Book Review #1: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

This book is #221 on the list. Why start in the dead center? Well, when I look at my own bookshelf, it's kind of hard to miss*.

Judging from a quick Google, Marilyn probably had the 1924 edition of this collection, with the full title Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass & The Hunting Of The Snark. My volume contains those three stories, plus Sylvie and Bruno and Phantasmagoria. I haven't read either of those less popular collections, but I can't say they're high on my to-do list.

First, let's talk Alice, my favorite story (or diptych) by Carroll.

I'm not too old to enjoy a good children's story. And unlike The Wizard of Oz, I feel quite certain that Alice was written specifically for children, and was not meant as an allegory or parable. Wizard was not on Marilyn's shelf, and in fact her collection of children's books was quite limited, given the size of the collection on the whole.

I wonder whether Disney's Alice got Marilyn interested in Carroll's works, or whether this was a beloved book from her childhood. She was 25 when Alice debuted in 1951, the same age as I am now, and I certainly haven't outgrown seeing animated movies in the theater.

What can be said about Alice that hasn't been said by millions of other readers? I'm going to echo many of them and say that I appreciate it much more as an adult. Yes, it's a children's story. But it's also a beautiful narrative of escapism, growth, learning, and triumph.

The Hunting of the Snark is not my favorite story by Carroll.

As a pre-teen, I loved nonsense verse. You know what I didn't love as a pre-teen? Sailing narratives. As a jaded adult, I am really not a fan of nonsense verse nor sailing narratives. Snark can be described as both. If that's not enough to forewarn you, think of it as a poor Jabberwocky retcon. Tempted as I am to call it "fan fiction", it's obviously not.

I wonder how many people who buy this volume, or similar volumes, end up reading Lewis's "other classic works". Truthfully, I love the Alice stories (and illustrations), and this was one of the nicest-looking volumes I've seen. I imagine that it would be a good gift for a voracious reader aged 8-14, but I've developed a distaste for nonsense stories. At a cursory inspection, Sylvie and Bruno is a fairly nonsense-heavy fantasy novel, and it (and its sequel) make up a large portion of this volume. I probably should have gone for that 1924 edition.

Up next: Probably not a children's story. Possibly another book I already have on my shelf. Definitely not a sea shanty.

*More on the non-Alice books later. Except for the one on the far right. Not The Disaster Artist, the far right. We don't talk about that one.

My Bookshelf

... is an embarrassment.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not ashamed of the books that are displayed on my shelf. They may not be prestigious, but I don't believe in "guilty pleasure reads". It's the volume that embarrasses me. It implies that I'm uncultured, inattentive, or worst of all - boring. I don't think a lack of reading material implies stupidity, as there are many forms of intelligence that have nothing to do with literature, but it's still not a good look.

Take, for instance, my good friend Bradley. Bradley had about 430 books*. This is an easy number to estimate, because he gave me his three bookshelves when he moved states, and my entire book collection takes up one fourth of one bookshelf.

Yes, fellow math-inclined friends. I own exactly 36 books. I'm at peace with being one-twelfth as pretty as Marilyn Monroe, but I'm not so comfortable with the idea of being one-twelfth as well-read as her. Or anyone, except maybe professors of literature or writers themselves.

What am I using the other eleven-twelfths of my bookshelves for? Vinyl records, video games, glamour magazines, DVDs, figurines, sentimental gifts, and...

Mid-century modern reproduction purses.

Even if I'm not well-read, I go to some great lengths to reassure myself that I'm not boring.

*He's down to about 330 books now, because the USPS lost three boxes' worth of his books when he moved, and replaced them with cookbooks and bibles. Viva la USPS!

Prologue

This is a blog that's piggybacking off of a single article. To be fair, it's an article with a lot of citations. 430, to be exact.

Ayun Halliday's list of the 430 books in Marilyn Monroe's personal collection is a deeply intriguing article. It's not a listicle. It's an anti-listicle. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I wouldn't describe myself as a massive Monroe fan, but that's just because I prefer to research the whole breadth and depth of Old Hollywood and 1950s pop culture, rather than zeroing in on a solitary celebrity or tastemaker. However, I realized that I've been neglecting Marilyn's incredibly interesting life and works, due to her commercialization and simplification (and no shortage of misattributed quotes). Today, I begin rectifying that.

So, what's my goal for this blog?

1) Dissect every single one of the 430 books on the list. This doesn't necessarily mean reading every single one from start to finish, but I'll do so whenever possible.

2) Keep it unique - this isn't going to be a compilation of GoodReads reviews. I'm going to look at cultural context - contemporary concerns as well as the books' relation to Monroe's life.

3) Make it personal - I'm not a historian, and I don't pretend to be. I'm not keen on the idea of creating a "lifestyle blog", but I am a vintage lifestyler, and that's definitely going to be reflected in my writing. And, while I consider myself well-educated, I'm not a huge reader. More on that later.

Happy reading!