Book 114: The Hobbit

This has been my favourite book since I was ten and this has been the 4th time I've read it.

When I was ten, before I knew anything about The Lord of the Rings, my father and I went to the library. While walking through the shelves of books looking for something to read with me, my father spotted The Hobbit  and told me it would be a good book to read and that I would like it. Naturally, I took it out and read it over the next four days and fell in love with the world of Bilbo and his wonderful adventure. Shortly after, I read The Fellowship of the Ring, watched the movies, the commentaries, all the special features and became obsessed.

A few years later, my father and I went to visit the library again. This time, I found a copy of the 6th edition of The Hobbit, and so I decided to read it again. It has been the most beautiful book I've ever read. The 6th edition, for those of you who don't know, has colour prints of Tolkien's original artwork for The Hobbit making it far more beautiful than the black and while pictures normally included in your everyday edition of The Hobbit. Unfortunately, the book was in terrible shape. When I went to return it, fearing that it wouldn't make it through the drop  box, I took it to the information desk showing them the terrible condition it was in. In a last stitch attempt to own something that beautiful I said that I would buy it from the library because I didn't think it would last in circulation any longer. They told me I'd have to wait until the annual book sale at which point I knew I would never see the book again. I went home with a broken heart that day, but it wasn't long before I was on ebay and amazon looking for a 6th edition that I could call my own, only to find that the majority of them were a hundred dollars or more, so again, I lost hope on owning it.

A few years later my parents gave me a copy of an edition of The Hobbit Which I've never been quite sure what one it is. That being said, it is extremely beautiful and has been publish during the 60's at the latest. I've always been surprised at how excellent condition it is in, the spine has never been broken, pages never been dogeared, no pages ripped or teared, the original binding is intact, and the covers are hardly faded. The only thing that isn't perfect is the dust jacket, which shows its age, but otherwise has suffered no damage. I read it shortly after it was given to me and it has never left my house since then, due to fear of damage. Currently my father is boring this edition.

Lastly, last year I bought myself  a paperback copy published in 2006 that I could bring outside the house. This is the edition I have just finished reading.

This review is about the best book I've ever read.

I openly admit that I haven't read all of Tolkien's publications; I have yet to read The Return of the King, The Unfinished tales, The Silmarillion, and The Children of Hurin, but out of all the books I've ever read  The Hobbit has been my favourite. I cannot explain the complexites of the story which I love so much without spoiling it, so I'll just say this: It has set the standards for the books I enjoy: It is more adventurous than The Princess Bride: The characters are more complex than those of Don Quixote: and the writing is the best that I've ever read.

I give this book 10 pocket handkerchiefs out of 10. It really is the best book I've ever read and it will always be my favourite. I highly recommend it to everyone, especially someone who is looking to get into fantasy, it's a great gateway book.

A note on the movie:
So I've read a verity or reactions about The Hobbit and a surprising number of them were fairly negative. I know that some people don't want to go see it because they don't like Peter Jackson, for whatever reason, and some people are really afraid that it's going to suck, so I'm taking this opportunity to give my own views on this movie and tell you why I believe that it is good and why it is worth anyone, especially fans of The Hobbit and Tolkien's, time.

There's a few things that I worry about when I got and see a movie based on a book, the first thing being the casting. When I found out who was playing who I was pleased, but after seeing the way they all interact on the screen I don't think I could picture anyone else playing those roles. The second is accuracy. There was a few points where the plot deviated slightly from the book, but the amount of times that lines in the movie were directly quoted from the book or references were made to Tolkien's commentary on the events in the book were fantastic and I believe that it makes up for any of the more insignificant plot deviations. The Hobbit brought up one final concern: the bit where it's in three parts. I know a lot of people are really apprehensive about it being in three parts because the "book is too short" and other arguments along those lines. If you've read the book recently, I hope you realize that there is more than enough action to make three movies and I'm very pleased that Mr. Jackson has decided to turn it into three movies. Without this decision I fear that the movie would have been rushed and many of the finer points would have been excluded.

All in all, I really loved The Hobbit. I thought it was really well done and I'm really excited to see it again and see the other two parts. I definitely recommend going and seeing it if you read the book. I promise that it wont be a disappointment and if it is feel free to talk to me because I'd really love to hear why it didn't live up to your expectations and what parts you found bad.

Book 113: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

This was a required reading for my Listening to Classical Music class and it may be one of the best required reading texts that I have had to read this semester. In Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Oliver Sacks discusses music's many affects on the brain.

The only thing in this book that disappointed me was his lack of discussion on tinnitus, but his beautiful weaving prose makes up for this short coming by a tenfold.

I give this book 8 out of 10. It truly is fantastic and extremely interesting.

Book 112: The Archer's Tale

I read this book for the first time when I was in grade 8 and I thought it was fantastic. I wasn't completely wrong, but The Archer's Tale didn't live up to my memory. That being said, it was still a good book.

