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Showing posts from May, 2013

Book vs. Movie: "The Great Gatsby"

Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan      Today after school I met up with a friend, changed into a homemade flapper dress,cloche, and Art Deco earrings, and headed to the cinema at Union Square 14th street to see - what else? -  the Great Gatsby.  I had been looking forward to this moment for a long time, ever since I put down my copy of the book over a month ago.       The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a real American classic, and I think everyone interested in seeing the movie should read it first.  It's about this dreamy, almost foolishly optimistic young man who calls himself Gatsby and the crazy things he does out of love for Daisy Buchanan, his teenage sweetheart, who is now married to a powerful but unfaithful heir.  One of the most striking things about it, besides the amazing portrayal of this crazy time in history, is how brutally honest and relatable the story is even after all these years.  Gatsby's perennial and unshakable optimism and love will strike a ch

Getting Ahold of Books When You're Broke

           When a girl begins to run low on bat mitzvah money or retirement savings, what's the first thing she worries about?  Not how she is going to pay the mortgage or finance her online shopping, no; she wonders where her books are going to be coming from.       And with good reason, too.  Ninety-five percent of bookworms perish miserably within 48 hours of finishing their last book and being unable to afford another.  How can we end these senseless deaths and avoid meeting the same fate ourselves?  By sourcing reading material from the venues listed below, of course.           1.  Second-Hand Stores: It may take a while to dig past the crappy mysteries and romance novels slightly creepy covers, but once you do, you may find some really great books, some for under a dollar each!           2.  Library Sales: A library sale is when a library wants to get rid of its old books, so it decides to sell them all for really cheap.  I go to one every year in upstate New York that l