Marion's comments (member since Jun 21, 2008)

Marion's comments from the The Rory Gilmore Book Club group.

I'm currently reading Toward a New Cold War Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There by Noam Chomsky because I am now allowed to read at work. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get any reading done at all :( I'm looking forward to next semester a lot, where my classes will hopefully be more balanced.

It still worked yesterday. Maybe it's just down temporarily?

I also really like Kristel's idea. If we vote for the book early on, then we could have a discussion/reading that is kind of stretched out over 3 months which would possibly give more people the opportunity to get in the right mood for the book or to read it at all.

The water was so clean and clear you could have used it to make your morning coffee. (Life of Pi, Yann Martel)

Next: Page 9, sentence 6

Kristel, it depends from class to class. There are classes that talk about a certain time period. Talking about one novel only is definitely a special format, this class I am talking about is a first year seminar at my school, which means it is designed especially for freshmen and it's supposed to transition the way from high school to college classes, so I guess that's why. It said in the course descriptions that they were going to read the book really slowly with special attention to symbolism and the setting within the time period, and they are going to watch a couple of movie adaptions to contrast them with the book.
I'm doing pretty good, I really like my college and I've made a lot of friends here. Seems like I managed to pick a lot of classes that are A LOT of work (in comparison to my roommate, who never has any homework although she didn't pick easy classes on purpose), so I didn't read anything that wasn't for class so far. But I hope my schedule for the spring is more balanced and I can actually get some other things done apart from school work.
We've got a gorgeous library here, and since my college is in the pioneer valley, which claims to be the most book-loving part of the US, there are a lot of used bookstores around, so I can't wait until I've actually got some time to explore the area and the bookstores :)

Yay! Congrats, Lori :) Unfortunately, I didn't end up taking the Anna Karenina Seminar for the spring semester.. It just didn't fit my schedule :(

It makes me sad that the monthly book discussions will be discontinued for now. I can see why though since I personally didn't have the time to pick up any of our group reads since the summer because I've just been too busy with college.
Your proposed solution sounds reasonable to me since I have already read a couple of books on Rory's list. I might be able to participate more in discussions again because I know those books already and don't have to invest the time to read them first.

1. Reading Lolita in Teheran
2. The Namesake
3. Small Island

I'm still reading Perdido Street Station. Finally moved to MA, but I was so busy during Orientation that I didn't get to finish it. Now that classes started, I'm having more time on my hands.. How weird :D

Hamlet
Heart of Darkness

Life of Pi
Reading Lolita in Tehran
The Nanny Diaries

As I've read our July and August parts in one sitting, I have to comment here directly - I can't really tell the book apart anymore.


SPOILERS
I really liked the way the story progressed. Dobbin grew on me even more, he's such an admirable person, and really the true gentleman Thackeray points him out to be at one point of the story.
After finishing I realized that Dobbin and George were probably created as the two "sides" of the English gentleman - Dobbin being described as rather ridiculously looking with his large feet and hands and tall, gaunt figure, but having a good heart and being honest while George is very handsome, but vain and shallow.
Although I do admit that Amelia did deserve that Dobbin's feelings towards her changed, I was a bit sad. He was in love with her for so long (18 years without getting anything back.. wow.) only to realize that she isn't really like the image he had loved all the time, even though she finally agrees to marry him and even loves him. It did seem like a sad ending to me when her last thoughts were that he adores their daughter more than her, don't know if any of you might think differently about that.
I liked how Rawdon junior was able to live with a real family after all, after he was in Lady Jane's custody :) He did deserve it, he and his father were actually pretty good people.

After finishing the book, I still stay by what I said after the first part: I'd rather have lunch with Amelia than with Becky, even more so now that I know how Becky's character is going to turn out. Also, Amelia did say some things that endeared her to me and made me see why Dobbin did like her, after all (like when she was with all those illustrious women and was asked if she thought the pope would fall on year or the other and she replied "Oh, I hope not, the poor Pope, what did he do?").

Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress

Reading Lolita in Teheran

Hannah, I've only read one book by John Irving so far, that was A Widow for One Year and I didn't really like it. Some parts were really good, but others got on my nerves so much. Irving used a lot of coarse language that really annoyed me, and he had three main female characters in his book that didn't feel authentic, you could tell that they were women invented by a man. I have heard a lot of good things about his other books though, especially about A Prayer for Owen Meany, The World According to Garp, and The Hotel New Hampshire.. So I'm not really sure if his other books are better or if John Irving is just not for me.

I hope it's still on when I move to MA in September.. I really want to see it and it won't be on in Germany until September.

Thank you for the link! The website is very interesting, and also a very admirable project.. This kind of research undoubtedly takes up loads of work.

Ironically, I've just been to London three weeks ago and was looking very hard for a used book shop and could only find one Oxfam shop (which I left without buying anything, because, as my brother pointed out, I already have a lot of unread books at home and am moving overseas in September). If I had known the book and this website before, I would have definitely gone to Charing Cross road.

Hey Katie!
This group sure is fun :) I'm glad you found us, the more, the merrier.
See you on the discussions-board.

I couldn't start Vanity Fair in June and dreaded picking it up now because, like some of you, I pictured it to be quite dry and hard to get into. I was really surprised when I finally read the first chapter, that it was very funny and humorous.
I really like the book so far, Thackeray is a great narrator.

Nothing has been said so far about the male characters -
I really like Captain Dobbin! Especially his descriptions as a kid and how modest, good and honest he is. And I really don't like George Osborne, on the other hand, and can't understand that an intelligent young man like William Dobbin can't see that Osborne really is a vain airhead.

As for with whom I'd like to have lunch -
Beckie definitely is more interesting as a character than Amelia, but I don't really like people who are always trying to coax others. She's a hypocrite, and as much as I like her as a character in a book, I wouldn't like her scheming in a real person.
I find Amelia pretty boring as a person but she's also cute in a way because she is always trying to like everyone and adores George so much (which is also very stupid, of course). If it was for lunch, I guess I'd take Amelia, although I am not really sure what kind of a conversation we'd have as she is said to have no opinion of her own. As a friend, I wouldn't like to have either girl.

Wow, Kathryn, this review makes me really curious to see HP 6 ;) I didn't like the movies 1-4 because they omitted SO much and sometimes even changed the storyline and was only ok with the fifth movie, but I really hoped, as the fifth was better, that the sixth would finally be good. Which means that I'm really happy and excited now ;) Hope I get to see it soon.

After Heather posted the Scribd website with an online copy of 84, Charing Cross Road, I also read it and loved it like everyone else!
I'm a huge fan of the time the letters are written in, so it appealed to me for that reason also. I wish we could get books that beautiful for a couple of dollars :)

Michele, would you mind posting the website with the character descriptions you were talking about earlier?