Posts tagged with classic-books
In my defense, it's a super-fun game.
I'm pretty sure this adorable Robin Hood-themed print from Ohio artist James Graves (currently on sale at HelpInk for $12) should inspire more noble thoughts than: "Dude, I haven't played Conquests of the Longbow in forever...
An impressively terrible decision
According to Variety, Warner Bros. is making a Peter Pan origin movie slated for summer 2015. They have already cast Hugh Jackman and Garrett Hedlund as pirates, and just announced that Rooney Mara will play Tiger Lily. Clearly anticipating some controversy, the studio was careful to describe their film as a "multi-racial/international" production, and mentioned...
Old and improved
I recently ran across these mega-cute reprints of the first four Nancy Drew stories: The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery, and The Mystery at Lilac Inn. They're Penguin editions, they seemed sturdy, and, at $7.99, they're the same price as the classic editions with school bus-yellow spines...
Goodnight, some more
Today Sterling Children’s Books is releasing Goodnight Songs, a compilation of "lullaby poems" by Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny author Margaret Wise Brown. According to Publishers Weekly, the book features the work of twelve different illustrators and is packaged with a...
Some things should not become brands.
Okay, this news makes me MEGA uncomfortable: there are apparently THREE Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl adaptations in the works, one of which is going to be animated movie(?!?), one of which is a live-action feature film, and one of which is apparently unauthorized...
I suspect this is a bad idea.
Slashfilm recently posted the first official image and plot summary for Disney's upcoming film adaptation of Judith Viorst's classic kids' book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. According to the article...
My birthday is coming up.
With the exception of our Weekly Book Giveaway pick, we are taking the two weeks off between December 23rd and January 1st, but this is too magical not to share: the Creative Action Network has partnered with the Harvard Bookstore to offer a series of beautiful artist-designed classic book editions that can be printed on demand...
More monkeys
I always wonder about authors like Pierre Boulle, who wrote both The Bridge Over The River Kwai and the novel that inspired Planet of the Apes. That's a wide-ranging literary legacy, you know? I'm sure more people have read The Bridge Over The River Kwai than La Planète des singes, but certainly more people have watched The Planet of the Apes than read the two books put together. Anyway, Boulle's monkey book is the gift that keeps on giving...
Sooo gorgeous
I'm assuming this is an attempt to further mine the pocketbooks of Tolkien fans (in case dividing The Hobbit into three movies wasn't shameless enough): Penguin has released a series called Legends from the Ancient North, described as...
Big-screen Little Women
So... they're trying to make another Little Women movie. According to Variety, the Sony Pictures project has been handed to a newbie scriptwriter named Olivia Milch. There's no word on casting or director or anything, but seeing as previous incarnations have starred...
New, pretty, arguably improved
Anthropologie has a habit of trotting out adorably re-designed classic book reprints shortly before the holidays. I'm not as excited about the cover art featured on...
The Giver to hit big screens
Cinema Blend recently posted an article about the Weinstein Company's upcoming film adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver, beloved by sixth-grade teachers everywhere (except for those sixth-grade teachers that think it should be burned because of its satanic agenda, of course). The movie will star...
Books in stripe form
British artist Jaz Parkinson has created twelve "rainbow charts" for Smithsonian Magazine, each inspired by a different book or play. The colors are determined by tallying the number of times the text "mentions or evokes" (the "evokes" bit is kind of hazy) a specific hue...
JAWS... for plankton
I love everything about this "Moby" t-shirt by artist Terry Fan. I like the Jaws shout-out, I like the idea of a rage-filled whale, and I even like the price ($22, which isn't bad for that level of awesome)...
Needle-felted awesomeness
If you have any small children (or classic literature nerds) in your life, Urban Outfitters is currently offering all three titles in the "Cozy Classics" series for $4.99 apiece. The books feature a single but aptly-chosen word per page and amazing needle-felted illustrations inspired by...
Legal wrangling
This is a depressing story, so I hope she wins: 87-year-old To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee says that her literary agent Samuel Pinkus (the son-in-law of her long-time agent Eugene Winick) took advantage of her poor health to trick her into signing over the copyright of her book to him...
Vintage cyborgs
Speaking of serialized stories, science fiction fans can now read the first chapter of British author E.V. Odle's 1923 little-known novel The Clockwork Man, which is apparently the earliest story to feature a cyborg...
DO NOT WANT.
I'm sorry, but I'm voting "no" on this one: according to Deadline, Guillermo del Toro is planning to produce a movie adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel The Secret Garden, and it's rumored that his version will be set in the American South at the turn of the 20th Century...
Forget Tim Burton, Sleepy Hollow is going Underworld
I'm shoving this into my mental file labeled "Probably a mistake": according to Entertainment Weekly, Fox has ordered a pilot for a television adaptation of Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow. They're describing it as “A modern-day supernatural thriller based on...
Dr. Jekyll vs. Mr. Hyde on a weekly basis
Well, Revenge proved there was an audience for heavily-altered TV adaptations of classic novels, so at the end of the month NBC is kicking off Do No Harm, a modern-day reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde...
So pretty!
Speaking of less-ludicrously-overpriced items from Anthropologie, the store recently trotted out a collection of six novels from the Penguin Classics line featuring absolutely gorgeous cover art designed by stationer Mr. Boddingtion's Studio...
Children's books, condensed
I love, love, love these minimalist children's book-art posters from graphic designer Christian Jackson. I originally ran into them at The Land of Nod, where they will run you about a hundred bucks (framed)...
I am straight-up depressed by this.
The idea of a Goodnight Moon app seems fundamentally wrong to me (it's meant to be a passive literary experience, that's what makes it so soothing), but, as usual, that doesn't mean someone didn't make one...
Clifford's big birthday
NPR recently posted an article celebrating the 50th "birthday" of Clifford the Big Red Dog. Created by author and illustrator Norman Bridwell in 1962, the Clifford series has sold more than 126 million copies and is available in 13 languages. The article includes a really sweet interview with Bridwell and his wife Norma...
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Miracle Whip
Has anybody else seen this Miracle Whip commercial? Who on earth decided "fake mayonnaise" + The Scarlet Letter was a natural pairing?
Don't get me wrong: I actually think the idea is pretty great. But I'm choosing to believe...
It's not how I'd choose to spend my weekend, but...
If you have the time, inclination, or need, you should check out the Moby Dick Big Read, a free online version of Melville’s masterpiece. Each of the book's 135 chapters is to be read aloud (featuring a mixture of famous and unknown readers) and broadcast online in a sequence of 135 publicly accessible downloads...
That is some low-budget cover art, too.
According to E!Online, some e-book company called Clandestine Classics has taken a bunch of classic novels and sexed 'em up. The article name-drops the Brontes, Austen, Melville, and Conan Doyle as potential subjects (victims?)...
Eat like Holden Caulfield
Flavorwire recently featured a several images created by graphic designer Dinah Fried. The photo series, entitled Fictitious Dishes, features recreations of famous meals from classic novels, including The Catcher in the Rye, Moby Dick, and, of course, the gruel from Oliver Twist...
Texting Jane
Following up their Texts from Scarlett O'Hara and Texts from Sweet Valley High posts, The Hairpin has produced a series called Texts from Jane Eyre. They're very Hark! A Vagrant in style...
Please do Alice in Wonderland next.
Much to my delight, Penguin has released three more "Penguin Threads" editions. The new titles, which feature a variety of styles of embroidery-inspired cover art, are Little Women, The Wizard of Oz, and The Wind in the Willows, and they're all so gorgeous I'm even tempted to buy Little Women (and you guys know how I feel about that book)...