30 Day Book Challenge: Day Thirty

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Thirty: The book by your bed right now

I actually have over twenty books by my bed right now. I like to keep the ones that I'm planning on reading this month on my night stand plus I have about five or six library books that I keep there so I don't lose them (which happens more than I'd like to admit).

I'm not going to list them all, nor am I going to take a picture, owing to the fact that my room (especially my night stand) is a mess right now. But they're there, waiting for me to read them.

And that's it; the 30 Day Book Challenge has come to an end. I'll be looking for something like this to replace it because, frankly, I like knowing that I'll always have a post ready for you guys to read even though I may not have a review for you. If anyone knows of a good one, leave the link for me in the comments.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Nine

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-Nine: Your favorite series of books

Gah, don't make me choose! Right now there are two series that are battling it out to the death in my head, each aspiring to come out the winner. Anyone who reads this blog regularly won't be surprised that the two series are:

Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant and:

Terry Pratchett's Discworld. While one is more geared toward children and the other is more geared towards adults, both series have, if you will allow me to be cheesy, captured my heart. The characters in both series are fun, unique, and well-developed. I would say that Pratchett is, on the whole, a better writer, but it's really not fair to compare the two. It's also not fair to make them duke it out so I'm going to say that they are both my favorite series. 

I've never been one to be able to choose. I'm not indecisive, more like open-minded. 

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Eight

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-Eight: Your favorite autobiographical book

I really like fictionalized autobiographical books, those books that aren't really memoirs but are still too factual to be completely fiction. Like:

Anyone who has read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five will know that one of the book's most haunting aspects is the frequent intrusions by the narrator (Vonnegut himself). The anecdotes he relays in the midst of Billy Pilgrim's story are based on Vonnegut's own experiences in World War II, specifically POW camps and the fire-bombing of Dresden, which killed many more people and did significantly more damage (arguably) than the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While Slaughterhouse Five is essentially a fictional narrative, the autobiographical bits of the book are what made it really stick out in my mind.

Another somewhat autobiographical novel that I love (although, it's really metafiction more than anything else) is:

Tim O'Brien is an incredible storyteller, one who weaves fact, fiction, and pseudo-fiction together in order to expose the horrors of war and the triumphs of the human spirit. He is such an under-read author and I think that one of the downfalls of making this novel required reading for high school students is that they are less likely to pick up another one of his books in the future. There isn't enough historical context given for students to appreciate his works. I, for one, didn't fully enjoy his novels until I took a class on the Vietnam War my junior year of college. The professor assigned this book:

If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home was even more poignant and stirring because of what I was learning in that class. My father is a Vietnam Vet but when he was around I would have been too young to understand if he had talked about it (which he didn't) and by the time I had developed an interest in history he had been long gone for years. This book and the class I read it for gave me a better understanding of the problems my father had and the reasons why it was better for all involved that he wasn't a part of our lives.

So, Vonnegut and O'Brien tie for my favorite "autobiographical" book.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Seven

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-Seven: Your favorite non-fiction book

I had an epiphany regarding my future career during my sophomore year of college. At the time I was an Anthropology major because I was interested in getting a Doctorate in Archaeology some day. My specific focus was going to be Greek archaeology so I decided to take a class on ancient Greece. Not only would I love the class, I would also find what I wanted to do more than anything else in the world: be a professor of Classics, focusing on ancient Greek history. I said the heck with archaeology, declared history to be my second major, and spent the next three years reading everything I could about the Greeks as well as beginning to learn ancient Greek as a language. With the recession and our society's hatred of anything besides math, science, and business, I'm probably never going to achieve my dream of getting a Doctorate in Classics (programs are being shut down all over the country as we speak), but that class and my love of Greek history did lead me to my favorite non-fiction book:

Okay, yes, it's huge. Yes, it's a history of the Peloponnesian War (which almost no one has heard about). Yes, I could have chosen something fun like Custer Died for Your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr. or A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, but Thucydides history of what amounts to an ancient Greek civil war is fascinating to me. This edition, the "landmark" version, is even better because it's fully annotated and has maps and photos and insets so that it's much easier to follow the war's battles and events.

