Smoking pipes and furry feet

As a big fan of the Lord of the Rings movies I was very excited to read the hobbit. I had attempted in the past to try and read the Lord of the Rings trilogy but I couldn't get into it. There was a lot of walking and talking...and it didn't move fast enough for me. This book had a bit of that but the characters and great environmental descriptions kept me reading. I love fantasy novels, they are the books that I have loved all my life. Starting with simple fairy tales about princesses to stories of epic quests and massive battles.
The hobbit incorporated some of my favorite elements of fantasy stories. Such as the wise old wizard or sorcerer , Gandalf in The Hobbit, these dynamic characters are always my favorite. They posses such a feeling of mystery and power, and all of the other characters put a strong amount of trust in the wizard. He has a great knowledge that everyone assumes he posseses much more information than themselves on matters and tend to go along with what he says. They are often the character who sends the main character on his journey or adventure. Gandalf sets Bilbo on his adventure with the dwarves, he also later on in Lord of the Rings sends Frodo on his quest to destory the ring. In other books such as Harry Potter, the wise old wizard, Dumbledore, is encouraging Harry in his adventures and before his death leaves Harry his finally quest to destory the horcruxes. Characters such as Harry, Frodo, and Bilbo set off on these adventures that are much larger than themselves but due to the large amount of trust they have in the wizard they overcome all obstacles to complete the quest.
I also loved all of the different fantasy creatures that were incorporated into The Hobbit. Dwarves, wizards, goblins, hobbits, elves, and the list goes on. Tolkein created a completley different world than our own and completley immersed the reader in it. Which is one of my favorite aspects of fantasy and reading. It gives you a world to escape to when you need a break from your own. A good book in my mind can do that, help you escape from everything that is going on and run away into the book. And The Hobbit does that, you run away with Bilbo Baggins on his amazing adventure with the dwarves.

Fantasy Response

Mythical creatures
Talking animals
Adventure/quest
Hero/warrior
Fantasy world, forest
Gatekeeper
Treasure
Battle, conflict
Destiny, purpose
Magical elements
Traditions
Hero learns from adventure
Emphasis on the elements (ice crystals)
Humor, satire
Details about environment, setting the scene

-Deanna and Robert

Now I can't stop thinking about sheep...

When I first looked at "A Wild Sheep Chase" I was a bit skeptical. For one it was theoretically in the horror category, and I am not a big fan of scary books. But once I got to reading it I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't scary, and it somehow managed to hold my attention. The book more had the tone of a mystery, adventure book. I kept wondering when they would actually get to the point of the story. I had always wondered in the past why authors don't ever say when the character takes a shower or eats or goes to the bathroom, I guess we assume they do that but why not put it in? After reading this book I found out why no one puts it in, NO ONE CARES! Honestly I feel so much of this story is wasted and dragged on by silly things the author doesn't really need to be explaining. Such as the character drinking a beer then eating peanuts, then ordering another beer, getting the beer and more peanuts, drinking the beer and eating all the peanuts, and repeating this silly cycle. It happens a lot in the book and I found it really just slowed things down and dragged them out more than necessary. At first the book was kinda confusing, it jumped around a bit much. It would go from real life, to flashbacks, to letters, to who knows where, chapter after chapter. But after awhile it settled down and I had a pretty clear idea of what was going on. There were a lot of interesting characters in the book and I thought they were all pretty well developed. The main character was a little odd and despite being in his head I never really understood him. The chauffeur was probably my favorite character he threw in a bit of comic relief and a different twist on the book. Once I got to the end of the book when things started pick up I was just so anxious for something big to happen but there never really was to big of a ta da. I guess it was more of a mental weird twist. I think I would have to reread the book again to fully grasp some of the concepts that are going on. It is definitely an interesting read and something that I wouldn't have normally picked out for myself but I am glad I read it and it will be a book that I will read again in the future.

