All Things Books

Inkheart

2005-10-16T17:58:00.000-06:00

I read this book several months ago, and I didn't like it. I thought the plot was really good, but I didn't like the way it was written.

Then I thought about it. Originally, it was written in German. So perhaps it sounded wierd because it was translated. So I decided to re-read it (something I rarely do with I book I'm not impressed with). I LOVED it! It was BRILLIANT. I have to say, Dustfinger is my favorite character.

I'm going to read the sequal, Inkspell pretty soon, and I'll update you on what it's like.
Well anyway, here's a poem that's @ the beginning that I liked:

If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer . . .
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire,
For we have some flax golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!

Amazon.com
Meggie’s father, Mo, has an wonderful and sometimes terrible ability. When he reads aloud from books, he brings the characters to life--literally. Mo discovered his power when Maggie was just a baby. He read so lyrically from the the book Inkheart, that several of the book’s wicked characters ended up blinking and cursing on his cottage floor. Then Mo discovered something even worse--when he read Capricorn and his henchmen out of Inkheart, he accidentally read Meggie’s mother in.
Meggie, now a young lady, knows nothing of her father's bizarre and powerful talent, only that Mo still refuses to read to her. Capricorn, a being so evil he would "feed a bird to a cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart," has searched for Meggie's father for years, wanting to twist Mo's powerful talent to his own dark means. Finally, Capricorn realizes that the best way to lure Mo to his remote mountain hideaway is to use his beloved, oblivious daughter Meggie as bait!

Have a comment? It would be appreciated.

Eldest continued

2005-09-01T07:15:00.000-06:00

I finished reading Eldest several days ago and...

*SPOILERS*

I don't like Eragon anymore since the dragons changed him. I liked him the way he was. I guess the thing where he got better fighting is ok, and him getting healed is ok, but I don't like that he's almost perfect! If your main charachter is perfect (or almost there) then as Eragon himself says "There wouldn't be anything to strive for!"

I also don't like that Murtaugh went bad. He was my favorite person (other than Eragon who, as you just read, I don't like anymore either)! Murtaugh shouldn't have turned bad, since he already experienced what Galby (Galbatorix) could do, and he defied him! AUGH! I DIDN'T EVEN WANT HIM TO BE A DRAGON RIDER! He turned into everything I hoped he wouldn't. I'm losing interest in all of the characters!

Now Roran is just plain old BORING. I don't want to hear about how he misses his girlfriend, and how he's mad at Eragon, if he isn't gonna turn bad! I wanted Roran to turn bad, so Murtaugh could help the Varden get Galby.

Now, I never liked Arya, for the same reason I don't like Eragon any more. She's too perfect! I mean give me a break, pretty, wonderful fighter, AND above everyone? Oh, and now she's a princess too! PLEASE. I really don't care if she ends up with Eragon or not.

All in all, I just want to rewrite the whole book myself, and make it turn out the way I want! Am I spoiled? Perhaps. At least it has motivated me to continue writing my own story again. I can make my story do what I want.

I'm gonna sell my copy of Eldest at a used book store.

~Page Turner~

Eldest

2005-08-24T14:26:00.000-06:00

I am in the process of reading the second book in the inheritence trilogy. So far I think it is as good as the first one. I'm actually halfway through it. I got it yesterday. Half-way through is a feat even for me!

Amazon.com says:

Surpassing its popular prequel Eragon, this second volume in the Inheritance trilogy shows growing maturity and skill on the part of its very young author, who was only seventeen when the first volume was published in 2003. The story is solidly in the tradition (some might say derivative) of the classic heroic quest fantasy, with the predictable cast of dwarves, elves, and dragons--but also including some imaginatively creepy creatures of evil.
The land of Alagaesia is suffering under the Empire of the wicked Galbatorix, and Eragon and his dragon Saphira, last of the Riders, are the only hope. But Eragon is young and has much to learn, and so he is sent off to the elven forest city of Ellesmera, where he and Saphira are tutored in magic, battle skills, and the ancient language by the wise former Rider Oromis and his elderly dragon Glaedr. Meanwhile, back at Carvahall, Eragon's home, his cousin Roran is the target of a siege by the hideous Ra'zac, and he must lead the villagers on a desperate escape over the mountains. The two narratives move toward a massive battle with the forces of Galbatorix, where Eragon learns a shocking secret about his parentage and commits himself to saving his people.