That sounds intensely geeky, but there are so many other things to love about this book. I think the most poignant and relevant thing is the fact that it's not just a story about a specific war, it's a story about all wars. The names and battles may change, the things being fought over may be different, but the actions of the brave or the cowardly, the feelings brought on by victories and defeats, are things that any generation which has been touched by war can relate to. Thucydides talks about things that are applicable to any time period.

The Peloponnesian War itself, however, is fascinating enough that all the rest of it doesn't matter to me. I had discussed Alcibiades, the Athenian general, during one of my Villain Week posts, but although he is my favorite historical figure from this war, there are many other great and/or terrible men who are discussed in Thucydides' tome. I first read this book during the class that I mentioned above and it began what is sure to be a life-long fascination with the trials and tribulations that befell Greece during the 27 years during which this war raged on.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Six

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-Six: A book you honestly read in one sitting

Those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis are probably going to be shocked by my answer to this question. It's a book that I hate and that I've bashed a few times on this blog, but it is still a book that I read in one sitting. It took me only a few hours (maybe three or four) to read and the only time I put the book down was to go for a cigarette break. To this day I can't explain how I managed it in such a short span of time. I think it was mostly that I had promised my friend that I would read it but I wanted to get done with it because it was just that bad. It's sort of like when someone cooks you dinner and they think it turned out great and you don't have the heart to tell them otherwise, so you bolt it all down in one bite. The book I'm talking about is:

I've only read the first book and I've never had any urge to read the others. In fact, the idea makes me want to stab myself with a fork. But it was such an easy read that it didn't take long to get through and in this case that's not a compliment. So there. I've admitted it. We can move on with our lives.

I'm sure there are others that I've read in one sitting (I know that there were a few Discworld books but I can't remember which ones) but this is, as far as I know, the most recent and that was a few years ago. With my busy schedule the last five or six years it's been really hard for me to just sit down and read for long periods of time. Most of the books I read, even the shorter ones, have been spread over a few days. Now that I have a bit more time on my hands I've been able to get through books quicker, so if this question comes up again in the future, hopefully I'll have a much better answer.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Five

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-Five: Your favorite book of last year (originally posted on 5/12/11)

It's hard for me to answer this question because I'm not sure if I should answer what my favorite book that was published last year was or if I should answer what my favorite book I read last year regardless of publication date was. If I answer my favorite book that was published last year, I'd have to say Justin Cronin's The Passage. If, however, I answer my favorite book that I read last year, I'd have to go with:

A lot of people seem to really hate Joseph Heller's Catch-22 but I adored it. It was hysterical and I found myself wondering why it had taken me so long to read it. The answer is, of course, that I'd heard so many people say that it was boring or too long or whatever else people who hate this book say. I tend not to shy away from a book just because people don't like it, nor do I tend to read a book just because everyone says it's fracking amazing. Why I did it with this book is beyond me, but I'm glad to say that I loved every minute of it and that it's definitely in my list of top 20 favorite books of all time.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Four

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-Four: Your favorite book as a child

I was a vociferous reader even as a kid, devouring library books like my life depended on it. My mom knew that if she went to a garage sale the only think I'd really be interested in her buying me would be books. She'd grab up whatever she thought I'd like (and, at 25 cents a pop, she could afford to get a whole bunch at one time) and I'd plow through them in a few days time. Some of these books never got read again, but there were, however, several that I kept coming back to over and over again. There are some of them that I still come back to as an adult. While I have an ample amount of books to choose from, I'm going to say that my favorite book when I was a kid was:

I've lost track of how many times I've read Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game. I'm going to guess the number hovers somewhere in the range of five to ten. I'm planning on rereading it next month, in fact, so the number will continue to climb.

Despite the fact that I've read it so many times that I know what happens, the book never ceases to delight me. It's a murder mystery and usually those lose their appeal after the first one or two reads. You know who did it, with what, and where. Why read it a million times? This book is just so good that I can't help but revisit it. It's funny, the characters are quirky, and the plot is fast-paced.

