Cute Kittens

The Teaser Tuesday rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

Today’s teaser is from page 73 of White Noise by Don DeLillo, which I am about to start reading. 

They picked up pebbles where he’d walked and took them home as souvenirs. Crowds came to hear him speak, crowds erotically charged, the masses he once called his only bride.

The blurb on the back cover informs me that this book is an extraorinarily funny book on a serious subject. It’s the story of Jack Gladney and his wife Babette who are both afraid of death. Jack is the head of Hitler studies at the College-on-the Hill. His colleague Murray runs seminars on car crashes and he and Jack ponder the instances of celebrity death from Elvis to Marilyn to Hitler.

Until today I’d never looked at the list so I’ve never used it at all. I haven’t read any of the books on the list, I don’t own any of them and I haven’t read anything by any of these authors. Some of them look interesting and certainly they have been reviewed many times on LT - is that the measure for their popularity or is it the number of people who’ve entered them in LT?

1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - I’m tempted to read this.
2. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron - cats and libraries, may give this one a go sometime.
3. Nation by Terry Pratchett - I think I should maybe have a look it this.
4. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini - I don’t think so.
5. Anathem by Neal Stephenson - this looks interesting but I’m not sure if I’m up to reading “esoteric mathematical philosophy” as one reviewer on LT describes it.
6. American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld - not for me!
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - I’ve written about my reluctance to read this one, but if I see it in the library I’ll have a look.
8. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski - described by one LT reviewer as a “coming-of-age novel, set in rural Wisconsin”, “ a modern take on Hamlet” - tempting.
9. Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland - I don’t think so.
10. Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) by Stephenie Meyer - definitely not for me.

I’ve found it interesting to look at this feature but I shan’t be using it to get ideas on what to read. Reading tastes are very subjective and I prefer to choose books by reading reviews, mainly on book bloggers’s blogs and by picking up books off the shelves in lbraries and bookshops. The books on this list have varying reviews on LT anyway - some good and some not so good.

Mary Wesley came from a privileged background with military connections on both sides of her family. The first chapter of the book is almost a history lesson informing me that Mary was descended from the Duke of Wellington’s older brother, Richard who became Governor-General of India and in 1797 when he was given an English barony chose the title ‘Baron Wellesley of Wellesley in Somerset’. A privileged background doesn’t always make a happy childhood and Mary, who had 16 governesses, was a “formidably obstructive child” who knew she was unwanted by her mother. From the acknowledgements and list of sources at the end of this book it  promises to be a detailed and well researched biography.

In contrast I’m also reading today Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I started it a few weeks ago and am enjoying it much more than ever I thought I would. I had no idea it was so amusing and I love the way Mark Twain interweaves commentary on racial and class prejudice with the mishaps and adventures of Huck and his companions as they make their way down the Mississippi. This morning’s reading included the wonderful mish-mash the ‘duke’ compiles of Hamlet’s soliloquy. His version mixes together quotes from Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard III and it becomes:

To be or not to be; that is the bare bodkin
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane,
But that the fear of something after death
Murders the innocent sleep,
Great nature’s second course,
And makes us rather sling the arrows of outrageous fortune
Than fly to others that we know not of.

 I hope later on today to get back to Les Miserables as I haven’t made much progress with it for a while. The weather is helping me now as it’s so dark and dank outside with a steady drenching fine rain that looks as though it has settled in for the rest of the day. I was going to go outside and rake up some leaves but I think I’ll settle down with Les Miserables, maybe do some wii fit (I’m in danger of becoming a wii fit addict) and then watch the results show of Strictly Come Dancing - I can’t believe John Sergeant will survive another week, much as I like him!

Thank you to Zetor over on Mog’s Blog who has given me this award.

Here are the rules:

Open the closest book to you, not your favourite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment. Turn to page 56…. Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following there. Then pass this lovely little award on to five other people…….

I can’t deny that I’m a book worm and I’m sitting at my desk surrounded by books (as usual). The one that is closest to me is After the Fine Weather by Michael Gilbert. It’s there because I’ve recently finished reading it and plan to write about it. The fifth sentence and the following five sentences are:

It was as if he were weighing her as a witness in a court of law.

“You saw the gun?”

“I saw the gun,” said Laura. “When I was getting away from the square I saw the man who had used it. He was slipping out of the theatre by a side door. And I not only saw him, but I recognised him.

That, by chance, is an important event in this book!

As most of the blogs I read are book blogs I can’t possibly single out just five other book worms. If you love to read as much as I do, please feel free to pick up the award and let me know. I love reading snippets from books others are reading.

The Penguin Parade is totally voluntary - every day any penguin who wants to comes out of the Penguin Enclosure at 2.15pm and goes for a walk around the zoo grounds. It was dull and rainy when we were there and lots of the penguins were enjoying themselves swimming and diving whilst others were stood around looking like waxwork models, but a few penguins were keen and bold enough to come out on parade. There were Gentoos, one King Penguin and a Rockhopper Penguin. We all stood behind the yellow lines and watched as the penguins paraded passed us. This first began in 1951 when a keeper left their gate open by accident and has continued ever since. it wasn’t quite happy feet as they weren’t dancing but they seemed to enjoy their walk.

This book Wonders Never Cease tells the story of Edinburgh Zoo and the story of the evolution of the modern zoo. I have to admit that in the past I’ve never been comfortable visiting a zoo and usually feel sorry for the animals, behind bars in prison as it were. Edinburgh Zoo aims to be a “centre for integrated conservation, from zoo to wild” and it is “a global leader of zoo-led conservation education.” More people visit zoos in Britain every year than attend premiership football matches and the day we were there the zoo was packed with people.

