Journey to the Center of the Earth

I must admit that I was originally drawn to this book by its most peculiar and fascinating title. A world at the center of the celestial sphere, reached only through some secret way, piqued my imagination. Also, I consider Jules Verne to be an excellent author, and I have been trying to read every book I could find by him, so it was a natural choice.
So!
The book is presented in a first-person narrative form, from the perspective of a young man named Henry. He begins his tale by describing his uncle, who is very eccentric and has the queerest habits. He is extremely impatient and can come across as gruff at times, although he is, in reality, very kind and devoted to his nephew. This uncle is a great scientist and professor, and he loves old books.
The Uncle has just found a scrap of paper, engraved with Icelandic runes. The uncle immediately attempts to translate it. He enlists the help of his nephew in this task, who, after several hours spent on this task, finally cracks it. They find the name Arne Saknussemm on it, as well as these words: "Descend into the crater of Yocul of Sneffels, which the shade of Scartaris caresses, before the kalends of July, audacious traveler, and you will reach the center of the earth. I did it."
Because of his uncle's personality, Henry is at first afraid to show these words to his uncle, lest he decide to attempt such a voyage himself. Eventually, however, he does show them to him, and his fears are realized.
They start at once, leaving for Iceland the very next day. They spend several weeks traveling, and as these weeks are almost completely uneventful, I will skip ahead to when they reach Mt. Sneffels.
They have since hired a guide, to lead them to Mt. Sneffels, and this guide descends into the crater with them. His name is Hans, and the only peculiar or interesting thing about him is that he is extremely unemotional.
These three climb down the inner face of the crater, finally reaching the bottom. There they find several tunnels. The uncle chooses the tunnel he thinks best, but want of water drives them to choose another one. The break open an underground stream, which supplies their needs for some time.
Even just thinking about reading the chapters detailing their underground trip wearies me, as it was rather dry.                     
Finally they have reached a vast underground ocean, where they build a raft of semi- petrified wood, and begin a long sea voyage. They witness a fight between two vast sea monsters, and are caught in a gigantic storm which sends them back to where they started. Harry and his uncle are greatly discouraged at this, until they find the fossils and skeletons of many creatures, including, to their great surprise, the remains of a human.
The uncle finds the way by which Arne Saknussemm reached the center of the earth, but it is now blocked by a great boulder. They attempt to blow it up using the supply of gun-cotton that was brought with them, but the blast accidentally initiates an earthquake. The vast underwater sea is drained out through a hole caused by the earthquake, and they go down with it. Eventually, all three people(and their raft) are blown up a volcanic shaft on the island of Stromboli, where they return to civilization.
The professor and Henry are hailed as scientific heroes after they tell their fantastic story. Henry gets happily married. Hans goes home to Iceland. Everybody's happy.
I personally was slightly disappointed with the outcome of everything, especially the implausibility of being blown up a volcano and surviving, but it is faster paced than some of Verne's other books, and I would highly recommend it. It might not be up to the level of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but it is definitely a classic.

                               

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Of Jules Verne's many classics, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is one of his best known. In it, Verne makes several of his famous predictions, like, for example, predicting that subs would be able to reach the South Pole by going under the ice. In 1958, two U.S. nuclear submarines crossed the Northwest Passage, a band of ice between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by going under the ice. One of these subs was named the Nautilus, after Verne's famous vessel. It was also the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. But I am getting ahead of myself.
So!
It starts out from the perspective of a Frenchman named Pierre Arronax, a well-known and respected professor of marine biology. Numerous ships have been wrecked or lost at sea, and many of these accidents were attributed to a monster of great size and power. Naturally, as a marine biologist, this interests M. Arronax considerably. When pressed to give his expert opinion on the matter, he says:
"After examining one by one the different hypotheses, rejecting all other suggestions, it becomes necessary to admit the existence of a marine animal of enormous power."
This statement, written by a distinguished professor, excites great controversy and excitement.
M. Aronnax is invited to a voyage on board the battleship Abraham Lincoln by her owner, Captain Farragut. Their goal is to track down this immense creature and kill it. M. Arronax accepts with great pleasure.
They spend several weeks in this way, searching in vain for a giant narwhal. When Captain Farragut finally orders his men to head back to shore, that evening they come upon the monster. They find, to their surprise that it seems to be fluorescent, glowing in the dark like phosphorus. They attack the monster, pursuing it around and around, but it seems capable of great speed without any apparent effort. It then strikes, smashing their rudder and screw-propeller, rendering the Abraham Lincoln incapable of any motion. In the great shock of the impact, M. Arronax is cast overboard. His servant, Conseil, is extraordinarily loyal and jumps overboard with him.
Arronax is rescued by Ned Land, a famous Canadian harpooner, one of the(former) passengers aboard the ship. They find shelter on the back of the "monster", finding, to their surprise, that it is made of steel plates, riveted together. A hatch below them opens, and they are dragged inside my six masked men.
They are locked up inside a room, where they remain for some hours. At last, they are visited by two men, the first of little importance, the second evidently very important. The prisoners tell their story in every language they know, but the two strangers remain silent, until they leave. Although the prisoners are very comfortable, for the room they are in is not a jail cell, and they are well fed, all of them are in an agony of suspense as to what is going to happen to them.
The important person visits them again, introducing himself as Captain Nemo(Nobody). He informs them that although they can never leave his vessel and rejoin the rest of humanity, they are guests aboard the Nautilus. Their alternative is death.
So that is their situation! Read the book yourself to find out what happens to them! I would highly recommend it. Although it leaves you hanging, in some ways, and you need to read the next book, The Mysterious Island, to find out who Captain Nemo truly is, I believe that you will enjoy it. It is the sort of book that needs slow, thoughtful digestion. Some parts you will inevitably find boring, and if you are not mechanically inclined, then there are even more dull sections. But the suspenseful moments make up for it. You will be alternately enchanted and lulled to sleep, drawn into the excitement and tempted to skip over parts.
Take it slowly.

