Tag: Classics

CRWMPodcast

CRWM #02: The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice

Geoff W

CRWM02It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here!

As promised I’ve finally edited and posted Episode 2 of Come Read With Me! My guest this episode is my friend Caitrin and we discuss Abigail Reynold’s The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice which I wrote about back in January! Thankfully, there weren’t any technical issues this time.

By far the highlight of this episode, apart from all the general Austen love, is about nine minutes in when I realize I misspoke about my favorite Jane Austen novel. It’s a good thing it wasn’t later in the podcast (aka later in the bottle of wine) or I might’ve cried! From pick up lines and my confusion over Colin Firth and Colin Farrel to Caitrin’s adoration of Sense and Sensibility and the Classics Club, nothing is off-limits.


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Books

Book 312: The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

Geoff W

As a lead up to my long over-due re-read of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I decided to read The Hobbit again. This was my third time reading the novel and I last read it in December 2012 just before the films began (I needed a refresher). I will say re-reading this book along with following Eric’s Sweating to Mordor over the past few months has seriously gotten me excited for my re-read as part of my 30 x 30.

If possible I enjoyed it even more this time. However, I became even MORE frustrated with the film adaptations. Similar to my issues with HBOs Game of Thrones series, I realized rather quickly how fast I read and how slow the adaptations proceed. My friend Peter did point out that there is a lot of additional information included in the films, but it’s still like WHOA. The entire third film, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies will encompass what takes place in less than the last 30-40 pages of the book! So there will probably be a lot of additional stuff added. But enough about them, back to the book!

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Books, Coursera, Personal Project

Book 310: Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll

Geoff W

I honestly didn’t think I would get back to Alice and her adventures. The Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was so ho-hum that I had no desire to read this one, but this was the second book I read as part of my first short-lived Coursera course. Unfortunately due to entirely way to many commitments and needing to read FOUR books for my 30 x 30 list over the next two months, I just couldn’t give up 10 weeks of reading time. I will most definitely take the course at a later date though!

I definitely found this book less whimsical than the first, which is funny as I’m convinced there are so many more made-up words in this novella. Honestly, I have no idea what it is that made me appreciate this one more. Was it that Alice actually started feeling the pressures of adulthood in this book? Or was it that the doom and gloom of the “chess match” of the looking-glass world spoke to me.

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Books, Coursera, Personal Project

Book 308: Household Stories – Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

Geoff W

I haven’t written about it yet, but I will in the near future, but I signed up for my first Coursera course! It is called Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World and so far I’m enjoying it. Household Stories was our first reading and looking at Goodreads, EVERYONE who reads the Lucy Crane/Wlater Crane version seems to have taken that same Coursera course! I’m seriously looking forward to the other books and stories we’ll read for the course and this was a great start.

What I found most interesting about the collection was the obsession with food and with fallen females. Every story was somehow related to food (needing food, wanting food, having too much food, etc.) or dealt with a female character (human or anthropomorphic) who caused troubles for other characters (the adulteress Mrs. Fox and the numerous wicked step-mothers among others).

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – September 2014 Meme

Geoff W

Classics ClubThe Classics Club moderators are really pushing us out of our comfort zone this month and I’m enjoying it, even if I can’t think of a great answer outside of the excellent example they provide! I might do another “avoid answering” by answering differently, as it’s where I’ve gone in my head.

Select two classics from your list (by different authors) that you have finished reading. Now switch the authors, and contemplate how each might have written the other’s book. For example, what if Charlotte Brontë had written David Copperfield, and Charles Dickens had written Jane Eyre? How might the style, focus and impact change in a work of literature by a different author’s pen? What about William Shakespeare writing Pride & Prejudice, and Jane Austen writing The Taming of the Shrew? Etc. If you discuss the story, please of course remember to warn folks plot details are forthcoming.

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