Books

Since I've read hardly any new books in the past few years, I will post a few of the books I loved when I was younger (and still love now!)

1.) The Series of Unfortunate Events (by David Handler a.k.a Lemony Snicket)
I was reminiscing about these with my friend, and he aptly described them as "the most depressing dictionary you'll ever read". I enjoyed these books partially because they "broke the fourth wall", in a way, and through them I learned new words, cultural references, and discovered new things that I liked. For example, two quotes in the books were "The world is quiet here" and "That no life lives forever, that dead men rise up never, that even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea." Both are references to "The Garden of Proserpine", a poem by A.C. Swinburne, which I fell in love with after reading. Another wonderful poem mentioned in the books was "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carrol. And to add to all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the stories themselves, following the characters' journey through thirteen humorous, albeit depressing, books. Here are two excerpts:
Entertaining a notion, like entertaining a baby cousin or entertaining a pack of hyenas, is a dangerous thing to refuse to do. If you refuse to entertain a baby cousin, the baby cousin may get bored and entertain itself by wandering off and falling down a well. If you refuse to entertain a pack of hyenas, they may become restless and entertain themselves by devouring you. But if you refuse to entertain a notion--which is just a fancy way of saying that you refuse to think about a certain idea--you have to be much braver than someone who is merely facing some bloodthirsty animals, or some parents who are upset and find their little darling at the bottom of a well, because nobody knows what an idea will do when it goes off to entertain itself, particularly if the idea comes from a sinister villain.
And the second one:
A cloud of dust is not a beautiful thing to look at. Very few painters have done portraits of huge clouds of dust or included them in their landscapes or still lifes. Film directors rarely choose huge clouds of dust to play the lead roles in romantic comedies, and as far as my research has shown, a huge cloud of dust has never placed higher than twenty-fifth in a beauty pageant.

2.) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (by Roald Dahl)
This is one of Dahl's lesser known books. Some of his more popular works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Matilda. I love Dahl's writing style, although it's hard to explain why. Maybe it's the way he gives fantastic descriptions without wasting any words, or maybe it's the odd phrases his characters use that were perhaps very common in Britain in the 1900's. Here are two excerpts from one of his books, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator:
"What did I tell you!" cried Grandma Georgina. "He's round the twist! He's bogged as a beetle! He's dotty as a dingbat! He's got rats in the roof! I want to go home!"
And another:
"I've done it!" cried the Chief Financial Adviser. "Look at me, everybody! I've balanced the budget!" And indeed he had. He stood proudly in the middle of the room with the enormous two-million-dollar budget balanced beautifully on the top of his bald head. Everyone clapped.
Dahl's children's books are known for their unsentimental and dark humor, but they are still very fun to read.

3.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (by J.K. Rowling)
I love the Harry Potter books, but I'd rather not discuss the movies. Watching Rowling's writing style transform from short, choppy sentences in the first book to in-depth thoughts in the seventh book was wonderful. I love Deathly Hallows in particular for the same reason that many people don't . . . so much stuff is going on. It's a long, long story that travels all over the place, which is a key factor for me because I like variety. Since so many things happen, I can read the book many times over without becoming tired of it. It also sums up everything the past six books mentioned and ends satisfactorily (which is actually a word, who knew?). And to leave you with a final quote . . .
There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione's arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.
"Is this the moment?" Harry asked weakly, and when nothing happened except that Ron and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, he raised his voice. "OI! There's a war going on here!"