I read several reviews for it on Goodreads, and one, in particular, caught my attention. It was fairly negative, which is why it caught my attention. It wasn't complaining about the things I would expect from historical fiction, historical inaccuracy, which doesn't really exist in this novel due to the impeccable research done by Mr. Cornwell, or lack of a plot line, which also doesn't apply to this book; but only that they failed to read the back of the book and hated the subject matter of the book. I, on the other hand, happen to love the hundred years war and have done quite a bit of research on English archers and foot soldiers and their weaponry and war arms from this period when I was younger.

Although I did not enjoy as much as the first time, it was still a good story. I give this book 8 urine samples out of 10.

Book 111: Twelfth Night

Now, as I'm sure you all know that my favourite Shakespeare play is Othello, and if not you do now. That being said, Twelfth Night is a pretty great play. Unfortunately, my English teacher has successfully ruined it for me for now. Shortly, I will be doing several other reviews for things that I have read this semester in my anthology.

Although all the things that I have said above is very contradictory and confusing I did enjoy this play, as I do all things that I've read. I give it 7 confused people out of 10, a very decent mark. Hopefully I'll be able to reread it again soon so I can provide more insight into this lovely play.

Book 110: Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favourite books. It brings up so many good questions about society.

I'm actually going to be reading this very shortly again, at which time I will probably write a better review.

The first time I read it I was in grade 11, and I really made a connected with it, partly because I was the only person in the class who actually finished it and partly because I had a really great teacher.

I'm truly sorry that I'm going to be cutting this review short, but I can't think of anything else to write, nor do I feel like writing anything else in the event that I had anything else to say.

I give this book 10 metaphors out of 10. I would recommend it to everything and would go as far as to say that everyone should read it and I hope you all do.

Again, sorry that this is so short.

Also, the movie is good too, just to let you know.

Book 109: Mostly Harmless

Mostly Harmless probably wasn't my favourite book in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy of Five, but it was still good.

It brought up a lot of questions of nature vs nurture, what type of parenting is good and whether putting your career first is always a good thing. It also played around with the idea of multiple time lines with the usual casual humor the one would expect from Adams.

I give this book 8 new shows out of 10. As I said, it wasn't my favourite book in the series, but it was still fantastic.

Book 108: Introduction to the Philosophy of History: With Selections from the Philosophy of Right Introduction to the Philosophy of History: With Selections from the Philosophy of Right

I must admit, I wasn't over enthused with this book. I think it has a lot to do with there was a large gap between me starting and actually finishing it. Also, I think the reason that this review is so short has a lot to do with the fact that I finished this book in September so it's all a lot fuzzy.

Quite a few people I know really enjoy this  book, but Hegel's Philosophy doesn't really gel with my own philosophical view points, though it was still an interesting. Because of this I've rated it a 5 out of 10.

Book 107: So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish

This book was good. I wasn't say great, especially compared to the last one, but good nonetheless.

There were three things that struck me when I was reading this book, the first of which was the introduction. Only an author would think to give his audience a spoilers warning, and I'm glad he did. The next two are mostly plot based so spoilers ahead with the usual spacing.

****SPOILERS****

Okay, so I really enjoyed the plot of the book, especially the flying sex. I thought it was particularly fun. I also really enjoyed Arthur's cool use of astronomy. I'm taking astronomy right now so I found it particularly relevant because we talked about the movement of stars over time last week. Finally, the escape plan was brilliant. This is all I have to say. I thought it might come out better, but there you have it.

****SPOILERS****

So, as I said earlier, So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish was not as good as Life, The Universe and Everything but I would say that it`s just about on par with The Restuarnt at the End of the Universe. All in all, it would hard to say that a book by Douglas Adams is bad. Furthermore, it would be hard to find something to compare it to that wasn't written by him (this fact is up for dispute, I haven't personally read anything that I feel compares).

I give this book 8.5 diodes out of 10. It is really good and if you've liked the other installments of this trilogy of five I wouldn't say that you will definitely like it, but there is a high probability that you will.

Also, sorry for the quality of the picture, I didn't feel like spending a lot of time searching for it so we got what we got.

Book 106: Life, the Universe and Everything

This is a fantastic book. It might be my favourite. Many consider Life, the Universe and Everything to be the best book in Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy of Five, and I would tend to agree with them. I have learned quite a few things about this book.

First, messing around with time travel almost always ends badly. What I mean by almost always is that it most definitely will be an interesting trip and a good story, but the mess that you leave behind will be disastrous.

Secondly, if you do happen to live in a place where time travel is possible and you're fighting evil robots and you think that you've won, in all likelihood you haven't. Turns out that they have the ability to time travel too. It brings to mind the ending of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey when Bill and Ted have a time war with the main villain where they all go back and forth through time trying to out do each other. The robots will do this and there is a possibility that they might win.

Thirdly, just because you don't understand something doesn't mean you should destroy it. It will only make other people mad and make a huge mess that you'll all be really upset over for years to come.

