52 Books in 52 Weeks – Harry Potter cont…

Fair warning… it’s all about Harry Potter 🙂

41. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling

I won’t lie, the movie of this book is my least favourite in the series. Having now read the book I think the movie cheated it. There was so much more depth in a variety of characters that was erased from the film.

I really enjoyed this second book. Loved that Dobby threw Lucius down some stairs at the end and that the flying car was an actual character that was self-aware and had feelings and went wild in the forest. I also liked that nearly headless Nick was a much bigger character in the book than I expected having seen the film first.

I do love the relationships in this book and if I were in need of a family I would wish with all my heart that the Weasley’s were real and looking to adopt!

Great book, can’t wait for the next one 🙂

42. Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling

I am loving how my appreciation of this series is getting deeper as I go on. At this point I am pretty much tearing through these books.

I love Ron attempting to use the phone and very much wish that was in the movie. I also found the character of Crookshanks very interesting, in the film he is just a cat, but in the books he is so much more.

Sirius and Lupin were some of my favourite characters from the films and Lupin was definitely my favourite Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, so I am glad that my love for them was only made bigger by reading the actual book 🙂

43. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling

Oh Cedric, Cedric. He was such a good and wonderful person. Sorry, it’s all just so much more real when you are reading the book, you feel like you really got to know him and then… well… all the feels.

I love the Weasley’s rocking up through the fireplace and the Dursley’s just not know knowing what to do about it hahaha.

I did feel like a lot of the descriptions of Krum were quite negative, maybe it is just me, but that’s how I was left feeling about him which I think was unfair because there is nothing wrong with him.

There was more Dobby in this book, I was kind of surprised by that because Dobby didn’t show up at all really between the Chamber of Secrets and Deathly Hallows. Poor Dobby. I actually really liked him as a character in the book. Hermione trying to save all the house elves that don’t want to be saved gave me a giggle too.

44. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling

I have so many evilish feelings and thoughts about Umbridge. She really is the Antichrist! What a truly evil woman.

I have noticed (maybe because I know what is coming from the movies) that Rowling has little hints in earlier books of things to come which is pretty awesome. It certainly shows that she had this whole story and world planned out completely.

Fred + George Weasley Forever! Those boys are something else and I just love it!

I feel like A LOT was missed out from the book to the film and that makes me sad. For starters in the film didn’t Bellatrix “kill” Neville’s parents rather than just drive them batty? Why? St Mungo’s isn’t even shown in the films which means we never see loopy Lockhart again. Harry felt a lot of angst around the fact that Hermione and Ron were made prefects and he wasn’t, I thought it was great they were made prefects and interesting that this was not in the film.

45. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling

I think this was my favourite book so far. The back story into Voldemort was colourful, clever, well-rounded and very informative without giving too much away.The book is FAR better than the movie and I feel as though I have a much greater understanding of Voldemort now.

The way the characters are developed through this series is very well orchestrated and I can only applaud Rowling’s brain for that. Every character is so well thought out and carefully built and true to their nature in the way that they react and interact within the story.

Every chapter with adventures using the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book was fascinating and Harry’s internal thoughts and emotions whilst the story unravels are fascinating. Definitely my favourite so far!

46. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling

Nooooo….. it can’t be the last one already! I have read these way too fast!

I can certainly understand why they split this into 2 films, there is an immense amount that occurs in this book. In the final book of this wondrous and now quite beloved (for me anyway) series Rowling brilliantly and tear-jerkingly ties up all the little fragments she has planted over the years throughout the books. This final volume is an absolute triumph and this along with the Half-Blood Prince are absolutely 2 of the best junior fiction novels I have EVER read.

I laughed and shed tears reading this book. A favourite part was hearing Fred and George Weasley on the radio station ‘Pottermore’ hosted by Lee Jordan, I literally laughed out loud during this part of the book. I can’t for the life of me imagine why they wouldn’t have included this part in the first Deathly Hallows film instead of just watching them camp for the majority of it.

I adore how intricately interwoven this series is, the story of which spans literally two generations (more if you include the Dumbledore back story). I know I have mentioned my adoration of the effort that has gone into the characters, but honestly I don’t feel I can state enough how impressed I was with the development of the characters. Harry and Ginny’s relationship was so well done in the books, I really feel it suffered in the films (emotion fueled teenage looks non-withstanding).

Also the end fight scene in this was SO much better than the film. I always liked the film’s final fight, but the book’s was amazing!

I do truly wish I could have experienced the series without having seen the movies, but let’s face it there are so many spoilers around it wouldn’t have mattered. What does matter is that I have finally read them and loved them and now I won’t cause shock by saying “I haven’t actually read Harry Potter”

 

I couldn’t believe it when I was reading these books and the last book almost coincided with the passing of Alan Rickman. I was so very sad to hear of his passing, he was a spectacularly talented man and I am a big fan of his work

What are you guys reading???

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It’s okay to be me

This post was inspired by WordPress’ Daily Prompt ‘It Builds Character’.

I have already accidentally deleted this entire post twice because of strange things that the new interface does. I am unimpressed to say the least. So I will now write this in Word and copy paste 🙂

When I think back on characters that have had an effect on me, there is one in particular which stands out as being integral to the person I have become.

