Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Do you skip bits of a book?

I read this novel in 2003 - 2004, when I was living in Cardiff.  A Cypriot friend of mine said she only got half way through the book and she just couldn't finish it because the middle section of the novel has a very, very long boat ride. The main character, Pi Patel, an Indian boy on his way to Canada, is stranded in a lifeboat that is set adrift.  Having read the book, and getting her to agree that the writing was great, as was the opening of the story, I told her if she was impatient, she could to skip to the last part of the book.  It would then make her want to go back and read the middle section.

I'm sure a lot of my writer friends would take issue with this.  A writer lays down as story as they want it to unfold to the reader, and while they are writing it is their baby.  I agree on a certain level.  But at some point I think a story becomes its own entity and takes on its own life, and if certain parts of a story are told out of order, it doesn't matter if it makes it accessible personally to a reader, and if the story is good in itself, it can transcend the order.  This novel does.

I can give another example of times when I skip bits. I finished a quick-to-read novel called, A Gathering Storm, last week before Christmas.  We find out about the main character in a series of flashbacks to World War II, where she worked for Allied intelligence, and at some point gets captured in Occupied France.  There were torture scenes. You get an idea of what happens to her because after she escapes and is returning to England, she mentions that she's glad her fingernails are growing back (and other things are healing).  So yeah, when I get impatient or squeamish, I don't necessarily read it as the author intended.   While I am truly grateful the text this there, I do admit I skim/skip, sometimes.  I'm pretty sure we all do it, for different reasons.

What Animal are you?

What facet of your personality does your pet or any animal you relate to reveal?  I seem to collect a lot of cat-loving friends. A cousin of mine collects anything that has to do with squirrels.  A friend from college told me on Facebook that she named her dog, Pi, after the main character in this book.  I've always wanted to get another dog (I had 3 when I was growing up) and name him Boba Fett officially, but call him "Bo" or "Boba" most of the time. (My husband doesn't the responsibility of a dog, and with the amount of traveling we do, it would be unfair to the dog to keep one now).  But anyway, this is a good question raised in the novel, that gives it, its twist.  How do we perceive ourselves? How does what we do make others characterize us...even under extraordinary circumstances?

Cool math tricks / owning your inner geek

Pi, is a feisty boy that you've just got to admire. Early in the novel, he takes control in a classroom situation to avoid years of bullying because of his strange name, which is Italian for "pool."  He says something proudly like, we Indians are a nation of mathematicians and engineers,  (indeed, they did invent 0) and nicknames himself "Pi."  
Not sure what teachers today would think of a student taking over their black/white board on the first day of school, but admiration for their knowledge probably trumps a bit of cheekiness.  

Pi is geek chic.