Book Writing- A spectator sport!

I will admit that I did not find this on my own. A friend who knows my obsession with reading as well as my active pursuit of enlightening others to read and write sent me this link.

Peru makes book writing a spectator sport

After reading this article I was ecstatic. I have been recently researching an editorial I wanted to write about the lack of literacy campaigns for adults in the US. It seems to me that children are constantly told to read and there are all these programs to cater to this including special bargains and clubs at local libraries, school libraries and bookstores. But what about adults? There is a rapid decline in adults reading after high school. It seems to me there is no one advocating about the advantages of reading such as increased brain activity, advancing critical thinking and decision making skills, as well as generally relaxing and relieving stress. But most of all, reading can be incredibly fun and there are so many amazing novels out there and to ignore that only enables ignorance.

So here is a unique way to get people more excited. In Peru it seems they are now having active competitions for writers. They are given designated words and a certain amount of time, and must come up with a short story. The most interesting part is there desire to play off the popularity of lucha libre, the Mexican wrestling sport, by having the writers wear masks as well (and it is called lucha libro).

For the winner, you advance to compete in the next week. And at the end, they are given a book contract.

So this new sport has a number of cool side affects: It promotes interest in reading and writing. It allows writers to use their skills as well as work on their craft and it even helps create a great opportunity for the writers to get their words heard.

I don't know about others, but this would definitely be a spectator sport I would follow :)

BOOK REVIEW: "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov- A pedophile's love story

"It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight"

It seemed appropriate to honor banned books week with one of my favorite books that has been questioned/challenged and banned since it was published.

 Disgusted, creeped out, uncomfortable, and empathetic are just a few of the emotions I felt while reading Nabokov’s Lolita. This is a sordid tale of Humbert Humbert, a middle aged man who really never let go of his first love from his childhood, and his obsession with nymphets, young prepubescent girls who he claims seduce him not just by their looks but what is deep within them.

Let me clarify this a bit more. Humbert has some disgusting issues. As he begins the story he attempts to justify his future actions by blaming it on the loss of his first love from childhood. But even as the reader you couldn’t possibly imagine how far he will go to fulfill his twisted desires.

Though he tries to live life according to societies morals (has a job and a wife) he ultimately fails which leads him to renting a house in the home of a widow, Charlotte Haze. Though he can’t stand her, he remains and it isn’t difficult to see why. She has a daughter, the 12-year-old Dolores Haze, who becomes the subject of Humbert’s sexual being.

But who is Lolita? This is the special name Humbert has designated for his nymphet but it seems like more than that. She is his ideal. It is not just her physical attractiveness (reading about how attractive a 12-year-old is has to be one of the most disturbing thoughts ever) but a quality of her personality that has Humbert so fascinated and fixated. He admits to her similarity to his first love. It seems as though Lolita is not really Dolores, but this ideal that he is stuck on though he continues to age.

As I read further into the story I was only more confused about how I felt about the protagonist. Nabokov’s poetic writing actually makes you start to feel bad for him, as though he is so tortured by his psychological issues that he can’t possibly escape from his desires. It even implies that it is Lolita who seduces him, unrelenting, blaming her for future events.

"Nowadays you have to be a scientist if you want to be a killer. No, no, I was neither. Ladies and gentleman of the jury, the majority of sex offenders that hanker for some throbbing, sweet-moaning, physical but not necessarily coital, relation with a girl-child, are innocuous, inadequate, passive, timid strangers who merely ask the community to allow them to pursue their practically harmless, so-called aberrant behavior, their little hot wet private acts of sexual deviation without the police and society cracking down upon them. We are not sex fiends! We do not rape as good soldiers do. We are unhappy, mild, dog-eyed gentlemen, sufficiently well integrated to control our urge in the presence of adults, but ready to give years and years of life for one chance to touch a nymphet. Emphatically, no killers are we. Poets never kill.” ~ Humbert

Lolita becomes the seductress. This young girl who was born to manipulate men, especially the weak willed. She uses it to get what she wants. At least, that’s what the narrator wants you to believe. But Lolita, or Dolores, was a kid. She only used what she was taught which was that by using her body she gets what she wants. Humbert made it clear that he wanted her, and even went as far as to isolate her so that she would be entirely dependent on him. And the only way she learned to get what she wanted or needed was to give up her body to this perve.

