Zombie-fighting ninja-librarian: July rewind

June was a spectacular month, I read A LOT. I didn’t blog much, but I read so much because I had NOTHING else to do. I was so bored and thus read a lot. I had planned to read a lot in July as well. I didn’t though. I sucked. Suddenly I had to work and even though I usually read in my breaks I couldn’t concentrate. So yeah.

What I did read though made me all happy and fluffy inside.

I read A Feast For Crows by George. R. R. Martin in the Song of Ice and Fire series. For a while I was a bit annoyed because I love Tyrion and Dany, and where the frak are they? Then my friend, who’d already read it, said that the fifth book happens at the same time with the other half of characters. I would have known this if I’d read ahead, but I don’t do that. I did like the book though. People say it’s the one that they like the least, but I like it. I like a lot of the new characters, especially the people in Dorne. Why does George R. R. Martin gotta introduce people, make me like them and then kill them off? I love Arianne Martell, and her whole family. The Sand Snakes are awesome. They are very much their father’s daughters and I want more of them. I found Doran annoying until the end pretty much. He comes back and just wins it at the end for me.

I love Cercei. I mean she’s a bitch, and she is way too arrogant, and she’s paranoid and drunk on her power and you just want someone to take her down a notch. I mean I like that she’s a woman who takes the power, but good lord she needs to listen to good advice when it comes around.

I like to learn more about different parts of Westeros, it’s really fascinating. I like Dorne, I also quite like Braavos and Arya’s storyline. I mean she’s freaking me out but I like her.

In conclusion I give the book a thumbs up. I loved it and I can’t wait to read the fifth book to find out what the rest are up to.

As I said I would I also read the Subtle Knife in the His Dark Materials trilogy. I love this book, I like Will’s story, I like that we get more Lee Scoresby and more of the witches. They really fascinate me. I also love Mary Malone. I think she’s a really interesting character.

I did find something that annoyed me though and I didn’t think about it the last time I read the book. When Lyra is in her own Oxford she is extremely resourceful. She takes charge and she pretty much rules her friends. She knows where to go and what to do. The second Lyra meets Will she starts deferring to her, and it really annoyed me. I realize that a lot of the time they are in Will’s world and he knows it better than Lyra. Will has also had to be a grown-up and Lyra has always had grown-ups around her to feed her and clothe her, so she doesn’t know some things. But I feel like Philip Pullman takes away a lot of Lyra when she’s around Will. When Lyra is alone in Will’s world she manages fine. When she goes and sees Mary Malone by herself she is in complete control and she tells Mary how to find answers and what to do. She goes back to the Lyra she is in her own Oxford when she goes away from Will.

I know that she is supposed to help Will find his father, but that doesn’t mean she needs to act like an idiot. It takes away from her character and it annoys the hell out of me that such a strong, tough girl suddenly becomes so deferential to a boy when she has spent most of her childhood bossing boys around. I don’t know if I should let it bug me, but I think it should. Will is the Adam to Lyra’s Eve and Pullman is turning them into the Adam and Eve of the Bible where Eve defers to Adam and it is so not right.

I love the book, because I like the story and the plot and the secondary characters so it gets a thumbs up, it just could be better. I LOVE LYRA. Don’t make her that way please Philip, make her better in the last book.

Then I was supposed to read some stuff, but didn't, cause my sister and I went on a major Harry Potter movie-binge. We watched all of them over like 4, or 6, I think 6, days. And then I bought all of the books so I have them all in the same format and with the matching covers, they’re awesome. I then decided to read the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, just start in the middle, that’s normal. I think it’s my favorite HP-book, I don’t know exactly why. It’s long, which is good. We get to meet Satan’s wife, a.k.a. Umbridge. McGonagall and Dumbeldore get to be awesome. Fred and George are fun. Harry grows up and Hermione becomes so badass and brave and I remember why I love her. We also meet Luna for the first time.

Luna Lovegood is easily my favorite Harry Potter character. She’s weird and smart and funny. She’s also intelligent and fierce and a loyal friend and she fights for what’s right and I love her. There should always be Luna Lovegood.

If you haven’t read the Order of the Phoenix Harry starts his fifth year at Hogwarts after spending half of his summer angry that his friends haven’t been in proper contact for a month. He doesn’t know anything, he gets attacked by Dementors and most people don’t believe in him. He then goes to London to the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, who are trying to fight Voldemort. They stay there the rest of the summer, then go back to school and we meet Umbridge, their new teacher. She insists on not teaching them anything they could actually use, and Voldemort looms ever closer. It’s a good book.

I never get tired of rereading the books if only to see the continuity-genius of J.K. Rowling. She’s so fantastic. I think there is one thing in the seventh book that doesn’t make sense, but reading the books again you pick up on stuff you didn’t notice before. I’m a major Potterhead.

Yeah. That’s pretty much all I read in July, but in fairness two of them were beasts. I’ll probably use a lot of August to read the stuff I should have read, but didn’t read. I have started one of them. Yeah. We’ll see what happens.