Amanda

I remember reading Wuthering Heights, and having the whole experience be pure agony (I think I even cried a little over it) until the night before the test I was trying to finish the book and found that the last four chapters made everything right. Although Heathcliff and Catherine and Linton screwed things up so badly, it still turned out okay. After my test that day, I immediatly went home and started reading Wuthering Heights all over again. I also read: A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, twice: in 7th and 11th grades. The Outsiders by Susan Hinton: Loved it. There were many others, but these were most memorable. Me went in depth on at least half of Shakespeare. I also remember some short stories that I liked: My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn by Sandra Cisneros, and The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier.

Try some of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She has quite a few well known love poems, the following being one of the better known. Hers may be almost too personal, more from one lover to another, but give them a look-see. Maybe you will find something you like. HOW DO I LOVE THEE ~ By Elizabeth Barrett Browning ~ How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

Have you ever finished a book and, even if the ending in "happily ever after," you experience a bittersweetness if not flat out mourning over the book's end? I feel this way often when finishing a really great book. I finish, and I want to rejoice for the character and admire the author, but instead I am too busy missing my newest old-friend. I took a trip with this friend, and I shared a life altering event, and then he or she is ripped away without a goodbye. I might try finding a new friend, but diving straight into another book feels like an act of unfaithfulness, like I am cheating on someone for whom I feel deeply. What is the last book that made you feel that in the book ending, you were being denied further friendship; the book that you mourn finishing?

One of my favorite movies is Elizabethtown. It contains a "deep beautiful melancholy" layer to it, that I particularly appreciate.

Jordan: Re: Into the Wild. Funny. I loved the movie, too: went right out and bought the book! It was a great one!

Yeah...I picked it up on vacation this week, and very shortly replaced it with Wilkie Collin's Moonstone. What is it about Fanny Price that I do not like? I think that it is her general weakness and idleness that bothers me. She doesn't do anything evil or problematic...she doesn't do anything at all. But them this whole summary is from me last read and not the read that I meant to complete on vacation. Oh well. I will try again soon.

Birthday: July 22, 1980 Age: 28 this summer Starsign: Cancer, I guess, but I have never paid much attention to astrology. Single/Married/Other? Single Children? No Where do you live? Virginia, US (I visited England several years ago. That is combination with the recent PBS version of Sense and Sensibility makes me slightly envious of all you British folk!) Do you work? Three night per week plus PRN as a pediatric nurse. Favourite author? Austen, Gaskell, the Brontes, Collins, Montgomery, So many! How did you get here? My mom the "surfer" found it and thought that it might quell some of my literary tendencies.

My name is Amanda. I am very anxious to make friends with fellow book lovers. My mother, who is a "surfer" found this sight, and may find some relief from my own habit of prattling on about my latest read and what it all means, and themes and such if the forums allow me to instead discuss with someone who cares! We'll see.

I read my first McEwan book earlier this year. Atonement was very, very well written. I am not a fan of coming of age stories. My own coming of age was tough enough; why live through someone else's. I actually had a hard time getting through the first hundred pages because my afore mentioned bias, however appreciated much of the language. It was not until midway through the book that I become quite enthralled, and when I finished, I was so moved that I had to talk it out (to my mother's dismay). Did anyone notice McEwan's use of water as symbolism for truth throughout the story? I found it very interesting. The movie ending was changed, and it unset me very much. Very good book. Which McEwam book should be next on my list?

When I originally took up the book it was because it was a classic, and sort of a big deal to people. It was on a couple of "banned books" lists. Also, daughter of pop-culture that I am, I saw the movie "Conspiracy Theory" and the movie suggested that the US government tracked copies who bought "The Catcher..." because these people were threats, or maybe just to keep an eye on those people that were one-brick-shy-of-a-load. Anyway, it made me curious. After reading the book, I felt a different kind of curiosity, and strangely enough a little comfort. I was curious as to how this story made it on any list at all. That anyone who read it when it first came out passed it on or recommended it to anyone else is actually extraordinary. And the comfort... well, every once in I while, more so when I was in school, I would get the feeling that I might just be going crazy..."this could be it; I think I need help." I find comfort that this "going crazy" thing is normal enough that someone wrote about it, and that millions read about it and call it a classic.

I haven't read MP for a while, because I did not enjoy is as I expected I would. Post Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility, I found Mansfield Park very disappointing. Particularly the scene where they are putting of the play was so frivolous and meaningless. Just what life ought not to be. I did recently pick the book out for a reread, though. It is in a stack that I am to take with me on vacation next week. Maybe my impression will be different this time.