On the love of books - and a giveaway!

First: My friend Zoe, over at Playingbythebook has a fabulous new giveaway that I would love to get my hands on. It is a children's movie, Eleanor's Secret, a must-see for those who love books, and those who would love to see a movie which promises some lovely 'un-adult-rated' fun (Zoe's word, not mine!) You may go over to her post to view details of the giveaway! I have put in my claim, too, and am keeping all fingers (and toes) crossed!



Pic courtesy flipkart.com

Talking about love for books, I recently came upon this wonderful book that I would love to share with fellow book lovers.

THE GROANING SHELF
and other instances of book love
Written by Pradeep Sebastian
Published by Hachette India

This is that ultimate fantasy for me- a book about books and about love for books- that explains a lot about my inexplicable book-lust:

Why I need to explore every book shop there is in any place.

Why I need to visit every book sale.

Why I need to own every book that I feel A or I would love to read.

Why I have more books in my house than an average person would need in her/his life, lying around in piles.

Why I need to read and re-read many of my books.

Why I need to shuffle my books around on shelves periodically, taking them off the shelves, sorting through them, opening those that I haven't looked at in a while, losing track of time, and then putting them all back over a period of weeks, by which time it is again time to sort through them!

Why I do not consider the above described work as a chore, but enjoy it thoroughly, spinning it out.

Why I start the work with an intention to clear clutter, (shame on me for considering books clutter, but an excess of even books takes up space.) but end up putting most of the books back, as I cannot bear to give them away. Yeah, Sangi, I need the Serenity Prayer too!

Why reading a well-loved book, caressing the pages and breathing in the fragrance of paper and ink is the ultimate sensual experience.

"This pleasurable, absorbing ritual of rearranging books, even trying to downsize one's library, now seems to be really about getting to know these books all over again. To pick up one from the shelves, remember where and when you bought it, and recall the pleasure that finding the book gave you - this is why a book collector gets all her books off and on the shelves every year."

Pradeep Sebastian speaks of the collecting of books, even of first editions, and brings to our notice the difference between a bibliomaniac (...has a rage for collecting and possessing books) and a bibliophile (a book collector of refined judgement, the quality of whose library reflects his or her exacting bibliographical standards). Where do I stand? Somewhere in between.

We come to know of the different reasons we buy a book - not just for its content. The edition, the cover design, illustrations, paper quality, the font used, the whole look and feel of the book, too matter. Ask me- I often buy whole lots by a favoured author, and favour certain publications which add to the overall experience of reading.

First editions, especially if in a pristine condition with their book jackets, and if they are signed or inscribed by the author, could become valuable additions to one's collection par with rare pieces of art by masters.

We have chapters on rare books, history of books in the world, and in India.

A whole section on notable works by his favourite authors, which include works by Pico Iyer, J.D.Salinger, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ayn Rand and Ira Levin. He discusses both the life and works of these writers, giving us a peek into how their creative energies worked.

A whole section on noteworthy bookshops in India, book museums and a chapter on books in movies. Yes, 'You've got mail' is one of the movies discussed, as are '84 Charing Cross Road', 'The Name of the Rose', 'The Mystic Masseur', 'Fahrenheit 451' and 'The Jane Austen Book Club'. There is also a real story, about how a documentary about an out of print classic, the only book by that author (The Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman) resurrected that book in print.

Some of the chapters on the actual experience of reading gave me an eerie sense of 'he's reading my mind'!.

"The books we read make us part of a larger (invisible) community of readers. Could the opposite be true as well? That our reading makes us lonely. Wrapped up in a book, we shut the world out, cutting ourselves off from those who cannot share in our private world."

Maybe. But then I find that my reading can also open up a world of like-minded friends, where we can share our mutual love of, and impressions of different books, enriching us all. I think the reading-aloud of books shared by A and I is a part of this process, as is this compulsive sharing of a book I loved with all of you in my reviews. I want to convey what I loved about a book, maybe compel you to pick it up!

