22. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code

I sort of have this thing for Children's Lit. I don't really know why or how to explain it, but if there is a good children's series or even a mediocre children's series or even some teen romancy series that is about as realistic as me not wanting DQ about 100 times a month and I just have to read it. Maybe because said books are MORE about escapism?

Anyways.

I think I like Artemis Fowl because of all the fairies and the centaurs and the magic. Maybe I just have to believe that there maybe could be magic somewhere. Or maybe I like the little witty moments like calling humans MudMen and the LEP. Or maybe I just like that they depict good vs evil as having shades of grey.

We were talking in bookclub about writing and overuse of adjectives and the word said and etc and I have to admit that those aren't things I usually notice unless they are glaringly obvious or the story is so slow ... but usually when I read I get caught up in the momentum of the plot and the characters and I don't pay attention to the incidentals. Which is interesting of me.

21. Angels & Demons - Dan Brown

People told me that if I loved The DaVinci Code I would find Angels & Demons less than enthralling ... I guess that is just one more reason why I don't always listen to what other people tell me. I mean, yeah, both books followed a similar plot path and neither had any heart stopping character development. But what I loved about both books were the puzzles and the historical tid-bits provided. I am savvy enough to know that there were some inaccuracies and I'm not going to take all the information between the pages at face value - but I wouldn't do that with a history book anyways. What I enjoyed was how the history was presented and how I started thinking about the Church and about Rome and about art history in particular.

Angel's & Demons holds a special place in my heart simply by being set in Rome because I have a not very secret love affair with that city. I loved travelling through the streets and seeing the sights when I was there. I loved the heat (although not so much the feeling that I was melting at first), and the crowds of people and nearly getting killed by mopeds. And I have long had a fascination with Roman history - with the mythology and the architecture and the sheer scope and size of it all.

I was annoyed with one small inaccuracy though - when we tried to visit the Pantheon we discovered the hard way that it closed at 5pm daily. So the fact that there were people trooping in and out of there at 10pm was frustrating. Because I really wanted to go inside.

Laundry List

So, umm, I have kind of ignored this site. Which sucks. And I didn't mean to but work was crazy and then life was crazy and then I was cranky ... And the whole time I was reading (at least a little)but just not inspired to talk about it. Or anything else in my life for that matter cause really I ignored all outlets of self expression. Good times. I think I am coming out of that funk now. I hope I hope. And to start the ball rolling here is a list of what I have read in the past 2 months and if I forget anything and throw my numbers off then I guess that is my own freaking fault.

16. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

17. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

18. Brave New World

19. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince

20. Flowers in the Rain