The Girl Who Played With Fire

So, not a classic, but good nonetheless.

Also not a classic, but amazing.  I finished this a few months back on audiobook, but never put the picture in.

I've definitely been slacking on LOTR, and that is definitely next because it's been at least 2 years that I've been working on that series and am anxious to cross #2 off my list for good!  I did watch the movie recently so I'm ready to go, but just can't bring myself to start it.

It also doesn't help that I have been caught up in the adventures of Lisbeth Salander.  I just finished The Girl Who Played With Fire on Friday, and have already started The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.  It's one of those books where I'm glad that I wasn't into the series while it was still being released because at the end of book 2, I ABSOLUTELY had to get my hands on book 3.  I didn't think book 2 was as good as 1, so I'm glad I didn't buy it, but it was still good once it got going and now I definitely have to find out how everything turns out in the third one.  Hopefully it won't take me over a month to read like the second one.

As we've already established, my next book after Hornet's Nest will be The Return of the King.  After that, I have no idea.  I have many on the shelf still that need to be read (at least 4 from the list, and 3 others that are classics also but not on the list.)  However, I've been feeling a little spontaneous lately, and am thinking that once LOTR is done, I may just start generating random numbers and reading whatever pops up.  I'll leave it to the fates at random.org.  If I were going to start one today, it would be...#71 Oliver Twist
(blah)

We'll see how that works out.  I'll redo it when I'm choosing for real, though.  As in, after I finish LOTR, which realistically may be in November.

Speaking of months, It is now June, and while it is not quite halfway through the year, it's close enough where I can do a count of the books I've read in 2012 so far and see where I stand.  So far I've read:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Pride and Prejudice
(Prince Caspian--only partly counts because I haven't finished the series yet)

So, I guess my number so far is 2.  Let's hope I read more by the end of the year because that is pretty pathetic so far.  Oh well.

Another task I have ahead of me is choosing a book for a car trip I'll be taking in a few weeks.  Hopefully it will be something that the library will have on CD unabridged.  Looking at the list, I'm thinking that His Dark Materials, Narnia, or any other of the random ones that I don't know may be good choices.  We'll have to see.  Last time I went I think I had The Great Gatsby with me, which was OK but not the best choice for a car trip because there was a lot of description that I would have normally glossed over, like the chapter that only named who was at a party.  I'll have to pick something with a little less symbolism and more action.  It will probably be The Golden Compass, but I'll decide closer to when I will be traveling.

Anyway, the plan is to read more than 4 books this year.  Hopefully around 10.  But we know how that goes...

Prince Casipan: Check!

Book 4 of The Chronicles of Narnia is now complete. I'm still not able to check a number off my list, but I'm making progress.


I'm really tiring of this series. The first two books were pretty good. The third was terrible. This one was mediocre, so I'm hoping for something better from the remaining three. Actually the copy I finished had the first chapter of book 5 in it, and that seemed pretty good so far, so I do have hope. However, I'm just not sure. There's only so many Narnian battles that I can read about.

I'm also about halfway through the audiobook of The Help. I know it's not on the list, but it's pretty excellent so far, and I'm hoping I can finish that up by the end of the week.

I also watched The Return of the King a few days ago when I was not feeling well, and am feeling a little more ambitious on the Lord of the Rings front, too. Now that I know what is going to happen and it has been refreshed in my mind, I'm almost ready to start. I just have to commit to reading it, and will have to refrain from reading the first two chapters and then letting it sit for several months, only to forget what has happened so far. My only wish is that the stories were integrated like in the movie, because the task of reading a few hundred pages of what happens to Gandalf and company seems daunting because what I really only care about is Frodo and Sam (and Gollum). Oh well. Hopefully it won't be as bad as what I'm anticipating.

So, hopefully up next is Return of the King and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Hopefully I'll finish both of these series up this spring and move on to better things, like Jane Austen (kidding!). But seriously, I'm excited to move on from all the ones I've been trying to finish for the last year, and on to new and/or random ones that I haven't explored yet. It's always fun to find out what each story is about, since titles can be mysterious or misleading.

Off to the library! Toodles!

Pride and Prejudice: Check!

Finished Pride and Prejudice. My overall impression: meh. Definitely way overrated and overly popular for what it is. But it was pretty good I guess, and not as difficult to get through as I thought it would be. (It wasn't a walk in the park either, though).

I'm currently also in the middle (and by middle I mean 30 pages in) of Prince Caspian, book 4 in the Narnia series. I'm hoping to finish that pretty quickly a) because it's a children's book, and b) so that I can get on with the rest of the series (although to be honest I was never super interested in that series anyway. Oh well).

