book: little women

my 'to read' list on good reads is growing twice as fast as my 'read' list.

i am realizing i have a slightly obsessive personality. (ha!)

when i get into something, i find that it's all consuming.

right now, it's books & reading.

(and sadly, i must confess still baking bread & sweets)

 my affection for the movie compelled me to read pride & prejudice...

yes, you read that right.

but if you can look at that picture of matthew mcfadyen & not want more mr. darcy..

well then you are not a hopeless romantic, and i confess, i can't help you.

(i must admit, i'd gladly throw over edward AND eric for mr. darcy.)

so, like i was saying, because of the movie, i read pride & prejudice.

and yes, as always, the book was 1,000 times better.

(i feel like i should just throw in that,  much to my embarrassment, i can't claim to be one of those nerdy girls who curled up with a copy of jane austen when she was 16 or 17.

i was a reader, to be clear, but much like my current bookshelf , i was a sucker for suspense stories, with a little romance thrown in.

mostly young adult stuff.

sadly, i would have lived in the young adult paranormal romance section,

 had it existed in the early 90s.)

::hanging my head in shame::

why is it embarrassing that i love paranormal romance?

so embarrassing.

like, i want to hide the books as i check out like it's a box of feminine products.

ya know, so the 'real' intellectual people reading 'real' literature don't have any more fuel to mock me.

wait, what was i saying?

oh. little women.

ya, so far from paranormal romance..

and who's horrible winona ryder knock off did NOT compel me to read the book.

if i'm honest..

(and since i mentioned feminine products, it's obvious i'm going to be)

i read it to pad my bookshelf on goodreads.

my friend jaime (hi, Jaime! :) is a voracious reader.

(see, big word means i'm not all together lame)

she's read NINETY-FIVE books this year.

AND has a toddler and a brand new baby.

so ya, after the initial 'woohoo i read 24 books this year!' wore off..

i realized that 19 of them were paranormal romance.

so after feeling so proud & bookwormish..

i found myself looking around to see if anyone was looking over my shoulder

& laughing at my accomplishment.

so....

 i decided that the list of books in the back of my head that you should be able to say you've read in  your life, needed tackling.

you know, the classics you were required to read in high school that you skimmed 

& somehow managed to pass honors english with an A.

(uh, huh, you did it too, didn't you!)

i was totally captivated by night by elie wiesel

i made my way through 1984 & Fahrenheit 451.

it took all i had to make it through animal farm.

(i think my 10th grade english teacher was obsessed with dystopia as well as jimmy buffet)

and i totally fudged my paper on all quiet on the western front

i don't think i was ever required to read little women..

but it just seems like a classic you should check of your list.

and i have.

I'm not going to lie.. I struggled for the first, oh 200 pages.

 It just seemed to drag on and on and on.

alcott seemed determined for the reader to know absolutely every detail down to the last spec of dust on a shoe and wrinkle in a coat, and that started to wear on me.

The book makes a dramatic shift, fast forwarding three years in time,

and that's about the time I started to really enjoy it.

 All in all I'm glad to say I read it, but I'm also glad to move onto something new.

when you see there are 30 pages left

& are like '30 MORE?!' and not 'ONLY 30?!'

that's a pretty good indication of how you'll come away feeling.

the plot. good.

the story. slow. sometimes VERY slow.

the characters. some okay. some blah. some interesting.

but, i added the somewhat lesser known little men sequel to my good reads 'to read' shelf.

that's gotta count for something right?

let me be clear.

i like the descriptions of life & times.

i like the pictures that were put in my head.

i just feel like it dragged too often,

 or that maybe i was missing the moral i was supposed to be being taught?

please don't send me hate mail if little women is your favorite book ever.

(or if you think i'm lame for liking paranormal romance :)

any recommendations for a new-non-paranormal romance book?

(or maybe a suggestions in favor of one? :)

i'm upping my goal for books read in 2012!

(and vowing that only 1/4 will be filled with paranormal smut!)

happy saturday!

xo-k