Tuesday 30 June 2009

Teaser Tuesdays - June 30th


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on the page
  • Be careful not to include spoilers
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers
My teasers



"The credits for the nature programme rolled on the TV. Eli put a finger on the woman's throat artery, it felt like a beating bird heart under her fingertip." - Page 173, Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Linqvist.  

Where are you?


Ah, yes, the question most of the people I know are asking themselves today is, 'Where am I?' This morning I moved out of my wonderful house in Cardiff to move back in with my parents for a short while. The recession and unemployment has taken its toll on me and my friends and, as a result, a few of us are unable to stay where we've gained our independence in the last couple of years.

I love my family dearly but I never imagined I'd be moving back in again. Everything I own is now in boxes and bags and currently taking up half of my parents' living room. The unfortunate thing about my bedroom here is that it's the size of a shoebox and, having gathered together enough stuff to fill a house over the last four years, there's a problem. Where will my stuff go? The answer: Most of it's heading to the shed. I don't mind this but it's going to take time adjusting to living under somebody else's roof.

Most of all, I'm already missing my boyfriend, who has also moved back in with his parents. He used to live one floor below me; now he's on the other side of the county. :-(

I can see a lot of reading, blogging, and writing happening while I'm here. I just don't want to be caught up in any arguments. It would be nice to eventually leave here without my parents thinking, 'Thank God.' A 9-5 job would suit me perfectly - it would get me out of the house and avoid too many confrontations.

On the reading front, Where are my books taking me this week? : Well, I'm floating back and forth between Sweden and England. Half the time I'm on a poor estate in Sweden, watching out for a psycho killer while befriending a very strange girl next door who only comes out at night, while the other half of the time I'm at the Tudor court, watching Elizabeth I take charge of her country and Robert Dudley attempt to steal her affections.  

Friday 26 June 2009

R.I.P. Michael 1958-2009

I don't care what went on in his personal life - the world has lost one of the most talented and influential musicians of all time. He seemed like a very tormented man while he was alive - I hope he's finally at peace.












 

Thursday 25 June 2009

BTT: Summery reminders.


Booking Through Thursday's Question of the Week is:

Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), what is the most “Summery” book you can think of? The one that captures the essence of summer for you?

(I’m not asking for you to list your ideal “beach reading,” you understand, but the book that you can read at any time of year but that evokes “summer.”)



This actually wasn't as hard to answer as I thought it was going to be because the book that sprung to mind was Alex Garland's The Beach. While it's nothing to do with summer, it's protagonist, Richard, finds himself on a paradise island, just off Thailand, untouched by the hands of the Western world. For me, summer reminds me of skimpy clothes, hot weather, beaches, cooling off by the water, and being amongst your closest friends and family. Richard's tight-knit community on the island incorporates all of that (until things goes wrong).

Speaking of summer, though we're nearly at the end of July, I'm currently enjoying a very loud storm that's just hit the city. Lovely warm weather and one of my favourite things to experience. A great summer evening. :-D  

Saturday 20 June 2009

Mount TBR

So many books, so little time. My Amazon Wishlist is four pages long but it seems like I'll never get to read anything on there as this is the list of books I own and have yet to read:

Paperbacks
1) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
2) Songs my Mother Taught Me by Marlon Brando
3) The Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn
4) The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden
5) Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
6) The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
7) The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
8) The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory
9) The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
10) The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
11) Chocolat by Joanne Harris
12) My Enemy, The Queen by Victoria Holt
13) A Thouand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
14) Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
15) The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes
16) The Stand by Stephen King
17) The Bachman Books by Richard Bachman/Stephen King
18) Different Seasons by Stephen King
19) Firestarter by Stephen King
20) The Dead Zone by Stephen King
21) The Talisman by Stephen King
22) Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
23) Cujo by Stephen King
24) The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
25) My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
26) Small Island by Andrea Levy
27) Girl Meets Ape by Chris Manby
28) Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
29) The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
30) The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
31) Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
32) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
33) Dude Where's my Country? by Michael Moore
34) Suite Francoise by Irene Nemirovsky
35) Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
36) Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
37) Ariel by Sylvia Plath
38) The Young Victoria by Alison Plowden
39) The History of Mary Prince by Mary Prince
40) The Italian by Ann Radcliffe
41) Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
42) How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
43) Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
44) Sylvia by Flora Rheta Schreiber
45) The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir


