Tuesday, May 11, 2010

It's All Greek to Me!

Currently, I’m reading two books. It’s not as hard as it might seem. You just pick up whichever book strikes your fancy at that moment. Of course, I usually end up picking one and finishing it before I pick up the other again, but that doesn’t happen all the time. Sometimes I don’t return to the other book for another year or more. It’s really rather sad. I don’t know why I leave books half read. I know it’s weird but I usually always get back to my half-read books at some point. Right now I think I’ve started maybe five books that I haven’t completed yet, not including the two I’m currently reading. It really doesn’t bother me to go back to them after a year or so either. Hmm… this sounds like a problem. Does anyone else do this? Or is it just me? I’m sure there has to be someone else out there who does it too.

Anyway, it does help that these two books are rather different. The first one I started reading was Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, but unfortunately I think this one may be put to the side until I finish the other book. Don’t get me wrong it’s a pretty good book. Definitely geared for those who missed the Harry Potter phase. I’m talking middle school kids. But I’m really enjoying it. As you can probably tell from the title it has a lot to do with Greek mythology. I absolutely love Greek mythology. Any kind of mythology really. Recently I found two books on Irish and Norse mythology. I’m pretty excited about that but I digress. I’ve been in love with Greek mythology since 5th grade. I remember the book that truly got me into it. Well, at least what the cover looked like. Anyway, I’ve pretty much been drawn to anything Greek ever since. So of course I’d pick up the Percy Jackson books at some point. In this case, it took my little sister annoying me to death. Honestly the kid has no concept of “no time.” Anyway, I saw the movie before any of us had read the books. Not something I usually do, but I don’t usually argue against a free trip to the movies. So far the book is way better than the movie but then again when is the book worse? If anyone knows of any, please share!

So let me give a basic plot summary: it’s about a 12 years old boy who finds out that he’s the son of a god and a mortal and is also being accused of stealing a very important magical artifact. Is it just me or does everything happen when a kid is 12 years old? Why do authors do this? I mean, most kids are going through puberty at that age and you want to stick them in life-and-death situations? Really, I mean, they already overly emotional. Let’s give them even more reason to be overemotional! But then again, I guess this is so that the middle school readers can say “While I do have to deal with acne and body odor, at least I don’t have scary monsters plotting to kill me.” At least these things don’t have to be fought off with weapons and the like. It’s just deodorant and acne medicine. I use to work with middle school kids and I honestly don’t know if I like the idea of middle schoolers running around with swords and other weapons no matter if they are just fictional. And these kids are suppose to be saving the world! Where do authors get these ideas? I’m curious as to whether they remember middle school at all?

All right, so now back to what I like about Percy Jackson. I love guessing how all the details in the books relate back to Greek mythology. It was great when my sister read the book. She doesn’t know much about Greek mythology but the basics so she’d usually ask me if I know who or what certain things were in the book. It was funny because I could usually tell by just a few details. What’s great now is that I get to pick up on the vague details that she wouldn’t have known when back to Greek mythology. I think Riordan did a wonderful job incorporating the Greek myths that I love into this modern story. And I really can’t wait to finish it. But that will have to wait until after I finish my other book which I’ll talk about in my next post because I didn’t realize how long this post was going to be! Lol.

Anyway, as of yet, I would suggest Percy Jackson to anyone who grew up reading Greek mythology. But I’ll give a better review once I’ve finished. I’m only halfway right now. Besides it’s really fairly short and a very easy read. So give it a try if you’re in between books right now.

Okay, so that’s it for this post and please don't hold any typos against me! I’ll talk about the second book I’m reading currently in the next post and maybe discuss my bad behavior: another book as been added to the mountain… :) Until then happy readings!

Monday, May 10, 2010

The Name Says It All

I recently decided it would be fun to blog. I love writing so why not? I'm really hoping it will help with said love of writing. You know, keep the fingers and thoughts in motion.

Anyway, this blog will basically be me sharing my thoughts as I make my way through an ever-growing stack of books. This pile resembles a spring because I am incapable of controlling myself when I walk passed a bookstore. Scratch that. I usually have to be dragged away from a bookstore. To be completely honest, I believe that it would be physically impossible for me to leave a bookstore without buying at least one book. Hence we have the lovely mountain of books I affectionately call Mt. Ton-of-Books. To get some concept of just how bad my obsession with books is think of the film\book Inkheart. You know the character Elinor? The character played by Helen Mirren in the movie. Yes, well, her house is just a preview of my house 20 to 30 years from now. For those of you who have not read the book or seen the movie, think of a house in which every room’s wallpaper is actually bookshelves filled with books and I mean EVERY room. That is my dream house.

Okay so enough talk about my dream house. Beyond just discussing these books, I’ll probably make suggestions of good books that I’ve already read. This will be at least once a week. Maybe more. Who knows? I’m really just playing this by ear. Also, if anyone out there has any suggestions at all, I’m completely open. Well, open to tasteful suggestions. Nothing perverted please. But frankly I do love when people suggest new books because they usually suggest books that I would never have picked up to begin with and I usually find these books quite interesting. So bring on the suggestions folks!

All right, finally I’ll probably discuss the many joys of being a college student because we all know that there are oh so many: tests, quizzes, finals, lectures, running late, staying up late to study, etc. While this may not appear to be very amazing to some of you, I promise that I’ve had some very hysterical experiences thus far and knowing me those are only the tip of the iceberg for what is to come. I must inform whoever might be reading this that I lean toward being rather melodramatic, (Of course, you’ve probably noticed that by now.) and I “enjoy” doing things the hard way. So apparently when these two traits are combined it leads to very funny stories or so I’m told, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

But for now that’s it for the first post. Hope you return for the second! Until then, happy readings!