A Play

Title: Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: Bantam Books, Reissue Edition, 1988
Started: 2/9/15
Finished: 2/11/15

As an English teacher I haven't actually read a lot of Shakespeare.  My list of Shakespeare experience before reading Hamlet was Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello.  I taught Romeo and Juliet and the other two were ones I read in school.  I missed out on taking the Shakespeare class at UNI, so I took Chaucer instead, but never really took reading Shakespeare into my own hands.  Shakespeare is intimidating and difficult to read for many reasons, but I think it really goes back to the fact that Shakespeare was not meant to be read, it is meant to be performed and/or viewed.  Reading Hamlet was great, but anytime I read any play I always want more.  

My mind, whilst reading Hamlet, kept jumping to The Lion King (which happens to be the Disney version on the play).  I knew The Lion King was loosely based on Hamlet, and when I say loosely I mean it.  Hamlet is rather depressing, The Lion King has it's moments of sadness, but I would never label it as depressing.  I didn't find myself liking Hamlet (the character) and maybe that's ok.  In fact I didn't much really care for any of the characters in the play, but maybe I read it wrong (although I don't believe in such a thing).  I don't know if you are supposed to like any of the characters in the play though.  It's a tragedy, a lot of people die in the final scene, and in the play in general.  These people die for a reason, and within that reason lies a lesson.  

I compare it Romeo and Juliet as I am most familiar with it having read and taught it multiple times.  None of the characters are very likable, though I argue for Mercutio.  Many of the characters have big flaws which ultimately lead to their deaths.  I think that is human nature, though.  The characters within these great plays are meant to reflect humanity and people are not perfect.  Though death is a bit extreme when it comes to the characters' downfall, it speaks to human nature in a beautiful way.  We root for Hamlet, then hate him, then root for him, we feel bad for him, then we shake our heads in disgust, and then as we write a blog post about him we realize he was only human, and humans have their flaws.  Hamlet has some great insight though, throughout the play, but it is overshadowed by his revenge.  I don't think this is new information, by any means, but it is just so profound.  When many people read something, they expect to like at least one of characters (the hero), who may have flaws, but is able to overcome them.  Shakespeare reminds us that this idea has it's own flaws when it comes to real people.  It's not to say that we cannot overcome our flaws, but many people don't, or before they do it happens to be too late.  

I like Shakespeare, he makes me think, and I think Hamlet is a great play worthy of revisiting in the future.  Shakespeare is not for everybody, as far as reading goes, but his tales have lived through centuries and hold major themes that make their way into stories today.  It's impossible to deny the influence Shakespeare has had on modern story telling, and that is why, I think I like Shakespeare so much.  He can be considered a source of much of what we see and read today and I think that is amazing.

A Book I Started but Never Finished

Title: The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Author: William Goldman
Published: The Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998 (Originally Published by Harcourt Brace in 1973)
Started: 1/30/15
Finished: 2/9/15

To write a short blog post about the greatness of The Princess Bride is tough.  To begin I will talk about why I read this book.  I picked up this book last year and started reading, and through lack of motivation and fear of an overdue fee I stopped reading the book.  This year I picked up Carey Elwes' book, As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride.  The blog I wrote about the book explains my love for the story.  I then watched the movie (again), and decided I needed to read the original masterpiece by Goldman himself, thus completing the requirement for "A book I started but never finished."  For the sake of eliminating criticism, I started from page 1 and completed the entire book (I didn't just start where I left off about a year ago), as this reading challenge is about reading 52 books in their entirety.

It's hard to explain The Princess Bride from a writing standpoint, but I will do my best.  Goldman wrote the book as if he is only abridging an earlier book written by the fictional S. Morgenstern.  Morgenstern (as already stated) is fictional and Goldman claims he is abridging Morgenstern's work to only include the good parts.  Apparently Morgenstern was very detailed and wordy in many chapters.  This style adds an element of humor, as Goldman inserts himself into the text to explain certain parts and their meaning to the text as a whole.  Goldman explains that this is his favorite book because his father once read it to him when he was sick.  Obviously that is not true, as the entire writing was done by Goldman.

