Wed Reading Meme
Mar. 18th, 2015 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatYesterday, which was St. Patrick's Day in the US, although not so sure it is celebrated elsewhere. The US has some interesting ethnic holidays that appear to be unknown outside of the US. Cinco De Mayo for example is not recognized in Mexico.
Anyhow...the Irish Center for Arts decided to give away books at Atlantic Avenue Terminal yesterday morning. And they got there bright and early. As a result, I was able to snag four, pristine, new books from their table. This made my day. Apparently it doesn't take much to make me happy. Free books? Brand new? I had to take off before I snagged more than I could possibly carry.
The one's I snagged?
* A new hardback edition of James Joyce's Dubliner's.
* Zolie by Colum McCann - which is about a Romanian Gypsey in the former Soviet Union who manages to emigrate to Ireland. It apparently won the National Book Award at some point.
* The China Factory: Stories by Mary Costello
* An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor - who is apparently a Canadian/Irish author, who has written a series of books about a bunch of doctors in Ireland.
I took it as the Universe's belated birthday gift. Made me very happy at any rate. I love getting free books - even if I don't exactly have the room for them.
Regarding the Reading Meme - I'm still reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which is about 800 pages in length. Yes, she's almost as verbose as George RR Martin, although more interested in graphic sex scenes than graphic battle scenes, although there is a smattering of both.
The Outlander television series follows the Book rather closely, actually. More than I thought it did. And in various ways, it's actually better written. I'd recommend the television series over the book. It fixes a few things, and there's less, ahem, gratuitous sex scenes. In the book, they appear to do it constantly and just about everywhere. It gets old and I began to skim after a bit. (Galbadon is not that good at sex scenes. Sex scenes are apparently difficult to write. Hint - less is more. It's the opposite of an action scene, you don't need to describe things in that much detail, imagination works a lot better.)
Anyhow, the television series is tighter, better paced, and more realistic.
For example?
In both, Claire and Jamie are attacked by dragoons while having sex. Claire kills one of the dragoons, while he is attempting to rape her, and goes into shock. In the tv series - Jamie is concerned and tries to see to her - but has to leave suddenly, so requests she wait for him where it is safe. In the book, Jamie and Claire have mad sex after the event, and then they have an argument about Claire staying put and not going off with him. He informs her that he is willing to tie her to a tree to make sure she stays put.
She hesitantly agrees. He states if she doesn't, he'll tan her hide. He takes off. She goes off in search of Clair Nu Dunh - the standing stone circle that transported her from the 1940s to the 1700s. In the TV series - she also goes to the circle - but because she sees it in the distance, and it's not that hard to get there. She almost gets there and is nabbed by the English. In the book, she falls into the river, is struggling not to drown and is saved by the English. She doesn't make it half-way to the stone circle. I liked the TV series better - tighter, her motivation made more sense, and
Jamie came off as less of a jerk.
I may give up on the books and just stick with the tv series.
Feel weirdly the same way about Game of Thrones - I like it better as a television series as well - it's tighter, less rambling, and the characters better defined. Also, a lot less frustrating. Although, I'm beginning to think the people writing the television series are far more sadistic regarding what they like to show done to their characters than GRR Martin, which I didn't think was possible and is saying something. According to what I've read in EW about Game of Thrones (they donate most of a magazine to it) - they are veering quite a bit from the books this season. Completely dropped two subplots - one in Dorn and one in the Iron Islands, moved Jamie to Dorne to bring back Myrcella, and may speed up Tyrion's plot line. They've also sidelined Bran completely - he won't appear. I'm not unhappy about this turn of events, all three of those items slowed down the plot considerably. As much as I wish they'd drop the Theon subplot - I know it's important to the whole Stannis/Jon Snow plot arc.
Also, rumor has it that they plan on killing a bunch of characters that survive in the books. (Really? As if Martin doesn't kill enough characters on his own? And they say television writers aren't blood thirsty...Personally, I think they just like to shock the audience. Although the audience is becoming rapidly shock proof.) Oh, and Lena Headly has a nude stunt double - apparently she has an anti-nudity clause in her contract - which ahem explains a lot. Wonder if the guy who plays Jamie does too?
