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I'm tagging this as my 2010 To-Read list, but that's not actually what it is. It's actually those titles from my 2009 list that I didn't read, and that I would eventually like to, and may in fact do so in 2010. So the "I Might Read These in 2010" list would probably be a more accurate title. :)) Anyway, here's the books that I didn't read in 2009. Ones with a (4) by them have been on my list for the past four years, (3) indicates those that have been on the list for three, etc. An * shows those that were new to the list last year in 2009.
The List
Slash (with Anthony Bozza) - Slash*
Scott, Michael - The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel*
Keneally, Thomas - Schindler's List*
Segal, Lore - Other People's Houses*
Stroud, Jonathan – The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book Three: Ptolemy's Gate (2)
Barry, Dave and Ridley Pearson – Peter and the Secret of Rundoon (2)
McEwan, Ian - Atonement (2)
Blake, James – Breaking Back (2)
Barrie, J.M. – Peter Pan (2)
Haggard, H. Rider – King Solomon's Mines (2)
Clarke, Susanna - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (3)
Larsen, Eric - Devil in the White City (3)
Willig, Lauren - The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (3)
Sparks, Nicholas - The Notebook (3)
Berendt, John - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (3)
Austen, Jane - Sense and Sensibility (4)
Goldman, William - The Princess Bride (4)
Rice, Anne - Interview with the Vampire (4)
Golden, Arthur - Memoirs of a Geisha (4)
Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island (4)
Maguire, Gregory - Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (4)
Virgil - The Aeneid (4)
Dumas, Alexandre - The Count of Monte Cristo (4)
Japrisot, Sebastien - A Very Long Engagement (4)
Homer - The Iliad (4)
Homer - The Odyssey (4)
Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales (4)
O'Neill, Jamie - At Swim Two Boys (4)
Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray (4)
Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women (4)
There are thirty-one titles on this list. My main goal is to get rid of the fifteen with (4)s by them, because those have been staring me in the face for a ridiculous amount of time, and there's really no excuse for my not reading them, seeing as I own every single one of them. Once those are gone, I'll work on the (3)s. Or, at least that's my goal as of today. Things could change, though, because I often want to read some things and not others based on my mood. I have four books currently borrowed from the library, and only one of them is on this list. I won't even consider reading anything else off this list - or anything else at all - until those four are finished, obviously.
We'll see how it goes! 50 books in 2010 is my main goal - the actual titles aren't nearly as important. :)
2009 was a very good reading year for me! I read a great number of books, something I hadn't managed to do in several years, and found some great new series to invest my interest and time in. All in all, I don't have very many reading regrets from what I read this year, and hope to accomplish the same next year.
Here's the year-end wrap up of what I read in 2009.
1) Rowling, J.K. - The Tales of Beedle the Bard (finished 01/04/09, 111 pages)
2) Lewis, C.S. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy* (reread) (finished 01/07/09, 241 pages)
3) Lewis, C.S. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew* (reread) (finished 01/08/09, 221 pages)
4) Lewis, C.S. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle* (reread) (finished 01/14/09, 228 pages)
5) Carroll, Lewis - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* (finished 01/23/09, 207 pages)
6) Stoker, Bram - Dracula* (finished 01/25/09, 450 pages)
7) Thurber, James - The Wonderful O (finished 01/29/09, 72 pages)
8) DuPrau, Jeanne - The People of Sparks* (finished 02/02/09, 338 pages)
9) Baum, L. Frank - The Wizard of Oz (finished 02/04/09, 213 pages)
10) Schlitz, Laura Amy - Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (finished 02/10/09, 81 pages)
11) Estes, Eleanor - The Hundred Dresses (finished 02/11/09, 80 pages)
12) Spinelli, Jerry - Stargirl (finished 02/13/09, 186 pages)
13) Burnett, Frances Hodgson - The Secret Garden* (finished 02/24/09, 358 pages)
14) Stewart, Trenton Lee - The Mysterious Benedict Society (finished 02/26/09, 485 pages)
15) DuPrau, Jeanne - The Prophet of Yonwood (finished 03/01/09, 289 pages)
16) Winthrop, Elizabeth - The Castle in the Attic (finished 03/09/09, 179 pages)
17) Winthrop, Elizabeth - The Battle for the Castle (finished 03/10/09, 211 pages)
