Not sure what's happening here...
May. 31st, 2004 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swatkatI did post last night, but no one could see it. Trying again...
So. I went and bought myself Outlander and Good Omens. *g*
It had promised to be a painful evening - window-shopping (*gag*) at a swanky mall. By sheer chance, I managed to veer everyone towards the bookshop. Of course, that was *after* two hours of torture.
~
I've never seen Joan of Arcadia. Apparently, it's a show about a girl who can talk to God. Sounds like a modern day Joan of Arc to me. I haven't seen The Day After Tomorrow and I don't intend to. But this story, Goodnight, Moon by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yahtzee63, is beyond fabulous. Read it. You'll like it.
And folks? Please don't form any opinion about HP fanart from f_w. There's plenty of good fanart out there, contrary to what some people have been saying. Oh, there's a lot of crap too. But then, how can you avoid crap in a fandom as huge as HP?
~
And finally, the book meme. I don't care if you aren't interested. You'll have to listen to it anyway. :b
Chuck and Geck – Arcadi Gaidar
It's an old book by a Russian author (or are we supposed to say Soviet author?), about two brothers, Chuck and Geck, who live in Moscow, and their journey through the Taiga with their mother to visit their father. Only, they aren't supposed to visit right now. Of course, having lost the telegram during a certain fistfight in the snow, the boys don't know that. Neither does their poor mother, who has no idea that her husband had sent her a telegram in the first place.
I loved this book. I made my mum read it out loud to me every day. Then when I learnt to read, I must've re-read it a thousand times. I still love it, although if you ask me *why* I was so obsessed about it, I won't be able to say. All I can say is that it's wacky, it's funny, it's got a beautifully realistic portrayal of boys, and it's fabulous book for children. It's a pity that the works of this author isn't available anywhere these days. One of the problems of writing the former USSR, I suppose.
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairytales
I was a fairytale junkie. From Russian fairytales with the wicked Tsars and Tsarinas, to the Norse legends and Greek mythology, to Arabian Nights with the Badshahs and genies, I read them all. But it all got started because of a collection of stories by this man, presented to me by my aunt. Some of them were the usual popular stories – the story of the north wind, the little mermaid and the matchstick girl, and some of them were rarer stories. I particularly remember loving a story about a young boy who sets out to earn money for his family, and starts working with a mysterious roaming theatre.
I've been eyeing a complete works of his for some time now. Let's see.
The Complete Works of Jules Verne
How can you not love these books? Wouldn't you love to be marooned on an uninhabited island with a bunch of your friends, journey to the centre of the earth, and travel around the world in a submarine? To quote Anne Shirley, there was so much 'scope for imagination' in these books that I could hardly think of anything else every time I read one. I think these stories ruined sci-fi in a way for me, because somehow I never found anything that matches up to them. *g*
The Complete Works of Enid Blyton
I worshipped Enid Blyton. I think I may have read every single book she's ever written – even the hated Secret Seven ones. The Famous Five were, of course, my favourite. I've always been a little jealous of George – she has a fabulous dog, an *island* of her own, and gets to have all those adventures. *sigh* I still own most of the books in the series. The school stories were my next favourites – in fact, at one point I wanted to write my very own school stories (illustrated, even!), featuring a self-insert Mary Sue, and a number of bonus Sus and Stus who'd pose as my friends. I also remember begging my parents to send me to a boarding school.
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Jo March. I shall never, ever forgive the author for not writing Jo/Laurie in the sequel.
You know, I've seen this book on most of the lists that I've come across so far. Goes on to show what an excellent book this is.
Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
I could go on and on about Anne and Avonlea and why I loved these series, specially this book, so much, but I'm afraid it'll be very gushy and pointless. If you've read this book, and read the rest of the entries in this list, you'll probably realise why it appealed to me so much. All I can say is, if there's one fictional character I could ever meet up with, it would be Anne Shirley (Elizabeth Bennet is a close second). I believe she and I would have a lot to talk about. *g*
Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare
I first read it, like most people do, in Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare. Nice story, I thought, and that was it. One day, I attended a free screening of the movie adaptation. I don't remember if the movie was particularly good, but I was intrigued by Viola – largely because the actress who portrayed her had done a brilliant job. So I went to the library and picked up the Real Thing. Read it once. Read it again. And again. My future was sealed – I was doomed to become an absolute fangirl.
When I first read it, I was too young to get the underlying themes and the hidden little things here and there. But I loved the characters and I loved the dialogue (ooh, the dialogue!). What's most astonishing is the way there's always something new to play with, every time you read it. For example, I recently realised that it has one of the best femmeslash pairings I've ever seen. I haven't dared to do it yet, but one of these days I'll actually go and look for Twelfth Night slash.
