Books

[Stormwind]

Looking at the previous posts made me go look up what else DD wrote for Star Trek... I didn't remember that she'd written The Wounded Sky, or My Enemy, My Ally... I loved those two.

Right now I'm re-reading David Eddings Tamuli series... also Mercedes Lackey's 500 kingdom books, plus her newest Foundation.

I've recently reread Kathryn Lasky's Starbuck twins trilogy, that is a cute one. It starts with Double Trouble Squared, then Shadows in the Water, and finally A Voice in the Wind. I thought they were cute and prays she writes more of them. They were out of print but recently were rereleased.

[Kathy Li]

Wait. You went and looked it up? After I spent all that time putting it into the Books FAQ? (Mock indignation.)

Garrett--yeah, I'd forgotten about that paragraph. I mean, the first thing I always think of when Ishmael is mentioned is how come Spock never notices that Aaron Stempel looks just like his dad...

[Emi]

bookgirl: That book sounds interesting. I see where you say that it kind of reminds you of Harry Potter. Weird... I might just check it out when I can.

As of books I'm reading right now... Well for one of my classes I'm reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. We had to choose a book from a pile of six different stacks and I chose this one because it sounded interesting. I haven't started reading it yet, but I will soon. I'm waiting until Christmas to get the books I really want to read.

Pretty soon in English we will be reading Animal Farm. I'm pretty excited about that. I hope it's as good as some people have been telling me.

[Stormwind]

Kathy Li: *blushes* I didn't see the link, I'm sorry, and honestly I would have looked at it if I had... It's been a long weekend, and only going to get longer working for 12 hours tonight... a life... maybe someday soon I'll get one (not that any wizard has time, and I'm too aftaid to MAKE it, lol)

[EricG1793]

I'm sorry if I've mentioned this already. But, as I mentioned in the favorite series other than YW thread, I really like The Last Apprentice series (The Wardstone Chronicles in the UK), by Joseph Delaney.

I highly recommend it. It's about a boy named Tom Ward, who's the seventh son of a seventh son. His 6 brothers have already been apprenticed to different tradesmen, so that leaves Tom to be apprenticed to the Spook. The Spook rids the County of boggarts, witches, and other creatures of the Dark (kind of like YW). It's not about casting spells like in YW or Harry Potter; it's about using materials to physically fight the creatures of the Dark (example, binding witches with a silver chain and burying them in pits surrounded with iron that keep them trapped forever). The Sunday Times (London) describes them as "Ideal for the reader who has outgrown Harry Potter."

There are 5 books in the series: Revenge of the Witch, Curse of the Bane, Night of the Soul Stealer, Attack of the Fiend (which I'm working on now), and Wrath of the Bloodeye. In the UK, they're titled The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse, The Spook's Battle, and The Spook's Mistake, respectively, and The Spook's Sacrifice upcoming (I can't find information on the US version of it).

The only problem with these books is that they're so fast-moving that there's rarely a good place to stop!

[meteorite]

A slightly different tangent

Now for something different...

What about those books you remember reading, months or years or even decades ago, that are now out of print, but are worth scouring secondhand book store and ABEBooks for? Sometimes you can't even remember the title or the author, just an overall description of the plot (maybe some of us can help you with that!)

I'll start off with one: The Windmill Summer. It's about a girl who is on the outs with her family, and decides to live by herself for the summer. Her grandfather has a cottage that is out in the woods, whimsically shaped like a windmill, and that's where she goes. I remember a description of her gradually getting the chickadees used to her presence, to the point where she could lay out in the grass reading a book, with a scattering of sunflower seeds on her stomach, and the birds would come down and take the seeds from her.

This is a memory from 4th or 5th grade, so some of the details may be wrong, but I remember thoroughly enjoying the book at that age.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

For books you read when you were younger but can't find now, you can check out Purple House Press. The founder created it when she discovered how badly eBay was gouging people for copies of Mr. Pine's Purple House. :-) I can't remember if I found it while looking for Tal: His Marvelous Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom, or if they reprinted it after I discovered them, but I have quite a few of their books now. :-)

[Cress]

I'm very big on epic poetry at the moment. Paradise Lost is AMAZING! If you want a challenge, something with extreme depths and a lot to dig into, read this book. The Aeneid is wonderful as far as helping you make sense of references in later books. I'm also looking forward to reading Dante's Inferno. So much fun. This stuff is the original fantasy...it's pretty amazing.

