Titles Revisited

Something amazing happens when you reread books. They're so familiar and yet so different. The words haven't changed, the book hasn't changed, but you have. You approach it with a different outlook on life and more life experience under your belt. Books that you once thought were the bee's knees may actually be kind of lame. Yet other old favorites are even richer the second time around. They're old, dear friends who welcome you into their home without any pretensions and don't care if you help yourself to their tea stash or fall asleep on the couch. They just fetch the milk and sugar and throw a blanket over you.

I just finished reading Brideshead Revisited, and I just know it's going to be one of those books that begs for a second go. I'm so glad I didn't read it till now. I've learned a lot in the past year and a half about reading critically and I found a lot of meaning in it, but I can just sense with my reader spidey senses that there is even more to unpack. Rereading Brideshead promises to be a totally different experience from rereading The Chronicles of Narnia or Princess Academy. For those books, the story-world just comes rushing back and it feels like I've returned home. I don't think I'd call Brideshead "home" -- it has a magic of a different sort about it -- but I would call it a keeper. I'm still making sense of the last page. I read it aloud to myself a second time, trying to fully understand it, but there's so much... May I just say that Charles Ryder is the English version of Nick Carraway? I'll admit there are numerous differences between the two, but there were some parts of the book that screamed Gatsby to me. Also, I am going to buy myself a teddy bear and name it Aloysius. Oh, and future husband take note: The English knew how to dress. Looking over screenshots from the two film adaptations, I'm practically drooling over the tweed. Oh yes. Tweed jackets and amazing waistcoats are most definitely in order.

Love the quirkiness of this cover. Mine is still very pretty, though.

I've written a review on Goodreads, which I would encourage you to check out. Spoiler free, I promise!

I'm planning to read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn next, if I can find enough time before school. Hopefully this summer I will be able to reread some favorite titles. Persuasion and Peter Pan are at the top of my list. I am also hoping to get biographies on Jane Austen and J.M. Barrie. Not only do I love their books, but they interest me as individuals and I gobble up every bit of trivia on the two I can find.

* Note: Brideshead does have more mature themes. The content isn't overly explicit and everything contributed to the larger whole, but younger readers take note.

images: one

Valentine's Day: The Enemy of Adventure

That vague sense of impending doom? Yeah, that's a sign that Valentine's Day is coming up. Never mind that St. Valentine(s) was a hardcore martyr(s)/saint(s) extraordinaire(s), look what happened after his/their death(s)! (Plural confusing you? Click here.) Someone, someone who deserves to be killed by a slew of Cupid's arrows, had the brilliant idea to commercialize his feast. Now there is an entire 24 hours dedicated to romance --- and some of us are on the outside looking in. 
* I have discovered that it is held that Chaucer of Canterbury Tales fame first associated V-day with love. However, it was not commercialized until centuries later.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, yours truly is perpetually single. It's actually pretty fun, when you think about it. I'm in that magical stage of my life where I am learning all about who I am. And you know what? I'm BRILLIANT! When things are meant to happen, they'll happen, so until then, I am going to celebrate my perpetual singleness with nut-free chocolate and decaffeinated Earl Grey. No pity parties for me!

Another thing that is lovely about being single is boys from books. You can enjoy them all, guilt-free. No commitment whatsoever. I can wax poetic about Mr. Knightley one moment, and be completely free to drool over Captain/Lord/Mr. Bradford the next. Boyfriends tie you down. Allow me to demonstrate. Back in my personal Dark Ages, a.k.a. my Jonas Brothers phase, I was hopelessly in love with Nicholas Jerry Jonas. (I just scared myself. How do I know his middle name? HOW DO I STILL REMEMBER THIS GUY'S MIDDLE NAME!?) Apparently my baby-sitter liked him too. (Yes, I was still young enough to have a baby-sitter. Awkward...) Well, she was in a relationship with some guy, don't really know who, and we were talking about boys. Because that's what young girls always talk about with their baby-sitters, right? Anyways, I asked her if she'd dump her boyfriend for Nick Jonas, you know, if Nick Jonas ever randomly showed up in a helicopter, got on one knee, and asked her to go out with him for burgers and milkshakes. (You'd have to be careful with the milkshakes because he has diabetes and you'd have to mind that he didn't overdo it on the sugar.) And you know what she said? NO. Middle school me could hardly believe it.

"But he's NICK JONAS!" I gaped.

My baby-sitter finished putting the last coat of nail polish on my nails (because I was also too young to paint my own nails with any success). "Yeah, but I like *insert boyfriend's nowadays ex-boyfriend's name here*. I wouldn't want to give that up." 

HOW CAN YOU RESIST THAT FACE?

Do you see what being in a relationship does to you? To quote The Princess and the Frog, "Hitchin' ties you down! You just wanna be free, hop from place to place!" We all saw what problems Rose Tyler's pseudo-relationship with Mickey caused when she was adventuring with the Doctor. See, I can't properly enjoy my fictional men if I'm dating! If Nick Jonas showed up in a helicopter, I would be taken. Relationships interfere with adventures. Tumnus asks you for tea, Hagrid tells you you're a wizard, the Doctor grabs your hand and whispers "run", Bilbo hands you the Ring, or a portal opens that can take you to any fictional world of your choosing. Your response? "Sorry, my boyfriend is waiting for me. We're supposed to be going out for texting and scones later. Later." ISN'T THAT UBER LAME!?

You can't go for texting and scones with the Doctor (or Rory) if you're in a relationship. Duh.

