10 Random Bookish Thoughts!

Thought this would be a cute, fun little post. I'm staring at my bookshelf, and I'm going to come up with TEN RANDOM THINGS about any book I see. Wanna do this on your site? It's easy, fun, and just a little zany.

Random Thought #1: Breaking Dawn is a very obese book.

Random Thought #2: I love how Shiver is written in blue ink and Linger is written in green ink. I think each book should be written in some fun colored ink.

Random Thought #3: I have a gargantuan crush on Dodge Anders from Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars series

Random Thought #4: There are a lot of series books and not a lot of stand-alones. What's wrong with a stand-alone? Series books are like cliques. My bookshelf has a lot of cliques. We need some more solitary loners like Skellig or...erm...

Random Thought #5: No matter where I am or what the occasion is, whenever I hear the word "sparkle" I automatically think Twilight!

Random Thought #6: "Wayland" is a really cool last name, and "Jace" is a super sexy-sounding first name.

Random Thought #6 1/2: But there is NO...and I mean NO name super-sexier sounding than Percy!

Random Thought #7: I wish I lived in a magical theatre like Bertie Shakespeare Smith from the Theatre Iluminata series

Random Thought #8: I wish I was a mermaid. Seriously. I really wish I was a mermaid and I could meet a merman and live happily ever after in an underwater kingdom and train dolphins to do really neat tricks. That would be THE LIFE.

Random Thought #9: I drove past an old refinery last week and totally spazzed out thinking of the CREATURES from The Replacement! Ahhhhh!

Random Thought #10: If I ever get another cat, I'm going to name him Chairman Meow just like Magnus Bane's cat from the MI series. :)

the MOCKINGJAY post

Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) - Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA dystopian/sci fi
# of pages: 390 (hb)
Publisher: Scholastic
Recommended for: ALL AGES
Thoughts Did I enjoy this book? Well, that's hard to say. I was highly anticipating Mockingjay's arrival, for it would settle all the conflicts of Panem, Katniss and ensemble once and for all. And while I did get closure, I didn't really get resolution. There is a difference! And I honestly can't say that I enjoyed myself while reading this. It wasn't a particularly "fun" read, but it was emotionally jarring.
I’ve had a few days to reflect, and with Mockingjay, my feelings have to do with what I was expecting vs. what I got instead. Since this is the last book, I was prepared for Katniss to settle the love triangle thing once and for all. I was expecting her (and Gale and Peeta) to spend some time on the love story issue, and to bring about the fall of Snow and all that. What disappointed me the most about Mockingjay is that I feel like I never got the resolution that I was looking for. I would argue that by the end of Mockingjay there IS no resolution. Katniss never had to make a decision – it was pretty much made for her.

And even with my “reflection time” I still believe that Collins committed (at least) partial hari-kari with her characters. Katniss’ lack of emotional depth, her distrusting and cynical side, were very understandable in The Hunger Games. Partway through Catching Fire, I was starting to tire of her attitude, but I kept thinking, “Okay, she’ll undergo a character change in Mockingjay. She has to.” And she didn’t – in fact, she got worse. To me, Katniss’ treatment of the people around her in this book is for the most part unacceptable. She is disloyal, especially to Peeta and extremely insensitive of everything that happens to him. I’m not going to go into it, but she showed some series personality flaws that, this late in the game, can’t be excused or explained away. If your MC is not likable, it's hard to hold on to the story. And once again, you had important, emotional, and heart-wrenching deaths happening OFF SCREEN, which makes it even harder to have an emotional reaction. I kept a tally of how many major characters get offed in this installment, and most it was OFF SCREEN! This whole BOOK is emotionally dehydrated. Readers are supposed to feel something, but none of the characters seem to!
And then…there’s the last chapter. After 300+ pages of Katniss refusing to deal with her issues, it seemed like an ending that was undeserved. It would have made the ending and the epilogue so much more fulfilling if it had felt genuine, but it didn’t. I’m still not convinced that Katniss is capable of love… but still, I do appreciate Collins giving us closure.

And of course, there’s non-stop action, which has always been the strength of this series. But when books 1 and 2 emphasize action over character development, emotional exploration, or romantic angles, it leaves a lot of necessary ground left to cover for book 3. And once again, there was lot of action…but not a lot of anything else. And that just doesn’t cut it at this stage.
With all this in mind, The Hunger Games is still one of my favorite series of all-time, and Suzanne Collins is still one of my favorite authors, someone I highly admire and look up to. It’s a shame that Mockingjay didn’t deliver on ALL levels, but I love books 1 and 2, and the ending here. I guess that's good enough. Now I will say that my age has a lot to do with how I felt about this book: I’m 21 and you know, I look for character exploration and emotional depth, while my teenage friends sometimes don’t. I do have the word of my 13-year-old cousin backing me up that Katniss’ attitude was hard to stomach, so I don’t feel quite so alienated on that ground. Regardless of my disappointed feelings with this book, I still say that The Hunger Games series – all 3 books – are among the best Young Adult literature on the market today, and that everybody needs to give this series a try!

