For The First Time

Boy just finished The Hobbit for the first time and is starting The Lord of The Rings trilogy. I am a little proud and slightly jealous that he has this great experience ahead of him. Awesome!

A Slew of Book Reviews and other crap that makes me happy

So I was more productive today than I've been in a long while mostly because the kids were back in school (woo hoo) and not once did I have to utter the words "Boy it doesn't matter if that's what would happen with a real light-saber, your light-sabers are plastic so Girl can, in fact, touch the colored parts!" That is until about 4 p.m. The light-sabers Mr. Hobbitfeet and I bought after Episode II came out are finally getting used.

I took the dog for a five-mile walk, took down (and packed up) all the Christmas decorations and read an entire book. I read lots of books, but usually it's just at night. So let me tell you about these books:

I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle-I really liked this book a lot. The kid in it brought to mind what I think Boy will be like at 18. The main character is funny but nerdy and has a bad case of the "Actuallys." (If you know Boy you'd understand this statement. If you say to Boy "Wow he's fast like a cheetah" He'd say "Actually, the average human runs at blah blah blah while a cheetah runs at blah blah blah, so unless he can run at such and such a speed, which is scientifically impossible, he's not as fast as a cheetah.) Anyhow the whole book was funny so read it damn it (especially if you know Boy).

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman- I read this mostly because Girl's school told me not to, and I object to people who object to books because they might give people ideas. If I am to become an atheist it will not be because I read a work of fiction written by someone who may or may not be an atheist. This is actually three books, and I've only finished the first two (The Golden Compass, and The Subtle Knife). The former was very good the latter, not so much which is why I didn't get around to the third. The Golden Compass is a movie now and I have to say the book is way better. The movie made changes I didn't understand. Boy tried to read it but was both bored and anxious because it starts with a kid being naughty which worries Boy more than scary monsters.

Inkheart- This was fun, but towards the end I found the endless chapter quotes annoying and I wished they would just get to the point already and stop talking about how freaking fabulous books are already. I like books, but come on.

The Joy of Books

I have always been addicted to books. I can get a good book and slip into a "book coma" for several hours until I've finished it. Between Mr. Hobbitfeet, Boy and I, we have four large shelves loaded with books, and several in boxes in our garage that I am not able to part with yet.
Nevertheless when I was driving home from the farmers market yesterday, I saw that the library had tons of boxes on the front lawn and a big sign that said "Used books $.25." So I pulled over and poured through the boxes, picking out 10. Then I sat and waited for a half hour for the library to open so I could pay. Yes, the books were out without supervision, it's that kind of town.
Not that any of the books were ones I needed, but they were $.25, how could I pass them up?
So, 10 more books for the mess. Ah, well.

Mostly Harmless

So, what happens when you allow your almost-ten-year-old son (who would still drag around his baby blanket a la Linus if you allowed it) to read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

The answer is, he now wants to drag a towel around where ever he goes (and until I put my foot down, it was one of my best towels).

"Did you sass that hoopy Boy? There's a frood who knows where his towel is."

An Upside-Down World

What is wrong with this picture?

Boy is reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books

I am re-reading (sort of) The Chronicles of Narnia.

Books, Books, and Television

I haven't read a whole lot lately, but I did make a point of reading Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini because Boy says they are the best books he has ever read. He has read them both twice (each one is about the same length as Harry Potter book six) since he took Eragon out of his school library in November. Santa gave him his very own copies.
I don't think that the are the best books I have ever read, but I have read far more than Boy. They are kind of a kid's Lord of the Rings. We haven't seen the movie yet, but we will eventually.

TV has become difficult lately, mostly due to the fact that the local ABC affiliate isn't letting my cable provider carry it anymore. I do still get to watch the episodes of things I miss though because ABC has the full episodes online the next day. Nevertheless I still (mostly) only have one show that I watch per day. Here's my list an asterix means Mr. Hobbitfeet watches the show with me, because shows that Mr. H. will watch with me are the ones that make me happiest.

Sunday- Desperate Housewives (only I watch this on Mondays when Girl takes her nap-see above Re: ABC)
Monday- Heroes* ( Also, if I remember I watch How I Met Your Mother but I almost always forget)
Tuesday-Veronica Mars
Wednesday- Medium* & Lost* (Lost has been off for awhile, but when it comes back I'll watch it on Saturdays so Mr. H. can see it too.)
Thursday- The Office & Grey's Anatomy (which I watch Fridays while Girl is napping).

