Reading Copy

Today is Harper Lee’s birthday (thank you Rare Book Room)… and everyone has read the high school required To Kill A Mockingbird. The details of the book slowly faded from memory, except for the names of the main characters, specifically Boo Radley. The reason it stayed with me for so long was in part due to the musical band The Boo Radleys.

It’s fascinating (and telling) how many musical groups take their names from books or elements of literature. A quick look at some:

• Moloko - from A Clockwork Orange
• Grapes of Wrath - after the book
• Our Lady Peace - named after a Civil War poem
• Veruca Salt - a character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Sixpence None The Richer - after a line in the CS Lewis book Mere Christianity
• The Velvet Underground - after a book of the same name
• Steppenwolf - after a book of the same name
• Père Ubu - is the main character in Alfred Jarry’s play, Ubu Roi
• Deadeye Dick - after Kurt Vonnegut’s book of the same name
• Love and Rockets - apparently after a graphic novel of the same name
• Supertramp - after the book The Autobiography of a Super Tramp
• The Doors - after Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception

More? Your favourites?

Popularity: 9% [?]

There’s been a lot of talk about The Da Vinci Code lately. (years straight, with over 40 million copies sold (that is more than the entire population of Canada, for the record) - and that was just in its hardcover release. Now that it’s out in paperback it’s everywhere, online and off, multiplying on supermarket and drugstore shelves. I can only wonder who is still buying it, when it seems everyone in the free world has read it…

You’d think with such ubiquity, none of these books would be worth a penny. Not so though - signed firsts are going for up to $4,000!

Then there was that whole plagiarism scandal with the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. That was dismissed - but here comes more publicity (and $$) for Mr. Brown. And of course the movie version, which comes out in May…

So what about the book itself? Well, I read it last year, and I was rather unimpressed with the writing itself. It read like a trashy two-bit plane-ride novel — which, perhaps, it is. (We must remember that just because a book is read by everyone, it does not mean it is good literature - or even decent literature!) The draw of the book is in the ideas contained - which, I admit, I did find quite fascinating. (I am even considering reading Angels & Demons now - albeit, in secret…) I do not, however, find the idea of Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon fascinating! I suspect Mr. Hanks is not who Mr. Brown had in mind when writing the book, either.

So overall, I think it’s a decent book, worth a quick read - but not worth so much hubbub! It’s time to share the spotlight with someone else, Mr. Brown.

What’s your opinion?

Popularity: 8% [?]

Ah Spring (and Summer)! How we have missed you.

The weather has turned pleasant (and least here on the left coast), and so naturally thoughts of being outdoors and BBQs are abundant. And part of this is getting the garden back into shape and the veggie patch underway.

I never been a big fan of the over-elaborate over-manicured garden - perferring the native plants (that book was the bible as I moved through the botany courses at university) and a bit of happy accident planning.

Being actively involved in the garden is a new thing for me, so any suggestion on good gardening books (specifically vegetable/fruit gardening) are most welcome.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Here we are at the beginning of this little project. Let’s push things forward, shall we?

Popularity: 14% [?]