NESSAholics.com
Vanessa Carlton => General Vanessa Carlton Discussion => Topic started by: Byoungforever on June 06, 2011, 06:12:40 pm
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Well... Last week, in the spirit of V's new album, I decided to buy a used copy of Watership Down. It's in the mail on its way, and I was just curious as to who else decided to read the books that she stated inspired her. Just thought I might understand the album more, and it is also just a classic. :)
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I ordered that (and the Stephen Hawking book) too. Arrived yesterday. I'm studying for my theory test so I'll read them after I'm done with that.
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Bought Watership Down a week or so ago, haven't had the time to properly sit down and read it yet, but will, might get the other book after :)
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I have an old-version of Watership Down. When I was younger, the cover just never looked appealing. I haven't found it somewhere since, but I know it's amongst the books on the shelves. I want to read that and On the Road.
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I read "A Year of Magical Thinking" (the inspiration for Fair-Weather Friend). It was really, really good. Didion definitely is, like Vanessa said, "such a beautiful writer." It was a very sad book, but extremely well-written. (Incidentally, you can see my review of the book here (http://justifiableanger.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-nook-joan-didion-year-of-magical.html)).
I bought Watership Down a looooong time ago, read about a quarter of it, and lost track of it. It's a HUGE book, guys, so get ready XD I saw the movie, though, so at least I get what it's all about.
Hawking's book I really want to read. I think it's so awesome that she alludes to him in TTFS. It's one of my favorite lines of hers!
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NESSAholics book club?
because of vc i've read/listened to
- the year of magical thinking
- watership down
- doves
- langley schools music project
- most of a brief history of time
i'll be picking up some kerouac eventually, and i'll try to listen to some cat's eyes.
i feel like i'm missing something!
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All I have read is The Year of Magical Thinking, but that was ages ago. Maybe I'll re-read it sometime.
And Watership Down and The Brief History of Time? I can't find a single copy here in our country. I went looking for them in almost every bookstore I know. Zero result. :-\
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I actually have a copy of Watership Down on my bookshelf. I've had it for years. I should probably read it...Haha
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I read Watership Down this past summer before I even knew that it was the inspiration for the album. After listening to some of the live tracks, I started connecting it to the novel. I got some of the references, mostly in Tall Tales. The "Dandelion field in a dream" line from Get Good seems like it was taken straight from the book. I'd point out more, but I can't think of anymore off the top of my head XD I'll post more tomorrow, I guess.
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You guys have got me really excited to read WD. And I just ordered 'The Year of Magical Thinking.' It sounds like a book I'll like. :)
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Watership Down is a beautiful story. I read it for the first time a few months ago, when I learned V had been inspired by it. I'll read it again when I finish the book I have going now. And I'll admit it, the ending made me cry.
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Hehe... Funny, I have both the books right now, but I'm in the middle of another book (actually two of them :P).
So, I'm not the only one.
Ow, and I second the NESSAholics book club.
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You guys have got me really excited to read WD. And I just ordered 'The Year of Magical Thinking.' It sounds like a book I'll like. :)
The Year of Magical Thinking is reaaaalllllyyyyy good. Just sad ):
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I am not a reader, I try to be, but it just doesn't work out for me...I've read about half of The Year of Magical Thinking SEVERAL times and just haven't gotten around to finishing it because of how intense the reading for school is...
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I've bought both Watership Down and A Brief History of Time because of Vanessa. As soon as my exams are finished in a couple of weeks, I will start reading one of them!
Sarah xx
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Does anyone heard of The Theory of Everything and The Briefer History of Time? It's by Hawkings too, though they are shorter versions of the BHoT.
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I've also ordered 'The year of magical thinking'. The way she described it sounded amazing so i'm very eager to read it.
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I'm gonna try and find a copy at my library of The Year of Magical Thinking. WD is realllyyy good, I love that book. My mom thought the movie was a childrens movie and showed it to me when I was like 4. Well, after that I had some nightmares about bunnies dying and being killed.
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I'm gonna try and find a copy at my library of The Year of Magical Thinking. WD is realllyyy good, I love that book. My mom thought the movie was a childrens movie and showed it to me when I was like 4. Well, after that I had some nightmares about bunnies dying and being killed.
