...no.

Gooey as in warm, fresh out of the oven, and not burnt.

In preparation for the movie, I’m probably going to read Alice in Wonderland next week.

Just finished Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider: Crocodile Tears. Wasn’t bad at all.

Black Powder War was excellent, and my favorite in the series so far. :D Unfortunately, I don’t have the rest of the books in the series. D:

Reading Robin Mckinley's Chalice. I don't understand--normally I devour her books whole (Beauty, Spindle's End), but this book is the most plotless, characterless, pointless thing I've read in a while. The characters are way flat, and seem to have no life outside of the story. James Avery said in How to Write a Damn Good Novel that a book should always read like a window into the character's life--it should be clear that the character had a past, and will have a future, before and after the book. Not so here. *end rant*

I just finished The Titan’s Curse yesterday. I have to hold off on the last two until I finish The Kite Runner, which we are starting in English tomorrow. If it’s good, I should finish pretty quickly and get back to Percy Jackson killing monsters.

Just finished Candide. It was bloody brilliant.

Lanark may be one of the most bizarre books I have ever read. If you google it, the cover is NSFW.

Reading Heart of Darkness for school. It is very thematic.

Just finished The Midnight Mayor. Great book, fantastic characterization and really, really original magic.

On the other hand, we have The Swordbearer by Glen Cook, which has an interesting premise (evil Excalibur turns wielder slowly evil) but turned out to be a really, really stereotypical high fantasy, complete with bad characters and the most dense government in the world.

I’m reading selcted essays of Voltaire on Religion. He’s a genius.

I’m currently reading Blaze of Glory by Michael Pryor.

Before that, I was reading Cherub: Recruit. It’s a very good book! Can’t wait to read the next volume.

And before THAT, I was reading Samurai Kids. It was alright.

For the first time in my school life, I have to read a book for essay. It’s called I Am David. It’s a meh book.

I just finished The Kite Runner. It was good. I’m DVRing the movie to watch on HBO on Tuesday.

I just finished Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, by Beth Fantaskey. Er. Yeah, I checked that out of the library in a moment of weakness. And despite its awful title, it’s not actually half bad—think Twilight with basically its main problems fixed/made at least a little better. Like there’s the coming-into-her-bedroom while she sleeps thing—but she absolutely flips out at him. And the vampires don’t sparkle. There’s the whole self-conflicted-self-denying-loathing-emo-angst that Edward displays, except for actually better reasons, in my opinion (he’s an orphan because his parents were staked in a mob riot when he was little, so he was raised by his uncles, who abused him growing up. And then he kills his uncle. So yeah).

Oh, and it, y’know, realises that Heathcliff and Cathy’s relationship in Wuthering Heights is thoroughly NOT HEALTHY.

Ahem. All in all, very Twilight-esque, but not half bad. Granted, I just finished it five minutes ago, I might change my mind in a couple days.

Night made me cry the first time I read it. And the second time, too.

Night made me cry the first time I read it. And the second time, too.

I cried, too. But the most depressing Holcaust book I’ve read (aside from Maus) is Dear God, Have You Ever Gone Hungry, by Joseph Bau, a man snuck over to the woman’s camp to marry, and survived beacuse his wife managed to get his name on Oskar Schindler’s list.
He illustrated the book with line drawings, like this:

It was quite horrific, but very good. Sucks that it didn’t get much attention.

Oh, that reminds me, I really want to read Schindler’s Ark. Has anyone read it?

I have! It’s a rather crushing book, though not as heartbreaking as the movie. It is definately good, though.

I have! It’s a rather crushing book, though not as heartbreaking as the movie. It is definately good, though.

I need to order is from Barnes and Noble. I really want to read the book after seeing the movie.

I haven’t come close to crying, except for when I finish The Amber Spyglass, but it was a different feeling with Maus.

I guess so. Maus was the book that made me feel sick and depressed to read it and yet I stayed up all night reading, not being able to put it down.

I have not, but I might in the future since I liked The Kite Runner. Is it good?

It’s like the Kite Runner, except it deals with the way women are treated in Afghani culture. It’s less focused on the whole ethnic group thing (like how a main point of the Kite Runner was that Hassan was Hazara) and more on how much men can get away with doing to women. I found it just as good.

Here’s a piece of advice: don’t read The Good Soldier Švejk. The author takes almost every opportunity to have his characters tell page long anecdotes that have no purpose for being there except to take up space. It was interresting in a Forest Gump-y way for the first couple hundred pages, but after about 500 pages, it gets annoying.

Currently re-reading Pride and Prejudice. :D

I just saw a commercial for Fang, which is apparently the newest book in the Maximum Ride series. Focusing on the relationship between Max and Fang.

>.< Wham Wham Wham Wham Wham

I started The Book Thief yesterday. So far, so good.