Hardbacks
1) A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
2) The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory


Books I've borrowed from Friends/Family
1) Brick Lane by Monica Ali
2) Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
3) The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
4) The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike
5) Monster by Christopher Pike
6) Hells Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
7) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak  

eBooks

Last week I attemped to read my first eBook. DailyLit.com have a wonderful system where they email you a passage from a chosen book every day. After 200 or so days, you've finished a novel. :-)

I decided to take part as a good way to bump up my numbers in the 50 Book Challenge and chose Little Women by Louisa May Alcott to be sent to my inbox every morning. I know this story and I really enjoy it so was looking forward to diving into the world of the March sisters.

Unfortunately, after only two days, I abandoned it. The story itself was fine: everything I expected it to be. But something was wrong. I realised I couldn't sit here at my computer and fully enjoy and appreciate the words on the page. There's something about looking at a monitor for a good hour or so that's unappealing. I also found it hard to concentrate: my imagination had switched itself off and I couldn't keep the story in my head properly.

I guess eBooks aren't for me. Nothing beats the feeling of leaning up against a few plump pillows or cushions, cup of tea in one hand, book in the other. I love the feel of books. I love the smell of them. I love turning the pages and physically seeing the ink that's dried on the page. I love the fact that I always lose my bookmark after a good read and have to turn the couch/chair/bed upside down to find it. I love the isolationof reading a book; the fact that you can drift away into another world while your body stays sleeping in your favourite spot.

It's something you can't get by reading on a monitor, unless, I suppose, you have a laptop, which you can put on your lap for such an occasion. I know that by reading eBooks, we could cut down on the amount of paper we use for printing but I find it so difficult.

Anyone out there who might read this blog entry: what are your opinions on eBooks? How do you manage to get comfy while reading them? Or would you prefer a physical paper book?  

Friday 19 June 2009

Mr Darcy, Vampyre ...

... Really?


This new vampire craze is starting to annoy me. (I'm looking at you, Stephenie Meyer). The idea of vampires being romantic was an unspoken rule. Now everyone's jumping on the 'Vampire is my boyfriend' bandwagon.

Remember when Nightmare on Elm Street came out? Freddy Kruger was a genuinely frightening character: he kidnapped children and murdered them in the boiler room. Now we see five-year-olds running around with Freddy's claw on. We've become immune to the idea of him. He's just a silly character.

If this begins to happen to vampires, I might actually die. What happened to the badass Bram Stoker/Joseph Le Fanu/Anne Rice - style vamps? Those who sent terror straight to our hearts yet, at the back of any girl's mind, there was this strange fantasy of the creature of the night coming through your bedroom window.

Now we've got the Twilight series, the Sookie Stackhouse series, the Vampire Diaries, that one where they've taken Henry Fitzroy and turned him into a vampire (who nows spends his days being a detective, apparently ???). I don't like this. I don't like it at all. Vampires are becoming less and less gothic, and more and more fluffy.

At least there's still a chance to dive into my werewolf and witches books. No-one's sodomised those yet.

Worth checking out: 11 Vampires Cooler than Edward Cullen.  

Beauty Fades, Loneliness is Forever

Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation, recently wrote an article for Elle Magazine describing her fears of aging and losing her good looks. (It can be found here.)

I know Wurtzel isn't to everyone's taste. A lot of people hold the opinion that she writes very highly of herself, is driven by a world in which she's the centre star, and never really branches out from this theme. Actually that's why I like her. Prozac Nation is one of my favourite books: I can't tell you how much comfort I gained from reading about someone who spoke the words that struggled to be released from my own mind.

