Tuesday, November 20, 2007

The art of reading more then one book at the same time

I have noticed that there are two kinds of bookworms. There is the ones reading one book from cover to cover before starting on a new. Then there are those, like me, who has any various numbers of books started at the same time. For example, I currently read an autobiography, an historical non-fiction, a collection of feminist essays and listen to a fiction CD book and of course the random magazines that I subscribe to.
To me it depends on what kind of mood I am in. It requires a special mood to follow in the sometimes difficult arguments in the essay collection. On the other hand, I need the CD book when I bike to work at six in the morning and want something that does not require full brain activity. There are different times for different books.

I can’t understand those people who only read one book at the time. I t would take me too long to do that. What if I am not in the right mood, then what would I do? Not read? But I have to admit that sometime I admire those people who read only one book at the time, it requires a determination to finish what you started, which can be helpful in other aspects of life as well.
Josefine

My recommendations: Wild swans by Jung Chang

Sunday, November 11, 2007

The book or the movie?

It’s the classical question. Every time a book is made into a movie, the discussion among reviewers in the newspapers and on TV repeats all over again. Does the movie give fair credit to the book? What is missing from the movie that was in the book? The questions are the same but the answers are always different.
Generally I fall on the side of the book. In my reading life, what I can remember, I only once thought the movie was better than the book. That was Umberto Eco’s In the name of the rose. In the book, the vivid and lengthy description of the monastery got me out of touch with the story and left me no desire to continue. The movie however had a quicker pace, which moved the story forward and thus making it easier to follow.

It do happens that I think the movie is equal to the book, it is usually because the movie portraits another angle. One book like that is Stephen King’s the Green mile. In the book version of the Green mile, the focus is more on the guard Mr. Paul Edgecombe. While the movie focuses on the destiny and life of the inmate John Coffey sitting on death row.
Now I pass the question to you, which is best, the book or the movie?
Josefine

My recommendations: The hours by Michael Cunningham.