The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

It was a book I remember reading over the summer before going to Pee-Wee Football practice and it was one that I remembered so fondly. When the movie came out, I put a face to a character, but it never really did live up to my expectations - I've been told movies never live up to the books. Unfortunately, I didn't quite enjoy The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis that much this time around. Much clearer was the allegory that I missed when I was in 5th Grade - that and the writing that my high school teachers would die if I dared to pass it in.

It's a story about belief and faith, some can make the connections to Jesus and his life and from what I read this time, it's a wonderful and simple way to explain the Christian faith to younger children. The story itself is short and fun, filled with happiness, some despair, but in the end the good guys win (Father Christmas/Santa Claus even makes an appearance).

The only sad part about this book, is the fact that I couldn't finish it this time around. I grew tired with about 20 pages left of the matter-of-factness that Lewis used in writting the book, often simply talking straight to the reader. In many of the other books I'll read and within really good writing, we english users have a better way of describing things. It's a blast from the past, but in all seriousness, at my level of writing and reading, it's not for me. Leave this one to the five year olds that will enjoy the writing alot more, lest you believe that a fifth grader was the one to actually write it.

Just a note, since no one reads the blog, I'm not going to have an active vote on my next book....so just wait for the surprise and be ready! As always, reading on a continual basis, maybe once a week, would be really nice, and comments are a godsend :)

Nook

Christmas was a few days ago and I got this wonderful new toy. I had been looking at it for some time, but I just didn't have the money for it. After much thought, and doing my own research, it landed on the Christmas list and then under the tree (yay!!), and I finally got the one tool that is going to help this blog flourish...a Nook. I opted for the simple e-ink $79 Black Friday version, and after reading my first book, I LOVE IT <3

It has a small screen with the amazing technology of e-ink: simple to read and it doesn't hurt my already failing eyes. It's small and light-weight and just works. The small screen and the broken up pages make it seem like you're flying through a book, page by page, and in fact, it was the first time I sat down to read a book for more than a couple hours. The best part is that it apparently can last about two months on one charge. It may not have the apps or the show and tell of an iPad, but for book lovers or that that wish to become one, it's the perfect thing for you.

Life

It's sometimes funny how life comes along. When I started this blog - it's the third one I've started so far - I had the hopes of constantly updating it to become incredible; as you can see, I have not. And before becoming my third failed blog, I now have hopes to revive it. So where I left off was a wonderful 'documentary-esque' book about family members killing daughters/wives/sisters for what they viewed as doing something to hurt their honor. I left off somewhere about 40 pages into the book and it seemed really interesting, but then my job started to creep into my personal time and with all the holidays, there's not much time to read when your girlfriend that you haven't seen for a month is back from school. So, my wonderful writing stopped and the summer reading list is void of so many check marks.

Google has this wonderful thing for us bloggers where we get to see who is viewing what we write and it's certainly discouraging to see that my blog is like looking at a black hole: void of any viewers interested in my personal challenge. But I've had encouragement to not give up: "Just keep writing and eventually someone will listen". I'm going to go with it...take the challenge of writing until the Internet gets tired of me ;)