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You guys are all seriously awesome. I have a ton now in my 'reading queue' to look forward to. Just today I picked up The Thorn Birds from the library.
You guys are all seriously awesome. I have a ton now in my 'reading queue' to look forward to. Just today I picked up The Thorn Birds from the library.
"The Thorn Birds" is one of the best books I have ever read. I still have my original paperback copy. I bought it when it first came out. I had seen Colleen interviewed on the Today Show and knew I had to buy her book. Money was so tight back in those days. To spend an extra $3.99 on a paperback was just something I didn't do lightly. I bought it and never regretted it. I bet I have read that book at least 10 times over the years.
You guys are all seriously awesome. I have a ton now in my 'reading queue' to look forward to. Just today I picked up The Thorn Birds from the library.
I have been meaning to come back to this thread, as I finished The Thorn Birds a few days ago.
What a fantastic, amazing, heart-wrenching book. I absolutely loved it! I had a twinge of depression the evening I finished it because it was that outstanding!
As I had not read the classic, Middlemarch, I would not have recognized it as a dreary love story, but now that I am 1/3 of the way into the novel, I can most certainly see where this tragic story is headed.
Attractive young woman misguidedly marries elderly, scholarly clergyman, thinking he will raise her to new intellectual heights, and she, in turn, can support his learned pursuits. Anyone see anything wrong with this romance? It is as if she wants to be Mr. Rochester's 'Jane Eyre,' and while the pursuit is most noble, I think her endeavors will be making her most unhappy in the long run. Ironically, I am able to identify with the young, naive Miss Brooke, as I, myself, wanted to be whisked-into Laura Ingalls Wilder's Big Woods, make the acquaintance of the older, had-to-be-lonely Doc, marry him, and make him happy. So, I get it.
Wonder if you have to have been married for some time, have had romantic notions of your own, and be a little older, to see where this is going to make for a not-so-fulfilling marriage for the young Dorothea? Her sister sees it coming, as does Dorothea's uncle and guardian, who would much prefer that she give the young Sir James Chettam another look.
Alas, but I have to stay with the novel, I think, for the inevitable train wreck.
I'm so happy you liked it! Now I'll actually have to read it.
I admit that I prefer books that end happily; I still sometimes rearrange "Gone with the Wind" inside my head to make Scarlett and Rhett end up together.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thepinksquid
OMG.
I have been meaning to come back to this thread, as I finished The Thorn Birds a few days ago.
What a fantastic, amazing, heart-wrenching book. I absolutely loved it! I had a twinge of depression the evening I finished it because it was that outstanding!
Gone with the Wind. Seriously. If you haven't read it, you need to. It's not first and foremost a love story, but that does play a major part in the novel.
I bought GWTW for my daughter for Christmas two years ago. (She's now 18.) I'd encouraged her to read it and figured if I gave it to her as a gift it would sufficiently guilt her into reading it. It took until last summer, when she was bored working at a lifeguard at a co-op complex that didn't have many people using the pool during weekdays.
Score! She was hooked. We watched the movie the following week (not as good as the book, of course, but still) and I bought her the DVD for Christmas.
If you want another good love story, try Here Be Dragons by Sharon K. Penman. It's historical fiction, so the story is true (including the love between the two main characters) but the actual scenes and dialogue are necessarily from the author's imagination.
I have been meaning to come back to this thread, as I finished The Thorn Birds a few days ago.
What a fantastic, amazing, heart-wrenching book. I absolutely loved it! I had a twinge of depression the evening I finished it because it was that outstanding!
Wow. Thank you!!!
Oh yes, The Thorn Birds was a good one.
Hmm. I'm going to give that one to my daughter for Easter, lolol.
I once read that the author of Thorn Birds, wanting to write a novel that would sell, asked her coworkers what they liked in a book, and they told her "buckets and buckets of tears." And she wrote The Thorn Birds with that in mind.
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George Eliot's Middlemarch
