Thursday, June 13, 2013

My To-Read Pile


Actually, these are only the books I want to read soon.  I have more than a shelf's worth of books-to-read.

My life is going to be way too short.

25 comments:

  1. Wow! You have some awesome titles in that stack!! How long will it take you to read all those? It would probably take me a year...because in the midst of reading them, I would discover other things I want to read, and I would add them into the mix as well.

    Have you seen the BBC production of "Wives and Daughters?" It's lovely!

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    1. Oh yes, this will take me a long time to get through. Because I'm working on the Sherlock Holmes canon too, and will get books from the library now and then. I average about 2 books a month right now. I did start King Solomon's Mines today, though, so I'm working on the stack!

      I haven't seen the BBC's Wives and Daughters yet, but hope to one of these days! So many books and movies, so little time...

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    2. Patti is spot-on!

      Wives and Daughters is lovely. Enjoy whenever you have a chance of watching it, Hamlette. :)

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    3. I'm fully expecting to enjoy it... someday :-D

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  2. BTW, the red book that's hard to read the title on is Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver.

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  3. Oh, these look good! I have just been ordering loads of books off of Amazon...Books I have been wanting to buy for a while, and now I have been able to! Stacks of L.M. Montgomery, Katherine Mansfield, Sarah Orne Jewett, Edna Ferber, and of course, Bring Me a Unicorn, which I have loved so much I am going to do a blog post about it!!! So, yes, I feel with you that my life is going to be way too short...

    Okay, so don't you love the part in BMU where AML talks about finding someone who understands your sentiments on literature, and such...Where you don't even have to say much, but you feel exactly what the other feels; like you have been both traveling the same path, thinking the same thoughts, having the same perceptions all along, and you have only just met each other? Oh, I could so identify with her... More on this book in my next blog post! :D

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    1. Oooh, which Edna Ferber? I've only read her Giant, but it was great.

      I'm so glad you love BMaU! It's been a decade since I read it, but it's just full of wonderfulness. I know my copy has all kinds of little stars and smileys in the margins. Can't wait to read your post on it!

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    2. It's actually one bound copy of five of her novels: Giant, Saratoga Trunk, So Big, Showboat, and Cimarron... So exciting! :D The movie Giant with Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean (I'm sure you've heard of it!) is soooo good, so I am hoping that the book is just as good! :-)

      Happy Monday, and happy reading!!!

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    3. Giant is one of my favorite movies! I included it on my list of Ten Favorite Dramas here on my other blog. Just wonderful. I liked the book well, but not as well as the movie, mostly because Jett Rink is a lot different in the book.

      I'd like to read Showboat and Cimarron, as I like the movies based on them too.

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    4. It's one of my faves, too! How disappointing that Jett Rink is different in the book! In my mind, I'll be picturing James Dean as that character, so I can already tell it's going to be weird...But oh well...

      Thanks for preparing me! Now I can brace myself... ;-)

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    5. My review is here if you want a little more of my opinion. I was going to say there's no spoilage, but... you've seen the movie, you don't care about spoilage :-)

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  4. Oooh! Who doesn't like the dashing Pimpernel on-screen!? If I had to wager a guess, I'd say he is equally so in book form. ;)

    Read and liked 'Island' okay. Not a fave but sweet.

    Also loved the movie adaptation of King Solomon's Mines. I believe the version I saw was a newer TV film.

    Happy reading, Hamlette!

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    1. I must confess I have only seen the Leslie Howard version of Pimpernel, and that was a long, long time ago. I keep reading lots of bloggy love about it, so thought I'd better give it a spin :-)

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  5. What a great stack of books! I haven't read any of them myself, but I have Wives and Daughters on my to-read shelf too. And YES! You definitely need to see that mini-series. It's superb in my opinion. :)

    As for The Scarlet Pimpernel, I've neither read it or seen it. But I've heard good things about the story, so I'll be anxious to hear your thoughts on it.

    Good luck getting through those! Looks like fun. :D

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    1. I just picked up two more books at a yard sale today -- my stack is getting taller instead of shorter! Argh! :-D

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  6. I love Wives and Daughters!

    I could write a lot about how irritating I find The Scarlet Pimpernel movies!!! I must say that I'm sorry you first experienced the story in that awful way! Not that I don't love Leslie Howard, or his portrayal in the movie, because he does a fantastic job! However, if you'd read the book first, you would have experienced the story the way you're supposed to, which is quite different from the movies. Specifically: you, the reader, just like the Marguerite, are not supposed to know the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The reader finds out over HALFWAY through the book. The movies reveal right away who it is, and that's completely giving away the whole point of the story... you're not supposed to know!! It's like telling the punch line of a joke before you tell the joke. It's really quite annoying for someone like me who read the book first!

    But perhaps it doesn't bother you to know what's coming and to have all the secrets and mysteries revealed. If that's the case, I hope you'll like it :). I do enjoy the story of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but I actually didn't find the book very well written. It's not awful, but, it will be interesting to hear your thoughts after you've read it!

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    1. I am generally totally cool with spoilage. With the blogs I read, I think it would be impossible not to know who the Scarlet Pimpernel is already, even if I hadn't seen the movie (which I really remember zilch of, except one scene with a carriage). And I'm just fine with that. I think that, honestly, anything more than a year old is pretty much impossible to avoid spoilage on, so I don't bother. Like, I did avoid finding out how Lost ended until I got to see it on DVD, and I don't read anything about certain movies before I go see them in the theater. But normally, I get just as much bang out of a plot reveal even when I know it's coming, just seeing how it gets worked out.

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  7. The Scarlet Pimpernel is a good book. It's actually a series, but I've had a really hard time finding a copy of the second book. And it is a lot different than the movies. My favorite of the movies is the 1982 version w/ Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour. It may just be the nostalgia of watching it w/ my mom, but it's so great!

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    1. I'm quite fond of Jane Seymour, having grown up watching her on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, so I'm hoping to see that version after I've read the book. Thanks for the recommendation!

      And yes, I knew there were several Pimpernel books, so if I like the first, I'll seek out the others.

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  8. Nice! I've read Wives and Daughters and Pickwick Papers. I found PP to be quite a chore to be honest.... Though it is funny and has great characters.

    I'm totally with you on our life being too short. I tempt myself by surfing the net looking for new books, while I already have such a long list of to-be-read titles....

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    1. I find all of Dickens to be a chore, except The Tale of Two Cities. But I read him anyway because it's good for me. Just not very often ;-)

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    2. Yes, I feel the same about Dickens. I didn't find David Copperfield such a chore, it had quite a nice flow to it. I read one book of his a year, I tried reading more, but they take me quite some time and then I feel rushed for not getting at the other books in my TBR list ;-)

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    3. I haven't tried DC yet, or Oliver Twist. Or so many others -- I've really only read 4 or 5, I must confess.

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    4. Then we're about on the same Dickens 'level', I've also read 5 so far: A Tale of Two Cities, Pickwick Papers, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations and David Copperfield. Oh, and A Christmas Carol, but that one hardly counts as a chore, because it's so thin!!

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    5. I've read A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Hard Times, and A Christmas Carol. I think I also read Oliver Twist back in high school, but it could be that I just watched the musical Oliver! so often that I think I've read it, so I don't count it.

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