Chuck Berry: the Autobiography, by Chuck Berry (plus more)

The main read that I wanted to talk about today is one that I finished just yesterday. It's another autobiography about a famous musician I am a fan of, and this guy definitely made history. Chuck Berry (who is still alive and kicking at age 83, by the way! 0,o) is legendary for a dance move called the "duck walk" and for writing songs such as "Maybellene," "Roll Over, Beethoven," "Johnny B. Goode," "Monkey Business," "My Ding-A-Ling" and many many others.

Before reading this, I didn't know a lot about Chuck. All I knew were his great songs. But I learned a lot from this book that he wrote himself in the 80's. For example, not only is he a great song-writer, he's an awesome writer period. He's very poetic, making extremely good use of metaphors and rhyme. I also learned that Mr. Berry has gone to jail a few times. But he's not a bad guy at all, and his description of his experiences in jail weren't all that horrible. He is also very attracted to women, but he's only been married once in his life.

This was a very fascinating book. I highly recommend it to you die-hard fans of the old rock-and-roll heroes.

By the way, sorry that it has once again been so long since my last book review. I've read a lot of books since the last one, though most of them have been graphic novels that I read in one sitting in the library or bookstore: Cirque Du Freak volume 4 and Children of the Sea volumes 1 and 2. I also read a book called Here comes Everybody, a non-fiction book about how people are able connect much easier with todays technology. They can get organized and make friends without physically going anywhere. Anyway, it was a pretty good read, but I just kept putting off reviewing it.

I also finished reading an excellent writing book quite recently, called Spilling Ink, by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter. It was published just this year and was extremely helpful (unlike a most writing books I've read before). It got the writing wheels in my head turning again, at least. In my opinion, this is definitely something I would read over and over again, because it has great advice, and anyway, the writing is really awesome.

A couple of short non-fiction books.

Taking a tiny break from fiction novels, I picked up a couple of thin non-fiction books that were quite interesting to read. One of these was a book all about the subject of irony, "The Big Book of Irony". (The book all by itself is ironic, because it's not even that big! ^_~) I love irony. I really liked all the ironic quotes and stories mentioned in this book. Just like a sense of humor, I believe a sense of irony is a wonderful thing to have. Of course, a lot of the ironic examples mentioned in the book are pretty morbid, for example: Say a guy is in the mood for a Coke, so he hops on a bike to go to a nearby gas station or something. Suddenly a truck runs over the guy and kills him. What was the truck delivering? Coke! Ooh, the irony. =P A less gruesome example is if a thief with no teeth in his mouth is caught and arrested for stealing toothbrushes. You probably get the idea by now. So basically, this was a good book that explored irony and it's history, definitions and many uses. (Doesn't the irony of the cover just take the cake or what?)

The other book I read that I finished more recently was of a very different tone altogether. It's kind of the memoirs of a prolific author that I've never heard about, but who used to be a teacher and got a lot of his ideas from his experiences and the letters students wrote him when he visited schools. It's called "Invitations to the World". When I randomly picked it out from the library, I thought the subtitle "Teaching and Writing for the Young" meant it would teach me a little about writing. It didn't exactly do that, but it was still a good book anyway. It included excerpts from the guy, Richard Peck's, numerous books, and a couple poems that I believe he wrote. One of these poems in particular stood out for me, the last thing he writes in the book:

---

A story is a doorway that opens on a wider place.

A story is a mirror to reflect the reader's face.

A story is a question you hadn't thought to ponder.

A story is a pathway inviting you to wander.

A story is a window, a story is a key,

a story is a lighthouse, beaming out to sea.

A story's a beginning, a story is an end.

And in the story's middle, you might just make a friend. ^_^

---

I don't know how much I would enjoy Richard Peck's novels, since he doesn't exactly write sci-fi or fantasy fiction, but his name could be something for me to remember.