When I was young (prepubescent young), I was already aware that I was different from most of the other girls in the class. Whilst they were obsessed with ‘The Baby Sitters Club’ and ‘Sweet Valley High’ (both of which I read and enjoyed, but mainly they just gave me numbers for the read-a-thon each year) I was off reading ‘Matilda’ and authors like R.L Stine (not the Goosebumps books, the advanced stuff) and Tamora Pierce. I had great access to YA novels because my Mum was a Teacher Librarian at a High School.

Other girls my age wanted to play makeovers and weddings and I wanted to ride bikes and run through the bush. The girls I knew made games of imagining their weddings to a member of the Backstreet Boys or Hanson whilst I danced about the house singing to the score of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’.

Jo March from ‘Little Women’ was a trailblazer, in a time where it wasn’t proper for women to run through the woods, traipse about through brooks without shoes, yell out to or play with boys or write epic novels she did it all and everyone who mattered accepted her and loved her for who she was. Everything about this girl/woman appealed to me. It would be fair to say that as a young girl my biggest dream was to grow up to be Jo March. She was a hero to me. To this day she remains one of my favourite literary characters. In fact Jo March is probably the reason I have the guts to write online.

Jo also appealed to me because of her love of the written word and her strength of character and independence. You have probably noticed from my reviews of my books for 52 Books in 52 Weeks that I have a thing for strong female characters that shuck the norm and stereotypes. I still believe that this love of certain qualities in this character made me try to develop those characteristics in myself. As soon as I was old enough to work (14) I got an after school job. This made me feel amazing because I didn’t have to ask my mother to buy me things like deodorant and tampons (you have no idea how amazing it was as a 14 year old to not rely on someone else for your tampon stash!), this was my first step to real independence and I liked it. I saved my money from my job and when I graduated I paid my own way on a holiday with my friends, that is a pretty huge thing for an 18 year old to be able to do. Then when I was 19 I moved interstate to the desert, yup I moved to Ayers Rock, it was arid, hot, confronting and I was pretty innocent at the time (I hardened up quick though – read more about that here), I had no safety net there. I knew no one. It was the bravest and most awesome thing I think I have done. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad I did it to this day!

I believe I have a lot to thank Jo March for. I have previously written about my love of both the book and movie and after reading back over this post I realise how big an impact my love of this character has had on me. As far as role models go I am pretty proud that she has been and continues to be mine.

 

Book vs. Film: The Hobbit

# HUGE SPOILER WARNING!!! I will discuss much of the plot in both the book ‘The Hobbit’ and associated movies.

This is my 33rd book read for the year 🙂 I need to be clear upfront that I loved the book and really liked the movies so don’t think that all the negatives I am about to throw at you mean I didn’t like the movies. If I hadn’t read the book I would have loved them, but there were some changes made (especially a big one towards the end) that really p’d me off 🙂

Here. We. Go.

Azog – You all remember Azog from the movies right, big white dude, missing part of his arm, very central to the entire plot of the movies? Well the thing is that apart from saying he died many years before (killed by Thorin), he wasn’t in the book. Whilst I agree that the constant threat of attack and pursuit from Azog did give a certain urgency to the plot it kind of stuck in my gullet a bit too because this role was really supposed to be for Bolg.

Galadriel – Gorgeously played by fellow Aussie Cate Blanchett, she was amazing and I love her in this role and I felt that this character was a good addition to the films, but she wasn’t in the books, at all. This is interesting when she was so integral to parts of the movie’s plot.

The character of Saruman was also not in the book, I didn’t really understand the point of him being in the movie apart from at one point being difficult and rude about Radagast and the next minute fighting like the dickens. I also was annoyed because I couldn’t figure out whether they were insinuating that he was already a bad guy when this took place… frustrating.

Legolas – Oh I feel bad even writing this part because who doesn’t love Legolas? He is a great character. He is also not in the book, at all. However if memory serves he is identified as the son of Thranduil in The Lord of the Rings so I suppose it is feasible that he was in Mirkwood, but there are whole extra side stories that are added here which were not in the book at all. They are nice and all and as I said before I enjoyed the films, but they are not true to the book.

Tauriel – This character does not exist in any Tolkien book I know of. I feel like this character was just added so there could be a love interest for Kili because apparently there has to be some kind of romance thing happening in all movies… sigh. Whilst the actress was good and the character was well written there was no need to add another character and it pissed me off because I felt that this character and the ensuing romance with Kili was the reason that they had to change the ending.

Another interesting change was how the group came to be captured by the elves in Mirkwood. In the book the group was drawn to the elves celebrations by laughter and music, in the movie the elves saved them from the spiders and then took them hostage. I guess doing it this way quickened things up, but considering they stretched the book out into three movies you wouldn’t really think there was a need for that. I also felt as though the elves in the films were portrayed very differently from in the book, whilst in the book they were warriors certainly they were also musical and the majority of interactions with them included them singing. This was never shown in the movie, not at Mirkwood or at Rivendell, their entrance to Rivendell was also very different from in the book. I do wonder why the writers wanted the elves to seem so serious, severe, unfriendly and apart from the rest of the world. Interesting.

