British Library - Turning the Pages

I have to say that I'm a huge fan of the British Library.

Why you say?

Check out their Turning the Pages section.

You can digitally "turn the pages" of a few original works and books.

For instance, do you want to look at Jane Austin's The History of England, written in her own handwriting and even illustrated with cute pictures of kings and queens?

Or maybe the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written and illustrated by Lewis Carroll himself?

Or maybe Mozart's musical diary, or Leonardo da Vinci's sketches?

Most have audio commentary that you can turn on or off, you can zoom in or out, and other fun features.

My favorite....the Lindisfarne Gospels:




Check it out!

Test Drive: Google Books

Sometimes when it's slow or I'm on break at work I will read old classics on Google Books. For instance, I read Jane Eyre on Google Books. How it works, I believe, is that Google got permission from various institutions, such as Stanford University, to scan and make available some of their books. This is a great idea!

However, they do have to be aware of copy-right laws so be aware that only older classics (think books written about 100 years ago) are available in Full-view only. There are a lot of books out there that you can preview a few pages though which is kind of nice. Anyway...I decided to show you what a Google Book looks like.

Here's a version of Jane Eyre. The book was published in 1890 and scanned. You can view a page at a time, or as a book like this:

You can zoom in or zoom out. You can word search (right now "Jane Eyre" is being searched and is highlighted). It's also kind of neat because it scans the whole book...cover, illustrations, everything. And every now and again you see something weird...like this:

Ha ha. Someone didn't move their hand fast enough. But it's also nice because in old editions you can find some great illustrations. For example, a 1920's version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:

Anyway...check out Google Books sometime when you are bored of browsing through the Internet.

1001 Book Update - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

I first heard of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon from my husband. He really liked the book and recommended I read it. About a week ago I found a copy our local antique/thrift store in our neighborhood.

I have to say I immensely enjoyed this book. A co-worker today told she enjoyed it as well but that she had to look beyond the hype. I guess this is true. Sometimes it's sad when a book is so hyped up it ruins the experience. Moving on...

The narrator of this story is fifteen-year-old Christopher who happens to have Asperger's which is a form of autism. One of Christopher's teachers thought it would be a good idea if Christopher wrote in a notebook and essentially wrote a "book". So like any good book, Christopher's story starts out with the "murder" of the next door neighbor's dog. As Christopher tries to solve this mystery, truths and lies are uncovered.

What I really liked about this book is that Christopher is essentially a brilliant child. His mind thinks insanely logically and mathematically. Truly, his mind is like a computer. But it sometimes works against him. There is a scene where he is in a new public place and he freaks out. Because his mind and memory stores every tiny detail, it can be overwhelmed in a new location and his body just shuts down. So his story is an amazing account of how he views the world, sees things happen, interprets them, and how it affects the people around him.

Because this is book is a piece of fiction...Christopher is not real...I can see how some people might not like this book. But I don't think the author was trying to imply that EVERY person with Asperger's or autism thinks and acts like Christopher. But it is an interesting concept to look at the world through different eyes. Because while reading Christopher's story, I often thought to myself...well, that makes sense. Perhaps that's not how I think but that makes sense how Christopher came to that conclusion. So I guess that's why I liked it...because it allowed me to see the world differently. And I liked Christopher.

Also reviewed by:
Year of the Bookwormz
Books I Done Read
Bibliolatry
The Hidden Side of a Leaf
Maw Books Blog
The Book Lady's Blog
Today's Adventure
Nothing of Importance

If you visited...

Last weekend some old co-workers/friends from Las Vegas were in town to see a Yankees game and do some sight seeing. They did the typical ferry to the Statue of Liberty, Time Square, Chinatown, etc. Another one of my old friends from college announced that she will be visiting NYC over New Year's Eve this year.

So this all makes me wonder...for those of you who don't live in the area...if you were to visit NYC (or if you have visited) what are the places and sites that you would want to see and experience? Do you want to see all the touristy things or do you want to do what the locals do?

Please let me know and maybe it will be good excuse to grab my camera (and possibly my husband) and be a tourist for a day or two.

Honeymoon Tickets!

Today is the day we finally bought our plane tickets for our honeymoon trip. It's OFFICIAL!!!

And just in case you don't know...my husband and I were married a little over a year ago. And we are taking our much belated honeymoon late this fall. I am soooooo excited.

We decided on going to EGYPT!!!! Red Sea resorts, pyramids, sand, sun, the Nile, Luxor, Cairo...sigh.

I am sure I will babble on more about it the closer the time gets.

There are a few books I've found that I want to read before or while I am on my trip.

Maybe I'll call this my Egyptian Book Challenge:

Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie

Linnet Doyle is young, beautiful, and rich. She's the girl who has everything--including the man her best friend loves. When Linnet and her new husband take a cruise on the Nile, they meet brilliant detective Hercule Poirot. It should be an idyllic trip, yet Poirot feels that something is amiss.


