Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

One of the better books that i've read. I surprised myself a few weeks ago when i picked this book off a shelf in a small bookstore and bought it. I had been looking for a copy of Jane Eyre, but at the recommendation of my friend read this one instead.

I had tried to read a library version of the book a few months back, but found the language dry and irritating, kind of like a wrinkly great-aunt. But this time i slipped into the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy with ease and enjoyment. The style that Ms Austen writes with is unique in this day and age and, i found, refreshing.

The story itself is as much about the culture and formalities of the English countryside during the late 18th century as it is about love and loyalty to your heart. Personally, i was fascinated by all the little things that mattered hugely to the inhabitants of the Bennet estate and beyond. All of their lives are consumed with A) finding someone to marry and B) how they should appear to their neighbors. I found it amusing, ridiculous and frustrating that these families should worry so much about finding "suitable young men" and not so much about who they are as people. However, Ms. Austen writes in such a way as to make it seem acceptable, almost as if her ghost was standing over me, whispering in my ear that this was how life was lived in this time. All of the things that the characters did, worried over and obsessed about were expressed with the utmost politeness, which added a mockable, but comfortable tone to the book. It made the main characters, Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy, seem to stand out.

Pride and Prejudice is a love story about a middle class girl of 5 sisters and a high strung upper class young man, who, despite social obstacles, take actions to be with each other. Its not your typical "Romeo and Juliet", where the girl and boy are together because of youthful attraction, either, which i thought made it all the more interesting. No, the story starts with Elizabeth disliking Darcy because of his distaste for her lifestyle and the pairing of another couple: Elizabeth's sister Jane and Darcy's friend Mr. Bingley, who are falling in love. The story continues with heartbreak, and an underlying tang of pure uncomfort, but it is beautiful. One of the only books i can confidently call a "master piece".

There are two books that you must read before die, this is one of them.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights. Ugh.

After reading Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer, in which Heathcliff and Cathy are mentioned several times, a friend of mine and I decided to read Emily Bronte's novel.

Wow. What a mistake.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is set in the English country side around 1801. It is the "love" story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, two childhood friends who fall desperately and completely in love. Despite Catherine's selfishness and Heathcliff's evil, these two come against all odds to be with each other.

Or DO they???

I found this book to be atrocious, confusing and hypocritical. I don't understand how this book can be compared to the like of Romeo and Juliet, and Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. The only thing that I can possibly compliment it on is the complicated and detailed plot. (i don't know how she did it. Honestly.) To quote another book: "It's not a love story, it's a hate story." I couldn't have said it better myself, Edward.

Moving away from my dangerous obsession with the Twilight characters, Wuthering Heights is told through the perspective of a new tenant at the grounds, Mr. Lockwood. But the story itself is told TOO him from a maid named Nelly (or Ellen) who was there to witness most of Cathy and Heathcliff's lives. And boy, are they messed up.

***WARNING! I don't know if these are considered spoilers, but i do talk about everything important that happens***

Heathcliff, for instance, is just kind of found by Mr. Earnshaw, Cathy's father, and taken into the family. Cathy's older brother Hindley, hates him because Heathcliff is treated the "favorite" by Mr. Earnshaw. As children, Cathy is a bratty trouble maker and Heathcliff is her brooding right hand man. But then they begin to grow up, Cathy becomes more of a lady, Mr. Earnshaw dies, leaving Hindley to become the master of the house and degrade Heathcliff to a servant and the two childhood friends are beginning to fall in love.

Okay, so up to this point you're thinking "Hey, this isn't THAT bad, right? I mean, they've got flaws, big deal, every character has flaws, right?" WRONG! Yeah, every character has flaws, but this book is like the queen-bee-mother of all character mess-ups. You know why? Because Heathcliff runs away as Cathy is declaring her love to him, then Cathy marries somebody else (some pansy named Edgar Linton).

Right now you're probably thinking, "Oh, its not that bad. I bet Heathcliff comes back and then runs away with Cathy or something." Nope. Wrong again. You'd think that would happen, but it doesn't. Instead, Heathcliff married Edgar Linton's sister Isabella.

Yeah. Exactly.

But that's not all! Oooh no. The story keeps going when Heathcliff decides to ruin another generation of innocents at manors of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange (say that 5 times fast).

Overall, I'd say it was a terrible book. Absolutely terrible. The characters were nasty, nasty people and i think that the thing i disliked about it the most was how none of the characters had a saving grace. I don't know. You might feel differently, but i like my main characters to at least TRY to be normal, or kind, or interesting. That's another thing that tears this book apart, it could have been stupendous had Ms. Bronte written it in another way and allowed the reader to see for themselves what is in the heads of Cathy and Heathcliff and Hindley etc. Instead, we just get the second hand judgements of Nelly... I shouldn't be so harsh on her though, she's probably my favorite character.

But read it. Seriously. I know i just berated the heck out of this book but it IS a classic and there are some things that this book can teach you. Tell me what you think.

Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Once again, Neil Gaiman proves his brilliance.

American Gods is the story of a quiet man named Shadow who, after being released from prison finds himself a widower. On his flight home, he meets Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow then he should, and agrees to be Mr. Wednesday's bodyguard. Together, they go on a trip all over the country, visiting Mr. Wednesday's friends and acquaintances and preparing them for an upcoming "storm". But Mr.Wednesday is more than he appears and pretty soon Shadow is being threatened by fat kids in limosines and kidnapped by men with suspciously common names.

