Author: Geoff W

Reading my way through life.
Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – July 2013 Meme

Geoff W

Classics ClubFor July the hosts of The Classics Club have another member submitted question asking “What classic book has changed your view on life, social mores, political views of religion?”

I have to agree with Karen over at BookerTalk that these questions are getting more and more difficult as the year continues and this one in particular is incredibly difficult to answer. So many books have helped to define who I am as a person and very few of them are classics, but I do have two in mind for this monthly meme. My first thought was Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison and there is no question that it opened my eyes, but it didn’t have such a profound impact on my views of the ‘old south’ as the second novel that came to mind: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.

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2013 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 211: Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Geoff W

This was a surprising read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Unlike many of the ‘classics’ I’ve read the writing style and even the vernacular speech patterns were easy to read and kept the story constantly moving forward. This book counts for my Mount TBR and Back to the Classics reading challenges and is also on my Classics’ Club List.

I didn’t have to read this in school and I’m actually glad I didn’t. I know if it was a requirement to read this in high school I would not have had a good reaction to it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was an above average student when I applied myself, but I just would not have found this book interesting or a good read. And, to be honest, I’m a little shocked I did find it as interesting as I did with the strong basis in religion the author clearly had. But somehow it wasn’t so overpowering that it turned me off from the story/novel so well done.

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Books

Three Year Anniversary?!

Geoff W
Three Years
Not sure where it’s actually from, but I found it here.

Three years ago tomorrow, I started the The Oddness of Moving Things. It is really hard to believe I have actually stuck with it this long. I’ve never given a serious thought of quitting, but I have given serious thought of just disappearing for months on end. So much has happened in my life over the past three years and this is one of the big constants which is nice.

To see my very first post about why I started The Oddness of Moving Things click here. The reasons I’ve kept it around aren’t quite the same, but I think this blog has done a great job in keeping me sane and helping me retain even more of my reading knowledge than I used. In addition I’ve ‘met’ some amazing people around the world and been encouraged to read outside of my comfort zone (trashy romance [oh yes] and classics [meh, mostly]). This email is a little less celebratory as my life is hectic and my job requires a bit more attention these days (yay for growing up right?!). So I’ve kept my Top Ten lists and called it a day!

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Culture Corner

Culture Corner – July 2013

Geoff W

I knew I did a lot of ‘cultural’ things prior to starting this monthly blog post series, but I didn’t realize quite how many I did on a regular basis. As I sat down to write this post I realized I’d done so much that I could easily have posted a weekly Culture Corner since the last one. Instead you’re going to get a LOT of pictures (three distinct sets) with brief explanations of each.

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Book Group, Books

Book 210: Persepolis 2 – Marjane Satrapi

Geoff W

If possible, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return was better than Satrapi’s first graphic novel Persepolis: A Story of Childhood. Don’t get me wrong, they were both great and the first one’s wit and humor (from the perspective of a 10-year-old) was better placed and timed, but this novel just dealt with adult issues an early 20s individual faces and thus I identified more with it.

I sill say, however, that this book provided less history and explanation about the revolution and continuing Islamization of Iran than the first and focused more on the challenges Marjane and other young women faced as women under the new rule from the stricter veiling and gender segregation to the lack of freedom of mobility and education for women and mandatory military service for young men.

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