Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374320918
• ISBN-13: 978-0374320911
• List price: $16.00
• I finished this book on Jan. 31

So, wow, I literally just finished this book minutes ago. It has left me smiling in a goofy was and feeling all nostalgic and enlightened.
So, here it goes: Liz is 15 (almost 16) and dies in a car accident. And you're all: 'Why are you reading such a bummer?' and I'm all: 'Not even.' Liz finds her dead self on a boat. It takes her a long time to realize she's dead. The boat takes her to a place called Elsewhere where dead people age backwards until they are babies again (at which point they go back to Earth and are reborn). This seems cool to me, but Liz is mad. She wants to turn 16, and she doesn't want to live with her grandmother (who she had never met before) in Elsewhere. Eventually she realizes that life is sort of the same both forwards and backwards.
So, I really liked the book. I dug all the characters, and I spent a good deal of the reading of this book with a really goofy grin on my face. It was funny and creative and sweet. I couldn't have liked the concept more and I thought the writing was really flawless. I am totally loving YA books more than adult books lately. I'm not sorry.
Plus, extra points to Ms. Zevin for a great cover (even though I know she probly didn't pick it) and owning an 'unusually clever' pug dog named Mrs. DeWinter. Double extra bonus points for having a cool website; here.
So, the moral of this story is, it gets the illustrious bee seal of approal. I'm not the only one who dug it, fyi, ALA also listed it as a Notable Book.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (December 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385730284
• ISBN-13: 978-0385730280
• List Price: $16.95
• I finished this book on Jan. 29
  

Don't you love this title. It's so titillating, so promising. A+ for excellent title.
So, okay, if I had to classify this book, I don't even know what I'd say. It's sort of like a fantasy/historical fiction, if that makes sense. I would add romance to that slashiness, except that there isn't any actual sex. And you know I love the actual sex. There is, however, a spicy dream or two. Speaking of the no sex, that's the only reason that this book doesn't get the Bee Seal of Approval, because the earlier sections of the book led me to believe that there would be some sex (possibly of the bodice ripping variety) and the end of the book did not deliver. However, I just found out that there is a sequel to this goodness, in which I am hoping for some action.
So by now you're probly wondering the plot. Here it is, Gemma (pronounced with a J sound like Jem - who, yes, is truly outrageous) is 16 and it's the year 1895. She's sent to a boarding school after her mother dies, and begins to discover that she has powers. First it's just visions. Then she discovers that her visions are more powerful than she thinks, and allow her to enter another world, where she finds incredible power. Because she's a teenage girl in a boarding school she shares this secret with some other teenage girls, and they of course, manage to mess everything up. Chaos ensues. Will our heroine be able to...sorry. I thought I was booktalking for a minute.
Either way, I liked Gemma and her first person narration. There are some twisties and turnies in this plot, though it's likely you won't be too shocked. Interesting views of the life of women in this time period and I liked the fantasy aspect too. Hopefully, the next one will be even better, and will earn my mark of highest praise.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

• Audiobook
  
• Publisher: Listening Library (Audio); Unabridged edition (October 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307281701
• ISBN-13: 978-0307281708
• List Price: $29.95
• I finished listening to this audiobook on Jan. 28
• Number 41 on the list

So, okay, I liked this way better than I thought I would. I must also say that it was a nice story to hear out loud, for the most part. Golding himself read it, and his stodgy British old man voice lent the story something. The other reason it was nice to hear out loud is because it's incredibly descriptive and I was able to listen to those heavily descriptive sections without getting bored, as I have a suspicion I may have done were I reading it.
The book is basically an allegory, and I really dug all the symbolism. It is also very repetitive, which I believe I noticed more because it was read out loud. Some phrases that really stick in my head are "I got the conch!" "My specks!" and "Kill the pig/beast, cut it's throat, spill it's blood!" I find that I keep wanting to say silly things in Piggy's voice in conversation, as though I am not the only person I know of who has listened to this particular audio enjoyment.
I would also like to note that I guessed the ending and I was very pleased when I was correct. That rarely happens, as you know, because I do not often try to guess. I would have liked a little more follow-up at the ending, but I was not dissapointed.
The beginning and end of the recording have some of Golding's thoughts on the books. He talks particularly about why the inhabitants of the island are solely male, and he says something that I really liked: "I don't know why women are always trying to act equal to men when they aren't: they're superior" hehe, funny stuff, Mr. McPompous Accent. So, on the whole, this one is my favorite from the dreaded list so far.

