Here's a fun (if at times) frustrating quiz. Guess 24 book titles in 6mins. I got 12 in the first 2mins and then spent some time trying to work out the correct spelling for a 13th title but stopped it early. The rest of the titles I hadn't heard of or couldn't remember.

Post how you went.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/bookcovers.php

I got 17 of 24. Only missed

I got sixteen of twenty-four. Two were wild guesses, and there was only one of the rest that might have been guessed while I was putting in random titles.

That was fun!

Well done to you all!

I missed:

I got 14/24 in 4 mins. I gave up on the rest, lol.

I missed:

Of the ones I missed, I only knew of one.

Hehe, Booky. I pre-ordered Mockingjay in like, April . . .

P.S."Brooklyn!"

I got nine and then quit, which is a good thing because I wasn't familiar with any of the other books except two.

The ones I did get, since it's a shorter list:

the two I missed that I am familiar with, though never read:

Wow, I did a lot better than I thought I would!

I got 15/24. I missed:

Trying to finish Narnia before I go to college. Need to read chapter 21 of Till We Have Faces for the reading group.

I just finally got a copy of the last book in Gordon Korman's "Kidnapped" Trilogy! yay! now to start collecting the "On The Run" series.....

and i got a new copy of "Inkheart that looks almost brand new from my local used book store! and I new copy of the first book in LOTR (FotR)!

No catch up from me---I've read a good number of books since I last posted, for one thing, and I couldn't list them all. But I thought I'd poke my head in and mention a few of my most recent reads, especially since some of you might be interested in them.

I recently read Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George, which is a sequel of sorts to Princess of the Midnight Ball. It certainly wasn't a straight-forward Cinderella retelling and it was kind of dark (the darkest Cinderella retelling I've read...but that's probably not saying much since I can only think of a couple off the top of my head ), but I liked it. Sad note, though: The knitting in this book isn't near as impressive as in the first book. Also, there were quite a lot of changes from the original tale, though I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing. There were some really humourous bits, too, that kept the story from getting too dark.

I also read Spell Hunters (to the cool, Knife ) by R. J. Anderson. I'm still a bit undecided about this one. Some parts of it I quite liked, and others not so much. Overall, I think I liked it*---I definitely would be interested in reading the second one.

I'm currently reading Mister Monday and liking it so far. I've 1-6 of the series checked out from the library right now. The first three just came in on hold and I promptly checked out the next three when I went to pick them up. I feel a bit bad for whoever had out the first three, as they'll probably go looking for the rest of the series. But I'll try to read quick and return soon---university starts back on Monday!

*These are still preliminary thoughts and are open to change, especially upon reflection and discussion.

Valia, I found the book my dad was talking about! The Reckoning I don't this is any of the ones we looked at?

*is cool* I think I need to read the book again before attempting theories for some of your comments... oh, the hardship.

I had better luck with your recommendation, I think. On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness delivers, though the toothy cows weren't as big an element as I would have expected from their being in the tag line. It's got mostly hilarious footnotes--but it does go the juvenile 'it's gross so it must be included because gross is funny' route a few times. All a question of taste, I suppose. On the whole, I found it very likeable for a book that spends most of the time setting the stage for the next book. (Or possibly the third.) It's a nice change from the hero being dumped immediately into a quest to save his world two or three times in the course of a series.

Wow, really? I think the ending of MP is brilliant because it's happy without being unrealistic. Austen is quite honest about the fact that

Spoiler

Fanny would have married Crawford if Edmund had married Mary.

But that didn't happen, and the best thing that *could* happen for Fanny did. I don't see her life as servile or second choice; indeed, one could argue that although she starts off that way, throughout the rest of the novel she learns to stand firm on the things that really matter to her. And the other characters come to realize how very rare and valuable she is. I love Fanny because she, being weak, is strong.

And yes, though the denouément is pretty dispassionate, to me that is just a clever way of hinting at all the emotions and joys without dragging them out for public perusal. The swoony love scene is left to our imaginations, and sometimes that can be very effective. Austen never errs on the side of gushiness!

I don't see it as being all that happy (realistic? I guess so). I mean, an ending where it's like, "the worst-case scenario didn't happen to her! Whoo!" doesn't really leave me satisfied. It's all right but not that happy. Her life isn't servile or second choice; Fanny herself is. She's a charity case to her uncle and his family, making her beneath them, and she's too refined for her original family; she doesn't fit in anywhere. Aunt Whatever is horrible to her and she can't do anything about it; she just has to do whatever she's told. I do love that she doesn't cave to pressure; I admire her for that very much. But that doesn't make up for her whole life and her story's ending.

that's why Fanny is a second choice. I felt like she deserved someone whoand it doesn't feel right. And I dislike denouéments (is that what the wrap-up at the end is called? Cool word) because I feel that as a reader, I have invested my time and emotions into this story and the writer has let me into the characters' minds and hearts so that I care about them. The least the author could do is take me with them until the end! I'm not "public"; does the privacy thing really matter? I've been privy to all the personal stuff all along anyway. And I don't feel like imagining swoony love scenes, especially when all we're left with is the cold glass of water over the head of "and then everything worked out the way it was supposed to. The end." IDK, I prefer showing over telling. My sad stuff to good stuff ratio wasn't high enough. And while Pickwick wasn't my favorite Dickens, I really liked it!

