The Evolution of Books into Movies.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010When a story unfolds from a book onto the big silver screen, as readers we anticipate anxiously wondering who would portray our antagonist or protagonist, and how successful the producers of the movie will be able to interpret the plots and scenes from the book. Sometimes, don’t we wonder how the writer envisions his or her characters of their stories? Even as readers, before the movie was made, we have our personal imagination of the characters and scenes. Here are some of the movies that have been inspired by famous books:
Classics; “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott. The movie features famous stars such as Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Kristen Dunst, Samantha Mathis, Christian Bale, Claire Danes, and Tini Alvarado as characters of the March family.
Fantasy Epic; “The Lord of the Rings” by J. R. R. Tolkien. The trilogy film was made starring Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom and the lot.
Children’s Book; “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl. Adapted in the year of 2005 starring Freddie Highmore and Johnny Depp, which became a huge box office success.
Chic Lit; “P.S. I love you” by Cecelia Ahern. The main characters Holly and Gerry was acted by Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler.
Do you think the movie producers did a good job portraying the books’ content onto the big screen? Which are your personal favourites or disappointments?
Ultimately, we readers get the best of both worlds! 
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What are your favourite books?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
We’re all voracious readers. Well, okay, maybe some more than others, but we’ve definitely read quite a number of books by now, haven’t we? Some books you wished you never read, some books didn’t exactly change your life, and then there are some books which are so awesome you rave about it to anyone who’d listen to you. Today we’re listening; we want to know what are your favourite books! Which are the best reads you’ve ever had? Naturally, the BookXcess staff share the titles of books which they found awesome. Read more
Where do you read?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Recently we hosted the Baca@LRT participants at our former premises at L3-57; they were entitled to a free BookXcess membership as well as a book thong when they visited us after the event. Here is the photo album on Facebook if you want to see pictures of the event. The idea of Baca@LRT is to cultivate a reading habit among LRT commuters.
We know you readers are out there, whether you read in the LRT or not. The question is, where do you usually do your reading? Naturally, we posed this question to some BookXcess staff and here’s what they say. Read more
What are you reading?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Now that practically every bookworm in town has visited our new store, we’re curious about what you’re currently reading. Do share what is your current read!
In case you’re interested, we share what we are currently reading ourselves. Read more
When a Book Comes to Life
Thursday, February 11, 2010We stumbled across this amazing video bringing a book to life in beautiful visual, which was produced for the New Zealand Book Council. We were simply enthralled by the video that we had to share it with you.
Wasn’t that awesome?
Lists for the Listless
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
If you’re done with your Christmas shopping list, check out these bookish lists. If you’re not, well, take a break from Christmas shopping to check out these bookish lists anyway. 
2009 Best Books by the Washington Post
2009 Best Books for Young Adults by ALA
2009 Best Gift Books by NPR
2009 Best Illustrated Children’s Books by NY Times
2009 10 Best Cookbooks by NPR
2009 Best Memoirs by NPR
2009 Favourite Fiction by LA Times
2009 Notable Crime Books by NY Times
(links above found via The Inkwell Bookstore Blog)
35 Most Collectible Books of the Decade (via Reading Copy Book Blog)
How many books in these lists will we see in BookXcess? All in time, we hope!
Cheer Up Your Monday Blues
Monday, November 2, 2009Have you got the Monday blues today? Perhaps seeing covers of famous books being parodied will give you a chuckle or two. Below are a couple of book parodies, the titles of which we have at BookXcess currently.
Watch the book trailer of the parody book above and read about it!
Check out The Huffington Post for more and funnier parody covers!
If you want more humour, read this list of officer performance report statements from the British military. Read more
Celebrate the Freedom to Read
Wednesday, September 30, 2009“If you’re a freedom-to-read person, pulling a book like that one is not that different from any book that might have fake scholarship. No matter how wrong a book might be, people should have access to it. It’s a slippery slope once you start removing books like that.”
~Michael Gorman
Banned Books Week is being celebrated in the USA from 26 September to 2 October 2009. It is an annual event that happens on the last week of September to raise awareness on the issue of books banned and challenged today. It’s also a good time to read books that were previously banned and appreciate what freedom to read that we enjoy today.
We found this cute video at Bibliobibuli that explains simply why we shouldn’t ban books.
Many classics have been banned or challenged at some point in time or other, such as:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Harry Potter series
The Catcher in the Rye
The Color Purple
Lord of the Flies
Gone with the Wind
Read the Banned Books Week manifesto, which is a poem written by an author whose book was recently challenged.
Check out the books banned and challenged in 2008/2009 here.
Why not take this opportunity to read some of the formerly banned books? Surely your curiosity is piqued now – you must be wondering why the books that were banned were banned in the first place! The only way to find out is to read the book(s).
Comic strip sourced from www.unshelved.com
On the local front, The Dram Projects is organising a workshop called Free2READ in the Right to Read Festival on 10 October 2009 at Central Market. The workshop will introduce “children to their rights as readers; celebrate the joy and thrill of discovering the different worlds and experiences that lie between the covers of books; and examine the problems and challenges children might encounter in their reading journeys.”
Are you celebrating Banned Books Week?
What do you think about the issue of banned books? Feel free to pen your thoughts about this in the comments section.
A Thoughtful Read About Chocolate
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl is arguably one of the most famous stories about chocolate. Have you heard of this other book about chocolate called Chaga & the Chocolate Factory?
Unlike the hilarious and fun Roald Dahl book, Chaga & the Chocolate Factory is not as funny. It does not have a really happy ending either. This story was written by Bob Hartman and illustrated by Tim Hartman for Stop the Traffik, a growing global movement to raise awareness about human trafficking. One form of trafficking is the use of children to harvest the cocoa beans on farms. These children could be working to make your favourite chocolate bar from the supermarket.
Take a few minutes to read Chaga & the Chocolate Factory for a better perspective about human trafficking in chocolate production. It is a simple, heartbreaking tale about a boy who dreams of a better life but is tricked into a life of slavery, to harvest cocoa beans in a ‘chocolate factory’.
The story will have you thinking twice about the brand of chocolate you’re buying. For that reason, there’s a Good Chocolate Guide to know which chocolate brands are traffik-free guaranteed.