![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
First, obligatory rant about the heat. It sucks, it's going to last until friday, it's unbearable, I found myself hyperventilating five minutes after leaving the house and had to forcefully slow my breathing. Stupid humidity. Stupid global warming.
Now that that's out of the way, here's a new Reading Bingo entry!
For the "A Book That Is More Than 50 Years Old" I read S.E. Hinton's classic The Outsiders.
To be fair, the more than 50 years old thing isn't actually correct. This book was published in 1967, but written and set in 1965. So it would be exactly 50 years old to the day. But it was the only square that sorta fit, and I really wanted to include it in the bingo. ^^
The author was only 17 when she wrote this groundbreaking novel about teenage gangs in her hometown of Tulsa. The story covers two weeks in the life of a young Greaser, and it's a very beautifully written message against violence, of overcoming differences and hate towards a future of empathy and compassion for all young people. I read it all in one sitting, it's really gripping, and while it can be truly depressing at times it's ultimately full of hope. It's easy to see why it's a classic.
It was also one of those cases when I truly felt the cultural differences coming from living in a different continent. The slang is dated, obviously, but it constantly brought to my mind images of Jets and Sharks. Apparently "greaser" is a real word and it's not a nice thing to be. It was a very instructive book for me, because it turns out everything I know about this time period and subculture comes from musicals. My bad.
Yesterday I also watched that new Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone?. I highly recommend it to any fan of Nina Simone, but beware because it can make you feel like being punched in the stomach at times. The director chose to focus on only certain key moments of Ms Simone's life, and there's no narrator, which I appreciated. The story moves from interview to interview, to friends and family, and there's some pretty terrible things being revealed. Not an easy viewing, I have to say.
In other news, during the weekend I've started doing some minor physical exercise again. Just the fact that I could finally do it, as my back has stopped hurting only fairly recently, left me ecstatic. It'll take me some time to get back in shape, but I'm feeling very optimistic!
Now that that's out of the way, here's a new Reading Bingo entry!
For the "A Book That Is More Than 50 Years Old" I read S.E. Hinton's classic The Outsiders.To be fair, the more than 50 years old thing isn't actually correct. This book was published in 1967, but written and set in 1965. So it would be exactly 50 years old to the day. But it was the only square that sorta fit, and I really wanted to include it in the bingo. ^^
The author was only 17 when she wrote this groundbreaking novel about teenage gangs in her hometown of Tulsa. The story covers two weeks in the life of a young Greaser, and it's a very beautifully written message against violence, of overcoming differences and hate towards a future of empathy and compassion for all young people. I read it all in one sitting, it's really gripping, and while it can be truly depressing at times it's ultimately full of hope. It's easy to see why it's a classic.
It was also one of those cases when I truly felt the cultural differences coming from living in a different continent. The slang is dated, obviously, but it constantly brought to my mind images of Jets and Sharks. Apparently "greaser" is a real word and it's not a nice thing to be. It was a very instructive book for me, because it turns out everything I know about this time period and subculture comes from musicals. My bad.
Yesterday I also watched that new Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone?. I highly recommend it to any fan of Nina Simone, but beware because it can make you feel like being punched in the stomach at times. The director chose to focus on only certain key moments of Ms Simone's life, and there's no narrator, which I appreciated. The story moves from interview to interview, to friends and family, and there's some pretty terrible things being revealed. Not an easy viewing, I have to say.
In other news, during the weekend I've started doing some minor physical exercise again. Just the fact that I could finally do it, as my back has stopped hurting only fairly recently, left me ecstatic. It'll take me some time to get back in shape, but I'm feeling very optimistic!
