| 12/31/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Alternamorphs #2: The Next Passage |
Ugh. Animorphs should not be Choose Your Own Adventure. |
| 12/30/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Alternamorphs: The First Journey |
This sucked the hairy balls off a camel. |
| ? 12/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Visser; The Ellimist Chronicles; The Andalite Chronicles |
Read these all around the same time, don't remember exactly when; gave a nice peek into these other personalities and species. |
| 12/30/01 |
K.A. Applegate
The Hork-Bajir Chronicles |
This was great, gave wonderful revelations as to what the Andalites did to the Hork-Bajir in the famous Animorphs universe. |
| 12/26/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Megamorphs #4: Back to Before |
Ohhh freaky. What would have happened if the Animorphs never existed????? |
| 12/24/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Megamorphs #3: Elfangor's Secret |
Eww, kinky, Tobias and Ax are, like, related. Sort of. |
| 12/24/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Megamorphs #2: In the Time of Dinosaurs |
Umm, why didn't they ever explain why a morph no longer healed the kids of their battle scars? Inconsistencies bother me. So this is my least favorite Megamorph. |
| ? 12/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Megamorphs #1: The Andalite's Gift |
"Hey Visser Three! I washed your dog for ya!" BWAHAHAH! |
| ? 12/01 |
J.R.R. Tolkien
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
Shamefully, I, a fantasy writer, had never read Tolkien. But my father loved the books as a child and we were due to see the movie together, so I wanted to read it before seeing the movie. |
| 12/4/01 |
Jerry Spinelli
Stargirl |
Wow, this book by Spinelli was very cool. I read it because blink said it reminded her of me, so I wanted to see why. Stargirl was a very memorable character. |
| 11/21/01 |
Kate West
The Real Witches' Handbook |
I checked this out from work because I glanced at it and saw it had a funny page of misconceptions people have about witches in it, but it didn't have anything on it that I hadn't already put on my own list, and then the rest of the book just wasn't very worthwhile, though maybe I only say that because it was an introductory book and I was frustrated that I didn't learn anything from it that I didn't already know. |
| ? 2001 |
Scott Cunningham & David Harrington
The Magical Household |
Slightly disappointing book on how to bring magic into your house. |
| 11/20/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #53: The Answer;
Animorphs #54: The Beginning
|
Finally done with Animorphs! REJOICE, and cry! |
| 11/19/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #50: The Ultimate; Animorphs #51: The Absolute; Animorphs #52: The Sacrifice |
I'm on a race to the end here. |
| 11/18/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #49: The Diversion |
As much as I wished these things would never end, I want to see how it ends up. |
| 11/12/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #48: The Return |
Ew, David came BACK! (Sort of.) What a creepy ending . . . damn, it makes you feel for Rachel. |
| 11/11/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #46: The Deception; Animorphs #47: The Resistance |
Got teased for reading so much Animorphs today. But hell, how can I help it? The war is really about to start, people are going to start to know about the Yeerks. . . . |
| 11/7/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #43: The Test; Animorphs #44: The Unexpected; Animorphs #45: The Revelation |
So, we get to see Tobias revisit his torturer, Cassie getting stuck in Australia, and Marco's dad accidentally discovering Z-space. Oh mah gawd. |
| 11/5/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #41: The Familiar; Animorphs #42: The Journey |
Um, wow, it's Jake in the future! Sort of. Um, and then the Animorphs follow a race of tiny megalomaniacs up Marco's nose. Lovely. |
| 11/3/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #38: The Arrival; Animorphs #39: The Hidden; Animorphs #40: The Other |
Woo-hoo, the Andalites arrived. Or should we be rejoicing? Urgh, poor Ax. And then tiny virus-sized aliens attack. And finally, in a Marco book of all places, we find other Andalites in a weird and sad situation. Readreadread!!! |
| ? 11/01 |
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit |
Ahh yes, the classic. I read this in direct preparation for reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I'd have a refresher in what the hell happens and who the people are. |
| 10/29/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #37: The Weakness |
Um, Rachel is a psycho. When Jake went away she became temporary leader of the Animorphs and the first thing she did was tell them to smash everything. How dare you wreck my bookstore dammit!!! Hehe. |
| 10/28/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #34: The Prophecy; Animorphs #35: The Proposal; Animorphs #36: The Mutation |
Wow, Cassie is channeling a spirit; not only a spirit, but a dead Andalite who thinks she's a Hork-Bajir. What the hell. And then Marco's a psychological mess, and guess what did it to him? No, not fighting space monsters every day; oh crap, his dad is dating again! NOOO! Finally, in 36, they find out that mutant people from Atlantis are still living underwater in this weird city. |
