Showing posts with label The Bell Jar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Bell Jar. Show all posts

Thursday, June 12, 2014

7 Things: Favorite Books:

These are my favorite books.  The ones that made me cry, made me think, and just made me happy.  
A few of these books I have written about before, so you might have already read how I feel about these books.  But I love these books, and I can't get over them.
 When I was younger, the books that I read  were the forced books that were assigned for class, and I never really liked them, so I never really liked reading.  That is until  I was about 17 and I haven't stopped reading since. 

I got Gone with the Wind, The Last Victim, and Dear John at a second hand shop.  That is why they're so beaten up.  I don't know what happened to Lucas.  


Gone With the Wind
I fell in love with the movie a really long time ago.  I think I've been watching it since I was six or seven.   I bought the book two years ago, I think, and I instantly started reading it.  It amazes people that I have read this book.  (Great company I keep right?)  I'm actually planning on re-reading this book over the summer.  I also have been planning two different tattoos from this book. 

The Last Victim
I saw this movie called "Dear Mr. Gacy" On T.V. about two or three years ago and at the end I found out that there was a book that went along with it.  I read this book in about two days.  It a very dark and emotional book.  But it's not bawl my eyes out emotional, it's play with your mind emotional.  Jason, the narrator, tries to get into a few different serial killers minds, mainly John Wayne Gacy, and really Gacy gets into his mind.  (If you know anything about Gacy then you'll know how twisted he is.)  It's a great read if you're interested in Serial Killers. 

The Outsiders
I read this book when I was 14 and then I re-read it when I was 20.  I love this book.  This is one of those I've read the book and seen the movie, and I think that the movie did the book justice.  I've never read then instantly watched, but I think that the movie was done really well.  This also is another book where I want a tattoo from.  But not "Stay Gold" because too many people have that.  I would want one that people would have to ask about, not just know.  


Lucas 
This book intrigued me a lot.  I got it when I was 12, and didn't touch it until  I was 19.  I liked it because it kind of put me into the mind of a teenager in the UK. I had never read a book that was written by someone from the UK until then, and I felt like it was a little different than an american teenager.  (Maybe I just have a complex. I don't know.)  Anyways, I thought about this book for a while after I finished it, and I really want to re-read it just because.  

The Bell Jar
I have written about this book before.  I'm pretty sure this was the first book I've read this year. (I'm actually in a book funk atm.)  When I read it, I fell in love.  I've always known about Sylvia Plath, and I've read a few of her poems for an English class, but I never thought that I would really like something by her.  Poems really aren't my cup of tea, but I decided to give The Bell Jar a try after I took the English class.  I'm glad that I did.  If you have never read this book, I really do suggest it.  


Dear John
I've thought about doing a whole separate post on all of the Nicolas Sparks books I own but for now, I have picked my favorite.  I am a sucker for a book that makes me cry.  Anything that will tear my heart out I will read.  This book did it for me.  I saw the movie first, then read the book very quickly, and then re-watched the movie, and let me tell you the movie is awful compared to the book.  I now hate the movie because of reading the book.  

White Lines 
This book makes me smile, makes me laugh, makes me angry, and makes me cry.  I love this book. I think I got this book around the age of 16 or 17 but didn't read it until I was 18 or 19.   There is a second one, but that one is not as good as this one.  If you have no interest in drugs then this book is not for you.  I definitely cried during this book.  I loved it.  

xx 

Other Book Posts: 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Books: The Bell Jar

For over a month now I have wanted to want to read, but I just couldn’t.  I don’t know why I got into a “book funk” but I did.  In the past two month I started three books, and none of them interested me at that time.  For someone who was always reading, that’s a little odd.  But, I decided to try again, and I read a whole book in two days.  (Yay me!)  That book was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.  If you don’t know what The Bell Jar is about then let me try to tell you quickly. 
The Bell Jar is about a woman named Ester, who is 19 years old, and a college student.  The book starts out with her at a summer job working for a magazine.  She is surrounded by other girls, and her roommate, Doreen, is out going and very ‘plays by her own rules’ kind of girl whereas Ester is more reserved.  Ester always feels different than the other girls.  After her magazine job ends, she has a summer school class set up, but she finds out that she was not accepted into the program and she has to live with her mother for the rest of summer, which is very unsettling to her.  Ester then decides that she is going to write a novel, learn short hand, and start on her senior thesis, but she gets overwhelmed.  Not because there is too much work for her, but because she stops sleeping, eating, showering, and even being able to read and write.  Her mind betrays her. 
Her mother then takes her to a doctor, Dr. Gordon, who gives her sleeping pills and shock treatment.  Ester had a bad reaction to the shock treatment, and a little later, she takes a new bottle of sleeping pills, goes into the crawl space and takes them.  She wakes up in the hospital, and when she recovers from the overdose, she is sent to the state institution.  Unfortunately, Ester is very uncooperative, and she still constantly has the thought of suicide.  Eventually she does get to go to a better hospital, because of a woman, Philomena Guinea, who is basically her sponsor, pays for her time there.  (This woman is also writing a book about her case.)  Ester then begins to trust her doctor, Dr. Nolan, and things start to look up a bit.   On a cocktail of therapy, insulin, and proper shock treatment, Ester improves so much she is granted special treatments.  (Leaving the hospital to shop, see a movie, etc.) 
Eventually, Ester’s world does get lighter, and she eventually is in talks of being able to leave to go back to school.  She believes that she is alright, but knows that at any time her world could crash again. 
If you know anything about Sylvia Plath then you would know that she was depressed for most of her adult life.  She tried to commit suicide a few different times, including overdosing on medication, like Ester, and even though The Bell Jar is a work of fiction, there is no doubt that there are a few events that closely resemble Sylvia’s life.  

If you have ever wondered about this book, I would 100% suggest it to you.  But be warned some find it disturbing.  I didn’t, but one of my favorite books is about writing to serial killers, so I might have a small tolerance.  If you do decided to read it, tell me about it! 

Now I’m off to read A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. 

xx