Summary vs. Review

I am going to take this moment to mock. Because it just needs to be done.

A while ago, I put Cloud Atlas (by David Mitchell) on hold at my library. They'd been talking about the movie at work, and someone said the book was good, so I figured I'd check it out. It finally came in this week, and since my current transportation situation is a bit complicated, I wanted to see if it was worth bus ride to pick it up. So, I went to the library's catalog record and looked for the summary, to see if it really did sound worth reading. This is what I got:

"Now a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant, and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles of genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian lore of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction that reveals how disparate people connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky." Cloud Atlas summary, aadl.org. 

This is not a summary. This is a collection of reviews. Reading this, I had NO idea what the book was about.  And I don't care who is in the movie--I'm looking at the book, which (shocking) doesn't have any movie stars in it. 

So, then I went to the world's favorite site, Wikipedia. There is a reason people use Wikipedia, as I am going to show you. 

"Cloud Atlas consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or observed) by the main character in the next. The first five stories are interrupted at a key moment. After the sixth story, the other five stories are returned to and closed, in reverse chronological order, and each ends with the main character reading or observing the chronologically previous work in the chain. Eventually, readers end where they started, with Adam Ewing in the nineteenth century South Pacific." Cloud Atlas, wikipedia.org.

Now, I realize that Wikipedia goes on and gives a lot more info, probably with spoilers. But at least I can get an idea of the book from their entry. And, yes, it was enough to intrigue me. (Maybe not enough to get me to the library, but the book IS on my to-read list.)

Admittedly, book summaries are not a major issue. They aren't even a major issue for me. Don't make my list of pet peeves at all (which doesn't really exist, because I'd rather not waste my time creating lists of things that bother me). But, a good summary is pretty helpful in filtering through all of the possible literature out there. Mostly, though, this was just one of those things that made me laugh, and was mockable in a harmless sort of way, so I thought I'd share.

In my spare time

So, this week is a "what am I reading" week, or what I've been reading, or what I'll be reading soon.

I just finished The Wide-Awake Princess, by E.D. Baker. This is the author that, based on the book jacket, wrote the book that inspired Disney's The Frog Princess. Anyway, I really like the plot twist on this story, which is a version of Sleeping Beauty. I did feel like it was really weird to have this young woman (teenager, it seems) talking about being interested in a man, especially in a youth book, but I don't know how else you would say it. And, I am an adult, while the book was written for children, say 9-12, so I can't really judge. I don't remember if something like that would stand out to a young reader.

Now I am reading Keeping the Castle, by Patrice Kindl. I'm only on chapter 5, but so far, it really is just what the reviews claim it is, a cross between I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and Jane Austen (take your pick). I'm enjoying it.

I'm also in the midst of The Phone Book, by Ammon Shea. It's random, and it sounds absolutely tedious, but it is really quite interesting. Shea's writing style is entertaining and not heavy at all. Lots of little bits of trivia and random stories.

Up on the docket is Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy. This was recommended by my sister, and I haven't started it yet, but I'm excited about it.

So, those are a few things I'm reading at present. I've been listening to a few others, some Agatha Christie and more Thursday Next novels. So, staying busy on the reading front.

Me gusta leer

One of the perks of being bilingual is that it opens up new avenues for reading material. I imagine that if you can read English, you are going to be pretty well off in the way of things to read, but it never hurts to expand your options. And reading in a second language has some advantages. 

For starters, it's a great way to pick up vocabulary, especially those idiomatic phrases. Depending on the kind of book you are reading, you can get a lot of slang and conversation. You will definitely come across new words. So, it's going to help your second language skills. (But don't forget to listen, too! You need to hear and speak as much as read and write. I find that hearing and reading--taking in the language--are much easier than producing it, i.e. speaking and writing. You have to work at all areas.)

Second, there are a lot of insights that you get when reading a book in another language. I tend to read books that I have already read in English. The advantage is that I know the plot, I know the characters, so I can focus more on the language. If I were more diligent about it, I could probably improve to the point that I don't need to have the plot already outlined, but could absorb everything. In the meantime, it's good practice to maintain and improve. Anyway, when I focus on the language, things take on new meanings or become clearer than they were in English. There are words that other languages have that express a certain nuance that the English phrasing lacks, or expresses more clumsily perhaps. I love those little nuances.

Reading a book in another language is also a great way to understand the world. Literature is a huge part of any culture, as far as I know; not only in the writing style, but in the topics written about. There is definitely a different feel between literature written in my native language and literature written in my second language by native speakers of that language. The literature of a people really reflects a lot of their identity, the things that matter, their history, their values. And not just non-fiction. Fictional works show a lot about how people think and feel and see the world around them. 

So, there is a lot of value to being a bi- or multilingual reader. It really does broaden your horizons, and I also firmly believe it has added value for society as a whole. And if you can, you should try it sometime.