Unless you live under a rock, you should know the story of The Princess Bride.  It is a "classic" tale of romance, violence, action, adventure, comedy, fantasy, and fairy tale.  The story follows Buttercup and Westley, a couple destined to be together and the trials and tribulations they must get through to finally be together.  There is sword fighting, swashbuckling, kissing, death, battles of wit, stealing, etc.  There is a giant, there are snakes, and ROUS.  It is an interesting and fantastic tale.  This is a book to read to your kids, but also to read as an adult for the humor and satire.  It is an excellent read and I now feel complete having viewed the movie, and read Elwes' account of making the movie from the book.

Now the major question: Is the movie like the book?  In a sense yes, in a sense no.  There are a lot of differences, but the general story line and characters are the same.  In fact, much of the dialogue is spot on (even the speech impediment by the priest is written into the book).  You have to know though, that Goldman did not only write the book, he also wrote the screenplay for the movie.  Knowing that, I think it is ok that the movie leaves out some parts, because Goldman wrote it that way.

I recommend this book to anyone that truly loves the story, and enjoys stories of action, adventure, love, fantasy, and fairy tale.  You are bound to enjoy one of the things so pick it up and read it, if you wish.

A Book with Antonyms in the Title

Title: The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well is the Key to Success
Author: Megan McArdle
Published: Viking Penguin, 2014
Started: 1/21/15
Finished: 1/30/15

There is so much to say about The Up Side of Down, but I will keep it short.  Failure plays a role in success.  It's a truth we all know, but are afraid to admit.  It's a lost art in schools and it's why we have this new form of parenting taking over to ensure kids won't fail.  Now, not a lot of people like failure, but is important in the learning process.  Megan McArdle cites research studies done on students of all ages, businesses, law firms, colleges, etc. and the truth is incredible.  Most successful businesses are successful through failures.

It boils down to risk taking.  Many people are afraid to take risks, because taking a risk could end up in failure.  The problem is risk taking is valued in society.  When we don't take risks, we never fail, and without failure or mistakes we never learn from them.  It's the reason the light bulb was invented, the automobile, the most recent iPhone.  This books ties directly in with Mindsets by Carol Dweck PhD.  It's a great read for parents, educators, and business people.  We need to instill the idea of failure as an event and not a label into the generation we are raising.  We need to embrace the role failure has on success, and teach people how to recover from it. 

I recommend this read to a lot of people who are interested in failure and success.  I have recommended it to a lot of people so far.  Some chapters get pretty dry depending on who is reading it (an English teacher reading about stocks is tough).  The one thing I will warn about is the amount of typos within the text.  Hopefully this gets fixed in the next publication.  At least every 3 pages there is some sort of error and it gets kind of annoying.  The content is great though. 

A Graphic Novel

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel
Author: Ransom Riggs and Cassandra Jean
Published: Yen Press, 2013
Started: 1/20/15
Finished: 1/20/15

I picked up the novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children last year about this time at Target, and whizzed through it.  It is an easy read, and a lot different than much of the young adult literature hitting the scene lately.  The novel version tells the story of an kid who is exposed to these radical stories about his grandfathers past through these strange photographs, and eventually finds out that these "fictitious" accounts are actually true.  Ransom Riggs does a great job telling the story and puts a new twist by embedding these antique photographs that match up perfectly with the story (the photographs are allegedly real).  Alas, I did not read the novel for my reading challenge, I read the graphic novel.

Graphic novels are becoming more and more popular, especially when they take an already famous work and adapt it to pictures and dialogue.  The graphic novel was a great interpretation and the best part...it didn't leave anything out, or at least that I noticed.  I read the Percy Jackson graphic novel and it doesn't do the series justice.  Many classic works have been adapted into graphic novels and every one I have read leaves out a lot.  I understand leaving out things when adapting to screen, but when you are adapting to a different style of text, I don't understand the reasoning.  Miss Peregrine was a different story though.  Cassandra Jean left in many for the original photographs and used those as a basis for the illustrations.  

