Category Archives: Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday (February 28) – Fight Club

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Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books.

Here’s how it works:
  • Pick any bookish or literary-related media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago.
  • Write up a short summary (include the title, author, and cover art, if applicable) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
  • Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
  • Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list – or some other classic!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

My Throwback this week is…

Fight Club (1999) starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter

Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk

I had a hard day. This movie seemed appropriate. [Warning: This film is rated R, and contains alllll sorts of mature content – drugs, sex, violence, language. Please consider that when determining whether or not to watch it.]

I remember the first time I saw Fight Club. I was in college, and still trying to figure out exactly what my taste was. I watched chick flicks and action movies and Deep and Serious Films (spoiler: I didn’t wind up too keen on Deep and Serious Films). This movie was different from anything I’d seen. I wasn’t sure how to classify it. All I knew was that I loved it.

Fight Club follows an unnamed narrator (Norton) who starts faking ailments so he can crash various support groups as a cure for his insomnia. At one of these groups, he meets Marla (Bonham Carter), who is also crashing. They agree to stay away from each other. The narrator also crosses paths with Tyler Durden (Pitt), a businessman he met on an airplane, and they become friends. One night, outside a bar, Tyler tells the narrator to hit him. And he does. And they draw a crowd of other men who want to hit and be hit, and thus Fight Club is born. Tyler and the narrator also both develop a complicated relationship with Marla. Meanwhile, fight clubs have been spreading all across the country, and have morphed into an anti-materialist organization called Project Mayhem, whose exploits quickly escalate from misdemeanors into dangerous territory. The narrator has second thoughts, but Tyler is gung-ho, and their differing stances ultimately clash in an explosive and mind-bending final confrontation.

I will admit, I haven’t read the book, although I’ve meant to for years. I think the story is incredible, and honestly, I feel like not a month goes by where neither my husband nor I reference the rules of Fight Club. It’s one of those movies I don’t watch often, but when I do, it blows me away every time. If you’ve never seen it and like mind-bendy violent movies, check it out.*

This is a blog hop! Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!



*With, of course, the stipulation that if you are under 17, this will not cause angst between you and your parents, as it would have with mine if I had watched this as a young teen. I don’t want to be the cause of your family trauma.

Throwback Thursday (February 21) – Timeline

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Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books.

Here’s how it works:
  • Pick any bookish or literary-related media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago.
  • Write up a short summary (include the title, author, and cover art, if applicable) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
  • Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
  • Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list – or some other classic!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

My Throwback this week is…

Timeline by Michael Crichton

I know I feature Michael Crichton books a lot for Throwback Thursday, and that is for two reasons:

1. They comprise 50% of my reading material in high school and I can’t go back in time and make my past self read a wider variety of authors (the other 50% was John Grisham).

2. Michael Crichton books are awesome, as long as he sticks to hard sci-fi. When he branches out, things get…iffy.

So Timeline is — and I realize I say this a lot — one of my favorite Crichton novels (yes, I have about five different “favorite” Crichton novels. Deal with it). It’s got time travel and castles and medieval swordplay and Frenchmen. The basic premise is a team of modern scientists/archaeologists travel back in time — for science, because actually traveling to 14th-century France is more educational than excavating relics from 14th-century France — and wind up getting stuck there. Oops. And then of course they have to get back, but that is not a simple task, and in the meantime there is INTRIGUE and HORSEBACK RIDING and DID I MENTION THE SWORDPLAY?

It’s action-packed page-turning anachronistic fun, and I love it with my whole heart, or at least the part that loves sci-fi (which is, I’d say, a good 87% of it).

This is a blog hop! Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!



Also, we have a winner for our Throwback Thursday Prize Pack giveaway! If it’s you, check your email. You have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be chosen. Thanks for playing along!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Throwback Thursday (February 14) – The Notebook

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The giveaway is still going on! Put up a Throwback Thursday post this week to participate! Rafflecopter is in the bottom of this post, and you can see all the AWESOME Prize Packs you can pick from in this post!

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books.

Here’s how it works:
  • Pick any bookish or literary-related media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago.
  • Write up a short summary (include the title, author, and cover art, if applicable) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
  • Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
  • Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list – or some other classic!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

My Throwback this week is…

The Notebook (2004) based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks

It’s Valentine’s Day, so I thought I’d pick a sappy romantic movie, and what better movie than the one that made millions of women everywhere fall head over heels in obsession with Ryan Gosling? I actually did read the book first in this case, although it was in high school (read: years before the movie came out), so I don’t remember a ton about it, except that it gave me the sappy romantic sad feelings, and later I thought the movie did a pretty great job with the adaptation.

