June and July books

Sorry that I missed my chance to write about my June books, but I seem to have read so little this month that I figured I should put them together. Even so, it doesn't seem to add up to much. So much for summer reading. :P

Okay, here's where I say something about what I remember from each book I read, the impression it still leaves on me weeks after I read them. The titles are also linked to their respective reviews, so you can check them out at your leisure.

Persepolis 2... an okay read. It's a graphic novel with interesting subject matter. Wouldn't really recommend it to everyone, but it's good. I have the same opinion for Sloth. Cool graphic novel, but not necessarily recommended for my friends. I've read Holes before, but it was great rereading it just the same. I think the movie was just slightly better than the book. I remember that Jonathan's Journey to Mount Miapu was a little difficult for me to get into, because it's supposed to be a kind of fantasy/ spiritual "adventure" for young kids, like 10 years old or something. (The titular character is 10 years old.) Still I liked it pretty much. When I was finished I was surprised to find that the author comes from Florida. Flight #5 and Flight #6 were both really awesome. Well, what else can one expect from this cool comic collection? Somehow I think this is the end of the series, because in #6 the "Saga of Rex", that story with no words about the fox on an alien planet that kept saying "to be continued..." finally ended. Oh well. Wings was a really cool story. I mean, really cool. Almost Twilight cool. Honestly. Speaking of which, The Twilight Companion was a really good handbook for lovers of the Saga. Lot of info on vampires and werewolves in other books and films too. And finally, Thin Threads was also a really fun read. It kept me good and occupied in the beginning of my twin's and my trip to Boston. It's a collection of really good inspirational stories.

Sorry. I didn't actually post reviews for these books, but I felt like I should say something about them. Rich Dad, Poor Dad: For Teens, by Robert Kiyosaki, was a non-fiction book about financial stuff. I meant to write a review for it, but I forgot to. I've read it before, so I wasn't learning much new stuff, but this book was very special in it's own little way. This was the book I wrote about when I commented in James Dashner's blog to enter his little contest to win a Maze Runner ARC. (Scroll down a little to see my entry.) I don't know if I won because of this book, but Kiyosaki's book still made history for me! I'm just glad I didn't enter with the book I read afterwards, Friendship According to Humphrey. This was a book my brother was reading. Hey, I was bored!

These books I've read in passing while visiting at a bookstore. The last time I visited Barnes and Noble (last Wednesday to be exact), I was 12 chapters away from finishing The Hunt for Dark Infinity. I wish I could have finished it right there, but we had to leave. Don't worry, I'll give a proper review for it once I'm officially done with it. When I couldn't find any good books when searching in Borders, I'd pick up Fabelhaven #2 to pass the time. I forget which chapter I got to... 5 or something like that. It's an okay series, but it's not really high priority for me. Like, the books aren't something I want to read ASAP.

Of course, in this next month I'm going to be in for an ultra-awesome treat... MAZE RUNNER!!! I cannot wait to get my ARC in the mail! It should arrive any day now! *squeal!* I'll be sure to post here the very moment it does.

Alright, as a last order of business, I'd like to give props to Dave, another book-blogger that is trying to get some more followers, particularly Dashner fans. Here's his site. He most recently wrote about how much he liked Maze Runner (which makes me even more excited for my Advanced Reader's Copy to come in. ^,^). He promised to post about more books tomorrow, so I recommend you swing by the site when you have the time. There might be contests sometime soon!

May Books

It appears that this month I read even less than usual. But then again, that's not a bad thing. At least I enjoyed all the books I read, as opposed to reading a few sub-par books I did not enjoy.

I don't think I'll ever forget how much I liked Jane Eyre. It sure opened me up to the possibility that not all classics are dully written. For sure, Persepolis was a fascinating story, because I learned a little bit about how it was like to live in Iran as a kid in the '80s. At least, it was interesting in graphic novel form. On reflection, I suppose Stephen Colbert's book, I am America, was in fact pretty funny. Perhaps that's because sometime after, we took out a DVD of "the best of the Colbert Report" from the library, and seeing the best of what Stephen had to offer convinced me that he's a funny guy. You all know, of course, which book makes it to my number 1 spot this month. PENDRAGON #10! What a work of fiction! D. J. MacHale is the male equivalent of J. K. Rowling, I swear! Don't believe me? Check out the link that leads to my review. Or better yet, just read the darn thing. Unless you've only started the series (^,~), in which case, please read all the books in the correct order and get to number 10 quickly. This book will not make you sorry you did. Moving on. I very much enjoyed Fablehaven and promise to get into the rest of the series very soon, as well as the Imaginarium Geographica Chronicles. I'm glad I found a couple new series that are worth following.