The Red House Mystery

Although A. A. Milne's name is well known as a result of his Winnie the Pooh stories, this series comprised only a portion of his written works. Among his other writings are several plays and short stories, and a mystery tale entitled, The Red House Mystery.

The Red House Mystery opens up in a boarding house, known as the Red House, in a pretty English countryside. A parlor maid and her aunt are gossiping about what took place at the breakfast table earlier that morning. According to the maid, the owner of Red House, one Mark Ablett, seems troubled by the appearance of a letter. The letter is from his brother Robert who has long been noted as a good-for-nothing, and resides in Australia, only bothering to contact his brother if he wishes to extract a loan from him. This time, his letter forewarns his brother of a coming visit to Red House, that very afternoon.

After an introduction to the other residents of the Red House, we meet a Mr. Anthony Gillingham, who has just arrived at a nearby train station. He is on a vacation, which means he is seeking out some odd thing to do for a change, such as running a countryside hotel. His friend, Bill, whom we meet among the residents of the Red House, has written to him about the place, and Anthony decides to proceed to the Red House and see what may come.

He has only just arrived, when he sees a man beating on the door of the boarding house, demanding entrance. Upon questioning him, Anthony learns that the man heard a gunshot coming from inside, and the door has been locked, preventing them from seeing what occurred.
They gain admittance through a window, and discover that, in the room where Mark and Robert were in conference, Robert lies dead upon the floor, and the owner of Red House is nowhere to be found.

With this unexpected turn of events, Anthony is very pleased to take up the occupation of a detective for a short time. He recruits Bill into helping him, and together they take on the search for Mark Ablett and the murderer.

I will give only this as a hint: the murderer is unexpected; the murdered even more so.

The Tragedy of the Pastry Pie

Once there was a pastry pie. It sat on a windowshelf. The window was open and a happy breeze blew in over the pastry pie, cooling it gently, for it was still hot from the oven. The breeze mingled the scents of the summer grass outside with the savory scent of the pie to create a pleasant odor in the warm sunny kitchen.

A bird hopped in and stood on the windowshelf. He was a brown bird, small and round, and curious.

The pastry pie sat next to him, spreading out its warm smell. The bird cocked his head and hopped a little closer to the pastry pie. And then he fell in love.

He bobbed his head and fluffed his feathers. He hopped around the windowshelf excitedly.

The pastry pie responded in kind, letting out fresh steam from a crack in its golden flaky crust.

The bird drank in the pie's pleasant breath. Then he began his dance once again. He bobbed and jumped and hopped and fluffed.

And then the cook came and took away the pastry pie.

A Damsel in Distress

A Damsel in Distress by P. G. Wodehouse was recommended as summer reading on the GirlTalk blog. So, since it is no longer summer and I have tons of work to do, I thought "what better time to start reading it?" It was especially useful in avoiding writing that Wall Street Journal summary and later my Materials Science lab report. But besides being useful for procrastination, it was well worth the read.

A happy English family is introduced to us in the first chapter. Oh wait, no, they are not really very happy. Well, Lady Caroline might be...
But not for long.
Her step-son Reggie Byng has not proposed to her brother's daughter after all like she had been hoping.
Lady Caroline is the chatelaine of Belpher Castle and sister to Lord Marshmoreton with whom she stays along with her step-son Reggie. Lord Marshmoreton is a widower with a son, Percy Marsh, Lord Belpher, and a daughter, Lady Patricia Maud Marsh (but she goes throughout the book as Maud). Lord Marshmoreton's chief delight is to garden roses. Lady Caroline's chief delight is to make everyone do as she thinks they ought to be dignified and live up to their social and historical position. She has Lord Marshmoreton working on a book about his ancestors. She is also urging her step-son Reggie to marry Maud, despite Maud having fallen in love with a penniless man in Wales. Reggie personally is in love with Lord Marshmoreton's secretary Alice.

And thus we are introduced to everyone all at once and get all their desires and the obstacles to them as well.

