An Evening with Neil Gaiman - My First Author Experience

It's taken me a long time to write this post as the day after I went to Neil Gaiman's event, I flew out to Edmonton from Toronto to do a job helping out some friends and seeing plenty of old and new faces. I had a great time, but now it's back to real life (or at least another week until I work at Fan Expo Canada.) 

I've never been to an author or book event in my life and my friend Coles got a pair of tickets for us to see the show. Let me tell you about how Coles was the first one who introduced me to Gaiman's novels; I had started reading Sandman a while ago but didn't realize he had such an amazing collection of books that are just some of the most fun things I've read. His child-like wonder, imagination and unique storytelling makes him one of my favourites so it was only fitting that the first book related event I would go to would be An Evening with Neil Gaiman.

This event... was COMPLETELY SOLD OUT. I had heard that this was a rare occasion that the Danforth Music Hall's waiting line was so flippin' long. No, seriously. It stretched down the end of the road and around the corner, it was long but as soon as people started to fill in, the wait was cut down tremendously. We had some seats close to the front, and had a very good view of Neil's crazy hair! That's an important detail, really.

Neil is great live (which, I think is incredibly difficult to be an author in front of a large audience - how do you be entertaining to a live crowd of readers?!) He's everything I imagined him to be in real life; witty, humorous and engaging. He read passages from his latest book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane and from his upcoming children's book, Fortunately, The Milk. I, myself, have a copy of Ocean, but unfortunately, I couldn't stick around to get anything signed as that portion, I imagine, would have ran well past midnight and I had an extremely early morning flight I needed to wake up at 5AM for. That was kind of poopy but I admit that just being able to sit in an audience full of people who admired Gaiman as much as Coles and I do was exhilarating. Speaking of an audience full of people, I also met Chandra from the Indigo Teen Blog - she was sitting in my row and after a few tweets, we met each other, said hello and she's super cute and darling! 

The reading of Fortunately, The Milk was one of the best bits, and I think I need a copy despite being in adulthood (but I have a feeling that Neil would tell me that that shouldn't stop me and really, I'm still a kid.) The Q&A portion was a lot more amusing than I expected as Neil was super funny and had some wonderful stories to share. I admit that he's one of those authors who speak exactly like they write and I think it's amazing he leaves that kind of impression.

I took home (or rather, on the plane with me) something rather unexpected from Neil. Some how, he managed to tap into the imagination that I had while I was a child, and a sort of poetic dialogue seems to be playing in my head when I see something in my mundane, every day life as enchanting. I would love to see him again in the future and y'know... actually get something signed from him and hopefully not before I leave for a trip across the country. Thank you, Neil Gaiman, for some books, a great live appearance and for inspiring a massive whole group of people worldwide!

Movie Mondays: American Psycho

And we're back with another Movie Monday!

Today we're looking at a comparison and review of American Psycho, movie starring Christian Bale, book written by Bret Easton Ellis.

American Psycho is an interesting, dark and satirical look at the 1980's Wall Street yuppies. The story is told in first person by the main character, Patrick Bateman who narrates his day-to-day activities as a wealthy 20-something investment banker. The dialogue goes from talking about his expensive stereo system, music, conversations about fashion with his colleagues to his murderous bloodlust. This story has created a lot of controversy, coming out first in the 90's due to the highly detailed nature of sex, violence and the treatment of others (homophobia, misogyny.)

Without spoiling too much, I have to say that I feel like the movie had more to it than the book could tell. Yes. That's right. I liked the movie better than the book. I felt like I had a hard time getting through the novel as the dialogue seemed to drag on and on in some places and felt that the pacing could have been greatly improved. Although I understand what these parts of dialogue represent, it's also incredibly difficult for me to not want to completely skip chapters.

I felt that the film itself was just a better portrayal of the ideas that Bret Easton Ellis was trying to convey, from the juxtapose of lifestyle to the details of Bateman's relationship with Evelyn. I think there's a reason when people mention American Psycho, they think of the movie and not of the original book. No need to skip chapters here to actually make a point here, folks, Mary Harron had the right idea when she decided to recreate this story. 

End Hiatus!

Guess who's back?! That's right, it's your neighbourhood-friendly Rose!

I have to apologize for the long, long time between posts, it really has been a hectic several weeks for me between jobs and moving and LIFE! I love this blog and I want to dedicate a lot of time to making sure I tell you all about what I'm reading, my thoughts and opinions but sometimes you're handed with... a lot to deal with.

I had decided to put this blog on hiatus because I needed to drive focus into some other priorities that needed to be addressed. This blog wasn't distracting from my responsibilities but the stress I was dealing with needed to lightened; it was an extremely hard month for me but things are finally getting better and now I can put more focus into reading and writing! Hurrah! That's the good news.

The bad news? Well, I need to catch up on my reading now! Like I said, things were incredibly busy for me and lots of issues needed to be dealt with so I only had time to finish only one book which I'll do a Movie Monday for in the next week. Obviously, on Monday.

I did receive a copy of a book called Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, a YA book.. which I admit, is not my usual route of reading which might be obvious if you've been following this blog. I will, however, give it a chance as I was flipping through it and I like the light-heartedness and the writing format of it. That is, of course, I will read it when I'm not in the middle of moving and can actually unpack it from a ton of the boxes.

Meanwhile, I have a trip planned in the next few days where I'll be able to read on the plane...assuming I don't just sleep through the whole trip (ugh... early morning flights...) I have a few books I'm going to load onto my Kobo for the trip but I'm open to suggestions! :)

So, I'm back... look for more posts within the next week! I promise to deliver and you guys know you can always, always, ALWAYS bug me on Twitter!

