Book Nerd’s Comments (group member since Dec 20, 2018)

Book Nerd’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

It's a little melodramatic that it ruined her whole life.

Samantha wrote: "Book Nerd, I see your thinking. Do you prefer science fiction, historical fiction, at-history and those sort of books as opposed to nonfiction?"
Usually I prefer fiction. Nonfiction has to be a subject I'm interested in and be readable(not a text book). I think the only nonfiction I've read this year was a book on African history.
One classic I want to read eventually is On the Origin of Species.

Wasn't sure if I could cram this in before the end of the year but I'll try. I've only read The Tapestried Chamber so far and part of The Old Nurse's Tale.

I'm not much of a nonfiction fan. When I read it I like science and history so I don't think the classics are good for that because new things are always being learned.

Piyangie wrote: "I'm a little shy of these genres but would like to make an effort next year. :) I'll mark April, August and September."

Lesle wrote: "Me too but picking a few for next year!"

It's funny, I'm always wary of books about regular people living regular lives, though I know there are lots of good ones. No space ships? No magic? Sounds too much like my boring life!

I especially want to read The Crystal Cave. And I've been meaning to read Watership Down since high school.

Mike wrote: "I read the Dumas version over the weekend. I think leaving only a week between them may have done Dumas a disservice. I still enjoyed it but didn't find it quite as captivating. More family friendly and gone is the disorientation I so enjoyed in Hoffmann."
Agreed. Rewriting it with slight changes seemed pointless and the disorienting dreamlike quality was mostly lost.

I guess I'll take a look at the ballet soon.

I finished the Hoffman version. Really sets a nice Christmas mood. A lot of what I've read this year has a really fairy tale quality to it.

Mike wrote: "I finished Hoffmann earlier and really enjoyed it. I liked the abrupt and somewhat disorienting transitions between the layers of narrative"
It makes it very dreamlike. Makes you wonder is Drosselmeyer feeding her fantasies or is it real?

Reading about Godfather Drosselmeyer I keep hearing this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF4Dv...

Now I know where that name came from.

Only six.

The dwarves aren't that distinct in the book either.
They look pretty Christmasy but on the cover of my copy they look like warrior dwarves from d&d or something.


My biggest problem was the elves. They were indistinguishable from humans except in a couple of pictures were you could see their ears.

I finished. I didn't love it overall. Some of the stories were fun, some were just exasperating. The more risqué ones were the most fun. But the lack of an overall story made them mostly pretty forgettable.

Piyangie wrote: "The Hundredth story reminded me of an exact similar story from the Grimm's Fairy Tales. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the fairy tale"
(view spoiler)[There were several where a king wants to test his wife. In Faithful John he led her to believe her children were dead and she accepted it. (hide spoiler)]

I'm on day ten novel eight. Should finish tomorrow.

Armin wrote: "And I had a hard time with the first translation, I think it was from Penguin books. Lot of fancy, archaic words that are a bit hard to read for me, as a non-native English speaker. So I switched to Wayne Rebhorn’s edition, which is very fluid."
Yeah, I'm sure it is. Sometimes the same word is spelled two different ways in the same paragraph.

I'm almost finished with it. There's a lot of text.
I think I notice some differences from the book but it's quite a while since I read it.

What does it mean to be somebody's "Gossip"? They talk about it like it's some kind of formal title.

Mike wrote: "Dune is my favourite book and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie but have been trying not to get my hopes up. The trailer did get me pretty excited though, the characters largely looked how I imagined them and the music was from my favourite album, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". Now I'm hearing good reviews and that the second part has been confirmed. Must not get hopes up!"

Dark Side of the Moon isn't in the soundtrack. This is it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTmBe...
But you should definitely see it. I know about not getting your hopes up these days but Dune met mine. There are a few things I wish they'd include in a director's cut but overall it was great.

Lesle wrote: "The new Dune has Stellan Skarsgård in it, I think. He and his boys are really good actors!

I am glad you really like it. Sometimes it is hard for them to top the first movie!"
Stellan Skarsgård is the baron and he's excellent.

Dune's been adapted three times.
The first was 1984 by David Lynch. It wasn't very accurate to the book. The second was a miniseries in Sci-fi channel. It was pretty good but cheaply done and had some odd changes.
This version by Denis Villeneuve is book accurate and high budget. It's only the first part of the book but it seems like the second part is definitely happening. I'd love to see the whole series done well.

Dune was awesome! I really really want it to catch on as the new Lord of the Rings and get the whole series.

Jazzy wrote: "I'm studying Korean and the symbols above "유 웃" can be translated as "Breast Laugh""
Lol I'm only a little familiar with hangul. I always assumed those were just used here because they kind of look like people.

Lesle wrote: "Congratulations Book Nerd!

That would be ME!
That is why your sending your address to me as I hold the gift :)"
It says you're not accepting messages right now.

I meant who provides these prizes? Amazon?

Thanks! :)
So where did this come from anyway?