Mmmm Vampires

So I'm sad to admit I'm one of those crazy kids that has gotten into the vampire fad. Watching "True Blood", reading the Twilight series, I got sucked in. So when I found out we were going to read "Interview with a Vampire" I was very excited. I had tried to read it about 5 years ago but I couldn't get into it, Anne Rice has a different way of writing than I'm used to reading. But this time around I was determined to finish it. I stumbled across the same issue as the first time reading it, Anne Rices writing style. She writes things in a style that's very different than what I usually prefer. It is solely based on conversation, and there is lots of back and forth creating almost a rhythm. But once I got past that, I found it to have a great story and well developed characters. Claudia was one of those most interesting characters of the book, I was always curious to see how she would change while not changing at all. I think that is the most intriguing thing about vampires, even though you don't see any physical changes taking place on their bodies, mentally and emotionally they are always changing. They attain so much knowledge of the world and of people, which helps some of the oldest vampires to have great wisdom. But back to Claudia, in her unique situation not only is she attaining more knowledge but she is also maturing. Its almost impossible to wrap your head around the idea of forever being trapped in the body of a 5 year old. The concept of child vampires or young vampires seems to occur in other vampire stories as well. Such as in Twilight in the last book of the series the main character gives birth to a half vampire, half human child. But I digress, The other character I really enjoyed was Armand. The old, wise characters are usually one of my favorites in any type of book or movies, such as Gandalf, Dumbledore...etc. So I was immediately drawn to Armand since he is one of the oldest vampires, the oldest one we meet in the book. I wish I could have seen his relationship with Louis develop more and I feel it could have turned out very different if it wasn't for the destruction of Claudia and Madeline. I am also glad that this book stayed with just vampires, many books or series that start out about vampires start branching into other mythical creatures, such as werewolves or shape shifters. It was nice to see a book that stuck to just vampires, I'm curious to see if they can maintain that in the other books in the series. After reading this book I definitely want to start reading the other books in the series. And hearing that her writing only gets better I'm feeling very optimistic about them. I am very curious to see how the characters continue to develop.

Pride and Predjudice and Zombies

I must say this book is definitely in my last of favorite books. While I was reading it I couldn't stop talking about it to my friends and family, informing anyone who would listen that they should read it. Before I read it I had seen the Hollywood version of Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightly and had quite enjoyed it, so I had pretty high expectations of the book. The concept of adding zombies into such a classic seemed a bit odd to me and I was skeptical,but after reading a few chapters all my worries went away. The two fit together hand in hand as if it were originally intended to be written this way. The two authors blended almost seamlessly together taking an old world and transforming it into something new. Only a few times did I find myself thinking or noticing something that seemed out of place.
As for the characters themselves I found myself in love with the main character Elizabeth and was cheering for her and Mr.Darcy all throughout the book. A few of Elizabeth's sisters really peeved me but I suppose that was their purpose. The major problem I had with them was the long drawn out search for Lydia. The whole situation was a bit silly with the cover up marriage and all of the issues with Wickham. But lets just say im glad he got what was coming to him. A few of the characters I think were altered in ways that made them less appealing to me such as Mr.Bennet, he used to come off more as an intelligent man with little patience for his wife, but in this novel he was just a silly man obsessed with his daughters training and had little patience for his wife. Yet I did like the change in Lady Catherine, making her into a world renown zombie killer with a big ego was a marvellous addition to her character as a whole, and I think the fight made her confrontation with Lizzy in the end much more enjoyable.
As far as zombies and fighting goes, in not so into the first. I suppose im alright with them and the whole concept I just never really understood what the big deal was with them. I think it definitely added an interesting dynamic to the book though. I loved the idea of all the girls being fighters. Especially because usually it is the men that do the fighting. It also made the book a bit more guy friendly. I love when romance and normal day things from our world are tied in to things from others worlds, things from fantasy and monsters.
Overall I really enjoyed the book, and will probably reread it in the future...once I make all my friends read it first.

Response to Zombie Question

I never have really understood what made zombies so popular. Im not really in the bandwagon on that one. They seem to just represent the people that wander around mindless and souless in their human bodies. Also they are there supporting the threat of a terribly disease that could possibly overtake our world at some point. It almost seems like it could actually happen at some point. A terrible disease that causes bodies to reanimate or to destroy you, causing you to become one of them. They are also a creature that one doesn't feel to strongly toward and can be used in humorous slaughter. Such as in Pride and Prejudice or in many other zombie movies or books such as Shaun of the Dead, my favorite zombie movie.