A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Part I: Initial Reactions)

I can't believe this day has come. Finally. I have come to choose only one... A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is my number one favorite book ever!!!! It's official. I've found it. I've never really had a favorite book before, because I can never decide which I like best. In other words, this is big for me. 'How much did I love it?' you ask. I loved it this much...

A typical page in my personal copy of the book.

Yeah, you know a book's good when you write in it this much... or maybe it's just really difficult. I suppose A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was both.

I plan on doing at least one more post about the book. A review for sure. Maybe some favorite quotes as well. I guess we'll see how much free time I'll have the next couple days.

I suggest you order it from Amazon.com immediately.

Sorry to sidetrack, but the quote of the moment (from Catcher in the Rye) has been up the majority of March. My apologies. I've been meaning to change it. I really love that quote.

The Cover Art is Here!!!

The last big Harry Potter news story is here! The cover art for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has arrived. It's so exciting. Not only are there pictures to go along with my future book, but there's also the summery on the inside cover. It's a little more information than I wanted this early, but whatever. I can't keep pretending it's never going to come out. I should be emotionally preparing myself for the end. I just can't believe this is all happening so fast. :-(

U.S. Edition

U.K. Children's Edition

U.K. Adult Edition

I'll probably post any other favorites I have from other countries cover art. They're all different, which personally I think is a lot of fun. I want it now, but then I never want it to be published either. This is so depressing.

Spring Break

So, if you haven't noticed there's been some absence of book reviews lately. The Five People You Meet in Heaven was the only one all March. Not to make excuses or anything, but I just has spring break, which I spent in Florida and the last couple days practicing and performing for indoor drumline; before that I was buried in rehearsals for Seussical. To make it up to you, here's some pictures from my vacation at Walt Disney World.

I want to grow up to be just like Mickey Mouse!

:-)

The biggest banana split I've ever seen... or ate.

Peter Pan's flight is our favorite.

The most fun ever!

Home Sweet Home

Heaven in a to-go box.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. The reviews are coming. Pinky swear.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a fairly popular book, but I didn't really have very high expectations. Mainly because I was always told Tuesdays with Morrie was Mitch Albom's best. I loved Tuesdays with Morrie and surprisingly The Five People You Meet in Heaven was every bit as enjoyable. Although both books are focused on death, Tuesdays with Morrie was about dying while The Five People You Meet in Heaven was more centered on the afterlife. I felt it was more character driven, as opposed to the series of homilies Tuesdays with Morrie was composed with. I believe this has a lot to do with The Five People You Meet in Heaven being fictional, not a memoir. The book starts out with an elderly man, named Eddie, who works at a carnival. He dies at the park when one of the rollercoasters breaks down. The book then goes on to describe his experiences in heaven. We've all heard countless different interpretations of heaven, but this one was completely unique from anything I've read before. In heaven he meets five different people (hense the title) who explain to him what his life on earth meant, what made him who he was, why he chose the things he chose, who he loved most and all that jazz. The five Eddie met are be those who directly influenced his life most, and sometimes the characters were a bit of a surprise. With every person comes a neatly wrapped sermon echoing back to Tuesdays with Morrie. The Five People You Meet in Heaven puts meaning into everybody's life. It was sweet, but not cliche or unoriginal--more so creatively sentimental. And even though what Eddie was going through was like nothing I'd experienced before, but I felt right at home in his world. By the way, this book is perfect for vacations or out of town trips. I read it in two days over spring break in Florida between naps and walks. It truely is a beautiful book. Personally, I don't understand how any human could read The Five People You Meet in Heaven (or Tuesdays with Morrie) and not like it.

See more reviews or buy The Five People You Meet in Heaven at Amazon or go check out Mitch Albom's official website.

Pullman, Paolini, and Pierce Interview Podcast

This podcast is a series of short interviews with three of the most popular fantasy authors, Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials), Chirstopher Paolni (Eragon), and Tamora Pierce (Circle of Magic books). Personally , I'm not a big Paolini fan and I've never read Pierce. My main reason for subscribing to the podcast was Philip Pullman's participation. The eposodes were very short. I actually listened to all eight shows in only one or two sittings. Most interview podcasts are created with just the interviewer and the person being questioned. This one, however, was unique because all three authors discussed their answers together and further questioned eachother. This is the first and only Pullman interview I've come across so, inevitably, I found it very informative. It was a great way to be introduced to the man behind the words I read in The Golden Compass. I'm sure Paolini's and Pierce's readers would feel the same way. This interview doesn't focus on the author's personal lives, like many podcasts do. It's focussed around the writing process of the authors so if your looking for a biography, I wouldn't recommend it. If you're looking for information about how your favorite books are composed, this podcast is perfect.

The Pullman, Paolini, and Pierce Interview Podcast can be downloaded for free directly from the iTunes store. Just enter "Pullman Paolini Pierce" in the "Search iTunes Store" box.

Page H. S. @ SEGC Independence

It's been a while. Sorry. This past week is always the busiest week of the year, thanks to our high schools spring musical. Today was the last day of the show, Seussical. I play the clarinet in the orchestra. We've had endless hours of rehearsal the past two weeks. On top of that I've been occupied with winter drum line practices (See video). I'm still somewhere in the middle of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. It's a hard book. It took me an hour and a half to read about fifteen pages the other night, which is slow for any reader, particularly me, who goes through books pretty quickly. My English teacher told me it took her a whole semester of college to get through Ulysses, also written by James Joyce. Anyway, here's a video of our winter drum line performance yesterday. The video only shows me for a second or two. In case you miss it, I'm the one conducting all this.

Wikipedia, Virginia Woolf, and Lemony Snicket

I was looking up some stuff about Virgina Woolf on Wikipedia.org
and I found this in the cultural references.

"In The Reptile Room, the second novel in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, there is mention of a snake called the Virginian Wolfsnake. The only thing said about it is that it should never, ever be allowed near a typewriter."

I'm probably the only person who found this funny, but I thought I'd post about it anyway because it made me giggle. I've actually read The Reptile Room, but I wasn't familiar with Virginia Woolf at the time and didn't catch the pun.

In case you were wondering, I'm about to start reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf for my Great Books class. I'm in the middle of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (also for Great Books). It's fantastic. In the words of Molly Shannon, "I love it! I love it! I love it!" When I eventually make a list of authors I admire most, James Joyce is definitely going to be included. More on that some other time, when I've actually finished the book.

That Virginia Woolf article is actually one of the more intriguing entrees about an author I've read. She seemed to be a very interesting personality. I'm looking forward to Mrs. Dalloway. Hopefully it lives up to her biography on Wikipedia.org.