A Queer Feeling

When I picked up Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - I was extremely excited. I have taken a liking to time-honoured English Authors and am thinking of sending a request God's way to transform me into one. I think I may be a few centuries too late though.

Back to being excited. Yes....I was. Very much so. I wanted to devour the book...literally with a high level of concentration and zeal. I wanted to read it so hard, that the words would disappear from the book as I read each one. No more words would be left because they would be hidden in my heart and mind. A part of me really. I did start....but I found that as I turned each page of the book...my zeal waned and waned some more.

Here is why. I found the conversations between Lord Henry and the very gifted painter Basil quite charming..enchanting even. However, I found the topic of their discussion a bit uncomfortable. They used beautiful words......words one would typically use whilst describing a woman. Only that they were describing a man instead. I got a niggling feeling....a queer one. I stopped reading and decided to google Oscar Wilde. A got a queer answer (pun intended). I must be the last person on earth to discover that Oscar Wilde was bisexual and had even been imprisoned at one point for his homosexual activities and activism.

Well, I will not provide my views on the subject. What I will say though...I found it increasingly difficult to continue reading the book. My question therefore is...Is it possible to separate the character and being of an Author, from his or her story? Are the two really inseparable? I would ask the same of Stephen King for example. Let me know what your views are.

In the meantime, this little queer book has now joined the START...STOP! list....and also has the privilege of being listed under NEVER EVER LAND.

I bid you farewell....till the next book. A clue you ask? Mrs. Clinton is all I need to say.

Asante!

PS: Should you care to read it though, you can access an electronic copy here http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/oscar-wilde/Dorian-Gray.pdf

Oscar Wilde

Forced Sabbatical

Has she really been reading? Seeing the silence, perhaps not. I have managed to sneak in a page of two of "The picture of Dorian Gray" and one story out of "Everyday Greatness". It's not been so bad after all. I have not managed to get a sneak peak into madam Clinton's Autobio. I will schedule a meeting with her and her life next week.

It's been a crazy week this one. Lots of proposals....lots of strategic plans...sales, marketing...product design. I feel like my head is going crazy. At the same time, am really proud of my work. I have quite a bit to write about....but I have not the time. All these thoughts....running around in my head, playing all sorts of games with each other. Think about it as the Crazy Stories Premier League (CSPL).

The teams competing against each other are short stories, true stories, book summaries and the unclassified categories. I wonder who will win....or loose but I hope in the CSPL...all the teams are winners and every one will get their day in the "field". However, I see the final being between the short stories and true stories. May the best thoughts win. Hip hip hooray!

I will be back strongly next week.

The weekend is here! Plan to have a good one.

A go a missing!

PLEASE HELP !! AM MISSING!

This post is about a book....a MISSING BOOK! I can't seem to find my "Everyday Greatness" book. Big & bulky it is...and I still cannot find it. I last had it two weekends ago....I thought I left it in my room...but it is not to be found there. I have searched and searched in every nook & cranny....in every crook's fanny as well! :-) As usual, I have half a mind to blame Levi....that's what we always do. Any unexplained circumstances or losses....IT HAS TO BE LEVI. Of course that is not always true....but that's only for 1% of the time. I shake with fear to imagine what it would look like post a "levi attack".

So, in other words.....am not sure what am reading this week....I've got to find me a book. Hmm....perhaps a visit to a certain friend will help me unearth her copy of Richard Branson's Autobio...now that would be a lovely place to start!

Mission of the Week: Raid said friend's library.

Wish me luck!

Of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (with two dots above the "e" in Bronte)

Alas! am not sure what the dots above the E in Charlotte's last name stand for. Somebody better educate me on that.

Anyway, Jane Eyre. What a wonderful find! For some strange reason, I was under the false belief that I had read the book years ago. Turns out I had not. I initially found it in my sister's library. It's an old copy...yellowing pages, musky smell. It does not endear itself to one. I took it to my room and on several occasions, attempted to start reading it. I failed. I couldn't explain why. Then suddenly, on the 1st of May, I found it amongst my things. It had been months since I first picked it up. In that duration, my son Levi had found it and began taking it apart, as he does with everything he comes across. I suppose it's because he is so deeply curious. Almost everything he touches cannot remain the same. Such is his mark in the world. Back to the book. So it was now basically torn. The front cover and several other pages were torn from the main binding of the book. I picked up the two pieces and began to read. I did not stop reading it for the rest of the day and for part of the night. Oh! How I missed those days. It had been ages since I had been unable to put a book down. So gripped with the story line that I could almost forget to do anything else!

I finally finished it yesterday evening in between driving through Nairobi traffic (yes!) and having to stop at the mall on the way home, not because I so much wanted to shop but because I wanted to disappear into the book and finish it. I had an insatiable hunger for it...."What happens next?" "What will Jane do?" Is Mr. Rochester alive?" "How does the story end...Oh help me..how does the story end?".

