Hello, Good Evening and Welcome...
It seems every week I post on here something dramatic has happened in my life... and this week is no exception!...
I managed to develop an eye infection... upon which there occurred an imbalance and swelling on the left side of my head thus making me feel dizzy, so my week has been kind of a dud... I have mostly been sleeping after getting home from work so unfortunately I haven't had the time to put much up on my usual pages, but I'm feeling a lot better now and hopefully back to normal from this weekend :)
Anyway, enough about my woes... I thought I'd take a different approach this week and talk about books in a different context...
Books To Film...
I see there's been a lot of hype about some of the big book adaptations recently... I'd like to think that it says a lot about how far we've come, the development and improvement of ebooks and being able to digitally review and recommend your reads on Amazon and Goodreads etc. on the whole has boosted our bookish community tenfold... readers were once a minority and reading seen as some kind of boring nerdy pastime, when in essence it is anything but... and asking your average person you pass on the street in todays society, you would most likely get a 'yes' when asked if they owned an e-reader or kindle... and having so many of the books we love made into movies for everyone to enjoy, only proves that reading is not done just for good old learning methods but for enjoyment purposes too... take these latest films for example:
Insurgent (novel written by Veronica Roth) the second book in the Divergent trilogy, was released here in the UK on 18th March... I loved (most of) the books in this series, and after being pleasantly surprised by how good the Divergent film was I'm really looking forward to seeing the next instalment at the movies...
My only worry about this trilogy is the third book Allegiant, I confess it absolutely ripped my heart out... I couldn't pick another book up for almost a week giving me one of the worst book hangover's I've ever had!... so as much as I hate it when they change and Hollywoodise stories adapted from books, I might not protest too much if that did actually happen in this case!
I didn't review this at the time I read it but I did award the first two books in the series 5 stars... the third one, unfortunately, only came in with 3 because of the ending which left me completely devastated...
The controversially successful Fifty Shades of Grey... well... what can I say that hasn't already been said... I know a lot of my friends have jumped on the bandwagon and slated this book (and film) without even reading or seeing it... why?... because of all of the hype and stigma that has gone along with it and listening to the opinions of other people... but I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about...
I'll be the first to admit that E. L. James has fallen on her feet with these books, they weren't written all that well, they were a bit repetitive and, from the information I have gathered weren't all that well informed...
But there's something about them... personally I really enjoyed them... what I read was a story of two people with a mutual attraction, acting on it and exploring and compromising their relationship and the things they are willing to try... and of course falling in love... all of these accusations of 'glorifying domestic abuse?' please!...
Also, I'd just like to point out to all of the haters out there that, E. L, James did an awful lot for writers of this genre... I myself was in a bit of a reading slump and this was one of the books that actually got me back into reading again... it's not the only one, but it's certainly one of the most poignant ones that has helped kick-start a new generation of readers (and writers too) that now support our bookish community because of the success of this series of books... that has to be a good thing don't you think?!
Gone Girl (Novel by Gillian Flynn)... this isn't one of my typical reads... I was actually asked by a friend to look at it and give my opinion before I realised they were making it into a film and... wow... what a book!... I won't say too much about it here but if you'd like too read my 4 Star review you can find it on Goodreads and Amazon... I may also post it here on my blog at some point so watch this space.
It was absolutely insane... brilliantly written but ultimately so very disturbing...
The film was pretty much like the book, they left out and changed a few things as they usually do which irks me... the plot and ending was the same... but as with most adaptations I preferred the book to the movie...
And last but not least on my list - The Fault In Our Stars (Novel by John Green)... I awarded this 4 Tear-jerking Stars on Amazon and Goodreads along with a review... this was one of the rare ones where I actually preferred the film to the book, but it was a very close call! I loved John Green's writing, the language he uses to narrate the book is wonderful and it was truly a literary delight to read, but, ultimately it was very depressing, and so the story should be given the content. I shed more tears reading the book than I did watching the film, and in my opinion the adaptation left us on a lighter note... I closed the book and felt sad and depressed... I walked away from the film and still felt sad, but a tad more hopeful...I find that with most books (although not all of them) you get a lot more information and detail about the situations they deal with... the voice of the narrator becomes an inner dialogue and even when a character isn't speaking you still get background... what they're thinking, feeling, how it effects them, and ultimately the decisions the characters make are explained (usually and or eventually)... I like to read the books before watching the film which absolutely does my other half's head in because when we watch it I always compare and point out what's different... which I find quite fun much to my partner's dismay heehee!
Next on my Book Adaptations List is The Maze Runner (Novel by James Dashner) which I've heard some really good things about... I'll keep you all posted on that as it's been on my TBR list for months now...
In Other News...
Following on from last Sunday's review of 'At Any Price' by Brenna Aubrey... I have been reading the rest of the series this week and am almost done... so I think I'll finish off tomorrow's blog post with a review of the whole series as I'll be finishing that tonight, and I'll also put some Amazon links on for all three books :)Books Downloaded This Week:
As usual I like to list my bargain of the week... here's the ones I've tracked down and downloaded to my kindle... they're all books that I want to read not just because they were cheap or free but they also have good a synopsis', reviews and star ratings too... check them out for yourself with these links to Amazon.co.uk:- Monsters in the Dark by Pepper Winters A 3-book bundle for 99p rated at an average of 4.7stars... tags include #erotica #dark romance #thriller #suspense.
- Love, Chocolate and Beer by Violet Duke A free download rated at an average of 4.1 stars... tags include #romance #contemporary #womens fiction.
- Dust to Dust (A Broken Fairytale) by S. P. Cervantes on sale for 99p and rated an average of 4.3 stars... tags include #contemporary #romance #nonfiction.
- Forbidden Romance by Kathryn Turner this was a free download when I ordered it but it's now £1.99, rated at 4.4 stars on average... tags include #contemporary #romance #suspense.
- Dare to Love by Carly Phillips Free to download at the moment, rated 4.1 stars... tags include #contemporary #romance.
- Tough Love by Skye Warren free download at 4.5 stars... tags include #newadult #romance #mystery #thriller #suspense.
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