Just a List of Random Questions Tag!

Olivia/Arwen from Meanwhile in Rivendell (which is my new favorite blog!!!!) tagged me in the Just a List of Random Questions Tag!!! 

~ Animated movies - what's your opinion?

Some of them are my very favorites and others of them make me groan. For example, Pixar movies for the most part I love them! Incredibles is a family favorite! I like a fair number of the Disney movies but there are definitely some that are just... dumb. However, normally I like Disney music though again some of it sometimes is just dumb. I can't deny it's beautiful and catchy though. I'll admit though sometimes I love animated movies because of their goofiness... just don't get too goofy on me. 

~ Do you prefer earbuds or headphones?

Earbuds! 

~ What is one thing it seems like everybody loves but you (could be a book, song, movie, author, actor, food, whatevs)?

The Hunger Games and Pride and Prejudice 2005 version 

~ Do you have flowers in your room 

No... on the wallpaper though! 

~ Do you like the sound of keys on a keyboard clicking?

Yes! As long as it's not too loud.

~ Who is one fictional character whom you absolutely loathe with a burning passion? 

Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter

~ Are you a procrastinator?

Yes! There are some things I manage not to procrastinate on but normally I do procrastinate unfortunately. 

~ Shoes or no?

At home no! Outside of my home I prefer to wear flip flops but I'll wear shoes in the winter. 

~ What are three movies that take you back to the dear old days gone forever 

Life with Father, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, The Swan Princess 

~ Pens or pencils?

It depends on the situation. Normally pens though.

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Double Movie Review- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) AND (1982)

Over the weekend I watched the two most famous film versions (excluding the Disney... I'm not going there) of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Both were good in their own way but by the end of my review you will discover which one I thought was the best!!!! (insert dramatic music here)


THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!!!! (insert more dramatic music here)

I wasn't the biggest fan of the book of The Hunchback of Notre Dame but I thought the movies were pretty good... maybe because they left out the yards of useless description? ;)

Accuracy to the Book

Both of the film versions changed the ending so that Esmeralda did not die in the end, which changed the tone of the story. It became less of a tragedy and way more of a romance. Also, they both left out Esmeralda's mother and the subplot that existed with her.
In the 1982 version, Gringoire is a lot more sensible of a guy (at least he isn't obsessed with Esmeralda's goat as he is in the book) and him and Esmeralda actually end up together in the end. In the 1939 version again Gringoire is more sensible (but not quite as sensible as he is in the 1982 version) but it's unclear whether or not him and Esmeralda end up together. Personally I thought the 1982 version worked it out fairly well since they were going for a happy ending you might as well have them end up together. However, again, the whole happy ending was wrong so overall I wish it had played out differently. Anyways, I found Gringoire to be a humorously pathetic and stupid character in the book and I would have liked to have seen more of that on screen.
Besides those two instances, the deviations from the book were slight.

Casting

I thought the casting for the 1982 version was phenomenal! My favorite was Derek Jacobi as Frollo but they were all exceptionally cast. Funnily enough, David Suchet plays Cloplin and you can scarcely tell it's him! He does not at all look like the Poirot we are used to seeing! 

For the 1939 version my main qualm with the casting was with Maureen O'Hara as Esmerlada. Now I love Maureen O'Hara in other films (Mclintock, The Quiet Man, The Parent Trap) but I just did not at all see her as Esmeralda. The rest of it the casting was fine though. 

So, overall I preferred the 1982 version, which surprised me as I thought it would prefer the 1939 version. They are both good in their own right though. :)

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Top Ten Inspiring Quotes from Books

I don't actually do "inspiring" normally but instead I tend to do "funny"  or "thought-provoking" but I'll try at inspiring. I'm also really bad at keeping track of quotes I like, so if there's a good one missing that I should have let me know!

1. "I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then."- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
2. "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost."- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. "I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil."- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
4. "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
6. "Deserves it! I dare say he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
7. "Deeds will not be less valiant because they are upraised."- The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. "My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time."- David Copperfield 
9. "The person, be it gentlemen or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid."- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
10. "Self-love is the greatest enemy to true Christian love, and pride is the fountain of self-love. He whose sins are covered by God's free love cannot think it hard to spread the garment of his love over his brother's sins. Humility makes a man compare himself with the best that he me may find how bad he himself is, but pride measures by the worst, that it may hide a man from his own imperfections."- Christian Love by Hugh Binning

You may think I have too many J.R.R. Tolkien quotes but you are wrong! I don't have enough! ;)

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It's Monday! Too much school taking up too much time!

