Jane Eyre

I really enjoyed Jane Eyre. I think it's my favorite so far that I've read from my list, and perhaps one of my top five favorite books that I've ever read. It's so well written that it could easily have been published just last year, instead of 165 years ago. I loved Jane as a character and I agreed with pretty much every major decision she made throughout the story (except that at the first hint of something being locked in Rochester's attic, I would have investigated a little more than she did, or at least really bugged Rochester to tell me what exactly was up there. She infuriated me with how long she took to discover what it was. Was it a ghost? An animal? The servant Mrs. Poole?)

I didn't like Rochester at first, I will admit. I thought she could do a lot better and I initially thought it was because she was so innocent and not used to men that she felt herself in love with him. He was abrupt, rude and played mind games. Three things I can't stand in men. But as the story went on and St. John Rivers was introduced into the story, Rochester started looking a little better. Eventually, after a long period without him and with only the petulant, intimidating and God-fearing St. John to entertain the reader as a possible love interest, I started wondering when Rochester would come back into the story (because obviously, as Jane often pined for him, it was not over between them). The ending was surprising, but very good.

As I was reading Jane Eyre, I couldn't help but wonder why books aren't written like this anymore, with symbolism and well thought out plots, interesting dialogue and characters with depth. Like I said, this book was published 165 years ago and has never been out of print since. That's quite an accomplishment. I was also so in love with the portrayal of Jane: a strong-minded, morally conscious female in a time when women were not normally that way. She stood up for herself, she carried her own weight, she made hard decisions based on her own scruples where other women would have folded and settled. She's probably my favorite literary character in history.

Can you tell how much I liked this book?

What I did not like was the 2011 film adaptation of Jane Eyre. What a terrible movie. It skipped so much between ending, beginning, middle, ending, middle, beginning, etc. and left out important conversations and scenes, that would leave someone who had never read the book completely lost and confused. The movie moved along so fast through the events that there was no way to enjoy it. The director obviously never read the book, or if he had, he didn't get it. Awful film, really. Waste of money.

Since I finished that one pretty quickly, my next book hasn't arrived yet. As I mentioned in my previous post, I like the book to choose me. As I was nearing the last quarter of Jane Eyre, I started to wonder when it was going to pick me because I needed time to order it and have the library mail it to me. Wasting time on Facebook one day, a post from George Stroumboulopoulos came across my newsfeed with this video. A big fan of George, I always click on whatever he posts as it's usually an interesting little fact or spotlight on a person or news story I might have missed. And there it was, my next book choice: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. 

I really do love my way of deciding what title to read next. 

It's not here yet, so I get a little break to think about what I just read before I jump into something else. I'm looking forward to Heart of Darkness. I love imagery. I love descriptions and this book has that in abundance, I've been told. It's only a short read, so let's hope that another book will pick me soon.

I also have another movie to look forward to after reading this book. Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now was based on Conrad's book. Not really my kind of movie, but I'll give it a shot.  I'm a huge Doors fan, so if nothing else, I'll be rewarded for watching the film by hearing "The End". The reason I know this, having never seen the movie, is a friend of mine used to tell me all he thought about was Apocalypse Now whenever "The End" came on while we were in my car. All I would think about was Jim Morrison's hotness.

The Three Musketeers

I finished this book just before Christmas. I was delayed somewhat due to happenings in my own life, which, ironically, have left me with a lot more time to read, but were not exactly what I was expecting. I took a break during Christmas and didn't read anything, letting chance direct me to what book I should read next, which I'll tell you about shortly.

I liked The Three Musketeers. If I had children, or if I should someday have children, I think this (and the Harry Potter series) will be the sort of book I'd read to them at night. Written for adults in its time, it's not sexual, gory or anything that would be inappropriate for kids. It has lots of throw-down-the-gauntlet, grab-your-sword sort of excitement (seriously - if you bumped into one of these guys by mistake, you better be prepared for a sword fight. They were a little touchy) and every woman's honor was fought for (except Milady Winter - read the book if you want to know why). Good narrative, good descriptions and an interesting book overall.

Favorite of the Musketeers was probably Porthos. I think knowing Oliver Platt played this character on film biased my opinion. As a literary character though, he just seemed the most kind-hearted of the three.

I have to admit, the entire time I was reading this book, I wanted a Three Musketeers bar badly. I prevailed and stayed true to my diet.I have a sickness where I think about chocolate a lot.

So my next book choice was difficult. I personally don't like to pick my next book. I like to leave it to chance and let the book pick me, which can sometimes take a while. Sounds flaky but it's how I go about minor decisions in life, as long as they have no direct or major affect on others. It happens in different ways, at different times, like someone mentioning a book to me, or randomly reading/hearing/seeing an interview or TV show that mentions a book, author, etc. You get the point. 

While contemplating my next choice, the following all happened within about 1 week: I watched The Help (loved it - you should definitely check it out) and in a random scene, there is a bookshelf with Native Son by Richard Wright clearly visible in the frame (book number 73 on my list); I was watching TV one evening and an episode of The King of Queens comes on and the plot is that Doug and Carrie join a book club. The first selection? Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (book number 53 on my list); Then I read an article that mentioned Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (book number 20 on my list). So I now had three books to choose from and it was a difficult choice .All three sounded good once I was able to research them and read the summaries. Jane Eyre won in the end because it's a book I've always wanted to read but just never did for some reason.

Not a big follower of movie releases, I was also very excited to see this trailer for a movie based on the book that had been released in March 2011. I love when I have a movie to look forward to after I read a book. Although, honestly, more times than not, I'm disappointed in the film adaptation. Why does Hollywood need to put so much fluff into films? Why can't the story ever be enough?

As I do with any book I read, I googled the author, the book itself and just did a general knowledge tour for myself. The family story of the Brontes is tragic and heart-breaking. I knew sort of that almost everyone in the family died young, but when I read various web biographies, it became a little more real and a lot more sad. Thankfully, health care has improved somewhat since the 1800's.

We'll see how Jane Eyre goes. I started it this afternoon and I'm enjoying it. Only on page 28 right now. At 401 pages, it's what I call a light read. I expect, if all goes well, I'll be finished in under two weeks. Yes, I'm pretty sure I have said that before. I'm committed to it this time!

Happy New Year!