Thursday, October 16, 2014

Book Chat #1 (Previously would have been titled: Read and To-Read -> October 2014) { + video}

It's that time again! Time to catch up on what I have been reading, and what I want to read next! Only this time, I've started a video series, which also went up today. If you would like to hear me talk about the 12 books I've read over the last 3 months, then feel free to head over to my video, which I will also embed at the bottom of this post, or else, let's get started!

I'm not going to talk too much about the books I've finished here, since I talked for a long time in my video, but I will of course do a little blurb about whether I liked it and what it's about.

Books I've read:

1. The One by Kiera Cass

For those who don't know, this is the last book in the Selection trilogy, so I clearly wouldn't recommend starting here, but I would recommend this series! This series is a teen post-apocalyptic dystopian romance... kind of. I mean, you have the post-apocalyptic world, and you have conflicts, and you have the obvious teen-romance love triangles... but it's a cool mix of dystopian world and The Bachelor! It sounds really cheesy, but it's really well executed, and a cool break from the teen dystopians which are frankly starting to become pretty formulaic. Hunger Games was fantastic, and Divergent was excellent. Delirium was pretty good. But I love that this series is a little something different!

2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

For those who are a little nerdy and/or a little awkward and like teen fiction, I would totally recommend this book. It is disappointingly a one-off novel (I'd love so much more of this story!), but really cute and a really quick read. I love the characters in this one so much. Cath isn't your normal teen novel protagonist, she's socially awkward, nerdy, and an extremely talented fanfiction author with a big online following, and this story starts when she and her twin sister Wren go to college, but Wren refuses to room with her sister, since she wants to meet new people. Yeah. Read it.

3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

I'm sure you've all already read Harry Potter, but yes. I'm on my millionth read through, basically. Oddly, because of library books, and class readings and assignments, I stopped about halfway through this book about 2 years ago, and only got around to finishing sometime this summer. I mean, I've read it so many times that I just jumped right back in where I left off, but I can't believe it took me so long to get back to it!

4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Quickly following #4, I moved onto #5, and read it quickly like a crazy person. Much better.

5. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

This was my final John Green book to read (if we only count his solo-authored ones), and it was really good! Nothing may ever beat TFiOS, but this one definitely ties for second with Looking for Alaska! Also, it has footnotes. Heh...

6. Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth

If you read and loved Divergent, and especially if Four/Tobias was your favourite character, I recommend reading this books, assuming you haven't already. It has some really great backstory on Four before we meet him, and before he becomes Dauntless, as well as a couple scenes from the first book from his perspective. Love! I want to own this one so badly to complete my collection!

7-9. 666 Park Avenue, The Dark Glamour, and The Lost Soul by Gabriella Pierce

I meant for this to be a quick, interesting book, but it ended up being a trilogy... which I didn't find out until the end of the first book, which totally doesn't end in an okay place! This one is about witches and magic on the Upper East Side of New York City, which was a pretty appealing premise to me, even though it looks like a cheap, cheesy little chick-lit novel. Which is kinda is, but all the same, throughout the trilogy, I think Pierce manages to do a really good job developing her world's magic system and rules and history, and it ends up being a good story!

10. The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

I first heard of this book from Ingrid (MissGlamourazzi), and it sounded fun and cute, as YA fiction tends to be, so I decided to give it a go. And it was really good, as expected. It's a pretty simple premise that fits in really well with the likes of John Green's first 3 books, but if you want more information on the story, you can find the blurb on GoodReads with the above link or watch my video.

11. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

I also found this book through YouTube, this time from the Vlogbrothers, who I think mentioned it on a couple different occasions, which intrigued me. It wasn't as good in my opinion as the Beginning of Everything, which I read right before this one, but it was still a really good teen fiction novel, and I really enjoyed it.

12. A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin

If you know and love Game of Thrones as a tv series, I would loudly suggest that you read the books, though the show is only up to book three, so don't read any further if you don't want to spoil it. This is the second book in the series, and I'm in looooooove! It's got some plot differences and wayyyyy more backstory and history and characters, and IT. IS. JUST. SO. GOOD!