The fact of the matter is that Wurtzel has suffered from severe depression for most of her life. Those who have never come across an individual suffering from it or have never experienced it themselves don't seem to realise that when you're caught by the hands of depression, you really only think of yourself. You can't help it. You're consumed by what's happening to you. It's not something you can shrug off easily. I refer to mine as the 'demon' as it feels like possession which can affect you when you least expect it. You can go for months at a time feeling fabulous and on top of the world, and then the demon throws her web over your mind, and you're trapped.

Wurtzel's habit of writing can be directly linked to this. She's lived a life where the most important person was herself so it's no wonder she's quite the egocentric now. She's part of a long line of writers responsible for 'confessional prose,' (a style Sylvia Plath was one of the first to use). Unfortunately it's rare we find any British writers who do the same - the trend is that the American artists aren't afraid to expose the pain underneath.

It's very taboo for us Brits to whine about our problems. Have you ever seen an English actor/actress whine to the British public about their fame and gain sympathy? We lynch them. It's the British way to hide our feelings. I think it's a pride thing.

I like the confessions, though. (And we're not talking 'Mis Lit' here.) In the article for Elle, Beauty Fades, Loneliness is Forever, Wurtzel openly acknowledges that she's been a stone fox from a very young age and is frightened that these looks are soon to fade. She's aged, and she's single, and now that she's mature enough to want to settle down, she still can't seem to find the 'right one.' I admire her confidence.

Considering what she's been through in the past twenty years (on top of depression, she's had her fair share of addictions), it's refreshing that she feels as good about herself as she does. Her concerns are now like everyone else's - getting old and ending up alone. Like I said, she's not to everyone's taste, but I have a crush on her and enjoyed Prozac Nation, so I'll read anything she's written.

Speaking of which, I came across this short story, Alex, about a year ago which I encourage everyone to have a go at reading. It's not the usual 'depression or addiction' talk; it's a story about a journalist assigned to write a piece about a musician. Wonderfully written and quite sexy. I'll assume it's semi-autobiographical as Wurtzel wrote a few articles for Rolling Stone magazine. (And as any writer knows, it's difficult at times to keep things strictly fictional.)  

Thursday 18 June 2009

The Time Traveler's Wife Trailer Released



Most fans have probably seen this by now and those who didn't like the book will probably be rolling their eyes but I'm loving what I'm seeing here. I was dreading this adaptation, thinking they were going to butcher the story. But, in spite of it's candyfloss vibe, I really, really like it. It looks promising. I'm a huge Eric Bana fan so I can't wait for him to play Henry (who, by the way, I'm actually in love with. Seriously.) And I like Rachel McAdams.

The only thing I'm unsure about is how they're going to age back and forth - long and short hairstyles are fooling nobody. I only hope that the characters and story are strong enough that how they look doesn't matter.

On a seperate note, my review for Breaking Up Blues by Denise Cullington is here.

Not doing a Booking Through Thursday today though I may find something else to do.  

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Title: The Hours

Author: Michael Cunningham

Year: 1998

Plot: The book concerns three generations of women affected by a Virginia Woolf novel.

The first is Woolf herself writing Mrs Dallaway in 1923 and struggling with her own mental illness. The second is Mrs. Brown, wife of a World War II veteran, who is reading Mrs. Dalloway in 1949 as she plans her husband's birthday party. The third is Clarissa Vaughan, a lesbian, who plans a party in 1998 to celebrate a major literary award received by her good friend and former lover, the poet Richard, who is dying of AIDS.


Review: I've been dying to read this for a while as the film is one of my all-time favourites. Each chapter focuses on one of the three women, Mrs Woolf, Mrs Brown, and Mrs Dalloway. The story itself is wonderful. All three women are struggling to cope with how their lives turned out: every day is a new fight from morning until night.

Cunningham's fictional portrayal of Virgnia Woolf is believable - the writer struggled with mental illness for most of her life - and, though it is hard at times to find humanity in the character, one can only speculate that Virginia really was hard to connect with, given her history.

Laura Brown is a 1940s housewife, unhappy with how her life turned out. She resents marrying the war hero: leaving him would be seen as ludacris, though she does admit she accepted his proposal as an act of kindness to the man who'd come back from fighting for his country. Her struggles as with the constant comparisons of how her life has turned out and how she'd like it to be. She wishes for perfection in everything but only seems to get clumsy results.

