What I Finished Reading

So a few posts back I spoke about the fact that I had crawled into the pages of 'The Help'. Well with determination and utter engagement, I finished the book. My first in about a year. I finished in just in time for the movie release. I finished it on the Saturday night and saw the movie on the Sunday evening. What young girl is home, reading on a weekend night you may ask, well, I follow the traditions of my Jewish family and it was the breaking of the Yom Kippur fast. That meant we hosted a dinner at our house on the Saturday night. Phew. Felt I had to make up for my reading on the Saturday night thing. haha. Anywho, I loved the book, 5 million copies sold can't be wrong. Dealing with the interaction between white home owners and their maids during the 60's civil rights movement, all put in to a Mississippi pot and fueled with hairspray. Very interesting.


The movie was sweet but fluffed over a lot of the dark aspects in the book and refused to deal with the core issues. Which left me feeling unfulfilled. I also felt that the book did this in a lot of ways. She created such full, wholesome characters and story lines, and then as the book neared the end, the stories thinned out on detail and seemed to wrap up without reason. I hate it when that happens. Slap dash writing as far as I am concerned. Doesn't seem she was writing to a deadline as she approached over 60 publishers who turned her down, and it took her 5 years to write the thing. Perhaps it was a series of different editors with different editing styles. Either way, it seems thrown together towards the end. I loved it, but the ending could have had a little more power. As they say, some books are worth the read for the final paragraph. I just wish this one had been one of them. I felt like it could have gone on, but then the argument stands, when does it end.


So this is where I end. I have made my point. I enjoyed the book, the movie was well cast, well acted, the set and costume design was flawless. My only issue was the marrying of the book to the screenplay. Kathryn, I know you had a part to play, it seems you got played.

Saturday Stumblings at The Collectors Treasury

Situated on 244 Commisioner Street in Kensington (Arts on Main) and spread over 8 storeys, The Collectors Treasury is Southern Africa's largest used book store, but it doesn't only end, or begin at books. It is essentially an antiques store with a focus on books and vinyls and dust, my nose itches at the thought of the place. Shahil emailed us his infamous Saturday exploration email, and told us that he would be going, whether we joined him or not. Of course we would be joining, this place is an institution. So we rose early on a Saturday morning, gathered the troops, and all missioned through the dark side of town to find the hidden collected treasures. Wow, we find some dusies. I found a first edition Mein Kampf, no lies. Paul had mini heart attacks whenever he came across his favourite and hard-to-find authour Jack Kerouac, who was crazily over-priced in my opinion, but books have no price. It was fun exploring the crowded, dusty, narrow bookshelves with my baby-love and my friends. I will be returning soon, well to get Paul's books. I will take an Allergex beforehand though, haha.

 

Take It or Leave It

I have just finished re-reading 'The Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran. It is the first book I have finished in about a year. It may not be long but I found it thought provoking and inspiring, as it is supposed to be I think. He basically philosophises about different aspects of life such as love, marriage, passion, knowledge, friendship etc. I really do think I have read this book at the right moment in my life. It is just what I needed to get my reading momentum back. He wrote it so beautifully, poetically, for lack of a better word. Let me share some of my favourite excerpts with you.

On Self-knowledge...
"Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams..."


On Friendship... (by which I was most profoundly moved)
"...And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him also know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness..."


On Reason and Passion...
"... For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; 
and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to
its own destruction..."

Take It or Leave It

"O curiosity, thou mortal bane!

Spite of thy charms, thou causest often pain

And sore regret, of which we daily find

A thousand instances attend mankind:

For thou-O may it not displease the fair-

A fleeting pleasure art, but lasting care.

And always proves, alas! too dear the prize,

Which, in the moment of possession, dies."

- The Moral from Bluebeard by Charles Perrault

(Charles Perrault's Classic Fairy Tales)