Our Novel Escape discussion

Every day, starting on January 1, 2014, I will ask an open-ended question (no right or wrong answers!) about the books you are reading now, books you have read in the past, or books you plan to read soon.

Examples:

1. Have you ever read a book (fiction or non-fiction) that infuriated you so much you could not finish it? What was it about the book that made you angry?

2. Has a book ever helped you recover after a traumatic event? How did the book improve the situation?

3. What one word describes your thoughts about the book(s) you are reading now?

There are no rules for this challenge. How well it turns out depends entirely on you. Suggested questions are welcome; please PM me with your recommendations. I hope this will stimulate discussion and debate among our members!

Sounds fun!

I love this idea Jennifer. I'm really excited about it. I also love your example questions. I can answer all three right now. lol

Happy to see the enthusiasm!

I like the idea. Seems like it will make us think more about our books.

Definitely sounds thought provoking. Great idea.

Thanks :)

Audra wrote: "I like the idea. Seems like it will make us think more about our books."

That's what we're hoping for Audra.

That sounds like a fun, after all, that's the reason we joined a Goodreads group, to discuss how a book makes us feel, right?

Love this, love your example questions so I hope you use them when this starts, hehe.

ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) wrote: "Love this, love your example questions so I hope you use them when this starts, hehe."

I agree Teresa.

JENNIFER'S DAILY DILEMMA - DECEMBER 31, 2013 AND JANUARY 1, 2014

As we bid farewell to 2013 and wave hello to 2014, I've been thinking about conclusions and beginnings. What is your favourite opening line of a book? Your favourite last line? Why do you like that sentence?

Oh, Victoria, when you get a moment can you paste those quotes here? I'd love to read them. :)

I love that quote from A Tale of Two Cities. It has a real rythmn to it. It also makes perfect sense. Great quotes Victoria.

Great quotes, Victoria! I can't think of any favorite openers or closers right now, of course. Blah, there is one opener that I love but I just can't think of it today.

Oh!! I remember my favorite opener! I remembered that I'd copied it in my review of the book so I was able to find it quickly.

It's from On the Jellicoe Road. It's rather long! When I first read this, I was instantly hooked. Then I spent time hemming and hawing about whether I liked the book or not, so I skipped around until I fell in love and started the book all over from the beginning. I am so glad I did because it's one of my favorites and the author became a favorite in the process.

"My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die.

I counted.

It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of kilometres away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, “What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?” and my father said, “Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,” and that was the last thing he ever said.

We heard her almost straight away. In the other car, wedged into ours so deep that you couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. She told us her name was Tate and then she squeezed through the glass and the steel and climbed over her own dead – just to be with Webb and me; to give us her hand so we could clutch it with all our might. And then a kid called Fitz came riding by on a stolen bike and saved our lives.

Someone asked us later, “Didn’t you wonder why no one came across you sooner?”

Did I wonder?

When you see your parents zipped up in black body bags on the Jellicoe Road like they’re some kind of garbage, don’t you know?

Wonder dies."

ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) wrote: "Oh!! I remember my favorite opener! I remembered that I'd copied it in my review of the book so I was able to find it quickly.

It's from On the Jellicoe Road. It's rather long! When..."

Powerful Teresa. I can see why you like it.

Wow! What a great question (and answers)! I'll have to search to search out one of mine. It's from "Their Eyes Were Watching God". I love it because it was not only intriguing, it also summarized the entire book without giving it away. I think a lot of classics are like that.

Great participation! I knew someone would quote Charles Dickens :)

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board...Now women forget all the things they don't want to remember and forget all the things they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.

Wow! These lines are so inspiring and so heartfelt!

I can't say that I have really taken notice of opening paragraphs or closing one's. I do remember though that I love the opening few paragraphs of The Poisonwood Bible

"IMAGINE A RUIN so strange it must never have happened. First, picture the forest. I want you to be its conscience, the eyes in the trees. The trees are columns of slick, brindled bark like muscular animals overgrown beyond all reason. Every space is filled with life: delicate, poisonous frogs war-painted like skeletons, clutched in copulation, secreting their precious eggs onto dripping leaves. Vines strangling their own kin in the everlasting wrestle for sunlight. The breathing of monkeys. A glide of snake belly on branch. A single-file army of ants biting a mammoth tree into uniform grains and hauling it down to the dark for their ravenous queen. And, in reply, a choir of seedlings arching their necks out of rotted tree stumps, sucking life out of death. This forest eats itself and lives forever. "

I am enjoying reading the quotes so far.

Oops! Please excuse the typos. I haven't quite figured out how to edit previous posts.

Annette wrote: "I can't say that I have really taken notice of opening paragraphs or closing one's. I do remember though that I love the opening few paragraphs of The Poisonwood Bible

"IMAGINE A RUIN so strang..."

Wow!! Annette. Such imagery and expression. I love it. It's very powerful stuff.

Nichole I also love your quote. It too is powerful stuff and makes the reader want to keep reading to see what happens next.

I have two opening quotes from two very different styles and periods of writing.


1. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. This quote comes from the introduction to the 2012 Everyman's Library edition of the book.
"True, there is something strange and marvellous in the talent of this man who sweeps the reader before him as the wind sweeps the leaf, who leads him at will through every place and era; unveils before him as if it were child's play the heart's innermost recesses, the most mysterious phenomena of nature and the most obscure pages of history; whose imagination dominates and embraces every other imagination, clothing itself with the same astonishing truth in the rags of the beggar and the robes of the king, taking on every attitude, adopting every garb, speaking every language; leaving to the physiognomy of the centuries whatever in their features the wisdom of God has rendered eternal and immutable and whatever the folly of humanity in its ephemeral variety has cast upon them; who does not, as some ignorant novelists do, deck the protagonists of yesteryear in our face-paint nor daub them with the gloss of today, but forces the contemporary reader, under the thrall of his magical powers, to re-assume for the space of a few hours the spirit of olden times - a spirit held in such low esteem today - like a wise and tactful adviser inviting the ingrate son to return to his father's house."

