Mansfield Park X 2

Managed to read the book and see the movie (2009). No matter which of the two you pick first the second will be a surprise because they’ve changed a lot from the book. If I had seen the movie first I would have expected the book to be better… not that the movie was good. They have changed big things like a no to yes, I hope I don’t give too much away here… The leading lady, Fanny Price is two different people. The movie is actually based not only on the book but also on Jane Austens letters which give Fanny a lot more spunk than she has in the book.

If you can only pick one way to experience Mansfield Park I would pick the movie simply because it’s faster to watch it than to read it.

On to Emma soon in my little Jane Austen experience and I loved that Sarah gave away a copy of “Pride and Prejudice” so I said I would steal that idea and I did. I have a spanking new copy of Emma (but I think someone sat on the package though…). All you need to do is to leave a comment and by the end of the month (or when there is more than one comment, which is more likely the case) I will pick a name and see who wins.

UPDATE: Due to Sarahs nice little promo the last day to sign up will be February 28 and Mars 1 I will pick a winner. And I hope it inspires more people to give away books.

Books

Did some calculations and it turns out I’ve read 45 books in 2009 (!) which I find amazing since a few years ago I barely read at all. Some of them were young adult books and you can read one of those in a day but some of them were in English and that takes longer so I guess it evens out.

My "101 books in 1001 days" doesn't seem impossible which I thought it would be.

Best books 2009: I liked Oscar Wilde, his language is so colorful and fun. I also enjoyed Charles Dickens “Great Expectations” (I love Victorian times) and I’ll read more of him in the future. Gypsy Rose Lee was interesting too. Oh and I almost forgot “Pride and Prejudice” which I really enjoyed (everyone should read it).

In Swedish: 25
In English: 20

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

At first it was pretty funny, the first few pages I laughed and thought it was sort of cute but the it becomes more like bad fan fiction.

It doesn’t feel like Grahame-Smith is a Janiet, quite the opposite. It feels like he’s making fun of the whole story (and not in a good way) and changing a lot of the characters. Would Mr. Bennet sleep with prostitutes while in China? Of course not! Would Jane be capable of hitting Kitty and Lydia with wet bamboo? Hell no! Would Mrs. Gardner have a polish lover called Sylak? No she wouldn’t!

Silly silly silly… I have to read “Mansfield Park” now to remedy myself from this experience.

The Devil’s Foot Steps

I quickly started to think of the movies based on Stephen King stuff when I read this book. Apparently it’s EE Richardson first book and he was only 19 when the publishers bought it so… I guess I’m too old for it but there story is plain and there are no ups and downs or any struggle, the events just neatly unfolds without any drama.

More books read

Finished “Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging” and… no wonder you read headlines about thirteen year old British kids pregnant with their second child. A lot of sex and stupid kids.

Read another book by Sonya Hartnett even though I didn’t like the first one I read. This time it was “The devil Latch” and I just didn’t get it.

Then it was a very annoying book called, “Star-crossed” by Rachael Wing. At first I thought it took place in American and though, “Why don’t they have a car” but apparently it takes place in England (I think). Apparently she was only sixteen when she wrote it and that’s pretty impressive. I didn’t like it at all though, silly and an idiotic leading lady, and the most annoying thing is, it’s written in second person aka “You”, like in “You walk down the hall”. It’s very frustrating to read because I’m not a moron and it says, “You” all the time, like I would run out into the road without looking? There’s lots of “I love you.” And “Father, I can’t stop thinking about her. She’s the love of my life” and when 15-16 year olds talk like that I just don’t buy it.

What else did I read… oh, Swedish book called Anna d’Arc by Mårten Sandén which means, Anna of Arc like in Joan of Arc. Another of these books I just don’t understand the point of. The most interesting twist is left unsolved.

Books

Finished “Freaky green eyes” and it was okay, the language was better than the other books I’ve been reading but I wasn’t that interested in the story. Then I read “Good grief” which was… I don’t know, maybe I just expect too much out of everything? I should stay away from chicklit and teen books written as diaries because I never like them.

