I was away from the house on Sunday, hence not much reading that day and no Sunday Salon. The reason for the rare foray out of the house and off my reading chair is because I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which was, as expected, delightful and exciting, with pretty scenery and pretty people, and, really, I’m no film critic, so that’s enough to satisfy me a lot of the time.
As I have never read the books (an act that will surely get my geek badge revoked), I have no idea how faithful it is to the source material, but I liked it, and I don’t expect that opinion to change even after I read the books and discover the differences between the film and the book. That sums up the way I feel about The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, too. Despite the liberties Peter Jackson and company took in their adaptation, I think that the films are good enough to stand on their own, and I’m hoping that sentiment will also apply to The Chronicles of Narnia films. If you’ve read the books, however (which I’m sure many of you have), feel free to correct me. 
I also bought a few books to stock up on reading material for my trip to the Philippines, which is only 29 (29!) days away. On previous trips, I would end up reading worn copies of the Reader’s Digest or, worse, John Grisham novels, cursing my forgetfulness and stupidity the entire time.
I bought Fables because I had read a review of it on Bold. Blue. Adventure. that really piqued my interest. I’ve never read a graphic novel before, but I think it’s high time I explored that genre. Plus, anything that reimagines superheroes or fairy tales in a modern setting gets my geek senses tingling, even though I didn’t like the way it was done in King Rat, and even The Book of Lost Things didn’t completely satisfy me.
Marked is something I picked up for my little sister, although, really, when I buy her books, it’s as much about my tastes as it is about hers. She has been on a dark fantasy kick lately, having already finished The Uglies series and now starting on Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, both of which I still have to read. Marked is the first book in the House of Night series and seems to have similarly dark overtones as The Uglies and Twilight, which both my sister and I are suckers for.
I also bought Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, finally accepting that I will need my own personal copy if I ever want to finish it. I bought it on paperback, thank you, because I don’t think I can tote around a big clunky hardback of it when I’m following the band around (yes, I’m a summertime groupie) or when I am laying around in the Philippines’ pristine beaches.
My current read, The Dress Lodger, inspired me to pick up a set of Jane Austen’s novels. The set includes Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. I’ve seen the films based on these books, but I’ve realized how woefully underrepresented a lot of genres are on both my TBR list and have-read list. Granted, The Dress Lodger is pretty much the antithesis of Jane Austen’s novels, but I think a bit of background knowledge on Jane Austen’s version of England would do me good so that I know what truths or untruths The Dress Lodger is dispelling.
Lastly, just because I felt selfish buying all of the above all for myself, I bought Czeslaw Milosz’ Selected Poems: 1931-2004 for my (sort of) brother-in-law. Oddly enough, my boyfriend does not read at all, but his brother and I are avid book nerds; it’s sort of become a tradition between us that, whenever I come back to the Philippines from the United States, I gift him with a book or two. He does the same before I leave the Philippines.
Anyway, my stimulus check came in the mail, so I’m tempted to buy yet more books for the trip instead of saving the money for that laptop I want or for next semester’s tuition. Ah, well, we’ll see. I’m usually a cheapskate never this self-indulgent, so I’m still kind of reeling from the mixture of guilt and euphoria that I got from so selfishly indulging myself.
7 Comments
May 20, 2008 | Tuesday at 3:50 pm
Yay, I’m glad you picked up Fables! I got pressured by a friend of mine who reads graphic novels to read it, and I’m really glad I did. I ended up really enjoying it, and my interest in graphic novels has definitely been piqued. They’re shorter, and have lots of pictures. what’s not to love?
Uh oh, you haven’t read Chronicles of Narnia?? Just kidding, you aren’t the only one. I hope you enjoy them when you do get the chance to read them. The movie adaptations are pretty good, in my opinion, but not quite as good of an adaptation as LOTR. Then again, there aren’t many movies that come close to LOTR.
May 20, 2008 | Tuesday at 3:52 pm
I was more of an LOTR geek as a child, so I’m not well-versed with the Narnia universe. That’ll change soon, though; my friend is lending me the entire series.
And I agree with you about the LOTR films: there hasn’t been anything quite like them.
May 20, 2008 | Tuesday at 6:57 pm
How dare you have that “I’m a Weekly Geek” badge up there! I think you need to take it down now that you confessed to not reading any of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Oh, and I love Milosz. I have the collection and he is one of my favorite “contemporary” poets.
May 20, 2008 | Tuesday at 7:32 pm
I love Milosz, too. My (sort-of) brother-in-law reads a lot of Beat poetry (I’m not a fan, to put it diplomatically) so I want to expose him to something more elegant but just as visceral.
Milosz should do the trick, I think.
May 20, 2008 | Tuesday at 7:56 pm
[...] here for more about the books. They all look like they will be good reads, but I’m putting off [...]
May 22, 2008 | Thursday at 8:08 pm
I hope you enjoy reading Fables! I had fun with the three four volumes that I own although it’s doesn’t have the reeling effect that Sandman had on me.
I think the first two or three volumes were drawn by a Filipino. Wala lang, trivia. Hahaha!
May 23, 2008 | Friday at 11:09 am
It’s definitely a new genre for me, so I can’t wait to start reading it. Which artist was it na Pinoy? Wala lang, curious lang. Kasi, in addition to the review from Bold. Blue. Adventure., one of the reasons why I wanted to pick it up was because I knew that James Jean had done some of the drawings. Check out Polite Winter; Mr. Jean has some great art on there.