Editing STanBookNotes
SeleneTan's GoodBook""s list, inspired by KLGoodBooks which was inspired by EvilSouthiesGoodBooks. Books that she actually brought to Mudd because she likes them a lot: (borrowable!) *Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card *Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card *The Neverending Story by Michael Ende *The Princess Bride supposedly written by "S. Morgenstern" and abridged by William Goldman *Sandman: The Dream Hunters (Japanese fairy tale retold by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, how can you go wrong?!) *Trouble With Dragons <i>uh, I'm too lazy to go look up the author</i> (NOT in the DealingWithDragons series by Patricia C. Wrede, this is a long-ish storybook with illustrations) *Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (the second-to-last of the Books of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser/Books of Lankhmar) *Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny *Witch World by Andre Norton *100 Best Short Short Science Fiction Stories (this is a fun book... A lot of the stories are punnish and others are just plain weird, but there are 100 of them and it's great for if I want to read something and I have 5 minutes and don't want something that takes continual involvement.) *The Skylark of Space, by E.E. "Doc" Smith (this is FUN! I think I like old-style adventure fiction... This is space opera at its finest. Some people will object strenuously to the pseudoscience littered through the book, but I think it's still fun. :P) *The Cyberiad, by Stanislaw Lem (also fun! Whee, two sentient robots that build various things, mostly other robots, such as a robot that writes poetry or tells stories.) *The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany (this is an absolutely beautiful book and is rightly one of the classics of fantasy) *The High House by James Stoddard (the style is reminscent of Lord Dunsany, although the grammar is a bit more modern. Also a beautiful book, and I get a very strong sense of magic...) *Stardust by Neil Gaiman (it's kinda funny, I got both this and King of Elfland's Daughter for a birthday, and the copy of King of Elfland's Daughter has an introduction by Neil Gaiman.) *The Books of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser (Swords and Deviltry, Swords in the Mist, Swords Against Death, Swords Against Wizardry, Swords of Lankhmar, and Swords and Ice Magic. I did *not* bring The Knight and Knave of Swords, which was written several years after Swords and Ice Magic, and which I don't like much.) The term "sword and sorcery" was supposedly invented to describe this series. The series is... dark? gritty? The main characters perform deeds that might be called heroic, but they are more motivated by greed and lust. They're great fun, though. :P *Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (supposedly started the genre of "mannerpunk", which is an absolutely ''ridiculous'' term. It's classified as fantasy because it has the feel and doesn't take place in a historical setting, but there's no actual magic. Lots of intrigue around a professional duelist/assassin. Beautiful.) *The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. "Graphics Novels" (i.e. comic books for grown-ups). (Beautiful, though a bit dark at times. Very good. Also recommended by ProfessorLevin, so you can't go wrong!) (Volumes 1-4, 6, 9, 10 available) *...stuff I can't remember right now and that may or may not be buried in my SuitcaseOfDoom. Books that she wishes she'd brought to Mudd but ran into luggage space problems with: (should have some of these after summer vacation...) *Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini. Rip-roaring adventure on the high seas! I really liked this book, although I only have an e-book version. The atmosphere is incredible, and I love the descriptions of Captain Blood's battle tactics. *...other stuff I can't remember right now, especially since according to my mom, who's cataloguing them, there are around 4,000 books in our house. Admittedly they're not all fiction, but still... There's a [http://www3.hmc.edu/~stan/booklist.html Recommended Books List] I made 5 or 6 years ago for a friend. Note that my opinions on some of the books have changed since. Also note that I made this list for a specific person, so it's missing any books that he'd already read. ----- Okay, I'm feeling in a bad mood, so I'm adding this: Disliked Books List (with reasons) (note: most of these I had to read for school) * Jane Eyre by, er, one of the Bronte's I think. Basically, I'm not much of a romance reader. Romance is okay as a sideline to, say, a fantasy or sci-fi or any other plot. Also, I found Jane annoying. * Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte. I didn't like any of the characters, for one, and it's another romance. * Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. It didn't make much sense to me, between my crappy English teacher and 3 different sets of book-notes. The only book I actually used book-notes for, out of desperation. Maybe when I'm 10 years older I'll understand it. * Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. Supposedly the Great Russian Writers write with great truthfulness. I guess the characters were real enough, but I didn't like any of them and the play didn't make much sense to me. * Tehanu: the Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin. I loved the 3 other Earthsea books. But suddenly, in Tehanu, there's an amazing rift between the sexes, with all sorts of secrets that only men or only women can know, and two wildly different magics for men and women... This book left me disappointed, and the ending left a bad aftertaste. * The Quartered Sea by Tanya Huff. The previous books in this series were pretty good, but in this one you have a bard and an assassin who fall in love for no reason after meeting once, and then the love story is shoved aside and brought up at the very end. Similar to the surprising clash of the sexes in Tehanu, you suddenly find out that there's this incredible bias towards Air-elemental bards, and Water-elemental bards are rare and almost non-existent and anyone who can't use the Air element is all lonely and left out. Also disappointing, especially since I love bards. * Owlflight by Mercedes Lackey. Not too bad, but the fluff level was just a bit too high for me. The book was about 2/3 happy ending. * later Xanth books by Piers Anthony. I was a fan for a while, but then it started to feel like I was reading the same book over and over again, because most of his characters sound alike. * Moment of the Magician by Alan Dean Foster. The back cover blurb goes on and on about some rival magician that shows up, and you see him in the first chapter of the book. Then the main character sets off on a journey to find him, which is one of the usual powerful-mage-with-erratic-magic-in-strange-land affairs, and finally faces him at the very end. Seemed to formulaic and unsatisfying. * The Wizardry Quested by Richard Cook. One of the later books in a series where spells are cast by compiling programs of magical instructions. It starts off promisingly, with a mysterious enemy that manages to kidnap the main character's wife and seems to be undead. It turns out to be a sort of hive-mind-sentient computer-ish virus, and the climax is extremely unsatisfying. * School of Light, by Jody Lynne Nye. It starts off somewhat promisingly, although it also seems like it'll be formulaic - a young girl who aspires to be an artist of light/illusions manages to get into the prestigious School of Light. Of course, she ends up being one of the star pupils and is invited to join an exclusive club. As a minor prank, one of the club members creates an illusionary double of someone important, and suddenly some "evil" students start making doubles and it turns into a major crisis threatening the entire kingdom. (i.e., the major conflict seems exceedingly implausible) Also, the main character blabbers waaaay too much about art and how other people don't understand her art. * The Bone-Doll's Twin, by Lynn Flewelling. The book itself was actually not bad, but I dislike it on principle. It's the first of a trilogy. Apparently. I say "apparently", because the book itself mentions this NOWHERE. Not on the front cover, or on the back cover, and not on the insides of either covers. I knew it had to be the first of something because I reached the end of the book, and it was nowhere near fulfilling the prophecy described at the beginning. I found out it was the first of a trilogy when I looked the book up on Amazon to find out the author.
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