Entertainment of 2011: Books & Movies
I think I tried to do this last year but then completely lost track, so I'm going to try to actually keep up with it this year...we'll see what happens lol.
Books
January
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ | I loved this book from start to finish. It has two really unique voices that alternate chapters as the main characters (both named Will Grayson), and it was not only entertaining and fun (aka it had good humor) but it had lots of heart, and the whole thing was just awesome. By the end of the book I was tearing up at how much emotion I was feeling. It's the first real book I've read in a while, and had me reading it at midnight under the covers again like I used to do when I was little and completely sucked into a book.
June
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ | I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time. Finished all 375 pages over three days (though hour-wise, it was more like within two days)! I read 200 of those pages in one day where I just couldn't stop reading and couldn't put it down. And I can't wait to read the next one :)
July
Looking for Alaska by John Green | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ | I'm pretty sure I finished this book in 2 or 3 days, and it was amazing. It made me feel, it has small little awesome literature bits that fill my English major heart with glee, and it made me think about things about life in the way that good books do. Important things, like life and death and how we deal with grief and uncertainty and friendships and taking risks and many others. I found it to be a wonderfully told story, with humor as well as some heart-wrenching moments. John Green made me care greatly about the characters, even if some of them would probably be the type of people I would be unlikely to hang out with if I met them in real life.
August
September
October
November
December
For school - Winter Quarter 2010-2011:
Frankenstine by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley | I enjoy this story thoroughly, even though I also find it fairly depressing. And, I don't really like any of the main characters.
Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson | We actually only read a couple chapters of this, and honestly, I'm glad. As cool as the discussion the ideas he presents was, he was really hard to read - lots of big words and long sentences, and it seemed more like he was trying to sound smart rather than that he actually needed to use all of them.
The Miller's Tale from The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
"The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" from The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Movies
The Adjustment Bureau | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ | An interesting concept and surprisingly funny.
Books
January
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ | I loved this book from start to finish. It has two really unique voices that alternate chapters as the main characters (both named Will Grayson), and it was not only entertaining and fun (aka it had good humor) but it had lots of heart, and the whole thing was just awesome. By the end of the book I was tearing up at how much emotion I was feeling. It's the first real book I've read in a while, and had me reading it at midnight under the covers again like I used to do when I was little and completely sucked into a book.
- excerpt, because I can: "I know it sucks, but it's good." He looks at me like I've just said something absolutely idiotic, which of course I have. "Love and truth being tied together, I mean. They make each other possible, you know?"
June
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ | I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time. Finished all 375 pages over three days (though hour-wise, it was more like within two days)! I read 200 of those pages in one day where I just couldn't stop reading and couldn't put it down. And I can't wait to read the next one :)
July
Looking for Alaska by John Green | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ | I'm pretty sure I finished this book in 2 or 3 days, and it was amazing. It made me feel, it has small little awesome literature bits that fill my English major heart with glee, and it made me think about things about life in the way that good books do. Important things, like life and death and how we deal with grief and uncertainty and friendships and taking risks and many others. I found it to be a wonderfully told story, with humor as well as some heart-wrenching moments. John Green made me care greatly about the characters, even if some of them would probably be the type of people I would be unlikely to hang out with if I met them in real life.
- Excerpt(s): "Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. [...] You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present."
- We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.
August
September
October
November
December
For school - Winter Quarter 2010-2011:
Frankenstine by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley | I enjoy this story thoroughly, even though I also find it fairly depressing. And, I don't really like any of the main characters.
Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson | We actually only read a couple chapters of this, and honestly, I'm glad. As cool as the discussion the ideas he presents was, he was really hard to read - lots of big words and long sentences, and it seemed more like he was trying to sound smart rather than that he actually needed to use all of them.
The Miller's Tale from The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
"The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" from The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Movies
The Adjustment Bureau | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ | An interesting concept and surprisingly funny.