Book Meme

Barb The Evil Genius tagged me for this meme. Here's what you do: grab the nearest book, turn to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence, and post the next three sentences.

I grabbed Eragon!

"When they were ready to leave, he mounted Cadoc and said acidly, "If this keeps up, you're going to batter me to pieces"
"I wouldn't push you so hard if I didn't think you were strong enough"
"For once, I wouldn't mind being thought less of," Muttered Eragon.


I taaaag um.
Emily Rose d:

Say What?

"Most high schools have a darkroom with some equipment, a student
newspaper, a camera club, or a yearbook. "

Johnson, Bervin M. Opportunities in Photography Careers.
Blacklick, OH, USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 2004. p 38.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dela/Doc?id=10083567&ppg=54

Copyright © 2004. McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing. All rights reserved.

What? My school does not have a darkroom or a newspaper or a camera club OR a photography club for that matter.
Dude. Gah.


I found this looking through my school website under study aids, its an ebrary and they have like 13 pages of photography books...

All Was Well

I finally finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
I was reluctant to finish it because that means its over....

I remember when Harry Potter was first getting popular. I was going through my Lord of the Rings phase and was mad because Harry Potter was competing with LotR at the time. The movies had just come out and the books were re-released with new covers and all sorts of stuff like that.
And Harry Potter was everywhere. Everyone loved Harry Potter so I decided I had to hate it.
Then one day I was at my friend's house and she put in the first movie and I was hooked. I don't remember when or why but I picked up the first book at one point and JK Rowling got herself a new fan. :P
I currently own every single book except for the fourth one - its so huge and I never wanted to pay the $30 for it.
I've seen all the movies and enjoyed them.

And now the books are over. No more Harry Potter.
I heard she was going to write more books later on but I don't think she should test her luck that much.... My mom said she's writing an encyclopedia of the characters or something which i would like to read but I don't think she should write any more harry potter books, continuing his life.

The only part I cried was when we found out about Snape's past. That was it. I almost cried when Harry found out what he had to do but not quite. :P
So I cant wait for the next two movies ;D
At least we have that to look forward to.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows

Everyone already knows the book came out today. And if you don't know, its time to come out from under your rock. Seriously.

Anyways.
Like I said at least once before, I went with my cousins to this harry potter thing at this one city... It ended up being my cousin, his girlfriend, my other cousin, her boyfriend and one of her friends, plus my aunt and OTHER cousin who's 3 or so. The six of us took off and messed around.

There were SOOOO many people there, it was insane. The line for "sorting" was down the street and around the corner - literally, so we decided not to waste all that time standing in line for that... That was probably the main thing we wanted to do... just like everyone else.
There were a bunch of little stores but there were usually too many people in them so they wouldn't let us in. The two stores we did go into didn't have anything harry potter so we left disappointed.


They did have some people walking around in character-ish. They were dressed up. But Lucius Malfoy wanted a beer... so yeah. ;)




There were death eaters too and when i saw them I immediately insisted we go over there and get our pictures taken with them.

So we did.


Then most of the others went home, my cousin her boyfriend and I went to borders to get her pre-ordered copy. We drove around looking for a place to eat for a while - we were in the mood for pizza, and couldnt find a single pizza place so we settled for Eat'n Park. I had two glasses of mountain dew, plus the chocolate covered espresso beans my cousin managed to get so I was wired for a little bit. :P

We went back to borders and there were people everywhere. So we grabbed a book and sat down in the only empty aisle - nutrition. Lol! So we messed around in the nutrition aisle for a little bit (*cough2hoursatleastcough*) before it was finally time to line up. And then everyone crammed into the line. So we finally got the book and went back to my cousin's house and it was about 3:30 so I crashed on their couch... I was really mad when I woke up at 7:30 but it was okay after I fell asleep right after I woke up.

So it was a little disappointing but it was fun to hang out with kids (sorta) my own age for a while.


And I finally did get my own copy. :P The first $20 of my pay check is gone, lol.
And I got a sunburn at a friend's house at the party they had today. That, however, is another blog post.

A Series of Unfortunate Disapointments

"Lemony Snicket" has become not only famous, but very successful with his series of books titled "A Series of Unfortunate Events". I read the first book, waaaay back all those years ago, in a matter of hours and immediately wanted to go back to the library for more.