Other options include Return of the King and a few others. Mainly those two, though.

Pride and Prejudice

I started reading Pride and Prejudice about 24 hours ago and am already 15% done. (If I had a nickel for every time that happened...) For all my dreading of Austen and agony of suffering through this book in AP English, it's not actually as bad as I had anticipated. I really am attributing this to the edition that I happened to find at the library.



The library that I go to is generally not as well-stocked as other branches, but it was the closest, so I stopped in on the way to dinner. The website said that they had a copy in, but when I got there I couldn't find it. I checked the young adult paperback racks a few times, and finally found a copy. I think I was expecting a penguin edition or an old one with tiny print and yellow pages. However, the copy I found was kind of an over sized paperback that claimed it was the "insight edition." As I looked inside, I saw that every page or so had a note in the margin from the publisher, including things such as historical notes and tidbits about Austen's life. The notes are almost like footnotes, except much more accessible, and on the side of the page rather than the bottom. For me, the notes are WONDERFUL because they help keep my attention on the story and give background that is generally lost on me.

It also helped that I was hired to do nothing but read today, so I got 10 or so chapters done. It's actually a more interesting story than I originally thought in high school. But we'll see. I won't write my opinion of Darcy at this point because people would probably come after me with pitchforks or something. I'll have to see if he's really any better than Rhett Butler, who is much more interesting than a grumpy rich dude with lots of books. (cue Anchorman reference: I'm very important. I have many leather bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany. Haha, I wish that was in the editors notes).

Anyway, I'm hoping to finish this book before February is over. It might be fun to finish while I am recovering from wisdom tooth surgery.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Check!

I just finished THGTTG this morning (title is too long to write out every time). The beginning was entertaining and captivating, but as the book went on, it got a little too involved and strange for me. I think part of it was that this book is actually part of a long series, and so not everything could be resolved in the first book. However, it was a fairly quick read, with many many short chapters, so while it was not challenging, it was kind of hard to keep track of. I guess science fiction is not really my thing, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

My next book I think will be Pride and Prejudice. We'll see, though. I know how things turn out when I plan to do something...

The Giver

Today I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. I had not intended to read an entire book today, especially such a heavy book, but I was subbing in a middle school and was basically overseeing study halls all day, so I found a book in the room and started reading. The book that I found was The Giver.


I read The Giver in middle school, too. I remember starting it in fifth grade and being confused, but then finishing and liking it when we read it as a class in sixth grade. I remember being confused by the ending though, and was hoping that when I finished, I'd have a more definitive answer about what happened. Even though it's not the most uplifting book it was definitely interesting to read, and I noticed much more than I did (or remembered that I did) in middle school.

Basically, The Giver is about a boy named Jonas who lives in a controlled society where no one sees colors, there are no feelings, and the society is run by a very strict set of rules. At age twelve, children become adults and get assigned to jobs in the community. Jonas gets selected to be the new Receiver, a very honored and respected position. There is only one Receiver in the society, and he (or she) is in charge of holding all memories for the society. Jonas becomes the new Receiver, and the old Receiver becomes known as the Giver. The Giver transmits memories to Jonas of things he has never before seen or experienced, from simple things like colors, snow, sun, and sledding, to pain and war. Jonas is not allowed to speak about any of his training or new memories to anyone, so as a result he forms a special bond with the Giver, while simultaneously feeling more and more isolated from his family, friends, and community. Eventually, Jonas finds out that if he leaves the community, the memories will leave him and find homes in the people of the community. Jonas and the Giver decide that the would be beneficial to everyone because people should know about good and bad things, and not be kept from knowledge. Therefore, one night Jonas escapes his house. He takes with him a baby, named Gabriel, who has been staying with Jonas's family for extra care before he is given to a family. The evening before Jonas escapes, Jonas's father tells the family that Gabriel will be released (aka euthanized) because he cannot sleep through the night, despite so much extra care. Jonas decides to save Gabriel's life and therefore takes him along when he runs away. For the first few days, there are planes out searching for Jonas, but after a while the planes disappear, and Jonas and Gabriel get farther and farther from the community. They get very hungry, and the weather gets cold. They are very cold, and at the end stumble upon a sled at the top of the hill. They get on the sled and go down the hill. The ending is unclear whether Jonas is lucid or living within his memory. He has either escaped and found a new community that may take him and Gabriel in, or he and Gabriel have frozen to death.

Despite reading this book at age 11 and now mid-20's, the ending is no more clear. There's evidence either way, but no definitive proof about what actually did or, to disprove something, did not happen. It's hard to say if this story had a happy or sad ending because it's unclear what actually happened. If Jonas made it to another society, it would be a happy ending, but if he died it would be sad. Either way, he got his wish of choice and free will, and the choice to die/leave was all his own, and if he died, at least he died experiencing life, sensations, and colors. Either he died living or he is still living.

