List #764: Thoughts on the Hunger Games Books, pt II

List #764: Thoughts on the Hunger Games Books, pt II (now that I've finished them)

1. Is it wrong that I thing a 'Hunger Games' video game would be really cool

2. I think the real-life video-game aspect is what makes it likeable by boys too

3. The third book was the least good. The second book got much better at the end.

4. The movies might be too intense

5. The third book moved to quickly.

List #763: Favorite China Mieville Novels

List #763: Favorite China Mieville Novels (in order)

1. The Scar

2. Perdido Street Station

3. Kraken

4. Embassytown

5. Iron Council

6. The City & The City

List #752: 5 Thoughts on The Hunger Games

List #752: 5 Thoughts on The Hunger Games

1. The first book was pretty good, and I liked the action scenes

2. The second book started out too slowly (long boring train ride). I started it last year around this time, I will finish it eventually.

3. I haven't seen the movie trailer. I will maybe see the movie.

4. It gets people reading, so that's good

5. I have a different book named "Catching Fire" that's about food.

List #751: Good Things about the Twilight Series

List #751: Good Things about the Twilight Series

1. It got a lot of non-readers to read books

2. The films have disproportionately cool bands on the sound tracks (like good enough that I bought one of the soundtracks, and songs off of a few others)

3. Nothing Else.

List #715: Favorite Lord of the Rings Characters (books)

List #715: Favorite Lord of the Rings Characters (books, from when I originally read it)

1. Legolas

2. Pippin

3. Gandalf

4. Strider

5.Galadriel

6. Tom Bombadil

7. The Sackville-Bagginses

8. Eowyn

9. Shadowfax

10. Theoden

11. Glorfindel

List #663: 5 Books I'm Going to Read (or Finish) Soon

List #663: 5 Books I'm Going to Read (or Finish) Soon

1. The Campus Trilogy (David Lodge)

2. The Magician King (Lev Grossman)

3. The Information (James Gleick)

4. The Heroes (Joe Abercrombie)

5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)

List #662: Things I Read as a Teen or Young Adult That I Didn't Like

List #662: Things I Read as a Teen or Young Adult That I Didn't Like

1. Ethan Frome (but Age of Innocence was pretty good)

2. Beloved

3. Gary Paulson (sorry Minnesota, I couldn't get through 'Dogsong' either time)

4. Slave Dancer

5. The Tortilla Curtain (sorry Carleton College New Student Week Reading... at least you picked Persepolis a few years later)

List #661: Thoughts on "The Baby Sitter's Club"

List #661: Thoughts on "The Baby Sitter's Club"

List #661: Thoughts on "The Baby Sitter's Club"

1. In the age of "Bronies", I don't feel being a BSC fan besmirches my manliness.

2. I started when book 1 came out and read the first 40 or so

3. Stacey scared me because she had Diabetes and had to take shots

4. The Super-Special about summer camp was the 2nd most influential book in making me want to go to summer camp, which despite my lingering bitterness, was pretty important to me on the whole

5. One of the most enraging interactions I've had with a colleague in my profession involved her specifically dissing the BSC as trash. I had to give the "BSC #1 was the book that hooked me on reading, and I'm here where I stand today as an 'effin' School Librarian because of that" (minus the 'effin' part) and just walk away before I had to get my gat'.

6. The graphic novelizations by Raina Telgemeier are really good.

7. I never saw any of the movies. Movies rarely live up to the books.

List #660: 5 Book Series I Enjoyed in my Youth

List #660: 5 Book Series I Enjoyed in my Youth

1. The Baby Sitters' Club

2. The Dragonlance Books (I started with the Heroes trilogy, but my all-in-one "Chronicles" is one of the best christmas presents I ever got)

3. Encyclopedia Brown

4. The Hardy Boys

5. The Lord of the Rings (was scared by the cartoon of The Hobbit in 1st grade, so I resisted it until it was forced upon me in 5th grade. Can't imagine life not having read it)

List #659: 5 Book or Reading Related Experiences of My Youth

List #659: 5 Book or Reading Related Experiences of My Youth (6th grade or younger)

1. Being told I wasn't allowed to read under a tree during open field as a camper / being laughed at by cabinmates for wanting to read before lights out (because I said that I came to camp, in part, to relax and read)

2. Winning the Read-A-Thon for my school in 3rd or 4th grade

3. Writing and making books (with wallpaper scrap covers) in 1st and 2nd grade

4. The first book I ever read alone: "Monsters Come in Many Colors" ~Kindergarten?

5. Trying to read "The Silmarillion" as a 6th grader (and needing an extra encyclopedia/compendium to 'get it.'... still one of my favorite books. Glad I challenged myself)

