Books Made Movies

There’s no denying that nearly every single movie conceived by Americans is based on a long-loved book. This speaks clearly for the character of both arts. These next couple of years will be chock full of classic, beautiful tales converted to the big screen. There is a long list continuing to farrow out of the minds of hollywood. There are a few in particular that I am excited yet weary to see.

On November 25th, the epic post-apocalyptic journey of a father and son will grace the big screen. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a book I grabbed up at honest random in Walmart one day. The title intrigued me and after reading the back, there was no way I was leaving without it. I read the thing in less than 24 hours. It was intriguing, thoughtful, compelling, and genuine. Now, I could go on all day about how Christian critics have put down the book and how I think they are simply cowards who can’t think outside the box. (FYI: I am a Christian and my thoughts on this book are vastly contradictory to that of most of other Christians . . . Not sure if that says something more of me or of them.) But, I will avoid that rabbit trail for now. Despite where you come from or how you believe the world will end, this story will force you to reconsider everything you know to be of priority or importance.

I also cannot hold my head up with no shame and deny that Viggo Mortensen playing the main character will be an incredible draw for me. I fell in love with his portrayal of Aragorn in the LOTR films. This guy seems to know how to make a character real. From what I’ve seen in photos and in trailers, he appears to totally capture the main character as I have imagined him.  I sincerely hope so . . . .

Next on the list for me is Christmas day release of Holmes. Now, who hasn’t heard of Sherlock Holmes? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is an intrigue in and of himself but the Sherlock masterpieces he wrote are beyond brilliance. Now, there’s one difference here that has to be taken into account: the movie is not expressly about or derived from any of the original books.

I think it takes guts to take someone else’s characters, themes, and plot ideals and add your own twist. They do appear to be staying true to the books, especially with Watson, instead of the current visuals we get in cartoons and children’s books. We’ll see how this one goes but I’ve read enough Sherlock Holmes that there could be a serious chance of them ruining it all for me if they ignore vital characteristics of the books.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see what pieces of Doyle’s Holmes they use and discard. You can’t hate that Robert Downey Jr. is playing the role either.

And, how could you avoid the grand marketing talents that Warner Bros. put out for this favorite children’s book, none other than Where The Wild Things Are. It came out two weeks ago but I’ve yet to decide if it’s worth even matinee tickets. Plus, my sweet husband has yet to read the book and that is the first thing in order before we even go to rent it. I prefer this book in the cartoon illustration form it was meant to be in. This CGI crap is getting old. (They all ready screwed over C.S. Lewis’ Narnia with that junk.) The monsters went from looking like odd, cuddly weirdos to creepy, giant freaks (in my opinion). I personally can’t handle the casting choices. They could’ve tried a little harder with all of it or just left it alone all together. I was thrilled when I first heard about it several months ago but after seeing some initial photos I wanted to vomit (this was before I was with child). Maybe it’ll grow on me . . . maybe not.

Supposedly Voyage of the Dawn Treader (third Narnia film) is in pre-production stage as of this spring. But, disney may not have their hands on C.S. Lewis’ work this time so maybe we can just start all over. I want Peter Jackson’s hands on it.

And, that’s all I’ll say for now.

Busy? How about a novel?

So, what is the best thing you could do with yourself outside your busy life? Attempting to write a novel in a month is the first thing that comes to my mind. Of course.

So, before I continue, I offer my unfathomably solemn apologies for the 1.5 month break between updates. I’ve been spectacularly busy-esque! But, I’ve partly just been neglectful of my reading and therefore my bookedy blogging.

I am smack dab in the middle of a rather brilliant Ted Dekker masterpiece right now. I’m not done with it but I highly recommend at least the first twenty-something chapters of Showdown. I finished Adam right before opening up Showdown and that has been my favorite thus far. This guy amazes me. How can one dude reel out so much incredible imagery and beautiful meaning? If he doesn’t take a break then I’ll never get caught up with his stuff.

I’ve also been enjoying my little bundle of joy! I announced not to long ago that we were expecting and now here I am nearly halfway through the pregnancy! Everything is going beautifully. But that’s not what this blog is for . . . (until baby is born and all I can talk about is Dr. Seuss or the latest published child psychology hoopla!)

So where was I?? Oh yeah! NaNoWriMo! It’s National Novel Writing Month again this November. I remember hearing this via some ambitiously nerdy friends several years ago and it had escaped my mind until I began doing some personal-interest research on writing historical fiction. It came up in a google search and it all flooded back! What’s better is it is just in time for me to get an account set up and try this out.

The challenge is to complete 50,000 words. The race starts November 1st and ends on November 30th. Considering some of the 1-2k word papers I slapped together in a couple of days (AND made decent grades on) for English, Psychology, and Old Testament classes I took last year, I think I might have a chance.

I might be considered a cheater though. I realized recently that two or three short-story/prose pieces I’ve written could possibly be melded together.  Sometime between finding out I was pregnant and realizing I was pregnant I felt the desperate urge to give something exceptional to the world. My goal in writing has only ever been to release myself. It’s my way of opening up and being honest, I guess. I write for my sake and my enjoyment. If ever something I wrote were to benefit or even simply engage just one other person . . . I’d be overjoyed. But, my worldview has been dramatically effected by this thing I think they call motherhood. I’ve always attempted long shots at writing my own book but I hope to take this as a more serious challenge, less for completing one novel and more for giving myself a head-start on a project I truly have my heart set on.

So, check it out and definitely let me know if you’re interested because they have a networking system on there so we can keep up with eachother!

~ Love, laughs, and good reading

 

 

Informational Bliss

There’s one swollen, often misused form of literature that comes in somewhere between Biographies, Magazines, and Nonfiction. They try to make it look like it’s really not a mass guru-frisky, over-populated swag of books that are slowly taking over. It’s the cookbooks, how-to’s, financial formalities, business keys, testing tools, personal project pendencies, religion regulatoriums, and of course the self-improvements, and so on. These handy-dandy jots were duly noted, published, and presented in such a way that you too might share in the over-vast forge of gathered knowledge.

Once upon a time, you couldn’t find absolutely any fathomable, learnable subject neatly done-up in the confines of a book. This informational age has gone crazy with figuring out everything for themselves. (note: reading it in a book does not qualify as doing it yourself. it’s the know-it-all time-saver that allows you, the dumb one, to get “ahead”.) Some of these how-tos and what-fors are potentially priceless but others are beyond mockable.

Don’t deny yourself the freedom and power of filling in the bookstore shelves with anything that might be missing. Even if it’s just your take on a popular conundrum. Go for it. Write it out, share it. Maybe you’ll become one of the “smarties” everyone else is clamoring to be. If these books can hit shelves. . . anything can.

{a book lover’s day in wonderland}

{Once upon a boring day a young girl walked into the bookstore . . . .}

The best books may not be longer than ten or twenty pages, may not have more than one sentence per page, and may not be the latest published and primed with various thumbs-up and other such viable commemoration.

This genre has become ever prominent in my mind over the last few weeks. Finding out that you have a little baby blessing on the way can do that to you. Well, at least to a book-nerd like me. It’s not binkies and onesies that I’m gazing at on Amazon.com. It’s the children’s book section.

Children’s books are the guide and glue of each generation. If you’d like to sneak into the heads of any given generation of children then go into Borders or Barnes & Noble and peruse the biggest section in the entire store. Some of it is disturbing, actually. Clearly, indoctrination is in it’s simplest form when you find it in a little kid’s picture book. I’ll avoid the politico for now though.

After taking a trip to B&N with my SIL and MIL, kiddie books has been the only thing on my mind. I took some time for myself and went to Borders a few days ago. The poor guy straightening the shelves must have asked me eight or more times if I needed any help finding anything. I made it pretty obvious I suppose, without even lifting my head as I teared up in the middle of Corduroy, he kind of walked away glancing back occasionally. (Ignorance is bliss, if you’re good at it.) I considered that he might come back with security since I’m sure I looked crazy curled up in the faux leather chair with the little red book on my knees and my fingers pulling at the hair I’d just curled behind my ear. I finished it and turned to see Chrysanthemum. I read that too. I shut it and replaced it on it’s neat little rack between Corduroy and some other book I didn’t care to look at. I glanced around.

I saw so many other books I couldn’t stand to ignore. Not to mention a shelf full of just Dr. Seuss masterpieces. How  could anyone resist the world of kid’s books? They are bright, cheerful, colorful, and usually you get something worthwhile out of them (and in five minute or less) too. There wasn’t anyone else around. It was kind of nice. It became more like a library than a retail store.