Fourthly, if someone offers you super advanced technology and says it will do whatever it is that you want to accomplish, don't accept it. They have an ulterior motive and it's probably not a good one.

Fifthly, finally, and most importantly; Sometimes the question and the answer can't be understood together, but make sense separately.

 This review is almost done, I think. I highly suggest reading the epilogue. It was very important and I know that sometimes people skip it.

I give this book 10 Cricket wickets out of 10. It was a fantastic book.

Book 105: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

To be truthful to you, my most loyal readers, I haven't fully digested this book yet. Douglas Adams has this wonderful writing style were everything seems carefree and funny but is really questioning everything we know. It's absolutely brilliant but it always takes me a while to think about what I've just read.

I'm going to inturpt this review with some spoilers so I can properly discuss this.









starting








now

****SPOILERS****

I didn't really like the whole finding the man who runs the universe bit. I found it ultimately disappointing. However, Arthur and Ford's journey back to prehistoric earth is another story altogether. I found that the aliens that settled earth said a lot about our consumerism culture. Similar to the way The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a wonderful commentary on bureaucracy, and this one started out on the same path, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, continuing on Douglas Adams trend to dissect the way we live in his writing, has written a wonderful commentary on what it is to be a consumerism culture with too many people researching what everyone likes best, and what colour suits what product best to actually think. 

Take, for instance, the hyper intelligent beings on the planet who were forced to have very loud conversations to stop them from thinking because it made the other less intelligent planets around them to feel stupid, the fact that they built a restaurant at the end of the universe, and the fact that flying spaceships into suns during concerts was deemed normal. This use of things in excess and submission of our intelligence is proven only to injure our society, as much as that space ship may have made the planet a more delightful place to live.

****SPOILERS****

I give this book 9.5 leaves out of 10. It seems to be a popular rating today. I'd like to say that everyone should read this book, but in my heart I know this is not true. There are people who, unfortunately, think that Mr. Adams isn't funny and that his books are terrible. This is mostly due to the fact that they spend too much of their time talking and if you read this book you would know what I meant by that. The point is that these books are very very smart and if you don't get what they're talking about you wont enjoy them nearly as much as you should. I would suggest you tried but you probably wouldn't like it (har har Marvin). Needless to say, I've enjoyed it quite a lot and I would hope that you would too.

Book 104: Westmark

I must say that I really enjoyed this novel. Although Mr. Alexander's books are vastly unknown and underrated he will always be one of my favourite authors. I fell in love with his Chronicles of Pydian series 7 years ago and never looked back. Since that time I've taken every opportunity to scoop up his books and read them. Unfortunately, most of his books are rarely printed because no one really know about him, in fact this year I had the great fortune to come across a newly printed box set of The Chronicles of Pydian at Cosco. Needless to say I bought it then and plan on reading in fairly shortly so you can expect reviews of his lovely work at some point in the near future. The opportunity I had to get Westmark came several years ago at a library book sale. I thought it looked interesting before I was that it was my Lloyd Alexander at which point I knew that I wouldn't be leaving without it. It was one of the best decisions I've made at a library in quite some time.

In the back of the book Mr. Alexander makes some remarks about his book that I find relevant so I'm going to share them with you now. (Feel free to skip over them if you think they will spoil anything for you, as always the last paragraph shall be perfectly safe to read)

"I had been writing happily for a good while, and discovered that stories of fantasy worlds were for me the best way to express my attitudes and feelings about people, problems, and relationships in our real world.
Still, questions stuck in my mind: the uses and abuses of power, not only the conflict between good and evil but-far more difficult-the conflict between good and good, noble ideas broken by violence even  in a good cause; and, in the midst of tragedies, events that were hysterically, incongruously funny"

He later continues on to say that he doesn't think that he has answered any of these questions but he has certainly approached them in this first volume of the Westmark series.

His characters are as easy to love as they are to hate and the ending was tricksy. All in all, this book was a pleasure to read. It's not too fantasy but at the same time it's not really real.

If you have recently read my review for A Storm of Swords you might think that it is odd that I'm continuing to put this book in the fantasy genre were I have stripped the Game of Thrones series of the title when it certainly has more fantastical elements than Westmark. Unfortunately, I don't have a satisfying answer as to why I've done this at all.

I give Westmark 9.5 wells out of 10. Certainly an excellent read if you can ever find it.

There are three other books in the series and I am going to try to hunt them down because I would like to read them for the obvious reasons. I'd also like to note that I give this review a 3 out of 10. Obviously my reviewing skills are not getting any better. If you have any handy tips for me please feel free to leave some helpful comments.

Book 103: Free Will

For all intensive purposed I've enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and the ideas weren't too hard to cope with.

Mr. Harris writing style was quite enjoyable. Everything flowed nicely, which is a wonderful change from most of the unapproachable philosophy that I've been digesting for the past year.  This being said, I found that his idea in this particular book is an old one, though all his analogies shined new light on them and made them far more accessible for the average person.