Hiatus!

Sorry for the delay between posts, everyone. I have to apologize! My life is in some jumble -- nothing serious, just the usual! I'll be taking a short hiatus but I'll be reading and writing in the meanwhile. I've given myself a deadline until the end of the month, but my return may be earlier than that! I just need to get some priorities out of the way first before I recommit to this, but I promise you that my sass will stay! :)

Thanks for understanding and fare thee well!

Rose

Review: Supermarket [Graphic Novel]

Supermarket by Brian Wood, Art by Kristian

November 8, 2008 by IDW Publishing

[Goodreads][Amazon]

Summary:

In the future world of Supermarket, it's the literal truth. Legitimate and black-market economies rule the City, overseen by the vying factions of the Yakuza and Porno Swede crime families. Convenience store clerkette and 16-year old suburban wise-ass Pella Suzuki suddenly finds herself in the middle of it all, heir to an empire she couldn't possibly inherit, but hitmen on both sides aren't taking any chances.

Review:

Okay, I admit it. I'm a huge nerd, geek and what-have-you but this is the bookish world in the internet-universe and I know I'm not the only one who reads graphic novels, comics and manga. I grew up around illustrated stories, got into graphic novels when I was fairly young and I love a good story that's narrated with great art. To those people who aren't giving the comic book world a chance; you're missing out.

Say you love yourself some dystopian fiction, enjoy stories about the mafia, and hell, maybe you secretly love watching those Fast and Furious movies... Supermarket is a mighty fine graphic novel. I want to emphasize the word graphic too, because the art in this book does not follow the standard superhero-graphic-novel style. The colours are bright and well-thought out and each page is eye-catching without being offensive. The drawings themselves are look simply illustrated but in fact have a lot of character. The art reflects well on the urban adventure of the story and the artist has an excellent grasp of design. 

The story is fantastic. Money rules the world that Brian Wood created and Pella Suzuki, the main character, is caught in the middle of a gang war with two crime families. On one end, there's the Yakuza... on the other? Porno Swedes. That's right. You heard that right, Porno. Swedes. Do us all a favour and don't try and Google that, alright? Anyways, I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that the elements of story and art are meshed together in holy matrimony and it's a great read. People tend to think that words with pictures are childish but I digress, they stimulate how a story can be told and can even enhance the reading experience. This graphic novel isn't like the Archie comics you read as a kid. It's well-thought out; there's a deep story, there's a message, dark themes and if this were put into motion picture? I would rate it for teens and over considering the violence involved. 

Supermarket is exciting, bold and colourful. 

Rating: 4/5 Bookworms

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Featuring Travel In Some Way

In no particular order...

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman - Travelling around the US in search of other Gods? Okay, sounds good, where do I sign up? I honestly think this is the perfect road trip book. 
2. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut - I think this book is kind of ridiculous and that's why I love it so. Also, time travelling counts, right?
3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - I honestly think this book is just going to be on every list I make because it has so many elements of everything. Can you tell it's a favourite of mine? Yeah, probably.
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carol - Okay, yeah, the entire story is kind of an acid trip but hey! I relate travelling to adventure, and this is one hell of an adventure.
5. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie - It's obvious to me that some of the best travelling happens in classic children's stories. Peter Pan is one of my favourites for it has a little bit of everything and I love it!

I know no one minds, but I could only think of five. I'm quite content with this list and my only regret right now is not having enough coffee to go into more detail.

Movie Mondays: The Princess Bride

Gosh, I read some really fun books and watch some really good movies for this new segment. I'm pretty stoked about it, aren't you?

This week I decided to go for The Princess Bride [imdb]. Mostly because the book has been unread and sitting on my shelf for about two months and it's about time that I got right down to it. The best of it is that this is a perfect summer read for me -- casual, satirical, and light-hearted.

So I'm going to go right out and say this… it's a rare case where I watch the movie before the book, but hey, it happened. I watched this movie for the first time sometime in my youth -- I believe a TV station was broadcasting it at the time and I didn't even know that a book existed until well into my teen years. I'm not unhappy that I read the book after seeing the film, but I am in fact, content. I think if I didn't imagine Andre the Giant playing the character Fezzik then I would feel like something would be missing from my life somehow.

I think, honestly, that the movie did a fantastic job at adapting the book and that the book filled in the things I desired from the movie -- backstories of Inigo and Fezzik and how Humperdinck came to choose Buttercup for his wife and other such information. The adaptation was insanely spot-on and the dialogue is nearly identical to the book. I felt that the characters were actually written for the actors that portrayed them. Of course, Goldman, the author, is also a playwright and screenwriter so I'm sure he felt he had certain people in mind as first-choices. Andre the Giant as Fezzik remains to be my favourite role from anyone, ever. Of all time. Especially after seeing this (Warning: ALL THE FEELS.) And let us not forget that no one else can say the famous line: "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" quite like Mandy Pantinkin. The very thought of any other person than Wallace Shawn playing Vizzini? Inconceivable!

Okay, I'm done quoting. I swear, I'll stop. Really.

It's not often that a film is better than the book, mostly the book is almost always better but in this case? Neither are true. They are equal in what they give to the audiences and both are companions to one another. The compliment each other brilliantly and as most of you have almost seen the movie well before reading the book, I highly encourage you to do so! Reviewing these two together has actually been a pleasurable experience and I've only done a few book reviews that I've been so proud of and this is honestly one of them.