Tagged: tv

Mar 09

Another bite

          Imagine that, I read another vampire book.  Maybe people making comments about me loving vampire stuff are onto something.  Sookie Stackhouse series, Twilight, Vegas Vampires….yeah I’ve read a few.

   Well finally I caved and decided to read The Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith.  I used a date a guy that made fun of me so bad saying that I would love the show.  Note, I never watched it.  I forget what it ran the same time as but I had something else I loved to watch.  Plus I didn’t want him to be right.  He did admit to watching and liking it though.  Anyways, the book caught my attention the other day and honestly, once I started, I couldn’t put it down.

          As stories go, it wasn’t anything groundbreaking.  Vampire love triangle.  Hmm, seen that in lots of books.  Personally, I was a fan of the Eric, Bill, Sookie one (team Eric).  The flashback’s in Smith’s book are an interesting way of setting up the story. 

          So far I have only read The Awakening.  It was basically a lot of set up for the other stories from what I can tell.  We get some story on all the main characters and it sets up some town drama.  It got me hooked so I can’t wait to start the next part of the series.

          The Awakening reminded me of The Immortal Series by Alyson Noel.  You’ve got the new kid that is dark, mysterious a from Italy.  Someone like him followed him.  Actually come to think about it, in the third Immortal book, Shadowland, a sort of brother like character shows up and trys to steal the girl.  The main character is a girl that is super pretty.  Popular in one case but not in another.  Noel’s series is more original though in my opinion.  I absolutely love her books and can’t wait for Dark Flame.

          As for the tv series, I am currently trying to find the episodes online.  If someone knows where to find them, let me know.  I only see the latest four.  If I’m going to watch them, I want to start from the beginning.  Once I watch, I’ll try to do some comparing stuff. 

          So, what is your favorite vampire book? 

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Posted in Book Reviews

Jul 06

Sookie Stackhouse and Serena van der Woodsen

***Contains some discussion on events that happen in Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris.   I am trying my hardest not to spoil anything but I just wanted to warn people.  I’m going to be discussing a couple scenes in contrast to the show.***

 

As requested by KonstantinMiller, here is some more thoughts on tv shows verses books. 

 

          I came across this on YouTube and thought it was quite fitting.  I loved that Stephen Moyer has read quite a few of them.  It seems weird to me that the other two stopped.  More so that there reason’s for stopping was that they wanted to take their characters in their own direction.  Those two characters were not present in the least in Dead Until Dark. 

          In Season Two, Tara is staying fairly close to her character in Living Dead in Dallas.  In the book she is Sookie’s friend from high school that is dating a guy named Eggs.  Yeah, that matches perfectly.  Towards the end of the book we see them in a situation similar to the party scene that was in S2 E3 of True Blood.  Tara’s reaction to the party seemed to be similar in the two.  Like she was there on her own accord but it was making her uneasy.  The writers of True Blood are doing a good job of filling in Tara’s story for us.

          As for the Maryann character from the show, she is deviating a long way from the novel.  In the book we only see her as what she really is which they haven’t competely covered that yet. If you have seen interviews or read any, they have been openly discussing that though.  In the books Sookie and Bill leave to Dallas and something obviously happens between Sam and Callisto. Maryann’s name is Callisto in the book.  I don’t know why they changed it.  I liked Callisto better since the tattoo on my rib is actually the Callisto constellation from my favorite Greek myth.  I named my cat at my parents’ house that too. Anyways, in the tv series they are obviously going to have Bill and Sookie leave soon.  Following with the rest of the tv show, the writers are finding themselves trying to write stories about what is happening in Bon Temps completely on their own.  It is going to be very different from the book but I think as long as they keep the characters in tack in isn’t going to bother me too much.  Plus I love Sam don’t mind seeing more of him.

          Another book series that is now on tv that I realized I have read is Gossip Girl.   I think I’ve read about five or six of the books.  I do intend to someday finish them.  They are extremely fast to read.  Perfect for a break after a lengthy or dense book.  Like True Blood, the show Gossip Girl is staying fairly close to the books.  The characters are there and some of the story lines are but we are seeing lots of differences too. 