Mar_girl, my signature is a reference to the recent Mod Moot (which as its title implies is a gathering of Moderators). DrElwinRansom is able to do a fantastic impression of Christopher Lee, and so when I did my own impression I realized that compared to Dr. Ransom, "I'm like Christopher Lee at 12."

Hahaha, that is fantastic. Enjoy TQoA!

;)) You should give [Rick Riordan's books] a try! My science teacher loves, them.

lol, maybe I will. Cool name!

Ooh, The Secret Garden is one of my favorite books, sandyentersNarnia. A friend of mine recently read it for the first time (at my recommendation) and loved it.

Kate: Urgh, that Twilightized P&P blurb was terrible. About as bad as the one on my Tor copy, which was all Oh-Em-Gee-romcom-y. And I hope my explanation above to ww's post helps explain my dissatisfaction. Thanks for your thoughts on Villette (and thanks to ww too). I've been there.

Before the summer ends I really want to read Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke. I fell in love with Inkheart and was impressed with the direction the story of Inkspell went (although I think that Funke used a great many pages to tell a very simple tale), so I'm intrigued to see how she's going to end the series.

Same here. I want to read Inkdeath (SUCH a pretty cover), but I think I should probably reread the first two since I tend to forget about characters pretty easily. And she definitely could have made the books shorter.

I love hearing about your reads, lysander. This quote of yours from your Briar Rose review is fantastic:

Unfortunately, Yolen seems to feel that she needs to continually remind the reader that this is a fairytale, despite its modern setting. So she has her characters constantly reference folktales in the stream of everyday conversation, which struck me as odd and abnormal. (The fact that I do this all the time is nothing to the point; I never claimed to be normal.)

LOVE. I read your The Brontës Went to Woolworth's review when it went Hot without realizing it was yours! I loved all the quotes you shared. I'm sorry that Briar Rose and TBWTW turned out to not be good; they sounded like the kinds of books I would love. Then again, that's what I thought about I Capture the Castle… Oh, I really liked The Maltese Falcon.

I wish publishers would embrace the idea that artwork is not just for little kids' books.

This. (I believe that is the short-attention-span Internet way of saying "I agree wholeheartedly with your statement.")

Enjoy The Hobbit, joy93! It is a great book.

ROFL at that Hobbit cover. Fun covers quiz! I got 21 out of 24, and only because I googled the Stephen Hawking one (and the red wax seal one. I KNEW what it was, I just couldn't remember the whole title!). I only missed

besides that.

What I've been reading:
Sense & Sensibility: I did like it, but not as much as my first read-through. Marianne irritated me, as did Mrs. Jennings. And

. I dunno. I think in this reading I picked it apart too much. And the thestill doesn't make sense/feel right. I still love Elinor, but as of now Persuasion is my favorite. I think it's because it has the least to annoy/disappoint me.
I bought Beyond the Wardrobe: The Official Guide to Narnia from a Christian bookstore because I had gift certificates. It doesn't matter how many Narnia guides I have, if you keep making pretty ones and putting them in the clearance section I will buy them. This one (movie tie-in) had some photographs of Lewis I hadn't seen before, and I actually learned a few new things. So that was good. (I also bought Epic by John Elderedge but I haven't read it yet.)
A friend (the one who read The Secret Garden) lent me Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because I've decided to read all the HP books. I really liked it; fun read. I want to read the second one but the library has them all except for that one, of course. *shakes fist*
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: I went into this book knowing it was going to be good but sad because I'd read two other Kate DiCamillo books (Tiger Rising and The Tale of Despereaux), and I was right. It made me tear up at parts. So good.

Literary lolcats!
This would be useful. lol
Heh-mingway.
On Twilight
However, I think we all would advocate vampirism of this kind.
Marx joke
Do not mess with the library cat.
I'm a book.
Dilemma.
Shelf life
Why the Pooh books ended when they did
I love a good Poe pun.
Cat weighs in on The Silmarillion
I love this one. I have a baby picture much like it, with my dad.
Narnia lolcat! I can relate.

That cat picture is hilarious! That is our EXACT COPY of The Lord of the Rings! Though I'd have to disagree with him on The Silmarillion.

Same here. I want to read Inkdeath (SUCH a pretty cover), but I think I should probably reread the first two since I tend to forget about characters pretty easily. And she definitely could have made the books shorter.

I don't think you'll need to do that. I read Inkheart back in 2008, and didn't read Inkdeath until last summer. Yet I haven't been confused. Not many old characters have been re-used thus far (except for the main characters of course ). So far, I am in love with this book. I've got about 150 pages left, and I really don't want the book to come to then end

*has read all the David Eddings pictured in the I'm a book lolcat* Well, I can't quite identify which ones the green and red are, but I'm 99% sure I've read them.