Clarissa Vaughn was my favourite character from the film. Unfortunately she didn't come close in the book. I think the problem with this book is that Cunningham seems so afraid to push for more depth from his female protagonists. Though this could be seen as a wonderful way of representing the image these women put on for the world, it would have been nice to dive into their soul, to get to the nitty, gritty areas they are desperately trying to hold on to.

Stephen Daldry's film adaptation managed to convey the pain bursting forth in these women and the buckets of energy it took to keep it hidden. Nicole Kidman brought humanity to the mentally ill Virginia. Julianne Moore gave a performance conveying the all-out pain that Laura suffered at the little things affecting her greatly. And Meryl Streep brought life to a seemingly dead character from the novel in Clarissa Vaughn: a modern day version of Mrs Dalloway.

It is very rare I find a film I prefer over the book but, unfortunately, The Hours (film) wins over The Hours (novel). The characters are lacking depth that three extraordinary actresses conveyed. Had I not seen the film, I'd have probably loved the book but having seen the lengths and extremes the actresses went for these characters, the book just gave me a 'blah' feeling. It gave me no extra insight and nothing to hold on to.

Rating: 2**

 

Friday 12 June 2009

(A Very Late) Booking Through Thursday

I haven't been very good at blogging this week but today is my day to catch up. I blame my latest read for review, Breaking Up Blues, for sucking my life away. I'm currently working on a review for that so soon I'll be able to throw it in the corner of my books, never to be seen again.

My review for Will Jellyfish Rule the World is here. (Thank you for The Book Bag for tweeting it too). I don't really like that the editor turned all my quotes into italics because everything looks very emphasised but the content itself it something I'm proud of :-).

There'll be other reviews added to my blog today: One for The Hours by Michael Cunningham and one for Terminator: Salvation which I went to see last week.

In the meantime, here's my late Booking Through Thursday:


There are certain types of books that I more or less assume all readers read. (Novels, for example.)

But then there are books that only YOU read. Instructional manuals for fly-fishing. How-to books for spinning yarn. How to cook the perfect souffle. Rebuilding car engines in three easy steps. Dog training for dummies. Rewiring your house without electrocuting yourself. Tips on how to build a NASCAR course in your backyard. Stuff like that.

What niche books do YOU read?


While what I read isn't quite unique, these are what I'd probably class as my 'niche':

- Creative Writing Books & Magazines. As I'm working on my first novel, I'll take all the help I can get and I love reading books and magazines that give me tips on how to improve myself and the story, and give me wonderful writing exercises. I loved Mslexia and was subscribed for a year but unfortunately that subscription had to be put on hold until I make some proper money.

- The Jane Austen Regency Magazine. I'm a nerd. I subscribed to this magazine because I love Jane Austen and the magazine is full of insights into her life and times. That's pretty much all I can say about that.

- Vegan Cookbooks. I found it relatively easy to cook things without meat and fish but it gets a little complicated for lazy me when I have to find things that don't contain any dairy or eggs.

- History books. Anything to do with history and I'll devour it like a slab of chocolate. My main areas of interest are during the World Wars, the Tudor times, and the Victorian era.

 

Sunday 7 June 2009

Procrastination

I've missed a few of the weekly memes and have been uninspired to write a new blog in the last couple of days. I have no doubt that this is because I have two reviews to write up (one for the blog and one for The Book Bag) which I can't seem to get done. And when I say, 'I can't seem to get them done,' I mean, 'I can't stop procrastinating.' Obviously my Book Bag one is a little more important than the one for my blog (as I owe it to the publishers, the author, and the good owners of the Book bag site to complete it by Monday) but I just can't concentrate.

