Films and Books of 2009

Jan 03, 2020 20:57



Just like last year. What did I read? What did I see? What did I think?


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Comments 17

rippledsheers August 4 2009, 18:09:55 UTC
See, I thought The Lovely Bones was a really great book!

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sightseek August 8 2009, 13:56:03 UTC
And a lot of other people agree with you! (Over a thousand 5-star reviews on Amazon!)

However, for me, the book just fell sorta flat. I read it in less than 24 hours, and afterwards was just left with a feeling that the money would've been better spent on another book.

It wasn't badly written, per se. It certainly is readable, but to me it seems more like a book you'd be enchanted by during junior high, but only then.

However, it does seem to have gripped Peter Jackson. Have you seen the recently released trailer for the film adaptation?

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lastglances September 6 2009, 07:15:10 UTC
i don't think i could ever rate books and movies because i never really seem to have concrete opinions about them.

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sightseek September 6 2009, 14:40:39 UTC
I've never had a problem with it actually. I find that it is what helps me form a concrete opinion about a novel / film, that it gives some order to my thoughts (which tend to be all over the place, all the time).

But it is meant to be lighthearted, though, purely based on my - momentary - emotional reaction to something. Does it move me? Does it engage me? It is very much a reflection on what I am feeling at the particular second. I could give a book two stars one day, and four, instead, the very next week.

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Also, you have very good taste! Camus is completely amazing! I have some of his on my 'to read' list.

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lastglances September 6 2009, 18:40:14 UTC
i'm like that with books, too, in the sense that i often feel very different about it at some point. like with sylvia plath's "the bell jar." i ended up liking it more once i'd finished reading it.

and thanks, camus is my absolute favorite author. i've read nine books of his so far and have about six more to go.

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sightseek September 6 2009, 19:14:48 UTC
The Bell Jar is definitely due for a re-read. (Not that I have the time, but that's a whole different story!) I first read it a few years ago - breezing through it in a day or two - and can remember being entertained, but not much else. Love the writing style (which is the part that entertained me; there is nothing entertaining about mental illness), but I wish it had shattered me in some big, deep psychological way, the way I was expecting (hoping) it would.

In the end, it didn't leave much of a dent, to summarize. Her unabridged journals, on the other hand, I absolutely love! And her poems of course. I've been toying with the idea of buying this really beautiful, big, expensive hardcover edition of Ariel.

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