Splash du Jour: Wednesday

While I am opposed to all orthodox creeds, I have a creed myself; and my creed is this. Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. The creed is somewhat short, but it is long enough for this life, strong enough for this world. If there is another world, when we get there we can make another creed.
-- Robert Green Ingersoll, spoken in 1894 --


Have a great Wednesday!
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Splash du Jour: Tuesday

I've developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books.
-- Marilynne Robinson, Gilead --

Have a great Tuesday!
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Splash du Jour: Monday

Have a great Monday!

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Splash du Jour: Friday

Umm... is it just me? Or does Ellen DeGeneres look a lot like Henry David Thoreau?

Have a great Friday!

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Favorite Books of 2014...

Last year was not a benchmark year for me, reading-wise.
Nor, blogging-wise.
I'm speaking of quantity, in both respects.
In all, I read 46 books, which is well below my average amount -- but if you count The Luminaries as being longer than four normal novels -- hey, now I'm past 50.
Speaking of which, I turned 51 last year, too -- so maybe that has something to do with it all. Early onset senility?
At any rate -- I thought I would drop by just long enough to mention some books that really impressed me, throughout the year. It's actually hard to narrow it down to a select few -- and forgive me, but neither do I have the time tonight to really expound much upon any of them. 
[Have you ever heard more disclaimers in a single blog-posting?]…
What do I mean when I say a book "impressed" me?
I mean -- I read them quickly, and they entirely arrested my attention, throughout.
And based on that simple criteria, here are my selections of really great books from the past year:

Firstly, An American Tragedy [circa 1925, no less] by Theodore Dreiser. The story of young Clyde Griffiths, who ultimately forfeits his life in desperate pursuit of success. I found it riveting throughout, and it remains my favorite read of the year.
And now, in no order of supremacy -- others that I loved: 
The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle. This guy is one of my favorite living writers. An illegal Mexican immigrant sneaks over the border and tries to make his way in the good ol' U.S. of A. With his pregnant lover. It does not work. Boyle tells a rip-roaring, relevant story. 
Tipping The Velvet, by Sarah Waters. Does this writer ever really miss the mark? I think not. It has all the terrific twists and turns and taboo-shearing ribaldry that make her one of my favorite writers.  
The Children Act, by Ian McEwan. In this, his latest work, McEwan rivals his own talents in Atonement and On Chesil Beach -- showing us that literature is alive and well in the world. I could not put the thing down until the last page.
Dirty Love, by Andre Dubus III. This collection of inter-connected short stories -- honestly, with every story I stopped and had to ask myself, "What kind of beer is this guy drinking?"
I need to go out and pick up some of that * * * * ing beer!
Maddadam, by Margaret Atwood. In my opinion, the best volume of her end-times trilogy. Having said that, it's not really a stand-alone, I do think you need to read the other two first, to get the full whammy. The pigoons in this one take center-stage.
When Nietzsche Wept, by Irvin D. Yalom. A deep psychologically challenging fictionalized portrait of the tormented soul of Nietzsche. It was wonderful to read such a richly satisfying novel, and discover such a fine author. 
The Executioner's Song, by Norman Mailer. Over a thousand pages. None of them boring. This is the true-life story of convicted killer Gary Gilmore of the 1970's. A man who challenged the state of Utah to put him to death. To execute him. He wanted no appeals, no mercy. This book has the power to challenge ideologies concerning the idea of capital punishment. 
What is it we are accomplishing, when we kill someone who has killed someone?

I also must mention that I read a non-fiction book that I want to highly recommend.
Albert Speer: His Battle For Truth, by Gitta Sereny. Anyone interested in the Nazi-era would do well to read this book. It weighs about 40 pounds, but seriously, I was riveted to Sereny's depiction of this war-criminal who escaped an almost sure sentence of death, during the Nuremberg Trials.

