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.

I’ve recently finished a fair few books since last I wrote, and I’ve been meaning to write a review of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, but haven’t gotten around to it. Suffice to say, I’ve done quite a lot more reading this month than I’ve done in a very long time; I’ve probably read the same amount of books this past month and over 2006. That sounds quite sad, but it shall be rectified. (!!1!!one!!) I’ve put up a list of my 2007 reading forays, which you can find here at my journal. I didn’t put it here because I wasn’t sure where to put it.

I’ve recently been lurking at TheDarkTower.net, and I’ve been sadly confronted with the sad fact that OMG, there is so much more to DT than just the seven books. I’ve never read anything of King’s aside from the series, being a veritable scaredy-cat; The Gunslinger just really pulled me in when first I read it when I was in second year high. I’m still trying to debate whether or not it will be worth it to immerse myself in his other DT-verse books. I have a feeling that his books being interconnected in some way is almost almost almost like a certain romance author I know who has gazillions of books revolving around two interconnected clans.

Not that it’s bad per se, just… hard to do really well.

Sometimes (although it’s becoming more regular recently), I feel keenly the “loss” of my writing. Or, the loss of my confidence that I could write. When I was younger, I wrote no matter what, but now that I’m older I find myself hemming and hawing over how to write this, how to write that, what best thing to do in this scene, if what I’m writing is even worth a fillip, not to mention the duties and responsibilities that already take up my time. Are they flimsy alibis or valid reasons? I don’t know, I wouldn’t know. Before I even start, I’m daunted by everything that looms over me. I just sit in the crossroads, not knowing where to go, not knowing what to prioritize.

I think I might forever be doomed to this hemming and hawing. That’s quite sad.