Without giving anything away, a murder has been committed and sixteen people who live in the same apartment building discover that they are all suspects based on the will that the victim left behind. They must work in pairs of two to uncover clues that will lead not only to the murderer but also a hefty cash prize. The reader is able to solve the case along with them as they are given hints, clues, and puzzles throughout the novel. It's great for both kids and adults.

One strange thing to note about this book is the connection I have somehow made in my head between it and a song that came out when I was a kid. I don't really know why the song reminds me of the book and vice versa, although I'm going to guess that it's because it was playing on the radio at the time and both are kind of spooky. Regardless, the song is, get this, "Your Woman" by White Town. Anyone who remembers this song gets a virtual cookie from me. For those of you who don't (or who are too young to know about it), here it is:



If anyone can explain to me how a connection between the two is even possible, I'd love to hear your theory.

Also, today is my two-month blogoversary! Technically I started blogging on March 7th, but I switched from Wordpress over to Blogger on the 11th, so that's the date I'm going from. So, yay!

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Three

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-Three: Your favorite book by a non-British author

Okay, so this question is obviously geared towards all those lovely people in the UK. As an American, it doesn't really apply to me...and yet it does in a way. I tend to be a huge fan of British literature, whether it's classic or contemporary. I will, however, answer this question as a citizen of the US and not as a wannabe Brit and change non-British to non-American. In fact, I'm just going to exclude British and American authors altogether. That still leaves me with a globe full of books/authors to choose from. And I'm going to pick:

I read Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago when I was in high school and I absolutely loved it. I haven't read it since then but I'm probably going to be rereading it again in the next few months. The story is beautiful, romantic, sad...all the things good Russian literature has in abundance. I haven't seen the film and, to be honest, I'm not sure that I'm all that interested in doing so, so I'm not sure how true to the book the movie is. Whether it is or not, Doctor Zhivago should be required reading. It's really that good.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Two

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-Two: A book you wish was real life

I'm going to be cliché here and say:

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Like most people who have read these books I am heartily disappointed that the world doesn't work like this, that there isn't a Hogwarts, that there isn't a whole population of witches and wizards living in secret. Now, obviously, if these books were real then I still might not know about the world of magic, but I'd like to think that the universe isn't cruel enough to make me live as a Muggle.

There are things about these books that I wouldn't want to be real--He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, for one thing--but if I could live as a wizard I'd be okay with there being dangers as long as in the end things turned out all right. The good in these books--Hogsmeade, moving pictures, Quidditch, spells--outweighs the bad in my mind.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-One (prescheduled)

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty-One: The book that made you look at life in a different way

One of the first posts I ever wrote for this blog was about dystopian literature and how I came to really appreciate the genre and I talk about this novel a little bit.

I only read Brave New World this past year. It was one of those books that I always meant to read, but never did. Last semester, my friend John (the same John who lent me a book I haven't read yet) kept talking about it and finally I went to the library and borrowed a copy.

How did this book change the way I look at the world? In my the aforementioned post on dystopian literature, I mentioned that Brave New World made me angry. This is what I said:

I couldn’t help but look at the world around me as I was reading it and realize that, in many ways, Huxley’s world has become reality.

It wasn’t the book I was angry at; it was the world. How had we gotten to this point? Why had we allowed ourselves to become so enslaved to our own culture? I obviously don’t have the answers to these questions, although they continue to haunt me. But I did gain something from the experience: A Brave New World gave me yet another reason to love dystopian fiction: it reveals our darker natures, makes people think about who they are, who the people around them have become. It shines a light on the inequalities in society, the sheer madness of politics, religion, technology, etc.

Basically, Brave New World helped me to see how our rampant consumerist culture is destroying us. I, too, am a consumer and a slave to my culture. We all are, for the most part. This novel raised my awareness of my own slavery and helped to illuminate aspects of society that I had brushed aside as being unimportant or, at the very least, innocuous. I'm not saying that I had some brilliant epiphany or that I've since become a hermit living in a cave wearing nothing but a loincloth. What I am saying, however, is that I'm more vigilant when it comes to what society says is important and am more willing to speak up when I see something that I see as being wrong.

