Holy crap I read the whole thing. It took me two weeks, but with all the snow days recently and the kids home I had nothing else to do but read.
I was skeptical to start off with, but I felt I had to read it just out of pure curiosity and just because I had to get it under my belt of classics that need to be read.
At times it was a bit much with so many names and people and mountains flying by right in the middle of a good story, but besides that, obviously it was rivetting. It would have to be or they wouldn't have been printing the thing for the last 50 years and spent millions of dollars in making the movies
I liked it so much I would even put it on a list of books I need to read again in my lifetime.
I remember guys in highschool talking about Gandalf and acting out scenes from the book (Yes I went to a highschool for gifted students. All the guys were nerds.... cute, but nerds none the less.) I finally understand why they were doing that. I understand jokes on TV now making fun of Frodo or Smeagol. It's like a whole new world has opened up to me.
I don't think I'll start reading fantasy as a genre, but if this is the book that started it all then I can see why it's such a thriving genre.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, November 9, 2009
Italian For Beginners
Now technically this is just a little light chick-lit, but it was also a little bit of a Roman travelogue. Sicne I can't travel, I love the romance mixed with travel books. For some reason this one kept me hooked. The story wasn't as predictable as other chick-lit can be, so it kept me entertained the whole way through.
Cat leaves her ho-hum life to do something impulsive and different to try and spice up her life. Well whose life wouldn't be spiced up if they dropped everything and went to Rome for 4 weeks. Cat is 35 and single and spends most of her time in Rome taking pictures, trying to get over the death of her mother, and trying to figure out her relationships with men. I think there was a little too much deep introspection on Cat and her realtionship with her mother. I would have liked to see the love story developed more, but overall it was very readable. It made for a good light weekend read. It won't change your life, but will keep you entertained. Over all I would say it was a home run for chick-lit.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
NaNoWriMo Story
Yes I'm doing it. I've even got more than 5000 words already. My reading is slacking and I just can't find anything really good to read. I've tried a few, but nothing has stuck. I did finish Finding Oz and it was awesome, but I'm not in the mood to write a formal review.
I tried Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice but it was so boring. I wasn't engrossed by page 150 so I figured it wasn't worth finishing.
So now I'm engrossed in getting in my 2500 words a day for NaNoWriMo. So far so good, but for me it's only day 3. I've done the math for this and if I do 2500 words a day on the weekdays, not including Thanksgiving Day I will meet the 50,000 mark just in time for the end of the month.
I had no plans when I started this story. I just sat down and waited to see what was going to come out. It started out as me, but now has kind of morphed into an Angelina Jolie bad ass mother kind of character and she will be duking it out with none other than Brad Pitt as the bad guy. I don't know how that happened, but when I visualize the characters I created, that is who they look like so I'm going to go with it.
I tried to think of something that could hold my attention and give me enought little scenes to write for a whole month and what I have come up with is:
From the soon to be released book jacket........ A mother leaves her family to take a job in Las Vegas for six weeks to try and save the family from financial ruin, but once she enters into the seedy underworld of Las Vegas she is unsure if she will ever be able to return to her family again.
Oh yeah. That's right. The "seedy underworld". I want it to be kind of like a combo of Jane Eyre... you know a stranger in a big new house with strange people, a new job, a myserious past, a hidden secret.
And then for the cliffhanger at the end the husband will come and save his wife, but he will do it on the newly finished Hoover Dam suspension bridge.
It is going to be freaking awesome.
I tried Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice but it was so boring. I wasn't engrossed by page 150 so I figured it wasn't worth finishing.
So now I'm engrossed in getting in my 2500 words a day for NaNoWriMo. So far so good, but for me it's only day 3. I've done the math for this and if I do 2500 words a day on the weekdays, not including Thanksgiving Day I will meet the 50,000 mark just in time for the end of the month.
I had no plans when I started this story. I just sat down and waited to see what was going to come out. It started out as me, but now has kind of morphed into an Angelina Jolie bad ass mother kind of character and she will be duking it out with none other than Brad Pitt as the bad guy. I don't know how that happened, but when I visualize the characters I created, that is who they look like so I'm going to go with it.
I tried to think of something that could hold my attention and give me enought little scenes to write for a whole month and what I have come up with is:
From the soon to be released book jacket........ A mother leaves her family to take a job in Las Vegas for six weeks to try and save the family from financial ruin, but once she enters into the seedy underworld of Las Vegas she is unsure if she will ever be able to return to her family again.
