I am reading Cell, by Stephen King.
It's not bad.
What are you reading?
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themary
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Hi Voronwë! 
WampusCat I'm sorry you were disapointed by the movie! I didn't realize the movie had come from a book (sometimes I'm oblivious) generally I like reading a book before seeing the movie adaptation. It's pretty clear what I have to do now
I find it interesting that it costs millions to make a movie and it still fails to capture the essence of the book! I heard that the movie Borne Supremecy is nothing like the book either. It seems like such a shady way for directors to steal an idea and make it their own.
WampusCat I'm sorry you were disapointed by the movie! I didn't realize the movie had come from a book (sometimes I'm oblivious) generally I like reading a book before seeing the movie adaptation. It's pretty clear what I have to do now
I find it interesting that it costs millions to make a movie and it still fails to capture the essence of the book! I heard that the movie Borne Supremecy is nothing like the book either. It seems like such a shady way for directors to steal an idea and make it their own.
...the embers never fade in your city by the lake
The place where you were born
The place where you were born
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themary
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I've been really into reading other people's suggestions and it seems like you really enjoyed the book. There are so many books in the world I hardly know where to start. Choosing my next read this way is easy and fun! As for movies vs. books I am pretty forgiving when a movie misses the books mark. I can't image that the book would be worse than the movie different perhaps but enjoyable none the less 
.
As for movies vs. books I am pretty forgiving when a movie misses the books mark. I can't image that the book would be worse than the movie different perhaps but enjoyable none the less ....the embers never fade in your city by the lake
The place where you were born
The place where you were born
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The One Ring
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Sometimes I do prefer the movie version. The director has a clearer vision of the story than the writer had.
On TORC back in the Springtime they were discussing The Presige, which movie I really liked and admired for its depth. One poster said it was basically the same as the novelette, and another poster said it was completely different! So ... I had to read the story. I couldn't get out of the house at that point to go bookshopping so I read the synopsis on Wikipedia instead.
It seemed to me from the Wiki synopsis that the director had entirely re-envisioned the story and changed its central theme, even though the two main characters and the heart of their dispute had not changed. Thing is, the story synopsis sounded silly by comparison to the movie plot. Seemed like the writer had two disparate themes going on in his head and tried to toss them into the same book, the result being no theme at all.
I've been branded as a purist because of my reaction to Jackson, but if a movie director can pack a thematic wallop, then I'm all for the revisions necessary to do that. Another movie that was significantly better than its book source (imo) was The 13th Warrior (from Crichton's Eaters of the Dead). There too, Crichton seemed unable to decide which of two stories he was trying to tell, whereas McTiernan had a very clear vision of what the movie should be about, and he delivered a tense, cathartic film. McTiernan is a director whom I like very much even though he's never done anything particularly high brow (he did the first two Die Hards, and some other lesser-known stuff before that), but he's always very clear about the effect he wants to achieve, his technical decisions serve the story and are never artsy-fartsy distracting from the story. It doesn't have to be a work of abstruse genius, you know, for me to like it, but the director has to know what he's trying to do. And a lot of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood I feel like the director is just waving his hands in the air ... trying to impress Jodie Foster, perhaps?
Then for contrast, you have Spielburgs adaptation of Jurassic Park, also by Crichton, which took a very serious social commentary and gutted it of everything but the rampaging cgi dinosaurs. (Prim must promise us not to let Spielburg do the movie of her book.)
Crucifer, is that the same Cell that was made into a movie a few years ago with Jennifer Lopez? That movie was sensational, I thought, though both my daughters hated it. It didn't feel like the sort of thing King writes, but one never knows. I would like to read the book if it's the one the movie was based on.
Jn
On TORC back in the Springtime they were discussing The Presige, which movie I really liked and admired for its depth. One poster said it was basically the same as the novelette, and another poster said it was completely different! So ... I had to read the story. I couldn't get out of the house at that point to go bookshopping so I read the synopsis on Wikipedia instead.
