Sugar

Some days I feel like a reading automat. I mean, when I recall the day I realize that nothing happened except me reading.

My latest read was The Complete Adventures of Charlie and Mr Willy Wonka by Roald Dahl. I'm not familiar with Roald Dahl's work, though he is considered to be a big storyteller in the field of children's books. Personally, I don't often read children's books, and perhaps wouldn't have read it either if it weren't for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp and the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (Just found out that there was a 1971 version with Gene Wilder, whom I don't like, perhaps because of his films with Richard Pryor.) I had also read some nice rhymes by Dahl when choosing a book for a friend's birthday, something like the best of Dahl, I can't remember.
This book contains two volumes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. It didn't take long to read though as there were a lot of pictures by the illustrator Quentin Blake. The first book wasn't much surprise after the film, though Mr Wonka was a bit different here from how he was portrayed by Depp. There was nothing of the father-son relationship here, and no mention of Wonka's childhood.
The second book was first published in 1973, and was very much influenced by contemporary America, particularly space programmes and international relations. In this book Mr Wonka, Charlie, and his family find themselves up in space in the great glass elevator. They visit the first American space hotel, which looks like a giant sausage, where they meet slimey egg-shaped aliens and handsome American astronauts. Houston and Washington D.C. also appear in the story, which seemed to me as if Dahl was deliberately making fun of America.
In general, I liked the book very much, though probably the first story was more to my liking with all those yummie chocolates and fudges. As I was reading it I was dreaming of a mug of spicey hot chocolate, which I rewarded myself with last night, in the form of a homemade version with chili, clover, cinnamon, cocoa, ginger, vanilla sugar, and banana. I think it's amazing how this man could invent a whole new world. I liked the verses as well beacuse I'm really into clever rhymes and puns, such as when Mr Wonka says the only way to make the best whipped cream is whipping it by a whip.

P.S. Today I started Ének a búzamezőkről by Ferenc Móra, urged by my boyfriend who's just finished it.
P.P.S. Last night we watched Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Today I went to the cinema with two friends of mine and watched The Door, the new Szabó István film adapted from the novel by Magda Szabó. So at the moment I really don't know what to write about because there's so much to choose from.