Book Review | Botchan by Natsume Soseki

Tags

book review, Botchan, Huckleberry Finn, japan, japanese, Matsuyama Ehime, Natsume Sōseki, Soseki, Tokyo

Botchan by Natsume Sōseki

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘Botchan‘ is an amusing account based on the ups and downs of the teaching profession which is closely related to Soseki’s own short-lived stint as a teacher in Matsuyama. It is one of the most widely read novels in Japan and I can see why; anyone who has ever been a student or a teacher can completely relate to the many naughty things teachers AND students get up to. Schools were and still are utterly insane environments, and will drive even the calmest person mad.

This is very much a summer read. It is mischievous and light-hearted with tones of Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn‘ running through it, as Botchan our slightly arrogant narrator, describes his early days as a juvenile delinquent and his karmic comeuppance as a pompous maths teacher. In the beginning Botchan comes across as a naughty kid who never really applies himself to his studies (unlike his brother) and is therefore always getting into all sorts of trouble. However, after his mother’s tragic death he learns to grow up pretty fast. His father and brother look upon him as a waste of space, yet Kiyo the family servant, treats him like a prince, always telling him how he will one day be a ‘great man’.

Never really having any real aims or goals, Botchan soon realises he must do something with his life. When his father dies and his brother sells the family house and moves away to set up his own business, Botchan decides to enroll himself in the Tokyo Academy of Physics, but even this is without any real enthusiasm. A few years later he is graduated and by chance offered the job of mathematics teacher in the backwater town of Matsuyama of all places.

On arrival he realises that Matsuyama is not as refined as Tokyo and it’s people (in his eyes) are equal to that of neanderthals. His observations of the townspeople, students and other professors of the faculty are hilarious as he gives his colleagues nicknames (he never refers to them by their real names anyway). The best thing about Botchan as a character is his inability to see his own shortcomings, yet he moans when bad things happen to him. His students torture him with names like ‘Red towel’ and tease him about his love of onsen’s and noodle bars.

Very soon he discovers that being a teacher means you cannot do whatever you want out of school hours. Living in such a small town means word gets around, and anyone who has ever taught will understand how your actions out of school could so easily be used against you. I found this to be a really faithful account of first-time teaching and how certain events still resonate today even though it was written back in 1906.

Highly recommended to all those entering the teaching profession for a bit of light entertainment. It will certainly take your mind away from all the lesson-planning and essay writing one needs to do during the ITT and NQT years!

View all my reviews

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Top Ten Tuesday | Books That Make You Think ???

Tags

alex garland, An inspector calls, Barbara Kingsolver, Holes (film), Jorge Luis Borges, kurt vonnegut, Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch, Louis Sachar, The Handmaid's Tale, toni morrison, Top Ten Tuesday, William Golding

Could it be? Could I be getting back into doing meme’s again? Not likely, but here’s another Top Ten Tuesday post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish with this week’s topic as ‘books that make you think’. And would you believe it those are my particular speciality. Here’s my list in no particular order:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding – Not all that glitters is gold… This is a really powerful novel I revisited this year about the latent demon in us all. This is the ultimate story about how an island paradise could become hell as a bunch of harmless school children turn native in the true sense of the word. A good follow-up to this would be the more adult-themed ‘The Beach’ by Alex Garland which I also highly recommend.

2. Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver – Another gripping novel about how social norms don’t stand a chance in the wilderness, where survival means to conform or else. Nathan Price, a preacher with a will of iron, uproots his family taking them deep into the Belgian Congo where his plans of educating the savages ends in disaster. Told through the eyes of his wife and daughters, it makes one think about how one man’s right can be another man’s wrong.

3. Holes by Louis Sachar – An absolute gem; Stanley Yelnats battle with his accumulative ‘bad karma’ is both inspirational, touching and funny all at the same time. After reading this you will DEFINITELY make sure you don’t have any unfinished business, as it might have a way of coming back.

4. An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley – Not everything is as it seems in this detective  play. It explores the dangers of capitalism and raises interesting questions on the concept of ‘guilt’.

5. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – Dystopian fiction that was so powerful I was actually haunted by it. It invaded my dreams at one point. I can’t imagine a society that would treat women as baby-making machines, but nothing is impossible…

6. Venus in Furs by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch – I call this the ‘thinking persons 50 Shades’, as I am convinced that this book is what EL James took her inspiration from, to the point of ‘plagiarism’, so don’t give me all that crap about it being a Twilight fanfic! *snorts* Anyway, here is something with more narrative meat as it explores themes of love, cruelty and both physical and mental slavery to the desires of the flesh.

7. Beloved by Toni Morrison – To be able to peer into the depths of one mother’s murderous insanity and be able to call it fatal love… that is the high price Morrison asks of you in this novel. Can you do it?

