Their is meant to be a mini series called the ellie chronicals. I have a lot of reading a head of me, I have to finish that comic novle, futurama-simpsons cross over. I don't usually enjoy comic books execpt futurama ones.

The Ellie Chronicles? I read the first two (there are three I believe). I didn't find them anywhere as interesting as the original series. Not terrible though. It's just different when the circumstances have changed so much. Not as exciting.

I might read the first one and see what it is liek after i read the original 7.

I just finished Jonathan Stroud's new book The Heroes of the Valley yesterday. It's not quite as epic as the Bartimaeus Trilogy, but it was very enjoyable and every bit as funny. It's set in a Viking-ish society trapped in a valley by rumors of monsters in the moors surrounding. I was afraid it was going to be a The Village ripoff, but fortunately was not. There's only one main character, a boy named Halli who dreams of being a legendary hero. He actually reminds me a bit of Gen, if Gen were more naive and idealistic. Sadly there are no footnotes, but there are short legends at the start of each chapter, most containing hilarious bits. My favorite was the story of how Svein the hero picked his wife. He asks three sisters what he should bring them from the horde of the trow-king. The oldest wants gold and silver jewellery, the second wanted cooking implements, the youngest wanted a flower for to look at and remember him by. Upon his return, this is his comment to the sister: "You, the eldest, are clearly a vain sort of trollop, while you, the youngest, are appallingly fey. I'll pick you, the middle one, for your common sense request."

I just finished Jonathan Stroud's new book The Heroes of the Valley yesterday.

That's a good book! I thought it was very interesting-- but yes, the naivete of the main character bothered me at times. I didn't think it was new, though. I read it about a year ago. Is that considered new? I'll have to read it again.

QUESTION: How much does how the cover of a book looks influence if you want to pick it up and read it? For me, it's a big issue. I'll pick up the book if it has an ugly cover but has a cool title (or if i've gotten a recommendation from someone), but I just hate ugly covers.

You?

sweet: It influences me a GREAT deal. I don't care what people say; judging a book by its cover, is usually a pretty good way to gauge the book's content, and audience. Unless a cover says "Pick me up and read me!" I won't give it a second glance.

Ditto, Digs. The cover influences me a huge amount. Of course if the book has already been reccomended to me by someone, the cover won't matter much, but if I'm browsing amazon or something then I only click on the books which interesting covers If a book has what I consider a "lame" cover or a uber uber cliche one, then I'm much less likly to pick it up. Anything original and interesting gets a second look from me

I know a lot of covers these days are photographs, but being an artist, I love covers with artwork on them. If I see a book with a really fantastic piece of art on the front, chances are I'll pick it up to see what it's about.

silver the wanderer: I almost got stuck there too. But once you get into the second part of the first book, the pace picks up pretty quickly, I think.

Yeeeah, I'm almost in the Second part! I need approximately 4-5 more chapters till the second part. It really is confusing but fun! So, when you read the LOTR, how many months or days did you read it?

The cover greatly influences my decision to read a book. I've read horrible books with great covers and great books with horrible covers. I wish more great books had great covers. But creating a great book cover is very difficult but very important. It should show relevance in terms of themes, characters, genre etc. and look unique. Like I said, easier said than done. I think the back-cover blurb is the second most important part of 'selling' a book. If the premise sounds interesting, I'm more likely to read it. If the book sounds run-of-the-mill I'll probably pass on it. But that's probably the way most people do it.

I think I'm more influenced by the description of the book on the dust cover or the back of the book. Sure, a pretty cover is more likely to catch my eye than a bland one, but there are plenty of nice-looking books out there that I decided not to read when the blurb didn't interest me.

I forgot to say that I think the blurb is important too. The first thing I see is the cover, the second is the blurb. I picked up The Goose Girl because of the cover and bought it because of the author and the blurb.

The author is also important to me in selecting a book. I didn't particularly care for the covers of Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen by Garth Nix, but because the author was Garth Nix (whose other books I've read and liked) and I liked the blurb, I got the books.

Right now I'm reading some classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles. The story is really interesting so far, and I've never read this particular Sherlock Holmes story. I just remember vague bits of the Wishbone version, and remember that I was so scared that I almost wetted myself.

The part that I'm seeing right now with this book, besides the intriguing story, is that Conan Doyle is really good with description. I can see things and hear them in my head when he describes them. It's a really good amount of description, and done very well. He doesn't dump it all right in the front of each setting. He weaves it in and really lets you feel it. Very well done. I'll have to let you know how it turns out!

*makes her irregularly-timed return to the books thread*

Well, i'm used to books being lined up so that you can only read the binding, so the cover is marginally important in selecting what book i'm going to look at. The title is usually the first thing, and then i'll look at the blurb/summary, and if that's interesting, i'll open it and begin looking at the opening. But it's very rare that i'll read a book that hasn't come recommended to me.

My dad surprised us when he bought Mockingjay almost immediately after it came out. We drew names to see who got to read it first, and i got it second. I raced through it, then when everyone else who wanted to had read it, i re-read the whole series over three days.

Well, for me the cover is only marginally important. Some of the new Narnia covers are really strange. The blurb was what made me read The Hero and the Crown (not to mention that I was mildly intrigued by the girl with a sword facing a dragon on the cover). Then after I learned it was only a prequel, I read and eventually bought The Blue Sword, even though the first copy that I saw (in the library) had a really ugly cover, with a faceless girl and a horse that looked like it ought to be on a weathervane.
I really like Robin McKinley's writing, but the only other one I've read is The Outlaws of Sherwood. I want to find some of the fairytale retellings, though. (Beauty, specifically. I read about it online and it sounded cool.)
Not really reading anything at present, except a novel about coal mining for a college class. Its actually pretty good.

Yeeeah, I'm almost in the Second part! I need approximately 4-5 more chapters till the second part. It really is confusing but fun! So, when you read the LOTR, how many months or days did you read it?

I forget. I read them before I watched the movies, though. I also rented them from the library, so maybe there was a wait on one of them. But I really don't think it took me that long to read them. Maybe that's just because I'm an abnormally fast reader. I try so hard to slow down and "savor" a book, but it doesn't work.

Then after I learned it was only a prequel, I read and eventually bought The Blue Sword, even though the first copy that I saw (in the library) had a really ugly cover, with a faceless girl and a horse that looked like it ought to be on a weathervane.

I have that book! My cover has a bunch of horses and riders on it, but I'm not sure if it's the cover you're talking about or not. I picked it up at our library's used book sale not because of the cover but because it had the word "sword" in the title. I haven't actually read it yet, though.