Drabble Geeks

Geeks…Being Total Geeks.

Tag: classics

How Does It Hold Up: Nancy Drew

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One of my goals in life is the read the entirety of the Nancy Drew series. All 175 books. Why was this a goal in my life? I have no clue. Anyway, I have finally got to the end of my library’s catalog of Nancy Drew books, I figure now is a better time than any. To start, the original books were initially published in 1930. That becomes super important as you continue with these books. Payphones. What are those? Strange words that you look up that end up being considered slurs now? It’s just the time.

That stuff out of the way, I’ve been enjoying myself reading the books. Some times I’m flipping through past chapters trying to figure out if there was something I missed. Others, I pretty confident in who the criminal is from the first couple of chapters, but unsure as to how we are going to get our evidence. Whelp, no need to hard proof when everyone confesses, so I guess we can move on. One the the things that got me every time was Nancy not calling someone to tell her where she was going. Excuse me, shouldn’t you be calling your dad? Oh, there’s literally no phone around. Could you leave a message, at least? Oh, no answering machines. The only thing that made this better was that after the initial publications, I once read, that they turned Nancy into an eighteen year old instead of the thirteen year old she was originally published as. I think I would have more problems had she not been a legal adult. Also, the boyfriend plot lines would have been even more awkward. Yes, that becomes an entire thing, but at least boyfriends are just the help and not the main sleuth.

Unfortunately, I have yet to read of the books, and I still feel the need to questions all of these characters questionable life choices while trying to figure out the criminal before anyone else. (I mean, what else am I supposed to do.) If anyone can find me more sources to find the books, I would be eternally gratefully. It shouldn’t be this hard to get my children’s mystery fix.

An Entirely New World Pt 6

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I’m almost done with the Chronicles of Narnia: a series I technically started when I was a child. I don’t even remember when the first movie came out, but that was how long it has been. This time, because I’m reading in publication order, I read The Magician’s Nephew, and what a wild ride it was.

If you didn’t understand that Aslan is an allegory for Jesus yet, there is so much Christian imagery in this iteration. It was a bit funny how I could guess the next plot point because I grew up in the church. I was in fact internally giggling. No matter how predictable the plot was, I was surprised by how good it was. If you read the last couple of my reviews, you know that I felt like I was dragging my way through the content. Insert random characters I didn’t care about. Insert literally nothing happening as we just listen to people talk. Insert absolutely no imagery, of which I could barely imagine what was going on, even with the included illustrations.

No, this story engaged me, and I practically read it from beginning to end in one sitting. There was just so much happening and so many questions I had as I reading. There was an entire chapter of which a landscape was being described, and I loved every second of it. The imagery was vivid and drew me further into the world of Narnia, something the few previous books had not done. This was a journey to Narnia that was unforgettable and should be read again and again.

One Crazy Week in New York

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I’m back to reading more of the classics, because I want, not because I’m being forced to for some high school class. I don’t know why, but I hated every single book I was forced to read for school. Now that I’m reading some of these “perfect high school reading material,” I feel like maybe I would have been slightly wrong about my hatred. Maybe it’s not trying to find every single little hidden meaning or being able to take my time. Mainly, for this one book, I would not have been able to keep up with whatever schedule my teacher would have decided. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger would have been one of my nightmare books.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book, and I enjoyed reading it. I’m usually not a fan of stream-of-consciousness writing, but I think it really works in this case. Instead of the thoroughly laid-out endeavors of a protagonist, we have the dirty ramblings of a teenage boy. I did have to put the book down a couple of times from the intense secondhand embarrassment. I feel that every page had the hair standing up from my neck, me constantly thinking, “Yeah, I can definitely see a teenage boy stupidly doing all of this if they had the time and money.” Cringe aside, it was a very intriguing read that kept me involved with the story and coming back to it. I enjoyed how the conscious stream altered over the course of the book. Don’t think someone who have taken this short amount of time to have the transformation held within, but who knows with teenagers. I could change my mind at the drop of a hat when I was our protagonist’s age. But, feel free to dive into the mind of a teenager again. I really hope that I won’t have to for a while longer.

Kings of the Island

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I’ve been making my way through several older novels that have been on my “to-read” list for what feels like years now. The book I decided to conquer next was Lord of the Flies by William Golding. This classic novel was a trip and a half, discussing the fragility of human nature and groupthink in a pseudo-World War III situation. Apparently, this was a rewriting of another book, but written as a way to make the children more “realistic.” Reading this, I’ve noticed several things about myself. I am not the biggest fan of dystopian novels. If you do, you may want to take the next section with a grain of salt.