18) Stewart, Trenton Lee - The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (finished 03/13/09, 440 pages)
19) Riordan, Rick - Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Demigod Files* (finished 03/16/09, 151 pages)
20) DiCamillo, Kate - The Tiger Rising (finished 03/17/09, 116 pages)
21) Hahn, Mary Downing - Look For Me By Moonlight (finished 03/18/09, 198 pages)
22) Niffenegger, Audrey - The Time Traveler's Wife* (finished 03/22/09, 536 pages)
23) Benderson, Bruce - The Romanian: Story Of An Obsession* (finished 03/23/09, 401 pages)
24) Lengyel, Olga - Five Chimneys* (finished 03/24/09, 229 pages)
25) Riordan, Rick - The 39 Clues, Book One: The Maze of Bones* (finished 03/27/09, 220 pages)
26) Gaiman, Neil - American Gods* (finished 04/03/09, 588 pages)
27) Friesner, Esther - Nobody's Prize (finished 04/04/09, 306 pages)
28) Clare, Cassandra - The Mortal Instruments, Book Three: City of Glass* (finished 04/09/09, 541 pages)
29) LeZotte, Ann Clare - T4: A Novel (finished 04/11/09, 108 pages)
30) Black, Holly - Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale* (finished 04/14/09, 323 pages)
31) DiTerlizzi, Tony and Holly Black - Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book One: The Nixie's Song (finished 04/15/09, 162 pages)
32) DiTerlizzi, Tony and Holly Black - Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book Two: A Giant Problem (finished 04/16/09, 154 pages)
33) Pierce, Tamora - Trickster's Queen* (finished 04/18/09, 444 pages)
34) Friedman, D. Dina - Escaping into the Night (finished 04/19/09, 199 pages)
35) Carroll, Lewis - Through the Looking Glass, and what Alice found there* (finished 04/22/09,182 pages)
36) Dahlberg, Maurine F. - Play to the Angel (finished 04/24/09, 186 pages)
37) Lagnado, Lucette Matalon and Sheila Cohn Dekel - Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz* (finished 04/24/09, 268 pages)
38) DuPrau, Jeanne - The Diamond of Darkhold (finished 04/26/09, 285 pages)
39) Drucker, Malka and Michael Halperin - Jacob's Rescue: A Holocaust Story (finished 04/26/09, 117 pages)
40) Gehrts, Barbara - Don't Say A Word (finished 05/02/09, 169 pages)
41) Bernard, Jean - Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau (finished 05/03/09, 177 pages)
42) Schlitz, Laura Amy - A Drowned Maiden's Hair (finished 05/09/09, 389 pages)
43) Kerr, Judith - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (finished 05/10/09, 191 pages)
44) Bray, Libba - A Great and Terrible Beauty* (finished 05/20/09, 403 pages)
45) Korman, Gordan - The 39 Clues, Book Two: One False Note (finished 05/25/09, 174 pages)
46) Lerangis, Peter - The 39 Clues, Book Three: The Sword Thief (finished 05/27/09, 156 pages)
47) Hahn, Mary Downing - Deep and Dark and Dangerous (finished 09/03/09, 187 pages)
48) Watson, Jude - The 39 Clues, Book Four: Beyond the Grave (finished 09/07/09, 190 pages)
49) Riordan, Rick - Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book Five: The Last Olympian* (finished 09/11/09, 381 pages)
50) Going, K.L. - The Garden of Eve (finished 09/15/09, 232 pages)
51) Gaiman, Neil - Neverwhere* (finished 09/23/09, 370 pages)
52) DiTerlizzi, Tony and Holly Black - Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book Three: The Wyrm King (finished 09/25/09, 202 pages)
53) Pearson, Ridley - Kingdom Keepers II: Disney At Dawn (finished 10/11/09, 377 pages)
54) Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Hobbit* (finished 10/14/09, 305 pages)
55) Friesner, Esther - Sphinx's Princess (finished 11/02/09, 370 pages)
56) Bray, Libba; Clare, Cassandra; Gray, Claudia; Johnson, Maureen and Sarah Mlynowski - Vacations from Hell (finished 11/05/09, 288 pages)
57) Carman, Patrick - The 39 Clues, Book Five: The Black Circle (finished 11/11/09, 168 pages)
58) Thurber, James - The 13 Clocks (finished 11/13/09, 124 pages)
* - denotes a book on my "To-Read" list from 2009
I don't think I'm going to create a To-Read list for 2010. What I think I'm going to do instead is copy over the books from the 2009 list that I didn't read, and work on crossing them off. Once I've actually read the books on that list (and the lists from several years' prior), I shall create a new one. That way I can get the satisfaction of reading things I've been meaning to read for ages, and also not feel guilty when I read titles that weren't on the list to begin with. :-P
Post number fifty-five is for James Thurber's The 13 Clocks. This is the second book I've read by this author (the first was The Wonderful O), and it, like the previous book, is rather nonsensical in a way. In fact, I don't really have that much to say about it, but shall use a spoiler space just in case.