That's why I love WD. Everyone thinks rabbits are so innocent and cute, when in reality, the rabbits live a bloodier and tougher life than we do. It's sort of a message to look past what you see and accept from not living/not understanding the lives of others. That's something that always stuck out to me about that novel.
Question to those who have read The Year of Magical Thinking: Would you consider it to be on a reading level for a high school junior? I have to read a book on my level over the summer and I was considering that one. An assignment I can do based on the novel is to find 3 songs and relate them back to the work of literature, so I thought that would be a way to kill two birds with one stone: summer assignment while analyzing a book I want to read.
If not, WD is a good back up, I guess.
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I've also ordered 'The year of magical thinking'. The way she described it sounded amazing so i'm very eager to read it.
I'm reading it right now! It's a mourning book; it's beautiful and really sad.
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Every year our local library has a HUGE book sale. I have developed a method over the years for finding what I want in that big mess of books, and I found watership down! yay! However, there were no copies of the other two books, or an Kuerac or Solnit (that I could find). Super excited for this book though, going to start reading soon!
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Just got The Year of Magical Thinking from my book store!
I had trouble finding it (I didn't know it was non-fiction) so I asked an employee for help. She showed me the way to it like someone had just recently bought it...
OMG! Nessaholics in my town!!1!ONE!
...or maybe she just knew the store inside and out.
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Just got The Year of Magical Thinking from my book store!
I had trouble finding it (I didn't know it was non-fiction) so I asked an employee for help. She showed me the way to it like someone had just recently bought it...
OMG! Nessaholics in my town!!1!ONE!
...or maybe she just knew the store inside and out.
good for you! enjoy reading. I must find that one as well. How much was it at your bookstore? You can PM me if you don't want it public, or you don't have to answer at all :)
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I ordered Watership Down from Amazon. I read it in high school and loved it. I cried at the end.
Next on my VC book club list is Hawking's Brief History of Time.
OT: This was my 500th post! Only took me six years! Lol
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Just got The Year of Magical Thinking from my book store!
I had trouble finding it (I didn't know it was non-fiction) so I asked an employee for help. She showed me the way to it like someone had just recently bought it...
OMG! Nessaholics in my town!!1!ONE!
...or maybe she just knew the store inside and out.
good for you! enjoy reading. I must find that one as well. How much was it at your bookstore? You can PM me if you don't want it public, or you don't have to answer at all :)
It was $15. Kind of expensive, considering that it wasn't even hardcover, but I figured it's worth it. I'm a book junkie so anything new in my mini library makes me geek out, haha.
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Just got The Year of Magical Thinking from my book store!
I had trouble finding it (I didn't know it was non-fiction) so I asked an employee for help. She showed me the way to it like someone had just recently bought it...
OMG! Nessaholics in my town!!1!ONE!
...or maybe she just knew the store inside and out.
good for you! enjoy reading. I must find that one as well. How much was it at your bookstore? You can PM me if you don't want it public, or you don't have to answer at all :)
It was $15. Kind of expensive, considering that it wasn't even hardcover, but I figured it's worth it. I'm a book junkie so anything new in my mini library makes me geek out, haha.
I've sent my sister on a mission for me. There are Half Priced Bookstores out where she lives in AZ so I asked her to look for a bunch of stuff for me and then bring them when we vacation in July. Hopefully she will find some! 15 isn't so bad I suppose for a bookstore!
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Awesome! I'll probably start it in a week or so, since I have finals all this week. Damn those exams....
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Reading 'Watership Down' now. It's good! I can see why Vanessa liked & was inspired by it.
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Reading 'Watership Down' now. It's good! I can see why Vanessa liked & was inspired by it.
I'm not very far into it, but every chapter has me on the edge of my seat! I get all tense waiting for something to happen. There is so much foreshadowing it gets me nervous!
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I'm only about a fifth into it so far. Need to get it read in the next two days, then it's all theory studying for my driving test.
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You guys have got me really excited to read WD. And I just ordered 'The Year of Magical Thinking.' It sounds like a book I'll like. :)
The Year of Magical Thinking is reaaaalllllyyyyy good. Just sad ):
Such an amazing book. Some of Didion's other writing is kind of dry, as was The Year of Magical Thinking, but it was still very very good.
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Ok, who else loves Fiver?
He's kind of freaky, but in a likeable way. Haven't read the book in a while, but I remember adoring him.