Water Babies – Charles Kingsley
I think this is the only book in this list I've never re-read after growing up, and there's a reason for it. When I first read it, I thought of it as a pretty fairy tale. I was too young to understand even the blatant allegory in the characters like Mrs. DoAsYouWouldBeDoneBy or Mrs. BeDoneByAsYouDid. I didn't know who Charles Kingsley was, and what he wrote about, and that everything was actually a way of criticising the Victorian English society. I actually found a copy of this in a secondhand store last year (it's a little hard to find), but it's still there in the bookshelf, untouched. It's not great literary masterpiece. It's not even Kingsley's best. I'm afraid that if I read it again, I'll end up analysing and criticising everything, and the magic will be lost.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Melodramatic? Sure. But there's no one like Miss Havisham. And of course, Estella - the ice princess and bitch queen #1. I only wish Dickens had focused more on her character and expanded the characterisation a bit.
I remember being highly offended when I learnt that the critics felt the ending of this book to be inappropriate, because for my twelve year old HR self, it was the best thing EVA. I had this book again in high school, and I'll always be very grateful to Mr. Dickens because it was the first time I realised how much I adore taking things apart and analysing every little detail in a book. *g*
The Adventures of Tintin – Herge
I'm not sure if we're allowed to have comic books in the list, but I thought I'd go ahead and do it anyway – this list wouldn't be complete without having Tintin in it. Oh, I loved these books so much! Captain Haddock is still my hero. *g*
Do this meme. Please.
So. I went and bought myself Outlander and Good Omens. *g*
It had promised to be a painful evening - window-shopping (*gag*) at a swanky mall. By sheer chance, I managed to veer everyone towards the bookshop. Of course, that was *after* two hours of torture.
~
I've never seen Joan of Arcadia. Apparently, it's a show about a girl who can talk to God. Sounds like a modern day Joan of Arc to me. I haven't seen The Day After Tomorrow and I don't intend to. But this story, Goodnight, Moon by
yahtzee63, is beyond fabulous. Read it. You'll like it.And folks? Please don't form any opinion about HP fanart from f_w. There's plenty of good fanart out there, contrary to what some people have been saying. Oh, there's a lot of crap too. But then, how can you avoid crap in a fandom as huge as HP?
~
And finally, the book meme. I don't care if you aren't interested. You'll have to listen to it anyway. :b
Chuck and Geck – Arcadi Gaidar
It's an old book by a Russian author (or are we supposed to say Soviet author?), about two brothers, Chuck and Geck, who live in Moscow, and their journey through the Taiga with their mother to visit their father. Only, they aren't supposed to visit right now. Of course, having lost the telegram during a certain fistfight in the snow, the boys don't know that. Neither does their poor mother, who has no idea that her husband had sent her a telegram in the first place.
I loved this book. I made my mum read it out loud to me every day. Then when I learnt to read, I must've re-read it a thousand times. I still love it, although if you ask me *why* I was so obsessed about it, I won't be able to say. All I can say is that it's wacky, it's funny, it's got a beautifully realistic portrayal of boys, and it's fabulous book for children. It's a pity that the works of this author isn't available anywhere these days. One of the problems of writing the former USSR, I suppose.
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairytales
I was a fairytale junkie. From Russian fairytales with the wicked Tsars and Tsarinas, to the Norse legends and Greek mythology, to Arabian Nights with the Badshahs and genies, I read them all. But it all got started because of a collection of stories by this man, presented to me by my aunt. Some of them were the usual popular stories – the story of the north wind, the little mermaid and the matchstick girl, and some of them were rarer stories. I particularly remember loving a story about a young boy who sets out to earn money for his family, and starts working with a mysterious roaming theatre.
I've been eyeing a complete works of his for some time now. Let's see.
The Complete Works of Jules Verne
How can you not love these books? Wouldn't you love to be marooned on an uninhabited island with a bunch of your friends, journey to the centre of the earth, and travel around the world in a submarine? To quote Anne Shirley, there was so much 'scope for imagination' in these books that I could hardly think of anything else every time I read one. I think these stories ruined sci-fi in a way for me, because somehow I never found anything that matches up to them. *g*
The Complete Works of Enid Blyton
I worshipped Enid Blyton. I think I may have read every single book she's ever written – even the hated Secret Seven ones. The Famous Five were, of course, my favourite. I've always been a little jealous of George – she has a fabulous dog, an *island* of her own, and gets to have all those adventures. *sigh* I still own most of the books in the series. The school stories were my next favourites – in fact, at one point I wanted to write my very own school stories (illustrated, even!), featuring a self-insert Mary Sue, and a number of bonus Sus and Stus who'd pose as my friends. I also remember begging my parents to send me to a boarding school.
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Jo March. I shall never, ever forgive the author for not writing Jo/Laurie in the sequel.
You know, I've seen this book on most of the lists that I've come across so far. Goes on to show what an excellent book this is.
Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
I could go on and on about Anne and Avonlea and why I loved these series, specially this book, so much, but I'm afraid it'll be very gushy and pointless. If you've read this book, and read the rest of the entries in this list, you'll probably realise why it appealed to me so much. All I can say is, if there's one fictional character I could ever meet up with, it would be Anne Shirley (Elizabeth Bennet is a close second). I believe she and I would have a lot to talk about. *g*
Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare
I first read it, like most people do, in Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare. Nice story, I thought, and that was it. One day, I attended a free screening of the movie adaptation. I don't remember if the movie was particularly good, but I was intrigued by Viola – largely because the actress who portrayed her had done a brilliant job. So I went to the library and picked up the Real Thing. Read it once. Read it again. And again. My future was sealed – I was doomed to become an absolute fangirl.
