At this rate, it won’t be long before we’re on part 3,105.
Continued from Books and Reading, Part 4.
Patience, Please
This site is under reconstruction and will look strange for a while. We regret the inconvenience.
At this rate, it won’t be long before we’re on part 3,105.
Continued from Books and Reading, Part 4.
No, it won’t, will it?
I got halted in my reading of Bluebeard to read publishing books, and then started reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret. (Which, by the way, has too many pictures and not enough text.)
I need to find this book.
This particular book was about a boy (who may have been named Jonathan). He was being drawn to this one grave/memorial, and in the end he went down a mineshaft and brought up with him the skeleton of a boy that had been missing for centuries/decades/a really long time. Only while he was down the mineshaft, the boy wasn’t dead at all, but alive, and they were trying to get out. I remember all sorts of details, and so does my mom, but not the title. In the morning, the coal ming boy and his two brothers and their dad left before the sun rose, and didn’t come back until after dark. The grave had the dad’s name and the names of the two older brothers, and then, in much smaller letters, almost like an afterthought, the name of the youngest boy. The cover was a darkish blue, with black silhouettes. In the end, the modern boy had a conversation with his mom. Does anyone know this book? Would you be able to identify it if I gave more details?
Yay books! Well of course it’s been mostly HP, but when the fourth got a bit boring i read a couple other books-An Acceptable Time (l’engle) and Shadow of the Hegemon (card) Neither re-reads, both first time. Both very good.
i’ve been on all the books and reading threads. ha! seniority.
3-ha! card rox. i am reading first meetings. very interesting. all the ende/bean stuff is amzing. and i read . trying out html isfun.
oh well. it didn’t work. that last prt was supposed to say “and i read Empire”.
4- You don’t actually go anywhere else.
6-well, theres no other place worth going. except music thread. where do you want me to go?
6-Well, the music thread too.
Books are happy things whee
Books, yay! Books that aren’t Harry Potter, double yay! I have nothing against the series, it’s just that it’s gotten old hearing only about HP lately. There are other good books out there!
2 – Aghhhh, that sounds so familiar yet I also cannot recall the title now! I haven’t actually read the book, but I’m 97% sure that I have seen it on the shelves, so I’ll look for it next time I’m at the library if no one has come up with the title by then.
I’m also seeking a book. I recall it being about a boy who goes through some sort of invisible wall to live in a house in a sort of alternate dimension. I think he lived there with a girl. I’m pretty sure there was a scene where he called his parents to tell them that he’d be staying, but they already knew. I also think there was a scene in which he went to the water and saw some strange fish and realized they were why no one went swimming at the house? I wish I could remember more, but it’s been years since I read it and now, though I’d like to read it again, the title and author escape me.
Lessee- I brought my library books with me- Kant, Nietzsche, a memoir of a high-class pimp, and some Francesca Lia Block.
I loveth Block’s stuff, btw.
9- *bites lip* I’m sorry, I have never heard of that in my life.
10- “I loveth” is not proper grammar.
(2) Alice — Your book sounds like “Kit’s Wilderness” by David Almond.
12- It isn’t. I’ve read Kit’s Wilderness, and it was good, but these are very different stories.
9. Eccentric the Afterthought: I really doubt this is it, but that sounds vaguely like Children of the Green Knowe. But I haven’t read it in a while, and actually i don’t know if i ever finished it. Just a guess.
14- It isn’t. I read The Children of Green Knowe recently, and it was nothing like that…
14 – I don’t think that’s it, but thanks anyway! I’m not really expecting to find this book since I hardly remember anything about it, but I figured I’d post what I remembered just in case.
Alice, was your book a “young adult” novel? That was the section where I found the book I think might be the one you described. I still don’t know the title, though, and I can’t go look for it until I get back from JCL convention (I leave tomorrow).
16- Yeah, probably.
I feel sad for the book I will read now that I have finished the fantastic HP! How could it ever dare compare?
i’m reading autobiography of malcom x. i dont really like his attitude. actually disagree with him on many subjects. i didn’t really expect to.
19-who?
20- Malcolm x? The black rights advocate? Is second only next to Martin Luther King Jr? “By all means necessary?”
If only King hadn’t been assassinated, they could have done wonders together. They were planning to meet after the “I have seen the Glory of the coming of the lord” speech (“I have been to the mountain top”).
Malcolm X died more than three years before King did.
21- I don’t think they had the same ideals and values. Malcolm wanted black supremacy and Martin wanted equality. Malcolm was all “black power” whereas Martin was all about making sure every race was on equal terms.
I liked that quote from him that went vaguely like “you should listen to king, because if you don’t, i’m the alternative”
that is horribly misremembered of course, but it’s the general idea.
(19) I started reading that in the bookstore the other day. I’ve been meaning to for a while. He had such a hard childhood. I guess I was a bit shocked by it because I’ve had such a nice, cushy life.
I read Frankenstein while I was at camp. It was ok, except he wouldn’t shut up about how miserable and depressed he was.
Has anyone here read The Monkey Wrench Gang or anything else by Edward Abbey?
23-yea, basically.
22- Maybe it was vice versa- they were planning to meet when Malcolm X died. I don’tknow. *does research.*
Ahhh. Now I do know!
Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, “Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged…. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy. Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can both declare Malcolm X their hero.”
The difference between Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X is that Malcolm X said that violence is an alternative. An example that actually happened was when a black man was arrested for ridiculous reasons by a known racist sheriff. Malcolm X decided to have a word. Dressed in a nice suit and tie, he confronted the sheriff in his office. The sherriff rudely asked why he should listen to a word of Malcolm X. Malcolm X told him to look out the window, where a fair number of Malcolm X’s followers, in nice suits and ties, stood standing in a line. Malcolm X made a gesture and the men instantly fell to attention, military style. I believe the imprisoned man was let free and cleared of all charges. I think his method wascrude and not as well respectable as King’s, but it was effective.
1964 at the founding rally of the OAAU he said,
“The time for you and me to allow ourselves to be brutalized nonviolently has passed. Be nonviolent only with those who are nonviolent to you. And when you can bring me a nonviolent racist, bring me a nonviolent segregationist, then I’ll get nonviolent. But don’t teach me to be nonviolent until you teach some of those crackers to be nonviolent.”[16]
In an interview with Gordon Parks in 1965, Malcolm revealed:
“I realized racism isn’t just a black and white problem. It’s brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another. Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant — the one who wanted to help the Muslims and the whites get together — and I told her there wasn’t a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I’ve lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [black] Muslim that I’m sorry for now. I was a zombie then — like all [black] Muslims — I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man’s entitled to make a fool of himself if he’s ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years. That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days — I’m glad to be free of them.”
After reading the entire Wiki article, I’m proud to say that I haven’t a clue about who was right- King or Malcolm X. Honest, don’t ask me.
27-maybe both were right in the same point-no one race/religion should be repressed because the others have more power-and wrong on different points(don’t ask me which points they were wrong on cause we’ll have to slog it out on HT)
well, i’m reading The Wanderer by sharon creech. very sad. sorta like walk two moons. she’s a brilliant author.
alice-i haven’t finished js&mn yet, but i’ll get there.
i’m also in the middle of the foundation books. gosh, they’re awe-inspiring. asimov is the demigod of sci-fi.
oh, i got my real cast put on my broken arm/wrist. its neon green. sweetness. word of advice, don’t run on fencetops.
29: I shall take that advice to heart, but please enlighten us on what this has to do with books.
Does anyone have a least favorite book? A book that is so vile and horrid that you want to set it on fire and laugh demoniacally as its hideousness is destroyed forever? Okay, so maybe i got a little carried away. I’d never actually burn a book…it seems wrong somehow. But i absolutely hated The Call of Wild by Jack London. HATED. It was unpleasant to read and had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Farnham’s Freehold, by Robert A. Heinlein. Sorry, Heinlein fans: even the Master was capable of writing junk.
