I have necrophobia, very slight agoraphobia, and I'm also afraid of needles, feet, and dogs. My sister knows about the feet thing and will purposely stick her bare feet in my face because I'll scream every time she does it.

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
(Fiction - Fantasy; 1951)

Summary: The four children are transported from an English train station to an island in the world of Narnia. Though Narnia has been at peace since the children left, it is now under the control of Wicked King Miraz. The youngsters, along with Aslan the great lion, must help young Prince Caspian restore Narnia's glorious past.

Review: This was a fun read, and I really don't know why I didn't read it sooner (especially since I've seen the movie twice now). My only problem, really, was the pacing. Most of the book was spent describing the efforts of Caspian and the Pevensies to meet up with each other, and then Miraz was overthrown within a chapter. The end seemed a little rushed to me.

Rating: 4/5.

Next Up: Emma by Jane Austen

I daydream and I run into things, sometimes simultaneously.

Wicked: Witch & Curse by Nancy Holder
(Fiction - Teen; 2002 & 2003)

Summary: (from Barnes & Noble) Holly Cathers's world shatters when her parents are killed in a terrible accident. Wrenched from her home in San Francisco, she is sent to Seattle to live with her relatives, Aunt Marie-Claire and her twin cousins, Amanda and Nicole.

In her new home, Holly's sorrow and grief soon give way to bewilderment at the strange incidents goings on around her. Such as how any wish she whispers to her cat seems to come true. Or the way a friend is injured after a freak attack from a vicious falcon. And there's the undeniable, magnetic attraction to a boy Holly barely knows.

Holly, Amanda, and Nicole are about to be launched into a dark legacy of witches, secrets, and alliances, where ancient magics yield dangerous results. The girls will assume their roles in an intergenerational feud beyond their wildest imaginations...and in doing so, will attempt to fulfill their shared destiny.

Review: This, the first two books of a series, was a lot darker than most teen novels I usually see. However, I was sucked in from the first chapter, and I became so involved in the story and so attached to the characters that there were actually a few times when I became angry and almost threw the book across the room. Becoming attached to characters here, though is probably a bad idea, because this book is a bloodbath, Curse especially. My only real issue with this was that Michael's in his forties and has been practicing magic his whole life...why can't he manage to kill off three teenage girls just discovering their powers, even after raising a whole army of the dead? Get it together, dude.

Rating: 4.5/5.

x-posted to elvenflutist, book_club, book_worm, and bookish.

I think the first one I owned was Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time - it was a Christmas present. The first one I actually bought was Nsync's Celebrity. I have both of them on my iPod and still listen to them sometimes, because I'm cool like that.

I love Thayet from Tamora Pierce's Tortall books, because she proves that just because you're amazingly beautiful doesn't mean that you can't still be smart and kick major tail - there's actual substance to her, which is hard to find, I think. She's like an actual person, which is nice.

I hate Eragon. He bothers me. A lot. Not only is he, like, perfect (um, yeah right), he's also really whiny, especially when Arya tells him to bug off. Like, OMG, she doesn't love me! -eyeroll-

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
(Fiction - Fantasy; 1955)

Summary: (from Barnes & Noble) While the evil might of the Dark Lord Sauron swarmed out to conquer all Middle-earth, Frodo and Sam struggled deep into Mordor, seat of Sauron's power. To defeat the Dark Lord, the accursed Ring of Power had to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. But the way was impossibly hard, and Frodo was weakening. Weighed down by the compulsion of the Ring he began finally to despair.

Review: I'm not gonna lie, I get really sad whenever I get to the end of this book, especially when the Fellowship starts splitting off, and when I'm particularly hormonal, it's enough to get me to almost start crying. And when a book does that to me (hormones notwithstanding)...well, Tolkien must be doing something right.

Rating: 5/5.

Next up: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

(x-posted to elvenflutist, book_club, book_worm, and bookish.)


It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
(Fiction - Fantasy; 1954)

Summary: (from Barnes & Noble) During the Golden Age of Narnia, when Peter is High King, a boy named Shasta discovers he is not the son of Arsheesh, the Calormene fisherman, and decides to run far away to the North--to Narnia. When he is mistaken for another runaway, Shasta is led to discover who he really is and even finds his real father.

Review: I didn't really like the first half too much, and actually put it down. I'm glad I decided to come back to it, though, because I ended up liking it. It was a delightful adventure story, and as I continue reading the series, I find myself wondering why I waited so long to read it.

Rating: 3/5.

24783 / 150000 words. 17% done!

Well, at least I'm almost at 25k. Only 125k more, right? ;)

24378 / 150000 words. 16% done!

I hate how fickle this whole thing can be. Sometimes I just want to write, and others...I have a really hard time motivating myself. And trying to write something like this is really hard for me, too, because I have such a short attention span and get bored so easily. But then again, I've got so many ideas that I want to see through, and I've been working on this one since the end of 8th grade, so I sort of feel like I owe it to these characters to get their story told.

Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of town for the next couple days, so I'm going to fall even further behind. Fantastic. But I'm still unemployed, so just think of all that free time I should be using to catch up. ;)

The earliest thing I actually remember clearly was when I had just turned 5, and we went to Disneyland. My dad and my "Uncle" Mike decided it would be fun to take me on Space Mountain while my mom and sister went shopping. I ended up screaming and crying for my mom the whole time. I attribute my fear of roller coasters to this event, which left permanent mental scarring. You know those parents who have young children in line with them for roller coasters and you look at them and wonder what kind of parent would take their kids on a ride like that? Yeah. That's my dad.

22807 / 150000 words. 15% done!

"Idaho Senator Larry Craig is writing a book. Should be a good bathroom read." -Jay Leno