>Top Ten Minor Characters

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I don’t know if I can think of 10 minor characters, but I’ll do my best.

1. Mrs. Fairfax from Jane Eyre.  She was really the first adult that took an interest in Jane and had a real impact on how she viewed others.

2. Bessy from North and South.  Even though I have only viewed the mini series that came out a few years ago, she came across as the first true friend that Margaret makes when her family moves to Milton.

3. Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Is the voice of reason in the book, even though at times he isn’t the voice of reason.

4. Snape from the Harry Potter series.  Even though he isn’t beloved like most of the teacher’s in the series, he is the one that acts the most nobly of the teachers.

5. Richard Mason from Jane Eyre. His coming heralds the disclosure of the secret of Mr. Rochester.

6. St. John Rivers from Jane Eyre.  Even though Jane comes to care for him, his wanting her to do something other than what she wants to do reveals Jane’s feelings for Mr. Rochester.

7. Charlotte Lucas from Pride and Prejudice.  She seems to be Lizzie’s sounding board in the first bit of the book and allows her to think more clearly about her feelings for Mr. Darcy.

8. Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice. Sort of the elephant in the room.  The Bennet family knows that their family estate is to be entailed on him when Mr. Bennet dies and therefore is the impetus for the family getting their daughters marrying.

9.  Miss Edmuds from Bridge to Terabithia.  She is the teacher that Jesse admires and takes him to the Smithsonian Musuem, which leads to Leslie’s death.

10. Helen Burns from Jane Eyre.  Jane’s first true friend and the only person that Jane can trust at Lowood School.

Let me know what you think.

>Teen Readers

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I just watched an interesting segment on CBC’s The National that said that reading amongst teens is up about 40%.  I can’t recall the amount of years that they did the survey over, but it was at least the last 10 years.  Part of the reason that they cited in the report was the fact that YA fiction has taken on more of an adult tone and deals more of what teens and pre-teens are going through and is much more realistic than the teen and tween books that I read growing up.  No Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins for these kids.  Even I have noticed it while working in an elementary school library.  The books seem to be more complex than what I grew up with and I hope that these teen readers continue to read into their adult years.

>Blog Hop

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Follow Friday asks this week: What is the most emotional scene in a book that you have read lately?

If you mean lately, within the last few months, than I would have to say the final third of Unbroken by Laura Hilenbrand.  It was the most amazing emotional journey that I went on.  It was not only gripping, but it was also so emotionally wrenching that I still remember it 4 months later.  I can never recall crying as hard as I had when I read those final chapters.

This week Crazy for Books asks: Are you going to Book Expo America (BEA) and/or the Book Blogger Convention (BBC) this year?

Simple answer: no.  If they were being held in Seattle, I would consider it.  I don’t make enough money to consider going and I would have to make it a priority through out the year in order to go.

>Literary Blog Hop

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This weeks question:  What books have you read that have been hyped as literary and, in your opinion, were not?

Personally I felt that A Visit from the Goon Squad was not literary and should have categorized as being a collection of short stories.  I realize that I might get some flack for this choice, but from my perspective, the book had no continuity and no flow to the book.  It seemed to me to be a bunch of stories that were loosely connected to each other. 

>Yay!

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Finally its back!  More later 🙂

An idea…

As I was reading this evening, a thought came to me (actually it was something that came to me a few minutes ago, but whatever) and I am thinking that I am going to keep my blogger account and use this account whenever Blogger goes down, so that I do still have a forum to voice how I feel about stuff and post my reviews, etc.  I would just then copy my post from here and put it on blogger as though it were a new post.  It would still keep me active blogging and this would just be a backup so that I could post while it is down.  There are just some things that I like about Blogger, ie Linked Within, that I just am hesitant to give up.  And who knows, it will probably be up and running by sometime tomorrow.

Relocation

As from now on, I will be posting from here.  While I loved using Blogspot, it is not providing me with the service that I once was able to enjoy.  So as a result I will be posting from here on end.  I will post a farewell post to blogspot and letting people know where to find me.  Until I post later.