My Best Books of All Time (not necessarily in any order, I just can’t rank them):
1) To Kill an Mockingbird
2) The Mysterious Benedict Society
3) Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4) Harry Potter 4, 6, and 7
5) Oh, what the heck, all the Harry Potter books! (Although 4, 6, and 7 are the best)
6) Marked
Anyone read any of these? I’ll post more if I can think of them!
Oh, yeah! 1984, too.
32- I wonder. Have I read HP? *racks brains* Oh, yes. I have. Sorry for the sarcasm, I just couldn’t retain it.
I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so happy! I found it! After two years of searching, and it was on the bottom shelf of the children’s section the WHOLE TIME! It’s called Jeremy Visick, and the reason I never found it before was because it was copper mining, not coal. I’ve already finished it.
It’s a good book, and I recommend it to everyone here.
On another not, I also got Wintersmith. I’ve been too busy reading Jeremy Visick to even pick it up yet, but when I’m done with Bluebeard, or maybe before, I certainly will.
I also got The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation. Has anyone else read it? Is it good?
30-try reading a book w/ one hand. extremely tough.
35-good for you! i’ll get it after i finish js&mn. btw, that book’s hilarious.
36-i usually do…i put my thumb and pinky on the inside of the book, and the other three fingers on the outside and then flip pages with my thumb
32- i love “To Kill a Mockingbird”
36- Isn’t it? ♥
36- I HAVE tried reading with one hand, when I need the other hand for something else (example: eating). It’s not till you need TWO hands for whatever else that it gets hard. Then I generally have to resort to my feet.
(36, 37, 40) I do that a lot in restaurants and it gets kind of tricky, especially if I’m trying to take notes as well. So my book usually ends up with an array of salt and pepper shakers or sweetener containers propping open the pages.
41- Yup.
i usually eat or something while i’m reading, or fiddle with my radio or back when i knew where my ipod was, skipped songs through shuffle or pull out loose threads in the blankets
back when i used to knit, i used to do that too while i read. that was tricky, because it required both hands. i would usually just prop it up on my knees and turn the pages with the needle.
i’m a horrible multitasker
This summer I have read quite a few of the famous “Neo-communist/new world order” books. I read 1984, Brave New World, Anthem, and Fahrenheit 451. The only sort of well-known one that I haven’t read that I can think of is Metropolis. Has anyone read that one? Was it good?
My top five list of favorite books:
1. 1984, George Orwell
2. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
3. Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
5. Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
That list actually surprises me, seeing as I just made it up.
I also had to read Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet, and Antigone for school.
Invariably I end up reading at night or in the car. At night I fall asleep in sort of the same position that I was reading in, but my elbows end up crushed under my chest. I must say it is a VERY odd feeling, having both arms fall asleep at the same time. I can lift them, but my hands end up falling back and knocking me in the head. Ugh.
That may be my longest post ever.
44-urgh, i hate anthem.
i think horse and his boy is my favorite CS Lewis book.
i took a bath today for the first time since a bajillion years ago, and read half of Carpe Jugulum before i realized the water had gone cold and my skin was all wrinkly.
11- I know. I tend to make up suffixes unnecessarily, it would have been equally likely of me to say something like “lovesies”, for example.
But if that’s the only thing you got from my little post, I don’t think my made-up word is the problem here.
I was going to do a list of my favorites, working off my myspace list, which is delightfully well-organized… but I decided, hell with that, I’ll post the whole thing.
So here we go:
Memoirs
Running With Scissors- Augusten Burroughs
Dry- Augusten Burroughs
Magical Thinking- Augusten Burroughs
Possible Side Effects- Augusten Burroughs
Me Talk Pretty One Day- David Sedaris
Naked- David Sedaris
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim- David Sedaris
Holidays on Ice- David Sedaris
Barrel Fever and Other Stories- David Sedaris
Goat- Brad Land
Without You- Anthony Rapp
The Glass Castle- Jeanette Walls
Fun Home- Alison Bechdel
Sickened- Julie Gregory
A Girl Named Zippy- Haven Kimmel
Non-Fiction
American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History’s Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers-Marc Hartzman
Children with Emerald Eyes: Histories of Extraordinary Boys and Girls- Mira Rothenberg
Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children- Michael Newton
Carny Folk- Francine Homberger
Virginia Woolf: A Biography- Quentin Bell
Doctors From Hell- Vivien Spitz
Evidence: NYPD Crime Scene Photographs, 1914-1918- Luc Sante
Fiction
The Best of Roald Dahl- Roald Dahl
I Capture the Castle- Dodie Smith
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister- Gregory Maguire
Wicked- Gregory Maguire
Mirror Mirror- Gregory Maguire
Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenides
Rant- Chuck Palahniuk
The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver
Children’s Books
The Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis
The Twin Books- Lucy Fitch Perkins
Various Roald Dahl Books- Roald Dahl
Other
Meditations- Marcus Aurelius
I read the first five chapters of HP7.
Since I havn’t read numbers three, four, five, and six, I won’t read anymore.
*is thougtful*
I finished HP7 in seven hours. Now I have nothing to read. Except Cry, the Beloved Country for school. It’s boring. Does anyone else read Dean Koontz novels?
48-nothing to read, just because you’ve finished hp? come on, there’s plenty to read (and some of it-oh, the blasphemy-better than hp)
i think i read a dean koontz once for book club. it was ok.
i got my new mini bookshelf
now i have to go buy more books to fill the rest of it. oh darn…
48- I read Velocity. It was pretty good, but a bit creepy. I don’t know, not my favorite, but still fun to read.
Hey, has anyone heard of Firebringer, by David Clement-Davis (I think thats his name)? That’s a cool book.
Sorry for the double post.
44 & 45 (& related) – I had to read Athem for school once. I thought it wasn’t a very good book, but I liked the concept and idea. I know many of my classmates hated it though.
51-I finally got around to finishing The Sight by the same author.
Not my favorite, but not bad. I’ll have to read Firebringer.
35-The Octavian book didn’t quite live up to my expectations (The story description sounded great) but I thought it was okay. I dunno if I would read the sequel, though.
I don’t know it I mentioned this before, but I read Animal Farm and 1984 sometime at the end of last month. I liked them, although they were (of course) rather depressing. I posted “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” on a door, because it is a awful/wonderful quote.
51- I didn’t like it much. It’s a total rip-off of Watership Down, only not as good IMHO. It also made me sob uncontrollably about five times, so that gives it negative-style points for me.
I need reccomendations for books after I finish Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (both by the great man himself, Douglas Adams).
55-didja read faerie wars? i’m currently reading it. very strange. and mainstream. not as cliche though….like magyk and flyte.
Who’s read the Westing Game??? FAVE BOOK EVA
I’ve read the Westing Game. The ending took me completely by surprise — which was fun. I like (good) surprises. I liked it a lot.
57- I LOVE The Westing Game! It’s so unpredictable.
I read The Westing Game. It was pretty good–I loved all of the characters! They made me smile.
I just finished The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Not the kind of book I’d usually read, but the style of writing was excellent.
westing game was completely uberawesome. really awesome ending.
25 – Now that you mention it, Frankenstein did go on a lot about that…but it was still a good book. One of my faves.
29 – What kind of fencetop did you run on? That sounds like so much fun! Although I’d probably break a whole lot of bones if I tried. :p
32 – I’ve read To Kill a Mockingbird. I thought I would hate it, but it was actually really good!
41 – Same here. I’ve given up reading at meals – too many of my Muses now have food and drink spattered on them.
43 – Whoa! You must be well coordinated! I couldn’t even knit when that was all I was concentrating on.
44 – I had to read 1984 for English last year. Did you find it scary or was that just me being paranoid as usual?
47 – Yes! I’m not the only one! I will read them…one of these days…maybe.
