Bookish Thoughts

1. There are two movies coming out based on novels I truly love and both author's are signing off on the adaptations. David Mitchell is supporting Cloud Atlas, and Salman Rushdie wrote the screenplay, produced, and did voice-over for Midnight's Children.

The New Yorker ran a piece recently by Alexander Hemon, who interviewed the Wachowski's on their process of converting the complexity of Cloud Atlas into a screenplay. I have to say, after reading the article I actually kinda sorta felt that they truly cared about the novel and Mitchell's opinion. I suppose if they don't Matrix-ify the thing (and I can get over stupid Halle Berry playing someone I thought was Mexican) I might like it. Nonetheless I know I'll be seeing it since my husband is an even bigger Mitchell fan that I am. 

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2. Last night I found something that may possibly be incredibly awesome- it's called Building Stories by Chris Ware. It's labeled as a graphic novel, but it's more than that- it's a box full of blueprints, pamphlets, cards, and other paper goods that tell the story of a group of people that live in an apartment building. I think part of the reason I'm so drawn to it is because of this idea of this evolution that's slowly coming along in print- people are finding new ways to innovate the medium without going digital. It's a little pricy at $29.93 (on Amazon; regularly $50), but I be no means think it's a rip off.

3. The number of books (and hopefully readings) on deck for this fall continues to blow my mind every single day. Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, John Banville, Barbara Kingsolver, JK Rowling, TC Boyle, Michael Chabon, and Ian McEwan, just to name a few. I'm going to try to be patient and hold off to put some of them on my Christmas List, especially since I probably won't be reading them for months, but I don't know if I can. I'm going to pick Diaz's new one up this week so I can try to get through it before I attend his reading on Thursday night. While the sheer volume and time needed to read them all scares me a little, the fact that all these amazing authors are releasing this season just seems like a giant "fuck you" to all these less-than stellar authors who have swept the headlines this year. Take that, EL James. 

4. I've been loving seeing the books my students are reading for outside reading these past few weeks (or pretending to read, anyway). I had a student told me how much he's enjoying A Farewell to Arms and another already finish her first book.

5. I'm so ridiculously sick of Antigone- we're wrapping it up in a few days and moving on to A Chronicle of  Death Foretold, a book I'm extremely excited to reread and teach. I remember liking it when assigned it the summer between eighth and ninth grade. I was a a little taken aback when the reader learns that the sheets containing the evidence of stolen virginity are flown outside after wedding nights- we were going to talk about these things in class??? High school was going to be awesome! Little did I know the next year we'd read a book that has a lady having sex with a donkey in it (good old Allende... gotta love the South Americans). 

6. I'm reading two books right now, plus listening to a third and teaching a fourth. This is a huge change for my usual monogamous reading habits- I'm not sure if I like it. I started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver but started craving some fiction (yes, I realize how nerdy that makes me sound), so I started The Woman Who Walks Into Doors by Roddy Doyle. Meanwhile I'm listening to A Prayer for Owen Meanie (which I've read before) and working with Antigone at work. They're all quite different, so it works for now.