HappyStarr, I *so* sympathise with you. I can't go to downtown Los Angeles without getting hopelessly lost at LEAST twice. Several times trying to head back home I've been unpleasantly surprised to find myself having gone a few miles in the wrong direction, towards The Bad Part of Town.

yaa....I really dislike going in that area. Traffic is horrible and the roads are confusing. I haven't even heard many people say they enjoy living there. XD It's a total mess, and it's entirely their fault for not allowing any sort of expansion. So now we're stuck with somewhere around a million people in this one little area...T_T

@Guivre: A Lion Among Men is actually the third installment in the Wicked series. I mean, I haven't read it yet, but I'm not sure how well it would read as a standalone volume.

@Iltu: Hmmm, I had no trouble reading it. xD But I'm reading all three in a row, which makes it a little easier. The problem, or not- depending on your perspective- with Maguire's books(or at least the Wicked series), is that they're so complex. Some of the stuff in Wicked only really made sense now, reading it for the second time.


And as for traveling in the city, I use the subway system, and print maps out from Google before I go. I don't get too lost that way.

Well, I can use the Subway for going to into D.C. But this is the tightly knit county city. I tried using printed directions, but they always give the "take a left" where no lefts are permitted. T_T Never in my life do I intend on driving into D.C., though. Not unless it's an emergency.

wow, there's mermaid melody manga?! wow @[email protected]

dam, this forum is going fast @[email protected] one day and 2 pages has already gone by @[email protected]

Thanks so much, Knerd! *gets to fixin' up her list so she can post it*

Riskia- I started reading it right after I read Wicked, which I enjoyed, but I just didn't get into Son of a Witch. :/ I read the first chapter or two and just wasn't drawn in at all- I don't even remotely recall what happened! I do intend to reread Wicked in the next few years though, and see what more I can get out of it. It's the kind of book that needs to be read a few times to really pick up on everything. I plan to give Son of a Witch a chance after I get around to Wicked again. I usually go by the 'if I don't like the book, the book/author does not get another chance!' rule because there's so much to read out there, but some authors and books get exceptions.

Just got yet another manga from the library...at least this time it's only one! :XD

What manga, Taiyo?

D. Gray-man (vol. 15)

Finally, back in action!

Iltu's Book List

1.) Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams - 324 pages - Completed on 12/29/09
2.) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins - 625 pages - Completed on 12/30/09
3.) Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams - 264 pages - Completed on 1/2/10
4.) Dragon's Son by Sarah L. Thomson - 181 pages - Completed on 1/3/10
5.) A Big Little Life by Dean Koontz - 271 pages - Completed on 1/4/10
6.) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - 307 pages - Completed on 1/5/10
7.) Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King - 330 pages - Completed on 1/8/10
8.) Nation by Terry Pratchett - 367 pages - Completed on1/11/10
9.) The Sleeping Beauty Proposal - by Sarah Strohmeyer - 307 pages - Completed on 1/13/10
10.) Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey - 320 pages - Completed on 1/15/10
11.) The Once and Future King by T.H. White - 677 pages - Completed on 2/8/10
12.) Crashed by Robin Wasserman – 440 pages – N/A
13.) Princess by Jean P. Sasson – 270 pages – N/A
14.) A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore – 405 pages – N/A
15.) The Husband by Dean Koontz – 416 pages – N/A
16.) The Good Guy by Dean Koontz – 400 – N/A
17.) Way of the Shadows by Brent Weeks – 688 pages – N/A
18.) Shadow’s Edge by Brent Weeks – 656 pages – N/A
19.) Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks – 720 pages – N/A
20.) The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones – 224 pages – N/A
21.) A Summer of Kings by Han Nolan – 353 pages - N/A
22.) The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald – 180 pages – N/A
23.) The Road by Cormac McCarthy – 304 pages – N/A
24.) The Help by Kathryn Stocket - 464 pages - N/A
25.) Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead – 489 pages – N/A
26.) Succubus Shadows by Richelle Mead – 281 pages – N/A
27.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – 309 pages – Completed on 6/26/2010
28.) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - 113 pages - N/A
29.) The Sacrifice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - 660 pages - Completed on 7/8/2010
30.) Alice Through the Looking Glass & What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll - 118 pages - N/A
31.) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling - 341 pages - Completed on 7/8/10
32.) Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll - 203 pages - Completed on N/A
33.) The Changeling by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - 611 pages - N/A
34.) Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - 215 pages - N/A
35.) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling - 435 pages - N/A
36.) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - 521 pages - Completed on 8/6/10
37.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling - 734 pages - Completed on 8/7/10
38.) The Rival by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - 579 pages - Completed on 8/10/10
39.) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein - 305 pages - Completed on 8/11/10
40.) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling - 870 pages - Completed on 8/27/10
41.) A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway - 332 pages - Completed on 9/28/10
42.) Shadow Dragons by James A. Owen - 417 pages - Completed on 9/28/10
43.) The Stranger by Albert Camus - 123 pages - Completed on 10/11/10
44.) A Doll's House by Henrik Isben - 76 pages - N/A
45.) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling - 652 pages - Completed on 11/9/10
46.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - 759 pages - Completed on 11/11/10
47.) The Awakening by Kate Chopin - 157 pages - Completed on 11/12/10
48.) Brother Odd by Dean Koontz - 364 pages - N/A
49.) Sylvie and Bruno Concluded by Lewis Carroll - 210 pages - N/A
50.) Bite Me by Christopher Moore - 320 pages - N/A