Now that all 13 books have been release, there are thousands of disappointed fans, waiting loyally for what comes next. He left a cliffhanger the size of South America, as well as dozens of unanswered questions. The story is not complete. And to top it all off, he cheated by hiding the 14th book in the back of the 13th.
I once read a theory that he was teaching us basically that life isn't fair and we don't know everything in life or something along those lines which really ticked me off. As well as keeping up with the Baudelaire story and the many many characters in between, we have been learning about Lemony Snicket's story as well. All we've gotten are bits and pieces.

While still finishing off the series, he has released a number of books.
The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, plus blank journals with quotes from the book and artwork from Brett Helquist and puzzle books. Who knows what else.

Then there was rumor that he was releasing a new book soon (which has since then become released). "Horseradish: The Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid" or something along those lines. I was excited, maybe this was a new trilogy to finish off the series. This was answer all our questions.

I was mistaken and thought the overview of the introduction was actually the story. Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

The bulk of the introduction follows the story of a man and a woman who live in a small grass hut in a village surrounded by a horseradish field. They generally live a routine life, and, as they have no taste for the horseraddish, spend most of their time hunting to prepare raisin-stuffed snails to provide for their meals. One night, the woman asks her husband if there is more to life than doing the same thing for years. Her husband replies that the woman's mother once told him about a wise man who would probably know. The woman visits her mother, who says that she heard about the wise man from the woman's third grade teacher, Ms. Matmos. Ms. Matmos tells the woman that the wise man lives on the top of a mountain far away and that the journey to the top of the mountain is difficult and dull.

After months of walking and thinking about the subjects in the chapter headings, the woman arrives at the house of the wise old man; however, he is in fact not a wise man but a wide man. Tired and hungry, the woman returns home, but learns that in her absence her mother has taken her fishing pole, also that her husband has married Ms. Matmos, and that she failed third grade. The moral of the story is that life has bitter truths that cannot be avoided.

Chapters

1. Home
2. Family
3. School
4. Work
5. Entertainment
6. Literature
7. Travel
8. Emotional Health
9. Affairs of the Heart
10. A Life of Mystery
11. The Mystery of Life
12. An Overall Feeling of Doom that One Cannot Ever Escape no Matter What One Does
13. Miscellaneous

What in the world?
The introduction is supposed to outline the themes which are the titles of the chapters.

"It is a "wit and wisdom" quotation book partly drawn from Snicket's famous A Series of Unfortunate Events."

My library has let me down and they don't have it.
And now he is releasing NEW books. "The Bad Begging, OR ORPHANS!" - "The Reptile Room, OR MURDER!"
Basically re-releasing the series with more words in the title. I don't get it. You have a series to finish!!!! I have not been able to get my hands on one of these books so I do not know if there is anything actually different about them.

But it seems to me, Mr. Snicket is losing what he once had. Whatever that is, Im not quite sure. But it would appear he is squeezing every penny out of his writing career -under the name Lemony Snicket- while it lasts. And that makes me mad. I just hope he answers the questions tons of people around the world want answered before he gets stoned to death.

I would, however, be willing to forgive him if he actually finished up the series.

Books for Horse Lovers

I know at least the Evil Genius has a horse lover in the family and i thought i would share.

theres a series called The Phantom Stallion by Terri Farley (im not sure if she's related to Walter Farley) and there are 24 books in the series that I know of. They are really good. I can read one in about three or four hours tops.

They're about a girl named Samantha Forster who lives on a ranch in Nevada. when she was younger she owned a little black foal but he ran away and grew up to be a majestic grey stallion mustang. he always makes an appearance in the books. Its a kind of series you dont HAVE to read in order.

But i recommend them to any horse lover

Book Review

Recently I read Man o' War, the Grandsire of Seabiscuit by Walter Farley.
It was pretty long, (not TOO long) but the kind of book you never want to end. Once it pulls you in, you're stuck and wont be able to stop until it's over. And, it's the kind of book I would read over again, which is saying something.

It's a fictional story about the greatest race horse of all time, through the eyes of a boy named Danny who stayed by the horse no matter what.

Walter Farley is better known for his Black Stallion series, which I haven't read yet even though I own most, if not all, of the books. But I plan to now, after reading Man O' War.

the book was just really good. It starts off with a large man going to the first race in memorial of Man o' War and then the rest of the book, save for the last chapter or two, are a flash back of his younger years. From the day he saw Man o' War born, to the day the horse was retired to stud.

Occasionally I'll find a topic i like to read about. In the past I've been interested in Billy the Kid, King Arthur and the knights of the round table, among other things and this book makes me more interested in what the life of horse racing is like and what other great horses were out there.

I highly recommend this book to any horse lovers. Its easy to read but enjoyable for many ages.