Whether it's the current slate of actors, the subject matter of the nominated movies or my age (!), tonight's 83rd Oscar broadcast has only focussed my attention on just how many books I think were successfully made into movies:
*Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
This classic film was the only one that compelled me to read the book after seeing the movie. In other cases, I re-read the book to savor again the emotions so masterfully brought to life from the page. Gone with the Wind falls into both categories as I've lost count the number of times I've both seen the film and read the book. Neither ever gets old.
*About a Boy by Nick Hornby
*The Shining by Stephen King
I started reading this book at 3 in the afternoon and finished at 1 a.m. the next morning; kept a small light on and didn't sleep a wink. When the film came out months later, I saw it in the evening and couldn't sleep until the next afternoon.
*Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane
*Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
More print and airspace has been given to this contemporary author and her books than Shakespeare and Dickens combined (no, I didn't fact-check that), but I think it's worth stating that both her books and films have done more for reluctant readers, bookstore sales and library attendance than any other. I have all seven books, have read some of them multiple times and look forward to seeing the final film this summer.
*The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
I read the book on recommendation from a friend's teen-aged son. It was between publication of the Harry Potter books and this young man was of the opinion Pullman was both a better writer and storyteller (Is there a difference? Look for more on that in a future blog entry). I'm still not sure what it was about this book that stayed with me, but whatever it was I couldn't take a chance and have it destroyed by seeing the film version with Nicole Kidman. By the way, The Golden Compass is the first of a trilogy by Pullman and I've only read the first one, again, because of some reason I can't explain that wants to keep this experience in suspended animation, no pun intended.
*The Ghost Writer by Robert Harris
Another flipped situation: I saw this movie twice, but haven't read the book. I want to read the book, but the movie was so brilliantly acted and atmospheric, I'm of the belief the book can't match up. Who would have ever thought I'd put that in print?
These are my nominations; which are yours?
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
More G.A.(A.)F.S.: "Tap on the Shoulder" or "Shove off the Ottoman"?
"I was herding Paris Hilton and her shopping entourage down a Manhattan boulevard when I broke the biggest rule of mermaid life: Don't show your tail in public."
Diary of a Radical Mermaid by Deborah Smith
Go South, Young Man "It takes real trust --- or gullibility --- to travel more than fifteen hundred miles from Delhi to Mysore at the urging of an e-mail from a stranger. But that's exactly what I did. The unsolicited message appeared on the computer screen, between power outages, in the cramped and cozy Internet cafe on the first floor of the Hotel Ajanta."
Adventures of a Continental Drifter: An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness, Danger, Lust, and the Perils of Street Food by Elliott Hester
"From the troller's bow, the man watched wind write across Steamer Bay. The bay was poked like an arrow into the side of the island; the tide had barely turned to flood. He favored low tides in strange waters. At low tide you could see more dangers. And for this Raven man, Elder of a dwindling, ragtag village, dangers were everywhere."
Crown in Stolen Colors by Marcia Simpson
Therapy for Pronoun Anxiety "When a tiny word gives you a big headache, it's probably a pronoun."
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O'Conner
"It always stood in the back garden --- what my cousins called the Murder Stone.
They teased me about it often enough.
'Put your head here and your brains will be bashed out.'
'Lie down here, and the headsman will come and chop your neck.'"
The Murder Stone by Charles Todd
Diary of a Radical Mermaid by Deborah Smith
Go South, Young Man "It takes real trust --- or gullibility --- to travel more than fifteen hundred miles from Delhi to Mysore at the urging of an e-mail from a stranger. But that's exactly what I did. The unsolicited message appeared on the computer screen, between power outages, in the cramped and cozy Internet cafe on the first floor of the Hotel Ajanta."
Adventures of a Continental Drifter: An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness, Danger, Lust, and the Perils of Street Food by Elliott Hester
"From the troller's bow, the man watched wind write across Steamer Bay. The bay was poked like an arrow into the side of the island; the tide had barely turned to flood. He favored low tides in strange waters. At low tide you could see more dangers. And for this Raven man, Elder of a dwindling, ragtag village, dangers were everywhere."
Crown in Stolen Colors by Marcia Simpson
Therapy for Pronoun Anxiety "When a tiny word gives you a big headache, it's probably a pronoun."
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O'Conner
"It always stood in the back garden --- what my cousins called the Murder Stone.