If you have not read Jane Eyre...it is a classic love story but a realistic one. Not one built upon layers and layers of fairyland ideals and unrealistic happenings. It is as real as I am an African woman...a Kikuyu one. Jane is an orphan, mistreated by her Aunt Reed and her cousins. Finally sent off to a boarding school that sounds so dreary. At some point, half the student population is wiped away by Typhus Fever (I need to research what that is). She finally grows up to be a teacher in the same school and then gets a job as a governess to the french ward of Mr. Rochester of Thornfield Hall (Why were they called halls?). He is a dark, tall man...who is not handsome but seems attractive according to the description. Jane falls in love with him, he with her and they live happily ever after? NO..! Not yet at least. EVENTUALLY....they both admit to their love of each other. Jane thought her dear Edward would marry a beautiful but hideous woman called...hmmm...Miss Ingram. Jane and Edward are to marry...a small ceremony is arranged. But alas! Edward already has a wife..as is revealed in Church. You know that part where they ask "Does anyone have any reason why these two should not be joined"....someone said yes! Edward's wife is a lunatic, locked up at Thornfield's third floor. Jane acts surprisingly calm...but is of course devastated. Why couldn't Edward tell her before they married? Before you get to this part...there are various hints on the existence of a lunatic in the house. I will leave those for you to discover. Back to the story...

Yes, Jane is devastated. She runs away, is helped by strangers (who turn out to her long lost cousins from an aunt she did not know existed). She inherits a substantial amount of money and is now the headmistress of a school. She still longs for her Edward. We don't know what happens to him....but Jane goes to find out. There was a big great fire started by the retched lunatic of a wife! Thornfield hall is burnt down...and Mr. Rochester....Jane's dear Edward is gravely hurt in the fire. He looses part of his arm and is now blind. A recluse in a little house down a valley somewhere...he hardly speaks to anyone and had two servants taking care of him. Am rushing to finish cos I want to get to my most favourite part!

Oh...I cannot seem to find this part that I so favour. I will seek it for another day. Yes! A reason to re-read such a wonderful book. In the meantime...

Jane seeks her dear Edward out...she surprises him...and he thinks of her as a mere dream. For he so longed for her that he went a little crazy...I think. They reunite....and marry. Edward is blind for another 2 years, then slowly he regains the use of his left eye...and they finally have a son. Jane says its their first born...yet mentions no other child. I supposed they had others later on.

After ten years of marriage....Jane could say "I know no weariness of my Edward's Society". That is what I take away with me from this book. I know it's real..because I have experienced it for over 10 years with someone..I will call him my special friend. I knew no weariness of his society. That is a rare thing to find in life.

I hope to find it again.

A birth

Glad am finally doing this. For years, I have wanted to blog....primarily because I think blogging is such a creative activity...and I thought I was creative...so how come I couldn't blog? To be honest..at some point I just wanted to keep up with a fad....it was cool and sophisticated to blog...I want to be cool and sophisticated. But still...I couldn't blog. This is the third blog am doing...I can't for heaven't sake remember the others. What I do know though...they didn't last long. Oh yeah...I remember one. It was called Levi's diary. Levi is my son and my only child. Well...he is  quite interesting and I love him to bits. He was a good subject...being always up to one thing or another. He is 4 but he has had a life time of adventure already. I just discovered he is autistic....and it was truly a Eureka moment...only that I couldn't run out to the streets naked. It explains a lot about him and the things he does. Am not sure why I couldn't sustain that particular one....Oh well.

A book, A thought is a blog about my first love...my longest love of all. BOOKS! I have always loved reading...but I have found over the years that my reading pace has slowed down....to a snail pace actually...trudging along...ever so slowly. I want to write a book one day...am not sure about what and that in itself tells me that perhaps..PERHAPS, am not an author after all. Which author does not know what they want to write about???? Crazy.  Back to my love for books...I started reading at an early age. My reading list consisted of Hardy Boyz, Nancy Drew, Famous Five...something or other Four...I eventually graduated to Mills & Boons, Sweet Valley High by the time I was 10. At age 14, I was reading Daniel Steele, Fredrick Forsyth (sp) and Sidney Sheldon! In high school, I secretly laughed when I saw my fellow students reading books like Sweet Valley High...I wondered where they had been all their lives! Oh my word...it was an exciting world. I love the way a book has the ability to "steal" one from their present reality and take them on a wonderful ride...walking in the characters shoes...feeling their pain, bringing excitement, fear, evoking love......I LOVE IT!

This blog is about my personal journey and thoughts through books. Am also hoping to accomplish one very important thing. To buy books and start a home library so that my son can read too. You see...in my 33 years of life...I HAVE NEVER BOUGHT A BOOK FOR MYSELF. Whose books did I read then?  Ever the perpetual borrower...am determined to stop.

I must say...setting up this blog was greatly inspired by The Julia/Julie Project. I watched the movie...and I finally understood blogging..in my hearts of hearts.

In closing, I thought I would give mention to the two books that have greatly influenced my life. The first one was "The Celestial Bed by Irving Wallace". I had no business reading such a book at the age of 12. But I read it anyway. The second book, I came across about a year ago. I read it all the time...over and over again. "Why Men Marry Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl - A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship by Sherry Argov.  That book has changed me in ways that I cannot even explain. But that's a story for another day!

Come with me and let's journey on....

Sheekow.