Thursday Thoughts (2)

Thursday Thoughts is a weekly meme hosted by Ashley over at OK, Let's Read.

So... I totally meant to participate last week, but didn't because of reasons, but I'm glad to be back this week! Today's topic is Choosing Books.

I've always been an avid reader, even when I was little. I was totally the kid hiding under the bedspread with a flashlight staying up late to read a book type. So, it's only natural that my book choosing process has changed as I've grown older. So to make this easier, I'm going to break this in to sections for each age range (starting with high school... which was more than 10 years ago for me. Yeah, I'm old, at least in the YA blogging world) to show you how my reading selection process has changed.

This was probably the time in my life that I struggled the most with book selection. The reason for that? I wasn't actually allowed to CHOOSE the books I wanted to read. I took AP English all throughout high school, and because of that, the books I read were the ones mandated by my teachers. Now, that's not to say that I didn't read some absolutely fantastic books while I was in high school. I read some of my all time favorite books during that time period. Some of which I own, and have read multiple times since then (Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, and A Tale of Two Cities just to name a few). But for every wonderful, amazing book I read, there were definitely some that I hated with a the power of a 1000 suns (Grapes of Wrath, Things Fall Apart, The Old Man and the Sea, By the Skin of Our Teeth, and basically anything by Thoreau). I remember during my junior year in particular, I read every other book assigned. Thank goodness for SparkNotes (is that still around?).

College was another slow reading time during my life. I still read books, but not nearly as often as I did during high school and nowhere even close to what I read now. I was an Early Childhood Education Major, so I read a lot of children's books (and educational texts and articles. Yay.). I did often carry a book around with me for breaks during my classics. The books I most often chose during this time were by far and away Classics. Jane Austen is my favorite, and this is when I purchased the copies I own of every single one of her books.

I am a mood reader. I pretty much read whatever I'm in the mood for. If I need something light, I pick up a contemporary. Need something more in depth that takes me to another time, place, or new world altogether? I'm going to pick up fantasy or sci-fi. I used to go to the library all the time (not so much now, I'm a book buyer now, more than a library-goer) and I would often choose books by authors I'd read before. Or, OR I would choose a book by its cover. Ha. It works well on most occasions. I found some super cute and fun books by choosing it by the cover.

I can say, without a doubt, that blogging has changed how I choose the books I'm going to read. Before blogging I knew very little about when books were coming out (except for a few favorites) and debut authors. But now? Sometimes I feel like it overtakes the rest of my life. I have a calendar where I keep track of book releases. On that calendar I keep tract of DRCs or ARCs I have to read. Now within that framework, I am still most definitely a mood reader. I choose books based on what I want to read. Now I'd say that fantasy/sci-fi is my favorite genre, but those books generally require a lot more focus. Since I've been in this slump, I can't seem to read anything to heavy, so I've been sticking with the contemporary genre. Luckily I've read some AMAZING contemporaries during this time.

So, how do I pick books now? Well, I do it a few ways.

Obviously anything I request from Netgalley is something I'm already interested in, and when I get an invitation, I almost always add it. I *try* to read by review date, but it doesn't always happen, especially when I'm in the middle of a book slump. During that time I'm just looking for ANYTHING to pull me out of it.

As for books to buy, there's a few bloggers I trust their opinion implicitly, so if they rave about a book, it will pretty much guarantee I'll pick it up. Conversely, if there's a book universally panned, I stay away. I don't usually read full reviews, but I'll skim the review and check for ratings, etc to see if it's something I'd like. This generally works out really well for me, and I've found some amazing books that I'd never heard of from fellow bloggers.

Then there's my auto-buy authors. I have quite a few authors that I will pretty much buy anything they release. I've fallen in love with their stories, their writing, and their style thus earning a spot on my auto-buy list. A few of these authors are: Sarah J. Maas, Rae Carson, Tahereh Mafi, Rainbow Rowell, Marie Lu, Kasie West, Huntley Fitzpatrick, Jennifer E. Smith, AC Gaughen, Marissa Meyer, and Veronica Rossi. There's so many more, but those are the ones off the top of my head.

And finally, books in a series. If I read the first book in a series and enjoyed it, I will most always pick up the other books in the series when they're released. I am also a person that doesn't wait for the entire series to be out, so I get to wait years for the entirety of the series to be released.

So.... how do YOU choose books?!?

Thursday Thoughts (1)

Thursday Thoughts is a weekly meme hosted by Ashley over at OK, Let's read!

