Literary circles: Which books have you read more than once?

All of the recent buzz about the "Les Miserables" movie (tremendous, I say!) has made me want to jump back into the source material, Victor Hugo's luminous novel.

I read it -- that is, finished reading it -- about 18 years ago. I checked it out of the university library my first quarter on campus, probably in a burst of idealism that hadn't yet been squashed by cramming study sessions, roommate adjustments, minimal sleep and the need to survive. I actually thought I'd have time for leisure reading! So cute.

Didn't matter. Back in my dorm I realized the weighty book I'd hefted home was Volume 2. The library had no other copies available and I dropped my pursuit as I was swallowed by economics and biology texts instead.

The following summer a church speaker included Les Miserables on her list of great books.  It was the second time I'd heard the book referenced in church; the first was when my Laurel teacher (for ages 16 and 17) told us the story of the thief Jean Valjean and the priest who helped him.

I bought my own copy, dabbling in it here and there. My second summer after college I had three jobs so I could pay upfront for the next year of housing. Was I crazy? Probably. Add to this that I didn't have my own car. Yep, crazy. When I took the bus from one restaurant job to the next a county away, Les Miserables was my companion. I loved it. Passage after passage spoke to me. I was in awe that a translation could remain so poetic.

Still, it's a very long book, and I hadn't completed it before more school, internships, engagement and marriage took over my focus. Finally, on a quiet summer night when Jeff was asleep, I finished. I was well fed.

It's been a treat to reread my well-marked copy, to see what was important to me then, what stands out even more now. I suspect it may take me just as long to read it this time around, (I've already read two different novels in the time I started Les Mis again), but that's OK. I actually look forward to the extended journey and contemplation.

One thing I've really liked in my second read, and which I'd kind of forgotten because the Broadway and new movie adapatations don't dwell enough on it, is the depth of Bishop Digne's character.

Here are just a few passages I love:

• "The most beautiful of altars," he said, "is the soul of an unhappy man who is comforted and thanks God."

• He would not be deterred from traveling far distances to visit those in need, even if meant encountering highway robbers.

"But Monseigneur, the bandits?"
"True enough," said the bishop, "you're right. I may meet them. They too must need someone to tell them of God's goodness."

• And this, which I'm thinking of framing: (yeah, right, how often do my projects get off the ground?)

Sometimes he would dig in his garden, and sometimes he would read and write. He had only one name for these two kinds of work: gardening. "The spirit is a garden," he said.

Maybe after I've finished reading it all the way, I'll write more about how this book has affected me, and do it justice. For now I'd really like to know --  What books are your favorite? In a world of so many options, what books have been so amazing that you've taken the time to read them more than once?



My multiple reads: 

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte. I know my friend doesn't like this one (hi, Circe!), but I do. I think it's so much more than a romance.

Peace Like a River, Leif Enger

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett. I think this is my perennial January read, when I need to be reminded of the transformation of spring. It will come, right?

The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas. OK, so I read an abridged version the first time and followed it with the entire tome. Glad I did!



Loved it the first time, but was disappointed the second:

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy


Read it all the way, hoping to eventually like it because it's a classic, but just couldn't: 

Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux


Critically acclaimed books I started and dropped midstream: 

Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen. I just could not get into this, and then felt somewhat validated when controversy arose over its truthfulness.

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant

Wicked, Gregory Maguire



Please leave a comment!

The official update

I am really embarrassed at the need to clarify my last post. Kyle didn't write it, I did! I truly thought everyone would know it was me, and I even assured Kyle as much.

In fact, when sending a holiday letter around er, the holidays was a possibility, he and I had discussed how fun it would be to write it from his somewhat myopic perspective. With Christmas behind us, he didn't think a letter was still in the offing. So for me to have done it in blog form mortified him. (Not the content, mind you, because that's all true.)

"Now everyone's going to think I write a blog!" he lamented. Oh, the horror! (Joining anything remotely akin to his mother's interests = kiss of death.)

"Don't worry, Kyle, they'll all know it was me."

Oops.

In honoring Kyle's wish to set the record straight, I also don't want to crush the believers. Thank you for championing Kyle and cheering him on ...  no matter who's speaking his mind. ;)



And now on to a non-comprehensive update of what we've been up to in my three months of blog hiatus:

We

• Got exhausted climbing the steps of the St. George Temple with cute cousin Greenliee.

