The Pendulum Swings Swift .... and It Packs a Wallop!

A while ago, I had nothing to read and placed a bunch of holds. I didn't just place a few holds: I made it the Golden Era of Hold-Placing, the Enlightenment of Item Ordering. I disappeared amongst the labyrinths of year-end lists and pre-publication hype. Well, guess what? I didn't pay much attention to when they would be coming in and now they've deluged me! These items are what I'm chipping myself out from underneath of:

• 

  Belzoni
• 

  The Abominable
• 

  Fourth and Long
• 

  The People in the Trees
• 

  The Bully Pulpit
• 

  Doctor Sleep
• 

  The Vikings
• 

  The Luminaries
• 

  People Who Eat Darkness

Man Astonished to Check Out Illinois Library Book While in Northeastern PA

- From our Mid-Atlantic office
Joel Sawyer, 36, was undertaking an unexpected road trip with no audiobook to listen to. Then an idea occurred to him at the interchange between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 80: "I thought, I do have my tablet with me. Would it be possible to download an eaudiobook to it and listen to that on the way home?"

To find out, he pulled over into the parking lot of a fast food restaurant and used their wireless network to access the digital collection of the Des Plaines Public Library, linked from the eDPPL section of the library's website. Sawyer signed into the digital collection website (mymediamall.net for those keeping score at home) using his DPPL card and located a book he was interested in listening to. "Yeah, Inferno by Max Hastings. I figured I'm looking at 13 hours of driving, why not listen to an epic history of World War II, right?" Sawyer downloaded it and was on the road again in five minutes, the book speaking from his tablet.

Being able to check out a book three states from his home library was astounding to Sawyer, who stated that it was a mark of the 21st century. Overall, he was thrilled to now have a book to listen to on the long road trip, but there was a small drawback. "At first it was slow going because I needed to make adjustments to volume and other things, which meant I needed to pull over at a few exits. I wanted to be safe and responsible, you know?"

"You Will Not Be the Same"

photo by Manfred at thisfabtrek.com

This year's theme of Summer Reading Clubs at DPPL is Have Book Will Travel. I think this an excellent concept to associate with reading: not only can you visit faraway lands and learn about new cultures inside a book's pages, but you can also embark on a journey within yourself when you become engaged in a book. There is a terrific exchange between Bilbo and Gandalf in the film The Hobbit: An Expected Journey where Gandalf mentions that Bilbo might have a tale or two to tell when he comes back from his upcoming quest. Bilbo asks, "Can you promise that I will come back?" Gandalf responds with great gravitas, "No. And if you do... you will not be the same."

Do we ever return to who we were when we finish our reading journeys? In most cases, this question may seem a bit melodramatic, but in a very few cases it is incredibly appropriate. For any avid reader, there has been at least one book, one quest undertaken, that has transformed their perception and expectations of the world (and books) going forward. Stephen R. Donaldson provided one of those moments for me.

A gigantic turning point in my reading life was the first time I went through the double trilogy of Donaldson's the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. The titular character was in constant flux and a complete moral mess - bitter and heartbroken, defensive yet defenseless, making despicable choices and eschewing forgiveness. Covenant's depth was stunning and I was captivated from the start. After finishing those books, I was hungry for another greatly conflicted, angry-at-the-world-yet-angrier-at-himself type of character. I found one in Severus Snape, who made me rip through the Harry Potter books one by one, just to see if he actually ended up being a good guy or a bad guy. I still enjoy majorly-flawed characters (one of my later discoveries has been Jack Taylor in Ken Bruen's mysteries) but the watershed moment for me remains my experience with Donaldson's Covenant books.

What biblio-journeys have you been on recently? Has your life, reading or otherwise, been irrevocably changed by what you've read?

Incidentally, Adult Summer Reading is humming right along here on the third floor of DPPL. We have a trivia contest that awards weekly prizes as well as a reading program where you can fill out a free contest entry for every book you read. The grand prize is an iPad Mini which is funded, along the weekly trivia prizes, by the generosity of the Friends of the Des Plaines Public Library.

Incidentally Part II, the Return of Incidentally, we also have a Teen Summer Reading Program for teens entering grades 7-12. Sign-up for that is online or here on the third floor as well. We will be showing a movie for teens, the aforementioned The Hobbit: An Expected Journey, this Thursday, June 20 at 5.30pm in Meeting Room C on the first floor.

