*takes note of your liking less description for my own book-writing purposes *

Personally, I like description when it's not overdone. I like being able to visualize the scene. But it's a matter of "showing", not "telling". I like it when the author "shows" me what the forest looks like by making the characters interact with it. "Telling" is what bogs down books with an overload of description. I also like it when description scenes are broken up with dialogue to keep me interested.

Just a really quick thought on whether a book should have more description or not:

I'm either a fan of minimalist description, painting in quick even strokes (as Lewis did), or of medium description. Less description just makes the whole work seem more light and breathable, somehow.

You know, I think that's very true. Especially after what DiGoRyKiRkE said about Les Mis (which I loved, but it is very thick and Hugo likes to spend lots of time on subjects that may seem unnecessary to the story. For one of my friends, that's exactly what she loves about him. To all our different tastes! ), and because I've been reading a few Dickens books this summer. With the older books where they devote a lot of page time to description and such, it's not a light and breathable world (That might have a little to do with their usual subject matter as well). It's more of a rich, deep, thick world, like a ginormous piece of chocolate cake. Huge portions can be overwhelming, but in small bites, it's so rewarding and wonderful. That could very well be just me, but the comment about "light and breathable" made me wonder what the opposite side of the spectrum would be. Naturally, depending on the author's skill or reader's preference, it can come across as clunky and plodding and slow, but on the whole, I personally don't mind whether a book has lots of description or little. Just my two cents.

And while I'm here, I really should do that post I've been meaning to do.

What Dickens have you read? I would suggest Our Mutual Friend as one, if you haven't read it yet.

I've read A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Hard Times, Bleak House, and Little Dorrit, some for school and some for pleasure, but I've liked all of them. I read your post right after going to the library and kicked myself for not getting Our Mutual Friend. Happily (or unhappily) it hadn't been there anyway. I'd checked out Nicholas Nickleby instead, and started it, but didn't think I'll be able to finish it before the school year started, so I haven't made much progress at all. Now I know I won't be able to finish it. I'll keep an eye out for OMF at my library! I trust your literary opinion, and reading the less well-known Dickens appeals to me for some odd reason. *still has not read A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, or David Copperfield*

I've been volunteering at my library the past few weeks, and have noticed a few things while shelving books.

-Murder and food apparently pairs quite nicely. How else to explain all the books titled Death Du Jour, The Carrotcake Murder, and Fatally Fudge?
-The standard romance novel fare scares me. The titles are alarming. The covers are worse. Also, dukes are popular.
-I realized that the Sci-Fi and Fantasy section in my library is actually made up of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books. (My brother only ever brought home sci-fi books that I was never interested in reading.) Guess where all the McKillip books wre hiding? Which wood book of hers was highly recommended, Solstice Wood, or In the Forests of Serre? My library has both, and I seem to remember one was well liked by a bunch here and the other wasn't.

Murder and food apparently pairs quite nicely. How else to explain all the books titled Death Du Jour, The Carrotcake Murder, and Fatally Fudge?

Having worked in a library system for 4 & 1/2 years, I know exactly what you mean. Between mystery books, I don't know what gets more attention, food or cats (Lillian Jackson Braun's cat murders just confuse me)

The standard romance novel fare scares me. The titles are alarming. The covers are worse. Also, dukes are popular.

Not to mention Sheikh's Seriously. . . those are just weird.

I love LOTR! I read the first one (FotR) when i was 12 years old and I read it in a week. I then went on to read TTT in two weeks and RotK in two weeks as well. before all that, I read The Hobbit in two days. you could say that I fell in love right away

I love LOTR! I read the first one (FotR) when i was 12 years old and I read it in a week. I then went on to read TTT in two weeks and RotK in two weeks as well. before all that, I read The Hobbit in two days. you could say that I fell in love right away

That brings back good memory’s for me!
I first read LOTR when I was 11 right after I saw The Fellowship of the Ring in the movie theaters.
I read them out of order though, I started with The Two Towers because I wanted to know what was going to happen, and then Return of the King, then the Hobbit and then I finally read The Fellowship of the Ring.
As soon as I was done reading The Return of the King I discovered Narnia and read all of them!
That was the best reading year ever!
That was the year I discovered so many things that have become so close to my heart now.

