Tag: readers

Get as Excited as Joseph Gordon Levitt About Your Favorite Book

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You know how you know reading is cool? When celebrities get super excited about their favorite books, like a young Joseph Gordon Levitt did in this episode of (Teen Celebrity?) Jeopardy back in 1997:

http://youtu.be/a-EgebDY2iQ

Although I prefer Franny and Zooey, I dig Levitt’s style.

Confession: since I watched 3rd Rock from the Sun back in the day, a little part of me feels like I grew up with Joseph Gordon Levitt and am unreasonably proud of his current success as an actor. Like I expect to see him at the family reunion or something.

Friday Fifteen

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Happy Friday, everyone! Let’s kick off the weekend with some good ol’ fashioned fifteen-word book reviews.

382721. Lidia’s Italy in America by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali
Great recipes and glimpses into Italian-American communities. Can’t wait to try the Shrimp Fra Diavalo.

2. Ming Lo Moves the Mountain by Arnold Lobel
Fun folktale about changing perspectives. I used to pull this out all the time.

3. Happy Birthday, Molly! (American Girls: Molly #4) by Valerie Tripp
I learned about the Blitz during WWII from this book.

4. Speaking With the Angel ed. Nick Hornby
Short story collection with some great writers. Features my favorite work by Dave Eggers.

5. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Didn’t connect with me like I wanted. Probably read too close to quirky Weetzie Bat.

Links Galore

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Lots of great links to get us through Tuesday:

Pens and Paws

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Happy belated St. Patrick’s day, everyone! Last night we watched The Secret of Kells, which is such a gorgeous movie, and reminded me of this lovely poem about a writer and his cat. Here’s one famous translation by Robin Flower:

The scholar and his cat, Pangur Bán
(from the Irish by Robin Flower)

I and Pangur Ban my cat,
‘Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
‘Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.

‘Tis a merry task to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur’s way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.

I love this comparison between a cat at hunt and a writer at work, especially that last stanza. Check out a few other translations as well.

(poem via Beatrice Santorini)(image by Robert Crum)

Friday Fifteen

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What a crazy week! A Veronica Mars movie, a new pope, Pi Day, the Ides of March, the announced end of Google Reader, a day above 50 degrees–I can’t handle this kind of intensity. Fortunately, we can always count on the Friday Fifteen. This week in fifteen-word book reviews:

1. The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
I was new when we read this in fifth grade. Needed an Egypt Game group.

2. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Read years after The Giver, initially didn’t know they were connected. Better that way.

3. The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
Best use of music in a book ever. Funny and sharp and thrilling, Barrytown-style.

4. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
In the town of Chewandswallow, global warming means a tomato tornado. All that vitamin C!

5. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Watched the Little Prince TV show growing up. Shocked to find the book was different.

Prom Night Is Dark and Full of Terrors

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By now, you’re probably already obsessed with the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. (All. The. Feelings!) But we’re winding down in the P&P plotline–Lizzie and Darcy have come to feel more about each other; Jane and Bing have reconciled; and Lydia has overcome the potential scandal of the heinous Wickham. I was really sad to imagine an end in the near future.

Fortunately, it looks like we’ve got another modern literary web series to latch onto–starring a few favorites from LBD! Although A Game of Thrones might be set in a medieval-ish fantasy world, looks like things translate pretty well to a contemporary high school setting in School of Thrones. I especially like the retro-hipster Starks.

And it’s only just started! Check out the first episode here:

Is it weird that this might actually inspire me to read beyond the first book?

Links Galore

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Apparently I’ve been hoarding lots of great links. Anything to make it through a Wednesday!

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Stay Gold, Coppola

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In middle school, one of my favorite books was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I must have read it twenty times. Then I found a copy of the VHS and watched that repeatedly, too. There’s a lot of argument pitting books against their movie versions, and for The Outsiders I loved both. So it was awesome to see today’s Letters of Note, in which a school librarian and her students helped bring The Outsiders to Francis Ford Coppola, who ultimately directed the film. The first letter:

Click through to see the full exchange. It’s really heartwarming to see how one librarian aide’s letter helped create a fantastic movie. And it’s a great lesson in never doubting that your voice can make a difference. Maybe it won’t come to anything–but maybe it will.

(image via Letters of Note)