Literary Love

I thought I would post all about books. I love books, when I can find good ones. I'd like to talk about a few of my favorite books, as well as some recently read, and my current read. Hey, reading is often the reason people are near-sighted. We need to embrace it like our own child. And hug and kiss it. And give it little gifts, like teddy bears and train sets, and talk to it in baby talk, and... Well, you get the picture.

The first book I'd like to talk about is my favorite book, I Capture the Castle. This novel was written by Dodie Smith, an English writer whose work is little known in the United States, unless you include The One Hundred and One Dalmatians. I was very surprised to find out that she penned that. It was actually based on her own pet Dalmatians. Anyway, I Capture the Castle is told as the journals of Cassandra Mortmain, a teenage girl living with her eccentric family (her dramatic, beautiful older sister Rose; writer father, who has been suffering writer's block for 12 years; bohemian step-mother Topaz; and studious younger brother Thomas; also Stephen, a handsome young man who has lived with them ever since his mother, who worked for the family, died.) in a house built atop the ruins of an English castle during the 1930s. One day a pair of American brothers, who happen to own the home, arrive. They become friendly with the Mortmains, and Rose falls in love with one of them. A sort of love-pentagon forms, including Cassandra and Rose, the two brothers, and Stephen. I love this book because of the narration from Cassandra. She is very relatable and likeable, and the family is delightfully eccentric. I first read this book after seeing the film version, which is also one of my favorite movies.

Some other books I like are Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, about a future in which all books are banned, and any found books are burned; A Separate Peace, about two friends at an all-boys school during World War II; To Kill a Mockingbird, the classic Pulitzer-Prize winner by Harper Lee about a trial in a small town, seen through the eyes of a child; and The Da Vinci Code, the novel by Dan Brown about cracking a code left in Leonardo Da Vinci's work that may reveal a dangerous secret.

I've read a few books so far this summer that I've enjoyed. First I read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, about a woman's slow emotional break-down. I then read The Devil Wears Prada, because I wanted to read it before the movie came out. Then I had to read Brave New World for (*gulp*) The Prison. At first I didn't enjoy it, because it seemed sort of void of emotion, but then I ended up really enjoying it because of the message it sent. Sci-fi always sends a political or social message.

I am currently reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, also for (*gulp*) The Prison. I'm almost done with it, and I really like it. I'm a fan of Truman Capote's. Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of my favorite movies, as already mentioned, and I've read the novel, which is also fantastic. I've seen Capote, which I thought was a fantastic film. Phillip Seymour Hoffman really deserved that Oscar.

Anyway, maybe you'll think about reading some of these. Maybe you already have. But overall don't forget books (They're your children, as mentioned earlier.)