new books and my 100 list

(books will be crossed off as I read them...)

On top of the books that I bought last week, there are a few new ones to add today...

The books I ordered arrived.

The one by Helen O'Neil is about Florence Broadhurst. You can find out more about her at one of my favorite blogs "a hazy moon".

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I finally finished making the list to "fill in my gaps"!

A few changes have been made.

I deleted Japanese authors because I plan to make...yes...another list for Japanese books and books by Japanese authors.

This is not because I think they should be separated... it is because I can't fit them all into one list. I need another 100....

1. A Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant
2. The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
3. Dune by Frank Herbert
4. White Noise by Don DeLillo
5. Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
6. The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco
7. Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill
8. Pu-239 And Other Russian Fantasies by Ken Kalfus
9. Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss
10. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
11. A Changed Man by Francine Prose
12. General Theory of Magic by Marcel Mauss
13. A Woman's Life by Guy De Maupassant
14. Tales of Wonder by Mark Twain
15. Between Past and Future by Hannah Arendt, Jerome Kohn
16. Male and Female by Margaret Mead
17. Growing Up in New Guinea: A Comparative Study of Primitive Education by Margaret Mead
18. Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
19. Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner
20. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
21. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
22. 13.5 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
23. Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa by Nicholas Shrady
24. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
25. Peeling the Onion by Gunter Grass
26. Tolstoy's Short Fiction: (Norton Critical Editions) by Leo Tolstoy
27. The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende
28. Taking Pictures by Anne Enright
29. Passin' by Karen E. Quinones Miller
30. Adam, One Afternoon And OTHER STORIES by Italo Calvino
31. The Collected Short Fiction of Marianne Hauser by Marianne Hauser
32. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
33. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
34. Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft
35. Middlemarch by George Eliot (June 2009)
36. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
37. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
38. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
39. Leave It To Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse
40. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
41. First Into Nagasaki by George Weller
42. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
43. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
44. The Famished Road by Ben Okri
45. Starbook by Ben Okri
46. The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
47. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
48. Paradise Lost by John Milton
49. From the Shadow of Dracula by Paul Murray
50. White Gold by Giles Milton
51. The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch
52. Summer Doorways by W.S. Merwin
53. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
54. Writing With Intent by Margaret Atwood
55. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
56. Possession by AS Byatt
57. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
58. No God But God by Reza Aslan
59. A Chance Meeting by Rachel Cohen
60. The Black Angel by John Connolly
61. Big Boned by Meg Cabot
62. Amenable Women by Mavis Cheek
63. Pope Joan by Donna Cross (July 2009)
64. The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
65. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
66. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
67. Chez Moi by Agnes Desarthe
68. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
69. The Island of the Day Beefore by Umberto Eco
70. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
71. Imperial Reckoning by Carline Elkins
72. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
73. Jigs and Reels by Joanne Harris
74. A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
75. The World To Come by Dara Horn
76. Forever by Pete Hamill
77. The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
78. Margaret Wise Brown Awakened By the Moon by Leonard S. Marcus
79. Wandering Star by J.M.G. Le Clezio
80. Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
81. The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
82. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
83. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
84. Magic Seeds by V.S. Naipaul
85. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
86. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
87. Divine Comedy by Dante
88. Complete Prose by Woody Allen
89. Glass Book of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist
90. We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle
91. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
92. Native American in the Land of the Shogun by Frederik L. Schodt
93. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
94. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
95. The Call of the Weird by Louis Theroux
96. Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
97.Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
98. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
99. The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike

100. Florence Broadhurst - her secret and extraordinary lives by Helen O'Neil

So...the Japanese authors that were on my list before now have a new place...

1. Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami Haruki

2. Five by Endo Shusaku

and the list making continues...

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Oh, MY BOOK is still being written. My pace is a little slower than before but I still have lots of chapters to write out from my notes.

Everyday at work there is something new that inspires me. I take every "episode" and kind of twist it around to fit the dark but funny world my characters inhabit.

So many interesting people in the world....

86 to 96 on my list of books to read

Uh-oh.  I haven't included the book that will, no doubt, be helpful for my current "novel adventure".

...

Dante's "Inferno".  I suppose since I know the story I fell like I've read it... However, that will not do, so it goes on my list of 100 books to read.  Might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone (enlightenment and research).

Ngh...

I'm a vegetarian, and I just realized I really don't like that expression...kill, bird...argh.

Ah, so here are a few more to add to my list that previous

ly stopped at number eight-five.

86. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

87. Divine Comedy by Dante

?

Recurring theme here?

ANYWAY,

88. Complete Prose by Woody Allen

89. Glass Book of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist

90. Five by Endo Shusaku

91. The Keep by Jennifer Egan

92. Native American in the Land of the Shogun by Frederik L. Schodt

93. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (I think I read a kiddy edition when I was little but that doesn't                                                                        count so here it is!)

94. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

95. The Call of the Weird by Louis Theroux

Oh good heavens...FINALLY number 96...

96. Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson

So, four more to go.

As for my "novel adventure" it is still going pretty well.  I am writing chapters out of order though.

I have a map in my head so I know where I am headed and feel rather comfortable shifting back and forth in time.  

I just wish I had more time to read things like Dante so that I can learn something from the "masters".  

I shouldn't even be blogging right now ... but it is very therapeutic...

