Catching up

It's been too long since I posted to this blog. But I've been reading TONS. But not everything thrills me and inspires me to write. But I thought I'd do a brief overview of things that have interested me lately:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I've read this probably 7 or 8 times, but a few weeks ago, I picked it up and spent the whole day reading again. It's the foundational book on which all current romance novels are based. It's a cliche to say that Mr. Darcy is the ideal man, but it's true! I just love him.
Which brings me to another interesting subject: all the P&P "sequels" written by modern day writers. I think they're all TERRIBLE. I appreciate the fact that people want to know what happened after the wedding, but an excellent piece of fiction, in my opinion, can and should only be continued by the original author. Some lady in Texas thinks she knows what happened to Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy? Sorry, only Jane Austen knows that and she's been six feet under for quite a while. I do like the movie adaptions though. The Kiera Knightley version was really good, especially since it kept VERY true to the novel, as much as it could considering the time considerations. Bridget Jones Diary is my favorite book/movie re-telling. (Which is different from a sequel. A modern re-telling is fine, if it doesn't take itself too seriously.) I'd love to see the BBC version of the novel. I keep meaning to order it from Amazon. Maybe I'll do that after this!

2. Right now I'm reading The Brief and WOndrous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. It's wonderful, so far. There's a lot of Spanglish, which made the reading hard at first but context generally clears it up.

3. Juan just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy and says it's one of the best/saddest books he's ever read. He finished it a week ago but says he still thinks about it. That's the sign of a good book!

4. I read all the Twilight books in about four or five days. I couldn't get enough of them. Ohhh, I love me some Edward Cullen!! Who would have thought that vampire love would be so hot? As a romance novel fan, Twilight really appeals to that part of me. Juan thinks there's too much sitting around talking about love, but I like that stuff. The first book drags as far as action, but the rest pick up. The last book isn't as bad as people say, but it's certainly not the best. That goes to the third one!!

5. I just finished The Other Queen by Phillipa Gregory. I generally like PG. I think the Other Boleyn Girl was her best. This one really dragged, took me a long time to get through it. My mom read it first and said that she didn't think PG likes Queen Elizabeth, and to read it, it really seems true. She's really hard on her. This book didn't have any protagonists/antagonists, but it wasn't quite literary enough to support that construct, which is why I think it was a slow read.