I give this book a 7 out of 10. I believe I would say that it is a good book to get you starting on a philosophical journey, but maybe not. I'd give it a chance anyways.

Book 102: A Storm of Swords

I liked and disliked this book. Some of the characters made me really frustrated, were others I miss.

As with most of the books I review I don't have a lot to say about this one that wont give away anything, so what I will say is this: out of all the books that I own in this series so far (all but A Dance with Dragons aka A Dance with Depression) this one was the longest and the most exciting. I really enjoyed the book most of the time even though there were a few twists in the plot that I could have done without.

I give this book an 8 out of 10. I twas good but not the greatest book I've ever read. I have a slight problem with this whole series. It's more of an adventure book than fantasy proper, but maybe that's just me. This series, like so many others, seems to demand to be read from beginning to end and because of this I would recommend this book to anyone who has read the other and has enjoyed them just a little bit. As a series so far I would recommend it to most who enjoy medieval based fantasy, though not to those faint of heart. I would also recommend anyone who watching the show should read the books. They're far better than the show and because you already know parts of the plot it will make them easier to read.

Book 101: The Name of the Wind

I was, again, disappointed by this book. Not because it had a lot a lot of hype around it, but because a few of my close friends gave it very strong reviews and it didn't live up to my expectations as a fantastic fantasy book. It was alright, but I expected more.

It started really really strongly. It has a really good foundation. But after you get halfway through it slows down and you hear the same story over and over again for the next couple hundred pages. I have high hopes for the next book in the series though. I'm sure it's filled with all the high action adventure that the first book promised and didn't deliver.

That being said, I do like the main character. He's a little annoying when he's younger but as a whole, he's a pretty awesome guy. I'm looking forward to reading more about him.

I give this book 7 scales out of 10. It was good, but not great. Stay tuned for more on the series and whether it's worth getting into.

Book 100: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I wrote a really good review of this a while back but it's been erased. Unfortunately I now have very little to say about this book.

I read it because the movie is coming out soon and many of my friends and people seemed to enjoy it. I will never learn not to trust popular books.

The story line was droll. The characters, predicatable. I think the thing that I liked the least about this book was the writing style. It was awkward and the words were poorly places (as you know, I know all about this. I write these terrible reviews). There were some jumps in the story too that didn't make sense. They'd tell you part of something but not finish it for another few pages with was really irritating.

All in all, not a good book. I think they hype made it worse. Still looking forward to the movie. It may be better.

I give this book 4 out of 10. I wasn't impressed.

Book 99: The Tales of Beedle the Bard

I was disappointed by this book. I really enjoyed Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. I think I thought that there would be more than there was.

I enjoyed the style of the tales and I thought that Dumbledore's commentaries were brilliant. I was hoping that there might be some more tales but you can't win all the time.

I really loved all the characters. They were all really strong. I also thought that the messages of all the tales was wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the first one with the pot.

I give this book 7 socks out of 10. It was good, just not great. Still, any Harry Potter fan is sure to enjoy it. 

Book 98: The Book Thief

Many of you might have noticed in the past that I find it hard to write about things that make me feel. The Book Thief is no exception.

It was a very happy book for something about Nazi Germany but even though you knew the ending was coming it still killed me.

This all being said it was a fantastic book. Unlike most books about WWII it didn't dehumanize Germans and really showed the conflict within the nation. It was a very emotion book.

I feel like I should at least comment on the unique narration style. It was really enjoyable. I liked the little facts that it threw in here and there. At the same time, sometimes I didn't like them when they told me things that I didn't want to know. It made the book.

I give this book 9.5 accordions out of 10. It's beautiful. Stunning. Everyone should read it.

Book 97: A Clash of Kings

According to blogger no one read my last entry on A Game of Thrones which is good because it sucked. This one is going to follow that and actually for once be filled with spoilers. In case you haven't read this book yet there is going to be a large space, spoilers written, some more space, a paragraph or two, more space and then the concluding remarks, rating and picture of the book so that you can skip over the middle part.

***SPOILERS***

I really enjoyed this book most of the time, although I found it long and drawn out most of the time.  I actually am writing a lot of little paragraphs. One of each of my characters.

I really dislike Daenerys in this book. She was really good in the last one but she's seemed to go a little crazy in this one which is no good. But I love Jorah. He's awesome.

I gained some new respect for Cercei in this book though I still don't like her all that much. 

In A Game of Thrones I thought Theon was alright BUT NOT ANYMORE. I think he's still good at heart but he just makes me sad. Also, is he still alive?? I donno.

Jon Snow is really starting to get on my nerves. He's really angsty, proud and honourable. He reminds me a lot of Ned (which makes me sad because I still have a lot of Ned Stark feelings) but a way that I worry about him dying for the same reasons Ned did.

