I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I took a walk around my neighborhood on Thanksgiving, to enjoy the fall colors. I tried getting pictures a few weeks ago, but now the trees have finally changed in earnest. Here are a few of the most colorful!
Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!
Sheila at Book Journey does a fun meme every Monday, inviting people to share their reading plans for the coming week. I’ve increasingly been thinking of my reading in that way, as I stack up library books each weekend for the coming week, so I thought it was about time I jumped in on this!
My book reviews have been slimmer than usual this past week because of NaNoWriMo, but my reading has continued unabated. I’m currently reading Susan Kay’s Legacy, because I am hopelessly, completely, madly in love with Susan Kay’s Phantom. I don’t know why it’s taken me eight years to pick up her only other novel!
Legacy is a 600-page behemoth that will probably take me most of the week. I have a new-to-me Discworld book lined up for the Thanksgiving weekend, though–I’m finally going to read Mort, the first book in the Death series. Despite what that summary sounds like, I expect it to be a rollicking good time.
I’ve planned out the next two weeks because the library is going to be closed for nearly a week over Thanksgiving. I find this immensely alarming (understandable, of course, but no library for five days? Eek!) and had to lay in a good stock ahead of time. After Mort I plan on Roughing It by Mark Twain, because I promised myself I’d read a new Twain book this year, and we’re getting down to the end!
And then I have Lady Friday by Garth Nix, as part of my ongoing quest to finish his Keys to the Kingdom series by the end of the year.
So those are my plans, for roughly the next two weeks. What are you reading?
I still have lots of travel photos I haven’t shared yet. Thought I’d get away from the fall colors this week and share some trip photos instead…and for some reason I’m in the mood for artwork. Let’s tour the Louvre.
The Louvre is known for having a few very famous pieces of art. Of the famous ones, Winged Victory was my favorite. I took a lot of shots, but I like this one best–looking as though she’s about to take flight.
Pardon the slight fuzziness of the Venus de Milo–only shot I could get without hordes of people in the frame!
The Louvre is a complete labyrinth (I got SO lost) but they do have helpful signs pointing you to the main attractions. I guess they know what people are looking for!
And sure enough…here’s where everyone is! That’s the Mona Lisa way off across the crowd. To be honest, as a painting it’s never really spoken to me. But I was very entertained by the masses clustered around. I wish I could have captured the forest of arms holding up camera phones–it looked like a rock concert!
I hope you enjoyed the Louvre. 🙂 Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots.
The blog hop today is hosted by Butterfly-o-Meter Books, with a truly fascinating question:
Mix’n’Match: The bookish gods are giving you a free hand, you can pick any one character (book, TV series/movie, play etc) and inject them into a different novel of your choice. Which character and series would you mix’n’match?
I am immensely intrigued by this idea–but I also found it quite difficult, and I had to think about why. I think it’s because most of my favorite book characters (and movies and TV) exist within very clear worlds, where there are very clear rules–not laws, just the way the world functions. But they’re all very different…so I struggle to imagine a character taken out of one universe and moved to another. I find it easier to imagine characters from different worlds in a kind of limbo third place, coming together for a social gathering. I’ve written short stories along those lines.
So who do I think could gather together and have brilliant conversations with each other? Links go to relevant reviews!
I think the Phantom of the Opera and the Hunchback of Notre Dame would have quite a lot to talk about. Watch out for those Parisian mobs, but gotta love the views of the Seine.
Princess Cimorene of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles could be great friends with the princesses from Jim C. Hines’ Princess Series. They’re all strong women in fairy tale worlds. If she was a few years older, Merida from Brave would be a great addition to the group too.
All of L. M. Montgomery‘s heroines live in the same world, so it’s easy to imagine them together. I’d love a story with Emily and Anne together. The fantasy worlds those girls could invent if they bounced off each other! I bet they’d get on famously with Tom Sawyer too, who certainly has just as wild an imagination, even if it goes in rather different tracks.
Jane Eyre and the second Mrs. De Winter really should have a chat. The second Mrs. De Winter may think she has problems, but at least Rebecca really was dead. Things could be worse. Interestingly, both characters were played by Joan Fontaine in movie versions.
Jacky Faber and Captain Jack Sparrow would turn the world upside down if you got the two of them together. It’s entirely possible that the British Empire would fall. But such adventures along the way! I don’t think I can top that. 🙂 Captain Jack and Jacky really ought to have an adventure together.
So who would you toss together to have a chat? Or would you take someone and drop them into a totally different world and let chaos ensue?
Slowly but surely, the trees are changing in my neighborhood. We’re still mostly green around here, but I’ve found some pretty colors to share!
Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!
Tales of the Marvelous 