There is an interesting chapter on re-reading. I'll quote - "What a commited reader has with a book is a relationship. And like most relationships, it is sustaining, volatile, vulnerable...the question is - does the book remain the same book the second time around? Are we even the same readers when we revisit these books?...it seems to me that our experience alters the book even as the book alters our experience."

Very true. A book that I have loved reading could not be read just once. One reads it rapidly at first, then mulls over what one has read for a while- which could be anything from a few hours to a few years. One then HAS to return to the book and read it over and over again, finding things one has not noticed or noted at the first reading, somehow managing to internalise the book, until it becomes a part of one's self.

As J.K.Rowling said while announcing PotterMore: "the experience of reading requires that the imaginations of the author and reader work together to create the story."

There is obviously more to reading than just a pastime, just a gleaning of information or learning of something. It is a whole experience that has to be, well, experienced. Even books that one has loved and lost, or books that one has encountered in a store or library, found interesting, but not gotten around to really reading through, never to find them again, are part of this experience.

Let me end with one more quote from this wonderful book by Pradeep Sebastian. This one for non-readers, too!

"I often envy non-readers for all the wonderful books out there that they have never read. Imagine the number of books that await them and the joy of encountering these great works for the first time. A favourite literary fantasy of mine has been to turn amnesiac for a year and read all my favourite books as though for the first time." 

I am entering this review for the 2011 Global Reading Challenge under Asia and in the 2011 South Asian Challenge at S.Krishna's books.

Reading to A- and a 100 stars in my sky

THIS IS MY 100th POST.

I thank you, all my friends, for reading what I needed to say, and encouraging me along the way. I have learned a lot along the way, and have got to know some wonderful people.

And what better way to mark it than to speak of some books A and I have loved reading together?

But first, an update: We have already received all five of the picture postcards that we were expecting as part of the 2011 international postcard swap for families hosted by Zoe over at Playingbythebook, a wonderful person who blogs about books for children, and the fun her girls have working with those books.

And now for the rest of our post, on reading aloud to A, and- you guessed it- Harry Potter.

*Spoiler Alert * Do not read the rest of the post if you want to find out for yourself what happens in the seven books!

Recently Prabha, a co-contributor at Saffrontree wrote to me about her daughter K, all of 9, beginning to read the books, and how she was a bit apprehensive about it. Understandably so, as the books have much that could be 'iffy', depending on the POV. They are unslottable to a large extent, as the age spectrum of those enjoying them seems to stretch from kids as young as 6yrs (it makes me wonder how many GET them? Isn't it a disservice to them if we let them read this stuff at such a young age, robbing them of the pleasure of discovering them when they are actually old enough to grasp the full import of what they are reading?) to adults.

Prabha says, "I thought it offered a lot of meat to go over. The sheer number of characters, the plot, the writing and to carry the reader through seven books- kudos to JKR!...Do let me know your thoughts, S, about your experiences...K will continue reading them this year...I didn't mind letting her watch the movies before finishing up the books...the movies have given a lot away, but I am glad she now has a frame of reference and can absorb things better and all those that the movie hasn't covered, and enjoy it for the pure writing aspect alone!" 

Some time back, Starry had made this comment on one of my Potter posts:  "Nervous about introducing HP to Div...we'll start from Jan, I think we will go slow anyway with books 1 and 2, which are relatively lighter. Like the question A asked, I guess there will be many q's...I love the intricate plot and logic of every single thing in these books."  Div, too, is 9.

So here's what I feel.

I have always read aloud to A, ever since she could sit up on my lap. She loved it. So even after she could read on her own, we continued with our habit, except that I would choose books that were meatier, or were a little bit above her age group, either in terms of the language, or the content.

Language was handled easily enough, and there would often be a word, or a phrase/idiom that would baffle her. I explained these to her in terms she understands, and she often used them subsequently, sometimes with pretty hilarious results, but usually correctly.

Sometimes, the language of a book, usually an old classic, would be simple enough, but the narrative would be a bit tedious. At such times it helped that I was reading aloud, so that I could tide her over the boring bits in anticipation of what I knew would come. Sometimes, the old English would be difficult to understand, with quaint words not much used these days. That, too, could be rephrased while explaining it to her.

