This week’s weekly geeks: I think just about every reader has a least one book that they’ve been meaning to read for awhile (months or even years) but, for one reason or another, they just haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe it’s a book a friend recommended last year, or a title you’ve flirted with in a bookstore on more than one occasion, or maybe it’s a book that’s sitting right there on your bookshelf, patiently waiting for you to pick it up — but the thought is always there, in the back of your mind: Why haven’t I read this yet?
This week, tell us about a book (or books) you have been meaning to read. What is it? How long have you wanted to read it? And, why haven’t you read it yet?

At the moment I have four books on my TBR pile that have been there for ages.

“Shakespeare” by Bill Bryson

I have no idea why I haven’t read it yet. It was given to me as a gift and I should have read it by now. I love Bill Bryson’s sense of humour, I’m sure this is a geat read, once I’m into it. But somehow, I just don’t seem to be able to pull it out of the shelf.

“A Bloodsmoor Romance” by Joyce Carol Oates

I found this one in a bookshop, read the first few pages and liked them right away. I’d love to read it, but I think the length of the book keeps me from even starting it. My reading time is limited and I have to interrupt constantly. So with a book of 876 pages, I will take forever and will have to re-read the last pages constantly.

“Danse Macabre” by Laurell K. Hamilton

This is the 13th book in the Anita Blake series and considering the way this series has been going, it’s not surprising I never got around to start this book. I still haven’t finished book 12 “Incubus Dreams” yet. I hate Anita Blake anyway (for example see my blog post about Circus of the damned), so her constant having sex with anybody and everybody for no other reason than this stupid ardeur is annoying to me. I should remove this book from the pile.

“So Idle a Rogue” by Jeremy Lamb
The Life and Death of Lord Rochester

Another biography, this time of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. Rochester must have been an intriguing man. So again, I have no idea why I haven’t read this yet.

To read what other participants haven’t read yet, go to the Weekly Geeks.

There have been times in my life where I reread a book (or author) I hated–or thought I hated–but the second time around ended up loving. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever changed your mind about a book or author the second time around? Have you ever given a book or author a second chance?

If you have, I’d love to hear your stories. Blog about your experience(s) in giving second chances.
If you haven’t, I’d like you to consider giving a book or an author a second chance. You can blog about your intentions to do so–or if you’re a quick reader, maybe you can even squeeze something in!

I can’t think of any author that I ever hated so much that I wouldn’t give him a second chance. Well, that’s not 100% true. I read a book some time ago that was so terrible, that I actually went and threw it away. That was the first book ever that I got rid of in that manner.

 

However, there is a book, I started to read months ago and have never finished it. In fact I got stuck on page 50 and by now I’ve forgotten everything that happened until then. It’s “The people’s act of love” by James Meek. This is the description on amazon:

In a remote Siberian village, amid a lawless, unforgiving landscape, lives Anna Petrovna, a beautiful, willfully self-reliant widowed mother. A mystical, separatist Christian sect, a stranded regiment of restless Czech soldiers, and an eerie local shaman live nearby, all struggling against the elements and great social upheaval to maintain a fragile coexistence.
Out of the woods trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia’s northernmost prison camp, with a terrifyingly outlandish story to tell about his journey. Immediately apprehended, he is brought before the Czech regiment’s megalomaniac, Captain Matula. But the stranger’s appearance has caught the attention of others, including Anna Petrovna’s.
This stranger, his bizarre story—if it is to be believed—and the apparent murder of the local shaman quickly become a flashpoint for this village: temperatures rise, alliances shift, and betrayals emerge. Written with a commanding historical authority and remarkable grace, The People’s Act of Love is an epic of desire and sacrifice that leaves the reader utterly mesmerized through to the final heart-pounding pages.

Somehow the book didn’t mesmerize me at all, even though I can’t say I disliked anything about it. It just didn’t keep my attention. I started reading other things in between, and once I start doing this, I know the fate of the book is sealed. So, maybe this week’s weekly geeks will encourage me to start all over again and possibly even finish it this time.

To see what other weekly geeks had to say, go to the Weekly Geeks site.

1."Do you love a little suspense in your life? Have you ever read a book that keeps you twisting and turning until the last page? Tell us about it (but not too much , we want to be left hanging ourselves). Or maybe there is a series of mysteries that you adore. Why do you keep reading about the same detectives?"***
2. To expand on that a little: the new TV series Castle revolves around a popular mystery writer. There’s even talk that a novel will be published supposedly written by Castle himself. TV and books will muddy the entertainment waters once again. I think we all know of the Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes series on PBS and BBC as well. Not to mention the new movie Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law will open December 25, 2009. Looks pretty exciting!
If you were to be given special TV or movie producing powers, which mystery novel character(s) would you create a TV series or movie for? Who would you cast in the major roles?
You can:
Get creative and post photos of the cast, even the locations you’d love to see them in. If you’re really feeling artsy, create a fake imbd page on your blog or make a trailer for your fantasy show.

I read a lot of detective novels. Most of them are historical ones. I like to read about of a lot of different time periods, the more ancient the better, but my favourite detective novels are probably the ones by Dorothy L. Sayers with Lord Peter Wimsey. I like gentleman detectives, and Lord Peter Wimsey is a perfect example. He’s a rich nobleman with expensive hobbies, he has a smart butler who assists him, and his sidekick, a police inspector, becomes his brother in law in the course of the books. The books’ plots often revolve around a certain topic and a lot of insider information is given about those topics. For example in “Murder must advertise” we learn a lot about the ins and outs of an advertising agency at the time.

The books with Lord Peter Wimsey are:

• Whose Body? (1923)
• Clouds of Witness (1926)
• Unnatural Death (1927). From the papers held by the Marion Wade Centre, it is clear that Sayers’ original title was The Singular Case of the Three Spinsters.
• The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928)
• Lord Peter Views the Body (1928) (12 short stories)
• Strong Poison (1930)
• Five Red Herrings (1931)
• Have His Carcase (1932)
• Hangman’s Holiday (1933) (12 short stories, 4 including Lord Peter)
• Murder Must Advertise (1933)
• The Nine Tailors (1934)
• Gaudy Night (1935)
• Busman’s Honeymoon (1937; the play on which it was based, co-written with Muriel St. Clair Byrne, was published in Love All & Busman’s Honeymoon, ed. Alzina Stone Dale, 1984)
• In the Teeth of the Evidence (1939) (18 short stories, 4 including Lord Peter) (editions published after 1972 usually adds Talboys, the last story she wrote with Lord Peter)
• Lord Peter- the Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories (1972) (the first edition contains 20 Lord Peter short stories; the second edition includes all 21 Lord Peter short stories by adding "Talboys")
• Sayers on Holmes, Essays and Fiction on Sherlock Holmes, introd. Alzina Stone Dale (2001; Booklet of 54 pages reprinting various Holmesian essays by Sayers, and including a previously unpublished BBC radio script, broadcast in 1954, in which an 8-year-old Lord Peter brings Holmes a problem of a missing cat).
• Thrones, Dominations (1998) (This Lord Peter novel was begun by Sayers in 1936, completed by Jill Paton Walsh and published in 1998.)

source: Wikipedia

He meets his later wife, Harriet Vane, in “Strong Poison” for the first time and from then on this romance (it takes a long time to develop from her side) is an ongoing theme, even if not the main one) in the subsequent books. “Thrones, Dominations” is set after their honeymoon (the honeymoon story would be “Busman’s honeymoon”), but there is one short story which is set years after where the Wimseys have a son who is around 4 or 5 as far as I can remember.

Some of the books have already been turned into films. There are excellent BBC TV mini series from the 70s with Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey. He still has that down-to-earth feel that Lord Peter Wimsey displays on occasion, and yet he is sophisticated and refined. Edward Petherbridge who played Wimsey in a couple of films never achieved that in my eyes. After seeing Ian Carmichael I can’t imagine a better cast as Lord Peter Wimsey, so no suggestions from me.

For more participants in this fun topic go to the Weekly Geeks!

This week’s weekly geeks: With the release of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince this past week, I thought it would be good to turn once again to movie adaptations. In March, with the release of Watchmen (using that as a jumping off point for discussion), I brought up the subject of worst movie adaptations. This time, I’d like to bring up best movie adaptations (not saying if the recent Harry Potter movie is or isn’t faithful to the book since I’ll be honest I haven’t read the book, but using the subject as a jumping off point for discussion).
So what are some of your favorite movie adaptations of books? Include trailers or scenes from Youtube if you’d like.
Also along with that question, or instead of that question, what book or series would you like to see be made into a movie or movies? Tell us why you think it or they would work as a movie. If the book already has a book trailer, include that, to help make your point.

In general I’m no fan of movie adaptations. I absolutely loved “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy as a movie, in fact I loved it much more than the books. But to talk about LOTR would probably carry me away…So, instead, I decided to talk about a book that we all know, most of us love and whose hero every woman swoons over. 

There are a number of adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, but none is as perfect as the BBC mini series from 1995. Of course, the story is always the same, but in a mini series there is much more time to go into details, whereas a 90 minute movie just can’t cover everything.

The cast is absolutely perfect. I can’t think of a single actor who didn’t fit the part. We don’t need to talk about Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. I have yet to meet someone who complains about him. He IS Mr. Darcy. Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth might be a bit old, admittedly, but I just love her looks and her composed air.

All the supporting characters are cast perfectly as well. Mrs. Bennett and her husband – a wonderful couple. Mr. Wickham, slightly dubious from the beginning. Charlotte Lucas – practical and reasonable to the extreme. And probably the best supporting character, Mr. Collins. That was the first time I saw David Bamber and I just adored him. Mr. Collins was a great bootlicking sycophant. Oh so brilliant. My opinion of David Bamber was confirmed years later when I saw him again as Cicero in “Rome”. Wonderful again. And, of course, the condescending Miss Bingley. I loved her, too. I can’t say enough good about the cast.

So, if you haven’t seen P&P as a movie yet and wonder which one to watch, choose this mini series. You can’t go wrong.

This here is one of my favourite scenes of the whole film, just look at Mr. Darcy! And he doesn’t say a single word…

 

As to the second part of this week’s assignment, I always wondered why nobody ever made a series from the Darkover books by Marion Zimmer Bradley – or at least I never heard of one. I think they would make a fantastic series with lots of interesting characters. The books are not all related and were not written in chronological order, so one could pick and choose to some extent. I for one would love to see them made into movies.

This week’s Weekly Geeks asks you to tell us about your globe trotting via books. Are you a global reader? How many countries have you "visited" in your reading? What are your favorite places or cultures to read about? Can you recommend particularly good books about certain regions, countries or continents? How do you find out about books from other countries? What countries would you like to read that you haven’t yet?
Use your own criteria about what you consider to be "visiting" — whether a book is written about the country or by a native or resident of the country.

I don’t read many books that focus on another country as the main subject. They might be set in other countries and reflect the way of living there, of course, but I don’t pick books based on that. I created the map below showing what countries books I read are set in.  My recommendation to read would be “A thousand splendid suns” by Khaled Hosseini, but probably most of you have read it anyway. This book about two women in Afghanistan is a must-read.

 

Feel free to tell us about any actual world traveling you’ve done in addition to your literary travels.

The map of countries I’ve visited looks a bit different. As you can see I have no clue about the East or the most part of America or Africa or anything really other than Europe and the US from own experiences.

This week’s Weekly Geeks:

Here in the United States, families and individuals are celebrating our independence. Traditionally, July 4th means putting out our flags, watching fireworks displays, going to parades and concerts, barbecuing with family, and beach trips with friends. Fourth of July also makes us think of hot summer nights, summer vacations, and relaxation. In many ways, it signifies the "kick off" to summer. But on a more serious note, it represents the history, government, and traditions of our country.

1. If you are from another country, other than the United States, share what national holidays are significant to your country. Are any of them similar to our celebration of Independence Day? Are there traditions around their celebration? Do they suggest the beginning of a season or something other than the National purpose?
2. Go a step further…let’s talk books.

• Have you read a good fiction or nonfiction book which centers around a country’s search for independence?
• Do you have any book recommendations which embody the traditions or celebrations of your country?
• And since the Fourth of July brings to mind summertime … are there any great summer reads you are looking forward to reading over the next month or two?

OK, no. 1. No to all three questions.

Our National Holiday is October 3rd, it’s the day of the re-unification that happened 1990. I’m afraid that in Germany there is no focus on holidays at all. There are no parades, no fireworks, nothing whatsoever to indicate it is a special day to our country. Possibly some politicians might gather for some official service, function or so, but, to be honest, nobody cares. It’s a day off,  you can’t do anything, because everything is closed, and that’s it. Nobody would even dream of throwing a re-unification day party, the idea alone is preposterous.

On the other hand Germany is one of the countries with the most holidays, most of them religious, so we might be a bit desensitized as far as the significance of holidays is concerned.

 

No. 2.

I’m afraid no to any of those either.

I don’t read political books, I don’t read books about Germany, its traditions and celebrations, and I don’t have summer reads to recommend either. I already said that in a previous weekly geeks, that I read what I feel like no matter what the season and the topic of the book.

This was a short Weekly Geeks for me. Read what others have to say.

Here are the answers to the trivia questions.

1. “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” by Michael Chabon
2. “Troilus and Cressida”. Troilus says it to Cressida in Act III., scene II.
3. His full name is Dr. John Hamish Watson
4. “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”. It was rejected 27 times before being published by Vanguard Press in 1937.
5. James Hilton in “Lost Horizon”
6. Brunellus
7. A “beautiful auto-da-fé”. See chapter VI in Voltaire’s “Candide”. In the foot notes it says that the auto-da-fé actually took place a few months after the earthquake on June 20, 1756.

   The phrase “auto-da fé” refers to the ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates that took place when the Spanish Inquisition or the Portuguese Inquisition had decided their punishment (that is, after the trial). Auto de fé in medieval Spanish (and in Portuguese) means "act of faith". The phrase is used most frequently in English in its alternative Portuguese form auto-da-fé. In the popular imagination, "auto-da-fé" has come to refer to burning at the stake for heresy.
   (Source: wikipedia)

Who answered correctly?

Mish was not right, but her deduction was very observant since Othello also deals with the topic of infidelity.

Gavin’s three answers were all correct. 

Sari was right with Lost Horizon.

Jason was right with the Dr. Seuss question and with the question about the auto da-fé in Candide. 

This week’s Weekly Geeks:

Though I’m really not very good at it, I love trivia. Put books and trivia together and you’ve got a perfect match. So I thought it would be a fun Weekly Geek activity for us to come up with some book trivia questions to ask each other.
So take a moment, don’t stress about it all, and write down five to ten questions that pop into your mind. You could center all your questions around a particular theme or genre, maybe something in which you specialize. Or ask questions about one certain book. Or teach us about your favorite author through your questions.
You could do really easy ones that you know we’ll all get or really hard ones that will challenge even the best of us.

I love trivia. This is going to be fun…

Right, here we go. Since 7 is a good number I go with seven random questions.

 

1. These are the first lines from a book. Which one and by whom is it?

At the beginning of the summer I had lunch with my father, the gangster, who was in town for the weekend to transact some of his vague business.

2. What Shakespearian play is this quote from?

“This is the monstruosity in love, lady, – that the will is infinite, and the execution confined; that the desire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit.”

3. What is Dr. Watson’s middle name?

4. What was the first book Dr. Seuss wrote?

5. Who invented Shangri-La and in what novel?

6. In “The name of the rose” what is the name of the Abbot’s horse that William of Baskerville deducts correctly?

7. What measures did the Portuguese take to prevent further earthquakes? What was the infallible secret to hinder the earth from quaking?

 

Please post your answers in the comments and visit other weekly geeks’ trivia. I’ll post the solutions to the questions later on in the week.