The sheer size of the novel, as well as its many characters, places with difficult names, and its use of imaginary languages make this a challenging read, even for experienced fantasy readers. It is essential to have the plot threads of the first volume well in mind before beginning--the publisher has provided not only a map, but a helpful synopsis of the first book and a much-needed Language Guide. But no obstacles will deter the many fans of Eragon from diving headfirst into this highly-awaited fantasy. (Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell

Charlie and the chocolate factory

2005-07-25T20:42:00.000-06:00

I went and saw this movie. I laughed my head off. I read the book afterwards. I laughed my head off. This book is definatly a book for children. If you have children, read them this book!
Anyway, I want to post my favorite Ommpa-loompa song. It's the one about Mike Teavee in chapter 27:

"The most important thing we've learned,
as far as children are concerned,
Is never never NEVER let,
Them near your television set-
Or better still, just don't install,
that idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until thier eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotized by it,
Until they're absolutly drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.

Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink-
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK- HE ONLY SEES!

'All right' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What USED the darling ones to do?
'How USED they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:

They...Used...To...READ!!! They'd READ and READ,
And READ and READ and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half thier lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wonderous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships, and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be!
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter,
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter;
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pingling Bland,
And Mr. Tiggly-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How The Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat, and Mr. Mole-
Oh books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!

So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in it's place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill it up with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-

Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills thier hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

P.s. Regarding Mike Teavee,
We very much regret that we
Shall simply have to wait and see
If we can get him back his height.
But if we can't- it serves him right.

~Roald Dahl~

News Flash

2005-07-12T16:01:00.000-06:00

Here's a newspaper article I found lying on the street (a word which here means http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Symbol=US:NWS&Feed=PR&Date=20050601&ID=4857230).

LOS ANGELES, June 1 /PRNewswire/
-- Please stop what you are doing, especially if what you are doing is reading this press release. It has just been discovered that Lemony Snicket has completed Book the Twelfth in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the depressing and mysterious chronicles of three unlucky orphans who are plagued by villainy, conspiracy, and itchy clothing.

The book is currently scheduled to go on sale Tuesday, October 18, 2005, with an initial 2.5 million print run, and reports suggest that this will be Mr. Snicket's most dreadful volume yet. It's so terrible that the author himself refuses to reveal the book's title, fearing that it will cause panic, chaos, or both. In fact, executives at HarperCollins Children's Books, which is publishing the book, have been instructed to refer to it only by its ISBN number, 0-06-441015-3. Fans who insist on knowing more can visit www.thenamelessnovel.com, where they can participate in an uneasy investigation that may eventually reveal the missing title.

In response to prying questions from a public relations firm, HarperCollins issued the following statement. "Please remain calm. We believe that Mr. Snicket's books cannot possibly get worse, although we have been wrong in the past. However, in the interests of safety, we ask that terrible villains, small pets, and extremely nervous young persons refrain from looking forward to 0-06-441015-3." Little else is known about Book the Twelfth except that Count Olaf is still evil and the Baudelaire orphans do not win a contest.

Like unrefrigerated butter or fungus, Lemony Snicket's popularity continues to spread. His books, which feature illustrations by Brett Helquist, have inexplicably already spent more than a combined 762 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers List and sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. In December 2004, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, and Nickelodeon Movies released a major motion picture based on the first three books in A Series of Unfortunate Events, starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep. It was a dismal success, grossing more than $100 million in a matter of weeks. A DVD of the film was released in April 2005.

