Let's Talk Books

I love books! I love reading on the beach, in my backyard, on the oval, in my bed, on the floor – seriously any down time I have is usually spent with a book of some sort. Books are wonderful. Any world, at any time, with anyone can be yours with the turn of a page. I love all types of literature including classics, fiction, non-fiction, thrillers, mysteries, romance, historical fiction and all others I'm forgetting. It’s obviously no shock to anyone that I’m an English major, and English majors are required to read lots and lots of books. In previous quarters, I have taken classes that required obscure reading that I would never have picked up on my own (perhaps that’s why professors choose these books?). This quarter, I have class after class filled with modern, intellectual novels – many I would easily pick up at Barnes and Noble on a Sunday afternoon. The picture above this post is all of the books I’m required to read this quarter. Looks fun doesn’t it?! I won’t go into detail about all of the books I’m reading, but I did want to discuss a few I found most especially interesting…

I’m taking an English class that focuses on one major author of the 20th century. There is quite a lot to choose from in that category – Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald (and that’s just a few from the U.S.). My class focuses on four works by the British-Indian writer Salmon Rushdie. Perhaps some of you have heard of him? A super quick history lesson: Rushdie was educated in England and wrote a novel titled The Satanic Verses in 1988. The next year Ayatollah Khomeini (the Supreme leader of Iran) issued a Fatwa against Rushdie (a call to all Muslims to assassinate him) because his novel was, they claimed, anti-Islam and anti-Mohammad. Of course these people never read the novel, so how would they know, but that’s a discussion for another day. The Fatwa was lifted in 1998 – almost ten years later! Okay history lesson over – I swear I’ll try not to do that again.

The four novels we focused on in class were "Haroun and the Sea of Stories", "Midnight’s Children", "The Satanic Verses", and "The Moor’s Last Sigh". If you are in the mood for a challenging, intellectual read then these novels are for you. In most of Rushdie’s novels he creates a fictional plotline and ties it together with Indian culture and politics. I’ve been obsessed with India since seeing “Slumdog Millionaire” last year, so this was right up my alley. "The Satanic Verses" was the most challenging for me, but once you finish, it leaves you with an entirely different outlook on some of life’s great issues – especially religion. Rushdie, in my opinion, is not anti-Islam or anti- religion. His only focus is on questioning everything. Question the believers and the non-believers. Question science, question faith, and question yourself daily in order to gain a better perspective of the world around you. Not that any of you would be interested, but my class does have a blog where we discuss Rushdie and his works. If you're intrigued, check it out!

Books are magical things, because when read, they should (I hope!) make you think. That, in my opinion, is the best part. Are any of you reading anything of interest?