Seasonal Plume

Today’s Booking Through Thursday:

Are there any particular worlds in books where you’d like to live?

Or where you certainly would NOT want to live?

What about authors? If you were a character, who would you trust to write your life?

I’d always liked to live in either Narnia or Prydain. Those were the two fantasy worlds of my relative childhood, and they weigh roughly the same in my estimation. For Narnia particularly, I’m more interested in the first days, after the creation of Narnia, than the time of the Pevensies as kings and queens of the land. And for Prydain, certainly the time before the end of the series ;)

I would certainly not want to live in some of the worlds/places in Stephen King’s Dark Tower; End-World would be the worst *shudder*.

As for authors I’d trust to write about my life…that’s a tough one. I initially thought that I would trust all my favorite authors to write about myself but I realized that Jane Austen would find my horrible flaws and might give up on writing about me; Charlotte Bronte might turn off some readers with a long chapter about my feelings as a child; C.S. Lewis would turn everything into symbolism; Janet Fitch would add more grit and grime and un-beauty into my life than I’m prepared for!

I’m kidding, I would be honored if any of them would write about me; unfortunately, I have no idea who would be a good “fit”: one who have written something along the lines of my life, and the kind of style that I like.

I’d been meaning to put into words my thoughts on one article I saw on Digg a week or so back — on facts about the Online Computer Library Center top 1000. According to it,

[They] compiled a list of the top 1,000 titles owned by member libraries—the intellectual works judged to be the most worthy based on the “purchase vote” of libraries around the globe.

It’s an interesting list of interesting (and sometimes bizarre!) facts about books that are found in most libraries. It’s US-centric, but hey it’s still interesting. I suggest you read the article to get all the trivia, but the ones that were most interesting to me were:

1. William Shakespeare had the most work in the top 1,000 with 37 works which isn’t surprising; John Grisham was third with 13 works; and Stephen King didn’t place at all. The Stephen King work to get nearest to the top thousand is The Gunslinger. (Which is the first King book I’ve read…and I’ve never read any other save the DT series.)
2. Highest-ranking written work by women were Wuthering Heights (E. Brontë), Jane Eyre (C. Brontë), and Pride and Prejudice (J. Austen). They are separated from each other by exactly one gap each (at 28, 30, and 32, respectively). I didn’t like the first, but the other two are my top two books of all time.
3. Jesus is the most written-about person in the World Category (I assume that’s what they mean by “WorldCat”; correct me if I’m wrong).
4. Comics in the library! Garfield is 15th.

It makes me wonder, really, how Philippine libraries would fare. I’ve never been to a library (that I could call a library) in a long time.

My older sister and I have just finished watching BBC One’s Jane Eyre. The novel by Charlotte Brontë has always been one of my favorites, and Rochester and Jane’s story has always reduced me to tears whenever I go back to the book. I was excited when I found out BBC had done a miniseries for it — I adored BBC’s six-part Pride and Prejudice, and to date, I have only been able to watch one other adaptation of Jane Eyre — 1996’s Jane Eyre starring William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsbourg (which was alright, but rather lacking).

So I looked forward to this miniseries rather avidly. Ruth Wilson, while not pretty, seemed to be a bit more “colorful” than how I’d always envisioned Jane (strong brows, and overall a vibrant face); and Toby Stephens was bordering on pretty, which definitely wasn’t Rochester! But hey, it was BBC, I was sure it was going to be alright.

And it was, overall. The start was a little rocky — I couldn’t decide whether or not it was too slow or too rushed. Looking back at it, I think it was just right — it captured the feel and the mood of the book rather well. Like the flurry of activity and bright and vibrant scenes that’s in Pride and Prejudice — which fit the tone of the book — with Jane Eyre you have an a melancholy, reflective, and rather morose tone.

Read the rest of this entry »