Reading roundup (Toby Daye, Gromyko, Ulysses pact) and Into the Woods movie

[hamsterwoman]

Ulysses pact: 45% (p.290/563, so, halfway in terms of pagecount), in the second half of "Cyclops". Line marker: "Virag from Hungary! Ahasuerus I call him. Cursed by God."

Comments

[meathiel]

I've only read the first Toby Daye book so far ... I kinda liked it but it took me quite long to read. And now ... too many books I want to read, too little time. I will get back to them one day, though!

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, I'm similar -- I follow the series, but find it difficult to prioritize among the other series I follow -- and there's a new book every year -- seanan_mcguire is super prolific! -- so I end up falling behind. It's a good thing losdessa hands me the books I've missed since the last time we met when we get together for brunch every once in a while, 'cos otherwise I'd still be on book 3... :P

[wordsofastory]

I'd only seen a high school production of Into the Woods before, but I spent several years being obsessed with the Broadway recording on CD. So I was looking forward to the movie a lot, and was really disappointed. I didn't like most of the voices, and I thought nearly all the cuts and rearrangements didn't serve the plot at all.

That said, the staging of 'Agony' was hilarious!

[hamsterwoman]

I read through the plot of the stage version on Wikipedia, and even form that bare bones description it's pretty clear that the Witch's plot in the movie was all messed up, which seems like kind of an important one to flub.

I did love Agony! But then was sad to find out the theatrical version has an Act II reprise, that I would've also really liked to see (I've now listened to it on YouTube a few times for different productions).

I think I'm going to track down the Broadway version DVD at my library, because I liked the movie enough that I think I want to give the story a proper chance...

[reynardine]

The movie version of Into the Woods was not as bad as the movie version of Les Miserables, but it still was nowhere near as good as the stage version (which may or may not still be on Netflix--if it is, it is worth checking out.)

[hamsterwoman]

I'm starting to conclude that I want to check out the theatrical version -- if nothing else for the Agony reprise that was missing from the movie. We don't use Netflix, but I'm hoping my library might have it on DVD.

[_grayswandir_]

That's more like it!

I totally forgot to reply to your last Ulysses post! I meant to, because last week I was talking to a grad student in my department who plans to write his dissertation on Ulysses, and I told him I had a friend online who was currently reading it. His reply was, "Tell your friend just don't stop reading. Even if you have no idea what's going on, just keep going." He added that there were a couple of places in the book where people tended to give up -- I think one of them was the big play format section that I already warned you about. The other one he mentioned was the bit with Stephen in the library. So I'm glad you made it through that part! ;) (I honestly don't even remember Stephen ever being in a library, so evidently I wasn't terribly interested/impressed either...)

[hamsterwoman]

Ha, this is why I wanted to do this as part of a pact -- because that's one way to ensure I won't quit during the boring bits :P I'm glad to hear I made it through one of the most dangerous parts :) Plus I'm really encouraged to have gotten past halfway by page-count and nearly halfway by, presumably, character count.

[sephystabbity]

-- I, says Joe. I'm the alligator."

XD Almost makes me want to give this book another try XD

Holy cow, you're tearing through the Bingo!

I was expecting Into the Woods to be a lot better than it was, but at least some of the sound numbers were good. I got tired of 'into the woods' refrain pretty fast too, though. Agony was my favourite, my best friend and I were both cracking up through that whole song.

[hamsterwoman]

Not much of Ulysses is like that, but I'm really enjoying those bits -- that's why "Cyclops" is my favorite episode yet! :) (Also, you should totally still join us -- it's proving to be not as bad as I feared, even though a lot of it is sort of incomprehensible and I just float along on it.)

The funny thing is, most of these new bingos are a result of a book I read not for any square and without realizing it fit the prompt until after I was done, despite having a rodent in the title XP

I'm wondering if I'll/would be more impressed by the theater/Broadway version than the movie version -- it sounds like they made quite a few changes to the plot, and those I know about seem like they would weaken the story considerably... Agony was a hoot, though! I'm glad I watched it if just for that! :D

[sephystabbity]

I'm wondering if I'll/would be more impressed by the theater/Broadway version than the movie version

I've never watched the Broadway version, but I think it does seem like it would work better in that format. The movie seemed to drag on forever, and I think the intermission during musicals would help with dissipating that feeling. Plus the musical numbers probably sound a lot better in real time that filmed, even though the movie was reeeeeeeallly pretty aesthetic-wise.

RE: Ulysses, haha, I just don't think I can slog through all that prose, even though I can admire it from a distance ;)

[hamsterwoman]

It really did feel like there should've been an intermission between the false "happily ever after" ending and what is very clearly Act II.

I'm not really a theater person, but I might track down a DVD of the Broadway musical (I know it exists) and see what I think of it. Though I am definitely going to miss the very pretty scenery of the movie!