Books I read in 2002!

This is a list of the books I read in 2002, with a few of my thoughts on each.

Go here for 2001's list! Go here for 2003's list!
Go here for the jump-off point of all the years I've been recording my reading list, separated by year!

12/16/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #10: Lost and Found
Wow, this kicked ass. Ahh, crazy old Yago. . . .
? 12/02 Chuck Palahniuk
Fight Club
I loved this movie so I read the book. It translated to a movie very well from this book, and it was amazing in print.
12/5/02 K.A. Applegate
Animorphs #4: The Message
I re-read this for no reason at all, I just grabbed it to look at and ended up reading it from cover to cover again.
11/30/02 Laura Wildman
What's Your Wicca IQ?
I checked this out from my bookstore because it looked interesting and sure to draw my attention to things I'd never heard of. I took the book-long quiz to see how much I know about Paganism in general, and got the rating that was right below the most accomplished, which sounds pretty accurate to me. :)
? 11/02 Gregory Maguire
Lost
Not as good as the previous two, but the ending was worth all the buildup.
11/19/02 S.E. Hinton
The Outsiders
I thought this book sucked, which is weird because so many kids who normally hate required reading seem to love it.
11/10/02 Graeme Base
The Eleventh Hour
Laura from work said this was her favorite kids' book, so I spent some time on the register reading it and doing its puzzles. It was neat, but some of the puzzles were impossible to do (or impossible to get the full meaning of) without aids like a translator of Egyptian hieroglyphics and stuff.
11/10/02 Dan Greenburg
The Zack Files
Being the kids' department head, I see these books a lot in my chapter books section and decided to see if they're any good so I can decide whether to recommend them to others. They had a surprising amount of somewhat off-color jokes in them, but other than that they were cute but nothing super-special. I just read a few during my lunch break; they take about ten minutes to read.
11/5/02 Carl Hiaasen
Basket Case
I could tell from reading his kids' book Hoot that he'd be more effective without any restrictions (vocabulary and cursing-wise) to his word choices. I'm glad I read this, it was funny--only thing is, the characters' dialogue is always too damn witty.
10/24/02 Diane Duane
A Wizard Alone
This came out in hardcover and I checked it out to read, as it was the latest volume in the Young Wizards series that I like. These books are really cool, very heavy for children's books. This one's about an autistic kid who turns out to be a wizard, and Nita and Kit have to help him.
10/21/02 Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events #9: The Carnivorous Carnival
Of course I had to read this as soon as I could get my hands on it. I'd been waiting for quite a while for it to come out. Yay for Unfortunate Events #9!
10/20/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #9: No Place Like Home
Ms. Applegate's next Remnants book came out, so I bought it and read it at home. Weird ending.
10/20/02 Carl Hiaasen
Hoot
People seemed surprised that Carl Hiaasen could write a kids' book, so I read it to see what it was like. It was cute, but I could tell the author was restricting his language in several aspects on purpose. Made up my mind to read his adult work.
10/12/02 Jeff Smith
Bone #1: Out from Boneville
I got this for free. It's not very good, but I'm told later volumes make up for it.
10/9/02 Eva Ibbotson
Island of the Aunts
I read her book Which Witch? when I was little and loved it, so now I'm on an Ibbotson kick. Her books are really predictable, though, right down to the twist endings; you knew the kids who were originally kidnapped to work on the island would eventually learn to love it and want to stay. And that's what happened.
10/9/02 Eva Ibbotson
The Secret of Platform 13
Another predictable Ibbotson book, though it's got that unusual catch-you-up-in-its-weirdness spark.
? 9/02 Margot Adler
Drawing Down the Moon
Had this for ages and browsed through it now and then, but didn't read it in full until about this time.
9/15/02 Darren Shan
Cirque du Freak #4: Vampire Mountain
Last in a series of kids' books that has gotten progressively better since the first one. (The first one was kind of badly written as far as character motivations go.) This one had a nice cliffhanger ending. Woo, they're gonna kill Darren if he doesn't make it through the vampire tests, and he's only half-vampire so he doesn't have a prayer! HAHA! Yeah right.
? 8/02 or 9/02 Celia Rees
Sorceress
Sequel to Witch Child; even though I didn't much like the first one, I thought it might be nice to know what happened. It was much better than the first one but I still wasn't much of a fan.
9/8/02 Richard Adams
Watership Down