Currently Reading: (I'm actually reading shockingly few books right now!)

1. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin

2. The Silmarrilion by J. R. R. Tolkien

To-Read:

1. The Selection Stories by Kiera Cass

I mentioned this one in my video, when I was reviewing The One, but my boyfriend bought it for me since I filmed that video, so I'm really looking forward to getting to this book next!

2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

Here follows a bunch of re-reading, because sometimes you just need to! I've already worked my way through 1-5, so it's time to finish up the series with #6 and:

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

...#7! I'll be really glad to finally finish this series all over again, since it's been years, and these last two books are my favourites!

4-7. The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer

I make no apologies for this one. I've read this series once before (I don't think I've ever re-read any of the books), but not for years, and not since I bought my own copies. I think i started reading these in highschool, when the first three were out, but the last one wasn't yet, because I'm pretty sure I remember waiting for the last book. Also, I read them before the movie. I think... Anyways, yes, I really want to read these books again now that I know that so many people hate them, because I always really liked them, and even defended them in my university classes. And I'll point out I rarely speak in class. So yes, looking forward to experiencing this series a second time.

8. Onward by Howard Schultz

I love Starbucks, and have a weird curiousity about this book and if it's any good... what else can I say?

9. The Intimate Adventures of A London Call Girl by Belle du Jour

I loooooved Secret Diary of a Call Girl, the show inspired by this book, with Billie Piper as the protagonist, so of course I want to read the book too! I believe this is meant to be a true story/diary of real woman's life as a call girl in London, which is pretty cool. If I like it, I'll also look for the second book.

10. Uglies by Scott Westerfield

I've had this book for ages! Probably since middle school? Yeah... and I've never read it..! I know this became a pretty big series, so I want to finally give this one another go. I own it, so I should read it!

All images are from GoodReads.com and can be found on the pages linked for each book.

I'd love to know what you've been reading lately, or if you've read any of the books I mentioned, so be sure to leave me a comment, either here, or on my video!

Video time!:

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Update!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post here... I even have some stuff I want to post, like a J!NX haul, another book update, and a tv/anime update post, but I just haven't got there yet.

Soon...

Anyways, I have had tons of up on my channel lately, so if you want some more from me, you should definitely check those out, as well as the contests I have up on my blog right now!

I swear I'll return soon!

<3



Thursday, May 22, 2014

Read and To-Read –> May 2014

It is that time once again; time for me to go over the books that I’ve read (somewhat) recently, give you a quick review, and show you the books that I am currently reading, and looking forward to reading soon.

As always, I’ll link to the GoodReads page for each book, so you can find out more about it or add it to your own to-read list if you have a GoodReads account. Let’s get on with it, shall we?

Read:

1. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

This was listed as reading in my last book post, so of course it makes sense that I finished it. This was the final book in the MaddAddam trilogy, the first two books being Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood. This is a dystopian trilogy, and it’s beautifully, chillingly written. Atwood’s style is fantastic, and disturbingly truthful and plausible. I would definitely recommend it if you’ve loved the teen dystopian craze recently and are looking for a step up in maturity and style.

2. The Complete Odes and Epodes by Horace

This was terrible, but I inished it because it was for class, and it was the first one of the semester, so my persistence was high. Yeah… just don’t unless you like torture in the form of poetry.

3. The History of Mary Prince by Mary Prince

This is a true story, or at least a mostly true story. It was told by Mary Prince—a slave from the West Indies who found freedom in England—to someone else who wrote it down for her, so the legitimacy is somewhat questionable, but at worse, this is still a short, quick to read, moving, and disturbing story of what life was like for one slave woman. I actually quite liked it, as I mentioned, it was extremely easy to read, and it is always fascinating to read accounts of lives very different from your own.

4. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

I only read parts of this recently, for class, but I’ve read other parts before as well. Chaucer is difficult for most people, as the spelling was not yet standardized in his day, and each story is written to suit the dialect and status of the character telling it. It is much easier to read out loud and understand it than it is to look at the words and hope to figure out what they’re saying to you. Still, if you can manage, many of the stories are extremely well-written, fascinating, and hilarious, so I think it’s worth a shot for any English major, or anyone else up to the challenge. Besides, there are always translations online if you just can’t figure something out!

5. Everyday by David Levithan

The concept of this book is just so original and astonishing, and it was executed beautifully. And I would have expected no less from the insanely talented David Levithan. Can you tell he’s one of my all-time favourite authors? If you haven’t heard of it before, the concept for this novel is that A, the main character, wakes up every morning in the body of a new person, and must adapt to his or her life for one day. A is not a boy or a girl, and does not feel any more comfortable in one type of life than another. A does not know why this happens, how  it began, or when it began, but in one life, A falls for Rhiannon—who is the girlfriend of the guy whose body he woke up in that morning. The story follows the battle to be with Rhiannon and deal with this weird life.

It is beautiful, stunning, eye-opening, and extremely quick-paced. I couldn’t put it down, and I would recommend anyone even remotely interested should read this one! A quick favourite, and I can only hope there will be  a sequel!

6. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I’d been excited to try this one out for a while, because my best friend Brit (starlessbooks on YouTube) made it sound so fascinating after she read it, so I was glad it was part of one of my class lists for last semester. And it was phenomenal! Wilde’s writing style is just amazing, he’s so witty and sharp, and so so beautiful. I hated the main character so so so much, but I couldn’t have cared less, because the words that Wilde chooses are some of the best I’ve read. I look forward to reading more Wilde, though this is the only novel he ever produced, so I’m not sure how well I’ll do with his plays.

(Also, if you are interested in seeing the incredible amount of work I put into my final project on this book—of which I am quite proud of myself—then you can go to ThePictureOfDGray.blogspot.ca))

7. Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology by Cory O’Brien

My boyfriend bought me this book for my birthday (I think it was my birthday), and it was really cool. I love mythology—and stuff that doesn’t take itself too seriously—so this was a great find on his part, as it wasn’t one I’d ever heard of before. O’Brien takes a bunch of myths from a bunch of different cultures, including Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, Japanese, etc, and retells them with his own personal, loud, obnoxious, and extremely hilarious spin on them. It really made me want to read more of these myths in a more serious version as well, as the ones I found the funniest were often ones I already knew in their purer forms!

8. Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal by Oscar Wilde (probably)

Let me start off by warning you that this book is . . . fairly graphic, to put it gently. To put it a little less gently, this is pretty much straight-up gay porn. But the fascinating thing about it is its origin! Though the cover I’ve put above says that this novel is by Anonymous, it is argued by some Wilde scholars that this was written by Oscar Wilde himself, though he never published it. That might sound ridiculous, but reading it, the style is just like his, and his descriptions are so beautiful, and the banter between the main characters is so Wildean that it is hard to deny that he was the author. But yes, if that intrigues you, do be prepared for explicitly described male-on-male sex scenes. Though to be honest, the idea of 1890’s homosexual porn is at least half of what enticed me to get this book out in the first place!

***

Reading: (I am not actively reading all of these, but they are all somewhat on-the-go or not yet completed)

1. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

2. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Yep, that’s right, I still haven’t finished rereading this one…

4. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

To-Read:

1. Emma by Jane Austen

2. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3.The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

4. Wide Awake by David Levithan

5. Four: A Divergent Story Collection by Veronica Roth

6. Panic by Lauren Oliver

7. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

8. Neuromancer by William Gibson

9. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

10. OCD Love Story

***

All images from goodreads.com

***

And that’s all for now. Of course, there are hundreds more books on my to-read list on GoodReads, so if you’d like to follow me there, check out my books, and follow what I’m reading, then feel free. My GR username is angelsins.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

My Spring 2014 Anime Line-up

So I mentioned in my last post that I’m currently following several anime right now, which is shocking, since I shunned anime for years and years. But I’ve been broken now, so shush. I’ll do what I want.