For those of you who don’t know, The Notebook follows the story of Noah and Allie, teenage sweethearts pulled apart by Allie’s controlling parents, only to find each other again years later after Allie is engaged to another man. We flip back and forth between the story of young Noah and Allie’s hot-and-cold romance, and an elderly couple in a nursing home, where a man named Duke is reading this story out of an old notebook to a woman with dementia. And of course, through the course of the story, we ultimately find out what happens to Allie and Noah, and to Duke and his friend.

This is my go-to happy-sappy-sobby movie, which my husband will never, ever watch with me.

Here, since it is Valentine’s Day and I like you, I have found you a sappy video to go along with it. With Taylor Swift, whose songs I often like against my better judgement.

Participating this week gives you another entry into our giveaway! Check out the awesome prizes, and earn those entries!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a blog hop! Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!


Throwback Thursday (February 7) + GIVEAWAY!

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It’s finally here! The giveaway Mandi and I have been teasing for a month! Are you EXCITED?

You should be.

Go to the bottom of my Throwback Thursday post to view the AWESOME prize packs, along with ways you can win — even if you’ve never participated in Throwback Thursday before!

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books.

Here’s how it works:
  • Pick any bookish or literary-related media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago.
  • Write up a short summary (include the title, author, and cover art, if applicable) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
  • Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
  • Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list – or some other classic!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

My Throwback this week is…

10 Things I Hate About You (1999) starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Larisa Oleynik, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Based on The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

It doesn’t get much better than Shakespeare — unless it’s an updated ’90s teen movie retelling of Shakespeare. Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) is smitten with Bianca (Oleynik), but the only problem is that she’s not allowed to date until her older sister – surly and anti-social Kat (Stiles) – decides she will also date. What’s a love-sick teen to do? Obviously, convince Bianca’s other, wealthier suitor to pay Aussie bad-boy Patrick (Ledger) to woo Kat. Once Kat is romantically entangled, Cameron will be free to swoop in and sweep Bianca off her feet. Except nothing ever goes according to plan.

10 Things is one of my absolute favorite modern literary adaptations. It’s witty, it’s fun, it’s cute and romantic, and it includes Heath Ledger performing Frankie Valli while accompanied by a marching band. If that alone isn’t enough to sell you on this movie…I don’t know what to tell you. You may need help.

And now the giveaway!

While we love all the great finds Throwback Thursday has brought to light, participation isn’t where we wish it was. This is probably mostly our fault – Mandi took a blogging break for a couple months, and then I took one immediately after she got back. No hosts = no meme. And also, for a while when it was just books, it was hard coming up with new ideas each week! After all, we can’t exactly go back in time and read more/better books, can we? But now we’re back, and it’s easier than ever to participate, so we figured it’s time to get the word out!

In keeping with the new multi-media approach to Throwback Thursday, we have a selection of 10 Book & Movie Throwback Prize Packs to pick from! All you have to do to enter to win is participate in Throwback Thursday or help us spread the word! If you win, you can select your choice of Prize Pack.

The fine print:

  • You must be 13 or older to enter.
  • This giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY! However, depending on where you live, we may have to do some finagling on the Prize Pack of your choice, depending on which one you choose and how much it costs to ship to your country. Don’t worry – we’re sure we can settle on something you’ll love!
  • Winner will be notified by email and will have up to 48 hours to respond. After that, your prize will be forfeit and another winner will be chosen.
  • If you win, you can let us know your preference for your movie, Blu-Ray or DVD. We will do either up to $15, subject to availability.
  • This giveaway will run TWO WEEKS (not one like we said before), giving you MULTIPLE chances to participate in Throwback Thursday, even if you never have before! The winner will be announced on our blogs February 21, 2013.
  • Enter via the Rafflecopter form below, and make sure to FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. We will be checking to make sure you actually participated.
  • Good luck!

The Prize Packs:

These are all Throwbacks (more than five years old) and we tried to pick from a variety of genres so that we’d have something for everyone! And of course, since we wanted BOTH prizes to be fun, we feel that all of these books and movies are worth a re-visit! Also, all of these movies are rated PG-13 or under.

