The slow and steady parade of Dwarves was perilously close to becoming an exercise in exasperation of the “alright already! They’re all well and good now where is Thorin?!” variety. And now here he is. My already incredibly high sense of excitement over this film has ratcheted up considerably.
I’m not sure I can take how brilliant this cast is.
North & South.
North & South.
North & South.
My favorite bloggers were talking about this BBC film, posting pictures of a handsome man, tempting me with talk about how wonderfully romantic North & South was. I drove myself crazy for weeks trying to track down a copy. And when I finally did…I was, quite simply, in love. With both the man and the film.
To say that I then devoured the man’s body of work would be an understatement. I instantly craved everything he’d ever done: film, serial shows, audiobooks, Cbeebies. Everything. And I got my hands on all of it as quickly as possible. My adoration grew with each new thing. And adoring Richard Armitage yielded more benefits than I imagined; he brought new, virtual friends into my life, and gave me something to rhapsodize over with those I was already blessed with. With his upcoming roles in Captain America and The Hobbit, they’ll be plenty more to talk about, I’m sure.
Shannon asked me if I wouldn’t mind posting a list of shows and what have you that Richard Armitage has appeared in; I was only too happy to oblige. But why do one post when you can do two? So here’s the first, about the shows and movies I’ve had the pleasure of watching our beloved Armitage in. [Note: The clips in this post might include spoilers if you haven't seen the movie or shows.]
Many of us are, of course, familiar with North and South. (If you’ve never seen it, get yourself a copy!) And so because no Richard Armitage post would be complete without a taste of Thornton…
*Swoon* So you’ve seen North and South; what next? Well, I immediately went for The Vicar of Dibley – A Holy Wholly Happy Ending. It’s Richard Armitage at his most unconsciously charming. He’s wearing sweaters, talking books and kissing, and making me very much want to be in Dawn French’s shoes. Did I mention it’s funny as all get out? This one is best experienced in its entirety, so I’ve chosen the clip that introduces Harry to the Vicar’s audience.
From there, I tracked down MI-5 Season 7 (or Spooks Series 7.) Armitage plays Lucas North, a man reacclimating himself to life outside of a Russian prison; he’s once again an active MI-5 agent, but his loyalty is in question. It took me by surprise just how much I enjoyed this show. This is a great clip, but it definitely contains a spoiler for this particular season.
After burning through all the MI-5 episodes I had I got my hands on The Impressionists (in which he plays a young Claude Monet) and watched the first two seasons of the BBC’s Robin Hood (which, if I’m honest, I didn’t care for so much, despite the fact that Armitage is appealing in his bad boy role.)
Part two will be up soon; I did this one quickly, and I’ll definitely need to take my time finding all of the things I haven’t yet seen. If you know of other shows/movies, chime in!
And just because, well, it’s Richard Armitage. Talking about kissing.
First: I’m going to BEA!!! And I am very, very excited! (Wow, that was actually rather tame. Inside I’m jumping up and down like a little kid in a bounce house.)
Next up, the winner of Gone, chosen by Random.org is: Tina!
Thanks to every one who read the interview and threw there names in the hate. I’ll have another giveaway coming up soon, so keep your eye out for that.
Ever aware of my tally (bottom left sidebar,) I thought to myself recently how it’s been a while since I’ve last blogged about Richard Armitage. Well, I can’t let that stand, and so here’s what I’ve got: a Guy of Gisborne necklace. (I made it as an example of a DIY photo necklace for one of my library’s teen programs.) Please forgive the bad lighting – fluorescent! – and the general blur of the picture.
But there he is, in all of his Gisbourne glowering glory! Note the lovely leaf beads, the coin, and the plastic crystals that adorn the string. (Perhaps not my finest crafting moment, but I had fun.)
And with this, I add another mark to the tally. I’ll be nearing double digits very, very soon. Any guesses on where the tally will stand at the end of the year…?
In Pursuing the Lioness Challenge news…Rhiannon is a total PLC rockstar! She’s been reviewing Pierce books and dropping the links back her
e. (I really need to pull it together and start the Immortals series myself.) You can find links to all of her reviews here.
I was walking by a store window the other day and saw the t-shirt on the right. Of course they were out of my size (that’s always the way it goes,) but isn’t it, well, awesome?