Sansa. I could talk about Sansa for days. I really really hated her in A Game of Thrones. I thought she was stupid and I got really angry at her when she wouldn't stand up for Arya and blamed her for Lady's death. I actually thought that she deserved Joffery. YEAH. THAT'S RIGHT. I was a terrrible person. After he killed Ned and Sansa started to wake up I started to like her. But in A Clash of Kings? She was really brave. I really liked her chats with Cercei's chats. I also ship her and the Hound.

Speaking of whom, I love the Hound. I really disliked him at the beginning of the book because I though he was needlessly cruel but then it turned into him really protecting Sansa from Joffery.

And speaking of saving Sansa from Joffery, remember when Tyrion saved her from him too? I actually love Tyrion. He's over come so much. It breaks my heart a little that he got so hurt in battle. And screw Martin when he's all "Tywin saved the day" HE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO IF TYRION HADN'T DONE WHAT HE DID. He was actually doing a really good job at running everything and keeping Joffery in check. I'm kind of worried about what's going to happen to everything when he's not the Hand. I also think that Tyrion/Shae is really cute and I really hope that she actually likes him and not just his money. He's been hurt so often that I think I might cry a little if she doesn't. I'm kinda worried about what's going to happen to her too. But that's another story.

I never know what to think about Varys. Sometimes I really like him and sometimes I hate him.

I feel really bad for Bran. I don't know what's going on with him. I was really upset when I thought he was dead. REALLY REALLY UPSET.

I really wish I knew more about what Robb was up to. I feel like he should be a narrating character. 

I still don't like Catelyn very much. I find she's really naive about a lot of things. She always wants everyone to get along and be peaceful and just go back to normal but that's never going to happen. She also sucks at playing a game of thrones which means that she'll probably die at some point.

I saved Arya for last because I like her the most. I wish she was older so I could ship her and not feel really creepy. I thought what she did with Jaqen was really clever. I really hopes he comes back when she older because I think they'd be awesome together. YES I AM CREEPY.

****

I need to stop.

I just have a lot of feelings.

Anyways, I give this book 7 fires out of 7. It was good but not as good as the first one. I think it's setting up for a lot of things and I'm interested to see where it leads. Everyone should read this series. 

Book 96: A Game of Thrones

I've put off doing this review for a long time because I still have a lot of feelings for this book. It crushed my soul a little bit but it was worth it in the end.

George R. R. Martin writing style is beyond words. A Game of Thrones may be the best fantasy book I've ever read and I'd like to think that I've read quite a few.

So many feelings. I'm trying not to give away any spoilers (even though a lot of people have already read this book) so I'm going to have to stop talking now before I say something we all regret.

I've given A Game of Thrones 10 crows out of 10. It's fantastic. I can't tell you how fantastic it is. I still have all the feelings.

Book 95: The Last Olympian

I read this book in a day. I loved it. It was so good. I have no words.

I really enjoyed this book. A lot. Too much.

The only thing that I didn't like was the ending. It was too perfect. I don't think that the romantic ending was right for the series.

All that being said in choppy ill formed paragraphs that I'm too lazy to edit, it was really fantastic. It makes me want to buy and reread the series (unless one of you would like to buy it for me. jkjkjk I could never let you do that).

Because of the ending I'm reluctant to give it a full ten starts so I'm giving it 9.5 deaths out of 10. This book does have a lot of deaths in it so be warned.

Book 94: The Battle of the Labyrinth

I really love this series. I want to start with this comment because I've already finished it.

I found this book at some points anti-climatic and very stressful. I wish that Calypso played a larger role. I wish we could find out what happens to her. It was my favourite part of the book.

I give this 8 spiders out of 10. The ending is fantastic. The book is great. Just not as great as I suspected.

Book 93: Ariel

I was relatively unimpressed with this collection of poems. By this I mean that when I bought it I thought I'd be more impressed by them.

A few of the poems spoke to my soul as something that I'd want to know but many of them just didn't grab me.

Sylvia Plath is a good poet and if you're into poetry or attempting to build a library or attempting to build a good collection of poetry I would say buy this book because it is alright, but just alright. I give Ariel 4 out of 10.

Book 92: The Pendragon

I really enjoyed this book. I really love the Arthurian legends, they're what I grew up on, so any time I see a book that involves them in any way I buy it and read it. In all truth my mum bought me this book along with Queen of the Realm at a second hand shop. To this day she is still surprised with herself because she always has a hard time picking out books for me because she always wants to make sure she gets me something I love.

To the book:

This was a beautiful retelling of the Arthur legend. Like the movie King Arthur (The one with Keira Knightly in it) it takes a more Roman vibe which I normally don't like but this book was fantastic. It was from Bedivere's Point of view which is interesting again because you don't see that very often. There are so many good things about this book. It haunts my dreams (in the best of ways)

I love this book and because I love it I give it a 10 snake arm bands out of 10. You should note that I don't often give a book that I've read once by an author that I've never read before a 10 out of 10.  It was a fantastic read.

Book 91: Harry Potter: Film Wizardry

This book was really cool and I'm no just saying that because it had fun things on the inside. I really enjoyed reading about how the book to movie translation happened and how particular they were about anything. The only thing that I regret about this book is that it doesn't include all the movies.