 

8. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges – Endlessly and deliriously looping pathways of questions without answers and answers to unknown questions. Borges plumbs the depths of your unconscious and offers it to you in beautifully executed prose. Less is more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. The Cellist of Sarajevo – Novel about the terrible siege of Sarajevo. Told through the eyes of a handful of characters, it allows us to experience life lived in the  crosshairs of a sniper rifle. Powerful examples of humanity and the reason WHY people go to war.

 

 

 

 

10. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut – You never really knew it before, but after reading this you will certainly realise how our world could (for all we know) be run by absolute madmen.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg (touche to no.10), what’s your top ten ‘thinking’ novels?

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• Top Ten Tuesday – Christmas Gifts (December 25) (wcs53.wordpress.com)

Top Ten Tuesday | Book Confessions

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Dog ears, Enid Blyton, Library, meme, Reading, Shopping, Top Ten Tuesday

I’ve not written a meme for a LOOONG time, but I came across Shannon’s blog entry Top Ten Tuesday: Book Confessions and liked her responses so much I thought I’d join in. I do have my own queer reading habits that I’ve honed for years – but I think some of you will probably identify with the more common ones that we are all guilty of.

1. I am a consummate library goer – never was to begin with (always liked my books  clean with a sense that they were ‘mine’) but financial circumstances and an awareness for trees/paper have made me one. In fact, I’ve probably bought about 5 books in the last three years. All the rest I have taken out the library or scavenged off friends.

2. I am never without a book. I have them in my bag, on my phone, on my laptop. Everywhere. If I don’t have anything to read I start getting panic-attacks.

3. Sometimes I can get panic attacks/ dizzy spells in book stores just LOOKING at books. Despite being a book lover, I can’t spend more than 15 mins in a library. I start feeling sick. It is strictly ‘go in, give books back/ take books out, quick exit’ with me. It sucks!

4. I read in the toilet, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. So there.

5. I read three books at a time. In fact I usually end up walking away from the library with either 1, 3 or 5 novels. Lately I have realised this comes from my junior school days when I figured out that the only way to progress from the ‘brown’ sticker books to the yellow ones was to read through the entire collection. For those interested I never made it to the yellow section (that’s where the Enid Blyton books lived), but I did get my parents to buy them for me. That’s how readers are born.

6. I don’t use bookmarks. I dog-ear. A terrible habit caught by my mother, another consummate reader who likes to dog-ear from the middle of the page. THE MIDDLE.  Great, big diagonal creases that no amount of folding backwards can erase…

7. Lately I like to read in silence either in the early morning, or late at night. It’s my time to relax/ get ready for whatever is ahead of me.

8. My daily challenge, no matter how many books I have on the go is 50 pages a day. If I have 3 books, then I must read 150 pages. I often dog-ear my daily portions which means I know exactly how many days a book will take to finish.

9. If someone insists that a book is really good, I won’t read it. I am very suspicious of other people’s taste and rarely read what other’s recommend. It’s the only type of snobbery I have.

10. When I’m going through bad/ uncertain times I read to escape and relax. Some books are like my happy zone, I swing by and revisit certain scenes/ chapters to top up on positive thoughts. ‘Anne of Green Gables‘ has had many visits.

So, what are your reading quirks?

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• Top Ten Tuesday!! Books I wouldn’t mind Santa bringing me! (myseryniti.wordpress.com)
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How Fast Can You Read?

Tags

Ayn Rand, Fountainhead, James Fenimore Cooper, John Steinbeck, Lord of the Flies, meme, reading speed, Speed reading, William Golding

Congratulations! You are 58% faster than the average adult reader!

I can be a real slow-poke when it comes to reading, I have to admit that. What it takes some people to read in two days I usually complete in a week! It’s a habit I’m not very happy with, so I was really glad I can across this neat ‘Speed Reading Test’ from Staples that lets you know how quick you are compared to the average reader… and how you square up with the world’s fastest word scanner, a lady with an astonishing 4’700 words per min. record! I may not be as fast as her, but I realise I’m not as bad as I thought either.

If you wish to take the test yourself then click on the image below. You will be prompted to read a short piece and then have to answer three questions to check you’ve actually read it. Simples!

Source: Staples eReader Department

According to the test I can read the following books in so many hours if I keep to my normal reading speed:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy in 24 hours and 43 minutes

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand in 13 hours and 7 minutes

Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper in 6 hours and 7 minutes

Lord of the Flies by William Golding in 2 hours and 31 minutes

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck in 7 hours and 8 minutes 

Hmm, maybe I should have timed myself with ‘Lord of the Flies’! I’m quite surprised that it says I can complete it in 2 hours. I’m pretty sure I’ve taken over 2 hours to get to chapter 3! Anyways… Maybe this little test will help me pick up speed a little as I feel more confident for tomes like ‘The Fountainhead’!