Anyways, I thought it would be cool to let you know what anime I’m currently watching. I’m obviously by no means an expert on anime, and some of these may be absolute shit in comparison to more established and well-known shows… Though good and shitty are pretty subjective according to each person’s likes and preferences…

I watch my anime translated and subtitled by fan groups, with the original Japanese voices, not dubbed over in English, which it takes forever to do, and which just sounds cheesy every single time. I will, however, post both the Japanese and Anglicized titles for each anime that I’m watching this season, and give you a brief intro to the concept and story.

All images found on MyAnimeList. I will try very hard not to be spoiler-y in my introductions/descriptions…. So let’s get on with it:

1. Isshuukan Friends (One Week Friends)

This one was basically sold to me by Random Curiosity (randomc.net)—the site where I read with my boyfriend about all the anime coming up in the next season, which I originally started reading through with him because some of the concepts for anime are completely and utterly ridiculous and thus hilarious to read out lout—because it’s supposed to be a slice-of-life type anime that is also just incredibly sad. And I love anything that can effectively make me love and care for the characters, so I thought I would give it a go. Plus, the soft art style, as seen in the picture above, is super appealing to me.

For those that don’t know, slice-of-life anime are basically that the name suggests: a look into random days in these characters lives. Nothing really extraordinary really happens, and I don’t think there’s supposed to be anything magicky, sci-fi, supernatural, etc. The concept for this anime, which is based on a manga, is that the girl—Fujimiya—doesn’t make friends because at the end of every week she forgets everyone that is special to her, aside from her family. She wakes up every Monday morning with all memories of these people that she loved just the night before completely erased. The guy—Hase—however, decides that he wants to be her friend and determines to start each week asking Fujimiya if he can be her friend if that’s what it takes.

So far, I’ve really been liking this show. It hasn’t yet made me cry, but with less than half an hour per episode, I only have about an hour of plot anyways, so I’ll give it some time before declaring that it failed to be emotional. I definitely feel for the characters, though, and Fujimiya in particular.

2. Kamigami No Asobi (Mischief of the Gods)

This one is by far my favourite thing that I’m watching this season, at least so far. I decided to give it a go partly because it’s the type of show my boyfriend would never bother watching. It’s a shojo harem anime, for starters; shojo means that it’s for girls (~7-18 yrs. old), and harem means what one might suspect. . . to put it delicately, there’s one girl, and a ton of guys.

Just being a shojo anime would not have been enough to entice me to give this show a try, though, although I might try more now just because I kinda like the feeling and setup of the show. The concept, though, is what actually intrigued me. The girl, Yui, is a human schoolgirl, while the guys are various gods from the Greek, Norse, and Japanese pantheons. Honestly, who doesn’t want to see an odd Japanese take on forcing several different pantheons to intermingle? The driving element of this story is that Zeus has brought all these gods to this academy to learn about humans and human love, in an attempt to help the gods remain relevant in an increasingly secular society.

This show is a cool mix of funny, goofy, ridiculous, pretty, and fun. As you might be able to tell, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. My favourite character is Apollo (though he is called Apollon in the show), though Hades is also pretty interesting/funny and Balder is pretty endearing as well. This is certainly not a serious or probably even ground-breaking anime, but I would suggest it if you think it sounds interesting.

3. Seikoku no Dragonar (Dragonar Academy)

This anime is actually completely not geared at me. As you might be able to guess from the picture above, this is what David likes to term a “boob anime.” Well, kinda. I mean, there are certainly some ridiculously busty characters, a little too much bounce action, and some moments that could be termed “creepy.” This anime is obviously geared at boys. But I love dragons, and for the most part, after I managed to accept the first 5 minutes of the first episode, I was able to accept and enjoy this anime. It has a cutesy, goofy humour for the most part, but also a darker element that is currently mostly just threatening to rear its head.

The premise for this anime is that the characters are dragon riders/breeders/masters, and they are at a school for dragonars—what they call these dragon rider people. The main character, though termed a “problem child” throughout his school career hasn’t found his dragon yet at the beginning of the anime, and when he does, it is in the form of a young girl (pictured in the middle of the image above). She is feisty and stubborn, and not about to let Ash—the main character—call himself her master. No, she is his master!