50 – That title sounds familiar; what was it about?
51 – It’s been awhile since I read that one, but it was enjoyable. I liked it better than The Sight.
55 – Both excellent books! I still like the Hitchhiker’s Guide best, though.
57 – I had to read Westing Game for book club and I’m glad; it turned out great! Did anyone see the movie? As usual, the book was better.
56-oh, oh, i’ve read it
62- is it really that good?
has anyone read Redwall? (Brian Jaques)
63- Yes, I have. They’re all the same.
57- It was fine. Not my favorite book, but something to read when desperate.
I finished The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The writing style was not exciting – it seemed pretty amateur – but I really, really want to turn it into a movie. Oh yes. And the pictures were nice. It would have been better if I was more interested in pictures – art doesn’t really speak to me. Not like words do.
I used to be obsessed with Redwall. In about second/third/fourth grade (Third/fourth mostly, I think), they were my favorite books, ever. I think (?) they were the first real long works of fantasy/fiction (Can they be put under that group?) that I ever read, so I kind of credit them as the books that really introduced me to the genre. I haven’t read one in a really long time, and many of the plots/events seemed kind of the same. I can’t deny that they were good, though.
66- Ditto. I forced all my friends to play Redwall with me. But when I tried to read one when I was about nine or ten, I just couldn’t get through it. It was Mattheis (sp?), I think, and was followed by Luke the Warrior (is that what it’s called? I think it’s Martin the Warrior, and something else about Luke. Anyway, it was about Luke. The Book of Luke? Luke Skywalker?) and another one, which I can’t remember. Now I haven’t picked up a Redwall book in years. But I wouldn’t object to reading Mariel of Redwall or Pearls of Lutra again. Those were my favorites.
I prefer the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. Haas anyone read the third, Voyage of Slaves?
The only problem with the aforementioned Castaways is the timeline. It began in 1623 (or something), and a mere five years later, in 1628 (or something) it was stated several times that Ben had been wandering for decades. (Not in those exact words.) Then, in Voyage of Slaves, which was set right after The Angel’s Command, it was 1704.
Those times are pretty much arbitrary, though.
redwall is a tv show too u know..
Redwalls good, but I think It’s become like too much. Now they have computer games, tv shows (appernetly) mugs, etc.
Liked It better when it was just a book.
Hey, by the way, just read Dune. totally cool! and if you’ve read Dune, should read Doon. It’s funny
I assume Doon is a parody of Dune. Has anyone ever read Bored of the Rings? I haven’t, but it’s supposed to be pretty funny. Bilbo’s counterpart is a little…inappropriately named, however.
70- I’ve heard of it, but I’ve also heard that it’s not appropriate.
oooh…. Westing game! I’ve read that six times!
So. questions.
List some favorite authors.
What was your favorite book in fifthgrade?
do you still like that book now?
List some favorite authors.
Charles de Lint!!!, Ellen Kushner, Neil Gaiman, Emma Bull, Shannon Hale, Joan Aiken, John Bellairs
What was your favorite book in fifthgrade?
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
do you still like that book now?
yes! I love it!
List some favorite authors.
Joan Aiken, Monica Furlong, Arthur Ransome, Philip Pullman, Susan Cooper.
What was your favorite book in fifth grade?
Oh dear, I don’t remember.
Do you still like that book now?
Most likely, since it was probably something like Wise Child.
I have such a hard time listing favorite authors! Half the time, I don’t even remember them, unless I’ve read a lot of their books. but I sometimes randomly remember their names, too. I don’t know.
Fifth grade was a pretty miserable year for me, in general. I do remember reading a lot of Madeline L’Engle, and I think I read The Year of the Sawdust Man then, too. I read lots of blech books, then, though, because my teacher had an awful collection of boring books in her classroom, for the most part. It was then, or in fourth grade, that I read all (or almost all) of the Doctor Doolittle books.
The Year of The Sawdust Man, probably, along with the L’Engle. Not so much the rest, although I’m sure the Doolittle books are still charming.
I just finished Stardust, which somebody told me about at camp. I really liked it (My favorite of Neil’s books, I think, of those I’ve read), although it was sad. Or bittersweet, anyway.
67-redwall gave me the impression of same plot with different characters. extremely oring. i read all 17, some of them more than twice. those were probably my favorite in fifth grade. now they are repulsive. i read all the castaways books. a lot better than redwall. and i don’t think the timeline was off. it started in 1620, then ben was suddenly in the 1800’s in england. the second book fills in that gap, and the third starts right after the second.
72-the blue sword was awesome!
Redwall bored me greatly. Stardust was very good. I gave it to my younger brother to read, b/c I forgot about the little sex part at the beginning, and he told me how could I have forgotten about that and he will never read anything I tell him to again. Yeah right, but other than that, it was good.
there was a kid at camp (college age) who was really fundamentalist Christian and said that he had read Redwall and it had caused him to be rebellious and turn against his parents so he stopped reading them, and some of his friends had read the entire series and it had caused their lives to become messed up.. this was in the same conversation where he was claiming that Harry Potter turned people against God. That was actually a really awkward breakfast time convo, come to think about it, seeing that the table consisted of at least two Jews and two athiests and random assorted Others.. yeah.
I love Neil Gaiman’s stuff – I really liked Stardust, just finished reading American Gods, loved Good Omens (which he did with Terry Pratchett), and really really liked the short story that was published in Cicada a while ago. And I like his Sandman comics, but I’ve only read Dream County and I haven’t managed to find the others yet.
77- Oh. Kay. Weird.
I read the Redwall series and I don’t think my life has been “messed up.” I guess he might have been unsettled by the violence, so I can understand that, but still…
I don’t think I’ve been messed up by Redwall either. I think he probably had Issues if he was saying stuff like that. They’re pretty harmless, if you ask me.
77. Lizzie: Okaaaay. That’s…odd. Of all the books i can think of that would cause rebellious behavior, the Redwall series would be pretty near the bottom of the list. I find the Redwall series amusing, but rather predictable. Actually the main reason i continue to read them is that i get a pleasant disoriented feeling after finishing them that i have never gotten with any other book, Jacques or otherwise. Is that really weird? Has anyone else ever experienced what, for lack of better words, i shall call a book-high? Oh crap, i’m addicted to Redwall.
Sorry to double-post, but GAPAs, don’t bother putting that last moniker on the “who’s here” page. I just misspelled my own name.
80- That’s really, really, weird. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that, no. When I get caught up in any kind of story, reading or writing, I feel like the rug’s been pulled out from under whenever there’s even a tiny plot twist that I failed to predict, but I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about.
80- cough it depends. Sometimes I’ll read a book and I sorta just get lost in it and my eyes are glued to the page and stuff. It’s sort of like a trance. Other times I finish reading a book and the trance hangs around and I’m sort of daydreaming about it for the rest of the day. Is that what you mean?
sorry to double post but has anybody ever read joy in the morning by betty smith? What about watership down? I’ve just started that
83. rabbity24: Maybe. It’s very difficult to describe.
84- WATERSHIP DOWN. Definitely. I love Watership Down.
84- No offense, but the Watership Down part was a sort of stupid question, as there was a pie war about whether Chuck Norris or Watership Down was better. However, it was a perfectly reasonable question to ask otherwise. And yes, I have read and liked Watership Down. I’m going to add “Watership” to Firefox’s dictionary now.
77-hahahaha! yeah, a lot of christians are like that. the leader of focus on the family sent a letter to all subscribers warning them not to watch star wars 1 cause in the ads it showed anakin w/ vaders shadow…..i watched it five times. your aquaintance was either messed up or maybe overly sensitive. i could understand harry potter….y’know, withcraft and all, but redwall is beyond me. btw, i need to start reading some hp to survive in culture today. its all anyone talks about. i read part of the first one. someday i’ll finish them.
i haven’t read watership down…someone reccommended it to me two threads ago…or was it three? wateva.
i am going to start the alvin watsisname series by orson scott card. anyone read it?
alice, i still am working on js&mn. i took a long break. very good so far. the pace has picked up now. i’m still busy on foundation, maximum ride, etc. etc.