I don't know what I'll read in the month to come, but I'm willing to bet that I'll probably read as much as I did this month, if at all. Still, that's okay. I've acquired a lot of fantastic stories this year that now all dwell in my head. I believe over 55. I don't know. I think I'm losing count. But 11 books a month on average isn't bad, is it?

J. N., if you don't review any books this month, I promise I'll have your membership to my book blog revoked. I know you've probably got lots of other stuff on your mind, but if you're not going to share what novels you've been reading this year, then what's the point of being a member?

April Books

It looks like this month I didn't really focus on reading that much. Mostly I finished the Twilight Saga, read Flight graphic novels, and read just a few other books not that worth mentioning.

As you might've read from my reviews, I loved Twilight books 3 and 4 very, very much. I'm a little sad that I'm done with the series, but I'm glad that I still have the movies to look forward to. Flight is a really good graphic novel series. Those who love comics, manga and their ilk would enjoy these books, I think. A Supremely Bad Idea, as you may have read, wasn't that good a read for someone like me. I am almost finished with the Pendragon: Before the War trilogy, just a few more chapters of Patrick Mac's story to go. Recently I read the 1st 13th Reality book for the second time. My brother, Adam, read it for his first time. It's still a wonderful book, and I can not wait to get the 2nd book, The Hunt for Dark Infinity, in my hands. The Fire Eternal was a little weird. I'd looked forward to it for ages, but it wasn't that good. I remember liking the book before it, Firestar, very much, so I don't know where Chris D'Lacey went wrong. Worse, it ended with the hint of a need for a sequel. Too many unresolved questions. I forget when I finished the 2nd 39 Clues book, and I forgot to write a review about it, but I did read it this month, so... I no longer think the series is of interest to me. Plus in the website, I have to wait a couple months to find any more clues, because the next mission is locked until July, I think. So that sucks.

As another point of interest, I read the 500th issue of MAD magazine this month. It was very good. Here's the link to the review I wrote on it.

Jacoby, what's wrong? Why haven't you been reviewing any more books lately? I think I'm up about 44 to 1 or something. Maybe when school's out you'll have a lot more leisure time for summer reading, eh?

March Books

This month has been okay. I hadn't been able to read quite as much as I'd wanted at the beginning of the month, because I had to concentrate on studying for my SAT test. All the same, I probably read a lot faster and more rabidly than the average reader, so my book count is still impressive. I've officially read 7 books this month. If the last book in my row confuses you, that one is called Kenny and the Dragon. I never wrote a review about it because it was too simple and childish for my taste; it was a book meant for Adam to read. At the time, I had nothing else to read, so... Well, Adam said he liked it a lot. And I read the book, so it counts. Oh, and I guess I never wrote about me finishing Bone #9, so that makes 8.

-->This is the very first month in which J.N. published a review for a book he read. Way to go, Jacoby!

I'm pleased to say that I loved all the books I chose to read this month. Well, barring Kenny. The Pendragon: Before the War series is awesome. All the Travelers' back stories are so much fun. I think the 39 Clue series is also quite good. Scat I loved because it was the perfect distraction from my big test, and it was great. In reading Battle of the Labyrinth, I'm semi glad that I finished the last of the available series. I know there's the last book on the horizon, but I think I'm content pretending that it ends there, because I don't really want to read more Percy. Gilbert Grape was alright. Besides Scat, this was a very interesting read that was close to actual life. I won't give an opinion on Kenny. It's not for mature, seasoned readers. It belongs more in the group of books designed to get kids to at least like reading books, and not hate them. The finale for Bone was almost anticlimactic in the very end, but I loved the whole series and do not regret reading it.

I'm not sure what to say about J.N.'s book, So Yesterday, because I'm not sure it's my type of read, but I congratulate Jacoby, once again, on contributing a little to this blog.

Why are these books posted here, you ask? Well, these are books I've started, but didn't really finish in March. Inkdeath and Otherland

were books I was interested in around the time of the SATs, but they were so huge and difficult to really get into that I gave up on them. I don't think I even like the Inkheart series anymore. It shouldn't have been a trilogy. Should have stopped with the first book. The other four books I read on one visit to Borders. A few chapters of each. Except for Eclipse. I actually finished this 3rd Twilight book yesterday, so I'll write a review on it later today, but since it doesn't count as a March book...

So here's where the numbers stand: Bettina, with a score of 32 books read in the 2009; and Jacoby, with only 1 book to report having read. I can't speak for all the books you read this year but didn't mention. I know you're all busy, but you might want to up the ante, so we're at least more even this month. Just a suggestion.

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?