They teased me about it often enough.
'Put your head here and your brains will be bashed out.'
'Lie down here, and the headsman will come and chop your neck.'"
The Murder Stone by Charles Todd
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Etymology versus Entomology: What?
As I've recently been engrossed building my resume from scratch, words and their origins have been on my mind. All the rules have been thrown out, but one: "Show, don't tell." So in trying to "show" "organizational wizard" achievements throughout my working history, I got stumped more than a few times and in ways a dictionary or thesaurus couldn't fix.
That got me to thinking which in turn got me to: Why do we (“we” being the “English language”) have so many different words for one action, e.g., “thinking”? There’s musing, contemplating, ruminating, mulling over, considering, weighing, racination (just learned that one from reading Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union).
All this thinking brought me outside for fresh air, but no answers. I did see a particularly large banana slug, though and that brought me back inside to discover the connection between "etymology" [the origin of words, tracing developing of a word's parts since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is formed] and "entomology" [branch of zoology dealing with insects, from the Greek word entomon, meaning notched, refers to segmented body plan of the insect].
What?!
That got me to thinking which in turn got me to: Why do we (“we” being the “English language”) have so many different words for one action, e.g., “thinking”? There’s musing, contemplating, ruminating, mulling over, considering, weighing, racination (just learned that one from reading Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union).
All this thinking brought me outside for fresh air, but no answers. I did see a particularly large banana slug, though and that brought me back inside to discover the connection between "etymology" [the origin of words, tracing developing of a word's parts since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is formed] and "entomology" [branch of zoology dealing with insects, from the Greek word entomon, meaning notched, refers to segmented body plan of the insect].
What?!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
How do you "read"?
An article in today's New York Times confirms what a missionary, Frank Laubach, learned long ago in developing his own method to ("Each One Teach One") to teach people how to read and write in their own language:
"Brain's 'Visual' Reading Center Isn't Picky About Vision"
My own experience as a Laubach tutor opened many doors into not only how people learn to read (aurally, tactically [this was a revelation!] and visually) but into many cultures' traditions regarding literacy and literature. Unfortunately, it also opened my eyes to the numbers of students graduating from high school (I had three teenaged-tutees trying to pass the G.E.D., complete job applications and/or vocational tests) at a fourth-grade reading level, at best.
I now know this is where my mantra, "Read and Comprehend" had its origin as well as my daily gratitude for my reading and English teachers throughout the years:
*Mom and Dad: I was enrolled in my first book club (in those days, "book club" meant receiving a book via snail mail and reading it on your own) and received a Dr. Seuss book every couple of months as my birthday present from Dad at age 7. Mom took me to the library almost every Saturday until she could delegate the task to one of my recently-licensed siblings.
*Sr. Ann Bernard: first-grade teacher who further-instilled a love of reading via the "Read to the Moon" race
*Dolores Hitchens: second-grade teacher who began my life-long love of mysteries and thrillers and who was a mystery author herself.
*Mrs. Sweringen: 7th-grade English and literature teacher who introduced me to the classics. I apologize to her right here as I know I misspelled her name.
*Mrs. Lord: parent of 5th-grade classmate and substitute teacher who gave me my first atlas and started my world-wide traveling . . . in my head . . . until I could actually obtain a passport and travel in reality.
*Sr. Anne Lynch: high-school English and literature teacher to whom I'm forever indebted for taking my "tabula rasa" and gently forcing it to understand (and enjoy!) Shakespeare.
*Mrs. Virginia Schlenk: She furthered my comprehension and usage of the English language and gave me old-school research tips I use to this day.
*Lew Riley: college writing professor who drilled "short and sweet" tops "long and labored."
*Bill Puzo: college geography professor who sparked my love of travel, travel reading and reading while traveling.
"Brain's 'Visual' Reading Center Isn't Picky About Vision"
My own experience as a Laubach tutor opened many doors into not only how people learn to read (aurally, tactically [this was a revelation!] and visually) but into many cultures' traditions regarding literacy and literature. Unfortunately, it also opened my eyes to the numbers of students graduating from high school (I had three teenaged-tutees trying to pass the G.E.D., complete job applications and/or vocational tests) at a fourth-grade reading level, at best.