I have had quite a few days of horrid sleeping patterns which may be the leading cause to why I haven't been writing. I want to do my reviews. I enjoy them. I want to finish them so I can write a bit of my novel. But I've discovered that there are a few things I'd rather be doing:

1) Watching the Vlogbrothers on YouTube. Yes, I've officially become a Nerdfighter. I've been hearing about John Green and his brother, Hank, for some time now and have recently discovered their videos and fallen in love. I also have John's books on my Amazon wishlist now which (although I don't make a habit of reading YA fiction) I'm excited to read. If his books are anything as good as his videos, I'll love them.

2) Reading. When I can't write, I read. But reading is also becoming a problem lately. As I've finished Will Jellyfish Rule the World? which The Book Bag so kindly gave me to review, I have to move on to reading Breaking Up Blues which is not only turning out to be the most depressing book in the history of the world but so full of heinous crap about relationships, I almost want to rip it up. The writer is a psychoanalyst who is divorced which means her theories seem to be that trying the good old-fashioned approach of working on the problems in a relationship/marriage is pointless and wastes time and you should just get it all over and done with which'll be incredibly tough and upsetting but luckily you have her book to help you through it.

Enough said about that.

It's 2.45am here and I think I might just be a little too sleepy/cranky to think about anything serious. An hour ago I scoffed down a whole tub of glace cherries which proceeded to give me a whopping headache, as well as hallucinations, so I think it's safe to say I'm coming down from that sugar crash.

I might just do a fun meme and go to bed. Trying again tomorrow is always good. And there's a much more relaxed, optimistic approach to doing anything on a Sunday, isn't there? I wonder why that is.

If you haven't already checked out the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel, I'd recommend doing so straight away. I love that as a child I was made fun of but as an adult, nerdiness, geekiness and freakishness is cool. If anyone's ever read anything by John Green, let me know what you think of him.

Ending with yet another meme stole from A Striped Armchair.

A book that made you cry: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The first book to make me cry when ****spoilers**** Rochester finally declares his love for Jane.

A book that scared you: The Shining by Stephen King. That book is about three hundred billion times more scary than the films are.

A book that made you laugh: And God Created the Au Pair by Pascale Smets and Benedicte Newland. This book, incidentally, has nothing really to do with au pairs. It's set out in a form of email letters between two sisters over the course of two years. It's a light read and wonderful for something quick and easy to cast your mind on.

A book that disgusted you: Would it be fair to say Breaking Up Blues? I didn't think so. We'll see how I feel about this when I finish it. I can't really think of anything that's truly disgusted me though. Maybe I need to read a few books about those who believe global warming's just a scam.

A book you loved in elementary school: Elementary school ... Umm, I'll count that as 'Infant school' here. I can't remember any books from back then other than one called Doing the Pools which was about a dad always doing his crossword puzzles. I remember it because one of the earliest memories of my dad is him doing his own crosswords.

A book you loved in middle school: I was a big fan of Roald Dahl so probably Matilda. I remember seeing the film and being horrified at its alterations (I was nine at the time).

A book you loved in high school: I think I drifted off from a lot of reading in comprehensive school but later picked it up again in college. We did get to read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (which I still love) and I also fell in love with the play Blood Brothers by Willy Russell and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

A book you hated in high school: I don't remember really hating any books. Then again, I still don't have too many books on my 'hate' list to this day.

A book you loved in college: The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It was the first book we did on my Literature course and I loved it. It was our introduction into books written in Black American English.

A book that challenged your identity: The Journals of Sylvia Plath. I credit Plath with wanting to make me write. As I read her journals, her different experiments with style inspired me to keep my own journal and explore my own writing and who I wanted to be as a young woman writer.

A series you love: I don't really have any series that I follow but I love Philippa Gregory's series of Tudor novels. While they're not the most historically accurate, I love that time period and really enjoy getting to go back to the Tudor court through her stories.

Your favorite horror book: This is a hard one. I love horror. Yikes. Probably Dracula by Bram Stoker. It's probably the best written one I've ever read. Then again, I also really enjoyed The Shining.

Your favorite science fiction book: I don't read science fiction but I guess The Time Traveler's Wife was much more than a love story. It was about time travelling, of course!

Your favorite fantasy: I don't read fantasy but let's hope I get too one day through my personal 'reading dangerously' challenge.

