Bloodchild

Finally! A short story that was completely intriguing throughout...I know, you would think it would be easy to do that in a short story, since it's short...but apparently it isn't. But here Octavia (the author) does a beautiful job. I loved it. I was disgusted by it and it made my skin crawl and it made me upset and I loved it. I thought the parallel from the story's occurences, and pregnancy,  was extremely clever. And I relate to the fear of child birth as well as parasites, so this was pretty much my nightmares in a short story, thank you, Octavia. But seriously, I really thoroughly enjoyed the read. It's extremely revealing and beautiful in the small space it takes up, and I was completely impressed with the concept as well as the way it was written. It was ugly, and you didn't want to stop reading it, it was absolutely awesome.

Babel 17

Okay, this attempt to read was tragic. I apologize to anyone who thoroughly enjoyed this book, but to me it was pretty painful to even start. I understand, that in Sci-Fi, many times an author likes to just throw the story at you, or the characters, without explanation, so you can figure it out yourself, blah blah. Though this was brought up, when I mentioned I couldn't really get into it, I thought about it, and it was not the reason I was turned off on reading it. I think the reason I was turned off by it was that the beginning of it was extremely slow to me. It was bland, really. Yes, it was mysterious in describing Babel 17 for what it really was and what it had to do with the main character, but it was really boring to me. Nothing sang. When the main character described the alien lady who was helping with Babel 17 (don't remember her name) I was bored. I was trying to try to figure out how she would look, but I hated the description he gave. Maybe I should try reading it again, but I absolutely hated the description. I'm sorry, maybe I'm not giving it a chance, but I'm not very forgiving when it comes to reading.

Warbreaker

Okay, simply put: this book crippled my abilities to do other homework while I was reading it. Seriously. When I started reading this I was very taken with the main character, the younger princess...obviously her name has escaped me. I loved that she was disobedient and loved color and the outdoors and places she shouldn't be...actually, I find she was very much like Lyra from the Golden Compass. Breaking from my obsession with disobedience; I really enjoyed the whole story. I loved that when something unexpected happened, I wasn't expecting it. I really really loved the role that color played in the story as well. The descriptions of the different kingdoms was also very interesting, in the ways the buildings looked, the people dressed, and the way they acted. There were so many elements in this story, you'd think that things would get muddled and there would be too much, an overload. But I thought all the parts were in harmony with eachother. The royalty, the gods, the poorer people, those with breath, the undead, so many characters, but none of them really seemed excessive to me. I enoyed reading Warbreaker so much, I might even give it another go, when I can have no distractions of other assignments! Good idea. Maybe I will.

The Golden Compass

When we were asked to read this book, at first I was pretty reluctant. I had heard about the arguments in religion that were made within the novel/film. When I read the book, however, I found it quite easy to ignore these religious parallels others seem to have found. I was extremely interested in Lyra's character, the young girl who acted more like a wild animal. I loved her. She was a raw child, not necessarily a good child, one someone would want to model their own after, but she was very realistic. And I think I may have liked her so much because the way she played was very much like the way I did when I was little. The book's premise I found equally interesting. The Dust, the daemons, the gobblers, polar bears, it seems pretty genius to me. I still really enjoy the daemons as the souls of their owners, I want one, actually. It would be awesome. But, yes, the concept of the book is beautiful to me, and the way it was written was easy for me to get through, which is saying a lot. When I have more time, I am hoping at least to stick my nose into some of the books following the Golden Compass story.

The Hobbit

I really really have to admit; when it comes to Tolkien, I become petrified of reading. Really. A reluctant reader of novels to begin with, when I first saw the lengths of those books, I felt like running far away from them. (First seeing them I was pretty young, mind you). Though this was my first reaction, I tried reading through the Hobbit anyways. I had heard good and bad things about it, so why not try to find the goodness? Turns out I couldn't make the effort to get past some amount of chapters in the novel. It's hard to capture my interest in a book, and the excrutiating attention to detail Tolkien has, turned me off. Although this is the tragic case, I am still completely impressed by the author. The man invented a language for christ's sake! Though I could not read an entire novel made up of little tiny details of each and every thing, I still was pretty interested in what he had to say about simple little things you really wouldn't think about when you see something. And, even though I know it doesn't really count, I absolutely loved the Lord of the Rings film series...even though they skip over the Hobbit...(it's okay, my younger brother told me the things missing from the Hobbit that I hadn't read about...he's the reader in the family).

Interview with the Vampire

Reading this book, I was excited that it took place in New Orleans. Something about that area in LA has always appealed to me. The way it was described in the book was intriguing as well, though maybe less encouraging about visiting the place. I chose to read this over Twighlight because, the things I've heard with that series are pretty ridiculous. I was glad I didn't have to read an obsessive woman's thoughts on sparkly vampires. This novel shows a distinct difference of characteristics in vampires, which was also interesting. Louis for example is so human...besides the whole immortality part...That plays a huge part in the novel as well, immortality. It seems so many people in the world would love immortality and to live forever, yet if you ever give it a thought, it scares the shit out of me...living forever, you would lose people you love over and over again, watch them grow old, weaken, and die. It seems the only way it could be bearable is if you had an immortal companion to bear it with you. Interview with the Vampire is a pretty impressive exploration into this and the aspects of being a vampire, things  that other authors and filmmakers often overlook.

Why Are Zombies So Popular?

In my mind, zombies are so damn popular because of how funny/terrible they can be. For example; in the movie Zombieland, there are obvious humorous things about zombies...the same can be said about Shaun of the Dead and Dead Alive. Yet in both movies, they are still terrible, flesh eating dead people...The interest I have in them is because they are so human. Or they once were...and now they are human bodies run by whatever the story tells you at the time (but the most common thing is solely to be eating living humans). They are like monsters that aren't completely unrealistic...they seem almost probable. I have no idea why people enjoy them so much. But they are all the rage...and I enjoy them too.

Reading David Wellington's Monster Island

I've always been partial to stories and movies about the unliving...or however you would refer to them. I really have no idea why I'm so into them, since I'm a huge baby and hardly watch horror films unless they're humorous. But anyway, I just can't seem to leave the theme of zombies alone. I don't like them, but I like reading and watching stories and films about them, I can't figure it out, but what the hell.
  Wellington's series: Monster Island is really interesting to me. Not anticipating reading much into it before getting bored, I have already read through 16 chapters. His take on the walking dead is kind of refreshing. Although it has aspects that I've seen in other theme-related pieces, I really want to read through the series, I feel that I'm reading something really different I've never seen before. I love the descriptions he uses, as disgusting as they may be, it really helps bring the reader into the series. It also seems believable to me, as much as I'd hope zombies would never ever exist... The portrayal of New York City really gets me too, as a New Yorker...kind of creeps me out. 
  The reality of the situations and problems in the story are really refreshing to me. It's all practical, aside from the living dead. For instance; the decomposition of the bodies, the survival rate of certain areas, the disposal of bodies and the terrible scenes that a place once full of population could produce. One of the most intriguing things in the story, to me, so far is the perspective. Reading from a zombie's point of view makes you understand the whole idea of them (sort of). It's something that will have me reading the series until I have no free time, or until he stops writing them...probably the first, but it's rare for me to find something I will so willingly read. So I'm impressed. And hopefully will read more. The end.