Now on to George.
George was usually a happy man, but one day he woke up feeling lousy. But that could have been owing to the fact that he had gone to better very late that night(or early...in the morning) because there had been a party for the opening of the new play in London for which he had composed the music. But whatever the case, he was feeling lousy. And some friends of his said his problem was that he needed to get married. So he started to run some errands feeling very down and lonely and depressed.

And then suddenly a girl hopped into his cab as it was paused in traffic and asked him to hide her.

And the adventure begins at last.
And what fun it is indeed!
Maud, for it was she who hopped into the cab, was out on the sly to meet with her man from Wales whom she heard was back from a cruise with his employer. But she saw her brother, Percy, and hopped into the strange cab. George promptly falls in love.

The story continues with much hilarious misunderstanding as everybody mixes everybody else up and confuses Lord Marshmoreton for a gardener and etc...

And of course it must all come out right in the end, or else I wouldn't be so happy about it. So now you must all go read it right away too. You can find it on Project Gutenburg as A Damsel in Distress.

Surprised By Joy

Introduction

Surprised By Joy is a book by C. S. Lewis. It discusses his early life and childhood, and the evolution of his faith. But it's primary focus is:

The "stab of Joy"
It was beauty that inspired Joy. It was this Joy that Lewis sought.

The lack of beauty, and therefore Joy, as he grew up in a Christian home, made him think that Christianity wasn't enough. Because of this thinking, encouraged by several of his teachers in various boarding schools he attended, he slowly abandoned the Christian faith. He sought after the poetry and writings of ancient Greece and Rome, and the songs of Wagner and others that revealed to him a "stab of Joy".
In C. S. Lewis's own words, the stab of Joy

"....[I]s an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and from Pleasure" (Surprised By Joy, p. 17-18).

The book weaves in and out of Lewis's outer life and inner one, a sort of "dual plot." In the very end, Lewis comes to realise that the Joy he was seeking all the time was merely a sign, pointing to something better all along: to Jesus Christ Himself.

Literature
It is fun to note certain areas in which Lewis's experiences later led to characters in The Chronicles of Narnia. I have pointed out a few below:

The "New House" he moved into at age 7, he describes as large and full of all sorts of alcoves and rooms. Books of all kinds were scattered here and there, on bookshelves and in tall piles in the attic. The "New House clearly helped along the construction of: the Professor's house in the country (in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe).

Lewis describes driving to his first boarding school: "Now I am choking and sweating, itching too, in thick dark stuff, throttled by an Eton collar, my feet already aching with unaccustomed boots (Surprised By Joy, p. 22)." Where else was that collar? "In those days, if you were a boy you had to wear a stiff Eton collar every day, and schools were usually nastier than now" (in The Magician's Nephew, p. 1).

Perhaps the most obvious allusion made is with Professor Kirk. Professor Kirk was one of Lewis's old and best loved tutors. He was very much into logic. Of course this can only be one man: "'Logic!' said the Professor half to himself. 'Why don't they teach logic in these schools?' " (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, p. 45). We later learn that this character is named "Digory Kirk," or just "Professor Kirk."


Recommendation
I highly suggest reading this book for yourself. I enjoyed the humorous stories told about Lewis's absent-minded father, and the thorough explanations of English boarding schools (seeing that I am not English, I was very grateful for being introduced to English culture). It was also encouraging to have someone relate to my thoughts and feelings (or, rather, I relating to Lewis's) in a way more closely than I have found in other books.

I can guarantee that you will not regret the time spent in reading this book, or the amount of "intellectual stimulus" it will provide.

The cookies

I whip out the recipe
my grin betraying glee
I have a huge smile
that stretches a mile
That those far away can see.

I opened the flour bag,
and watched that flour sag,
while a powder went floating
Like snow that is gloating
Oh! And I opened that flour bag.

I poured out a cup of milk,
That looked like watery silk,
It splashed impressively,
splattering, sadly
on the counter; wasted milk.

I pulled out an egg that was fat,
and promptly it fell with a splat;
Oh, egg you are gone!
This recipe was so long!
But at last I got through all that.

I grasped the vanilla tightly,
And adjusted the lid slightly;
The vanilla was poured,
And relieved I toured
The pantry, nicely and kindly.

I mixed with a spoon,
And hummed a tune,
The cookies were coming out fine,
I shaped them with a cutter of mine,
They would be done soon.

I held in my hands a tray,
With the cookies all looking my way,
And I opened the door
and saw the interior
Of the oven, and - O, I say!

The oven was hot,
and I was not,
And I stood contemplating heat,
With those cookies I wanted to eat,
Unsure of what I sought.

The cookies were finally baking,
And oh, so long they were taking!
At last they were finished,
And not diminished,
As I took them out, hands shaking.

But, alas, for my fate
(and how that word I do hate),
Was to trip on a ball,
And to promptly fall,
Dropping the cookies on plate.


(I know, I know, Kirk! The meter isn't right! :P )