Bookish Thoughts

After Ray Bradbury died earlier this year, there was an outpouring of tributes from a number of writers and artists. Reading all of it made me realize how much I'd missed out by not reading any of Bradbury's work over the years. Well, that isn't quite true. I read Farenheit 451 in high school, but I missed almost all of his other books. I decided it was time to fix that. I bought Something Wicked This Way Comes and was immediately met with another surprise. The receipt for the book listed recommendations for related books, among them The Halloween Tree . When I was little there was a movie called The Halloween Tree that was one of my favorites. My brother and I rented it from the video store over and over and finally just bought it. The tape was bright orange - fitting for the subject - and it was on constantly in our playroom during October. Imagine my surprise to find that Bradbury had penned one of my favorite stories (he even narrates the movie). All of t...

One of the things that's become easier for me in recent years is putting down a book before finishing it. When I was younger, I truly believed that you had to finish every book you started, that you owed it to the universe or the author or yourself or something. Occasionally I'd put a book down and simply get distracted by other things, always with the intention to return later. This happened with both Lolita and Treasure Island . Then I would feel guilty about never getting back to the book. But with the expansion of my to-read list, I've become more willing to simply put down books I don't enjoy. The easiest of all to put down was John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy . And while part of that was due to my evolving attitude, it was mostly due to my utter confusion at this book. After the movie came out last year, I started hearing good things about the book. I haven't read much in the spy genre, so I kept this book in mind as a possibl...

Alanna : The First Adventure is the first book in the Song of the Lioness quartet, written by Tamora Pierce in the 1980s. Somehow I missed these books growing up, which is a shame because I would have loved them. The first book follows ten year old Alanna, who switches places with her twin brother in order to go train as a knight (he wants to be a sorcerer, not a knight). The book follows her first three years as a page in the castle of Duke Gareth, where she makes friends, studies hard, and learns what being a knight really means. All the while she takes pains to hide her true identity, which results in some great scenes when she hits puberty. Overall the book is entertaining, if a little rushed. Children's books tend to have a shorter length requirement, especially in the days before Harry Potter , so the plot lurches forward a few times without much warning. But the characters are warm and intriguing. Overall I'm excited to see what happens in the next bo...

Discworld was actually on my radar when Going Postal came out. I hadn't started reading the series yet, but I do remember being vaguely aware that this book had been released. It may have even been what prompted me to head to the library and look for the earlier Discworld book. I ended up picking up Good Omens instead, but the thought was there. This really means that I am quickly approaching the end of the series. There are only size more books after this (until Pratchett decides to release another one, anyway). But even this late in the series, Pratchett is able to keep things fresh (in fact a lot of people enjoy his later books much more than his earlier books). Going Postal kicks off the Moist von Lipwig arc, which continues in Making Money and the rumored Raising Taxes . Moist is a conman who finally got caught. But instead of killing him, Ventinari decides to put him in charge of Ankh-Morpork's failing post office. It doesn't take Moist long to re...