Neverwhere

Neverwhere by possibly my favourite contemporary writer, Neil Gaiman, is about a reg’lar chap who lives a reg’lar life in London, complete with a normal job and a normal (if slightly, ok excessively, overbearing) fiancée. Then an injured girl on the street quite literally opens doors for him. All at once he finds himself in the London Below which is an entirely different and separate world from what he knows.

I really think that Gaiman probably has my favourite voice (and I don’t just mean when he speaks out loud, although in all fairness the man has won audio book awards) of all time. The main character, Richard Mayhew, is at first convincingly BORING to the point that you almost (but not quite) empathize with his domineering fiancée. And he continues to be quite unremarkable when facing a girl who can open all doors and create openings where there were none, and a hunter woman who is absolutely lethal. But he quietly and almost reluctantly wins battles on his own and starts to become the hero that he never knew he was.

This sort of character development really reminded me of Glory Road by Robert Heinlein, which I read recently. I’m quite sure I liked Neverwhere better, if only because I felt it had better characters; that is, more developed and just more interesting in general. Definitely exciting – I read it in just a few hours because I couldn’t put it down!

Harry Potter re-run

I am quite literally on the first page of The Reader because I got distracted with the Harry Potter series. I had read the sixth book last week to reacquaint myself with the plot before the movie comes out (July 15!!!). But then I wanted to read the seventh to round out the series. But then I picked up the first book… then the second, third, fourth, and now I’m on the fifth. I hadn’t noticed that the first through sixth books all came out before I started keeping track so they’re all finally making it onto my list. However, I’m honestly not feeling up to writing an entry on each book! Too much to talk about with people who have read the series; too many spoilers for people who haven’t read, and probably quite boring for them as well. Suffice it to say, I will still always love the series and will probably keep reading them again and again.

The Lost World

I forgot to do a write-up about The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (free at Feedbooks)! It was a really fabulous read. It’s about an expedition to a virtually isolated plateau in South America which boasts species which never went extinct or evolved separately from the rest of the world. If you’ve seen the recent Pixar movie Up, a lot of it will sound familiar to you. Like in Up, the basic premise is that there’s this extremely famous scientist – Professor Challenger in Lost World – who brings back a completely unimaginable specimen from South America, but everyone calls him a fraud, driving him to go back at his own peril to prove himself. And of course, this scientist is just a bit (or a lot) mad and has this fantastic temper which makes this months-long journey even more difficult for everyone involved.

Professor Challenger said this and actually made me laugh out loud, so of course I’m going to share it with everyone:

From henceforth I take command of this expedition, and I must ask you to complete your preparations to-night, so that we may be able to make an early start in the morning. My time is of value, and the same thing may be said, no doubt, in a lesser degree of your own.
(Location 1060-1062)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I’ve already read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince but it was before 2006 when I first started keeping track so I’m counting it now. Mainly I wanted to re-read it before the movie came out to refresh my memory and I ended up reading it all in a day. I swear I can never put down a Harry Potter book once I pick it up.

Anyway I really liked Half-Blood Prince. It seemed, more than any other book, to take time out to explain a lot of the past which was still a mystery, and I liked that. I think that’s some of my favourite parts of the series, when there are flashbacks and explanations of the past, whether it’s about Voldemort, or James and Lily, or any of the Marauders. I think my favourite part of this whole book was Slughorn. Such a well-written character! It’s like he ought to be detestable, but you can’t quite hate him because he’s just so jolly.

Not all those who wander are lost…

Why did no one tell me?!!! Tolkien is finally¹ available in Kindle format! They have the three separate books as well as Lord of the Rings trilogy in one volume, at a bargain price. The Hobbit and The Children of Hurin are also available. I really want Silmarillion to come out though, as I’ve never read it.

• The Lord of the Rings ($14.04)
• The Fellowship of the Ring ($7.99)
• The Two Towers ($7.99)
• The Return of the King ($7.99)
• The Hobbit ($7.99)
• The Children of Hurin ($9.72)

Now I’m afraid I’m asking too much for Ayn Rand (besides Anthem) to become available, and in some alternate universe, Harry Potter.