I now know this is where my mantra, "Read and Comprehend" had its origin as well as my daily gratitude for my reading and English teachers throughout the years:
*Mom and Dad: I was enrolled in my first book club (in those days, "book club" meant receiving a book via snail mail and reading it on your own) and received a Dr. Seuss book every couple of months as my birthday present from Dad at age 7. Mom took me to the library almost every Saturday until she could delegate the task to one of my recently-licensed siblings.
*Sr. Ann Bernard: first-grade teacher who further-instilled a love of reading via the "Read to the Moon" race
*Dolores Hitchens: second-grade teacher who began my life-long love of mysteries and thrillers and who was a mystery author herself.
*Mrs. Sweringen: 7th-grade English and literature teacher who introduced me to the classics. I apologize to her right here as I know I misspelled her name.
*Mrs. Lord: parent of 5th-grade classmate and substitute teacher who gave me my first atlas and started my world-wide traveling . . . in my head . . . until I could actually obtain a passport and travel in reality.
*Sr. Anne Lynch: high-school English and literature teacher to whom I'm forever indebted for taking my "tabula rasa" and gently forcing it to understand (and enjoy!) Shakespeare.
*Mrs. Virginia Schlenk: She furthered my comprehension and usage of the English language and gave me old-school research tips I use to this day.
*Lew Riley: college writing professor who drilled "short and sweet" tops "long and labored."
*Bill Puzo: college geography professor who sparked my love of travel, travel reading and reading while traveling.
Monday, February 21, 2011
One for the "books," the record books
Mt. Tamalpais, aka The Sleeping Lady (so named by the Miwoks), shortened to "Mt. Tam" by the locals, had 4-7 inches of snow this past Saturday.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Luscious Literary, Literate and Library Links!
Those random words you see floating below this blog's title are all live links. Check any or all of them out, but before you do, make sure you have some time to get lost among them.
G.A.(A.)F.S., aka, "You had me at 'Hello' "
My local paper's Sunday Book Review section (wow, hope I'm still able to say "my local paper" and "book review section" five years from now, but that's for another blog . . .) features "Grabbers," first sentences from books that, you guessed it, grabbed their attention. Whether the first sentence compelled further reading is left to the reader.
So the following are my own Grabs At (Almost) First Sentence (had to include "almost" in this acronym as sometimes it's the first paragraph, not just the first sentence):
"Jeff Winston was on the phone with his wife when he died." Replay by Ken Grimwood
"There are four words Fanny Ness wished she had never spoken. These four words were not ones that cause obvious heartbreak like, 'We must operate immediately' or 'I want a divorce,' but because they were spoken, they nearly (literally) blew Fanny's chances for a normal life. Four innocent words addressed to a beefy teenager standing behind a counter patterned with smudges: 'One Burrito Suprema, please.' " The Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik
"In the middle of my marriage, when I was above all Hugh's wife and Dee's mother, one of those unambiguous women with no desire to disturb the universe, I fell in love with a Benedictine monk." The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
" 'I smell trouble,' Bernie said. Better stop right there. Not that I doubt Bernie. The truth is I believe everything he says. And he has a nice big nose for a human. But what's that saying? Not much." Thereby Hangs A Tail: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn
So the following are my own Grabs At (Almost) First Sentence (had to include "almost" in this acronym as sometimes it's the first paragraph, not just the first sentence):
"Jeff Winston was on the phone with his wife when he died." Replay by Ken Grimwood
"There are four words Fanny Ness wished she had never spoken. These four words were not ones that cause obvious heartbreak like, 'We must operate immediately' or 'I want a divorce,' but because they were spoken, they nearly (literally) blew Fanny's chances for a normal life. Four innocent words addressed to a beefy teenager standing behind a counter patterned with smudges: 'One Burrito Suprema, please.' " The Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik
"In the middle of my marriage, when I was above all Hugh's wife and Dee's mother, one of those unambiguous women with no desire to disturb the universe, I fell in love with a Benedictine monk." The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
" 'I smell trouble,' Bernie said. Better stop right there. Not that I doubt Bernie. The truth is I believe everything he says. And he has a nice big nose for a human. But what's that saying? Not much." Thereby Hangs A Tail: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn
Thursday, February 17, 2011
What to Do When You Are Dead
What to Do When You Are Dead: Living Better in the Afterlife by Craig Hamilton-Parker
If that headline doesn't grab you, you might already be dead, in which case, my hope is you are living better in the afterlife.