And now, to 2015. I'm well on my way to a terrific year of resolving to read more, blog more, think more. And to being increasingly aware of the fact that the world of reading and learning is the world in which I find myself the happiest.
I started off by buying a brighter light-bulb for my reading lamp -- oh the wonders of IKEA© -- to help with my decreasing levels of eyesight, as I ascend ever further into the interesting world of this next half-century of life… 
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Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to all of my friends at Bookpuddle.
Here is a real uplifting message -- the very words I would like to say to you all, but no one says it better than Will Ferrell --

Splash du Jour: Monday

"America…is being lost through television. Because in advertising, mendacity and manipulation are raised to the level of internal values for the advertisers. Interruption is seen as a necessary concomitant to marketing. It used to be that a seven- or eight-year old could read consecutively for an hour or two. But they don’t do that much anymore. The habit has been lost. Every seven to ten minutes, a child is interrupted by a commercial on TV. Kids get used to the idea that their interest is there to be broken into. In consequence, they are no longer able to study as well. Their powers of concentration have been reduced by systematic interruption.”
-- Norman Mailer --

Have a great Monday!
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Splash du Jour: Monday

On my last vacation [to Saskatchewan] we all went to this one park where the birds were so tame we had them eating out of our hands. Here is a clip of my niece, and a chickadee.
Have a great Monday!
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Splash du Jour: Thursday

Took this pic at my favorite Starbucks last night. It's interesting.

Have a great Thursday!

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Authors, on God

I have a current theory that is making its way across the circuits of my brain, repeatedly, and it goes something like this:
The more intelligent a person is, or becomes, the less will be the tendency to believe in God.
It is my own learning and mind-expansion that has caused me to become less and less convinced of the existence of God -- at least as portrayed in the Bible. Having spent many years as a fundamentalist Christian, I think I have a fair understanding of what faith is. But I have concluded that it cannot be synonymous with reason.
And I like reading. I have always loved reading. So it interests me to discover, in my half century of life -- that most writers, the authors I have grown to love and admire - they almost unanimously are not people of faith. The discovery feels sort of like joining a new congregation. The Bible speaks of the value of not being ashamed of one's faith. In fact, it advocates laying your head down on the chopping block for it. Nowadays, I am more likely to proclaim that I am not ashamed of REASON, and leave the business of decapitations to, you know -- over-zealous religious groups! If you don't know what I mean, watch the news.
Anyhoo -- the videoclip below contains little snippets from authors you and I know and love. 
None of them believe in God. 
For what it's worth, the remarks I found that most resonated with me were those of Isaac Asimov, Jose Saramago, Ian McEwan, and Diana Athill. And then of course, Christopher Hitchens jumps on in there at the end to seal the lid on the thing. The entire clip is 25 minutes long, and worth watching.
Here is a list of the authors, in order of appearance:

1. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer
2. Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Laureate in Literature
3. Professor Isaac Asimov, Author and Biochemist
4. Arthur Miller, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright
5. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature
6. Gore Vidal, Award-Winning Novelist and Political Activist
7. Douglas Adams, Best-Selling Science Fiction Writer
8. Professor Germaine Greer, Writer and Feminist
9. Iain Banks, Best-Selling Fiction Writer
10. José Saramago, Nobel Laureate in Literature
11. Sir Terry Pratchett, NYT Best-Selling Novelist
12. Ken Follett, NYT Best-Selling Author
13. Ian McEwan, Man Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
14. Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate (1999-2009)
15. Professor Martin Amis, Award-Winning Novelist
16. Michel Houellebecq, Goncourt Prize-Winning French Novelist
17. Philip Roth, Man Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
18. Margaret Atwood, Booker Prize-Winning Author and Poet
19. Sir Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
20. Norman MacCaig, Renowned Scottish Poet
21. Phillip Pullman, Best-Selling British Author
22. Dr Matt Ridley, Award-Winning Science Writer
23. Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate in Literature
24. Howard Brenton, Award-Winning English Playwright
25. Tariq Ali, Award-Winning Writer and Filmmaker
26. Theodore Dalrymple, English Writer and Psychiatrist
27. Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
28. Redmond O'Hanlon FRSL, British Writer and Scholar
29. Diana Athill, Award-Winning Author and Literary Editor
30. Christopher Hitchens, Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Columnist 


 
I would be interested, in the comments section, to hear your opinion on my premise statement, above:
The more intelligent a person is, or becomes, the less will be the tendency to believe in God.
Do you agree that this is true? If not, please elucidate a bit on how intelligence and reason leads us to a belief in God.
And then watch the news again.
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Splash du Jour: Friday

Have a great Friday!