For the most part I’ve been quite enjoying this anime. It does have the creepy, look-at-her-boobs factor, but there is also what I feel to be a fairly strong and interesting story and driving plot behind that. I’m interested to see where this one goes. As for favourite character thus far, aside from the dragons themselves (have I ever mentioned I love dragons?), my favourite character is Eco, the protagonist’s dragon-in-human-form. So technically still a dragon.

4. Gokukoku no Brynhildr (Brynhildr in the Darkness)

This one is a bit hard to classify. I don’t think it’s particularly geared towards either gender, maybe slightly towards guys more then girls, but I think it’s good for everyone. I guess that it’s a sci-fi mystery/drama type anime? And dark. Only 4 episodes in and the darkness is already quickly creeping into this show’s plot. Like dragons and sad shows, I also love me some darkness. Admittedly, though, although this was one anime that interested me a bit when I first read about it on Random Curiosity, I’m mostly watching it because my boyfriend decided to pick it up. I’m not sure I would have gone for it on my own.

The main character—Ryouta—when he was young, had a friend who insisted on proving the existence of aliens, but died in an accident. Feeling responsible, he is the sole remaining member of the astronomy club in high school years later, trying to prove aliens for Kuroneko, his dead friend. One day, a transfer student who looks identical to his long-dead friend comes to his school, and he kinda freaks out, but she insists that they have never met in their lives. She later saves his life using her magical powers, however, and admits to being a witch. It’s a pretty complicated premise, and I can’t explain better or more thoroughly without spoiling the first couple of episodes, so I’ll leave that there.

I was not expecting to like this anime as much as I have been. As I mentioned above, I do really like the darkness that hasn’t been present in many of the anime that I’ve watched thus far. It’s a bit morbid and gory, and more adult than a lot of anime, which is usually geared to kids, teens, and young adults. This is probably more of an older show, and lacks a lot of the goofiness of a lot of anime. Which is not always a bad thing. I’ll definitely be continuing to watch to figure out what the fuck is going on!

Dropped

Escha & Logy no Atelier: Tasogare no Sora no Renkinjutsushi (Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky)

I won’t give this one as thorough an introduction as the others, but I did want to touch on it because I did give it a try.

I didn’t know going in, but this is linked to an existing and successful game franchise, which complicates and confuses somethings. There were a few times when stuff happened or was said that just seemed to be taken for granted that I felt needed some explanation, but no explanation was ever given. That might be because anyone who has played the games would understand without explanation, but I don’t know. I also felt that character development was lacking.

I did find the art style very appealing, and the alchemy element seemed interesting on first read through of the introduction, but about halfway through the third episode I just couldn’t care anymore, so I decided to drop it. I have other things that I can do with the 20 minutes a week I would have spent not caring about this anime. However, if you’ve played the games, maybe this would be fun to watch?

***

So that’s everything. I will also mention briefly that I’m super excited for next season, because that is when the reboot of Sailor Moon airs! I’m pretty excited to watch a proper, Japanese version of the show.

So yeah, I hope you found this interesting or useful in some way. Thanks so much for reading. Have an awesome day! =)

Friday, April 25, 2014

I’m still not dead…

I can’t believe that it’s been almost 2 months since I’ve posted here, but I have been really busy with this past semester, though I did enjoy a fair bit of it more than I usually do!

In fact, only a couple days ago I finished up my last assignment, which was to create an “edition” of one of the texts we were reading for class. What that means, for those who aren’t familiar with the idea, is basically like we were making a mini book, and so we had to do the various things involved in that process. Luckily, we just did a couple of chapters instead of a whole book, as it was a ton of work as it was already!

I chose to do my project on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, because I absolutely loved it. I chose to do my project as a website, so you can click here to go take a look at it if you want; it’d be cool if some people looked at it considering all the work I put into it! We had to write an introduction to the edition (with historical context, rationale, etc.), a note on the text (explaining decisions and edits we made, and to which copy-texts), a works cited, and the text itself, as well as any extras we wanted to include.

