Me and the Sandbox
Ernie Hemingway, Age 7

The sand! It lies in motionless waves and suggests a playfulness perfect for my age. I feel it between my fingers and it’s very cold, a bit moist and gritty. Tommy’s ball went over the fence and some of the kids went to chase it, but it’s gone. Gone like yesterday.

Me and the sandbox will be here for ever.

Guess who is going to practice her Hebrew?

1. I don’t rate books because I don’t read books I don’t like. I’ve tried once - Frédéric Beigbeder’s Windows on the World - and let’s just say I never, ever want do that again.
2. I can’t review a book (or really, anything else) to save my life. Sad but true, ask my various Art, Philosophy and Literature teachers (although, Literature might have something to with 1). I’m usually all over the place, you’ve been warned!

Also, I’ve been tagged by Love last week to answer Eva of A Striped Armchair’s meme:

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
I haven’t read any reviews of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy but I’ve seen it being recommend by everyone. I’m probably wrong but I think that all this talk against C.S. Lewis / Christianity is a little bit too much for me and my huge love of Narnia. Plus, it makes him sound like the most pretentious writer, ever.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
Oh, I’d love to spend a night stargazing with Asher Lev (My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok), Esther Greenwood (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath) and Astrid Magnussen (White Oleander by Janet Fitch).

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
I really, really tried to love One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. It’s apparently the Best Book Ever and I’ve been trying for years but I just can’t get past page 10. It’s booooring (don’t kill me, don’t kill me!).

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
About 80% of the books I had to read for school. That includes most of Molière’s plays, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and half of Voltaire, Rousseau, Descartes and Kant books. I’m living proof that you can pass a class without having read the required books.

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
I can’t think of one.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)
I’d say Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. It has everything: angst, love triangle, humour, romance and mean, old ladies. I just adore it.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
I could cheat and say Hebrew (that way I’d pass all my exams and wouldn’t have to study ever, ever again) but I’m greedy and I really want to learn Latin.

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
Either La nausée (Nausea) by Jean-Paul Sartre or The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
I’m going to copy Love’s answer and say Reading Challenges.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
I’m thinking something a la Shakespeare & Co (walls and every available furnitures filled with books), a good chair and some place to put my tea stuff.

The Mythopoeic Society is dedicated to the study and enjoyment of fantasy and mythic literature, especially the works of the Inklings, an informal literary circle at Oxford that included the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and others. Each year the Society awards the best scholarly and literary achievements exemplifying “the spirit of the Inklings” with the Mythopoeic Award.

The challenge is to read seven books between January 1st 2008 to December 31st 2008 from the list of Mythopoeic Award Winners (or Nominees).

The Mythopoeic Award Challenge will be my last reading challenge for 2008. I tried to resist it but I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, about what it means and all those books I wanted to read so… here’s my list:

01. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (Winner, Adult, 2006)
02. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Winner, Adult, 2005)
03. Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip (Nominees, Adult, 2005)
04. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (Nominees, Children’s, 2004)
05. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black (Nominees, Children’s, 2003)
06. The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley (Winner, Children’s, 2000)
07. The Boggart by Susan Cooper (Nominees, Children’s, 1996)

My list:
01. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
02. Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis
03. Slippage by Harlan Ellison

Pick 12 books - one for each month of 2008 - that you’ve been wanting to read (that have been on your “To Be Read” list) for 6 months or longer, but haven’t gotten around to.