List #658: 5 Books That Were Important to Me as a Teen

List #658: 5 Books That Were Important to Me as a Teen

1. Catcher in the Rye (I purposely read it before it was assigned for school. I liked it less as I got older (and actually 'understood it')

2. This book of Ayn Rand quotations (because it was really useful for debate)

3. Miles Davis' Biography

4. The Drake Raft Field Trip

5. Les Miserables (because it turned into a super fun project)

List #611: Things I Remembered from the First Time I read Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

List #611: Things I Remembered from the First Time I read Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which I recently re-'read' via audiobook)

1. Characters named "Ford Prefect"

2. That '42' is the answer

3. Don't Panic

4. Don't forget your Towel

5. Dolphins saying "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"

6. Not the plot, aside from the earth getting blown up.

List #608: Books Read This Summer

List #608: Books Read This Summer

1. Born to Run

2. A Dance With Dragons

3. Embassytown

4. Power of Play

5. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (on Audiobook)

List #565: 10 Characters I like from Harry Potter (books)

List #565: 10 Characters I like from Harry Potter (books)

1. Hagrid

2. Ginny Weasley

3. Fawkes

4. Dumbledore

5. Nearly-Headless Nick

6. Dobby

7. Luna Lovegood

8. Mundungus Fletcher

9. Nicolas Flamel

10. Barty Crouch, Jr.

List #564: Harry Potter Books in Order of Favoriteness

List #564: Harry Potter Books in Order of Favoriteness

1. Goblet of Fire

2. Half-Blood Prince

3. Sorcerer's Stone

4. Prisoner of Azkaban

5. Order of the Phoenix

6. Deathly Hallows

7. Chamber of Secrets (only because it's the exact same book as Sorcerer's Stone)

Bonus: HP Movies in favoriteness order

1.Prisoner of Azkaban

2.Sorcerer's Stone

7. (tie) The Other Ones

8. Goblet of Fire

List #547: Books I Could Start next

List #547: Books I Could Start next

1. The Passage, Justin Cronin

2. Embassytown, China Mieville

3. Gathering Storm, Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan

4. Some professional development reading

5. The Omnivores Dilemma, Michael Pollan

List #546: Things I learned from reading "Born to Run"

List #546: Things I learned from reading "Born to Run"

1. Every once and awhile I do get swept up in the book that 'everybody's reading'

2. As much as the book made me think it would be awesome, I'll never be a distance runner

3. I would like to be barefoot more (some place once made me think that "shoes at all times" was a truth)

4. I want to try the foods they talk about

5. Proctor, MN is important

6. I should eat better and be nicer

7. Evolutionary Biology is cool

8. Drug Cartels are bad (and that's why drugs are bad)

List #516: Things That Made Me A Reader

List #516: Things That Made Me A Reader

1. Being read to (a lot! Thanks Mom and Dad)

2. Being taken to the public library often (Thanks, taxpayer money and city of Duluth back when you cared about libraries)

3. Being allowed to choose and order books from those Scholastic book flyers that were sent home (thanks Babysitter's Club!)

4. Being allowed to check out extra books or check out books if I had an over-due in school (thanks Elementary School librarians)

5. Getting hooked on reading series fantasy books (Thanks giving-The-Hobbit-a-Chance-when-forced-to-read-it-in-5th-grade-even-though-the-cartoon-scared-me-in-1st-grade)

6. Enjoying reference books, especially Encyclopediae (thanks Grandpa and your 'facts')

7. Not being forced to do it and only it (Thanks TV, Sports, Games, etc.)

8. Never being told what I could/should and could/should not read (Thanks to a lot of people)

9. Appreciating the value of the portability of a book (Thanks being-born-before-hand-held-videogames)

10. Car Trips (Thanks not-getting-carsick-while-reading)

List #508: Favorite Book Types

List #508: Favorite Book Types (aside from just fiction/non-fiction)

1. Comic Books

2. Year Books

3. Atlases

4. Alphabet Books

5. Books as Art / Handmade Books

6. Pop-up Books

7. Dictionaries

8. Encyclopedias

9. Cook Books

10. Bathroom Readers

List #457: Things I like about Patrick Rothfuss' "Kingkiller Chronicles"

List #457: Things I like about Patrick Rothfuss' "Kingkiller Chronicles" (200 pages in to the 2nd book)

1. The main character is a musician

2. Who spends a lot of time in the University's Library called 'The Archives'

3. The 'Magic' is well thought out and explained

4. The Story Within a Story (that is also about a storyteller) structure

5. The way characters defy cliched expectations

6. The fact that I have no idea where it's all going.