"The Story of B" by Daniel Quinn

First, a little background on what has now become a little bit of a Daniel Quinn obsession - it began on the day of my accident. For those of you who know me, you'll recall my grandmother and I were hit by a car on August 4 of this year. I was holding a copy of "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn at the time, and it quite possibly stopped the concussion I suffered from being fatal.

Needless to say, I was more than compelled to give the book a chance, and I ended up loving it to piece. Then I picked up "My Ishmael" and was equally as enthralled.

Restless for something else to read, I realized that a good friend of mine from elementary/middle school, Claire, recommended that I read "The Story of B" by Daniel Quinn also, and I had never yet had the chance to do so. The first chance I had, I picked up a copy from Borders, and if books were food, I absolutely devoured it.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I have to say, more movies have been coming out lately that elicit tearful responses from me, and 'The Time Traveler's Wife' probably tops the list of biggest tearjerkers - and entire movie theater agreed with me, judging from the fact that during particular scenes, you could hear everyone sniffling, and the rustle of pulling out a pocket pack of Kleenex, I kid you not.

I'm going to try and talk about the movie while avoiding spoilers, so sorry if this is super vague.

First of all - Rachel McAdams was incredible, and real, and Eric Bana was also amazing, and not just because he spent a good bit of the movie with no clothes on. I loved the camerawork so much - simplicity really is an effective strategy. The dialogue was really believable, not too sappy, and the slightly sci-fi feel to the whole thing makes it feel a whole lot more fresh than a lot of chick flicks. Also, even for people like myself who have never read the book, the scenework gives enough foreshadowing to elicit the correct feelings about scenes without giving anything away.

Now, onto the sappier side of my opinion!

I personally thought this movie was so much more effective than past chick flicks based off of Nicholas Sparks novels. The only movie to come close to the emotional reaction this elicited in me was "A Walk To Remember", and that honestly doesn't even come in a close second emotionally, no matter how much I liked it. Chick flicks often come off to me as dry, unrealistic, and hard to relate to - it's a little ironic that a movie based on time travel feels more realistic and human to me. It hit me more than almost every chick flick I've ever watched. Combined.

I think the first scene in the movie that made me think this was going to be way different from most chick flicks for me was when Clare and Henry are on a park bench, and Clare asks what it's like for Henry to always be leaving, because she knows what it's like to be the one who gets left. Being in the current relationship I'm in - namely, being an Army Wife - I could already tell the movie would elicit tears from me like a waterspout. From then on, I had already decided the entire movie was an analogy for my situation.

I honestly have no complaints about the movie, except the fact that I had to walk out of the movie theater incredibly puffy-eyed and sniffly.

Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

The first book in my batch that I picked up to read - it was a really fast read, but one of the most worthwhile things I've read in a long time.

I'm not really going to try and ruin it for anyone who hasn't read it, but basically, it details the life of a man who shares the name with the Buddha (Siddhartha), not of Siddhartha Gautama himself, who plays a large part in the book but is referred to only by his last name.

Siddhartha goes from being the son of a priest, to a wandering monk, to a salesman enthralled in sex, wine, and gambling, and finally to being a poorman at peace and unified with the world around him.

I think what really hit home with me is that Hesse's Siddhartha portrays the process of learning and discovery in a way that doesn't set a teacher as someone superior to the pupil, and that human emotion isn't a barrier to discovery and doesn't prevent one from reaching the sublime.

The only point of irony was that everything in the book happened so fast, seemed such a fluid process, when really it details a single tumultuous life that was long and arduous at times for the person living it - it makes me think about the fact that everything really is transient, that everyone's life is heading towards something, but they spend so much time trying to focus on the road ahead or the road behind that they neglect to realize that the scenery is part of the journey.

Quotes:

• "It is not my place to judge the life of another! Only for myself, for myself alone must I judge, must I choose, must I decline."
• "This too I have learned from the river: Everything returns!"
• "Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better."
• "Do you really believe you have committed your follies so that your son may be spared them?"
• "I would rather be a bandit and a murderer and go to hell than to be like you! I hate you; you are not my father, even if you were my mother's lover ten times over!"
• "The world...is not imperfect, not to be seen as on a slow path toward perfection: No, it is perfect in every moment, all transgression already bears grace within itself, all children already have the aged in themselves, all sucklings death, all the dying eternal life."
  

Book Shopping

Yes, book shopping was the highlight of my Saturday. Don't judge.

Anyway, I love book shopping because I always end up picking something far from what I'd expected. My next set of reading material is fiction (mostly) for once, and a lot different from what I usually read.

+ Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
(Just started reading this one, about a third of the way through after a couple of hours. Only about 100 pages, so it's not a long read, but plenty of content. I love it already!)

+ The Red and the Black - Stendhal
(Not a lot of people know how fascinated I am by European history, but there you have it. I read Les Miserables when I was eight - I know, sets off all geek alarms - but I figured it was time to venture back into the world of Frenchmen)

+ The Art of War - Sun Tzu
(I know, not really my usual reading material, but I've heard a lot about this book and I've been really curious about it, so I picked up a copy.)


The cashier and Barnes & Noble pointed out that it was interesting that I'd picked out a book about war and a book about Buddha in one fell swoop. What can I say?