Your favorite mystery: I don't read mysteries either. Though a lot of horrors and thrillers are 'mysterious'. Does that count?

Your favorite biography: Extreme by Sharon Osbourne (because the Osbournes are too awesome) or The Journals of Sylvia Plath.

Your favorite “coming of age” book: I'm extremely tired. And can't seem to think of any. At all. *sigh*

Your favorite classic: Jane Eyre.

Your favorite romance book: Any of Jane Austen's novels. I don't like romance too much but there's something about the way Jane writes that makes me melt.

Your favorite book not on this list: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. That book is incredible and challenges your perspective on everything to do with what society wants you to believe. It challenges you to think for yourself.


 

Wednesday 3 June 2009

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday ♥


 

Where are you?


Where are your books taking you this week?
(I'm cheating because it's the early hours of Wednesday but I really wanted to do this.)

I've just taken a look around the world at the affect climate change is having on all the countries. (Will Jellyfish Rule the World?)

Now I'm flitting back and forth between 1920s Richmond, attempting to finish a novel and beat depression; 1940s Los Angeles struggling to bake the perfect cake for my husband's birthday; and modern day New York where I'm planning a party for my oldest friend. (The Hours).

Where is your reading taking you? Leave your answers over at An Adventure in Reading.  

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Teaser Tuesdays

Another day, another fun meme :)


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on the page
  • Be careful not to include spoilers
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers

My teasers

"That is how Nelly would murder, competently and precisely, the way she cooks, following recipes learned so long ago she does not experience them as knowledge at all. At this moment she would gladly cut Virginia's throat like a turnip because Virginia neglected her own duties and now she, Nelly Boxall, a grown woman, is being punished for serving pears."

- Page 87, The Hours by Michael Cunningham  

The Largest Floating Book Shop in the World

The World's Largest Floating Book Shop has docked at Britannia Quay in Cardiff Bay.


It's a 12,000-tonne former passenger ship carrying more than 6,000 books. The ship, run by a Christian missionary group, travels around the world every year spreading the words of the Gospel, and it's here for the public to visit until Thursday (when it'll travel to London).

As I'm not religious I probably won't be popping in for a visit but if anyone else has ever visited it or is planning to, let me know how it was and what it was like :)  

Monday 1 June 2009

GLBT Challenge 2009

Amanda from The Zen Leaf has created a new book reading challenge for everyone.

The GLBT Challenge 2009
July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009

I've been opting out of most challenges this year as I already have a huge TBR list but this sounds so interesting. My first book of 2009 was The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff - a fictional account based on the life of Lili Elbe, the world's first person to undergo male to female sexual reassignment surgery. I'd advise anyone doing this challenge to give that book a go - it's fascinating. The link for sign up and further details is here.

I haven't decided which books I'm going to read yet but I'm thinking of reading at least one Oscar Wilde book (how obvious) after enjoying The Picture of Dorian Gray so much. I'll be tracking my progress on this post.

1) The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
 

New Moon Trailer released



The trailer for New Moon was released this week. I semi-enjoyed the first film though it's seriousness and clichés got a bit O.T.T. at times. I'm not a fan of the first book. I LOVE the second book ... which is why I was excited to see the new trailer for this.

Hmmmm ... some issues:

- "Paper Cut!" - I can't say I've ever had a cut that bad before ... so bad that I've thrown the offending object half way across the room like Bella does. :S

- I love Robert Pattinson. I know you can act, boy. But what is it with the "pain" face these great actors put on in the blockbuster films? Orlando Bloom in LOTR & POTC = Wooden and Bad acting. Hayden Christen in Star Wars = Emo face and Terrible acting. Robert Pattinson in Twilight - God, I hope the trailer's not anything to go by. I know Edward's always trying to resist killing Bella but, Jeez!

- CGI Wolf. I'm not a big fan of CGI but we'll see how it goes.

I sincerely hope that the producers of this film just threw this footage together. It seems that way. They know everyone's going to go and see this film so it's almost as if they're not even trying to sell it.

I'll be going to see it. But I hope we get better than this.

What do you think of the new trailer?