It's Almost Midnight and I'm Still Awake Reading For This Stupid Readathon.

It's almost at the point where I'm like, "Why did I do this?" I'm tired, my stomach hurts from eating crackers and cheese to boost my energy (although the pepper jack was worth it, mmmmmmm.), my contacts are burning in my eyes, and I feel like I'm typing complete gibberish. But it's all in the spirit of general bookishness, right? So it's gotta be worth it!
Currently I just finished The Wastelands by Stephen King and I'm going to begin reading Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn by Ridley Pearson. My little brother FINALLY turned off Call of Duty and is going to bed soon, I guess... bummer, I'm kind of enjoying the company. My dog has noxious gas and she's sleeping peacefully five feet away from me, making sure I smell every last puff of it. Quite the reading environment in my household tonight.
Man, I get sarcastic when I'm tired. I should write like this more often. I could be the next Rowling or Meyer.
KIDDING.
ANYWAY, I wanted to participate in this Ban This Book! minichallenge. You have to explain why you could ban a certain book that may not necessarily be banned. Let's start with the book I just finished: The Wastelands by Stephen King.
Hoo boy. What a lot I could say. Let's start with demon possession, excessive swearing, VIOLENCE, cyborg robots that are actually really scary, a killer train... I don't know, there's a lot that you could ban this book for. But aren't all Stephen King books that way? and besides, life in general is ban-able (is that a word?). Any book that is good enough to not have ANY cause whatsoever for banning is probably going to be kind of dull or COMPLETELY out of touch with reality. I mean, you could ban a book about kids making cookies because it promotes using a stove or something.
Off to start my next book! Upstairs, in bed, alone, because my brother just left. Dang.
By the way, this picture is from The Wastelands. I LOVE IT. I'm going to scan it and hang it up on my wall.

Readathon: Hour 8, Almost

Officially, this is almost hour eight of the readathon as I type this. But for me, it's only about hours 5 because I slept through the first three hours. Sorry guys! I'm still in the middle of my glorious Stephen King book, The Wastelands (see last post for a pic). I'm going to try to post pictures of me reading later or tomorrow, but I'm too lazy at the moment to spend all that energy uploading.
So far so good!
One of the mini-challenges was "Love to Hate". You have to list 5 characters that you love to hate in your favorite books. I've heard some interesting ones, from President Coin (Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins) to Cathy and Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte) so now I'm trying to compile my own list. It's hard!

1. Bella from Twilight by Stephenie Meyer: she's kind of pathetic, and even though I love the books she cracks me up sometimes.
2. Squealer from Animal Farm by George Orwell. We just read this book in class and I can't believe how devious that little pig is!
3. Stark from Airhead by Meg Cabot. Head of an evil corporation... he's EVVVIIIILLLLL.
4. Mr. Harvey from The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Can you say pedophilic creep? *shudder*
5. Bob Ewell from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. God, he drives me INSANE. He's such trash, and yet he thinks he's all high and mighty compared to Tom Robinson. Makes me sick.

So there's my list. I'm sure there are many I forgot to consider, but I love to hate these guys. I tried to keep out major, obvious villains like Voldemort and stuff. I went more for pathetic characters. I love making fun of them.
Gotta keep reading!

Dewey's Read-A-Thon, October 2010

Okay, I am so flippin' EXCITED to be participating this year. Last year I wanted to and couldn't find the time... and even this year, I have a festival to go to with my best friends today, but I'm still going to read up to the point I leave and then come back and read till 5 AM like my time zone says. =)
It's going to be FUN! Right now I'm reading The Wastelands by Stephen King, book #3 in the Dark Tower series. It's dense, but really good so far. It did a nice job of unconfusing me from the last book, because I was having problems when I read that. Stephen King never ceases to amaze me... a giant cyborg bear? Completely commonplace in one of his books.
Hopefully later today I'll be able to post pictures. Or tomorrow. Or something. I don't know how often I'll post today, I'm really busy and reading gets addicting. You know how it is. Or maybe you don't, I don't know.
ANYWAY, I'm going to start to try posting on here again. Because I haven't been on here in like, a YEAR. Maybe I'll just do a weekly recap of what I'm reading because I'm too busy to do a post per book. Seriously, this sophomore year from Hell-sinki is going to flatten me. Which is why I need days like this to recover on my downtime and READ. Yay!

A Life-Touching Story That Can Be Read in Less Than Three Hours?