I recommend this book to anyone (both the original and graphic novel).  It is an odd story and I think the adaptation to graphic novel makes sense.  It's already a very visual book filled with great images.  I'm a fan of imagination which is why I recommend reading the original first, but the graphic novel (in my opinion) is spot on.

A Sad Book (Or one that Made me Cry)

Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Published: Original: 1958 by Les Editions de Minuit, Translated (copy I own): 2006 by Marion Wiesel
Started: 1/19/15
Finished: 1/20/15

This post is a little late, but I have been busy working, spending time with my family, and of course, reading.  Back in high school I was assigned to read the book Night in my sophomore English class.  You can bet that if I say, "I was assigned to read..." it means I probably didn't read it.  Most of these books I went back and read shortly after high school, a necessary thing to do since I was in school to become an English teacher.  Night was one I left out for some reason.  Because of it's short length, maybe I had forgotten it.  I really don't know why I forgot it.  So, originally this was my book on the list that "I was supposed to read in school, but never did."

I decided to change what book it qualified as to "A book that made me cry" or in this case "A sad book."  Unfortunately, it is very hard for me to get that emotional when reading or viewing so crying is out of the question.  There were times while I was reading this book that I had a lump in my throat.  There were times I was angry.  There were times I just wanted to put it down and read something happier.  This is exactly why this book is a must-read.  The emotion it evokes is incredible.  I can read about the holocaust in most history books, on Wikipedia, etc., but Night is so much more telling.  A real account of what this event looked like and felt like.  

To a certain extent I am glad I waited to read this book.  I don't know if I would have appreciated it back then, and if I had read it, I may not have ever read it again.  I love books that eat away at our emotions or at least evoke those emotions.  I think when a book does that it becomes more than just literature or reading material.  When we can sympathize with characters (I won't use empathize, as I would never fully understand the pain Wiesel went through), we start to feel as if they are more than a character.  This book is nonfiction, so Elie Wiesel is a living human being, and to know that makes this book so much more powerful.

If you have not read this book, you need to, but be prepared for the emotion.

A Book Based on A True Story

Title: As Your Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of "The Princess Bride"
Author: Cary Elwes
Published: Simon and Schuster, 2014
Started: 1/08/15
Finished: 1/13/15

One of the most quoted movies of all time, "The Princess Bride," is lucky to now have a companion with this book.  Before I get corrected, I am totally aware that the movie is based off of a book, but As You Wish is not a retelling of the story, it's a telling of the process in which the film was made.  I am intrigued by the business of film making especially when it comes to films I enjoy.  I think stories like this help bring a deeper meaning and appreciation to a film.

I first watched "The Princess Bride" a few years ago when I bought it.  I knew the film was great from many of the people who were recommending it to me.  I have since then watched it multiple times and love it more every time I pop the DVD in the player.  I picked up Cary Elwes' book not really knowing what to expect.  I knew it wasn't necessarily an autobiography, since it is marketed as about the film not about Cary.  I was a little worried the book might have been a little dry.  The book was totally engaging though.  With each chapter I wanted to start watching the movie all over again just to see the parts that were referred to in the book.

Cary does a phenomenal job telling these stories from his perspective with brief side notes contributed by others that worked in or on the film.  From stories about the "greatest sword fight of all time" to stories about Andre the Giant to stories about how the cast met and how they formed a very special bond through the film, it was great to know that the film wasn't just another movie for these people.  Not only does the book make me want to watch the movie (which I will probably do tomorrow), but I also want to pick up William Goldman's book and read it as well (so I added it to my list for this year).