Even though it was a children's/young adult book, it was still very thought provoking. It's a book that makes you appreciate the way things are in your society now, and reminds you not to take things for granted, even simple things like color and love. So even though I didn't set out today to read a book, I did, and it was refreshing.

(I am also in the middle of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with Pride and Prejudice up next. More to come!)

Bridget Jones's Diary: Check!

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!! I finished another book!!

So not only was this book hilarious and so so entertaining (to the point that I rarely checked to see what percent of the book I had finished), it was also the PERFECT book to read just before new years.

Bridget's diary covers a full year of her life. It starts with a list of new years resolutions, most of which fall by the wayside even though she tries to keep track of them. It then chronicles her life with her friends, parents, work, and love interests. And by the end of the year her life is not the perfect life she imagined but she did accomplish some of the things on her list of resolutions.

I think the thing about this book is that it brings out how hard it is to change yourself. Bridget struggles with her weight (although it would have been more realistic if she weighed closer to 150 than 125), her alcohol consumption, smoking, and her constant checking of England's version of Caller ID. She is insecure and hopes that overnight she will be able to quit smoking and drinking and suddenly be a size 0. She tries to quit smoking a few times throughout the book but still smokes by the end. Similarly she drinks and weighs 2 more pounds in December than she did in January. But her personality and the ability to see so many people in her is what makes her such a likable character.

I didn't really realize, although I have seen the movie many a time, that this book would be such a perfect read around New Years time. (I also failed to realize that the movie was based on a book, which is embarrassing). I am a huge fan of holidays in general, but I don't tend to enjoy New Years very much. I think people like that it's a new beginning (which leads to overcrowding of gyms for about a month) and a fresh start--the perfect time to rid themselves of bad habits, just like Bridget. For me it's TOO much pressure to change, and I start having new years like moments randomly throughout the year, suddenly deciding in July that I'm going to run a marathon some day and also learn to cook (which ironically doesn't seem terribly compatible, although this is a real life example). With each passing year I feel like I am in the same spot I was in the year before and before and before, and this year I feel no different. Another year has passed and I am still unemployed with several degrees, living at home, and single. I have no prospects on any of those fronts, and I desperately hope at this time every year, that the new year brings good things. And while I don't find myself with a dream job, a house, and an engagement ring, I do find redeeming qualities of this year, just as Bridget found that after a year she had at least solved one of her dilemmas. I haven't really solved mine in as black and white terms as Bridget did, but I think on each of the fronts I am closer to what I want eventually. And like Bridget, I need to be patient and look back after some time has passed, although it is OK to get frustrated on the way. Overall, if I can get even a little closer to my goals in 2012, I'll be content.

I read this book in 2 days. I got it from the library thinking it would be an easy read, but I didn't realize it would go so quickly (same with The Secret Garden). This brings this year's total up to 10:
* Jane Eyre
* Catcher in the Rye
* The Lovely Bones
* The Wind in the Willows
* The Little Prince
* The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
* 1984
* Little Women
* The Secret Garden
* Bridget Jones's Diary

So, while I missed my original goal of 12, I did read one more book than last year, which I am going to count as "winning" (although I did read more than 12 books this year--Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Water for Elephants, The Two Towers, The Horse and His Boy--some just weren't on the list or didn't count as one book because it's part of a series). I still have books that I haven't read yet and they're the same ones I've been listing for a year or so. My goal is to read the ones I have waiting before taking any more out of the library or purchasing any more online. Ones not on the list that I want to read include:
* The Girl Who Played With Fire
* The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest
* Treasure Island
* Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
* Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
* Beatrice and Virgil (a new book by Yann Martel)

Looking back, it's interesting that over half of my 2011 books are intended for children or young adults. Not sure where I'm going with that, but just thought it was interesting.

I think to deal with my current romantic situation, I will be trying to read more books with romantic themes. Bridget Jones was a good introduction to that. At some point this year I'm going to bite the bullet and read Pride and Prejudice. I'll be trying to find others in a similar vein (although not all Austen...ick! Not all at once, anyway). When I get annoyed with that, as I no doubt will, I'll resume with the ends of series that I've started and other non-romantic publications to get back on track.

My goal for 2012 is going to be 12 books (aka numbers to cross off the list) again, to allow for books that are long. Even though I will most likely have more free time, I don't want to be choosing books based on pages in order to meet a yearly goal. Who knows if this blog will even be still going in a year. Anyway...

Cheers and Happy 2012 to you!