Beyond the Fireworks

Being a huge fan of American history, this is always been a special time of the year for me. The gaining of our independence and subsequent protection of our freedom is a long tale fraught with courage, determination, and sacrifice. The two films that always leap into my mind when I consider these virtues that have helped fashion the United States of America are Saving Private Ryan and Glory. I can never watch either of these without a lump climbing in to my throat and moisture finding its way into my eye. This year, in order to further recognize the holiday I wanted to gain a bit of perspective of its place in our collective story.

It originally started out in the years immediately after the Civil War when the combined loss of over 600,000 soldiers killed in the conflict created a new cultural focus on burial and remembrance. Its original name was Decoration Day and did not come to be known as Memorial Day until after World War Two. The date of May 30th was originally chosen as it had no affiliation with any specific battle and was a peak time for most flowers to be in bloom, according to White House historical accounts. In 1967 Congress passed legislation causing the holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Monday of May, much to the dismay of veterans who felt this change would weaken the observance of the actual holiday.

So this Memorial Day, let's keep in mind the real purpose of the holiday that is beyond the fireworks and bottles of sunscreen, the bags of charcoal and pool openings. Think of the people in our Armed Forces that are currently overseas and those that have gone on before. It is up to us to recognize what they do and what has been done by others in the past.

How about you, are there any books or films that you like to experience at this time of the year?

I wish everyone a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!

Movies Coming Soon to DPPL on DVD and BluRay

New releases of DVDs and BluRays that are coming soon to the Des Plaines Public Library.

• 

  Parker
• 

  Cloud Atlas
• 

  Dark Skies
• 

  Promised Land
• 

  Texas Chainsaw
• 

  Beautiful Creatures
• 

  Warm Bodies
• 

  A Good Day to Die Hard
• 

  Oz the Great and Powerful
• 

  Mama
• 

  Side Effects
• 

  Quartet

Pretty as a Cupcake, Tough as a 75-cent Steak

In the process of participating in the afore mentioned DVD move, I've had many an opportunity to glance at movie covers. One thing that stood out to me was the intricate art of the tagline, something I learned to appreciate while setting up movie displays when I worked at a movie theater.  I've referred to them before on this blog, but they deserve more attention than a brief mention.

Film taglines run the spectrum from awesome to awful, passing through the mid-line of bromidic and unimaginative along the way. They can either use wit to generate excitement for its movie or be the shoddy result of some marketing exec's uncaring effort to pay the bills. In this age of easy internet access and mass media marketing where movie trailers are almost like little movie experiences on their own, the tagline really has become a vestigial part of the movie-making machine. Many of the taglines that struck my eye lately were from the decades between 1940 and 1970, when a movie poster was all the information someone would get of an upcoming film, short of the coming attractions segment of their theater-going experience. Here are some of my favorites of those:

"This story was filmed on location .... inside a woman's soul!"

"Life is in their hands - Death is on their minds!"

"She's the Private Lady of a Public Enemy!"

"They're here."

(The tagline of the title also refers to "The Damned Don't Cry!") 

Now, this is not all to say that there have not been recent classics. The following taglines have a concrete hold in pop culture, where their true value has been not in advertising the film but in serving as an eternal memento of the modern classic:

"In space no one can hear you scream."

What taglines do you enjoy?

"Life is like a box of chocolates ..." 

The Risk and Truth of Ireland

As you may have read previously in this blog, my entire life I've clung desperately to entertained a mysterious love of the Emerald Isle. I was a one-man St. Patrick's Day Advent season every year of high school; I wore pins of the names of different Irish patriots every day (Patrick Pearse, Wolf Tone, etc). I focused on Irish history and literature in college: my senior independent study compared the effects of two invasions, Christianity and the Vikings, on Irish culture. I wear a shamrock necklace every day of my life. Needless to say, this time of year always brings me a sense of mini-euphoria somewhat akin to soft snowflakes on Christmas Eve.

At the same time, however, it also brings a question to the top of my mind: Why? What is it about Ireland and its people that creates such devotion in myself and many, many others? Often it can easily be traced back to celebrating one's own heritage. In my case, however, it was a few quotes from Irish authors that led me down a different path.

