I was reading Catching Fire but I left it in my locker at school 2-3 weeks ago before break ![]()
That’s a bummer! At least your school has lockers!
I’ve started a book about the relationship between Queen Victoria and her husband/cousin Prince Albert. Her upbringing and ancestry is very interesting!
There’s a lot of ‘How To Write A Novel’ books on the market for aspiring authors and fanfic writers (such as myself and, presumably, you). But I’ve discovered a book that teaches the exact opposite, as you can tell from the self-explanatory title.
Some of my favourite ‘no-nos’ (a few of which I’ve seen in fanfics on this forum and elsewhere):
The Waiting Room - In which the story is too long delayed
Mr Sandman, On Second Thought, Bring Me a Gun - Wherein characters dream
The Underpants Gnomes - In which crucial steps are omitted
What Color Am I? - Where the character must be in front of a mirror to know what she looks like
The Clone Entourage - Wherein friend characters proliferate into an indistinguishable mass
Inside the Mind of a Criminal - Wherein the villain’s evil-doings are motivated by the desire to do evil
I Mean This!! It’s Important!!! - Wherein the author punctuates hysterically
The Commercial Break - In which the author borrows (I’ve seen this countless of times, where a fanfic writer would have two characters listen to a song which describes their current predicament perfectly)
The tone is quite condescending and there’s some strong language, but the authors raise very valid points that every writer should take note of.
Plus, who could resist a cover of an adorable kitten being held at gunpoint? (Yes, there’s a section on that: Love Me, Love My Cat - Wherein there is a cat) ![]()
It’s also available in Italiano, Español and Português.
For Christmas, I got a book about Jim Henson called, Imagination Illustrated: The Jim Henson Journal. It has lines from the journal that he kept, and talks about many of the projects that he worked on. It’s really interesting, and artistically inspiring. Also, I’ve been listening to an audiobook version of The Hobbit.
Wow, That Jim Henson book sounds like a lot of fun!
Reading Chuck Hogan’s Prince Of Thieves. It was made into a film by Ben Affleck called The Town, which I remember watching in cinemas with a university society group in 2010. Man, that was one h*ll of a movie. The book’s even better, it really goes into detail about how the protagonist and his tightly-knit crew pull their heists, and how the relentless “antagonist” FBI agent pursues them.
If you wanna learn how to rob a bank, this book offers excellent tips: shave yourself to avoid DNA evidence from hair; microwave surveillance tapes; bleach all surfaces, again, to get rid of DNA traces; remove the dye packet from the money bag; and, most important of all, never fall in love with your hostage! ![]()
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I think I need to give this one a re-read. Didn’t get to thoroughly read it the first time.
I also like this book from when I was in middle school, “Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time” by Lisa Yee. Another book I got some laughs from but don’t know if I should recommend is “Storky” by Debra Garfinkle. I don’t know; it was a random discovery. It’s silly but not brilliant. I guess it might be considered immature since it’s more of a guy’s book. Plus I haven’t read it for a while and who knows if I will again or not.
I’ve also got my Pixar books “The Wisdom of Pixar” by Robert Velarde and “To Infinity and Beyond: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios” by Leslie Iwerks.
Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books ever. I recently re-read it. I also have Wisdom of Pixar but I still haven’t read it.
I’m currently re-reading “Ask a Mexican” by Gustavo Arellano. Ask a Mexican is a newspaper column, and this is a collection of the columns. The point of it is for people to send their questions about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, and it’s answered by Arellano. The column is humorous and educational.
You’ll love “The Wisdom of Pixar”. It’s literally like a Pixar Bible with analysis in how Scripture verses relate to different scenes in the first ten Pixar films. You don’t even have to read it in order, plus it’s got a nice index at the end of the movies and shorts. I think my favorite sections are the ones for Toy Story films, Ratatouille, and WALL*E.
“Ask a Mexican” sounds interesting. I bet Arellano has a lot to respond to. And humor and education together is always a plus!
I got a new Calvin and Hobbes book for Christmas. I love C&H, it’s writing is just genis. I kind of wish it went a bit longer but it still had a good run. I think me and my brothers were just like Calvin when we were 6, though most boys are.
I’ll have to read it then! I’ve had it since it first came out, and still haven’t read it. I’m not super religious, but it’s still interesting to me.
Arellano was on the Colbert Report years ago! He definitely gets a lot of weird questions!
I actually thought it was just going to be an average fan-book when I first got it. It’s not like I studied or remember any verses, I just liked some of the comparisons made to the movies. But if I remember correctly, it’s not actually super-serious but actually more insightful and kind of fun. It’s been a while since I’ve read it though.
Gonna start reading the final Hunger Games novel.
^Oh, yay! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it.
Reading To Kill a Mocking Bird for my English assignment. Then I have to answer three pages of questions and write an essay on it. ![]()
My favorite book. That’s one assignment I wouldn’t mind having! ![]()
I’m reading Of Human Bondage.
I remember reading that book for my high school English class. I adore the movie too.
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I’m currently reading Oryx and Crake for my Anthropology class and Gilgamesh for my Mythology class.
Some of you probably know this, but Gilgamesh is the oldest story in the world to be written down. 1,000 years older than the Bible, I’ve heard.
Gilgamesh… I’ll have to read up about that!
We read that in my English class last year. The film adaptation is actually really good.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird for a school assignment myself. It was a good book, but the lessons were making me read a ton of chapters per lesson and it got overwhelming to the point I didn’t get much out of it. I think I’m going to have to reread it…
In other news, I grabbed hold of an epic Star Wars fiction complimation: the first three books of Paul and Hollace Davids’ Jedi Prince series! I know it’s not well-reviewed or well-known, but I don’t care! I think it’s an awesome series X3