Seen Art? by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• ISBN-10: 0670059862
• ASIN: B000HT2PKM
• List Price: $16.99
  
• I finished this book on Jan. 26

So yeah, this is a kid's book, but I really thought it was cute. It's a little kid who is looking for is friend Art and people send him to the Museum of Modern Art. Everyone he asks shows him different types of art. The book is long (horizontally) and skinny and the pages look like hallways in the art museum.
The little boy and the hallways are drawn but there are actual famous artworks along the hallways. Our hero passes by Starry Night, Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, and that creepy dada fuzzy saucer job. (Those of you who took art history know what I'm talking about, and it gives me the major creepies)
At the end of the book there is a little list of all the artwork included in the book and a credit for each of them.
Scieszka has made approximately a million kids books and most of them are illustrated by Smith. Scieszka's book series the Time Warp Trio is even a Saturday morning cartoon. I really dig all his stuff and those of you interested should check out their website, here.
The moral of this story: cute and worth your time. This would also be a nice gift for art nerds.

The Power of Reading by Stephen Krashen

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann; 2nd edition (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591581699
• ISBN-13: 978-1591581697
• List Price: $25.00
• I finished this book on Jan. 23

Let me tell you something dearies, this book is preaching to the choir here. It is known that I heart reading, and the major point of this book is to tell me that reading is good. Also, according to Mr. Krashen I can thank reading for my excellent vocabulary and spelling skills. Outstanding. This book is aimed at educators, I would say, not just librarians. There is a big section in the middle where Krashen discusses the benefit of reading things like comic books and romances. So there you have it, kids, I'm not a failure for wanting to read fluff, or as Krashen puts it 'light reading'. That's a totally superior and even respectable title. BTW: every time I read that phrase I thought of Harry Potter (Hermione: I checked it out weeks ago for a bit of light reading. Ron: Light??) Anywho, I love any book that touts the plus side of graphic novels and comics. This one even uses pro-comic books quotes from African Bishop Desmond Tutu!
I like the book's stance promotion of sustained silent reading programs and demonization of the way we teach spelling to kids. So, basically, I bought this one hook, line and sinker. The other great plus of this book is that it is very readable and interesting.
What's more, this book taught me random facts that I will for no reason remember and then share with other who will not care. Such as: the lexicon of most television is 5,000 words (aka: not very many words).
Moral of this story: books are good. that is all.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Orb Books; 1st ORB pbk. ed edition (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031286504X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312865047
• List price: $14.95
  
• I finished this book on Jan. 20

So, someone recommended this book to me because I heart vampires. So, I hunted it down and read it. This particular volume contained the novel I Am Legend and then some other short stories after it. I can't say that I was in love with the short (and I mean really short) stories, but I really dug the main attraction.
First, I'll admit that there wasn't really as much vampire action in the book as I had kind of expected. However, I think the good parts of the book are the same things that make a lot of zombie stories cool: What do you do when you are alone in a crazy and dangerous world. The story picks up in the middle of the survival story of the last man on Earth after what I assume is some sort of vampire apocalypse. Good times. He stays in his reinforced home at night and hunts the sleeping vamps in the daytime. One cool thing I hadn't thought of before is that he can't really travel anywhere beyond a day's journey. So he's pretty much stuck within a safe radius of his home. For the record though, I believe that I would have like 6 watches and an almanac to predict the time of sunset and be safely home by then. (i feel like a farmers almanac or something would have that info).
The ending of this book was awesome, and not what I was expecting at all. Of course, I have a philosophy about reading books. I don't ever try to figure out what the ending will be while I'm reading it. When I'm reading Eve and Roarke books, I am never trying to figure out too hard who the killer is. I like to be taken on a ride, told the story, not try to outsmart the author. Harry Potter books are the only ones that I actively try to figure out what's going to happen, and maybe that is only because it takes so long for those to come out.
Anyway, I thank this book for giving me something to worry about besides zombies taking over the world, now I have to worry about vampires too. Thanks a lot, Matheson.

