Classics Considered

Excited to be tagged by Hamlette from The Edge of the Precipice!  This tag is all about classics and originally from a blog called Rebellious Writing . It's So Classic Tag Rules: 1. Link your post to Rebellious Writing (www.rebelliouswriting.com) 2. Answer the questions 3. Tag at least 5 bloggers. 1. What is one classic that hasn’t been made into a movie yet, but really needs to? This was a recent Top Ten Tuesday... I stand by all my answers but will add one more:  Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev .  I rated this book very highly and feel it would appeal to anyone who enjoys costumes dramas, while offering a new perspective.  (We need more Russian literature adaptations in general.  Just sayin'!) 2. What draws you to classics? It is hard to put a scientific answer to this, because I got into classics at a young age and they became a core part of my life.  If anything, I love them most of all for sentimental reasons.  Apart from ...

Saw this neat meme/tag on O's blog, On Bookes : The rules: 1. Spell out your blog’s name. 2. Find a book from your TBR that begins with each letter. (Note you cannot ADD to your TBR to complete this challenge – the books must already be on your Goodread’s TBR) 3. Have fun!    noonlight N ostromo by Joseph Conrad O n the Eve by Ivan Turgenev O pen Heart by Elie Wiesel The N ormal Christian Life by Watchman Nee The L ast Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton The I nheritors by William Golding G etting to Green: Saving Nature: A Bipartisan Solution by Frederic C. Rich H erland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The T hings They Carried by Tim O'Brien reads R evelation Space by Alastair Reynolds E ither/Or by Soren Kierkegaard A usterlitz by W. G. Sebald D eath and the Dervish by Mesa Selimovic S hackleton's Boat Journey by Frank Worsley With 500+ TBR books, this was easier than perhaps it should be.  I tried to choose a mix of fiction and nonfiction, and ended up ...

With Hobbit Day (Sep 22nd) rapidly approaching, I was excited to see that Hamlette is again hosting a Tolkien Blog Party this year !  This will be my first time participating.  Though I haven't often mentioned J. R. R. Tolkien here, I am a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit .  There is so much to unpack in Tolkien's universe of Middle Earth, and I find I discover something new every time. The Tolkien Tag 2017 1. How long have you been a Tolkien fan? Oh wow... it must be something like 9 or 10 years ago now!  I played violin in a community orchestra, and we were learning music from The Two Towers .  The conductor, Mr. D., tried to select a wide variety of music, including film scores from newer movies like LOTR and Pirates of the Caribbean .  I am forever indebted to his open-mindedness, because some of the other musicians were not too keen on Rohan's theme or the March of the Ents.  ;)  For me, it was a turning point. I had heard of...

Saw this over at Kristin's blog Wool and Wheel ...it's been a while since I did one of these, so I thought it would be a fun interlude to reviews.  Feel free to fill this out on your own blog, or in the comments - would love to read your answers! 1. What book is currently on your nightstand?  Right now, there's The Heart of the Antarctic (Ernest Shackleton), the Bible, my Nook, and my tablet. From my 2014 Powell's trip .  On the left is Albanov's In the Land of White Death , an excellent polar (north) memoir which I haven't reviewed but highly recommend. Heart is turning out to be a lovely read so far - more informal and relaxed in tone than South .  Maybe it's the pre-War zeitgeist, or Shackleton's personal optimism at this earlier point in his experience.  His excitement over the ponies is rather sobering...considering he didn't bring them on the Endurance , I can only imagine how badly things will go on the Nimrod .  (But, I digress.) 2. What wa...

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish Saw this over at Hamlette's blog , and thought it would be a fun trip down memory lane.  Here goes - and hope I don't tread on any toes.  ;) Werther from The Sorrows of Young Werther .   Everyone from A Passage to India .  (Sorry, Forster.) Irene Adler from "A Scandal in Bohemia".  Erik from The Phantom of the Opera .  In all fairness, I am meaning to re-read this.  During my first read, I definitely found book!Erik to be less likeable than Webber's version. Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby .  I get the impression one is supposed to like him, but I was left unimpressed.  (I was also shocked that his undisguised racist commentary never gets mentioned in mainstream circles). Everyone from Dragonwyck .  When I was in middle school, a friend recommended it to me, on the basis it was similar to Jane Eyre .  My mother cautioned me that it sounded like a romance novel, but in my blissful ignoran...

This blog has been so quiet (too quiet) the past couple of months, as I've been transitioning into my new job and schedule.  Thanks to Sara from Majoring in Literature , here is a fun tag to break the hiatus! - Link and thank the blogger who nominated you - Answer the 11 questions your nominator gives you  - Tag 11 other bloggers who have 200 followers or less  - Ask the 11 bloggers you nominated 11 questions and let them know you nominated them! 11 Questions:  1)  What is the first book you remember reading?  The first books I remember reading were very vintage children's readers, like On Cherry Street .  I also have a fairly vivid memory of reading a phonetics textbook, which I actually thought was fun.  :) 2)  Where do you like to read?  Do you have a quiet little hideout where you can read undisturbed? I like to read in bed, either with the lamp on or in the dark with my new reading light. 3)  Starting at the very top of your bo...

Saw this at Rosamund's blog Shoes of Paper ♥ Stockings of Buttermilk .  It looked fun, and I don't believe I've done it before - so here goes! Do you snack while you read?  If so, favourite reading snack:  I don't snack, but I drink tea! What is your favourite drink while reading? A nice large cup of tea.  Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?  I still have my childhood horror of writing in books or bending pages (library books, you see).  What I do is use sticky notes to mark all the passages I want to remember - after I finish the book, I type up the parts worth remembering. How do you keep your place while reading a book?  Bookmark?  Dog-ears?  Laying the book flat open? Bookmarks!  Though when I was a child, I never used bookmarks; I would just set the book flat open, face down.  It was one of the few family rules I broke.  Fiction, non-fiction, or both?  Increasi...