Content was a bit difficult. We have often embarked on a book, sometimes to abandon it after a chapter or so, as she could not really relate to it. Sometimes it was the genre- I found that currently she does not enjoy anything to do with horror; it gives her nightmares. It was not necessary that there be anything graphic- she didn't enjoy Morpurgo's 'The Giant's necklace'. But she enjoys the cousins of horror- she likes suspense, action and black humour, for example- a case in point are the books by Roald Dahl, a master of black humour.

Sometimes it was just that the content was too much for her age- she could not visualise what was happening, or relate to it. I would then just shelve the book, to return to it at a later date when I thought she might appreciate it better. We had to do that with 'Anne of Green Gables', which we had attempted at 8 yrs- I think the time may be right for it sometime now.

So at the age of 8, when she showed an interest in the Potter books, seeing as she would see me reading them, I wondered if they could be the next ones to be read aloud. We were reading aloud the two Alice books by Lewis Carroll at the time.

She loved them. She had already read Enid Blyton's Naughtiest Girls series, Tom Brown's Schooldays and What Katy did at School, so she had a fair idea of a boarding school system. This was like a natural continuation of that, with magic, just darker.

Books 1, 2, 3 were fine. She was a bit distressed by the targeting of Harry, the ostracizing that he has to suffer from his classmates, the mutterings, etc., in book 2. It did give us an opportunity to discuss how her peers perceive her as 'different' on account of her disinterest in bollywood, fashion, etc.

She would introspect a lot on what we read, and would throw up many interesting questions, which showed her insight into many complex aspects of the books. Some would not have occured to me, too, till then, and I needed to do a bit of thinking and analysing of my own to answer her. She does this with everything we read aloud, and sometimes it is troublesome- for eg., if the questions are asked at 7am, when we have a school bus to catch at 7.25, and I have lunches and breakfasts to prepare, the mind working on the next thing to be done on the schedule!:)

We finished book 3 around the time she was 8.5, and we discussed the options. I told her book 4 was a bit distressing, and that each subsequent book increases in its distress quotient, so we needed to take it a bit slow. She is to tell me if I needed to pause for a while or stop. She was fine till the chapter where Voldemort is resurrected, and then she didn't want me to read near her bedtime. So we finished book 4- and moved on to book 5.

In the meantime, we were also watching the movies as we progressed. I can understand about having a frame of reference while reading the book if the movie has already been watched. Can be helpful in placing the details in context. We have done that for so many books- notably those based on the classics- we saw Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, Heidi, The Little Princess, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and many more on screen before we read the books- and have enjoyed them thoroughly.

But HP, I think is about more than just the story, the incredibly wonderful characterisation, the rich imagination and impeccable English. Not all of it has come across in the movies.

It is also a story with a philosophy, with a lot of logic, the interlinking of plots, the way Rowling never introduces anything which may not be significant at some other stage, the way even her comic relief has a place in the larger picture. That mountains can be moved by faith, hope, love, compassion, courage, sacrifice, loyalty, team work and hard work. That even those considered too far gone can get back on the right track if only they wanted to. That there is always a choice.

Difficult for grown-ups, too, to grasp, to realise, to internalise. I am trying, too, and believe me, it is not easy.

I wanted A to absorb all that- which, I feel she is, and sometimes more, going by the questions she comes up with. I am sure these lessons will have to be reinforced many times over before she can internalise them, but they have been introduced.

She has all that in her mind while watching the movie- as also this interesting concept of alternative ways in which the story can go- since Warner Brothers have made their own changes to the story when adapting it to the screen. Changes I don't really like, being a purist of sorts as far as this series is concerned, since Rowling has got a tight plot, with all ends tied.

Anyway- back to the books. We went through book 5 with a lot of interest, as there are so many details here, and sometimes it feels as though Rowling is rambling, but isn't. As we reached the middle of the book, I prepared A for the unexpected ending. We spoke about how now that Voldemort is back, there are bound to be distressing things happening, sometimes quite unexpectedly- but how that has to be accepted, and even taken as a mark of the author's wonderful storytelling skills, the way she keeps one on the edge, wanting to know- what next? And packing a punch just when least expected. Inspite of this she was distressed on the death of Sirius, more for Harry than anyhing else, as she saw him as orphaned once more.