This was my college roomie's favorite book as a kid (even though it's grossly long for a child to read). I enjoyed this quite a bit and ended up going out to find its animated movie. Yaay.
8/22/02 Malcalypse the Younger
Principia Discordia
I don't know why I randomly decided one day to order this and read it, but I did, and I'm glad. I like weird religion parodies, and this is at least as confusing and purposely contradictory as the Bible. I always liked the Subgenius stuff so I figured this was just a step away. Hail Eris!
8/19/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #8: Mother, May I?
Of course I had to get the new Remnants book. It's getting weird. Getting?? It's been weird since book 1!
7/30/02 Jerry Spinelli
Maniac Magee
I read this because it seems to be the only Jerry Spinelli book that's won an award. I think it (mostly) deserved the Newbery. But one day I'll write one that's better. :)
7/23/02 Louis Sachar
Holes
This was a damn good book. One of the best kids' books I've read in a long time, very engaging and deserving of the Newbery Award. (Not to mention I've liked this author since fifth grade.)
7/22/02 Louise Rennison
Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas
The third in a series of funny books about a British schoolgirl named Georgia. They're cute but they're written in such a way that they could never possibly be an actual journal. Grr.
7/12/02 David Cody Weiss
Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1
Yeah, that's embarrassing. I am in charge of the kids' books and once in a while I read something to see if it's stupid. I've never seen this TV show but even if a book looks INCREDIBLY dumb (or sometimes just BECAUSE it looks dumb) I will read it, I will read nearly anything if it has any link at all to witchcraft, just to see if they're coming close at all to portraying the real thing. In short, this book was silly and stupid; not that I didn't expect that, but it was silly and stupid even for what it was. Wow, teen finds out she's a witch, and hijinks ensue (I hate "hijinks ensue"), beginning with her levitating in her sleep. ::gurgle:: I must say I will never read another one of these. . . .
7/3/02 Neil Gaiman
Coraline
Apparently Gaiman's first intermediate children's fiction book. It wasn't very good, but then again so far with all the chances I've given Gaiman, his Sandman books are the only ones that totally captured my interest.
6/25/02 Louise Rennison
On the Bright Side, I Am Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God
Second in the series of cute diary books about a British schoolgirl. This was funny and cute, and the glossary of British terms for stupid Americans was my favorite.
? 6/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #7: Isolation
Always have to read the next Remnants book. This rules!
6/24/02 Jerry Spinelli
Loser
A very well-written children's book by one of my favorite authors.
6/20/02 Anna Franklin
Midsummer
Read because of the proximity of summer solstice; this was a collection of lore, recipes, spells, and whatnot about this time of year, helped me to prepare for my celebration.
6/2/02 Eloise McGraw
The Golden Goblet
This book by the author of The Moorchild was also very good and had wonderful characters. This author deserves every Newbery she's won. :)
5/7/02 Lemony Snicket
The Unauthorized Autobiography
A hilarious, confusing, deliberately misleading "autobiography" of author/character Lemony Snicket. Very silly, and has a reversible cover so you can hide what you're reading and disguise it as The Pony Party, a story about the luckiest kids in the world.
5/6/02 Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl 2: The Arctic Incident
The sequel was even better than the first!
5/6/02 Louise Rennison
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging
The first book in a series of silly "journal of a girl" type books, about a British girl named Georgia who has more than her share of annoyances while growing up.
5/5/02 Darren Shan
Cirque du Freak #3: Tunnels of Blood
The saga of Darren Shan, the vampire's assistant, is getting pretty good for such a sorry start.
4/26/02 Neale Donald Walsh
Conversations with God: Book 1
Read this on recommendation of Fred, since it's one of his favorites. (He'd recommended it long ago but I didn't pick it up 'til now.) It was thought-provoking and inspiring.
4/22/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #6: Breakdown
I swear this is one of the coolest covers ever. Anyway, I always have to read these. Heh, Yago's insane! Insaaaaane!
? sometime around here Jhonen Vasquez
JTHM & Squee
Ordered these and devoured them. Haha, amazing.
4/14/02 Phyllis Curott
Book of Shadows
This was pretty good, a biographical journey of one woman into her life of Witchcraft; however it was pretty obvious that some of the situations were incorporated from various sources of personal experience (the author's and maybe some friends and acquaintances), so that they could be used as examples to teach readers.
