Progress: 10 down, 30 to go (list)
Which: Persuasion, Jane Austen
The shortest read time (2 days) and the first saw-the-movie-first of 2011. I’ve seen parts of the Shouty Rochester¹ version, but it’s the 2007 BBC version (see also…) which is fixed in my brain. And I’ve seen it enough that reading the book turned into a series of, “oh, I see what they did there with that bit” and “hey! I thought Benwick said that!”
Parts of Persuasion which are great:
- character histories bubbling up via conversation and not info dumps
- Anne Elliot
- second chances that are a teensy bit contrived, yet fully earned
- the book-long reminder to be aware of whose advice you take and why
- Wentworth’s letter (are you kidding me? eek!)
Parts of Persuasion which could do with a punch to the throat:
- Sir Walter Elliot. DISLIKE
So, y’know: will read again. (:
¹ Shouty Rochester = Ciarán Hinds as Rochester in the. most. wretched. Jane Eyre adaptation I’ve seen. There is no humor in his Rochester, not to mention Samantha Morton’s smug (?!) Jane (with too little spine), and so their relationship comes over as mostly abusive and gross.
The Kindle shuffled off its digital coil this morning. It’s kind of hilarious this should be its final screen when today’s the day I’m finally going to see Jane Eyre.
My electronics have a sense of humor. (:
Clytie, Hiram Powers
Marble is my very favorite sculpture media.
Mise en place!
Progress: 3 down, 37 to go.
Which: The Fiddler in the Subway, Gene Weingarten
(Borrowed from Ky)
The title article isn’t until the end of the book and I didn’t even realize I hadn’t passed it in the book until I got to it. Weingarten is conversational, but always, always a writer: a combo that’ll get me every time. I may just add a copy of Fiddler to my collection as an example of writing well (yes, I made that joke).
Also? He is funny as hell. On re-reading his childhood-favorite Hardy Boys:
Thomas Wolfe warned: you can’t go home again. But shouldn’t you be able to saunter past the old neighborhood without throwing up?
Progress: 1 down, 39 to go
Which: In the Woods, Tana French
(Borrowed from Ky)
I keep trying to get this out and it keeps not working and I keep putting it off. We’ll have no more of that, thanks!
In brief: Adam (not-so-humble narrator) is daft and frustrating, tells a good story but, by book’s end I wanted to whack him on the nose. Somehow my annoyance is squarely with him and not the author. I liked the book (I know, right?), but do yourself a favor: don’t stay up past midnight finishing it unless you’re chasing it with “Kung Fu Panda” or “Avatar The Last Airbender”. Eesh.
One day I might get sick of Hipstamatic and Hipstamatic prints. But today is not that day.
Saturday afternoon.
Shot a roll at lunch, today. I love that camera.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Location: Leesburg, VA
Time: 1:00
Notes: Saturday I got it in my head to sit out on the back porch—in the hot, hot heat—to read for awhile. After recording this (the extra sounds are me turning pages), I lasted a total of 15 minutes. (:
