What I Like About a Book

Since I can't come up with anything to write about, I'll go to my default topic: reading. If you know me, you know that whenever I don't have anything thing to talk about I always ask about how your classes are going and what books you're reading. I guess it's just my little thing.

Last night I was thinking about what I liked about books. My first thought was to wonder about the kinds of books I've been reading lately. I've recently changed my favorite author from JRR Tolkien to David Eddings. If you haven't heard of them, they're both fantasy writers that came around in about the same period, though Eddings was a little later. On reason I love his books are because he adds in a lot of dry humor. I love when people can really use sarcasm, and it isn't just mean. Lots of contemporary books have sarcasm, but it is never quite as funny because you feel guilty because it was really a rude remark. Another reason I love Eddings is his books are very well written. The books don't seem choppy or stilted at all. I hate reading books that don't seem to flow easily. Books should be written so that every sentence builds on the others and go logically together. Eddings does a very good job at that, and it makes you get really sucked into his books. He's also a fantasy author, which is one of the biggest perks of all.

I love fantasy books. I'm not quite sure why. I hear some people talking about how they don't like them. In October Sky, there was a part where Sonny (the main character, if by some chance you aren't reading the book) says that he loved books about space as long as they don't go into fantasy. He said that he didn't like people who could do magic or lived in a strange land. I do!! I think that it may be my escape from reality. When I was younger, I used to pretend that I was a fairy princess, and all that other stuff little girls do. It's kind of been a continuation of that. I also love that the people in them have to come up with answers to things that we wouldn't normally be faced with. I mean, how often do you have to figure out how to get a giant ship up a cliff, before the evil priests catch up to you?? I love that in lots of the fantasy books they have an old, wise man with a sense of humor. He usually turns into my favorite character. One problem with fantasy, though, is that all of the plots tend to moderately resemble each other. One time, I made a list of all of the similarities in a couple different fantasy series. It was almost two pages long! I'm sure now that I could make it even longer, seeing as I'd get some of the more subtle things, now. There's a lot of stuff in books that I'm sure I didn't used to catch.

Another thing I realized is: I love classical books. They are so well written and I love the style of them. I liked that they're old fashioned and that they use big words. I also love the deeper meanings that the books have, that it seems is being left out more and more in today's books. One of my favorite authors is Jane Austen. I read Pride and Prejudice last year, and now I know why so many people enjoy it. I love that even though all of the girls are so strong-willed, smart, and independent, that they still fall for a guy. It has a great story in it, and even though the first third of it is really hard to read, just keep going, because you'll end up loving it. I also read Dracula recently. That is a very disturbing book. It scared me for than any book I've ever read. It's very sad at parts, but I loved that it ended moderatly happy. It also has a smart guy in it who does a good job at thinking logically.

I don't like books with really sad endings. I'm okay if the book is sad, throughout, but it must end happily. I know that is very unlike real life, but I don't want to know that the character I've been following is really going to have to sacrifice themselves, even if it is for the greater good. I want everyone to live!! In a book I read, I had really liked it, until the end, when the author needlessly killed two of the three main characters! I couldn't get over it for days. Why would you want to kill someone, who's death was completely crucial to the plot??!! My favorite is when someone you think is dead, really isn't. Those are the best endings, when they come back and save the day.

Well, I hope that this hasn't completely put you to sleep, but has given you a small incite into my thought on books.