Some people should not be allowed to write - 2012 Book Quest

I am sad you guys. Really, really sad.
You know how bacon makes everything better? How an otherwise boring dish suddenly becomes the best meal ever, just because you added bacon? And how beer makes everything better? How it can be sunshine and blue skies and all seems great, but the one thing missing to make it perfect, is a cold beer?

I know that feeling. And a fool I was for believing that there was another thing that could improve something already really good. Perfect it to a point where I would be laughing so hard no sound came out, and I just sat there, clapping like a retarded seal.
Yeah I thought it was like that with zombies. That a good movie or book could only become better with a sprinkle of undead corpses craving brains.

I was wrong! Not just a little wrong either. No, I was terribly mistaken. And I am ashamed. Ashamed I ever thought anything could improve Austen. How could it? Austen is perfect, and I was a fool to think otherwise.

All this is of course concerning the latest book I read for The 2012 Book Quest. A guy named Seth Grahame-Smith took it upon himself, to ruin the most wonderful book. He no doubt intended to be funny, but I am here to tell you, he failed tremendously.

He created the abomination that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and he ought to pay for it.
He turned a beautiful, funny, well-written story in to absolute drivel.

I will not waste time by describing the story, it is Pride and Prejudice, we all know that story. I will only say this: adding zombies to a classical novel is a new and exiting idea that might have worked, had the author actually taken the time to understand the story. He seems to be under the impression, that  Pride and Prejudice  is just a love story that needs some action to make it exiting.
Wrong Mr. Grahame-Smith, Wrong in every sense of the word.

As I constantly have to explain to people, Pride and Prejudice is much, much more than just a romance novel. It is social commentary and satire.
With Grahame-Smiths additions, all of the depth of the novel is gone, erased by silly mentions of zombies and battles and warrior codes.

No, no more. I wash my hands of that book.

Of sins and darkness - 2012 Book Quest

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned.

Yesterday I was doing really well on the quest. After finishing Heart of Darkness I had bought 9 books and read 6. Then the used bookstore happened, and then my roommate wanted books from Amazon and today I found a thrift store that had books. So now I am at 13 bought vs. 6 read. Whoops...

I bought Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises at the used bookstore, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on Amazon and at the thrift store I got The Shining and Grapes of Wrath.
Now my "To-read" shelf is looking crowded as ever, I mean just look at it:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies not pictured because it has not come yet. (And my camera sucks, I know I know)

As I wrote above, I read Heart of Darkness, but I don't really want to write about it. Let it be enough that I tell you I didn't like it. Not one bit.There was no story, no counterpoint, no points of no return, nothing. And when an author goes out of his way to write the title of the book in the book, it pisses me off! I feel like shouting "I get it dammit! He is in the middle of an undiscovered spot on the map, no civilization, everything is described as gloomy and the people there are "in the dark" when it comes to the modern world. There is absolutely no need to point it out even further by repeating the title of the book every 30 pages or so."

And I ended up writing about it anyway... Well on a much happier note, I am reading a book I quite enjoy so far. Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott. To no ones surprise I really like Jo who is a tomboy and finds female ideals silly and restricting. Go Jo!

In other news nothing particularly exciting has happened here lately. And with that I shall leave you.
Till next time, stay safe and read the manual!