Longstanding TBR - 50 Books That I'm Still Excited About

Back in May, I read a really awesome post by Nessa Luna on her blog October Tune, all about the books she still wanted to read but hadn't gotten to yet. Please check out that fun post here:

 50 Books I Still Really Want to Read in My Life – october tune

I was inspired to do something similar here, and although I'm doing it a bit differently than her, I wanted to cover books that have been on my TBR for a long time that I do actually still intend to read (rather than those ones you eventually weed off every few years). If I intend to read the series, I have listed it as the series title, but if I hope to at least read 1 book from the series and go from there, I have just listed the first book for now. So, without further ado, here's my list of 50 books that I'm still excited to get to!

Crome Yellow (Aldous Huxley)

This post will essentially be Spoiler Free, however comments by other users may possibly contain information that spoils portions of the plot, so read at them your own risk.

anzlitlovers.com

What It's About

Denis, a writer in search of literary success, heads off for an extended stay at Crome - the country house of his friends, the Wimbushs. However, right when Denis arrives his visit hits a sour note, with his intended visit being forgotten about, and everyone talking over him. To add insult to injury, other visitors occupy the interests of his friends and his long time love interest - one being a writer themselves.

Blog-Along: Little Women (2019)

There couldn't possibly be more spoilers in one of my posts than there are in this one! I've done this blog-along with a lot more detail than past ones. No, unfortunately it doesn't have time stamps (I watched it on my television DVD player rather than my computer), but as this is a story that many people are familiar with by now, I figured that would be okay.

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Now, if you know anything about me, my opinions on Little Women are, well...pretty strong. I have watched so many adaptations of it, and it has always been a part of my life. So when a new version of it comes out, I am going to go over it with a fine tooth comb. Want to know my thoughts about the most recent adaptation (2019 - Saorise Ronan, Timothée Chalamet)? Read on! Don't want spoilers? Maybe wait until you've seen it.

Enjoy!

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TTT: Colourful Classics

I'm back doing a Top Ten Tuesday for the first time in who knows how long! This week's topic is "Books with colours in the titles" but I have decided to take it a few steps further and do classics...and I am going to try doing at least one for each colour of the rainbow, and then a few others. So...wish me luck? Thank you as always to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl for such a fun series.

RED

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

ORANGE

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

YELLOW

Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley

GREEN

Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

TTT: Books I Read Because of Their Adaptations

Thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl, this week's Top Ten Tuesday is a "Page to Screen Freebie (Books that became movies/TV shows, movies that became books, great adaptations, bad ones, books you need to read before watching their movie/TV show, movies you loved based on books you hated or vice versa, books you want to read because you saw the movie or vice versa, etc.)". So for me, I wanted to do books that I read because I had seen, and enjoyed the movie. Enjoy!

Pride and Prejudice
I remember my mom watching this one day, and I curled up in front of the television with her to watch it as well. She had to explain several things to me, but I ended up falling in love with the story. It's been a favourite ever since, and I knew I had to read the book. It was maybe the third or fourth Austen book that I read, but it was the first one I was exposed to. Favourite version: 1995 with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth

Wuthering Heights
I would definitely say that this was my introduction to Gothic movies and literature. This was something my mom and I would watch at like 1:00 in the morning when we couldn't sleep, and honestly that is the best time to watch it. It is dark and obsessive, and just plain wonderful. I didn't read it until many years later, but my love for the movie was certainly why I picked it up. Favourite version: 1992 with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche

Outlander
For all of you who know my love of period dramas, it should be no surprise that Outlander appealed to me instantly since it takes place in two historically important periods. I watched the first episode knowing almost nothing more than a wartime combat nurse and science fiction time travel, and was really interested. I missed the next few episodes (insert long, unimportant story here...) and then learned that one of my best friends had actually been reading the series for a while and also loved the show. I just recently finished the fourth book myself.

The Hunger Games
The same friend who loves Outlander also took me to see The Hunger Games, and loaned me her copies of the books. In all honesty, I think I might have started the first book before seeing the movie, but I don't remember...and I at least started reading them because the movie was out.

February 2019 Update

Life has been a bit nuts, but I'm trudging along! Apologies for the lateness of this post, but here it finally is! A very slow month for television, but not a bad one for movies.

Started Watching:

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Poldark - season 4
I definitely had to slow it down with this season, but I'm about halfway through it now. It's changed quite a bit in terms of mood, but I do still really like it. I'm curious to see where the final season will go.

Unpopular Opinions: Classic Literature

If you love classic literature as much as I do, you're bound to have some strong opinions about their content - and not all of it matches the most common opinions and perceptions that people have. So today I want to share a few of my "favourite" unpopular opinions that I have.

Spoilers, spoilers abound! For each book I'm talking about, the description might contain spoilers. If you haven't read these books, it's safe to read the titles in bold, but you might want to avoid the explanations underneath.