"Even a newspaperman, if you entice him into a cemetery at midnight, will believe in phantoms, for everyone is a visionary, if you scratch him deep enough. But the Celt, unlike any other, is a visionary without scratching.” ― William Butler Yeats

As a whole, the Irish love tradition. Living on the same land as their ancestors, driving on roads past 500 year-old castle ruins, a concerted effort to save their original Irish language: all contribute to a deep sense of place and identity that possesses the Irish. Much of this is transmitted to later generations through well-loved tales and the reels and ballads of its rich musical tradition. Perhaps the sense of their own history being kept alive so well contributes to the Celtic ability to stir the imagination.

"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy."― William Butler Yeats

There is also a pervasive melancholy in the Irish culture, possibly from the constant damp and overcast weather. A continual sense that things may not turn out for the best, and the calm acceptance of that fact, combined with a strong sense of history and identity, have definitely generated a heavyhearted and poignant tone to the works of Irish writers from James Joyce all the way to Seamus Heaney.

The melancholy view of life doesn't always look backwards to what has gone one before, however. Now, in modern-age Ireland, due to a series of economic downturns, there is also a sense of missed opportunities: what could have been.

“Over time, the ghosts of things that happened start to turn distant; once they've cut you a couple of million times, their edges blunt on your scar tissue, they wear thin. The ones that slice like razors forever are the ghosts of things that never got the chance to happen.” 
― Tana French

So this St. Patrick's Day Weekend, take a moment and consider the saddened richness of the Irish heritage. Then, go live boldly (and read some Irish poetry)!

"There is risk and truth to yourselves and the world before you." ― Seamus Heaney

Photo of the Irish coast from travel.nationalgeographic.com

Questions in the Shadows

Awards Season will wrap up this coming weekend with the spectacle and ceremony of the grandaddy of them all, the Oscars. I mention them because a few of the nominated films have provided incredible food for thought lately.

Out of all the major Oscars contenders making the rounds, three have managed to lodge together in my head as almost a single entity: Argo, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty. While completely different in many aspects, the one major thread running through all of these is the spotlight on the United States government and the hurdles overcome, many times from within the government itself, to accomplish tasks of prodigious proportions. More to the point, all three were a narrative focusing on how the actions of individuals can impact the outcome of the system, thus altering national policy and even impacting foreign policy.

The two films of this group depicting the CIA, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, form a syzygy with completely different tones and outcomes. While both offer a sobering view of the image of Americans abroad, Argo was a bit more comfortable to watch while Zero Dark Thirty was a film that needed to be seen but not necessarily enjoyed. While Argo maintained some character exploration and left the viewer with a bit of warmth in their heart, Zero Dark Thirty almost used the hunt for Osama Bin Laden itself as a main character to bleakly accentuate the question, "Where do we go from here?" I will long remember its final scene, and as far as endings go, it is one of my all-time favorites.

As for Lincoln, Spielberg delivers the genius and vision of Abraham Lincoln, no matter the slight massaging of actual history that was used to tell the story. The film was an incredible portrayal of the ultimate power of the American presidency combined with its most humbling limitations. At once an exegesis of Lincoln's personal life as well as an analysis of the workings of mid-19th century politics, Lincoln cast a microscopic view of a pivotal point in our nation's history.

In this sense, Argo, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty all combine to provide the United States of America a long look at itself in the mirror. The questions of "how did we get here?", "who are we today?", "what is ahead of us?", and "how we are perceived by the rest of the world?" all may be in the background as the Oscars wash around us this week. But as awards season flows away, as the lights turn off and the red carpets are put away, these reflections will linger, if not loom. Hopefully we, both as a people and as individuals, can confront these ideas: digest them, be encouraged by our successes, acknowledge our failures, and help create a better world to live in.

Stand Up

 A few years ago I encountered the Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson. Reading it, I was amazed at the compassion he felt for fellow human beings, despite beatings, threats, and other severe mistreat-ments. He practiced non-violent protest at all times and called upon others to do so as well. I remember the inspiration Dr. King had on me at that point, and that feeling has stayed with me.

Nowadays, I am reading a children's book about Martin Luther King, Jr. to my son, and it makes me very happy to assist in explaining what he stood for and what he helped to accomplish. However, the conversation of why he had to stand up for social justice is a sobering conversation to have with an almost 4 year-old. I hope to continue discussion with my son about Dr. King as we celebrate the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this coming Monday (yes, the library will be open).

