Blogocentric Formulations

Bookapalooza

It's been a crazy week at work (we have this small little movie called Avengers: Infinity War that opened last night ), so I'm way behind in my blogging. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to combine the past six days of ~Minja~ 's book prompts into one entry. Here we go:


"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 22): What is that one book that you have read only once in your life and think you'll never be able to go back to it again? Whether it's because of the strong emotional impact it left on you, or because it was so bad that you dread from thinking about reading it again, or because it was part of the school literature you just couldn't get away from, or whatever reason that particular book made you not wanting to go back to it again. Tell us who is the author, what was it all about, and why is it that you think you can't read it second time or more?

I read a lot of self-published writing and aspiring authors' manuscripts, so if we're just going off bad books that I never want to read again, the list would be rather... extensive. Same for the list of books in school that we were required to read and I just hated. Instead, for this entry, I'm going to focus on books that I was excited to read or thought would be really good and ended up being huge disappointments (so much so that I never want to read or think about them ever again.

It would be pretty hard for me to go with anything other than the Twilight Saga for this one (although 50 Shades of Grey is a close second). I read the Twilight books (all of them, unfortunately) at my wife's request because she wanted to talk about them. I listened to the audiobooks on my commute and, honestly, it was the most excruciating 65+ hours of book listening I've been subjected to. The story and characters are insipid, and the writing itself is shoddy. There were points during the last two books in the series, where I would actually talk back to the audiobook, replying to particularly bad dialogue or prose by screaming things like, "Oh, come on!" and "You stupid idiot!"

It's rare that a book riles me up enough to actually talk back to it, so I figure that's the one I have to pick for a prompt about a book I don't plan on ever going back to.


"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 23): As funny as it sounds, there are a lot of books that are being banned by the government in different countries in the world for some silly reasons. For example, Alice in Wonderland is being banned in China for its portrayal of anthropomorphized animals acting on the same level of complexity as human beings . The censor General Ho Chien believed that attributing human language to animals was an insult to humans. He feared that the book would teach children to regard humans and animals on the same level, which would be "disastrous". Here is the list of some banned books, and another list of banned books. Did you read any and if you did, how many? Do you think those reasons are valid enough for the government to ban some of the most popular novels of all time? Is there a book that is not on the list but you think should be? Why? Tell me more.

From the American Library Association's list of banned books, I've read seventeen of them... and from the Wikipedia list I've read sixteen of them (including overlap from the ALA list). In a weird way, the fact that a book has been banned actually makes me want to read it even more.

I'm fairly liberal in my opinions on reading. Short of works that encourage violence, hatred, bigotry, or the subversion of the rule of law, I'm generally of the belief that someone should be able to read whatever the hell they want. I definitely think it's ridiculous that some of these books were banned at all, let alone banned for the ridiculously overly-conservative reasons that were cited as the reason for the banning. Censorship is a slippery slope, and I'm always hesitant to go down that road for reasons as mundane as obscenity, indecency, portraying someone or something in a negative light, etc.

I can't really think of a book that I feel should be banned. Even though I've read some downright heinous stuff over the years, I just can't get behind censoring someone's authorial voice (again unless it poses a danger to civil society) just because I don't like the subject matter. If someone is offended by a particular type of writing, they don't have to read it. And just because they don't want to read it doesn't mean nobody should be allowed to read it.


"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 24): Talk about your favorite novel being shattered by the film industry. In other words, talk about the novel or a book series who has the worse movie or TV show adaptation in your opinion.

There are so many bad adaptations to choose from! Since the prompt asks for novel adaptations I can't pick some truly atrocious comic book movies like the Ben Affleck Daredevil movie and the Jennifer Garner Elektra follow-up, or any of the Fantastic Fours that have failed miserably... or Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider. (Now that I think about it, these were all Fox movies... .)

Runners up include The Time Machine from 2002 based on the H.G. Wells classic, and The Da Vinci Code which somehow managed to turn one of the most page-turniest books in the past two decades into a snoozefest. But even those two blights on the cinematic landscape pale in comparison to the almost painfully tortured One For The Money. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum character is an instant classic as a big hair, big attitude New Jersey Italian amateur bounty hunter. The film was in development for over a decade, and the best they could do was Katherine Heigl? She is literally the opposite of who I imagine when I think of who could embody this character with Evanovich's trademark wit. Honestly, they could have gone with Kaley Cuoco, Drea De Matteo, Holly Hunter, Jennifers Lopez or Esposito, Callie Thorn, Marisa Tomei, Angie Harmon, etc. etc. etc. There are literally dozens of actresses who would have played a better Stephanie Plum than Katherine Heigl.

