On Reading the Little House Series

A few months ago I discovered my city's public library had copies of the 1970s TV series Little House on the Prairie on DVD.  I LOVED that show as a kid.  It was a big family event in our household when we all gathered around the TV in the living room to watch each week's episode.  It was one of the few happy moments I spent with my family growing up, so the series holds very special memories for me.

As I slowly made my way through all nine seasons of the show I started to think about the books it was based upon.  Something I hadn't given much thought to as a child.  I remember in about fourth grade reading the book, from which the TV series took it's name, and having to write a book report on it.  At the time I hated doing book reports and I hated the book.  It was long, and boring, and nothing like the show I was sitting down to watch on TV week to week.  So I thought it was probably high time I rediscovered this series because it's a classic and I'm a bit of a book snob about reading and appreciating the classics.

Well the TV show still had little to do with the books, save for the main characters and a few incidents in the real life of Laura Ingalls and family.

                                               (the real Laura Ingalls Wilder)


And it took me a while to get into the books.  I kept waiting for Nelly Oleson and Laura to break out into a cat fight, or Mr. Oleson to give a rather inspired zinger in reply to Mrs. Oleson's latest rant, or Mr. Edwards to come singing down the wagon road.  These characters do show up in the books, but very briefly as the Ingalls family moved around a lot more in real life than they ever did in the TV show.  Still, the family values remained, and the historical details were far more fascinating to grown up me, than they had ever been to fourth grader me.  But to be perfectly honest, I didn't really start absolutely loving the series until the last three or so books when Laura is older, a young woman with a budding romance with one Almanzo Wilder.  But that's just the romantic in me showing it's preference in reading material.

If you never read this series, or did once upon a time in your childhood, why not pick them up and visit or revisit them again?  They are definitely reading time well spent.

Till next time, happy reading!
L :)

On Reading The Iliad

A woman in one of my book clubs started reading one of those 100 greatest books list that are frequently found on the internet.  Each month she's talked about her progress from The Great Gatsby, which was number one on the list, to Anna Karenina, which was taking her forever to get through.  She is determined to read every single one of the books on the list.  Her goal intrigued me, so much so that I started Googling 100 greatest books of all time searches but was never satisfied with the results.  Especially when many of the lists had 50 Shades of Grey on them.  Okay, I admit, I read the series and will see the movie, but greatest book of all time it is not!  The book snob has spoken and passed judgement!  Be warned, ye list makers!

Then I got to perusing my unread book shelves and noticed I'd picked up a copy of Clifton Fadiman's The New Lifetime Reading Plan some months ago because I love books about books and flipping through it I figured it's a far better compilation of worthy books to read than some of the lists I was finding on the good ole WWW.

Hence we come to Homer's The Iliad, the second book listed (the first being the Epic of Gilgamesh which I read earlier this year).  I had always wanted to read Homer but always shied away.  I have this prevailing thought in my head that old, classic books are way difficult to read and will take months and months to slough through (okay, true of the Russians, but not necessarily true of everything else as I'm slowly realizing). 

I chose to read Stephen Mitchell's translation, which uses such plain English the reading of Homer is turning out to be a breeze.  Except for the fact it has a gazillion Greek and Trojan names to stumble over and the battle scenes seem to go on forever.  Despite all that, I'm really enjoying it.  Especially Homer's turn of phrase, and his use of metaphor to paint a vivid picture of the movements of the troops and gods.  What is starting to get on my nerves though is the childish behaviour of the immortals and the sulking Achilles.  Really folks, time to grow up!  Of course, the same could be said of the Greeks who started the war because Paris made off with the one guy's wife.  Really, I get that Helen was beautiful and all, but was she worth 10 years of bloodshed?  I'm thinking not.  Guess it makes for a decent story though.

Till next time, happy reading!
L :)

June Quote a Day - June 9 We Live Here

"They walked across the prairie to the south, and all along their way the wild June roses where blooming. Laura gathered them until she filled Mary's arm with all she could hold.

'Oh, how sweet!' Mary kept saying. 'I have missed the spring violets, but nothing is sweeter than prairie roses. It is so good to be home again....'"

              ~ These Happy Golden Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Inspired by #fmsphotoaday

June Quote a Day, June 5

11 o'clock  (Or what I read at 11 o'clock):  "While Philomena Lee was toiling in the laundries of Sean Ross Abbey, the Irish government was waking up to a problem it had long tried to ignore."

                                   ~ Philomena, by Martin Sixsmith

Inspired by #fmsphotoaday

June Quote a Day -- June 4, Ordinary

"And she asked the same, mechanical question she had posed to generations of young women who came to her for help: 'Tell me, girl, was the five minutes of pleasure worth all this?'"

                                      ~ Philomena, by Martin Sixsmith

Inspired by #fmsphotoaday

L is back!

And ready to shake things up a little!

It feels like forever since my last post, so I'm going to ease my way back in.

I have a friend who blogs daily and often participates in a photo a day meme.  I think this is a great idea to both stimulate the creative juices as well as keep yourself active in the blogosphere.  I've been wanting to do a similar thing, only using quotes from the current read in progress rather than taking photos.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a similar book-related quote a day meme, so I'm making it up as I go, using the photo a day prompts instead, inspired by Fat Mum Slim.

I'm a couple days behind getting this out to the blog (though I started June 1 on Facebook), but here goes:

June 3 Family:  "At one o'clock in the morning, my little brother, who in my lonely days of inferno dwelling had protected me from goblins, gnomes, gremlins and devils, was leaving home."

                         ~ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou

Hopefully I'll be back soon with a full fledged review!

Happy reading!
L :)