Reading, “Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging”, why are so many teen books written as diaries?

Time to get on that exercise bike and pretend I’m riding along the French countryside.

The book frenzy continues

So dull… feels like I’ve read it before, it was close to déjà vu at times when I read “My so-called life” by Joanna Nadin, maybe I’m reading too many teen books and they are all very similar? It’s not as good as Meg Cabot and thought that one pretty lame and felt like something I had read before…

Wasn’t very impressed with Ally Kennens “Berserk” (in Swedish it's called, "The penpal")either… Just read a chapter of Joyce Carol Oates “Freaky green eyes” and compared to what I have been reading it’s a change.

Reading books like a maniac

Read three books since Saturday, sure one was Emily Strange and that one I finished walking from the library to the bus stop. It was one of those books with words on every other page so maybe I can’t put it on my 101 books in 1001 days…

Then I read “How to be popular” by Meg Cabot which was just another teen book (hey, there’s a book title). The entire books is a week in Steph Landrys life and it feels like I’ve read it before, a lot of similarities with her Princess book.

Then “Friday night knitting club” by Kate Jacob which is 364 pages with very small text so I think I did a pretty good job. I got way too many books from the library and I thought I wouldn’t make it through all of them but hey, looks like I’ll make it, knock on wood. It was okay, I expected a bit more and by the end it was a little too cute for me. I do feel guilty for the unfinished sweater I have, better start knitting, when I’ve read all the books that is.

(picture found here)

Memoirs of a geisha

My first audio book and I’m not sure I’ll give it another go. To listen to someone reading a story is odd, this one was read by a woman and she would speak with a hoarse voice at times because the character did. Sometimes reading really slow and she put a lot of feelings in things. Sounding mean or angry with there was nothing in the text that said that the person was angry. Story-wise I got a little annoyed with all the similes and such, every other sentence contained some bad poetic description and it was too much.

After I had listen to the book, I saw the movie and there were a lot of changes, some understandable and some just annoying. Since I had “listened” to the book I felt I understood everything that was happening but perhaps it would have been less so if I hadn’t? Love the clothes and the surrounding but the movie was pretty dull. The people I recognized were all Chinese; surely there are some Japanese actresses they could have used? And then there was the language, it was hard to understand what they were saying and again, happy that I had listen to the book so I knew what was going on.

In both the books and the movie the girls virginity was auctioned out and I have always been under the assumption that geishas aren’t prostitutes so I had to check it out and apparently Arthur Golden took that from a similar ceremony held by Oirans.

I should read Mineko Iwasakis “Geisha of gion” instead; perhaps that one will be more accurate?

Finished

Read my first (and maybe only) Sonya Hartnett book, "Stripes of the sidestep wolf". I wanted to read one of her books since I was her on TV when she won the Astrid Lindgren memorial award. It was boring, all books I read these days are boring… (well not ALL books but good books are rare).

Best in the book: The tassie tiger of course

Worst thing in the book: I got really annoyed when there was a rubber tree in Australia, someone probably translated gum tree to rubber tree… as far as I know there aren't any rubber trees in Australia.

I don’t know if it was the translation or what…

But I didn’t really get “Alice’s adventures in Wonderland”. I quickly realized that there are plenty of puns and such and they were most definitive lost in translations but how much less got lost along the way? She just kept bumping into weird creatures and shrinking and growing… didn’t quite understand what’s so brilliant about it (sorry).

Best: "Thank you," said Alice, "it's very interesting. I never knew so much about a whiting before."

Started reading “Alice in Wonderland”

After finishing the lame Bridget Jones I started reading “Alice in Wonderland”, I’ve started a few times but never finished it. It’s a big book with illustrations on every page so it’s not like I can take it with me and read it on the bus.

Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

The main reason I picked this book from the bookcase was because I remembered that the first one was easy to read and with 101 books in 1001 days I need books like that but it ended up taking quite some time. I really didn’t like this book. I don’t remember much from the first book but I don’t think it was THIS bad. Bridgets seems to drink on a daily bases (do people in England really drink THAT much?) and act like a total nut job. I don’t like any of the characters and… well I just don’t understand this book or how people can like it. The movies was better but that’s doesn’t mean it was a good movie. All the things they had removed in the movie were good, like Gary for example and the subplot with her parents and Wellington. The Rebecca plot works better in the movie as well. Mark Darcy is much more charming in the movie...

Books so far

It will take me a while before I read another Austen

Perhaps (hopefully) a lot was lost in the translation… I found it long and tedious (at least I think that’s the word I’m looking for). Like a hundred pages in something finally happened and I was pretty annoyed with Margret because she doesn’t seem to serve a purpose in the story.

Books so far…

101 books in 1001 days
1. "True History of the Kelly Gang" by Peter Carey
2. "The Canterville ghost and other short stories" Oscar Wilde and others
3. "Twilight" Stephenie Meyer
4. "En liten chock" Johanna Lindbäck
5. "A great and terrible beauty" by Libba Bray
6. "Just listen" by Sarah Dessen
7. "Read like a writer" Francine Prose
8. "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler
9. "Underneath it all" Traci Lords
10. "The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want" Cameron Tuttle
11. “Sense and sensibility” Jane Austen
12. "Write away" Elizabeth George
13. ”What I loved” Siri Hustvedt
14. ”Let the right one in” John Ajvide Lindqvist
15. ”Candy Girl” Diablo Cody
16. ”About a boy” Nick Hornby
17. ”Fear and loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson
18. ”Twins” by Marcy Dermansky
19. ”People of the abyss” Jack London
20. ”Snabba Cash” Jens Lapidus
21. ”Bridget Jones: The edge of reason” Helen Fielding
22. ”Alice's adventures in wonderland” Lewis Carroll
23. ”Strips of the sidestep wolf” Sonya Hartnett
24. ”Memours of a Geisha” Arthur Golden (Audio book)
25. ”Outhärdeligt” Hans-Eric Hellberg
26. ”The rules of attraction” Bret Easton Ellis
27. ”Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese” Dita Von Teese
28. ”The uncommon reader” Alan Bennett
29. ”Geisha, a life” Mineko Iwasaki
30. ”Brave new world” Aldous Huxley
31. ”Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness” Gris Grimly
32. ”The Tales of Beedle the Bard” J.K. Rowling
33. ”Ravens gate” Anthony Horowitz
34. ”Förföljaren” Magnus Nordin
35. ”Wives and daughters” Elizabeth Gaskell
36. Emily The Strange
37. ”How to be popular” Meg Cabot
38. ”Friday night kniting club” Kate Jacobs
39. ”My so-called life” Joanna Nadin
40. ”Berserk” Ally Kennen
41. ”Freaky green eyes” Joyce Carol Oates
42. ”Good grief” Lolly Winston
43. ”Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging” Louise Rennison
44. ”The devil Latch ” Sonya Hartnett
45. ”Star-crossed” Rachael Wing
46. ”Anna d'Arc” Mårten Sandén
47. ”Witch Child” Celia Rees
48. ”Jag såg honom först” Eva Susso
49. ”Stenhjärta” Ingrid Olsson
50 ”Ett litet hål i mörkret” Ingrid Olsson
51 ”Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen
52. Love Letters of great men
53. ”Wuthering Heights” Emily Brontë
54. ”Fucking Åmål” (screenplay) Lukas Moodysson
55. ”Rör vid mig” Malin Isaksson
56. ”Dead until Dark” Charlaine Harris
57. ”Hex Education” Emily Gould and Zareen Jaffery
58. ”The Luxe” Anna Godbersen
59. ”Great Expectations” Charles Dickens
60. ”I am legend” Richard Matheson
61. ”On Writing” Stephen King
62. ”Atonement” Ian McEwan
63. ”American Eve” Paula Uruburu
64. ”Cranford” Elizabeth Gaskell
65. ”Anne of Green Gables” L. M. Montgomery
66. ”The Duchess” Amanda Foreman
67. ”New Moon” Stephenie Meyer
68. ”Eclipse” Stephenie Meyer
69. ”The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde
70. ”Little Women” Louisa May Alcott
71. ”The divingbell and the butterfly” Jean-Dominique Bauby
72. ”Romeo and Juliet” William Shakespeare
73. ”The Devil's Footsteps” E E Richardson
74. ”Breakfast at Tiffany's” Truman Capote
75. ”The Importance of BeingErnest” Oscar Wilde
76. ”Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” Seth Grahame-Smith
77. ”Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper” Gypsy Rose Lee
78. ”A Model Summer” Paulina Porizkova
79. ”Made in America” Bill Bryson
80. ”Mansfield Park” Jane Austen
81. ”Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” John Lydon
82. ”Lulu in Hollywood” Louise Brooks
83. ”Krigets Färger” Arkadij Babtjenko
84. ”In a Sunburned Country” Bill Bryson
85. ”En olustig början” Lemony Snicket
86. ”Emma” Jane Austen
87. ”A Study in Scarlet” Arthur Conan Doyle
88. ”My Story” Marilyn Monroe
89. ”Gossip Girl” Cecily von Ziegesar
90. ”Tänk om det där är jag” Johanna Lindbäck
91. ”Save the Cat” Blake Snyder
92. ”Rebel without a crew” Robert Rodriguez

