Samantha Dunn loves horses. So much that she is willing to suffer the pain of riding, and the various injuries that came from spending time with them. But one day, she was out riding with her horse and got into a life-threatening accident. Her leg was essentially severed from her body.

I have to say, this book starts out reading like the Reader’s Digest stories, you know the ones where someone suffers some horrible accident and then has to crawl bleeding to help. I swear, every issue has that story in it. I find them hard to read, but somebody must be eating them up. Otherwise they wouldn’t run them.

So Not by Accident must appeal to the same sorts of people. But Samantha Dunn does what I think those stories ought to do, she takes the incident as a sign to re-assess her life. The “Why me?” gets to be more than just a pathetic whine. Dunn turns it into a soul-search, which then turns into real changes.

The book was nearly 250 pages. I could not put it down. I got it from the library on my lunch break, and I was finishing it before midnight that same night.

It’s terrifying! Staring into the face of death in this story, and then the relief of being saved quickly transitions into the realization of how small and vulnerable we are. Not having strength to stand. Being dependent on others. Being a burden. Who doesn’t deeply fear these possibilities? And no one is immune.

I had to keep reading, I had to know how things turned out. I wanted to know that she would be okay, so that I would know that I would be okay. If anything like that ever happened to me.

Dunn realized that she got into too many accidents. She took a long hard look at herself, and began to take responsibility for these so-called accidents. There were reasons and circumstances that led to these accidents that actually were in her control. Not to say that accidents aren’t also accidental, but that the individual has to be responsible for themselves. She decided to take responsibility for herself, to become bravely involved in her recovery. And then being honest with herself and the consequences of her actions started to spill over into all of her relationships.

Despite the potentially airy-fairyness of her yoga and meditation, the book feels extremely physical and earthy. The centrality of horses and the brute reality of the injury keeps it planted.This is a great story, gripping to read and giving a meaningful payoff at the end.

It turns out that classics just sell better than best-sellers.

All those books, even if they aren’t assigned for classes, get steadily picked up and read. People know about them, recommend them to other people, and they keep selling.

I knew that. I love the classics. I make a point of reading them. I feel like I can know that I will enjoy the book, if it’s made the “classic” standing.

Sure, it’s exhilarating to read a new and undiscovered book that knocks my socks off…I think…I’m not sure it’s really happened.

Oh wait, yes it has.

But it’s risky to try new things. And there are so many books that come so highly recommended. I reach for the tried-and-true.

With the second graphic novel, Speigelman pulled out all the stops. He had already experienced the success of Maus, and he even addresses it in the book.

His character is conflicted about the book and his success, and of course the whole Holocaust.

But he Goes There. The first book was disturbing, but this second one went right into the camps and describes it. I found it really hard to read. I couldn’t do it straight through. It was just too tough to contemplate.

I certainly wouldn’t want a younger child to read this book without some adult interaction. The issues are just so disturbing.

I really appreciate that Speigelman didn’t try to tell us a moral at the end of the story, that he just told the story. He just told what he could about what happened.

13660 was the number given to the author family as they were inducted into the japanese internment camps.

This book is unusual, different from any other book I’d read because it was highly illustrated. Mine Okubo wrote the book about her experience in a Japanese internment camp. She is a talented artist, and naturally, she didn’t stop being a talented artist in the internment camp.

What’s with camps? Concentration camps, gulags, internment camps…It seems like the WWII era was all about camps. Everybody had to have one.

Okubo made drawings of the things that happened in the camps. She starts the book before the camps, a really dramatic place to start. She lived in the San Francisco area and was just about her business. It was hard for her to believe that the camps would be happening.

But they did.

She drew herself into almost all the drawings. The pictures are very cartoon-like, and have the same sort of impact as a comic book. THe expression on her face (it’s hard to draw the right expression!) tells so much about the story. Her writing is very factual, Since the story is so dramatic on it’s own, she doesn’t need to get on a soapbox about how she felt or how it was wrong or what should have happened.

It’s a great book. It’s probably a really great book to give to Jr. High students or high school students to learn about history. Because the book is presented plainly, and with a lot of respect for the reader. You are definitely allowed to make up your own mind.

I am far more interested in history when I can associate a story with it. This book does that very well.

This book is mostly about the Oxford English Dictionary. The title is talking about the relationship between one of the main editors and one of the main contributors who happened to be in an insane asylum.

Honestly, I’m not sure that I would have been excited to read a whole book about those topics separately, but together I think it really worked.

I didn’t know about the history of dictionaries before I read this book. I knew that the OED was the biggest dictionary, but I didn’t really understand why.

Now I know. THey set out the catalog and define every single word in the language. Oh my god! And without computers!

So it took a lot of volunteers to do it. That’s where the madman comes in. W.C. Minor had killed someone in a delusionary state, and ended up in an asylum for the criminally insane.

But he was a highly educated man, and wanted to help out this dictionary project. He had a lot of free time.

For me, one of the most poignant things about this work is the practical story of how to live productively under the constraints of mental illness.

I hate it when I’m sick. I have all these things I wish I could do. But my body is too weak for me to run around and do them. I feel like my body has let me down.

I can not imagine how frustrating it would be to not be able to rely on your mind. I have to be honest, it scares me. Maybe that’s part of the stigma of being insane. People are afraid it might happen to them.

But it’s not fair to the people who suffer under this difficulty. We, the rest of the community should be compassionate and help the people who have this problem.

The Hours, especially the movie, kind of deals with mental illness too.Virginia Woolfe talks about her struggles to find fulfillment and balance in her life and yet protect herself from her own mind’s machinations.

