One Reader's Ramblings

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a modern book, published in 2004, but masterfully written in the style of Jane Austen.   As anyone who has read this blog for long knows, I absolutely LOVE to read Austen.   She is one of my favorite authors.   So how is this book different?   It may have been set in Regency England and written with the same style as Austen, but it still falls into the category I typically read… Paranormal.  

There is only one way to start this post and it is to quote Ramona Quimby Age 8 :   “I can’t believe I read the whole thing!”

These books are fantastic and there are 4 main reasons that I want to touch on to back this up.

So there is a reason that Peeves in Harry Potter has the name that he does.   He strikes at the most inopportune times and is annoying every single time.   My pet peeve does the same.   What is it you might ask… books with cliffhangers where the next book isn’t written yet!   UGH!

I’m kinda weird when it comes to bandwagons.   Either I’m one of the first people on board and begging others to join… like I was with Harry Potter and now with the Imdalind Series .   OR I see a huge bandwagon and it turns me off… like I was for years with Twilight .   Now anyone who has read my blog at all probably knows what a huge Twilight fan I am now, so as you can see – even though I can sometimes be a hard sell, once I’m sold there is no going back!

Cormoran Strike:   Ex-military, somewhat rough around the edges, no holds barred, private detective.   New concept?   Not really.   Well written?   Absolutely.   Completely can’t-put-it-down gripping?   Ummm…  

W-O-W!   I haven’t cried this hard or long at a book since… I don’t know… maybe when Dobby died.  

I was recommended a book (series actually).   And as you may remember I don’t typically read the books someone recommends.   Part of the reason is an irrational fear that if my assessment differs from theirs they will be offended, the other part being I just like to find my own stuff.   I broke my own rule this time for 2 reasons:   #1 is that the person recommending it was SO passionate about how great it is and told me enough to get me really interested without giving away any of the plot.   #2 is that the person recommending them has such similar tastes to me that I genuinely felt that this must be great.   

I’ve heard Andy Warhol quoted as saying “I never read, I just look at pictures.”   From what I can tell Andy Warhol was quite an… shall we say “interesting”… person, but I have to say I like this quote.   As a proclaimed avid reader, and someone who writes a blog about reading it might at first seem a little counterintuitive to think that I would not only like, but agree with this quote.   You might think something like this would offend me, after all, I do spend much of my life buried in books.   Here’s where I think maybe I interpret this a little deeper than he meant it (after all he also claimed to be a “…deeply superficial person.”)   

The other day someone mentioned Divergent to me and even though I have read it before, I had to rush out and look at it again.   It’s a good book and within minutes I was re-sucked into it.   

I know I don’t normally talk about movies on this blog but a scene from this movie got me thinking about the way I view books.   The movie is Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio.   The scene is when Cobb (DiCaprio) is teaching Ariaden (Ellen Page) about being an architect in the mind.   He shows her how to build amazing scenes and she then takes them and twists them to do all sorts of impossible, mind-bending scenarios.   

I decided to make this post a letter to the author, and hope you may enjoy listening in.   Oh, and I do like to pretend that I know J.K. Rowling personally, and I have heard that her friends call her “Jo” so here goes…

Preface:   This ONLY deals with the books!   I don’t like the Twilight movies (especially Kristin Stewart) any more than any of you. Why must Harry Potter fans always make fun of Twilight ?   I get that they teach very different stories. “ Harry Potter is all about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity…” but I would have to say that Twilight is about much more than “…how important it is to have a boyfriend.”   (quote by Andrew Futral btw- not Stephen King)