My father gave me a copy of The Hobbit on DVD for Easter. It's just been sitting on my desk, completely untouched. I feel like such a bad nerd for not actually watching that movie yet.
But I've always loved The Lord of the Rings. I first read The Hobbit and the Trilogy back in elementary school, so I have a very concrete and personal view of what the story and characters are like. It seems almost unnecessary to watch a movie about it!
The movie has a very different feel to it, Knerd, so I'd say it's still very worth watching and not redundant of the book.
Belly -
SPOILERX
I agree, some of the battles felt like overkill. Especially the Goblin battle... what was going on there? It much less... huge in the books, but I liked it that way. In the movie I just couldn't keep up with what was happening. also ew scrote chin
Cherry: I totally agree with you there with your spoiler! Being very vague here, so I don't have to hide it in a spoiler either. xDD Because I'm lazy. But I do agree!
Did I ever ask you what you thought of Virgin Suicides? That's one of those books that everyone seems to like that I just didn't enjoy. I thought the narration was weird and confusing and I could never figure out where certain scenes were supposed to be taking place. But it's been a while since I read it, so details are foggy.
Are you really reading seven books at once right now?
---------- Post added 05-05-2013 at 04:29 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cherry Who?
Did I ever ask you what you thought of Virgin Suicides? That's one of those books that everyone seems to like that I just didn't enjoy. I thought the narration was weird and confusing and I could never figure out where certain scenes were supposed to be taking place. But it's been a while since I read it, so details are foggy.
I think that it has a lot of literary merit and I liked the story itself, but I didn't like how it was written. (I mean, really, why were these boys so obsessed with the Lisbon girls? That isn't typical kid behavior. They brought creepy to an entirely new level, but the narrator's relationship with the girls was never actually examined or explained. It was just...there.)
I'll have to see the movie at some point. I'm sure that this works better as a film than as a book. Once you can actually see the girls and get to know them as an outsider looking in, everything probably falls together.
Yeah, I did like the story itself! Maybe that was why I was so annoyed by it - because I felt it could have been a lot better. I got rid of my copy a while back, maybe I should have kept it to give it another read later on. I did read it in my teens, so my judgement was kind of iffy and subject to change.
I'm getting ready to go on a trip and looking through the classics in the freebies section on Amazon for something to load onto my Kindle - anyone have any suggestions? Should I read some Dickens?
My experience with Great Expectations is that it's very good, but it gets a little slow in the middle. I was a teenager when I read it so I got bored and ended up abandoning it, but if you've got the patience/plane ride to get through a slower middle, I'd recommend it!
If you can find it free or cheap and want a quick read, I'd recommend the script for The Importance of Being Earnest. It's very funny. I'm writing a literary analysis essay on it currently and I'm loving every minute of it.
So just so you guys know, Kita has fallen completely in love with Game of Thrones. My fiance's mom got it for me at Costco, and asdkjf I can't put it down.
Bwagh! I know it's five months late, but I'm finally getting my challenge for this year posted up here. I'm not going for a specific number of books, just charting how many I can read in a year at my usual rate.
Start Date: 1 January 2013 End Date: 31 December 2013
Number of Books Read: 80
Books Read:
1) Stargate SG1 by Ashley McConnell
2) Stargate SG1: The Morpheus Factor by Ashley McConnell
3) Stargate SG1: Trial By Fire by Sabine C. Bauer
4) Stargate SG1: Sacrifice Moon by Julie Fortune
5) Stargate SG1: A Matter of Honor by Sally Malcom
6) Stargate SG1: City of the Gods by Sonny Whitelaw
7) Stargate SG1: The Cost of Honor by Sally Malcom
8) Stargate SG1: Relativity by James Swallow
9) Stargate SG1: The Barque of Heaven by Suzanne Wood
10) Stargate SG1:Hydra by Holly Scott & Jaimie Duncan
11) Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind
12) Chainfire by Terry Goodkind
13) Phantom by Terry Goodkind
14) Confessor by Terry Goodkind
15) Stargate SG1: Valhalla by Tim Waggoner
16) Star Trek: The Next Generation: I, Q by John de Lancie & Peter David
17) Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q-in-Law by Peter David
18) Star Trek: The Next Generation: Metamorphosis by Jean Lorrah
19) Star Trek: The Next Generation: Blaze of Glory by Simon Hawke
20) Star Trek: Shadows on the Sun by Michael Jan Friedman
21) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast by Aaron Allston
22) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Omen by Christie Golden
23) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss by Troy Denning
24) Yu-Gi-Oh! vol 6 by Kazuki Takahashi
25) Yu-Gi-Oh! vol 7 by Kazuki Takahashi
26) MegaMan vol 1 by Ryo Takamisaki
27) MegaMan vol 2 by Ryo Takamisaki
28) Bleach vol 49 by Tite Kubo
29) Bleach vol 50 by Tite Kubo
30) Bleach vol 51 by Tite Kubo
31) Bleach vol 52 by Tite Kubo
32) Bleach vol 53 by Tite Kubo
33) Bleach vol 54 by Tite Kubo
34) Bleach vol 55 by Tite Kubo
35) Bleach vol 56 by Tite Kubo
36) Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy by Jack Duncan & Gardner Dozois
37) Foundation's Fear by Gregory Benford
38) Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear
39) Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire by Michael A. Martin
40) Foundation's Triumph by David Brin
41) Forward The Foundation by Issac Asimov
42) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Backlash by Aaron Allston
43) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Allies by Christie Golden
44) The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories by John L. Apostolou and Martin H. Greenberg
45) Bleach vol 57 by Tite Kubo
46) Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal vol 1 by Shin Yoshida and Naohito Miyoshi
47) Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's vol 4 by Masahiro Hikokubo and Masashi Sato
48) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Vortex by Troy Denning
49) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Conviction by Aaron Allston
50) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Ascension by Christie Golden
51) Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse by Troy Denning
52) A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
53) The Guardian by Sherrilyn Kenyon
54) The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
55) Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist vol 18 by Kazuki Takahashi
56) Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal vol 2 by Shin Yoshida and Naohito Miyoshi
57) Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal vol 3 by Shin Yoshida and Naohito Miyoshi
58) A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
59) A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
60) Soul Eater vol 1 by Atsushi Okubo
61) Soul Eater vol 2 by Atsushi Okubo
62) Soul Eater vol 3 by Atsushi Okubo
63) Bleach vol 58 by Tite Kubo
64) Time Untime by Sherrilyn Kenyon
65) Naruto vol 28 by Masashi Kishimoto
66) Naruto vol 29 by Masashi Kishimoto
67) Naruto vol 30 by Masashi Kishimoto
68) Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds vol 5 by Masahiro Hikokubo and Masashi Sato
69) Naruto vol 31 by Masashi Kishimoto
70) Naruto vol 32 by Masashi Kishimoto
71) Naruto vol 33 by Masashi Kishimoto
72) Naruto vol 34 by Masashi Kishimoto
73) Naruto vol 35 by Masashi Kishimoto
74) Agents of Artifice by Ari Marmell
75) Naruto vol 36 by Masashi Kishimoto
76) Naruto vol 37 by Masashi Kishimoto
77) Naruto vol 38 by Masashi Kishimoto
78) Naruto vol 39 by Masashi Kishimoto
79) Naruto vol 40 by Masashi Kishimoto
80) Path of the Planeswalker by various authors
Reading: A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
Last edited by TaiyoTsuki; 01-07-2014 at 12:44 AM..
Overused plots? I always grind my teeth at love triangles. They can be very eloquently written when there's a genuine reason for the conflict and it isn't just created for romantic tension, but so few authors can handle it well enough. It seems like one of those plot lines that pops up in every vaguely romantic novel out there. If two characters are falling in love, you can bet that a third wheel will tag along at some point.
I've been too lazy to actually take a photograph, but my town's first library sale of the reason was last week! I bought a stack of books for just a few dollars. Quite a few good ones, too. I'm pretty happy:
"Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn
"Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain
"Money" by Martin Amis
"Sexing the Cherry" by Jeanette Winterson
"Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
"The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov
I've been wanting to read Geek Love for years now. I'm so glad to finally have a copy. I'm already halfway through the book and I couldn't be more engrained in the story. With any luck, I'll be able to finish it by the weekend.
Oh, that reminded me of one, though it's definitely not limited to just books - if two single people of the opposite sex (or same sex if they're gay/bi) are friends, then they must also fall in love. Writers think it's absolutely impossible to be just friends with someone of a sex that you're also attracted to. If someone has friends of a sex they're attracted to, either they will fall in love (or one of them will, anyway) or they're already in a relationship with someone else. It's so insulting to the tons and tons of friendships that exist between people without any romantic or sexual entanglements. :/ Not that falling in love with your friend isn't all fine and well, I'm a proponent of being friends before dating, but no one's ever just friends throughout the entire length of the story!
I've been marinating a story in the back of my mind for a few years now that I want to use to break that trope. It would be about a straight guy and a straight girl who end up going on a road trip together and it isn't ~constant sexual tension~. They'd actually get pretty annoyed with each other a lot of the time because their personalities aren't very compatible and they're flawed people (like every real person!) who sometimes say things they shouldn't and have emotions and reactions that aren't always logical. In the end they'd find some sort of common ground and develop a respect for each other as they both realize that neither of them are perfect and everyone has their own problems they're dealing with and nothing's black and white like "she's just an annoying person" or "he's just a jerk." But I've focused so much on what I want the character development to be like that I don't actually have a plot, so I haven't been able to write it yet.
Last edited by Cherry Who?; 05-16-2013 at 10:12 PM..
Being very vague here, so I don't have to hide it in a spoiler either. xDD Because I'm lazy. But I do agree! 
