Welcome to Litsy!

Missed posting during #fridaynightshare but enjoyed seeing everyone‘s posts 💕 tagged book is not my favorite Hardy novel, but I loved reading this during May. (Armadale will likely be my favorite read of the summer, though.)

Yesterday I practiced watercolor sketching while reading in the Mediterranean garden at Longwood. I love this new conservatory— modern arches with classic taste #naturalitsy #midsummersolace

“Yes: victuals and drink is a cheerful thing… ‘tis the gospel of the body, without which he perish, so to speak it”

Packing breakfast, lunch, & snacks for the whole family takes me about an hour what with all the fruit & veg to be washed & prepped but it‘s so worth it! Gospel, indeed, & one of love‘s offices, as Robert Hayden might say, although I doubt he ever packed a bag lunch for his family 🍎

My first Hardy. I‘ve been meaning to read this for years.📖

I‘m my arrogance I thought I‘ll read this over 3-4 days. And the Hardy gods laughed and said “no, you‘ll savor many sentences and read them 3-4 times, mwha ha ha!” ‘Tis true. Hardy is writer to read slowly, perfect for a chapter a day. Wonderful book if a little overwrought and melodramatic but it all adds to the flavor. Looking forward to seeing what the movie is like. #rereadingtheclassics

What a fun visual reminder of my monthly reads. So happy to have discovered #Bookmory via @BookwormM and @BarbaraBB
It's distracted me from finishing the tagged, so back to reading.

Started this today @AllDebooks

I was convinced I had read this before, but none of it seems familiar. Not so much a #RereadingtheClassics as perhaps a first time read. Who else? Just me. Oops.

Flowers to my lovely wife Garima for our 7th wedding anniversary. The quote I used “I shall do one thing in this life, one thing certain, that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you until I die,” captured me from Thomas Hardy‘s Far from the Madding Crowd. ❤️

I finished the novel but felt my attention was going in and out so decided to rent the film to piece things together. Going to say even if a bit long and overwritten the book is much better. The film stats about 150 pages in and jumps jarringly from highlight to highlight of plot points, often making our main character extremely unlikable - and she wasn't my favorite heroine to begin with!
Overall glad I read it, will not be reading again.

First (physical) book of the year…hoping to read more classics in 2023.

#bookspinbingo

#ManicMonday

I was not expecting #LetterF to be so hard!

📖 tagged, The Fifth Season (Jemisin), Fingersmith (Waters), Flight Behavior (Kingsolver)

✍️ Susan Fletcher, John Fowles

🎥 Ferris Bueller‘s Day Off

🎤 Fleetwood Mac, Florence + the Machine, Foo Fighters

🎵 Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead), Famous Last Words (My Chemical Romance), Feel Good Inc (Gorillaz), Fiction (Avenged Sevenfold), Footsteps (Pearl Jam), From Eden (Hozier)

#Alphabetgame #LetterF @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This is one of my all-time favourites. It has a strong but not faultless heroine, a slow-paced but compelling storyline with some quirky elements, and of course, Gabriel Oak ❤️

Honourable mentions:
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
The Far Arena, by Richard Ben Sapir
Fly Girls, by Keith O'Brien

I think If I had to chose then Far from the madding crowd by Thomas Hardy would be my favourite book. #Alphabetgame

BBC News - Thomas Hardy: Largest ever collection of author's objects on show
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-61608588

An amazing novel that will take you on a romantic journey through the pastoral English landscape. Hardy writes so eloquently placing you in the scene, surrounded in the pages as if you are really there. Even the use of language envisages the characters through the author‘s true lens. I also watched the BBC 2015 drama starring Carey Mulligan. Very well done, but the book still is better than the movie. Highly recommended. ❤️

Recorded this on BBC 2 last night. So , I‘m going to chill out & watch … we read this for Bookclub and I read it years ago too .. I loved the book ❤️

My vintage finds today. The Lenski is first edition!!! The Landmark has me happy. The Jewish cookbook is 1932.

