@ Lady Courage: Welcome to NarniaWeb, & the books thread!

Gee, thanks!

Lady Courage, welcome to NWeb! The Count of Monte Cristo is a hefty book, but it's written in a pretty serialistic (today, that's a word) manner, and is only slow for the first quarter, if even that long. It's a great read. Make sure you do have an unabridged version though. There's some imposters out there that hide the fact they are abridged.

Thanks! It is unabridged, I made double sure of that because I can't stand abridgments! Supposedly it's a really good translation.

Lady Courage: Welcome to NarniaWeb! I haven't read The Count of Montecristo yet, but it's in my to read list. I look forward to reading your opinion on the book.

Thank you Mar in Narnia! Whenever I manage to finish it!

I liked Beowulf too, and it was really cool to see the similarities between it and The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Hey, has anyone read The Binding of the Blade series, by L.B. Graham? They're quite seriously some of the best modern writing I have yet to come across! I've only read the first two, sadly, because I have to order them from the internet. No-one else that I know has read them, which is a shame. Any of those who loved LOTR will love this series!! I was in tears over them, and that's saying a lot for me!

All in all, it was an alright read

That's about how I felt about it too. It might improve a bit in the next books--or they were just better than the current Redwall book. I'm not sure which. I think you can compare Redwall and Castaways. Jacques didn't deviate from his formula that much. He just has actual people (and a dog) instead of different animals.

I see there are fans of Isaac Bevis Singer. I was going to start with one of his books that received a Newbery Honor, actually. Or at least try to. It'll depend on what the library has.

220, I don't think I've read any Chaim Potok, though the name is familiar. I have read a few collections of Jewish folk tales by authors I don't remember and Julius Lester's book about Moses's sister: Paraoh's Daughter in which he takes the idea that the sister of bulrushes fame is not Miriam. But that's about all.

I'm working on Trade Wind. I'm liking it so far. It's kind of fun trying to decide who the 'right' (or winning) side in the political intrigue is supposed to be, since Kaye is doing a good job of keeping it ambiguous--rather like watching real life unfold. I'm rooting for the 'bad guys' at the moment.

Thanks for the welcomes!

Glenstorm the Great: I read The Hobbit after LOTR, and I wish I'd done it the other way around. If for nothing else, read The Hobbit first for the depth and richness it adds to hobbits and their culture in LOTR.

*is thrilled about people reading Les Mis and Jane Austen*

Make sure you do have an unabridged version though. There's some imposters out there that hide the fact they are abridged.

Ahem, like the Barnes and Noble edition. Don't pick up that one, unless you want to read the whole book and then discover there's parts missing.
Edit: It sounds like you found a good version; enjoy the book!

Enjoy The Queen of Attolia; it's my favorite of the series (though The King of Attolia definitely gives it a run for its money!).

You mean they get even better? *chafes at the unreachableness of the library*

After a long time of postponing it, I'm finally picking Anna Karenina to read!

What translation are you reading? I'm planning to read Anna Karenina very soon, but I have no idea what the quality translations are. Please, do let me know what you think of the book!

I just now realized what a superb asset my college library is. There is someone who works there who can procure pretty much any book in print for the interested student. Taking advantage of this, I instantly requested a history of Armenia and The Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire. He'll tell me when the orders come in; I'm quite excited. It must be great to have that kind of power: a hand over the library's book budget.

I've read a number of ancient Chinese poems. Some of them are quite good, but some of them are rather like sugar water. I'm also picking up The Fellowship of the Ring for another reread.

Oh, and I will add my praise of Beowulf. I actually preferred the second half, where Beowulf battles the dragon. But perhaps it's just because it's more Tolkienesque. But if you like Beowulf, there is a huge amount of stuff to explore in a similar style and era. Anglo-Saxon poetry, the Norse sagas and eddas, Y Gododdin, Early/Middle Welsh poetry and prose, and Nibelungenlied.

And it appears that the book thread will be as hard to keep up with on the new forum as it was on the old.

Well, i visited the library today, and picked up a number of books -

The Hunger Games: The premise unsettles me a bit, but i really enjoyed her Underland Chronicles, so i'm going to give it a go.

Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code: I read the first three (Eternity Code is number four, right?) and wasn't blown away or fascinated, but i found them to be decent reads. I'm always on the look-out for at least decent books i haven't read, so i figured i'd pick it up and see how it was.

The Merlin Conspiracy: I've liked everything by Wynne Jones i've already read, and it sounded interesting than the first Chrestomanci book -- any comments on that one?

Harriet the Spy: I read this one a long time ago -- i think i liked it. I'll find out soon enough, i guess.

Bleak House: My favorite Dickens. I read it a while ago, then saw the recent mini-series and want to compare; but i want to read it again for its own sake, too.

Thud!: Another re-read.