"He broke my heart. You merely broke my life"~ Lolita

The story is extremely biased. It is from the opinion of Humbert, who in the beginning we are told has died in jail. This doesn’t paint a picture of a honest, good natured person. Yet he attempts to justify the actions he took, even putting blame on the child. Even towards the end when she has established her own life away from him, he has continued to obsess over her, this ideal of her during the year he kept her isolated by driving across the US with her. The truth of it all is that he was a pedophile and he preyed upon a young girl who had no one to turn to. Her father is dead, her mother expressed her disdain and jealousy of her daughter, and is also eventually killed in an accident. She has no one except Humbert and therefore is forced to use her body to ensure her safety and security.

I know the topic of pedophilia is what makes this book so questionable. It is an uncomfortable subject for most. But the way in which the novel is written is so poetic it almost makes you believe the protagonist. It makes you feel empathy as though he did nothing wrong when in reality he was a monster. That is really what captivated me so much about this novel.

"Because you took advantage of my disadvantage"~ Humbert

In the end though, Humbert is judged and dies still unable to get what he has desired most, to be reunited with his love. The truth of this is not that he can’t contact her but that his love wasn’t real. Lolita was merely an ideal created from his twisted and demented mind.

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul."

We have a RIGHT TO READ! Banned Book Week! (Sept 22- 28)

Censorship in America? Is that allowed?

Something many people may be unaware of is that every year the American Library Association (ALA) advocates and dedicates a week to the awareness of "banned books" in America. These are books that have been challenged or removed from available reading in schools, libraries and sometimes communities altogether. The ALA's Banned Book Week see also: Banned Books

But how can this be happening? Doesn't our constitution demand a right to freedom of speech and choice? Though the United States was founded on this principle it doesn't stop people from openly advocating for the banishment of books from school curriculum and local libraries. And that is their right as well. But whose rights are more important than the others?

It seemed fitting that what I am currently reading is the NYTimes best seller The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. While it is not a currently banished book... the premise of the book is the Nazi rise in Germany during WW2 and how they attempted to burn books they felt didn't promote the Nazi Party propaganda.

Everyone has equal rights but I have to say the foundation on which people attempt to banish books is naive, biased, and ultimately only supports their agenda and not that of the greater population.

We all have a right to read. And we all have a right to choose what we read.

The ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) works to promote the "awareness of challenges to library materials and celebrates freedom of speech during Banned Book Week". It compiles lists of books, both classic and new alike, that have been challenged by different areas as well as the reasoning behind the challenge and banishment.

Radcliffe's 100 Best Novels- It is important to note that about half of these are books that were banned/ challenged.

I have followed this movement in past years and some of the titles will shock you (as they happen to be some of the greatest novels ever written). Some of my personal favorites that have been challenged have been Lolita, Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Slaughterhouse Five (if you've ever seen Dirty Dancing they also make a reference to banning this novel in the film), and even more current ones such as Perks of Being a Wallflower, the Hunger Games, and Enders Game.

I know that back in 1940 in Germany the ideals of the Nazi party were extreme and many would assume that there would never be that kind of extreme censorship in the US. But censorship has to start small from somewhere and if it is given fuel, the fire will continue to ignite allowing the censorship of any book for the slightest reason. We would no longer be free to express our opinions as writers, let alone read what we choose.

Find your own banned book this week and enjoy! I'd love to hear your favorites!

Banned Books By Year

:D Happy Friday readers.... start your new book this weekend!

BOOK REVIEW: "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath. A look into the mind of a crazy person.

Ok I'm going to start this with my predominate thought throughout the novel...

How did anyone who read this novel before Sylvia Plath decided to stick her head in an oven NOT KNOW she was going to commit suicide?

