Quantcast

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Monday, April 18, 2016

When the Book is So Much Better

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about movies that were better, or at least just as good in their own right, as the books that inspired them. Those movies are a bit of an anomaly, because usually it goes without saying that the book is always better. However, that post got me thinking about a few book-to-movie adaptations where the book is just so much better that it's laughable. They shouldn't have even tried. So below I've compiled a short list of movies that I think are atrocities and should not bear the name of the awesome books they supposedly adapt. I wish someone would remake all of these movies and at least try to do the book justice. But alas, I have no power over Hollywood types, so my opinion counts for nothing.

(Also, please note, these are personal opinions. If you love any of the movies listed below, no hard feelings! I still love you!)

Ella Enchanted


Thursday, April 14, 2016

Tell Me a Story, Mama

Telling stories, oral stories,

This is the request I get daily. Multiple times a day. Honestly, probably about fifty times a day.

"Tell me a story, Mama."

I guess most of the time it's more of a command rather than a request. This has become the go-to recourse for any moment of boredom: waiting while I fix lunch, driving in the car, getting dressed in the morning...

"Tell me a story, Mama."

It started out as a technique to keep him quiet during those long hours of church. My husband would softly whisper stories into his ear, his little body finally holding still, caught in rapt attention. Early on, those many years ago, they were "Josh and Danny Boy" stories, Danny Boy being the golden retriever at Grandma and Grandpa's house that serves as our surrogate pet-from-a-distance. Josh and Danny Boy would go on all sorts of adventures together in those stories, usually ending up dirty and muddy and happy in the end.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

400 Years Ago...

Shakespeare died.

On April 23rd, 1616, to be exact (so get ready, that momentous day is just a few weeks away).

If you were unaware that this year marked such an auspicious anniversary (or un-auspicious, as we are celebrating a death here), then you must not be running in my (grad literature student taking a Shakespeare course) circles. Because anyone who has anything remotely to do with Shakespeare is celebrating it big time this year. I mean, seriously, there are a million tribute productions and activities (like RBG presiding at a mock Merchant of Venice trial... ?) and all sorts of stuff planned all year long.

But, cool productions of Shakespeare plays aside, one of my personal favorite things happening this year is the 50 State tour of the First Folio by the Folger library. What is the First Folio, do you ask? Well, you've asked the right person.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Books I Read in March

You guys, March was a comedy of errors when it came to my reading life. It was just one of those things where a bunch of audio book holds became available all at once, and I (naturally) decided to listen to the longest one first, but it was a too long for me to finish in the check-out time (I listen on double speed, but 25 hours is still a hunk of time to devote to any one book), so then I didn't get it finished before it was returned, and I lost all the other books that became available at the same time. Then when I tried to recheck everything out, I was bumped to the bottom of the waiting lists again. Argh!

There were other issues too: forgetting to charge my phone and missing out on an entire commute's worth of reading (well, listening), Spring Break and family in town disrupting my normal schedule, struggling to find back-up audio books that were available for immediate download and hating one enough (Astonish Me) that I just couldn't finish it. Excuses and problems aside, I did manage to finish three books this month, and the ones I finished were all generally very good (and mostly short, which helped).