We finished book 5 sometime in March this year. She was quite upset, so I told her we'll put the rest on hold for a while. But kids are very resilient, and do a lot of growing up in a very short time. It is amazing. After we were back from Mumbai, she told me she wanted to finish the last two books before the last movie is released, as she wanted to watch it on the big screen. It helped, that two of her closest friends- Choxbox' FB and another girl at school had also finished reading all the books and were keen for A to read them so that they could discuss them. I would give full credit to both girls for restraining themselves from putting across any spoilers- just egging her on.

So I told her to expect more deaths, more distressing ones. We have just finished book 6 yesterday, and she seems to be handling it quite well. Book 7 is going to be bit different. It has a lot of philosophy packed into it, so I'll have to see how much of A really 'gets.' I think she is mature enough to handle just the story, and it wouldn't hurt to read it so that she can really enjoy the movie on the big screen.

A needed a bit of hand-holding through many parts of the series, but it might not have been this easy on her if she had had to read it by herself. While reading to her, I always omit reading out some distressing graphic bits- like yesterday when I skipped over the vivid description of the inferi creeping nearer to attack Harry and Dumbledore in the cave- stuff sure to have triggered nightmares. It will keep for when she reads them on her own- she is already through books 1-3 on her own.

Even if she had read the books on her own, I am sure she would have come to me with questions, but I would not have been able to anticipate her distress and prepare her for it. Although I am sure that the whole series has made her look at books and storytelling in a different way, and she has matured considerably in her reading- can go on to stronger stuff- reading to her or even on her own. Am happy about it.

Next on the cards- The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books.  She can read Percy Jackson, Diane Wynne Jones, Cornelia Funke etc. on her own.

Will be getting back to the topic after we are done with the reading aloud of book 7. Till then!

Here, there and everywhere...

This has been a hectic and fun two weeks!

First, there was the family function in Mumbai last weekend. Preparations for that had been on for almost two months. The first thing we did is getting A's clothes in order. I had two saries, one in pink and the other in a sea-green colour, which I had somehow always visualised as being made into lehengas for A. This was the ideal opportunity for that. So I got my tailor to agree to the idea (an old fellow who was scandalised at having to cut the saries!), designed the cholis to be stitched from the pallus, and the ghagaras with pleats giving way to a flare at the bottom. A loved them, the way the hem swished around her feet. Then I had to check if the blouses of the saris I wanted to wear fit, or get new ones stitched. A loved helping me pack, and as always, we packed, and re-packed several times before we thought we had everything. I contrast this with my husband's packing, which was done in 10 minutes on the morning of our journey, before he left for office! We had a great time at Mumbai meeting all our relations and A queening it as the only girl among all her cousins. However hectic it is, I usually feel refreshed after getting back to my roots.

Then there was the international postcard swap in which we had taken part. There were cards to be written, gifts that A wanted to send to be bought, and then the whole assembled together and posted. We had fun doing it!

Then, since we were going to be out of town for the week before A's birthday, we had to plan ahead for the cake cutting in school, and the party she wanted to have at home for her friends. That was a big job in itself. The school was informed, the cake ordered, food ordered, dress bought, invites handwritten by A to give her friends before we took off, duly delivered.

On the day of her birthday, about which I have written earlier, we had the excitement of getting the book from Tulika books. Also, Zoe wrote about the book I had sent her on her blog making me feel very warm, and A very excited. As if that wasn't enough, I got an invite that same day to join Saffrontree  as a member. Something I was very happy doing.

On friday, we had planned a treasure hunt for A's birthday party in my complex. I had taken photographs of 10 places in the grounds, and the children had to identify each of these, go there and hunt around for a clue. This was a puzzle or a riddle, which they had to solve, or a task, in which there was something exciting to eat or drink in between all that running around. The kids had a blast at the hunt, just as I had one planning it! Return gift was a copy of "Where's Hanuman," in keeping with the theme of a hunt.

