Fan fiction: Good or Bad?

This article on the role of fan fiction in the literary market intrigued me. I first learned about fan fiction last year when I was in teachers college. We discussed how you could use fan fiction in the English classroom to get students actively involved in their own writing using inspiration from characters and stories that they love. I checked out the site and perused stories from books and TV shows that I love such as Harry Potter and I was hooked. The quality of some of the writing surprised me the most as there are some amazing writers out there creating truly inspired stories. I also started noticing fan fiction in the literary world at large. I read a book titled The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen that took fan fiction from the interweb and put it on the page. A quick look around the book store showed me that this was not the only novel that took its inspiration from other books and I started wondering what role does fan fiction play in writing, inspiration, and creativity??

I'll leave you with some examples of fan fiction that I have found in the book world. If you can think of any others or if you have any thoughts to share on fan fiction please feel free to comment.

Books in books

I am always super curious when authors reference other books in their own. It always makes me stop and ponder why they chose those books and what they are trying to say by the reference. In a scene in Lord of the Flies Ralph, the designated leader of the boys, is day dreaming about his life before the island and he pictures his book shelf. He tells us about the kinds of books he sees there and references specifically The Boys Book of Ships, The Boys Book of Trains, and The Mammoth Book for Boys. To me these books symbolized a more civilized and simple time and made a stark contrast between the boy who read those books and the boy that has to make all the life and death decisions on the island. I think it was at this point in the book that I really realized that this is truly a story about little boys trying to survive and growing up too fast in the process.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"I got the conch! Just you listen! The first thing we ought to have made was shelters down there by the beach. It wasn't half cold down there in the night. But the first time Ralph says "fire" you goes howling and screaming up this hear mountain. Like a pack of kids!"
Lord of the Flies - William Golding  

Honey Moon

I am off on my honeymoon today! We are taking a Baltic cruise for 12 days and I can't wait to come back with lots of stories to tell you and maybe some inspiration to read some Baltic authors. Not to worry though I have posts queued up for while I am gone. I am hoping to get some reading done while I am away. I need to finish Lord of the Flies and I would love to start and finish The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen so stay tuned for reviews. Hopefully we don't miss the boat a la I Love Lucy! Did anyone else watch that show? My mom was a huge fan so I grew up on it. 

100 best closing lines

My sister used to start a new book by reading the last line and I always thought she risked spoiling certain things about the story to come but it was her system. I came across this great list of the 100 best last lines and it was really fun to read through. Some of them inspired me to pick up a new book, some brought back wonderful memories from books I have loved, and some were just puzzling - no offense to Twilight(I have read all 4) but does Breaking Dawn really make the 100 best last lines???? Check it out and tell me what your favourite last line is.

A Library of My Own: European Queens Giveaway!!

Look at this amazing give away that A Library of My Own is doing. I love historical fiction so fingers crossed I win one of them!

A Library of My Own: European Queens Giveaway!!: "I've been remiss in posting a couple of extremely cool giveaways. The publishers are being awesome and letting me give away one copy of Beco..."

NPRs top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy books

As I was reading one of my favourite book blogs A Library of my Own and another book list caught my eye. NPR's top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy book list. I have always been a fan of fantasy/science fiction be it in movies or books so I would love to read more of the books on this list. Does anyone have any favourites they would recommend or comments about any of the books on the list or one ones that are missing?? Let me know! I have put a * beside the ones I have read. I have only read 6/100 so I have my work cut out for me.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien*2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman (just saw the movie on the weekend and loved it)
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell*
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley*
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood*
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley* I heart everything to do with the Arthur legends
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin (I am thinking of picking this book for my book club pick in October)
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy*
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger*
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Becoming an Aunt

As of early Friday morning I am officially an Aunt or Zia as I am going by to a gorgeous baby boy and I couldn't be happier!! In honour of my new nephew I thought I would showcase two of my favourite childhood books.

A lovely story about the relationship between a boy and a tree

The story of a princess who uses the magic of the balloon tree to save her village.

The Times 100 best English language novels from 1923-Present

It has been a long time goal of mine to read each and every one of the 100 novels on The Times list and I have been slowly working my way through them. It just so happens that my current read Lord of the Flies is amoung the 100. I thought I would post the list and give you guys an on going update on how I am doing. I hope this blog inspires me to get through the 100 and inspires you to pick up some of the classics as well. Let me know how many you have read and which ones you would recommend. I have put a * besides the one that I have read. I have my work cut out for me but I am up for the challenge. I own a lot of these books so now its time to pick them up.

