A Salon article about Nancy Drew – I have all of mine, but have never reread them since about high school. Maybe I should -- although I was a huge Trixie Belden fan and would rather reread her; incredibly dated but still fun. If this next child happens to be a girl, I suppose I’ll be rereading all of them anyway.
This program to Adopt a Library affected by Hurricane Katrina is a great idea. I may mention it at work and see what sort of reception the idea gets.
I am sorry but Elijah Woods’ huge expanse of forehead and bulgy bug eyes just freak me out. And yes, I know Gina wants JSF desperately : ) but he looks so much like this pretentious twit in my sophomore class in college who went by the unlikely nickname of Soda (weren’t we a little old for Hinton references?) that I can’t look at him either. Needless to say, I will not be seeing the movie. I will have to rely on Gina for the review.
And attacking another of Gina’s icons (sorry, Gina, not on purpose) – who the hell does Neal Pollack think he is? He is not fit to prop up one of Salman’s droopy eyelids.
Just discovered this worthy-of-checking-out blog, thanks to Michael Schaub at Bookslut, who also comments that he thinks “librarians are the coolest people in the world.” I KNEW I liked that man. Thanks, Michael! And what started this whole thread of compliments: his bit on Bookslut this week about Parents Protecting the Minds of Children. In my humble opinion, you have to do more than just quote a couple of blurbs from an entire book to prove your point that a book may not be suitable for teenagers to read. I do not believe in censorship; I do believe in being aware as a parent and keeping an eye on what your kids are watching and reading. But again, taking passages from a book that contains curse words and sex scenes – a half a page out of a two- or three-hundred page book – not going to do much to convince me of anything except that perhaps you have way too much time on your hands.
And in that vein, Lolita is one of the most powerful and beautifully written books I have ever read. Go on and ban that, babe – you will deprive readers of one of the most incredible reading experiences of their lives.
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I finished Corelli’s Mandolin over vacation. It was a nice enough book, not really all that compelling, but I have no idea how they made any sort of movie out of it at all, let alone a decent one. I love Nicolas Cage, so toyed with the idea of seeing it, but Charles Taylor says it’s awful.
I tried to start Rule of Four but either wasn’t in the right mood or the writing really was that bad. So instead of dutifully finishing A Civil Action I started Children of God and can’t read it fast enough. It’s a little bit clumsier than The Sparrow but still believable and engaging, with great characters and a driving plot. I am about halfway through it and look forward to reading Russell’s only other book Thread of Grace.
Dan finished the fourth Jasper Fforde, which he liked a whole lot better than the second and third books, and started The Sparrow.
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So Si is in school this morning and I thought I’d have some peace and quiet. But no. Jude is repeating endlessly, “No, Septimus! No, cat, no! Owww! No, cat!” and the cat just keeps trying to play with Jude’s tank engines. Good Lord, what next?
14 comments:
Another Trixie Belden fan. I mentioned her earlier today.
http://debsquirkyweb.blogspot.com/
Always nice to find another reader.
I can take or leave Neal Pollack, for the record. I tried reading Nevermind the Pollacks, and I hated it. Oh, well. JSF, though, is so small and earnest and cute. :-) I'm not down with Elijah Wood, though. The Good Son, anyone?
For some reason, I was a big fan of the Annette Funicello mystery series--someone gave me a bunch of those in a bag of old books, and I really loved them!
I have to admit--I find JSF inexplicably irritating. (I haven't even read his books!)
Maybe I'm weird, but I'd never let my kids read anything I hadn't read myself and of which I approved for their age level. It's called parenting, and perhaps it's an activity best left to, y'know, parents and not to people whose job description encompasses a great deal unrelated to sheltering innocent young minds.
Maybe people so lazy they cannot be bothered to monitor their kids' viewing/reading habits should have their Mom or Dad license revoked.
-Joke, who gets worked up about this
Teddy and I were watching TV last night and saw an ad instructing parents how to use a remote control to somehow control which programs their children can and cannot watch (by programming it, not by shutting off the TV, you wise guys).