¹ Is it bad that we want books to magically appear on the Kindle Store overnight? Because I kind of do. And we know most books are already typed up in some sort of digital format before they go to print, so the delays must be mainly legal and administrative issues. Frustrating!

Glory Road

Finally reading again!!! I was quite busy with the last few weeks of school and technically I still am but I’m procrastinating on my senior thesis…

Glory Road by Robert Heinlein was a quick and easy read, but very enjoyable. It’s about this guy who basically plans out his life with the sole purpose of dodging the draft, but that fails. And his life after his tour is mostly purposeless, until he meets the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen and she takes him on a, ahem, wild ride. It’s pretty cool – she takes him quite seamlessly into other universes on a quest to obtain this heavily guarded “Egg”. And there are monsters! And dragons! And swordfighting! All very fun and adventurous.

The Graveyard Book

I’m reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. So fun! It’s turning out to be a really quick read – technically it’s a children’s or young adult book but it’s not only that; it’s a great adventure and quite morbid if you think a little into it. It’s about a baby whose whole family is murdered by a man named Jack, but the baby escapes to the graveyard and is raised by its eerie inhabitants. And they name him, get this, Nobody Owens. I’ve always found Gaiman’s writing to be whimsical and bizarre – he’s definitely one of my favourite contemporary authors. Read The Graveyard Book!!!

The Amber Spyglass

I’ve finally finished the His Dark Materials trilogy with The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. I can’t really say much without giving away a lot, but I think it’s great. I don’t mind much that it’s a story that questions the authority of the Church; in fact I don’t think it necessarily means that Pullman is trying to disassemble the entire structure of society or anything of the sort. I think it’s more the idea of questioning authority just because it SAYS it’s authority, whether it’s religion or government or some other sort, and this surprisingly comes into play on more levels than we expect in the series.

Anyway, the idea is that this is the last of the battle that Lord Asriel wages against the Authority, with armoured bears and witches and humans and angels and little people taking sides. There’s this prophecy about Lyra that tells that she’s at the centre of all of it, but I can’t tell you why! All I can say is that I could not have imagined this on my own.

The Subtle Knife

So I’ve moved on to the second book of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, The Subtle Knife. So far I really like it! It’s quite different from the first one, especially as it starts out with a boy named William who seems to come from a separate universe which is much more similar to ours. But some strange men are after this green leather writing pad that supposedly belongs to his long-lost adventurer-father, and his mother’s somewhat batty, so he escapes to another universe, where he randomly runs into Lyra! But it switches back to the Golden Compass storyline too, which I like because obviously there was no neat ending to that, and in fact, there are new plot twists that still have to be addressed. I want to see Iorek again!

The Golden Compass

I’m excited! I started The Golden Compass (AKA The Northern Lights), the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Now I’ve seen the movie and wasn’t totally impressed, but I think part of it was that I didn’t have anything invested in any of the characters. I think that’s one of the failures of the movie, that it doesn’t make you feel terribly connected to any of the characters, especially for someone who’s never read the books. The book is great though; I love Lyra and Pan so much and the gyptians are just cool.

The Golden Compass is about a young girl of unknown origins who grows up at Jordan College. In this world, one’s soul exists outside the body and accompanies one everywhere in the form of an animal. As a child one’s “daemon” can change forms but when one becomes an adult it can no longer change. Lyra hears some mention of this thing called “Dust” and becomes involved in a government plot to steal children, which horrifies her. She escapes, but she’s also concerned about her friends who have been captured, and her Uncle Asriel who is being held captive by armoured bears in the North?! There’s a lot going on, all of which is totally exciting, and some unexpected twists too!

It’s really great, highly recommended. I don’t want to get involved in the controversy over its alleged anti-religion sentiments which flared up because of the movie, because in general, I don’t think that the opinion expressed by an author in a body of work is necessarily an indicator of how good it is.