I finished HP7 and I’m now bookless. I probably won’t get to go to the library until next weekend. In the meantime I’ve been reading all my old issues of Muse. I’m almost happy that the HP series is over because it was all people focused on. My list:(not in order)
A Wrinkle in Time
Twilight
Firestarter
Love Among the Walnuts
Wicked
Bronx Masquerade
And a lot more that I cant think of right now.
Worst Book Ever: Shane. Never ever ever ever read it. Ever. I had to for RDE. It’s the only bad thing about RDE. Oh yeah. RDE is Reading Discussion Enrichment. It’s fun for people like me who like to read.
I am eying the bookshelf on which lies Titus Groan, I book that has been being suggested to me for many, many, years.
Worst book series ever: Anne of Green Gables. The most sentimental piece of crap ever written. Who’s with me?
Titus Groan = ♥
91- I liked the first one. I stopped reading when she grew up.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra!
93-
I have a huge list of books I would reccomend, but I am too lazy to type all of them now, so here are just a few:
Herbie Brennan books (he is the author)
the Claidi journals
any book by T.A. Barron
HP of course
etc. etc. etc.
91-I tried to start reading it because my dad wants me to read it really badly, and he says I owe him since I made him read HP (but he enjoyed it) and I am having a really hard time with it becuase I dont like the authors style of writing.
Tomorrow I get to go to my favorite local bookstore (borders is opening across the street from it, so I am supporting our local one, I now hate borders, becuase not too many people I have asked care about supporting our local one…grrrrrr!, I know who owns it, she is awesom, and her bookstore is like one you would read about in a fantasy book.), what book should I get?
95- Something by Charles de Lint! Or The Blue Sword or The Hero and the Crown both by Robin McKinley if you’ve not read either. Or something by Diana Wynne Jones.
96-Thanks!!! What kind of books does Charles de Lint write? What is The Blue Sword, The Hero, or The Crown about? What kind of books does Diana Wynne Jones write? I will try to find them, just curious.
97- The Hero and The Crown is one book. And I think you would like DWJ, actually. Maybe try – *picks random DWJ book* – The Homeward Bounders. Though that might not be your style, and it wasn’t my favorite… You might like Fire and Hemlock, if you aren’t easily confused. Or maybe The Spellcoats, that was a good one. Or even the whole Dalemark Quartet. Yes. I think you would like Dalemark. The Spellcoats is the first one, then Cart and Cwidder, then Drowned Ammet, and last and best, The Crown of Dalemark.
The Anne of Green Gables series wasn’t bad. The books are definitely not amazing, and can be annoying, sometimes, but I remember enjoying them.
The Blue Sword was my favorite of the two, and there’s also The Door in the Hedge, which I think is by Robin McKinley also. Charles De Lint writes Urban Fantasy. I’ve read some DWJ, I think Fire and Hemlock was my favorite. I tried to read the one about the moving castle, and the hat apprentice (or whatever) but I just gave up.
I swear I’ve heard of Herbie Brennan before–isin’t he Irish? I’l have to look him up. I’ll have to look up Titus Groan, too.
Oh-
stupid, ahem, silly me. The Faerie Wars series… That reminds me of the Meanwhile Adventures series (is that what they’re called?), by Roddy Doyle (Yes, I KNOW they’re for little kids—-but they’re so funny!).Forgive me for the double post. *does double post apology dance*
With both Diana Wynne Jones and Robin McKinley, I suffered the problem of reading some of their more “adult” books when I was too young to understand them, and they kind of grossed me out a bit.. That being said, I like DWJ’s Chrestomanci books a whole lot, and Robin McKinley’s fairy-tale retellings.
Chrestomanci is ever so amusing.
I bought a book called “Crystal Doors” by Rebecca Moesta and Kevin J. Anderson. But on the back it says “This first novel in teh Crystal Doors trilogy is sure to captivate fans of Garth Nix and Diana Wynne Jones”.
94- ??
104- “Thus Spoke Zarathrustra”? What?
I am currently reading The Looking Glass Wars. Has anyone else read that book?
105- Mebbie it’s a book, instead of a random phrase. It is capitalized.
Books I Have Been Meaning to Read August Edition:
Neail Gaemen, Sandman
Terry Pratchet, The Diskworld series
Charles de Lint, Dream and MemoryNevermind, forgot the library doesn’t have it. GrrAnd others, but I am being kicked off the computer now. Farewell, yon thread. Till we meet again.
107-good book.
100-I think of them as the “mack” series or “rover” series. and did you know that roddey doyle is j.k. rowlings favertire arthor?
107- It’s Memory and Dream. Maybe that’s why you aren’t finding it? And it’s Neil Gaiman… not Gaemen
109-Really? Wow.
“We’re healthy and nutritious,
we’re tasty and malicious”
I read The Looking Glass Wars (Or at least the first book–isin’t there another one coming out? Seeing Redd, or something?). It was quite creative, I thought.
Or maybe it’s
“We’re tasty and nutritious,
We’re healthy and malicious”
Yeah, I think that’s it…
I want to read The Looking Glass Wars.
105- It’s a book. A very good book.
I’m still putting off my summer reading. Tess of the D’urbervilles and Great Expectations. Bleah.
Speaking of books, 77 days until NaNoWriMo begins!
How do you pronounce Gaiman?
i keep trying to download stardust off lmewire. but noone has it. i don’t want to go to the library to get it, but i sould like to read it. do you think the movie does good by it?
herbie brennon-i read the first faerie wars book. very good. not as mainstream and cliche, like all the other fantasy books today.
i’ve started reading harry potter. i’m halfway through the fourth one. i downloaded them all off limewire. even the deathly hallows. *kisses limewire*
i read the anne of green gables. i liked them. i think i read all seven. or is it six? anyway, they could be classified as humor, cause they are quite amusing.
116-I LOVE Herbie Brennan. And HP of course, my dad really wants me to read Anne Of Green Gables, but I just got a new book, and I am already buried in it. And, I read the first pages, didnt catch me like most books I have read. But who knows, it will probably get better.
hey purplefinch what esles are you reading?
Has anyone else noticed what I call the “summer fantasy lull?” It’s the enormous deficit of new fantasy books during July and August. All the good ones seem to come out in fall, spring and winter. Of course, there are exceptions, but it’s still weird.
Right now? Nothing really that’s funny in the way that those books are. I finished Nemesis by Isaac Asimov, and I’m telling myself that I should get started on A Christmas Carol and The Salmon of Doubt. Oh, and something about watery mirrors and stone lions, too, that I’m somewhere in the middle of.
I can never really find any books that are funny in quite the same way. H2G2 has some of the randomness, I guess. Maybe Terry Pratchett, like Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, or the Tiffany Aching books (although I only read Wintersmith). You’ve probably already read those. What do you recommend?
119-I haven’t, really (Because I go to my library much more than I go to bookstores, because I’m just miserly like that, and I like my librarians. Although I have to resist the temptation/urge/impulse to say that they’re my “favorite characters”. Real life is not a novel. Yet… Anyway…) but now that you mention it, there never seems to be any new fantasy books during the summer. I will have to investigate further.
117-The first time I tried to read Anne of Green Gables, I felt the same way. And then I tried again, awhile later, and it was a bit better. But it’s not a particularly engaging beginning, really.
Big post, for me. My biggest posts are always on the book threads…
115- I was wondering the same thing…
I say “Gay-mehn,” though I think I recall something about ‘ai’ eing pronounced like long ‘i.’
Re-reading The Blue Girl.
