According to Goodreads, I am 10 books ahead of my reading schedule and 55% done with my challenge. I'm really excited about making progress with this years challenge, but right now, I'm going to take a bit of a break.
I still have at least 5 books I need to review to be totally caught up, but I'm not going to do that right now. Right now I'm going to tell you a little bit about my relationship with books.
I already told you a little about how I fell in love with books last year. How that one book and the simple act of rereading it brought me into this crazy world. When I was in sixth grade, I read Gone with the Wind. I was inappropriately proud of this accomplishment because it was HUGE. I mean, seriously. This book is like 800 pages. And I read and understood it, mostly. I think that is when I fell in love with BOOKS. Not just books "oh how I love to read" but "it's huge and I'm gonna read it all and I'M BETTER THAN YOU because I can."
So, okay, a bit of an attitude problem there. I think I'm over that now, but I still get an insane sense of accomplishment when I finish a book over 400 pages. I love detailed stories that NEED that many pages to tell a story.
Stephen Lawhead wrote a series called The Pendragon Cycle. It is five books long and even though each book is only about 450 pages (as a comparison, books 3-7 of the Harry Potter series are anywhere from 400-700 odd pages), it takes FOREVER to get through. In fact, I still haven't finished. I think I just got my hands on Pendragon (the fourth book in the cycle) around senior semester and didn't get very far.
I hear you saying, "Well okay, Harry Potter is seven books and by your own admission the last few books are huge. How does it take you forever to read a cycle of five books that have fewer pages?"
And this is when I tell you about the brilliance of Stephen Lawhead. He takes the story of Arthur and Camelot and pulls it back at least three generations. Before Arthur, before Merlin--long before any of them. He writes with such attention to detail and story. When I describe his writing, I usually liken it to Old English tales, like Beowulf. Sometimes it is hard to get through, but when you do, it is worth it.
And yet, sometimes, that is not what I need to read. I love ... and the only word I can think of here is "trudging" through a long series. The word choice alone shows that at times it is a bit of a chore. And that is part of the reason why I think I love young adult literature. The writing style is at times simple, (not stupid) but the content is not. Plus, as a rule, I can blaze through them in no time at all. Enter John Green novels.
But unlike some adult series, young adult novels (especially John Green) speak to the reader in a very real way. The Pendragon Cycle is a good story; An Abundance of Katherines speaks to me about love and loss. I think that by nature, no matter how story driven Young Adult novels are, they always tell us something about ourselves. See also, Harry Potter. I think that is something you tend to lose in adult fiction.
I almost went this entire post without owning up to my Nicholas Sparks weakness. Oops. There it is.
At the end of the day, I love reading books that make me think. Books that make me USE the very expensive four year degree I earned. But sometimes, I need a break. And sometimes, that looks like young adult books, Nicholas Sparks books, and lots and lots of TV.
PS I've finally finished Eureka. If you haven't seen the show, please. Do yourself a favor. Go watch it. It is hilarious.
Showing posts with label Nicholas Sparks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicholas Sparks. Show all posts
08 May 2013
29 March 2012
march reviews
April already? How in the world did that happen?
I will admit that March has been a bit of a blur for me. I'm not sure I can tell you what happened last month except work. I worked a lot. I watched a lot of TV. I didn't sleep as much as I needed to sleep. And I didn't read as much as I wanted to.
I finally got around to reading Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. (What? No, not just because Channing Tatum is in the movie! Well...)
I read this book after finishing the awful book Juliette. It is how I discovered that written dialouge is very important in a book and will, in fact, make or break my interest in a story. Moving right along... I had mixed feelings about the book. In part, I hated it. Building up a romance, sending boy across oceans to a war, girl breaking up with him in a letter (so wrong!)--and so many other things-- I just couldn't handle it. But part of me thought, as I wiped the tear from my eye, "Love doesn't always work out the way we want it to, and sometimes that is for the best." So I guess that is the moral of that story.
(Also, Channing Tatum is hot. The end.)
Another book I picked up to read because I want to eventually see the movie is One Day by David Nicholls. I suppose I didn't learn my "love doesn't always work out the way we want it to" lesson, because this book was like Dear John on that level, times 1,000. I cried at this book. It is the well known story of two imperfect people (Dexter & Emma) who are perfect for each other...but can't get their life together long enough to actually be together. Except for those few moments when all is right in the world, and tho moments are so few and so far between.The book is called "One Day" because each chapter tracks their events on July 15th St. Swithun's Day, from graduation day from university and for the next 20 years.
**Update** I did get to see the movie too. Love it. I cried at the book, but I sobbed and wept at the film.
My vote is a whole-hearted "yes" to both the reading of the book and the viewing of the film. You need to see this. Yes, even though Ann Hathaway is in it and fakes an accent. It doesn't suck as much as I thought it would.
And let's not forget the much anticipated movie of the month: The Hunger Games! This was another Gettysburg find for me. Again, I told everyone and all my friends got hooked as well. I know it is long over due, but make sure you see this. I think it was beautifully done and I loved it. I mean, as much as you can love seeing a bunch of teens running around killing each other because of a corrupt government...but I think the adaptation was beautiful.
