Book Review: Don Quixote

Author: Cervantes
Title: Don Quixote 
Genre: Classic, Adventure, Historical Fiction, and Comedy
Pages: ebook
First Published: 1605
Where I Got It: On my shelf (Free ebook)

"Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances, that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote's fancy often leads him astray -- he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants -- Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together."



I've been meaning to read this for quite sometime, but I kept putting it off. However, thanks to my LIT class I finally got the push I needed to begin this journey. Well....mmmm...for this review, I think I shall divide and conquer:

The Good
-I liked the Don. He was a madman and crazy, but he honestly had good intentions.
-I loved how the author showed the reality of what happens to wannabe heroes. 
-The windmill part was hilarious. hahaha 
Don: Sancho. Hold my horse!
Sancho: What...why?
Don: Don't you see that huge giant over there!?
Sancho: Errrrr....
Don: It has many arms and is growling at me!
Sancho: My lord...that's a windmill.
Don: Bah! It is a giant and needs to be destroyed! *grabs sword and has epic battle*
Sanch: I hate my life. 
-The ending through me for a loop.

The Bad and the Ugly
-Dry.
-Super dry
-There were only a couple parts that made me chuckle, but the rest was well...not at all funny
-A little bit sad, because this guy has serious issues and people (near the end) began by playing tricks on him. Not nice tricks; mean tricks that caused him bodily harm.
-Really, really long. Don't get me wrong...I like long books, but this shouldn't have had been so long. 
-I skimmed a lot. 0.0

Conclusion
This is labeled as "the best book ever" in a few articles I read. It was alright, but "best book ever"? Absolutely not. Too each their own, but I didn't like this as much as I hoped I would. A couple parts made me chuckle, but the rest fell flat. It was either drier then dust or it was actually kind of sad. I felt so bad for Don, because he had something wrong with him and people played horrid tricks on him. Like having him lash himself to try and remove a curse off some girl. So rude and not funny at all. 

This was not my cup of tea, but I do recommend highly that people who like the classics read this. It is worth reading the first "real novel" written. Out of five stars, I grant this one 2 stars. 

Favorite Character(s): Don and Sancho
Not-so Favorite Character(s): The Duke and Duchess (assholes)

Please Forgive Me

It's been a crazy few weeks and as you can see, I have been posting limited posts. School and work and personal life is bogging me down. I only have 3 weeks left of my Summer semester (which I took this year to help me catch up) and I'll be back to my normal rate of posting. For now please, please forgive me for my limited postings. 

Book/Play Review: The Odyssey by Homer

Author: Homer
Title: The Odyssey
Genre: Classic, Play, Adventure, and Fantasy
Pages: ebook
First Published: 800 BC
Where I Got It: On my shelf (Free ebook)

"The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci, who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage."





This is my second time reading this play/book. The first time was in High School and I had been blessed to be able to read this with the teacher and other students (it was a joint effort). It was a fun time and I loved the book! This time, though, I was left on my own to read it for my Lit class in college. 

It's a much different experience reading it on your own compared to reading it together with a whole bunch of people. It was still good, but it was harder to get through. Yes, I struggled to get through it the second time, especially because I decided to read ALL of it (my teacher did just give us selected parts to read, but I wanted to be a cool kid). Sighs. Lesson to me...just listen to my teacher. haha. 

Again...I still hate Odysseus. >___> I get being gone for 10 years during the Trojan War, but it taking 10 years to find your way home? PAH-lease. Maybe if you stayed a loyal and stayed on course then you wouldn't have had issues getting the homes. I'm glad the Gods gave you a hell of time (especially Poseidon), because you are an ass and Penelope should have married someone else. Meh. If I was Penelope and found out that I waited 20 years for a man who had cheated on me while I stayed loyal and pure for him, I would be sooooooo angry. She probably never finds out, because it is no biggy for a man to cheat on his wife. Meh.

ANYWAYS!

Sorry for my rant up there. haha

It is a little slow in some parts, but it was definitely an adventure that adheres to all readers. I'm glad that they showed Penelope's story as well as Odysseus'. It showed that the battle is not only fought on the battlefield, but also at home. It's hard being the one left behind especially with men pounding at your door wanting your hand in marriage and your husbands throne. It's tough. 

In the end, I still enjoyed this story even though it was harder not skipping some of the boring parts that teachers usually have students skip. I'm glad I did it, though, because I feel I have a deeper connection to the book and the characters. This would be super awesome to see performed live! I recommend this to those that love classics and adventures! Out of five stars, I shall keep this stamped at 5 stars. It is more like 4.5, but since I don't give decimals, I rounded. 

Favorite Character(s): Penelope, Achilles (just because I always envision Brad Pitt), and Telemachus.
Not-so Favorite Character(s): Helen of Troy, Odysseus, and the Cyclops. 

Paris, Forfar by David Kinloch (A Prose Poem)

Just because this is what I picture when I read this

Paris, Forfar 

by: David Kinloch 

From the window of the Hardie-Condie Café, I see the ghost of a rich friend of my grandmother drive down Forfar’s Main Street in a Rolls- Royce I was sick in as a child. Behind me the watercolours of stick girls walking through trees are misted blobs percolating in coffee steam. Mother comes in like Scott of the Antarctic carrying tents of shopping. The garçon brings a cappucino and croissants on which she wields her knife with the off-frantic precision of violins in Hitchock’s shower scene. Soon I will tell her. Show her dust in the sugar spoon. Her knife gouges craters in the dough like an ice-axe and she tells the story on nineteen Siberian ponies she queued behind in the supermarket. Of Captain Oates who boxed her fallen ‘Ariel’. The chocolate from the cappucino has gone all over her saucer. There is a scene and silence. Now tell her. Tell her above the coffee table which scrapes with the masked voice of a pier seeming to let in some waters, returning others to the sea, diverting the pack-ice which skirts around its legs. Tell her a fact about you she knows but does not know and which you will tell her except that the surviving ponies are killed and the food depot named Desolation Camp made from their carcasses keeps getting in the way. From this table we will write postcards, make wireless contact with home and I will tell her of King Edward VII Land, of how I have been with Dr Wilson and then alone, so alone, in day-blizzards just eleven miles short of the Pole and ask her to follow me. I am afraid she has been there already. She smiles like the Great Beardmore Glacier and goes out into the street with stick girls to the thirty-four sledgedogs and the motor-sledges. You are too late. Amundsen is in Forfar. She has an appointment. Behind me I can sense the canvases, the dried grasses pressed into their grain like eczema on an open palm. Later I will discover her diary and what I told her.