The following is a quote by Dr. King that I continually come back to in my life, and it really helps me stay the course through difficult times: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." I encourage you to investigate Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. a little closer, either this weekend or sometime soon, even if it's just to explore a little context around some of his quotes. My hope is that you come away refreshed with a sense of peace and compassion and energized to go out and achieve positive change. I would certainly recommend his Letter from Birmingham Jail as a quality read in that vein.

"Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Homage to Fromage

Can a bad movie be a good time?

When I was in college, my friends and I would hit up the local video store and rent movies that promised to be bad, merely to view as unintentional comedy. I can remember one time in particular, we were watching "Don't Go in the Woods" (the original 1981 version) that opened with a girl running in the woods. At this point, one of my friends exclaimed to the on-screen character, "Oh no! Didn't you listen to the title?!?" This brought everyone else low with laughter and the good time had begun.

Movies can transfix us. They can wring tears from our eyes and wrench our hearts. They can make our breath catch and make us lose it again. They can also make us laugh: either through sharp and witty dialogue, a comedic plot juxtaposition, or simply by a terrible script, plot, effects, etc.

Films that are downright atrocious in their original intent to be taken seriously can be offered a new lease in life if they're viewed with an amused eye, an open mind, and a modicum of patience. It is possible for a bad film to offer a good time if it affords you an opportunity to laugh and enjoy yourself. We have a couple titles in our DVD collection here at DPPL that fall under the description of a bad movie offering a great time (at least in my experience).

The first is a 1971 flick that I can never say the title of with a straight face: Werewolves on Wheels. It is a portrayal of a motorcycle gang that runs afoul of a creepy monk and his Satanic cohorts, causing the cult to transform the bikers into werewolves. Add in the sounds of early '70's psychedelic rock and you have yourself a masterpiece of cheese film. I stuck with it and managed not to lose interest until about an hour and 15 minutes into the film, which is great because it turned out to be only 79 minutes long. I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of the plot and recognized the effort the film's creators had put into the concept, but ultimately the reveal of the werewolves was a bit disappointing: they looked someone wearing a ski mask with teeth glued to it, which was in itself pretty funny. What made me pick it up? Well, I could not resist the tagline above the title on the cover: "IF YOU'RE HAIRY YOU BELONG ON A MOTORBIKE!"

The other film that I recommend if you're a fan of B movies is Bubba Ho-Tep. This one has Elvis and an African-American John F. Kennedy living in a nursing home in West Texas where an ancient Egyptian mummy comes calling to devour their souls. The outlandish concept is what places this movie in the "bad movie" category, but overall it was actually a decent comedy. Mystery author Joe Lansdale wrote the screenplay and Bruce Campbell completely nails the part of Elvis, giving it a feel of quality, but the effects were inferior and the story line may be too preposterous for some audiences (i.e. my wife). Bubba Ho-Tep is unique because it is a bad movie and it knows it! (Bruce Campbell has made a living of not taking himself seriously). This movie had me within its first ten seconds, when the definition of "Ho-tep" came on the screen, followed by that of "Bubba".

Does anyone out there agree that bad films still have value? Tell us a few of your favorites!

IMAX, why did it have to be IMAX?

In the midst of composing today's planned blog post, my machinations came to a screeching halt when I discovered Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark will be coming back to movie theaters, for one week, Sept. 7-13. In IMAX.

There are few instances in life when my schedule becomes instantly rearranged due to a piece of news: this is one such case. Now, I am not especially crazy about shelling out a chunk of cash on a suped-up movie viewing experience. Sure, there are some movies that just beg to be seen on the big screen (Marvel's the Avengers and Prometheus come to mind), but I have always viewed IMAX as a sort of overkill for the movie-going experience. I suppose my biggest fear is that I would feel that the quality of the movie would not stand up to the IMAX experience (and I'd feel like I wasted my hard-earned funds). Well, what better time to cut my teeth on a supposedly unbelievable way of watching a movie with a film that single-handedly personifies the term "larger than life"?

By the way, this whole Raiders-on-IMAX gig is meant to be a precursor to the release of the first three Indiana Jones movies (the real ones) on BluRay on Sept. 18. We'll have these at DPPL - keep an eye on our catalog for an opportunity to place these on hold!

Raiders of the Lost Ark is mine. Do you have a film that would make you drop everything and run to see it if it arrived back on the big screen?

I Am Forbidden

Got your attention? It attracted mine, and I enjoyed an extremely solid historical novel by Anouk Markovits examining the esoteric world of Hasidic Jews because of this novel's title.