Speaking of therapeutic, must go take a bath in candlelight...aahhh.

This could be a miracle but I am still writing!

I have been writing like a "mad woman"...  most of it in notebooks since I have been working a lot and for some reason most of my ideas have been popping into my head during work or during my one hour train commute.  It might have something to do with me not enjoying my 9 to 5  job ...I'm not sure.

I wanted to sit down and type today but yesterday I received a lovely birthday present and it inspired me to do something else creative.

You can find out what I did at my other blog.

As for my "book"... the MC (female) who is on a journey through a very wretched land (?) ... has come to a point in the story where she needs to go out on a limb and try to "rescue" somebody... she is one of the world's biggest procrastinators, or so she thinks... so I  am not sure how she intends to do this...

This writing "process" has been very unique for me.  It is as if I have almost no say in the story.

It is more like I am watching a film in my head and I am busy dictating it onto paper.  I know EXACTLY what everyone looks like and all the details of the MC's apartment etc... OMG the wallpaper...!

I'm a tad bit worried about dialect though!  Since their is this "odd" English "dude" who looks a lot like the current Dr Who.

I have no idea who I am going to ask to read this story first just to make sure my "English dude" doesn't sound like "a lame 38 year old American woman who has been living in Japan for over 20 years" .... any ideas?

Oh, and the "villain" of the story... "he" is turning out to be quite sneaky...Kevin Spacey/ Bobby Darin sneaky...(not the Usual Suspects sneaky).

Wish me luck!

Day 19 of writing

OK...I have been writing.  I just haven't posted about it.  Why?

I keep starting over! (Not editing.)

I have 5 stories going now...  I have had a tremendously inspiring week.  

for example:

new job = new people = new characters

Sakamoto Ryuichi's concert (I write about the experience here.)

So, now I have my original "The Strangest Story Ever" (8,023 words) along with (these are all file titles not real titles, I hope...)

+"That Girl that ended up in my embryo file" (8,054), 

+"The Romance of Curlicues and Dials" (roughly 3,000 this is still in notebook form so I'm not     sure), 

+"The Apple Book"(256 words...I think this is going to become a compilation of short stories)

+"Homage to If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" (still in notebook form so not sure about this         either but it looks around 1,000)

Total word count around 12,310.  It's supposed to b e 25,005.  Ooooops.

I can't stop thinking of more new things to write about... The more I write, the more daydreaming, the more I see things in everyday life that seem interesting to write about etc...

I should have given my blog a different address. 

...

I will think about priorities later, this is a time for me to let it all out.  I will keep writing whatever strikes my fancy for the remaining 11 days.  If I let my "inner editor" into the gate now it will probably drive me so crazy that I will dump all the files in the garbage can and THAT WILL NOT DO.

 

So, although I am failing terribly with NaNoWriMo, I think it is good that I am writing again.

Like I said before, starting a new job and a new novel around the same time is NOT a good idea.

AND I agree that if your trying to write a novel in 30 days, it IS a good idea to start on the first instead of in the middle of the month since...you forget where you are...very easily...

I will continue to write about my progress on all the above titles and whatever else pops out of my head.  Then, I will edit and start another attempt at a novel in 30 days, this time starting on the first of the month.

Day 15 of writing and the dreaded 3rd week

Ah, write, write, do not stop, keep going...

My advice to anyone who is starting to write...don't start when you are also starting to work at a new job...too hard.  Give the new job at least a month.  You need time to settle.  I needed time to settle...

OK, but I think I am back on track.  Word count is still at 8,000.  Not good for the beginning of the third week.  BUT I have had time to be with my characters at one of the most critical times in my own life and I think they are helping

 me...

I am still afraid to put anything about the details of the story online.  However, I can say this:

It is the story of Kyrie, a girl who has almost every nook and cranny of the cobblestone street that runs through the middle of her town, paved into her mind.
It is also a story of hope, courage, pride, love and of scary things that we can’t see.

Day 4 of writing

Ah, I have reached the "required" number of words for the 4th day.  My count is currently at 5,052.  I should be happy but I feel a little dizzy. Another character has popped up.  Out of the blue.  I don't know what she is doing on the pages I write now.  She has nothing to do with the story I've been telling for the past 3 days, as far as I can tell.  The town I wrote about the other day is working out nicely.  It is a nice town.  But this new character...what does she want?

I see the road ahead of me, but I have no idea where it is going to lead....

I haven't been this scared in a long time.  Eeek.

Day 3 of writing

Although I can't go into the details I will try to post on my progress as the adventure unfolds.

My main character (MC) did not like the little village I put her in.  It was too dusty and "old".

I don't even know why I wrote "village", it just popped out but since we are not supposed to edit, I kept going.  She raised her eyebrows, shook her head sideways, took my hand and gave me a tour of her "town".  My MC now lives in a town.

A small town, but a town nonetheless.

She finds something on the outskirts of the town though...it looked just like a building I had found about a month ago on my excursion in Kitano, Kobe...this is what it looks like:

This is what I saw when I peeked through a wooden gate...

and this is what my MC  had seen as well.  I had no idea she was already traveling with me.

Yesterday was a doozy so I didn't get to write, which is a bad BAD thing to do...you should NOT break the flow.  However, what is done is done.  So today the journey must tread forward for about 2,500 words.