House of Leaves.

That, and Faulkner are on my list. I need some mindscrew-literature.

I completely gave up on finishing Švejk last week, so I’ve been reading Soul Music. Terry Pratchett is histarical, as always.

Now, The Stand. Finally finished. What are you all waiting for? Get out there, buy it, and read it.

Undoubtedly.

I just saw a commercial for Fang, which is apparently the newest book in the Maximum Ride series. Focusing on the relationship between Max and Fang.

You just murdered my hope, because ‘Fax’ is a demon escaped from hell.

*From hell.*

I started The Book Thief yesterday. So far, so good.

I loooove that book.

I’m about 100 pages into Terry Pratchett’s Nation, and it’s awesome.

I just started The Storyteller’s Daughter by Cameron Dokey today, and I’m already halfway through. Easy read, but I’ve already fallen in love with it.

I’m reading 1984; it’s quite interesting.

I’m reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’engle and so far I think it’s too sudden. Too much info all at once and half of it unexplained.

I agree. They set them up to be pseudo siblings, and then they’re all over each. It’s just icky and wrong. Plus, it’s very annoying, and the romance is sort of out of place for the storyline, as are all plots of the books after the third one, which is why I won’t be reading them anymore.

I heard Fang gets even more emo and leaves. So, I’ll be reading it for that! <3 the death of Fang. Or his exclusion in anything. And, like, I want to see some Iggy. GRRR.

Aye. The global warming soapboxing is annoying. I may spork it :D

FIRST I MUST OBTAIN A COPY.

BUT FIRST TO PAY MY FINE!

blushes

Damn the Salem Witch trials for being so interesting. It’s only the second time I have ever had to pay a fine in my 16 years…

I am ashamed.

I read some god-awful supernatural romance for the Lulz.

But got no Lulz. ;_;

It was a friends novel.

I paid nothing.

BUT MY SOUL IS FOREVER DEAD.

Speaking of Steinbeck, I just read Of Mice and Men. I liked it, but didn’t see anything special…until the end.

…until the end.

Yep.

Fang(character) is more tolerable than Max. She is such a mary sue.

Max is a total Sue. :p To be honest, I actually like Iggy and Gazzy and I kinda like Angel, too, but not a whole lot. :D But hey, what am I supposed to do, eh? XD

If you haven’t read it yet, go to your local library and pick up The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones. Set up like a guidebook/ encyclopedia, it’s essentially a hilarious sporking of all the high fantasy tropes so many authors fall back on. For example:

Innkeepers are all so alike that the Tourist may be pardoned for thinking he/she has not moved from one INN to the next. Innkeepers are tall, fat, male, aproned, busy, and normally jovial. They are there to serve and shout orders to barmaids. They take everything in their stride, from STRANGE RACES and TAVERN BRAWLS to peculiar requests from Tourists with awkward SECRETS to conceal. They seldom otherwise intrude on the action. They are always too busy. It is not known when these admirable men find time to eat or sleep.

It also includes instructions on how to compose a ballad, what to pack for your JOURNEY, and a map that will make anyone who has read Paolini laugh until their sides ache. In conclusion, I quote:

My brother: Who wrote it?
Me: Diana Wynne Jones.
My brother: Well, they got the ‘win’ part right.

I’m reading Huckleberry Finn because I lost a bet. It’s not bad, but kind of hard since I can’t understand a word anyone is saying.

I can’t understand a word anyone is saying.

Haha, that’s exactly my problem! I started the book, but I never finished it because we moved, I lost the book, and I’ve been so wrapped up in other stuff. Then again, I have to read it next year for American Lit. anyway.

I liked it well enough until Tom Sawyer comes back.

GASP.

Patience, young grasshopper.

Humphrey the Boggart (private inquestigator, of course)

LOL. That’s a good one.

Danielle, Taku, I have just added your recommendations to my long List of Impish Recommended Books That I Really Mean To Read.

It’s the dialogue and wit that’s really the best thing about Austen. It’s subtle, but it can be pretty sharp!

Today, I made a wager with my brother, who is kind of a reluctant reader. Together, we came up with a list of 25 good, semi-challenging books for him to read. If he can finish them all within 5 months (a big deal for him), he gets $50.

Now, before everyone jumps on me for bribing my little brother, I would like to bring up the fact that my brother regularly gets stuff that he hasn’t really done anything to earn. So on that note, I talked to my parents and he is not allowed to buy any videogames or legos for the five months unless for a really good reason.

Which means that in reality, my brother will not really be getting more of a reward than he usually does, but he will be reading about twice as much as he normally does. What I’m hoping is that since I picked books that he’s interested in, he’ll like them enough to read by himself.

And if not, well, I’m having fun engineering the whole thing.