Final Rating:Still a pretty good grade, but unfortunately it didn't earn an 'A' from me.

Important Announcement!

(Happiness = dancing around like a penguin!)

Hey everybody, quick announcement!
We have a brand spanking new blogger on the scene. My awesome awesome Aussie buddy Jessica has just started a book review-writing blog, The World Inside. Go check it out and show her some love!
!VAMANOS!

reading habits & memories

I love to read when it's dark. It's hard for me to concentrate when I read on a sunny afternoon or in the morning.

Unless of course it's raining - whether just a few trickles or a full-on storm. The cloudier and more overcast, the better.

When I was a child, I could read anytime, anywhere: in the car, in the morning, in the afternoon, with the TV/stereo on, at a baseball game, in the food court at the mall. Actually, I can still read at the food court and in the car...but maybe kids are just better at concentrating? When they want to, that is!

I used to read about 200 pages a day...now sadly my average is around 75. The same sadly goes for writing - I could average about 40 pages a day when I was in 8th grade, now I can barely do 10. I can't really skim read anymore - all those literature classes in high school taught me how to "read for comprehension" and all that, which means that now I read really slowwwwly.

I used to read during school. Got in trouble a few times, too, but that never seemed to deter me. One time, in 4th grade, it was our 'reading' period and we were all supposed to be reading our assigned book, (Something Really Boring) by Beverly Cleary. I was reading my book. So the teacher came up behind me and said in a stiff, stern voice, "Amelia, I hope that's Beverly Cleary you're reading." I said, "No ma'am." She said, "What are you reading, that you think is more important than (Something Really Boring) by Beverly Cleary?" And I turned the book to the front cover and said, "Victor Hugo's Les Miserables." Did I mention that I was a snarky little brat, too? But I still believe that Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is better than Something Really Boring by Beverly Cleary.

For a few months, I got into the really cool habit of literally reading by candlelight. I'd put like 2 or 3 on each shelf and then one big one by my nightstand...until my dog knocked it over with his big bushy tail, and I started a wee small fire in my room. Now I read by lava-lamp. :)

For some reason, I get the munchies when I read for extended periods of time. Goldfish, Walker's shortbread, and double-stuffed Oreos make for great snacks, I've found. But the need to munch is so great, it overrides taste. I have resorted to eating a Dill pickle dipped in Duncan Hines chocolate frosting before. It still had a nice crunch.
Like Dr. Frasier Crane, I have a sound machine. I love my sound machine - currently it's set to "Amazon Rain" because, I like the sound of rain. Too much quiet weirds me out, so I like to have my sound machine on while I read.

Marathon reading sessions are epic. Sometimes, I'm able to just blot out everything else going on in the world - homework, assigned reading, phone calls, having to get up early for school/work - and enter a place where it's just me and the book. I think the fastest book I ever read was The Last Olympian and then Deathly Hallows. Last night I had a marathon session with Nevermore - 300 pages in just a few hours. For me, that's pretty good :)
Well those are some of my reading habits and memories. What are yours?

In My Mailbox [17]

This is for this week & last -

Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) - Suzanne Collins, REVIEW PENDING
Nevermore - Kelly Creagh, CURRENTLY READING!

What did you get this week?

Book Blogger Hop!

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer @ Crazy for Books.Stop by and get hopping!

This week's question:
Do you judge a book by its cover?
Yes, actually, I do. Now I've read my share of "beautiful on the inside books" (I just finished one, as a matter of fact) but having pretty cover designs is what draws my attention to books, a lot of times. It's what makes me notice them in the first place.

In fact, take a look at my last post - I listed a few lucky debut authors whose books got the royal cover treatment!

Be sure to leave your link, too, so I can return the hop!

Bookie Beauty Pageant! Loving books from the Outside In!

Several times before, I've mentioned how much emphasis I tend to place on...er... pretty cover designs. We all know the phrase - "don't judge a book by it's cover!" and for the most part, that's true. But it's also true that cute cover designs catch our eye... sometimes that can be what grabs our attention in the first place.
Debut authors seem to get either a hit or miss when it comes to cover art, in my opinion. Some debut authors get stuck with covers that say "it's what's on the inside that counts!" And then there are other covers that seem to shout, "Look at me, I'm GORGEOUS!"
So all of these books have 1 thing in common: they are all beautiful (at least, in my opinion) book covers by debut authors. Some books are from 2005, 2008, and so on, but they were each author's debut.

The Lightning Thief (2005)Everlasting (2010)Paranormalcy (2010)City of Bones (2005) I still think it looks like Anakin Skywalker on the cover! Hur-dur-dur-dur! The Iron King (2010)Beautiful Creatures (2009)Twilight (2005)Oh My Gods (Original Hardback edition, 2008)
The Replacement (2010)Matched (2010)Eyes Like Stars (2009)The Hourglass DoorThe Warrior Heir (2006)
The Mockingbirds (2010)Graceling (2008)
Once again, all these covers are from books by debut authors. They all lucked out! Which covers impressed you the most?