Day 13

Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)

I wrote a lot about childhood books on this blog already so I will tell you what my favorite young adult book is.

This book is really my favorite YA book because it tells the story of Meggie, a young girl and her father. Both are so huge book freaks and every chapter starts with a short citation of a book. That’s so cool.

The book I am talking about is Cornelia Funke’s book “Inkheart”. It is a wonderful, fantastic book about Meggie and her father Mo. Mo has a special gift; he can read things out of books. But for everything he reads out of a book one thing from the real world gets into it. That is how he read out Capricorn, an evil man from Inkheart and in exchange his wife and Meggie’s mum Resa went into the book.

All his life Moe wanted to find a copy of Inkheart and try to read Resa out of it again but he never had any luck.

One day Mo gets warned that Capricorn is looking for him and his ability to read things out of books and Mo and Meggie flee to Elinor, Resa’s aunt. She is an old single woman who only has her book as company and doesn’t like kids which Meggie experiences firsthand. But Meggie kind of wins her heart because of her resemblance with Resa and her enthusiasm for books.

In the end, as it must be, Capricorn’s men find Mo and take him to Capricorn and the whole story gets really thrilling and fascinating.

“Inkheart” is the first book of a trilogy which also contains the books “Inkspell” and “Inkdeath” which are highly recommendable as well.

There is also a film with Brendan Fraser as Mo, Eliza Bennett as Meggie and Helen Mirren as aunt Elinor, which sticks rather closely to the original book and is worth watching.

Day 12

Day 12 - A book or series of books you’ve read more than five times

At first I thought this would be easy to answer but when considering that I already chose three of my all time favorite books which I read more than five times it seemed harder to answer.

After some minutes in front of my bookshelf I came up with another book I read more than five times. It is a wonderful children’s book – “Pippi Longstocking” by Astrid Lindgren. When I was a child I wasn’t that fond of it but as a teenager I learned to love this little, ultra-strong girl who lives all by herself in a large house with a monkey and a horse as company.

I think that everyone should read “Pippi Longstocking” at least once in his or her life – I can really recommend it.

Day 11

Day 11 - A book that disappointed you

A book that really disappointed me was Alexander McCall Smith’s “44 Scotland Street”. Maybe my expectance was too high but I found it uninteresting and boring and I quit reading it after five or six chapters, which is so untypical for me.

I cannot really pin down why I didn’t like this book. Normally I try to read a book which seems not perfect the first time a second time just to be sure. Sometimes I start books which seem perfect and it is just not the right time to read them. The book(s) I am reading tell a lot about my emotions and my overall mood at the moment. So it happens from time to time that the books I start don’t fit my momentary mood and I put it away read another one and return to the not finished book sometime later. But with “44 Scotland Street” it was different. I never touched it again and I am still, after four years, not in the mood to give it a second try.

Day 10

Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

For today’s category I know more than one book.

My first idea was that “Eat Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert fits this description perfectly but I wrote about it on this blog before. So I picked another book. 

It is Anne Fortier’s “Juliet”.

I bought this book because the story takes place in Siena, Tuscany and I love Tuscany. My personal dream would be to have a house there someday. That’s how much I love it. I am one of these people who don’t need a house for a perfect life. It is just not in my life plan. But a house in Tuscany is something different.

It tells the story about Julie Jacob, a young American woman who is faced by the death of her grandmother, who raised her and her sisters after the parent’s death. She discovers that her true name given to her by her paretns is Giulietta. She decides to travel to Italy to discover her mother’s secret. She discovers that she is a family member of the Tolomei’s who is one of the two rivalling families in Siena. The other family are the Salembeni. While travelling through Tuscany and following different clues towards her mother’s secret she is accompanied by Alessandro, a young man who is a Salimbeni. 

The whole story has kind of a spooky character around it and so I wasn’t sure if I would like it but it is a wonderful story and so nice to read.

Especially if you were to Tuscany before and know how the landscape looks and that the places described in the book exist for real. 

Day 9

Day 09 - Best scene ever

Today’s question is an easy one to answer – strange but true.

The best scene ever is from Terry Pratchett’s fantasy novel “Wyrd Sisters”. It is the one where the three witches go to watch a play at the castle. Those three witches are so fantastic characters. They are soooo funny and really entertaining.

The oldest of the three, Granny Weatherwax, lives alone in the woods and has hardly any contact to other people except her coven which only consist of Nanny Ogg and Margrat Garlick, the other two witches. Nanny Ogg in contrasts lives in the middle of Lancre town and loves to drink and party while Margrat is kind of shy and has a slight esoteric touch.   

Granny can’t deal with the idea of a play. She isn’t able to accept that the actors are performing a play and that they do not desire interaction with the crowd. She talks loudly to Nanny Ogg about what she sees on stage and that she cannot understand why the actor who plays the king doesn’t see his enemy hiding behind the bushes and such.

This whole book is wonderfully written and so entertaining. Really worth reading and I am so thankful that Bernd, a friend of my family, introduced me to Terry Pratchett’s novels. Without him I would never have discovered this wonderful Discworld series.

Day 8

Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once

I am not sure if there is one book everyone should read. I think reading is a rather personal thing and it is important to respect everyone’s private taste in books.I know that I am reading a lot of different books from different genres but I also know that there are people out there who love to read only crime fiction or fantasy novels and nothing else.

If I have to recommend one book everyone should read at least once I would pick…Douglas Adams' “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

It contains so many known citations and funny episodes that I truly think everyone should read it just to know if this is a book worth discussing. There always was a mega-hype about this book and when the film came out I bought the book read it and after that went to the movies. The film was nothing like the book…again. I know that Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker could be a standard pick with this question but I think, when there is a book so many people talk about years after its publication and years after the author’s death than it is a book worth reading just for the sake of knowing it.

Day 6

Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time

I am one of those people who tend to read series. I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books and English crime series.

Well light crime series is, I think, the better word. I love Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels, JoAnna Carl’s Chocoholic Mysteries, Cleo Coyle’s Coffee House Mysteries and of Anne George’s Southern Sisters series.

When I have to pick my favourite series it gets difficult. I would have to choose between the Stephanie Plum novels which I really really love and the Chocoholic Mysteries which make my mouth water every time I read one.

Okay, I will choose the Stephanie Plum series.

Janet Evanovich’s novels tell the story of bounty hunter Stephanie Plum who lives in Trenton, New Jersey and has to deal with FTA’s, her pressurizing mother who wants her to marry, her gun-loving and rather weird grandmother, her love for Trenton’s most handsome cop Joe Morelli, her partner Lula, a former hooker and the guy who always helps her out of all her troubles - mostly job related - Ranger.  They are so full of wit and are so much fun to read. Wonderful for people with vivid imagination – Joe Morelli seems like a guy to dream about.

My most favorite book of these is definitely…well what the hell, I can’t decide. They are all worth reading. Wonderful series and be careful where you read them because sometimes one most laugh out loud and it gets really embarrassing when it happens in full lecture halls or somewhere similar.