insaneneko

Anne of Green Gables is featured in a blog post at Publisher's Weekly called When a Cover Can Ruin a Book. My god, that cover is awful. The points in the post are excellent, too. I've seen criticism about the new cover for Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar as well.

I am enjoying all the hoopla surrounding Pride and Prejudice's anniversary. One of the best is the January 17 discussion on BBC's Arts & Ideas program (podcast available here). There's a modernized adaptation of P&P in a vlog format called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I've watched the first episode and found it engaging, but I'm waiting for the end to dive in.

I watched the 1996 TV adaptation of Emma starring Kate Beckinsale as Emma and Mark Strong as Mr. Knightly this weekend. I now feel a lot more positive about the book. I found Emma (the character) hard to stomach in the beginning, but Kate Bekinsale does a great job (her expressions are priceless) and I quickly softened towards Emma. By the end I really enjoyed the story...Though seeing Frank Churchill in action made me really wish something bad happened to him in the future. Ugh, what a slimy, icky ass. I'm a bit curious as to what was cut out and what was changed, so I might someday pick up the book and try to read it again. ^^;

Could Mansfield Park be made palatable when turned into a film? I'm a bit tempted to find out....

Seeing Mark Strong makes me want to rewatch Stardust, in which he is an awesome villian. Now that was a really good adaptation of a book.

I am terribly disappointed that Jane Eyre is currently limited release. I have a perverse desire to see the movie, perhaps because I don't care for the book.

I was eating lunch at a local udon restaurant today when the Korean actor who was in Lost and is now in Hawaii 5-0 came in to eat. I had to snort at my attempts to NOT stare at the guy even though I'm not that into celebrities in general and didn't watch either show. The girls at the next table were adorable, though, whispering about trying to get autographs and/or pictures. I wish I could've seen them do it, but I left before they did. :P

I've been rereading old BL novels and manga the last month or so. I had initially been looking for a particular book, but I couldn't find it*. Instead I started reading stuff I hadn't read in a while. Talk about a mixed bag. I own some truly crappy books as well as some really good books I don't reread enough.

I reread a book about best friends in high school in which one has loved the other since forever and finally confesses, turning his friend's world upside down. Sadly, the best part of the book was the art. I was trying to remember books about best friends with sekrit unrequited love on one side because I'm sure I've read tons of them. I could only think of two involving working adults and one with students off the top of my head, which isn't that many...Any recs? I like the premise a lot if done well. I can rec the two working adults books: Slow Rhythm by Sugihara Rio and illustrated by Kinoshita Keiko (♥ her!) and Tadashii koi no nayami kata by Watarumi Naho and illustrated by Sasaki Kumiko. I can't find the student one, but that one wasn't that great anyway. :P

Two books I truly enjoyed rereading: Sono otoko, toriatsukai chuui! and Sono otoko, shinyuu kinshi! by Narumiya Yuri and illustrated by Sakuragi Yaya. They are about a young road construction worker Saeki Keisuke and the guy who becomes his boyfriend in the first book. The blurb for the first book says that Keisuke is a loose guy who will sleep with any guy or gal. He becomes friendly with a government worker who moves in next door, Ogata Mizuki. When Ogata confides that he's in love with some other guy, Keisuke offers to teach him how to sleep with a guy. He's always been the one doing the fucking with guys, but he ends up being fucked by Ogata. The book also has some yazuka (and random criminal) action, but the main point of it is the disgustingly sweet yet adorable relationship between Keisuke and Ogata. Keisuke is tall and decently built, looks a bit intimidating, and is good in fights, but is like butter in Ogata's hands. He's a bit embarrassed, but isn't too full of pride/tsundereness/whatever to hide it constantly. The second book has the insecurities and misunderstandings that seem to show up a lot in second books with established relationships (go cliches!), but in the end the sweetness makes it all okay to me. It helps that I love the art. XD;

*Has anyone read a BL novel about a salaryman with an actor boyfriend whom he supports financially? The boyfriend is on the verge of getting his big break and their relationship becomes destabilized. I hope I find it one day... ;_;

Random news:

Ugh, I hope the rumor that Robert Pattison may play Tetsuo from Akira is wrong. Putting aside the "why is a white guy playing a character who is sooo NOT WHITE" thing (which is neither here nor there as it doesn't apply in this case as per the article the location will be "New Manhattan" instead of "New Tokyo"), I have an aversion to the actor (thanks to how awful he looked in the Twilight promo material).

For people in the US: Costco has a printer cartridge refill service!

Odd, possibly bad: Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata rearranges the entire score of The Sound of Music on their newest album.