When I first read it, I was too young to get the underlying themes and the hidden little things here and there. But I loved the characters and I loved the dialogue (ooh, the dialogue!). What's most astonishing is the way there's always something new to play with, every time you read it. For example, I recently realised that it has one of the best femmeslash pairings I've ever seen. I haven't dared to do it yet, but one of these days I'll actually go and look for Twelfth Night slash.
Water Babies – Charles Kingsley
I think this is the only book in this list I've never re-read after growing up, and there's a reason for it. When I first read it, I thought of it as a pretty fairy tale. I was too young to understand even the blatant allegory in the characters like Mrs. DoAsYouWouldBeDoneBy or Mrs. BeDoneByAsYouDid. I didn't know who Charles Kingsley was, and what he wrote about, and that everything was actually a way of criticising the Victorian English society. I actually found a copy of this in a secondhand store last year (it's a little hard to find), but it's still there in the bookshelf, untouched. It's not great literary masterpiece. It's not even Kingsley's best. I'm afraid that if I read it again, I'll end up analysing and criticising everything, and the magic will be lost.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Melodramatic? Sure. But there's no one like Miss Havisham. And of course, Estella - the ice princess and bitch queen #1. I only wish Dickens had focused more on her character and expanded the characterisation a bit.
I remember being highly offended when I learnt that the critics felt the ending of this book to be inappropriate, because for my twelve year old HR self, it was the best thing EVA. I had this book again in high school, and I'll always be very grateful to Mr. Dickens because it was the first time I realised how much I adore taking things apart and analysing every little detail in a book. *g*
The Adventures of Tintin – Herge
I'm not sure if we're allowed to have comic books in the list, but I thought I'd go ahead and do it anyway – this list wouldn't be complete without having Tintin in it. Oh, I loved these books so much! Captain Haddock is still my hero. *g*
Do this meme. Please.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-05-31 03:07 am (UTC)Exactly. There's good and crappy everything out there. Fan art, fan fiction, you name it.
Oh, these are some interesting ones!
Date: 2004-05-31 06:48 pm (UTC)I read a very interesting biography of Alcott a number of years back -- she grew up in quite the fascinating environment, in terms of being in the midst of all sorts of leading intellectual figures of the day. But her own life, personally, sounds pretty wretched.
It was interesting to learn that she pretty much hated having to write Little Women and all of those sequels, but needed to support her family, so....she was stuck going with the commercial preferences of the time. As for not getting Jo and Laurie together, I read that essentially she got *so* annoyed with what we would today call rabid fangirls begging her to do so after she published the first part of the book, she deliberately thwarted them in the sequel, just out of spite. LOL!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-01 03:16 pm (UTC)It's probably better that you never did it in school. A bad teacher could ruin the play altogether - I know I'll never forgive one teacher for almost ruining Dr. Faustus for me. Do give it a try. You'd probably enjoy the themes and issues it deals with. I'm not sure if there's any character of your type, although you might like Malvolio. Now Richard III is a character I'm sure you'd love, if you don't already. Not too sure about the characters in a comedy, though. But the femmeslash is good, IMO. If a Twelfth Night fandom exists, I actually might go and ship Olivia/Viola. *g*
But her own life, personally, sounds pretty wretched.
Yes, I think she had to provide for her father all her life. Why is it always like this with the great authors?
As for not getting Jo and Laurie together, I read that essentially she got *so* annoyed with what we would today call rabid fangirls begging her to do so after she published the first part of the book, she deliberately thwarted them in the sequel, just out of spite. LOL!
Ugh! That is just so... One more reason for me to loathe rabid fangirls.
Swatkat
no subject
Date: 2004-06-01 06:37 pm (UTC)It's probably better that you never did it in school. A bad teacher could ruin the play altogether - I know I'll never forgive one teacher for almost ruining Dr. Faustus for me. Do give it a try. You'd probably enjoy the themes and issues it deals with. I'm not sure if there's any character of your type, although you might like Malvolio. Now Richard III is a character I'm sure you'd love, if you don't already. Not too sure about the characters in a comedy, though. But the femmeslash is good, IMO. If a Twelfth Night fandom exists, I actually might go and ship Olivia/Viola. *g*
My Shakespeare preferences definitely fall toward the tragedies instead of the comedies -- that probably doesn't surprise you. LOL. I'll give you two guesses what my favorite play is, and you'll probably get it in one try: but I think you'll probably guess wrong about my favorite character.
Hmm
Date: 2004-06-02 04:43 am (UTC)Swatkat
LOL
Date: 2004-06-02 05:58 am (UTC)Heh
Date: 2004-06-02 01:51 pm (UTC)Swatkat
Yep
Date: 2004-06-02 04:23 pm (UTC)Yeah, that's my feeling, too.
Have you noticed that none of those other slackers that you ordered to do this meme have complied? Hmpf.
I have
Date: 2004-06-03 12:26 pm (UTC)Swatkat