I've posted in the past about the impact that a book's cover has on your first impression of it and about what the author's photo might say about them, but there is a third component to sizing up a book while browsing: the title. A book's title is inherent to its very being. Think of one of your favorite books - now imagine it not being named what it is. You might as well try to rename your dog, it just doesn't work (although you could probably get away with renaming your cat, he wouldn't care as long as you kept feeding him).

Two books immediately come to mind when I think of ITA - Instant Title Attraction. The first is the jubilant/defiant-sounding You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers. At once a novel about loss and grieving, it is also dedicated to appreciating the good parts about life -all delivered with a crackling wit and a laconic style (another of his novel titles deserves honorable mention: What is the What). The other one is the redundant yet oddly informative title The City & the City by China Mieville: a terrific romp that reads like Kafka writing a noir detective mystery.

Novels I'd like to read in the future based on their titles? No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick top the list.

What novel titles have arrested your interest?

A Quote a Day ...

"Now they know that we know that they know that we know." - The 'Burbs

Recently I found myself smiling while I was in the comedy DVD section. It wasn't hard to figure out why: I was surrounded by the films nearest and dearest to me because of their ability to reduce me into an unresponsive mass of laughter. Two movie lines that had automatically sprung to mind (and made me smile) are below.

From Without a Clue - Dr. John Watson (Ben Kingsley) is referring to the evil Professor Moriarty when he states to Sherlock Holmes (Michael Caine) "Don't worry - he knows you're stupid!" To which Holmes replies, visibly relieved, "Oh, good."

From The 'Burbs - His neighbors call out to Art Weingartner, "Art! You're wife's home .... and your house is on fire!" Art responds, "My wife's home?!?"

Out of context, they may seem somewhat vanilla. Within the framework of their respective films, however, these lines can be utterly giggle-inducing. Many experiences of my life are passed through the comedic quote-filter in my head, providing me more chances to laugh along with life as it comes at me (ask my wife how many times a week I quote The 'Burbs and she'll tell you, "Too many."). Here are some other movies enshrined in my Quotable Hall of Fame:

How about you? Which movies help you sometimes to get through the day?

The Answer, My Friend ....

Lately I've noticed a trend in my reading. It began a year ago when I breezed through the 400-plus page novel The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and while anyone who knows me is probably tired of listening to me bluster about how it was the best book I read in 15 years, it certainly began this current trajectory of my fiction reading today. I am now deep into the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss, the first book of which is entitled The Name of the Wind: a fantastic account of the formation of a young folklore hero that seizes its own identity despite its slight undercurrent of Harry Potter trappings. A possible next choice from my infinite reading list could be the Dark Tower novels by Stephen King, the latest of which is named The Wind through the Keyhole (Are you starting to catch the draft of where I'm heading?).

There are gusty titles in whichever direction you look. If you are into hard science fiction you may have read Julie Czerneda's prequel to her Trade Pact Universe trilogy, Reap the Wild Wind. If romance is more your speed, Kat Martin's Against the Wind or Christine Feehan's Magic in the Wind might set your heart fluttering. A waft of mystery might be in order for others, in which case readers can wind up enjoying In the Wind by Barbara Fister or a something by Tony Hillerman, who managed to do it twice: Dark Wind and Wailing Wind.

It doesn't stop there, however; it breathes back through the years. A significant contribution to American literature is the play about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trail (but was also an oblique statement on the McCarthy Trials) Inherit the Wind. And, of course there are the classics The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

Is it the transient nature of wind that attracts authors to incorporate it into their stories and titles: here today but possibly not tomorrow? The wonder of not knowing which way it will blow next? The unseen yet completely real presence of it?

I am unsure, but the one thing I do know is that my friend Bob assures us that the answer is "blowin' in the wind".

Can anyone cast about for any other zephyrous titles?

Spielbergian!

