I'm rereading The Silmarillion for probably the fifteenth time, and Till We Have Faces for the reading group, but that's it.
As for Prydain, I loved that. All of them. They had such a different take on fantasy. I tend to think of them as the best fantasy written by anyone who's not Lewis or Tolkien. The Book of Three (adventure is not all you dreamed it would be) and The Black Cauldron (I loved the theme of sacrifice) were probably my favorites, though The Castle of Llyr is the most funny. Taran Wanderer was not my favorite, but I liked the message of it. The High King was probably the best written, but the ending nearly makes me cry. And the characters are great. He's really good at doing an ordinary hero. I also read The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian by the same author, and that is a lot of fun. The hero is a fiddler, and there's a lot about music in it.

I got around to reading Percy Jackson at last. My sister had all of the books and she brought them home for me. I love them!

They're a weensy bit formulaic (i.e., the story seems to end and then there's the last little plot twist in the end of every story), but that didn't bother me much. It wasn't terrible, and definitely not as terrible as the formulas of the Nancy Drew books, for example.

My favorite? Hmm....I think that I liked The Last Olympian or The Titan's Curse the best. Good books!

I got around to reading Percy Jackson at last. My sister had all of the books and she brought them home for me. I love them!

They're a weensy bit formulaic (i.e., the story seems to end and then there's the last little plot twist in the end of every story), but that didn't bother me much. It wasn't terrible, and definitely not as terrible as the formulas of the Nancy Drew books, for example.

My favorite? Hmm....I think that I liked The Last Olympian or The Titan's Curse the best. Good books!

aw! I envy you for reading those great books already! . was the story in each book great??

Mel, seeing your comment to someone about 100 Cupboards, I've been getting the idea that it's in a series? (or something like that) Is it really?

It's a trilogy. 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire, and The Chestnut King.

Most of McKillip's books have been re-released with Kinuko Y. Craft covers, which is why they're sooooooooo pretty. (I'm not entirely certain that they aesthetically fit the stories (well, except for Ombria in Shadow, but they're nice to look at. ) Other than that, I have no idea what to tell you about Solstice Wood.

*loves The Scarlet Pimpernel and My Side of the Mountain* Are you going to read any of the sequels to either book? I think there are four for My Side of the Mountain and the first one is pretty good but then the others are a little bit more about saving the environment than actual story story and they've skipped forward about twenty years or so our time while the characters didn't. Or at least, that's what I remember, and I didn't like grown up Sam as well as I like young Sam.

*figures it's probably time to let the Percy Jackson fans know that she's read Sea of Monsters* It was OK. Not as good as the first one, I thought, though maybe that's because I had a really good idea what sort of problem they were going to encounter next and next and next and the twist wasn't all that shocking.

Spoiler

Grover playing Penelope cracked me up, though. I did not see that coming. On the whole, I'm not sure what I think of the Tyson subplot. Tyson as Tyson was cool, but I almost think it was too pat for him to not be dead. Kind of Tyson ex machina.

Anyone else read any of the Artemis Fowl Series? Thoughts?

Mel: yay you read it! You should try to read Titan's Curse soon! That's my fave book (well Battle of the Labryinth fights it very closely ). It's very good except the beginning is a little abrupt and not what you think it would be.

*shall not regale this thread with the long list of books that she has purchased since being on vacation* All I'll say is that my sister and her friend groaned (in good nature) whenever I found another book at the various bookstores (we've gone to three or so, two of them twice) which of course, made me by more. The Lord has really blessed me with books on subjects about which I've been wanting to read for some time, so I don't mind the big stack or *cough* the big bill.

Anyway.

In other subjects, I saw something akin to Pride & Prejudice and Zombies: Little Vampire Women. It's about the four March sisters being vampires and Laurie wanting to join them. Oy...

I saw that the other day in stores, and dragged my sister away from that aisle so she wouldn't see another one of them. I was in all honesty not amused. I personally find it really saddening that they must take good books and ruin them, and even worse that publishers publish such material.

I started reading Martin Chuzzlewit shortly before we left on vacation, and since then I've been able to read a bit more, about one hundred pages or so. So far it's been actually very enjoyable, and I personally haven't found some of the author's attitudes that really got to me in Dombey and Son. I'm quite glad about that.

So that's what Till We Have Faces is about. I shall have to read it now.

And I'm in the "Turning Classics into Vampire Novels is Unpleasant" group, thank you but no thank you!

@ Aslanisthebest and Meltintalle, I really like The Scarlet Pimpernel, too. I've read it at least three times and always enjoy it.

Anyone else read any of the Artemis Fowl Series? Thoughts?