Currently at 11

Full List

A - B

• The Adventures of Augie March (1953), by Saul Bellow
• All the King's Men (1946), by Robert Penn Warren
• American Pastoral (1997), by Philip Roth
• An American Tragedy (1925), by Theodore Dreiser
• Animal Farm (1946), by George Orwell*
• Appointment in Samarra (1934), by John O'Hara
• Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (1970), by Judy Blume
• The Assistant (1957), by Bernard Malamud
• At Swim-Two-Birds (1938), by Flann O'Brien
• Atonement (2002), by Ian McEwan*
• Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison*
• The Berlin Stories (1946), by Christopher Isherwood
• The Big Sleep (1939), by Raymond Chandler
• The Blind Assassin (2000), by Margaret Atwood*
• Blood Meridian (1986), by Cormac McCarthy
• Brideshead Revisited (1946), by Evelyn Waugh
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927), by Thornton Wilder

C - D

• Call It Sleep (1935), by Henry Roth
• Catch-22 (1961), by Joseph Heller
• The Catcher in the Rye (1951), by J.D. Salinger*
• A Clockwork Orange (1963), by Anthony Burgess
• The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), by William Styron
• The Corrections (2001), by Jonathan Franzen
• The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), by Thomas Pynchon
• A Dance to the Music of Time (1951), by Anthony Powell
• The Day of the Locust (1939), by Nathanael West
• Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), by Willa Cather
• A Death in the Family (1958), by James Agee
• The Death of the Heart (1958), by Elizabeth Bowen
• Deliverance (1970), by James Dickey
• Dog Soldiers (1974), by Robert Stone

F - G

• Falconer (1977), by John Cheever
• The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), by John Fowles
• The Golden Notebook (1962), by Doris Lessing*
• Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953), by James Baldwin
• Gone With the Wind (1936), by Margaret Mitchell*
• The Grapes of Wrath (1939), by John Steinbeck
• Gravity's Rainbow (1973), by Thomas Pynchon
• The Great Gatsby (1925), by F. Scott Fitzgerald*

H - I

• A Handful of Dust (1934), by Evelyn Waugh
• The Heart is A Lonely Hunter (1940), by Carson McCullers
• The Heart of the Matter (1948), by Graham Greene
• Herzog (1964), by Saul Bellow
• Housekeeping (1981), by Marilynne Robinson
• A House for Mr. Biswas (1962), by V.S. Naipaul
• I, Claudius (1934), by Robert Graves
• Infinite Jest (1996), by David Foster Wallace
• Invisible Man (1952), by Ralph Ellison

L - N

• Light in August (1932), by William Faulkner
• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), by C.S. Lewis
• Lolita (1955), by Vladimir Nabokov
• Lord of the Flies (1955), by William Golding
• The Lord of the Rings (1954), by J.R.R. Tolkien*
• Loving (1945), by Henry Green
• Lucky Jim (1954), by Kingsley Amis
• The Man Who Loved Children (1940), by Christina Stead
• Midnight's Children (1981), by Salman Rushdie
• Money (1984), by Martin Amis
• The Moviegoer (1961), by Walker Percy
• Mrs. Dalloway (1925), by Virginia Woolf
• Naked Lunch (1959), by William Burroughs
• Native Son (1940), by Richard Wright
• Neuromancer (1984), by William Gibson
• Never Let Me Go (2005), by Kazuo Ishiguro
• 1984 (1948), by George Orwell

O - R

• On the Road (1957), by Jack Kerouac
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), by Ken Kesey
• The Painted Bird (1965), by Jerzy Kosinski
• Pale Fire (1962), by Vladimir Nabokov
• A Passage to India (1924), by E.M. Forster
• Play It As It Lays (1970), by Joan Didion
• Portnoy's Complaint (1969), by Philip Roth
• Possession (1990), by A.S. Byatt
• The Power and the Glory (1939), by Graham Greene
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), by Muriel Spark
• Rabbit, Run (1960), by John Updike
• Ragtime (1975), by E.L. Doctorow
• The Recognitions (1955), by William Gaddis
• Red Harvest (1929), by Dashiell Hammett
• Revolutionary Road (1961), by Richard Yates

S - T

• The Sheltering Sky (1949), by Paul Bowles
• Slaughterhouse Five (1969), by Kurt Vonnegut
• Snow Crash (1992), by Neal Stephenson
• The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), by John Barth
• The Sound and the Fury (1929), by William Faulkner
• The Sportswriter (1986), by Richard Ford
• The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1964), by John le Carre
• The Sun Also Rises (1926), by Ernest Hemingway*
• Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), by Zora Neale Hurston
• Things Fall Apart (1959), by Chinua Achebe
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), by Harper Lee*
• To the Lighthouse (1927), by Virginia Woolf
• Tropic of Cancer (1934), by Henry Miller