This week’s Weekly Geeks:

"Reading Challenges: a help or a hurt? Do you find that the reading challenges keep you organized and goal-oriented? Or, do you find that as you near the end of a challenge that you’ve failed because you fell short of your original goals? As a result of some reading challenges, I’ve picked up books that I would have otherwise never heard of or picked up; that, frankly, I have loved. Have you experienced the same with challenges? If so, which ones? Do you have favourite reading challenges?"

The first reading challenge I participated in was at a romance reading group at Shelfari. I had never heard of reading challenges before and found the concept sounded like fun. I chose to read 15 books and I enjoyed choosing the books and to think about what book would fit the single challenges best.  Since we were asked to review what we were reading this challenge also had me starting reviewing books on this blog in the first place. Unfortunately I never finished the challenge and still have about 4 books to read which are now sitting on my shelf.

On J. Kaye’s book blog I joined a few other challenges, which I enjoyed but those didn’t keep me going either. I discovered a few authors though that I really liked. Somehow in the middle of all those challenges my interest shifted to gay fiction and I didn’t want to spend more time reading romance with damsels in distress or the usual TSTL heroines.

The only challenge I’m participating in at the moment is Anesthezea’s m/m romance challenge. I didn’t use any of the hints or special options and just read what I feel like, but I have – as some others – passed the 10 books mark a long time ago. Since the challenge started I read and reviewed 46 stories here, not counting all the ones that I didn’t review for some reason or other (see my last weekly geeks post about catching up on reviews).

Even though I might not follow through the challenges all the time I still like the thought. I discovered new authors, got recommendations from others and found books I probably wouldn’t have read otherwise. I don’t take them too seriously though. If I like something I’ll read it no matter whether it will fit into a challenge or not. After all reading is supposed to be fun and not a chore that needs to meet certain criteria.

This week’s weekly geeks has a number of tasks, but I’ll stick with one that I can do and follow up.

1. In your blog, list any books you’ve read but haven’t reviewed yet. If you’re all caught up on reviews, maybe you could try this with whatever book(s) you hope to finish this week.

Just this week Nicola from Alpha Heroes has done some very short reviews in the style of Stumbling over chaos. In fact I thought about quick reviews already during the weekly geeks where we were to think about doing a review in another reviewer’s format, but never got around to it.

So, I think that this is what I’ll do. I’ll now just list those books that are waiting to be blogged about and do it in a speedy manner. Maybe just a few lines, no blurb, but with a link to the shop where you can buy it. I’m just not sure whether to do one per post or a bunch together. It might be easier to find a specific one if they are all individual posts, but the posts would be very short. Oh, not sure yet. I’ll see how the first one turns out and go from there.

The list that I want to work off is:

• Unstoppable force by Lisa Marie Davis
• Testament to Love by Ariel Tachna
• In search of fireworks by Ariel Tachna
• The professor’s secret passion by M. L. Rhodes
• Fallen Angel by Sean Michael and it’s sequel Watching Angels (in “Bus stories”)
• Seeing Love by Sean Michael
• Chosen by Sean Michael, the sequel to “Need”
• Weathering the storm by Nicki Bennett & Ariel Tachna and its sequel Coming home (in “Reflections of Love”)
• Object of his desire by Ava March
• The Officer and the Gentleman by J. P. Bowie
• The Sight of home by Sean Michael
• From the get go by Sean Michael
• Gently down the stream by Connie Bailey
• Hearing beauty by Mike Shade
• Welcome home by Sean Michael
• Dissonance by Sonja Spencer
• The Squire by Shawn Lane
• Special Delivery by Cassandra Gold
• Feathers by Vincent Diamond
• Unspoken by Willa Okati
• The one that was lost by TC Blue (I hope to finish this one this weekend, but this one will get a full  review))

OMG, what a list to do! There are a few more that I put on the backburner. I better get going…

Find more Weekly Geeks!

Edit: After posting my first quick review I think it’s nicer to have individual posts for each one. I named the quick reviews "In a nutshell" to distinguish them from the longer ones.