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This story is about a wicked Duke, who's kidnapped a princess, Saralinda, and keeps her locked up in his castle (Coffin Castle, heh). The Duke is always cold, and Saralinda is always warm. Suitors from everywhere flock to try to win her hand, but the Duke wants to marry her for himself, so always gives them impossible tasks. They either don't return, or do and get killed by the Duke. Enter Prince Zorn, who's disguised himself as a wandering Minstrel, but is in fact from a very wealthy kingdom. He wants to win Saralinda's hand, so the Duke sends him to find 1000 jewels in thirty days and thirty hours. (There aren't any jewels on this island, however, which is what makes it impossible.) On top of the jewels, Zorn must get all 13 clocks in the castle working again. (The Duke feels like he's "killed time" as the clocks have stopped working.)
This book has many funny turns of phrase, and sometimes rhymes. There are also a wide variety of odd characters, some of which say peculiar things that are oftentimes funny. In the end, the Duke gets his comeuppance and Zorn and Saralinda get their happily-ever-after. Yay. <3
Anyway, if you're looking for a fun, easy-to-read book that's interesting in its own right, give this one a try.
Post number fifty-four is for the fifth 39 Clues book, The Black Circle. This book picks up pretty much directly after the previous one. Dan and Amy are given a clue and a deadline - 36 hours - so leave Nellie behind in Egypt and set out for Russia.
Mild spoilers beyond this point!
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All the known Lucians (meaning Irina and the Kabras) don't want Dan and Amy anywhere near Russia, and pretty much make it difficult for them. However, they're receiving help from someone (someone who turns out to also be a Lucian, but seems to be on Dan and Amy's side), including a Visa Gold card with a $30,000+ spending limit and a list of clues. Dan and Amy end up teaming up with the Holts to search all the different locations in Russia. The Holts take the two Siberian outposts and Dan and Amy take Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and Moscow. Through an exchange of information, and travels to various different places, and at least one attempt on their lives, Dan and Amy do find the clue, and also some more information about the dreaded Madrigals, who the mysterious man in black may be a member of. The book ends with the siblings awaiting Nellie's arrival.
I seriously love this series and am waiting impatiently for the next installment. I can't wait to see where the hunt for the clues will lead them next, and am glad Nellie (and Saladin) will once again be with them. Dan and Amy on their own are kind of scary!
Post number fifty-three is for a compilation of short stories entitled Vacations from Hell. It features stories by Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Claudia Gray, Maureen Johnson and Sarah Mlynowski. I have only read books by two of these authors myself, and both of them were the stories I enjoyed the most.
Brief, not-really spoilers follow.
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The first story in the book was by Sarah Mlynowski and featured a twist at the end that I didn't see coming, so that's always satisfying.
The second story, by Claudia Gray, was perhaps the most light-hearted of them all, and was overall okay. Not fabulous but not really bad, either. Just ... okay.
The third story was by Maureen Johnson and was just creepy. I didn't care for the ending at all, but it did fit in with the plot, so I guess I can't complain.
The fourth story was my favorite, and it was by Cassandra Clare. I liked this one because the ending was satisfying, the plot was interesting, and the heroine had to figure things out (with help from others) and carry out what was necessary to be done. Two thumbs up!