U - W

• Ubik (1969), by Philip K. Dick
• Under the Net (1954), by Iris Murdoch
• Under the Volcano (1947), by Malcolm Lowry
• Watchmen (1986), by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
• White Noise (1985), by Don DeLillo
• White Teeth (2000), by Zadie Smith
• Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), by Jean Rhys

Graphic Novels

• Berlin: City of Stones (2000), by Jason Lutes
• Blankets (2003), by Craig Thompson*
• Bone (2004), by Jeff Smith
• The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (2002), by Kim Deitch
• The Dark Knight Returns (1986), by Frank Miller
• David Boring (2000), by Daniel Clowes
• Ed the Happy Clown (1989), by Chester Brown
• Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2000), by Chris Ware
• Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (2003), by Gilbert Hernandez
• Watchmen (1986), by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Lost vs Lord of the Flies

The comparison has been made and rightly so between Lord of the Flies and the hit television series Lost. Being a huge Lost fan myself I started to analyze the two stories and how they paralleled each other. The biggest similarity is that both tell the story of people trapped on a deserted island. Both groups attempt to recreate the society that they have left behind and we get to see that time on the island can bring out both the best and worst in peoples character. I am only about half way through Lord of the Flies but I can assume that I will not be seeing any time travel or Darma groups but none the less I can't help but agree that the book must have been an influence to the writers and creators of Lost at least in the first two seasons.

I'll leave you with a video that tells the story of Lord of the Flies using Lost characters. Spoiler warning for anyone who has not read the book. Just click on the Lost image below and it will take you to the video.

Conch Shell

I have had conch shells on my mind for the last few days and they have even been appearing in my dreams. My Nonna (Italian for grandmother) used to have one in her bathroom and I remember putting it up to my ear to hear the "sea" but until I started reading Lord of the Flies I hadn't really given them a second thought. The conch shell has played quite a large part in the first four chapters of the novel. So far it has been used to call the children to meeting and gives its holder the ability to speak to the group at large, acting as a symbol of order and even democracy. It will be interesting to see its role in the rest of the novel.

As I mentioned in my earlier post I have recently picked up Lord of the Flies by William Golding even though most of the plot twists have been revealed to my pop culture references. One of the most memorable references that I could think of to share with you is The Simpsons parody so enjoy and maybe it will inspire you to pick up the real thing.

Currently Reading

I feel like one of the only people who was not forced to read this book in high school and even though most of the plot has been pieced together from pop culture references it has always been a book I wanted to read in full. I have not actually started reading it as I only took it off the book shelf this morning but I wanted to keep you posted on what to expect in the near future.

Always Looking Up By Michael J Fox

As a child born in the 1980’s I spent a lot of time watching Michael J Fox on the big and small screen. The epic trilogy that is Back to the Future was a family favourite and the fact that Michael J Fox was Canadian made him all the more likable. I think it was the feeling of familiarity that made the announcement of Fox’s diagnoses with Parkinson’s hit so close to home.  Since his diagnoses I have always kept an eye out for information about his prognosis and his work in the community. Needless to say it did not take much encouragement for me to pick up his book Always Looking Up from my nearest book store. Now I don’t want you to think that it was only my admiration for Fox that compelled me to read this book because there was more to it then that; the title intrigued me right away. I wanted to be inspired and even though I hoped that Fox was not going to fill 200 odd pages with the power of positive thinking a la The Secret I was hoping for a heart wrenching story about survival. He did not disappoint.

Always Looking Up or as also described on the inside cover as The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist is broken into four parts; work, politics, faith, and family. The titles of these sections are pretty self explanatory and Fox does a great job of telling his story within the confines of each. One of the things that I loved about this book was that it wasn’t a play by play of Fox’s life. Instead he told stories that were relevant and tied them together with his message of survival.

I found the hardest section to get through yet the most educational was the one that concentrated on politics. Being Canadian the American system of government baffles me no matter how many American history courses I take. Of course when discussing the battle to cure Parkinson’s politics is something that can’t be ignored and after reading this book I can appreciate the battle that has been and continues to be fought by so many individuals and groups for stem cell research.There were moments of outrage and moments of celebration along the way and I can’t wait to see more progress and they battle on.

My favourite sections and the ones that touched me the most were faith and family. In the section on faith Fox discusses his struggle with a true sense of religion which is something I think about all the time. In the same section he tells us about the death of his sister with such candid you truly feel the raw emotion. When discussing family Fox talks about road trips, parenthood, and the event that changed so much September 11^th 2001.

The topics he picked were easily accessible to me and made reading a book about someone else’s life not so foreign. Fox has such an honest way of telling his story that really endears to the reader Back to the Future fan or not.