Read any and all books by the following authors:
P.G. Wodehouse
Douglas Adams (w00t!)
Any other British comedy authors
Dean Koontz
Neil Gaiman (I pronounce it ” gay’-mehn “)
Michael Crichton
J.R.R. Tolkien (especially The Silmarillion)
etc.
etc.
etc.
I say it “Guy-men”
I say “Gay-mehn” but “Guy-mehn” is probably equally, if not more, correct.
like e-a’s says it i think. i’m pretty sure he answered that somewhere on his blog. i’ll check
119- i have to agree with you. i’m dying for some sort of good fantasy book to come out, othe rthan the few that have.
117- sometimes you have to force yourself (dosent that sound horrid) to read the first few chapters, and if it still dosent strike you as a good read, put it down. i had to do that for Jane austen.
“How do you pronounce your last name? Is it gay-man or guy-man or something else?
It’s Gaym’n.”
FAQs at neilgaiman.com
127- Look for old ones. Dragonriders of Pern, anyone? Yummy old fantasy!
5 random recommendations I [and other MBers] have probably made before, because I know I try to get everyone to read this stuff:
Siddhartha
The Martian Chronicles
Nine Stories
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories
The Phantom Tollbooth
Google or Wikipedia search the titles for the authors, sorry… Also, I wish I remembered the html to underline stuff here, because italicizing (sp?) the titles isn’t exactly correct. Sigh.
I think I also advocated reading Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince It won’t take long to go through, and is absolutely brilliant in its simplicity. It’s also a matter of consequence ; )
Hermann Hesse, Ray Bradbury, J. D. Salinger, … Not sure about the other two, but curious and questioning was in a stage adaptation of The Phantom Tollbooth and undoubtedly knows who wrote it.
By the way, italicizing book titles is perfectly correct. Underlining them is a holdover from typewriters, which couldn’t print italics.
the Phantom Tollbooth is Norton Juster, I think? maybe?
I liked the dragonriders of pern, except Lessa kind of got on my nerves and also I was like 11 when I read it and I was kind of not ready for the sex scenes in some of them..
128- That’s how I say it! When I say it at all, I generally avoid it.
The Phantom Tollbooth is by Norman Juster.
129- Ah, Politicly Correct Bedtime Stories. Those are funny.
You italicize when typing, but underline when writing, is what our english teacher told us. Also, it’s very trickey to write in italics, if you can at all.
Also, underline books, but put short story titles or little things in quotes. Underline=shelves for large books, quotes=paper clips for small stories was an analogy (analogy? Is that the term I’m looking for?) I’ve heard.
We read The Phantom Toolbooth in 5th grade. I don’t remember who wrote it. But James Finn Garner wrote PCBS.
I liked the Dragonriders of Pern, although I only read the first two. I could never find Dragondrums, or whatever it was called.
I’ve read The Little Prince a couple of times. I love the quote at the end about the stars! I own it in English and in French, although I can’t really read my French copy yet…
I really want to read The Blue Girl, and Memory and Dream (Except the only cover of that one that I’ve seen is a bit…well…).
134- You mean the Harper Hall Trilogy. The Dragonriders of Pern are mostly for grownups, I think, though set in the same world. I stopped reading them after they got too much for adult readers. The Harper Hall trilogy was good, though.
135-Oh, whatever… XD
I found The Cat Who Walks through Walls, because somebody on MB mentioned it months and months ago, and I thought the title sounded really interesting. And I like it, so far, even though it’s science fiction, and that’s not my favorite genre. It’s kind of funny.
130- Really? Yay, that’s a relief!
I got a guide to Middle Earth languages yesterday. It seems to be in good order at the moment! ^_^
My favorite (and I mean FAVORITE) book, is Primal Tears by Kelpie Wilson. The Museblog isn’t an appropriate place to tell you about it, but I can give you an excerpt from my second most favorite book:
Destined for Destiny – The Unauthorized Autobiography of George W. Bush. It’s a political parody, and it is pee down your leg, hilarious.
CHAPTER 8 – The Clown Faced Zombie I Call My Wife
When a man reaches a certain age, he feels an urge to settle for the closest woman around who seems interested. I was blessed with the wonderful fortune of meeting a small town Texas woman, who had a dazed and clueless stare, reminisent of a goat, that had been struck between the eyes with a tire iron.
Later on in the same chapter he claims:
Laura became queen of the goblins at home. She lorded over our squealing stable family. The house was always impecable. And she was an expert at frightening servants, into doing a good job with their household duties. And at smiling silently, at our young girls, until they were creeped, into doing what she had asked.
DFD – Is available in hardcover, and audio-book format.
138-r u new? if soooo…….*pies with cherry chocolatle pie*
alice-i’m almost done with js@mn, somewhere in the 690’s. its awesome now…really exciting. did susana clark write any more books?
i’m going into public school this year, so i’ll be reading more classics. funny thing is that my english class is doing great expectations and as you know i just read it. now i’ll have to read it over. (blah)
i want to read stardust. now i just need to get over to the library….easier said than done. i haven’t been there in weeks.
No I’m not new. I just haven’t been here in a while. Nice to meet you though.
140-apologies! nice to meet u 2! sorry about the pie.
i finally finished jonothan strange and mr norrel last night!!!! its a frickin good read. thanx alice!
141-Isin’t it great? I did an english project on it a while ago. funfun. I didn’t like the ending, though.
I started Great Expectations, and it was funny.
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls turned out to be… interesting.
Some of Heinlein’s later books were reworkings of things he had written much earlier, when science-fiction novels were “tamer” than they later became. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls was based on The Door into Summer (which, among other things, predicted video games and Computer Assisted Design programs 30 years before they existed). But the in-jokes can make them hard to follow, and it can feel as if Heinlein was just writing for himself.
Ooh. Maybe I’ll start to read The Door into Summer and some of the earlier ones, then, to see if I can understand more. I was confused, sometimes.
141- Isn’t it just wonderful? *starry eyes* I must read it again sometime.
140- I think she’s working on a book of short stories called The Ladies of Grace Adieu, but she might have finished, or it might be by someone else. *looks up* It’s coming out on the third!
If you go to www. jonathanstrange .com without the spaces, I think you can read an extract. I haven’t read it, though. I should…
quote Worst book series ever: Anne of Green Gables. The most sentimental piece of crap ever written. Who’s with me? unquote
I loved Anne of Green Gables! True, Anne can be annoyingly melodramatic sometimes (I have red hair, so my life will be full of misery and woe forevah!!! :sob:), but other than that I identified with her a lot. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought of the quote that goes something like, “You learn from your mistakes. I keep on making so many mistakes, so surely I’ll run out of them some time and can’t make anymore?” because that is so true for me. XD
I recently read Fahrenheit 451. It’s SO badly written! Uuugh! True, the plot is good, and it’s message about how society is being destroyed by TV is an important one, but the author needed an editor in the worst possible way. There are so many run-on sentences and redundancies. I wasn’t surprised at all to read that he wrote it in only 9 days; it was clearly rushed.
A *good* book I’ve read recently is The Canon by Nancy Algiers. It’s a “whirligig tour through the beautiful basics of science”. Anyone who likes science would find this a funny and interesting read.
What I’m reading currently is “All Souls’ Rising”, which is about the slave revolt in Haiti. It’s so violent…X___X I can barely stomach it. Babies being impaled on bayonets are the *least* violent act to happen.
That’s Natalie Angier, science reporter for the New York Times.
I just got 3 more Diskworld books (read 2 last week, Small Gods and Interesting Times (finished IT the day before it apeared in an xkcd comic, actually)) and Stardust by Neil Gaiman (yes, the one the movie’s based off of). Yay!