I've never been a sheep but Brave New World helped to ensure (hopefully) that I won't become one in the future either.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty (prescheduled)

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twenty: The saddest or most emotive book you have ever read

I'm not going to say that it's the saddest book ever written, but it's one of the only books that I've read that always makes me cry every time. Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame is such a beautiful story and it ends in such a beautiful way. I won't give away the ending (although, I'll give you a hint: it's nothing like the Disney film), but the last page of that novel always tears me in two emotionally. Quasimodo's love and devotion is so heartbreaking and you come away from the novel seeing him as the only character truly worthy of admiration.

I know it's a daunting read, but I highly recommend this novel. Start off with an abridged copy though, because Hugo's descriptions of Notre Dame cathedral, while beautiful, can put first-time readers off.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Nineteen (prescheduled)

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Nineteen: The most romantic book you have ever read

I don't do romance novels. I don't even particularly like romance that makes its way into regular novels. Most of the time I feel like it's forced and is just there to satisfy a certain demographic. I do, however, appreciate romance that's well done and the best example that I can think of is this:

I love Jane Austen in ways I can't even adequately describe. I'm not sure what it is about her, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with her beautiful prose, her deep characters, and her ability to take me so completely out of myself that I forget that I'm living in the twenty-first century. Pride and Prejudice is by far my favorite Austen novel (although I can't say there's an Austen novel that I don't like) and the romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy is so perfect that I've read this book at least three times.

I don't know how many guys out there will admit to being Austen fans but I have no qualms telling you all that this is one of my all-time favorite novels.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Eighteen (prescheduled)

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Eighteen: A book you have that belongs to someone else

I tutored ancient Greek this year for one of my favorite professors. One of the students I tutored, John, has similar tastes and thought that I would like this book:

It's called Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind and it's apparently chock-full of pseudohistorical, New Age-y goodness. I say "apparently" because even though he lent it to me last semester, I still haven't gotten around to reading it yet. It's a huge book and I want to be able to enjoy it fully. I love books that are so full of crap that it's leaking out of the pages (it's why I actually enjoy reading Dan Brown) and I have a feeling that this book is one that I'm going to want to savor.

He'll eventually get it back. Eventually.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Seventeen (prescheduled)

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Seventeen: The most over-hyped book you have ever read

I want to preface this by saying that I was coerced into reading this book. A friend of mine, Amanda, wanted to go see the movie and told me that if I could find it in my heart to accompany her that she would pay for my ticket. And, "Oh," she said, "you might want to read the book before you go." Biggest. Mistake. Ever.

What book am I talking about? This piece of crap:

Oooh, look. Symbolism.

Let's put aside the fact that he sparkles, stalks his girlfriend, and is pretty much the worst vampire ever. Let's also put aside the fact that she has no personality, thinks everyone hates her when really she's the world's biggest Mary Sue, and is pretty much the most boring person ever. Let's also put aside the fact that there's a ton of spelling and grammar mistakes, the writing is repetitive, and the plot is duller than a butter knife.

Oh, wait. There's really nothing more to say.

I get that people like this book. I do. There are things that I like that people can't stand and I respect their decision to hate those things. I feel that I should get the same respect when it comes to my burning hatred of all things Twilight. Instead, I get responses like "Oh mi gawd, how can you not like Twilight? It's, like, the best book ever." No. No, it is not.

There are a lot of books out there in the world and 99% of them are better than Twilight. Don't believe me? Try reading Austen or Dickens or Adams or Pratchett or Vonnegut or.... You get the picture. I'll say one thing for Twilight though. The one book I've read that I think it's better than is Wuthering Heights. Holy cheese on a stick was that book bad. And Heathcliff makes Edward Cullen look like the world's perfect boyfriend.

So, way to go Stephanie Meyers. I may hate your novels but at least you know that if the only two books left on the planet were Twilight and Emily Bronte's mess of a novel, I'd choose you, Pikachu.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Sixteen (prescheduled)

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Sixteen: A book that is a guilty pleasure

My guilty pleasure is actually a whole series: Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey novels.

