A New Mission

Three things: 1. I have a ton of books. 2. I really hope we move this summer. 3. Books are really, unbelievably heavy. So, I have determined to go through my stacks, read all the books I have not, and get rid of what is not worthy of the shelf space. I'm doing it alphabetically, for ease of memory.

 The Smoke Thief, by Shana Abe. This was ok. The writing style was good, the plot was so-so, it was light on the smut, and it did not pull heavily from other books in its genre but kind of ignored popular mythology and conventions. It did not do much to explore its chosen fantasy realm. It was a romance novel. I put it in the lending library.

Watership Down, by Richard Adams. I understand this is a classic, and I've heard several people list it among their favorite books. It's hard to think of little bunnies fighting for their lives, pointy teeth barred. Grr! Ahh, a bunny! See, it doesn't really work. Despite the fact that the characters are fluffy, this isn't really a children's book, as I had assumed it would be. There is a good deal of violence, some blood, and reproductive references. The first half, maybe a little more, really dragged, but the second part picked up a bit: not enough to increase my opinion of the book as a whole, however. It was not at all quick (like a bunny).  

The Illyrain Adventure, by Lloyd Alexander. The main character in this one seems to be rather modeled after Sherlock Holmes. The narrator is very Watson-like, and I was very interested by his recording of dialogue: He often writes quotations of what other people say, but rarely quotes himself.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, by Lloyd Alexander. I wasn't terribly impressed by this novel, until I learned that it was written before I was born, and, to make a broad reckless generalization, all young adult and children's literature before 1990 is pretty crappy. So, compared to some of the stuff available now, it's not very good, but compared to what else was being written at the time, it's practically fantastic.  

The El Dorado Adventure, by Lloyd Alexander. Book two of the Vesper Holly series. She begins to annoy me.