. . . are your thoughts on the upcoming adaptation of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, which stars Brendan Frasier et al?

I read the synopsis from several online resources, and I have to say that the Jules Verne connection seems very very forced, for me. For one thing: the way most synopses portray the actual entry into Mt. Sneffels seems very haphazard, not in any way as well-thought out as Verne’s original rendition of the descent (wherein they had to go down the volcano at such a given time so that they could actually find the right tunnel that would eventually lead into the bowels of the earth).

As a matter of fact, there isn’t even any mention of Mt. Sneffels. The entry and exit points remain the same - Iceland and Italy, to be exact - but as the book itself says, there’s a large amount of active and inactive volcanoes in Iceland - what’s stopping them from picking another entry point for the plot?

Also, if you’re going to make an adaptation of a book, why should you include the said book itself as a plot device? I mean, get this: Brendan Frasier is a scientist, who finds a copy of the old sci-fi book by Jules Verne, with notes made by his (Frasier’s) brother that eventually leads to them falling into the volcano and traveling to the center of the Earth. Couldn’t they have used a more convincing piece of literature, in the same vein as Frasier’s The Mummy series, to get things rolling?

The script sounds lousy. And if the script’s lousy, no matter what 3-D effects they throw at me, I am sure to be disappointed.

My god. I was the insanely lucky recipient of three fantastic books this blessed day. If you check the title of this blog, you’ll see that I dare call it "The Reviewer’s Nook;" so technically, it goes to follow that I love it when people give me books. Any books at all. Seriously.

Here are the books that I got today:

1. Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day. Thomas Pynchon was a master American fictionist, and I am very very glad to announce that I am now a proud owner of two of his novels.

2. Jean-Dominique Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This book was written by a stroke victim who could  only turn his head by ninety degrees and blink his left eye.

3. Jim Butcher’s Grave Peril. The third book in the Dresden Files.

If only I didn’t have so many books waiting to be read, I’d get started on one of these right away. As it is, I have around . . . five? Six? books queued.

Sigh.