For my edition, I chose to compare the 1890 and 1891 publishings of Dorian Gray since there are some pretty substantial changes made which harshly affect the reading and meaning of Wilde’s story, so I presented two different chapters with the 1890 and 1891 side by side for easy comparison. I also linked to some reviews of each text on Project Gutenberg.

So yeah… that was literally hours of work. And my hands were so sore after all the necessary transcription and coding! >____<

But I’m done now, hoping to get a job soon. I just had what I hope was a promisiing interview at Old Navy. At very least, I had some fun meeting the hiring manager person and some other prospective employees. *Shrugs*

Anyway… I hope to do another book round-up type post in the next little while, as I have read tons for class, as well as on my own over the last little while. I know that’s pretty much the only thing I post here, but I’m okay with that. I could also do a post about the anime I’m watching this season, though, since there are five. Which is just bizarre. I think I’m broken!

However, if anyone wants to see anything else, do leave me a comment down below, and I shall see if I can accommodate your wishes =P

Thanks so much for reading. Have an awesome day/night/afternoon/etc. <3

Friday, February 14, 2014

TAG: Book Clock

I found this tag on my friend Brit’s blog—starlessfashion.blogspot.ca—and I thought it looked like fun. I’m not going to tag anyone, so do it if you think it looks interesting, and let me know in the comments so I can check out your answers!

1) How fast do you read?
It takes me about 2 or 3 minutes to read a page in your average book, so about 20-30 pages an hour.


2) How many books do you read in a year?
Somewhere in the 40-50 range, if we’re only talking novels.

3) How many books are on your TBR pile/list?
Hundreds, if we look at my GoodReads list instead of an actual pile: 358, at the moment, to be precise.


4) Based on how many books you have to read, and how many book you read in a year, how long will it take you to get to the end of your TBR pile/list?
Assuming I read 50 books a year steadily, and never learn about or acquire any new books to add to the pile, it would take me more than 7 years.

5) How many years have you been reading?
Probably since I was 4 or 5, sooo… ~19 years…


6) Based on how many books you read in a year and how many years you've been reading, how many books have you read in your lifetime?
That’s really hard to figure out, considering that I didn’t really start reading novels until I was around 7, so that’s 2-3 years where I’m reading picture books, and I’m sure in that period I read more than 50 books a year. Then again, I probably read a bit less than 50 a year through the rest of elementary school… Maybe it evens out.

Alright, let’s assume 50/year again… 50*19=950 books. That’s a lot of books…


7) How many hours do you spend reading in a week?
That’s hard for me to calculate, since I don’t read with much regularity, but when I do read, I usually read in huge doses (like several hours in one day). There are probably some weeks that I read for maybe 3 hours (mostly class readings), and others where I’m into a book and read closer to 10-15 hours.


8) How many hours do you spend in book-related activities other than reading in a week? (Booktubing, bookblogging, book shopping, etc)
I hang out with my best friend about once a week, and somehow we almost always find ourselves in a bookstore for at least part of that time, so that’s probably a good hour or so right there shopping for books. Other than that, I don’t do too much else regarding books. So let’s say about 2 hours a week.


9) Would you like to change that ratio? (Would you rather spend more time reading and less time on book-related things?)
I don’t care much about the ratio, but I would ideally like to find more time to read for pleasure every week. The trouble tends to be finding the time between school work, my blogs, friends, family, the gym, and marathoning tv shows…

10) Anything else you'd like to add? And who do you want to tag?
I don’t think I have anything to add. And no tags; as I mentioned at the top, I tag anyone and everyone who wants to. And make sure to post the link!

Thanks for reading!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Spring 2014 Semester (Text)book Haul

I know it’s a little after the start of the semester, but I thought it would be cool to show you the books that I bought for my classes this semester—and also the books that I didn’t buy, but will be reading for my classes. It took me a while to figure out the best way to organize these, but I think the best way to do it is by course. I’ll also quickly tell you a little about the point/purpose of each class is before getting into the books, in case you’re intersted. So let’s get into it, shall we?

