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Bibliophile Collective Tuesday – Actors Reading Books in Movies

May 23, 2023
mandyevebarnett

I watched Book Club – The Next Chapter again with a friend over this long weekend. Yes, it’s the second time but a)it was a nice outing with a friend, b) I languished in the Italian landscape and c) what not?

The actors read three books in the movie for their online book club during the COVID scenes and it got me thinking how many other movies have books in them just as props? Well I found a list and have chosen a few to reply.

A Fish Called Wanda

Character: Otto West (Kevin Kline)

Book:Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

Apocalypse Now

Character: Walter E Kurtz

Book:The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

Bad Teacher

Character: Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz)

Book:To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Donnie Darko

Character: Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal)

Book:Twenty-One Stories by Graham Greene

Friends with Kids

Character: Kurt (Jon Hamm)

Book:Cod by Mark Kurlansky

When Harry met Sally

Character: Harry Burns (Billy Crystal)

Book:The Icarus Agenda by Robert Ludlum

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Character: Leaky Cauldron Customer (Ian Brown)

Book:A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking

Hot Fuzz

Character: Sergeant Turner

Book:Complicity by Iain Banks

Hot Shots Part Deux

Character: Topper Harley

Book:Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Inglourious Basterds

Character: Shoshanna Dreyfus

Book:The Saint In New York by Leslie Charteris

It’s a Wonderful Life

Character: George Bailey (James Stewart)

Book:The Adventures Of Tom Swayer by Mark Twain

King Kong

Character: Jimmy

Book:Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Little Miss Sunshine

Character: Dwayne Hoover (Paul Dano)

Book:Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

Matilda

Character: Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson)

Book: Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Natural Born Killers

Character: Mallory Knox (Juliette Lewis)

Book:The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Notting Hill

Character: William Thacker (Hugh Grant)

Book:Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernières

Poltergeist

Character: Steve Freeling (Craig T Nelson)

Book:Reagan: The Man, The President by Various

Pulp Fiction

Character: Vincent Vega (John Travolta)

Book:Modesty Blaise by Peter O’Donnell

Serendipity

Character: Sarah Thomas (Kate Beckinsale)

Book:Love In the Time Of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

Addams Family Values

Character: Morticia Addams (Anjelica Huston)

Book:The Cat In The Hat by Dr Seuss

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Character: Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt)

Book:Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

The Hours

Character: Laura Brown (Julianne Moore)

Book:Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The Reader

Character: Michael Berg (David Kross)

Book:War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The Wedding Crashers

Character: John Beckwith (Owen Wilson)

Book:Don’t Jump: The Northwest Winter Blues Survival Guide by Traci Vogel

The Shining

Character: Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall)

Book:The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger

You’ve Got Mail

Character: Kathleen Kelly

Book:Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Crow

Character: T-Bird (David Patrick Kelly)

Book:Paradise Lost by John Milton

Gone With the Wind

Character: Melanie Hamilton Wilkes (Olivia de Havilland)

Book:David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

It was an eye opener seeing so many.

Can you think of any others?

Bibliophile’s Collective Tuesday – Books and Movies

May 16, 2023
mandyevebarnett

This past weekend I went to watch Book Club – The Next Chapter. It was a fun ride catching up with the four main characters again. For me, the best part was enjoying the three Italian cities they visited. It is many years since I was there, but the memories came flooding back. The essence of Italy still holds a special place in my soul. I visited Venice, Florence and Rome and hope to go back at some point. It was interesting that the book they were reading this time round was Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.

I finished an intriguing novel, The First Time Lauren Pailing Died by Alyson Rudd.

Review:This was an exceptional narrative, especially as its theme is a subject I love. Imagine you live more than one life in parallel? Most of us never knowing about the other life, oblivious to it. But Lauren does know and that is what makes this book so remarkable.
It is captivating.

I have now begun reading a new book – The Shadow Sister by Lucinda Riley, only to find it is book three of a series. However, it is a separate story of one sister’s experiences, so I’m good.

Would you read one book of a series or not?