Prize Pack #1


ORAND

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) OR Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)

We couldn’t pick which movie we liked more (okay, that’s a lie, we both like the ’71 version more…but on the other hand, Johnny Depp) to go with this book, so you get to pick.

Prize Pack #2

AND

Stardust (2007)/Stardust (Neil Gaiman)

Prize Pack #3

AND

Clueless (1995)/Emma (Jane Austen)

Prize Pack #4
AND

The Prestige (2006)/The Prestige (Christopher Priest)

Prize Pack #5
AND

The Princess Bride (1987)/The Princess Bride (William Goldman)

Prize Pack #6

AND

About a Boy (2002)/About a Boy (Nick Hornby)

Prize Pack #7

AND

Jurassic Park (1993)/Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton)

Prize Pack #8

AND

The Princess Diaries (2001)/The Princess Diaries (Meg Cabot)

 
Prize Pack #9

AND

Little Women (1994)/Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

Prize Pack #10

AND

The Bourne Identity (2002)/The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)

Hard choice isn’t it? Glad I don’t have to make it.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a blog hop! Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!


Throwback Thursday (January 31) – About a Boy

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So. Ahem. Apparently Mandi and I had a miscommunication. So if you thought the giveaway was going up/ending/continuing this week, that is not what’s happening. BUT DO NOT FEAR. Here’s what’s going to happen:

NEXT WEEK on our Throwback Thursday posts, we will put up a list of Throwback Book/DVD combo prize packs. No, I’m not telling you what the selection will be yet, but trust me, there will be something for everyone. There will be a Rafflecopter to enter. The giveaway will run for one week, and when it ends, the winner will get to pick the prize pack of their choice. 

ALL THROWBACK THURSDAY POSTS AND COMMENTS FROM JANUARY WILL QUALIFY AS ENTRIES. There will be space on the Rafflecopter to let us know how involved you’ve been in Throwback Thursday this month. The more you participated, the better your chances.

So what are you waiting for? Link up, and we can’t wait to unveil our prize packs next week!

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books.

It’s the nature of book blogging to focus mainly on new releases, but there are thousands of great books out there that haven’t seen the “New Releases” shelf in years. We hope to be able to bring attention to some older titles that may not be at the top of the current bestseller list, but still deserve a spot in your To-Be-Read pile.

You don’t have to be a book blogger to participate! You can put up a Throwback Thursday post on your non-bookish blog; or if you don’t have a blog at all, just use the comments to tell us about a book you remember fondly.

And Throwback Thursday is no longer limited to just books! Throwback Thursday is dedicated to shining the spotlight on any book-related old favorites that need to be remembered.What’s your favorite classic television show or movie adaptation? What about your favorite song? Was your favorite toy a character from a book?

Here’s how it works:

  • Pick any media (or non-media item) released more than 5 years ago. Remember to keep it book-related!
  • Write up a short summary (include the title, author, and cover art, if applicable) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
  • Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
  • Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list – or some other classic!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

My Throwback this week is…

About a Boy (2002), starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, and Nicholas Hoult.
Based on the book About a Boy by Nick Hornby.

I honestly can’t remember why I decided to watch this movie the first time, but I’m glad I did. Grant plays Will, a 38-year-old slacker who lives in off the royalties of a cheesy Christmas song his dad wrote, and who has never worked a day in his life. Will decides that it is a brilliant idea to date single mothers, because they will ultimately not want to commit to him and he will always be left looking like the good guy. It’s a terrible plan, and obviously it backfires. But before it crashes and burns, Will winds up crossing paths with Marcus (Hoult), a quirky and socially awkward twelve-year-old living with his depressed and sometimes-suicidal mother (Collette). To escape from his worries about his mom, Marcus foists an awkward-yet-endearing friendship upon a reluctant Will. And soon, although the last thing Will wanted in life was the trust of a weird little boy, he and Marcus learn they’re better together than they were apart.

I seriously love this movie. It’s a fabulous balance of quirky and sweet and awkward and witty and touching. It’s also the reason that it weirds me out now when I see Nicholas Hoult doing movies like X-Men and Warm Bodies and Jack the Giant Slayer. To me, he will always be Marcus Brewer, singing with his eyes closed. I love the humor, the friendship, the occasionally cringe-worthy awkwardness, and the British accents. Give it a try.

This is a blog hop! Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!