Being her only novel, it is an absolutely amazing one and by far one of the favorite ones I read this year. But I can't help but reiterate that my primary thought throughout the majority if it was okay, she is having a major love affair with the idea of killing herself. Like this wasn't just thoughts for a novel because it is all too real and too romanticized. She wants this. She needs this.

Start with a girl, Esther Greenwood, who pretty much anyone can identify with, especially someone in my position. She gets an amazing internship through a very prominent magazine in NYC for the summer and these amazing opportunities and bonuses. She is basically living the high-life however she doesn't seem to want any of it. She is not stimulated by the glitz and glamour the way other girls are. If anything they seem to just overwhelm her, though she plays it off sarcastically and by telling amusing stories of events and adventures of other girls in her internship.

During all this time she seems to only be excited for the possibility of a writing course she applied for with a world famous author. However, when she returns back to her home in Boston she finds out she is not accepted and has to begin to make new plans for her future. But as time progresses she seems to become overwhelmed if not depressed by the choices she has available.

"If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell"

So begins the time of no sleep and sleep deprivation driving her crazy, leading to the visit to a psychiatrist. Very typical for the time he is a male doctor whom, from her perspective, seems unable to relate and immediately suggests electro shock therapy.

"To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream"

Her mental state continues to worsen, dragging her deeper and deeper into dark thoughts of depression and then eventual suicidal thoughts. The thoroughness of the thoughts she has (written by Sylvia Plath) are actually frightening because somehow she, being the supposed crazy person, makes them make sense. Her final attempt sends her to a new mental hospital where she is given better care and is finally able to express some of her greatest fears.

Throughout the novel she constantly discusses a past boyfriend Buddy, who considers himself her fiance. However through series of different memories and contact with him reveal that she resents him and his family and wants nothing to do with him. And it is better understood when you realize what she fears the most. She fears the sexual role of a woman in society. Being placed in this role with pressure to become a wife and pregnant and have kids. During one such recollection she reflects back that Buddy has said that he has had sex with another woman before. Esther then becomes obsessed with the notion that she also needs to have sex with someone else so that Buddy can not hold this power over her of being more sexually experienced than her. She seems to resent the notion that men don't have to live with the consequences of sex the way a woman does if she were to become pregnant. It is only after her doctor introduces her to a form of birth control that she feels released from the societal pressures of having to be a wife and have kids.

This novel just really got to me on so many levels. I couldn't put it down. For a student getting ready to leave college, isn't the possibilities out there that are the scariest thing? This fear that you'll overreach and never achieve what you wanted. At least for myself this was a familiar feeling. It is terrifying trying so hard to go after something that might possible end in failure. And in her case the main thing that she was excited for, the writing course, did slip from her grasp as well as all the plans she had made for the next year. It would be so easy to just say "I give up" and slip into a depression of perpetual failure.

This novel also continued to speak to the feminist in me, bringing up so many points of fear that every woman can relate to. I don't want to direct this only to women, as if a guy couldn't possibly understand what Esther Greenwood was feeling, but it does take a woman to understand that fear. It is embedded in this patriarchal society that we are not the equivalent of a man even more so during the time this novel was written. And it is true that women are the ones who really have to fear the idea of pregnancy. For Esther, she was overwhelmed so much by possibilities, but she seemed to be just as overwhelmed at the forced nature of becoming Buddy's wife and feeling inferior to him for the rest of hers.

"But when it came right down to it, the skin of my wrist looked so white and defenseless I couldn't do it. It's as if what I wanted to kill wasn't in that skin or the thin blue pulse that jumped under my thumb, but somewhere else, deeper, more secret, and a whole lot harder to get to."

But the suicidal thoughts and attempts were by far the most shocking. It was the depth, the complexity in which she thought and reasoned through these thoughts that made this novel so captivating. It wasn't what you've ever read or seen before in a TV show or a movie. It wasn't like she said she wanted to die and then put some plan into action. She really explains her thoughts and why her life needed to end. Why she felt so trapped under this bell jar of unhappiness, trapped in her negative thoughts, unable to breathe.