What are ‘were-worms’? I honestly don’t remember Tolkien writing about them, they reminded me of the things from Dune. Am I wrong in not remembering these things from the books?

Fili and Kili, I felt like they were robbed of a warriors death and it pissed me off. Poor Fili is basically executed to hurt Thorin and Kili is only killed because he tried to stop Tauriel being killed. Grr. In the book these characters have a fine death, meeting their end protecting their king. I was really frustrated by this.

I thought Thorin’s death in the movie was crap too, at first I was yelling at him to just get off the ice and it would capsize then once he did that and Azog was ‘dead’ he slowly watched him float along under the ice… *GROAN* seriously?! What moron would do this. They always come back Peter Jackson, always! So then Thorin gets a crappy death because he didn’t stab twice. At least he gets to have the meaningful conversation with Bilbo and they renew their bromance 🙂

This is hard because like I said in the beginning I liked both the books and the movies, but there was things that the movie changed that as a lover of the book I was disappointed in some parts. I also wanted to see more of the Green Dragon, which I am pretty sure all fans want.

Book vs. Film: Little Women

# SPOILER WARNING!!! I know I don’t normally do this, but in this case I will discuss much of the plot in both the book and movie ‘Little Women’.

This is a breakthrough 52 Books in 52 Weeks post and will count as number 14. I wanted to do a special post on this book and its movie adaption, but it will still count towards my count 🙂

So those that have been following me for awhile would know well my love of the book Little Women. In fact it is one of my favourite books and definitely one of my favourite movie adaptions. I realised that I had not read it in many years and so when I saw it at work I grabbed it and once again lost myself in this beautful story. It is one of the few books I have cried in and I am not ashamed to admit that I still welled up, not so much in the sad parts, moreso in the extremely joyous parts like the return of their father after he fell ill in the war. Interestingly I never noticed before that in the book they say he fell ill, but I am pretty sure that in the movie he was injured – doesn’t really matter. The coming home was beautiful and joyous and I welled up… I totally blame the pre-baby pills hahaha.

I have pondered for awhile about doing some book vs. movie posts and so I guess this will become my first 🙂 First of all as I have stated previously I loved both the book and the movie (1994 version), there was a lot cut out of the book (let’s face it, it is pretty long) and mushed together in the movie, but I think it works. So let’s talk about differences.

• In the book both the Father and Mr. Lawrence have a much larger role in the plot. Mr. Lawrence certainly has a closer relationship with the family in the book. In the movie I didn’t really notice Mr. Lawrence so much except to wish I had a Mr. Lawrence to give me an awesome piano (well that was when I first watched it… I was pretty young. Later on I just wished for Laurie 🙂 ). Looking at it now I don’t think this is a terrible thing, yes he was a great character in the book, but I also felt that the movie was more centred on being entirely about the girl’s relationships with each other and their experiences. I think sacrificing the film time of those characters for the sake of this is worth it.
• Where was Aunt Carroll in the movie? She doesn’t exist in the movie. To be honest I totally get this, she is basically a non character in the book (harsh I know, but true), basically her entire reason for being in the book was to be a catalyst for Amy to go to Europe. By taking her out and putting Aunt March in this role they made her a more important part of the girls lives which I think made the willing of Plumfield to Jo more believable.
• I loved how Laurie was portrayed in the movie, I think it was done so well and to me stayed true to the character in the book. I think this character developed beautifully throughout the book. In the book the relationship development between he and Amy makes a lot more sense than in the movie. To be honest in the movie I didn’t totally buy that he loved her at first, I thought it was kinda like he married her and the love grew later.
  

  OMG Princess Daisy is going to make out with Batman – somebody call Luigi!!!

• I love that the book goes on to years later so you see what happened with them, how their journey is going and whether they got their castles in the sky. This was lacking in the movie, but it ended in true Hollywood fashion with two attractive people making out in the rain, so I suppose that is cool too 🙂
  
• The death of Beth was handled so lovingly in both the book and movie, I can’t fault it and don’t want to look for faults in it.
• I do wish Beth’s character had been a little more fleshed out in the movie than it was. She was so beautifully and perfectly depicted in the book. Meg in the movie was interesting too, gone were the unattractive character traits like spending beyond her husbands means and lusting after a rich lifestyle and how she deals with those faults of character. Jo’s character was pretty much like she is in the book, wild, wooly and abrasive on the outside – warm, tender and loving on the inside 🙂
• This film combined with ‘Interview with the Vampire’ began my love for Kirsten Dunst 🙂

I think the thing that made the movie adaption so great for me was that the cast was just wonderful, seriously that casting director needed a raise. Not only were they great in their own roles, but their interactions with other members of the cast were poignant, purposeful and moving.

Nawwwww

Don’t expect me to always provide such glowing reviews, but every now and then you might get one. Obviously this review is completely biased by my childhood love of this movie which undoubtedly has lots to do with the fact I grew up with two rough and tumble brothers and desperately wanted a sister hahaha.

What is your fave book to film adaptation?