          Some characters are completely different. Eric van der Woodsen for example is the older brother that has a thing with Blair in the books but a younger gay brother on tv.  Aaron Rose appears in the books as Blair’s stepbrother who has a crush on her. On the show he is a random dude that Serena dates.  I actually didn’t watch most the second season so I don’t know if they did more with him or not.  The parents play a lot more into the television show as well.  I really like the story the tv producers came up with Rufus and Lily.  Personally I wouldn’t mind if they show mostly focused on them. 

          The spin off doesn’t sound all that appealing to me though.  Maybe I’m just getting old and teen drama’s aren’t as much my thing.  Although I did absolutely love Priveledged.  I think it got canceled already though.  Very sad. The main character was attempting to be an author.  It is another show based on a book.  How to Survive the Filthy Rich by Zoey Dean.  Maybe I will try to find it next time I’m at the book store.  It would be interesting to compare how a book series converts to a tv series verses a single book being made into a tv series.  I do have Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell but haven’t read it yet.   Ah the list of books I want to read in the near future.  I really do have stacks and stacks of them.  Just call me Alaska Young.

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Posted in Thoughts on books, Thoughts on tv

Jun 29

True Blood vs Sookie Stackhouse novels

I often hear people comparing books to movies.  I think something that happens less is comparing books and television shows.  Obviously, there is not a huge market for tv shows based on books but there is some.  It seems like not as many people pay attention to those book series though. 


For example the other day at work I was talking about True Blood with a coworker and I said that I know what was going to happen because I was reading Living Dead in Dallas (if you read TV Guild magazine this week it kind of indicated which story lines are staying with the books).  He has no clue that there was even books.  I found that so weird because I thought it said somewhere before or after the show that it was based on the series.  Not to mention the fact that the first two books which have cover with the actors on them have been sitting on the end caps at Target.

Then last night before a work meeting I stopped at the bookstore.  My boss asked me what I bought and I said Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs then explained that it was the series that Bones was based on.  Again, no  one around us seemed to have any clue that the show was based on books.


Why is that? Maybe it is just because I’m such a huge bookworm but I usually pay attention to if a show is based on one.

Especially with True Blood, I have noticed people complaining about it not sticking to the books.  Personally I actually have no problem with that.    I feel that in any case (tv or movie) that there is two ways to do it; you can recreate the book or you can use it as a reference.


In the case of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, the reader really is only getting Sookie’s side of the story.  We don’t see any backstory with Jason, Sam, or any of the other characters.  When you are making a tv show, there has to be more than one storyline going or it gets boring.  The shows writers do a great job as far as I’m concerned with using the characters in a way that is true to the books while still making there stories better for tv.  


Furthermore, I don’t think the books are necessarily amazing pieces of literature.  They are more of a fast and entertaining read.   Along with that though, I think it takes an enormous amount of talent to write a book that is successful and a number one best seller on the New York Times list.  I fully admit, I have every intention of reading the whole series because I do really enjoy them. 


With Bones there is a far bigger gap between the show and books.  Sure the main character is named Temperance (which I named my cat after by the way) and she is a forensic anthropologist that works with the FBI but that basically ends the similarities.  I don’t see people complaining about how different those to are though.  Maybe it is because they are so different that people have an easier time seeing that the tv show is just using the books as a starting point.


The Tempe books are extremely well written.  I don’t read tons of crime series but I do think that Reichs’ novels are among the best I have come across.  They are written on a high reading level but are so good that I can’t put them down so end up finishing them in days.  The story comes together in such an interesting way in each novel.  The show writers do a good job at bringing that element into the episodes as well.


So what does everyone else think?  Have you read a series that had a tv show based on it?  Do you think True Blood or Bones is completely ruining the books or doing them justice?


On a sort of related note, I noticed the other night that the last four books I have read were Deja Dead, Death Du Jour, Dead Until Dark, and Living Dead in Dallas (currently reading).  Do you see something in common? Maybe I should read something not so morbid sounding next, haha.  Actually next I will definitely be reading Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs.  Maybe after that I will go for something less dark sounding.

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Posted in Thoughts on books, Thoughts on tv

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