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Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Have a great Tuesday!

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Splash du Jour: Monday

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.' The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist.'
-- Edgar Allen Poe --

Have a great Monday!
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Splash du Jour: Friday

Have a great Friday!

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Splash du Jour: Thursday

Catholicism, I discovered, was a type of Christianity for humans who like gold leaf, Latin and guilt.
-- Matt Haig, The Humans --

Have a great Thursday!
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Splash du Jour: Wednesday

I'm passing this on because it worked for me today. A well known doctor on TV said to have inner peace we should always finish things we start and we all could use more calm in our lives.
I looked around my house to find things I'd started & hadn't finished, so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiuminun scriptins, an a box a chocletz. Yu haf no idr how fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner piss. An telum u luvum.

Have a great Wednesday!
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The Children Act

I recently read my tenth Ian McEwan novel -- so I can speak with a bit of authority when I say he is an author that elicits a wide range of opinion, among readers. Often I have heard him called "hit and miss", and I've used the phrase myself. But with The Children Act, honestly, I could hardly put the book down once I started it. I love the way this thing is structured, and the story is a fascinating one. It's written in third person, but feels like a first person narrative because of its tight focus on the central character, a High Court judge named Fiona Maye. Everything is seen through her eyes. She presides over very high profile cases in the Family Court section of England's legal system. For instance, at one point she rules upon the separation of Siamese twins. But most of her cases fall along the lines of marital disputes, parental rights, etc. Divorce wranglings. He-saids, she-saids [or more correctly] he-wants, she-wants. 
Her sixty-year old husband announces that he wants to have one last fling with a college sweetheart [who is like… still in college]. She's one of his students. Fiona is outraged, and her own marriage now tends to resemble some of the predicaments she sees in her courtroom.
She begins this battle of juggling her professional career with her own marital woes just as a new case arrives upon the scene. It involves a boy three months shy of eighteen, suffering from leukemia and in need of a blood transfusion. His parents are Jehovah's Witnesses, and feel that it is a violation of scriptural principles to accept blood into the body of their son, Adam. And Adam agrees.
Fiona, prior to giving her ruling, is suspicious that Adam's impending martyrdom is possibly a result of parental coercion rather than based upon a true understanding of what he is facing. And time is running out. As a result, she makes the unprecedented decision to visit Adam in the hospital.
The rest -- I will not say. You must read the book, if you haven't done so yet.
It is brilliant.
The Children Act is an example of Ian McEwan hitting the mark, as he does in the majority of his other novels, as well. So… don't listen to any naysayers. Trust me. It's 221 pages of time well spent.
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Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Have a great Tuesday!

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Splash du Jour: Monday

We human beings build houses because we're alive, but we write books because we're mortal. We live in groups because we're sociable, but we read because we know we're alone. Reading offers a kind of companionship that takes no one's place, but that no one can replace either. It offers no definitive explanation of our destiny, but links us extricably to life. Its tiny secret links remind us how paradoxically happy we are to be alive, while illuminating how tragically absurd life is. So our reasons for reading are as strange as our reasons for living. And no one has the right to call that intimacy to account.
-- Daniel Pennac, The Rights of the Reader --


Have a great Monday!
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You Know You're A Book Addict When...

… you use your last remaining vacation day of the year to attend a used booksale!
That's what I did today. I had one more work-free day for the year 2014, so i "booked" it off specifically to be able to give my full attention -- early in the morning -- to the Annual Rockcliffe Bookfair. There I was standing outside in the freezing cold with the other shivering lunatics this morning, waiting for the doors to open.
I sort of placed a restriction on myself though -- I brought along this orange shopping bag and committed myself to not exceeding its capacity, unlike other years where I fill an empty refrigerator box and then find I cannot move the thing to the car! This year I brought it down to about 30 books, all strategically crammed into this bag. Great books. Terrific books. And the whole shmeer only cost me $60.00. Now, back at my apartment I have a new dilemma. Nowhere to PUT them all! 
I've run out of shelves. Which is, by the way, the second sign that you're a book addict!
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