At the end of the book Cary acknowledges Goldman for giving him permission to write the book, to which he states that Goldman was a little reluctant.  I don't think Goldman has to worry, because this book does the film and story justice.  If you are a fan of the book or movie you need to read this book.  If you have never seen the movie, get out from under that rock and watch it then read this book.  I think it's important to have watched the film first to gain some understanding and then build such a deeper appreciation for the film after reading this book.  As You Wish is filled with emotion, as it is the movie that made Cary Elwes and projected his career.  The book is funny at times, sad at times, and everything in between.

A Book by an Author I Have Never Read

Title: Love Life
Author: Rob Lowe
Published: Simon and Schuster, 2014
Started: 1/02/15
Finished: 1/07/15

In this day and age anybody can write and publish a book.  That doesn't mean everybody should.  Rob Lowe is an exception to that, so don't misread this as a negative review.  Celebrities are pumping out memoirs and autobiographies like it is their second job.  It is, perhaps, their way of telling the public, "Hey, I am more than what the tabloid says I am."  I have read a few celebrity memoirs/autobiographies, and many are pretty exciting, some are shocking, some are dull.  Many celebrities actually live pretty interesting lives, but everyone (celebrity or not) has stories worth telling.  I saw Rob Lowe's book at Target one day and wanted to buy it so I did (not the most exciting sentence ever).  I am a huge Parks and Rec fan and read Nick Offerman's book Paddle Your Own Canoe last year, so Rob Lowe's book automatically intrigued me.


Rob Lowe published his first book Stories I Only Tell my Friends in 2011 and it received great reviews.  Lowe is someone who I recognize, but don't necessarily idolize.  I enjoy his acting, but he is not my favorite.  I didn't know a lot about him, but for some reason I was drawn to the book.  Perhaps the original appeal was that the book is actually written by him.  See, the reason why celebrities are able to publish books like they do today, is because they receive an immense amount of help from other authors.  These people are hired to hear the story of the celebrity or take what they have already written and make it more interesting.  Sure the books typically end up sounding like that person, but that's decent writing.  Rob Lowe writes his own books and I appreciate that.  It's so much more authentic and real.

Love Life is a book split up into chapters, each offering bits of wisdom that inevitably lead to one overarching moral...Love Life.  Through stories of his youth, alcohol addiction, experiences on set, and his family life it is apparent that Rob Lowe is a human being.  Many times celebrities almost seem fictitious, which is why many of them write these accounts (speculation).  Lowe is a family man first and an actor second.  It wasn't always that way for him.  He has lead an interesting life, enough so to make some great stories, but more importantly Lowe is easy to relate to.  He doesn't glorify his life as an actor.  He glorifies his life as a person, as a father, and as a husband.  I appreciate that.  He includes certain anecdotes about what acting is truly like, which is interesting, but it's not in your face.  His most memorable chapters are accounts of his family life and background, though the story about the Playboy Mansion is pretty funny.

I don't know Rob Lowe, personally, and probably never will.  I don't know how he lives as far as material goods are concerned, but one thing came through this book.  I don't think Lowe is concerned about material goods, money, or anything of the sort.  He is concerned about memories, experiences, life.  Maybe that's what he wants the perception to be and it's all a farce, but if so he fooled me.  The book went by rather quick and I enjoyed every page.  In a day and age when anyone can write and publish material, Rob Lowe has taken advantage and done so admirably.

Favorite Quotes: Speaking of his wife Sheryl: "I also love her for her shortcomings.  When you can love those, and not be resentful or hope they will magically disappear, you are approaching unconditional love."

"In rehab I learned to love alcoholics and addicts for what we are and what we are not.  We truly view things differently for others and that is our curse and blessing.  We have characteristics that uniquely our own.  We are the lives of the party, the dreamers, the romantics, the storytellers, the masters of the grand gesture.  We are emotional, passionate and capable of a depth of feeling that is usually the source of our problem.
"Unfortunately, we can also be heartbreakers of the highest magnitude: frustrating, maddening, confusing and disappointing quicksilvers who flirt with tragedy on a daily basis."