That being said I'm still giving it an 8 out of 10. It's a good read for any Harry Potter fan,

POLL TIME:
I'm going to start re-reading the Harry Potter series all over again soon(ish). Do you think that I should re-review the first three books? Y/N? Leave me comments? No comments? Okay -sadface-.

Book 90: Biology as ideology: The doctrine of DNA

I don't have much to say about this book. It's been a while since I read all the books that I've been reviewing lately.

I found this book very thought provoking and definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in modern ideas about DNA and how we blame everything on genes. I give this book 8 out of 10.

Book 89: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

A lot of people that I know really love this book. Really love. This beginning may make you think that this is a negative review but I assure you it's not.

It was really nice to read something in FYP that was "light". That's how my friends might describe it. That's how it seemed. But with its violent images and hard life lessons I have my doubts about it being a "light" read.

I found that Persepolis really brings out how dangerous philosophy is to those who are not capable to understand it. I mean no disrespect to Ms. Satrapi seeing that it is her biography in graphic novel form because I would never expect a child to understand the things that she was trying to about any philosophy or her political situation. In fact, I would say that she had done very well. The fact is, that the main character proves again and again what a danger it is to wave around philosophy without understanding it, both in herself and some of her adult counterparts. She proved the danger of being a fanatic.

I did really enjoy this book, and yes it is a book. It is rich with detail and really puts your in the main character's shoes. I found it particularly hard to put down. For this reason I have rated it 8 out of 10. It was definitely a good read.

Book 88: The Light Fantastic

I've heard a lot of different things about this series, most of them being positive. I've heard that they get better as they go on. I believe this with all my heart.

I really love The Colour of Magic. I thought it was fantastic. This one didn't amaze me quite as much and I'm still getting use to Pratchett's writing style but I still found this book hilarious.

I really enjoyed reading it and can't wait to have enough money to buy the next one. I give it 8 out of 10 marriages.

Book 87: The Time Machine: An Invention

I just finished this book this morning in the hallway outside of the lecture hall. It was a mistake. I don't know about you but I get very emotional about my books and I'm sure my great heartbreak was written all over my face this morning when I was reading the last 20 pages.

I know some of you may think that this is outside my normal path of books and in all honesty it probably is but there are good reasons behind me picking it up. On Monday we had a research paper assigned in FYP and I decided I wanted to write on Schopenhauer and time. When I got home I told my dad and he told me that the model of time that I had just described sounded a lot like the model of time that Wells describes in chapter one and that I should read the book. Because I trust my father's judgement so much I went out and bought it that night and read the first chapter and thought it was brilliant. When my dad got home from jam I told him that I bought it and found out that he had only read the first chapter when recommending the book to me. Funny.

Anyways, I have no regrets on spending money that I should be saving on this wonderful piece of literature. Although I found the ending heart wrenching and I had the most misfortune of reading it in public I adore this book. Because I adore it so much on the first read I am giving it 10 matches out of 10.  It's a really good book.

Book 86: Death in Venice

I'm currently attempting to write an essay on this book (I wrote this review on Friday) so my opinion of it is quite bad at the moment.

I enjoyed the story. It was a good book. I have writers block.

I give this book 8 out of 10. It is very passive. It was also only 3 dollars. Good times.

I've been told that this is the best/most accurate edition/translation.

Book 85: More Money Than Brains: Why School Sucks, College is Crap & Idiots Think They're Right

Laura Penny is one of the profs for foundation year and that was one of my motivations behind buying and reading this book. She has written two books so far and I thought that More Money Than Brains was more applicable to my life than Your call is Important To Us: The Truth About Bullshit.

I really enjoyed reading her book. I found that a lot of the comments that she made on politics, the way our school system works, societies attitude to people who are smart, and the way my fellow students act were all very accurate to my world experiences.

Most books that I read, I read the reviews for on Goodreads until I can't take it anymore. More Money than Brain reviews, like many others, were, for the most part, similar to mine but there is a staggering amount of negative reviews as well. I found that those people who didn't like her book mostly didn't like it because they either didn't like what she was saying, didn't agree with what she was saying, or didn't see what she was saying happening in our society. Like the other books that I've read reviews for on Goodreads I found all of these to be very unfair towards the book. Dr. Penny speaks at length about the anti-intellectual culture we're brewing and although people may not like her writing style I believe that giving up on such a wonderful social commentary halfway through the second chapter may help to prove her point.

I give this book an 8 out of 10. It truly is a fantastic read but it's not for everyone. It has come to my attention recently that people only want to see the world in their own way and when something threatens this view they want to throw it away and never look at it again. Dr. Penny is abrasive and very forward about her opinions. I do recommend this book for everyone because I believe that it is talking about some very serious issues but if you do choose to read it keep in mind that even if you do not agree with all of her ideas they're all important and that shouldn't be a reason to stop reading.

