The Importance of Being Earnest

Greetings! And now for my long-awaited, highly-anticipated post!

I recently re-read (re-re-re-re-read) my favorite play, The Importance of Being Earnest. This is not only my favorite play ever, but one of my favorite THINGS ever. The plot is much to complicated to explain in any detail here, but it begins with a man who's name is Earnest in the town and Jack in the country. What ensues is probably the funniest and most clever thing I have ever read. To give you an idea of how hilarious it is, here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last."

"I hate happy endings, they depress me so much."

"If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being immensely over-educated."

"I never change, except in my affections."

I HIGHLY recommend this book for those of you who haven't read it already. It's a pretty quick read and I'm sure you'll all love it.

5/5 Recommended

Captains Courageous

Greetings, followers!

I have just finished reading Rudyard Kipling's novel, Captains Courageous. Having never read a book by Kipling before, I had almost no idea what to expect. I had been meaning to get into his books for a long time, and this seemed like a good opportunity.

Captains Courageous tells the story of Harvey Cheyne, a spoiled rich kid who falls off the side of an ocean liner and gets picked up by a bunch of fishermen, led by captain Disko Troop (coolest name ever.) Disko won't take him back to his parents, so he has to stay on the boat and learn to be a sailor.

I found Kipling's style to be very appealing. He's sort of a tough-guy writer, not unlike Mark Twain, but not nearly as funny. Much of the dialog in this book is in heavy dialect, which may be confusing to some people. You just have to pay close attention to know what's going on when the sailors are talking. I thought the plot was pretty exciting and the narritive pretty well-structured. Although I did enjoy this book, I get the sense that this isn't Kipling's best book by a long shot. That being said, it may be a good place to start if you aren't familiar with his work. After having read this, I'm excited to read some of his more well-known stuff, like Jungle Book.

3/5 Recommended.

Now, how about some questions for the comments...

1. Have you ever read a Kipling book before? What do you think of his style?
2. Is Disko Troop the coolest name ever or what?

A Man for All Seasons

Greetings, fellow geeks! I have recently finished re-reading one of my favorite plays, Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons. This is one of the two non-Shakespeare plays that I actually like. It is interesting to note that the author was not a Catholic or even a Christian; he was an agnostic, which is a wimpy athiest. However, he is still able to portray Catholicism accurately and fairly.
The play's setting is probably familiar to most of you. It is sixteenth century England, and King Henry VIII wants a divorce from his wife, which the Vatican refuses to allow. This sets the stage for Thomas More's epic struggle with Cromwell and the King, who try to get him to go along with the divorce. More is ultimately martyred for his refusal. Through this struggle, Bolt portrays More as the ultimate man of conscience, who remains true to his beliefs and to himself no matter what the circumstances.
The play is incredibly entertaining, with vivid characters and an efficient narrative. There are no boring parts in this play. Most of you should be able to get through it in maybe two or three days.
If you want to see a movie version, there's a great one from 1966 that won the Academy Award.

3/5 Recommended.