That is what was so terrifying as a reader. She actually made suicide make SENSE. I don't consider myself a very depressed person. Even in my current state of uncertainty for what comes next after college I feel excited more than anything. However, when I read this novel I couldn't help but find my mind wandering to that dark corner of my mind, the one that so many people suppress. Somehow, Sylvia Plath's words brought those deepest, darkest thoughts to the forefront and for me, made me face them.

Unlike her, however, I am not suicidal and even Esther Greenwood survived, overcoming her darkest demons. However, Sylvia did not. It now seems more evident, at least to me, that this book was possibly meant to be a cathartic release, but in the end become her suicide note.

I guess for some the idea of reading a novel like this would be scary because lets face it, suicide is not exactly a fun topic. However, the novel seemed to have a bright light at the end of the tunnel. The outcome was exactly the opposite of how the entire novel seemed to be going. I think it gives hope, for those who are going through the toughest of times.

The latest job title: Book Therapist! (no joke)

So this is something that came up on my twitter feed this week and I felt it necessary to share.

Brooklyn's Newest Made-up position: Book therapist

At first I will be naive enough to say that I thought this sounded cool and that only someone who doesn't read would write an editorial smearing this idea. However after reading it, I might have to agree with the editorial.

It was written on a woman who has started her own business as a "book therapist" meaning that they act like a therapist in assisting you find books that help you cope and deal with your real world problems. In those facts alone it sounds great. I have always thought that books should and will have a major impact on you, that they open your mind to new possibilities and even can reference back to your real life. Especially after just reading Invisible Monsters this last week I thought wow this totally pertains to my life right now... i'm stuck in this battle of looking for a job but do I go for the job I really want or do I go for what i'm already good at. I love how literature can make you sit there and really think and reflect. It's such a powerful realization!

However, here is what i find really wrong with this idea. One... I don't see how this woman specifically has any right to think that she has all the answers to be a therapist. She has no literature background or any background in therapy. I find it funny that she has an economics background as well as on her shelf on goodreads she has a book about "how to get rich quick". Get rich quick scheme? I think so. But you would have to have a much more extensive knowledge of books in order to provide that kind of treatment. I read a lot.... doesn't mean i'm qualified to give therapy with the use of books.

Two... I do believe... like I said before... that books can have a therapeutic role. However, I feel that is what friends and family and peers are for if you want to look for a great book. And just because one person loves a book, never means that another person will have the same reaction. A book speaks to people in different ways. It can't have the exact same affect on each individual because we all come with different backgrounds, interests, preferences, etc.

I like the idea of getting people more active and excited in reading, but I have a different idea of what book therapy would be. For me, book therapy is exchanging ideas (lets say on a blog about reading hint hint) on different novels or authors, creating excitement around the idea of reading a great book and what some possible benefits would be to doing this.

I hope you enjoyed the article. Stay tuned for my next book review!

BOOK REVIEW: "Invisible Monsters" by Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk. I know to some this name may sound very familiar. And I'll give you one reason:

"First rule of fight club: you don't talk about fight club".

Yes Palahniuk is the writer of the novel Fight Club that later became a film sensation starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in 1999. Also that year his book Invisible Monsters was published. But only now have I read it and only now I can talk about what a mind-blowing novel it is. 

"This is the biggest mistake I could think would save me. I wanted to give up the idea I had any control. Shake things up. To be saved by chaos. To see if I could cope, I wanted to force myself to grow again. To explode my comfort zone"

This quote is probably the best way to sum up what the novel will reveal: a world of chaos. Even in the story's structure which constantly has the reader bouncing back and forth through time as the lead protagonist (I would name her but her name is also constantly changing along with the majority of the characters) reflects on how she came to be in her situation. 

