More reading stuff..

I just finished reading High Noon by Nora Roberts. It was formulatic and a little boring. In some ways, it is almost like the author is trying too hard to make her heroine smart and competent and capable. It did not seem organic, it was not real. And, a pet peeve of mine... I hate it when an author who is probably in their 50's tries to use slang of today. First of all, it always sounds hokey. Secondly, there is no way that it will hold up in a manner that is respectable in 5 or 10 years. Sort of gives me the gicks.

I'm listening to I am Legend while walking on the treadmill. I have yet to see anyone who resembles Will Smith appear, but I am really enjoying the story. Only thing that would make it better would be to have zombies instead of vampires. I do love me some zombies.

Next up, I'm going to give Wicked another shot. I tried starting it before Christmas but just couldn't get in to it. I do like that my paperback version has lovely green pages instead of the normal tannish color. Adds a little panache.

I'm a reader...

I have decided to try to keep track of my reading for the year. I have read four books so far in 2008. That week of vacation really helped me out.

1. The Pact Jodi Picoult
2. The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
3. Holes Louis Sachar
4. Water for Elephants: A Novel Sara Gruen

Next up is High Noon by Nora Roberts. I am also looking for a good audio book for the treadmill.

Movie vs. Book...

I watched the movie: The Painted Veil recently. I just loved it and got a total crush on the main character, Walter, as played by Edward Norton. I don't normally find him attractive at all but something about this particular character appealed to me.

I decided that I needed to read the W. Somerset Maugham story the movie was based on. The book was ok, but I seem to really prefer the Hollywood adaptation. It added a sense of romance that was missing in the story. I did enjoy it enough to look in to Maugham a bit. He was quite an interesting character. I don't think I have read him before. I looked him up on Wikipedia-interesting guy. Somehow exposure to him was missed in my liberal arts education. Maybe it was the gay thing, who knows?

In my search for information of the novel, I came across these women who seem totally infatuated. It is sort of crazy. Kind of like I used to feel when thinking of New Kids on the Block or something. But these seem to be grown, adult women. Women who know where Edward Norton live, who are actually jealous of his real-life girlfriend and of the character Naomi Watts plays in the movie. Sort of scary. Makes me feel sorry for celebrities. What is wrong with people?

I will say though, that this is one of the very few times in my life that I have preferred the movie to the book. One of the very few times.

Happy birthday to me...

My 33rd birthday is almost over. I started the day in bed, reading about the marriage of Claire and Henry in "The Time Traveller's Wife" and finally forced myself to sleep around 12:30. I woke up this morning feeling ok. Sort of like this was just another day...and it was.

I got up, showered, did all that normal daily stuff like tooth brushing and toast eating that come with any other day of the year. My dad called to wish me a happy day. My mom didn't. I don't think that it is that she doesn't care, it's more that she is thoughtless sometimes. I had lunch with baby brother-my birthday gift from him.

Came home, played with the dog, ran a couple of errands. At around 4 my other brother and his kids came by. He worked on cutting my crown molding for my office while the rest of my family started to congregate. We played with the kids while they totally shredded my living room.

Went to pizza for dinner, went home and ate the beautiful cake that my mom made. She really did put a lot of time and effort in to it for me. I had asked for this cake three years ago-almost as a joke. Three years passed and I honestly had forgotten about it. Now I get the cake. I appreciate the effort and it does make me happy.

My brother gave me a baby gate for my dog. No more dog prison for Sammi. Mom and dad gave a cordless drill (I knew that it was coming since dad was tired of lending me his) and a wireless headset for my cell phone. Grandma gave a desert rose platter. It's quite pretty.

Tomorrow is my last day of vacation before the weekend. I'm going to see Harry Potter. Oh yeah, my life is one big party.

Reading...

I went to the library for the first time in YEARS over my Christmas break from work. I don't know that I had been there since I was a kid. Some things have been updated-no more microfiche. Some things have not-the SAME nasty old ladies still work there. They used to scare the holy hell out of me when I was a kid and frankly, they still do a little bit. I should have been a librarian.

I checked out Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. Great book. I thought the movie was enjoyable, nothing horrible but also nothing wonderful. I had heard that the book was better. I know that if I had read this book first, I would have HATED the movie.

Thinking about it made me ponder-if you love the book is it impossible for the movie to be any good? Someone asked recently what my favorite movie adaptation of a book was and I couldn't answer. Yeah, there are a few great ones but they were mostly made back in the Golden Age. To Kill A Mockingbird really can't be beat. But overall, the movies come up lacking. I wonder, would I have actually enjoyed The DaVinci Code if I hadn't read the book first? Probably not, but I guess you never know.

There was a quote in the last passage of the book that I thinkwas in the movie too. Here goes...