It seemed to me from the Wiki synopsis that the director had entirely re-envisioned the story and changed its central theme, even though the two main characters and the heart of their dispute had not changed. Thing is, the story synopsis sounded silly by comparison to the movie plot. Seemed like the writer had two disparate themes going on in his head and tried to toss them into the same book, the result being no theme at all.
I've been branded as a purist because of my reaction to Jackson, but if a movie director can pack a thematic wallop, then I'm all for the revisions necessary to do that. Another movie that was significantly better than its book source (imo) was The 13th Warrior (from Crichton's Eaters of the Dead). There too, Crichton seemed unable to decide which of two stories he was trying to tell, whereas McTiernan had a very clear vision of what the movie should be about, and he delivered a tense, cathartic film. McTiernan is a director whom I like very much even though he's never done anything particularly high brow (he did the first two Die Hards, and some other lesser-known stuff before that), but he's always very clear about the effect he wants to achieve, his technical decisions serve the story and are never artsy-fartsy distracting from the story. It doesn't have to be a work of abstruse genius, you know, for me to like it, but the director has to know what he's trying to do. And a lot of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood I feel like the director is just waving his hands in the air ... trying to impress Jodie Foster, perhaps?
Then for contrast, you have Spielburgs adaptation of Jurassic Park, also by Crichton, which took a very serious social commentary and gutted it of everything but the rampaging cgi dinosaurs. (Prim must promise us not to let Spielburg do the movie of her book.)
Crucifer, is that the same Cell that was made into a movie a few years ago with Jennifer Lopez? That movie was sensational, I thought, though both my daughters hated it. It didn't feel like the sort of thing King writes, but one never knows. I would like to read the book if it's the one the movie was based on.
Jn
I haz no mod powers! BUT ...
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themary
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You make valid points Jny . Now I'm going to have to read the Prestige since I loved the movie! When I see a movie that is a book adaptation I usually go in with low expectations so I won't be disappointed. Sometimes it's so exciting to see what a director can do with a book for instance Bridgett Jones' Diary was brilliant on screen. But The Two Towers (since my mind is drawing a blank on another example) was a big fat miss for PJ. I enjoyed the film but the book was way better.
Okay I should sleep or else I'll ramble on forever. G'night all
. Now I'm going to have to read the Prestige since I loved the movie! When I see a movie that is a book adaptation I usually go in with low expectations so I won't be disappointed. Sometimes it's so exciting to see what a director can do with a book for instance Bridgett Jones' Diary was brilliant on screen. But The Two Towers (since my mind is drawing a blank on another example) was a big fat miss for PJ. I enjoyed the film but the book was way better.Okay I should sleep or else I'll ramble on forever. G'night all
...the embers never fade in your city by the lake
The place where you were born
The place where you were born
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The One Ring
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Yeah, I really enjoyed that film too! It was way above the typical romantic comedy. But I haven't read the book yet.themary wrote:for instance Bridgett Jones' Diary was brilliant on screen.
What's on the reading list right now ... Rant by Palahniuk. I started that at my daughter's house but couldn't bring it home with me 'cos she was still reading it. Then she gave it to a co-worker who never gave it back. So I guess I'll have to buy it. Love Palahniuk. He is so far out there.
Another author I like is Jasper Fforde, and I just got an email from his website yesterday that his newest book has hit the US market. He writes ... I guess you'd have to call it fantasy/comedy ... but real wacky stuff after the fashion of Adams. In his world, real people can walk in and out of books, and fictional characters can walk into the real world, so there are security forces that make sure bad people can't enter books and change the plot, and that fictional characters can't commit crimes in the real world and then escape back to the world of fiction. His heroine is a young woman named Thursday Next, and she's an anti-authoritarian member of fiction security. It has a bit of the flavor of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, because when the heroine is inside a book you get lines from these famous books spoken by characters in the background while the main plot is happening in the foreground and it's very funny (most of the time).
His first two books on this arc were The Eyre Affair and Something Rotten. His latest is First Among Sequels, and it revolves around the characters of Pride and Prejudice. I'm looking forward to hearing Austin mocked.
Will post a review here after I read it. And then ... Children of Húrin of course. Got to read that over the summer.