I grabbed The Very Hungry Caterpillar and took my time enjoying the illustrations.

What would we read to our baby?

What books would she or he ask to hear at bed time?

Would we read to him or her every night?

Would he or she grow up to like books as much as daddy and I do?

I put it down and thought about how important every single little thing is that you put in your head. Even more so, the things that go into the head of your son or daughter, niece or nephew, or even just the kids you babysat on the weekends in high school. How is it that a simple, straight-up book could mean so much and be so powerful?

I grew up on the classics (think anything with a gold spine), Dr. Seuss, Tall Tales (Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan) The American Girl Series, Disney, and long-lived favorites like Goodnight Moon and The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate The Wash.

Even those (bless their hearts) who don’t have such fondness for the written word remember what they read as a kid.

There is not much more I can say but amid the popularity of such fads as Harry Potter and Twilight; the selfish goals of political agendas and social idealists; and the whining and begging for the latest video game and the coolest toy, there are books that have outlasted all the propaganda and all those pompous ploys.  Don’t take them for granted.

And, as for us and our little blessing, we chose the below to be one of the highlights on his or her (eventually their) bookshelf. Of all the books in the whole wide world, this might just be my favorite. When I read it, I don’t imagine my own melancholy, inner-self, reading tone but I hear my Granddaddy’s voice. All it ever took was a hug and a kiss, we’d get close up next to him and he’d make the best voices and sounds to tell the story. Not every child is blessed with a sweet memory like that and a thing to forever attach to it. I hope our children do.

Moral: A book may mean a lot on its own but it may mean more because of the person who read it to you.

THE END.

Well, Actually

I had a post ready and eager to be seen. It was all about children’s literature, barnes & noble vs borders, and so on. I apparently did not save it to my computer when I wrote it in the generic text script program. I got frustrated and decided to take a break from reading and the blog. I’ve kept busy since but that’s not really what this blog is about so, I digress. Here’s an excerpt from a book I am very much connected too. I’m looking for brutal honesty and constructive criticism when I blog any of my own pieces.

Hopefully you won’t feel too sour after reading this but plan on checking back for a revised blogging on such childhood stories as Goodnight Moon, Mike Mulligan, and The Grouchy Ladybug.

There is plenty to be said for those who are honest, and of course, more to be talked about (at least) for those that are not. It takes guts to be true and faithful to one’s self. To write one thing and not think another is easier to consider than carry out. Flexing your pen in the grip of your fingers, allowing raw flow from your mind stain pages with ink is confounding.

In one’s typical college English 101 course, one is taught and (depending on one’s professor) randomly asked to do this particular excercise and the act is gingerly called brainstorming. But, wouldn’t brainstorming be a sort of oxymoron in such a form? One should take a leaf of paper, a pencil or pen (depending on your prowess as a writer), stare and think for a half moment, then scribble out strings of words interconnected in ways one will have little recollection of later when one re-reads the page when one needs the information to write one’s essay.

The word essay is troubling on its own. Essay is French; a word so lathered on us in America through secondary and post-secondary education that it’s meaning is lost between dull reading assignments and forced bouts of blasé research. Essay, or ‘to try’ is a profound title for a piece one normally (the good students, anyway) forms, fraughts, and completes in whirlwinds of pursuit for higher purpose.

The purpose of writing should never be to try. It should be — pour faire — to do. To say something in whichever language with whichever style in order to make one’s very own imprint on society (provided, it is read). Do not essay but do pour a fair amount of oneself, fringeless and honest into everything one writes.

Apologies!

I have to sincerely apologize for taking so long to post again. I’ve had a lot going on in the past two weeks. My fiance and I eloped on July 1!

I am getting back to my reading now though and have finished The Children of Hurin. I’m just arguing with myself on what to read next: The Shack, Harry Potter, or some poetry?

I promise to have a new post by the end of the week.

Much love and good reading,
Sam

Switch It Up

Well, I’ve finished The Oath by Frank Peretti and I must say, it is a long read but very well worth the time. Not to mention, it’s so good that it doesn’t *seem* to take very long at all!

However, if you’re like me, reading over a thousand pages of the same writing style in a little over a week can get almost redundant and even loses the spellbinding thrill of an intense writer such as Peretti. So, I decided to give my eyeballs a break then switch up my pace before getting into the rest of Peretti’s work. (Note: In bookworm utopia this is never a sin unless, of course, you never go back to read what you intended! In short, those who do such things: le livre infidèle déteste le cochon)

I have a wide variety on my shelf so I randomly – (i.e., closed my eyes and grabbed) – picked up an Ernest Hemingway collection. (Thank you Barnes & Noble for honoring the classics and making them very available.) Some might find Hemingway harsh and confined (so I’ve heard) in his style but his stories are infatuating to me. The Sun Also Rises was a nice change with much more realism, offering mostly-uneventful thoughts for my head. It’s about love and life in the 1920s through France and Spain. How could a girl turn that down? Depending on who you are, this book might be a two-pages-in-then-no-more or a rather delicious escape into a reality that simply isn’t so Americanized, or wildly unbelievable in a case such as mine. Not to mention it fits perfectly into my own philosophy of reading old books first, unfinished books second . . . and the new books when you’ve read or heard all other stories in the world.

I also recommend these books by Hemingway to quench your ernest:

Two days ago I started reading Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien. I love Tolkien. Love. Before ever watching the movies, another must in bookworm utopia, I read The Hobbit, The Silmarillon, and The Lord of the Rings. (I refuse to link those three. Go to your library or bookstore and pick them up NOW. Do not watch the movies first. Do not read a wiki-summary. Do not pass go or collect 200 until reading, cherishing, kissing, and giving due space on your bookshelf to these treasures.) I was about fourteen at the time so it’s been a while since I’ve stuck my nose in some of his incredible stories. I’m on the third chapter and oh, oh, oh ’tis a beautiful thing. It makes me want to go back and re-read them all again but such vast worming will have to wait. Regardless, GO read them. If you’re a Tolkien fan and you’ve yet to check out The Children of Hurin, do so, especially those of you who are middle-earth history freaks.

So, that’s all for now. My current reading list (in order) is as follows and hopefully I’ll get through them by the end of August:

• The Shack
• The Circle Trilogy
• Harry Potter Series

Harry Potter. That’s right. Put on your big girl/big boy undies and be patient.

Thanks for checking in! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

P.S. the ‘ernest’ pun was definitely intended

The Thrill of a Good Mystery

I’m currently reading The Oath by Frank Peretti and I’ve gotta say that down deep, my favorite books (and movies) are of the suspense/thriller/mystery sort. I’m sure some of that blossomed from my constant bookworming in the Nancy Drew series as a kid. I’ve read all sorts of books, including those of creepy nature, and it’s simply proven every time that the old german saying is true: “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.“

Between Jane Austen and Zane Grey, there are inevitably the rare jewels that are just good because . . . well, they are just that – good. But, even the hide-under-your-covers-to-read types must eventually admit that any book that can stop you in your tracks, make you pee your pants at the sound of a telephone ringing, and inspire you to finish without stopping must have some super-sized quality that isn’t so present in the dreary biographies, romance novels, and animatronic nonfiction of other writers.

So, as I’ve finished House and Monster (also authored by Peretti) and am currently about 1/3 through The Oath, I must recommend these to you.

Another that might interest you:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy –a post-apocalyptic tale of a father and son overcoming life, extraordinary conditions and meager consequence. It is heart-wrenching and eye-opening.

On my personal reading list, apart from more Peretti:

The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker

The Shack by William P. Young

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs

I’d love to hear what you think about these books, especially if you have any suggestions for a good read.

Sam <3

Welcome!

Welcome to the Babbling Bookcase!!

When I was little, I loved reading books, from American Girls to your classic princess stories to my kiddie recipe book. I also took to the paper with crayons and wrote my own stories about imaginary friends and the adventures of puppies. Today, I read everything from Emily Dickinson, to Frank Peretti, to C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, to a friend’s random script or novel sample. I also write a bit here and there, mostly short stories and poetry.

This is a blog I’ve started as a side project to share my thoughts on the books I read. I hope to expand my genre interest and stretch myself through this little venture. It serves as a plus to keep me reading too, as long as I’ve got subscribers! That said, please check up on the blog often. I’d also love to hear your own thoughts and book recommendations!!

Much love and good reading,
Sam