While watching the film Super 8 this past weekend, there was a massive train wreck with explosions galore. I turned to my wife and half-jokingly said, "This scene is so Spielbergian!" Now, I understand the film was directed by J.J. Abrams, but Steven Spielberg was the executive producer, and I'd like to imagine that he managed to put in his touches here and there. While the explosion scene seemed right in the wheelhouse of Abrams (the creator of the Alias and Lost television shows and director of the 2009 Star Trek film, among other projects), there was a scene a bit later on that seemed to be heavily influenced by Spielberg. It is just a simple scene of the junior high-aged lead character coming out of his house, getting on his bike and riding away. The way the camera pulls back slowly to reveal him biking into the surrounding neighborhood captured the perfect combination of energy and wonder that only a young teen, a bike, and a summer vacation can bring. It was a direct echo from the Goonies, E.T., or even Empire of the Sun. "Now that," I exclaimed, my finger leveled at our TV, "is Spielbergian."

As the movie continued, I was hyper-aware of the tug of emotions that were pulling at me, and I considered how much of an expert heartstring yanker Steven Spielberg has become throughout his career. He is certainly attuned to the human condition and has become adept at putting it on-screen.

Films made by Steven Spielberg have certainly affected me throughout my life, whether it be:

• Jamie jumping and identifying the American planes at the top of his lungs while they are bombing his Japanese prison camp in Empire of the Sun

• Mikey talking about Troy's bucket and Mouth ruing his failed dreams in the Goonies

• The stunned wonder of the scientists as they first encounter the live exhibits of Jurassic Park

• Private Ryan, in his later years, kneeling in front of Captain John Miller's tombstone and gasping in remembrance of the sacrifice of his fellow soldiers

• The entire movie of Schindler's List

• Indiana Jones riding his horse accompanied by the Raider's March.

You get the idea. If there was ever a master of creating that swelling feeling in your chest that creeps slowly into your throat and makes you want pump your fist into the air (or fight a tear in your eye), then he or she would have to thumb wrestle Steven Spielberg for top honors in that category.

Spielberg is my guy for a slam-dunk favorite movie. Who are some of your favorite directors?

Miasmas, Shadows, and Exhausted Giants

In the books that I read, I am sensitive to the effects that descriptions of setting have upon me. If I realize that I don't really care for a book, a lackluster setting description is usually involved. Not to say that I'll put a book down if they skimp (or expound relentlessly) on location details, but it is normally one of the first signals that I notice when encountering a below-par novel. Conversely, one of the things that will make me notice that I'm enjoying reading an author is their engaging setting description, one that supersedes its purpose of providing context and becomes almost a character itself.

One such setting maestro is the Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón. In his novel The Angel's Game he describes his main character David Martín's reaction to standing in a turret of a house he is interested in buying as it looks over the city of Barcelona: "I would have my sinister tower rising over the oldest, darkest streets of the city, surrounded by the miasmas and shadows of that necropolis which poets and murderers had once called the 'Rose of Fire.'" At another point Martín offers this: "I left the house after dawn. Dark clouds crept over the rooftops, stealing the color from the streets. As I crossed Ciudadela Park I saw the first drops hitting the trees and exploding on the path like bullets, raising eddies of dust." By themselves, they may seem mundane, but when encountered throughout an entire novel these sort of descriptions coalesce into a vision of a dark and torn city that threatens to destroy the main character, even as Martín uses its stories to fuel his crime novels.

Reading Ruiz Zafón's treatment of Barcelona in this manner brought to mind a passage by Guy de Maupassant in his work Bel-Ami: "Du Roy saw before him a reddish light in the sky like the glow of an immense forge, and heard a vast, confused, continuous rumor, made up of countless different sounds, the breath of Paris panting this summer like an exhausted giant."

Another author who used extraordinary attention to setting was Daphne Du Maurier. The first sentence of her novel Rebecca hints that setting will be a critical component of the book: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again." Later, when her character is describing coming to the Manderly estate for the first time, she states that "on either side of us was a wall of colour, blood-red, reaching far above our heads. We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of their discovery. The woods had not prepared me for them. They startled me with their crimson faces, massed one upon the other in incredible profusion, showing no leaf, no twig, nothing but the slaughterous red, luscious and fantastic, unlike any rhododendron plant I seen before ..... These were monsters, rearing to the sky, massed like a battalion, too beautiful I thought, too powerful, they were not plants at all." One can almost feel the trepidation of Du Maurier's narrator dripping from the page. These types of descriptions are a major reason why many consider Rebecca to be one of the last great Gothic novels.

How about you? Do you have any descriptive masterpieces that have had a profound effect on you?

(Barcelona photo credit to ancama_99 (toni))

Coming Soon on DVD!

The summer blockbusters will soon be surfacing on DVD! Place a hold today on these popular movies: