An addition to my library: “The Knitter’s Book of Yarn: the ultimate guide to choosing, using, and enjoying yarn” by Clara Parkes

A very exciting addition to my library, with the help of lovely Alice, is a very pretty book about yarns I’ve been coveting for many months. No I did not break my 2010 literary resolution—this book was acquired back in Dec. I, however, have only now started to read the book.

In The Knitter’s Book of Yarn: the ultimate guide to choosing, using, and enjoying yarn, Clara Parkes patiently teaches the reader about yarns handknitters would encounter from the fibers themselves to the end product in skeins. The book contains a lot of useful, but not an overwhelming dose of, information about yarn fibers, production, and quality. I especially appreciate her explanations on how to match the fiber content and the weight of a yarn with a specific pattern (design), a task that is both exciting and daunting for a novice knitter. The book makes me a more knowledgeable matchmaker for my next project. This, I think, explains and excuses the fact that the patterns in the book aren’t super exciting or novel. If you read the pattern notes, you can learn a lot about how to pair a pattern to a yarn.

Oh and of course, I enjoy this book a lot because I love the construction of the book itself: a delightful cover (featuring yarn flowers!); a bright orange inside cover; thick papers inside that are perfect for underlining and note taking. I did, however, wish there were more photos of the yarns/fibers themselves and illustrations of some of the concepts mentioned, for example, showing the difference between a woolen vs. worsted spun yarns.

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This is the second book I own that I would consider domestic, containing knowledge that every girl even a few generations would consider common knowledge but completely mysterious to me and my peers. My other domestic book is a comprehensive guide on how to keep house: Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson.

I am not required to keep house obsessively or to knit. And I do wonder if I get excited about yarns because it’s a hobby and not an obligation. If the many years I logged in the classroom involved learning practical things, would these mundane knowledge about keeping house and fiber choosing be horribly boring to me? Well, the only way to find out is to make math optional and see if kids clamor to buy up calculus books and have integral sessions at Starbucks.

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This yarn book is also one of those books that can only be appreciated by readers with a certain amount of experience. While reading this book, I frequently told myself how wonderful it would’ve been if I had read this book back when I first started knitting. This book could’ve saved me from some bad yarn purchases or inappropriate yarn pairing to a pattern. Oh but I should not kid myself, for no, I would not have been able to understand this book if it weren’t for my awful mistakes with yarns. If I had no experience touching different fibers and puzzling over them, the discussion on fibers would be meaningless. And if it weren’t for all the disastrous yarn/pattern pairings, I would not appreciate the knowledge imparted to me.

I just have to realize that certain books can only be appreciated after accumulating mistakes. For example, I read The Elements of Style by Strunk and White back in the eighth grade and found the book awfully boring and full of information no one can possibly find helpful. I again read the book a couple of years back after I had given myself enough time to make oh-so-many writing mistakes (probably all the most egregious ones in the book). And this time I truly appreciated the advice and saw that the book was a gem. Yes, when I look at the little volume, it does sparkle happily on my bookshelf.

So mistakes are not to be feared because they make knowledge more yummy. I guess mistakes makes us more teachable too. So I am not afraid to knit or write badly. I am, however, terrified of technology. It made me feel perplexed and profoundly uncomfortable to buy a new lappy or try a USB drive for the first time. Technology is so super scary that I still have the impulse to do all my writing on my Moleskines instead of this electronic typewriter that connects to the internet. The issue is intuition. I don’t know when things go wrong and I have no gut feeling about how to fix the problems. I also don’t know how things work so everything is a profound mystery. That’s why even though I have recently started to covet an E-book reader (okay, I’ll say it—a “Kindle”), I will never be able to think of a book having a flat screen. Something about that makes me feel uneasy.

Ah, so I shall end this entry about everything and nothing. This is the result of a wicked headache that I hope will go away soon.

A (short) review: “How I got published: Famous Authors Tell You in Their Own Words” Edited by Ray White & Duane Lindsay.

I recently read How I Got Published: Famous Authors Tell you in Their Own Words edited by Ray White and Duane Lindsay. Even though I wasn’t familiar with the writers (a lot of them seem to be mystery/thriller writers and I don’t read that genre very much), I enjoyed the book. It gives a realistic yet inspirational glimpse into what writers do after they toil away and have typed up a manuscript.

