Since I did a couple of musings on reading posts already this week — asking about a perfect reading month and thinking about reading and remembering and forgetting — I think this post is going to be just a little bit random.
I haven’t done much reading this weekend because Boyfriend and I did a Lord of the Rings movie marathon. We did The Fellowship of the Ring on Friday night, then powered through The Two Towers and The Return of the King last night. This was a big deal because I’ve been pretty adamant with him about how much I dislike those movies (don’t shun me!). The first time I watched them I thought they were too long and too confusing — I’ve never read the books, so I just got lost. But this time I actually focused, asked questions, and ended up enjoying them, even if we did stay up until 1:30 in the morning finishing the last one.
I also spent time at the Capitol in Madison at the protests this weekend. I’m not a big protester — I don’t really like to yell or chant and whatnot — but it was interesting to be down there and be part of something. As a quick update from my “I’m Proud of My Wisconsin” post, the “Fab 14” Democratic senators are still on the run, Scott Walker introduced his biennial budget and still refuses to negotiate, and the Legislature remains mostly at a stand-still. If you want to get a sense of what’s going on, I suggest looking through my friend Mark Richers photostream on Flickr, or following my Delicious links marked WIbudget.
And today… I’m not sure I’ll get to read much either. Boyfriend and I are going to our wine tasting group this afternoon, and I have some blogging and apartment chores to get done before then. If I do get to read, I’ll be diving into The United States of Arugula by David Camp, which is the pick for BookClubSandwich, the online foodie book club I host with Andi (Estella’s Revenge). I gotta get reading — discussion starts on March 14!
How was your reading weekend? Get a lot accomplished?
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I think reading LotR helps with loving the movies – because they are long and the story is complex and they are really really long…. Congrats on getting through all three in one weekend. My husband won’t even watch one! 🙂 Granted, I have the extended editions….
Trisha: Boyfriend was good about answering my questions about plot and characters, so that was good. We just watched the regular versions, which was enough for me — the last one was 3.5 hours long!
I could not get into LotR when I first saw it either. Reading it wasn’t much better for me. It took dedicating a weekend to it and sitting down with a fan to watch it. It isn’t so bad.
Valerie: This was the second time I’ve tried to watch them. I can’t remember if I made it through all three the first time, but I remember being pretty confused.
No one will watch the LoTR movies with me. Apparently I sort of, um, picked the first one apart when I watched it with some friends? I had to watch the next two by myself. They are good, but there were things that got cut out that made me sad. The guy likes the movies, but has never read the books. His brother tried to get him to, but he gave him The Hobbit to start and that does read a lot like a kids book, so he didn’t like it. Now he won’t try again…
P.S. That was kind of funny. I was commenting on your blog and you were commenting on mine.
Kailana: Lol, funny! I have a friend who is a pretty big fan of the movies, and she had some strong opinions on what got cut from them, too. I’m intrigued by the books, but I’m not sure if I will ever read them.
I’m almost done with a book I started during the week, which is a pretty big accomplishment for me right now. Homework? Not so much accomplished unfortunately.
Ash: Nice job! I’ve been reading slowly too, and not much at all this weekend. I am glad not to have homework anymore 🙂
A co-worker loaned me his copy of LotR is his favorite movie of all time. My husband and I found it boring and confusing. Towards the end I started doing other things including vacuuming the living room rug. Later my co-worker said I should have read the books first.
I started reading The US of Arugula, but it’s not holding my interest. I was looking for more focus on food and less on the characters involved in the food movement.
If the protests continue in Madison I should head over myself one of these Saturdays. It would be interesting to see it up close. My sister works for University Hospital and would happily go with me.
Savvy Working Girl: I think you have to watch the movies with someone who knows what is going on, or at least a plot summary open on Wikipedia, since they can be confusing, and I think a lot of explanation gets left out.
If you end up in Madison, let me know — it’d be fun to meet you in person. The protests each weekend have been pretty interesting, although I’ve only gone a couple of times.
I had a spotty reading weekend. Between being sick, Greyson being sick, and general exhaustion, OH, and working on Saturday, I didn’t get as much read as I would’ve liked. Although, truthfully, I read more at work on Saturday than I worked. 😀
Andi: Ugh, sounds like a huge pain of a weekend! I’m so glad I didn’t have to work over the weekend.
I certainly won’t shun you for any negative LotR comments as I myself have never made it past the second film… which I thought was horrifically boring! It was so boring that I refused to watch the third film as I did not want to waste any more of my time on the franchise. The funny thing is, I did try to read the books once and made it through to the end of the second one before giving up there as well! Apparently The Two Towers is my LotR kryptonite!
Steph: I really thought the movies were boring the first time I watched them, but then were better this second time. I think maybe since I knew a little bit about what was going on, they were less confusing.
HOw did I miss that you host a foodie bookclub? That is so up my alley.
Esme: I don’t know! We read a book every three months or so — you should join up for our next read 🙂