A Series of Unfortunate Events has shocked and engrossed millions of readers worldwide since the release of the first book in 1999. Each of the books in the series -- including The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, The Ersatz Elevator, The Vile Village, The Hostile Hospital, The Carnivorous Carnival, The Slippery Slope, The Grim Grotto and Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography -- has been a national best-seller.

Literary and irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted, A Series of Unfortunate Events offers an exquisitely dark comedy in the tradition of Edward Gorey and Roald Dahl. Lemony Snicket's uproariously unhappy books continue to win readers everywhere, despite the author's continued warnings.

Lemony Snicket published his first book in 1999 and has not had a good night's sleep since. Once the recipient of several distinguished awards, he is now an escapee of several indistinguishable prisons. You can visit him online at www.lemonysnicket.com.

Brett Helquist was born in Gonado, AZ, grew up in Orem, UT, and now lives in Brooklyn. He earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Brigham Young University and has been illustrating ever since. He studied hard to become an illustrator, but can't help wondering if he might have chosen to be something safer, like a pirate or a skydiver.

HarperCollins Children's Books is one of the leading publishers of children's books. Respected worldwide for its tradition of publishing quality, award-winning books for young readers, HarperCollins is home to many children's classics -- Charlotte's Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends and Where the Wild Things Are; and popular series -- A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Princess Diaries. HarperCollins Children's Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, one of the leading English language publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NCP, NCPDP). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia. You can visit HarperCollins Children's Books on the Internet at http://www.harperchildrens.com.

Gone four 3 weeks

2005-06-04T12:33:00.000-06:00

I will be absent for the next 3 weeks.
I'm going to camp! Yeah!

Well, anyway, I won't be back until l8tr!
So... yeah.
Whatever.
Bye!

Classics

2005-05-29T14:10:00.000-06:00

Read any classics lately?

I have read many classic books such as:
Lord of the Rings,
Peter Pan,
Treasure Island,
Little Women,
Little Men,
The Chronicles of Narnia,
David Copperfield,
Oliver Twist,
Tom Sawyer,
Little House on the Prairie,
ect.

Okay, this post is really just a salute to the many classic books and authors out there. And to any writers who are struggling to become one!

Narnia

2005-05-25T16:16:00.000-06:00

I am really looking forward to the movie "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", by Walden Media. I hope Disney doesn't hurt its reputation. (gulp). I liked Aslan's roar on the trailer! It sounded perfect.

Yes, I have read all the books. My favorite one is probably "The Horse and His Boy". What are your favorites?

Move Lemony

2005-05-25T16:11:00.000-06:00

From now on, I am going to be posting my Lemony Snicket things (real or imagined) @
http://pageturnervfd.blogspot.com/

So look for that stuff there. That is all for now.

~Page Turner~

FYI

2005-05-22T20:25:00.000-06:00

In case any of my friends come here, and don't see it, you can comment on my website if you want to. At the bottom of each post is a place that says (right now) 0 comments. Click on that to comment...please? I'd really like it!

The Daily Punctilio Part 2

2005-05-21T09:27:00.000-06:00

The Daily Punctilio
CHATROOM BREAKDOWN
By Geraldine Julianne

Our sources have reported that while Paige Turner was trying to communicate with The Book Snatcher on an instant messenger program, The Book Snatcher's computer shut down, and at the same time shut the whole cities power off! The citizens of Analogtown were furious, and contacted the police. The police immediatly set out to arrest the offensive Book Snatcher, but when they got to her house, she had escaped! The Police tried to call Paige Turner on the phone, but her message machine come on! It said "You must be the police, and I knew you were going to call, so I've just driven off in my get-away car!" Then there was an evil laugh. If you findeither of these criminals, contact The Daily Punctilio, and then help bring these fiends to justice by contacting the police.

To the Daily Punctilio,

Dear Geraldine Julianne,
I am not at all sorry that I ran away from the police, if they had caught me, they would have seen the vital experimentat going on with the instant messenger program. Furthermore, if you think those pictures are of me or my faithful friend, Page Turner (not Paige Turner), then you are greatly mistaken. Even through the blur, I can see that that is definitely not myself or Page Turner. Somehow you managed to get pictures that are of someone else, and, if you catch those people, I will feel terribly sorry for them, and will try my hardest so they will not get caught.

