Megan's comments (member since Jan 23, 2009)

Megan's comments from the Fantasy Book Club group.

Awww, love this book! I don't have time, but I may pick it up and read my favorite passages over again.

I just got a couple books by Peter S. Beagle-- A Fine and Private Place, and The Folk of the Air. Also a boxed set of Robert Heinlein books-- Have Spacesuit- Will Travel, Spaceman Jones, etc.
I'm pretty excited about those. I also recently bought Abarat by Clive Barker, but I think I'm going to return it. I thought I'd really like it, but it's a bit on the surreal side for my tastes.

Elise wrote: "Megan wrote: "I just finished reading Tales Before Narnia, full of some older short fantasies which influenced C.S. Lewis, my favorite of which was Undine. Also finished The Last Unicorn. Loved i..."

The movie's alright, you know? I like it, but it's a little odd. Hope you enjoy it, I feel like I need to rewatch it now that I've read the book, maybe I'll like it more...yeah, I think I'll go do that.

I just finished reading Tales Before Narnia, full of some older short fantasies which influenced C.S. Lewis, my favorite of which was Undine. Also finished The Last Unicorn. Loved it! It was so lyrical and pretty, funny and sad and thoughtful and whimsical, all at once. I can't believe I haven't read Peter S. Beagle before now. But I just bought two more of his books at a used book store, yay!
I just got back into The Name of the Wind (finally!), and will probably finish that up this weekend.

I just finished Westmark last night, and am currently working on Utopia. I am determined to get back into The Name of the Wind and finish this month. It's on my must do list. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it. I really was, but then I stopped to finish a couple other books, and the further I get from it the less I'm interested.
I'll probably re-read Howl's since it's a favorite and it's been a couple years.

Sierra wrote: "I'm reading the entire Harry Potter series backwards. I'm racing my friend. "

That's gotta be really weird, Sierra. I just finished re-reading the series (forwards, in my case) this week.
p.s.--Hi!

Ugh! I got Tarzan for my birthday and started it right away, even though I'm in the middle of a whole stack and then have shelves and shelves of books that have been waiting patiently. Ah, well...
So far so good on Tarzan, at least, it's kind of fun.

1. Lord of the Rings
2. The Dark Tower
3. Harry Potter
4. The Malazan Book of the Fallen
5. The Wheel of Time
6. Narnia
7. The Magic of Recluce
8. The Mage Wars
9. The Bartimaeus Trilogy
10. The Prince of Nothing
11. Darkover (by Marion Zimmer Bradley, not the ones written by others).
12. Fionavar Tapestry
13. The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman
14. Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey
15. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R Martin
16. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
17. The Belgariad, David Eddings
18. The Book of the Kencyrath by P.C. Hodgell (starts with God Stalk)
19. The Sevenwaters Triology by Juliet Marillier
20. Abarat series by Clive Barker
21. The Symphony of Ages by Elizabeth Haydon
22. The kingdoms of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keye
23. The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
24. Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
25. Earthsea Cycle by Ursula LeGuin
26. The Old Kingdom (aka Abhorsen Trilogy) by Garth Nix
27. Age of the Five by Trudi Canavan
28. Black Company series by Glen Cook
29. Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
30. Tamir Trilogy by Lynn Flewelling
31. Discworld by Terry Pratchett
32. The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
33. The Gentlemen Bastards by Scott Lynch
34. The Drenai Saga by David Gemmell
35. The Magister Trilogy by C.S. Friedman
36. The Black Jewels Trilogy - Ann Bishop
37. The long dark tea-time of the soul, by Douglas Adams
38. The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
39. The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb
40. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
41. The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan
42. The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody
43. The Destiny of the Sword trilogy by Dave Duncan
44. The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
45. The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

Elise wrote: "I just finished The Name of the Wind last night. It was very good, I just thought it was a bit over hyped by all the glowing reviews on it. The ending was pretty creepy. Looking forwa..."

I got bogged down in The Name of the Wind and haven't picked it up in weeks, I really need to get back to it. I love the Abhorsen Trilogy, hope you enjoy it.