The more I think about it, the more I'd like to die a spinster. I could don a fabulous cap like Jane Austen did even though she technically wasn't a widow or spinster yet and I could spoil my nieces and nephews with sweets. Ah, yes. I think I shall die alone. Alone and free. Mmm, yes, I like that plan. Spinsterhood, here I come!

I like adventures, which is why I will end up an old maid.

 DISCLAIMER: This post is dripping with sarcasm and should not be taken literally. The authoress is, in fact, content with her marital status and simultaneously enjoys reading about grand adventures and gallant gentlemen. She does not, however, resent dating, nor does she have any intention of dying an old maid. Furthermore, the authoress extends her most sincere wishes for a happy Valentine's Day to all her readers.

Image Credits: first, second, third, fourth

Bedtime Stories

I may be a legal adult, but I love a good time bedtime story. Yet sometimes, reading a story for myself just won't cut it. There are some nights where all I want is for someone to sit on the end of my bed and read me a chapter or two of The Silver Chair, because I'm a hipster and even if everyone else hates it, it is probably my favorite Narnia book. Yet this never happens. Why? Because my sister is a BUM and doesn't love me, that's why! She says she has to "get some sleep" because she has "school tomorrow". Can't a girl get a bedtime story over here? There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes!

- The Fourth Doctor

May I also add that Tom Baker not only played the fourth Doctor, but Puddleglum, my favorite character from Narnia. My favorite character who also happens to be in The Silver Chair and gives the greatest speech of all time. I mean, I'm not condoning the BBC version of Narnia (it's wretched and will give you nightmares), but the epic is strong with this one.

Anyways, bedtime stories are important. A brief conversation with Emily has confirmed this. Reading to your children at night is priceless. It has developmental benefits, sure, but there is something so utterly magical about being read to as a child. It sets off a creative spark that is kindled throughout childhood and shows its greatest fruits in adulthood. Better yet is when someone weaves together a one-of-a-kind, one-night-only story made out of thin air!

Irony of ironies, it was my turn to tell my sister a bedtime story last night. The poor gal just got braces, and they have hardly been kind to her. Last night, her upper lip was all swollen and she was positively miserable. My dad and I shuffled her off to bed, and while we were laying in the dark, I asked in a small voice, "Do you want a bedtime story?" She gave the affirmative, and thus I began. Once upon, in a land far away, there was a prince...

It was brilliant, if I do say so myself. ("Oh, the cleverness of me!") I threw together this whole story about a selfish prince who was always scowling and had been lured into this tower by a dragon and now had his foot in his own chocolate birthday cake, and I was just getting to the big reveal about how the dragon was actually a cursed princess when my sister fell asleep. I was on the brink of completing the greatest bedtime story ever told, which was full of fantastic one-liners, and she fell asleep. I guess that was the point, but COME ON. I deserved an award for that one, or at least a bit of praise at the end. Tsk, tsk. Sisters. So ungrateful!

Now, I am going to go spoil myself with a few passages of Peter Pan. That unique combination of delightfully happy and unfathomably sad stuff ought to make my day a little more interesting, don't you think?

Ha! The stars are such spazzes!

Side note: Do you realize how many corny quotes from Peter Pan there are in Google Images? Most of them aren't even actually from the book. Clearly, no one realizes how truly depressing, dark, and twisted this novel is. *sigh* No one appreciates literature, not really... (False: Plenty of people do, it's just that sometimes people's sentimental preconceived notions of Peter Pan sadden me.) Operation Spread the Word About Words needs to start NOW.

Image credits: top

The Idea of the Century

When you're feeling down, I would highly recommend you look up people's stories concerning their interactions with characters at Disney. Too cute for words.

I could go on for hours about every second of the interactions I had when my family went on our first and only trip to Disney World two summers ago, but I will just sum it up: It was awesome. I spazzed over Belle and I might have shouted on accident. I gushed to Naveen and Tiana that I had seen their movie over twenty times. I got a picture with the adorable Flynn Rider. My sister and I chased after Peter Pan, who we missed, unfortunately. (I plan to go back to Disney, walk right up to him, declare my intentions to become a lost girl, and show him my best crow.) I'm telling you, meeting the characters at Disney is one of the most fun things I've ever done.

*smolder* My hair was so short 2 years ago. Wow.

I have lots more pictures but you probably don't want to see all of them, Plus, I look like I'm 10. Flynn/Eugene is enough.

So basically, I've had the idea of the century. We make Literature World... and we populate it with literature themed rides and GREAT CHARACTERS OF LITERATURE INTERACTIONS.

Picture this.

Big Brothers posters, everywhere.

The Huck Finn Log Flume. Instead of logs, you're on rafts.

The Gatsby Rollercoaster. In that flashy yellow car with Daisy at the wheel.

Fahrenheit 451 Ride. Your car is chased by the mechanical hound!

Meet-and-greet with Darcy and Elizabeth. Push Lizzy out of the way, and flirt with the gent.

The Haunted House. Featuring the ghosts of King Hamlet and Catherine Earnshaw.

Narnia Train Ride. You start in a train station in England, then you're in Narnia, summoned by Susan's horn!

Now let's add more books.

Attend a ball at the pavilion! Beware Keeper; If you're lucky, Bradford will ask you for a spin.

Play paintball Hunger Games!

Come to the bonfire! Tell mountain stories. Dance with ribbons. Learn to quarryspeak.

What do y'all think? Any ideas for this amusement park? The above are only the tip of iceberg!