[Kathy Li]

For a YW fan, I think Paradise Lost is an absolute must-read. It does, after all, bear a very strong resemblance to the Song of the Twelve. One would almost think that Milton cribbed from DD.

As for original fantasy, wait 'til you get to The Faerie Queen or Le Morte d'Arthur. Heck, the Illiad and the Odyssey, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and even Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" all count as fantasy to me. As science fiction uses technology as a jumping off point, fantasy tends to use history and literature as bases.

[seabiscuit1009]

Le Morte d'Arthur was good-I had to read a lot of it for a class I took last semester, and plan to finish it when I have time...maybe next summer, at this rate.

Right now I'm reading Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens; it's for a class, but it's really good. I've never read Dickens before; somehow he never popped up in my various classes in middle and high school, and all my friends who've read him hate him. But...I think it's a really good book. Incredibly dorky, I know. We're reading it in sections (since it was originally published in a serial novel format back in the 1800s...my professor wants us to experience it like people back then did, with the whole waiting around to read the next part of it. It's kind of fascinating, actually.)

[Kathy Li]

I love and adore Our Mutual Friend the most of all of Dickens's novels. It's the last one he finished. And he was obviously heading in a really interesting myster/thrilller direction, probably thanks to his friendship with Wilkie Collins, among a ton of other factors. I also remember getting a little thrill when I was reading Dorothy L. Sayers's Strong Poison and discovering that DLS also loved Our Mutual Friend--in Strong Poison one character quotes Jenny Wren, and the name Wrayburn plays its part, too.

One trick for reading Dickens is to follow the numbers. Dickens's novels were all published serially. They were done in "numbers"--magazines--that were published (usually) once a month. The full novel would be done over a year and a half--18 regular numbers, and then a double-sized 19 & 20. If you get the Penguin paperback editions, they mark the number breaks with an asterisk. It's usually three to five chapters. Only put the book down at the number breaks. When you pick it up again, you'll get a tiny recap, like those "previously on.." recaps on a tv show, to remind you where you left off.

A couple of the books, however, weren't published in monthly numbers--they were done weekly. You'll notice a rapid pickup of the pace in A Tale of Two Cities--it's one of the weekly ones.

[fernie]

percy jackson

if you are into greek mythology and stuff, you should read the percy jackson and the

olympians series, but still, my favorite other than yw is harry potter

[Emi]

Just finished a book... took me two days. It's called 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I thought it was really good! I was immediately intrigued with this book. At first I thought it was going to be kind of slow because that's how it started out, but once the actual story started it was so good. It's about this girl named Hannah Baker, who committed suicide. But before ending her life she recorded seven tapes with thirteen sides. Each side had a person she would talk about... one of the reasons why she died. The other main character was Clay Jenson... The POV changes between the two Hannah's in italics and Clay in regular font.

If you like that type of stories, I advise you to read it... It is just... interesting at best. It got me thinking.

[Jacq]

I'm very big on epic poetry at the moment. Paradise Lost is AMAZING! If you want a challenge, something with extreme depths and a lot to dig into, read this book. The Aeneid is wonderful as far as helping you make sense of references in later books. I'm also looking forward to reading Dante's Inferno. So much fun. This stuff is the original fantasy...it's pretty amazing.

I'm working my way through Ovid's Metamorphosis in my more lucid moments. It's slow going but totally worth it. I'm not sure who did the translation for my version, but it's very good, with a lot of delicious footnotes and explanations for the more ambiguous words. Word of warning, though - not kid friendly at all. Gods deflowering maidens willy-nilly, then turning them into trees. Good times.

At this risk of sounding like a snob... The Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite book of all time, hands down. I bought it after watching a (loose but spectacular) adaptation called Gankutsuou and was hooked. Don't get the abridged version though - they snip out all the awesome bits. (ps; all te bits are awesome).

[Dragon Writer]

I've been rereading wheel of time and sword of truth - just in time on that last one, too. The tv series has been messing it up so baddly, I'd actually started to forget what was what. Also just read the latest fablehaven book - a bit kiddy, but I liked it. And I'll hopefully have Princept's fury soon - codex alera series. Takes some getting used to, but highly worth it.

Also - just remembered I have to start seriously reading a few books from the library if I'm going to win the Award of Excellece. No way I'm turning down the chance to get rewarded for reading perfectly good books!