Oh yeah. That's right. The "seedy underworld". I want it to be kind of like a combo of Jane Eyre... you know a stranger in a big new house with strange people, a new job, a myserious past, a hidden secret.
And then for the cliffhanger at the end the husband will come and save his wife, but he will do it on the newly finished Hoover Dam suspension bridge.
It is going to be freaking awesome.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The BFG, Laura Day and OZ
I haven't been postign a lot, but I have been reading. Rather than do a bunch of seperate posts I'll just summarize.
I finally read the BFG by Roald Dahl. So many people ohh and ahh over this book and somehow I missed this book when I was growing up. I had bought it for my 9 year old to read and thought this would be the perfect time for me to read it too. Two hours later and I don't see what the big deal is. It's a cute story, but I think I missed the magic by reading it at age 34 instead of 8. Reading it as an adult I loved the way Dahl makes the BFG talk. It was ingenious. Only a linguist could have come up with his perfect giant dialect. The only onther thing I want to point out that is a bit nitpicky is if the giant is so opposed to giants eating people and even touches on Sophie eating pigs and calls her out on it, then why does he eat eggs and bacon at the end? I would have figured him for a vegetarian.
I read a book on intuition by Laura Day. I didn't figure this book was really worth a review. This is a book I would classify as 'common sense'. We all have intuition and some of us listen to the hints we are given and some of us don't. What I didn't buy was looking for signs and symbols in everything we do. I don't think we should seek out those signs. If they aren't obvious then they aren't real signs as far as I'm concerned.
Best book these past few weeks has been Finding OZ. It's a biography of sorts of Frank Baum. It is absolutely fascinating. It combines history, political and social, and just a really great biography with an everyman story. I haven't quite finished it yet. I'm really into it and he hasn't even started to write the book yet. I'll keep you posted.
Writing has been slow going. I just about decided that I was going to give up on trying to write since all it seems to do is make me feel guilty for not producing more. I was going to try and focus all of my attention on one of my other businesses. That was until I got the NaNoWriMo e-mail appeared in my box and then a friend mentioned it again on FB. I am tempted. It officially starts on Sunday so I have until then to decide. It would be fun and I know I would finally get a chunk down on paper, but we'll see. My other business really needs some desperate attention and if I start writing furiously next month that business will get set on the back burner until probably January. Not necessarily a good idea. I guess I'll just see how I feel on Sunday and roll with it.
I finally read the BFG by Roald Dahl. So many people ohh and ahh over this book and somehow I missed this book when I was growing up. I had bought it for my 9 year old to read and thought this would be the perfect time for me to read it too. Two hours later and I don't see what the big deal is. It's a cute story, but I think I missed the magic by reading it at age 34 instead of 8. Reading it as an adult I loved the way Dahl makes the BFG talk. It was ingenious. Only a linguist could have come up with his perfect giant dialect. The only onther thing I want to point out that is a bit nitpicky is if the giant is so opposed to giants eating people and even touches on Sophie eating pigs and calls her out on it, then why does he eat eggs and bacon at the end? I would have figured him for a vegetarian.
I read a book on intuition by Laura Day. I didn't figure this book was really worth a review. This is a book I would classify as 'common sense'. We all have intuition and some of us listen to the hints we are given and some of us don't. What I didn't buy was looking for signs and symbols in everything we do. I don't think we should seek out those signs. If they aren't obvious then they aren't real signs as far as I'm concerned.
Best book these past few weeks has been Finding OZ. It's a biography of sorts of Frank Baum. It is absolutely fascinating. It combines history, political and social, and just a really great biography with an everyman story. I haven't quite finished it yet. I'm really into it and he hasn't even started to write the book yet. I'll keep you posted.
Writing has been slow going. I just about decided that I was going to give up on trying to write since all it seems to do is make me feel guilty for not producing more. I was going to try and focus all of my attention on one of my other businesses. That was until I got the NaNoWriMo e-mail appeared in my box and then a friend mentioned it again on FB. I am tempted. It officially starts on Sunday so I have until then to decide. It would be fun and I know I would finally get a chunk down on paper, but we'll see. My other business really needs some desperate attention and if I start writing furiously next month that business will get set on the back burner until probably January. Not necessarily a good idea. I guess I'll just see how I feel on Sunday and roll with it.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Wuthering Heights
No photo today for this book.
