Bookish Thoughts

Terry Pratchett's 26th Discworld novel, Thief of Time , has almost the same plot as one of my favorite episodes of Angel. Sort of. It's the end of the world (this happens almost as much on the Discworld as it does in the Buffyverse). This time, it happens to be caused by a clock that freezes time. So once it starts to tick, it never will again, and neither will any other clock. Everyone will be be stuck in a single moment that lasts forever. The details are different, but the stories are similar enough that I went to look up which one came out first. It turns out both were released in 2001, so this is a bit like Leibniz and Newton coming up with calculus at the same time. Okay, maybe this plot isn't quite as genius as calculus. But it's certainly enjoyable. Time paradoxes and apocalypses are always fun. This is definitely one of my favorite Discworld novels so far. Of course, the Death books tend to be among my favorite so there's no real surprise...

In the climax of Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass , the final book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, two twelve year olds save the world by having sex and declaring their undying love for each other. This is something that I do not like. I find it weird and uncomfortable and it keeps me from re-reading this book. I probably would have continued to ignore it, if not for the Mark Reads project, though it is nice to reaffirm my own view of this book. It's a shame, because there's a lot about The Amber Spyglass that I really like.Dr. Mary Malone is a great character. The mulefa and their world are endlessly fascinating. I love all the thought and detail that goes into this completely alternate evolutionary chain. Lyra and Will's journey through the underworld is great and manages to bring some Greek mythology into play with all the Christian mythology that dominates the trilogy. Unfortunately, as interesting as the bulk of the book is, the ending is e...

Who doesn't love The Phantom Tollbooth ? People who've never read it, that's who. The plot is fairly simple. Milo is a chronically bored young boy who can't find anything worth being interested in the world around him. One day, a mysterious tollbooth arrives in his room. With nothing better to do, he constructs it and drives through. He quickly finds himself beyond expectations, journeying through Dictionopolis (where he learns the importance of words) and Digitopolis (where he learns about numbers). He also makes stops in the Valley of Sound and the Forest of Sight. Eventually he and his newfound friends, Tock the Watchdog and the Humbug, brave the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason and restore peace to the realm. I first read this book for school in the sixth grade for a school assignment. It's one of those books where the little details just sort of stick with you. Like the dodecahedron, or the Giant/Dwarf/Fat Man/Th...

I've slowed down a lot in my read of these books. I think that by reading slower I'm missing less. I have time to stop and think about plot developments, theorize about what might happen, and make all the connections that I missed in the first book. I'm enjoying my slower pace. Of course it also means that by the time I finish one of these books I forget what happened at the beginning. The stories start to bleed together. So here's a list of the things I wanted to talk about from this book. Though I probably missed several. Sansa's Wedding Who'd have known that Sansa's wedding to Tyrion would end up being one of the happier ones in the book? It took me completely by surprise. Still, I think that if they'd communicated just a bit better, they really could have been happy together. Or happier than they were anyway. They had more in common than Sansa ever realized. I definitely get where she's coming from - a thirteen year old girl mar...