Month: September 2007

Movie Night

Posted on by Dana

I spoke to a very wise person on Thursday. I was upset when I called her, and feeling stressed out. She advised me to spend more time with my children and stop allowing a rather difficult person to take up so much real estate in my thoughts.

So I took her advice, and it just so happened I had a great opportunity to have fun with the kids on Friday night. Maggie’s school held its annual Movie Night, a fundraiser for technology at the school. They screened Shrek II on this great big blow-up screen. We had pizza and popcorn, and stretched out on a blanket under the stars. Dylan tried to steal a couple of glow-sticks, and Maggie watched the movie with her friend Annie and her family, but we all had a great time, and I was really glad I went.

It occurred to me that this is something we should be able to do at home, minus the outdoor trappings. I don’t think we ever made it a standing schedule, but movie night could easily be a weekly Friday event. Popcorn, a DVD or On Demand rental, or even an old favorite we already own, complete with pizza. Sounds like fun.

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Ten Questions: A Bookish Meme

Posted on by Dana

Sylvia is up on the most interesting (to me) memes. Hmm… could be because they’re mostly about books! She found this one via Stefanie; it was invented by Kimbootku.

  1. Hardcover or paperback and why? I like paperbacks for lower cost, holding in the bed, and lighter weight for carrying around with me, but if I really like a book and want it to keep, I prefer hardcover.
  2. If I were to own a bookshop, I would call it… I always liked “The Tattered Cover,” but that one’s taken. There used to be one here in Atlanta called “The Cup and Chaucer,” which was also great. There’s one down the street called “Coffee Buy the Book” — it’s a cute new/used bookshop in a Victorian house. I can’t think of a good name right now. Maybe “All the World’s a Page.” That one just came to me. Yeah. I like it.
  3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is… from The Great Gatsby:

    Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. … And one fine morning –

    So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

  4. The author (alive or dead) I would love to have lunch with would be… I have to pick William Shakespeare, but I would love to have tea with J.R.R. Tolkien, and a nice breakfast with Jane Austen. Oh, and dinner with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Who could pick one?
  5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be… The Harry Potter series.
  6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that could… I’m going to steal Sylvia’s idea of a dictionary.  It would be cool to be able to tap words in a book and get the definitions, sort of like you can online.
  7. The smell of an old book reminds me of… The nice library near my grandparents’ house; the library isn’t open anymore (I don’t think), but I was allowed to ride my bike there or walk there once I was old enough, and I spent many happy hours poking around the stacks and drinking hot chocolate in the snack room downstairs.
  8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title) it would be… I really like Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility, but I think I’d also like to be Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series or Morgaine from The Mists of Avalon.
  9. The most overestimated book of all time is… That’s a tough one.  The Da Vinci Code is such a favorite with so many people, but it’s so poorly written, particularly with regards to character development.  Wooden characters.  Cardboard stand-in characters.  Ugh.  Characters are the most important part of a book!
  10. I hate it when a book… has typos or grammar mistakes, especially if it’s on the part of the author.  I can’t stand to read Philippa Gregory because of her comma splice problem.  I also don’t like the non-period dialogue, but that’s beside the point.  Her plots are pretty good, and I like her characters.

I tag any folks out there who are interested in books.

[tags]literature, books, meme, reading[/tags]

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Rebecca

Posted on by Dana

RebeccaI finished Rebecca in a marathon reading session today — I know I read over half the book. I think it’s right about that point in the story when the novel becomes impossible to put down.

Though this novel is just the sort that is right up my alley in a variety of ways, I had not read it before, and I’m not sure why. I know I had plans to read it… eventually. I’m really glad I did because I loved it.

If you are unfamiliar with the basic plot, Rebecca is told from the viewpoint of a young woman who marries the fabulously wealthy and mysterious Maxim de Winter. The narrator is never named, which was a clever device of writer Daphne du Maurier’s — it plays up the omnipresent specter of Rebecca, Maxim’s perfect, deceased first wife.

Du Maurier’s excellent descriptions brought Manderley, the de Winter ancestral mansion, to vivid life, and the story was well constructed. I was pleased to find some of my predictions came true, but many twists and turns made it impossible to see how it would end. In addition, her characters were realistically painted and seemed to walk right out of the pages into the flesh.

The only real criticism I have to offer about the story is that I felt it took a while to get into. Once Maxim and the narrator marry, the plot moves along nicely, but the beginning was somewhat slow; however, it might have been necessary to build slowly in order to give the reader the necessary information, and, I might add, perhaps mislead the reader a bit about the characters in order to retain the ending’s surprise. I should also add that my particular copy, the mass market paperback, was rife with annoying typos. Of course, you pretty much get what you pay for with mass market, so perhaps you would do better to buy the trade paperback or hardcover, both of which might have fewer typos.