There was more to follow, believe it or not! I had participated in a book review contest held by Crossword bookstores. This week, I got a mail from them saying my review had won. It is the same one that I have posted as my first post at Saffrontree.

I still have a long lists of tasks to do before I can really put my feet up. The first of which is the review I promised Tulika books. A has to read the book, give her input and then I write my post about it!

"And miles to go before I sleep!"

Happy Birthday, A !

It was A's birthday today! My little one is 9yrs old. Oh, how time flies!

We had a birthday cake cutting planned at school today. A was very excited and wore a new dress to school. I went there at noon, with a yum looking home-made chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles made by a very lovely lady in my complex who takes baking orders.

The school has a ritual in which children in the 1st standard go round a candle representing the sun holding a globe in their hand. They go round once for every year of their life and the parent tells everyone gathered a fact about them that is not otherwise known at school. A is 9, but since her birthday usually is during the vacation, she never had the opportunity to do this. This time, though, since the school was in session, she wanted to do it. So I told them 9 different things about her and they had a lot of fun talking about them. Then we had the cake cutting. There is something about this ritual that children truly enjoy. Somehow I could never understand a ritual in which we blow out the candles. This is so different from the "diyas" we light and take care that they do not extinguish until the oil is over.

After school, I took A to our favourite neighbourhood bookstore. Never mind that it does not always have all the books we are looking for. A had got cash as gifts from our relatives on our recent jaunt to Mumbai, and she wanted to buy something for her birthday. So we did. We spent quite a lot of time browsing and found some gems. (Another post on those later.) Then we were hungry, so it being A's day, she chose that we eat at Pizza Hut, so we did.

We came home tired after all that, and spent some nice minutes opening the gifts that she had already got from some friends and relatives. She also had a surprise parcel from Tulika books. In one of their newsletters a few days back, they had promised review copies to the first three people who would get the number of Tulika titles listed right. I did win one, and I requested them to inscribe it to A for her birthday, and send it addressed to her. Which they were kind enough to do. My thanks to them for sending it on the right day, unlike the last review copy that they had sent, which arrived very late. Not really complaining, as they have made a 9yr old very happy. Getting a book from the publishers whose books she enjoys so much really made her day. I have a very tired but very happy little girl sleeping inside now. She really had a wonderful day!

As an aside, check out this post by one of my favourite bloggers, Zoe, on "My mother's sari" by Tulika books  that I sent to her as my thanks for organising the international postcard swap.

International Family Postcard Swap- And some history!

There was this wonderful idea put up by one of my favourite bloggers. An international poscard swap! I loved the idea, and I knew that A would enjoy it too.

One of her jobs at home is collecting the post from the box downstairs on her way up from playing in the evening. In these days of e-mail, text messages and instant communication, the only post we receive is bills, solicitations and store mail. On the rare occasion it is an invitation card for a wedding from a relative. All this post is addressed to me or my husband. A recently had an activity at school where they were introduced to the postal system, as part of letter writing and composition in their language class. Their teacher got postcards, and all the children wrote letters to their parents. Then they were all taken to the local post-office and the cards were duly posted. She did come and say that her teacher had asked for our postal address, but would not tell me why. There were many secret smiles and it was all very hush-hush. Then one day there was this card in the post in her handwriting saying how much she loved us both.:) It has been read and re-read and put away with her first attempts at writing and her baby photographs and all the cards she has made for my birthday and such-like.

Anyway, since she brings up the post everyday, she had a question. "Why doesn't anyone send me any letters?" Quite right! Even I would love it if anyone sends me a real letter in the post. Although one could argue why only a letter sent by snail-mail on paper would be categorised as real. Letters by e-mail are real enough. But there you are. Somehow letters in the post do seem more really real. Just like there are many who prefer reading a good book the old-fashioned way rather than read an e-book or use Kindle. I know I would. But I am digressing!

