Also reading this week

"The Yankee Years: Joe Torre" by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci. It was a birthday gift from my wife. I've only just begun it, but I'm already fascinated by the contrasts between Torre's tenatious, glove-tight four World Series teams early in his stint in New York and the confederacy of contract players in pinstripes today.

"A Field Guide to Monsters," by Dave Elliott. A terrific throwback to my youth, where nothing was better than watching "Monster Movie Matinee" on WSYR on a Saturday afternoon.

"Recipe for Disaster: The Formula that Killed Wall Street," by Felix Salmon in Wired.

“Howard’s End” is an old friend

Some books are like good friends from high school. You look them up every now and again because you know them so well and they never fail to make you happy. “Howard’s End” is one of those books for me.

It is a particularly important book for me because of the way I first encountered it. Not as the book, and not as the movie, but as a two-person show presented (it seemed at the time) in the middle of the night in a seminary in southern Indiana.

Let me explain.

Waaaaay back in 1989, I spent almost a week visiting St. Meinrad College in tiny St. Meinrad, Indiana. I was considering going to the school, where I would consider going to the seminary there. As a married man with six kids, I guess it’s pretty clear it wasn’t my destiny to be a priest, but at the time, I wasn’t so sure.

The day I arrived, I met some students, toured the beautiful campus and archabby and went to Mass a good half-dozen times. And that night, I joined the students and a good number of the Benedictine monks who lived there in watching a husband-and-wife duo perform “Howard’s End.”

Now, there are probably a dozen characters in the book, and keeping track of who the actors were supposed to be at any moment was hard at first. Still, I was very impressed with their performance, and enjoyed the night immensely.

It seemed very late at night, and it was scorching hot. I sweltered in my best suit. I was far away from home for the first time, in a strange land of priests and monks, and the whole thing took on a very surreal feel.

After, I was introduced to the performers at a quaint little reception. I remember how pleased they seemed at being treated so well by their small, strange audience. It occurred to me there may not be many venues for their kind of work.

Anyway, I read the book shortly after returning home (convinced I was no priest-to-be), and loved it.

I would love to know the name of the duo that performed that night. I wonder if they’re still on the road someplace. Anybody know?

Next Up: "Howard's End"

My next read on the Modern Library's top 100 novels list is No. 38, E.M. Forster's "Howard's End." It's probably my favorite Forster, and one of three of his novels on the list. "A Room With a View" is No. 79 and "A Passage to India" is No. 25.

Waiting for me at the Steele Memorial Libary is No. 99 on the Modern Library's non-fiction ranking, "Operating Instructions" by Anne Lamott.

"Ambersons:" Something less than magnificent

Tarkington, Image via Wikipedia

I enjoyed Booth Tarkington's "The Magnificent Ambersons," No. 100 on the Modern Library List of the top 100 fiction books of the 20th century. Here's my evaluation:

Title: "The Magnificent Ambersons."
Author: Booth Tarkington, 1869-1946.
Published: 1918.
One-Sentence Plot summary: Aristocratic, arrogant George Minifer, last scion of an old-money family at the heart of a growing Midwest city, endures the decay of the society he was expecting to inherit.
Opening line: "Major Amberson had 'made a fortune' in 1873, when other people were losing fortunes, and the magnificence of the Ambersons began then."
The message: There's hope for everyone, even an insufferable snob.
My rating: 3 out of 5, entertaining, but not particularly moving.
My ranking: 50 out of 100 (rankings will change as I complete more books on the Modern Library list).

No reading this morning

There’s a “Brady Bunch” marathon on TVLand.

I am such a loser.

Other good reads

Other things I’m reading this week:

“Attaching in Adoption” by Deborah D. Gray and “Parenting the Hurt Child” by Gregory C. Keck and Regina M. Kupecksy, for a paper in my psychology class at Corning Community College.

The article on blue whales in the March issue of National Geographic.

Former USA Today reporter and editor Jim Hopkins’ most excellent Gannett Blog, at http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/, charting the fall of a once-great company.

Hits and Misses at www.stargazette.com.

How to rate the books?

As I’m finishing up “The Magnificent Ambersons,” I’m beginning to wonder how I should rate each book.

My initial thought is I should consider them in two ways. First, I want to measure my own enjoyment of the book, and secondly, I want to rank it against all the other books on the Modern Library lists. That is to say, does “The Magnificent Ambersons” belong on a list of the top 100 novels of the 20th century, and if so, where?

So there will be a two-pronged system. I’ll rate the books on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being an unqualified masterpiece and 1 being a book I’d not recommend to anyone. Then, I’ll place the book on my own top 100 list. As I read and add books to the list, each title will move up or down, depending on my reactions to the others.

I will post a static page with the rankings and the ratings, to keep it easy to find.

Testing 1, 2, 3

This is a test posting via Windows Live Writer on my other computer.

How to tell a Tarkenton from a Tarkington

Fran Tarkenton: Born Feb. 3, 1940 in Richmond, Va.
Booth Tarkington: Born July 29, 1869 in Indianapolis, Ind.

Tarkenton: Played college ball at the University of Georgia.
Tarkington: Never actually graduated from Purdue University.

Tarkenton: Third-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 1961.
Tarkington: Drew praise as an actor with Princeton University’s Triangle Club.

Tarkenton: Was the NFL MVP for 1975.
Tarkington: Won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize for “The Magnificent Ambersons” and another in 1922 for “Alice Adams.”

Tarkenton: Played in, and lost, three Super Bowls.
Tarkington: Served in the Indiana House of Representatives in 1902.

Tarkenton: Was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986.
Tarkington: Orson Welles filmed “The Magnificent Ambersons” in 1942, and it is frequently included, along with Welles’ “Citizen Kane,” on lists of the greatest American films.

Tarkenton: Post-football career included hosting “That’s Incredible!”
Tarkington: Wrote right up until his death in 1946.

Tarkenton: Surprise tidbit: Was a pioneer in software engineering.
Tarkington: Surprise tidbit: Illustrated some of his own books, and those of other writers.

Twainish

There is a scene very early in "The Magnificent Ambersons" reminiscent of one in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

In "Ambersons," young Georgie Minifer encounters a new boy and challenges him to a fight. Sawyer has a similar encounter, but in Twain's book, it is the new boy who is the dandy, wearing shoes and everything. Minifer is the fancypants in his fight.

Just like in "Tom Sawyer," the encounter progresses through threats, insults and dares to combat. Sawyer's fight, though, is intended to show boys being boys. Tarkington uses Georgie's fight to show us what a nasty little boy he really is. Not only does Minifer beat the new boy mercilessly, he turns his rage on the boy's uncle, too. He tells the man, the town's Methodist minister, to go to hell, an act that only solidifies Georgie's reputation as a really bad boy.

Two passages so far that I love: Lucy Morgan is touched when George apologizes for driving them into the wind so long. "Arrogance turned gentle melts the heart," Tarkington writes.

And earlier, when two old friends meet at a party, they remark on how many things have changed.
"Old times," Lucy's father says, "Not a bit! There aren't any old times. When times are gone they're not old, they're dead. There aren't any times but new times!"

That doesn't bode well for folks like the Ambersons, who don't seem to have much a future.