Total Books Read: 50/100
Total Page Count: 19,513
Books Read Based On Page Count: 65/100

Date Started: 12/13/09 (post came late!)

hah hah, I know what you mean XD I don't take out that many books now, but a few years ago, I took out about 40 manga at once because they all came at the same time XD and a few hard covers on the side because they were so good that I didn't want to leave them there v.v that was the week that I read about 7-8 manga per day on a school day and 10-12 on a saturday or sunday XD I more or less dropped everything to read them all XD

Just added another book to my list - For The Win - it's Cory Doctorow's newest YA/ teen novel and it was really good! (Although not as good or at least it didn't hit as close to home for me as Litte Brother did)

I downloaded it as a PDF and read it on my downtime at work (of which there is very little anymore :cry: )

Anyone else read this?

Not I, Siaasgn. D= I should just quote myself saying that. ._. So many book choices out there, never enough time to see everything.

I just started reading Truth by Peter Temple. It's a gritty mystery set in Australia (naturally) that is winning awards and getting rave reviews. It supposedly has a big twist toward the end, so I thought I should read it before I see a spoiler somewhere. (I promise I won't spoil it, either!) I'm about 100 pages into it, and it's very good so far. A very efficient writing style, no chaff to be seen anywhere. Which is very much appreciated as, though I like mysteries well enough it's not my fave genre.

Have updated my list with stuff I've read -- I'm adding articles and bits of books, because those are, after all, pages, right?

Also added page counts for some of the books, and better bibliographical information. I'm cheating just a bit with page counts, including all the way to the index as part of the page numbering, but I do often look through indices, and almost always read carefully through bibliographies. So it's not really cheating.

Finally read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland! ...And was kind of disappointed. I thought I'd like it way more than I did... I do love Carroll's writing style though, it's among my favorites.
Not adding that book to my list yet, though. It's in a big complete works of Lewis Carroll omnibus, so I figure I'll read the whole thing and count it as one book.

Just popping in to wish everyone good reading over the holiday!

Thanks Roxxxy... you too!

@Sesshys: I sort of knew Cassandra Clare when she was in the HP fandom so many years ago -- have you read her Harry Potter fanfic? I believe it's under the name Cassandra Claire, a slightly changed spelling. Actually, I just googled to find out, and she's taken it all down, probably after the whole plagiarism wank. (I have no opinion on it, but it's clear she was heavily influenced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other popular TV/fiction at the time.) Pity, because a lot of it was totally hilarious. I haven't read her printed books, though I did like her writing style in fanfic.