I feel as if the nursing instructors collaborated on how to make their poor students the most miserable and decided to make everything happen this week. :(
We have a health fair we need to do a presentation for and our all important pharmacology test that I kind of put off studying for until the week before this week and it's stressing me out. The health fair I could care less about... it's not going to be useful to me in the long run and is not worth that many points. However, the pharmacology is actually important and useful and is worth a lot of points. So why do I feel like I spent equal amounts of time preparing for them?!?!??!
Rant over... maybe. ;)
In better news, I was at work last week and there was a book my boss was investigating to see if it had mold and it happened to be The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, which I've read before and enjoyed. I jokingly suggested that whether or not it had mold she should just weed it and give it to me. However, she liked that idea when she discovered that it had only been ever checked out twice since we'd had it and one of the times it was I that checked it out. So is scored a free book! I should re-read it now to celebrate but I doubt that will happen any time soon. :(
I also scored a few books at Goodwill when I popped in for some therapeutic book buying after a long day of studying. :)
So here's my reading week!

Finished this week

• King Lear by William Shakespeare

Currently Reading

• The Valley of Vision
• Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (re-read)- Definitely better the second time! I'm for sure moving my rating on Goodreads up from a three star to a four star. Not sure after that... possibly a five.

Coming Soon

• Armadale by Wilkie Collins (as you can see this is a favorite of author of mine!)
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton
• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Reviews Posted this Week

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
• King Lear by William Shakespeare 

P.S. Please pray for Sheila at Book Journey who hosts this link up. Her son passed away a couple weeks ago. 

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Book (Play) Review- King Lear

For the Alphabet Soup Challenge, the audiobook challenge and every TBR pile challenge I've signed up or ;) I read William Shakespeare's play King Lear. I was incredibly unfamiliar with this play so I was horribly lost listening to it. After listening to each act I read the Sparknotes on it to make sure I understood what happened in it. Thankfully, I was able to keep it fairly straight in my head with that.

Synopsis from Goodreads: One of Shakespeare's finest tragedies, the work displays a pessimism and nihilism that make it a 20th-century favorite. The aging King Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, allotting each a portion in proportion to the eloquence of her declaration of love. The hypocritical Goneril and Regan make grand pronouncements and are rewarded; Cordelia, the youngest daughter, who truly loves Lear, refuses to make an insincere speech to prove her love and is disinherited. The two older sisters mock Lear and renege on their promise to support him. Cast out, the king slips into madness and wanders about accompanied by his faithful Fool. He is aided by the Earl of Kent, who, though banished from the kingdom for having supported Cordelia, has remained in Britain disguised as a peasant.

Despite my unfamiliarity with this play, I did like it. I was telling my little sister about it and she said she'd though she'd heard a fairy tale like it before so I think the basic plot is probably an old and famous one. Since she mentioned that, I have recalled hazily that I read that fairly tale too. The intrigue in this story is higher I think than in most of Shakespeare's plays. The daughters... Goneril and Regan that is... made me mad! I felt sorry for Lear but felt he kind of deserved what he got for being so blinded and heartless.... kind of.  You can see his repentance throughout the play. Poor Cordelia is horribly mistreated but stays true to her father throughout and it is for her I feel the most sorry for her in the end.
The side story with the Duke of Gloucestershire and his sons was interesting. The Duke rather got his recompense for being such a jerk to his illegitimate son but again.... not really... I still feel sorry for him! Edmund manipulated all over the place just to get back at his father and his legitimately born brother. Edgar seemed like a decent guy and he cares for his father throughout it all.
Overall, an intriguing play. I would really like to watch a film version to see how it plays out on screen. It looks like there is a newer one with Ian Mckellan and then an older one with Lawrence Olivier so they're probably both pretty great. While not my favorite of Shakespeare's tragedy's, it was quite good!

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Book Review- 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea

For the Mount TBR pile challenge, the author A-Z challenge the classics club and probably many other challenges that I'm beginning to lose track of, I read Jules Verne's novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A couple years back I read three of Jules Verne's other novels so I was fairly familiar with his works. While they are a little harder to read they are always very intriguing and I definitely found 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea one of the most intriguing of them all as it delved in to science as well as human nature.

Synopsis from Wikipedia: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World) is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax after he, his servant Conseil, and Canadian whaler Ned Land wash up on their ship. On the Nautilus, the three embark on a journey which has them going all around the world, under the sea.