Since my French – meaning what little of it I picked up in high school – is now beyond rusty, I looked up “lire” and learned that it means to read. (Which makes an awful lot of sense, really, and works out better than “to carry,” which it might have been.)
And finally, a few books I received this week that I wanted to mention:
Sourcebooks was kind enough to send me Read, Remember, Recommend for Teens, a neat journal that offers suggested reading and allows you to keep track of what you’ve already read.
From Henry Holt I received Claire Harman’s Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World. I was on the waiting list at the library for this one, and so was thrilled to get a copy.
And in the middle there, Justin Cronin’s The Passage. I’ve heard so many good things about it; can’t wait to see what all the buzz is about!
This week I read Everlasting by Angie Frazier. I won’t have a review up for a while – the book isn’t being released until June – but I can say this: Oscar is wooonderful and I think you’ll be very happy to get to know him. Shaun Hutchinson, author of the forthcoming The Deathday Letter, wrote this about Everlasting: “Frazier’s world is gritty and beautiful and enchanting. EVERLASTING is the story of Camille Rowen’s adventure to find her mother, a map, and a mysterious treasure. A little bit Jane Austen and a little bit Indiana Jones, this book was fantastic.” That’s pretty much spot-on. More from me on this one closer to the release date.
My re
cent library haul is going to keep me busy, but did that stack of books stop me from running out to scoop up a copy of Deanna Raybourn’s The Dead Travel Fast? Nope. I hope to get to it soon, though maybe not too soon. Right now I’m reading Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag (it’s in that pile, so almost one down.)
The two dvd’s on the top of the stack actually make for a good segue to…
How I got to thinking while I was rewatching A Holy Wholly Happy Ending that of the books Harry (Richard Armitage) mentions, I’ve read none. Not John Le Carre, Birdsong*, or…who is the other author? I can never quite make out the name. And since I want to read North and South, and am listening to Sylvester…why not make it into a sort of Richard Armitage reading challenge? (I can see the button now. *grin*) Anything that is even remotely related to him is game. (This is the way my mind is working these days.) And since he is taking over my Sunday Salon posts, I can add another hatch mark to my tally. (Scroll down, left side.) I love that tally. 
I’m taking on another challenge, too: Clover, Bee, and Reverie: A Poetry Challenge. This April I hope to do quite a bit with poetry here on the blog, and while years ago I read collections all the time, I’ve not done so in a while; this challenge will hopefully get me back to it. Still, I’m going to aim low and go with the Couplet level and read at least two books of poetry.
On a completely unrelated note, we’ve begun to watch Deadwood. The swearing? Threw me off at first with its…constancy. Were they going for grit? Is it nothing more than an attempt at an honest representation of the rise of the American West? Or is it an HBO thing? I’m not sure how I feel about the show yet, but Timothy Olyphant’s character, Seth Bullock, is intriguing. Especially when he takes off his hat. (And by that I mean that it changes the dynamic of his character. Oddly enough.)
That’s it for me. How has your reading week been?
*I’m assuming the book referenced is by Sebastian Faulks. Any other ideas?
Don’t you hate being unable to settle on a book? I do.
Over the past four or five days I’ve picked up, read a few pages, and put down at least six to seven different books. And they’re all over the place in terms of genre: a few YA, a classic, a thriller, a paranormal romance. Looking at my shelves doesn’t help, either. If anything it makes it worse because there are so many there, unread, and I begin to feel overwhelmed. It’s not the worst problem to have, but still…
Plus there’ve been distractions. Someone with excellent taste gifted me with MI-5: Volume 7. I’ve been trying to sample the episodes, spread them out, extend the pleasure of watching Richard Armitage in something new-to-me, but I’m burning through them fast. Though typically not a fan of espionage or political television shows, this one has completely sucked me in – thanks to, in large part, Richard’s character, Lucas North. And while we’re on the subject, I also watched The Impressionists, and realized how little I know about the lives of some of the most renown artists ever. And since I’m still on the subject…Does this cover it, guys? Have I missed anything that he was in that I absolutely should not miss? (I’ve also watched {about a million times} his episodes of The Vicar of Dibley. Oh, and I have Shakespeare Retold and the Miss Marple thing he was in. And all three seasons of Robin Hood.) So, anything else? (That’s somewhat readily available here in the States?)
