hafital | Pride! Prejudice! Hot manly broodiness! (Reply)

I inhaled the Pride and Prejudice DVDs this weekend. I have always loved Colin Firth, but now? Now he can come over and be broody and prideful, all smokey-eyed and tortured and come be my costume drama boyfriend.

Hm, I've never been an actor worship person, but I can totally get behind having a Colin Firth fandom, yes I can. heh.

And since I'm in a time wasting mood, Edited to add one more, that I almost forgot

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum -- Some friend of my moms handed this book to me as a kid and I read it with some trepidation, but I then quickly devoured the rest of the Oz books. Although, as charming as they are, Ozma remained the one that sticks out the most in my mind. It also had the character of the Princess Langwidare, she of the many heads, who on whatever whim struck her fancy, changed her head to change her looks. The ultimate plastic surgery. And, this book also introduced the Gnome King, who enchanted the entire royal family of Ev and made them knick knacks in his house. Very creepy and deeply fascinating. Also, I loved the illustrations in this book, all art nouveau-esque, and the representation of Ozma came to define female beauty to me. I still consider art nouveau to be the most luscious and gorgeous of the art trends. The Oz books certainly were/are extremely trippy.

The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder -- Why yes, I am a lemming. *g* But seriously, I was going to put down the entire Little House series, but the more I saw this on other peoples list, the more I realized they were totally right! There was one other of the books that deeply affected me, that made me cry actually, but I can't remember which one it was, although I believe it was either Little Town on the Prairie or These Happy Golden Years. One of the two. It was a sister thing. Totally made me break down crying, and my Mom wondered into my room deeply concerned. heh. Ah, age 13.

The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton -- Speaking of crying. I was so deeply in love with everyone in this book, it's sort of embarrassing. I didn't cry when Johnny died, however. I cried when Darry and Ponyboy were reunited at the hospital. I completely broke down. My Mom walked in on me crying with this one, too. What a little nutcase she must have thought I was. I've never seen the movie for fear of my perceptions being totally destroyed, although I did try and watch the tv show, per my usual response to live action adaptations of books I was in love with, it was so far from how the book lived in my head that it might has well have been a tv show that just happened to be called The Outsiders.

The Firestarter, by Steven King -- I have no idea what drew me to this book, how I came across it, or what made me pick it up. My memory is hazy. I think I liked the cover which had Charlie's eyes with flames over her face, and her eyes were vividly green. These days, Steven King is sort of hit or miss with me, but I do much better with his suspense than with his horror (The Shining being the exception). I hid this book under my mattress because I wasn't allowed to read it.

The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien -- I was going to write down LotR, but I realized it is much more accurate to say it started all with The Hobbit, which I found enchanting in every way. I was particularly taken by Smog, whose death made me a bit sad, although he had a magnificent death.

Dune, by Frank Herbert -- I grew to love his other series that started with The Jesus Incident more, but Dune was my first real introduction to Sci -Fi that wasn't, you know, Star Trek. *g* And I had a real thing for Paul Atreides. whoo.

Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume -- I love this book. I read it over and over again as a kid. It broke my heart each time, foolish little romantic girl that I was. Each time I read it I hoped Davey and Wolf would be together at the end.

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott -- What can I say about Little Women. I identified with Jo, although I was nothing like her. And I love Laurie, but who doesn't?

Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voight. -- Can't believe I almost forgot this book! This was another case of someone handing me one of Cynthia Voight's books (Dicey's Song, I believe), which I liked very much. Enough to go looking for her other books. Jackaroo is the first of a series of related books that exists in a made-up historical fiction universe about a young woman who takes up a Robin Hood type identity, and the trouble and disallusionment she finds as a result. It was a marvelous medieval world she created that wasn't directly historical. And she had a stong young female character, and there was adventure and romance. Jackaroo was the first in a series, the later books each taking on the next generation, each related to the previous in some way. I highly recommend them to any intrested in YA books.

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I *loved* Alias this past Sunday. I agree with everything Yahtzee said here Particularly the Vaughn thing. I was totally torn between giggling and wanting to have him permanently gothed out and paraded before me, lip ring and all. This episode had the same urgency I felt watching last year's season finale.

Okay, I've lazed enough. Back to work with me.