A number of weeks ago i inter-library-loaned a copy of I Capture the Castle after seeing its name pop up a number of times. The title put me in mind of something else entirely, but i enjoyed it for what it was. Then i saw the movie, and -- well, i'm re-reading it to see just how bad the movie was.

I'm trying to get in some Shakespeare - primarily Othello, Romeo and Juliet and King Lear. I've already succeeded in reading The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice -- both were excellent, but i definitely preferred Merchant. I'm having difficulty getting into Othello, though; i blame the copy i have. The text is small, hard to read, and the play itself is only about 30% of it. If I wanted commentaries/notes on the text/etc., i would get a book on that!

Has anyone else read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series? I've gotten through book 4 and am enjoying it. It reminds me of Gregor in a number of ways.

Aslanisthebest and others - I didn't particularly like Eight Cousins or Rose in Bloom. Finding a Louisa May Alcott that I am truly fond of is more of an exception than a rule - for example, An Old Fashioned Girl. I do really like that book.

Dppselej - Haha, the characters in The Midnight Dancers can be very frustrating, can't they? I kept wanting to yell at Rachel. But yes, what Aly said in her spoiler. I can find the bit Regina Doman wrote about it and PM it to you, if you like. I love all the philosophy in that book. It's so very... Chestertonian.

I just read Northanger Abbey aloud to my sister (not the one who is reading P&P) is under 24 hours. Quite an experience, that. For one thing, my voice was almost gone by the time we had finished. My sister likes for me to read to her while she knits.... she made an entire scarf during the first 10 chapters. We enjoyed it very much. It's not always easy to make my sister laugh during books, so I had to work rather hard at that. She laughed a great deal at Mr. Tilney and rolled her eyes and sort of snorted at Isabella. I had way too much fun reading Isabella.

I also read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd over the weekend. I still enjoy Agatha Christie's books, but she's becoming a wee bit too predictable. I guessed the murderer... and it ought to have been a terrible surprise! It seems that all you have to do is pick the very most unlikely person, and it's a sure thing that they're the killer.

Now I have started Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. My reasons for enjoying it thus far: 1) There's a character named Sebastian 2) He has a teddy bear named Aloysius.

Arwenel - Oooh, Shakespeare! I haven't read Othello yet, but I have read the others. King Lear is my favorite. Romeo & Juliet is high up there on the favorites, because of the Montague-Capulet fighting scenes. Swords. Yay. I read The Merchant of Venice for school and enjoyed it - mainly because of Portia - but, even though I wrote a paper on Shylock, did not quite understand it. It's an odd play, but very fascinating. The Tempest used to be my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, and I still love it for the fantasy elements.

Yes, at times Agatha Christie's works can be predictable but I don't think The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was one of them. Also, you have to realise this was one of her first novels, so at that point it wouldn't have been predictable at all.
Try The Big Four. It's great but very different to many of her other novels.

I've actually heard that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was one of Agatha Christie's "shockers" to it's readers. Quite honestly though, I found it really easy to solve, and guessed the murderer practically half-way through the book. I have a feeling that it's because I've read so many of her books, and she does have a kind of pattern set in her books...but I still enjoy them! The Miss Marple books are my favorite!

When it comes to Agatha Christie, I'm partial to Hercule Poirot. Miss Marple usually has some good plotlines, but it seems like they never discover any evidence. Miss Marple just goes around and talks to people and riddles things out like that. Poirot actually finds evidence every now and again.

Either way, I'm not a big fan of Agatha Christie. Her bad guys usually have really miserable motives for committing murder (the exception being some of my favourite Poirot books), and as was pointed out earlier, they're usually quite predictable.

When it comes to a good mystery, I really enjoy the Emily Brightwell Mrs. Jeffries series. They're really fast paced reads, and you can usually knock one out in a day or two. My only critique of these books is that Mrs. Jeffries, who is a housekeeper for an inspector, but Mrs. Jeffries is usually much more clever than the inspector. There are times when he cannot solve a case at all unless she points him in the right direction. The man wouldn't have made it all the way up to an inspector if he couldn't solve a simple murder. But her characters have very charming relationships with each other, and some of her characters are quite eccentric (which is always a plus ). Her motives for murder and the murderer themself is never known until the very end of the book, and her evidence almost always points you towards one character, slowly wrapping you up in the web of the story. It isn't until the end that you realise that you've been caught, and the murderer is really somebody that you never would have expected.

So if you want a good Victorian England mystery series, go with the Mrs. Jeffries series by Emily Brightwell. There are about 30 books in the series thus far.

Hi everyone! I'm excited to be here! It's going to take me a while to adjust, though...

From lys (how do you quote specific people? I can't seem to do it):

So I suppose someone already posted that ultra-condensed version of Twilight? Great. It was probably mara, as likely as not. That girl ... always stealing my thunder.