Ted asked if our remote could do that, and I said I didn't know, but that I wasn't really inclined to find out. We usually watch TV together, and if he's watching without me, it's something we've both already seen.
I've almost always read the books he comes across, and we still often read new books together. I don't watch and read with him because of some sanctimonious desire to be a "good parent"; I just like hanging out with my kid. There's nothing like seeing him experience a book or movie or even a TV show for the first time, and learning what he thinks and how he processes things. It's just fun.
Yeah, I really can't imagine not knowing what my kids were watching/reading. But lots of parents just go by media guidelines which means my 4yo would be watching SpongeBob. (Funny but NOT appropriate for him at this age.) My 4yo nephew watches TV that I wouldn't let Si watch if he were 6 or 8, even. I know people think I am overprotective, but I do not care.
On the other hand, I abhor censorship so this is my answer to it - if parents are careful and pay attention, then there's no need for "state" censorship.
In my opinion there's not a whole lot in the way of common sense going on in parenting these days.
Joke, you make me think of one of my favorite movie quotes of all time, from Steve Martin's Parenthood. Keanu Reeves' character says to Diane Weist, "You know, Mrs. Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car - hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father." Pretty much sums up much of what I feel about the state of parenthood today.
Because, you know, *I* have it all figured out : ) but at least I am trying.
I looooove that line from Parenthood. Actually, I love Parenthood, period. Great movie.
It's weird being a lower-case libertarian. I think pretty much you should be allowed to publish WTF you want. I think stores should be allowed to decide whether to carry the stuff you publish or not and I, as a dad, choose not to be such a lazy, useless waste of flesh so as to rely on the V-Chip and its ilk in lieu of exercising any actual parenting.
In fact, NOS came home from the 9th birthday of a school pal. Instead of goodie bags, they were handed out a CD of music the Birthday Boy likes. I don't think my 8 y.o. needs to be listening to Eminem or Shakira. Naturally, he whined and protested, but what we say is @#$%ing LAW in this house.
-Joke
Is Shakira that weird woman whose video Cingular or some cell company uses for its ringback feature commercials (during ther INXS show, mostly)? It's such a disturbing video, and an even more disturbing commercial. They all look like they have been taken over by aliens. And I've never even heard the song, my husband mutes all commercials.
I just can't wrap my mind around Everything is Illuminated as a movie. Let alone Elijah Wood IN the movie. I might have to see it just to convince myself it exists.
Septimus as in Warren Smith?
I enjoyed Corelli's Mandolin until the end. And then I hated it. Well, the ending at least.
I *hate* the way consumer culture has tried (and succeeded in many cases) to make younger and younger children act like teenagers! I have a friend who buys right into this--her kids were raised on MTV and have iPods and the girls read fashion magazines . . . ugh.
Teddy is somewhat shielded, but he doesn't seem inclined to care about "teen" stuff anyway. He likes his Legos and Star Wars, and he's good, thank you very much.
I think it must be a lot worse with girls.
Septimus as in Septimus Hodge from Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. I wanted to name his sister cat Thomasina but my husband said that would be too weird.
Gina,
So far, I have only offsprung boys so I cannot comment on the difficulties of rearing a daughter. However, my guess is that you're right. After all, is there a male equivalent to TigerBeat? For some reason it appears to me that the way belongingness needs in girl manifest themselves in clicquish ways.
At least my 8 y.o. is still happy to groove with Harry Potter and and Lego stuff and View masters and helping me do car things, whereas my 6 y.o. wants nothing more to be left alone so he can play with Snoopy and VeggieTales stuff.
My nieces (one 9, the other 7) both occasionally sport nail polish and have "pretend" makeup, something which horrifies me. To say nothing of those loathsome "Bratz" dolls which teaches both inappropriate values AND atrocious spelling.
I detest the whole thing of dressing little children like mini adults. Children should be allowed (no, damnit, enFORCED) to be children for as loooong as possible.
Re Captain Corelli's Mandolin - I really enjoyed the book (and his new one Birds Without Wings), but don't whatever you do see the movie. They changed the ending totally and Hollywoodised it. It's appalling. Truly appalling.
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