The book is essentially a collection of advice for new/unpublished writers. The sage voices vary in style/tone and the authors have had different degrees of luck. Still the advice consistently boils down to: you’re a writer if you are compelled to write and actually write; don’t give up; however, don’t quit your day job (yet).

I think it’s courageous that these writers produce manuscripts and keep plugging along rejection after rejection with absolutely no guarantee of success. Even though the advice is specifically about writing, the suggestion is generally helpful to all young people: there are no guarantees so do what you love, don’t give up, but (of course) have a backup plan (i.e. a job).

The advice aside, I loved reading about what is a completely mysterious process behind the writing and the publication of books.

Going native: reading “Fieldwork” by Mischa Berlinski

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski depicts the variations in the attempts to see the world through someone else’s eyes. Most of us don’t do this: we’re born into a culture and learn to consider the world through its point of view for the rest of our lives. A few of us, however, venture out. There’s always a primary aim: religion, journalism, anthropology. Oh but whatever the motivation for donning a different set of lens, Berlinski shows us that leaving one’s rock solid point of view invariably is dizzying for the soul. The characters in the novel then discover the absolutely additive and all consuming nature of trying to escape one’s assumptions to see the world anew.

The anthropologist, the missionary, and the journalist in the novel enter the expedition without realizing that once started, there is no going back. Seeing the characters warped into their obsessions is fascinating. You want to tell them to go back to their ordinary, content lives. But a part of you hope they don’t for this is a chance for the you to live vicariously through the characters’ ever precarious psyches.

Well, I liked the book a lot. The story was quite clever, in my opinion. The only part that I found completely incredulous were not the spirits and the souls, but the very last paragraph: I don’t think academics get paid (well) to publish their papers in journals! Clearly that’s a minor point, but it still annoyed me. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this unique and exciting story.

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This is the third anthropological fiction I read. The other two were Return to Laughter by Elenore Smith Bowen and The innocent anthropologist by Nigel Barley. When there is a career that interests me, I obsessively read about the experience. I also like to read about intense and obsessive characters and anthropological novels have not failed to give me those compelling characters.

Not surprising then, I suppose, that my next portable-reading-in-the-public-book is another anthropological novel: Far Afield by Susanna Kaysen. I bought the book back in my second year in college, not because of the ethnographic theme, but more in spite of it (anthropology wasn’t terribly interesting to me then). I liked Girl, Interrupted, written also by Susanna Kaysen, so I figured I may like Far Afield. Well, von voyage to me as I head over to the Faroe Islands with the book via the NYC subway.

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Is it possible to understand a fiction written by someone from a different culture when we are all so entrenched in our own? Of course we can read Tolstoy and Borges and be moved for there is more the humanity shares than not (otherwise anthropology would be impossible). But still, we must be seeing everything we read from where we are in history, culture, and point of development. What would it be like to understand fiction as the author saw it? For me, Latin American literature tastes different when I read it in Spanish. It’s not an issue of translation so  much as the fact that each language has its own pulse. And when you read in a different language, doesn’t the fabric of consciousness feels a bit unfamiliar and the world look a shade different?

It’s ultimately impossible to see the world from another’s point of view because it’s impossible to (completely) shed the self. But reading novels, and consequently accumulating them in our minds must help us get a glimpse of what it’s like to see everything from a different cosmic point of view. That is the power of the novels and if you think about it, it’s pretty scary. Clearly we should be more circumspect about encouraging kids to read or recommending books to friends.

2010 Literary Resolution!

Although I’ve made several hopeful new years resolutions (including one about this blog), I did not make one related to reading. Jan 1 is already a fading memory, but I am only now ready to make my 2010 literary resolution. I’d like to argue that the beginning of Feb, when the new year is still minty fresh but not shiny new, is the best time to make a new year’s resolution. A brand new year, unsullied by the marks inevitably made by living through it, inspires us to turn a bunch of unrealistic hopes into resolutions. We now, in the midst of February concerns, have the ability to make more sensible resolutions when 2010 has become a dreary winter reality.