| 10/21/01 |
Betty Brock
No Flying In the House |
I read this because it was really, really short and had a cute cover and I ran across it in my kids' shipment that week. It wasn't worth the read because it was overly preachy and very storybook. |
| 10/21/01 |
Robert Asprin
Another Fine Myth |
Urgh. I was told I'd like these books by several people, but to me they were just a normal questy fantasy story with some attempts at off-the-wall humor. Not my cup of tea. |
| 10/17/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #32: The Separation; Animorphs #33: The Illusion |
I had to check out The Separation from my work because I had to finish it, it was that compelling. Poor Rachel turned into a starfish, got chopped in half, morphed back, and there ended up being two of her! AGH! And then for 33, a trap over an anti-morphing ray gets Tobias in a bind--he gets very graphically tortured by a human-Controller. Scary. |
| 10/16/01 |
Carl McColman
The Well-Read Witch |
An excellent Witches' resource for books! I read through it and added its suggestions to my own list! |
| 10/15/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #29: The Sickness; Animorphs #30: The Reunion; Animorphs #31: The Conspiracy |
Everybody but Cassie gets sick, leaving her alone to fight on an important mission, only to come home to perform brain surgery on Ax. Bird poop saves the day! Then Marco has to struggle with emotions regarding his mom. And finally Jake ends up in a situation he can't figure out, for probably the first time since he became leader of the Animorphs. |
| 10/14/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #26: The Attack; Animorphs #27: The Exposed; Animorphs #28: The Experiment |
Oh mah gawd! 26 was awesome, these amazing almost-all-powerful creatures make a big old bet involving the Animorphs! Heh, and then the Animorphs (fighting for the Ellimist) have to fight the Howlers (who are on Crayak's side). WOW! In 27, the Animorphs have to go fix whatever's wrong with the Chee's holograms. And in 28, they have to stop an anti-free-will drug from making it into the hamburger supply . . . by becoming cows. Weird. |
| 10/3/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #24: The Suspicion; Animorphs #25: The Extreme |
Oh damn, it's the Helmacrons! How can something so tiny be such an asshole? And then the Animorphs go to the North Pole to stop the Yeerks from putting a Kandrona there. Hehe, their Spandex did not hold up too well in Arctic temperatures. |
| ? |
Rodman Philbrick
Max the Mighty |
Nice sequel to Freak the Mighty. Not as good but quite intriguing, same lovely familiar style. |
| 10/1/01 |
Gail Carson Levine
Ella Enchanted |
This lovely (and Newbery Award-winning) book had a very strong young female character and an enchanting plot; only thing I didn't like was the fact that the author kept sticking in fantasy-esque stuff seemingly just to be cute. |
| 9/30/01 |
Stephen King
Carrie |
Re-read this. It wasn't as good as I'd remembered, but it was just the ending that bugged me. |
| 9/15/01 |
Gus DiZerega
Pagans & Christians |
I wanted to see how the different arguments for both philosophies were compared with one another. This offers a Pagan perspective. |
| 9/10/01 |
Darren Shan
Cirque du Freak #2: The Vampire's Assistant |
Better than #1. Darren now has to deal with the fact that he's something he hates and he's working for someone he hates. But maybe everything isn't all about hate after all. |
| 9/9/01 |
Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events #8: The Hostile Hospital |
Oh, joy, it came out!!! I took it home and read it in a heartbeat. |
| 8/19/01 |
Gregory Maguire
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister |
This wasn't as good as Wicked, but was very worth reading. Want to hear Cinderella with a lot more background and from one of the stepsisters' points of view? |
| ? between 4/01 and 8/01 |
Patricia Telesco
Advanced Wicca |
Prowled through this book for little bits for my BoS. |
| 8/13/01 |
Francesca Lia Block
Echo |
One of Ms. Block's longest and best novels. |
| 8/13/01 |
Celia Rees
Witch Child |
I thought this was okay, and I read it because it seemed to have a somewhat historical perspective on the witch hunts. But it wasn't an actual true story, and it turned out a bit cheesy. |
| 8/13/01 |
Alice Hoffman
Aquamarine |
I read this because I used to be obsessed with mermaids. But this book sucked and the language was transparently simplified. |
| 8/12/01 |
Gregory Maguire
Wicked |
I read this because people had been telling me one of my short stories ("Bad Fairy") reminded them of this book, because of its whole "fairy tale reversal" theme. It was excellent! The Wizard of Oz is reinvented, told vaguely from the Witch of the West's point of view, and inundated with lots of cool politics and religion. |
| 7/23/01 |
Robert Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land |
Never read this before and saw that lots of my friends made inside jokes from it once in a while, so I decided to include myself. It was a bit thick (as in, its language, not its number of pages), but hell, that's Heinlein. I liked this book. |
