By Kate

December 10, 2007 8:09 AM | Link to this

I can’t wait to see Atonement. I loved the book! My daughter has about 30 pages to go, so I’m waiting for her to finish up before we see the movie. If we can ever find the time, that is. {Christmas rant redacted}

By Jeff

December 10, 2007 8:32 AM | Link to this

As I’ve said before, no interest at all in Compass, in either book or movie form. As far as fantasy goes, the only true fantasy (re: non-sci fi) I’ve ever been able to stand (much less enjoy) was Lord of the Rings, and even then I could never get in to the books. (Might give them another try at some point though.)

Atonement looks like one that I would check out.

I am Legend, opening next weekend, is both a book and movie that I want to check out.

My other ‘must sees’ this Christmas season are both non-book related. (National Treasure: Book of Secrets and Alien V Predator: Requiem)

By Lily Toad

December 10, 2007 11:43 AM | Link to this

I usually don’t go to movies on their opening weekend, but I’m eager to see Golden Compass, so I’m planning on seeing it this coming weekend. I’ve read Golden Compass, but not the other books in the trilogy. The idea of daemons is what I really liked about it.

I’d like to see Atonement also since I read it, too, although the war part was boring. It looks luscious!

I’m looking forward to The Kite Runner since when reading it I was thinking about it visually and hoped it would be made into a movie.

Phil, maybe your question came too soon for many people to have opinions on new movies. After all, we’re READERS.

By Shannon

December 10, 2007 2:23 PM | Link to this

Definetely “P.S., I Love You”!! I wanted this book made into movie from the moment I read it (long before the announcement was made that it would be) and I am really looking forward to seeing it the weekend it comes out!

By f '(x)

December 10, 2007 9:39 PM | Link to this

Lol - the newest POS Alien/Predator movie is on your “Must see” list, but a movie that is based on a multiple-award winning series of books that might challenge your tiny world-view is not?

Well, I guess we know all we need to know about you “intellect”. LoL.

By Maria

December 10, 2007 10:21 PM | Link to this

I’ve had Atonement in my to-be-read pile for a long time, and I was going to try to cram it into my reading schedule before seeing the movie. But I reconsidered after remembering a couple other read-the-book-and-then-immediately-watch-the-movie experiences. Movies like To Kill a Mockingbird and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that have been lauded as being some of the best films of the 20th century, and yet they seemed lackluster coming right after the books that inspired them. (Can’t deny that the acting was great, though.) So I think I’ll commit the bookish person’s sin of watching the movie first, and then reading the book. I expect I’ll see a great movie, which will then be followed up with an even better book. Good deal all around.

Now let’s all gather ‘round and discuss the weighty themes of Alien vs. Predator.

By Political Mongrel

December 10, 2007 11:04 PM | Link to this

When The Golden Compass was published in the US, I thought it was the most brilliant, ferociously original fantasy I had read in years. It was like nothing I’d read before, and I’ve read a lion’s share of great fantasy novels. It was involving, heart-wrenching, disturbing, and generated vivid mental images the likes of which I had never experienced.

It was also most upsetting for me as a Christian. I’m no prude, and I’m quite tolerant of criticism of religion and religious organization, but I was really bothered by the attitudes of the book.

Subsequent rereadings, however, made me realize that the book’s essence is less an attack on religion than on man’s perversion of faith into a weapon. There is no hatred of God, but instead of what man has made God out to be. The author is an avowed athiest, but there is more reverence in the books than is seen on first viewing.

I’m not afraid of the movie or the books. My own faith does not depend on what someone writes or criticizes. It is not built on shifting sand. I have more faith in the level of intelligent belief in others that the critics do.

By Political mongrel

December 10, 2007 11:06 PM | Link to this

Sorry, change the “that” in the last sentence to “than”.

By f(x) = 36x^2

December 10, 2007 11:12 PM | Link to this

Political mongrel - you are what we all should be.

