Books I love...

...and ones that I love to hate.  Let's start with the latter. Wait a second...let me don my bullet proof vest, as I'm sure that I'll be getting a ton of lash back on this.

Okay -- first is The Twilight Saga I'm sure that if you've lived on this planet, you know about this book series, which went all freak out and ended up being a movie.  I have to say right off the bat here that I have NOT read this series.  I have not so much as even touched one, let alone opened it's cover to read the "amazing" story within.

See - I have this thing with reading books that, well, are geared towards ME -- you know -- a middle aged woman with this amazing thing called -- a brain.  Thank God I am no longer a teenager suffering the pangs and angst that these characters (I'm told) are.  Nope, I have no intention of reading this series any time in the near (or distant) future.  In fact, if I do read a novel about vampires and such, I'll probably read one from Anne Rice who wrote The Vampire Chronicles.  I think that the reason that this book bothers me so much is the fact that you have these middle aged women all over America (and let's face it, the world) who have gone bat sh*t  crazy over the stuff.  It's a BOOK people.  A book!! It's a fictional story -- as in NOT real.  It kinda reminds me of the NKOTB phenomenon (another fad which I failed to jump on the band wagon with -- scary stuff that!) Read the book, sure.  Enjoy the book, sure.  But 30-40 year old women putting up posters of New Moon and wearing t-shirts that say "suck me" = creepy.

My next set of books that I think are ridiculous are the Harry Potter ones.  Now - I don't not like these books.  In fact, my stepson read them (and I along with him) and now my daughter is peeking through them (though still not really all that interested) -- my problem with this book is once again, it is a series that is aimed towards children (even worse than the Twilight thing which was aimed at teens) -- Harry Potter is aimed at children, yet adults have gone to this crazy frenzy over them.  It's a great story for kids to read, I agree.  It's filled with adventure and allows them to use their fantastic little imaginations.  J.K. Rowling can be credited for bring a love of reading back to our children.  Yay.  I'm happy for that, really I am!  I'm not happy about the grown adults wearing Witch hats and walking around talking to "muggles" and such (unless it's Halloween, that's just freak-O-rama, people!)


So after blowing a little steam on my Facebook Fanpage one of my followers asked me what type of books I do like.  I mean, reading my thoughts so far, you would think that I am a book burning freak...dancing around piles of flaming books and giggling with glee.

Sorry to disappoint folks!

I have nothing against children's books, by the way...I'll be the first to pick up The Cat in the Hat or Mud Puddle or Brown Bear, Brown Bear  -- the thing is -- I don't get my kicks out of reading these things.  Sure, I freely admit to loving both Dr. Seuss and Robert Munsch, but I don't read their books during my own personal reading time.


I like books.  I like books that move my heart or stimulate my brain - or better yet, both.  I loved, loved, LOVED "The Time Traveler's Wife" this book was amazing.  A romance, a sci-fi, a tragedy.  There was nothing, absolutely nothing about that book that I did not enjoy.

I also really enjoyed "Fall on your Knees" - a book that took me a while to get into...so much so that I had banned it as a "bath tub book" (ie, a book that if it falls in the tub it's not that big of a loss) -- then one day in the tub, I got past the initial strangeness that starts it off, and the next thing I knew, I was halfway through and my bath water was cold.  It was very good -- creepy, sad, but good.  It's the kind of book that you either like, or don't.

I read The Kite Runner which was also very good.  Another sadly depressing book (sheesh, I read a lot of those!) but very nice all the same.

Tuesdays with Morrie an amazingly inspiring true story.  The author also wrote The Five People You Meet in Heaven which was also good.  These books are both short, sweet, and to the point.  You will need a box of tissues though for each.

There are the classics that I've read time and time again...such as Flowers for Algernon, Nineteen Eighty-Four , Jane Eyre and To Kill a Mockingbird (which some fool was trying to ban becuase it contained the word "nigger" in it...can you believe that??  A book teaching about justice and equality and how every man deserves it no matter the color of his skin??)

I like much of Stephen King and of course the classics like Shakespeare.  I enjoyed "The Kite Runner" -- there are many many books that I like.  I just don't like what much of the mainstream does.