Meanwhile I'm re-reading Harry Potter for the billionth time. Just starting the sixth book today, so almost there and then I can focus on all my other books that I haven't actually read before, like The Name of the Wind, The Rings of Saturn, Anna Karenina, Savvy, etc, etc.

I'm a freak in a lot of ways, and books/libraries are one of the headlines of my freakishness. I completely swore off libraries for about three years after a ridiculously hilarious (and costly) experience that involved an unfortunate copy of The Princess Bride and a bucket of water that was serving no apparent purpose in the universe except to catalyze my break up with the library system.

I did just barely get my own card again two weeks ago, though I'm beginning to remember many of the secondary reasons I swore off libraries to begin with. I have to own books, they have to sit on my shelf after I've finished them, so I can pick them up any old time I want. I'm reading a library copy of Speaker for the Dead right now, and I know it's going to be such a wrench to give it back to them once I've finished. And someday I'll buy my own copy, cause I have to, but it won't be the copy I originally read from, see? (Do I sound crazy yet?) So it will sit on my shelf but it won't be quite mine until I reread it, and even then it won't be like the books I owned since the beginning of my relationship with them. (I should really make an attempt to not form "relationships" with inanimate things).

hmmm, stew... I love stew. I don't really know how impractical it is if you're traveling...I wouldn't suppose it's any more out there than bread really. I think it would be easier to cook stew on the road than bread, and the only way to make bread last is to pack it with preservatives, which really ruins the flavor.
But a little beside the point, my favorite fantasy books, as far as food is concerned, are the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. That guy knows how to make your mouth water.

Ohh, this book always makes me smile, and not just because it's incredibly funny. I got it from my library three or four years ago and I accidently dropped it in a bucket of water, twice. So now I have my own extremely wrinkled copy. I think I'll reread it since it's been a while and it's one of my favorites.

Finally! My copy got here a bit later than I was expecting, but at last it's here. I've read the first few chapters and am intrigued.

I'm currently listening to Inkheart, Lynne Redgrave's reading is wonderful, the story really comes to life. I also liked Tim Curry's reading of Sabriel.
There's a really neat website librivox.org where you can download audiobooks for free. They're mostly all public domain classics (like you can find at project gutenberg) read by volunteers.

Ordered my copy from Amazon last week, expecting it any day now.

I finished The Hero of Ages weeks ago, but I didn't decide until a few days ago that I did actually like it. It was unexpected, unpredictable, and so different from how things usually end that it had me quite stumped at first. But after much deliberation I have decided, I like it!

Kelsier probably was my favorite character in Mistborn, his attitude made up for any faults. But I also really loved Elend, his quiet defiance of his father's world and toung-in-cheek comments made me smile. I loved the variety of characters in the crew, and I really liked them all, especially Ham and Spook. Vin at first was way too annoying for me, but Sanderson did a great job showing her grow and change.

No one has mentioned favorites in later books, so maybe I'm breaking some taboo, but in the second book Vin and TenSoon joined Elend as my favorites. The three of them remained my favorites throughout the last book, and I was always a little disappointed that TenSoon's chapters were so short. Breeze also grew to be more of a favorite as the series wore on.

First I have all the books I'm still in the middle of (recently, since otherwise this list would be much longer):
Light of the Oracle by Victoria Hanley
The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien (I've read it before, but it's one of my favorites so...)
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (I'm actually listening to the audio-book-Lynn Redgrave's reading is marvelous!)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Alphabet of Dreams by Susan Fletcher
...yeah, I should finish all of those this month

Meanwhile I have a whole slew that I haven't started yet, but also plan to finish this month:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur Clarke
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand
The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin
and countless (seriously countless) others

Of course as I said last month these plans are a little useless due to the sheer number of books I want to read.

Dame wrote: "I am reading Cybele's Secret and Listening to the Warrior heir. Love them both."

Let me know how you like Cybele's Secret. I haven't broken down and bought the hardcover yet, but I also haven't heard whether it's worth it. Let me know!

Sarah wrote: "What a great idea! I may try this. Are you going to make a shelf for your alphabet reads? "

I hadn't thought of that, maybe I will. If you do try it out, let me know what books you choose!