Persuasion by Jane Austen


 I watched the PBS version of this story and enjoyed it so I became interested in the book.  

The protagonist of this novel, Anne Elliot, is in her late twenties, still unmarried, and living in a family that takes advantage of her.  Everyone she is supposed to care about (father, sisters, in-laws) only see her as a means of providing something for themselves.  Consequently, what Anne wants out of life (which seems to be genuine connection with others who value that which she values) she has no opportunities to find.  Her condition is, to me, the most interesting thing in the novel.  It appears as if all profitable opportunities have gone by for her and there is no chance that any will return.  

But that doesn't actually come to pass for Anne.  The story that unfolds is full of interesting characters and observations about different types of people you may encounter in life.  The novel seems somewhat abrupt because Jane Austen died before it was finished.  This quality to the novel is it's greatest disappointment.  Otherwise, I felt it worth the read. 

Fuseli: The Nightmare by Nicolas Powell

  I have never really read a book on the topic of art history before. It was an interesting challenge.  As a side-note, I first saw this painting on a high school professor's classroom wall.  He had always taught AP Art History, which unfortunately I never took while going to school there.  I often looked at his classroom walls curious about the pictures and about the opportunity to be in that class that I missed out on.

So when I came across this book it reminded me of all that had passed before.  I took it home ready to try the new challenge of this kind of reading.  Reading about visual arts seems to be a bit of a clash of sensibilities.  Trying to describe with words what someone else tried to capture with a brush often came across as the wrong way to explore a painting.  Also, discussing paintings really should require putting the picture in with the text which occasionally Nicholas Powell doesn't do in this book.  I felt it made the text difficult to read at those points. 

There were a few interesting points I took away from this book.  The first concerned the history of our theories about dreams/nightmares and how these theories have changed over time.  The second concerned understanding the imagery of the painting.  And, finally, the author's discussion on what has made this painting endure was interesting.

All and all, I enjoyed this book mostly because it was unlike anything I had read in a while.  

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 
 

I love this book.  Milo is a child who doesn't really enjoy anything.  He just kind of goes through life.  One day he receives a package in his room that is marked "the phantom tollbooth."  This package transports him into another world.  This is the plot of the book.  

 I had actually read this before but I cheated and put it on the list anyway.  It seemed really appropriate at the time.  

It seemed appropriate because of the only part I had remembered from when I read it as a child.  There is an episode about "jumping to conclusions" that occurs about half-way through that is pretty typical of how this book plays with words and creatively teaches to its younger audience (it is a children's book).  I felt I could benefit from this playful, frank way of understanding things now.  And I think it worked. 

I was looking for something fun to read as part of this book challenge.  In college I was an English major and all I did was read but in truth I stopped liking it.  And part of my doing this book challenge was to make it interesting to me again.  This book was all about that for me.  

It was a good time. :)