English 435W – Editing the Nineteenth Century Classics

I thought this course sounded really interesting, but also kinda scary when I was picking my classes, considering it isn’t your average English class where you read the books, talk about the books, and write a few essays. Instead, along with looking at the actual works that these books contain, we are looking at the specific editions, the ways that they are put together, and the decisions that go into producing an individual edition of a text. Also, instead of a final essay, the ending project for this class is to make our own editions of a chapter of section of one of the books we’re reading.

1. The Annotated Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley:

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This book is massive, and pretty expensive, considering that you could get a paperback pocketbook version for maybe $10 new. However, considering the idea of the class, the edition was very specific and important. I wish I liked Frankenstein—which i don’t—but it’s really cool all the extra stuff that’s in here, including a lot of information in the side annotations, as well as tons of pictures of things like first editions, portraits, and other relevant images. It’s really pretty, as you can see in the two images below:

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So yeah, while I hate Frankenstein as a novel, this book is gorgeous, and I doubt I’d sell it or get rid of it.

2. Moths by Ouida:

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I know little to nothing about this novel, aside from what the blurb on the back says, and that it is a Victorian novel, which is published in three volumes. It sounds a bit like Vanity Fair, which I haven’t read, but I have seen the movie adaptation with Reese Witherspoon. I hope it’s easy to read, because it’s really long, and the general concept sounds pretty interesting and promising.

Also, as you can see from the library barcode, I did not buy this book, because it was available in the university library, which allows semester-long loans, and also as a free e-book through the library. So I have no reason to buy this ugly edition of this book.

3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad:

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I know almost as little about this novel as I do about Moths, except that I know lots of people don’t like it. So I’m not really excited to read it, but it has been on my GoodReads to-read list for a long time. Also, I hate that it has that ugly circle of sticker left on it, but it’s better than the giant ugly sticker that the University bookstore put on the front! Ugh! *stickers on books is a bit of a pet peeve of mine…*

4. The History of Mary Prince by Mary Prince:

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This is probably the book from this class that I am looking forward to the least. From what I can tell, this is a slave narrative, more like a memoir than a novel. But at least it will be really short, and maybe the history around this book’s publication has been really interesting.

5. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde:

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I’m actually really excited to read this book, and I’ve already started it, because I’ve pretty much already decided that it’s the book that I’m going to do my presentation and final project on. My best friend read this ages ago, and it sounded really interesting, but I hadn’t got around to reading it yet, but I have now! Also, less than 30 pages in, and I’m already in love with Wilde’s writing style, so that’s a plus. Oh, and can I just mention how much I like the style of the Oxford World's Classics book collection? Yeah.

English 404W – Constructing Urban Identity in Late Medieval Literature and Art

This was another course that seemed scary when I was doing my selecting, but unlike the editing one, this one still does scare me a little, because analyzing art is just not my forte… At any rate, the material is still pretty interesting, partly just because I really like Medieval literature, though my favourite stuff is a bit older than Chaucer, and this is late middle ages, but that’s alright. I do like Chaucer, and I’ve read a lot, and I get it. But yes the idea of the course is to get a better understanding of how Medieval art and literature interact with each other and what they can tell us about the period. It almost sounds more like a Humanities class than an English class, but it’s still interesting.

1. York Mystery Plays: A Selection in Modern Spelling

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These are a mix of boring and interesting, though the historical info in the introduction has been pretty interesting. The York Mystery Plays are not actually mysteries, but they are called that because the Guilds that put on the plays—which enact different scenes/stories out of the Bible and other apocryphal Christian texts—were sometimes called Mysteries. I don’t know why, just roll with it. But some of the plays are quite interesting, specifically when they deal with apocryphal material which would not be accepted today as Biblical, since it kinda lets you look at how the people of the time understood and questioned their religion.