With all due respect,

the Book Snatcher

P.S. I prefer to have my title written as, "the Book Snatcher", and not "The Book Snatcher" (with a capital "t").a

Eragon

2005-05-20T14:40:00.000-06:00

I will take a moment to talk about a VERY good book, namely Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. WAHOOO! I CAN'T WAIT TILL THE NEXT BOOK COMES OUT! (composes self). Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and recommend it to anyone who can read.

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands. . . .

“An authentic work of great talent.” –The New York Times

“An impressive start to a writing career that’s sure to flourish.”—Booklist, starred review

“Eragon, an epic fantasy in the vein of Tolkien and Anne McCaffrey, is sure to delight. 15-year-old Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, are part of a well-conceived world that readers will love traveling to. I'm already eager for the next book!”—Erin Ostrander, Secret Garden Bookshop, Seattle, WA

“Eragon is a wonderful classical fantasy story of dragons, wizards and heroes that will appeal to both young and adult readers. Paolini writes with a rich complexity of detail and language, taking time and care to immerse us in his thoroughly imagined world of Alagaësia. And once the action starts – there’s no putting it down!”
—Roger Page, Island Books, Mercer Island, WA

“Eragon is a guaranteed hit for any reader who loves fantasy. Drawing on the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, Ursula Le Guin, Philip Pullman and other great fantasists, Christopher Paolini has woven together an exciting suspense-filled adventure of one young man coming of age in partnership with the first dragon born in over a century. I can’t wait to read the rest of the trilogy.”—Peter Glassman, Owner, Books of Wonder, New York City

“Wow! What an amazing ride this was!....Beautifully and lushly written by a fifteen year-old boy, Eragon is a fast-paced book filled with battle, armor, really nasty beings, much adventure and huge friendships between dragons, humans, elves and gnomes. This is a book that will appeal to anyone looking for the nextbig fantasy series to get lost in.”—Rene Kirkpatrick, All for Kids Books & Music, Seattle, WA

All Things Books!

2005-05-19T17:39:00.000-06:00

Has now opened!

Here I talk about whatever books, "take my fancy" at the moment. I will try to update every week.

Right now I am most intersested in Lemony Snicket's books. My friend and I write fake "Daily Punctilio headlines, and I'll post the best ones here. My friend's name is "The Book Snatcher". Yes, I tried to make her change it.

THE DAILY PUNCTILIO

Breaking News
The award winning author, Leramy Snickat was reported dead by several spectators whose names are as the following, Rita Book, Constance Noring, Page Turner, and the mysterious Book Snatcher last week. Rumor has it, that Page Turner and the Book Snatcher have actually beared a falsehood by telling the Daily Punctilio and the other two so-called witnesses. They may have pulled a bribe to Rita Book and Constance Noring to "lie" to the Daily Punctilio. Rita Book and Constance Noring were all too pleased to be mentioned in the famous Punctilio. So, in fact, Leramy Snickat may not be dead after all.
To Eleanora Poe, at the Daily Punctilio:

Dear Madame STOP
Perhaps I should refrain from contacting you via telegram STOP. You don't ever seem to answer any letters I send you STOP. Even so I would like to comment on yesterday's headline STOP. I know no one by the name of Leramy Snickat and so cannot claim that he is dead STOP. I was not bribing Constance Noring and Rita Book, I was trying to escape from them in the middle of the night down a fire pole that was slippery with horseradish from my evil twin Rita Book, who, even though she is evil, has read just as many books as I have STOP.If there is anyone named Leramy Snickat who died I have nothing to do with the matter STOP. As for Book Snatcher, my faithful companion, she had nothing to do with this mysterious death either STOP. I need to end this communication now, not only
because it is getting very expensive, but also because my enemies are right outside this motel where I am telegraphing you STOP.

With all due respect,
Page Turner
P.s. The sad truth is the truth is sad.