I Wish I Read More

I've had a lot of time to think this week, and the part of it that wasn't spent playing Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep was largely devoted to trying to think of a handful of good books to blog about. This has been a rather difficult task, largely because I rarely take the time to read. It's terrible, and I'm planning to fix that in the coming months.

and it's a story that might bore you but you don't have to listen, she told me, because she always knew it was going to be like that, and it was, she thinks, her first year, or actually weekend, really a Friday, in September, at Camden...

In the entire time that I've been in college, I've only read one book purely for pleasure and not because it was required for school. That being said, the first book I'm going to discuss is The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. This book explores the not-so-romantic entanglements of a web of college students in the late 80s. The story is presented with chapters narrated by pretty much every named character, primarily focusing on Sean, a drug dealer with an "I don't give a shit" attitude toward life that's falling for Lauren, an art student pining after a boy she fell in love with that's off in Europe that also used to date Paul, a bisexual drama student that looks down on almost everyone around him that may or may not be in a relationship with... Sean. It may sound like the setup for a bad game of Fiasco, but the unusual rambling trains of thought and multiple unreliable narrators weave an interesting tale that somehow ends up conveying a pretty meaningful message. Don't watch the movie though. It's exactly as shitty as this description would have you think the book would be, and its only redeeming quality is Ian Somerhalder.

Moon. Glorious moon. Full, fat, reddish moon, the night as light as day, the moonlight flooding down across the land and bringing joy, joy, joy.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay is the first in a series of books that sparked the show on Showtime that you're probably more familiar with. The book follows Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department by day and a vigilante serial killer that hunts down killers that have gotten away with their crimes, as he tries to determine the identity of the Tamiami Butcher (or, for viewers of the show, the Ice Truck Killer). The writing isn't great, but it's a quick and worthwhile read. The second book in the series is as well, and is a lot less predictable for people that have seen the show, though I've heard terrible things about the third and beyond.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Ahh, Harry Potter. As others have said this week, the world that J.K. Rowling has crafted with this series is so vast and memorable that it'd be hard not to find yourself in love with it. This blurb is less about encouraging reading that, and more about Pottermore. For anyone that lives under a rock, Pottermore is a site that was launched last July that contains a lot of fun flash games relating to the various books in the series, but much more importantly, it allows you to get a deeper look at the world that the series takes place in. The various sections are filled with detailed notes from J.K. Rowling about various aspects of the world that simply never found its way into the books. Plus, you can be sorted into the appropriate house and be assigned a wand. Who wouldn't get excited about that?

To whoever might find this, my name is Chris Lynch, and I'm pretty sure I'm dying. In fact, if you are reading this, then I'm probably already dead. Not that anyone will be around to read this... from what I've seen, I'd guess this is the end of everything.

This last recommendation is probably the least substantial on this list, but it's worth the entire half hour it'll take you to read it. Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. It tells the story of a poet that is going about his day to day life when he becomes a victim of a zombie apocalypse, and then he continues writing about his journey as a zombie to his eventual death... in haiku. It's a fun little book that provides a nice little bit of entertainment on a rainy afternoon.

Hopefully you've seen at least a handful of things this week that have aroused your interest enough to get you heading to the nearest bookstore. I'm about to read The Stolen Throne by David Gaider, a book set in the Dragon Age setting that serves as something of a prequel to the series of games, and then I'm probably going to be off to Bookmans to find a few of the books that have been recommended this week. Have a great weekend, and good luck to everyone heading back to school this week.

A Couple of Selections from My Shelves

I do read a lot, but I've never been big on thinking of book recommendations, and I haven't actually been reading as much lately. But there are still some books I consider up there when I think of what might be my favorites.

Watership Down by Richard Adams sits up there are the book I first think of whenever someone asks me my favorite. I have read it a couple of times, and for me to read a book more than once means I most definitely liked it. It's a long, epic tale of rabbits as the struggle to find a new home. I should also warn you I'm not very good at giving plot summaries, but I will try my hardest. The world building and mythology, along with the characters, is what keeps drawing me back to it.

The Farseer Trilogy and The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb are two of my favorite fantasy trilogies. There's magic, dragons, assassins and once again interesting characters. The writing is good and it's on of the settings that keep coming back to see if the writer has written more in.

