Book #19 - Dragonflight

(probably the most appropriate use of this icon to date)

Wow, not so good about keeping up with my book reporting, am I? While I was in New Zealand, I bought and read Dragonflight, the first of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. Deja vu seems to be a common theme in my reading these days, because despite that I'm _certain_ I've never read this one, bits and pieces kept feeling familiar. Little snippets of dialogue, situations and references. Weird. ETA: Aha, upon deeper exploration in Google and Wiki I see that this book contains two short stories which I might have read elsewhere. That would do it.

I enjoyed this, and think I will pick up the rest of the series, too, and probably read them in publication order instead of chronological order. It's fun to read the beginnings of a familiar situation after the fact, and have those moments of "Ah, _that's_ why x is so!" I've re-ordered my boxed Narnia set, and First King of Shannara should be read _after_ The Sword of Shannara. Ignore what the numbers on the covers say and the order in which bookstore employees may have put them on the shelf. {/soapbox}

Anyhow, yes, Dragonflight was good fantasy fun, and I was wishing I'd been able to find the sequel Dragonquest so I could read it, too. Then I came home and discovered that Dragonquest was already sitting on my shelf, loaned to me _years_ ago by my uncle. Funny how things work out, eh?

Title: Dragonflight (This cover is much prettier than the one on my 1970 edition)
Author: Anne McCaffrey
Pages: 253

19 / 24 books. 79% done!

Book #19 - Dragonflight

(probably the most appropriate use of this icon to date)

Wow, not so good about keeping up with my book reporting, am I? While I was in New Zealand, I bought and read Dragonflight, the first of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. Deja vu seems to be a common theme in my reading these days, because despite that I'm _certain_ I've never read this one, bits and pieces kept feeling familiar. Little snippets of dialogue, situations and references. Weird. ETA: Aha, upon deeper exploration in Google and Wiki I see that this book contains two short stories which I might have read elsewhere. That would do it.

I enjoyed this, and think I will pick up the rest of the series, too, and probably read them in publication order instead of chronological order. It's fun to read the beginnings of a familiar situation after the fact, and have those moments of "Ah, _that's_ why x is so!" I've re-ordered my boxed Narnia set, and First King of Shannara should be read _after_ The Sword of Shannara. Ignore what the numbers on the covers say and the order in which bookstore employees may have put them on the shelf. {/soapbox}

Anyhow, yes, Dragonflight was good fantasy fun, and I was wishing I'd been able to find the sequel Dragonquest so I could read it, too. Then I came home and discovered that Dragonquest was already sitting on my shelf, loaned to me _years_ ago by my uncle. Funny how things work out, eh?

Title: Dragonflight (This cover is much prettier than the one on my 1970 edition)
Author: Anne McCaffrey
Pages: 253

19 / 24 books. 79% done!

Book #20 - The Subtle Knife

The main reason for the huge gap since my last update is that I was struggling through this book here. Yep, a month plus. Bleh. For as much as I liked The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife just really didn't do it for me. I never really did get drawn into the story, and I only finished it because I was determined to do so. Now I feel the same sense of obligation to read the final book, but I'm not sure that's really a very good motivation to read anything. Folks who have read it, is it worth it? I know it's hardly fair to judge a trilogy by its second installment, so I'm at least willing to give it a try if I don't hear nothing but negative reviews.

Title: The Subtle Knife
Author: Philip Pullman
Pages: 326

20 / 24 books. 83% done!

Book #20 - The Subtle Knife

The main reason for the huge gap since my last update is that I was struggling through this book here. Yep, a month plus. Bleh. For as much as I liked The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife just really didn't do it for me. I never really did get drawn into the story, and I only finished it because I was determined to do so. Now I feel the same sense of obligation to read the final book, but I'm not sure that's really a very good motivation to read anything. Folks who have read it, is it worth it? I know it's hardly fair to judge a trilogy by its second installment, so I'm at least willing to give it a try if I don't hear nothing but negative reviews.

Title: The Subtle Knife
Author: Philip Pullman
Pages: 326

20 / 24 books. 83% done!