I also read Eclipse.
i love pern! the harper one is my fav (masterharper of pern i think it’s called?) but i like the regular dragonrider ones, especially the first five or six. i have the entire series from my nana, who can’t read regular print books any more
i liked the door into summer. don’t think i’ve read the cat who walks through walls though. although i might have, it sounds vaguely familiar. heinlein’s one of those authors where i talk about all their books as “another heinlein book” or something similar. i don’t really remember a lot of the titles.
148-yay stardust! i just read that right before the movie came out actually. I’ve now read all his books except coraline, plus part of the sandman.
he did the script for beowulf, didn’t he? the new movie that’s coming out? we might go see that in brit lit, although josh and i will probably complicate things by being sixteen and fifteen, respectively (it’ll probably be rated r…). most of the class are seniors, so they don’t need permission or anything.
141-aaah, love that book. that’s one i stayed up all night reading, i think.
140-cedar! welcome back! still doing the movie stuff?
I just finished Sandman: A Game of You and loved it!
149- ooh, read Coraline, read Coraline! it’s one of my favorites. I read Stardust back in January.
I never got into the Pern books. I have a big book of… three of them I think? which I once started but then didn’t really get captivated by. I dunno.
Hey, Cedar! I remember when you were really excited about a movie and wrote in all caps.
!46- *pies* Welcome to Museblog, Sharon!
151- That should be 146.
150-coraline is rather elusive. it’s not at the library and i haven’t seen it at a single bookstore. i would request it at the library but often as not they’ve got comp issues that don’t let me log in or anything.
My mom’s reading Coraline. The first time in as long as I can remember that she’s actually read a fiction book.
Not really, but almost.
148-Ooh. I want to read Eclipse!
I thought Coraline was good. Creepy, but pretty good. I liked the mice! I enjoyed Stardust, more, though.
Anyone else read the Tales of the Western Shore books by Ursula K. LeGuin? Gifts, Voices, and Powers are the three out so far. Also, has anyone read the Earthsea books? And, um, has anyone got some ideas for science-related non-fiction, perhaps?
I’ve just heard that Madeleine L’Engle has died.
156- Why, do you have to write a paper?
No ideas, sorry.
Yes, I’ve read Earthsea. ‘Tis good.
157- Oh. Wow. What do I say?
157-what?Madelain? Madelain? MADELAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIN!(parady on metal gear solid)
I’m actually sad. I mourn…
157- yes, I know. I shall miss her.
I recommend Un Lun Dun by China Miéville.
161- What’s it about? (I put it on hold.)
And while I’m at it, why don’t I borrow Someplace to be Flying from the library?
Yes, I’ll do that. As if I’ll have any time to read something besides my health textbook.
I think my e key is breaking.
157-thats horrible! i loved her books! i read the whole wrinkle in time series over and over again. thats saddening….she was such a good author. extremely good morals. christian i think.
i finally read stardust. it was really a good adventure book. i loved it. i also got out the color of magic and the wee free men. discworld i think? i loved them! i have to get some more soon. i also read “the most dangerous game” short story and loved it. the birds was pretty cool also.
157-i heard…that’s sad :'(
well… I’ve been reading a couple books on eels, lately…mostly focusing on Great Lord Eel. Make of that what you will. I’m sure nobody understood that. i know i didn’t.
See? Stardust is good! and so are Someplace to be Flying and Un Lun Dun.
Un Lun Dun is sort of like Abarat in style. But only sort of.
I love Abarat!
120- Wait a minute. I just noticed you said, “And something about watery mirrors and stone lions” . . . I think you man the Dark Reflections trilogy. The Water Mirror and The Stone Light ar the only ones that are out right now. They’re okay. I like the story, but it’s so hard to get through the writing style. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s translated, or because I just don’t like it much.
158- Not to my knowledge. Reading log stuff. Bleh. I ended up with Sierra today, d’you think that counts as a science magazine?
I just read Stardust. Havn’t seen the movie yet though.
I liked Abarat, too! Especially the illustrations.
Has anyone read the sequel? Is it good?
170- Yeah! Days of Magic, Nights of War. And yes, it is good. When is the next sequel coming out? *prowls restlessly*
170- yes! does anyone know when the next one’s coming out? fall 2008 maybe?
I don’t know when it’s coming out, but I know what it’s called. Abarat: Absolute Midnight. And then there’s a fourth one, and a fifth. And they’re making a movie.
Coraline was a good book. If you want to go for the full creppy effect, do what I did and get it on cd from the library and listen to it at night in the dark all alone. And be about 9 years old. They do voices on the cd, and it’s a good book. I can still almost remember the songs the rats sang, what were they…
We have teeth and we have tails,
We have tails, we have eyes
We were here before you fell
And you will be here when we rise
And:
We have eyes and we have nerveses,
We have tails, we have teeth
You will get what you deserveses
When we rise from underneath
There was one more, too, about ‘we were here before you rose/and we will be here when you fall,’ and it was the first they sang in the book, but I don’t remember the first to lines. I can still hear their high-pitched voices singing it… creepy. But at the same time cool.
174- was that the one by stephen king? I haven’t read that on yet. Oh, no, wait. That’s the one where she has to sew buttons into her eyes! Haven’t read that one, either, but It doesn’t seem too scary.
175-no, neil gaiman. who is 100 times better than stephen king, btw. (ebeth is decidedly not a stephen king fan)
176-no, stephen king, who, I think, is much better, btw.(Man-gator is decidedly a stephen king fan)
Coraline? Stephen King? Or are you talking about a different book? because last time i checked it was definitely neil gaiman. And ebeth thinks that even if you, for some odd reason (ebeth suspects drugs) enjoy stephen king, you still can’t in good conscience say that he’s better than neil gaiman.
178-I’m not taking drugs, and I’m consicious, stephen king is better than neil gaiman. I now realize that I was thinking of the book Carrie, I think. If that’s how you say it, so never mind.
Coraline is amazing and definately not by Stephen King who is worse that Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman is just much more imaginative.
179- But it was Coraline with the button eyes.
I have never had Stephen Kind, and I never intend to read Stephen King.
167-I think so. I read the first, but I don’t want to read any more. I think it lost a bit in the translation (Wasn’t it originally in German?). But I loved the ideas the author had, such as stone lions.
I’ve never read Stephen King. I think I’d be too scared. But I’m reading some of Asimov’s mysteries, now.
king probably leads a horrible life. you have to be pretty messed up to write stuff that creepy. he even wrote a book about a duckboat driver going insane and killing everyone on the tour! talk about whacked. i started reading dreamcatcher, but the swears were too much.
gaiman, i have no comment on him as yet, cause i only read stardust.
183- I don’t think you need to be all that messed up. I think he’s just had some problems in his life. If he wasn’t one of the best horror writers, he’d probably be in a padded cell with his arms tied behind his back. He just needed a way to (at the risk of sounding all new-age therapist) express himself.
184-yeah….if he kept all that pent up in inside, he’d be on americas most wanted. btw, are you new on the blog? i don’t recognize you. not that i know everybody, but well….i do!
Has anyone here read Dune by Frank Herbert?
It’s an incredible book. I’m reading the sequel right now.
I was obsessed with Dune when I was 14. It was a great disappointment to realize that I probably was not the Kwisatz Haderach. I ate so much cinnamon that year…
hahahahaha
Can you recomend any other books to people who like Dune?
I recently finished Sister Emily’s Lightship by Jane Yolen. I loved many of the stories within it. (it was a short story collection) and would recommend it to my fellow MB-ers.
I just bought Making Money today (Terry Pratchett’s newest book-the sequel to Going Postal) and Hogfather. I’ve read almost every Discworld book now. They’re a few I haven’t been able to get my hands on.
Ooh, I just read Hogfather. And Thud. I plan to get Going Postal if I can, it has good reviews.
I really want to read more Discworld books… I’ve read about three.
I just finished Dragondawn my Anne Mccaffrey (Who I always thought is married to Peter Dickinson. But I think that’s Robin McKinley). And I finally finished The Omnivore’s Dilemma, too.