Book 84: Quidditch Through the Ages

I wasn't as thrilled with this book. After reading Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them I expected more funny bits instead of just serious facts about this history of Quidditch and flying.

In this book there was no commentary from any of the characters and the only slightly humorous part was at the beginning when in Professor Dumbledore's open remarks he told about Madam Pince's reservations about giving him the book and her description of how often the book was read.

Although I was disappointed by the book it was still an enjoyable read. I give it 7 out of 10. It's not as good as Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them but I would still recommend it to any Harry Potter fan.

Book 83: Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find them

I read this book quite a while ago and I guess that I missed doing the review. This week is a super catch up week.

When I read this I expected it to be a little more funny with more of the running commentaries from Ron, Harry and Hermione. That being said, it was still a very informative book.

I enjoyed learning more about the creatures that Rowling uses in her books and the whole controversy over thinking beings (I know that's not the right terminology but it's been a while since I've read it so please bare with me).

Because of this I give this book 8 our of 10. I defiantly recommend it to any Harry Potter fan.

Book 82: The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure

I don't have words for how wonderful this book is. I can't even begin to comprehend my love for it.

When I was younger I came out of my room on an average Saturday afternoon (this was before I lived in the basement) and my Dad was watching The Princess Bride. It was the part where Fezzik was climbing the cliffs of Insanity with Inigo, Buttercup and Vizzini on his back and the man in black's ship was just pulling up. Instantly captivated by the promise of sword fights and high adventures that my father made I sat down and watched it with him. Instant love.

Two months later when we had finished eating my dad told me to go look on the cd shelf and look to see if there's something there that I liked. Obviously I was very confused and spent about 5 minutes looking at the shelf bewildered. Then he told me and I found The Princess Bride on dvd. We watched it.

To this day I still watch it whenever it comes on tv and when I'm feeling under the weather because it never fails to cheer me up.

Grade 8 was the first time I read the book. Looking back on it I don't know if I really read that much of it but at the time I classified it as finished and was beyond happy that the movie to book translation was nearly perfect. This time was even better.

William Goldman's commentary is hilarious and very informative and all the character are so wonderful. I give this book 10 cough drops out of 10. I will read this book to my children and my children's children. I will always love this book. It will always be one of my favourites.

Book 81: Frankenstein: the original 1818 text

You may be wondering why I've specified the original 1818 text and it's a very good question. There are, in fact, three different editions of Frankenstein which are all very different from each other. The 1818 text was edited by Mary Shelley's husband (whose name escapes me at the moment), the next edition was edited by her fathers (which year I've forgotten but it was in the 1820's and I want to say late 1820's) and the third was edited by Mary Shelley herself around 1832 (feel free to correct me on any of this). The one her father edited is not really looked at by scholars anymore and the 1818 version is suspected to the most accurate to the original because the 1832 version had different politics involved in it.

On to the review!

I really loved Frankenstein and found it a very touching story. I feel deeply for both Frankenstein and the creature (I'd be more than happy to explain why to anyone and if you want to know why just drop me an email which you should be able to find on my google+ profile but if you have any trouble with that feel free to tell me). I was so moved I gave this book 10 voyages out of 10.  I can't say anything more about this book without getting emotional so I'm going to stop here.

Book 80: Hyperion, or The Hermit in Greece

Hyperion is a beautiful story. I don't want to dwell on it too long currently because I wrote a paper on it and I'll just go on about my thesis instead of telling you useful things about the book.

I really enjoyed the writing style. It flowed really well and was just really... I don't even have any words to describe it or how it makes me feel. It's defiantly one of my favourites from FYP.

I gave this book 8 heartbreaks out of 10 when I originally read it but I feel like if I reread it it could get a 10 (which is why it's tagged with two different ratings). I really really enjoyed reading it and highly recommend it.

Book 79: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Normally when I see this cover it means terror and boredom but it actually wasn't that bad. I mean, it's philosophy so it makes you think a lot and hard and might give you a few head aches but out of all of the philosophical stuff I've read thus far this has felt the least like philosophy.

I don't know if it's just the way Rousseau presents his ideas or what but I found it relatively painless to read. So much so that I'm even considering writing a paper on him. Imagine that!

I give this book 6 out of 10. It's still really dense even though it looks short but it still has that I'm easy to read factor.

Book 78: Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream

When I read this book I didn't realize that I wasn't suppose to read the first part and only the second part but that's alright.

I really enjoyed Rameau's Nephew. It was fun and somewhat lighthearted. D'Alembert's Dream on the other hand was some pretty heavy philosophy, although it was interesting. Both were written as conversations and were structured in a sort of play like fashion  (as in it wouldn't be hard to adapt it for the play) and they defiantly weren't bad reads.

I give it a 6 out of 10. Not terrible, not great, just alright. I probably wouldn't read it again but you never know.

Book 77: The Marriage of Figaro

As soon as you put a classical composer near something I'm in. I really love Mozart because he wrote beautiful music, as I'm sure you all know, but even though I rated this fairly high I was still a little disappointed maybe not by the opera but by what FYP did to it.

