Well, here I again with another ‘What are your favorites?’ blogs! This time its books of any kind…Here are three of mine with excerpts included:
As always your participation and comments are welcome and appreciated
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‘Cannery Row’ By John Steinbeck:
Roll-on-the-floor hilarious! Here is a synopsis of the ending that I found on the internet…
“Probably the most disturbing aspect of Cannery Row's conclusion, though, is the final image of the book: the rats and rattlesnakes in their cages. Both creatures suggest a certain inescapable malevolence about the world, while their cages suggest a lack of control or free will that keeps the characters in this book from ever really changing their status. This reinforces the image of Doc, hung over, dealing with the aftermath of a party that was meant to be a gift to him: The situation is fundamentally unfair and yet entirely unavoidable. Despite it all, there is still beauty in the world, as the description of early morning on the Row suggests and the poem Doc reads explicitly states. Perhaps beauty is more easily perceived when it is surrounded by disappointment and human fallibility. The snakes, motionless and staring into space, seem aware of this fact and resigned to their fates.”
I disagree slightly with this… I think Steinbeck is describing one of those rare ‘perfect moments’…Doc feels the warm water in the sink while washing the dishes, notices the soap bubbles, the sights, sounds and odors etc. Then he recites to himself the last verse of the poem that he read at the party the night before:
“Even now
I know that I have savored the hot taste of life
Lifting green cups and gold at the great feast.
Just for a small and a forgotten time
I have had full in my eyes from off my girl
The whitest pouring of eternal light .
The heavy knife. As to a gala day”
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‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord or the Rings’ Trilogy by JRR Tolkien:
I read these books once a year and every time I get something new out of them…Some parts are radically different from the movies and many chapters were left out which is understandable…One of the coolest parts of this trilogy is the appendix, part of which tells what happened to all the major characters in the book…Sam actually ends up going to the Gray Havens also, as well as Legolas and Gimli..Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite chapters called ‘The Scouring of the Shire’…As Gandalf and the hobbits approach the Shire, they assume he will come with them…Here is what he tells them, Once again, copied from the internet:
“I am not coming to the Shire. You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for. Do you not yet understand? My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear for any of you”
Gandalf’s faith proves justified. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin firmly and decisively restore order, as they raise the hobbits and defeat Sharkey’s men decisively at the Battle of Bywater. In “The Scouring of the Shire” they display leadership and bravery hardly to be believed of the same timid hobbits that left the Shire on their long journey less than a year previous.
The hobbits find out that Sharkey is really Saruman, who after being banished from Orthanc goes to the Shire with his thugs and takes over for revenge…He is stabbed and killed by Wormtongue after the hobbits confront him at Bag End, officially ending the War of the Rings
In the books, my favorite character Gandalf is the true mover and shaker of ALL the events in the defeat of both Saruman and Sauron, not Aragorn as portrayed in the movie which again, is understandable…Gandalf evolves into by far the most powerful being in Middle Earth
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------‘Catch 22’ by Joseph Heller:
I have worn this book out twice…Absolutely the most hilarious novel I have ever read! It is an anti-war story set in WWII…Here is an excerpt from Clevinger’s Court Martial…
“Now, where were we? Read me back the last line."
“Read me back the last line,” read back the corporal, who could take shorthand.
"Not MY last line, stupid!" the colonel shouted. "Somebody else's."
"Read me back the last line,'" read back the corporal.
"That's MY last line again!" shrieked the colonel, turning purple with anger.
"Oh, no, sir," corrected the corporal. "That's MY last line. I read it to you just a moment ago. Don't you remember, sir? It was only a moment ago."
"Oh, my God! Read me back HIS last line, stupid. Say, what the hell's your name, anyway?"
"Popinjay, sir."
"Well, you're next Popinjay. As soon as his trial ends, your trial begins. Get it?"
"Yes, sir. What will I be charged with?"
"What the hell difference does that make? Did you hear what he asked me? You're going to learn, Popinjay -- the moment we finish with Clevinger you're going to learn. Cadet Clevinger, what did-- You are Cadet Clevinger, aren't you, and not Popinjay?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. What did--"
"I'm Popinjay, sir."
"Popinjay, is your father a millionaire, or a member of the Senate?"
"No, sir."
"Then you're up *****creek, Popinjay, without a paddle. He's not a general or a high-ranking member of the Administration, is he?"
"No, sir."
"That's good. What does your father do?"
"He's dead, sir."
"That's VERY good. You really are up the creek, Popinjay. Is Popinjay really your name? What the hell kind of a name is Popinjay, anyway? I don't like it."
"It's Popinjay's name, sir," Lieutenant Scheisskopf explained.
Some of the crazy, humorous stuff I have posted is influenced by Heller's writing style in Catch 22...'Twice Upon a Time in a Bakery' was partly inspired by the above dialog...