Books

My boyfriend has started writing a short summary and opinion about all the books he has read, and I wish I would have started doing that a long time ago. I have often picked up a book to read because it sounds good, just to get it home and realize I've already read it. With a list like that, I imagine that would happen less often. That said, I think I would run out of steam and get tired of it after a few months. I think I'll give it a try for, say, six months, to end on October 2nd. (Also, I have always wondered just how many books I read in a year. This may be a good way to find out. )

Before I start that though, I want to start this out by listing my favorite books.

The Princess Bride

Their Eyes were watching God

Slaughter House Five

Lonesome Dove

Truth in Comedy

A Brief History of the Universe

Dave Barry Does Japan

The Life of Pi

And a few others I'm sure I've forgotten about.

April 2nd. Right now I'm reading Dracula. I read it before, but really quickly, and I want to read it again. I just finished reading, "The Girl With the Pearl Earing," "A Long Way Down," "Zero, the Birth of an Idea," and "Into Thin Air." (In the past week or two) I'm kind of permanently reading "Man's Search For Meaning." It is a good book, but one that I can't just sit down and breeze through the same way I can a novel. Then when I pick it up again after a two week, or two month hiatus, I start over at the beginning, because I want to fully understand everything he's saying in it. The next books I want to read are "The Kite Runner," and "The Wheel of Time Series, Book two."

Ok, I don't actually want to read the wheel of time series, book two, but there is a story behind it.
My boyfriend has always read this particular series of books, I think there is like 12 of the books or something, and they are very popular. So one year for my birthday he sends me the first one in the series. (He's always trying to get me interested in his hobbies, Wheel of Time, World of Warcraft, Puzzle Pirates, etc.) (That's not true. He's not always trying to get ME interested in his hobbies, he's always trying to get all his friends interested in the things he likes.) Anyhow, it was ok, but nothing amazing, and nothing I'd go out of my way to continue down the series. He was pretty devastated by my indifference towards these books. (I think this was one of the reasons that we have had such an on-again-off-again relationship) Anyhow, my next birthday rolls around and what do I get but the second book? So now it's become this running joke that every birthday I have he is going to get me the next Wheel of Time Book. Since the author is still writing the books like the story will never end, I imagine I'll be retired by the time I stop getting these books.
So the moral of the story here is that I am going to give them another shot.

Further updates as books are finished.

I think instead of making new posts every time I finish a book, I am just going to edit this post each time. I think I'll just list the book, the date, and a plus or minus sign to show if I liked it or not.

A Driftless Area 4/4/07 +

Dracula 4/10/07 +

Band of Brothers 4/12/07 +

Well, I think I'm realizing that this next few months may not be the best time to figure out how many books I read in a year. When I sub, sometimes I am busy all day, but other times I have nothing to do but pass out worksheets and read all day.

The Kite Runner 4/13/07 +

Man's Search For Meaning 4/13/07 +

Deltora Quest 4/16/07 - The problem with this book is a problem I find a lot in the small amount of fantasy I've read. The first book starts out moving really quickly, lots of things happen, years pass, and then near the end the author realizes that they can't clean this up in one book, so they plan to make it a series. And then the series never ends. Also, the first book is exciting because you don't know what's going to happen. But the author sets up what needs to happen in the succeeding books, for example, in this series they need to find seven stones, so there are going to be seven books, each dedicated to finding one stone a piece. (I read the list of other books in the series, but then there are another three books in the series after I assume that all the stones have been found, so I don't know what happens next) Another example would be the final Harry Potter book. We know that it will be dedicated to finding the remaining seven pieces of Voldomort's soul. We don't know how these things will be found, so it's still exciting to read, just not as exciting as it could be because we already know the formula it will follow.

Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth. 4/17/07 + The Junie B. Jones books are really masterpieces. I'm not kidding, I'm sure that I got just as much joy out of them as the first and second graders that they are intended for. Junie is a kindergarten student and she is so spot on, exactly how a kindergarden student is. Like Ramona only funnier.

The Life of Pi 4/18/07 +

The Westing Game 4/23/07 - This was one of those books where I was thirty pages into it and it just felt so familiar, and I had the feeling I knew what was going to happen next. Then I realized, I'd read it before, and it wasn't that good. Why I bothered to finish it a second time? I don't know.

Red Midnight 5/2/07 = (= equals, ehhh, it was ok.)

Snow Crash 5/5/07 =

The Midwife's Apprentice 5/11/07 =

Wow, it's now 7/22/07 and I haven't updated any books. It's not that I have stopped reading, just that I don't have access to internet, and I have forgotten all the books I've read in the past few months. I am trying vainly to remember some of th books I've read.

Eldest +

A Summer Without Song +

Bagomboo (spelling?) Snuff Box +

A Collection of Short Stories by Kurt Vonnegut +

Geronimo y Life = It started out really good, but then I stopped liking Geronimo.