I finished The Golden Compass this morning (I only read the first book, but this is the set I have – apparently you have to show all three). I thought it was a great. It took me a little while to get into it, but as soon as Lyra joined the Gyptians, I was hooked. I initially read it just because I wanted to see the movie and I have to read books first, but now I’m looking forward to the rest of the series on its own (the same thing happened with Harry Potter). I think its great that the main character is a little girl. Lyra is a great role model for young girls. She’s strong, smart, fearless, and not afraid of flouting authority. She’s right up there with the Jo Marches and Elizabeth Bennets of the world in my eyes.
I’m now reading A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. I’ve been looking forward to reading it since I finished The Summer in Paris. I think if I had a time machine, 1920s Paris might be one of the first places I went.
I’m also going to see Atonement later today. Ben just finished the book and we want to see how the movie compares.
my books. my life. 
I hope you enjoy Atonement and that it does justice to the book (which I still need to read soon). I just checked the Golden Compass out of the library today so I can see what the hype is about with the movie.
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I'll be very interested to hear what you thought of the movie! I haven't talked to anyone else yet who has seen it AND read the book.
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I really liked it. I thought they did a good job. They followed the book pretty closely until the last section where they did the interview instead of the party, but I thought it worked. I was thinking it would be different because I thought you had said that the ending wasn't good, but I thought it was fine. I guess I was expecting them to tell us about Robbie and Cecelia sooner based on your comments, but it was still a surprise at the end (people in the audience actually gasped). What was it about it that you didn't like?
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It's hard for me to express exactly what I didn't like about it, except for the ending. I read two Ian McEwan books this year, Atonement and On Chesil Beach, and I think you and Kristie read both of those too. From those I'm realizing that what I like so much about Ian McEwan is his ability to express feelings, perception, and beliefs through the thoughts of his characters. You really get inside their minds and can see why they are doing things and why other people who don't know what they're thinking might misunderstand. I was certain I would/will be disappointed with any movie for their failure to have that all-knowing narration. A movie could still be entertaining, but to me it would lose most of the power of the book. If I had seen the movie first I would have most likely decided not to read the book. I didn't like the ending of the movie because it was my favorite part of the book. I liked how privately she reflected on her life and the whole situation. I do not think the interview suited that at all. Not only that, but the whole end didn't feel like part of the movie, it felt so different and weird.But despite all this, I did like a few parts of the movie. I liked the beginning, I thought they did a good job showing what a boring, restless day it was that day, without the movie being dull. Everything was gorgeous too. I loved the green dress…. so perfect! 🙂 (but they also, probably because it couldn't be done without narration, left out my second favorite part – when the mirror "won't let cecelia pass") I guess I just didn't like it because of how much I loved the book. The book shook me to the core and the movie was very underwhelming to me.
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I can understand all that. I think I might have liked it more because I knew that you didn't really like it after reading the book so my expectations were lowered. Ben didn't really like it either (he also read the book). And he couldn't describe exactly what he didn't like about it either.The ending bothered me a little, but mostly because I liked in the book that she couldn't publish Atonement before she died. I liked that she had to live with the fact that she couldn't really undo any of the harm that she caused – not publicly at least. That's also why I like the "true ending" and not her version.I think it was a very good movie – maybe not the same as the book, but a good movie on it's own.
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