Anyhow...the Irish Center for Arts decided to give away books at Atlantic Avenue Terminal yesterday morning. And they got there bright and early. As a result, I was able to snag four, pristine, new books from their table. This made my day. Apparently it doesn't take much to make me happy. Free books? Brand new? I had to take off before I snagged more than I could possibly carry.
The one's I snagged?
* A new hardback edition of James Joyce's Dubliner's.
* Zolie by Colum McCann - which is about a Romanian Gypsey in the former Soviet Union who manages to emigrate to Ireland. It apparently won the National Book Award at some point.
* The China Factory: Stories by Mary Costello
* An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor - who is apparently a Canadian/Irish author, who has written a series of books about a bunch of doctors in Ireland.
I took it as the Universe's belated birthday gift. Made me very happy at any rate. I love getting free books - even if I don't exactly have the room for them.
Regarding the Reading Meme - I'm still reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which is about 800 pages in length. Yes, she's almost as verbose as George RR Martin, although more interested in graphic sex scenes than graphic battle scenes, although there is a smattering of both.
The Outlander television series follows the Book rather closely, actually. More than I thought it did. And in various ways, it's actually better written. I'd recommend the television series over the book. It fixes a few things, and there's less, ahem, gratuitous sex scenes. In the book, they appear to do it constantly and just about everywhere. It gets old and I began to skim after a bit. (Galbadon is not that good at sex scenes. Sex scenes are apparently difficult to write. Hint - less is more. It's the opposite of an action scene, you don't need to describe things in that much detail, imagination works a lot better.)
Anyhow, the television series is tighter, better paced, and more realistic.
For example?
In both, Claire and Jamie are attacked by dragoons while having sex. Claire kills one of the dragoons, while he is attempting to rape her, and goes into shock. In the tv series - Jamie is concerned and tries to see to her - but has to leave suddenly, so requests she wait for him where it is safe. In the book, Jamie and Claire have mad sex after the event, and then they have an argument about Claire staying put and not going off with him. He informs her that he is willing to tie her to a tree to make sure she stays put.
She hesitantly agrees. He states if she doesn't, he'll tan her hide. He takes off. She goes off in search of Clair Nu Dunh - the standing stone circle that transported her from the 1940s to the 1700s. In the TV series - she also goes to the circle - but because she sees it in the distance, and it's not that hard to get there. She almost gets there and is nabbed by the English. In the book, she falls into the river, is struggling not to drown and is saved by the English. She doesn't make it half-way to the stone circle. I liked the TV series better - tighter, her motivation made more sense, and
Jamie came off as less of a jerk.
I may give up on the books and just stick with the tv series.
Feel weirdly the same way about Game of Thrones - I like it better as a television series as well - it's tighter, less rambling, and the characters better defined. Also, a lot less frustrating. Although, I'm beginning to think the people writing the television series are far more sadistic regarding what they like to show done to their characters than GRR Martin, which I didn't think was possible and is saying something. According to what I've read in EW about Game of Thrones (they donate most of a magazine to it) - they are veering quite a bit from the books this season. Completely dropped two subplots - one in Dorn and one in the Iron Islands, moved Jamie to Dorne to bring back Myrcella, and may speed up Tyrion's plot line. They've also sidelined Bran completely - he won't appear. I'm not unhappy about this turn of events, all three of those items slowed down the plot considerably. As much as I wish they'd drop the Theon subplot - I know it's important to the whole Stannis/Jon Snow plot arc.
Also, rumor has it that they plan on killing a bunch of characters that survive in the books. (Really? As if Martin doesn't kill enough characters on his own? And they say television writers aren't blood thirsty...Personally, I think they just like to shock the audience. Although the audience is becoming rapidly shock proof.) Oh, and Lena Headly has a nude stunt double - apparently she has an anti-nudity clause in her contract - which ahem explains a lot. Wonder if the guy who plays Jamie does too?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-03-19 10:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-19 10:29 am (UTC)Its astonishing :)
Its excellent :)
Date: 2015-03-19 10:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-19 10:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-19 10:40 am (UTC)