Geek, Not Greek

It's time I got truly geeked out again - and by truly geeked out I mean obsessing over things that will garner absolutely NO respect, probably a lot of ridicule, and get me no closer to any academic degree.

Here is the poster of Studio Ghibli's upcoming film, an adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin's celebrated A Wizard of Earthsea:

Le Guin's trilogy was not my favorite...partly because "Ged" as the hero's name produced some complication when I read it aloud to M. Pronouncing it with a "guh" was weird, but as "Jed" it was even worse, like I should say, "Jed, whay doncha step out tuh the cow shed and pick me some cowcumbers." But, it will be "Geddo" in Japanese. Now that I think about it, the series seems especially amenable to Japanese adaptation, i.e. much of it makes no rational sense. I often get that feeling reading Japanese literature, like Banana Yamamoto's books: "This metaphor...makes no sense WHATSOEVER!"

You know what would be cool (this in my geekiest voice) is Studio Ghibli doing The Dark is Rising or Greenwitch - or The Grey King. While I'm at it, here is a list of my most beloved children's books that you MUST read now as an adult. I LOVE children's books, you know. I have been retroactively enriching M's childhood by reading these aloud to him (yes, I have read all these aloud to him*):

The Dark is Rising series
The Wind in the Willows
Anne of Green Gables series
Danny, the Champion of the World
The Long Secret
Fom the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
A Cricket in Times Square series
A House with a Clock in Its Walls series

And then those most people class as children's books but aren't really:
Watership Down
The Lord of the Rings
Ender's Game
The Once and Future King

*No, we don't just read children's books. In case you're curious, I've also read M:
Middlemarch
The House of Mirth
Jane Eyre
etc. Yes, I do all the reading because I can't sit still listening.