The final story was by Libba Bray, and it was borderline creepy, too, and also had a twist that I didn't see coming. It was pretty dark, though, especially as it neared the end, so just be forewarned.
Of all the stories, Maureen Johnson's was the darkest. They were all well-written, for the most part, and enjoyable in their own right. I'm glad I read the book, but also glad I borrowed it from the local library, as it's not something I'd ever really be inclined to read again.
Post number fifty-two is for Esther Friesner's Sphinx's Princess, which is a fictional account of the life of Nefertiti. This books is semi-based on fact, but mostly made up, as hardly anything (aside from the names of Nefertiti's father, stepmother and sister) is known about her life before she became Akhenaten's Great Royal Wife. Likewise, there's nothing known about her death, either, so her life is basically one great big mystery, aside from the time she spent as Pharaoh's wife. Nonetheless, Friesner managed to make Nefertiti into an interesting person, full of joy, humor and intelligence. I enjoyed this book a lot.
Spoilers follow.
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This book picks up with Nefertiti as a small child. She's been raised by a nurse, Mery (who later becomes her stepmother), and her father, Ay. Ay is the brother of Pharaoh Amenhotep's Great Royal Wife Tiye, and after a long period of time, Tiye requests that Ay, Mery, Nefertiti and Mutnodjmet (Nefertiti's sister) come visit her, and she forces Ay to send Nefertiti to Thebes, where she'll marry Thutmose, Tiye's eldest son, and the next Pharaoh. Nefertiti's father doesn't want to do this, but Tiye threatens him until he relents. Nefertiti goes into the courtship with the idea that she might fall in love with Thutmose, but this is not to be. Nefertiti is only allowed to bring her slave girl, whom she calls Berett, which means "harp" in Egyptian. (Berett is a harp player who has since gone mute after the death of her sister, who was punished for blasphemy because she pulled Nefertiti out of the river when she fell, even though the priests declared that Nefertiti's death was the Gods' will. My recap makes this sound confusing, but it really isn't. Sorry about that.)
Thutmose is really rather evil, although we don't find this out until nearly the end of the book. He has an older sister, Sitamun, and a younger brother Amenophis, both of whom become friends with Nefertiti. This turns out to be a good thing, because, after Pharaoh falls ill and he and Tiye head to Dendera, Thutmose becomes acting regent, and condemns Nefertiti to death for supposedly killing his cat. He plays her, though, making her think he's on her side, when in reality he's jealous because she likes Amenophis more than she likes him. (The truth is that if Thutmose had been more like the way he was when he was pretending to court Nefertiti, she most likely *would* have liked him more than Amenophis.) Anyway, Sitamun and Henenu (a friend of Nefertiti's father, and a scribe to the Pharaoh Amenhotep) work out a way to get Nefertiti away from Thebes, and her, Berett (who's real name is Nava), and Amenophis set out in a small reed boat on the way to Dendara to clear Nefertiti of all charges.
I am interested to see how Friesner ends Nefertiti's story. In reality, Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaten, which is the Egyptian name for Amenophis. Also, the physical descriptions of Amenophis match those of Akhenaten, so it seems pretty clear that she's going to end up married to him. I don't know what's going to become of Thutmose (in reality Thutmose was a sculptor, and is the creator of the famous bust of Nefertiti), or if Tiye (who in the story blames Nefertiti for a great many things, due to the fact that she's been given three years to marry Thutmose) will see that the charges against Nefertiti are false, or if she'll side with her eldest son. Also, Amenhotep's poor health is a concern; hopefully Nefertiti will reach him at Dendera before anything bad happens to him. I imagine that much of the next book will be about Nefertiti's, Nava's and Amenophis' journey to Dendera, although I could obviously be wrong. Nonetheless I eagerly await the installment. :)
Post number 51 is for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. It's a book that's been on my to-read list for the past three years, so it's nice to finally scratch that one off. I wish I'd read this one prior to The Lord of the Rings books, because it was easier to get through, and perhaps would have prepared me for Tolkien's wordiness. Of course, it also could be that this book was simpler because I'd read the LotR books, although I doubt it, as this one was originally written for kids.
Quick spoilers follow.