I kinda want to see the Priscilla Queen of the Desert musical just for the cupcake scene.

Amazon is shutting down ebook lending sites.

Been reading Sherlock fics. Man, wading through the crap, the not-my-cuppa, and the inexcusably ridiculous is tiring. :P

( the ones I liked enough to note )

I accidentally ran across Georgette Heyer fanfic! Sadly, they just can't capture the writing and the dialogue, but they're still kinda fun. The ones worth mentioning:

Much Ado by twistedchick, Friday's Child, the gang together.

What Maketh the Man by valderys, Cotillion, Freddy to the rescue again!

Advantage by Skud, The Grand Sophy/Hornblower x-over, Sophy/Archie, I mention this only because it has sex and thus made me boggle.

A Marriage of Inconvenience by sexybee, The Grand Sophy, Charles and Sophy are married, and Sophy is being Sophy. It's rather sweet.

Clean Linen by cimorene, The Unknown Ajax and April Lady, Claud Darracott/Felix Hethersett, Claud POV. I don't really see the ghei in GH, but I'm not adverse to Claud swinging that way and as I haven't read April Lady I have no opinion on Felix. The story was amusing because it features nearly the whole Daracott family getting into trouble thanks to Richmond and everyone pitching in to solve the problem (and squash the scandal).

I was amused by the How Rich is Fitzwilliam Darcy post in a personal finance blog and how people try to figure out his wealth in today's terms.

It's really late and I need to sleep, but I've been tossing and turning in bed for the last hour. I need to get a tiny rant off my chest if I'm to sleep...So.

I "read" Sense and Sensibility today and HATED IT. My problem? Over half the characters are truly unpleasant or just plain shitty people, and almost none of them really get any kind of karmic retribution. The "romances" did not make up for having had to bear with all those shitty people doing shitty things through most of the book. I put "read" in quotes because I actually started skimming and skipping to see if things resolved satisfactorily, but instead I was left screaming in frustration at the end.

( more ranting )

I must've liked the movie because it had to cut out so much of the book to fit into a movie format. Since most of the book was unpleasant, most of the unpleasantness was cut. I wanted to calm down, reread the book, and then post a reaction, but my burning hatred of the book had to come out right now. I'll try to calm down and reread the book at some point, but...it's not happening any time soon. I can't believe how pissed I am at this book. It's worse than Mansfield Park for me.

I've been reading books by Jane Austen on my ipod touch thanks to the easy downloads from Project Gutenberg in the app Stanza (thanks ramble_corner!). It's not as easy to read on my ipod as it would be to read a book, but damn is it easier to read than on a laptop. I need to stop taking it to bed to "read for a little while" because it's turning into "read for several hours." My impressions so far...

Northanger Abbey-Could not read straight through so I skipped to the end. Oh, what a mistake because the end was kinda stupid. I have no idea if I'll bother trying to read the whole thing as I find the main character boring to the extreme.

Mansfield Park-I was okay with this one till the end, mainly because I was actually rooting for the good woman straightens bad man out story line with Fanny and Henry. Edmund did not impress me in any way, and as how he and Fanny got together was all explained and not shown I felt cheated. I thought he'd deserve Mary in the Mr. Bennet deserving Mrs. Bennet mold (being blinded by the obvious charms and missing the important bit). I felt bad for Henry the character, ending up a total cad after seeing him make an effort with Fanny. And Mrs. Norris needed to be sporked to death! ARG! These really irritating characters need to appear in small, infrequent doses. :P In the end I was really disappointed.

Emma-Ugh. Couldn't read it. This is the second or third time I've tried to read it and failed. Maybe I should just try watching a movie version? But then, neither Emma nor Mr. Knightly appeal to me much so perhaps I should just give this book up as a lost cause. Or watch Clueless as a substitute...

Persuasion-Loved this. LOVED. I bought a copy of the book today so I can reread this many times again. Loved Anne, loved how she spends the entire book trying to get over Wentworth and dying a bit inside, and then how she has her hopes raised slowly (even as she tries to squash them somewhat) over the latter part of the book. I adored Wentworth's letter to Anne (My gushing romantic self swoons at: "I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope." even as my more cynical and sarcastic self giggles...) and how he explained his whole struggle to get over her as well. I am glad Anne spent most of the book away from her older sister and father since they sucked pretty badly. The Musgroves were so much nicer as a family (aside from Mary, but even she's not as bad as Elizabeth+Sir Elliot).

Haven't gotten to Sense and Sensibility yet. I remember seeing the movie a long time ago and liking it. I'm hoping I'll like the book, too.