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Date Posted: 06:24:06 01/24/05 Mon
Author: petrina
Subject: Re: Books to feed the soul
In reply to: Jules 's message, "Books to feed the soul" on 05:05:11 01/24/05 Mon

>I like to read a variety of books, from 'chick lit' to
>period classics such as Jane Austen's novels, to Black
>literature, such as Toni Morrison, but what links all
>these things together is that they feed the soul, and
>gives you an insight into human behaviour and
>emotions.
>
> Books I have read recently include 'North and South'
>by Elizabeth Gatskell, 'Emma' and 'Persuasion' by Jane
>Austen, and 'The Wake Of The Wind' by J. California
>Cooper. The funny thing is, all of these books are
>set in the same era - 18th and 19th centuries, but
>they are very different. The books by Elizabeth
>Gatskell and Jane Austen were written in that period,
>but the book by J. California Cooper was written in
>1998. That is not the only difference. Austen and
>Gatskell write about characters set in England, who do
>experience some level of difficulty (Margaret in
>'North and South' is transported from her opulent
>upbringing in the South, to the harsh industrial North
>and Anne in 'Persuasion' is unloved by her immediate
>family, and has suffered a painful broken engagement),
>but their lives are ones which are lived in a social
>sphere which would be alien to most ordinary readers.
>Cooper writes about a reality which we all should be
>grateful that we were never part of: her book is set
>at the end of the American Civil War, and focuses on a
>group of newly emancipated slaves, and their struggle
>to survive and determination to succeed in a world
>where the odds are stacked against them. The funny
>thing about it, is that these books are set in almost
>parallel universes: the world that Cooper's
>characters are set in, make it possible for the world
>that Gatskell and Austen's characters are set in to
>exist. Be that as it may, it may seem strange that
>one can identify with characters from both of these
>worlds. I think that what ties the worlds together
>and links it to ours, is that love is a central theme.
> The discovery of love, the wonder of love, the fact
>that love often is what holds people together, and
>changes people. In North and South, our heroine
>Margaret learns that what she initially sees as the
>vulgar realism of life in the North is in fact a more
>honest way of living than the romaticism she so loved
>about the South. Her hero. Mr Thornton, also learns
>that what he saw as weaknesses in the way of life for
>people in the South, actually leads him to discover
>his own humanity.
>'Emma' and 'Persuasion' in different ways also expand
>upon these themes, with our heroines both learning
>through their experiences with love that they are
>either mistaken in their views of themselves (Emma),
>or mistaken in placing the right to make decisions
>regarding our happiness in others (Persuasion).
>'The Wake Of The Wind' shows us the power of love:
>that after being born into the most unimaginably cruel
>circumstances, and after witnessing some of the most
>heinious crimes and the most inhumane of behaviour,
>love and hope can still win. She draws a world with
>characters that are impossible not to identify with:
>to read them is to know them. Their pain becomes your
>pain, their hope becomes your hope, and their triumph
>becomes your triumph.
>
>To me the best books are those that teaches you
>something about yourself. Although I do love to
>escape from reality when reading, what I love the most
>is putting a book down and having the feeling that you
>have learned a little more about your own desires and
>ambitions, and knowing that you have a little bit more
>power to fulfil them than you did before.

i theink you ar right without reading book you will never learn anything new, you can't get the same infromation from watching televsion as you would if you read a book

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