@anime: I had never even heard of her until I randomly picked up City of Bones at the bookstore. It would have been nice to read her Harry Potter fanfic, but oh well! She has a really great sense of humor and shows it a lot in the Mortal Instruments :P

Actually if you poke around a bit you can find someone who's archived the PDFs. I won't link it here as I don't think it's entirely okay, but you can find it through Google. It's called "The Draco Trilogy" by Cassandra Claire.

Arighty, thanks very much I will! ^_^

Is there anyone here who kept up with the Wheel of Time series?

LOL I wanted to. I read the first one....and then my mom could find all of her books EXCEPT the second. So I was like ".............well, then....I guess I'll just have to wait. Oh. Darn." I don't think my mom's kept up, either. There were just too many. I seriously want to get back to reading those, though. First one was pretty good. >.>

It just occurred to me that although I've posted my reading list in various places on the web, I haven't actually posted it this thread! What have I been thinking?!

Anyway, here it is, in all of it's too-long glory!


1. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffery
2. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
3. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
4. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
5. Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Cheek by Jowl by Ursula K. Le Guin
7. Searoad by Ursula K. Le Guin
8. Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
9. Malafrena by Ursula K. Le Guin
10. Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
11. Dancing at the Edge of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin
12. The Wave in the Mind by Ursula K. Le Guin
13. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
14. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
15. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
16. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
17. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
18. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
19. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
20. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
21. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
22. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
23. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
24. The Picture of Dorain Gray by Oscar Wilde
25. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
26. Seduction of the Minotaur by Anaïs Nin
27. Stewart Little by E.B.White
28. Buddha Da by Anne Donovan
29. By Way of Water by Charlotte Gullick
30. World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler
31. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
32. The Autobiography of Alice Tolkas by Gertrude Stein
33. The Rebel by Albert Camus
34. Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov
35. Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank
36. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
37. Black Boy by Richard Wright
38. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Key Kesey
39. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
40. Maia by Richard Adams
41. Shardik by Richard Adams
42. Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams
43. The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce
44. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
45. Utopia by Thomas Moore
46. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
47. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
48. The Postman by David Brin
49. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
50. Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
51. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
52. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
53. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
54. Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
55. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
56. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
57. Nausea by Jean Paul Sarte
58. Jaguars and Electric Eels by Alexander Von Humboldt
59. Forbidden Fruit - From the Letters of Abelard and Heloise
60. The Bizenghast Series by Alice LeGrow
61. Screw Heaven, When I Die I’m Going To Mars by Shannon Wheeler
62. On Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
63. Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson
64. The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
65. The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan
66. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
67. What To Eat by Marion Nestle
68. Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail
69. The Party's Over by Richard Heinburg
70. Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein
71. The New Utopian Politics of The Dispossessed edited by Laurence Davis
72. Unspeak by Steven Poole
73. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
74. Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies by June Casagrande
75. The World’s Great Speeches edited by Lewis Copeland, Etc.
76. Time Travel in Einstein's Universe by J. Richard Gott
77. The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
78. We by Robert A. Johnson
79. Ecstasy by Robert A. Johnson
80. The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock
81. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay
82. Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch
83. The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell
84. Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung
85. Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego by Sigmund Freud
86. The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd
87. Shyness by Philip Zimbardo
88. Existentialism edited by Walter Kaufmann
89. The Foundation of Empirical Knowledge by A.J. Ayer
90. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Neitzshche
91. The Blue and Brown Books by Ludwig Wittgenstein
92. The Varieties of Religious Experience By William James
93. Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard
94. Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant
95. The City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan
96. On The Pleasure of Hating by William Hazlitt
97. Habit by William James
98. Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle
99. The Book of the Law by Alestor Crowley
100. The Holy Bible