My Summer Reading (And what it consisted of...)

Hello folks! As you can see, I haven't updated at all since June. Sad... I know. The sadder fact is all I've been reading since June is fan fiction. Harry Potter fan fiction. More specifically, Draco/Hermione fan fiction. I'm not even ashamed, I love it all so much. So I counted up all the ~20+ chapter-ed fan fictions I read over the summer and it ended up totaling 1/week! Awesome, yeah? I know I read more than 14 but some were only a chapter or three long.

My thoughts on all this Dramione? LOVE IT! So glad I took the time to read them and am very proud to be part of such an awesome fanbase. The fic that got me started was Isolation by bex-chan. It's a writing in progress though, so while I was waiting for new chapters, I read her other fic, Hunted and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. I need, no, CRAVED more Dramione. So I started searching for highly recommended ones. You can see the titles of all the fics I read in my Books section - I'll probably even link them up there soon. I recommend all the ones I read (though the ending of some did bug me A LOT.)

I'm back to reading normal book now though. To start off, I just finished The Hunger Games and WOW. I loved every single word. By the time I got halfway through the book, I couldn't put it down. I can't wait for my next paycheck so I can read Catching Fire but until then, I'll be reading a short Agatha Christie novel and possibly something else.

What I loved about The Hunger Games:

• It scared me
• I was constantly nervous
• The imagery
• People from the Capital (dressing weird and dyeing their skin! what!)
• Katniss = BADASS
• RUE!
• How 1984 it felt - with the Axon girl being tortured and stuff for being a traitor, etc. 

What I didn't love:

• Katniss not realizing Peeta's true feelings
• Nothing else
• I don't have the second book

Anyways, until next time,

Happy Reading!! xox

Amanda

OH MY...

Alright, alright, I know I suck at this!

Let's see.... I finished reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and I've began reading the Harry Potter series... again. So far I've just gotten to The Chamber of Secrets. I'll probably speed it up a bit so that I can finish the seventh book by the time the movie comes out! Which, by the way, I will probably be camping out for starting the WEDNESDAY before! Hahahaha. I'll be in Green Bay with some old friends of mine that are all HP nerds. I'm excited!!

Here's the deal

I promise I've been reading. Just not as much as I could be. Neopets is getting in the way....

I have two books I'm in the middle of, The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Journey In Search of the Way. Malcolm X I read most of but I didn't need to read the whole book for class so I'm going to 'officially' finish it instead. Journey is really annoying and I don't really want to finish reading it but I guess I will since I'm almost done. There's also a short story I have to read for class that I want to get out of the way before I return my book.

The great news is, I bought five new books yesterday (which are all American classics!). For the summer, I have this awesome vision of me laying in the sun, reading all day and then drinking all night. (= Some of the books I bought include I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Slaughterhouse Five, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. I'm also going to scour the local library for The Hunger Games because I really really really want to read that series.

Oh yeah, I'll be rereading the entire Harry Potter series starting... uhm... Thursday. I have about two months to finish the series (for the hundredth time) before the final movie comes out!  I have about uh... FIFTY SEVEN days to do this. OMG (freak out, my childhood is ENDING) Pretty sure I can do it though. When the seventh book first came out, I read it in 25 HOURS. I am prepared. (:

Oh Heyyyya

I finished Jane Eyre and Things Fall Apart today! Whooop! I'm so happy I finished them!

I really loved Jane Eyre. Some parts were really predictable but the ending really surprised me! The most predictable part for me was when Jane was at Moor House and Diana, St. John, and Mary find out that their uncle passed away. Right away I was like, "JANE IS RELATED TO YOUUUU!" And then they were. Booyah.

I don't really know if I liked Things Fall Apart. So I don't really know what to say about it.

Ida B. Wells

I have finally finished another book. This one is more biographical, historical but in all a good book (for those that like that sort of thing.) Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race by (insert first name here) Davidson. Davidson did a good job on tying in Ida's life with what was going on in the South as she grew up. Now, I had to read this book for a class and it definitely wasn't something I'd pick up on my own, but I'm very glad I read it.

Other books to be finishing soon - Jane Eyre, Things Fall Apart, and Their Eyes Were Watching God. They should all be finished by Wednesday hopefully. (Yes, these are all for classes too. And there's another five or six that I still have to read for classes so just bear with me. Once summer hits, I'm going all out and read as many books that I want to read as possible.)

Busy

Honestly, I'm only a week behind with the number of books I should have read by now. I just need to finish some of the books first. I'm still reading Tuesday's With Morrie along with Salvation on Sand Mountain, They Say, and Jane Eyre. Yeah, I'm pretty busy this semester. I'll definitely be able to keep up with the books since I have about nine more to read for my classes.

I also recently bought five more books (they were really cheap, I couldn't help it!) I purchased two books at Target... The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and some other classic, I can't remember. They were only $2.50 each! I almost bought Frankenstein but I really don't want to read it. I've heard such horrible things. I also bought Life of Pi, A Million Little Pieces, and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down from Goodwill, about six bucks all together.

Anyways, I've actually already finished Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington and I really liked it. It's about a journalist that goes to Alabama to report on an attempted murder. A man had apparently tried to murder his wife by making her put her hand in a cage full of rattlesnakes. While Dennis is down there, he finds out that the husband and wife were part of a church which handled snakes as part of worship. Dennis ends up going to some of their services... lasting about two years. He travels throughout the South, hitting areas in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. Throughout his journey, he finds more about himself, his family, and his faith. The biggest struggle throughout the book is that Dennis is an outsider in a place where outsiders are unwelcome. Some members of the church don't act like it, but others flat out tell him he shouldn't be there. Not until the very end does Dennis realize that he has different world views than the people he's been worshiping with and decides that it's time for him to leave the snake handler society.

Throughout the book, I knew Dennis was never like the rest of the snake handlers, even after handling a snake himself. It was mainly because of the way his family functioned versus the way the snake handlers families were. In the snake handlers view, women were, to put it easily, to be seen and not heard. They weren't to do the things that men did, like cut their hair or wear pants. It was when Dennis said that women should be spreading the word of God that the regular male members saw that he truly couldn't become part of them. Dennis saw it too. Some of the women in the snake handlers circle liked that idea though, and wanted to spread the word of God. I was grateful that they at least listened to him because the men didn't seem to hear a damned thing and just twiddled their thumbs.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. I have to write a paper about the book now. When I finish one of my other three books, I'll post again! 'Til then, au revoir!

Peter Pan; 2

Although I've been taking this project slower than intended, I'd just like to say that I have three chapters left of Peter Pan and I will most certainly finish it tomorrow. I've also decided to read Tuesday's with Morrie by Mitch Albom next because it's short and I'll probably be able to finish it in three days. That'll catch me up quicker and I'll be on book three by Tuesday, I'm hoping.

That said, back to Peter Pan!

The Mermaid's Lagoon was probably the best chapter ever. I really enjoyed reading it and I was sad that it was over so fast. It also confused me for a second... because it went so fast.

EDIT: I finished the book (:

I almost cried at the end! I wish Peter would have come back for Wendy more often. But that's Peter for ya.

Okay, I'm starting Tuesday's with Morrie tonight and will finish it tomorrow, I promise!

Do you think I should include books that I have to read for class in my blog? I have about four books to read for Religious Studies and probably some more for my English classes. I need feedback!