"Vanity And Pride Are Different Things, Though The Words Are Often Used Synonymously. A Person May Be Proud Without Being Vain. Pride Relates More To Our Opinion Of Ourselves; Vanity To What We Would Have Others Think Of Us"

I cannot explain exactly why, but I read Pride and Prejudice in less than a week. It wasn't as though I was all googly-eyed, lovey-dovey about the main relationship in the novel, between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. And I'm not going to go out and join a Jane Austen fan girl club or anything (which, from my understanding, there are many of).

But somehow, even though I've seen the movie and knew what happened, I couldn't put it down. I think it was mostly because I was completely drawn in by the language. And while the book is >200 years old, and the some of the language was certainly a bit different than today, it was still so easy to read the saucy sarcasm and biting words of Elizabeth. She is quite a character (literally and figuratively), and pretty surprising to find such an outspoken female character who bucked the trend of marrying to further one's standing and to satisfy one's family (ignoring the fact that, even though she didn't care for these things, in the end, she manages to capture the motherload of eligible bachelors to fulfill both of those ends). But she doesn't hesitate almost from the moment of meeting Mr. Darcy to tell him exactly what she thinks of him, often in a manner of extreme wit. Which again, I can't imagine women were often allowed to do in the early 1800s.

And the other thing that I very much appreciated about the novel was that it was easy to wrap my head around the themes presented. That, while not necessarily handed to the reader, it was easy to see the differing levels of pride and prejudice in Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, primarily, and how they shift through the course of the novel. How Elizabeth very willingly admits to allowing her prejudice of Mr. Darcy cloud her opinion of him and Mr. Darcy even admits to allowing his social status to affect his opinions of Elizabeth and the rest of the Bennet family (more on that hot mess in a moment). And even pride and prejudice in many of the other minor characters to varying degrees certainly defined them in many ways (Mr. Collins, Charlotte Lucas, Lady Catherine, etc). It made everything in the novel so much more accessible to really understand the characters and how their initial perceptions of others and of themselves impacted all of their further actions when the prose often circled back to the concepts of pride and prejudice.

But let me just take a moment to say that I may have found one of the most villainous, loathsome characters that I have ever encountered: Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth (and her sisters') mother. Ugh, I just couldn't stand anything that came out of the woman's mouth. While her 100% preoccupation was marrying off her daughters under the pretense of wanting good futures for them, it was really all about her own selfishness and vanity. She just wanted to parade her daughters about the county and brag about their matches. It had absolutely nothing to do with her actually caring about her daughters' happiness as much as it did about herself looking good on paper and being more impressive on a social scale. And the terrible, embarrassing things that she said to humiliate her daughters just made me want to punch her (and I kept found myself hoping that Elizabeth could be that ballsy of a character to just clock her mom in the jaw, but alas, she was still a well-bred, classy lady. Dammit). I can only hope that in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies that Mrs. Bennet was the first to be eaten alive, because bitch got on my nerves!

I'm actually a bit sad that I have no other Jane Austen books on any of my lists. Because I did find her writing to be quite charming and witty, and I would really have liked to see how Emma, Sense and Sensibility, or Mansfield Park are in regards to the type of writing encountered in Pride and Prejudice. Not to say that anything is preventing me from picking them up and reading, but I still have a long way to go with all of the other books on my docket!

So up next is Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. I read The Robber Bride as part of a literature class during my undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, and I remember discussing the book in a lecture class of about 100 or so people. And the first person to speak and share his feelings about the novel was a guy who immediately said that he didn't like the book because it was "chick lit". And even at the time, this made me angry, and probably was the impetus for even starting these lists and pulling a list of the best works of literature of the 20th century by women writers (of which I am happy to see Margaret Atwood included on). I remember being so pleased when reading The Robber Bride because it addressed infidelity from a women's point of view in a way that I had never read before and it felt different and fresh and honest in a complete different way and being annoyed that just because it was female characters and issues told from a female's point of view that it was so readily dismissed as "chick lit". It still chaps my ass even now thinking about it 18 years or so later (jesus lord, I just dated myself). So I am very excited to get moving on Cat's Eye. Given the way I have been voraciously making my way through books lately, maybe I'll have this bad boy finished before Halloween.

Happy almost-end-of-October! 232 books left to read!

"The Holes In Your Life Are Permanent. You Have To Grow Around Them, Like Tree Roots Around Concrete; You Mold Yourselves Through The Gaps"

You know what is another good way to have nothing to do but read? Flying. I had a job interview in New Jersey on Monday and I forgot to bring Pride and Prejudice. I had it sitting on the dining room table but forgot to shove it in my bag. So in lieu of logging into one of my laptops to do work on the flight (yes, because of work, I travel with more than one laptop), I bought The Girl On The Train at the airport. And proceeded to read the entire thing in approximately 4 days. I mistakenly assumed that the book was the same author as Gone Girl, since there were so many comparisons made in the commercials for the movie. But it is actually the first novel written by Paula Hawkins.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for a good whodoneit. Which is why I always fly through books like this. The story is a about an alcoholic divorcee, Rachel, who rides the train to and from London every day while fantasizing about the lives of a couple whose house she sees on her daily commute. But then you find out that she used to live in a house only a couple doors down. And you learn that she has lost her job due to her drinking and is just riding the train to hide the fact that she was fired from her roommate. And then the woman that she watches from the train disappears and Rachel involves herself in the investigation and was actually in the area the night of her disappearance. So from there the story unfolds of Rachel, her ex-husband, his new wife, and the husband of the missing girl.

