Epic Fail

I still haven't finished Mansfield Park.

It sucks, and so do I.

Honestly?

I had high hopes for Mansfield Park. Sad.

So far, I'm liking Emma more. I do not like this character Fanny; she seems to be everything that Austen opposes in her gender. Edmund is a retard. And though I'm pretty positive they're going to end up together ((*shudder* they are totally first cousins, and I know that was acceptable back then, but honestly)), I can't find anything interesting about Fanny at all. Nothing that makes me want for Edmund ((Or Henry or whoever)) to fall in love with her. She doesn't have spunk, like Elizabeth and Emma. She's only slightly less irritating that Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Woodhouse, and she just...does not win at life. At all.

Sincerely disappointed, I am. And I still have lots more to read.

*defeated sigh*

Success!!

Yay me! Emma is completed. I'm going to start Mansfield Park before I got to bed tonight, and have it finished by next Thursday. Then, it's Wurthering Heights.

Emma was...decent. It got better closer to the end. I'd say the first 3/4 of the novel was boring, for myself at least. And Emma was just retarded. I didn't like her nearly as much as I liked Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Knightely was win, though.

I can't wait until we see the movie version in class; it's not going to be until the last part of the semester, though. We're also going to watch Clueless. Any class that has that movie was part of the curriculum is win, for sure. We have to get through MP and the movie version first, however. I kind of misread the syllabus and started on Emma before I was supposed to, but I couldn't bring myself to stop reading it and pick up a new book. I hate that.

Anyway...I pretty much rock. (= One down, forty-nine to go. ;)

I've been pretty productive as of late. I was able to read a good portion of Emma while at work, even though we were surprisingly busy that day ((Friday)). I haven't, however, read any of it since, but I'm going to read some tonight before I go to bed and then hopefully finish it in the morning while I'm at work.

Next, of course, I have to start Mansfield Park, but I've changed my mind on what novel I want to read after MP. While wasting time for the 4:20 showing of "Paul Blart, Mall Cop" ((Peanut Blart and Jelly!)), my sister and I perused Borders. I picked up a copy of The Host by Stephenie Meyer ((which has been since added to my list, but I won't start until the summer hopefully)), and I was planning on purchasing Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Oye. I sat down to read some of the novel...it's really short, but really boring. I don't know if I just wasn't in the frame of mind or what, but I struggled through the first chapter. I was still going to buy it but then I saw Wuthering Heights and grabbed that instead. I read two chapters before we had to leave for the movie. So, I think I'm going to put off Rushdie and Tolskoy ((I think next year, I want to tackle War and Peace, lol. I'm mostly joking, though)) and the other Bronte until later.

In news completely unrelated to my books challenge, Writer's Digest is having a competition. I think I might do it. Deadline is around the corner though...so, that means I have to get busy. *shrug* Who knows what'll happen.

Toodles.

Spring Break

I am now officially on spring break ((thank God)). In between sleep, sleep and bad television, I plan to:

1. complete Emma
2. complete Mansfield Park
3. begin either The Enchantress of Florence, Anna Karenina or Jane Eyre

Number 3 does not necessarily have to be accompished during spring break, but definitely by it's end. If I wanna even get close to 50 novels, I need to put a dent in the list already.

Big time serious for number 1, though. I'm tired of posts complaining about that novel. I need a new one to complain about.

Blaaaah Emma

I'm having some serious difficulties with reading Emma. It's just not as a great as Pride and Prejudice, which is definitely my favorite. I'm a little worried about reading Mansfield Park, which I need to start in a week.

Obviously, P&P has been a long-running favorite for many Austen fans, but I was expecting a little bit more from her other books. I suppose it's because Emma was written before P&P, and there are styles and themes she definitely changed for future works. But I get hung up easily on...what I want to call errors. 'I don't like when dialogue is placed inside of apostrophe's instead of quotations. It's annoying, especially when one decides to "quote a person within the dialogue, so Austen decides to finally use the quotations correctly." It gets on my ever-living nerves.'

I mean, there are certain aspects of Emma that are enjoyable. I love picking out the bits to the book that were transferred over to the film "Clueless". But other than that...it's kind of boring.

Gah, I have a couple weeks yet to finish it. I feel like I've been reading it for years. I just want to be done already.

Book List

**21 novels read in 2009

I've decided to return to the world of blogging. Though, I should probably use the term loosely. I'm not so much blogging as I'm participating in the 50 Books a Year fun-time madness. And this will be the locale of my success or failure.

So far, I'm not off to a good start, lol.

Here is my list. It's not 50 yet, but I figure I'll add more as I start crossing them off. I'm not reading in any particular order, either.

It'll consist mostly of books recommended to me by others, and almost all of them will be books I would never read under normal circumstances. I do have several "safety" books thrown in, by authors I know and trust to keep me entertained.

K. That's all.

1. Emma by Jane Austen (3.18.09)
2. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
3. A Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
4. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (4.30.09)
7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolskoy
8. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (5.20.09)
9. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (5.6.09)
10. The Catcher and the Rye by J.D. Salinger
11. MacKenzie's Magic by Linda Howard
12. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
13. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
14. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
15. Scarlett by Alexandria Ripley
16. The Cutting Edge by Linda Howard
17. Come Lie With Me by Linda Howard
18. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
19. Atonement by Ian McEwan
20. Marley & Me by John Grogan
21. The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle (7.29.09)
22. The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne ((I totally cliffnote-ed this baby in HS; I'm for serious this time))
23. Stardust by Niel Gaiman
24. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
25. *The Host by Stephenie Meyer (7.17.09)
26. *Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks (5.4.09)
27. A Northen Light by Jennifer Donnelly
28. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (7.21.09)
29. The Story of Edward Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
30. Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue
31. Hands of My Father by Myron Uhlberg
32. Awake by Lisa McMann (10.19.09)
33. Fade by Lisa McMann
34. *I'll Scream Later by Marlee Matlin (8.28.09)
35. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith (5.25.09)
36. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
37. The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
38. The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve
39. *Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (8.23.09)
40. *Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella
41. *Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella
42. *Shopaholic & Sister by Sophie Kinsella
43. *Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
44. Butterfly Tattoo by Deidre Knight
45. My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler
46. Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Granger
47. Echoes by Maeve Binchy
48. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (9.05.09)
49. Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen (9.15.09)
50. *The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
51. The Light of Day by Graham Swift
52. Pink Slip Party by Cara Lockwood
53. A Perfect Day by Richard Paul Evans
54. Roadside Corsses by Jeffery Deaver
55. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
56. Lolita Vladimir Nabovok
57. Prime Time (Charlie McNally Series) by Hank Phillippi Ryan
58. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (10.08.09)
59. The Sign for Drowning by Rachel Stolzman
60. The Twisted Window by Lois Duncan (10.16.09)
61. The Giver by Lois Lowry (10.31.09)
62. John Dies at the End by David Wong (11-28-09)

*Denotes safety read.
*Red Strike-Thru denotes very slim chances of me picking up the novel again.