| 7/7/01 |
Darren Shan
Cirque du Freak #1: A Living Nightmare |
I'm not sure why I kept reading this series after this book, because it was a definite lame start. These characters read the script to figure out how to act in their own life stories. But the concept was cool (kid unwillingly becoming a half-vampire and vampire's assistant in order to save his friend), so I stuck to it. |
| 7/3/01 |
Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl |
Oh damn, this was great! The fairies aren't little winged wimps with wands, they've got their own army! And all of it is pitted against resident twelve-year-old villain and genius, Artemis. I even decoded the fairy language on the bottoms of all the pages to figure out what it said. (What's this about phlegm???) |
| 6/30/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #23: The Pretender |
Ooh, a Tobias book. He finds out about his heritage, finally, and has to make a choice about whether to believe this lying sack of shit (oops, spoiled the surprise) or stay in the fight against the Yeerks. ::Grumble:: . . . can't read more until we get #24! |
| 6/23/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #19: The Departure; Animorphs #20: The Discovery; Animorphs #21: The Threat; Animorphs #22: The Solution |
Animorphs marathon! First Cassie proves that compassion isn't wasted on the enemy. And then a trilogy; a kid named David has found the blue box that can give morphing powers, so he gets sucked in and the Animorphs make him one of them. But he turns against them, and they have to construct a cruel and ingenious plot to stop him. |
| 6/19/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #16: The Warning; Animorphs #17: The Underground; Animorphs #18: The Decision |
Ooh. Yeerks are on the Internet. Hehe. And then in 17 the Animorphs fight the Yeerks with oatmeal. And then all kinds of weird shit happens in accidentally going to Z-space while sucking blood (as mosquitoes, not vampires!), and meeting Andalites and crazy psychic frog people. |
| 6/11/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #12: The Reaction; Animorphs #13: The Change; Animorphs #14: The Unknown; Animorphs #15: The Escape |
Rachel has an allergic reaction to crocodile DNA. Tobias gets back his morphing powers. The Animorphs discover an alien toilet. And Marco doubts his ability to fight when emotions are involved. Wow. |
| 6/10/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #9: The Secret; Animorphs #10: The Android; Animorphs #11: The Forgotten |
The Animorphs have to stop the Yeerks from finding Ax's feeding grounds, for one. And then they discover that their friend Erek is actually a millennia-old android. And then they get caught in a time warp--not the dance variety. Lovely. |
| 6/4/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #8: The Alien |
Ax speaks! And he tells you not to eat the bookmark. |
| 6/3/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #7: The Stranger |
Rachel and the others found another way into the Yeerk pool . . . too bad the Taxxons think roaches are yummy. . . . |
| 6/2/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #3: The Encounter; Animorphs #4: The Message; Animorphs #5: The Predator; Animorphs #6: The Capture |
Okay. First Tobias has to deal with being a boy stuck in a hawk's body. Then the Animorphs respond to telepathic distress calls from an alien under the sea. Then Marco gets a reason to fight the Yeerks instead of wussing out for his father's sake. And finally . . . HAHAHA! Jake gets captured by the Yeerks! That one is AWESOME! |
| 6/1/01 |
K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #2: The Visitor; Animorphs #1: The Invasion |
Started reading Animorphs, 'cause I wanted to see if it was stupid. Boy was I ever wrong. Kids are fighting against mind-stealing aliens in this incredibly spooky and realistic-sounding character-oriented saga. I must devour them all. In the first book they figure out what the circumstances of the invasion are and are given their morphing powers, and in the second Rachel investigates the house of one of the enemies' leaders. |
| 5/24/01 |
Garth Ennis
Preacher 9: Alamo |
Um . . . Jesse's going to whoop God's ass? |
| 5/22/01 |
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Good Omens |
Not as good as I'd thought it'd be. But my sister wouldn't let me read her copy when we were kids, so I decided to read it when I came upon it later. |
| 5/18/01 |
Eloise McGraw
The Moorchild |
Beautiful and well-told story of a girl who's half human and half "Folk" (what the fairies call themselves). Her struggles of trying to fit in and at the same time discover what she is are just masterfully written and very poignant. |
| 5/16/01 |
Neil Gaiman
Death: The Time of Your Life |
Heh, Dream's oldest sister shines. |
| 5/15/01 |
Neil Gaiman
The Sandman Companion |
I read this over a long time, making notes from it and re-reading the other Sandman books so I could make a Web page. |
| 5/14/01 |
Garth Ennis
Preacher #8: All Hell's A-Comin' |
Where the fuck's your chin??? |
| 5/9/01 |
Garth Ennis
Preacher #6: War in the Sun; Preacher #7: Salvation |
What a totally insane and wonderful series. I had time for two of them today. |
| 5/7/01 |
Garth Ennis
Preacher #5: Dixie Fried |
Yum. |
| 5/6/01 |
Garth Ennis