Birthday books….my partner and I went to our favorite bookshop yesterday and I got these. I attempted to pay for them and he wasn‘t having that lol. I can‘t wait for a nice day to go to the park and sit and read Hardy and let my brain work a little harder. I love classics and I am so happy to have this mini edition. I looks for Austen and they where out.

#OppositeDay #Near

The main events of this book take place far from the maddening crowd and in the country. Very beautiful prose; loved this book!

Currently reading. Am I the only one who can‘t stand Bathsheba?

This is sadly true today also sometimes!

#SciFiSeptember #MadMaxFuryRoad

I chose this book for three reasons:
1. In the title is the word MAD
2. “Tom Hardy” wrote the book and is an actor in the movie 😉
3. Both are about finding your “home”in this world.

Does anyone else feel the same, or is it just me ? 😂

Day 19 - #StarCrossedLovers #TropesInAugust
#FarFromTheMaddingCrowd #ThomasHardy

Bethsheba and Boldwood became star-crossed lovers in the end. Such a good book with a great lesson!

#ManicMonday @JoScho

This week was hard to narrow down!

Book: Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

Author: John Fowles

Movie: Ferris Bueller‘s Day Off

TV show: Friends

Band: Fleetwood Mac

Song: Fiction by Avenged Sevenfold

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Fiddler on the Roof
Freddie Mercury
Feels Like Rain by Buddy Guy

#ManicMonday #LetterF @JoScho

#7days7books day 5 Since joining litsy ive enjoyed lots of classic books but as a teenager i loved Thomas Hardy (though probably more that i loved the hardy heroines) and Far from the madding crowd is my favourite. Here are 2 of my copies from those days and they helped me appreciate classics.

Quite.

There aren‘t that many books about Demophobia - the fear of crowds. So I‘m stretching today‘s #AuldLangReads prompt to its limit and going for a novel with a title that indicates where I prefer to be - as far away as possible from the madding crowd!

#BookAboitSomethingYouFear
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

One last yearly update: my reads for the #1001books list. I read only 20 in 2019, somehow I‘ve been more in the mood for modern fiction. However, my total is now 614 of 1001 so I hope to get there one day. #ReadingEurope2020 and @Reviewsbylola ‘s #classicschallenge2020 might help to read some more classics this year!

I‘ve fallen behind on reviews... To save some time during final exams, here are a few I haven‘t posted yet:

I‘m Not Dying With You Tonight ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sincerely Cinderella ⭐️⭐️.5
Far From the Madding Crowd ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (#Booked2019: Public Domain)
The Winter Soldier ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (#Booked2019: Soldier‘s Story)

#tbrread #wintergames #merryreaders

This is one I #readinhighschool, and it ignited a love of Hardy that survives to this day. #gratefulreads @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

Day 16 - #ThoughtYouWouldntLikeItButDid #GratefulReads
#FarFromMaddingCrowd #ThomasHardy

Loved this book and glad I finally read it!

Now that I'm back at home my world-tour continues. This evening it was Great Britain with Cones and some Colcannon. The according book is Far From The Madding Crowd, besides many more.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the life at the farms way more than the love story. And of course in autumn it's time to #harvest.

#fallisbooked

Thanks for the tag, @melissajayne !

1. Tagged book - I meant to read this last year but didn‘t have a chance to pick it up...
2. Pride and Prejudice - I‘ve lost count how many times I‘ve read it
3. Too many to count! 😂
4. The Castle on Sunset - 4 star rating. Fun history of the Chateau Marmont
5. Tag...you‘re it!
#WondrousWednesday

I spent part of the weekend reading this at a yoga festival. The book is better than I was expecting (never read Hardy before), and the festival was a little more eh than I was expecting. 🤷‍♀️😀

It may be that for a non-native like me English books are harder to listen to than to read.
I think I understand what I hear but audiobooks don‘t often touch me as a book that I read myself can do.
This book, for example, to me felt just like listening to a lot of landscape-with-sheep descriptions, and a soap opera in which three men circle around one woman. There must and will be more to it, but I missed it. #1001books

My first Thomas Hardy book! 😁