I'd rate 5 stars, for its mythological and crazy characters, its beautiful detail and research and its AWESOME ending. Mr. Gaiman does a spectacular job of moving the plot along and adding little treasures of information between the line. Another character from his reknown Sandman Series even makes an appearance. However I do have to rate it M for mature. There are several sexual and gory scenes that I whould consider suitable for anyone under 15.

You know what I really loved about American Gods? All of the different characters that Mr. Gaiman intruduces to the reader. Mr Ibis, and Czernobog, and Mr Nancy, and even the silent and sexy feline that can only be Bast. I loved seeing the Gods and legends of so many cultures personified to our world. For example, Thoth and Anubis, the Gods in charge of judging the dead in ancient Egyptian religion, are funeral directors. How cool is that?! It's that kind of detail that proves how much effort Neil Gaiman puts into his work and I think that just as much effort should be put into praising him.

(Yes, I'm a Neil Gaiman groupee. Shut up.)

Review: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

By this point i'm sure you've all heard of the insane fandom that is the Twilight Universe. If not, turn on your TV, go to a bookstore, GOOGLE it for all i care, its EVERYWHERE.

Twilight is the story of Bella Swan, an average yet clumsy teenage who moves to the rainy town of Forks, Washington to live with her dad. There she notices the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen. Over time Bella discovers that he and his family are more than what they appear. In fact, they aren't even alive.

What i first liked about this book was the original plot line. It was the first time i had ever heard of such an interesting romance and that i had come across the vampire-genre. My favorite thing about Twilight was the unique re-write of vampirism that Meyer created. The Cullens, led by Dr. Carlisle Cullen (Edwards adoptive father-like figure), are not your normal vampires. They go to school, they go to work, they even play baseball. With their super-fast agility, enhanced hearing, smell, and eyesight, they could be the perfect predators... But they're not. They're more likely to go for a weekend hike in the Olympic Mountain Range that stalk you in the shadows of the night. They are "vegetarians", or the vampire equivalent, and hunt instead for game like mountain lions and irritable grizzly bears. But they still thirst for human blood, they just try to ignore it, like an alcoholic would ignore wine. And they did a good job too, until Bella, with her strangely amazing aroma, appears. I liked the character of Bella from the first page. I liked how she wasn't a "popular" kid, but not a complete geek either. She was the Everyday-Us girl and i liked that she seemed vulnerable. In Twilight, she doesn't form a dead-on search saying "He's a vampire! I must prove it!" but more like a tourist taking pictures of her travels; Bella seemed to just get more and more information as she went along. Also, at the beginning, i loved the idea of the "Good-Bad guy". As corny as it may seem there is something very appealing in the way that Edward went about distinguishing himself in the story. You must remember that the Cullens are trying a new way of life, a life without human blood, being around Bella is very worrisome to them. I found myself liking him more with every "I'm dangerous, stay away from me" that he said. And Bella must have the same weaknesses as i do because by the end of the book, they're going steady. Curse you, reverse psychology!

As much as i liked the plot line and the characters and the history that Meyer creates, it is not without flaws. I don't want you to think that i am one those completely brain-dead fans that worship this book and never question it. Nor do i want you to think that i am one of those anti-fans that are set on trashing it as long and loud as possible. When i reread Twilight, i realized right off the bat that Bella is not as interesting as i first made her out to be. She's extremely over critical and often thinks the same things over and over again. That gets annoying. Meyer does a horrendous job at moving the plot along and in my opinion, uses to much "filler material" writing Bella into doing daily chores such as laundry just to fill up pages and have Bella rethink situations, which she had already done the page before. I know you're trying to stress the thought process of Bella Swan, but seriously? Do we really need all that drama? It was also brought to my attention by a fellow blogger that basic elements a story are missing, such as the change that an adventure usually creates in its main character. You could argue that Bella Swan changes when she finds out what Edward is and falls in love with him anyway, or the Edward Cullen changes when he falls in love with Bella despite his urge to kill her. But whatever. I tend to think that its just another one of those "flaws" we mentioned earlier.

I read Twilight for the first time in the summer of 2006. Since then, i've read it 6 times. So obviously, its good. When i first picked it up out of my local library's bookshelves i thought it would be cool to read a non-mainstream fantasy novel. I loved it. I begged and poked and prodded until my friends read it. And then we read the sequel. And we started going online to visit all the fan sites and whatnot. By the time the third book came out, half the people we knew had read it. It wasn't our thing anymore, it mainstream. Now the forth and final installment is about to make its appearance and a Twilight MOVIE is coming out in December (its got Kirsten Stewart in it. Ick.). And i'm sitting here wondering if it was such a great idea that i helped contribute to the phenomenon that is Twilight, that it's a good idea to go on about so much drama that doesn't even exist and that girls will stay up all night wishing hopelessly for their perfect boyfriend: Edward.

Well, that's just my opinion. Read it, and form your own.

Hello!

Hi!

My name is BookCollector and i am quite new to the blogging world. I'm not sure if i'll even be on here for very long or attentive for that matter, but i wanted to try this out. For the sole purpose of discussing my obsession: Books.

Most of this blog will be impersonal (i like my privacy) but i will tell you this: I am on the young side. The only other thing you need to know is that i've read about 300-500 books in my life time. The thing that i'm trying to get across? I read ALOT.

(LoL. That was funny. And stupid.)

Okay. So... Now that i've done my little "introduction" i don't know where to start. Should i reveiw the last book i read? Should i reveiw my favorite? Hmmm.....