Preacher #4: Ancient History |
Yup, that's some history all right. |
| 5/5/01 |
Garth Ennis
Preacher #3: Proud Americans |
Um . . . I'm just glad most preachers aren't like this. |
| 4/29/01 |
Raven Grimassi
Beltane |
Awesome book about this summertime holiday from a Pagan standpoint. |
| 4/27/01 |
Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events #7: The Vile Village |
The village of V.F.D. is certainly vile. Just ask the Baudelaires! |
| 4/25/01 |
Neil Gaiman
Death: The High Cost of Living |
It was enlightening to read about Dream's older sister. |
| 4/23/01 |
Neil Gaiman
Sandman X: The Wake |
Waahh! I went to Dream's funeral in this book! (Oops, spoiler.) |
| 4/17/01 |
Tamora Pierce
The Circle Opens #1: Magic Steps |
I read this because nothing else was calling my name at the time, and I'd just finished Circle of Magic. But to tell you the truth, it's just not compelling, so I'm probably not going to read these anymore. |
| 4/16/01 |
Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic #4: Briar's Book |
I like Briar's character. This was a pretty epic storyline, but I guess they all are. Not great, but worth reading. |
| 4/8/01 |
Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials #3: The Amber Spyglass |
Earth-shakingly good. |
| 4/2/01 |
Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials #2: The Subtle Knife |
Oh wow, so THAT'S what the knife does! Heh, it was cool to watch Lyra meet Will from our world. |
| 4/1/01 |
Neil Gaiman
Sandman IX: The Kindly Ones |
Oh shit, the Furies are gonna kick Dream's ass for killing Orpheus, even though he wanted to die. Guess he shouldn't have taken Lyta's baby. |
| 3/30/01 |
Neil Gaiman
Sandman VIII: World's End |
A bunch of people tell stories in an inn. Neato. |
| 3/19/01 |
Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials #1: The Golden Compass |
Oh man! This rules even though it got off to a slow start. I like Lyra. |
| 3/12/01 |
J.K. Rowling
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them |
I read this "textbook" that was supposed to be the property of Harry Potter. It was cute, but of course since it wasn't an actual story, just more of a creature glossary, it didn't make enthralling reading. |
| 3/4/01 |
Eva Ibbotson
Which Witch? |
Re-read this sucker, since I remembered it from childhood. |
| 2/25/01 |
Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events #6: The Ersatz Elevator |
I for one have never before (and probably never will again) read a book that involves a baby crawling up an elevator shaft using only her teeth. |
| ? early 2001 |
Janet and Stewart Farrar
A Witches' Bible |
Very interesting book of lore and rituals. |
| 2/20/01 |
Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic #3: Daja's Book |
The metalsmith shows us her side of the story. Another crisis is handled. |
| 2/19/01 |
Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic #2: Tris's Book |
Whee, I think Tris is my favorite, but then I have a bias toward wind. |
| 2/18/01 |
Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic #1: Sandry's Book |
We meet four young people who have been tested for magic but none was found, and then it turns out they have magic after all, just a special hidden kind. The four begin working together and end up doing things no one else can. |
| 2/5/01 |
Stephen King
On Writing |
Oh, what a fantastic book! Both the autobiographical bits and the writing instruction were all phenomenal. (Then again, did I expect anything less from the master??) |
| 2/4/01 |
Garth Ennis
Preacher #2: Until the End of the World |
Awww, what a sweet (and sort of fucked up) love story. |
| 1/27/01 |
Patricia C. Wrede
Dealing with Dragons |
I was told I'd like this because it's kind of untraditional, but it's untraditional in a totally traditional way. Rebelling inside the pen, if you will. It was cute anyway. |
| 1/18/01 |
Neil Gaiman
Sandman VII: Brief Lives |
Dream and Delirium set out to find their lost brother Destruction. A bunch of people die because he doesn't want to be found. |
| 1/9/01 |
Neil Gaiman
Sandman VI: Fables and Reflections |
A bunch of little short stories that somehow involve Dream of the Endless. A bunch of dreams, stories of emperors, and a bunch of other shit. |
| 1/7/01 |
Neil Gaiman
Sandman V: A Game of You |
I skipped number 4 and went to 5, because I own 4 and had read it so many times. Barbie's cuckoo is screwing with reality, and all kinds of different weird plot things involve her going into her dream and facing some twisted version of herself. |
| 1/7/01 |
Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants |
I read the whole lot of these (well, all that were out at this time) and giggled at them, especially the name change chart in Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants. |
| ? 2001 |
Edain McCoy
The Sabbats |
The single most useful book on Pagan holidays I ever encountered. |
| 1/6/01 |
Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events #5: The Austere Academy |
Damn, that school sucks! Imagine having to listen to violin solos AND run track with Count Olaf! At least they made friends with a couple triplets. |
| 1/2/01 |
Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Miserable Mill |
Poor Klaus, instrument of evil. "I'm Shirley! It says so on my nameplate!" |
