“I have always loved reading from an early age and I don’t think that will ever change,” says Dot, mistress of Dot Scribbles, a UK-based blog. Dot is a voracious reader – although I suspect that being a new mom (her daughter, Darcey, is just a few weeks old) is eating up a considerable amount of her reading time.
Dot reads everything and her reviews are accessible and user-friendly. I never ever visit Dot Scribbles without adding a handful of titles to my tbr list.
Having recently seen The Hunger Games, I thought I would revisit a post from last year – when I considered some of my favourite book to screen moments.
Which of your favourite books have been captured on film? Was the movie any good?
Even though I teach high school English, I haven’t always made time for YA reading until recently. I read a lot more of it now because my kids are voracious readers and a trip to the bookstore always means a few books for them, too. Both my kids read The Hunger Games eons ago and insisted that I read it, too. I finally got around to it last year.
Here is the review I wrote with my daughter at the time.
When we knew that the movie was coming to our local multiplex, my son insisted that we go buy our tickets in advance. Nothing but the first show would suffice for him. He and his friend actually got to the cinema hours in advance -which was lucky for my daughter and I. We couldn’t get there until closer to the start time because of other committments. In the packed theatre, Con had saved us excellent seats.
So, how did the movie compare? It was really good. Not perfect, of course, but really good.
*spoiler alert*
Some rambling thoughts….
Things I liked:
1. Jennifer Lawrence was an excellent Katniss, embodying the vulnerability and grim determination needed to make us believe in her.
2. The Capital was cotton candy creepy – just as I’d imagined it.
3. Josh Hutcherson as Peeta exceeded my expectations. The actor wasn’t physically what I’d imagined – I mean, he’s shorter than Lawrence, for goodness sake. Still, I ended up liking him. And believing in him.
4. Effie Trinket. (Elizabeth Banks) Loved her.
5. President Snow. Maybe I just have a soft spot for Canadian Donald Sutherland, but he was deliciously, subtly evil.
6. It was cool to see behind-the-scenes of the tv show – to see how the games were manipulated.
Quibbles:
When the movie opened with Caeser Flickerman and Seneca Crane, I have to admit, I had my doubts. I’m not sure it was necessary to frame the movie like this, really. I would have preferred the movie stick to the book’s opening – letting us see Katniss have her morning with Gale (whom I loved, btw, even though he didn’t really have much to do). For me, this is where a movie like this is always going to be disappointing.
I didn’t like how Katniss came to have the Mockingjay pin. Someone gave it to her in the market. (Was that meant to be Greasy Sae? She looked way too kind-hearted.) And really, gave it to her? Hmmm. Okay.
I wish that the mutant mutts scene had been handled differently – more like the book. There was extra meaning in the scene as Collins wrote it – Katniss’s realization of who the mutts were. I liked it better. Yes I shreiked, as did everyone else in the theatre, when that mutt sprang out of the dark. But why couldn’t they have handled it like the book? I wonder what the reason was for changing it?
As for the other Tributes – even though Collins didn’t spend a lot of time allowing us to get to know them in the novel I still felt more attached to them in the book. I mean, I cried when Rue died both times that I read it. (And yes, I cried in the movie, too.) That said, I found Cato’s on-screen death quite compelling because he was revealed to be what he actually was: a kid afraid to die. (But the long drawn out death scene in the novel still had more impact.)
My kids loved the movie. I thought the movie was terrific.
But not as good as the book.
My Position on Subway Fares by John Hodgman
Poems are to be savoured. I hate the notion of dissecting them; I think they are meant to be read, enjoyed, re-read – but not ‘solved.’ And, yes, even in the classroom. To celebrate World Poetry Day, why not read a few poems?
Introduction to Poetry – Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
I love Billy Collins. I am also partial to T.S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. H. Auden
Who are your favourite poets? Favourite poems?
I could spend hours in one of these places!
Flavorwire finds 20 more beautiful bookstores
Amy, or Bird as she is called by those nearest and dearest, is a list maker. She’s super organized and has her future planned down to the last detail.
Read chapter for History
Essay for English.
Start “Top Tips” Section
Tidy room and pack bag for school tomorrow
Bird is 16 and lives with her mother and father in a London suburb. From her bedroom window, she can look over into Griffin’s bedroom window. Bird and Griffin have been best friends since they were kids and Griffin and his family moved into the house next door. Recently, though, their relationship has morphed into something more romantic.
Bird seems to have it all together – so together, in fact, that she runs an advice column on a website. There are cracks though: in her relationship with Griffin, in her parents’ marriage, in her own life. And Bird is about to learn that the best laid plans… Meet Pete Loewen.
I raised my gaze to see a guy lounging against the open doorway. I couldn’t help but notice that he was really hot. …He was older than us. He wore jeans and a black shirt with the words Born to Diescrawled over it. His sandy blond hair hung slightly long, like he hadn’t got round to cutting it, and he had stubble on his jaw line. he managed to look like he didn’t care about his appearance at all, and yet he was one of the – No, he was the most gorgeous man who’d ever walked into our school.
40 Things I Want To Tell You worked on many levels. Bird is engaging and intelligent. Pete is mysterious and, well, hot. When Bird’s world starts to careen off course, her problems are realistic and relate-able.
But one thing about this book did not work for me and that was the relationship between Bird and Pete. It’s not that I didn’t buy their instant attraction. It’s not that I didn’t buy where that attraction led them (*use your imagination*). It’s just that nothing about Pete’s story is fleshed out. There are all sorts of rumours swirling around about him, but we’re not privy to any of his back-story, and neither is Bird. It makes it hard to care for him, especially because he acts like a jerk to her. And then he doesn’t. Then Bird acts like a jerk. But the problem is, I couldn’t ever root for them to be together – although perhaps I wasn’t supposed to.
That said – I gobbled up 40 Things I Want To Tell You pretty quickly and I will happily add it to my class library. I am sure my female students will love it.
Trying to figure out what I should read next is never a problem for me; as you already know I have a massive tbr pile. If I don’t have a bookclub book I need to get to, I generally just peruse my shelves until I find something that strikes my fancy. What am I in the mood for? I am trying not to buy anymore books these days – but then this weekend I went ahead and purchased 40 Things I Want To Tell You by Alice Kuipers (review coming up), Divergent by Veronica Roth and The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livsey. These are all young adult titles, a genre I am trying to read a lot more of so I can recommend books to my students.
I’ve been stockpiling books for so long (library book sales, second-hand book stores, Bookcloseouts, Scholastic flyer, Indigo) that I can’t really remember what it’s like to finish a book and have to make a trek to the bookstore to purchase a new one. When I hear about new titles that appeal to me, I just add them to my tbr list – which I keep in a little notebook and try to remember to take with me when I know I am going to be somewhere with books.
What should I read next is a site that claims to be able to help you choose, well, what you should read next. I haven’t tried it out myself, obviously.
I’d love to hear how you decide what book you should read next after you close the cover (or turn off your eReader) of your current read.
The Ludic Reader 