I did enjoy my visit and felt I’d learnt a lot and not just about penguins, although for me they were the highlight of the day.

I was a bit scared of the rhinos and wondered whether they were really comfortable with their enclosure. They were able to go outside but it was a cold, wet day and they really didn’t want to go out and I wasn’t sure if they wanted to be gawped at either. They seemed agressive to me snorting and pawing the ground. They did venture outside but soon went back in.

Maybe when I’ve read the book I’ll feel differently. It explains that zoos are no longer merely places of spectacle and display but they are also places of refuge for many endangered species and working to ensure

that animals will be maintained in their wild environment in a sustainable natural habitat. …

Zoos, because of their very nature, have their critics. It is inevitable that there will be many different ways of approaching any problem. Some people consider the keeping of animals in captivity to be anathema. Zookeepers, however, understand the literally vital role that responsible zoos can play in the twenty-first century. They know that through carefully managed programmes of care, research and positive conservation in the field they really can make a difference.

I’d decided that I wasn’t going to join any more challenges for next year because I don’t want to feel that I’m reading to deadlines, but this one is ideal for me as I always borrow books from the library. The rules are simple:

There will be three sizes of challenges.

** The first is to read 12 books from your local library in 2009.
** The second is to read 25 books from your local library in 2009.
** The third is to read 50 books from your local library in 2009.

You decide which one of the three challenges is best for you.

• You can join anytime as long as you don’t start reading your books prior to 2009.
• This challenge is for 2009 only. The last day to have all your books read is December 31, 2009.
• You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

So far this year I’ve read 33 library books, so I can easily attempt the second challenge. If I do read more than 25 that’s a bonus and I may even reach 50. If you want to join in click here.

We were the only visitors and we had a most informative and interesting guided tour of the house - it was as though the family had just left, with the fire lit in the kitchen range and the table laid out with examples of everyday objects of a miner’s family. Although the furniture dates from Lawrence’s early childhood some of it, such as the chiffonier had actually belonged to the Lawrence family.  We saw the parlour, the ‘best’ room, only used for visitors, such as the vicar. The parlour window was used as a shop window displaying clothing and lace made by Lydia, Mrs Lawrence, although the customers had to come to the back door to buy items. We also saw the kitchen - the heart of the house, and the bedrooms, one where Lawrence was born and the children’s bedroom where they all slept together in one bed. Outside is the washhouse, where children on school visits can experience a little of what it was like when water had to be drawn by pump and heated in a copper to do the weekly washing. There is no bathroom, of course, and baths were also taken weekly in a tin bath in front of the fire in the kitchen, with all the family using the same water.

Lydia’s family thought she had married beneath her, even though Arthur her husband was a “butty”, responsible for a team of miners working at the coalface. Lydia had been a non-certified teacher and having lived in Kent she didn’t have the same accent as her neighbours, who felt she was putting on airs and graces.  D H Lawrence was known to his family as Bert. He was a sickly child who missed a lot of schooling but still went on to win a scholarship at the grammar school. Mrs Lawrence had ambitions for all her children, encouraging them in their education and careers; in contrast to Arthur who hated books, she loved to read, borrowing books from the Mechanics’ Institute library close by the house. Even though Lawrence only lived there for the first two years of his life I found it easy to picture him and his brothers and sisters living there.

In the museum next to the family house one room upstairs is full of his paintings and some of his personal belongings, such as his travelling trunk. I knew very little about Lawrence before and didn’t know that he painted. Some are landscapes and some are nudes. Nothing too shocking was on display but as with his book Lady Chatterley’s Lover, they were considered immoral and shocking at the time. You can also watch a short DVD on Lawrence outlining his life and works. Downstairs is a small shop with Lawrence’s books on sale and other gift items. My visit had made me more interested in Lawrence so I bought a biography of him by John Worthen, D H Lawrence: the Life of an Outsider. Worthen was the Professor of D H Lawrence Studies at the University of Nottingham where he is now Emeritus Professor.

Eastwood, itself seems to be a museum of Lawrence, which is remarkable really as he himself felt out of place there, although he loved the countryside around, calling it “the country of my heart”. There is a Blue Line Trail around the roads leading to the houses he lived in and some of the places he used to visit. In the photo below of Princes Street you can just see the blue line on the paving slabs. Lawrence’s Uncle Walter and his family lived here close to Victoria Street (the bollards mark the junction with Victoria Street).

We also visited the D H Lawrence Heritage Centre, which is in Durban House where the colliery owners lived and where Lawrence used to go to collect his father’s wages. The exhibition shows the area as it was when Lawrence was a child - the farm where he used to visit the Chambers family, the school and the conditions of the coalmines.

Also on display is the copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, used by the prosecution at the trial in 1960 when Penguin Books were prosecuted under The Obscene Publications Act 1959, with all the passages and phrases considered as obscene underlined in red. The book had been published a number of times before Lawrence’s death in 1930 but it was the decision by Penguin Books in 1960 to publish the unexpurgated text and the extensive publicity this and the trial received that led to the widespread sale of the book.

I have started to read Worthen’s book. It’s very readable and detailed - as the quote from Claire Tomalin on the back cover indicates it is

The best and fullest portrait yet of this great English novelist and poet.

I’d like to think this would please Lawrence - it’s such a contrast to the criticism of one reviewer in 1928 of Lady Chatterley’s Lover to which Lawrence responded:

Nobody likes being called a cesspool.

It’s amazing that you can visit both the Birthplace Museum and the Heritage Centre for free on weekdays!