189-That sounds interesting!
My library has almost no Heinlein. But I will find more of his books!
I just finished Un Lun Dun. It was really good. Now I’m reading The Looking-Glass Wars.
192- Yeah, it’s Robin McKinley.
193- I looove the looking-glass wars.
i know a lot of you have read Hat full of Sky and the Wee Free me. is it just me or does Tiffany Aching remind anyone of Alice?
195- I have read both of them. And Wintersmith.
And I’m flattered that you think so.
Actually, yeah, she kind of does! Although I’ve only read the latest book in the Tiffany series.
I must read Un Lun Dun!
I agree, Kaggy!
I’m getting the newest Terry Pratchett today, for sure. I also think people should read Men At Arms, because it was amazing.
men at arms is love and choklit
i’ve read the newest pratchett! my mom bought it for me, but said i had to pay her back, but this was really late at night (like right before they closed, i was getting my brother a b-day present and i saw it) so we didn’t notice the price, and we got home and mom was like “are you sure you want this? it’s kind of $25” So i read it and then took it back, which i’m sure is highly immoral but who cares? it’s terry pratchett.
it wasn’t my favorite, but it was really good. don’t read it if you haven’t read going postal though. (or rather, do, just read going postal first)
also 183-yeah, we had to read on writing for ap l/c and it was basically the story of his life plus how to write like stephen king (like anybody would want to…). he had a big drugs/alcohol problem and managed to mess up his life in several other ways, although he always got through it (obviously, as he’s still around)
Un Lun Dun. I saw it a couple of times, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to get it. Is it good?
202- Very. It would have been nicer if I had been able to read faster, because a lot is lost if it takes over a week to read a book, but that was the fault of my busy life, not the book.
202- it’s awesome. Rather Abarat-ish. ^_^
Abarat
Stephen King
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Inheritance Trilogy
Twilight Series
Shadowmancer
Wormwood
His Dark Materials
Abhorsen Trilogy
Ranger’s Apprentice
Thomas Covenant
Dune Trilogy
The Sight
Spindle’s End
Dragonspell Series
and many, many more. I recommend all of the following to everyone, unless they’re too young or don’t like SciFi/Fantasy books.
I’ve only read the first book at the moment, though, but am defenitely giong to read more.
187 – Me toooo!!!!!
I love the Abarat series though, of all the series I’ve read it is definetely.
Alice, #1, i tote agree w. U. I just read that, and isabelle and hugo shoulda had a romance. But that’s just me. Anyway, it mite win an award!!!!
omigod, Kiara, if you like Twilight and co., you have GOT 2 read Maximum Ride!!! (James Patterson.) Right now i am deciding whether or not 2 get started on my pounds o homework, continue w. this, or continue reading Twilight. (again). I will do a complete synopsis 2 maxride in uno momento!
Maximum Ride Synopsis: (by the gal who is obsessed w.Iggy)
There are 6 kids. Their names are Angel (6) the Gasman (8) Nudge (11) Iggy (14) Fang (14) and Max (14). Oh yeah, and Total, the talking black scottie dog mix. They are all 98% human and 2% avian(except for Total). So they can fly. The whole plot is for them all trying to escape evil Erasers from the evil School, which have raised them all as an expiriment. Max is telling it from her perspective, and her job (according to the School) is to save the world. Sound up your alley? Well, READ IT THEN, you little stinker! I seriously almost like it better than Harry Potter. So read it. I mean it. Read it NOW!
206- Alice thinks that that would have, a) made it a lot worse, b) been ridiculous because Hugo at least was only twelve, and not such an old twelve either (think His Dark Materials). Also Alice is not terribly fond of romance, but that’s just her two cents.
207- Alice thinks that homework is a good idea if you have it. She is happy because she does not get a lot of homework and is excused from school tomorrow to go see a play. The only homework she has is science homework.
205-I read Abarat this summer and loved it.
Any Scalzi fans on the MB?
206/209: I just read that book a few days ago! Personally, I loved it because of all the drawings (and I’m all into that kind of drawing), and even though I despise romance (usually) I was disappointed that there wasn’t more between Hugo and Isabelle. Oh well. And yeah, totally, there really should have been more text. It was such a great plot, and yet so…short. It could have gone so much farther and more detailed or something.
I just read it yesterday, actually! I saw it at the library, and the title sounded familiar (From MB, of course), so I got it. I thought it was very creative. So I read it instead of doing my Bio, which I did at 10:00, instead.
If I was my English teacher, I would have my class read:
Dune
The Prisoner of Zenda
Something by Larry Durrell
We’re reaing Slaughterhouse 5 in englih. It’s pretty good so far. It just hit me that Kurt Vonnegut died in April…
214-I want to read that! Even though he makes me depressed.
I just got Dune out of the library, too, actually…
The next book in the Abarat series is called Absolute Midnight, and will be, according to Clive Barker, “the longest and darkest yet.” The fourth one is called Eternal, but my sources have no information on that one. Yet.
I’ve read Twilight and New Moon as well. They’re good, but not great. The imagery is very good, and that’s mainly why I read both of them (I’m not such a fan of romance). However, it gets a little too gooey sometimes. I swear she used “enunciated” one. And the whole vampires vs. werewolves thing reminds me of a bad movie I can’t think of right now. Underworld or something.
twilight? michelle’s obsessed with that! she’s gotten everybody to read it, but the book’s still being passed around. i haven’t read it yet though.
and hey, (217) i actually quite liked that movie. it was really good, for a horror movie anyway
If it’s the same movie. i don’t remember what it was called, but the description sounds the same
Yep, Underworld, the 2003 one (there are about five on wiki)
213-Also Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, simply because it’s a fabulous book.
214-You’re reading that book in SCHOOL?!?! Wow, your teachers must be really awesome.
215-His point is to make you depressed. Bluebeard, for example, was heartbreaking.
Hey, has anyone here ever noticed that Catch-22, The Forever War AND Old Man’s War are essentially the same book with varying degrees of technology and sex? They’re all about the Vietnam war. Oh, and ditto Apocalypse Now!.
Critics have pointed out that science-fiction novels are really about the time in which they’re written.
43- I like to knit and read at the same time so what I do is I bought a cheep little metal book stand to hold my book open so I can see it while I knit. Also it helps to have the book on the stand just a little above your kniting so that you can see it. Also never do anything that complicated or your sure to mess it up. Trust me.
57- I’ve read the Westing game it’s really good. Do you know what a color stripe candle looks like?
222- Not really? Then that makes Terraformed about 2007 . . . Now that doesn’t work!
I guess we’ve set a new record. I can see the headlines now . . . Science-Fiction Novel Written About Future
Although if you want to go really deep and hyper-analytical, you could say that it was “a desperate plea for help from the young people of our world, and a frightening prediction of the future.”
Oh right. Peter Dickinson’s a better environmentalist.
Oh, I’m sure Terraformed says something profound about the tortured soul of the Muse generation.
226- Muse got shortened? None of us EVER get to save the world? We really really really like to write sci-fi?
Now I think of it, there was a brief mention of Muse in the library on Luna…It was a book title: Muse Comes to an End–The Whole World Weeps. I can’t remember if we left it in or decided it was too much of in inside joke.
223-Yeah knitters-and-readers! I don’t have a nifty little stand though, i just use my knees. *pats knees* thank you knees! It isn’t often i get the chance to thank my knees.
Also, i’m reading the next book club book, which is Princess (colon something something something) It’s a true story about a princess in saudi arabia and the general treatment (or mistreatment) of women there. it’s really good so far. i’m about four chapters in.
222-Sort of, I guess. But they’re not all about the future. And the Callahan books have nothing to do with the time in which they were written.
I really like Farley Mowat’s new book. I actually just really like Farley Mowat. He’s hilarious.
