Zoom background bookshelves

 A contributor to Times Colonist discusses Zoom background bookshelves and how it's more tempting to read a book you're told not to read than to read a book you are actually told to read.

The question is, how many Zoom background titles ever make it off the shelf? Some appear to be imprisoned there for life, having fallen into the category of “classic,” which Mark Twain defined as “a book that people praise but don’t read.”

The suspicion is many are simply plucked from internet lists with titles like 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die, a headline that implies not only obligation but a sense of urgency/impending doom. What fun motivation! Ulysses, Anna Karenina, Wuthering Heights — I’m sure they’re all fine stories, but my interest in reading them evaporated as soon as doing so was presented as a cross between a moral duty and a prostate exam. I mean, I’ve been trying to read Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier since a pretty girl told me I should do so when I was 17. I’m still on page three.

She should have told me it was banned. (Jack Knox)

The Spinoff discusses the new novel Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (and obviously a sequel to Ready Player One by the same author).

One of the force-quit moments for readers of Ready Player One was deciding they were simply unable to deal with the barrage of cultural references. They were cacophonous, and if you’re in Ernest Cline’s demographic then chances are you enjoyed them. There’s nothing wrong with that – god knows if there was a book called It’s Me Cathy that pulled together references to the Bronte sisters, Kate Bush and all things in between I would not care to hear any criticism of it. (Sam Brooks)

Trendencias (Spain) recommends giving beautiful editions of classics for Christmas including both Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey.

Cumbres borrascosas

Cumbres Borrascosas, de Emily Brontë, una de las tres hermanas Brontë, contiene la quintaesencia de la novela romántica inglesa decimonónica.

En sus páginas se suceden los amores apasionados limítrofes con el incesto, los odios agriados que se prolongan durante generaciones, los celos, las apariciones espectrales y las tormentas, todo ello narrado con una fuerza y un brillante retrato de personajes que la han convertido en un clásico imperecedero.

Esta preciosa edición puede convertirse en un regalo (o autoregalo) perfecto incluso para decorar nuestro cuarto en la mesilla de noche como si de un tesoro se tratase. [...]

Agnes Grey

Basada en las experiencias de la propia autora, Agnes Grey es la historia de superación de una joven idealista y perseverante a partes iguales, dispuesta a abrirse camino pese a las dificultades.

Anne Brontë entrega una obra maestra majestuosamente escrita y con un mensaje tan implacable como atemporal. (Marta Díaz de Santos) (Translation)

AnneBrontë.org has a post on the 1927 Brontë Society Catalogue of The Museum And Library, when it was still in the room above the Yorkshire Penny Bank.