Minor found this incredibly great outlet, working on the dictionary. He was a great asset to the work, and left behind a marvelous legacy. It would be wonderful if other mentally ill people were able to do the same.

The book was a really quick read, and very informative about dictionaries. The story of the madman Minor made it really more personal too.

Someone just posted reference to the 100 best novels in the English Language from the 20th Century.

Here is the list. Conveniently, the webauthor included links for a lot of the books. Thank you!

This is a neat list of books. I’ve read a lot of them, but maybe I’ll try to read some more of them.

I don’t think I agree that these are the hundred best. But “best” is a highly subjective word.

Let’s just say they are good, and maybe I’ll use it as a guide for some new books to try.

I was very sad to discover that one of my favorite books from my childhood has been cuffed by the PC police.

I hate to think that anyone would be made to feel inferior or bad about themselves because of this book. I have so many fond memories of it. But I just don’t think it’s true. Tell me I’m wrong.

Doctor Dolittle, in the book, started out as a people doctor, but he loved animals. Eventually, his parrot taught him parrot language and other animal languages. He had so many adventures and interesting things happen to him.

In the first book of what became a series, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, the Doctor wants to meet the greatest naturalist the world has ever known.

His parrot scoffs at the idea that any naturalist could be better than Doctor Dolittle, but even she admits that this naturalist is a pretty good one.

He is an old old native american, an Indian who has spent his life learning about plants and animals. Doctor Dolittle is sure they would have a lot to teach each other.

On the way to finding the Indian man, Doctor Dolittle has to go to African countries. The king and his people have been mistreated by the white people that came before, and are not welcoming. But the doctor is clever, and he has a lot of help from the animals. He makes it through and escapes for the African king.

The book was written in 1920, and the illustrations are typically racist in the way of that era. The inhuman caricature of the African peoples, with the big lips and strange hair are not realistic or appropriate.

I would be happier if they were not part of the books, even though i really love the artistic style of all the other illustrations.

In fact, I remember as a child wondering about those pictures. I was confused, I thought that the illustrator had suddenly lost his skill. I asked my mom whey they looked so funny. She said that people used to draw black people like that, and that I was right, it was silly.

The characters, the africans in the story, are not treated in a racist way. In fact, the Doctor defends the Africans’ suspicion of him as a white person, saying it was understandable since they had been mistreated. The Africans are a little silly, but no sillier than any of the other characters in the book (the pirates, the cat’s meat man at Puddleby).

I am disappointed that they have “improved” upon Hugh Lofting’s original work. I think it is fine the way it was written.

I know that I, my brothers, and all our friends would discuss at length the Doctor Dolittle books. We wondered what the Solid gold collar would look like, and I am now very aware of the different smells of water.

All of us became fascinated with ship’s biscuit, and forced our mothers to buy it for it.

I still like hard tack (aka ship’s biscuit)

What are you supposed to expect, with a title like that?

This is the book my fabulous book club chose this month. I had honestly never heard of it before. The blurb just starts out “A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover–these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel.”

When i read that in the bookstore, I said, “Oh goody! It’s a book about sex!”

Well, that idea was killed on the first page, and I was upset.

Until I read a little further.

Masterful, yeah. And a few other words i haven’t thought of yet.

My favorite parts were how he addresses ideological movements, and the smallness of individuals in the face of large forces.

His discusison of Oedipus had be pacing all night, chewing on all the ramifications and talking to myself.
Well, talking to my cat.
That’s why I have a cat. So I don’t talk to myself.

I finished it, and immediately wanted to read it again. That hasn’t happened in a long time.

The funny thing is, I read a book that was a parody of this one. It was a parody of other books too, but as I was reading this one, I kept thinking, this is familiar.

Then I remembered, It’s the sort of book that If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler was ripping on.

And I suddenly realized that If On a Winter’s Night A Traveler was a lot funnier than I had realized.

But hey, the point is, I love this book. I will not be selling it back.

My question, after only a few pages into this book, is Why haven’t I heard more about it?

This is a really great book.

It’s kind of like crossing a good Tom Clancy with Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Just imagine the marvelousness of that, and you have Catch 22. It’s very funny, it’s very profound. It works on almost any level you want to take it.

I heard that Tom Brokaw, in his younger days, was totally enamoured of this book. He went around writing “Yossarian Lives!” on things.

I can kind of see why.

And therefore, more people need to read this and put it on their favorites list.

I was looking for a different book, but it wasn’t there. So I just grabbed this one:

Jim Valentino’s A Touch of Silver Book One: A Sociopath in Training

I was looking for comic books, since this funny guy at work is all into him. Every time I pass his cube he tells me the Superhero (or villain) of the day.

THese are selected by his “Superhero of the Day” Calendar. There was a time when my brothers were all into comics…And so I read a lot of them, slipping the precious booklets out of their plastic sleeve and turning the pristine pages very carefully.

The Superhero of the day is usually someone I’ve heard of, which amazes the heck out of me.

And it reminded me that comics are fun.

WHich is why I checked out this “Graphical Novel”. That’s what my comic buddy reminded me to call it, “It’s not a cartoon,” he said.

Okay, fine.

This book was not about superheroes, but about a kid who liked superheroes. He used them to escape from his icky life and not-very-nice family.

I like the devices Valentino uses to progress the story every once in a while, going from in the moment to after the fact. THis builds a little tension and lets the reader feel more of what’s going on internally.

I’m going to check out book two…