OPTIONAL: Create a list of 12 “Alternates” (books you could substitute for your challenge books, given that a particular one doesn’t grab you at the time)

Then, starting January 1, 2008, read one of these books from your list each month, ending December 31, 2008. :o)

(for more information, please read the challenge FAQs)

My 2008 List:
01. The Bible *
02. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
03. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
04. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
05. Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks
06. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
07. Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
08. The Collected Stories by Grace Paley
09. Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs
10. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
11. Grief by Andrew Holleran
12. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

+ 12 More
13. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
14. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
15. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
16. The Pact by Jodi Picoult
17. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
18. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
19. The Varieties of Scientific Experience by Carl Sagan
20. Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
21. Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
22. Elementals by A.S. Byatt
23. A Touch of Wonder Arthur Gordon
24. Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler

There are two ways to approach this challenge. Either read four books by authors in one of the six categories (you can read more than one category, but you must read four books; not two books in one category and two in another) OR read six books, one from each of the six categories. The categories are:

1. African/African-American
2. Asian/Asian-American (This is not just East Asian — Chinese, Korean and Japanese — but also Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, and the Central Asian -Stans.)
3. Hispanic/Latin American
4. Indian/Indian-American (Again, books by Indian authors; not books by white authors set in India.)
5. Middle Eastern (Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Turkey…)
6. Native Peoples (Can include Native American, Inuit, Polynesian –Maori, Samoan, etc — Siberian natives and Australian Aborigines.)

I’ve chosen African/African-American Literature:
- The Living is Easy by Dorothy West.
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler.
- Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin.
- Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat.

I’m not sure if anyone else will be interested by this challenge but if your are, leave your name/website in a comment and I will add you to the list. You don’t have to follow my plan (see below), there are many ways to read the Bible (I’m already thinking of reading it Chronologically in 2009).

List of Participants
Love
MizB

January
From Genesis (”In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate.” …) to Leviticus 8 (… “So Aaron and his sons did everything that the Lord had commanded through Moses.”).

February
From Leviticus 9 (”The day after the ordination rites were completed, Moses called Aaron and his sons and the leaders of Israel.” …) to Joshua 3 (… “While the people walked across on dry ground, the priests carrying the Lord’s Covenant Box stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan until all the people had crossed over.”).

March
From Joshua 4 (”When the whole nation had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men, one from each tribe, and command them to take twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, from the very place the priests were standing.” …) to Samuel 24 (… “The Lord answered his prayer, and the epidemic in Israel was stopped.”).

April
From I Kings 1 (”King David was now a very old man, and although his servants covered him with blankets, he could not keep warm.” …) to II Chronicles 24 (… “His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.”).

May
From II Chronicles 25 (”Amaziah became king at the age of 25, and he ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years.” …) to Psalms 14 (… “How happy the people of Israel will be when the Lord makes them prosperous again!”).

June
From Psalms 15 (”Lord, who may enter your Temple? Who may worship on Zion, your sacred hill?” …) to Psalms 112 (… “The wicked see this and are angry; they glare in hate and disappear; their hopes are gone for ever.”).

July
From Psalms 113 (”Praise the Lord! You servants of the Lord, praise his name!” …) to Isaiah 14 (… “We will tell them that the Lord has established Zion and that his suffering people will find safety there.”).

August
From Isaiah 15 (”This is a message about Moab.” …) to Jeremiah 49 (… “But later on I will make the people of Elam prosperous again. I, the Lord, have spoken..”).

September
From Jeremiah 50 (”This is the message that the Lord gave me about the city of Babylon and its people: “Tell the news to the nations! Proclaim it!.” …) to Micah 1 (… “Make yourselves as bald as vultures, because your children will be taken away from you into exile.”).

October
From Micah 2 (”How terrible it will be for those who lie awake and plan evil!.” …) to Luke 22 (… “And they said, ‘We don’t need any witnesses! We ourselves have heard what he said!’“).

November
From Luke 23 (”The whole group rose up and took Jesus before Pilate, where they began to accuse him: ‘We caught this man misleading our people, telling them not to pay taxes to the Emperor and claiming that he himself is the Messiah, a king’.” …) to II Corinthians 12 (… “I am afraid that the next time I come my God will humiliate me in your presence, and I shall weep over many who sinned in the past and have not repented of the immoral things they have done - their lust and their sexual sins.”).

December
From II Corinthians 13 (”This is now the third time that I am coming to visit you..” …) to Revelation 22 (… “May be the grace of the Lord Jesus be with everyone.”).