I read this series a long time ago, but it was another that always stuck me in the mind for the way the author used character shifts and footnotes to expand the world the author is showing. The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud still has the fantasy twist of magic and such, but takes place in a more modern setting. It's young adult, and I always thought it was a series that didn't get enough attention that it deserved.

I'm really really no good at summarizing. And I really really dislike summarizing. So I suppose you are going to have to take me at my word for it, and Google these series for yourselves. They really are good, and really sit at the top of my favorites list.

Is This Just Fantasy?

Oh, my favorite topic.  Books!  I have loved to read ever since I learned how, and most days (before I got a laptop, and even then...) I could be found hiding in my room with my nose in a book.  This topic of favorite books, though, is a difficult one.  I have many books that I enjoy, and if I tried to name them all I would be typing for a week.  That said, I'll try to just pick out my favorites and make this just a semi-long post instead of a novel... Haha, puns...

First off, my taste in books is pretty much anything that can be labeled "fiction."  I dislike historical books and biographies, instead choosing fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, and other fiction genres to read.  Fantasy may be my favorite type of book, specifically because there is nothing tying you to this world within their pages.  I suppose this includes books of a supernatural element, with vampires, witches, and magic everywhere.  Sci-Fi is alright, although I'm not much in to outer-space-type books.  Mysteries are also a good read, and trying to solve the case before the end is fun.

The other section of books that I love are myths and legends.  A surprising amount of space on my bookshelf is dedicated to variants of some ancient legend.  Stories of gods, goddesses, kings, and heroes are fabulous, especially when I can tie characters from one legend into another legend and create a sense of the world that may have existed at that time.  Greek and Roman stories, as well as British and Celtic legends, are probably my favorite to read.  Actually, I'm a bit obsessed with these stories, and can probably rattle of a good deal of them.  I suppose the Percy Jackson books should fit here, which were much better then the movie.  I'm currently reading a book that is a variant of Robin Hood, and I just finished one called The Fire Sword which mixed all of these European-based legends into one book, which was interesting.

Fantasy is a great genre.  Harry Potter, for example.  I am an extremely obsessed fan of the Harry Potter books, and have read them all multiple times.  If you would like an exact count, I can tell you, but they range from 3 to 22 times.  First off, J K Rowling is a phenomenal writer.  She created this entire world filled with magic spells, strange creatures, witches and wizards, and more.  The other great writer this connects to is Tolkien.  To my great shame, I haven't read all the Lord of the Rings books.  I have read the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, but I can't make it through the Two Towers.  Reaching the second half where it is just Frodo and Sam, and I couldn't bring myself to continue.  I do plan on rectifying this, however.

One of my favorite authors is a woman named Tamora Pierce.  She writes semi-children books, by which I mean I read most of them in 5th grade.  Even though they are extremely easy to read and rather childish, I will read them over and over again.  She has two separate worlds for her 27 books, 10 in one and 17 in the other.  One world follows the journey of four children as they learn how to use magic through everyday objects.  The other books split into smaller series that follow different females through their teen years as they become knights (secretly and dressed as a boy or later openly as a girl), or ambassadors, or policewomen (for lack of a better old-time description).  It's kind of difficult to explain her books, but they are great in a very simple geared-for-pre-teen-girls kind of way.

I think that just about covers the long series that I read.  Most of the rest of my books are individual books, or just a few books to a series.  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a great series.  I'm reading a series that starts with the first book Dhampir, about a half-vampire vampire hunter and her half-elf partner.  Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey are good authors, although they have way too many books to keep up with.  Brandon Sanderson's books are also good, as are the dragon-based books of Naomi Novik.  R.A. Salvatore is another fantasy writer, with some of his books based on a drow elf who is banished to the surface world.  Another semi-childish series starts with Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer, about an orphan girl who dresses as a boy and goes to sea in 19th century London.  Mickey Zucker Reichert's Nightfall series and some of her stand-alone novels are really good, and I need to read more of her books.

Okay, I think I'm going to wrap it up.  I hope you enjoyed reading the post, even if most of my books are childish and short.  Kathleen's up tomorrow, and I can't wait to read everyone else's posts (and then take a trip to McKay's Used Books).  Enjoy, and don't forget to read!

...but you don't have to take my word for it!