*cackles evilly* No, it wasn't. I learned about that site through you. Or was it someone else? Booky?

I wasn't going to respond to all the old forum stuff here, but since lys did, I will too.
Old Forum:
lys:

I forgot to mention that I really, really liked your LT review of that Aesop book, which you modestly chose not to post here. It was short, sweet, and utterly charming. Props.

Oh, gosh. I didn't post about it since I haven't been on NW for a bit, and I thought it was merely ok, not really worth sharing. But thank you! That made my day.

I can't remember if I told you I love your MP review, ww. I may have upthumbed it twice

W4J: Wow, that is some book! It looks fascinating. Are there other copies about the other parts of Miyazaki's life? Like, birth-1978, etc.

ww:

I think it's because [Tolkien] got the beauty too; you can tell it moved him and that is why he is able to do the same to us.

YES. This is why I love reading. I love it so much when I'm reading somebody and he or she knows.

The Archbishop story in the beginning of Les Mis is my favorite part.

I'm glad you liked the Dr. Who cakes, MereChristian!

Shadowlander:

I think Dickens tends to get the same way in some of his books, especially A Tale of Two Cities, where it feels like he spends the first few pages describing weather and road conditions in the countryside, which makes me wonder if the guy was getting paid by the word

I think he was. Not specifically with word count, I don't think, but he wrote his novels in weekly or monthly installments (serialization), and he was paid more for the longer ones. Plus I think that was the style back then.

I hope you enjoy the Inkheart books, Amira Tair! I read the first two, and the library has the third but I feel like I need to reread them before starting it. I looove the covers and writing style and book quotes at the beginning of the chapters.

Back to the new forum:

I love your sig, Narnia Girl! *sighs*

Mr Anderson: You rock. That is amazing.

narnian1:

That's easily one of my favorite chapters in the trilogy for that very reason

*flies to protect narnian1 from ww's wrath* He didn't mean it, really! It was just a slip of key! He won't do it again, don't worry!

The Scouring of the Shire chapters are my favorite in ROTK, I think. Agree about the hobbits' new amazingness.

I love your sig, DiGoRy KiRkE!

Arwenel:

I read the first three (Eternity Code is number four, right?)

Eternity Code is the third. The list goes like this:
Artemis Fowl
AF: The Arctic Incident
AF: The Eternity Code
AF: The Opal Deception
AF: The Lost Colony
AF: The Time Paradox
My favorite is The Lost Colony because of No.1. Next is Opal Deception because it makes me giggle a lot for some reason, then The Eternity Code (my little brother's favorite). My least favorite is the newest.

There are also a bunch of graphic novels (well, they're graphic novelizing them slowly; I think currently there are the first two).

The Merlin Conspiracy

I read that one. It was in the earlier days when I didn't know much about authors. It was very good, as are all DWJ books, but there was something I just did not like about it. It was a specific thing:

I'd have to read it again, now that I've read more of her work. For some reason, her stuff set in modern-day England leaves me feeling a little bit cold. Like, her House books, which feel like late 19th-early 20th century era to me, leave me with warm fuzzies, and the modern-day ones don't. Maybe because it strikes closer to home or something. Like, in Dogsbody, the animal and emotional abuse was hard for me to stomach. It wasn't all A Child Called It or anything, but it was hard for me to read.

And now for what I've been up to lately... I've read Miss Pickford and Mr. Hare, my book about Aesop illustrations, and Selected Poems of Langston Hughes, which I loved. MP&MR was really good, too. My LT reviews are all here. Oh! I also posted my (shortened) Nation review!
I checked Sorcery and Cecelia Or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot out from the library. I'm about a third of the way through. I really want to finish it, but I have so little time and summer is just rushing to a close. For some reason, the paperback of that was put as a Juvenile paperback. So I took it to the librarian and she made it a YA instead. What's up with the title, though? It is fun and charming, but Kate (that is her name, right?) gets no love?
Quite soon I have to start reading The Pilgrim's Progress for school.
I have several links, but they shall have to wait.

What translation are you reading? I'm planning to read Anna Karenina very soon, but I have no idea what the quality translations are. Please, do let me know what you think of the book!

Oh, I'm so sorry, but I'm afraid I can't help you with the translations, I'm reading it in spanish. But I'll tell you my opinion when I finish the book, thought I don't think it will be soon

I just now realized what a superb asset my college library is. There is someone who works there who can procure pretty much any book in print for the interested student. Taking advantage of this, I instantly requested a history of Armenia and The Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire. He'll tell me when the orders come in; I'm quite excited.

You're interested in the history of Armenia? That's great! I'm of Armenian descent. Could you please tell me the name of the book when you get it? Thank you! Hope you enjoy the books

Dppselej, glad that KoA earned a higher place in your rankings. How did you feel about Attolia? Gen? Costis? Did you get frustrated with Gen at all? Why didn't you like TT and QoA? Is it the characters? The writing? The plot? I need a little more of your thoughts before the conversion can fully occur.

