netflix and overdrive
I watched Netflix’s adaptation of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before with my sister. I’ve read the book, she has not. In an early scene between Lara Jean and her older sister, my sister asked, “So, there’s a big age gap?”
I said “No?” because Margot is only a couple of years older than Lara Jean -- but then I couldn’t stop noticing how much older she looks. I checked the actors’ ages online and there is eight and a half years between them.
I know actors often aren’t the exact same age as the characters they are portraying, I know that people who are the same age don’t always look it. I know full well that sisters don’t always look alike.
If these two actors were just playing classmates or cousins, or if their characters were further apart in age -- if Margot was just leaving to study abroad rather than also heading off for her first year of college, I might have found it more believable and less distracting.
I wasn’t hugely attached to the book and wasn’t bothered by the prospect of film doing some things a bit differently. However, my favourite things about the book exist around the edges of the plot and in a film, there simply isn’t enough room to focus more on them: a strong sense of aesthetic. A cute vintage, pinterest, baking-in-your-pyjamas aesthetic. I liked Lara Jean’s confidence in her own tastes, and how central her relationships with her father and sisters are to her life. There isn’t any baking in pyjamas at all...
Anyway, the film is a cute teen romcom, notable -- maybe even groundbreaking? -- for being a cute romcom about an American-Asian teenage girl. I enjoyed it and am glad it exists.
A Sunday afternoon. My mother was knitting. I was writing. “Spiegel im Spiegel” came up on Spotify.
“Isn’t this the train scene music from North & South?” she asked.
I confidently said “No, but if it is sounding familiar, it’s been used in other things.” I mentioned Dear Frankie, and then looked up what else the piece had been in.
Wikipedia listed North & South. I stared in disbelief -- I’m very familiar with this mini series and its soundtrack, and with “Spiegel im Spiegel”, and have been for years. How could I have not noticed?
“Do you know what we’re going to have to do now?” I announced as I switched to Netflix, reminded of something I'd read on Tumblr: “I sometimes wonder,” said another scholar, in the course of an informal discussion, “if Netflix knows not just how many times you watch a thing, but how many times you watch, say, the same 10 minutes of a thing…” “North and South?” I asked. “Yes!” she shrieked
Stephanie Burgis, The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart: Aventurine is a young dragon turned into a human girl by a food mage. Unable to return to her dragon family and with a newly discovered passion for chocolate, she sets off for the city to get a job in a chocolate shop.
I’ve just noticed that the blurb describes it as “A pinch of Ella Enchanted, a sprinkling of How to Train your Dragon and a generous helping of Eva Ibbotson”, a fairly accurate description of what the book is like, although none of those comparisons occurred to me while I was reading it.
Instead I was reminded a little bit of some books I read last year: R.J. Anderson’s A Pocket Full of Murder, because of the combination of magic, kitchens and a twelve year old girl having adventures in a city, and Laura Florand’s adult romances, because of the chocolate shop setting.
I was then surprised -- and amused -- to see both Anderson and Florand amongst those thanked in the acknowledgements, for having critiqued “all or part of the finished manuscript”.
BookRiot has an article about Overdrive vs Libby: Which will serve you best? and I had long answer about how I use both.
Libby has some features Overdrive lacks but I still read ebooks using the Overdrive app, mainly because it opens books faster than Libby does! (Also, habit.) And I'm finding it convenient to use one app for ebooks and one for audiobooks.
I prefer Libby for audiobooks -- so far it doesn't glitch occasionally like Overdrive audiobooks do, and the interface for moving back or forwards is much better. I also use Libby for graphic novels, which can't be downloaded through the Overdrive app.
However, for finding books and managing my loans and holds, I definitely prefer Overdrive (usually accessed through my browser rather than the app). Libby doesn't allow you to search for titles that aren't currently in the library's collection but which you can "recommend" the library get, nor does it show me the list of titles I've recommended -- features I use often.
And whenever I'm adding a book to my reading record, I check the book details page on Overdrive for the book's ISBN and, if it's an audiobook, its exact length. Libby doesn't include the ISBN and only gives an approximate length for audiobooks -- quite understandably, since I assume lots of people aren't going to care about this info, but as I care, Overdrive suits me better.
There are definite advantages to borrowing through Overdrive or Libby over the actual library. People can keep items past the due date -- I've a hold on an audiobook which was due back nearly three weeks ago… and it hasn't been returned yet. I also have a hold on a book which came out nearly a month ago and instead of being instantly available, it is only now listed as “Being transferred between libraries”.