I've talked about these books a few times on my blog, but it is only now that I'm admitting that these are actually a guilty pleasure. I'll talk about them openly, of course, but as a guy I sometimes feel a little strange admitting that I like novels that walk the line between historical fiction, mystery, and romance.

Don't get me wrong, these books are well-written and I'm glad to have discovered them. In fact, it wasn't until the new U.S. covers came out that I even started to feel weird about reading them in public. Compare the cover above to this monstrosity:

Now take a look at this one:

Silent on the Moor is the third book in the series and when I bought it, I was glad for the first time in my life that I'm a spine-bender. I kept this cover hidden as much as possible while I was reading it because it's just so bodice-rippingly bad.

The thing that I love about the novels is that the romance is understated. The tension between Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane is subtle. These covers, however, make it look like the books are full of words like "quivering" and "bosom" and I can't handle that.

So, for the sheer fact that I feel like my man-card should be revoked every time I read one of these books in public, the Lady Julia Grey series is my guilty pleasure.
____________________

Also, today is my 25th birthday. Just thought I'd mention it.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Fifteen (prescheduled)

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Fifteen: A book where you wish you were one of the characters

I had to think about this for a while because a lot of my favorite books have lots of violence, destruction, and mayhem--not really worlds that I'd like to get caught up in (I have a self-preservation complex). Then it came to me: Discworld.

The Discworld sits on the backs of four elephants
which stand on the back of the giant turtle, A'tuin.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels have been some of my favorite books since I was in high school. They're funny, exciting, and insightfully satirical. I've read so many of these novels (in fact, I'm running out of books that I haven't read) that I'd probably feel right at home living on the Disc. I already know the characters and the city of Ankh-Morpork. It'd be like visiting with old friends that I've never actually met.

There is, of course, violence, destruction, and mayhem in Discworld but as long as I take a page out of Rincewind's book and run away, I should be okay.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Fourteen

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Fourteen: An author of a book you just don't get

During the month of March, I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Here's the link to my review.

I understood the book just fine. What I couldn't "get" was why it was so popular and why people thought it was so great. If you read the review then you'll get a more in-depth discussion of why I disliked this book so much, but for today's post I'm just going to say that I found this book to be insanely boring. The dialogue was repetitive, the characters weren't developed, and the whole time I was reading it all I could think was that McCarthy didn't really want to write this novel and was doing the absolute minimum required of him. It was almost as if he was sitting at his computer going:

All right, I've got characters. Do they need names? Nah, I won't give them names. 


Should they really do anything during the novel? No, I'm too lazy for that so they'll just walk for a bazillion miles. 


Now, should there be a plot? Hmm...I don't really feel like developing one. Let's just have some sort of "goal" for them to reach. People will buy that. 


So, I know that I want this to be a post-apocalyptic novel but I'm not up to doing a back story so let's just make it ambivalent. 


Let me check something...Okay, so my publisher wants there to be dialogue. I'll just have them say the same three sentences the entire novel. Oh, and I'm not going to use quotation marks. Or "he said." Or anything that a novel's really supposed to have. 


The book is done now but it's a little short...I know! I'll just add a few more pages of walking, non-dialogue, and ambivalence. People will think it's genius, I'll get a paycheck, and no one will have to know that I was writing this at gunpoint. 


Yeah, I'm almost positive that's what he was thinking.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Thirteen

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 day's I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Thirteen: A book that disturbed you

The answer to this question is also, ironically, one of my favorite novels of all time:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was one of those books that I waited forever to read. I had heard good things about it and I had heard bad things about it. I knew the basic premise behind the book and the very notion of it skeeved me out. How the hell was I supposed to enjoy a novel that had subject matter of such a disgusting nature?

I read the book a few summers ago as part of my ongoing attempt at reading the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I was hesitant, of course, and I was pretty sure that I was going to end up hating it. But within the first few paragraphs I became enthralled with the novel. Nabokov wrote this book in English, which is not his native language, and I feel that he has a better command of the language than most native speakers of English.

