Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Newsy Booksy Stuff

In preparation for a big car trip this week, I was looking on my library's website for books on CD to listen to with my kids. I like to get books that we all like to listen to, so my first choice was The Mysterious Benedict Society, which I blogged about a year ago and is on my list of all-time favorites. Why I don't own it, I don't know. Wait, I do know. I'm stingy. I also don't own any of the Fablehaven books, but don't tell Brandon Mull that. I might lose my position as #1 Fan in the 25-34 age bracket.

Anyway, I wanted to get The Mysterious Benedict Society on CD to listen to as a family in the car, but alas, it was already checked out by some other lover of Trenton Lee Stewart's brilliance. As I was perusing, I noticed that there was another title by this author with the words "mysterious" and "benedict" and "society" on the front. Another book! I was happy enough when I thought there was only one book, but despite my crabbiness about series books, I was excited to see another one. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey came out this year and I'm #22 on my holds list at the library. Will that force me to purchase it? Time will tell...

On another book-related note, I'm sure everybody has heard about the Harry Potter movie getting bumped back to July of 2009 instead of being released in November of this year. If you want my opinion (which of course you do, since you're reading this blog) it was not a decision made after they announced the November release date. This was a plot from the beginning. Say it's going to come out in November and get everybody excited, then change it to summer 2009. Honestly, I thought that would provoke more reaction out of me, but I had a bigger hissy about them making two movies of the last book. I think an excerpt of my reaction when my husband told me about it was "capitalistic, money-grubbing, greedy swine!" Or something like that. Sure, the last book is phenomenal and intense and long, but what is the first half of the book made into a movie going to be like? Footage of Harry, Ron and Hermione tromping through the woods and bickering? It's just a ploy for more money because crazed fans like me will pay $10 a pop to see it in the theater and then another $15 or so to buy it on DVD. I guess I wasn't too surprised when they moved the sixth movie to summer, so they could make more money. Poor Warner Brothers, desperate for money after the writers' strike. Maybe we could do a food drive or something.

My last bit of news is that Brandon Sanderson is doing a book signing at Brigham Young University this Thursday from 1:30 to 3:30 and even though I'll be in the same state, I'll be hours away and unable to get my husband to finally meet him. After our evening together, I decided that he and my husband were meant to be friends. If you're inclined and in the area, I recommend going and buying his books and getting him to sign them. I had him sign Elantris and Mistborns 1 & 2 as a surprise gift for my husband for our anniversary and in Elantris he wrote, "Surprise! Your wife is awesome!" That makes you want to go, doesn't it? Of course, being hours away and unable to go to his signing also means that I won't turn into a fangirl and be all like "Hey Brandon! Remember me? We had dinner with our families and I asked you five thousand questions and I pestered you into answering more questions for my co-review of Mistborn in September and I made semi-intellectual observations about the role of the arts and the scorn of academia and you pretended like I sounded smart? Yeah, that was pretty cool. Sign my book and be friends with my husband." At which point my very cute and easily embarrassed husband would turn around and leave the bookstore. He sure puts up with a lot, bless his heart. My husband, not Brandon Sanderson. He might put up with a lot too, but it didn't come up over dinner.

I'm hoping to get some reading done while on vacation, but if not, I'm sure I'll have much to say about the CD recordings of the books I picked to listen to. World's Best Audiobook Artist: Tim Curry. Betcha didn't know that. He is awesome. I hunted around for any book with him reading it, but alas, didn't find any. I'll have to put up with whoever else is reading.

3 comments:

  1. Boooo! I hadn't heard that about Harry Potter being pushed back to next year. The November timing was perfect to allow my husband and I to see it in the theater, so we were pretty excited about that. I see that they've bumped up Twilight to that weekend instead, so I guess we could see that one. But I am afraid the movie version is going to be lame, so that's not much of a consolation prize. Bad idea, Warner Bros.!

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  2. I was actually kind of glad that the HP movie was moved, just because then I can see it and not have a brand new baby. Of course, if Twilight got bumped to the HP original weekend, I guess I still have to worry about trying to see a movie with a brand new baby. And Jenny, my reaction was the same about the 2 movies for the
    7th book. Lame! I'm still waiting to read Mistborn and Elantris (in line for them at the library). I love Tim Curry reading the Series of Unfortunate Events. He's fabulous.

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  3. It might be too late for this suggestion, but have you ever read "The miraculous journey of Edward Tulane"? We got it on CD for our road trip last week and we all loved it. Even Kate was quiet for a few minutes while it was playing.

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