Originally @ Dreamwidth.
I said “No?” because Margot is only a couple of years older than Lara Jean -- but then I couldn’t stop noticing how much older she looks. I checked the actors’ ages online and there is eight and a half years between them.
I know actors often aren’t the exact same age as the characters they are portraying, I know that people who are the same age don’t always look it. I know full well that sisters don’t always look alike.
If these two actors were just playing classmates or cousins, or if their characters were further apart in age -- if Margot was just leaving to study abroad rather than also heading off for her first year of college, I might have found it more believable and less distracting.
I wasn’t hugely attached to the book and wasn’t bothered by the prospect of film doing some things a bit differently. However, my favourite things about the book exist around the edges of the plot and in a film, there simply isn’t enough room to focus more on them: a strong sense of aesthetic. A cute vintage, pinterest, baking-in-your-pyjamas aesthetic. I liked Lara Jean’s confidence in her own tastes, and how central her relationships with her father and sisters are to her life. There isn’t any baking in pyjamas at all...
Anyway, the film is a cute teen romcom, notable -- maybe even groundbreaking? -- for being a cute romcom about an American-Asian teenage girl. I enjoyed it and am glad it exists.
A Sunday afternoon. My mother was knitting. I was writing. “Spiegel im Spiegel” came up on Spotify.
“Isn’t this the train scene music from North & South?” she asked.
I confidently said “No, but if it is sounding familiar, it’s been used in other things.” I mentioned Dear Frankie, and then looked up what else the piece had been in.
Wikipedia listed North & South. I stared in disbelief -- I’m very familiar with this mini series and its soundtrack, and with “Spiegel im Spiegel”, and have been for years. How could I have not noticed?
“Do you know what we’re going to have to do now?” I announced as I switched to Netflix, reminded of something I'd read on Tumblr: “I sometimes wonder,” said another scholar, in the course of an informal discussion, “if Netflix knows not just how many times you watch a thing, but how many times you watch, say, the same 10 minutes of a thing…” “North and South?” I asked. “Yes!” she shrieked
Stephanie Burgis, The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart: Aventurine is a young dragon turned into a human girl by a food mage. Unable to return to her dragon family and with a newly discovered passion for chocolate, she sets off for the city to get a job in a chocolate shop.
I’ve just noticed that the blurb describes it as “A pinch of Ella Enchanted, a sprinkling of How to Train your Dragon and a generous helping of Eva Ibbotson”, a fairly accurate description of what the book is like, although none of those comparisons occurred to me while I was reading it.
Instead I was reminded a little bit of some books I read last year: R.J. Anderson’s A Pocket Full of Murder, because of the combination of magic, kitchens and a twelve year old girl having adventures in a city, and Laura Florand’s adult romances, because of the chocolate shop setting.
I was then surprised -- and amused -- to see both Anderson and Florand amongst those thanked in the acknowledgements, for having critiqued “all or part of the finished manuscript”.
BookRiot has an article about Overdrive vs Libby: Which will serve you best? and I had long answer about how I use both.
Libby has some features Overdrive lacks but I still read ebooks using the Overdrive app, mainly because it opens books faster than Libby does! (Also, habit.) And I'm finding it convenient to use one app for ebooks and one for audiobooks.
I prefer Libby for audiobooks -- so far it doesn't glitch occasionally like Overdrive audiobooks do, and the interface for moving back or forwards is much better. I also use Libby for graphic novels, which can't be downloaded through the Overdrive app.
However, for finding books and managing my loans and holds, I definitely prefer Overdrive (usually accessed through my browser rather than the app). Libby doesn't allow you to search for titles that aren't currently in the library's collection but which you can "recommend" the library get, nor does it show me the list of titles I've recommended -- features I use often.
And whenever I'm adding a book to my reading record, I check the book details page on Overdrive for the book's ISBN and, if it's an audiobook, its exact length. Libby doesn't include the ISBN and only gives an approximate length for audiobooks -- quite understandably, since I assume lots of people aren't going to care about this info, but as I care, Overdrive suits me better.
There are definite advantages to borrowing through Overdrive or Libby over the actual library. People can keep items past the due date -- I've a hold on an audiobook which was due back nearly three weeks ago… and it hasn't been returned yet. I also have a hold on a book which came out nearly a month ago and instead of being instantly available, it is only now listed as “Being transferred between libraries”.
Originally @ Dreamwidth.