Blood and Smoke by Stephen King

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (November 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671046160
• ISBN-13: 978-0671046163
• List Price: $26.00 (cassette) $29.95 (CD)
• I finished listening to this audiobook on Jan. 16

So, yeah, you're wondering if books on tape count, and I say 'eff, yeah!' Of course they count my dearies. Why? Because they're still books.
Anywho, this book on tape (yeah, my car has a tape player, wanna fight about it?) is actually three tapes with three short stories read by the man himself. Since I am a constant reader of King's I have actually read these stories before, in the short story collection Everything's Eventual. Nonetheless, it was fun to hear SK read them. The stories included are: Lunch at the Gotham Cafe, In the Deathroom, and 1408.
King's voice has an interesting cadence to it. I eespecially enjoy how he says the L sound. I'm not sure if that's good old Maine accent, or unique to him. Either way, I totally dig it, and I'm a little sad it's over. He was also astonishingly convincing, reading the stories with flare and doing all the voices. I like the crazy maitre d' voice with the fake accent and the yelling "EEEEEEE!!" Good times, my friends. In researching this pre-blogging today, I found out that King also recorded Bag of Bones (which, you will remember, was the first book I blogged about here) and I sort of wish I didn't just read it, because I would have liked to have listened to that as well.
The moral of this story is, books on tape are good times.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (November 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393312836
• ISBN-13: 978-0393312836
• List Price: $13.99
• I finished this book on Jan. 15
• Number 65 on the list
  

So, this is one of those that I have heard about all my life, but don't really know anything about it. I haven't seen the movie (though I'm netflixing it) and I didn't really know much, except that it was violent. Little did I know that it was written in another language. No, really, I would say that at least 50% of the things our 'humble narrator' says are in his made up slang. This was really off-putting at first, but I finally figured it out. That said, it's pretty hard to use context clues when most of the words in a sentence don't make sense. It reminded me of sitting in Italian classes (ugh).
Anywho: the story is about a future in which lawlessness is rampant, and evil teen gangs rule the night. Little else is known about this future and the society in which the story takes place. I would have liked to hear more about that, personally, but I don't really think it takes away either. Alex, our main character and narrator, has a little gang that steals, beats helpless old men, and rapes women in front of their wives. For fun. He is also a classical music enthusiast. His buddies eff him over and he goes to jail, where his jail buddies do the same. He then goes through a conditioning treatment which steals from him both the abilities to enjoy violence and classical music. Eventually he is fixed and allowed to be violent again and then decides to grow up.
The major theme of the book is the importance of choice. When Alex is conditioned he isn't being bad but he also isn't choosing to be good. I think it's hard to realize all that underneath the violence and shenanigans. You also sort of feel bad for the little sociopath rapist at times.
Plus, after I finished reading it I found a glossary of the slang language on line and I'm mad I spent all that time trying to figure it out. Either way, I think it's an interesting book, sideways thumb, you know? Not quite thumbs up or down.
Anyone interested can check out the sparknotes on it here.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Reprint edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060929871
• ISBN-13: 978-0060929879
• List Price: $ 13.95
• I finished this book on Jan. 12
• Number 5 on the list
  