I have (though it's been a year or so). I found them quite entertaining, but the quality definitely began to go down hill after a while. My favorite is The Opal Deception, which is also the first one I read.
The entire series suffers from an annoying use of crude humor, no-doubt aimed at the male readership. And the later books tend to be either too completely weird (The Lost Colony) or too enviro-preachy (The Time Paradox). I will read the new one, when it comes out. If it turns out much the same, quality wise, as the last two, I won't be reading the next one.

Rereading same things as before, but now I'm also rereading the first volume of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, which is excellent. I really enjoyed them, especially Perelandra, which is beautiful. (I didn't like the third one, That Hideous Strength as much, at least not until the later half when Merlin shows up. Then it gets more interesting.) Has anyone else read them, and which one did you like best?

I think the idea of taking warm, comfortable English romance classics and giving them a horror element is both ingenious and hugely exploitative. And that's the point! The reason they were creating was as a joke. To cash in on the whole vampires etc. craze. Their purpose is also to get guys to read the classics. It's pretty funny really. There's no reason to be offended. You have your Jane Austen books already. Personally I found Pride and Prejudice ridiculously boring but I can't pretend I'm not curious to read the zombies version.

I think the idea of taking warm, comfortable English romance classics and giving them a horror element is both ingenious and hugely exploitative. And that's the point! The reason they were creating was as a joke. To cash in on the whole vampires etc. craze. There purpose is also to get guys to read the classics. It's pretty funny really. There's no reason to be offended. You have your Jane Austen books already. Personally I found Pride and Prejudice ridiculously boring but I can't pretend I'm not curious to read the zombies version.

Perhaps so. I do not dislike the genre because they are doing it to good old classics such as Jane Austen, I do not like the whole idea because I seriously do not think that this whole "vampire/zombies/etc" thing is good, wholesome, reading and entertainment for young people (or anyone really) - especially for those who are Christians. That is why I'm not amused and dislike and am saddened by the whole genre and what these people are doing.

Hm? I don't see anything particularly wrong with vampires/zombies/ninjas/sea monsters/mummies/whatnot in and of themselves, at least, from a Christian perspective. Personally, I'd love to read a good vampire story (you know, one not named Twilight), and I don't think there's really going to be any temptation to become a zombie or whatever.

That's, of course, presuming the works themselves are "clean"... which they certainly may not be. I, personally, don't have much interest towards zombies, so no P&P&Z for me.

Now, maybe if there was Star Defenders: Pride & Prejudice...

Mrs. Bennet is quite pleased to hear that Bingley, a top-level S-rank Star Defender, as well as several fellow S-rank friends of his, will be transferring to the department where her family works. Perhaps finally, her five daughters, particularly the A-rank Jane and Elizabeth, can find a battle partner who can help them get promoted, to bring the unique Bennet method of combat into the Star Defender's highest ranks.

During a welcome party, the Bennets have a chance to see Bingley's battle skills first-hand, but perhaps even more intriguing is his friend, Darcy, whose battle skills are nearly unrivaled. However, his cold, aloof attitude turns many people off, and he ends up particularly offending Elizabeth. Elizabeth, not the type to take things lying down, decides to give him a piece of her mind, as well, when the militia (Star Defenders assigned to fight in major combat) arrive, with one particularly handsome Wickham catching Elizabeth's eye.

What follows is a drama of lies, love, and false first impressions as Elizabeth tries to work out who would be the best battle partner for her. Is Wickham all that he looks to be? Is there maybe a heart of gold under Darcy's cold exterior? Can Elizabeth secure the budding partnership of Jane and Bingley? And whatever must be done when her youngest sister suddenly goes missing?

...a.k.a. why I shouldn't be writing parody books, either.

Wait wait, so if you don't mind me asking, what is Pride and Prejudice: Zombies all about?!? I really am confused on its story.

*shall not regale this thread with the long list of books that she has purchased since being on vacation*

Eh, then you should give us a condensed version? It's almost as much fun to hear about what other people get as it is to get new books oneself. (And it's cheaper. )

I found [Artemis Fowl] quite entertaining, but the quality definitely began to go down hill after a while.

Ditto. I'm not sure where I started, but I'm pretty sure my favourite was the third book. Do you want to read them, Su²?

Lady Haleth, I re-read The Hideous Strength awhile back, but its been years since I read the other two. I'm not sure which is my favourite, since all I remember about the first one is associating it with green.

Wait wait, so if you don't mind me asking, what is Pride and Prejudice: Zombies all about?!? I really am confused on its story.

I don't know much besides that they take P&P and put zombies in to it somehow. They also did it with Sense and Sensibility by adding sea monsters .

I'm with Fanny. I don't think this kind of horror stuff is wholesome to read. So along with them ruining (IMO) a classic, I don't think it would be a good book.