people do when they aren't enjoying a book. Myself, I'll give it about 50 pages (I'll go up to 100 if it's non-fiction or rambly Victorian tomes which generally take a little longer to get into). But if it's not holding my interest by then, I'm done with it. Although I've even abandoned books more than halfway or two-thirds of the way through because I just couldn't keep reading any more. My philosophy is that reading is one of my favorite things to do, and I don't want to make a chore of it. I used to force myself to finish every book I started. But then I decided it wasn't worth it and it was making me dislike reading.
 Besides, I have this book here, in which all but the last two pages are filled with books to read (somewhere around 130 pages). Then there's an excel spreadsheet I was using before this book came along, and there's still 100 books left on that sheet, whittled down from I think 400 at the peak.  Basically, if I am going to try to read every book in the world, well, it's not going to happen getting bogged down with reading bad books. Or maybe not bad, but just not for me either at that particular moment. Or ever. Maybe I will miss out on a really great book, but I'm ok with that. 

And what of rereading? I know of some people who never reread, because of various reasons, but a common thread seems to be they're afraid they won't like it as much the second time around. Which you know, sometimes it happens. And then sometimes I've read a book and didn't like it, completely forgot about it, and reread it years later and changed my mind. I don't reread often, because of said massive lists to read; but I had finally gotten to a point last year that I had finally read all the books I owned (there were several years I binged a little too much on library book sales and the thrift stores that sold books for 50 cents). So then I was able to start rereading again the books I loved, some of which I hadn't been able to reread since high school. It's comforting in a way, like visiting old friends. And sometimes you find that those old friends are kind of embarrassing and obnoxious and say offensive things and you can't imagine why you were so fond of them in the first place. And then with other rereads, it just confirms that you had great taste then and still do.

Oh Moliere

I want to like you. I do. Your plays are enjoyable, not hilarious, but often funny. But can we talk about something? I realize the 1600s were a different time and blah blah blah; but if you do one more scene where a man beats his wife, servants or children and it's played for laughs, I'm done. Surely there's other ways of doing comedy and the slapstick without it?

Happy International Women's Day (late)

So although the actual day was yesterday, this is still an awesome video for it. (Normally I usually can't stand the song).

Oh there you are blog

So, I accidentally read 37 books in January. (That's not including children's books which were another 20 or so which brings it to 57). That's totally normal right? I mean, I usually read fast and average around 20 or so books a month, but that's ridiculous.

Also, you should watch this video. It's nominated for an Oscar short film, and is simply beautiful. I might have cried both times watching it.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

Anne McCaffrey

Scifi/Fantasy writer Anne McCaffrey died last week. She was one of the grand dames of the genre, and I've been thinking about her impact and her work since I heard the news. McCaffrey began writing in the 1950s and 60s as a kind of protest against the way women were depicted in science fiction. She was the first woman to win the Hugo in 1968, the first woman to win the Nebula in 1969, the two top prizes in science fiction; and The White Dragon was the first science fiction novel ever to land on the New York Times bestseller list. Her work may not be the best written or beloved by literary critics, but what I love about her work is that her characters, especially her female characters, are so real and fleshed out. There are occasional issues I have with her (like many other science fiction writers, her worlds are often lacking in diversity), but for the most part, I can expect entertaining solid reads.
Of course her Pern series was her most famous (and longest running, around 24 books), and they are definitely worth checking out. Although honestly I did start to lose interest in the later ones with her son as co-author. The Pern novels are set on another planet colonized by earth inhabitants in the distant future--they are cut off from the rest of the universe and as their technological instruments run down, they have no means to replace most of them, so they revert to a kind of medieval lifestyle. And there are dragons and people who have telepathic connections with them and a thing called Thread which falls from the sky and eats away at everything it touches, the dragons and their riders are the only thing that can combat it. Most of the series doesn't necessarily need to be read in any order, except for maybe the later ones from All The Weyrs of Pern on. Although if you want to read them in order, here's Wikipedia's chronological list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pern_books.
McCaffrey herself apparently thought her novel The Ship Who Sang was her best one--which turned into a series about handicapped individuals who are hardwired into a ship's life support system, often their only chance of staying alive, and so they literally become the ship itself. Sadly, there's never been any films done of her novels, but there are rumors a Pern series may be in the works (although that was first supposed to happen in 2002, and then the network wanted to alter the series so much that it would have ended up a Buffy clone, and the director/writer cancel in protest and the rights reverted back to McCaffrey for a while). Hopefully it gets done, and done right--as we finally have the technology to do justice to the dragons and other fantastical elements.