(Lillian Jackson Braun's cat murders just confuse me)

A clarification for any who might have been confused--the cats are not murdered. The cats solve murders. (I think. Anyway, someone solves the murders and the cats are there...) The first few almost made sense, but the later ones made no sense at all.

*is currently reading Fool's Run by McKillip* Eighties sci-fi is so much fun. And McKillip's style works well here, which is not exactly something I would have predicted...

Also, I just noticed that R. J. Anderson has an little blurb on the back of Meg Burden's The King Commands. How fun! Always nice when authors you like approve of each others work.

A clarification for any who might have been confused--the cats are not murdered. The cats solve murders.

Oh yes! That makes MUCH more sense *rolls eyes*

[/sarcasm]

I'm trying to think of the other author (also with the last name of Brown) that writes books about cat murders. . . The name is eluding me right now.

@ DiGs. Sorry I can't help you out with the other author. I've never read her. I just see the titles when I'm in the mystery section looking for Ellis Peters.

So, I finished Fool's Run last night, and found certain details rather interesting in light of the recent discussion about how much description is necessary. The plot revolves around a band, but McKillip tells us very very little about what kind of music the band plays. Whenever the music is specifically addressed, the lead is playing Bach on the piano. (And we often get very specific descriptions of which Bach piece.) When a concert is described, we hear about the light show and their sparkly costumes. Which, I suppose, is how one gets around describing a new genre of music and allows the reader to imagine that they might actually like Nova's music... Also, the story is not what the back cover blurb would lead you to expect.

I finished Mrs. Jeffries on the Ball by Emily Brightwell a couple of hours ago. It was a very good mystery (as I knew it would be). All of the Mrs. Jeffries books more or less have the same plot (don't all mysteries?). Collect clues, discuss clues, collect clues, discuss clues, solve case, discuss how the heroine pieced together the clues. But. . . I still like those books immensely.

I plan on placing the next one on hold through my library (we don't have a copy so I'll have to Interlibrary loan it, which takes about 5 days); Mrs. Jeffries on the Trail. Until it comes, who knows what I'm going to read. I'm going to the library tomorrow; I might have to pick up something short and fun there.

I have a strange feeling that this post will be partly be in response from posts over a month ago... Ah well. That's what happens when I prefer to be reading rather than posting about what I'm reading.

Fanny: I see you purchased a Richard Peck title. I loved A Long Way from Chicago and its sequel. Have you read the new one yet? I'd like to know how it is.

Alas, I have not yet read the Richard Peck book, but I will be sure to post when I do read it. Has he written other pieces of historical fiction?

Our Mutual Friend by Dickens. I need to stop reading this book. I've read it way too many times. But I love it. It's my favorite Dickens book ever. I still laugh my head off reading the whole argument scene with Bradley Headstone and Eugene. Classic.

Our Mutual Friend is one of my favourite Dickens' novels, I hope to re-read it again at some point in the near-ish future. Eugene is a somewhat complex character, I found, but overall I like him, which is rather rare for me, as generally I dislike characters of his personality. >_> I do feel sorry for Bradley Headstone, though, all in all.

However, I would recommend Anne Bronte's novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

I read The Tenant earlier this year, and I enjoy it quite a bit. I would probably only recommend it to slightly older audiences, or ones who can properly understand some of the issues that are dealt within the book. That and Shirley are my favourite of the Bronte sisters' work, or of the ones I've read so far.

But as much as I love those books. . . Victorian England is going to seem like a bit of a "let-down" after visiting a world where fairies flutter through the same air which carries the songs of travelling minstrels.

Here is where I think I would have to disagree with you... I think Victorian England would always be nicer than a fantasy world, even if it is such a well written world as the Inkworld. But that's just me, I know.