TV Series, Mini-series & film stuff (aka David Tennant Month)
As I said, I watched a lot of TV in March. Well I did not lie. I started re-watching Doctor Who when I got a friend of mine hooked and so I just kept going. I love David Tennant's Doctor. Love love love. I loved Christopher Eccleston too...but I double loved David's. So there was lots of Doctor Who happening.
I also saw the BBC's Casanova. Also with David Tennant. Also with Russel T. Davies of Doctor Who fame. It was chock full of other brilliant British actors, too. All in all, a great miniseries. My little sister, who sometimes has trouble with all of the BBC I watch, even loved it. I mean really, it's just great.
The Chatterley Affair
During my year at Gettysburg, I read Lady Chatterley's Lover and watched the mini-series by Ken Russel. I loved parts of the film (Sean Bean? Yes please!) and parts of the books. Well, lots of parts of the book. I couldn't tell you all of the parts, but I know I have a bookmark full of quotes. I feel it's a very honest look at what relationships are, the emotions that are involved and, like we learned in When Harry Met Sally..., how sex (whether you have it or not) gets in the way.
This film, The Chatterley Affair, is about the trial of the book in England in 1960. Parts of the story are fictional, but many of the witnesses and their testimony for the book are true. This was a very publicized event and the main purpose was to decide if D. H. Laurence was just publishing smut, or if his book actually contained any literary value. Some of the perspectives of the people who testified were really interesting, especially Richard Hoggart's view of Laurence's purpose of using the F-word (sorry). The fact that David Tennant played the character Richard Hoggart, well...that was just for fun :)
I will admit that March has been a bit of a blur for me. I'm not sure I can tell you what happened last month except work. I worked a lot. I watched a lot of TV. I didn't sleep as much as I needed to sleep. And I didn't read as much as I wanted to.
I finally got around to reading Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. (What? No, not just because Channing Tatum is in the movie! Well...)
I read this book after finishing the awful book Juliette. It is how I discovered that written dialouge is very important in a book and will, in fact, make or break my interest in a story. Moving right along... I had mixed feelings about the book. In part, I hated it. Building up a romance, sending boy across oceans to a war, girl breaking up with him in a letter (so wrong!)--and so many other things-- I just couldn't handle it. But part of me thought, as I wiped the tear from my eye, "Love doesn't always work out the way we want it to, and sometimes that is for the best." So I guess that is the moral of that story.
(Also, Channing Tatum is hot. The end.)
Another book I picked up to read because I want to eventually see the movie is One Day by David Nicholls. I suppose I didn't learn my "love doesn't always work out the way we want it to" lesson, because this book was like Dear John on that level, times 1,000. I cried at this book. It is the well known story of two imperfect people (Dexter & Emma) who are perfect for each other...but can't get their life together long enough to actually be together. Except for those few moments when all is right in the world, and tho moments are so few and so far between.The book is called "One Day" because each chapter tracks their events on July 15th St. Swithun's Day, from graduation day from university and for the next 20 years.
**Update** I did get to see the movie too. Love it. I cried at the book, but I sobbed and wept at the film.
My vote is a whole-hearted "yes" to both the reading of the book and the viewing of the film. You need to see this. Yes, even though Ann Hathaway is in it and fakes an accent. It doesn't suck as much as I thought it would.
And let's not forget the much anticipated movie of the month: The Hunger Games! This was another Gettysburg find for me. Again, I told everyone and all my friends got hooked as well. I know it is long over due, but make sure you see this. I think it was beautifully done and I loved it. I mean, as much as you can love seeing a bunch of teens running around killing each other because of a corrupt government...but I think the adaptation was beautiful.
TV Series, Mini-series & film stuff (aka David Tennant Month)
As I said, I watched a lot of TV in March. Well I did not lie. I started re-watching Doctor Who when I got a friend of mine hooked and so I just kept going. I love David Tennant's Doctor. Love love love. I loved Christopher Eccleston too...but I double loved David's. So there was lots of Doctor Who happening.
I also saw the BBC's Casanova. Also with David Tennant. Also with Russel T. Davies of Doctor Who fame. It was chock full of other brilliant British actors, too. All in all, a great miniseries. My little sister, who sometimes has trouble with all of the BBC I watch, even loved it. I mean really, it's just great.
The Chatterley Affair
During my year at Gettysburg, I read Lady Chatterley's Lover and watched the mini-series by Ken Russel. I loved parts of the film (Sean Bean? Yes please!) and parts of the books. Well, lots of parts of the book. I couldn't tell you all of the parts, but I know I have a bookmark full of quotes. I feel it's a very honest look at what relationships are, the emotions that are involved and, like we learned in When Harry Met Sally..., how sex (whether you have it or not) gets in the way.
This film, The Chatterley Affair, is about the trial of the book in England in 1960. Parts of the story are fictional, but many of the witnesses and their testimony for the book are true. This was a very publicized event and the main purpose was to decide if D. H. Laurence was just publishing smut, or if his book actually contained any literary value. Some of the perspectives of the people who testified were really interesting, especially Richard Hoggart's view of Laurence's purpose of using the F-word (sorry). The fact that David Tennant played the character Richard Hoggart, well...that was just for fun :)
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