First Classics Post - A whole lotta Sci-Fi!

           This week has been an eye-opener in more ways than one.  I found that I am a faster reader than I thought, but that I take FOREVER to read aloud to my daughter.  It’s those voices!!  I just can’t read to her without making up some kind of crazy voice for each character and it makes reading S – L – O – W, but it’s so much fun that I can’t quit doing it.  To get a feel for what this week’s been like, check out the journal I’ve been keeping: 

January 1, 2012   Yea! Now I can start reading the very first classics book of 2012!  I picked these three for this week – 1984 by George Orwell, the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  Okay, I admit it, on Christmas I got a color Nook and I started reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz early on the Nook.  Oh my goodness, I so love my Nook!!!! 

January 2, 2012   Gotten through probably 50 pages or so in 1984 and we’re on chapter 3 in Wizard of Oz.  I am just so excited to be reading to my girl one of my most favorite books ever (and my VERY favorite movie ever).  She’s really liking it – course she’s seen the movie, and it pretty much follows the first part of the book.  I’ll see when they get to Oz what she thinks, but so far, so good!

January 3, 2012   Chapter 6 in Wizard.  Not quite yet halfway through 1984 and gotten through just a little of 451.  Panic is fluttering around the edges of my brain…what if I can’t finish them all?!

January 4, 2012   Couldn’t read in Wizard because we got home too late and didn’t want a grumpy girl in the morning.  Permission to read ahead DENIED.  Read only 10 pages in 1984 before falling asleep in clothes, with glasses on, over the top of the bedcovers amidst two loads of clean, but unfolded (and now rumpled) clothing.  I’m feeling very unoptimistic about my chances here. 

January 5, 2012   Read during lunch and resolved to FINISH 1984 tonight and write down my impressions.  Getting the girl ready for bed by 7 and reading Wizard for one whole hour tonight – maybe we can get through meeting Oz.  451 is on hold until tomorrow night.  I’m determined to do this!!

January 6, 2012   Only got to page 211 (out of 314) in 1984 last night, but got all the way to Chapter 11 in Wizard – halfway!!  Man, 1984 is crazy good, but so difficult to read easily – I keep stopping to yell things out to my hubby.  “Hey…listen to this…’Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph.’  Doesn’t that sound like FOX News’s target audience?”  I’m definitely going to finish 1984 tonight and work through at least 5 chapters of Wizard.  I only have tonight and tomorrow to finish ALL of them.  Good Grief!  I’ve really got to be sure to stagger these well enough so that I am not hating doing this.  I want to learn, but I don’t want it to be like Finals Week!  Next week I’ve got to make it a little bit easier!

January 7, 2012   Holy Moses!  We have 8 more chapters in Wizard to read!!  Finished with the others and feel slightly depressed and discombobulated. 

January 8, 2012   Still feeling a little sad.  Reading Wizard like mad.  Still have three chapters to go!!!  My blog will be LATE! Disappointed, but can’t make the girl stay up any longer.  I can’t believe how much longer it takes to read aloud!  My throat hurts from doing the King Monkey voice.  Need hot chocolate.

January 9, 2012   The sweet pea wasn’t the best behaved and had to lose out on the last two chapters! Read ahead, though and am going to post the blog today, anyway.  Feeling better and got the next three books – The Last of the Mohicans is HUGE! 

            I never realized the work and planning that goes into reading all these books, plus writing a consistent blog about all this.  It’s overwhelming – which may be one of the reasons why I’m late in posting this very first one!  On to the reviews….   



What a great cover this is!



            My daughter has loved reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and we stopped a lot to talk about how it was different from the movie and why. (She loved acting out the charm the Wicked Witch of the West says to call the Winged Monkeys).  I was actually surprised to see how much DID make it into the movie, but then, I’ve seen the movie at least once a year without fail and the last time I read the book, I think I was 10 (I will not go into how long ago that was).  I have to say, as much as I absolutely love the movie, the book was better.  I do love how the Winged Monkeys tell their story (reminiscent of Greek mythology) and that Oz is different for each of the travelers.  I’d forgotten the beauty of the language and the specialness of all the characters.  If it has been years since you’ve read this book, it’s totally worth it to read it for yourself or to your kids so that they can appreciate the quirky little people and scenarios that make the book something so supremely special! 

            I have to say my decision to read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 on the same week was pure chance as I had absolutely no idea they were both stories about the future.  I knew of George Orwell and thought this was a story about the future, but really knew nothing else.  Ray Bradbury I knew from Something Wicked This Way Comes, a big favorite of mine, so I thought 451 may be sci-fi-ish.  But, really, I didn’t know what I was getting into, especially with 1984.    



The back and front covers - look at that camera!



            Let me say right off that I liked both books, but in different ways.  When I first started reading 1984, I felt that I knew how it was going to end, and so settled in to read a good story of man’s ability to persevere through hardship, oppression and war – all the while keeping humanity intact and hope on the horizon.  Midway through, I realized that I had no idea what was going on and I had to put it down and mentally re-assess so that I wouldn’t read mad (there’s nothing worse than getting mad at a character or an author so much so that you are unable to finish the story).  After clearing things up, I went back to it and finished it pretty quickly.  My poor husband (as you can kinda see from the journal entry above) had to stand proxy and listen to me read to him those parts that I felt were important and wanted to argue with Orwell or Winston, the main character (it didn’t go well – I lost and then sulked loudly).   Since finishing the book, my subconscious will not let it go and I keep coming up with arguments (most of which my husband refuses to even listen to now).  So, you may be asking…is it worth it?  Was it good?  And, my answer is Yes, Yes, Yes!  Read this book and argue with your spouse, your mother, your father, your teacher, your librarian – criticize it, hate it, love it – whatever it takes to make you think.  Orwell would approve, I’m sure of it. 



A powerful image!



            A friend of mine, who upon hearing I was going to read Fahrenheit 451, actually jumped up and down with delight and said I would love it.  I completely trust her, since she’s an assistant librarian and knows of what she speaks.   This time was no exception.  I did love it.  I loved the entire book.  I wanted to read it again as soon as I was done.  You’d think being such a lover of books I wouldn’t appreciate the fact that the entire book revolves around the banning and burning of books, but the plot doesn’t make the book.  I believe the plot is secondary to the message (I so wanted to put that as Message) that knowledge is salvation – not that you get that in your face from the beginning.  Of course not!  Bradbury subtlety uses his characters to deliver it.  Oh, the characters!  The beautiful, fantastic, deep, lovely characters! It isn’t until the end that you see where Bradbury’s been leading you the whole time and then, WHAM, you are caught – you are a believer!  The reader of 451 becomes a “Reader.” I hereby nominate this book for “the list that doesn’t exist” – those books that should be on the high school English teacher’s curriculum, but aren’t.

All three of these books should be at your local library - one thing that this week has made me appreciate even more is the fact that anyone can go into a library and pick up a book and read.  Never forget how lucky we are and LOVE your library!!