Some would call this impossible. All you have to do is read Notes From The Dog by Gary Paulsen; it's 130 pages long and great for all ages, kids and adults.
I love how this book, for being so short, packs such a punch in the life-lessons department. And they're not introduced all cheesy and blunt, like in some books. The author really takes the time to introduce all these ideas about living life like there's no tomorrow in a fun way that would get the attention of just about anyone: be you a workaholic adult, a kid struggling in middle-school, or just one of those people who reads for fun *ahem, crazies!*
We start off with two friends in middle school, Finn and Matthew. They live with Finn's dad because Matthew's parents divorced and while they get situated in their new apartments Matthew didn't want to spend his short summer break adjusting. While Matthew seems to have the easy life in school, sports, and just being a kid, Finn has more trouble having fun. He's really shy and doesn't know how to talk to people, so he lives in books instead. One of his only friends besides Matthew is his dog, Dylan, named for Bob Dylan.
Then the new neighbor comes along, also named for a Bob Dylan song: Johanna (the song is Visions of Johanna). Johanna is a breast cancer survivor who is enjoying living life, and also a graduate student going to school nearby. Matthew and Finn immediately fall in love with Johanna and how she seems to enjoy everything, even plans that backfire.
The three have all sorts of adventures, from first dates to gardening to a summer job as a construction worker to notes from a dog. And that's where the title comes from; Finn's dog starts showing up with little life lessons printed on paper in his mouth. Finn knows they're not really from his dog, but they help him get through the day and discover how to be a better person and be comfortable in his own skin.
Of course, Johanna still has cancer. And when her health takes a turn for the worse, Finn and Matthew may have to complete some of the crazy plans Johanna had wanted to get around to without her.
I feel like this is one of those books where the author starts writing this book and chooses a title then the book takes on a completely different theme and the title makes no sense. But then again, maybe not, because the title hints at how little notes and good things can make a difference in someone's life, and that is how the book starts out: affecting people in a good way and changing lives, one step at a time. ♠♠♠♠

Whoa. Baby. Takes Ghosts to a Whole New Level.

Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife, has completely blown me away AGAIN with her newest book, Her Fearful Symmetry. I've heard mixed reviews about this book, but I found it really, REALLY good. It puts a whole new spin on ghost stories... in fact, the ghost in this book is not the scary part, it's the twins that are truly frightening.
You see, the story is all about twins. First there are Edie and Elspeth, in London. Elspeth was in love with an American, Jack, but when Edie steals Jack away and heads back to America, it seems the twins will never speak again. And as always, they grow old. Edie has twins in America with Jack; mirror twins, meaning one is normal, but the other is the exact inverted opposite of her (her heart's on the right, she parts her hair on the other side, etc). Their names are Julia and Valentina. Julia is the fearless bossy one, and Valentina (a.k.a. The Mouse) is the timid one, supposedly scared of everything and very fragile with her numerous health problems. But Valentina is getting sick of her twin, and wants to be her own person. She's through with feeling like half a being, especially since she's the half that never has a say in anything.
Meanwhile Elspeth gets cancer and dies, with only her neighbor/boyfriend, Robert, for company. She leaves her personal papers to Robert and tells him to read them, saying they contain a few bombshell secrets so they should never be shared. She also leaves her flat to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina, under the conditions that they never let their parents enter the flat and they live in it a year before they sell it.
Now Julia and Valentina are living in the flat; Julia is having a ball exploring the whole new environment, especially the cemetery next door and her upstairs neighrbor, an agorophobic man named Martin who desperately misses his wife but can't leave his apartment to find her. Valentina is trying to rediscover who she is.
Then the twins (and Robert, who lives downstairs) start seeing Elspeth's ghost. At first it's just little things like shadows and pages in books being turned, but then Elspeth starts communicating with them by writing in dust and Ouija boards.
But here's when things get twisted and creepy: Valentina decides she wants to escape from her own twin so badly, she'll do anything... even fake her own death. When she enlists the ghost's help, things get SO VERY SCREWY that I was about to scream. Seriously. You'll never guess what they do.
This whole book has a sepulchral (love that word!) for a few reasons: the ghost (duh), the cemetery next door (which kind of plays a role throughout the whole book which I thought was really cool), and because of all the melancholy people in this book. Sure, there are many happy points in this book, but like all good novels, there is a definite taste of sadness in it. I think, although the plot is really sad, it starts off charmingly in a way and overall it was a good book to start off the year on. ♠♠♠♠♠