Getting back to the point, I loved the idea of an international postcard swap. On signing up, we would be sent addresses of five families from anywhere around the world, to whom we had to send our cards. similarly, five other families would get our address, and would write to us. That made for 10 families whom we could connect with. It was a made-to-order-activity for us. When I told A about it, she was thrilled. We signed up for it, and soon received the addresses to which we were to send cards. We went to the post-office and got the cards. All the while, A was chattering (that's the only word for it!) away about all that she would like to write about.

When she actually sat down to it, she realised that the card did not have enough space for everything we would like to share. So we had this brilliant idea of writing on the card but also using some notepaper, and putting it all into an envelope. She also wanted to do some artwork. I was not sure that that was how we were supposed to go about it, so I immediately mailed to Zoe who was holding the swap, and she immediately came back with a thumbs-up. So A did some artwork on the empty half on the address side and wrote her stuff on the blank side. She very diligently addressed her letter to the children listed under each address telling them about herself.

I got some handmade recycled paper (We are trying to reduce our carbon footprint--trying is the operative word because we do not always succeed in our endeavour!) with a very "Indian" motif on it and wrote to the ladies I was to write to. We also got them small handmade items that can go into the envelopes. We put one into each envelope, sealed them wrote the addresses on top and there they were! Ready for posting!

The whole excercise made me reflect on our postal system, its history. India was an amalgamation of various kingdoms, whose boundaries kept changing throughout history. The whole was known as Bharatvarsh, and India as we know it today is a legacy of the British rule. In fact the present railway system and postal system are two of the contributions of the British. Prior to that, messages were sent by hand, by runners or on horseback. These were known as the "doots" and were protected across different kingdoms by the then prevalent version of "diplomatic immunity."

The Indian epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata ( which is said to be 8 times the length of the Illiad and Odyssey combined) have their very famous "doots" or messengers Hanuman and Angad (Ramayana) and Krishna (Mahabharata). Then there was the very romantic Meghduuta by Kalidas, written in the 4th-5th centuries AD, in which the protagonist beseeches a meghadoot ( cloud messenger) to play postman between him and his beloved wife, who is at that time far away in their hometown while he has to do his duty as a soldier in the mountains. Indian literature is rich with many such stories and references. Rabindranath Tagore, the poet and writer who had been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, who had been knighted by the British monarch, and who had subsequently given up the knighthood as a member of India's struggle for freedom, has penned this beautiful poem about a child who is sensitive to it's mother's longing for a letter from her husband who is away for his work.

The Wicked Postman by Rabindranath Tagore
Why do you sit there on the floor so quiet and silent, tell me, mother dear?
The rain is coming in through the open window, making you all wet, and you don't mind it.
Do you hear the gong striking four? It is time for my brother to come home from school.
What has happened to you that you look so strange?
Haven't you got a letter from father today?
I saw the postman bringing letters in his bag for almost everybody in the town.
Only father's letters he keeps to read himself.
I am sure the postman is a wicked man.
But don't be unhappy about that, mother dear.
Tomorrow is market day in the next village.
You ask your maid to buy some pens and papers.
I myself will write all father's letters; you will not find a single mistake.
I shall write from A right up to K.
But, mother, why do you smile?
You don't believe that I can write as nicely as father does!
But I shall rule my paper carefully, and write all the letters beautifully big.
When I finish my writing do you think I shall be so foolish as father and drop it into the horrid postman's bag?
I shall bring it to you myself without waiting, and letter by letter help you to read my writing.
I know the postman does not like to give you the really nice letters.

Today is a different era. It is all about instant communication. And yet, aren't we human beings just the same? We are better connected today, yet so far from our loved ones in so many different ways. The longing for communication is just the same. And it will be so to the end of the human race. After all, one of the greatest achievements of human beings, language and speech, came about because of a need to communicate, and communicate more efficiently, more elegantly. After all, that is what we have gained as a pay-off for the fact that only human beings can choke. One of the cruel twists of evolution.

A was very excited about the whole swap thing. She has been talking to her friends at school about it. I have been speaking to my friends about it. Many of them came to know about it too late to participate. But they hope there will be a next time when they can. The "real" letters evoke nostalgia. We will post our letters and wait for the ones that five other families will send us. I hope will be significantly adding to our cache of friends.