2. Picture Theory by W. J. T. Mitchell:

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This might be literally the most boring book I had to buy for this semester. I don’t even want to talk about it; each of the chapters is like reading a long, boring academic journal article. At least I didn’t buy it.

3. Painting & Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy by Michael Baxandall

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This one isn’t enjoyable for me, but it is fairly readable. Also, much shorter, and it has tons of (black and white) pictures.

4. The Canterbury Tales: Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer

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I didn’t have to buy this one, because my mom owns it. Also, if you don’t know what the Canterbury Tales are, you should probably look it up, because it’s pretty important. It’s tough to read, because it’s written in a very old, non-standardized version of English, so the spellings change, but everything is spelled how it sounds, and if you read it out loud it can make a lot more sense if you just can’t figure it out.

Humanities 303 – Rome: Cyberspace 1.0

This class is looking at Rome starting around the time of Augustus Caesar and analyzing the various networks that were in place from previous empires, and those that were put in place as Rome expanded to rule so much of Europe. The prof is connecting those trade/government/communication/transportation/etc. networks to cyberspace because their main function is to connect people and facilitate the spread of information and goods, much like the internet in some ways. So far the title doesn’t seem to have too much to do with the course, but Rome is interesting all the same.

1. The Sixteen Satires by Juvenal:

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If you ignore the slightly questionable painting pictured here, I also really like the cover design of these Penguin Classics. Anyways, I don’t know what this one is about, or who Juvenal is, though I’m guessing there’s something satirical about this book… Just a guess.

2. The Poems of Exile by Ovid:

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This is basically a book of poems in which Ovid whines about being exiled from Rome by Augustus for writing a book he didn’t like. Though technically it’s a satire, and he basically calls Augustus a hypocrite and stuff like that. I’m honestly bored out of my mind about it, but luckily this is another book I got out of the library, but just from the actual public library, so it’ll be due soon, which isn’t great.

3. The Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus:

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Yet another book that I got out of the SFU library. I almost wish this copy was mine, not because I like the book, but because it looks so old and wrecked, and I love books that look like this. Anyways, this book is basically a history book written in Rome about Rome, which is kinda cool. The translation actually isn’t that bad, and it’s fairly readable, except that the prof assigned an insane number of pages for our first go at it, so it’s a little daunting picking up the book knowing you need to get through 200 pages before class.

4. The Aeneid by Virgil:

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Oh my god, a book I actually paid for?! I’m actually a bit interested to read this one, since it’s an ancient classic, and also a massive piece of Roman propaganda. I just hope that I don’t go into it hoping for too much so that it just feels boring.

5. Fasti by Ovid:

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I’ve heard that it’s less whiney than the Poems of Exile, which should be a bit of a nice change. If I remember correctly, this is the book about Roman religious and the gods and such that Ovid wrote, so that could actually be fairly interesting, since I love Greek mythology. Though I have much less experience with Roman mythology, so I don’t know if I like it as much, since I know that some of the characters/gods end up coming off a bit differently in the Roman context.

6. The Complete Odes and Epodes by Horace:

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And finally, the first textbook that I no longer need. If I’d been thinkging a little faster, I could have been really nice to this bok and then returned it to the bookstore for my refund, because we only used it for the first week of the semester, and then we were done. It was really boring, in my opinion; it’s a collection of long and short poems by Horace that really have nothing to do with each other. Also, Horace has some weird love of referencing/name-dropping tons of mythological characters, famous people, places, and stuff like that. It was quite weird.

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So that’s all the books I bought/borrowed for the semester! Unlike last semester, I didn’t buy myself a new notebook or any cool pens or anything, since I have tons of good pens, and last semester’s notebook has more than enough empty pages to work for the three classes I’m in this semester. So that will be good.

But yes, you might be able to tell that I’m looking forward most to the books in my English classes, and specifically my editing class, but at least this semester doesn’t seem to have turned out as badly as I was expecting.

Anyways, I hope you found this post interesting in some way. Thanks for reading! <3

Let me know in comments if you’ve read any of these books, and what you thought of them!

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