Hey, guys!
It’s Tuesday, that means it’s time for a bookish favorites posts. Top 5 Tuesday is hosted by Shanah Bionic Book Worm and is quite simple: check out the topic and write a post with your picks.
This week Shanah asked us about books we’d like to rewrite. I’m keeping everything spoiler-free here so this post will be a little vague. 😉
#1 Southern Reach Trilogy
I finally finished reading all three Southern Reach books (reviews coming at the end of the week). Well, I honestly don’t know why there were three of them. I didn’t exactly love books 1 and 2 but the third one was decent. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that you could easily edit all of the stories into one book with no more than 350 pages and I would be more entertaining and less annoying.
#2 DC Icons
I was so excited about the DC Icons books! We have four famous authors who take a shot at even more famous superheroes. Well, the outcome was not exactly impressive. The detailed reviews will be posted soon but in the meantime, let me tell you what the problem was.
With all of the books (maybe not that much with the one by Leigh Bardugo, but I still wasn’t over the moon) the stories felt extremely mediocre. Like you’re watching one of those TV series about the superhero in question and it’s episode 275 of uninspired content. Apart from the underwhelming ideas, I was extremely irritated that for about 180 of ca 215 pages just about nothing happened only to cram the actual story into the last couple of pages, thus rushing everything and making me feel irritated. I feel like the idea behind the DC Icons books was so promising, I’m sure the books would be salvageable with some work.
#3 The Princess Diaries
Oh, how I hated this one. I only read the first book in the series but that was enough for me. We all know the famous Anne Hathaway movie so the story definitely has the potential to be charming and cute. However, the is annoying and had me rolling my eyes at every other page. Somebody, please rewrite this to give it the same vibe as the film had!
#4 American Pastoral
I know this is a famous novel for which Philip Roth received numerous awards. That didn’t stop me from wanting to throw this out the window. Not even the movie adaptation was good. And you know things are really bad when not even Ewan McGregor can save the day.
The premise is actually fascinating but the book just seems to drag on and describe extremely uninteresting things with great detail. I still can’t fathom how such a seemingly interesting story could turn out this boring. However, I still feel that we a little (or a lot) of rewriting, I’d love this book.
#5 Stranger in a Strange Land
Whereas the other books mainly bored me, this one made me angry. The story is about a human who was born and raised on Mars but who is now back on Earth. For about half the book I was really digging it but then Heinlein really went over the edge. At some point, it becomes super weird and very misogynistic. I know it was published in 1961, so “different times, blablabla”. However, this is a sci-fi futuristic story, so you could have hoped for some improvement.
The story started out so well, I’d love to erase and rewrite the rest to finish it off just as well.
Which book do you want to rewrite? Let me know in the comments!
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I saw American Pastoral the movie but never read the book. I liked Dakota Fanning in it. I would’ve had more of her personally.
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Maybe that would have improved the film!
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So the Princess Diaries was that boring hu? LOL
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It made me quite made because Mia was so freaking daft in the book! Maybe I’m just too old but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even have enjoyed it when I was a teen.
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If I could rewrite the Southern Reach trilogy, I’d make the first book a standalone. I liked that it answered some questions, but left others to the imagination. The second two books kind of ruined that for me. But I definitely agree it didn’t need to be three books.
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Bummer about the Princess Diaries! I loved the film.
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Me too! I think that’s why I was so angry with the book. 🙈
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I haven’t read any of the books that you’ve mentioned, although I have watched film “The Princess Diaries” and I found my eyes rolling a few times. I am so far passed the “teen” themes they’re not even a spot on the horizon! 😉
I wimped out of talking about specific books this week and did something different with my T5T. 😉 I hope you enjoy the rest of your week. Here’s my Top 5 Tuesday Post
Flora x
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I read your post! Such a great idea 😀
I feel you with the teen themes, I often find myself cringing at books or films I used to fancy back then.
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Growing older is a cruel thing sometimes 😂
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It is indeed!
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Everything John Greene has ever written.
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YES! The more books I read by him, the more annoyed and irritated I got, so I just decided to pretend he doesn’t exist.
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