When words are strung together with such power and impact producing an emotion, any emotion, compelling you to read further* and discover, in this case, just exactly how to live better in the afterlife, that's the "beauty" of a book, too. What books have grabbed you lately?
*further versus farther: Easy way to remember which one to use, "My father lives farther north of here."
For more fun tips, check out Woe is I by Patricia T. O' Conner, from your local library. This one's for you, JMJM!
If that headline doesn't grab you, you might already be dead, in which case, my hope is you are living better in the afterlife.
When words are strung together with such power and impact producing an emotion, any emotion, compelling you to read further* and discover, in this case, just exactly how to live better in the afterlife, that's the "beauty" of a book, too. What books have grabbed you lately?
*further versus farther: Easy way to remember which one to use, "My father lives farther north of here."
For more fun tips, check out Woe is I by Patricia T. O' Conner, from your local library. This one's for you, JMJM!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Measure L: Libraries' funding in Los Angeles
My niece's blog entry yesterday says it all about the vital need for libraries. If after reading the article, you feel the same and live in Los Angeles, please check out Measure L for yourself and vote "yes." If you are not a Los Angeleno, please check with your local library about how you might support its "vitality" for your neighborhood.
Monday Night Lights
Here's the link to Measure L information:
Monday Night Lights
Here's the link to Measure L information:
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Beauty of Books
Monday, February 14, 2011
I finally succumbed to the digital siren
I've always followed my own clock and so it should surprise no one that it took me more than several years AFTER the blog craze to jump in and begin my own. But it may be more a function of having to find somewhere to post my digital photos from the camera I just purchased in January.
For those of you used to receiving copies of my old-school film photos (with handwritten captions/sometimes short stories on the back), do not worry. I still have my trusty Canon 35mm and plentiful stock of Fuji film (RIP Kodachrome). And with my recent acquisition of dozens of photos from Mom's shoeboxes, you can be sure of random surprises in the mail for months, maybe years to come.
But I digress. This blog's birth has come about for many reasons, none of which I want to share right now. The siren's song is strong, but I'm more stubborn. So what can you expect to read here? The only consistency woven throughout each entry will be the entry's relation to books --- author recommendations, literacy, library, book reviews, publishing, bookmaking (not as in betting), book stores, reading, and reading and comprehending --- and how all this might lead to income opportunities for moi.
So check back often; comment as you see fit; and support your local library.
Here's the photo of the library that opened the world to me(re-located in 1973):
For those of you used to receiving copies of my old-school film photos (with handwritten captions/sometimes short stories on the back), do not worry. I still have my trusty Canon 35mm and plentiful stock of Fuji film (RIP Kodachrome). And with my recent acquisition of dozens of photos from Mom's shoeboxes, you can be sure of random surprises in the mail for months, maybe years to come.
But I digress. This blog's birth has come about for many reasons, none of which I want to share right now. The siren's song is strong, but I'm more stubborn. So what can you expect to read here? The only consistency woven throughout each entry will be the entry's relation to books --- author recommendations, literacy, library, book reviews, publishing, bookmaking (not as in betting), book stores, reading, and reading and comprehending --- and how all this might lead to income opportunities for moi.
So check back often; comment as you see fit; and support your local library.
Here's the photo of the library that opened the world to me(re-located in 1973):
Happiness is . . .
a dozen books on hold at your local library. Do something good for your heart today.
About Me
- TFJ
- How many books does a first-grader in 1964 have to read to be first to “reach the moon?” 210 books; that’s the number I read to be the number 1 reader, averaging five books a week if you figure a 40-week school year. My current number? About 5-8 books a week, depending on the number of income opportunities (sounds better than job searching, right?) I’m exploring. Fast forward to this past July, I attended the 17th Annual Mystery Writers Conference hosted by Book Passage, the Bay Area’s Liveliest Bookstore, and discovered (as I really always knew) I’m a reader first and writer, aka reviewer, second. First book I reviewed and then recommended: Harriet the Spy; I was 9 years old. Apropos of nothing, my second grade teacher, Dolores Hitchens (a mystery writer herself), played “Secret Agent Man” while we solved math problems on the chalkboard. I didn’t get around to reading her books until about 20 years after her death, but would still recommend them to anyone interested in pitch-perfect setting and conversation of 1950s Southern California … martini, anyone?
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