Take the test and post your results. How fast can you read?? You might be surprised.

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Get Ready to Play… ‘Hunger Games’ Name!

Tags

Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

This is a cool little game for anyone who like me, finds the names from ‘The Hunger Games‘ pretty cool. I found this originally over at ‘Forever Young Adults’. By answering the following questions you too can have your own ‘Hunger Games’ name. Mine turned out to be: Kimet H Rushreed. I think I can live with that! Not as good as Katniss Everdeen, but it gives me a fighting chance of winning the Games eh? What will yours be?

1) Write down the second syllable of your middle name.

• If you do not have a middle name – what is wrong with you?  How did you know when your parents were mad at you?  Anyway, you should use the second syllable of your firstname.
• If your middle name is only one syllable, you may use the second syllable of your lastname.
• If none of your names have more than one syllable, your parents obviously read the children’s book Tikki-Tikki-Tembo, and you may use any syllable you like from Tikki-Tikki-Tembo-No-Sa-Rembo-Chari-Bari-Ruchi-Pip-Peri-Pembo’s name.

2) Write down the name of a plant.

3) If you are a female above the age of 30, write down the word “less.”  If you are a female under the age of 30, write down the word “met.”  If you are a man of any age, A) welcome! and B) write down the word “petra.”

4) Write down the first initial of the last name of your favorite English teacher from school.

5) Write down one simple action verb (i.e. “run,” “jump,” etc)

Now, get your results!!

Combine the answer from #1 with the answer from #3.  That is your first name.

Your middle initial is the answer to #4.

Your last name is your answer to #5 with your answer to #2 added to the end.

Can’t wait to hear what people come up with! May the odds of an attractive name be always in your favour.

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• Francis Lawrence to direct The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (contactmusic.com)
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• The Hunger Games (shereviewseverything.wordpress.com)

Last Night’s Twitter Find, ‘Japanese Fart Scrolls’… (Prepare Thyself)

Tags

art criticism, Bizarre, Christie, Fart, Flatulence, Humor, humour, japanese, Recreation, Stephen Fry, Waseda University

Hmm, what may a Japanese Fart Scroll be? That is the question. Well, I never knew either until I spotted Stephen Fry (King of QI) tweet on this rather elusive subject. Two clicks later I was amazed to find… well, these.

And my education was complete 🙂 I confess, I have seen stranger things, but still the mind boggles. Let me assure you that these fine scrolls are actually geniune. They are called the He Gassen (literally The Fart Battle) and a whole bunch of them were once auctioned at Christie’s for a handsome amount. If interested, you may find the full archive at the Waseda University website and the original post of the blogger who has brought them to light. I’d dearly love to know at least the name of the ancient artist who oh-so elegantly took the time to paint these images. The biggest question that remains is ‘what purpose do they serve?’ Is there a secret meaning to the pictures?

All I’m saying is I wish my blogger friend all the luck in the world during his research into the scrolls (yes, a whole new area of academic study people!) and I hope he gets to the bottom of it (no pun intended). In the meantime all that’s left is to admire the scrolls for their comedic worth and marvel at the creativity of the artist, or rather his specific flavour of toilet humour! My favourite out of the lot is below, and it definitely requires some technique!

Part 1: Farting in a bag makes formidable ‘fart-bomb’…

Part 2: Which you can then use to defeat your opponents!

There is a lot of weird literature out there, but I wanted to put the spotlight on this rare, lesser-known side of Japanese culture. Whatever you are doing this week folks, I hope you will remember the fart scrolls and that it will put a smile on your face.

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• Employee Reprimanded For Farting On Job With 5 Page Letter Listing Times Of Farts (coedmagazine.com)
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• You Can Send A Fart By Mail Now (tampa.cbslocal.com)
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2010 in Review | Reaping and Sowing the Stats!

And here’s another way to look at the passing year… got this cool email from wordpress showing me how I did as a fledgling blogger. Technically I opened this account in June so it only reflects 6 months of posts, but still I’m really HAPPY at the results! Not surprisingly the post with the most views was the Pirates of the Caribbean one. Maybe I should become a paparazzi?

