10 posts tagged “books”
Thanks Ana for letting me watch this previously unopened DVD while you are at camp. I think you will enjoy this as much as the other two!
We're four chapters in to our current Eragon read-aloud and it's better than I thought! Paolini has a nicely lyrical style and the characters, action, dialogue, and scenery are all originally done. I had to remind myself that I had any familiarity with the story through the movie, but Jeremy summed it up when he said, "don't worry, the movie doesn't give anything away." He's right, I don't recognize anything, not even the main character so far.
What a wonderful story. I am very impressed with the ability of J.K. Rowling to weave such a plot and keep the characters and story consistent throughout. So many sequels sort of get reinvented as they go along, but she keeps all 7 books right on track with very satisfying developments and conclusions.
At the end of book 6, I complained about Harry's attitude, but we all work through stressful situations in sometimes less than perfect ways, don't we? What's a little venting among friends? He seemed to mature past it in the last book.
My one general gripe that I still have after reading the whole series is how she brings out how everyone is talking about Harry and looking at him. I know the premise of the whole story is what would it be like to be famous, but I wish she had handled that aspect of it a little more subtly. I don't know how else she could have handled it. I know he couldn't help but be aware of it, and I know some people do have to deal with adoring, or unadoring but persistently attentive numbers of people. He didn't seem to like it, so maybe he could have worked on treating it differently than just categorizing the attention unilaterally from "the masses". How to categorize a group phenomena composed of complex individuals, hmmm....
Wives and Daughters, based on the 19th century novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, who got passed my radar until Matushka
Elizabeth's daughters introduced her to me a couple of years ago, impressed me more after viewing it again recently. The first time I saw it I was angrier at the not so respectable characters. This time I saw how her characters are very complex and I noticed subtle redeeming behaviors, such as the development of self control and unselfish motivations that I missed the first time. I find her characters much deeper and well-rounded than Jane Austen's, who can be caricature-ish and cartoony, but there are similarities in the heroes and heroins. The BBC did a beautiful job making two extended versions of her novels, the other being North and South which to me is a cross between Pride and Prejudice and Dickens' Oliver Twist.
We finished HP#6 last night. I was hoarse by the end. I kinda wish it'd ended where we'd stopped in the afternoon because Harry's attitude in the last pages was getting on my nerves. I was with him during his painful angry phase, but I'm not seeing his obnoxious disrespect for authority, even Prof McGonagal, as following so naturally what has happened. But maybe that's because I never expressed it that directly to those in authority while the traumas where still so fresh when I was young. Maybe it's healthier to be open and direct with your feelings like that as you're having them, instead of having to deal with the stuffed down, or indirectly expressed build-up when you're 41 years old. Maybe we create dual personalities by demanding such rigid respect for elders, no matter what.
Also, why do the superheros always feel they have to cut ties and go it alone?
43 more pages to go in #6 Harry Potter book! Major things happened where we left off and now we have to wait till Jared gets home from Chick Fil A to finish the thing, hopefully tonight, and still let him and Ben get to bed early enough to get up and take their SAT's tomorrow morning.
This is their second time to take it. We registered for them to take it twice before we got their scores from the first one, figuring that even if they did well (which they did!), they could still stand the extra points they'll hopefully get knowing better what to expect. Good thing we did because Ben couldn't find the essay question, so he made up a topic thus earning a zero for that section, but he still got an 1840 total score! Jared was his usual cool, calm, collected, consistent, competant self and got a 2120. He thinks he can improve by budgeting his time better and allowing more time on the essay question where he got a 7 out of 12.
My sons just came to me with these quotes from the book, Bad Press:
Benjamin Disreali - Books are fatal; they are the curse of the human race. 9/10 of existing books are nonsense and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.
Thank you for your manuscript; I shall lose no time in reading it.
Groucho Marx - From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
Mark Twain - A classic is something that everyone wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
maybe it was Charles Dickens - The covers of this book are too far apart.
George related a quote of unknown origin, Of all the books I've ever read, yours is surely one of them.
or in my case, most likely, yours is surely not one of them. At least I'm on book 3 of Harry Potter finally.
Refutation of my excuse by George who is listening on tape to a book about the rise and fall of Alexandria, probably of that same name: The Caliph of the time said, that if the books are not about God they are useless, and if they are about God, they are redundant (with the Koran). So they used the scrolls from the Library as fuel for the Roman baths for 6 full months. A great loss indeed. So all we know from the great minds of Aristotle, Euripedes, etc were smuggled out. No wonder there was a period known as the Dark Ages. I need to repent of my slothful reading habits.