I've been meaning to join in on Thursday Thoughts for the past 2 weeks, but I was smack-dab in the middle of the book boyfriend tournament and couldn't fit in any additional posts. But now that it's April and March Madness is over, I can finally participate! This week's topic is Books to Movies. I have quite a bit to say about this topic, so let's get started!

 

(Speaking of adaptations, it was announced today that Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell has been optioned by DreamWorks! AND she's writing the screenplay. Here's the story on ew.com. Huzzah!)

Okay, on to the discussion...I'm not firmly in one camp or the other. If it's a movie I'm interested in, and have read the book, chances are I will see the movie at some point. On the reverse side, I'm not likely to go see an adaptation where I have not read the book. 

 

I have recently made a self-imposed rule that I will not re-read books before the movie comes out. It used to be the opposite for me. I would reread the book the week before the movie is released. Which only set me up for disappointment. I would nit pick EVERYTHING. It was very much a "how *dare* you leave out this ridiculously miniscule detail that no one else will notice but me?" So. I did not reread Divergent before going to see the movie on opening night. Due to that fact, I think my rating was higher than it would've been otherwise. (It should also be noted that I often reread books in series before the next one comes out. So before seeing Divergent, I had already read the book 3 times...)

 

Onto some of my favorite (and least favorite) adaptations. For the purposes of the rest of this post, I shall break it in to three categories: The Great, The Pretty Good, and The Don't Touch This With a 10 Foot Pole.

 

 Harry Potter. The gold standard on which I judge all book to movie adaptations.While it would have been impossible to include every. single. detail. included in the books, I felt the creative decisions made were the right ones (who really needed the S.P.E.W. plot line in the movies? No one. That's who.). If books like these with SO much detail can be this well made, why can't everything?!

The Help. This was one of the truest to form adaptations I've ever seen. Another example of how adaptations should be. Check it out, especially if you've read the book. There's a reason Octavia Spencer won an Oscar for her role.

10 Things I Hate About You. In case you didn't know. this totally an adaption of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. I was, and still am, obsessed with this movie. My husband actually bought it for me for Christmas. It's Heath Ledger's first starring role, and I love him in this movie so much. It's late-90s awesomeness in all its glory.

Clueless. Another one that most people don't know is an adaption. This time, it's Jane Austen's Emma. Alicia Silverstone as Cher is wonderful. And the catch-phrases? As if! Did I mention that it has Paul Rudd?!? Need I say more?

Pride and Prejudice (2004 movie version). I love this movie so very much. I know what scene to skip to on my DVD to watch my favorite Lizzy & Darcy moments. Still to this day, I remember seeing it in the theater with my now-husband.

 

 

The Lord of the Rings. This trilogy is so amazing. As a huge fan of Tolkien's original work, I may actually love the movies just as much. With the exception of a couple of glaring omissions (Tom Bombadil, anyone?), it really is a very true-to-story adaptation.

 

Gone with the Wind. Loved the book. Love the movie (all 4 hours of it). I don't even care that the most famous line from the movie isn't actually the direct quote from the book. It's just that good.

 

The Hunger Games & Catching Fire. This is so close to being in the great section, but for a few things I don't understand why they cut them out. The avoxes? Darius? Madge? Bonnie & Twill? I know this is a bit nit-picky, but I don't care. I did enjoy Catching Fire quite a bit more than The Hunger Games though (and not just because Finnick is quite possibly my favorite person in the entire series).

Divergent. So there's a few things I didn't understand why they changed them, namely no Edward eye-stabbing and the ending... but overall I thought it was true to the book. The casting was fantastic (why hello, Theo James), and the acting was incredible. For the record, I don't usually support completely changing the book for the movie, but in the case of Allegiant, I desperately hope that they will... for more reasons than I can enumerate here.

The Hobbit. As much as I loved LOTR, The Hobbit has not captured me in the same way. Peter Jackson has added SO much from additional books (ie: The Simarillion) to create additional stories that are no where to be found in The Hobbit. But I do love the movies for what they are. Also, CUMBERBATCH.

The Host. Oh my word this was horrible. Weird casting. Unnecessary and completely strange additions and subtractions from the book. And don't even get me started on the voice-over for Wanderer. But I did love the book. So.. there's that.

 

Twilight (especially the first movie). Not that this stopped me from seeing all of the movies. Let's pretend I didn't know any better at the time these were released. The movies did get better, but still not great. However it did spawn THIS from Jimmy Fallon (click on the Daniel Radcliffe one). Enjoy.

What are your thoughts on books to movies? Love 'em or leave 'em?