4/6/02 Daniel Pinkwater
Young Adults
I'd read Young Adult Novel as a child and bought this used when I saw it available; it's so silly.
3/17/02 Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time
I don't often read science books, but this one was great, and didn't have so much math in it that I couldn't understand.
3/10/02 Diane Duane
A Wizard Abroad
I read the first three of these as a kid but had to re-read them in order to get up to speed. This one was very good, sort of a break from the mold because suddenly we jump into more modern times (the first three were written wayyyy before this one). I enjoyed it anyway, and as always it kind of gave me chills when the child wizards went up against the Lone Power.
3/3/02 Diane Duane
High Wizardry
Urk. I kind of skimmed this as a kid, but reading it in its full depth as an adult was pretty amazing. Nita's sister Dairine shows us what she's got. :)
2/23/02 Diane Duane
Deep Wizardry
Continuing in my wish to read in full what I'd skimmed as a child, I read this, and was amazed at the character Nita's bravery. It's pretty well-written.
2/17/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #5: Mutation
I always have to read these as soon as they come out. This one was freaky.
2/17/02 Diane Duane
So You Want To Be a Wizard
I decided to get into reading these again, as I liked them as a child but they were a bit over my head. Plus there were some new ones in the series and I wanted to read them while understanding what the hell happened in the previous ones.
2/17/02 Richard Peck
Ghosts I Have Been
I actually recall reading this as a kid and it scaring the piss out of me. I liked reading it again and reading the continuing adventures of Blossom Culp.
? early 2002 Rhiannon Ryall
West Country Wicca
Very nice eye-opener about the early days of the Craft, before Gardner and his buds got their hands on it.
? 2/02 J.R.R. Tolkien
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Well, I had to know what happened to the Fellowship! Tolkien is classic.
2/10/02 John Colapinto
As Nature Made Him
A weird book about a boy (one of a set of twins) who was raised as a girl after a circumcision went awry. It was pretty good, and drew attention to the plight of sexually ambiguous children and adults.
2/3/02 Dav Pilkey
Super Diaper Baby
This came out the same day as a John Grisham book, but I ignored that one. The author of Captain Underpants gives us a new character to giggle at.
2/1/02 Amber K & Azrael Arynn K
Candlemas
This was VERY well-written, my favorite individual book about a Pagan holiday. Lots of great lore and emphasis on the Brigit myth.
1/27/02 Richard Abanes
Harry Potter and the Bible
I was curious what objections the Christians had to the Harry Potter phenomenon, so I read. Though the author had done his research, I was pretty appalled to see him making excuses for Christian fantasy writers (e.g., Lewis, Tolkien) and saying it was okay for them to have magic-using characters (like the elves in Lord of the Rings) because they were using inborn abilities while Harry Potter kids are studying the occult. (Er, no, the Harry Potter kids had natural magical abilities that they used with no training, even if they did later go to school to refine them.) Anyway.
1/16/02 William Sleator
The Boxes
This was probably my least favorite Sleator book. An uncle leaves precious boxes with an irresponsible child who opens them against express orders, and then that's all fine and good because the uncle was hoping that would happen and gave the warning to tempt curiosity. What the hell??
1/15/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #4: Nowhere Land
La la la . . . yaaay!
1/15/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #3: Them
It's starting to get really insane.
1/14/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #2: Destination Unknown
God, what a scary concept.
1/13/02 K.A. Applegate
Remnants #1: The Mayflower Project
This series has been catching my eye for a while (since Animorphs was, seriously, one of the BEST THINGS I EVER READ), so I decided to start up book 1. Before the first book is over, Earth is hit with a giant asteroid and everyone dies. Lovely.
1/8/02 Gail Carson Levine
Dave at Night
Disappointing, given the author's much better work in Ella Enchanted.
? 1/02 Gail Carson Levine
The Wish
I read this because I liked Ella Enchanted, but this wasn't as good, though it was an interesting concept and actually had the main character getting what-for for her actions rather than everything being hunky-dory at the end.

Go here for 2001's list! Go here for 2003's list!
Go here for the jump-off point of all the years I've been recording my reading list, separated by year!

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