Anne of Green Gables Challenge
After talking about it last week, several people seemed interested in an Anne of Green Gables reread challenge, and so I set one one – always happy to have some good Anne company!
Option 3: The eight central books in the series:
- Anne of Green Gables
- Anne of Avonlea
- Anne of the Island
- Anne of Windy Poplars/Windy Willows
- Anne’s House of Dreams
- Anne of Ingleside
- Rainbow Valley
- Rilla of Ingleside
as well as any related material.
Literary Lusts: Friedrich Bhaer
Literary Lusts is a meme hosted by Elena over at With Extra Pulp, wherein we discuss any literary characters we may have had developed a crush on.
Sometimes – okay, ALL the time – I forget to post my responses to memes, especially when they don’t, quite handily, have the day in the title. This is why I’m doing the Literary Lust post today, instead of yesterday. This is my third post on this subject, and I’m a little concerned that I haven’t run out of people yet…
Friedrich Bhaer
from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
I know he’s not a major character (not right away, at least) but think about it. He’s a well-learned, extraordinarily kind and gentle man. He’s wonderful with children, believes in honesty, and has an accent to boot. He not only puts up with Jo’s temperamental ways, but actually loves her all the more, and compliments her so well. At the risk of being pelted with tomatoes, I was never disappointed that Jo turned Laurie down – I knew she would find her Friedrich.
You’ve got to love a kindly literature-nerd*.
When it comes to movie adaptions of Little Women, there are of course several Friedrichs**, but my favourite will also be the version of my generation: Gabriel Byrne. Really, would you turn down this man:
* My love for Friedrich is in no way connected to my long-standing wish to be Jo. No. Never. Not at all.
** In looking for Professor Bhaer pictures I discovered that William Shatner and John de Lancie were in a production of Little Women together, as Friedrich Bhaer and Frank Vaughn respectively. This makes the nerd in me very happy … and very giggly.
Teaser Tuesday (March 2)
Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.
- Grab your current read.
- Let the book fall open to a random page.
- Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
- You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
The seclusion room etiquette was, If you weren’t locked in, anybody could join you. A nurse could interrupt your yelling to try to find out why you were yelling, or some other crazy person could come in, and start yelling too. (147)
Girl, Interrupted – Susanna Kaysen
February Wrap-Up
I mentioned it earlier this week, but things have been a little busy round my neck of the woods – in fact, blogging wise, this month has been pretty much non-existent. I have, however, gotten a far bit of reading done (all in 5-minute, waiting room snatches), and am now being punished by a nice stack of unreviewed books. Must get onto that.
Books read:
- Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca Wells
- The Sandman: The Dream Hunters – Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano
- 13 Little Envelopes – Maureen Johnson
- Portrait Photography – Mark Cleghorn
- The Bermudez Triangle – Maureen Johnson
- Little Brother – Cory Doctorow
- 84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
- The Looking Glass Wars – Frank Beddor
Books not yet finished:
- Girl, Interrupted – Susanna Kaysen
Challenges completed:
- um. none.
Musing Monday (March 1)
Sorry for today’s question being up later than usual – I spent all yesterday freaking out about there being a tsunami morning and all today cursing the storms for knocking out my net. I guess my priorities were a little skewed.
I hope that anyone living in areas affected by the earthquake or resulting flooding is doing okay, and my thoughts are with them.
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about a story format.
How do you feel about books written in a differing format – whether this be journals or letters (epistolary), verse novels, or any other form? Is this something you enjoy? Or do you prefer straight forward chapter prose.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
I find that reading books with a different format – whether that be in verse, shorter chapters, letters, what have you – makes me more aware of what I’m reading. This can be both good and bad: good because I feel that I’m concentrating more on what I’m reading, but bad because I don’t feel absorbed into the book like I would with really good prose.
That having been said, I really enjoy this in a book. This question came up because I just finished reading Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted. Though I’ve seen the movie several times, and knew the main character to be a writer, I’ve never picked up the book before. I expected it to be a journal, and was surprised by the short chapter, topic-like contents. This format have it such a beautiful focus, and I’ve been wondering if it would have been as effective if it were told another way.
