Swedish Fish...again. (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)T

The Bookworm went to the redbox again!

So yesterday I was faced with a weekend of rain and plenty of reading to accomplish, and after my trip to Kroger to stock up on groceries, I made a detour to the redbox and checked out a couple of movies, one of which was the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. You'll remember I read the first two books in the series over the summer, and I recently found out that a version of the film had been made in Sweden already. I found it at redbox, yay!

So this afternoon, after I cleaned my apartment and finished reading The American Voter, I curled up in my papasan with some raspberry lemonade, hummus, and a toasty bagel to watch the movie. As it was rainy outside, and I was slightly sleepy, I turned off the subtitles and instead put the English dubbing on the movie. That was a bit disconcerting; none of the words matched the lips of the actors when they spoke.

Otherwise, the movie was awesome! I definitely wouldn't watch it without reading the books first, because obviously the books are just so much better and you wouldn't want to ruin it. But it was a great film, and did follow the events of the book fairly closely. Obviously there is more exposition in the books so it's a bit easier to follow, and not as much emphasis is placed on the Wennerstrom affair in the movie. Other than those minor quibbles, I would say rent it.

Until next time, Happy Reading (and movie watching)!

A Journey to the Top of the World (Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer)

So this may be the last post I make for a while (about books, anyway, unless you all would like to hear about lovely things like The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisted or The American Voter. I'm sure you don't). I'm just beginning my Master's in American Politics at UGA, and while I'm very excited, all the required reading leaves little time for reading for fun.

Anyway, I did manage to finish Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer before I started my grad classes yesterday. It's about the 1996 Everest season, in which 11 climbers were killed in just one day (more died that season, actually) by a terrible storm that hit as the climbers were reaching the summit and beginning the descent.

Krakauer gives a compelling portrait of the personalities of the climbers that decide to summit Mt. Everest- one trait that ties them all together is their determination to reach the top. At over 29,000 feet, it definitely takes determination and reaching the top is not easy. To be denied the summit when one has worked so hard to get there is difficult to deal with.

In the years previous to 1996, commercial expeditions had started going to the top of Everest. Krakauer climbs with one of these expeditions; they are considerably easier because a climber does not have to deal with getting permits from the Nepalese government, organize sherpas, and set up their own camps at various points on the mountain.

Although commercial expeditions have taken a lot of heat for guiding people to the top of Everest that otherwise would not have been able to do it, these expeditions also make it possible for more people to summit. It's a two way street, I suppose, and Krakauer reserves his judgment on whether or not they are actually a good thing.

It takes a while for Krakauer to build up to the actual summit bid; once he does, the reader can tell that writing about that fateful day is very difficult. Many of the climbers that were killed were personal friends of Krakauer, and he writes with an emotion and an intensity that makes it difficult to read the book. It's heartbreaking to read these personal portraits of people that existed, and died in a terrible way on the highest and one of the most cruel mountains in the world.

It's an interesting and compelling book, and one that I'm glad I read. I'd like to read more of Krakauer's books (he also wrote Into the Wild). I would also definitely recommend this book if you, like me, enjoy a good adventure every once in a while (I prefer ones that you don't have to suffer frostbite for).

Up next for me on the required front is The American Voter by Angus Campbell et al. On the just-for-fun front, I've got several, but I think I'm going to try So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger. Anyone read his previous book, Peace Like a River? If you haven't, please do. It's a fantastic, beautiful work.

Until next time, Happy Reading, bookworms!

A Journey to Find One's Self (Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert)

I think I may have said before that sometimes a book just comes along that is absolutely perfect for that moment in your life, and for me, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert has been that book. I started reading it last week, and finally finished it (mostly laying by the pool at my new apartment). It's been a tumultuous week, one in which I had to start acting like an adult (even though I don't feel like one) and moved away from my family.

