Coming Soon: 60 Page Reviews

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." - Benjamin Franklin

My book club has a policy which states that in order to disqualify a book from the very fierce competition toward the Melinda Awards, two or three (not sure exactly how many at the moment) persons must read at least sixty pages in order to give it a "No." I've done that at least once (Vampire Crush - even the title is terrible!), and I'm currently struggling to reach the sixtieth page of What Boys Really Want by Pete Hautman. So this is basically a preview of something to come. First I shall probably review the aforementioned "vampire" novel. Also, I may be amending my New Year's resolution to 100 or maybe even 150 books. At least. I really need to get up to speed on my reading. In addition to these, I'm trying to read more good books and sixty pages each of more gods-awful books, which means my ascending standards won't tolerate any "decent" or "OK" books - it must be on either side of the fence for me and not on its tip. This is in order to improve my own writing and throw off more books for Printz. Another reason for which I do this is efficiency: I must read more. I already read far more than most people, but I was surprised at the reading abilities of many of my fellow members, particularly Ara. Much power to that one! I must, of course, make room for non-Printz books, but that should't be an issue. Anyhow, time to go!

Peace!

- Lewis

Books of 2011

Yes, this is ripped off of Olivia's awesome blog because it struck me as a good idea. I shall forthwith produce a list of the books I've read this year. The numbers have nothing to do with rank; they just count how many books I've read this year. The ratings I give will be by letter, but one may imagine them as stars: one star fails, and an grade-"A" book gets five. Savvy? Oh, and some of my favorite books may get three or four stars due to more critical, objective aspects, as opposed to how much I enjoyed them. Also, I may change my views over time, so don't be shocked to see a different grade on Shelfari of GoodReads or whatever.

Begin!

1. 9 (screenplay) ~ C
2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ~ A
3. Animal Farm ~ B
4. Between Shades of Gray ~ B
5. Catching Fire ~ B
6. Catwings Return ~ C (apparently this is part of a series, so I might change the "memory grade" later)
7. A Christmas Carol ~ C
8. The Clockwork Experiment ~ B (Olivia's book - not yet published, but I'm rooting for it to catch an agent's eye)
9. The Crucible ~ A (can't remember if I actually read all of it, as it was for English class and partly read and partly viewed as a film)
10. Dead End in Norvelt ~ B
11. Death Note 1 ~ A (although this is my first and so far only manga, so I may not be the best judge)
12. The Doll's House (Sandman #2) ~ B
13. Dracula ~ B
14. Every You, Every Me ~ A
15. Fahrenheit 451 ~ B
16. The Floating Islands ~ A
17. The Giver ~ B
18. The Great Redwall Feast ~ B
19. Hamlet ~ A
20. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ~ A
21. The Hunger Games ~ B
22. Lady Windermere's Fan ~ B
23. Macbeth ~ B
24. Mattimeo ~ C
25. MirrorMask ~ A
26. Misery (screenplay) ~ A
27. Mockingjay ~ B
28. Mossflower ~ B
29. Of Mice and Men ~ B
30. Othello ~ A
31. Painted Fire ~ B
32. Paper Covers Rock ~ A
33. Paper Towns ~ B
34. Persepolis ~ A
35. The Phantom Limb ~ D
36. The Poison Eaters and Other Stories ~ A
37. Preludes & Nocturnes (Sandman #1) ~ A
38. Redwall ~ A
39. Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto ~ F
40. Robot Haiku ~ C
41. Romeo and Juliet ~ A
42. Rot & Ruin ~ B
43. Salome ~ B
44. The Shadowing: Hunted ~ C
45. The Stand ~ C
46. The Summer of May ~ C
47. Ten Little Indians (play) ~ B
48. Through the Looking-Glass ~ B
49. The Two Princesses of Bamarre ~ A
50. Vampire Crush ~ F (I didn't even read the whole thing, but it was definitely awful)
51. Welcome to Bordertown ~ B
52. Wither ~ B
53. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ~ A (if you can picture something even better than the beloved late-'30's movie, you know what I mean)

So there we have it. Fifty-three, eh? My goal (and resolution) for 2012 is to read more than that. I'll set it at seventy-five. Maybe eventually I'll be in the hundreds, eh? We shall see!