I really don't get Wuthering Heights. I picked it up to read a good githic novel. I vaguely remembered reading it when I was a teenager, but it didn't really leave a mark on me, so I decided to read it again.
I have now remembered why it didn't leave an impression. This book is horrible. I don't get the love story. I don't get the ghost story. It just seems like a long meandering family history. The family tree is so confusing and the names so similar that a family tree has to be provided at the beginning of the book. I was still referencing it during the last 30 pages of the book to remind myself who was who's kid.
I read the introduction in my edition and read a theory that Emily Bronte started it and that Charlotte Bronte finished it. I think I believe that this is a real possibility. The beginning of the novel is so all over the place and only about half way through does it seem to find it's style. There is less dialect in conversation, and the characters seem to start moving in a direction. There was a real line that was drawn thru the book and it could very well have been an author change. Add that to the fact that it was Charlotte that brought the book out after her sister's death and I don't see how Charlotte couldn't have added her own shine to her sister Emily's book. Without argument Charlotte was the more talented sister. It wasn't until just a couple of months ago that I read Jane Eyre for the first time and I can honestly say that it is one of the best books I have ever read.
I so wanted to love this book. It is beloved by so many and I wanted to love it too, but I just couldn't do it. maybe if I pick it up again in another 20 years it will strick a chord with me then, but so far I've got nothing for it.
I really don't get Wuthering Heights. I picked it up to read a good githic novel. I vaguely remembered reading it when I was a teenager, but it didn't really leave a mark on me, so I decided to read it again.
I have now remembered why it didn't leave an impression. This book is horrible. I don't get the love story. I don't get the ghost story. It just seems like a long meandering family history. The family tree is so confusing and the names so similar that a family tree has to be provided at the beginning of the book. I was still referencing it during the last 30 pages of the book to remind myself who was who's kid.
I read the introduction in my edition and read a theory that Emily Bronte started it and that Charlotte Bronte finished it. I think I believe that this is a real possibility. The beginning of the novel is so all over the place and only about half way through does it seem to find it's style. There is less dialect in conversation, and the characters seem to start moving in a direction. There was a real line that was drawn thru the book and it could very well have been an author change. Add that to the fact that it was Charlotte that brought the book out after her sister's death and I don't see how Charlotte couldn't have added her own shine to her sister Emily's book. Without argument Charlotte was the more talented sister. It wasn't until just a couple of months ago that I read Jane Eyre for the first time and I can honestly say that it is one of the best books I have ever read.
I so wanted to love this book. It is beloved by so many and I wanted to love it too, but I just couldn't do it. maybe if I pick it up again in another 20 years it will strick a chord with me then, but so far I've got nothing for it.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Isis by Douglas Clegg
I found this book advertised in a strange location.....on Perez Hilton.com. Not the place I usually find books, but there it was on the smaller side ads showing it's beautiful cover and I was sold. I looked up Douglas Clegg and saw he was the writer of a bunch of cool horror books and thought this might be pretty good.
It's a tiny little book, more like an elongated fairy tale then a whole book. Overall it was good, but I would have like to have seen it as a whole book. It felt too compact. The message of the book was awesome. What happens after you bring someone back from the dead? What happens if you wish them back to you in any form? I loved that part of the story. It's a different way to think about returning from the dead. Since I am also reading Wuthering Heights (which I'll review later this week) I saw a lot of parallels between the two stories. There is a love so deep that you can't live without the person you are missing and you ask for them to haunt you.. Not a good idea I would say.
I recomend it, but get it at the library like I did. I wouldn't really call it an instant classic, so you don't really need it on your library shelves. The drawings are amazing so if you're into illustration then buy it, otherwise just check it out from the library.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Slacker
I'm slacking and playing way too much solitaire on my i-phone and not reading, and spending too much time on Perez Hilton to write. It goes that way sometimes. Besides those distractions I have also been fairly busy with my real paying work and of course my family. I'll get back to it I swear. I'm still reading Wuthering Heights mixed with How to Write Romance. I'm just taking it slower than usual. I've got a ton of great books on my desk, but I just can't get through them quick enough what with the new fall TV season having started and all.
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