2019 TBR Pile Challenge

Yes, I'm doing it again! Originally I had decided that there was no way I was going to do Roof Beam Reader's TBR Pile Challenge again, but when I started going through some of my books, I realized that I still have so many that I want to get through, and have for many years. Now I don't particularly mind if a book is a year or two old before I get around to reading it, but some of these I've wanted to read for about 10 years now...and I really want to finally get them off my TBR list!

So, how does this work?

Pick 12 books that have been on your TBR (to be read) list for at least a year and finish them by the end of 2019. Two alternate books can be chosen to replace any books in the challenge that are just "unfinishable". All of these books must be reviewed and linked back to the original post.  

For a full explanation of the rules for this challenge, check it out here.

Here's this year's list:

Under the Greenwood Tree (Thomas Hardy)

This post will essentially be Spoiler Free, however comments by other users may possibly contain information that spoils portions of the plot, so read at them your own risk. This book is the final one for my 2018 TBR Challenge! I'm so incredibly happy I've made it through - I didn't think I was going to, and I nearly gave up because I was feeling so discouraged. Here's to perseverance!

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What it's about:

The arrival of the newest schoolmistress, Fancy Day, turns the village of Mellstock on its head. First, her lovely organ playing skills cause her to replace the choir as the music for the Sunday church service. Then, her handsome features and sweet demeanor catch the attention of not one, not two, but three Mellstock residents - one of whom is none other than the choir's Dick Dewy. Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire (A Rural Painting of the Dutch School), is a novel of love, of adjusting to change, and ultimately of social and moral divides.

Lady Susan (Jane Austen)

This post will essentially be Spoiler Free, however comments by other users may possibly contain information that spoils portions of the plot, so read at them your own risk. This book is the tenth one that I've completed for my 2018 TBR Challenge. I was thinking of giving up on this challenge in favour of getting through a few things that I was more interested in, but I'm still hoping I can make it!

barnesandnoble.com

What it's about:

Lady Susan is a widow, a mother, a beauty, a liar, and a shameless flirt. Told entirely through letters, this story centers on Lady Susan's scheming to make a good match for herself and her daughter, while everyone else tries desperately to thwart her efforts. Around every corner lies deceit, persuasion, and endless familial frustration.

TTT: Best Literary Villains

Quick post for me this week! Thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl for highlighting the evil fictional characters right before Hallowe'en! I chose to focus on literary classics, because there are some truly delightful villainous characters in those stories. Here is my list of...thirteen!

1) Mrs. Danvers - Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier
2) Alec D'Urberville - Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy
3) Mr. Brocklehurst - Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë
4) Morgan Le Fey - Arthurian Legend
5) Cathy Earnshaw - Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë
6) Henry Crawford - Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
7) Lord Henry Wotton - The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Favourite Stories I Will Likely Never Read

Sorry guys, throwing this one together this week! I decided last minute to do this one (but twisted up again), so I'm scrambling to finish it before I drop from exhaustion. Merci beaucoup That Artsy Reader Girl for this topic (even though I am not exactly using it once again haha). This week's topic was Books I Liked But Will Never Re-read, but since I am unlikely to for sure not read them again (or at least skim through them heavily), I decided to do books where I love the stories (whether from knowing abridged versions, movies, etc.) but think it is highly unlikely I will actually read the source material.

1) Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Why? Great musical, super long book

2) Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
I've tried reading Dickens, and I start falling asleep.

3) Shogun - James Clavell
Fantastic look at 1600s Japan that was made into a mini-series...but it is over 1000 pages

4) War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Okay, this is a maybe. I recently got introduced to the actual  storyline and not my perception of it from the teensy bits I heard. Anyway, I watched the 2016 mini-series and fell in love with it. So, if I feel really adventurous, it will happen, otherwise...not.

5) The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper
Watch the 1992 movie. The music is some of the best you will hear in a movie, ever. And Daniel Day-Lewis looks absolutely beautiful here. Trust me.

Top Ten Favourite Book Quotes

This week's Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl is Top Ten Favourite Book Quotes. I love quotes. I love to memorize them and I have a small book where I write down some of my favourites. Needless to say, I found this really difficult to narrow it down to just a few when I feel like I am swimming in favourite quotes. So, after struggling for an excessive amount of time over which ones to pick, here is a itsy bitsy sampling of my favourite book quotes:

1) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 

“I could fight with the living but I could not fight the dead. If there was some woman in London that Maxim loved, someone he wrote to, visited, dined with, slept with, I could fight her. We would stand on common ground. I should not be afraid. Anger and jealousy were things that could be conquered. One day the woman would grow old or tired or different, and Maxim would not love her anymore. But Rebecca would never grow old. Rebecca would always be the same. And she and I could not fight. She was too strong for me.”

2) The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
"'Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.'”

3) The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
“I didn't go to the moon, I went much further—for time is the longest distance between two places.”

4) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
"'I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.'"

5) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
"'There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing.'"

6) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
"'When I asked my da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I'd have no doubt. And I didn't. When I woke in the dark under that tree on the road to Leoch, with you sitting on my chest, cursing me for bleeding to death, I said to myself, 'Jamie Fraser, for all ye canna see what she looks like, and for all she weighs as much as a good draft horse, this is the woman.''"