On top of that, the story was slow, the comedy wasn't funny, and the chemistry between Stephanie Plum and her colorful cast of supporting characters wasn't even a fraction of what was contained in the books, which led to a disappointment on pretty much every level. And since I absolutely loved the book and had followed the development of the movie through it's various iterations over the years, it was a particularly hard pill for me to swallow watching them turn a beloved book into a barely passable lowest-common-denominator movie.


"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 25): Grab the first book from your shelf, open the page number 67 and take out the most interesting paragraph from that page. No cheating ! Tell us what is the name of the book, who is the author, what is it all about.

The key element of an optimal experience is that it is an end in itself. Even if initially undertaken for other reasons, the activity that consumes us becomes intrinsically rewarding. Surgeons speak of their work: "It is so enjoyable that I would do it even if I didn't have to." Sailors say: "I am spending a lot of money and time on this boat, but it is worth it - nothing quite compares with the feeling I get when I am out sailing.

From Flow: The Psychology of the Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mihaly Csikszentmihaly (man that's a tough name to keep typing!) is a Hungarian psychologist who pioneered the concept of "flow," the state of hyper-focused consciousness that's also know as being "in the zone." This book is one I come back to time and time again because, even though it's dense, the book offers the reader a fascinating look at how to get into and maintain a state of flow. As a writer, it's an essential state of mind that's important to attain as often as possible, so I like to re-read this book from time to time to refresh my understanding of the topic.

As far as psychology texts go, it's an interesting read.


"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 26): Sometimes, when we read, we run into characters who have the same or similar personalities as ours. If you could relate to one book character, who would it be and why? Tell us also who is the author and what is the book all about.

I don't see myself in fiction characters very often. Bits and pieces of me in a character, or bits and pieces of a character in me, sure... but I rarely have a lightning bolt revelation where I so clearly see myself largely similar to a fictional creation.

Where I do see a lot of myself is in the individuals in nonfiction books. I see a lot of my own thoughts and hopes and dreams in the books other people have written about their own thoughts and hopes and dreams. The most recent example of this was probably The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero. If you're not familiar with the book (which was also turned into a movie last year), it's a memoir about Greg Sestero's initial foray into the film industry befriending Tommy Wiseau and helping him make The Room, which is widely considered to be the worst film ever made. It's so bad they actually have midnight screenings in Los Angeles similar to the screenings they hold for Rocky Horror Picture Show.

A lot of Greg's initial overconfidence at the beginning of his career, followed by a career path that took much longer than expected and didn't quite pan out in the way he had hoped is definitely a journey that we both (and a lot of other people) share. As is the temptation to get involved in sketchy projects and stay with them much longer than is advisable because you're really pulling for it and hoping it'll be your ticket to success.

The book is an absolutely fascinating read about one of the craziest movies anyone's ever produced. It's random, wildly inconsistent, and both technically and artistically bizarre. But in addition to all the stories of a weirdo filmmaker and his insane process, it's also a story about an aspiring actor struggling to find his way in a difficult industry. And even though I went for the writing/corporate side of things in the same industry, we share a lot of similarities in our thoughts and hopes and dreams about work and life in general.


"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 27): Books are the sweet escape from reality and one of the cheapest ways to travel. If you could take the train to your favorite fictional world, what would it be? What would you do once you get there? Here are some of the most famous fictional worlds to give you an idea but, of course, you can write about any other that isn't listed here : Narnia- C.S Lewis novel, Hogwarts- J.K. Rowling novel Harry Potter, Neverland- J.M.Barrie novel Petter Pan, Westeros- George R.R.Martin novel A Song of Ice and Fire, Wonderland- C.S. Lewis novel Alice in Wonderland, Oz- L.Frank Baum novel Wizard of Oz, Middle Earth- J.R.R.Tolkien novel Lord of the Rings

As tempting as the world of Harry Potter would be, I think I'd want to live in the Star Wars universe. I think it'd be amazing to travel around in hyperspace from planet to planet, seeing everything the galaxy has to offer. There's the war between the Rebellion and the Galactic Empire to keep things interesting, the Force to lend a little philosophy and mysticism, and enough planets and different races to ensure that you could spend your entire life traveling around and never have to visit the same place twice. Sure, you can probably say the same thing of any one planet (including Earth), but how much cooler would it be to have a whole galaxy of options to choose from?

I was tempted to choose the Marvel Universe to live in, but that would require me to be different than the person I am right now... because having a super power would be really, really awesome. But if I'm still just myself, then I'd be in a world where other people have super powers and that seems... less exciting. This is the same reason I didn't choose Harry Potter. Star Wars seemed like a good option because I could still be me. Even if I weren't a general in the Rebellion or a Jedi Knight, I could still be just me and exploring a whole galaxy of possibilities.