Linda's Reading Blog

A review of Linda’s Reading Blog.

Linda’s Reading Blog is an interesting blog for avid book readers and lovers such as myself. The blog is informative yet doesn’t give away too many spoilers. Linda’s blog lists books that she has read, and gives us her general opinion on each of them.

I really enjoyed reading Linda’s blog, it is set out neatly and isn’t too ‘busy’. She has used a light blue for her background, which makes it easy to read the text. The blue is a perfect colour, as it allows Linda to place almost any picture on her blog itself without it looking odd. One thing that I liked was that there was an easily understandable list of books that Linda has read in the last two years. The titles are well set out and easy to read.

I admire the way that Linda has gone about reviewing each book and posting them. She does it in such a way that she can give her readers her opinion on the book without giving away too much information. I like how she has a picture of each book cover next to her reviews. This was practically what I had in mind when I started creating my own blog, aiming to post a different post about a different book each day – hence the title of my blog ‘A Book a Day’.

Here is the link to Linda’s blog - http://lindasreadingblog.blogspot.com.au , I recommend reading her blog and I hope you can appreciate what she has done as much as I do.

~Shieldthestral165

Life Without The Net

If I so desired to, I could easily log onto and number of social media sites such as; Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube or even MySpace, and write a post about my life and something that I cared about. So many of us take for granted what we have, and the power that we possess right at our fingertips.

It’s difficult, even for me to look back and imagine a time where the entire world has not been joined by the Internet. Living in a world without the Internet would have made it challenging to instantly share my ideas and feelings.

Without the Internet I would have made use of the things around me, like the radio or newspapers. If I were to write about the books that I love I could have a column in a newspaper of magazine. This, even though it isn’t instant is a fast and effective replacement of a blog. A newspaper or magazine column would be a great way to communicate my ideas and feelings.

 Because I have chosen to blog about books and reading, it’s possible that if I were to live in a world before the Internet I would have joined a book club to discuss the novels that I have grown up with.

The difference between now and before the Internet is not that great. Sure, it would have been more difficult to share your ideas and comments – but there were ways. Here, in the 21^st century we have the ability to share our feelings, comments and ideas with the touch of a button.

I have never really thought about the Internet in this way before, I have grown up with it and I honestly have to say I hope I am never forced to live without it. Almost everyone I know, teachers, students and even family members all take the Internet for granted. Everyone uses it every day to talk, communicate and to do school work. I cannot think of the last time I went an entire day without using the Internet.

I would like to thank the Internet for giving me the opportunity to share my life with the world, to share this post, and to share my love of books. 

Ranger's Apprentice

The series that I am going to write about now is called Ranger’s Apprentice. The author, John Flanagan wrote a handful of short stories for his son to encourage him to read more, and since then has decided to combine those short stories into one of the best book series I have ever read. The series comprises of 11 books so far, and with only 1 left to be published he has begun writing a spin off series based in the same universe.

If there is one thing I liked most about this series, it would be John Flanagan’s amazing ability to create a picture in your mind as you read. Apart from that, there’s always the countless amount of characters that you just can’t help but like. It’s been difficult to choose my favourites, and I have settled on the three I know best. Will, Princess Cassandra and Malcolm.

Will Treaty is the main character in Ranger’s Apprentice. He is an orphan boy that is taken on as an apprentice to Halt – One of the mysterious rangers. As he grows older throughout the books he becomes so much more likeable. He has morals, and thinks like a teenager should. In this series there are subtle romantic sub plots, which add to the main plot. This is one of the things I have found to be so likeable – that there are things that I can relate to, things that are almost like real life. Apart from Will, my favourite character is Princess Cassandra (Otherwise known as Evanlyn.)

Evanlyn is the princess, and has an amazing sense of ironic humor. She is introduced to the series in the second book, and the third book is pretty much centered on her and Will. Evelyn, despite being a princess of the realm acts rather childishly, which just adds to her ever changing character. She is strong, intelligent and rather adaptable to her surroundings, allowing her to overcome even the most challenging of problems. These are just some of the many reasons for why she is my favourite character.

My third favourite character is Malcolm. He is introduced as a sorcerer later in the series, and ever since I met him I have loved his personality. If anything, he reminds me of a more sensible version of Albus Dumbledore.