• Made Elise blush during an Apples to Apples game.  (Something to do with a card labeled "boyfriend" and the notorious tease, Uncle Jeff.) Isn't that gray and white wall in the background striking? My creative sister-in-law Madison stenciled it.

• Filled our St. George trip with more games. I'm still not sure whether my Jeff pitched the idea of our trip, THEN planned hikes with his friends; or if he had the hikes already planned and eased me into the idea with the chance to see my brother. No matter. It was a fun trip. He took Kyle and Emma on one of the hikes. Later the wife of one of Jeff's hiking friends asked me how Emma was doing. What?! Turns out they dropped her and her rappel line. But because she had landed in the creek she didn't think anything was amiss. Tough girl. 

• Had fun with pumpkins. Kissing, mimicking, upstaging.

•Vowed to NEVER AGAIN go visiting teaching the week of an election. 

• Captured a rare moment of sisterly affection. (Yeah, Elise's expression is a clue.)

• Breezily celebrated birthday 11.

• Quietly turned 41 (in the shadows!)

"Happy Birth ay" greetings were brought to me by my darling friend Melinda, and a D-snitching child who still won't fess up. (I think it was Emma.)

• On Dec. 14, cried, cried and cried some more because of the school shooting in Connecticut.

• Dismissed end-of-the-world theories with this wisdom from Emma: "Well, if the Mayans couldn't predict the end of their own civilization, why should we believe them?"


• Scratched our heads at Kyle's parking job. After finally clinching the good student discount and landing on our insurance, we let him drive. The very first day, he took Emma to mutual, came home and lodged the car in the garage. You couldn't back out onto the driveway. This is the doorframe into the house. We had to remove shelving and the freezer to make room for Jeff's 40-minute journey of carefully angled short spurts forward and back. Hoo-boy.

• Celebrated a wonderful Christmas with our families, and look forward to a great 2013. I hope it involves all of you in many happy ways.

The holiday letter that wasn't

Hey.

This is Kyle.

I asked my mom before Christmas if we were going to do a card. She said sure. Then I asked her again after Christmas. She said sure, go ahead.

All right. I'm the only one that had anything cool happen last year anyway.


I turned 16!!!!! I got my license. I got a job at a fast-food place. It kinda sucks (Uh-oh, Mom doesn't like me to talk like that). I'd rather not work but it helped me to get money to buy a really sick longboard (that I had to walk all the way to the mall in the heat to buy). My mom was visiting teaching and I wanted it right now. I don't know why Mom and Dad wouldn't take me.

One day at the end of summer when my mom wasn't home I forgot if I worked later that night, so I wanted to go to work to check my schedule. So I got on the longboard. The hills by my house are sick. Sweet ride! But I hit a curb or something and fell off. I don't really remember. I took pictures of myself with my phone and texted some cool shots of my bleeding head to my friends. Then Mom got home and said I needed to go to the doctor. Whatever.

It was cool how all the nurses looked at me. I was an official longboarder! Yeah! I broke my nose, got stitches by my eye and had to go somewhere for some scan on my head.  Oh, I had a concussion too. Because of that the doctor wouldn't let me work. I guess I didn't work that night after all, ha ha.

It wasn't so bad until a guy called me that night and asked me to give a talk in church the next Sunday. And it was my Eagle Court too. At least I healed before yearbook pictures! Juniors rock!

Another cool thing this year was that I got to baptize James. Oh, I guess that was his thing, too.

I think my sisters are still doing ballet. Wait, I know Emma is, 'cause I've driven to pick her up. I know Elise is still doing violin because she always practices right when I'm trying to listen to a youtube video or do something else on the computer. James and Samuel make a lot of noise, that's all I know. Oh, yeah. Samuel started kindergarten.

I take guitar. I'm always thinking of the next concert I want to go to. My mom teaches piano lessons but I still haven't figured out her weekly schedule. All I know is it never works with my plans. My Dad is STILL in Scouts.

We went on a cool trip to the Oregon Coast. It would have been better if they let ME drive.

Well I guess that's about it. Oh, yeah, it's my birthday this week.


Chill,

Kyle