Back in the good old glory days of elementary and middle school, I used to read practically non-stop.  And then when high school started the homework load increased dramatically and I started staying after school to for rehearsals and team practices, so I’m sad to say I haven’t really read as much for fun as I used to.  I wanted to start off my post for this week with this little tidbit of information, mostly to help explain why I’ve included so many “kid-lit” books.  Not that I haven’t read a lot of great books since, but a good number of the books I read during elementary and middle school have really stuck with me and they continue to be some of my favorites to this day.  Anyway, I’m going to start with some of my favorite children’s books that are totally worth reading, even if you’re not a kid anymore, and progress into some of my favorite non-children’s fiction and non-fiction books. 

A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

I remember when we used to go to the library in elementary school and the librarian had to start a list of whose turn it was that week to check out either of these books, which were a collection of Silverstein’s children’s poems (or anyone’s poems, really).  A lot of them still make me chuckle as I’m reading. 

Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

 I was recently reintroduced to this story the other day, and in the 15 of so years since I had last heard it, I had forgotten how much I liked this book and still do.  It’s a good lesson-within-a-story about sharing and cooperating with others that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who needs a good book to read to small children. 

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I read these later on in elementary school during the long bus ride home, and they’re still some of my favorite books.  The books are historical fiction, but they were inspired by the author’s life in a pioneer family growing from a child into a young adult.  I guess it’s a book that more girls than boys would like because it’s told from Laura’s point of view, but anyone interested in the time period might like it. 

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

I think I’ve already mentioned a few weeks ago that I didn’t read these books until my senior year of high school, but I’ll add to that by saying that I kind of wish I had read them sooner, but I’m glad that when I did start to read the series 1) because the entire series had already been published, so I didn’t have to wait for the next book to come out, and 2) because at 18 years old, I was able to read the books quickly and they weren’t as confusing as they would have been if I had read them in elementary or middle school.  But regardless of when you read the books (and you should), the story is really good.  

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I’m so glad we had to read this book in 9^th grade English class.  This is a prime example of good storytelling paired with a great story.  I’ll just say that this story taught me a little about a lot concerning life in general. 

Othello by Shakespeare

Another jewel from a high school English class, this one being from the 10^th grade.  I could do without some of Shakespeare’s comedies, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but of his tragedies, this one was one was among my list of favorites.  I would really love to see this play performed live one day.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A really good book about the “Roaring ‘20s” that still contains modern sentiments that the audience can relate to.  I’m really excited for the Baz Luhrman movie, but, based on the creative liberties as a director he’s taken in the past, and I mean this with greatest respect to both author and director, I would recommend reading the book before seeing the movie, just sayin’.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This trilogy is probably one of my favorite series’ of Young Adult books, right next to Harry Potter.  I thought that both the characters and story were so interesting and well developed (If you happen to notice a pattern forming, simultaneous character/ plot development is really important to me J ).  I’ll admit it, I’m so glad that I jumped on The Hunger Games bandwagon, because I think the story and characters were really well-executed.         

A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages by Kristin Chenoweth with Joni Rodgers

I was a fan before I read the book, and now I’m an even bigger fan after I’ve finished reading it.  Chenoweth has always been one of my favorite musicians and performers, and now that I’ve read this book, I must say that I also emulate her outlook.  Reading this book was like listening to your most hilarious friend tell you a bunch stories that were both funny and honest.  If you don’t know who she is, I say that she is definitely worth looking up!       

 

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

If you were to pick one book off of this list to read, I would recommend this one.  I’ll try to not give much away about the plot, so I’ll just say that the story revolves mostly around two best friends and their classmates at an all-boys boarding school in New England during the mid-twentieth century.  Even though I can’t relate to the setting or the gravity of the story itself, I was able to relate to how the characters were feeling, because a lot of their sentiments are universal, regardless of setting.  Anyway, I’m afraid this little snippet doesn’t do the book the justice it deserves… As they used to say on “Reading Rainbow”: “but you don’t have to take my word for it.”  

Books are movies with all the deleted scenes.

This has the potential to spiral into a pages-long post for me, due partially to the fact that I have an entire ROOM of my house dedicated to books.  For the sake of the people who may read this post, though, I'll try to keep it to a manageable length.  ... The operative word in that sentence being "try", mind you.