TO DO… everything
Things have been a little hectic round here lately, and once again my blogging has taken the fall. Right now I’m looking at quite a healthy little pile of books that I’ve read, but not reviewed – must put this on my to-do list.
*witness not so subtle segue*
I’m a big fan of to-do lists, which is why I thought I’d share this website I found. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll actually use it – or whether or not you’ll find it useful – but it’s worth checking out the video alone.
TeuxDeux Demo from TeuxDeux on Vimeo.
Literary Lusts: Atticus Finch
Literary Lusts is a meme hosted by Elena over at With Extra Pulp, wherein we discuss any literary characters we may have had developed a crush on.
So I was thinking about who I was going to pick for my Literary Lust character this week – and I was thinking, and thinking, and then it hit me!!
Atticus Finch
from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
and then of course, I fend really bad that I didn’t think of him last week – thank goodness Wendy’s on blogging hibernation or I’d never live it down.
To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favourite books. I read it for the first time when I was in tenth grade – it was the first book I ever really studied seriously, and I remember being so excited about it (I’m even nerdy enough to admit that this probably played a big part in my love of this novel).
I fell in love with Atticus Finch before I’d even finished my first reading of the book. My English teacher that year really set an example! He’s intelligent, moral, and articulate to boot. He’s just the all-around perfect man! My only qualm is that he refuses to step out of the book into reality.
And now come on, let’s be shallow for a minute. Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch is just gorgeous!
I challenge anyone who’s read To Kill a Mockingbird to disagree with me. Is there really anyone out there who doesn’t just adore Atticus?
Musing Mondays (Feb 22)
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about a keeping books.
Do you keep all the books you ever buy? Just the ones you love? Just collectibles? What do you do with the ones you don’t want to keep?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
In the past I have always kept all my books. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to get me to actually hand them over. I think that this is because growing up, while I never wanted for books, new books weren’t an every-day occurrence.
When I started working I’ll confess to having gone a little book-buying crazy (you mean I can buy a book whenever I want? Really??) which did result in my bookshelves exploding just a little. And let’s face it, ,most readers want a huge home library and are therefore a little loathe to give them away anyways.
However now that I’ve starting buying the bulk of my books through the library or second hand bookstores, I find I’m far more willing to pass them on. I like having a book that someone else has owned, and so like to pass it on so someone can have it for awhile.
If it’s a book I think someone in particular will like I will pass it one (which usually means either my cousin, or Wendy) but for the most part I usually save up a little stockpile and then drop them off at the Blue Dragon, the second hand bookstore/book exchange I like. This week I dropped of some books and ended up with a $25 credit… not that I ever leave the store with any credit left!
Anne of Green Gables
So it turns out that everyone thought Gilbert Blythe was pretty nice, and that the Anne series was pretty popular among us book bloggers.
Answering Elena’s question, and then reading everyone’s comments left me wanting to reread the series – so I was wondering if anyone else was up for it? If there’s enough interest, maybe we could do a reread challenge. I’ve never hosted a challenge before, but it could be fun.
Let me know if you’re interested.
Musing Monday (Feb 15)
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about a reference material.
Do you keep reference books on your shelves at home? What’s your first port of call when you need information – the internet or a book?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
I do keep some reference books on hand, though I’ll admit to most of them being book or craft related.
If it’s something specific I want to know the answer to (eg. “How tall is the Eiffel Tower?”) I tend to prefer the internet – Google is my friend. If I’m looking at something broader, wanting to learn more about a general subject, then I usually head of the the library for a while.
What about you?
Literary Lusts: Gilbert Blythe
Literary Lusts is a meme hosted by Elena over at With Extra Pulp, wherein we discuss any literary characters we may have had developed a crush on.
This week Elena went for the broody Mr. Rochester from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I seemed to head for the opposite end of the spectrum in my choice:
Gilbert Blythe
from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series.
from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series.