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Just got WD yesterday!!!!! YAY!!! Magical Thinking sitting around my house! Gonna read them in the next few weeks... can't wait!!!! :)
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I'm so freaking excited for my AP English summer assignment.
I have to read 2 books: one choice, on mandatory. For my choice, I'm choosing Year of Magical Thinking. For part of the assignment, I can relate the piece of literature to a song. I have a feeling that part of the work isn't going to be very difficult.
How awesome is that? I get to use one of favorite songs from Rabbits for English class! I might have already said this previously, but now I know for a fact that I can use Fairweather Friends for school.
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Just about to start reading Magical Thinking... can't wait! :)
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i've dove into A Brief History of Time and i love love love it!!!! It's so interesting and i thought it'd be complicated but it's so understandable... >.> crazy
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read watership down years ago. I need to re-read it. as for the other books she's mentioned and been inspired by, i plan on reading them soon. this summer would be a good time haha.
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Went to Borders today since everything is on sale. They didn't have A Brief History in time, only A Briefer History in Time but I didn't want to get that one because it wasn't the one she read! I couldn't find the section where Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to getting lost (or some such title). I looked in the biography/memoir area but could not find it. At Barnes and Noble it was in the "essay" section. Any way, I did find one of Jack Kerouac diaries 1947-1954 so I'm excited to get to that.
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a field guide to getting lost, watership down, and once a dancer...
http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Guest-Books/Vanessa-Carlton/ba-p/5315
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a field guide to getting lost, watership down, and once a dancer...
http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Guest-Books/Vanessa-Carlton/ba-p/5315
vanessa just keeps adding to my reading list ;)
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ventured back to borders today to see if they got anything new. not that I could tell. But I did find a My Morning Jacket cd Circuital. So far I've only listened to the first four songs but me likey! They have a very neat vibe to them. It looks like they recorded it all in a large loft type space so it's very echoy. I'm digging it though the vocals seem halting. What I mean is he pauses a lot. But I really like his voice and the overall vibe is pretty chill.
EDIT: it's actually a gym in louisville! coolio
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I've started Watership down, i'm on the 5th chapter.
I'm going to a library this weekend. I'm bringing a list with me. 8)
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I'm going to start looking for the Allegra Kent Autobiography. I'm a dancer and I feel like I might get some really great insight from it!
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now we have another book to add to the list:
Straw Hat Theater by Mickey Klar Marks
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Joan Didion, who wrote The Year of Magical Thinking, has a new book out called Blue Nights, said to be a "companion of sorts to The Year of Magical Thinking". Just thought I'd share!
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I'm reading WD. But did anyone else find this book really dry? Honestly, I feel as if I don't know what the heck these rabbits are talking about half the time. And the descriptions! Those might be worse than the actual rabbit-speak. I'm trying to push through it, but I don't know; twelve chapters in and I'm bored out of my mind. Though I'll admit there's a couple quotes here or there or a chapter or two that's enjoyable enough.
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I'm reading WD. But did anyone else find this book really dry? Honestly, I feel as if I don't know what the heck these rabbits are talking about half the time. And the descriptions! Those might be worse than the actual rabbit-speak. I'm trying to push through it, but I don't know; twelve chapters in and I'm bored out of my mind. Though I'll admit there's a couple quotes here or there or a chapter or two that's enjoyable enough.
wow, I did not feel that it was dry at all! I was entranced, I wanted to find out what they were going to do next. The language was a bit hard to muddle through, hard to figure what they were talking about sometimes, but there is a glossary of terms that may help (either in the back or front of the book I can't remember)
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I'm reading WD. But did anyone else find this book really dry? Honestly, I feel as if I don't know what the heck these rabbits are talking about half the time. And the descriptions! Those might be worse than the actual rabbit-speak. I'm trying to push through it, but I don't know; twelve chapters in and I'm bored out of my mind. Though I'll admit there's a couple quotes here or there or a chapter or two that's enjoyable enough.
wow, I did not feel that it was dry at all! I was entranced, I wanted to find out what they were going to do next. The language was a bit hard to muddle through, hard to figure what they were talking about sometimes, but there is a glossary of terms that may help (either in the back or front of the book I can't remember)
It's probably just the way it's written. It's a very old book, a classic. I haven't tried reading it yet.