I've read A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Hard Times, Bleak House, and Little Dorrit, some for school and some for pleasure, but I've liked all of them. I read your post right after going to the library and kicked myself for not getting Our Mutual Friend. Happily (or unhappily) it hadn't been there anyway. I'd checked out Nicholas Nickleby instead, and started it, but didn't think I'll be able to finish it before the school year started, so I haven't made much progress at all. Now I know I won't be able to finish it. I'll keep an eye out for OMF at my library! I trust your literary opinion, and reading the less well-known Dickens appeals to me for some odd reason. *still has not read A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, or David Copperfield*

Aw, thanks! I'm flattered that you trust my opinion. I understand a bit about how appealing it can be to read the lesser known Dickens, although I'm trying to read all of his works ultimately. How far did you get into Nicholas Nickleby? That was another good one, I hope you shall be able to finish it someday (soon). Will you let me know what you think when you've read Our Mutual Friend?

The titles are alarming. The covers are worse. Also, dukes are popular.

I had to laugh a little when I read this, and I must ask the question if there are really that many dukes in real life, in comparative relation to all those that are portrayed in such novels? (I also must add that when I was a volunteer at our library, the staff was getting rid of all those cheap dime-a-dozen romances.)

A clarification for any who might have been confused--the cats are not murdered.

*is severally put out* Just kidding, of course. After all, what fun is it to read an entire mystery centered around dead cats?

As to what I've been reading, I've read:

The Hollow Tree by Janet Lunn. This was pretty good, a nice historical young adult novel set in the Revolutionary War with a girl carrying a coded message to the British general near the St. Lawrence. *cheers* I wish the girl and the over all book had of been more pro-Loyalist/British than sitting somewhere near the middle, but I can't complain, really.
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. This one was a lot lighter reading than I expected it to be, and therefore I finished it in about two hours. It was alright, nothing spectacular I found.
No Strings Attached by Carolyn Keene
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. I enjoyed this one very much, although I must disagree with the back cover (or introduction, or maybe it was Wikipedia) that said this was one of Dickens' darkest novels. It wasn't that dark, all in all. The plot was less complex compared to some of his other works, to be sure, less characters, I think. My favourite storyline I must admit was not the Nell and her Grandfather one but the

Queen Victoria by Cecil Woodham-Smith, a biography written in the '70s, I think, or some time ago. Good read, really detailed and engaging.
The National Dream by Pierre Berton, on the building of the Grand National Railroad that united Canada railway wise. Another detailed history book, the first part was definitely the best, though.

Other than that I've been reading some very engaging books for school. I also bought several new books today- the local new books bookstore had a sale on where you could buy 3 books for $10.00, so I picked up The Professor by Charlotte Bronte, Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, and The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan. So I have some more reading for a while, I'd say.

I went up to the library today with the intention of placing the next Mrs. Jeffries book on hold, but somebody else already has it on hold. This means that it will be a while before I can get a copy

So I walked over to the teen section (which I still frequent despite the fact that I'm 21 ) and found a book called The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting. Judging from the blurb on the front flap, it's about a girl, who has the ability to sense the presence of a dead body. It comes in useful when her town goes through an onslaught of murders thought to be the work of a serial killer. So I checked that one out, and started reading it this morning only to find that the book seems to centre more around the main character's (Violet Ambrose) budding love for her best friend. I'm not opposed to a little bit of romance sprinkled here and there throughout a book, but this is a bit much for me. All the same, I'll probably keep reading it because so far, it's an intriguing plot, and the writing is pretty good.

After visiting the teen section, I headed over to the SF-Fantasy section, only to find that one of my favourite authors had released a book months ago that I somehow missed. The author is Sarah Ash, and if you're looking for a good series, I reccommend her "Tears of Artamon Trilogy." I've only read the first one (as they're pretty hefty books, and I haven't had time to read the others), but the first one was so good that I couldn't put it down. Well apparently this is the start of a new series. The book is called Tracing the Shadow and the series is called "The Alchemist's Legacy." It seems like your typical "SF-World with power struggle and magic" book, but I still think it might be worth reading (particularly as it's a book by Sarah Ash).

Any ways, hurray for libraries, and for good finds!!!

When it comes to Shakespearean tragedies, I'd reccommend King Lear or Titus Andronicus over Hamlet any day of the week. Either of them have much better characters I think

I'm not reading either of those for my class unfortunately, but I hope one day to read all of Shakespeare's major/most famous plays so I'll keep that in mind.