Jn
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Reminds me of the movie Contact. I adore that movie, an all time fav for me. A powerful, thoughtful exploration of issues of faith and reason and life's purpose. Then I read the book. The book had a bunch of extra stuff that added nothing to the story's main themes and a lot of the ideas the movie brought about subtle and gracefully were done in blunt, obvious ways in the book. So I thought. But others who read the book first have told me they saw it just the opposite. It has made me think that on this whole purist debate, it mostly just has to do with which you saw first.
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
I think one of the weirdest movie adaptations of a book in the last few years must be "Under the Tuscan Sun". After reading a synopsis and some reviews of the movie, I decided that beyond not spending ten bucks on a ticket, I would most likely never spend any bucks at all on renting it (although maybe one day, if it's on network television, I'll take a peek just to see Cortona and all that gorgeous Tuscan countryside!).
From what I've seen and read, the movie was basically one of those formulaic "divorcee rediscovers herself and finds true love in an idyllic, romantic setting generously peppered with endearing and eccentric secondary characters".
The book was so much more than that. Mayes reveals so much about the ties of family and the concept of "home" and the small, surprising legacies of local history that stretch back centuries. She is a woman who doesn't need to rediscover herself, because she has never lost sight of who she is. Rather, she is examining her own familial past and taking charge of her own future (which she shares with a man who doesn't "appear" in Italy, but with whom she has lived for a number of years since her divorce). Mayes is a poet, and her use of language is to sw00n for. I could FEEL the Tuscan sunlight as it touched the olive trees, the dusty road, the peeling, "apricot colored" walls of "Bramasole".
What am I reading now?
For my head, "No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam" by Reza Aslan.
For my heart, "Blue Shoes and Happiness" by Alexander McCall Smith, the seventh book in his "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. I know a few people who poo-poo these books as trivial, but for me, they are filled with quiet affirmation of the human spirit. They are lovely, gentle little books, and I've become very, very fond of Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni over the years.
TOR, "Bridget Jones' Diary" is a great, quick, very funny read, and the movie definitely did it justice!
From what I've seen and read, the movie was basically one of those formulaic "divorcee rediscovers herself and finds true love in an idyllic, romantic setting generously peppered with endearing and eccentric secondary characters".
The book was so much more than that. Mayes reveals so much about the ties of family and the concept of "home" and the small, surprising legacies of local history that stretch back centuries. She is a woman who doesn't need to rediscover herself, because she has never lost sight of who she is. Rather, she is examining her own familial past and taking charge of her own future (which she shares with a man who doesn't "appear" in Italy, but with whom she has lived for a number of years since her divorce). Mayes is a poet, and her use of language is to sw00n for. I could FEEL the Tuscan sunlight as it touched the olive trees, the dusty road, the peeling, "apricot colored" walls of "Bramasole".
What am I reading now?
For my head, "No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam" by Reza Aslan.
For my heart, "Blue Shoes and Happiness" by Alexander McCall Smith, the seventh book in his "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. I know a few people who poo-poo these books as trivial, but for me, they are filled with quiet affirmation of the human spirit. They are lovely, gentle little books, and I've become very, very fond of Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni over the years.
TOR, "Bridget Jones' Diary" is a great, quick, very funny read, and the movie definitely did it justice!
Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon.
Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Saw it. That's exactly what it was. Pretty, though.From what I've seen and read, the movie was basically one of those formulaic "divorcee rediscovers herself and finds true love in an idyllic, romantic setting generously peppered with endearing and eccentric secondary characters".
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
yovargas wrote:Saw it. That's exactly what it was. Pretty, though.From what I've seen and read, the movie was basically one of those formulaic "divorcee rediscovers herself and finds true love in an idyllic, romantic setting generously peppered with endearing and eccentric secondary characters".
So I've heard.
At least it's comforting to know that the cinematography captured Mayes' lush descriptions of Tuscany. But the book definitely deserved better than to be represented as a pretty travelogue spiced up with romance. Ah well.
Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon.
