Great Occasions to Give Books as Gifts (Especially The Classics)

Gift giving can be a tricky proposition, even if we’ve known the recipient for years. That said, while some things may fall out of fashion, everyone loves receiving a good book. Here are three great occasions to give books as gifts.

When someone is recuperating or recovering. Recovering from illness or injury is a long, often boring process. Hours upon hours of rest, often bedrest, with little or nothing to do but sit and wait. Many pass the countless hours in front of a television set, but even on-demand TV has its limits when it comes to entertaining. What better occasion than a book to pass the time, especially one which can allow them to discover new interests they may never have known they had!

One someone’s birthday. Another trip around the sun often means another year of presents that they may not have a use for. Rather than fill someone’s life with more clutter, why not consider a great book to broaden their horizons with? If you’re short on ideas, you can always look up historical events that happened on their birthday and get them a book that will teach them all about it.

Before a big trip. Everyone loves taking trips and exploring new destinations, but those trips often come with a whole lot of downtime as you travel by plane, train, or bus. If you know someone about to embark on an epic voyage, why not help them melt away their travel time with an engaging book? They’ll be sure to appreciate it!

Looking to catch up with the classics? Visit our online library at www.craveread.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices.

How to Binge Read Like a Pro

Books are oh so wonderful! They can transport us to a different place or a different time without us even having to move, they thrill, they entertain, they make us laugh, they make us cry! What better reason to be a binge reader, and here’s how to binge read like a pro.

Always have a book with you. Morning commute? Read a book! Lunch break at work? Read while you eat! Waiting to meet a friend for coffee? Read! Read! Read! If you’ve got a book with you wherever you go, be it paper or digital, you’ll always find time to catch up on your reading wherever you are. You’ll be burning through books before you know it.

Drop the Netflix subscription. We all love to curl up on the couch and zone out in front of the TV every once in a while, but all that watching is cutting into your reading time! Opt for a good book instead of what’s streaming, where do you think show producers get all their ideas anyway?

Get a library card or a subscription to an online library. Binge reading can be an expensive habit, with both paper and ebooks costing a pretty penny for all the latest titles. But a library card can give you access to every single book your library holds, often for free, and a subscription to an online library gives you the same access no matter where you find yourself!

Looking to get started? Why not catch up with the classics! Visit our online library at www.craveread.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices.

Hemingway in New York

Ernest Hemingway was a well travelled author, having served and reported overseas, and having travelled throughout much of his native United States. For all his travels, however, Hemingway rarely went to New York, and on the rare occasions he did it was merely to pass through. It was on one such occasion while on his way to Europe that Lillian Ross of The New Yorker requested an interview with the great American author. Hemingway granted the reporter an interview, but his initial reply to the request gives us a unique insight into not just how the man spent his limited time in New York, but into the man himself. As Ross writes:

“I don’t want to see anybody I don’t like, nor have publicity, nor be tied up all the time,” he went on. “Want to go to the Bronx Zoo, Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Modern Art, ditto of Natural History, and see a fight. Want to see the good Breughel at the Met, the one, no two, fine Goyas and Mr. El Greco’s Toledo. Don’t want to go to Toots Shor’s. Am going to try to get into town and out without having to shoot my mouth off. I want to give the joints a miss. Not seeing news people is not a pose. It is only to have time to see your friends.” In pencil, he added, “Time is the least thing we have of.”

Looking to get acquainted with the classics? Visit our online library at www.craveread.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more, accessible anytime from your favorite devices.

Comparisons of adaptations of books: Pride and Prejudice

There are several books that are incredibly popular, so popular that multiple movie and TV adaptations of the books have been made. Here we take a look at how some of the versions of the book adaptations have treated the original text.

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

With six hours in this BBC mini-series, this adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is superb from start to finish. Not only is it faithful to the book, it has little changes that make it unforgettable (Colin Firth diving into the lake isn’t in the book, but it’s a great moment in the series).

Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley)

For those who do not have the time to watch a six hour long adaptation of the Jane Austen classic and would rather have an easy to digest, yet still somewhat accurate version of the book to watch then the 2005 movie is just what you could be looking for.

Bride and Prejudice

The Bollywood treatment of any movie isn’t going to be for everyone, but turning Pride and Prejudice into a musical with the high points from the book with a wonderful comedic edge does make this adaptation extremely fun and enjoyable to watch.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Throwing zombies into a Jane Austen novel may not seem like a great idea, but it works surprisingly well. It’s supposed to be a comedic interpretation of the book and it is pretty funny, and still manages to keep a lot of the original dialogue from the books.

To find more of the different adaptations of books, check out www.craveread.com where you’ll find even more from the romance genre.

Famous Last Words of Famous Authors

They certainly had their way with words, even when they were their last. We’re seldom capable of choosing how and when we die, and more often than not our final words are a matter of happenstance. Sometimes, however, it just seems to fit, as is the case with these three authors.

François-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name Voltaire, was deeply critical of Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church and openly advocated for the separation of church and state. Although unconfirmed, as legend has it Voltaire was visited by a priest at his death bed and was asked to renounce Satan, to which he replied, "This is no time to be making new enemies."

Edgar Allan Poe managed to establish a career in writing and live off his writing alone at a time where it was nearly impossible to do so in America. Particularly known for his short stories and poetry, Poe often focused on tales of mystery and the macabre. It is perhaps appropriate, then, that circumstances surrounding Poe’s death remain mysterious and uncertain to this very day. Reportedly, Poe uttered the words "Lord help my poor soul." before his passing in 1849.

Although Jane Austen is widely recognized as an essential English novelist, her works were largely ignored during her own lifetime. She wrote anonymously, and was largely disregarded to the point of living in poverty. Her final words to her sister before her passing were a tragic "I want nothing but death."

Looking to brush up on the classics? Visit our online library at www.craveread.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more.