Day before Christmas

Tis the day before Christmas... the days are getting longer, there’s snow and the weather is clear and about minus 25 Celsius. This month I have treated myself to all sorts of wonderful indulgences: movies and books. Actually I have overindulged in these areas, undoubtedly to my personal detriment, but such is life.

Books: I have made the difficult but challenging decision to not purchase Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books – yet. I will beg my friend Hanna to permit me to continue to abuse her copies instead. I have borrowed (consumed) her copies of Breaking Dawn and Eclipse… or they consumed me. I found them completely un-put-downable. I’d read through the night – even after I’d already read them once, twice, three times and OUGHT to have been reasonable enough to put a book mark in, close the book, and go to bed. After I returned them to Hanna, I decided they were too dangerous to my health to actually own them simply because I could not stop reading them – unless they are safely ensconced on Hanna’s bookshelf and under her lock and key!

So instead of the Twilight books I have ordered Patricia Briggs’ Raven’s Shadow, and Raven’s Strike; and Lois McMaster Bujold’s: Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and the Hallowed Hunt. All of which I have read, loved, want to read again and HOPE that I have the self-disciple NOT to stay up all night reading them again. I should put a qualifier here. I did not really even like Paladin of Souls much less “love” it, but it is definitely worth reading again and it is part of the series.

Movies: Instead of the Twilight books I bought the Twilight movies! The books are better than the movies but that’s okay, I like the movies well enough. I also bought Music and Lyrics, and How to Train Your Dragon both of which I like for their positive feel and I can watch these without getting tired of them. For an additional change I also bought a McGyver movie… um well, I have not taken to it. I know there will come a time when I’m very happy to have it though. It will be a relief, a change. That time will probably be in March. There are still a few more movies I wish to acquire.

Meanwhile, Funlayo and I are making tentative plans to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We plan to take Lilja and possibly Sofia if she meets the age limit. I think none of us anticipate being entirely happy with the movie version – which could of course ruin the film for us. We’ve spent so much time seeing the story while reading the book; that we’d really like to have that vision brought to the screen. I do think it is possible to love both a movie and a book for the different element they expose. I also think it is time for the movie/script writing industry to re-evaluated what the audience wants in book to movie translations.