The Introverted Detective

 I'm finally reading the books I stare at in the living room. Let's dive into The Lord of the Rings trilogy. These are my husband's books. Because of that, I acquired see-through sticky notes to annotate the book. I'm not allowed to write directly on the page. I highly reccommend using these sticky notes, as they make the book look nice, but allow annotation to happen.  This is the first book of the trilogy, where Frodo acquires the ring from Bilbo and they find out it's the One Ring. It begins in the shire and is a lot of travel - and running from dark riders.  Thoughts The dark riders are a big problem. They can smell the ring on Frodo. The ring also wants to be found, so when they come around the urge to put on the ring is amped to 11 out of 10. The second time we see one, it is crawling towards Frodo and the hobbits (while they are hiding in the woods). It was almost game over and we haven't reached Rivendell. Frodo was lucky the elves were traveling that pa...

 I'm taking on reading the Odyssey, with help from a YouTuber who has summaries of each book. I'm starting with Book 1 and slowly working through it. I was inspired by Epic the Musical. Let's get into it.  Courtesy of lookandlearn.com Telemachus and Mentes The first thing I did was listen to a summary of book 1. I'd suggest doing the same. It helps you know what's going on in plain English. I put the video I watched here. In case it doesn't actually let you watch it from here, look up "MoAn Inc. The Odyssey" and find her playlist for the summaries. Then, I dove into the poetry. Once you know the summary, it is easier than you think. I would highly suggest watching the video above before reading it. I did get lost at a few spots. If I hadn't known the summary, I'd be confused.  My Review I'm reviewing this on two things: readability and the story. Just like any older text, you do have to get used to the poetry. It was meant to be performed. ...

 I read the book that inspired this film. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from 1931 is a black-and-white silent film. The movie isn't all that far off from the book. Aside from adding a love interest (like they do in lots of films), the plot is close enough once you get to Jekyll actually getting the idea for the potion.  Courtesy of Alamy.com I give this film an 8 out of 10. It was entertaining, but the music was situation-deaf. The organ music during Hyde beating a man to death with a cane was...a choice. Cheerful music for being attacked by Hyde, beating a man to death, and someone dying of poison were all tone-deaf choices for tense moments. Any other filmmaker would have used more tense pieces for such scenes.  The acting itself was good, minus those melodramatic transformations. The women in this film knocked it out of the park. You could tell the prostitutes and women around Hyde hated him - but the prostitutes couldn't say no to money and feared him. They effectively told...

 The cartoon research has ended. Now we get back to films. I started with Laurel and Hardy (something I grew up with because my Dad loves this comedy duo). I did a blog on those two actors ( click here for that blog ) and now I'm reviewing more of their films. This one is called Brats from 1930.  Fineartamerica.com This one started slow, but got funnier the longer I watched it. I was also struck by the practical special effects in this short. They would achieve being the size of children by acting a huge set. Not to mention the water effect at the end and the mouse that shows up. You can also spot a stuntman rather easily (falling down stairs). The mouse looked like early CGI.  I loved the physical comedy, as usual. The joke set-ups were great. For example, the billiards joke with the marshmallow and the chalk, the skate on the stairs, and the running water. I give this 10 stars (rounded up because I'm somewhere in between 9.5 and 10). It started slow, but definitely got ...

 Villette is a book I don't hear much about, so let's talk about it. Written by Charlotte Bronte, it is about Lucy Snowe. I went into it knowing nothing.  When I started getting more into it, I discovered that Lucy Snowe was without family and looking for work. She gets on a boat on a guided whim, goes to a French speaking country, and ends up at Villette. She has money, but not very much. This is the story of a woman looking for work, who also has nothing to lose. She is going on whims, or if you read it as guidance, God's guidance. Every whim or guided suggestion pays off, so I would classify it as God's guidance.  Here's the thing about Charlotte Bronte's life when she wrote Villette; she wrote this after her sisters died. The hope you saw in Jane Eyre is definitely not the same because the author was not as lonely then. It explores her depression and ill mental health. You know Lucy is mourning, you know Lucy is alone, and you know she's not okay. Neithe...

 This challenge is for me, to make progress on Villette at the very least. I've discovered that Villette is not the easiest book to finish, but I think it'll be worth it. I'm reading one chapter of Villette for every five chapters of another book. I'm including three books in this challenge. Let's get into it.  My eyes are wandering to other books, while I have Villette open and unfinished. I need to close that tab in my brain. For every five chapters of another book, I read one chapter of Villette. I can either stop at every five chapters to read Villette or tally up the chapter count and read it later. The point is that I need motivation to keep going. I also don't need a reading slump early in the reading year.  Any books on this blog will be reviewed individually in other blog posts. The reviews are not going to be found on this post. Why? Because this is a post about logging how many chapters I read.  The books First up is Midnight In Death, part of a serie...