I grew up reading books.  This is something that I unmistakably inherited from my mother - she has piles and bookcases and stacks and leaning towers of books that she'll almost certainly never read.  But they're there, and available, just in case she wants to peruse them.  My dad reads, too, though not anywhere near the level that my mom and I do.  I still remember the days that my elementary school had book fairs.  Most kids in my class would get a handful of books.  I would get several bags full of books.  It was never much of an effort on my part - I was, for the most part, interested in reading whatever I could, and my parents were only too happy to support that.  The books I got could only last me so long, though, even with multiple read-throughs, and so eventually I branched into my sisters' books too.  I--

Crap, I'm already going off into random territory.  This is what happens when I have -too- much to write about, I suppose.  Back to the topic at hand - favorite books.  This is a bit hard for me to narrow down, because whenever I think about the books I like, it leads me to think about similar books that I like, and then to think about completely different books that I like... and then it's half an hour later and I've been staring off into space, or something equally creepy.  I'll try to prevent that from happening too much here.

The first author that comes to mind is R.A. Salvatore.  I've read a lot of his books, but I'm especially fond of his Forgotten Realms series of books, particularly the ones involving two of my favorite characters created: Drizzt Do'Urden and Artemis Entreri.  I was completely clueless about these books until I started working at a bookstore in 2002.  In July of 2003, the first book in another series centered on Drizzt and his friends (the sixth series, if I'm counting correctly, though I didn't know that then) was released.  The title of it was "The Thousand Orcs", and just from looking at the cover, I knew: I really, really wanted to read this book.

I hadn't yet discovered my fascination with dark elves, but to me, this was the coolest book cover ever.

I read this book, and it was pretty good - but I felt like I was missing something... something essential to really get the most out of it.  That's when I discovered the extensive backlog of books that I'd missed out on.  Fortunately, there were two things working in my favor at that point.  First, almost all of the older books had been collected into single-book compilations at that point, and they were readily available for me to purchase.  Second, working at the bookstore got me a 33% discount on books (which I miss to this day).  Several months later, I was caught up, and hooked.  I have been ever since - these books speak to the part of me that's always wanted to be a D&D player, and they let me live out adventures that (possibly?) could have happened.  Drizzt was easily my favorite character in the series for years, and it's only recently that he's been replaced by Artemis, which... well, I'm not going to get into the reasoning behind it.  But the point is that R.A. Salvatore writes some pretty decent fantasy, and I enjoy them greatly.

Next up on my list is a series of books called The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.  My discovery of this series was an interesting experience.  I'd hit a lull a little over a year ago where I didn't have anything new to read, and so I'd been researching popular fantasy books online to see if anything sounded good.  The first book in the series, The Way of Shadows, came up a couple of times, and I added it to my list and moved on.  A couple of months later, I was coming home from Los Angeles, and I stopped at a bookstore in LAX to see what they had.  Boom, the book was there, and I bought it to read on the flights home.  ... Occasionally, if I really enjoy what I'm doing (reading, gaming, whatever), I'll get completely absorbed into it and do it until I'm interrupted.  That's exactly what happened with this book.  I read it for the entirety of my first flight, gave it a break during my layover, and finished it on the second flight.  688 pages, gone in a day.  It took me several weeks after my return, but I finally tracked down and purchased the second and third books in the series (Shadow's Edge and Beyond the Shadows, respectively).  These were devoured in short order, and then I was only left with the sad feeling of being finished with something that was supremely satisfying (much like eating a piece of delicious cake).  The story is fairly basic, at least in the beginning - scared guild rat wants to train under master wetboy (-not- assassin), trials and stuff happen, etc.  But somewhere within the story, you come to realize that you actually care about the characters, and what's going through their heads.  There are a lot of twists to the story, some foreshadowed and some not.  But I found the story, as a whole, to be pretty fantastic and well worth reading.  I've re-read the entire series at least twice this year alone.  I only wish there was more to it, after the end of the third book.

Third on my list is The Coldfire Trilogy, by C.S. Friedman.  More fantasy here (anyone see a trend?), and it's mostly your typical fantasy fare, with one notable exception.  The main anti-hero character is twisted, cruel, typically selfish, and completely badass.  To be fairly honest, without that character, I likely would have lost interest in the series halfway through the first book.  But his presence, and the constant question of "what is this guy going to do when (insert situation here)", kept me going.  I don't re-read this series often, honestly, just because the story isn't as gripping when you know everything that happens - but I really enjoyed it while I was reading it, so there we go.