224- any color you made the stripes I suppose. For Turtle’s, whatever color she would have used.
I finished Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s book, A Fistful of Sky today. It’s gorgeous and I loved it. hooray.
I found Promises to Keep, by Charles de Lint, in the library!
I should try knitting while reading…
Somebody mentioned a MB book club on the random thread. Is there any chance we could start one?
motion seconded
232- yes! we should have an MB book club thread! GAPAs?
How would it work?
Like the last one, except we’d pick something that was a bit less time-consuming and a bit of an easier read.
i’m going to nominate good omens by terry pratchett/neil gaiman since so many bloggers are fans of both (and also because it’s a fantastimical book)
232, 234 – That’s a really good idea! So we would pick a book, and then we’d all read it, then discuss it? That sounds awesome!
235- On the thread we would all choose a book, pause whilst everyone read it, then we’d discuss it in our posts. Then we’d find another. It’d be fun!
I agree, but I’m liable to not finish my book. I haven’t finished a book since Un Lun Dun, either because they were boring or something else.
I nominate -tries very hard not to say Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Everyone should read it, and I could discuss it twenty times over. Plus it would give me an excuzse to reread it.
239 (Alice) – Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell sounds like a great book to start with! I’ve been meaning to read it since you suggested it, and this will give me motivation to read it!
So, we’ll all read the book, then discuss it when we’re done. How long do you think it will take everyone to read it? Maybe we should wait about a week before discussing it?
ooh, jonathan strange is a good one! i’ve been meaning to re-read that too, actually. it is a bit long, but it’s exciting and not hard.
I’m extremely excited for spring when Cornelia Funke’s book, Inkdeath, comes out! I just found out like a week ago. She’s one of my favorite authors.
Thank you GAPAs!
I think I read the first two of the Ink trilogy…
242- Ooh, cool! *excited*
186,187-I love Dune. Personally. Mr. Coontz is not the Kwisatz Haderach because I am. I always felt really, really bad for Irulan. Because let’s face it, Chani could have been nicer.
236-Good Omens was amazing. So are Neil Gaiman’s books, but with less jokes per line.
Book discussion suggestions:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Good Omens
Starship Troopers
Right now I’m reading Magyk by Angie Sage. I really like it, but I hate that it says “for ages 9 and up” because I think books should be for ANY age. It’s really frustrating when they do that!
242-is that finally coming out? *is excited* i loved the first two
246- Yes, age restrictions like that are really annoying. They make me feel like I can’t read a book because it’s too young for me. Not that I let that stop me.
Board games too, i always get annoyed when board games say “for [age] and under/up” it’s like “well i’m playing this, so deal with it”
I also dislike the young adult section, because there are books there that could just be in the normal part of the library and there are books there that belong in the small-people section.
Yeah young adult rox. OH OH OH have you people read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer???
247: Me too! I can’t live that long without it, though. If only I lived in Germany and could read German. *sigh*
Some of the books in the young adult section are very good, and well-placed. Others are not-so-magnificent, in my opinion. Others belong in other places… It would certainly be helpful if the librarians read the books before classifying them (Yes, I know that’s impractical… but still…).
I have read both Twilight and New Moon.
I need recommendations on a biography/autobiography for Eeeenglish class. I haven’t read one in so long…
I have Dune out from the library! I haven’t started it yet, though.
Whattabout Eclipse???
253-Well, I’m reading it right now–I just borrowed it from a friend yesterday. I actually was kind of reading it in bed, which caused me to fall asleep in my clothes (including ballet tights and leotard), and wake up at around 5:30 with the nightstand light still on. But I’m at the part where she just graduated.
I also started Where Broken Glass Floats, for English.
And I really want to read The Wave, because I remember it being talked about on previous threads, and it sounded interesting. And I still need to find Horatio Hornblower, as well as the Three Musketeers…
The librarian at my middle/elementary school wouldn’t let you check out a book if it wasn’t “your age level,” or if she personally thought it wasn’t your age level. For example, she wouldn’t let one of my friends check out the Redwall books in third grade.
I hate your librarian.
I’m reading (at the moment)
1. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
2. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
3. Inkspell by Cornelia Funke (for the second time)
4. Pendragon #1 by… i forget
5. Maximum Ride 3 by James Patterson (for the billionth time)
6. Harry Potter 2 by Joanne Kristy Rowling (for the jillionth time)
256 – That’s why I never went to the school library. We have really fantastic librarians at the public libraries, plus more books.
I’ve read Inkspell, though I liked Inkheart a lot better. I’m sort of anti-sequel. Harry Potter 2 was my least favorite one of the series, so I think I’ve only read that one thrice. I’ve read all the others many, many more times.
I didn’t like Inkspell near as much as Inkheart, either. I feel like she ruined some of the characters.
I think sequels are so unpredictable. Sometimes they are wonderful and sometimes the author would have been better just leaving the first book as is. But if I really like a book I’m always thrilled that there is a sequel, you know? Yeah.
255- *her envy of Pan’s school decreases* I read Redwall in third grade. In fact, third and fourth grades were the only time I really liked them.
Re: sequels- Most of them are just “meh” but some can be really good. I’ve only read about two that were actually better than the first book.
259- This is my observation of the Redwall series.
Trilogy Era: Redwall, Mossflower and Mattimeo were basically experimental. Jacques was figuring out how his universe fit together. Thus, those aren’t really the best.
Golden Age: Mariel of Redwall onward, he was really hitting his stride. They plateaued at about The Bellmaker and continued till Lord Brocktree.
Great Decline: Began at Taggerung and continued to Rakkety Tam. A few of them shone, but those were just the green flash in the sunset.
Junk Era: High Rhulain onwards. I didn’t like HR much, and I read the first two chapters of Eulalia before putting it down in disgust.
Conclusion: He should have ended the series with Lord Brocktree.
259 (Alice) – no, that was my elementary/middle school. You envy my high school, I believe.
Has anyone read the sequel to Holes? (Small Steps). I hated it..
249-I hate “girl books” like, hmm, Gossip Girl (never understood), Georgia Nicholson (annoying), Princess Diaries (burn! padlock!!!) etc. I mean, come on. Also sports books.
254-Dumas, pere o fils, is great. The Three Musketeers was awesome, even in English, but don’t read Castle Eppstein unless you really want to. It was way creepy/depressing/sentimental/horribly complicated/annoyingly footnoted/really, really, good.
260-Wrong. He should have ended the series with me adopting Lord Brocktree.
261-I didn’t read Holes.
Mm, incidentally raise your hand if you snorted milk out of your nose when reading the review of John Scalzi’s book that characterised it, unforgettably, as mixing “the bland and the objectionable.” OK, so it basically was The Forever War+tons and tons of unnecessarily awkward sex, but that was way harsh. And way amusing.
I like Honor Harrington. And CJ Cherryh. And Roger Zelazny. Divlish the Damned, which I finally got my little paws on, was AMAZING.
I read Holes and Small Steps, and I never really saw the greatness in them that teachers and the like adored. I was, at first, terrified of Holes when I first read it (okay, I was really little) because of the part w/ the lizards.
You know how YKM said that she was addicted to the Redwall series? Well, I’ve discovered I’m the same way… With The Little Princess, by the author of The Secret Garden. *GASP* Just don’t ask…
I also read Catcher in the Rye, which made me feel delightfully antisocial.
I read Where The Wind Blows by James Patterson (which is the precursor to Maximum Ride) and it was REALLY good. But it was mostly Frannie, Kit, and Max. No flock.
260- Yup, that’s pretty much the sum of it.
261- *envy goes up another two notches*
No, I didn’t read Small Steps.
NO FLOCK??? That’s sad. They’re making a movie [exclamation points]
I kind of liked INkspell better than Inkheart. ‘cept Meg should realise there’s a life after that guy whose name begins with an F [can’t spell it]