I have also been attempting to only watch these shows and nothing else, but I often find myself watching something insipid while I do laundry.

Just In Case.

If you thought you might hang out with me on July 21, just know that I'll be busy.

Ah, Jack!

Look what I discovered! Jack Kerouac's publishing company is going to release a 50th anniversary edition of On the Road, written exactly as Jack wrote it. Nothing will be taken out due to censorship only the things that he crossed out himself will be removed.
I am extremely excited, though I am not nearly as in love with him as I was in high school and college.

Also, in honor of my Jr. year of high school, Literature teacher, Mrs. Ondrus, who gave me a "C" on my term paper and took me out of honors English for the first time in my entire life my senior year, thereby forcing me to suffer through yet another year of her terrible teaching (as well as several dumb girls turning and look at me every time we read the word "Eliza" in Pygmalion-which comes up A LOT in that book) all because she DIDN'T KNOW WHO JACK KEROUAC WAS, I give you this quote from his Wikipedia entry: "While enjoying popular but little critical success during his own lifetime, Kerouac is now considered one of America's most important authors."

Books....

Book Recomendations:
In children's (Jr. High Level) books I just finished (and Boy is working on) the Bartimaeus Trilogy. I thought it was a differnet and interesting approach to magic, and Boy loves all the different "spirits". Also, it's brimming with veiled commentary on class structure and racisim. Overall, I liked it.
In adult books, I just finished Prep although I didn't go to boarding school, it really reminded me of my time at St. Ignatius. I thought it was well written and I really liked the main character (although I am not sure you were supposed to).

Yay Reading!!!!

I've got to give a great big thanks to my sister Meander for buying an Amazon Prime membership and then adding me to her account. When you live in a town with a college, you'd think buying a book would be easy. Not the case, unless I want to pay BIG Bucks at the student bookstore or buy 30 year old Louis L'Amour paperbacks from the old lady on the square (and I am not my Grandpa W., so I'm passing) I am out of luck. And don't even get me started on the pathetic town library (I voted for expansion but though it passed, they've barely started building). I could go to the next town over and buy books from Waldenbooks. But with gas costing what it does, it isn't worth it.
This is why I love my sister Meander. I can order lots of books at cheap prices, and since I don't have to pay for the 2-day shipping, almost instant gratification at no extra cost! It's even better because Amazon often ships books from Indianapolis so I get them the morning after I've ordered them. Like this morning, 11 a.m. and I've already taken Girl for a long walk, played games, did laundry, had a tea party, and trimmed Giles's nails, and then boredom overtook me with no hope except cable television when who should mosey up my driveway but the UPS guy with the books I'd ordered yesterday at 1 p.m. My books weren't due 'til Monday! Yay! Weekend reading!!!!! Big kisses Meander!

Good Reading

My favorite author right now is Laurie Notaro. When ever I read her I laugh out loud every couple of lines. I love her. I have read most of her books: The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club, Autobiography of a Fat Bride, We Thought You Would Be Prettier, and the one I just finished, I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies). The last was my favorite one, especially the chapter on The Sims, which is my favorite computer game (actually I like Sims 2, but it's pretty much the same thing). Chances are if you know me, you've been a character in my neighborhood.
Anyway, you should give her a try.

Reading with Boy

Boy and I are reading Charlie Bone books right now. Well actually, I finished all four this weekend, Boy's reading two and three at the same time. Charlie Bone is a little like the poor man's Harry Potter. There are several differences, and it's a good series, but there are certain flaws that make it inferior. Also, it is not written for the same age group as Harry Potter, a little younger I would say.

Reasons why Charlie Bone is not as good as Harry Potter:
1. Better writing (by JK Rowling)
2. More action (Again in Harry Potter)
3. The major flaw in this book, I think, is that Charlie is at "war" with his Grandmother Bone and her three sisters. They hate him and often try to kill him or in other ways lead to his demise, yet they still pay for him to go to his special school. It drove me crazy.


Reasons why Charlie Bone is better than Harry Potter:

1. Not everyone in Charlie Bone's world is gifted with magical powers.
2. Those that are generally only have one "endowment" (they use that word a lot in the series)
3. The books are not as formulaic as the Harry Potter series

So overall the books were good but not spectacular as evidenced by the fact that, other than the one Boy got for Christmas, we took the books out of the library instead of buying them.