There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.

That just made me smile.

Now I am reading a novel by Elie Wiesel called The Gates of the Forest. I think his writing is splendid. I really enjoyed "Night" (thank you Oprah for the exposure) but it is a bit of a downer as well.

I don't know why, but I really am interested in reading about the holocaust. I secretly believe that my family on my mom's side was Jewish. I think they decided to change that about themselves when they immigrated from the Czechoslovakia/Polish boarder at the turn of the century. There is a picture that my grandmother had of her oldest brother. He sure looked a lot like that Adrian Brody guy who played the Pianist. Jewish features, nose. He died of the flu during WWI. Some of the things my grandmother said about the family's traditions make me think that it is a definite possibility. How sad it must have been to decide to deny your background out of fear or want for ease of persecution. Must be like what some gays feel like today.

Wonder where that picture is today? Hopefully one of my aunts has it somewhere safe so that someone can remember that young man who died too young too long ago.

I hate that I have a fascination with some things... The holocaust, Mary Kay Letourneau, E!. It makes me feel a little shallow and a little morbid all at the same time.

Books, books, books...

When reading, I can tell if a book has not fully caught my imagniation. I wander off a bit, ponder things that have nothing to do with the plot, sometimes cast the movie... Things that are not truly relevant to character development or enrichment of the story. However, when I am interested and wrapped in to the novel, I'm stuck. I keep on the track of the author. I let them lead me.

When I recently read Night, I never deviated. I never pondered how Liam Neeson would look as the father. Never thought of a famous 20-something as Elie. Just never happend. It seldom happens when I am reading a well crafted love story, novel, or business manual. But it does happen.

I finished Dean Koontz's Forever Odd today. It totally happened with this book. I loved the first story of Odd Thomas. This time, it just didn't focus me well. I kept thinking about who would do well if they ever created the movie. And the characterizations were really not all that complementary.

For Odd, I kept thinking either that creepy boner-med guy, Smiling Bob or maybe Toby McGuire's character from Pleastville. Neither really compliments the hero that Odd can be.

Smiling Bob (Yuck)

For his friend the police cheif, the guy from Monk. Totally and without question.

Thinking of his fat friend Ozzie, one came to mind as well:

Maybe it's just me.

Night...

I just finished reading Night by Elie Wiesel. What a powerful book. And I am really saying that because it is, not just because Oprah said so. Normally, I think Oprah books are pretty crap. This time though, powerful is the best way I can describe it. It is so sparse in it's length in it's words. Somehow, that simplicity makes it more impactful.

I was discussing this book today at lunch. I mentioned how normally I try to rotate my books: read one of substance then allow myself one smut. One of my coworkers said "I don't read to think." As if thinking cannot be part of pure entertainment.

There were a couple of quotes and phrases that really hit me. One was in the preface. It was the original opening of the book...

In the beginning there was faith-which is childish; trust-which is vain; and illusion-which is dangerous.

The final lines of this book seemed just as powerful to me. Who out there who has suffered has not seen the corpse in the mirror themselves? When I see some of the people I work with, try to help, I see that corpse in them. Yet they continue on and continue to live because they have no other choice.

From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.

I guess one other statement I read in the preface is my final thought for Mary, my coworker who does not like to think.

...I believe it important to emphasize how strongly I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.

Rory Gilmore's Book Club...

I love love love the Gilmore Girls. I found this list from a link from some other site. This is a book list worth aspiring to...

Rory Gilmore's Book Club

I'm a bit embarrassed to find that I have read a grand total of three of the new classics-and one of those was the awful Nanny Diaries. I need to bone up my summer reading list a bit.

I fared quite a bit better with the classics. If you count the movies I have seen of both new and classic books, I do ok.

Note to self-go to the LIBRARY more often!

Monday, Monday

Weekend was ok. I suppose. Worked in the yard a little bit. Watched others work in my yard quite a bit more. Working to landscape. Younger brother rotortilled the entire backyard and will now commence to rake and rake and rake it until smooth enough to plant grass. He will be paid handsomely. Also weeded the side yard and have plans to lay landscaping rock around the lilacs and other stuff in that area. Hope it looks nice when it is done.

Went to see the Village. Kind of weird. Not scary. The end made me think. Was totally not what I was expecting. Can't say that I enjoyed it but it did kind of stay with me. Kind of like the movie Elephant. Didn't enjoy it too much but made me think.

I recently read the book Life of Pi. That novel made me question my own thought patterns. You go along believing something throughout the novel. You take it as a reality. Then BAM! At the end an explanation for what happened came along that is more "realistic" more situated into my current world vision and it became the reality. Even though that explanation was offered with sarcasm and and almost fertilize manner. Interesting how your beliefs are formed, how they impact how you see the world.