Ends January 18 2011
Books left: 10

Reading right now

"The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want" Maybe it’s the translation but at times it feels like this book is for kids and then there “advice” about sleeping around so maybe not. Feels like a book that could really mess a little girl up if she believed in it, there were plenty of times I thought, “Okay, that seems like a good way to get a reputation and/or get beaten up”. I’ll try not to buy stupid books in the future…

Trying to read Jane Austens “Sense and sensibility” right now but it is taking me forever, I have to re-read a sentence every now and then to make sure I got it right. Don’t like to read books in that weird old Swedish and I’m not a big fan of either Marianne or Elinor, I don’t think we would have been friends if I met them, I wouldn’t have been posh enough. Maybe I should get "Jane Austen for dummies" and maybe then I will enjoy it more?

What would Jane think?

Jane Austen Book Club, didn’t like it… Who was the narrator? That was basically what kept me going, who is telling this story? Maybe I’ll know in the end but no… Just felt like glimpse in pretty ordinary lives. At the end of my book there were questions to consider, perhaps someone hoped that this would be a book people gathered in someone’s living room to discus and wanted to help out and have the questions already made up in the end of the book? (Who wrote these questions? The publisher?) I did like that idea, I like to get some questions and think about the book a little bit more.

The best thing in the entire book was the mentioning of Jet Li at page 195, Jet Li rules

Maybe I’m getting too old…

“A great and terrible beauty” by Libba Bray. I didn’t like this book, it didn’t suck or anything but… You could tell that the author had done some research but that managed to get in the way for me at times when it’s explained why this and that isn’t appropriate or whatever, doesn’t feel like a natural way of telling things. And it gave me a lot of “Heavenly Creatures” vibes… and there were no surprises at all…

Last read book

I didn’t like it, it’s a teen book and it was just one of those dull books where nothing happened. Got a little “Catcher in the rye” vibe on one part of the book and that part almost felt like rip-off even if that wasn’t the case. Dull dull dull… And it was a little too cute at the end; people were so understanding it was sickening. I was almost rooting for the guy to kill himself.

I don’t know…

I can understand why girls like it but I don’t. It was just too damn cute and that whole damsel in distress thing was too much for me. How many times did she use the sentence, “I love you”? Too many that’s how many… It started out okay, the first half was pretty good and I think it would have been a better book if the guy had been like a drug dealer or something instead of a vampire. It’s a very pretty cover for the sequel but I won’t read it, I do want that tulip though.