Tag: books

Fangirl Moment: The Tailypo: A Ghost Story

Published on by Blerdy6 Comments

TGIF! Here we are again with another Fangirl Friday! Halloween is on Monday, so I decided to choose something that scared the crap out of me… As a kid this book was the cause of many sleepless nights, *ahem* so this week I’m covering the children’s book, The Tailypo: A Ghost Story retold by Joanna C. Galdone and illustrated by Paul Galdone.

tailypo

Yeah…yeah, laugh it up! Ya’ll don’t understand how horrifying this story was to little elementary school me… I had to sleep with the lights on for weeks after I first read this book, because I started having nightmares about the Tailypo coming to get me. But, instead of just returning the book to the library like any sane person would do, I decided to keep checking the damn thing out like a dummy. Yes, you read that right, I kept checking the book out year after year, even though the story terrified me! I was a glutton for punishment… So, I want to share with you all the story that haunted my childhood nightmares!

Continue reading “Fangirl Moment: The Tailypo: A Ghost Story” →

Fangirl Moment: The Dark Heroine- Dinner With a Vampire

Published on by Blerdy6 Comments

TGIF! Here we are again with another Fangirl Friday, and this week I’m covering the first book in the Dark Heroine Series, Dinner with a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs!

dh

I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I used to work at a Barnes and Noble when I was an undergrad, sure I only worked in the cafe, but even that gave me access to some sweet discounts on books (and Starbucks drinks). But, the real perk, the one that made my two years there worthwhile, was the access to Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) of upcoming books!

There were tons of them from various authors and genres, and they were all F-R-E-E! Every other day there would be a fresh stack of titles in the break room and if I got there early enough, I had my pick of the litter! I read so many awesome books working there, but one that really stuck out was a dark supernatural romance YA novel. I picked it up on a whim, briefly skimmed the summary on the back and after judging it mildly interesting, I  tossed it into my employee locker. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I actually read the book, but when I did I was hooked!

Continue reading “Fangirl Moment: The Dark Heroine- Dinner With a Vampire” →

Fangirl Moment: The Lord of the Rings-Fellowship of the Ring

Published on by Blerdy13 Comments

TGIF! Here we are again with another Fangirl Friday! This week I’m not covering any of my usual topics, this time I decided change it up by covering a book that I just recently finished reading.

So today’s post will cover the first “book” in J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga, The Fellowship of the Ring. Originally released in between 1954 and 1955, Lord of the Rings, was supposed to be published as one complete work. However, the publisher decided to split the work into three separate volumes: Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King. The central conflict of the story revolves around the One Ring, which was created by the Dark Lord Sauron to assist him in his efforts to enslave all of Middle Earth. However, before his plan could be fully realized, the ring became lost and peace descended upon Middle Earth. After some years had passed, the ring was found by the most unlikely of heroes, setting in motion an events that would dictate the future of Middle Earth.

Continue reading “Fangirl Moment: The Lord of the Rings-Fellowship of the Ring” →

So this sort of became a rant about Howl’s Moving Castle

Published on by Blerdy13 Comments

howl-3

Let me first say that I absolutely love the film and the book, but if I had to choose I loved the book more. I will admit that I saw the movie first…and while I’m confessing sins…I saw it dubbed, so I’m more accustomed to Christian Bales, than I am to Takuya Kimura (but I will admit he was the sexier Howl :D) But I digress…there are several differences between the novel and the film…for one the film oozes all the classic Miyazaki tropes, which I will get into more later in the post…so here we go!
Characters

Witch of the Waste

witch of the waste

So again…*disclaimer* I saw the movie first…

So in the beginning, both the book and the movie agree: The Witch of the Waste is the main antagonist, but really that’s kind of Howl’s fault. About a year before the story Howl (the serial philanderer) thinking she’s hot stuff, pursues her, but for some reason or another changes his mind and dumps her. This (rightly so) pisses the Witch off to the point where she makes it her mission to find Howl and make him her’s forever and always. And here my friends is where the similarities end! [SPOILERS AHEAD…no seriously…spoilers…like really real spoilers…]

Continue reading “So this sort of became a rant about Howl’s Moving Castle” →

Books to Film

Published on by Blerdy10 Comments

neverjudgebookblack_fullpic

*So you may notice this has absolutely nothing to do with otome/otoge…sorry…maybe the next post…*

why not

Ahem…so…

I love movies…I love books…hell, I even love movies based on books….But with that said, it is a fact that few things translate perfectly across media. They can get close to the original source, but nine times out of ten, they just don’t match up. Don’t get me wrong not all movies based on books are crap, some are far better than their book counterpart (I’m having a hard time thinking of any right now…but I’m sure they exist). The Harry Potter movies, while not as awesome as the books, definitely did a good job at channeling the magic.  But, more times than not a director will take some liberties when translating a beloved story to the big screen.

For true fans of a work film adaptions may seem like a watered down or diet version of their book sources. But in their defense movies have to contend with time and audience attention. I for one am not willing allot more than two hours on a movie…anything longer than that better be damn good! The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit Trilogies are the exception…and even then I had to fight the urge to take a nap!

I have seen my share of duds… some movie adaptions have made me cringe, cry, and just walk out of a theater in frustration (and with ticket prices at $13, that says a lot). But there have been others that so perfectly captured my image of the characters and story that I could have sworn the director had been peeking into my imagination. But then there are some adaptations are so different that its hard to find the connection to the source material.

So let’s all, Not judge books by their movies!