The Biblomaniac Army (booklovers, UNITE!) v.2

[Nitro Indigo]

I've only read the first GOGH book. Is. It. Physically. Possible. To. Find. A. Guardians. Of. Ga'Hoole. Book. In. The. United. Kingdom. That. Isn't. That. Movie-branded. Verison. Of. The. Capture.

Me first reading Seekers: Great Bear Lake
"What..."
*Looks at side*
"WAIT THIS IS A SERIES?!"

Even though it's non-fiction, one of my favourite books is The Encyclopedia of Animals. I used to take it to school all the time. My copy started falling apart because I kept dropping it. Thankfully, I fixed it with sellotape.

[Lady Ligeia]

My current to read list:

1. We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
2. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
3. Erewhon, Samuel Butler
4. Candide, Voltaire
5. Island, Aldous Huxley
6. Stone Alone, Bill Wyman
7. The Call of Cthulu, H.P. Lovecraft
8 & 9. Psycho 2 and Psycho House, Robert Bloch
10. The Master & the Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
11. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
12. Dracula (read just over half in 2nd or 3rd grade, but never finished), Bram Stoker
13. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
14. Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
15. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
16. The Stranger, Albert Camus
17. Common Sense, Thomas Paine

More to come... any suggestions?

[Lady Sabine]

Hippolyta-

ah, I loved Candide! My AP Euro teacher gave it to us as assigned reading. Just to warn you, if you aren't familiar with the sociopolitical situation, the book won't make much sense (and it's a bit nonsensical even if you are, due to the prose). Nevertheless a fabulous book but one you might need a bit of research to appreciate the humor. ^^ I was currently going over the contemporary setting in a fairly detailed way and I'm pretty sure I missed half the jokes in spite of it.
As for Lord of the Flies, honestly it read like a prototype to me. Everyone and their dog has written a kids-stranded-on-an-island book, and a good number of them are better than the original. It's the Ford Model T of the subgenre- a great car, but a bit archaic and not as refined as later versions. It also comes off as a bit preachy with obvious metaphors. Nevertheless, it was a fairly good book.
I would recommend you read the Darkangel trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce. It's short (I read each book in under two hours) but it's beautifully sad. You'll think you know what's coming only for it to routinely ignore the obvious route in favor of an almost Grecian style of tragedy. It also does a beautiful job of walking the line between fantasy and sci-fi.
For something a bit meatier, Threshold by Sara Douglass is an excellent book. It handles a relationship that begins as abusive and ends up romantic quite well, and serves as a decent introduction into the universe quite well. (there are nine other meaty books arranged in three trilogies that can be read in any order, though chronologically is the easiest)
As far as classics go, look for Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain. It's controversial, sarcastic, and an excellent American continuation of the same themes found in Candide. Not for the easily offended, but great fun if you aren't. ^^

[Lady Ligeia]

Lady Sabine-

Thank you very much! I'll be sure to read up and research before I read Candide, as I know very little to nothing about France at that time period. I'd probably would have just read it without research, and miss most of the best jokes... I've also heard somewhere that some of the jokes were lost in translation or lost a lot of power and meaning.

I haven't heard that about Lord of the Flies, but I'll easily believe it. Kids-stranded-on-an-Island could just about be its own sub-genre, they're's thousands of books with that plot, some good others just plain bad. I'd like to read where it all started, though. I can see it being an important, though not the best of its kind.

I'd love to read a modern series in the tragic style of old Greece. They had a very beautiful, but not over-the-top style.I'll be sure to check the trilogy out.

I'm not one much for romance novels, but I will check Threshold out. It sounds much more unique than most.

Letters from the Earth sounds excellent. I'm rather partial to Mark Twain as an authour, so I'll be sure to get this at the library as soon as I can. Thanks!

PS: Sorry if this sounds a little half-baked, I can't write well when I'm tired.

[Dragon Attack]

*flails* I JUST GOT THE LAST BOOK OF THE INHERITANT CYCLE WOO 849 PAGES BABY

[Lady Sabine]

Hippolyta-

Yes, I think that's probably the case. It's still quite amusing, but I wish I spoke French. I've heard it's an excellent language for double meanings and wordplay which is notoriously difficult/impossible to translate.

Lord of the Flies compares easily to the Beatles. Both kickstarted a large movement and were amazing at the time and hold up in retrospect- however, numerous improvements have been made and both are noted for being first more than best.

Threshold is poorly described as a romance novel since it's truly high fantasy, but I can't begin to describe the plot. Suffice to say there are two main characters and it's the development in both of them that is absolutely beautiful, and then they just happen to also act as perfect foils to the other, like two gears that mesh while simultaneously growing and expanding. It tackles some relatively deep sociopolitical issues with easily missed parallels to the corporate world of today (I might be reading too much into it. Enjoy it as a fantasy novel, analyze afterwards XD)

I believe it's available in its entirety and for free online. Google the name and glance around- I've found it before. Might be a little lengthy for one sitting but it's definitely worth looking at.

[Lady Ligeia]

Lady Sabine-

I always hate when I have to read a translated version, especially when it's badly translated, like most copies of 40,000 (think that's the number...) Leagues Under the Sea.

I'll have to agree to disagree about the Beatles. They're tied for my favourite band. I do see your point, though. ^^

I'll be sure to look for it on my next bookstore trip! ^^ Sounds very interesting!


I'll look for that sometime I have a lot of time for reading, which I hope is very soon. I've had so little book time recently!

[The Growling Wolf]

( sorry i've not been active here for a while, I've been busy and on holiday)
I have far too many books to read! I'm currently reading atonement by Ian McEwan. Its really good, and I've nearly finshed it. but the pages are really thick,so I kep thinking thats theres 2 or 3 stuck toegther. it also looks like it should be about 500 pages instead of 300 and something.

[Holly Dash]

To start a whole new conversation, what is your favorite format of a book?

Personally, I like softcover, with small letters and thin pages. It is easier to read it in train then, and it costs less and takes up less space. Of course, they don't last long, but since I never read twice the same book, that isn't a concern.

I also like when they have pretty covers. The Sense of an Ending by Julien Barnes has got one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. Some say you shouldn't judge a book by its' cover, but why not? If the writers' book was so bad that nobody was willing to pay money and put the effort in making it attractive, it probably isn't any good.

What do y'all think?

[Lady Sabine]

If the writers' book was so bad that nobody was willing to pay money and put the effort in making it attractive, it probably isn't any good.

This is a logical fallacy. The relationship of a book to its trappings is not at all dependent on the quality of the writing. According to this train of thought, most bibles, qurans, torahs, textbooks, dictionaries, etc. must be awful because the focus is on the writing, not how "pretty" the cover is. As evidence, I present some mediocre-to-poor cover art for what is widely considered the greatest fantasy series of all time.


Personally I always re-read books, and want to keep them around forever. I prefer hardbacks with thick pages, especially if there's some texture or detail to them. I bought the Barnes & Noble edition of Grey's Anatomy, with original illustrations, silvered pages, old-fashioned typeface... it's the most gorgeous book. I'll have that around when I'm eighty. If I can't find a beautiful copy or I'm on a budget I'll get a paperback, but when I can, hardback is best. A five hundred page paperback will fall to pieces after only a few readings. :c