The Hobbit (There and Back Again) - J.R.R. Tolkien - 366 Pages
34) A banned book
I don't know why I had never read The Hobbit before.
It's one of my best friends favorite books and I remember seeing the first movie at midnight with her. I've heard many a complaint about how this short book became three long movies, but I'm not not going to get into that, because-
I also don't know why people are so scared of fantasy novels.
I very clearly remember as a seven year old telling my Grandmother about how I was reading Harry Potter and her first reaction was "Isn't that about witchcraft and the devil?!" (She loves Harry Potter now that she knows what it's actually about). If parents actually READ this book (which is meant for kids) they would see that it isn't teaching your children to worship satan. They may even realize what Tolkien was actually trying to teach kids. Things like, you may be small and people may not think you're capable of much, but you can do hard even impossible things and succeed. Or, "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
There are so many important lessons in this story, and it's a good read no matter your age. I think this would be a great book to read out loud to children, with the right amount of action and thoughtfulness, dialogue and description, this little story is a must read for anyone who enjoys fantasy even a little and I'm quite sad I didn't get to read it when I was a kid. Maybe it was banned from my elementary school...
The idea of banned books has always intrigued me, which inevitably led me to my next read.
A Pleasure to Burn - Ray Bradbury - 400 Pages
44) A book of short stories
*raises hand* I admit I've never read Fahrenheit 451. I've never even really known exactly what it's about, I'd always gotten it confused with 1984. It wasn't until I was looking for a short story book that I really found out. It's about book burning books and censorship. A Pleasure to Burn caught my eye on Goodreads because I read Dandelion Wine (also by Bradbury) in school and LOVED it. I just love Bradbury's writing style, and the premise intrigued me (and the cover is as awesome as the title) so I picked it up the very next day at the library.
This particular book of short stories was published in 2010, but some of the stories date back to before Fahrenheit 451 as early forms of and ideas for the book. So each story is thematically connected to the world of Fahrenheit 451 where censorship and burning run wild in the future world.
I enjoyed this book immensely. The first story was a bit confusing, but by the second I was zoned in. The writing is really what did it for me as well as the subject being close to my heart. I want to share just a couple of the many bookmarks I made in this book.
"I had seen thousands careen into my library starved and leave well-fed. I had watched lost people find themselves. I had known realists to dream and dreamers to come awake in this marble sanctuary where silence was a marker in each book. Then, better focused, their ideas rehung upon their frames, their flesh made easy on their bones, men might walk forth into the blast-furnace of reality, noon, mob-traffic, improbable senescence, inescapable death." (Bright Phoenix, pg 81)
"Garrett," said Stendahl. "Do you know why I've done this to you? Because you burned Mr. Poe's books without really reading them. You took other people's advice that they needed burning. Otherwise you'd have realized what I was going to do to you when we came down here a moment ago. Ignorance is fatal, Mr. Garrett." (Carnival of Madness, pg 128 (This was my favorite story))
"They were never together. There was always something between, a radio, a televisor, a car, a plane, a game, nervous exhaustion, or, simply, a little pheno-barbitol. They didn't know each other; they knew things, inventions. They had both applauded science while it had built a beautiful glass structure, a glittering miracle of contraptions about them, and, too late, they had found it to be a glass wall." (The Fireman, pg 270)
"The little man wants you and me to be like him. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot out of the weapon. Un-breach men's minds. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?" (The Fireman, pg 287)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling - 352 Pages
42) Your old favorite book
After reading it again, I think it may STILL be my favorite book.
I haven't read Chamber of Secrets in years. Every time I re-read a Harry Potter book it was always Deathly Hallows or Prisoner of Azkaban. I forgot how much I truly loved Chamber of Secrets. Despite being short, Rowling really packs in the action in this book. The climax in the chamber is one of the best and the humor throughout is on point. I couldn't be happier with my choice to re-read Chamber as my old favorite. (PS if you haven't read these books, get out and read them now.)
Read on,
Jamie
No comments:
Post a Comment