Books!

[selfwedgie13]

The title should be self explanatory, but in case it isn't, this is a thread to talk about books.  Discuss what books you're reading, what you just read, your favorite books/genres, what someone else has posted about, anything that has to do with books and reading.

I'll start.  I've always been a big fan of fantasy.  I mostly read high fantasy stuff like Lord of the Rings or Inheritance, but the last several books I have read have a large amount of urban fantasy elements to them as well.  Suffice to say I enjoy fantasy, especially if it has to do with dragons.

I recently finished the Dragons in our Midst/Oracles of Fire/Children of the Bard series by Bryan Davis.  I have been a huge fan of Bryan Davis since I first read Raising Dragons some ears ago.  Bryan Davis has the rare gift of being able to grab your interest from the first chapter (often from the first page), and not letting go untl he's done with the book, and sometimes not even then.  His Dragons in our Midst/Oracles of Fire/Children of the Bard series are a fascinating blend of high and urban fantasy elements with a lot of apocalyptic stuff starting around the second book of Children of the Bard, all cuminating in an edge-of-your-seat battle between good and evil that will take you through the entire spectrum of emotions.  I would say more, but I don't want to give anything away in case I've gotten anyone's interest and they want to read the books for themselves.  I will say this, though: the books are written by a Christian author and intended for a Christian audience, but I honestly believe that these books can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their religious beliefs (or lack thereof).

I'm currently reading the first three Lewis Barnavelt novels by John Bellairs.  I have finished The House With a Clock in its Walls and am starting The Figure in the Shadows.  It's been more than fifteen years since I've read anything by John Bellairs, the last time having been when I went on a near binge read of his books back in eighth grade.  Having gotten back into these books, I am finding them to be both fun and fascinating, and I may decide to go on another binge of these books, assuming I have the money to get all of them.  With six Lewis Barnavelts, four Anthony Mondays, and nine Johnny Dixons, they could be expensive.  Maybe I'll start with the rest of the Lewis Barnavelts and see where that gets me.

[Red X]

Oh I like this
So my favorite books include:
Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus/Trials of Apollo/Kane Chronicles/Magnus Chase - Basically anything by Rick Riordan
Artemis Fowl (Very much looking forward to the new mini series about Artemis' younger brothers)
Skulduggery Pleasant
Demonata by Darren Shan
The Intertwined Trilogy
The Vampirates SEries
Scott Cawthon's FNAF Trilogy
The Young Wizards series
Massive fan of Perks of Being a Wallflower

[selfwedgie13]

Yeah, I'm a fan of Rick Riordan too. I haven't read the Trials of Apollo yet, and I've gotten behind on the Magnus Chase books, though, so I'll have to catch up on those at some point.
I also loved the Artemis Fowl books. I didn't know about anything with his younger brothers, though. I'll have to keep an eye out for that. I'm also still hoping for a movie, but with the books being somewhere on the order of 10+ years old now, I'm afraid that won't happen.

[Red X]

You kidding? There's an Artemis Fowl movie in the works right now! They even cast directly out of Ireland, looking for new actors who are actually 12 years old, to be more accurate. Eon Colfer's even involved

[selfwedgie13]

Seriously!? I really have to look into this sort of stuff more often. That makes me super excited! So, are they planning on doing all eight books, or are they just doing the first one?

[Red X]

Not sure yet. I think they're planning to do the first one, and see how it goes

[selfwedgie13]

Makes sense. I'll definitely have to look into that. I hope it does well. I really would love to see all eight of them become movies. That would be totally awesome!

[selfwedgie13]

So, I finished the sixth book of the Lewis Barnavelt series by John Bellairs recently. The last one wasn't quite as good as the previous ones, but I still enjoyed it. Technically, there are six more, but they aren't written by John Bellairs. Brad Strickland took over the books after Bellairs died (in 1991, if I recall correctly), starting with a few that Bellairs had started before writing his own books using Bellairs's characters (with permission from Bellairs's estate). I read one of his Johnny Dixon books back in eighth grade, but it wasn't as good as the ones Bellairs wrote, so I'll stick with Bellairs's novels.

After finishing the Lewis Barnavelt books, I read The Last Star by Linda McNabb. It was a bit weird, but very interesting with a lot of twists and turns that I did not expect (and dragons!). The ending was surprising, and a bit disappointing/bittersweet, but with the way the rest of the story had developed, there really was no better way to end it, so while I wasn't thrilled with how it ended, I can accept it as the best possible outcome given the circumstances.

Moving on from there, I've started The Dead Gentleman by Matthew Cody. It's more of a steampunk/sci-fi type story, but still an enjoyable adventure. I've read it once before, and if I remember correctly, it had a sort of non-ending like there was supposed to be a sequel, but it's been a few years, and Matthew Cody has written (at least) two more books, but none of them have anything to do with this one. I'll look him up and see if there's anything going on with this story.