I’m really glad I chose to read this novel for the R.I.P. Challenge. It was an excellent story. I am going to run out and rent the Hitchcock movie and hope that it does the book justice, for I’ve not seen the movie either.

[tags]rebecca, daphne du maurier, r.i.p. challenge, literature, review, book[/tags]

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Autumn is Here

Posted on by Dana

After a month with days of 100°+ temps, I guess I wondered what fall would look like this year, but it seems to be arriving on schedule (for these parts anyway).

It makes me happy to see autumn again. It’s my favorite season. I wish Georgia had more of a fall, but at least it has one.  It does, however, have way too much summer, and I’m always very happy to see the summer go.

Perfect weather for curling up with my R.I.P. Challenge books!

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NaNoWriMo?

Posted on by Dana

Last year, my progress in NaNoWriMo was impeded by the fact that for some reason, this challenge takes place in November.  I just didn’t have the time I wanted to devote to the project.  But I liked my novel idea, and I want to continue with it.  However, it is against the NaNoWriMo rules to bring a manuscript you’ve already started or to begin before November.  Therefore, I don’t think I’ll be participating in NaNoWriMo this year.

Do any of you know of another site or organization similar to NaNoWriMo that I can participate in?  Let me know in the comments.

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Stephenie Meyer Book Signing

Posted on by Dana

Last night, Sarah, Maggie, and I arrived at 6:30 for Stephenie Meyer’s 7:00 Q&A and book signing. I overheard one of the employees tell an elderly man who was looking for someone that there were over 2000 people at the signing. When the employees were ready for the crowd to get in line, a male employee on the microphone said “When I tell you, I want you to turn around and move back… Sort of like an army… An army of teenaged girls.” And boy were there a lot of teenaged girls! Some boys and grown women too, most of them accompanying teenaged girls. Lots of girls had made shirts for the occasion, and they were all so creative! I wish I had been able to get more pictures of the shirts. We waited in line for over two hours for Sarah to get her books signed.

Meyer Signing

This pregnant woman was really cute. Her tee-shirt had an arrow pointing toward her belly that said “Edward Cullen, Jr.” Edward Cullen is the romantic male lead of Twilight.

Sarah holding her books

This is Sarah holding her copies of Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse to be signed.

Maggie being patient

Maggie was so good and so patient. She wanted to go, and she didn’t really understand what the fuss was, but she was suitably impressed by the fact that she was in the vicinity of a writer, and she caught the eye of a policeman, who smiled at her.

Copies of New Moon audiobooks

There were actually quite a few copies of the audiobooks for sale, too.

Closer…

We were about 10-15 minutes from the front of the line when I snapped this photo.

Sarah getting her books signed

At last! Sarah gets her books signed by Stephenie Meyer. This is as close as I was allowed to get with a camera. The ladies on the left were very friendly fans in their early 20’s who chatted with us as we waited in line. Ms. Meyer looked very tired already at this point, and I estimate we were in the latter part of halfway through the line. I would imagine she signed until 11:00.

Sarah getting her books signed

The books along the back are all copies of Eclipse.

What the pictures don’t capture is the virtual sea of red, white, and black in the crowd — the colors on Stephenie Meyer’s book covers — and the loudness of all those excited girls. They kept screaming! One would have thought a rock star was in the building! Frankly, it made me tear up — the fact that kids were excited about an author and her books. I’m such an English teacher geek.

Update, 4/16/09: Comments on this post are now closed.

Update, 6/30/09: I am not affiliated with Stephenie Meyer. I went to a book signing a few years ago as I described in this post, but this is my personal blog and is not associated in any way with Ms. Meyer. I do not know when and where she will sign books. I repeat, I do not know when and where she will sign books. I suggest you check out her own Web site for that sort of information. Any contact I receive regarding Ms. Meyer’s book signing activities will be ignored.

[tags]stephenie meyer, twilight, new moon, eclipse[/tags]

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Stephenie Meyer

Posted on by Dana

I went to Barnes and Noble about 12:30 P.M. today to get a ticket for Sarah’s place in line to meet Stephenie Meyer and get her copy of Eclipse signed.

According to Ms. Meyer’s website, the bookstore would begin issuing color-coded tickets at 11:00 A.M. I figured I would be one of the early birds, coming a scant hour and a half after the store began issuing tickets. Not so. Sarah will not be dead last in line, but she will be squarely in the middle with her red ticket.

Stephenie Meyer ticket

I guess I’m clueless, but I didn’t realize she was quite that popular! Steve did a quick Amazon search and let me know that her current release, Eclipse, has a sales rank of #13 in books, while New Moon is ranked #26. Twilight is still a respectable #58, despite the fact that it was released in hardcover two years ago.

I’m glad I had the day off for Rosh Hashanah, or who knows what color ticket Sarah would have!

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