Literary Birthdays this week include:

May 19th is the birthday of Nora Ephron who was an American journalist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, director, and blogger. She is best known for her romantic comedies and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay): for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally…, and Sleepless in Seattle. These are exceptional movies, I think you will agree.

Another author sharing the same birthday is Jodi Picoult with an impressive 25 novels (and counting) to her name, including My Sister’s Keeper, Nineteen Minutes and Sing Me Home.

Bibliophile’s Collective Tuesday – Lots of Literature to Celebrate

May 2, 2023
mandyevebarnett

There are several celebratory days this week! So let’s get started.

2nd May – Harry Potter Day (May 2 was the day of the Battle of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series) This series is a global phenomenon not only with the books but the movies as well.

4th – 10th May – Children’s Book Week (also celebrated in November) You might know I have written a couple of children’s books.

4th May – Intergalactic Star Wars Day (“May the Fourth be with you.”) Once again these movies are of global recognition and there are numerous memes celebrating the Fourth.

My favourite is Darth Vader – you might say bad boy vibes!

Whose is your favourite character in the movies?

6th May – Free Comic Book Day

I was not allowed comics when I was young, so I would always grab my friends comics when I was playing at their houses. They were a novelty for me.

Today there are multiple movies highlighting many of the characters first created in comics. And there doesn’t seem to be an end to them either.

In today’s market good quality issues can fetch remarkable amounts of money! Such as Amazing Fantasy (1961) No 15 is valued at $355,000. So, if you hoarded old comics best go and look now.

Did you have a favourite comic book?

Bibliophile Collective Tuesday – Books Most Frequently Made into Movies

December 6, 2022
mandyevebarnett

There are numerous movie adaptions of novels, and many we know well, due to their multiple adaptations. This is a list of the most frequently adapted stories. I also noted the first publication date, which shows how particular stories hold our imaginations, over and over. These span from the 15th century to the 19th century.

Hamlet Originally published 1599-1601 Adapted over 31 times

Pride and Prejudice Originally published 28th January 1813 Adapted 28 times

Frankenstein Originally published 1st January 1818 Adapted over 37 times

A Christmas Carol Originally published 19th December 1843 Adapted over 44 times

The Three Musketeers Originally published July 1844 Adapted over 10 times

Les Miserables Originally published 1862 Adapted over 50 times

Alice in Wonderland Originally published November 1865 Adapted over 20 times

Sherlock Holmes Originally published October 14th 1892 Adapted over 44 times

Dracula Originally published May 26th 1897 Adapted over 62 times

And Then There Were Non Originally published 6th November 1939 Adapted over 10 times

It is the magic of a gripping, relatable and empathic narrative that makes these stories so captivating. No matter how many times we read them, or even watch them, there is a deep seated attachment to the characters, their plight and how they develop within the story.

We all have our favorites from these titles. They have become traditional, a part of society’s fabric and will continue to do so in one way or another, I am sure. As an author, I can only hope one of my stories will be as well loved and cherished as these author’s work.

Which one is your favorite?

For me it is Alice as I love the delightful world inhabited with surreal beings.

Wordsmith’s Collective Tuesday – Novel to Movie – An Author’s Dream

September 1, 2022
mandyevebarnett

Back in November, 2013, I wrote the first draft of a western romance, Willow Tree Tears. Subsequently, it was edited and revised, but to date has not made it into the world. One character is an Italian businessman touring rodeo’s selling his high end leather cowboy boots. Like a bolt of lightening, it hit me that my latest obsession -Michele Morrone would make the perfect actor for this part, if the story was made into a movie. The first scene has my heroine glimpsing a white shirt among the leather and plaid attire of the rodeo crowd.

Lucio

Of course, I then had to investigate who would play the other characters. This is a fun exercise for many writers and authors, not only because we would love all our novels to become movies, but also it can help us ‘picture’ our characters as we write. These are my options for the other characters.

Colton – ranch manager and high school friend of Madison’s. Secretly in love with Madison.

Alexander Ludwig