So, my dears, this is the first book of the mythic list that I have tried my hand at. Or rather my noodle. Either way, it's Number 5 on the Modern Library's list. Let me tell you, it's not really Number 5 in my heart.
Now, here's one of my great theories in life. A few people said that certain books or movies were really awesome, because they didn't understand them, and wanted to seem smart. This makes those who don't understand them feel stupid. I resolve to never, in the course of this blog or elsewhere, falsely pretend like I understood something or liked it because other smarty-pants said it was good.
Having said that, I did understand this book, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. The book is about a dystopian/utopian society where everyone is born in test tubes and everyone has everyone. When I say 'has' I mean they are totally doing it with everyone. One of my favorite phrases early in the book is one young girl to another: "You really must be more promiscuous, you know." I'm not sorry, that's funny to me. But, I feel that in a book where everyone is having sex with everyone, I should get to have a sex scene. But no. Sigh. There is also a rigid caste system, complete with the purposeful genetic engineering of defects into the lower castes.
Anyway, I was totally with the book until about the last chapter, nay, the last page and then I totally didn't pick up the end. At all. I had to go to spark notes to figure out that one. Geez. Now I'm kinda mad that I spent time reading this and didn't get the end. That's kind of lame, I have decided. I feel that the idea of the world and the intended satire of commercialism were very interesting and worth my time, but that ending...
I also give this book high marks in readability. The characters are engaging, and, using the amazing power of context clues, you can follow the story even with the weird unexplained ways of this new world. That is another complaint I have of this story; to me there are two kinds of futury/different society books: Ones that give an explanation (however brief) or the world you are reading about, how it came to be etc. and ones that totally don't. This book is the latter. I'm not an idiot, mind you, I can figure some things out. Perhaps it's just that the way they got there seems very interesting to me. In some cases more interesting that the actual story.
In case anyone is interested: please enjoy the SparkNotes page on this book.
So, my informal rating on this one is: eh. You understand. All in all, though, not a bad first run for a book off of the (dun dun dun<---- foreboding music) List. Now I'm going to go be more promiscuous.

A Distant Soil: Coda by Colleen Doran

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Image Comics (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158240478X
• ISBN-13: 978-1582404783
• List Price: $17.99
• I finished this book on Jan. 8

Oh my, boys and girls. Let me tell you a story about A Distant Soil. Here's me on my big comfy chair with a blanket and one to two purring snuggly kitties. I'm reading A Distant Soil: The Aria (Book 3) and I'm starting to get close to the end. I say to the kitties "Gee, I'll bet there's like a cheesy wrap it up quick ending because I'm getting close to the end of the book and there's still a lot going on." The cats nod and go back to sleep. Then they wake in fear at my screams of anguish when I get to the end of the book and it wasn't the end! I had no idea. I had taken books one through three from the library. Since it was all they had I assumed it was a trilogy. Anyway, I had to wait quite a while for my order of the fourth book to come in.
While it definitely sated my hunger temporarily it was not the quenching drink of great graphic novel goodness I was hoping for. This is mainly due to the fact that it's still not the last book and worse...the final book is not out yet. Boo to that.
The story of this graphic novel as best as I can relay it is thus: Seren is the embodiment of a God on his planet, but is at best a figurehead and at worst a slave to the sadistic politicians that make up the hierarchy. He leads a double life, that of the Avatar, and that of a leader of the resistence against the heirarchy. He travels to Earth and recruits two human youths who are the children of one of Seren's teacher. This makes them half of his race, and they turn out to be exceptionally powerful beings. With the help of other human fighters they try to take on the Heirarchy. Craziness goes down, however, and they end up cutting off Seren's beautiful man ponytail.
So the story is amazing, though I realize my description makes little to no sense. This particular volume wasn't my favorite so far though, I must admit. This is probably because the relationship between Seren and D'mer is my favorite part and they were apart for the whole book. I had to take solace in D'mer hitting on the super uncomfortable Kovar. One thing I do like about these books is that everyone is beautiful and almost naked all the time (mmmm, cartoon sex). They are funny and sexy ( I'm totally into man on man action!). I really could cry and laugh on the same page. The illustrations are amazing and I love pretty much everything about it. The only reason this doesn't get the Bee seal of approval-love is because it's not the effin end to the story. The moral of the story is, though, that you should read it.
Check out the site here

Getting Graphic by Michelle Gorman

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Linworth Publishing (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586830899
• ISBN-13: 978-1586830892
• List Price: $36.95
  
