Megan's comments (member since Aug 18, 2008)

Megan's comments from the The Next Best Book Club group.

I definitely like having chapters. There are occasions when no chapter breaks suits me fine, as long as it suits the text as well. But overall, go chapters! Also, I love chapter titles. I know this doesn't work well for all narratives, but I think it's such an excellent test of the author's creativity. Chapter titles can be like nifty word games that have already been solved, and as a reader you get to try and figure out the original question or the method of solving. (An example of this that stands out in my memory-- "An Excess of Phlegm" from HP 6)

So much fun! Great purchases everyone- I especially love the embarassingly long lists of second-hand books. Can't wait til January when I get to go on my insane spree!

Becky wrote: "Which wand is that? I have Harry, Ron and Hermione's still in their boxes - I'm waiting for brackets or some way to display them on the wall. :)"

My brother made it for me, actually, so it's all my own!

Finally!!! My sister got me going on this at last.
First up, the beginning of my 'have-reads' and my first bookcase ever- it belonged to my grandmother, she bought it from a secondhand store in the 50s when their house burnt down (pretty cool history for a bookshelf, huh?):


And now for some up-close-and-personal views.
Top two shelves:


And the bottom shelf:


The two bookcases on the other side of my bedroom, the first is still 'have-reads' as is the second, except for the second and third shelves which are library books, books I'm in the middle of, magazines and a huge stack of bookmarks:


Close ups again:












This is my textbook, reference, and miscellanious bookcase:


Dictionaries (and stuff)!


Textbooks and the miscellaneous:


Those are all the bookcases in my room. I have three more in the kitchen/living room area, but it's late... I'll put them up tomorrow.

I love reading these. So cathartic. The book-ban's going pretty well, but a few have slipped past me in the last couple weeks:
The Grass Crown
The Icewind Dale Trilogy Collector's Edition
The Cat Who Sniffed Glue
...and possibly a few others.

I really shouldn't be on here, I need to go make some no-bake cookies. Must...leave...computer...

Rachel, I love that you have your Halloween-themed books out front, I want to do that!

Ohhhhhh, I've really got to get my shelves somewhat cleaned up so I can post here, I keep thinking about it, but pro-cras-ti-nation!

I love this discussion, it's cathartic for me and my horrible book ban. The only books I've gotten lately are text-books and now I have no money, so I should do pretty well. :c

I was thinking just the other day that I wanted to create a my-favorite-lit-characters encyclopedia (such a nerd, I am). I just don't think five is enough :C

I've been doing so well lately, only bought four books in the last couple weeks:
Rapunzel's Revenge
Princess of the Midnight Ball
Castle Barebane
The Road

...the first two I HAD to get because I was at the authors' booksignings, so, you know, special occasion. And The Road and Castle Barebane were both cheap library discards. My point is, none of this qualifies as breaking the book-ban...nope...not a bit.

I keep meaning to get my shelves photographed and put up here, but now my friend's moving in, and we're building her room out of bookshelves (it's not like we need a kitchen), so I guess I'll wait until we've got that done.

Just got
Inkdeath- Cornelia Funke
House of Many Ways- Diana Wynne Jones

...only two books must be a record for me

Melissa wrote: "We slipped out of town Tuesday morning for a little mini vacation and after visiting Goodwill, a local thriftstore, and another place called The Garage Sale, I simply had to log on and share my fin..."

I absolutely LOVED Villette, possibly more than Jane Eyre. Congratulations on the great finds!

I've always been really interested in reading The Mists of Avalon, but I feel like I have too many expectations for it. Plus it's so long, if I don't like it that's a lot of wasted time (I can't not finish a book.)

Wow, only $20, that's excellent!
I've been on vacation with my family, and for some reason being on vacation gave me an excuse to buy as many books as I wanted without having to feel guilty (at least until I got home)....

From various used stores, Borders, and Barnes & Noble:
Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions- Edwin Abbot
Persuasion- Jane Austen
The Story of a Bad Boy- Thomas Aldrich
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall- Ann Bronte
A Fine and Private Place- Peter S. Beagle
The Folk of the Air- Peter S. Beagle
Hattie Big Sky- Kirby Larson
The Headless Cupid- Zilpha Snyder
I, Juan de Pareja- Elizabeth De Trevino
Montaigne Essays A Selection- Montaigne
Red Planet- Robert A. Heinlein
Between Planets- Heinlein
Farmer in the Sky- Heinlein
Starman Jones- Heinlein
Have Space Suit-Will Travel- Heinlein
The Household of Sir Thomas More- Anne Manning
The Coyote Road Trickster Tales- ed. Datlow and Windling
The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats- Yeats
Parzival and Titurel- Wolfram von Eschenbach
The Once and Future King- T.H. White
Is Heathcliff a Murderer? Great Puzzles in Nineteenth-Century Fiction- John Sutherland
Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?- Harold Bloom

I think I've forgotten one...

Oh, I love YA, my genre of choice, probably. Adults take themselves too seriously, we're all too neurotic, at least as teens we could chalk it up to hormones.
In no particular order (narrowing it down to five is hard enough) five favorite YA series

1.The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (especially The Black Cauldron and the High King)
2.The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (especially The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
3.Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
4.The Lord of the Rings (including The Hobbit) by J.R.R. Tolkien
5.The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix
...um, and The Dark Is Rising as a bonus

and five non-series YA favorites

1.The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
2.Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
3.Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (I read this in 7th grade, and it was the perfect introduction to classic literature)
4.Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (again, great classic)
5.Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (Lynne Redgrave's reading of this was absolutely the most perfect audiobook I've ever heard)
...and since I had a bonus above, I get one down here too--The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Oh, I'm in the middle of so many books it would be ridiculous to count them. But I'm not always exactly reading them, you know? Sometimes I will go months without touching a book I'm halfway through reading. So I guess on average I actively read 8 or so books at a time. That includes at least one audiobook, as I do some boring computer work which allows me to multi-task.
I think I used to read just one or two books at a time, a long, long time ago, maybe...

Tee-hee, the Dark Crystal, that's totally awsome, and the shelves, the shelves and books are definitely cool too. ("Gone! Gelfling gone!")

Cheri wrote: "Lori wrote: "Cheri, Ive read a few of the books youve just picked up. Great splurge... Quite the classics :)"

Thank you! :D I'm really looking forward to reading Dr. Faustus and Notes from the Und..."

I loved Notes from the Underground, in a depressing sort of way.

My brother just finished tenth and they read Anthem, which he liked, as well as The Great Gatsby. I read Huckleberry Finn in tenth and loved it.