Jalal ad-Din Rumi
I saw it cuz I had a friend who was an older divorced woman. The movie quickly became her favorite movie. It was pretty clear that that was because she was vicariously living the fantasy of travelling to gorgeous Italy, meeting charming locals, drinking local wines, and falling in love with dashing Italian men. ... Can you really blame her? 
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
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WampusCat
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Athrabeth, I share your affection for these books. They are particularly enjoyable in their audio versions, but then, I love African accents.Athrabeth wrote: For my heart, "Blue Shoes and Happiness" by Alexander McCall Smith, the seventh book in his "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. I know a few people who poo-poo these books as trivial, but for me, they are filled with quiet affirmation of the human spirit. They are lovely, gentle little books, and I've become very, very fond of Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni over the years.
Right now I am reading "Leaving Church" by Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest who is an excellent preacher and writer. She writes about her decision to leave parish ministry.
But I also stopped by the bookstore last night and picked up my next reads: "Whispers of the Dead" by Peter Tremayne and "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke.
Take my hand, my friend. We are here to walk one another home.
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Nope!yovargas wrote:I saw it cuz I had a friend who was an older divorced woman. The movie quickly became her favorite movie. It was pretty clear that that was because she was vicariously living the fantasy of travelling to gorgeous Italy, meeting charming locals, drinking local wines, and falling in love with dashing Italian men. ... Can you really blame her?
Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon.
Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Wampus! I didn't see your post! 
I'm so glad to hear that the Ladies Detective Agency books are close to your heart, as well.
This particular book has caused me to finish two chapters with tears in my eyes, but they are never tears of despair, but rather tears that come with the tender sorrows of this world.
I'm so glad to hear that the Ladies Detective Agency books are close to your heart, as well.
This particular book has caused me to finish two chapters with tears in my eyes, but they are never tears of despair, but rather tears that come with the tender sorrows of this world.
Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon.
Jalal ad-Din Rumi
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themary
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Jny, my college roommate came to vist not long ago and was also addicted to Palahniuk so he's on my list of authors to read. I was a huge fan of the movie Fight Club so I look forward to reading that.
Jasper Fforde's work sounds interesting as well! Yay for this thread and it's many suggestions.
I know my Mom has read at least the first of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books and I meant to snag it before I came out here because they sounded good. *adds to list*
I finished Bloody Bones and have started The Killing Dance by Hamilton nothing like quick easy reads to fill the long days of closing out a store. I checked out The Gunslinger by Stephen King and Sanctuary by William Faulkner.
I found of Hal has Prim's book so I'm gonna have to steal it away from him so I can read it mwahahahahaa!
There needs to be more hours in the day I tell ya!
Jasper Fforde's work sounds interesting as well! Yay for this thread and it's many suggestions.
I know my Mom has read at least the first of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books and I meant to snag it before I came out here because they sounded good. *adds to list*
I finished Bloody Bones and have started The Killing Dance by Hamilton nothing like quick easy reads to fill the long days of closing out a store. I checked out The Gunslinger by Stephen King and Sanctuary by William Faulkner.
I found of Hal has Prim's book so I'm gonna have to steal it away from him so I can read it mwahahahahaa!
There needs to be more hours in the day I tell ya!
...the embers never fade in your city by the lake
The place where you were born
The place where you were born
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Impenitent
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What About me? by Kate Figes
My daughter borrowed it from the school library. It is written in the form of diary entries and emails by a middle aged mum and her 14 year old daughter, chronicling their perceptions of family life and each other.
Quite funny, and revealing for me, as my daughter recommended it to me (in an off-hand way, by dropping it next to me on the couch and saying, 'I just finished this,' in an offhand manner).
I wonder whether she sees us two reflected in the two characters? I shall open some discussion when I'm finished with it.
My daughter borrowed it from the school library. It is written in the form of diary entries and emails by a middle aged mum and her 14 year old daughter, chronicling their perceptions of family life and each other.
Quite funny, and revealing for me, as my daughter recommended it to me (in an off-hand way, by dropping it next to me on the couch and saying, 'I just finished this,' in an offhand manner).
I wonder whether she sees us two reflected in the two characters? I shall open some discussion when I'm finished with it.
Last edited by Impenitent on Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