So here is a novel where you never seem to know anyone's true name or identity, filled with love that masks envy and revenge, filled with constant criminal activity that no one gets caught for or dies from, all leading to one plot twist after another, and characters so obsessed with the societal view of beauty that they end up being some of the ugliest people you could ever have been introduced to. This novel is full of sensationalism, constantly has you hooked because even me, thinking I could see the plot twists coming, never expected the ending. This is definitely not a novel to look up beforehand to check the summary, but one to dive right into. 

This book was given to me recently as a birthday present when I told friends and family that I was hoping to expand my knowledge of literature more. I wasn't restricting myself to classics but wanted to try reading many different types of readers and authors. My friend, having read this and really loving it, gave this novel to me. I was instantly drawn to the name as well as the cover art but only later did I understand what it all meant and symbolized. 

So what are the invisible monsters? Invisible monsters, to me, are those inner demons. Those ones we are unaware that drive our actions as human beings, that don't care about those it affects, that make it easy to victimize ourselves and put blame on others. It's the thoughts that eat at you that you can't totally shut out. In reference to this novel, it's the demons that constantly tell you that you are too fat or ugly or undeserving, or possibly, you are too beautiful and will only be seen as one thing. Never being allowed to amount to anything greater, to reach a fuller potential. 

"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone i've ever known".

In this world where everything is measured to how society views you, holding every person to a certain caliber of beauty, it is no wonder that it would lead to hate, jealousy and revenge against those who have what you can't have. But it really makes you think... how many people out there want what I have yet I feel no content with it? Is there something that I am remarkable at that others would kill for yet... I don't even notice or care about it? There are always those people out there that we, as humans, aspire to be like. Yet how many of us actually attain it? And if we don't do we begin to resent them and their lack of gratefulness for their blessings?

And then on the other hand, what if we are remarkable at some particular thing. Should we just be content and happy because we are good at it or should we aspire to do something that gives us more purpose? Something that will drive us to reach our full potential as a human being.

I just felt like this novel raised so many questions within me. And it was done in such a remarkable and sensationalized way. As a student I am constantly striving to make something of myself, to find my purpose. And these are valid questions in a world where you are seen to be as good as your best qualities whether that be intelligence, creativity, or as in this novel... beauty.

"The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open".

Find a comfy reading space is key...

Personally, I'm pretty comfortable anywhere reading, though I do obsess over having my own library with comfy couches and chairs one day.

However, if you are new to being the active reader, here are some suggestions hehe

enjoy!

Next book profiles will include:

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahnuik
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
and some of the next books that will soon become films such as The Ender's Game and The Book Thief...

Read and find the messages hidden in the text :)

BOOK REVIEW: "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

It only seemed fitting that the the first novel I chose to talk about is The Great Gatsby. For those close to me or even those that I have talked about literature with, they know my deep love and admiration I have for this novel (and the fact that I have read it at least 15 times).

So welcome to the world of Jay Gatsby, told from the perspective of his neighbor Nick Carroway, and the sordid, terrible love story that is soon to follow. Nick's first glimpse of the elusive and mysterious Gatsby is at the end of his dock watching across the water way in Long Island, staring at a green light coming from the dock of the Buchanans. It is only at the end of the story that we understand just how significant that green light is.

Gatsby, through Nick's observation, continuously throws amazing parties, the most unbelievable parties during this time of rebellion and prohibition in the roaring 20's. The description is so detailed and elaborate, as the reader you can imagine standing in the midst of glitter and gold, with sparkling chandeliers and music and people surrounding you, becoming completely lost in the fantasy.

Nick also becomes reunited with a distant cousin, Daisy Buchanan, a beautiful heiress, and her narcissistic husband, Tom, comfy in their fortune, ignorant of the working man. Later, Tom is so arrogant as to take Nick along to meet his mistress in the city, making no attempt to hide the affair, nor showing any signs of remorse. His wealth and arrogance give him a sense of entitlement though he's never done truly honest or hard work in his life.

Gatsby soon makes it known that he has an interest in knowing his new neighbor, and then later reveals his true intentions: to get to Daisy. It is only after Gatsby and Daisy are reunited that their true connection is revealed; they were once madly in love. Daisy a rich heiress with men chasing her, Gatsby a poor soldier determined to win her heart. Once sent to war, Daisy eventually abandons hope and weds the rich and handsome Tom Buchanan.