The Time Machine (H.G. Wells)

First of all, this post will essentially be Spoiler Free, however comments by other users may possibly contain information that spoils portions of the plot, so read at them your own risk. Ready? Here we go!

H.G. Wells, known for being one of the defining writers of science fiction, is probably best known for his novels War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. Never having read any of his work, I figured it was time to give it a shot.

What it's about:

A Victorian gentlemen builds a time machine and travels to the year 802,701 AD to discover the future of the human race. Upon his travels he discovers not only the gentle Eloi that live in the daylight, but the Morlocks that live below. Yet the language and culture of both these races are so different from anything he could have expected. When his time machine goes missing, how will the Time Traveller find his way back home?

Top Ten Most Intimidating Books

This post is inspired by a past post from The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Most Intimidating Books as part of their Top Ten Tuesday series. I'm hoping to do these lists on a semi-regular basis, looking at both their current ones and their archived posts as well. For this list, I'm looking at books that I have been intimidated to read, whether because of their length, their verbosity, or some other factor. Now, without further ado...

1. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Length and verbosity
   

Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)

Need a Gothic novel that will keep you reading into the wee hours of the morning? Look no further than...

Hands-down one of the best books I've read in years, Rebecca is a Gothic novel written in 1938 by Daphne du Maurier. It is one of those novels that tells you everything and nothing in a single instant, and is a perfect study of jealousy, loyalty, and desperation. I went into this book knowing essentially nothing about it, just desperately needing to pick up a book that wasn't excessively long to get me through a few weeks.

What it's about:

A young woman, orphaned and unsure of herself is working as a companion to an American woman, Mrs. Van Hopper, for a living. Whilst on vacation in Monte Carlo, she meets the older widower, Maxim de Winter, the wealthy owner of the Manderley estate. The two form a friendship which quickly develops into more. When Maxim whisks her away from her mundane life back to his home at Manderley, she is haunted by the memory of his previous wife. Will she ever learn to escape the shadow of the beautiful, and beloved Rebecca?

Cover Wars! - The Picture of Dorian Gray

I love some great cover art. I actually will pay an extra dollar for a book that they nailed the artwork on. I mean, you're going to be looking at it for years, so why not? But let's be honest - for every great cover, there are usually more that you just sit there going "why did someone think this was okay?". So, with the help of my friend Google, here are samplings of both the good and the bad for...

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

The first two covers are interesting for one thing especially - Dorian is depicted as having brown hair, contrary to the book's description of him being a blond. Also interesting that the first cover shows Dorian as an Adonis-figure, laurel wreath and all.

Period Dramas: Basil

Basil is a 1998 film starring Jared Leto and Christian Slater. It was adapted from the 1853 novel of the same name written by Wilkie Collins.

basilfilm.files.wordpress.com

What It's About:

Basil, a shy and naϊve gentleman and Oxford student is trying to find his place in life, while still trying to please his father. Having no friends, save for his father's ward Clara, Basil knows little of the world. Upon being injured, he relies on the help of a man, John Mannion, for his rescue, and the two become fast friends. Even though they are from different classes, John opens Basil's eyes to what is around him - even if it goes against everything his cold father taught him regarding his position in society. And then, Basil falls in love...

Fifteen Characters I'd Name A Child or Pet After - Book Edition

Inspired by this post from The Broke and the Bookish: Ten Characters We'd Name Our Children or Pets After, this fun topic is part of their Top Ten Tuesday series. This is absolutely perfect because a) I love lists, and b) I have actually thought about this more times than I would be comfortable admitting. It was so hard to pick just ten that not only did I choose fifteen, but at this point I am just going to go with book characters, and will likely do an entirely separate one for those in movies. Here we go!

1. Jonas - The Giver
2. Gabriel - The Giver
3. Eleanor - Ella Enchanted/Sense and Sensibility

Favourite Five - Jane Austen Characters

I've decided from time to time it would be fun to take a look at five of my favourites from various categories. So, what better way to start this new series than by looking at some of my favourite characters from Jane Austen novels? In no particular order, here are five of the characters I absolutely adore:

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1. Fanny Price

Although not always a popular choice, even among Janeites, I love Mansfield Park's Fanny Price. I may be a bit biased here, as Mansfield Park was my first Austen read, but I love her nonetheless. I admire her morality, her kindness, and her self-sacrifice. No matter what happens, or how people treat her, Fanny sticks to what she believes in - a truly commendable trait. It's a shame that there hasn't been a film version yet to do her justice.

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2. Anne Elliot

Oh, Anne, how I adore thee. Anne is probably the Austen heroine I most relate to. She truly is the black sheep of her family, and although feels very deeply, she rarely shares her feelings with anyone. Her feelings and struggles were ones I instantly connected with. She has a quiet brilliance and confidence that is rarely appreciated. I really like how Anne is portrayed in both the 1995 and 2007 versions.