The Hippopotamus Marsh: Lords of the Two Lands: Volume I - Pauline Gedge


Seqenenra Tao, Prince of Weset, leads a revolt against the alien Hyksos pharaohs. His provincial aristocratic family is accustomed to a life of straitened gentility. But when the prince decides to rebel they must risk all, even life itself, to restore Egyptians and their gods to glory. The Hippopotamus Marsh begins a trilogy that brings to vivid life the passions and intrigues that ushered in the great Eighteenth Dynasty.

*Perhaps I'll read the whole trilogy...

The Yacoubian Building: A Novel - Alaa Al Aswany

All manner of flawed and fragile humanity reside in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor now slowly decaying in the smog and bustle of downtown Cairo: a fading aristocrat and self-proclaimed "scientist of women"; a sultry, voluptuous siren; a devout young student, feeling the irresistible pull toward fundamentalism; a newspaper editor helplessly in love with a policeman; a corrupt and corpulent politician, twisting the Koran to justify his desires.
These disparate lives careen toward an explosive conclusion in Alaa Al Aswany's remarkable international bestseller. Teeming with frank sexuality and heartfelt compassion, this book is an important window on to the experience of loss and love in the Arab world.


The Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy Book 1) - Naguib Mahfouz

Volume I of the masterful Cairo Trilogy. A national best-seller in both hardcover and paperback, it introduces the engrossing saga of a Muslim family in Cairo during Egypt's occupation by British forces in the early 1900s.

* Again, perhaps I'll read the whole trilogy.

Nefertiti: A Novel - Michelle Moran

Nefertiti and her younger sister, Mutnodjmet, have been raised in a powerful family that has provided wives to the rulers of Egypt for centuries. Ambitious, charismatic, and beautiful, Nefertiti is destined to marry Amunhotep, an unstable young pharaoh. It is hoped that her strong personality will temper the young ruler’s heretical desire to forsake Egypt’s ancient gods.

From the moment of her arrival in Thebes, Nefertiti is beloved by the people but fails to see that powerful priests are plotting against her husband’s rule. The only person brave enough to warn the queen is her younger sister, yet remaining loyal to Nefertiti will force Mutnodjmet into a dangerous political game; one that could cost her everything she holds dear.

The Memoirs of Cleopatra - Margaret George

Bestselling novelist Margaret George brings to life the glittering kingdom of Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, in this lush, sweeping, and richly detailed saga. Told in Cleopatra's own voice, this is a mesmerizing tale of ambition, passion, and betrayal, which begins when the twenty-year-old queen seeks out the most powerful man in the world, Julius Caesar, and does not end until, having survived the assassination of Caesar and the defeat of the second man she loves, Marc Antony, she plots her own death rather than be paraded in triumph through the streets of Rome.


River God - Wilbur Smith

Set against the backdrop of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt, circa 1780 B.C., Smith's adventurous tale of ancient love, intrigue and avarice was a three-week PW bestseller.

* Suggested by fellow blogger, James Viscosi

Coffee...to go please

My husband asked me to post this request.

Our local new cafe/coffee shop/ wine bar just opened up. He wrote an e-mail petitioning them to sell travel mugs to cut down on the paper waste and to use a local neighbor who designs neighborhood T-shirts to do the mug design.

Because I think it's a great idea and I want to support a local artist....send an e-mail to this address: info@indianroadcafe.com

Please write "I second the coffee mug."

If we succeed I will definitely post photos and maybe give away a mug or two.

Thanks!!!!

1001 Book Update - Summer

I took some great advice from some fellow bloggers and instead of reading Charles Dickens this summer I read a book called Summer by Edith Wharton. What a perfect title for a summer selection. It is a short book and is on the 1001 To Read List.

But I am torn over this book. I've only read one other Wharton book, The Age of Innocence, and should have realized that Summer wasn't going to be a happily ever after type of book. Yes, there's first love, summer-time romance, and even a marriage at the end. But Wharton is way too realistic for just that. There are also fallen women, abortion clinics, poverty, death, and indecent proposals.

So I'll give a brief synopsis without trying to give away the whole story. The main character is 18 year-old Charity. She was "brought down from the mountains" and adopted by a wealthy couple when she was small. She is employed during the summer as the librarian at the local town library when she meets a young and handsome man. The book takes place during this summer of her life.

Since the book is so short that is all I am going to write about it. Did I like the book? Well...Edith Wharton's writing is always very good. I love her writing actually. And the story was very good. I wasn't too sympathetic with Charity to begin with and thought she was quite spoilt and bratty...but then I felt sorry for her. And in the end...well...I was just a little sad. So take that all how you will...

Here's a section in the book which just epitomizes summer-time romance:

"The haze of the morning had become a sort of clear tremor over everything, like the colourless vibration about a flame; and the opulent landscape seemed to droop under it. But to Charity the heat was a stimulant: it enveloped the whole world in the same glow that burned at her heart. Now and then a lurch of the train flung her against Harney, and through her thin muslin she felt the touch of his sleeve. She steadied herself, their eyes met, and the flaming breath of the day seemed to enclose them."

P.S. My brother just got a job at Barnes & Nobles so my links to books will now be linking Barnes & Nobles and not Amazon.

Also Reviewed by:

The Zen Leaf