Before we get to my next thought, I need to interject a series that I only recently started, and (sadly) probably wouldn't have thought to include if I didn't have several volumes of it sitting next to me.  I was a supporter of the Kickstarter drive for a webcomic called The Order of the Stick, and part of my reward was getting a reprinted copy of most of the books.  I would assume that most people reading this are familiar with the strip, and read it - if for some reason you're not (or you don't), go here and start reading it.  But only a few, mind you.  Come back and finish my post before you get sucked too deeply into the strip.  Everything about the comic fulfills the D&D itch that I mentioned in my R.A. Salvatore paragraph... only moreso.  My only complaint, really, is that the story drags on in several places.  Having the books is nice, but having to wait for comic updates is agonizing sometimes.

... Wow, this post is getting pretty lengthy.  I'll try to wrap it up over the next few paragraphs.  There are several books and series that I enjoy, but I'll just list them out with little blurbs of info.

- Killobyte, by Piers Anthony.  Real people in a VR game world.  Silliness, gaming fun, a "save the girl" mission, with a dash of adult-themed situations.  Throw in an angsty teenage hacker to cause conflict, and stir.

- The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner.  The story of a thief who gets sent on a secret mission for a king that he doesn't claim allegiance to, trying to retrieve an ancient relic.  It's a pretty simple read, but I really enjoyed it.  I recently discovered that it was the first in a series of four books.  I had no idea about that until several days ago.  The other three books are now near the top of my "need to read" list.

- Catspaw, by Joan D. Vinge.  Actually the second book in a trilogy (but the first one I read), it follows a young halfbreed crippled psion as he tries to fix himself (and not get killed in the process).  More of a sci-fi/fantasy blend than most of my other books, and more of the adult themes than the others as well.

- Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind.  Oh, the Sword of Truth series.  The first four books in the series were good - and I'd even call the first two (WFR, and Stone of Tears) great.  But after the first four books, the series went downhill, and in a bad way.  The eighth book, Naked Empire, made me physically ill to read.  Not many books can claim that.  But, I digress.  Wizard's First Rule is about a woods guide named Richard, who decides to help a strange woman in a white dress, and gets himself caught up in an epic battle against an evil tyrant.  The characters are fairly well-developed, but the story is the main attraction here.  Fighting, and wizardly wisdom, and love, and some red leather-clad blonde-haired women.  No, really, that last part is pretty important to the series as a whole.  I'm not sure how many chapters in this first book alone focus on them, but it's a lot.  Anyway.  I recommend the first four books, but tread carefully after those.  I won't be held responsible for any brain damage incurred by later entries.

- The Harry Potter series.  Enough said.

Finally, I'll wrap it up with the novel Battle Royale.  All of this excitement and fandom about The Hunger Games, and all the controversy about how edgy and dark it is?  This book did all that, and more, twelve years before Hunger Games even came out.  After an economic crisis, Japan becomes a totalitarian state, and every year a randomly selected class of junior high students are selected to participate in "The Program".  They're placed in an isolated area and fight to the death, until only one of them is left alive.  Some of the students want to group together and find a way out.  Some want to kill everyone.  This makes Hunger Games look tame in comparison.  It was popular enough to spawn two movies and a manga series, and it's still popular today (partially thanks to Hunger Games, no doubt).

Actually, on the subject of manga - I don't read it anywhere near as much as I once did, but I really enjoy Prince of Tennis, Rurouni Kenshin, Maison Ikkoku, Hot Gimmick, and several other series that I won't mention for fear of damaging my public image further.

Whew, this took longer than I thought it would.  Hopefully you find something potentially interesting my list - and if you have any questions about any of them, or (somehow) want to know more stuff I like, just comment below.  Thanks for reading!

Week of 8/12 - Breather Topic: Favorite Books

I'm sad to start this announcement by saying that Kelsey will no longer be a regular contributor to the blog. We're looking for a new person to join as soon as possible, so if you're interested, shoot us an email at onbothsidesofthefence@gmail.com. Until then, expect something a little different and exciting each week on Saturdays.

This week's topic focuses on talking about a form of art/entertainment that has been around forever. The novel is in many ways one of the most respected ways of telling a story, and it offers more of an opportunity for the audience to fill in the blanks than many of the other more visual media we've discussed in previous topics like this one.

Personally, I feel like I don't read enough, and hopefully this week's posts will send a lot of us to the book store looking for awesome books that people recommend. John will start the discussion tomorrow, and I'll be back on Friday to finish this topic off.