Sing it Sister

Required reading from Eve Ensler: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/over-it_b_1089013.html

Some good news

This week, Saudi Arabia has finally granted women the right to vote. In his speech making the announcement, King Abdullah declared,"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia (Islamic law), we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama (clerics) and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term. Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote." The kicker? The phrase "starting from next term," which means they are still barred from voting in the elections this week, and so they won't actually be able to vote until 2015. But still, it's a long time coming and worth celebrating.
Currently there are three countries which prohibit or limit women's voting in some way:
Lebanon - Partial suffrage. Proof of elementary education is required for women but not for men. Voting is compulsory for men but optional for women.
Brunei - No suffrage for women or men. Neither have had the right to vote or to stand for election since 1962 because the country is governed by an absolute monarchy.
Vatican City - No suffrage for women; while most men in the Vatican also lack the vote, all persons with suffrage in Papal conclaves (the Cardinals) are male.
(Bhutan did have a one vote per house rule which I believe was done away with in their new constitution which took effect in 2008. Although this vote applied to both men and women, in practice it limited many more women from voting than men. United Arab Emirates also had limited suffrage for women beginning in 2006, but was fully expanded by 2010.)

So women being able to vote in Saudi Arabia is great news. Unfortunately, women are still barred from driving there--the only country with such a ban (there is no religious written precedent for the rule). Two days after the voting news was announced, a woman was sentenced to ten lashes for driving a vehicle. The current set-up is that since a woman can't drive, the family must either employ a professional driver--which many families can't afford since it is costs around $300-400 a month to keep a full-time driver on stand-by for any errands needed; or else she must be driven by her husband or other close male relative. Again, it's costly since many men have also complained about it, and how the policy often forces them to leave work early to go pick up their wife somewhere (or else leave work to be the one to pick up children from school even though wife may not be working and would have time to do herself), as well as the daunting logistics of planning all the errands and whatever else may involve driving to coincide with whenever the husband is available. Supposedly women do sometimes drive out in the countryside, but any woman caught driving in the city is detained by police, sometimes for several days, and forced to sign a pledge that she won't drive again. Women have been working for at least 20 years in an attempt to get the ban revoked, but since June there is been an increase in women trying to flout the ban and bring attention to the unfair policy. In addition to the no driving rule, under Saudi's “guardianship system,” women need permission from a male family member to take a trip, to attend a university, to marry, and even to undergo certain surgeries. While those guardians are often fathers or husbands; if she has no father or husband, a woman's teenage son, younger brother, or uncle could be the one making her most important decisions for her.

And in other hail-worthy news, Kenya has become the latest country to ban female genital mutilation, including taking a child/woman out of the country with the intention of cutting her. What makes their law unique, is that it even prohibits people from making derogatory remarks about an uncut woman; and offenders may be subject to either a fine or jail time, or both. Which is fantastic, since often in countries where FGM is practiced, a woman who has not been cut may be subject to public shunning, men refusing to consider her for marriage and so on. In June at the African Union summit, it was proposed that FGM be prohibited. At the time, several countries already had some form of legislation or proposed legislation against it (although enforcement may have varied): Benin, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Kenya, Central African Republic, Senegal, Chad, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda. In a total of nine countries (including some of those where it is illegal) an estimated 85% of all women undergo FGM: Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan.
Although the subject is intense, there are two excellent movies I recommend which deal with FGM. The first is Moolaade, about a woman who takes in young girls after they flee from their FGM ceremony and stands up to the village in refusing to let them be cut. The second is Desert Flower, based on the autobiography of Waris Dirie, a model from Somalia who was one of the first public figures to speak out against FGM beginning in 1997, and who became a UN Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation.