My list;

As I have already mentioned, I have a habit of reading many books at once. Like now, I'm in the middle of some books, just started some books, close to endings on some books, not to mention all the series I'm reading. So here is a quick list of all the books I'm reading right now;

The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien
The tales of Beedle the Bard - J. K. Rowling
The Sanctuary - Raymon Khoury
The Book of lost tales 1 - J. R. R. Tolkien
Supernatural, Nevermore - Keith R. A. DeCandido
Go Ask Alice - anonymous
The Borgia Ring - Michael White

















And then the Series on top;

The inheritance cycle - Christopher Paolini
Phenomena - Ruben Eliassen
Dark Hunter Series - Sherrilyn Kenyon
At the moment, that's all I can remember, though I probably have more.

Have you read any of the books on my list? What did you think of them?

Dragons and Treasures

As I was sitting in class earlier, trying to get through today chapter of "Silmarillion"-Tolkien, it came to my mind that whenever you read a story with a dragon in it, there's always -ALWAYS- a treasure involved. If the dragon's protecting a tresure, hunting one down, stealing it, whatever it is, there's always a treasure.

Look only at these books; "there and back again"-Tolkien, the dragon's guarding the rich treasures he stole from the dwarfs decades ago, sleeping on them like a golden princess' bed. Harry Potter two books, "the goblet of fire" where the dragons are guarding the golden eggs and "the deathly hollows" where they are used as "watch dogs" in the deepest, most valuable parts of Gringotts. "Narnia; the voyage of the dawn treader"-C.S. Lewis, the dragon was once a man, who got greedy when he saw the gold and jewels, and turned into a creature fit for his greed by the cursed treasure.
And just to have it added, the old folktales, like in "Beowulf" (the epic poem) the famous king is fighting the dragon to take back the treasures it had stolen.

Now, I also noticed that every other mythical creature has something to follow it, like the dwarfs are always short, elves have pointed ears and so on. But it usually points to the features of whatever it is, no other creature is that haunted by a THING. So my question; what is it that makes dragons so bound to treasures?

No time

I would really like to update my blog almost every day, butI simply don't have time, so I'm now setting a new goal of twice a week. That gives me more time to actually read, get done with whatever else is going on in my life, and sit down with the computer and a good cup of hot chocolate, and actually write you people something good, instead of something I scrabbled down in 10 minutes. So I'm sorry if it takes some time, but that's just the way life goes.

  "Alice"

Every soul a Star by Wendy Mass

Yes, I'm done with the book I started two days ago. I actually got done last night, today I went skiing =)

Back to the book, it's an easy read, 322 pges, switching in between the three main caracters Ally, Jack and Bree. They are three very different teenagers (13-14 years);
ALLY; very nature-close, grew up in the middle of nowhere (literally, no TV, no phone signal, hot spring and labirynt in the back yard). Doesn't care about how she looks, don't really have many friends, homeschooled, and loves space and everything in it.
BREE; top of the food chain, wants to become a model, really fashion and make-up oriented. Her parents are scientists and her little sister a genius. Being one of the most popular girls in school is all she cares about.
JACK; lumpy kid who likes aliens, drawing and flying in his dreams. He can actually control his dreams (wish I could do that). Has no friends at all, and is at the far bottom of the ladder.
These three kids meet by coincidence as a solar eclipse occurs at Ally's home. Bree's family drags her along, and Jack's chemistry teacher promises to get him out of summer school if he goes. And so the three completely different teens become close friends. And there's a little more exitement and drama involved, and a huge lot of space, but wouldn't wanna ruin the book ;)

It's a really good book, switch between the different characters, very good personal details. The insight Mass uses in all three of them are amazing, as they are so different. I was very impressed by how easy she makes the switch from one person to the next, which makes the switch easy for the reader as well. It's the "float through" kind of book, the one that doesn't take that much concentration, and a really quick read too. It's not the kind of book that leaves you with a huge impression, thinking you learned something about life or anything.

I don't know much about Wendy Mass, since this is the first of her book's that I've read, but I'm definitely reading more of her stuff.

J. R. R. Tolkien

One of the worlds most famous authors, and with good reason. Many books he has written, and he was not one to overlook the details of the world. The way he writes captures you and confuses you at the same time, making you put down the book to get a chance to think about what you read, but then unable to leave it alone, it takes only a few minutes to pick it back up.

Now, I'm guessing most of you know him from his most famous works, Lord of the Rings or There and Back Again (the Hobbit), and many even just from the movies. But here is a little background story about him;

His family is originally from Germany, but moved to England in the 18th century. He was born in South Africa, January 3rd 1892, and he moved back to England with his mom as a 4-year old. His mom died when he was 12, and as a result he was raised by a priest. When he was 19, he went to Exeter College, Oxford. He married a girl named Edith Bratt in 1916.
Tolkien signed up for the British Army durring world war two, after graduating from Exeter with top grades in english language and literature. He ended up in a hospital before the war was over though, and that's where he started to write the first book, "the book of lost tales", on which he worked until the day he died, 55 years later.
He got a job in the Oxford english dictionary, one of the best dictionary's in the world, before he became a professor in old-english (angelo-saxian). He later became a professor in the English Language, and kept the job till he retired in 1959.
Aaaand (here comes the interesting part), March 28th 1972, he was made a commander of the Order of the Brtitish Empire. On his (and his wifes) grave, it says "Beren and Lúthien", these names picked from one of the biggest lovestories he ever wrote, Lúthien actually being based on his wife.

Really boring to read about someone's life like that? kind of boring writing it, but I learned something about him at least ;-P

Now to his books and other works. just a short list;
1. There and back again, 1937 (read)
2. Farmer's Giles of Ham, 1949
3. The Lord of the Rings, 1954-55 (read)
4. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1962
5. Tree and Leaf, 1964
6. Smith of Wooton Major, 1967
7. The Road goes ever On and On, 1967
8. Bilbo's last Song, 1974
9. The Father's Christmas letters, 1976
10. The Silmarillion, 1977 (the one I'm reading now)
11. Unfinished Tales, 1980 (next on my list)
12. The letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, 1981
13. Mr. Bliss, 1982
14. The Monsters and the Critics, 1983
15. The Book of Lost Tales 1, 1983
16. The Book of Lost Tales 2, 1984
17. The Lays of Beleriand, 1985
18. The Shaping of Middle Earth, 1986
19. The Lost road and Othe Writings, 1987
20. The Return of the Shadow, 1988
21. The Treason of Isengard, 1989
22. The War of the Ring, 1990
23. Sauron Defeated, 1992
24. Morgoth's Ring, 1993
25. The war of the Jewels, 1994
26. The People's of Middle Earth, 1996
27. Roverandon, 1998
28. The Children of Húrin, 2007

 Oh well, just a few there. So now onto why I chose to write about him today; I was sitting in the library reading Silmarillion earlier today, really slow, thinking about every single detail, trying to match the names up with who had been mention before, and so on. And I ended up with a head ace. So I took a little walk around the library, and found another book, "Every Soul a Star" by Wendy Mass. Really easy read, probably gonna get a review within a few days. And of course I'm also gonna keep on reading Silmarillion.

Now this phenomena of me starting a new book while in the middle of another, is something quite normal that I'm probably gonna bring up later, now back to Tolkien's books. The way he writes, it's something special. You can't find it in any other books that I've heard of. Thinking about how The Inheritance Cycle has some similarities, because mr. Paolini is picking some tricks from all his favorite authors and putting into it (Tolkien being one of them) is one thing. It's still really different from all else. And the fact that they are mostly notes he never got to put into books, doesn't change the fact that this is the way he wrote in his finished books, like the Lord of the Rings and There and Back Again. So my question;

Have you ever read anything like his books, by a different author?

 "Alice"

The Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold

To start my blog off, I chose a book that recently has been made into a movie. I haven't seen the movie, but once I have, I'll probably post something about the book and the movie compared to eachother. Has anyone seen the movie?

This is quite a special book in the way it is told. I would not be sure where to put it, is it science fiction? The reason why I'm not sure, is that the story is about a girl, Susie Salmon, raped and murdered by her neighboor, and her family and friends after her murder, but it is told from her point of view, where she's looking down on them from heaven. This gives a deep insight in how she feels, and at the same time what her friends and family feels, since she can feel the same.

In this book, Susie's family consists of her sister, brother, mom, dad and grandma. As time goes by after her death, the family is both reunited and torn apart. Her friends gets really close to each other, finding solace in eachother's company. Especially two of the people she follows a lot, Ray, a boy she had a crush on, and Ruth, a rather odd girl she happened to run into just a couple of times, but that made a sticky impression on her.

The book follows them in years after her death, the way they grow up, change and live, with some glances back to her memories of when she was alive, and sometime she tells us about heaven, the people she meets there and what she does.

This book is absolutely recommended, for everyone. It is an amazing book, greatly written, and as few people can pull of the way the story is told, with so many details, Alice Sebold does it perfectly. The impression the story leaves is not as heavy as many, so you'll not be "pulled down into the darkness", but you're still left with some thoughts about it.

Have you read it? If so, what is your opinion on it?

 "Alice"

Alice's World of books

This is my new blog. I'm creating it because when I read a book, I love hearing other people's opinions and impressions of the same books, and it's always good to hear when someone just LOVED a book you clued them in on.

This is where I'll write about the book's I've read, and where you can tell me about books you want me to read. If you want a second opinion on a book you've read, write a quick review on it, e-mail it to me, and I'll post it on the blog. I'll also try to read the book and post my view on it, but ofcourse with everything else going on, it might take some time to get a whole book done at the same time. But I do my best, read when I have time =)

And for the name of my blog, my world consists mostly of books. I can move into books I read, imagine what my caracter would be in that book, and change the story around that caracter, and I can view the world from where authors see it, and how they put it foreward. Also I imagine, if my world really was a book, it would be rather interesting, the way I think about things. And how random my head sometimes is ;-) Though in lenght, it would be rather boring, with nothing exiting actually going on...
Alice is not my real name. It's just a name I use on the blog, and where I got the name from; well, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ofcourse. And I am now talking the BOOK, the original, by Lewis Carroll. It's my absolute favorite book, I absolutely LOVE it, and ofcourse it's comming out on the blog pretty soon.

My e-mail; alicesworldofbooks@hotmail.com

 "Alice"