You can blame the French for Lancelot. I actually wrote a paper on him a few semesters ago, so I did some research on his origins. As annoying as he is in more modern examples of Arthurian legend, the original Lancelot was beyond obnoxious. He was always swooning with love over Guinevere and stuff.

Reading The Battle of the Labyrinth. Not liking it quite as much as the first three.

^I'll be rereading that book soon so I can defend it . It's my second favorite in the series! I don't know how someone couldn't like it...

I like it, I just don't like it as much as the others I've read so far. The Titan's Curse was probably the best, though The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters come close.

Spoiler

The adventure is cool, I like that Annabeth is leading, and I love the fact that Tyson is back. The Labyrinth is fascinating, and the monsters are scary. Percy's just a little dense, though , and that's what annoyed me. And I didn't see the point of Pan.

I just finished Sea of Monsters. One of the most memorable parts for me was discovering the character names Oreius, and noting that the publisher was Disney's imprint Hyperion. While I understand that Riordan uses this name because of its mythological origins, I still find it funny that the two modern uses of the name are in this book and in Walden/Disney's film of LWW.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this book, but have trouble choosing between it and its predecessor. They are both well done, but have very different dynamics. I believe the next book will likely show itself a favorite, however, with the return of one character and the appearance of two new ones, all of whom will make the rest of the series much more complicated.

I finished my reread of The Thief, and found that most of the ending had left my memory since I first read the book. I think that some of those scenes have now become my favorites, especially in light of the rest of the series. I shall look forward to rereading the rest in the coming weeks.

Next in my list of new books to read is either The Thief of Always by Clive Barker or Alas, Babylon.

Next in my list of new books to read is either The Thief of Always by Clive Barker or Alas, Babylon.

Alas, Babylon...Alas, Babylon...I've heard the title before but can't place it, but it strikes me as something I had wanted to read at some point in the past. By chance is it a future holocaust/dystopia book?

I just finished A Wizard of Earthsea. Excellent. It wasn't like any other fantasy I ever read. Reading it felt like looking into a deep pool, where you see the reflections of the trees and the sky and the stars, all quiet and rippling in the water. Also, I like a hero who has to face the consequences of his actions.
Also, still rereading The Lord of the Rings. I'm to Lothlorien now.

Shadowlander, yes, it is a holocaust/dystopian book. It's one I've been interested in for a while and several NWebbers have suggested it on here.

Lady Haleth, I agree. That is one of the best fantasy books I've read. Its use of the magic of names is so wonderful, and yes, the gebbeth is well used to describe human nature and the consequence of choices.

I've been reading Linda Windsor's new book "Healer". Its written in the same vein as her Gleannmarra series. I've read all three of those and the detail that she puts into them is incredible. Healer and the Gleannmarra series are set in the dark ages and have an incredible message behind them. In Healer there is a bit of an introduction that gives some of Windsor's testimony and it is incredibly heartbreaking and moving. God has used her research into this time period and the books that came from it to reach people who otherwise wouldn't touch a Bible with a 10 foot pole.

I just read this awesome book called "Independence Hall" book one in the "IQ" series by Roland Smith! it was so awesome! all the events could almost happen in real life? anyone else a fan?
http://www.iqtheseries.com

I just came across this on www.terabithia.com :

Where did the name Terabithia come from?

"I thought I'd made up "Terabithia". I realized when the book was nearly done, that there is an island in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" by C. S. Lewis called Terebinthia. I'm sure I borrowed that unconsciously, but, then, so would Leslie who loved the Chronicles of Narnia. And, by the way, Lewis got Terebinthia from the Biblical terebinth tree, so it wasn't original with him either."

- Katherine Patterson, author, Bridge To Terabithia

I have so much to read right now . I'm almost done with Return to Alastair and I never finished The Thief b/c I lost it . But I found it this morning so when I'm done with Alastair I will read that! Then I'm going to read The Riddlemaster Trilogy by McKillip and then The Princess and the Goblin, Silas Marner, and The Boy in Striped Pajamas. Also The Scarlet Trefoil and maybe In the Forests of Serre if I have time...

shatastwin: will you be reading The Titan's Curse? That's the next book in the series and my favorite .

^ Totally agree. The Titan's Curse is the best. Though my sister says that the last one: The Last Olympian, is also very good. I haven't read it yet, 'cause I'm still on The Battle of the Labyrinth.

yes The Last Olympian is excellent- but be prepared to cry! There are many deaths, since it's the last book and all. I cried through the whole thing and sometimes just mentioning some lines from the last few chapters will set me and my sisters off crying . The ending comes out about totally unexpected though and it's very good .

Gtg, I plan on reading the rest of the series as I get them, but except for special occasions (birthday, Christmas, unexpected monetary gifts) I'm not going to be buying many new books in the near future, and these books aren't likely to be in the used book stores I might frequent. However, I do look forward to them, as well as Mr. Riordan's Kane Chronicles, which strikes me as the Egyptian mythology cousin to Percy Jackson, and his sequel series to PJ&tO, titled The Heroes of Olympus.

I have started The Queen of Attolia and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the first few chapters. This book gains perspective that the first one lacked (though I don't see that as a fault of the first book) and the third chapter is so... real, that I found myself cringing again. It doesn't help that (like most male fans of the series, I suppose) I find myself wishing to portray Eugenides.

Also, I have been distracted from my plans to read either Alas, Babylon or The Thief of Always by a book that was also on my shelf: The Gates of Slumber. It's a part of Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series, which retells fairy tales in the context of (usually) 1750-1900's England with the protagonists usually having some sort of skill as controllers of the elemental beings around them. I found the first two novels in this set (The Fire Rose and The Shadow of the Serpent) to be very well done and much cleaner than some of Lackey's other fantasy. We'll see how this one turns out, though the prologue was enough to suck me in last night. The only nitpicks I have with the books so far is that The Fire Rose is much more a romance than its successor (which I read first, as the two aren't connected like the later books) or than I care to read in fantasy and the main protagonist in The Shadow of the Serpent is a supporter of women's suffrage (as well as being one of the few female doctors in London), which at the time the book is set was equated with feminism. Because of this I felt as though I was being preached at during some parts of the book.