Daisy and Gatsby rekindle their love affair, and he determines that she will leave her husband and they will live happily together in his mansion as he has also become wealthy. But how easily the fantasy can unravel. Tom, discovering the affair, is a hypocrite and reveals his knowledge of what is happening and then quickly, psychologically, works to destroy it, by undermining how Gatsby attained his wealth, as well as revealing what is most important to Daisy, her security (as in wanting immense wealth). Tom is quick to lose everything he deems he deserves, including his mistress (as her husband wants to move them away) and now grips to keep his life exactly how he wants it.

The reality of their lives has been exposed: marriages full of infidelity, those like Daisy and Tom living in the ignorance of the wealth they were born into, looking down upon those like Gatsby who attempt to achieve their goals with no remorse as to how that is attained. Gatsby, being of new wealth, would never be accepted into the same society of those that feel entitled through birth. The green light, sitting at the end of Daisy's dock, symbolized his ambition, his unrelenting determination to take what he wants, which was wealth, but most of all, Daisy. He knew love was never enough for her, that he had to become something greater in order to keep her. But even then, he would not have her.

In the end, Gatsby is dead, murdered by being falsely accused of killing Tom's mistress, and Daisy doesn't even come to the funeral. Nick, as the outsider, sees the audacity of these rich people, and states that Gatsby is "better than them all".

 I was first told to read this novel my freshman year of High School by my English teacher. I have always loved reading but this story changed everything in my world, most notably, my ideas of what love is. As a teenager you are constantly told how you can't possibly understand the depth and complexity of the emotion. But on the contrary, what I learned was that just as Fitzgerald saw, we are all fools in love with the idea, never the reality. Fitzgerald wanted to reflect the time he lived in, and the divide between social classes. He is quick to point out their judgement, especially those who were given more privileges, yet are ignorant of what it really means to have a dream to aspire to. Yet, how unfulfilling it truly is, to never be satisfied in your wealth, to constantly need the lavish shallow parties, the materialistic proof of your fortune. Does any of this bring happiness?

For the dreamers, this novel is the reflection of the constant struggle yet unattainable nature of our desires. We reach and reach, yet it continues to elude us. Or life continuously chooses to throw new obstacles in our way. So does this mean we choose to leave those foolish dreams behind, accept what we have and be content? This idea alone spits in the face of the American dream. It is embedded in our culture that we continue to reach for the stars without our every breath.

Gatsby lived his life constantly trying to achieve his goal, his American dream. He can have no regrets for reaching for that green light.

The next novels that will become film!

These are the next 14 films that have all originated as books. So often we forget that some of the greatest stories have originated as a book. I've already read a couple of these and can't wait to check out the rest

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/books-to-read-before-they-hit-the-big-screen

Dr. Seuss on reading :)

"Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are"

Welcome to RoxieReads!!!

One of my favorite things in the world to do is to read a great book. There is something so incredible about being able to immerse yourself into the imagination of a writer and the world he/she has created within a novel. But so often now people say "I don't have time to read" "Those classic books are too complicated for me to read" "I never know what to choose" and more. I considered myself a pretty normal person with no superhuman capability of extending time in my day, or a superior intellect that allows me to read a classic novel. So why don't people read anymore?

Over the past year I studied abroad in Italy and I will admit I had a lot more free time. During this time my friends and I began reading and discussing what we were reading on a regular basis. I was introduced into a whole new world of literature that I dared not go for the same reason's I stated above. Now, I am determined to continue my literary education.

So welcome to the ride! I want to talk about my reason's for reading or choosing certain books, how I was personally affected (or not) by them, and hopefully we can exchange information! Call it a book club for the digital age ;)

I don't pretend to have any advanced knowledge of literature so you don't have to take what I say for fact. But you can take it as one book lover to another. And hopefully I will inspire you to pick up a book and join me!

Ciao for now!