The main thing I liked about the writing of the book was the unreliability of Rachel and her memory from drinking and the way the author conveyed so much of her feelings and her shame. Because so much of it felt so accurate and honest. About the blackouts, and how drastically people change when they're drunk, and the struggle she would go through trying not to fall down the rabbit hole and start drinking again. Her spotty memory and severe emotional swings made you question her for sure, and wonder if she was capable of doing some terrible things. But also affected how you saw the other characters too. So I felt like that was a very clever lens through which to tell the story.

However, I did guess the end of the book. Not that it was super obvious, but I think if the reader figured out some of the hints early on, you could figure it out. I did like the book though overall, and am looking forward to seeing the movie (although side note: while I very much like Emily Blunt, I feel she was a bit miscast. The woman in the book was constantly described as heavy and definitely not attractive. So while they can try to ugly her up, Emily Blunt is still far too attractive to fit the description of the character in the book).

Now that I'm on a roll and reunited with Pride and Prejudice, I have a feeling that I'm going to fly through the rest of that one too. Long days spent doing nothing but reading? Could a girl ask for anything more??

"I Declare After All There Is No Enjoyment Like Reading! How Much Sooner One Tires of Any Thing Than Of A Book!'

So I turned 37 a couple weeks ago. And I'm willing to acknowledge that it's looking less and less feasible that I'll finish all of these books by the time I'm 40. Rather than going for my 40th birthday, I'm going to say that I'll give myself until the day before my 41st birthday (because I'll still be 40 and all...). So that gives me until September 13th, 2020, which is approximately 47 months. And with 233 books left, that gives me ~5 books a month. And as much as I love reading, I can't really clear 1 book a week (or slightly more!). So I'm willing to acknowledge that I'm a little more ambitious than might be realistic.

But that won't stop me from forging ahead. My biggest distraction, other than that whole working full time garbage, is wanting to read books that aren't on the list. Reading this type of literature is admittedly not always the most compelling content, so I always find myself at the bookstore with my hands impulsively going towards the new paperback fiction books. But that's ok. I can't just limit myself or I'd probably go crazy. Onward and upward.

But hey, you know what's good for reading? Jury duty! I sat in a room for an entire day sans cell phone and nothing else to do but read Pride and Prejudice (I may have snuck in a nap and some viewing of the movies they were showing). But man, everyone always complains about jury duty, but it kind of felt like an amazing, government imposed vacation. Sign me up for my civic duty more often! (I didn't end up getting chosen, or even interviewed, so I'm out of circulation for at least a year). The entire time I was reading Pride and Prejudice, all I kept thinking about were the actors who play the different roles in the movie. I think this seems to be a recurring theme for me for books that I know that movies exist for. But so far, I'm enjoying it very much! Hopefully I can continue to make progress like I have to read 5 books a month!

"It Took A While Before The Message Seeped Into His Soul, But Once There, It Was There Forever: Things Are What They Are, And Whatever Will Be Will Be"

At first when I started reading The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, I was a little thrown off by the writing, as it felt a little simple and almost choppy in a way. I was aware that the book had been translated from Swedish, so I assumed that a lot of that was just a "lost in translation". But the more I got into the book, the more accustomed I got, and I now actually think that the writing was more intentional, with a lot of dry humor that came across as a bit blunt, but that still gave me a smile here and there from a subtle wry wit.

The best way I can describe this book is charming. It tells the story of a man (as the very literal title implies), explosive expert Allan Karlsson, who crawls out of the window of his old folk's home on his 100th birthday because he doesn't want to stay for his birthday party. And from there, after impulsively deciding to steal a suitcase at a bus station, Allan experiences a very interesting series of events that introduces him to a very colorful cast of characters while being hunted for a number of crimes. Interspersed with the main story of Allan at 100 years old is the story of Allan's life, including numerous anecdotes about his impact on many events of global history: affecting outcomes during the Spanish Civil War with General Franco, involvement in helping create the atom bomb at Los Alamos and his friendship with President Truman, affecting interactions with Mao Tse-tung and Chiang Kai-shek, walking over the Himalayas from China to Iran, giving nuclear information to the Russians, being detained in a Russian prison, lying his way into meeting Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in North Korea, living in a hotel in Bali, and many many other adventures.

However, the main take-away from this book is really to live life to it's fullest, no matter your age. All of the things that Allan's character did at any age could have been done by anyone at any age (he blows up his own house at a young age and again at a very old age!). And the character of Allan has a very laid-back, non-intrusive approach to the events of his own life....like the title quote says, he kind of just accepts the events of his life as they are and moves forward through them, without much significant emotion in them; mostly just acknowledging the pleasant things that come his way (this largely revolves around drinking...drinking preferably high-end vodka).

So if you're looking for a relatively quick read (even given the nearly 400 pages) that will make you smile, and maybe give a little bit of a history lesson, then I would recommend this one.

So I'm back to the reading lists. Next up is Pride and Prejudice. Believe it or not, I've never ready any Jane Austen. I'll admit to having seen the movie of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly, although I don't think I've actually seen it all the way through. So hopefully actually reading it will be enjoyable - I know I liked what I saw of the movie.

Off to it!