The characters were all intriguing, none more so than Captain Nemo.
I sympathized with Professor Arronax along the trip. He felt like with Ned Land and Conseil he should be trying to escape but really he wanted to say and discover more on the Nautilis. Throughout the book we follow him as he tries to discover the secrets of Captain Nemo and is enthralled by the beauty and majesty of the underwater world. However, at the end, with Professor Arronax, we are disgusted and horrified by Captain Nemo and are ready to leave the Nautilus.
Overall, it was a good book and I felt like I learned so much about the underwater world, though of course there was some of what happened in the book that is scientifically impossible or just not real. It is science fiction after all. ;)

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Book Review- The Scarlet Pimpernel

After watching the 1984 film version with my family a couple weeks ago, I knew I had to re-read The Scarlet Pimpernel! Consequently I did so in one evening, straight through in two hours. Like a champ! ;) This goes towards the re-reading challenge, mount TBR and the author a-z challenge.
I grew up watching and adoring the 1984 film version and I read it for the first time back in high school. It was then I realized that the book and movie were fairly different (though to be fair the movie is based off of two of the books). However, what I also discovered was that they were both very good.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Armed with only his wits and his cunning, one man recklessly defies the French revolutionaries and rescues scores of innocent men, women, and children from the deadly guillotine. His friends and foes know him only as the Scarlet Pimpernel. But the ruthless French agent Chauvelin is sworn to discover his identity and to hunt him down.

This is just a fun adventure novel! I don't want to say to mention for fear of spoiling the story. I love the romance, the suspense and of course the wit! I can't say enough about the wit... I guess it comes out even stronger in the movie (have I mentioned how much I LOVE the movie?!?!?!?!). It's also interesting historically. I always felt like I understood more about the horrors of the French Revolution from it.
All in all I could not recommend it higher! I really should get around to reading the rest in the series as I hear they are great too! :)

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Top Ten Characters You'd Like to Check In With

Today's Top Ten Tuesday theme from Broke and Bookish is the top the characters you'd like to check in with (meaning, the book or series is over and you wish you could peek in on the "life" you imagine they are leading years down the line after the story ends).

1. All the characters from the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling
2. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley from Emma by Jane Austen
4. Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
5. All of the characters from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings- I know you get kind of a conclusion to their story in the appendices but I would love to see more specifics and adventures! :)
6. Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
7. Scout and co. from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird- In July we'll get too!!! Pretty excited for Go Set a Watchman! :)
8. Shasta (aka Prince Cor) and Aravis from The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
9. Molly Gibson and Roger Hamley from Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters- Especially as the book was unfinished... but thankfully not so unfinished that you can't tell how it's going to end. ;)
10. Rilla Blythe from Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery- You really see Rilla mature through the book and I love it but I'd like more about her and her relationship with Kenneth! :)

P.S. I'd honestly love to peek in on all of the Jane Austen character's lives but these are the ones I'd most want to.

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It's Monday! Easter and Readlaxing

Stress and anxiety are now part of my daily life with nursing school. That's not a good thing... FYI.  Thankfully though I had a test last Wednesday that I did well on and I am de-stressed from that plus I had a great Easter weekend, spending time with family and relaxing. :) My siblings and I watched The Fellowship of the Ring and once again I'm getting that urge to re-read the Lord of the Rings. :)

Finished this week

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Currently Reading

• King Lear by William Shakespeare
• The Valley of Vision 
• Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (re-read)

Coming Soon

• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
• Armadale by Wilkie Collins
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton (re-read)

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Birthday Month Reading Challenge- April

March is gone and now it's on to April! I hope you all are blowing through the Birthday Month Reading Challenge succesfully. :) If you are behind don't worry, just pick up where you left off and catch up. :) I'm not going to come after you if you aren't on schedule. ;)
Here's a list of April birthday authors to hopefully help prompt you. As always, there's a more complete list HERE.

• William Shakespeare
• Thomas Jefferson
• Maya Angelou
• Harper Lee
• Booker T. Washington
• Henry James
• Janet Evanovich
• Anne McCaffrey
• Beverly Cleary
• Robert Penn Warren
• Lew Wallace
• Anthony Trollope
• Charlotte Bronte
• Emile Zola
• Erik Christian Haugaard
• Hans Christian Andersen
• Marguerite Henry
• Gary Soto
• Maud Hart Lovelace

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