I Don't Want to Say Goodbye

I waited years for the book to come out. I imagined how it would all end. I prayed that it would not disappoint me. And, IT DIDN'T!!! For me, this was the best Harry Potter book. I was captivated for the entire 7 1/2 hour journey. My book arrived Saturday; I started it at 5:15 pm, took a 30 minute break to eat, and finished it at 1:15 am. This book made me laugh and cry. It shocked me - I was definitely not expecting the death of one of my favorite characters. My favorite chapter was by far the epilogue - it was the nice happy ending that I love in books. I'm sad that there will never be another Harry Potter book, but I'm glad that I got to experience it.

Just a Few of my Favorite Things

wwLike a mother asked to choose her favorite child, I cannot choose a favorite book. Overall, I love books and will like practically anything that I read. There is the small occasion that I do not enjoy a book, but it's hard for me to give up possession of it. My shelves are almost full of books, and several boxes of books reside in the attic. Yet, when someone asks me to name my favorite book, I am unable to name just one. So, to hopefully make things easier, I've decided to create a list of a few of my favorite books.

1. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
2. Harry Potter by JK Rowling
3. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
5. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
6. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
7. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
10. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
11. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
12. Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini
13. The Once and Future King by T.H. White

What are you Doing July 21?

I'll be reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! I finally pre-ordered my copy yesterday from Amazon and I'm so exicted! I've always been attracted to fantasy books, especially those that include magic or dragons. I remember the first time I ever read Harry Potter. For my 8th grade reading class, we had to read Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, so being the book lover that I was (and still am), I made my mom buy me a copy. I then snatched up the next two HP books. I got the 4th HP book from Sam's one day during the summer it came out. I bought it about 10 that morning and had it finished by 6 or 7 that night. I finished the 5th and the 6th books in one day, too. Now, I can hardly wait for my copy of the last book to arrive. Granted, I will be sad because this wonderful journey is finally going to come to an end, but at the same time, I can't wait to find out what happens. Now all I have to do is what patiently until July 21 gets here.

Can You Ever Love Books Too Much?

So, I saw this meme on someone's blog (I forget whose) and knew that I had to fill out. I'm actually kind of proud - I own almost half of the books on this list.

In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. +The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) - Perhaps my most favorite love story of all time!
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - I was required to read this for school, but I had already read it for fun!
4. +Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) - forced to read and didn't like, though I've been wanting to reread it for fun to see if I like it when it's not being forced down my throat.
5. +The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. +The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. +The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. +Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. +Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. *A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. *The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. +Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. +The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) - my most-read book of all time!
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. +Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. +The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. +Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. +The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. +East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. +Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. +The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. +1984 (Orwell)
35. +The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. *I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. +The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) - I don't own it but my sister does.
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible
46. +Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. +The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) - I was pretty much the only one in my English class who enjoyed this book
50. *She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. +A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. +The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) - I had to write a paper on the writing style of Fitzgerald and read this book for fun and fell in love with it
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. *The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. +The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) - maybe my second most favorite love story
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. +Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. +One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. +The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. +Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. +The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) - during my senior year in high school, I was all set to write a major paper analyzing this book but I never did
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. *Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. +The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. +Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. +Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. +Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. +Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. +Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. +The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. +White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. *A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. *The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Ever since I learned how to read, I have maintained a love of reading. Sometimes I didn't read as much as I could have, or I put down my beloved books for another pastime, but time and time again, I always returned to reading. For me, books are my escape from reality. I may not be able to remember all of the books that I have read, but I can remember the ones that are important to me. I remember the first book I ever checked out from the library by myself. It was an ABC book filled with beautiful drawings of animals. To this day, I can't remember the title, but I can see those pictures. When I was in third or fourth grade, I began my love affair with Little Women. I checked that book out so many times from our little school library. I remember that it was an old blue book with a worn cover. I remember how I would take an old sheet with the Popples dancing across it and tie it around my waist so that I could be like the March sisters and curl up in my family's old brown recliner to read the book, and as soon as I was through reading, off would come the sheet. Now, whenever I pick up my copy of the book, I remember those times. I remember the first time I read LOTR - afterwards, when I'd go to bed, I'd dream of what would happen next, never knowing that what Tolkien wrote would exceed my wildest expectations. I remember the first time I picked up Pride and Prejudice to read - I couldn't get into the book after the first few chapters, so I set the book aside for another. Now, I list that book as one of my all time favorites. There are so many other memories that I can reawaken just by flipping through the pages of my beloved books. When I went away to college three years ago, I made sure to bring a couple of my books. Since that time, my dorm room shelves have never been without one of my books. I mentioned to my dad the other day that I think I was addicted to buying books, and he told me that I've always been addicted to books. What's funny is that I don't remember learning how to read, and I don't remember my first book - all I remember is that for as long as I can imagine, I've had a love affair with books.

Hopefully, with this blog, I can share some of the books I've read, whether it be through reviews or just talking about them. But, no matter what I do, my love of books shall always be an affair to remember.