source: Wikipedia (link)

Introductory passage

It was on Sunday, the 24th of May, 1863, that my uncle, Professor Lidenbrock, came rushing suddenly to his little house in the old part of Hamburg, No. 19, Königstrasse.

Our good Martha could not but think she was very much behindhand with the dinner, for the pot was scarcely beginning to simmer, and I said to myself:

”Now, then, we’ll have a fine outcry if my uncle is hungry, for he is the most impatient of mortals.”

***

This was my first read by Jules Verne – someone I’ve been meaning to read for quite a few years but never really got around to. A journey to the center of the earth is a story of Axel and his uncle, Professor Lidenbrock, as they stumble upon a piece of paper that takes them on a breathtaking story under the earths’ crust.

***

I found Jules’ way of writing sometimes dry, especially when it comes to describing the mineralogy and other scientific areas. At the same time, it is rejuvinating to see that Jules Verne was one of the very first Science Fiction writers, and thus started a whole new genre of books – combining novels with science. To sum it up I liked very much the first half of the book… but then it felt like he cramped too much into too little space, one didn’t really have time to breath and process one event before the next… which in the end, made my impression less than it might have been.

***

One thing, that you can’t deny, is with what enthusiasm he writes – and also puts into his protagnist Axel – who is also the storyteller:

”How well I knew all these bits of mineralogical science! How many times, instead of enjoying the company of boys my own age, had I enjoyed dusting these graphites, anthracites, coals, lignites, and peats! And the bitumens, resins, organic salts that needed to be protected from the least atom of dust! And these metals, from iron to gold, whose current value disappeared in the absolute equality of scientific specimens! And all these stones ,enough to rebuild the house in Königstrasse, even with a handsome addional room, which would have suited me admirably!”

This, passage, to me, says a lot of my perception of early writers of novels and science both. The era where people were multi-knowledgeable in many different areas, and not just single-focused like many of us today.

***

Notable passages

• Armed with his hammer, his steel pointer, his magnetic needles, his blowpipe, and his bottle of nitric acid, he was a very powerful man.

• But that man was unable to wait, and nature herself was too slow for him.

• Was I to believe him in earnest in his intention to penetrate to the center of this massive globe? Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a great genius? In all this, were did truth stop? Where did error begin?

• Ah! women, girls, how incomprehensible are your feminine hearts!

• ”Science, my boy, is built on errors, but errors which it’s good to commit because they gradually lead to the truth.”

This year, 2012, have several new releases that I’m keeping a close eye on! It all began last year, really, when I picked up three books that were all amazing and I loved all three of them. The authors that brought this upon me (and possibly several others) are Deborah Harkness, Ken Follett, and Justin Cronin.

Shadow Of Night – by Deborah Harkness

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The Twelve – by Justin Cronin

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Winter of the World – Ken Follett

I have been in England on assignment now for nearly two months and we are closing in on the big date to start up the plant I’m working on. Deadlines are never approached with a sense of calm, or at least very rarely, so as you might guess… my oppertunities to read are at the moment very limited.

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My fiance is here this week on visit though, and as we walked along Chester we stumbled in to Waterstones, a bookstore with that special character (!) I picked up the most unlikely book: The Oxford Book of War Poetry. Not that I never read poetry before, but I have never owned a book of poetry, until now.

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I feel it being a good complement for me right now. As poems are a fair amount shorter than novels, but not at all the less interesting. Just this weekend I fell into a poem written anonymously around the 12th century called The Lament of Maev Leith-Dherg. It tells of an Irish king and  his triumphs in life and, supposedly, his last battle. After reading it, I felt I needed to look up further about the poems’ hero.

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Raise the Cromlech high!
MacMoghcorb is slain,
And other men’s renown
Has leave to live again.

*

Here he fought with Leinster-
Last of all his frays-
On the Hill of Cucorb’s Fate
High his Cromlech raise.

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The poem features in the renowned Book of Leinster, one of the most influential pieces of Irish literature. This made me think twice about one of the interpretations I found on the web, saying that the last piece suggests the king MacMoghCorb was fighting against Leinster… but the poem really says with Leinster. Searching around on various ancestry sites I fell upon this name: Cu Corb Mac Mogh Corb, King of Leinster. And to me it all fits in place, taking into account the first and last stanzas:

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”MacMoghCorb is slain…”

”On the Hill of CuCorb’s Fate…”

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How wonderful it is, the feeling one gets, to unravel a piece of history.

source: Wikipedia (link)

Introductory passage

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?’

***

I never read Alice in Wonderland when I was young. Perhaps because it is not such a well known childrens’ story in my home country. Therefore, this read was quite interesting – and heavily biased – upon the Walt Disney animation of Lewis Carrolls’ classic childrens’ story.

***

I can easily say that it was not as I expected. I found the book quite different, and, surprisingly, more psychologically undertoned. To me, the following passage says very much of how I felt about the books’ focus:

[...] for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. ‘But it’s no use now,’ thought poor Alice, ‘to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!’

Subtle notions like this, throughout the book, to me, made it less a childrens’ book and more a book of contemplation of the mind… and perception of imagination. Sometimes I felt as if she was arguing with herself as if she really had two personalities… All in all though, I found it, at times, difficult to follow – and at places, extremely surreal. I have no idea how I would have thought about it at a younger age, but I’m not sure I like it very much at this moment in time.

***

Notable passages

• She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled ‘ORANGE MARMALADE’, but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

• Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is–oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!

This is a journal entry of my thoughts reading ”The well-educated mind” by Susan Wise Bauer

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I have never quite seen reading novels, or historical accounts as study. But why shouldn’t it be just like any other study material? Why shouldn’t I approach ”literature” in the same way that I approach Marketing or Power Systems Analysis and Design both of which I went through studying at the University.

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Susan Wise Bauer begins with establishing how to read for educational purposes. Reading for pleasure and reading to learn are two different things – and I’ve always known that – but I haven’t quite put in the context of reading a novel for learning. Though Susan makes quite a few points that I really find worth noting:

(1) Read the book without getting hung up on details – make good use of highlights and markings to retrace those difficult sections afterwards.

(2) When finished reading through – go back to analyze the sections of note more carefully.

(3) Establish a viewpoint against the author’s ideas – agreements and disagreements.

I can easliy get stuck on words that I don’t know or sentences that I don’t quite understand. This stops me in my tracks and makes me reread the word/passage several times…sometimes even further back – trying to analyze as I go along. Far from ideal, and Susan makes this point as well – that the focus of the reading should be to grasp the overall concept of the book, and when finished, go back to get deeper understandings.

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Some people tend to read books more than once – and this is something I’ve rarely done (The Legend of the Ice People being a clear exception). But looking back on interesting passages of note – as Susan suggests – is an interesting thought, that I think would actually help me grasping the deeper points of a work. I am not, unlike my fiance, someone who remembers every detail while reading – I can’t instantaneously quote a passage from a work I read a week ago – but I could very well give a summary, and say if I liked it or not. But learning something? Other than it being a pleasent story?

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In order to keep thoughts focused when summarising a work, Susan points out the importance of quotes. Quotes from a work of interesting passages/sentences helps spark the memory of the book – and I can definetely see that point.