Recent books

I'll probably be ready to post a couple new reviews very soon, but I thought I'd let you know what I've been reading these days.

On July 11th, the day I met Julie Andrews in person (see full story here ^_~), I read and finished a couple books while waiting in the bookstore. One was the children's book that Julie had written with her daughter Emma, The Very Fairy Princess. (We actually have Julie Andrew's autograph on the front page!) Of course, being a children's book it was very easy to read in one sitting. The pictures were pretty cute, and it's definitely a nice book to read to one's own little princess. Who knows? Might become one of those classics or something...

The other one I read was another Runaways novel, though this one was much, much thinner. Apparently the huge one was a compilation of 3 volumes, and I think this one was Volume 4, True Believers. The story that continues was as good as before, with some new friends and new villains to fight. The ending was, once again, very cliffhanger-ly and totally unexpected. It's really cool, having a book series that can surprise you like that.

The next time I went to Borders, I read Runaways Volume 5, Escape to New York, only I wasn't quite able to finish that one. I wanted to, but there was just no time. I think I got a third of the way in, perhaps half. For some reason, the art style had noticeably changed, but I don't think it made the story any less enjoyable. Some really strange twists in it, though, especially concerning Karolina, the girl from another planet. 0,o

A book my sister took out from the library recently that I've tried to finish, but I guess I've lost interest in it, is called The Back of the Napkin. It's a very informational book about solving problems easier by putting them into simple picture form. Basically there are 4 simple principles to follow: Look, See, Imagine, and Show. In drawing your pictures, you ask yourself 6 questions: Who/what, How many/ much, Where, When, How, and Why. Very easy stuff to understand. I just got half-way through and didn't bother with finishing the rest.

Currently, I'm juggling 2 books at a time that are holding my interest very well, a novel and a biography. I started reading Standard Hero Behavior I believe weeks ago in a different, less familiar library branch. It's a very charming, funny, kind of medieval story, along the lines of Once/ Twice Upon a Marigold, or How to Train your Dragon. I only finished the first chapter before we had to leave that time, but now I've taken it out from our regular library and am currently enjoying it.

As recent as a couple days ago, Annette and I were on YouTube and we watched a Muppet tribute to Jim Henson's death. It was very sweet, and I even cried. I had no idea that he had died in 1990. Reminiscing about my favorite Muppet films, I've begun to realize exactly how much HARD work must have been put into making these fantastic creatures come to life. I reserved 3 or 4 books about Jim Henson from the library, but my sister happened to find this book on the shelf. It's very big, but there's lots of pictures, and a lot of info about his accomplishments and his friends and his life that I never knew about before.

Look forward to reviews for these two fantastic books. Believe it or not, I'm a couple of chapters away from finishing the both of them. ^_^

Recent books I've finished

I've been reading a lot of books in the last few days and I don't want to go through the trouble of giving each their own separate review, so here's all of them in one go.

Home, by Julie Andrews ~ I find it pretty interesting how I'm starting to get as attracted to reading biographies as I am to fiction. It's extremely educational, because you get to find out who the person behind all the fame is, what their family life was like and their whole outlook on life. Although this book doesn't cover her entire life, just from when she was born to when Walt Disney asked her to play Mary Poppins, it was written very well (apparently her daughter helped her write it ^_^) and I liked it very much.

The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book, by Bill Watterson ~ An adorable collection of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. I've seen these characters in the funny pages from time to time, but reading a whole book of them, I've got a much better idea of them. It's about a 6-year-old boy with the craziest imagination (Calvin), whose beloved stuffed tiger (Hobbes) is his imaginary best friend, like a big brother to him. They tease each other, cheat in their little games, and Hobbes likes to pounce on Calvin when he comes home from school, but it's plain to see that they are the best of friends. I like the strips when Calvin is the central character, though. The line drawn between his imagination and reality is very thin indeed. He can be the heroic Spaceman Spiff, and he sees his parents, teachers and his neighbor Susie (a girl across the street who probably likes him) as terrifying aliens holding him captive that he must escape from. What a world this kid lives in.

Your Erroneous Zones, by Wayne Dyer ~ I recently finished reading this with my sister, Annette. It took us a long time to read, since we read a chapter out loud to each other a day, and we didn't exactly read it every day. But I'm proud to have finished it, so I'm listing it here. While this is a very educational book, I wouldn't recommend it for light reading. It talks about identifying the negative behaviors you may have put on yourself over the course of your life and getting rid of them.

I also wanted to say that I'm close to finishing these 2 books: Here Comes Everybody, a book about how the World Wide Web and its myriad tools have changed the way people interact with each other, and the Visual Quickstart Guide Annette and I are studying to learn about Illustrator CS4. The latter book has been extremely helpful to my sister and I.

I have no idea what books I'm going to follow up with after these. I wonder if anyone actually reads these reviews. It appears that for the entire year of 2010 I've only gotten 1 comment a month. Am I just crying out to an empty area of cyberspace? Hmm, maybe what I've been reading lately isn't that interesting to other people... Well, this blog is meant for me to keep track of the books I read over the years, so I don't care whether I get commented on or not. It may give my ego a little boost if someone decides to let me know that I pointed out a good read to them, but I don't need it.

I never thought I'd say this, but perhaps there's more to life than just reading book after book...