I love this quote because of its sheer length and because it shows it's possible to write a very long sentence that's both cohesive and easy to understand. It's just absolutely phenomenal in its structure and prowess. Excellent penmanship.

2. The Memory Room: A Novel by Mary Rakow
"I wonder, on this first day of October, why I can't solve the simplest things."

I love this opening statement because it's short, sweet and straight to the point. It leaves the reader wanting more and so the reader keeps reading so as to find some satisfaction for their already piqued curiosity.

These are all really good opening and closing lines...or paragraphs as the case may be.

JENNIFER'S DAILY DILEMMA - January 2, 2014

Well, the new year is here, and I am certain that some of us have already broken our noble and determined resolutions! So I'd like to know - what was the last book you failed to complete? Why did you abandon / DNF it? Do you intend to pick it up again in 2014, or are you done like dinner?

I have this book, FEBRUARY by Lisa Moore, that I've been trying to complete for the longest time. It will be the death of me. I originally wanted to read it because of the setting (Newfoundland) and because it is loosely based on the true story of an oil rig that sank in 1982 (I remember the news coverage at the time). But the characters just don't talk or act like the Newfies I've met, and every time I care about a character or engage with a plot point, the story abruptly switches to another point of view. It doesn't help that there isn't an audiobook available.

I want to get to the end in 2014, but I honestly can't figure out what the author is trying to say, or what the characters are "on about".

"Last night I dreamt I went to to Pemberley again."

From one of my favorite all time books: Rebecca.

I wish I could remember my dreams...

Jennifer (Wolf Queen of the Outer Regions) wrote: "JENNIFER'S DAILY DILEMMA - January 2, 2014

Well, the new year is here, and I am certain that some of us have already broken our noble and determined resolutions! So I'd like to know - what was th..."

My last one was The Deadliest Sin.I dnf it because I just couldnt get into the story.I'm done, i've tried to read it for 2 years.

I checked out the reviews of that book. Ouch! Sounds like you made the right decision.

Jennifer (Wolf Queen of the Outer Regions) wrote: "I checked out the reviews of that book. Ouch! Sounds like you made the right decision."

Yeah, I can do some historical books but that nope.

Jennifer (Wolf Queen of the Outer Regions) wrote: "JENNIFER'S DAILY DILEMMA - DECEMBER 31, 2013 AND JANUARY 1, 2014

As we bid farewell to 2013 and wave hello to 2014, I've been thinking about conclusions and beginnings. What is your favourite ope..."

Hey, it is still technically January 1, 2014 so I will quote my favorite opening line from my favorite book,
Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen:

" It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

You may answer any question you wish :) and I too love that line!

Mine is Tea at Miss Cranston's
It was entirely different to what I expected. It also tends to jump about with memories. I just couldn't figure it all out. Maybe I will try again later this year.

I love that particular Jane Austen line. It says so much about the thinking of the time.

I have tried to read THE PRINCE because of its importance in the history of the world but I just cannot understand it. And I've officially given up because it the writing style and first chapter don't appeal to me.

Anne (Booklady) wrote: ""Last night I dreamt I went to to Pemberley again."

From one of my favorite all time books: Rebecca."

One of my favorites!

January 2 Daily Dilemma - I've got a few that fit this question, haha. There are a couple sitting on my "currently reading" shelf that I am not actually currently reading but that I hope to pick up again in the future. One that I had trouble with was Touch of Frost. I really wanted to read this series and looked forward to it but the main character has a few annoying traits that I just had to put the book down for awhile. She's kind of whiny (I know, all teenagers are, lol, but it got to me) and she uses nicknames for some of her school mates and it just gets so tiresome to read them when she would describe how they did things. Like, she'd say, "The Blonde Bombshell tossed her hair over her shoulder" or something (I made that line up, it's the closest thing to how I can describe), then every single time she would talk about that one character, it was always, "The Blonde Bombshell did this/that"...ugh. Like...doesn't this chick have a real name you can use once in awhile??

I also made up Blonde Bombshell because it's been so long since I read the book that I forgot all the nicknames she used, heh.

LOLLL - the trainwreck I'm currently reading (Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt) has completely inauthentic character names (Finn Weiss and Greta Elbus are the best examples) but the father of the protagonist has no name at all. It's almost as if the author forgot to give him a name.

Jennifer's Daily Dilemma for January 3, 2014

Describe your current read (or the last book you read) using only ONE word. My current book is infuriating...

Dec 3: Hodgepodge

(I'm reading 3 at once and can't think of one to choose from for this haha)

That's probably a good thing, Teresa :P

Jan 3rd: Sappy

I LOVE this idea, BTW. I know I'm a bit late on the bandwagon, but here are my answers to the first dilemma

Jan 1st: (Favorite first line) "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."- The Great Gatsby

Favorite last line- "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”- A Tale of Two Cities. While I hated this book when I had to read it for high school, these last lines were just so haunting and beautiful to me.

Jan 2nd: The last book I failed to finish was The Shattering. I probably wasn't in the mood to read it right then, so I may come back to it at some point on the future. Just not right now

Gratitude is an attitude! Great line!

So glad you're enjoying these discussions :) :) :)

My current book is philosophical.

My current book is scary

FREEING!!!

The last book I didn't get to finish was:
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I plain ran out of time. I may pick it up at a later date I don't know.

January 3

Romantic