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This book tells the story of Frodo's uncle, Bilbo, who's coerced into an adventure via Gandalf, who's informed a company of dwarfs that he's a burglar. He ends up going across Middle-earth with them, during which time he's involved in a great many adventures. He's nearly eaten by a group of trolls, captured by goblins (then, as the dwarfs and Gandalf are escaping, he's hit on the head and gets left behind, during which time he gets involved in the riddle exchange with Gollum and steals the One Ring), escapes a murderous group of spiders in Mirkwood, burgles the Elf-King's halls while rescuing the captured dwarfs, escapes down the river on a barrel, before finally getting where they were headed, where he meets Smaug the dragon and fights in the battle of the five armies. The story ends with his return to Hobbiton, where the town was in the process of auctioning off his belongings as he was "presumed dead". He ended up having to repurchase many of his own items with the gold and silver he got in exchange for his burglaring, although he never did recover all of his silver spoons. :))
I liked this book, as it was very full of adventure, and was rather non-stop. Bilbo was a wonderful narrator whose inner thoughts were oftentimes amusing. I liked the glimpse of Middle-earth prior to the happenings in The Lord of the Rings, and liked the glimpses of some of the characters that we meet later in the trilogy. It also got me even more interested in Tolkien's world, so much so that I just ordered another book off Amazon called The Unfinished Tales, some of which I've already read, like the "Disaster at Gladden Fields" (i.e. the recounting of the death of Isildur) and the history of the palantiri. My next Tolkien book to read will most likely be The Silmarillion, although that will have to wait for a while, as I have some library books and some more books off my to-read list to get through first. (One thing I love about The Unfinished Tales is that there's a glossary in the back with all the names/places/terms/etc. from Middle-earth, which is much more handy than getting online and searching Wikipedia, as much as I love Wikipedia. (It's one of my favorite sites, in fact.))
Anyway, if you've never read anything by Tolkien, this is the best book to start with. And if you had trouble with the Lord of the Rings books, don't let those deter you from reading The Hobbit. It's really a rather delightful story that I will no doubt reread several more times in the future.
(In my LotR kick, I also just purchased this Faramir figure (not at the listed price - I did it via the used function, although the one I'm receiving is actually still in its package), which I'm rather excited about. There are a few others that I'd like to eventually own as well. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but at least I'll have them when I figure it out. :-P)
Post number fifty is for Ridley Pearson's Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn, the second book in his Kingdom Keepers series. I'd read the first book a couple years ago and was really hoping we'd see a sequel, as there were plenty of loose ends to tie up. This book sort of did that, although it also opened up a ton more, which will no doubt be answered in the third installment which comes out next year. I don't know if the third book will be the final one, though, or if there's going to be more of them, but a trilogy seems to be the way most authors do things nowadays, so if there were just the three I wouldn't be shocked.
Spoilers follow, so please don't read unless you've read the first and second books in the series.
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First off, you need to read the first book of this series first, or nothing will make sense. The first book takes place primarily in Disney's Magic Kingdom, whereas this book focuses on The Animal Kingdom, and did such a good job describing everything (danger aside) that I now want to make sure I get a chance to visit it when I go to Florida next July. :)
The story picks up with the main characters reinsertment into the Magic Kingdom. Their DHIs, or Holographic Versions, have been put back online after the drama of the first book, and everyone has joined together to celebrate. However, Chernabog, the villian from Disney's Fantasia, has gone missing from his float, starting the DHIs on their next wild adventure. The journey takes them to the top of Cinderella's castle, where they find Maleficent imprisoned in Walt Disney's old apartment. She uses her magic to break free, sending them all on a chase to find her, and find answers. Meanwhile, Amanda's sister Jez has disappeared, so they not only have to track down Maleficent, but find Jez as well. Jez is rather special in that she can see the future, and using her diary entries, and the other DHIs special talents, they set out to find her.
It all ends with a big showdown between Maleficent (who's succeeded in awakening the real Chernabog) and Finn, which results in the two villians getting away and Wayne's, the Disney Imagineer behind the creation of the DHIs, disappearence. Maleficent tells Finn that she wants the Stonecutter's Quill in exchange for Wayne (the Stonecutter's Quill is Walt Disney's quill), but a search of Wayne's apartment turns of nothing: the quill is missing, meaning Wayne hid it somewhere.