Life is a journey, and Eat Pray Love explores that journey in a most interesting way. It begins with Eating in Italy- "no carb left behind." It continues in India with Prayer at an ashram, where Gilbert learns meditation and yoga. Finally, it concludes in Bali, where Gilbert falls in Love once again.

It really is a beautiful story, one that explores pleasure, devotion, and finally finds a balance between the two. That's what life is about, isn't it?

This is a beautifully written memoir of a journey into a new beginning, one that has been perfect for me as I begin again as well.

Until next time, find some balance, and Happy Reading!

Oh frabjous day! (Alice in Wonderland)

This bookworm has been in the midst of a move, and although I have been also reading my next book diligently, I was feeling a movie tonight. So I went to the redbox just down the street, and what did I find? Alice in Wonderland (not the Disney version, the new one that came out this year).

So since Alice was technically based on Lewis Carroll's stories (I say stories here, because there were elements pulled from both Alice in Wonderland and the following book, Through the Looking Glass), I decided I would blog about it. I read both a few years ago; I actually found an excellent edition called "The Annotated Alice" and if you're interested at all in reading Carroll's stories this one gives a lot of backstory and information that makes reading it way more fun.

I'm just going to throw it out there that I liked the Disney version of Alice way more than this one...Tim Burton makes everything a little bit creepy for me. And Johnny Depp's weird little dance at the end of the movie just kinda freaked me out.

So this has been the first edition of The Bookworm goes to the Movies...I may post more as I watch more movies based on books. Until next time, Happy Reading (and Watching!)

Revisiting the Joys of Childhood (Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt)

The best first paragraph ever written:

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of the summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank which dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after."

(from Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt. Published 1975, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

I read Tuck Everlasting every single year during the first week of August. It is a perfect book; and, for me at least, it can't be read any other time. It is a children's book, but the writing is eloquent and beautiful and the story resonates long into adulthood.

The book centers around the Tuck Family, who drank water from a magic spring and now do not age. Winnie Foster is a young girl, almost a teenager, who wanders into her family's wood and comes across Jesse Tuck drinking from the spring. What follows is a tale of kidnapping, loss, heartbreak, and a moral to always enjoy what life brings you.

List time! My favorite children's books (besides Tuck Everlasting):

1. The BFG by Roald Dahl

2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

3. The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

4. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

5. Holes by Louis Sachar

6. The Silver Crown by Robert O'Brien

7. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

8. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

9. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

10. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

It may be a while before I can post again (the impending move to Georgia and all), but until next time, Happy Reading!

This is your Brain on Books. (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith)

I am a terrible blogger! I want to apologize for the delay, I have been incredibly busy going to Zac Brown Band concerts, balloon races, and getting ready for my impending move to Georgia for graduate school. But somehow, in between all of that, I managed to read a couple of books.

First up: a satirical take on Jane Austen's masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice. A few years ago, a non-fiction writer named Seth Grahame-Smith decided to take his life into his own hands (those Austen fans can be a rabid bunch) and write a rather different take on Austen's book. The result? Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

For the record, I hate zombies. They're rather stupid, aren't they? And not at all hard to kill, like say, vampires. Or werewolves. Or Lord Voldemort.

But back to the book at hand. It's definitely funny! And this coming from a girl who has read P&P several times, notably on the L going into downtown Chicago when I was in 7th grade...but I digress. I love Austen, but this is a really fun and interesting take on her book. Lizzy and Darcy are both badass, and Jane is not quite so annoying with all her "oh, I'm so in love with Bingley" stuff that she throws out every few pages. It's like a feminist take on Austen, where the ladies in the book are not such ladies that they can't kill a few zombies (and ninjas too. Did I mention that? Lady Catherine de Bourgh has a squad of ninjas as protectors.)

But it is a really fun book to read, it just took me a few days. The basic plot of the book hasn't changed much, but the characters do read a little differently and there's much more action. Check it out if you have some free time, and you like Jane Austen, or Zombies, or both.

Until next time (later today), Happy Reading!