I really don’t know how anyone who has read the Anne books couldn’t be completely enamoured with Gilbert. He’s smart and kind, funny and generous. Not to mention absolutely enamoured with Anne.
Right from their earliest rivalry I was cheering for Gilbert, waiting for Anne to realise what every reader already knew: that Gilbert was a catch, and that they were perfect together. And you’ve got to give the boy credit, he really did stick it out, despite all her rejections.
Good on you, Elena, now I want to read Anne!
For those of you who haven’t read the series (and you really should), the first book can be found here.
And did anyone else know that there is an Anne and Gilbert musical? I didn’t! See, this meme is educational, too.
Musing Mondays (Feb 3)
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about a random book.
I’ve seen several bloggers mention reading multiple books this week. Do you frequently read more than one book at a time? Do you try to limit this to a certain number? Do you have different books for different purposes/topics?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
When I was younger I always read more than one book at a time, as I always liked to have the choice. Now, however, I usually read one book pretty solidly and then pick a new one.
In asking this question, I thought about it a little more and realised that this isn’t actually the truth. I only have the one book that I’m actively reading – which I pick up and take with me everywhere – but I also have several ongoing books that I’ve been reading for several months.
Collections of poetry, for instance, are something that I like to savour, and read a bit at a time, so I have had a book sitting by my bed for a while now. And I’ve also been reading The World of Books (a lovely gift from my friends when I left the library) section by section because I want it to last a while. So in this regard yes, I do read more than one book at a time.
BookBook
How many of you out there do your blogging on a MacBook?
I stumbled across this via twitter the other day (it was either @PenguinBooksAus or @KinokuniyaAust – can’t remember which, sorry) and for the first time really wished I had a Mac so I could get on of these covers.
I mean, really, look how pretty they are!
click here for site.
Comments
I’ve noticed over the past fortnight or so that blogger isn’t forwarding all my comments to my email (I get suspicious when I don’t get a whole lot of MM emails).
I was just wondering if anyone else was having this problem or if it was just me?
Edited to add: Not to worry, I found the problem. Apparently my email thought blogger was spam. So! If I didn't reply to a comment of yours (and I do reply to most in one format or another) give me a shout.
Teaser Tuesday (Feb 2)
Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.
- Grab your current read.
- Let the book fall open to a random page.
- Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
- You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
At 9:00am, Director Rick Kolbe walks into the Voyager art department office to look more closely at the three-foot-long model of the Dauntless’ bridge. “Oh, I can place my camera right here,” he says immediately, even as Richard James is setting the model down on the drawing table. (127)
Star Trek: Action! – Terry J. Erdmann
Musing Mondays (Feb 1)
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about a random book.
Go to your bookshelf and pick a random book. No cheating now, just reach out and pick one. Now tell us about it – where did you get it? Why? Was it a gift? Does it hold any special memories? Did someone recommend it to you? etc.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
I was a little worried with the ‘random’ part that I’d pick out a book and I’d have nothing to say. Luckily for me, that didn’t happen. The book I picked was Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies, a book I only read a few years ago though I knew the story.
When my grandmother moved from her house into an over 55s village she downsized a lot of her belongings – most of which involved clearing out the boxes upon boxes she had stored away. One of these boxes held books that belonged to my father and aunt when they were young. I remember that I acquired a lot of books that day, but the only ones coming to mind is this one, naturally, and My Friend Flicker, which I also enjoyed. I love having this book on my shelves simply because it belonged to my father when he was young.
Inside it has several beautiful line-drawing illustrations. I don’t know about you, but this makes me think of books I read when I was little – Enid Blyton in particular. Reading books with these kinds of illustrations makes me want to be a kid again, curled up under the covers with my doll and a bed full of books (one in my hand, on on the bedside, and one under the pillow!).
On a purely aesthetic level, it has everything I love in a book – linen covers, heavy paper, beautifully aged and, of course, the wonderful old book smell! What’s not to love?
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