It was, however, a very disturbing novel. Humbert Humbert, our pedophile protagonist, is one of the most vile characters ever created. I'm not saying that I didn't like him, I'm just saying that I wouldn't want to meet this guy in real life. The most disturbing part about this novel (and I've heard this from both men and women, young and old) is that as you read the novel you begin to sympathize with him. I think that's the reason why Nabokov chose to write this in first person because by getting inside Humbert's twisted little mind you almost begin to understand him and why he does the things he does.

It's been a few years since I've read this book so you may find it here as a reread sometime in the next few months. I'll obviously talk more about it when I eventually review it, but for now I'll say that while this book left me feeling dirty and like I needed to take a scalding hot shower to get all of Humbert's sliminess off of me, I will forever and always consider it one of the greatest novels ever written.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twelve

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Twelve: A book you think should be made into a film

A few weeks ago, this was the topic for the Top Ten Tuesday list on The Broke and the Bookish. Here's the list that I came up with.

I think if I had to choose one out of the ten, however, I'd pick Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn. While I think the others would make superb films (especially Skulduggery Pleasant), I've been following Raybourn's career since the beginning and, I don't know, I guess I just wish that more people were reading her books, male or female. Here's her website and here's her blog. In addition to being a superb writer, she's a really down-to-earth person who actually converses with her fans, whether it's on Twitter, her blog, or Facebook. I like to see nice people succeed and I think she's definitely deserving of more attention.

-Gabe

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Eleven

So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting the 30 Day Book Challenge. Each day for 30 days I'll be answering one question about books.

Day Eleven: Your favorite book that has been made into a film

I'm going to answer this question in two ways: first, my favorite book made into a film; second, my favorite film based off of a book. There's a distinct difference here. There are books that I love that have been made into films and there are mediocre books that have been made into films that I love.

So, my favorite book made into a film is:

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh is one of my all-time favorite novels. It's funny, it's gritty, and the characters are insanely memorable. It also made one hell of a decent film. I saw the film first, before I even knew that it was a book, and I was surprised to find how true to the novel the film was. The screenwriter, director, and producer were all big fans of the novel and they also got input from Welsh himself. I read an interview once where one of the filmmakers (I think it was the screenwriter) said that they all sat down and debated about which bits to put into the film. The book, which is pretty long, isn't linear and some of the characters only show up for one chapter, maybe two, so they had to really condense things. The character of Tommy in the film, for instance, is an amalgam of several different characters from the novel because there were a lot of great bit characters that were involved in some of their favorite scenes that they didn't want to take out but they were shooting on such a low budget that they couldn't afford a huge cast. 

Favorite character in the book: Francis Begbie

Favorite character in the film: Francis Begbie (Robert Carlyle) 

Favorite scene in the book: Sick Boy and Renton shooting at things in the park

Favorite scene in the film: Tommy explains what really happened with Begbie during the pool match

Trainspotting trailer (WARNING: contains slight nudity)

My favorite film that was based off of a book is: 

Stardust by Neil Gaiman is yet another film that I saw before I knew that it was also a book. The difference between this film and Trainspotting, however, is that I really, really disliked this book. For all of my raving about how much I love Neil Gaiman's novels, I thought that the book was kind of...dull. The ending, especially, was very lackluster. Anyone who has seen this film (and if you haven't, you really should) knows that right before the very end of the film (you know, the happy epilogue part), there is a really dramatic fight scene and some very good acting by Michelle Pfeiffer (as well as that awesome bit with Prince Septimus). I won't give away the end of the book but I will say that there's none of that. In fact, the book sort of just ends. It was incredibly disappointing. The film, however, is one of my favorites. I thought that the cast was well-chosen and that the parts that were added to the film that were lacking in the book were well done. It's a very beautiful story and incredibly unique and imaginative, I just think that the film got it right where as the novel...well, it was Neil Gaiman's first, so we'll cut him some slack.

Favorite character in the book: Yvaine

Favorite character in the film: Prince Septimus (Mark Strong)

Favorite scene in the book: Yvaine at the inn

Favorite scene in the film: Prince Septimus punishes the old seer for lying to him (A. Ma. Zing.)

Stardust trailer: 

-Gabe