• I finished this book on Jan. 7
  

No kids (Yes, we're on a pet-name callling basis now. Nice, isn't it) it's not a dirty sexbook. Sigh. But it's about an equally sexy topic: Graphic Novels aka comic books. Here's me explaining to my father the difference between comics and graphic novels:
me: A comic book is a short serial that's staple bound, and a graphic novel is a longer story that's actually a book.
my dad: ah-ha (goes back to eating his dinner)
Now, I have no idea if that is right, but it seems solid, right. Anywho, I love the graphic novels. This book is designed to introduce the format to librarians. Btw: it's a format, not a genre. A graphic novel can be any genre. The problem with me reading this book is that I am already sold on them. However, the book did include good selection guides and book suggestions.
I didn't really like the layout of the book, I felt that all the suggestions should be at the end. But I liked the content so what can you do?
Now my next task is to get the librarian at my friendly neighborhood public lib to start ordering some. I'm thinking of giving him this book.
For fun, here's links to some good sites on graphic novels and comics.
Comic books for young adults

Here's a great link to many different sources

American Library Association's site on graphic novels

Born in Death by J.D. Robb

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399153470
• ISBN-13: 978-0399153471
• List Price: $24.95
• I finished this book on Jan. 6

Mmmmm, soooo tasty. I heart this series. Born is the 25th book in J.D. Robb's ...in Death Series. I effin highly recommend these books. Robb is the pseudonym for Nora Roberts. I can't tell you why she writes under a well known pen-name for this series and puts a silly pic of herself trying to look like a BA on the back, but I don't even care. This is fluff to the ult, and very satisfying. If you want to check out the series check here, but beware for spoilers!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Death
So I'll give you a brief: Eve Dallas is a super hardcore cop in the future. She happens to be married to the most beautiful, rich and powerful man in the world Roarke. Yep, I know it's ridiculous, and yes, he only has one name. Deal with it. Anywho, her best friend is this popsinger (obviously, that makes perfect sense) and she's super knocked-up and about to have a baby and to top it all off there's this double murder case to solve. Throw in another missing pregnant broad and that's pretty much the book.
New readers would be able to jump in with this one and go with the flow. But why would you want to when you could start at the beginning and have 25 more books of a delicious calorie-free treat. Plus, it's worth it to read how Roarke and Eve met.
These books are full of plenty of good jokes, excellent cop work, futuristic gizmos and graphic sex fun. Did I mention it totally gets the Bee seal of approval? Because it totally does. That's what the Bee symbol in the top left corner means, highly approvicized by me. I will add this icon to those book that really rock my socks.

Cybersins and Digital Good Deeds by Mary Ann Bell, Bobby Ezell, James L. Van Roekel

• Hardcover: 187 pages
• Publisher: Haworth Press (February 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789029537
• ISBN-13: 978-0789029539
• List Price: $39.95
• I finished this book on Jan. 5
  

The subtitle of this book is: A book about Technology and Ethics. I would have to say that this isn't really what I got out of it. I feel that this title implies a discussion of those topics, but that is not really the case. The book is essentially a glossary of popculture terms loosely tied to technology. It could be useful as a glossary of terms and idea, but for someone who has a good working knowledge of popculture and technology I thought it was not really teaching me anything.
It is organized well and an easy read. I could see a newcomer to using technology (do those still exist?) getting some use out of this book, but only as supplementary knowledge. There is really nothing super helpful about reading one page about "Flash Mobs" or "Marketing to Children"
This book's origional title was "Some stuff about technology for people who've recently crawled out from beneath rocks" but it was changed because they thought it was too long.
sigh.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (July 2, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380977788
ISBN-13: 978-0380977789
List Price: $15. 99

I read this little book the other night, and I must admit that I had to sit up to finish it so I could know whether or not this book had a happy ending. The reading level for this book is listed at about 9 - 12 but I must confess that this gore loving scary movie junkie totally got the creepies from it.
Little Coraline is very smart, very bored, and very ignored by her parents. As you can probably guess this a bad combination and she gets into trouble. She finds a door to another version of her apartment with another version of her parents, who are waiting to make her theirs. Except they have buttons for eyes. That's right buttons for eyes. Does that give anyone the heebie jeebies other than me? Yikes. Anyway, they keep getting creepier and creepier until Coraline has to fight her way out.
In a related note why can't my cats talk like the one in this book? They would be more interesting, even if they only said 'feed me'.
I also found from some preliminary poking that this is going to be an animated movie with Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher. I have some problems with this. I know DF is really cute and talented but does she have to be in every child role ever? I also would like to see her tackle some older parts because I think she could really pull it off. Oooh, sorry, this is a book blog. But you can probably expect that I will talk about movies made from books I've read, just to let you know. But I think that the movie could be really cool, so I'll be sure to keep you updated.
This book was cool and creepy and definitely worth the short time it took to read.

Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano

Hardcover: 126 pages
Publisher: Vertigo; 1st ed edition (November 1, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1563895730
ISBN-13: 978-1563895739
List Price: unknown

The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman is a series of graphic novels about Morpheus or Dream. I have read two books in this series. They are interesting, but I am usually feeling that I would like more of the character Dream.
This is sort of love tale/Chinese fable. It is not a traditional graphic novel, I would call it a picture book. Mostly it is text on one page and illustrations on the other. Some of the illustrations cover both pages. The story is about a magic fox who falls in love with a monk. She tries to protect the monk from death by asking Dream for help. Then the monk realized what has happened and goes to rescue her. The story is very sweet and interesting and the characters of the monk and fox are interesting. I am left, once again, trying to root for the union of man and fox in my head. We all know it's not going to happen, but I'm all 'C'mon....' Either way the story is neat.
The illustrations are very beautiful if a little more abstract than I would sometimes like. They are colorful and definitely add a lot to the story.
This might be a good book for someone to introduce themselves to the Sandman books, but it is not entirely like the rest.

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

Mass Market Paperback: 752 pages
Publisher: Pocket (June 1, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 067102423X
ISBN-13: 978-0671024239
List price: $7.99

I actually began this book before the new year, but I finished it after the 1st, so this is the book to kick off my blog.
The main character is Mike Noonan, a writer. Whenever Stephen King's main character is a writer (Bill from IT, Thad from The Dark Half , Ben Mears from 'Salem's Lot, or himself in The Dark Tower) I wonder how much of the character is really him. This writer is from Maine like King, but has lost his wife and is struggling from writer's block.
The story revolves around the haunting of Mike's lake house and his relationship with a young mother and her daughter. For most of the book Mike and the reader struggle with the attraction between the 21 year old widow Mattie and the 40 something writer Mike. Everyone except me. I want them to get together. I am rooting for them. *possible spoiler* But you know they aren't going to no matter how nice that kiss is. King even almost talks about how what happens in the end is a literary device to get him out of letting them have sex. Do I think it's cowardly? No. Do I think it sucks? Yes. I know they won't be together, but I romantic and foolish girl can dream, can't she?
Overall, I really liked the haunting in this book and the small town hysteria aspects were very creepy. I found myself getting very heated and angry with certain characters throughout. I never really want to get violent, but sometimes when you watch a movie or read a book you just see this one character that you know should be killed. You know that if they keep on living bad things are going to happen so you should just kill them. There is not one but two creepies like that in this book. Top notch crazies, really. So, the moral of this blog is that while I liked this book, it doesn't make it into my top ten of King books (because you know, he's written a thousand).

I'm a book nerd, are you?

So that's basically my story, I'm a nerd. I'm a librarian to be and I pride myself on being 'well read' though the irony of that is that I read a lot of trash and fluff. But it's so good. This year I resolve to read the same trash and fluff with fervor, but to also try to add some classics as well.
The following link will lead you to the Modern Libraries list of the 100 best novels (ever?). Way back in high school I was given a list like this in my AP English class and I decided to read them all. I totally never did. So, about 6 years later (how am I so old?) I have decided to revisit this list.
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html
I'm not saying I will read all of them or anything, or that I will read only them, because I really only want to read Stephen King and J.D. Robb (I'm not sorry) but I will try to read a balance of something from the list and something I want to read.
In Stephen King's book Bag of Bones his main character said something about the books people read are a really good way of knowing who they are (worst paraphrase ever?) and I thought it would be a fun thing to write about the books I am reading this year. So I will put entries and links and little reviews about each book that I read all year, and I will try to tackle some of this list.
I'm not pretending that I'm an awesomely educated book snob whose opinion is important or anything, it's really just more for fun. However, I do occasionally write real reviews and I do have a print journalism degree for which I took a book review course. Please feel free to add comments about the books of suggestions.
thanks for reading
bee