2012 thus far:

* Anna Karenina - read at intervals backstage throughout Act 1.
* Hallam Foe.
*  Quick skip & a dance through both The Paris Wife & Fifty Shades of Grey (meh).
* War & Peace, resumed reading from July 2010.

Meanwhile, Munroe's comic strip the other day amused.
(Disclaimer: Closest I've got to Atlas Shrugged is Cloud Atlas or Greek myth. 

But still,) I laughed.:

http://xkcd.com/1049/

Burgess | Update

I am going to brave A Clockwork Orange, if only to liberate it from my bookshelf, take out of my 'Recommended List' & send it to a better home over the ocean once I'm done. 

Not sure how much pleasure there is to be had in the reading of this one...

Beautiful! :)

Book Sculptures left all
across the City of Literature

Mystery book sculpture artist blazes a trail with amazing gifts

fifty poignant poem beginnings..

Book Backlog Which I Really
Need To Write About:

1. The Eyre Affair
2. The Book Thief
3. The Song Is You
4. So Many Ways To Begin
5. Redeeming Love
6. War & Peace

... but for now, I leave you with this, from the Stylist -

50 of poetry's most poignant lines

Enjoy! ... I did! :)

from the Stylist:

100 Best Films From Books We Love
Literary adaptations that stormed the big-screen

Although for me, there's definitely an I Capture The Castle-shaped hole.
Personal preference.

Hurrah for my other 2 big favourites though:
Cunningham's The Hours & The Princess Bride amongst others.

Och, / II

... too slow, dammit; too slow.

Crimson & the White / I

Thoughts from Michel Faber's article, notable for the shift from former Joycean artistic indifference to his work. Also interesting for how he perceives the adaptation as having its identity first & foremost as a text. The closing paragraph:

When answering questions, over the years, about film and TV adaptations of my books, I have always maintained that no movie or TV series could ever change or damage my work. The Crimson Petal and the White is a book, and it will win or lose the trust of each reader when they begin reading its pages. That relationship will go on. But, to my surprise, I've just seen something on TV that I feel has its own artistic integrity and its own emotional power. It's someone else's baby, but damn it, I care how it gets treated.

I mean to watch this. I've been advised to read the novel before. (I even chanced to walk past a second-hand copy laid out on a table at the Meadows' fair last summer, thinking I'd walk back to pick it up later on in the day; rather remiss of me.) 

Now friends have also been pointing me towards the tv adaptation. 

(Costumes? Poetry? Period? Check. Romola Garai, Shirley Henderson & Richard E. Grant? Treble check.)   I'll get onto Faber's original version this summer, I think.

Hand-Sewn Covers:

Needless to say,

Etsy and Books Collide: Penguin's New Hand-Sewn Covers

I'm excited... !! :)

This poem. Today.

This poem. Today. 
That sunshine. Yes.  :)

Awesome. :D

Mills & Boon covers inspire self-portrait project

Sometimes we sit for hours staring at a sea shell.
Other times he'll hold me by the neck in front of
the Pyramids. But there's nothing we like more than
NEARLY kissing each other near some horses.
I always try to look hot in front of him so he doesn't leave me.

http://www.oliandalex.com/mills-boon/