I actually was never that big a fan of Inkheart. A book about a book-binder who reads books? I found it a bit schmaltzy. Maybe I just didn't give it a chance.

Oh boy! it would kill me if one of my books got as torn as that one, or for that matter even just a little. I take extra care of my books- paperback is only for shorter type books, long books are a must hardback.

Hardback isn't always a guarantee. My (Canadian/UK version) Goblet of Fire no longer has a cover thanks to multiple readings. We have 2 copies of (US version) Half-blood Prince and both are in pieces. They were both in pieces after the first read, so I think they were just really badly made.

Thanks for finding that MP quote. I see now why that quote didn't automatically strike me as, "Oh, so she was going to marry Henry?" because Jane also makes it clear that Henry would have had to maintain his character...which he didn't.

I agree with you about not expecting it to be like JE! It does drag a little, it's true

A little? *glowers at Charlotte* Talk about servile and under appreciated. Lucy Snowe makes Fanny Price look like Elizabeth Bennett.

Speaking of Charlotte Bronte, I read Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea. I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure "enjoy" is the right word, because it definitely doesn't have a happy ending (which I actually only realized partway through, though I should have realized at the beginning). It was very well written, interestingly developed, and very striking. The setting and 'Caribbean gothic' feel (to steal a phrase from the person who wrote the intro) were very different and intriguing. I would definitely recommend it to other Jane Eyre fans.

Alas, I have not yet read the Richard Peck book, but I will be sure to post when I do read it. Has he written other pieces of historical fiction?

No clue. The two I read were hilarious though.

I've read a bit since I was last here. I finished Great Expectations! I've yet to read a Dickens that I really liked. It took me ages to finish and I did get tired of Pip's faults. Dickens is such a wonderful writer, but he knows how to drag a plot out, that's for sure. *frowns at serialized publications*
I read Wide Sargasso Sea (see above for thoughts).
I went to the library to get Harpist in the Wind only to find that my hold on Mockingjay was in (I was third, but I guess they bought at least 3 copies. ).

Re: Mockingjay :I finished the book in under 24 hours, so, like the rest of the series, it goes fast. The writing quality is probably slightly worse than the last two, but you definitely don't read these books for the prose. It's all about plot. I thought Mockingjay's plot could have been tightened up in a lot of places, but overall it was pretty good. It seems that the last two books really built up to this one. THIS is the message Collins wants to leave. More than anything Mockingjay is a warning, a

edit: I just picked up Harpist in the Wind and read 50 pages before realizing I had the 3rd book and not the second. *Facepalm* I must be really thick. I thought the whole 'skip two years' thing was a literary technique.

I just bought the second Earthsea book, The Tombs of Atuan, at the college bookstore yesterday. I could not put it down, so I read it all in one sitting. It was almost as good as the first one (which I still hope to own). Now I just have to read the third.

I feel kind of guilty, slinking back in here on page 100 - last time I posted was *checks* page 82. And I don't have much to comment on the more recent pages. Shame, shame, shame!

But... I just tore through the Books of Bayern this month and they are so good I just had to come in and tell you all what you already know!
My favorite is probably Goose Girl: Great suspense, especially at the end. (At times I actually had to cover the page to keep from reading ahead!) Also, Shannon Hale rights some really good but unobtrusive humor. Enna Burning is great also. I have to admit that Forest Born wasn't quite as good as the others; it seemed a little cluttered and forced in places.

I hope Mrs. Hale will come out with another book in the series - I liked how River Secrets was from the POV of a friend of the water-speaker, and I think maybe a book with a female MC watching some young man discover a speaking ability? The series could use a male speaker who is not evil.
Or is the series complete now? I don't frequent book blogs/news sites, so I wouldn't know! It does have a "Finished" feel to it.

Also, I recently read the much-vaunted first book of the Attolia series. The Grecian setting is most fascinating, and character development is top-notch.

Spoiler

The rock temple was a really neat idea. Each time Gen went in I got nervous.

Just finished Mockingjay. Stayed up entirely too late reading it, but I couldn't put it down and go to sleep.