Readings and Writings: I am near to finishing my review of The Whole Wide World by Yvonne Castaneda, which I was supposed to finish over the holidays.

My next project was supposed to be a film/book comparison for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. I think I previously mentioned that I found the movie to be a remarkable piece of drama, especially in the manner in which it covered so much ground in so short a time without short changing anything important. My plan was to barrel through two books in the Patrick O'Brian series -- Master and Commander the first book, for a solid grounding in the characters, then The Far Side of the World, which was much further on in the series. Following that I would then provide brilliant analysis and insights about how the written stories were converted to film.

Two problems. 1) These are not books you "barrel through". They are not difficult reads, but they are exacting in sentence form and strucutre; well steeped in early 19th century vocabulary and sailing terms. Impressively, they are not boring or tedious about their topic. They are very character driven which is a saving grace. And 2) I have come to learn the books and movie hold virtually no relationship in plot, only characters. That pretty much sinks my plans. I'll finish at least the first book, and I suppose I could review both the movie and the book separately. But I'm not sure I'd have anything new to say about them, so what's the point?