Reading Update

So... I don't think I've talked about what I've been reading since the beginning of last year.

http://dragonspen.blogspot.com/2014/02/let-me-reaaaaad.html

So to avoid a very long post, I'll just pick out some interesting readings I've done.

Little Women. This was a book I'd seen and heard of many times. And it was quite good. That's probably why it's one of the classics.

Seventh Tower: This is a series I've been reading. I've only got one book left. I liked the Keys to the Kingdom series, by the same author. And once again there is a very cool world that these books are set in. They're quick reads. I hope the last book is good.

Uglies: I may have actually posted about this book. It's the first in a series, and I'm about to read the second one. It was very good. They had cool characters and societies and ideas. I hope the upcoming books are as good. It's unfortunate how often series degrade as they go on...

Starting Point: This is a book of stuff Miyazaki wrote. It's almost like a collection of articles and letter sand such. If you're a Ghibli fan, I recommend it. Especially if, like me, you love knowing about how the creative process works. One thing I find rather hilarious was a letter Miyazaki wrote. It basically said "Thank you for taking me to that movie. I didn't actually like the movie, but at least I got to see it for free." Hahah. Ouch. I have the second book too, and hope to read it soon.

Divergent: I've read the first two books. The first one was pretty good. The second one didn't really leave an impression.

Demon Child: One of the Twelve Kingdom books. It's about what happened to Taiki when he was trapped in the human world. It's a bit slow-paced, but gets pretty intense near the end.

Norse myths: This is where I discovered where the mythology of Lord of the Rings came from.

Jupiter: a scifi book by Ben Bova. It was a really cool interpretation of Jupiter. I'll have to read more of his stuff.

Inferno, and the Lost Symbol. Both from the same series as the Da Vinci Code. Both very good. Maan, I think I wrote in the blog about the Lost Symbol. In the scene were they finally reveal the identity of the villain, I realized a second before they said it who the person actually was. That's some amazing writing right there, to keep the answer in the dark until the last possible second. And to still let the reader realize it for themselves.

Eon: A couple people recommended this to me. It's one of very few young adult/fantasy books I've found that's set in an Asia-like world. I'm about to read the second one.

The Five Ancestors: And here's more books set in a world like Asia. China specifically. They're more for younger readers, but the first book was interesting. I'd like to read all of them. (I just saw Kun Fu panda for the first time, and it was very much like the first book).

White Noise: This is a book that was recommended to me because it was environmental fiction, and I'm supposed to be reading environmental fiction. Apparently it's a well-known book. Except it was bad. The author seemed so full of himself. Every line was like "look at how good I can write!" Ugh

That Hideous Strength: This was the last book in a trio by CS Lewis (author of Narnia). The first book was really cool. The second book had an awesome world, but wasn't as interesting to me. And the third book was... kinda lame. Especially the climax. They were going on about how it wouldn't work to just kill all of the bad guys. No, that would never do. So what do they do? They kill all of the bad guys, of course...

Ship Breaker: I think I wrote about this one a bit. It's environmental fiction too. And it was young adult environmental fiction. It's the closest thing I've read so far to my grad program story. I definitely want to read more from this guy.

Wicked: I love the play to pieces. Ellen said the book was nothing like the play. But my cousin got me a copy for Christmas 2 years ago, so I felt obligated to read it. You could count the differences between the play and the book, but it would be a lot easier to count the similarities. I could do so on my fingers.
I still prefer the play. Maan, Elphie and Glinda are so freaking awesome in that play...

Seraphina: I wrote a whole post about this book.