Cover Love Thursday: Emily of New Moon

This series is one of my favorites of all time. It is by one of my favorite authors and it's been on my mind a lot recently. First, because I just re-read them. Second, the reason I re-read them is because I am doing my thesis on the trilogy.

I am SO. Excited.

I love this cover. I really do. But as I was doing this post, I began to wonder. What would this cover look like if it were being published today? As I was browsing for the cover picture, I came across this version that was just published this year.

I'm sorry, but no. no. and more no. This cover misses the charm and childlike simplicity and wonder of the character that is Emily. She looks like some sort of tragic heroine, not an eleven year old girl with slightly pointed ears, a massive imagination, and a heart of delight in the world around her.

So what do you think? Which cover would make you pick up the book? Have you read these books? WHY NOT?! :) Do you completely disagree with me and think that I'm rude for being so emphatic? :P

Random Things That Make Me Happy

I saw Joan has done a couple of these and some other blogs I have popped onto, so I decided to do my own. I will do somewhere between 5 and 10 and will exclude obvious things like Lost and Family and Books to the more obscure things that most people don't know about me.

1. Ever After - I tend to forget this movie when I am naming my favorites, but it is my all time feel-good movie. I absolutely adore the sound track, too and put it on when I am stressed and it almost immediately soothes me.

2. Chicken - Yes, you read that right. I love chicken. I could eat chicken every single day and never be tired of it. I had some for dinner tonight. It was delicious. mmmmmmm

3. Lemony Snicket - I love the Series of Unfortunate Events and every other bit of anything at all loosely related to Lemony Snicket. I am minorly obsessed with it. I am very sad that the series is over. I signed up for the e-mail updates and have all of them saved in their own Lemony Snicket folder.

4. Classic Pooh - Makes me happy just thinking about it. I really like the classic stories and poems done by Milne, with the illustrations by Shepard. I have quite a collection of knick knacks, books and other assorted items. I visited Harrod's when I went to London because it is the store where A. A. Milne bought the original Pooh bear for his son.

5. Seattle's Best Whipped Cream - I am not a big whipped cream fan. Most of the time I can't stand the stuff (Cool Whip is another story all together) but I love Seattle's Best whipped cream. I could eat an entire cup full of it by itself. Mmmmmmmmm...

6. Pens - I like pens. Colored pens, felt tip pens, ball point pens, marker pens, highlighter pens, gel pens. They all give me a tingly feeling inside.

7. Calenders - I currently have 6 calendars around my room. My bedroom. My one small room. What is there not to like?! It's like a poster that changes every month! How amazing is that!? Or in the case of the day by day ones, that changes every DAY! Calendars I currently have: Lost (duh), Classic Pooh (see #4), New Moon (Yes, I am one of THOSE people. No, I am not obsessed or crazy. No, I cannot stand Edward), Dilbert day by day (This mimics my job WAY too often), one of those funeral home calendars that they send our church every year (with the funeral home advertisement cut off. It's really pretty pictures of landscapes with Bible verses- pretty!), Play With Your Food (amazing scenes made entirely out of fruits and vegetables. It inspired me and my sister to create an entire story).

8. Blogging - I never planned to do this. I opened an account simply so I could post on Nikki Stafford's blog. Then this empty space was just sitting here calling me, so I thought, sure I could post a couple things. And I wrote about Lost and about books and then about other random stuff and now, if a week passes where I haven't written it kind of makes me sad. Who cares that no one reads the stuff (Okay, Blam and Joan and AchingHope, you aren't no one), I read it and I write it and I have fun with it and that's all that matters to me :)

9. Pictures - photographs, paintings, drawings, posters, whatever I love them all! Every square inch of wall in my room is plastered with frames, posters, pictures and other random items. I am the reason we have stuff hanging in the living room, dining room, hallway and other places around the house. I like creating them and displaying them.

10. L. M. Montgomery - Probably my all time favorite author. She is know for writing Anne of Green Gables but her scope was so much larger. I love some of her lesser known works the most. She is a serious contender for a thesis (once I get to that point). I have so many favorite books of hers, but one of the top ones is definitely Jane of Lantern Hill. It amazes me how she can create an entire, captivating story built out of simple every day moments. There is nothing earth shattering in her plots. No major villains, few major tragedies, but her characters live and breathe in a way that makes me immensely jealous as an author. There are times that I read something she wrote so long ago that still catches me up in emotion and thrill and I despair that I will never write a sentence worth publishing. But it also pushes me to keep going, to strive, to never think anything is beneath writing about. One of my life dreams is to have the chance to go to Prince Edward Island and visit all the places she wrote about.

So there you have it, 10 random things that make me smile. :)