>Top Ten Tuesday – Books Recommended

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This week its Top Ten Books Recommended at The Broke and the Bookish

Here are mine:

1) Pride and Prejudice – First read this book after the BBC mini-series came out and I loved it.  When I hadn’t read it for over a decade, I fell in love with it again.  Now that I am reading it once again, I am finally admiring Austen’s genius.

2) Jane Eyre – Read this book when I was in grade 8 and its one that I have loved and revisited since.  And especially in my adult years, I have really come admire the book.

3) East of Eden – Read this book back when Oprah used this as one of her book selections a number of years ago and really enjoyed it.  Read it again a few years later and really caught the nuances of the book and really appreciated its grandeur.

4) The Robber Bride – My first truly adult novel that I read when I was 15.  This book allowed me to journey into a world that I had previously avoided and when I first read this book, I really couldn’t turn back.  It was a turning point in my reading life.

5) Alias Grace – It was shortly after reading The Robber Bride that I read this book and was just mesmerized by Atwood’s storytelling.  I suppose it didn’t hurt that it had a historical element and made me further intrigued about the story of Grace Marks.

6)  The Root Cellar – This book has stayed with me for a long time, even though I haven’t read it in quite sometime.  Just the notion of going back in time is romantic enough, but the fact that it goes to a period in which so much has been written about in American history intrigued me even more.  I guess it started a love affair with the American Civil War that really hasn’t abated and only seems to continue.

7) A Handful of Time – As with The Root Cellar, it got me at a time when I was just coming out of reading books, such as The Babysitters Club, and even now as an adult reader, I found the book just as interesting as when I first read it as a tween.  Loved the notion of going back to a different time, but this time to learn more about a mom the main character barely knew.

8) A Tale of Two Cities – While my grade 11 English classmates were rolling their eyes while reading this book, I was really enjoying it.  I am so glad that my english teacher put this on the reading list.

9) Jacob Have I loved – Read  this in grade 7 when I was looking for something to read in a brand-new school library and I wasn’t disappointed.  Had the books I was looking for been available, I would have read that one instead, but because the school librarian had put the book in the collection, I was able to turn from the books that I was comfortable with to books that I would be challenged with.

10) All Quiet on the Western Front – I first read this book in my grade 12 English class and really didn’t see the point of the book, but my first History class that I took at the university level had this in the syllabus and I groaned at the thought.  But once I was able to understand the historical context of the book, I enjoyed the book and respect the message that Remarque is trying to get across.

I apologize if I did the meme wrong; its my first one.  Have a good day 🙂

>Spring’s Serenity Read-a-thon – 1st update

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Like I said in my opening post, I am going to keep you guys updated with what I read each day.  Today (Monday) I read Pride & Prejudice.  Got most of the third section done for TuesBookTalk (#tuesbooktalk on twitter), but still have about an hour’s worth of reading to do before I am finished that section.  I just hope the nerves don’t get to me so that I can’t complete it for the chat later that night (I am planning on not watching the game on CBC and only get updates through a score box that I have on my igoogle page) or that I am not too drunk to complete the chat (may have a couple of drinks to make sure that I am not too nervous, but one isn’t always guaranteed of that).  I found it enjoyable and fairly light to read. 

I don’t know what I am going to read on my bus ride tomorrow, but I hope to read The Last Queen and get as much as I can get done before Wednesday, when I have access to a vehicle.  So basically I will probably be burying myself in that particular book for as long as I can tomorrow.  Anyways, I am really tired and needing to get to bed and some sleep.

>Spring’s Serenity Read-a-thon – Opening post

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I am participating in Spring’s Serenity read-a-thon hosted by The True Book Addict. It runs from April 25 (today) until May 1.  You can sign up here and post your opening post here.  

As for my reads this week, I plan on reading Pride and Prejudice, Outlander, The Last Queen, War & Peace and probably a couple others which are much lighter than those reads.  I will post another one at the end of the day to mention what I read, which hopefully will pretty much everything that I have said I will read.

Happy reading.