sketches from life

I'm in a literary mood today. Well, for more than just today, I suppose. I'm on a literary kick right now. I recently started reading Jane Austen novels for the first time, and I've really enjoyed them. I started out over Christmas break by reading Emma, then moved on to Pride and Prejudice. I had to stop once the full swing of classes recommenced, but I plan on reading the rest of her books eventually.

And not only have I been reading her books, but also watching the movies. That started with Pride and Prejudice, the most recent version with Kiera Knightly. That's such a beautiful movie. It's really fantastic. And I was pleasantly surprised to find, upon reading the book for myself after having watched the movie, that the movie did a great job of capturing the essence of the book, even though it had to condense the story. Shortly thereafter, my mom (who also loves Jane Austen) called me to tell me that she had found a few other Austen movies, so I've been visiting my parents to have movie nights with my mom. So far, we've watched Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and Emma. All of them are lovely stories, though none of the other movies come close to the level of cinematographic excellence of Pride and Prejudice. I'd still recommend them to anyone who likes that style of movie.

My last movie date with my mom consisted of a Jane Austen movie (Emma), and also of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. After having seen this older version ("older" only by comparison -- it was made in 1997), and especially since I recently saw a preview for a new Jane Eyre movie to come out in the near future, I became very interested in reading that book as well. However, as I mentioned before, now that school is back in full swing, I don't have much time for leisure reading. This was a problem.

The solution, I found, was a free app for my i-pod touch: an audiobook app. I've never really been one for audiobooks, as I really prefer to actually hold and read the book, see the words, and feel the pages. Somehow, listening to someone else read it feels like cheating to me. But with so little time that I can give up to reading, guilt free, it felt like a good option. I can listen while I'm driving to and from class. I can listen during my drawing class, clay class, and painting class, as long as the professor has nothing to say. I can listen while doing any homework that doesn't require reading or anything left-brained, really. I just finished Jane Eyre, and I only read about two chapters from the actual book. I'm really enjoying this app. It lets me get my "story fix" and yet I waste no time. I'm able to be productive and even use class time to read. I'm now trying to decide what book I'll listen to next!

Cool fact of the day:
Deep breathing gives you health benefits similar to aerobics.
Cool. Time to go do some breathing then.....