And here is a dreadful and embarrassing reality I need to come clean about: my literary backlog is so bad that it’s even worse than my email backlog.

I am simply drowning in printed pages. I have way too many books I am a partially through and many I want to begin but don’t get around to starting because I am constantly buying more books. I have erected many piles of books: there is one on my bedside table, one on the floor by my bed, another on my desk, and another one, two, three on my coffee table. Books stay on the shelves for me. The ones that became members of these nonfunctional pillars represent my delusion: they are the books I am “currently reading” or books I think I will get to soon.

So, I must put a stop to this nonsense of accumulating printed pages at an ungodly rate. Two Saturday ago, I bought my last book for awhile for my secret project no. iv. And here is my literary resolution in three parts:

1. I will read what I want to and not feel guilty about what I am reading because of what I am not reading.
2. I will not buy any more books until mid-May.
3. I will read books I own, books I borrow, and books I am given.

I hope this will help me get rid of my literary backlog by finally reading the books I’ve acquired. I am actually quite excited to finally read the books I have been wanting to read for years (for example: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond, The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton, The Savage Mind by Claude Levi-Strauss). An added benefit, of course, is that I’ll save some money. But most importantly, I think it’d be nice to look at my shelves instead of turning my back on them constantly trying to build my library.

So the resolution is, more than anything else, a training for an attitude change. My reading pattern of constantly starting new books and being afraid of running out of pages when clearly I am not finishing all the books I own already is a manifestation of a deeper issue. I am terribly afraid of commitment. I am constantly fretting over getting stuck. These pathological attitudes keep me from being a productive and non-neurotic human being. I hope that by changing my reading pattern for a while (oh and yes, it’s temporary—you are not trapped) and committing to my current library, I will learn how to be committed to this life and myself.

Now I am not terribly worried about running out of things to read. In fact, I am pretty confident (according to my rough estimate) that I will not run out even if no one ever lends me a book. But please, I’d appreciate it if you do for that will add an element of exciting experimentation to my reading this year.

If you see me reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion, then be happy for me because I am making a dent in my literary backlog. However, if you see me reading my organic chemistry textbook, please please have pity on me and lend me a book.

R.I.P J.D. Salinger and Howard Zinn

We lost two great writers in one day: both J.D. Salinger and Howard Zinn passed away last Wed.

I have always liked Salinger’s Franny and Zooey more than The Catcher in the Rye. In fact, Franny and Zooey was my favorite book in high school. I still remember gobbling up the book one hot summer night in 10th grade.

I have never finished Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States for the reason that it is too depressing and I can’t seem to take more than one chapter at a time.

Rest in Peace.

Required Reading

The Morgan Library & Museum is doing an exhibition called “A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy.” I plan on going there this Sunday and I am so excited. How wonderful it is that I get to visit when I am at the height of my Austen obsession! But one little prickly yet very exciting task: I am, in preparation for the visit, reading Pride and Prejudice this week.

How can I feel ambivalent about having to read Pride and Prejudice? While I am definitely enjoying the book, it is having a deadline that makes me a bit nervous. I do set reading goals for myself but this is different: I absolutely must read this book by Sunday as I’ve made a commitment not only to myself but to a close friend as well. I guess I can say, if I don’t in fact finish, that I’ve read the book when I was a teenager. But I don’t think it counts as I absolutely hated the book so much back then that it’s amazing I even got to the end. That is to say, I didn’t understand the book. So without a suitable excuse for not finishing, I have no choice but to read and enjoy.

But oh I am no longer used to doing a required reading. The deadline, oh the deadline, looms large! How will I concentrate and enjoy the prose when I am afraid I won’t make it? Yes, yes, I divided the number of pages by the number of days and yes yes, it is a doable number of pages per day. But still I fret.

I don’t know how I juggled all the required reading for many years as a student when the number of pages per day was not particularly doable. But then again, I did not juggle so well…

Tisk tisk…

It’s only the middle of Jan and you already started falling behind your blogging schedule?!? Terribly flaky!

Well, I am a bit under the weather so I need to head to bed early. But I promise to be back to the tue/thr posting schedule next week!