“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”
– Maurice Sendak
“A little library, growing larger every year, is an honourable part of a man’s history. It is a man’s duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life.”
– Henry Ward Beecher
I started reading Anathem with some hesitation, because I really didn’t get into The Baroque Cycle. It’s not that they were bad books, I just wasn’t into the time period they were set in. Thankfully, this is a return to his earlier style of spec-fic, and I found the world he invented absolutely compelling. The book is presented as a journal kept by the main character, and is basically divided into two parts. The first half introduces us to the world he lives in — a sort of inversion of our world, where scientists isolate themselves in monastic communities called Maths. These communities are built around Millenium Clocks, which only open the gates to the outside world at predefined intervals (1 year, 10 years, 100 years, and 1000 years, depending on the Math). Our story starts as a ten-year Math prepares for their gate to open. The second half of the book is the action story, describing a series of world-changing events. I can’t describe any further without ruining some surprises, but suffice to say that it’s a great story.
“When you read the book, it’s like, ‘Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself.’ I mean, every line is like that. He’s the most ridiculous person who’s so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn’t do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that’s how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he’s a 108-year-old virgin so he’s obviously got some issues there.”
– Robert Pattinson on his audition for the Twilight movie
I’ve mentioned before that Zoe loves reading, but it’s really become one of her favorite things recently. She will happily sit on the floor paging through one of her picture books for ten minutes, quietly turning the pages, and pointing at things she likes. (Based on how often she points to their photos, her favorite things right now are kittens, puppies, and little babies.) I like to refer to this as “reading for comprehension,” and it marks a big change from just a month or two ago when books existed mostly to be manipulated. She would chuckle at the photos sometimes, or chew on the spine, but what she really liked was turning the pages. If you tried to read with her, and you didn’t let her just turn the pages as fast as she could, you would end up with a cranky little girl. Now, though, she’s all about the content. She’ll open a book to a page and spend a minute or two admiring the subject matter, and then turn to the next page.
She even knows which way is up — the other night, I watched her grab one of her books, and when she realized it was upside down, she set it down, stared at it for a second like she was figuring out the best approach, and then crawled in a circle around to the other side of the book.
The best part is her reading voice. Like most one-year-olds, Zoe spends all day long babbling and chattering away. Since she just repeats the same baby syllables over and over, the only real meaning that gets expressed is in tone of voice. When she’s upset, she get shrill and loud. When she wants attention, she gives short, sharp cries. When she’s happy, she quietly burbles, and when she’s excited she tends to shriek with joy. But she has a whole different tone of voice that she only uses when she’s reading to herself. It’s kind of cheerful and sing-songy, and Annie got a nice video of it the other night.
