Bout of Books: Thursday

~ Today's Books ~

 

 

~ Today's Statistics ~

 

Books I've read from:  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë  

Pages read today:  60

Books finished today:  Still none... 

Running total:  0 books; 188 pages   

Non-reading progress:   Too much Tweeting again, hehe!  But I did the rounds of a few blogs, and I took part in the Vampires in Popular Fiction challenge as well.  I had fun picture-hunting for that one!

Today #insixwords:  Slow, steady and LOVING my book!  :)

~ Reading Notes ~

 

9:30am

Okay, time to get going.  I want today to be a really good reading day!  I've had breakfast, I've caught up on the beginning of the Twitter chat from last night (plenty still to read later!) and visited a couple more blogs to say HELLO AND HAPPY READING, so now I reckon it's time to sit down and get back into Jane's story...  In the meantime, here's your mug 'n' muffin porn for today!

 

1:45pm

Aaaaalrighty.  I'm showered, lunched, and back to my book.  I've spent lunchtime getting caught right up on last night's fabulous Twitter chat (which I tell ya, takes longer than the hour it was originally crammed into!), and before that I read a chunk of Jane Eyre to contribute to today's page count.  Time has skipped forward and as of RIGHT NOW Jane is just getting settled at Thornfield and making the acquaintance of Mrs Fairfax and flightly little Adele (who I always found annoying rather than cheering - we'll see how I feel about THAT a few years on!).  I did very much like this passage, about the young Jane setting out in the world by herself:

"It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone in the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted.  The charm of adventure sweetens that sensation, the glow of pride warms it: but then the throb of fear disturbs it: and fear with me became predominant, when half an hour lapsed and still I was alone."

Haven't we all felt like that at one time or another when we've ventured into the unknown, going somewhere we've never been before, or perhaps stranded somewhere and beginning to feel more frightened than adventurous?  Beautiful writing...  Now, I'm off to start thinking about my answers for the Vampires in Popular Fiction challenge, then it's back to my book!

5:20pm
Oh internets, pleeaaaaaase stop distracting me from my bookish reverie!  If it's not Twitter it's blog hopping, if it's not blog hopping it's back to Twitter again, and if it is NEITHER OF THESE THINGS then it's YouTube, because I suddenly got an urge to go Google Jane Eyre trailers.  Then I had to spend a good 15 minutes inwardly debating which Jane Eyre I like best.  I mean, the Zeffirelli version was my first love, and Charlotte Gainsbourg is awesome, but it feels quite dated and... William Hurt has since been royally surpassed in the Hot Rochester stakes, y'know? 

The BBC version is lively and flirty and youthful, but even though I OF COURSE swooned over Toby Stephens I'm not sure his Rochester was QUITE what I had in mind.  Also, he sometimes reminds me a bit of Hugh Grant, which is definitely not brooding enough for me! 

Perhaps the newest version - as yet unwatched - will turn out to be my favourite.  So far so promising...  Michael Fassbender certainly LOOKS like the Rochester I've been waiting for since I fell in love with the book nineteen years ago, so it just remains to be seen whether the rest lives up to expectations!  No pressure there or anything...

 

Okay, I think I'll spend a few minutes doing today's vampire challenge, and then it's time for the rest of those Indian snack bites, something coffee-related, and more of my book before I start pondering a DVD for the evening!

 

9:25pm

End of chapter, end of day for me I reckon...  I've left Mr Rochester sprawled on the couch in front of the fire, Jane sitting in the parlour trying to work him out, and Mrs Fairfax concealing secrets about his past.  This is why I'm more of a Brontë girl, y'know - there's proper chemistry and teasing and drawing out of life experience between Jane and Edward in a way that just wouldn't happen with Austen's couples.  In Austen's world they'd just go off and talk about each other to their friends and siblings, then maybe smile and dance a bit.  Everybody hears everything from the neighbours, not from the source, and nobody seems to know each other that well (admittedly, Rochester's secret mad wife thing was a fairly big oversight, but... shut up).  Yeah, Brontës forever, y'all!  Of course, I'm planning to reread Pride and Prejudice in the very near future for the Big Anniversary, so I maybe I'll be won round yet?  :)

 

Right, time to go in search of tea and cake, and find something non-film-length to YET AGAIN watch too late.  What can I say, I know I wanted to stop at 8pm each night, but then it rolls around so quickly and I just keep reading!  *sighs deeply*  Maybe tomorrow?  Maybe tomorrow...

 

 

~ Vampires in Popular Fiction Challenge ~

Hosted by The One With Rachel's Book

 

WHO are your favourite vampires? And WHY?I want everyone to name one guy vamp and one lady vamp (and the books/series they are from, just so everyone knows), and explain why they have a place in your heart as your super most favourite vampires ever!

 

Favourite guy vamp should be easiest, so I'll start there.  Ummmm...  *ponders*... *regrets hasty words*...  Right, I'm going to have to go for a tie here, because I can't choose.  Clearly, I am not so shallow as to choose my vampires purely for sex appeal but... well, it doesn't hurt, y'know what I'm saying?  So vamp numero uno has to be Eric Northman (from Charlaine Harris's books and the True Blood series, in case you've been living under a rock).  He's got serious gravitas as Sheriff of Area 5 and Lord of Fangtasia - even if that DOES make him sound a bit Disney Prince.  Overlord, perhaps?  Anyway, he's got the awe factor, and the hotness, and the casual disregard for pretty much everybody else that manages to be strangely sexy.  BUT he also has the 'awwww' factor (different thing) in Dead to the World/Season 4   If I thought Eric was hot and dangerous before, I liked him even BETTER when he was hot and dangerous AND quite nice.

Choice numero dos skips completely into the TV world and OH NOES I just thought of a third one.  Ohhhh, Henry from Blood Ties.  Oh, now I've done it.  Can I have three?  Or is that greedy?  OH NO FOUR!  How could I have forgotten the many incarnations of Dracula?  Nope, I'll stick with my original second, but I'll cheat by linking to this post about Blood Ties, as well as this Top Ten Tuesday Weird Crushes post, so you can still read about my strange infatuation with Young Dracula's honey-tongued Count, should you choose to do so. 

RIGHT, so numero dos is Mick St. John from Moonlight.   Yes, he occasionally talks like something out of a gangster movie (it's the accent), but he is SMOKIN' hot.  He reminds me a lot of Josh Lucas when he smiles (hellooooo sailor), he's devoted to pretty news reporter Beth, he kicks ass against bad guys, be they human or not-so-human, AND he looks really good in those hot fitted sweater top thingies.  Excuse me for just a sex SEC... *fans self frantically*

 

Aaaand so to the lady-vamp contingent.  I realised (belatedly) that I had overlooked leather-clad minx Selene (of Underworld fame), exotic Queen of the Damned Akasha and diminutive shopaholic Alice Cullen - but I reckon my choice still stands.  I went for another True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries character, feisty lady-lovin' Pam.  Seriously sarcastic, compulsively lustful, impeccably dressed and fiercely loyal, Pam frickin' rocks.  She just does.  Also, in this picture she KIND of looks like Angelina Jolie which, y'know, is never a bad thing...

 

 

Soooo, who'd make it onto the top of YOUR vampire hotlist?  Male or female, bookish or screen-based, tell me in the comments!  Or, if you're a fellow BoB-er, feel free to leave me a link so I can come check out your answers that way...  :)