The opera itself is quite funny and the music that accompanies it is amazing but in FYP we didn't really talk about that. We talked about the play that the opera was based on which made it a controversial choice for Mozart. My tutorial didn't agree with me that this was a huge step because he did cut out most of the things that would make it seem class-warish but I believe that the fact that he still wrote it was pretty gutsy. Everyone knew what it was about and the social and political implications it has. It reminds me of something like the crucible only different if that makes sense.

Anyways, I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun and really great. I give it an 8 out of 10. You should all go watch Amadeus now and surround yourselves with wonderful classical music.

Book 76: Selected Philosophical Works

I cannot truthfully say I enjoyed any part of the book. For the most part I went through it doing that unconscious reading thing where your eyes are open, you're looking at the page and you're reading words but the words don't come together to make sentences, paragraphs or ideas. I found that it was very try and tedious to get through.

It might be a bit of a stretch to say that I "enjoyed" part four of the book entitled "New Atlantis" but it was defiantly the best part of the book though it was very reminiscent to Thomas More's Utopia (In fact it mentions Utopia  at least once).

I give this book 3 drinks out of 10. It could have been worse.

(even the cover is boring)

Book 75: Othello

This is probably my second favourite Shakespeare play (which isn't saying too much because I've only read 4. My favourite is Julius Caesar). Iago gets a bad rep for being a bad villain but I think he's really quite brilliant. I have similar feelings for him as I do Faustus. Faustus just wanted a friend when he felt alone and same goes for Iago. He has just had his whole life ripped out from under him by Othello appointing that jerk Cassio as his second in command instead of Iago and Iago just wanted to show Othello what it was like by making him think his wife hates him and getting him replaced by said jerk.

Ignoring my character preference and the fact that somewhere in that paragraph is a thesis for my next essay I really do love this play and because of that it gets 10 magic handkerchiefs out of 10.  Such a good villain.

Book 74: A Narnia Chronology: From the Archives of the Last King

This is a very fun and short book complete with pop ups. I received it for Christmas from one of my friends. A month prior we found it on an excursion to Chapters and I fell in love with it because it's Narnia and pop ups! What's not to love.

It only took me about 20 minutes to read but that's okay, it was still awesome. It had pully tabs and spinny disks and a mirror and a pop up Aslan at the end Wooo!

I give this book 8 out of 10! It was just really fun and I really enjoyed it and it makes me want to reread the Chronicles of Narnia.

Book 73: The Tempest

It feels odd reviewing something by one of the most influential author in the English Language.  The Tempest isn't a bad play, but as is my view on all plays, it wasn't presented properly. It's fine to say a whole bunch of things about the writing style and how brilliant it is while reading it, but I am of the firm belief that if something was written to be read out loud or acted out that is the way that it should be done. It is one of my issues with the Foundation Year Program (the other is the fact that we only have to read parts of books which I believe teaches us nothing about the piece or time but only gives us a corner of a snapshot).  That being said I did enjoy the whimsy of this play.

I give this play 6 air spirits out of 10. It was good, I just wish I could see it. I think it would grant me a better understanding of the play as apposed to the unenthusiastically  reading that went on in my head, but such is life.

Book 72: The Essays: A Selection

Yet another FYP book read and might I being by saying I can't decide whether I expected more or less from this book. Dr. Laura Penny gave the lecture on this book and because of this right before I started reading it my expectations went from "this book doesn't look very interesting" to "it's going to be the best book ever". Unforntuatly I feel a little let down.

I found that his essays were very hit and miss. Some of them, similar to Luther's, were really funny and I quite enjoyed them, whereas others were just dull and dry. But then again I was rushed when reading them and every day I am gaining better perspective for everything and a better appreciation for all literature.

Another one of the reasons why I think I rate this book lower than people might believe it to deserve is because it made me very stressed over the Christmas holiday. I went into it thinking I would get a whole bunch of reading done when I only really finished this book so it was a little bit of a let down. The essays themselves took a long time to read and involved a lot of heavy contemplation on my part and I was so driven to move forward I forgot to focus on what I was reading.

I give this book 5 treatments out of 10. It had its moments, but I can't say that I'd read it again soon. I can understand why my friend put it into the package of books he sold me for $20.

Book 71: The Titan's Curse

I really enjoy this series even though it often gets forgotten among my other books. This one sat on my shelf for some time at 137 pages in and then again at 240 pages in. It took me about 6 months to actually make it to the end because of the long breaks I took between reading when it really could have been done in a day or so.

Because my reading of this book was so spread out I don't really have a good idea about whether it was good or bad. I remember liking the beginning being uneasy in the middle and the end was mind blowing so I believe that over all that must mean that it is a good book.

I've decided to give this book 8 stags out of 10. I know that the other books have been amazing so I have no doubt that even though my memory of the book isn't all that great that it too was really good. If you've read the other books you should read this one too.