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I'm reading WD. But did anyone else find this book really dry? Honestly, I feel as if I don't know what the heck these rabbits are talking about half the time. And the descriptions! Those might be worse than the actual rabbit-speak. I'm trying to push through it, but I don't know; twelve chapters in and I'm bored out of my mind. Though I'll admit there's a couple quotes here or there or a chapter or two that's enjoyable enough.
wow, I did not feel that it was dry at all! I was entranced, I wanted to find out what they were going to do next. The language was a bit hard to muddle through, hard to figure what they were talking about sometimes, but there is a glossary of terms that may help (either in the back or front of the book I can't remember)
It's probably just the way it's written. It's a very old book, a classic. I haven't tried reading it yet.
I disagree. He writes very clearly when writing in plain English, he just makes up his own language so it's hard to follow sometimes. If you think WD is hard, try reading Maia, another one of his books. It's near impossible to understand and follow. Worse than The Scarlet Letter! Not only that but it takes awhile for the action to pick up and quite frankly, I'm on page 415 waiting for the action to pick up. I actually had put it down for months and just picked it back up (and I can barely remember what was going on). But I want to finish it just to say I read it.
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I'm reading WD. But did anyone else find this book really dry? Honestly, I feel as if I don't know what the heck these rabbits are talking about half the time. And the descriptions! Those might be worse than the actual rabbit-speak. I'm trying to push through it, but I don't know; twelve chapters in and I'm bored out of my mind. Though I'll admit there's a couple quotes here or there or a chapter or two that's enjoyable enough.
wow, I did not feel that it was dry at all! I was entranced, I wanted to find out what they were going to do next. The language was a bit hard to muddle through, hard to figure what they were talking about sometimes, but there is a glossary of terms that may help (either in the back or front of the book I can't remember)
It's probably just the way it's written. It's a very old book, a classic. I haven't tried reading it yet.
I disagree. He writes very clearly when writing in plain English, he just makes up his own language so it's hard to follow sometimes. If you think WD is hard, try reading Maia, another one of his books. It's near impossible to understand and follow. Worse than The Scarlet Letter! Not only that but it takes awhile for the action to pick up and quite frankly, I'm on page 415 waiting for the action to pick up. I actually had put it down for months and just picked it back up (and I can barely remember what was going on). But I want to finish it just to say I read it.
Makes up his own language? I must check this out. Out of curiosity though, how many of you read a lot? Is English your first language? I promise I'm not trying to put anyone down, but if English isn't your first language, reading his books will be difficult. It just takes practice. (: You can always use sparknotes as a guide to help you understand whats going on. I do that quite often.
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I forgot to post this a long time ago. http://www.mediafire.com/?dugwzxwmawq (http://www.mediafire.com/?dugwzxwmawq)
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I'm reading WD. But did anyone else find this book really dry? Honestly, I feel as if I don't know what the heck these rabbits are talking about half the time. And the descriptions! Those might be worse than the actual rabbit-speak. I'm trying to push through it, but I don't know; twelve chapters in and I'm bored out of my mind. Though I'll admit there's a couple quotes here or there or a chapter or two that's enjoyable enough.
wow, I did not feel that it was dry at all! I was entranced, I wanted to find out what they were going to do next. The language was a bit hard to muddle through, hard to figure what they were talking about sometimes, but there is a glossary of terms that may help (either in the back or front of the book I can't remember)
It's probably just the way it's written. It's a very old book, a classic. I haven't tried reading it yet.
I disagree. He writes very clearly when writing in plain English, he just makes up his own language so it's hard to follow sometimes. If you think WD is hard, try reading Maia, another one of his books. It's near impossible to understand and follow. Worse than The Scarlet Letter! Not only that but it takes awhile for the action to pick up and quite frankly, I'm on page 415 waiting for the action to pick up. I actually had put it down for months and just picked it back up (and I can barely remember what was going on). But I want to finish it just to say I read it.
Makes up his own language? I must check this out. Out of curiosity though, how many of you read a lot? Is English your first language? I promise I'm not trying to put anyone down, but if English isn't your first language, reading his books will be difficult. It just takes practice. (: You can always use sparknotes as a guide to help you understand whats going on. I do that quite often.
yes, the rabbits have their own language. Silfay means to eat, for example. That's the only word I can remember how to spell. In Maia it's ten times worse, there is a made up word in every sentence and no glossary like in WD.