Jane Austen fans, if you haven’t yet watched the UK miniseries “Lost in Austen“, give it a look-see. It’s an interesting twist on Pride & Prejudice and I thought it was great fun. I started off disliking Darcy, but then, wouldn’t you know it, I took a hankering to him as the movie progressed ;-). I didn’t realize beforehand it was a miniseries and popped it into my dvd player at 12:30 a.m. — bu then, I couldn’t *not* watch it all in one sitting, so found myself dragging into bed a bit later than usual that night!! (On the up side, I got lots of stitchin’ done while watching it.)
I’m reading the first books in the Eve Dallas series and am enjoying them lots. I love the main character, and her sweetie’s not bad either! While at the bookstore today, I picked up a paperback copy of A Breath of Snow & Ashes, so that I can reread it in anticipation of the seventh book in the Outlander series, An Echo in the Bone, being released in September. I probably won’t get to this reread right away, rather I’ll keep working through the Eve Dallas series for a while longer instead, so that I can time my reread of ABOSAA so that I’m wrapping it up about the time AEITB is released.
Speaking of released, kiddo and I *cannot wait* for Half-Blood Prince to hit theaters week after this!! As tempting as it would be to go to the midnight showings the night before the release, I imagine we’ll catch a daytime showing. I read the book when it came out, and kiddo and I have listened to the audio book several times (relistening right now, actually), so there won’t be any surprises — that said, I know there will be at least one scene that will have me sniffing . . . but I’m hoping the special effects will make seeing the movie on the big screen worth a bit of sniffing.
Kiddo has been very into a couple different book series in recent weeks: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It’s been fun watching him immerse himself in a book for hours on-end, oblivious to the goings-on around him. As mama to an unschooler, it’s pretty cool to see him make the choice, of his own free will, to tell his Xbox Live friends that he’s going to turn off the Xbox and go read for a while (and for “a while” to turn into three or four hours . . . although when we finally received the latest Vladimir Tod book from amazon last week, he read it from start to finish with no breaks, which was about seven hours total and which totally surprised the both of us!). I absolutely do not mind if he spends a lot of time gaming with his friends, but I also absolutely do not mind if he spends a lot of time reading, either :) — the key is for him to find books that are interesting enough to him that he’s willing to grab some quiet time to read them. One of his gaming friends recommended the Vladimir Tod series; the other series is one we saw at the bookstore which caught his attention. As a result of reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, he’s been making his own comic strips. I do love watching kid-creativity in action!! Now I need to start doing some detective work to see if I can scare up some ideas of other book series he might enjoy.
We are making very good progress on our kitchen; I hope to snap a few in-progress pics Monday. I need to focus my time and attention to other stuff this coming week, so not much more will happen on our kitchen makeover until next weekend . . . which is quite okay with this ole gal’s body ;-).
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I enjoyed Lost in Austen more than I thought I would. I am a Jane Austen junkie. I recently watched St. Ives (with Miranda Richardson and Anna Friel), which, while not Austen, was a costume drama with wit and humor, and most Austen fans would probably love it.
The Outlander series is still going on? With Claire and Jamie? How OLD are they now? I adored the first book, but gave up after the 3rd.
Neat about the kiddo and reading. My kids definitely ebb and flow with their reading. Some days (weeks, months) they are not in the groove, but I always consider them readers because they read when they want to and enjoy it when they do. And when they are in the groove, they read a lot!
Tracy ~ Thanks for the movie tip — I’m always up for a costume drama, especially one with wit and humor!
LOL, yes, Outlander is still going — Claire & Jamie are in their 40’s to 50’s (don’t hold me to those ages tho, I’m relying on my memory from when I read the last book four years ago!). There are several books in the series that I have no interest in rereading, and I always encourage other folks to skip the books that bore them. Overall, I think it’s such an excellent series, that I hate to see others who enjoy the first and second books give up on the series when they get bogged down in the middle books. I started re-enjoying the series around book 5 and I liked book 6 pretty well, too. I really enjoy the ages Claire & Jamie are at right now, and where their relationship is . . . it’s all a little more in tune to where I am in my life than they were in Outlander ;-).
“they read when they want to and enjoy it when they do” — YES!!! I love that definition of a reader :). My kiddo has read gaming guides / walkthroughs for a number of years now, and those aren’t exactly dumbed down! . . . so I know that he does read what interests him. That said, as a lifelong bookworm, it does generate a special smile to look over at him hunkered down on the couch with his nose deep in a fiction book . . . and to be so engrossed in what he’s reading that it may take a half minute or so before he realizes I’ve called his name LOL.
Oh… How did I missed that… in what channel is Lost in Austen running ? Cable or Dish ?
So good to encourage little ones to read !!!
Wow, Andrew has some serious endurance for reading!
Monika ~ It was a UK miniseries, and I rented it from netflix.
Julia ~ Tell me about it! It’s funny cuz he’ll change positions and locations a zillion times while reading, but one or both dogs manage to end up right next to him regardless of where he is ;-). He’s never read for as long stretches as he has with these books. The nice thing about keeping such night owl hours is that he can do stuff with his friends for much of their day, then he still has oodles of time after that for reading or whatever else he wants to do!