I think what bothered me most about the previous two was the whole pagan religion thing, and the language, and the general dishonesty of Gen's profession. But I need to reread them and then properly form an opinion. The characters were interesting, but the politics were somewhat confusing (if you're in a hurry and reading too fast). As for the specific characters...I could respect Costis, and understand him. And, yes, Gen is frustrating (though he reminds me at times of one of my own characters). He does have great lines, though, that are now a part of Things We Quote. So, this opinion isn't final yet. Bring on the conversion.

Hooray! (says the girl who actually did not like SOTB all that much) Too bad about WR, but BaN is almost as good. Both are more complex and...serious, maybe...than the first book is. Can I lay a bet that your favourite character was Blanche?

The characters in MD didn't annoy me exactly, but I didn't really sympathise with them. It made more sense after reading what RD had to say about it: you aren't supposed to like Rachel, exactly, as much as find her interesting to watch--and also, Paul's relationship with Rachel

She says it much more gracefully (it's on her forum) but you get the idea. Anyhow. I didn't really like the characters in that book either--and I was sorry that some of the other sisters were nothing more than names and shadowy figures, though I suppose you can only have so many developed characters--but I love the themes.

I agree with Lady Liln on the subject of Attolia. (And on The Scouring of the Shire, but I digress.) Glad to see you back, Dppselej!

Yes, it was Blanche. However did you guess? The allegory thing makes sense, and I knew one is not supposed to support these characters' actions. Not sympathizing with the characters and going through almost the whole book wanting to say "How can you do this?" gets a bit nerve-wracking. The moral, though, is excellent.

Dppselej - Haha, the characters in The Midnight Dancers can be very frustrating, can't they? I kept wanting to yell at Rachel. But yes, what Aly said in her spoiler. I can find the bit Regina Doman wrote about it and PM it to you, if you like. I love all the philosophy in that book. It's so very... Chestertonian.

If you wouldn't mind. I've been skimming her site, and was really, really happy when I found her discussion on the four temperaments.

I finished The Hunger Games -- wow. I didn't want to put it down last night. I was a little confused by the ending --

-- but other than that, i enjoyed it a lot. I'm planning on a re-read; unfortunately, when i first read something, i tend to skim a lot as i get caught up in the action, so i need to return and look through it in greater detail.

I started The Merlin Conspiracy -- mildly interesting, but also mildly confusing.

Lys, ah yes, we have rather discussed this before. Hmm, a diet of reading might not be so bad! As it is, I think, since what I've been mainly reading these past few days has been youth/young adult fiction with much simpler plots, I've become accustomed to them once more and am enjoying them. (Thankfully!) I suppose the worst time is right after reading a more complex book, because it's such a large jump.

Alyosha: Yes, terribly shocking isn't it? The one I just finished reading was Not A Nickel to Spare, but I didn't really like it. It wasn't boring, but there was a few content issues here and there that I felt weren't entirely needed, and all in all the time period didn't interest me as much as the others.

Mel: Funny, now that you mention the similarities between Jacques' books, I can actually see them. Both Castaways and some Redwall have characters going on treasure hunts, quests to save things (mainly, their home)...I'm sure there's more similarities, but those are the two that I noticed first...

As I stated above, I've been continuing to read some youth fiction, mainly historical. I've enjoyed pretty much all that I've read, but it's been nothing too spectacular...

lysander: regarding Eliot, I've read parts of Adam Bede and The Mill on the Floss. Why not all? Length and lack of time. But thanks to PBS/BBC, I'm familiar with their plots, along with Daniel Deronda. And why am I attracted to the last one? 1. Victorian era. 2. The Jewish connection! I'm a Judeo-phile, if you didn't know. My mom says I have a Hebrew mind. Lol!

Phosphorus [and others]: I read Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied in high school, more than 10 years ago. I remember preferring the 2nd half of Beowulf, too. Has anyone else read Pearl and Patience? They're medieval English poems. And they're really good! I've also read Tristan and Isolde/Iseult. What are your thoughts on it?

Arwenel: I read Harriet the Spy a few years ago, after watching the movie, and I really liked it. I even started a journal of my own. I've been keeping one ever since [thoughts and reflections on God, the Word, answers to prayer, etc]. Shakespeare: I've read all 5 plays you listed, along with nearly 15 others. My favorite is The Merchant of Venice, too.

mar_girl: you mentioned Pilgrim's Progress. I've read it twice. Are you reading just the Christian part? or also part 2 with Christian's wife and children? I've read both and I wondered what others' thoughts on them were. Which one is better written, preferred, etc? I've read Bunyan's autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. It's excellent! I want to read his allegory The Holy War. Has anyone else read that?