By DB

December 10, 2007 11:51 PM | Link to this

I just didn’t care for Compass, and I doubt I’ll bother seeing the movie. Interestingly enough, neither of my kids really enjoyed it, either, and both are voracious readers. I wasn’t bent out of shape over it’s anti-organized-religion subthemes — frankly, I just thought it was boring. I didn’t feel like the characters were well-developed, and I never really cared about any of them, except in the abstract. I slogged through all three, thinking that surely something would “click” and I would fall in love with yet another series. Alas. I love fantasy and science fiction, and the series came highly recommended from a friend whose taste in books is unerring, but we had to simply agree to disagree with this series.

By Jeff

December 11, 2007 9:00 AM | Link to this

f(x):

Ever read Brown’s Warrior Class?

What about Clancy’s Executive Orders?

Or, if your tastes lie solely in non-fiction, what about Fick’s One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer?

Point being: I read all kinds of things, and if the story is interesting I really don’t mind being challenged in my political or religious beliefs. I simply find Compass completely uninteresting.

Can you say the same?

Here’s a tip: The reason I point out these three books (and there have been several others over the years.. any of Steve Alten’s books will challenge what you think of scientifically) is this:

In Warrior Class, you have a President who is elected when NO ONE thought he would be. He was a Jeffersonian Republican. On his inauguration day, he skips the public swearing in, instead going right to work after the private swearing in. His first order of business is to bring every single troop stationed ANYWHERE overseas home. He does this within 5 min of officially being POTUS. He then goes much further, but the idea has already been planted. (BTW: I LOVE the fact that in some ways he now has a real life person that is very much like him - Dr. Ron Paul.)

In Clancy’s Executive Orders, virtually every single member of Congress and every single member of the Supreme Court and every single member of the Cabinet has just been killed in a Sept 11-style attack directly to Capitol Hill during the State of the Union. Jack Ryan, while in many ways being a typical neo-con, DOES do one thing that I like: He staffs his Cabinet with people who have already proven their success in their areas to him personally, and he calls on every day Americans - doctors, plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, farmers, etc - to fill Congress, rather than professional politicians.

Finally, we have Fick’s One Bullet Away. This one is just an AMAZING book by a front line soldier. It spares no punches at either liberal or conservative. It simply tells the story of one man and his evolution as both a man and a Marine Officer.

EACH of those books challenged me - particularly Warrior Class, as I was a typical neo-con when I first read it.

Again, can you say that you’ve had similar experiences???

By DB

December 11, 2007 11:34 AM | Link to this

Jeff, Debt of Honor and Executive Orders are among my favorite books — I just finished re-reading EO this week, for the upteenth time. (Although I don’t think it was during a State of the Union speech — it was a joint session of Congress, to witness the swearing in of the new vice president (Ryan) after the resignation of the previous v.p. for sexual misconduct.) What I thought was interesting was Clancy’s emphasis on Ryan’s ability to construct a whole new Supreme Court, and hinting at the ramifications of being able to put pretty much whomever you pleased on the Court.

After 9/11, my first thought was, “Someone read Tom Clancy … “

By Jeff

December 11, 2007 11:53 AM | Link to this

DB:

Thinking back on it, you may be right. I thought it was also State of the Union, but honestly its been quite a while since I read that book, and since you just re-read it I will assume you are correct. My apologies.

I honestly don’t remember how Ryan handled the Supreme Court.

I had a similar reaction upon learning the severity of 9/11. Those attacks were almost STRAIGHT out of the end of Debt of Honor. (Of course, I’ve heard rumors that Hunt for Red October and Sum of All Fears turned out to be WAYYYY to close for comfort to some things that were HIGHLY classified, so why should this be surprising?? Difference here was that Clancy thought of it BEFORE it happened for once!)

By Kat

December 11, 2007 1:21 PM | Link to this

Political Mongrel: Thanks for demonstrating that faith and intellect can coexist.

By Jeff

December 11, 2007 4:13 PM | Link to this

BTW:

I bought both Atonement and PS I Love You while buying the last present for T today on my lunch break. I’ll probably get to them at some point in the next month or so.

(Need to finish the re-read of Steve Alten’s The Loch that I’m about halfway through, then I’ll go with PS I Love You, followed by the Whitlow that I suspect my parents are getting me for Christmas, then Atonement. So the speed on getting to Atonement really depends on exactly how bored I get over 4 days in Ft. Walton with T’s family at Christmas.)

By creameway

December 21, 2007 9:41 PM | Link to this

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