January 07, 2005
Children's Fantasy Literature Madness!
(Just so you know, this is a boring entry about what I am reading. Ignore it if you despise thses boring sorts of writing. See, I already loathe myself for writing it. But it's written, so I'll post it anyways!)
For the past couple of weeks, I've been literally absorbing through my skin all children's fantasy literature and other no-brainers available in my local bookstores. Which isn't a lot, granted. But still, I spent most of the vacation in a reading daze... hunched over a book while waiting for trains, in trains, in hotel rooms, while eating, and even while blow-drying my hair. (I have finally found a way to make the 15 minutes it takes to completely dry my hair bearable!)
To start with, I read the first of the Pendragon series, written by the TV screenwriter D.J. MacHale. It's alright. Then I read, don't laugh, Catwoman. It's actually decent... I'm sure it is lightyears better than the movie with Halle Berry, which I haven't seen.
In addition, I read Eragon, a children's fantasy novel that was written when the author, Christopher Paolini, was 15 years old! It's actually quite a fast read. It has a lot of influence from Tolkein, I think, and I don't just mean the title.
Yes, it finally dawned on me today that the main character's name, Eragon, is suspiciously close to Aragon, one of the main characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There are elves, dwarves, and humans, as well as grotesque monsters that remind me a lot of orcs. OK, so it is really quite similar! But, this story features dragon lore more than elf/human lore, unlike LOR. Also, it's for teens not adults.
I also finished reading the first of the Chrestomanci series books, by Diana Wynne Jones. Did you know her book, Howl's Moving Castle was made into an animated movie by Miyazaki Hayao? It's been released in Japan, but I'm sure it will make it's way to the states in a short while.
In between, I've been catching stories from Tokyo Confidential, a collection of articles translated from Japan's trashy weeklies, the U.S. equivilent of The Enquirer. They don't have as many aliens in the Japanese weeklies, though. I wonder why Americans are so obsessed with aliens?
So, basically I've had my nose stuck in a book for every second I could possibly spare. My brain is in a book haze, and I laze about doing nothing. Without a book now I wander about aimlessly, writing endlessly...
Next on the block are Sophie's World, a novel about a young girl's encounter with philosophy, and Body of Evidence, an award winning murder mystery. I would read more children's fantasy novels, but I'm fast running out of tempting ones. I have one more Chrestomanci novel that I can read and after that it looks like I will have to wait for some sequels. This year looks promising: Harry Potter 6, Eragon sequel, and some other stuff I forgot already. I also need to catch up to the current novel in the Jasper Fforde Thursday Next series. Has anyone read the fifth book?
Posted by Emarrific at 10:17 AM | Comments (1)