February Books

Well, it's the end of another month. No surprise there. But it is a surprise how many books I managed to read this February, because even though it's a couple days shorter than January, I read 13 books in total. Just 1 less than last month. Of course, you wouldn't know that by looking in my archives. I wrote about the last three Bone books in one post. And I'm not even finished with the last book, The Crown of Horns. So should I even count it in my books read this month? No, I don't think I should. So that takes one off the count. So I'm sorry, but I read 12 books in all this month. Here's all of them:

The Giver I didn't like so much, since it was so short. Plus I'm not a fan of reading books over again. I like reading them once and then that's usually it. The Hunger Games was one of my favorites this month. The Bone series is as funny and exciting as ever. Masterpiece was so-so, I think, a bit childish for my taste. I really liked The Last Invisible Boy. It's a great story about a character I wish I knew. New Moon was absolutely amazing. It makes me wish to finish the saga even more. Erec Rex #2 was good, although when I emailed Kaza to tell her I'd read it, she never wrote back. Oh well. I'm sure you're busy, Kaza. You guys should definitely read Join Me. It's hilarious. And it's a great idea. Fly By Night was alright, though I wouldn't say it was a big favorite of mine. At least, it doesn't compare to the other books I've read so far. The last and most recent book I finished, just today in fact, is Writing Magic, by Gail Carson Levine. If you don't know her, she wrote Ella Enchanted. That's all I've read of her, and even then only because I liked the movie with Anne Hathaway. But her writing book is really good. It's full of fun exercises to try out. I've promised myself that I'd try out every one of them. So far I've written the beginnings of a couple story ideas. I wouldn't show them to anyone now, but I think they've got some potential.

So, that's it for my monthly review. Just so you're up to speed, I've written about 26 books in this entire blog so far. Amazing, and it's only been 2 months! I'll bet you, my regular readers, are surprised because I said in my regular blog that I wouldn't write a blog post for at least a week. Well, I kind of figure my book blog doesn't really count. So there.

I notice that people haven't really been commenting on my book reviews lately. Are you guys bored by my posts? Or is anyone really reading this? Am I just typing for no one's benefit? What kind of book club am I running here?

January Books

Sorry. I wanted to write this yesterday, but you know, the Superbowl. I stayed up too late.

Anyway, what a month of reading for me, huh? 9 official books I've reviewed here, but I believe I should have counted a few other books on my list. On my trips to Borders I've continued to read the Bone graphic novels by Jeff Smith, and now I'm up to #6. They're really fun. Also I read a piece of non-fiction cover to cover, If you Want to Write, which, obviously, gives you advice on how to write good stuff. The picture below isn't the same cover as the one I read, but it sure looks better. (Thanks for recommending it, Jacoby!) It's a good book even for people who don't want to write, because it addresses on any creative outlet. If you're an artist, a musician, a chef, or anything else, you can read this book and gain from it. Good, so anyway, *say it like Leslie* I suppose that, technically, this means I've read 14 books this month. Whew!

The Books of Ember series was awesome. I'll never forget it. The movie of The City of Ember was really good, very accurate in the plot details. I hope there's a sequel soon. I look forward to continuing the Twilight Saga. I'm so glad that I saw the movie, because it was so amazingly close to the book. I didn't like the book Coraline so much, as you already know, but the movie will come out in theaters very soon, and I think I will enjoy it a lot better (it's in 3D!) Erec Rex I liked, and The Titan's Curse, so I'll probably read more of them this month. I absolutely loved The Host. It would be too complex to make into a movie, but it would be really cool if someone did. I hope someday to add The Willoughbys to my future personal library. Fone Bone is so cute, and he and his cousins have really awesome adventures. I think the writing book was pretty helpful. I'll get to put it's advice to good use this month. I have 13 Writing Days to look forward to in February! (Check my regular blog.)

Ah, it's so nice to see all the covers of the books I've read all lined up like that. I'm not sure what the first book I'm going to read this month is, since I've got nothing now, but I hope it'll be good. If you guys want to comment, tell me which book review of mine you liked the most.