The book follows the exploit of a group of boys as they crash land on an inhabited island. The entire time, I felt I was yelling at the characters for their quick descent into madness. I don’t know if it was the fact that it was a short novel or the fact that you had to imagine everything happening in a shorter amount of time than what really happened. I do find the concepts behind groupthink in a more academic sense. I found The Lucifer Effect fascinating because of every fact, but the senselessness got to me. I know that it was supposed to make a point in many ways, but maybe I just would like to believe that children are not as cruel as Golding made them out to be in this novel. I think, in many ways, I was more horrified than interested in the character development that we saw portrayed. Was I meant to feel this way, or did I read too much into everything? I’ll let you decide.

Gone to the Animals

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The world has gone to the animals, or at least a small portion of it. Manor Farm–excuse me–Animal Farm has been taken over by the animals from their evil masters, the humans, because the best way to talk about the human condition is to not actually talk about humans. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a masterpiece when talking about power dynamics, because all animals are equal, but some are more equal.

I think is is a wonderful piece on talking about how power corrupts. I wouldn’t say that it advocates for any particular point of view, even though I believe that many people may say that it does. I mean, I now know where calling people sheep comes from. It is really hard to describe this book without giving important plot points way, but a feel that this needs to be experienced first hand rather than from a summary somewhere. It’s a quick read, so don’t worry. Definitely take time out of your way to pick up this book.

A Not-so Scary Classic

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I decided that my first post for this year’s spoopy season would be a classic. I think that almost everyone knows about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Whether it’s from watching the Disney movie, watching the apocalypse-based TV series, or just everyone’s general knowledge of the horror that is the headless horseman. I don’t think you can go a Halloween season without this story being pushed in front of you, but I would like to posit that this is not the horror story that we were lead to believe it is.

I will agree that the book’s atmosphere is perfect, but probably not in the way you were imagining. If anything, this should be a story of karmic retribution against a terrible person who got exactly what they deserved. Everyone has grown to love Ichabod Crane from his many iterations, myself included. Still, man, is he a terrible person, and we should not celebrate him the way we have.

Cold Reality

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Books have a way of punching you in the face, leaving you bleeding, and coming back for more to kick you while you are down. This is how Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck made me feel so many things within a short timeframe. I was one of those people who was someone who wasn’t spoiled, but this was a remarkable story.

This was short and sweet and so beautifully written. I could visually see everything with how descriptive the setting was. I would consider this must-read, but do consider the period this story was written. There is some language that is no longer acceptable.

Along that Yellow Brick Road

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I decided that I needed a break from all of the heavy reading. I decided to go with a classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Like most movie remakes of books, the book had a lot more going on that could not fit into a feature length film. The movie also wholly misunderstands Oz as a country, and the book has a lot more blood in it.

Let me begin by saying that Oz isn’t a dream world. It’s a real place where multiple types of these supernatural creatures reside. Also, Dorothy is not a grown woman. In fact, I would say that she is no more than ten. For the most part, forget everything you know about the land of Oz from the movie because it’s completely wrong. The ruby slippers aren’t even ruby; they’re silver.

Now, there are 15 books in the Wizard of Oz series. I counted. I plan on going through every book in giving my thoughts on it and see how the world revolves as it goes on. I know that there a couple more movies out there that take place and Oz, and I want to see how those fit into the storyline. I have watched a Disney version based on the fourth book, and so far, that seems to be the most accurate to the series. I can’t wait to see what I’ve been missing by only watching one movie.

Big Brother

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I’ve spent that last couple of years swearing up and down, promising that I would eventually read the classic 1984 by George Orwell. Apparently, it took me getting into grad school to finally fulfill that promise. Like most people who read this book, I knew the general plotline and some key moments that are considered cliché in our modern society. Even with knowing all of that, I couldn’t help but get captured in every single page. I kept promising myself that I could go to sleep once I got to go breaks in the chapter; that didn’t happen. It also felt like the book was written a couple of years ago. It’s just so timeless. I would definitely call this a must-read. I would be remiss, though, if I didn’t warn you about discussions of sexual assault and torture, though.

Down the Rabbit Hole Pt 2

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This post should really be called “Through a Mirror,” but I think you guys get the point. This is the sort-of sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass. I say sort-of sequel because I’m not completely sure that it was the exact same universe. Yes, Alice recognizes some people, but they don’t seem to recognize her. This is still a weird book. There were times that I had to reread chapters because I was confused by what is going on, but I think that is the point. Is it truly supposed to be understood? It still gave me a headache though. And I absolutely do not understand what happened at the end, and I think it’s going to stay that way.