This book answered a few of the questions from the first one, like the importance of Amanda and Jez, and gave some insight into Maleficent's plans, but with the disappearance of Wayne and the quill, and the introduction of Chernabog (Disney's most powerful Villian), leaves many more unanswered. I really enjoyed this book: it was fraught with peril and danger, and excitement. It was a really fast read (I semi-started it last night, and finished just a bit ago) and I loved the look into another part of the Disney complex. The history of Disney and its Parks are interesting and fun for any Disney fan. The history makes it interesting, but the adventure makes it fun. Give it a read, if you're a fan of Disney at all. I'm sure you'll find something to love.
Post number forty-nine is for Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book Three: The Wyrm King.
Brief spoilers follow.
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This book picks up almost directly after the second book in the series. The Vargas family is heading to see a counselor, as Nick's dad and Laurie's mom are having issues. They end up deciding to separate for a while, so the boys head to a trailer in their old subdivision and the girls are at a hotel. However, on the way to the trailer they encounter a large sinkhole that has creatures crawling in it. Nick and Jules realize that this is the start of the "something worse" that the Grace twins mentioned at the end of the last book.
Those creatures are miniature dragons, which form together to form a hydra, or the Wyrm King. With the help of the Grace siblings and Noseum Jack's son, they set out to fight the hydra. There are lots of minor crises along the way, including a broken leg and a near-drowning, but in the end they manage to do what they need to.
This book was an easy read, but I don't think it was as suspenseful as it could have been. Maybe that's just because I already knew they'd have a "happy" ending or something else, but I wasn't really surprised by anything, and also wasn't really on the edge of my seat, so to speak. It was still enjoyable, and I imagine it would be even more so for the age group it was intended for, but I thought the first two books in the series were better. Oh, well.
Post number forty-eight is for Neil
Gaiman's Neverwhere, which has been on my to-read
list for the past four years at least. I enjoyed the book quite a bit
and have put the BBC production of the TV show (which was created first)
into my Blockbuster queue to watch. You know, eventually.
Brief spoilers follow.
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Neverwhere
is about a sort of dual world, London Above (i.e. the actual city of
London) and London Below, which is where the people who have "fallen
through the cracks" have gone. It's a sort of medieval world, with
baronies and fiefdoms. Richard is from London Above. He has a stable
life: a good job, a fiancée, etc. One day he stumbles upon Door, a
girl from London Below, who he finds lying bleeding on a sidewalk while
he's headed out to dinner with his fiancée. Against Jessica's wishes,
he takes Door to his apartment to care for her, and that's when his
adventure starts.
Door is being hunted by two
assassins, Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. She's special because her family
has a Talent: they can open things. She can basically open doors that
aren't there and send herself wherever she wants to go. Richard gets
pulled into the adventure against his will because, by helping Door,
he becomes one of the people who falls through the cracks.
The adventure includes a race
against the two assassins and includes a cast of colorful characters,
including rat-speakers, Hunter the bodyguard, and the marquis de Carabas.
Richard's only hope is that he can eventually return to London Above
and his real life. The angel, Islington, tells Richard that it can return
him to his previous life if he'll help Door get a key from the Black
Friars. There's a twist involved with this that the marquis finds out
about via Croup and Vandemar. Actually, there are a whole ton of twists
in this story that kept it quite entertaining and suspenseful and a
lot of fun to read. It took me longer than it should have to finish
the book because I've been balancing work and homework along with my
reading time, but is something that, if you could devote a few consecutive
hours to, you'd be able to finish quite quickly.
I've heard grand things about
Neil Gaiman and have now read four of his books, although one was a
collaboration. I like his writing and his worlds, and definitely liked
this book better than American Gods, which I felt
dragged in some places and was rather dense. This book is kind of graphic
in regards to Croup and Vandemar and some of the other characters, so
that's something you should keep in mind if you do read it. But it's
definitely a fun book. I look forward to seeing how the TV adaptation
of the plot plays out.
I have one more Gaiman book in my possession that I may finish prior to the end of this year, but have to admit that I'm not sure I agree with the idea that he's the best thing ever. He's good, but there have definitely been books that, imo, are better. (Although I will say that I loved Stardust.) *shrug* To each their own!
