Behind the scenes of “To Kill A Mockingbird”
This just makes me love Gregory Peck even more…
(Source: beauxland)
J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S THE HOBBIT
Okay, so I admit. Last time I read this book was when my dad read it to me in third grade before I went to bed every night.
When I heard that the movie was coming out this Christmas, I’m jumping up and down, all excited:
Me: I can’t wait! The movie’s going to be great! The book was so good—
My mother: When did you read the book?
Me: Well…Dad read it to me when I was little…
My mother: Oh, really? So, what happened in it?
Me:…
Herp. Derp.
So, since I can’t go back on my word saying that I don’t like seeing a movie before I read the book, I finished The Hobbit for the “second” time. I cannot believe what I had forgotten!
J.R.R. Tolkien really is a splendid storyteller. The way he weaves his story together is simply fantastic, and his descriptions are lovely. His stories are ones that just let the reader’s imagination run rampant across pages, and to me, those are always the best kind of books.
For those that are not LOTR savvy, The Hobbit is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and follows the adventures of Bilbo Baggins “there” to the Lonely Mountain and to the fiery wrath of the dragon named Smaug, and “back again” to the lovely hobbit hole that everyone knows and loves.
Poor Bilbo Baggins only wishes to be content for the rest of his life, just like any other hobbit. Yet deep in his blood, way up his family tree, is a line of hobbits that love adventure as much as the next adventurous 3’5”, hairy-footed man. This could be a good reason for his troubles. The easiest thing (or person) to blame his troubles on is the wonderful wizard Magneto…or Gandalf (X-Men reference…I couldn’t help it).
When Gandalf pays Bilbo a foreboding visit, telling him that a journey great in trouble and reward was just on the horizon, Bilbo might as well been shaking in his boots…except hobbits don’t wear shoes. Suddenly, the poor hobbit finds that he has been wrapped up in a perilous quest among dwarves to regain the lost treasure under the Lonely Mountain from the wrath of the dastardly dragon, Smaug. Without any please or thank you, Bilbo is stuck gaining the lost treasure back for the dwarves…but he finds that perhaps being a burglar for them is not that bad of a job…for it has its own secret rewards as well.
Adventure. Adventure. Adventure. All the time. Adventure!
Jam-packed with all kinds of magic and peril, The Hobbit is a timeless tale that readers of all ages NEED to read at one point in their life. It’s a “Bucket List” book I suppose. If I had to make a list of books to read before I die, this book would be on there. Tolkien is so fluid and beautiful in his words and the story itself is suspenseful, terrifying at times, and simply imaginative. Everything that you dreamed of as a child are very real in this book, at times altogether too real. One of my favorite reads of the summer, The Hobbit is going to be a movie that you are not going to want to miss and a book that you are never going to want to put down.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed my silly rants, and next up is Candice Millard’s The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President. Oooh. Sounds suspenseful. Normally I’m not one for nonfiction, but already I’m pretty well hooked. Let’s see how this goes.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD’S THE GREAT GATSBY
Everyone I know has been bashing and has shied away from love stories thanks to the sparkling vampire/ripped-werewolf-on-a-motorbike series (*cough* Twilight). Yet, this is a love story I would shove in their faces and creepily bug them about until they whapped me over the head with it and finally agreed to read it as long as I would shut up and leave them alone.
Set in the twinkling and gleaming golden lights of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgerald has really created a masterpiece just as magnificent as Gatsby’s house or Gatsby’s numerous illustrious parties. Following the Midwestern man Nick Carraway as he attempts to make his future out east and his run-in with the great, remarkable, and together all-too mysterious Jay Gatsby, who just so happens to be his next door neighbor.
Inter-connections run rampant through this novel between Nick himself, Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom, and Gatsby. The inner theme of the story seems to me to be the underlying selfish nature of some of these characters. How some people will build up and claw their way to the top for years and years, and it can be torn down and completely destroyed by a jealous or angry selfish man with just a few words. Nick and his companions ride a frightening roller coaster through the big east cities full of jealousy, selfishness, big lights, and intermittent sin. Only when the lights get too bright does Nick finally realize how these people are creatures set out to destroy the towers of success that others make.
F. Scott Fitzgerald has woven together a dynamic American classic overflowing with drinking, sparkling cities, and tragic pasts, presents, and futures in The Great Gatsby.
Yay! First book review done! Gahh….now for my native lingo…dfskjldsf;jladfskj;ldfs;klafsh;dfshjdfshdfs;khldfs WHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAATTTTT….
GATSBY FEELS»!>!>!! NOOOOOOoooooo fdkjfsaddfsah
Thank you. The end.
Well, done with that. On to Bilbo Martin Freeman and Cumbersmaug in The Hobbit!
I am so excited for this movie you cannot believe…
I’m reading the book before the movie comes out, and I just saw the trailer for it.
…I can’t believe that I was actually already picturing Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby.
Aaaaa….why can’t it come out now?!