And look at how he hijacked this post! Moving back to books now. *grumble*
So, yup, can’t settle on anything. Which I really hope doesn’t last long. I just pulled Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo out of one of my piles; hopefully this will engage me from the start, putting an end to my can’t-read-anything-for-long streak.
Does this happen to you, too? And if so, what do you do to put an end to the restlessness?
In my previous post on crushes, I talked about my Classic crush: Gregory Peck. This time around it’s going to be about the crushes that are rather Obvious; the literary men that women worldwide have pinned many dreams on, men who are so appealing partly because women picked up their pens and made them so. Well, that, and they’re very, very easy on the eyes. I’m talking, in no particular order…
Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, Richard Armitage as Mr. Thornton, and Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightley.
I’ve yet to meet a woman who wasn’t somehow, in some way, affected by Colin Firth in a wet shirt, strolling the grounds of Pemberley. Me? That wet shirt was all well and good, but he wouldn’t have gotten to me if not for the gaze he leveled on Elizabeth as she played the piano and sang for an otherwise mostly unappreciative audience. What was even in that look? Longing? Admiration? Warmth? Whatever it was composed of, the combination was heady. And it kept me coming back for more. Now, I know there have been other Darcy’s, but for me, Colin is the one.
I’ve already posted about Richard Armitage as Mr. Thornton, but how could I not mention him here, again? How is it possible that I went through so many years not knowing about this movie, this character, this man? I’ve certainly been making up for lost time recently, but I’ll always remember that it started with North and South and four painfully beautiful words: “Look back at me.”
There’ve been other Mr.Knightley’s, and recently at that, but in my eyes there is only one: Jeremy Northam. To be honest, I can’t tell you if the rest of that adaptation of Emma was successful because Northam held my exclusive attention. That last proposal scene, oh, I’ve watched it over and again, and I never tire of his hesitance or the ridiculously sweet arch of his eyebrow (which he also used well as Ash in Possession.)
How about you? Do you have any Obvious crushes? Once again, name drop in the comments!
Richard Armitage (yes, yes, I know) reading a few bedtime stories. Adorably. Enjoy.
Goodnight, indeed.
Perhaps I’m the only one to do this (though surely not,) but…When I find something wonderful, be it a poem, song, or actor, I furiously search for and gobble up anything else related. I suppose you could call it obsession. Or preoccupation. Whatever you want to call it, I am guilty of it. That said, who, you might be asking yourself, has got me wrapped around his little finger now? Well, that would be Richard Armitage. (Saw that one coming, did you?)
I’m currently consuming season one of Robin Hood, have on order at the library MI-5 (season 7,) Shakespeare Retold, The Impressionists, The Vicar of Dibley, and…You get the idea. But this time I’ve sunk to new lows (soared to new heights?) and have done what I never thought I’d do…bought an audiobook.
Yes, a ton of people love audiobooks, but try as I might, they just don’t work for me. My mind wanders too easily, I guess. However, a commenter (Donna) mentioned that Armitage narrated Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester, and since I’ve been wanting to read one of her novels, and since Mr. Armitage has that Voice…I checked iTunes, saw that they had it available for purchase, and the next thing I know I’m listening to an audiobook on my iPod. And I’m pretty sure, if there had been people around me as I began to listen, they would have thought me an idiot. I couldn’t stop grinning. I even laughed. Not because there was anything particularly funny going on in the story, but because R.A.’s narration got the best of me. (Oh, his Voice is honey, no doubt about it, but some of the things he has to say, and the way he says them – priceless! And why didn’t someone think to put a camera in the booth while he read? I’d watch all of the almost five hours of the recording, and probably hit rewind to fully appreciate his…enunciation.) I’m only about an hour in, and as much as I’m enjoying this one, I think it’s solely, perhaps superficially, due to the Voice.
What about you? If you listen to audiobooks, how much of your enjoyment is based on the narration?
I’ve come into an embarrassment of riches recently! A few lovely bloggers have bestowed awards on me and my blog: Laurel has given me the Happy 101 Award, author Sheila A. Neilson the One Lovely Blog Award, and Jessica the Prolific Blogger Award. Thank you all so much! Each one made my day.
