21 September 2010

What I'm reading: 9/21/10

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, published in 1975

A quick enjoyable read. The Prologue is a great example of a good hook - in fact, if you read it I'm sure you'll continue with the rest of the book, even if you don't read "Young Adult" books (more on YA later). I'm about halfway through and I'm thinking about using it in my classroom.

The main character is a little girl who is suffocated by her family at home, she runs away and is kidnapped by a family of immortals. She quickly falls in with them, but the question remains, will she join them?


Tennyson: Selected Poems, ed. by Myra Reynolds, published in 1913

An old book I bought at an estate sale. I'm only into the first sketch on Tennyson's life, but I'm looking forward to reading the actual poetry.

It's always good to read about struggling writers, especially someone like Tennyson as we know the power of his talent now. The first few publications of Tennyson's work were torn apart by critics and, following the death of his best friend, Arthur Hallam and other family struggles, from 1832-1841 he published nothing. During the ten year period Tennyson honed his craft and reworked his initial work. The next year, however, brought Poems by Alfred Tennyson and his fame was instant. Wordsworth commented, "He is decidedly the first of our living poets."

A good reminder that nothing worth reading comes easily.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...