Villette deserves the DNF I gave it

What the hell,  ‘Villette’? I trusted you. You were written by the woman who penned my all-time fave Classic.

People said you were the best of the Brontes. Those people are liars.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: Was Marianne always so mean?

I recently had a revelation: I CAN listen to audiobooks without nodding off (or getting incredibly frustrated). Sophie (from the wonderful ‘So Many Books, So Little Time’) gave me a push in the right direction.

By listening to an audiobook whilst doing work, I can hit two birds with one stone! But let’s not forget one simple fact: I’m broke. So how do I listen to pricey audiobooks?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Will Probably Never Read

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Oh dear. This is a little damning, isn’t it? But there are some books that I WANT to read, but I know, in my heart of hearts, that I will probably never get around to doing the actual reading.

Some are classics, and dude, we all need to brush up on our Classic reading, right? (no? Just me?) But for things like The Hunger Games? I have no excuse… I’ve had the books for nearly three years now, but I still can’t tempt myself to read them. *sigh*

Are any of these on your list?

Mad about the boy – Frankenstein (Halloween Special) #1

I wanted to start posting something regular about those lads in books that cause some kind of reaction in us. Whether that’s melty, fuzzy warm feeling, or wanting to smash his private place with a rolling pin…

There has been some top notch characterisation over the years, and long may it continue!

First up, in honour of the season, Victor Frankenstein. And his monster too, I guess.

“So much has been done…more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.”

You gotts give the guy points for his passion and his determination.

For all his faults (and there are a few) the wonderful thing about Shelley’s writing is that really, you can’t hate him, can you? Because put into his shoes…

He had no idea what he would end up creating, and it was not carried out for a malicious cause. Rather, a quest for knowledge. And I can totally get down with that.

…and what follows is a series of mistakes and blunders fuelled by human ignorance and, ironically, a lack of knowledge.

There is something romantic about Victor’s character, I feel, in a classic way. I love the way desire and companionship is questioned because why shouldn’t his creature have someone, something, similar to keep him company?

Oh Victor, you were a silly fool. Intelligent, passionate, but most definitely a fool.

Let’s see how he fares on the Fit-O-Meter (yeah, it sounds archaic, deal with it) It’s like Top Trumps, but once more with feeling-

Brains: 8 (he’s a clever sausage)

Brawn: 4 (I’m not sure how well he’d do in an arm wrestle against me)

Bedded: 4 (It’s the early 1800s… Soo..)

Quotable: 5 (Unfortunately his creation gets the better lines in this book, as a rule)

Style: 7 (The guy created life! That’s some slick style right there. Godly, even)

Overall: 5.6

 

 

 

Five on Friday – Classics

Yeah, yeah, let’s not open up that can of worms: ‘what makes a classic?’

For these purposes, I’m working with ‘longevity’ and ‘resonance’.

This is a short list of books, written at least a century ago, that I love. (Also, it’ll probably look like I’m some Barnes and Noble rep.. but I just love their gothic looking leather bound collection!)

Jane Eyre – My first experience with ‘classic’ literature. My Nan read some of it to me before watching a film adaptation. I grew up with Jane.. enjoying different parts of her story at different ages.

This was because of my mum. She put the story on such a pedestal that I was both excited and nervous about reading it. I didn’t quite ‘get’ it so much as an early teen, but re-reading it again almost a decade later and I got so much more out of it. Pssh, Edward who?

My middle teens was dominated by Ann Rice books, but I do remember reading this in between. I think this book shaped and defined a big part of my creative self. I don’t own a copy anymore… Sad times… Dear Santa…

You knew this would be here, right? I don’t think I truly appreciated this book until I used it in my studies earlier this year. It is not a romance book. But it IS a love story.

I think (I could be wrong) this was my first ‘adult’ book. In that I jumped straight from books like The Saddle Club and into this. I wanted to be Jo. I’m still working on that…