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 9,200 times in 2010. That’s about 22 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 141 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 43 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 13mb. That’s about 4 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was September 27th with 302 views. The most popular post that day was Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides | Greenwich Gets Back To It’s Nautical Roots!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were WordPress Dashboard, stumbleupon.com, thebluebookcase.blogspot.com, bookblogs.ning.com, and twitter.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for pirates of the caribbean 4 greenwich, pirates of the caribbean greenwich, blackbeard productions greenwich, la poderosa, and some may never live but the crazy never die.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides | Greenwich Gets Back To It’s Nautical Roots! September 2010
18 comments

2

Hunter S. Thompson | “Some May Never Live, But The Crazy Never Die” July 2010
7 comments

3

BBC’s ‘The Big Read’ Top 100 Books – How Many Have You Read? November 2010
22 comments

4

Book Review | ‘Veronika Decides To Die’ – Paulo Coelho July 2010
2 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

5

Quick Review | ‘The Model Millionaire’ by Oscar Wilde October 2010

Best Bits ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ | La Poderosa II’s Final Tour

Tags

che guevara, the motorcycle diaries

Gael Garcia Bernal (the young ‘Che’) and Rodrigo De La Serna (his trusty sidekick) with the beloved Poderosa in its better days.

 

“Due to a premonition, Alberto didn’t want to drive, so I sat up front though we only did a few kilometres before stopping to fix the failing gearbox. A little further on, as we rounded a tight curve at a good speed, the screw came off the back brake, a cow’s head appeared arounnd the bend, then many, many more of them, and I threw on the hand brake which, soldered ineptly, broke too. For some moments I saw nothing more than the blurred shape of cattle flying past us on each side, while poor Poderosa gathered speed down the steep hill. By an absolute miracle we managed to graze only the leg of the last cow, but in the distance a river was screaming toward us with terrifying efficacy.”

 

There it is; a dramatic finale to the ‘Mighty One’ from Che Guevara’s ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’. As a direct result of reading this book I have come to love old Norton’s. I can imagine myself doing a crazy tour of South America on a clunky motorcycle. But not one as unreliable as this! I felt a twinge of sadness as it finally gave up the ghost. Yet again, Ernesto is the one getting into trouble, as Alberto’s fine senses steers him clear of danger!

FUN FACT: Rodrigo De La Serna who plays Alberto is in fact a second cousin of the real Ernesto Guevara.

Wondrous Words Wednesday | Rankin Gets Curiouser and Curiouser…

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meme, Robert Rankin, wondrous words wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by BermudaOnion at Bermudaonion’s Weblog where we get to share new words that we’ve encountered in our reading. 

I’ve got more words from ‘Retromancer’, this time of the architectural persuasion: 

1. Cloisonné – A ancient method of decorating enamel and metalwork objects.

2. Champlevé – An enamelling technique in the decorative arts, or an object made by that process.

3. Calotte – In architecture, a round cavity or depression, in the form of a cup or cap, lathed and plastered; used to diminish the rise or elevation of a moderate chapel, cabinet, alcove etc.

Oh, and I discovered a delightful little phrase on my readings: ‘to travel by sparrow-fart’. Yes, ‘sparrow-fart’. I did a double-take at that one, blinked, and  then embarked on a five-minute giggling session thereafter. I somehow can’t imagine what a sparrow fart looks like let alone the dimensions of it and whether it would actually get anyone to their destination or not. All the same, the rest of my day was spent with images of little sparrows falling off their perches through the exertions of excessive gas. A most incongruous visual, what with the sparrow and the massive fart concept, but extremely effective in comedic terms!

Titillating Texts For Teaser Tuesday | Robert Rankin’s ‘Retromancer’ and the Roguish Mr. Rune!

Tags

meme, Robert Rankin, teaser tuesday

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!

The quote for today’s Teaser Tuesday is from Robert Rankin’s ‘Retromancer’. Called the “Frank Zappa of the SF/ Fantasy World” by the Fortean Times, this is a highly entertaining, off-the-wall account of complex time-travel, absurd magical encounters and medieval derring-do. Rankin’s prose is a gorgeous mash-up of quintessential English humour and pop culture references. If you are a fan of Monty Python, then I urge you to read this book IMMEDIATELY. It’s so much fun! Anyway, enough of my waxed lyricisms (is that a word? If it is, good. If not then from hereon let it be known that it is my copyrighted word). Here’s the teaser:

“I am a member of the Church of Banjeloleology. I know the local paper scorns and condemns our credos, but we are good people, Mr Rune, who mean no harm to others. All we ask for is the freedom to worship in the church of our choice. And the council agreed that as long as we eschew the practices of human sacrifice and drinking the blood of children, then we should be left to our own devices and desires.”

“Quite so,” said Hugo Rune. “Do you dance around in your bare scuddies at all?”

“Most of the time,” said Mr Hartnel. “Particularly on Thursday nights at nine at the Good Shepard Hall in South Ealing Road.”

“Many lady members?” Hugo Rune enquired.

“They outnumber gentlemen two to one.”

“I’ll tag Thursday night in my diary, then.”

The teaser is a bit long, but I wanted you to get the full effect of the narrative. Here’s hoping you put it on your TBR lists. You won’t regret it!