The third book in the series is most definitely one of my favourites. It is set around Evanlyn and Will in Skandia, a barren land that they find themselves stuck in as slaves, and what was worse was that it was winter –so everything was frozen. When they finally manage to escape Will is out of his mind due to a drug that aids against the cold. And so they spend the rest of winter hauled up in an unused hunter’s cabin for the winter. I like this book so much because it is so different from the rest. It shows the damage that drugs can do to a person, but it also shows how you can overcome it. This book teaches people to be brave, and to overcome their fears.

 The Rangers Apprentice is an outstanding series, and I am extremely lucky to have grown up with such inspiration.

The Wardstone Chronicles

Apart from Harry Potter I have grown up with several other book series’. The one I am going to tell you about now is called The Wardstone Chronicles – or rather The Spooks Books. The author – Joseph Delaney, has written 10 books and there is still more to come.

The main character is Thomas Ward and he is apprenticed to John Gregory in the first book of the series. John Gregory is known as The Spook, and it is his duty is to protect the country from dark creatures such as Witches and Boggarts. To be apprenticed to a Spook you have to be a seventh son of a seventh son, as being a seventh son of a seventh son gives you certain abilities that aid you in the fight against the dark. The Spook has had twenty-nine apprentices before Tom, and he is said to be the best one so far. Some of the abilities Tom gets as a seventh son of a seventh son is being able to see and hear ghosts, masking his ‘scent’ from witches, and as well as these, Tom has certain gifts from his mother, such as being able to slow down and stop time, and also being able to smell the presence of death on someone.

It’s these quirky and different gothic features of the series that I have found so lovable, there are many characters throughout the 10 books that I adore; and as well as having such lovable characters, Joseph Delaney’s writing style is so easy to read that you can’t help but love the series. In particular, there are two characters that I love most; Alice and Tom.

Alice is a kind and lovable character, and despite her acting wrongly in the first book of the series she grows closer to Tom, and even to The Spook. She is the daughter of two witches that belong to two different clans. In the early books of the series, Alice was not yet a witch, but because she was the offspring of witches, The Spook was weary of letting Alice into Tom’s life as his best friend.

Tom is my second favourite character, next to Alice. He is probably the most moral person in the series, as he was brought up proper by his father on their farm. His lovable personality matches that of Alice and when I read the series I always think about how much he relates to me. I am not a seventh son of a seventh son, nor was I brought up proper on a farm. But I have found that he has had to overcome certain goals in his short life; much as I have.

I remember the day that my brother got the first book ‘The Spooks Apprentice’ as a birthday present; this was some ten years or so ago and ever since I have found myself constantly hung up in the series. I have not read it as much as Harry Potter, and nor are my copies of The Wardstone chronicles held together with tape, but I do love each series equally as if the worlds within them were my own.

Harry Potter

As soon as I was old enough to read, I read Harry Potter; and ever since I have been captivated by J.K Rowling’s world, I love all the magic, the castles and most importantly I love the characters. Dumbledore was always my favourite character - next to Hagrid and Hermione of course.  Dumbledore was almost like a role model, someone to look up to in a moment of need. What would Dumbledore do? I would ask myself.

Apart from Dumbledore, Hagrid has always been my favourite character; he’s probably the best friend Harry, Ron and Hermione could have hoped to have. He is kind, caring and almost has a fathers love for Harry. And even though he really does seem to be a blundering idiot from time to time, I really do love Hagrid.

And then there’s Hermione. I remember how the young bossy character from The Philosophers Stone grew up and turned into a beautiful young witch – both in the books and in the movies. Something I remember from when I was really young, before the first Harry Potter movie came out was that no one knew how to pronounce Hermione; and as I later found out that this is why J.K. Rowling made Viktor Krum’s character challenged in pronouncing her name in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Many years ago, when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was published; we went down the coast. I can still picture my mother lounging around the little cabin we had stayed at, just reading Harry Potter. And even though we were down there for about a week; my mum still hadn’t finished it, and so when we got home I still had to wait to read it. But when the time came and I got the chance to read it, I read it about a hundred times! It was so far the best Harry Potter book Jo had written; and to this day it’s still one of my favourites.

I remember lining up to buy Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the line went all the way out of the main doors of the shopping centre and almost all of them were in costume. I wasn’t, I hadn’t even thought of dressing up for the occasion; and as for the other books, I don’t even remember buying them – I was either too young or someone had bought them for me.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about how many times I have read each one; and I have to say that I have read them so many times that they are literally held together with sticky tape. The words are smudged, and the pages crinkled; but I guess that’s just how we show our love for a book – especially when that book is Harry Potter.