Life After Breaking Dawn?

So I overreacted. Big deal. I saw the quote and immediately jumped to conclusions. However, I was wrong. I admit it. I never guessed, never came close to what was taking up all those 768 pages.

Well, to be fair, neither did anyone else.

All said and done, I think I was fairly okay with Breaking Dawn. It certainly wasn't the adrenaline-kicking climatix that I'd been waiting for, but neither did I toss it out the window in disgust. Yes, I didn't like how the story was moved along, how the plotline seemed to encorporate too many aspects for it too handle. I didn't like how some things were tied up, and I'd rather if some of those strings were cut. And I regretted that Stephenie Meyer didn't have the bloodthirsty authoring skills of J.K. Rowling, killing off characters and fandoms one by one. Such a pity.

However, I've already ranted about this both at school and online, so moving on.

My next challenge- for want of a better word- is finding more books to satisfy my thirst after all my pent-up hype for Breaking Dawn has been released. I've realised that I've been slightly straying away from the stories of family clashes, teenage romance and high-school blues (but don't get me wrong- I love the teenage angst) and into the realms of fantasy.

A list of books soon to be read- please comment if you find any good reads worth investigating :)

Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
Currently reading the first in the series in Home-Ec lessons while I pretend that I have nothing to do. As a result, my shorts that I am making resemble nothing like the finished product, and I have several scars on my fingers when I tried to read while unpinning my material. Not a good idea.

The Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld
I read the first book in this series as one of many to settle my pre-bookrelease hype, and amazingly, this one I stuck with right until the very end. A wonderful, original plot- hopefully will be reading the next two in the series after the library has ordered them...

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Another one by Scott Westerfeld... I've got a lot of variety here, don't I? A strong relation to the Twilight series here- this one is about vampires- the not-oh-so traditional ones. I've read a few chapters of this, having coveted the book from an over-protective blue-haired girl, and so far, I like what I see. Watch this space.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
One I've heard much about while dealing with the Twilight world, but never really quite got around to reading. So far on the bottom of a huge waiting list...

Night Road by A.M. Jenkins
Haven't heard too much about this one- recommended by our school librarian on our book club website recently. Will be interesting investigating.

Hopefully that list will keep me going for a while. Until I get my hand on them, I'm rereading Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce- a great author for any of you in the epic fantasy genre.

Finally, because I simply can't be torn away from saying something else about Twilight, here's the full ballet scene from the upcoming movie, filmed at Comic Con:




And the design we used on our t-shirts!!!

Warning! Spoilers Alert! Abort, abort!!!

Don't- I repeat- do not go on to Stephenie Meyer's website, nor any Twilight fansite nor any chatrooms, posts or forums if you do not wish to view a major spoiler that has been released online. More specifically- do not view Stephenie Meyer's Quotes of the Day being released on her site. Major, major spoilers are at work here.

In some aspects, I wish that Stephenie Meyer was more like JK Rowling. More cautious. More cafeful. Much less inclined to release a huge, huge spoilers on her website one day before her books are released in America. Honestly woman! Author with a crazed, manical streak can be viewed here! Not very impressed!

Please. Don't repeat the same mistakes I did. Turn off your screen now. Save yourself while you still can.

Scrap what I said earlier about Breaking Dawn not having a central plot now. No dilemma, no problem. It has a big one now.

Breaking Down for Breaking Dawn

As anyone in the literary world not living under a rock ought to know, Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final novel in Stephenie Meyer's internationally acclaimed series will be released in August within the space of a few days.

If you do not know this already, please hit yourself over with a stick, then calmly proceed to speed through this series. This is serious stuff, people.

Unfortunately Breaking Dawn is released on a Monday for me, and for the last few weeks I have been methodolically planning ways how to escape the school grounds and purchase a copy from the local bookstore (see Grace in my English class for more information- our plans were actually quite good. Plenty of wasted English time was spent wisely on this endeavour. No wonder I haven't started my review yet.)

Fortunately, due to the brilliant influence of one school librarian, and a couple of persuasive students, a bunch of thirteen girls all wearing t-shirts emblazoned with "Bite Me" will be able to be glimpsed in a bookshop at approximately 1 o'clock, possibly screaming with delight/ hyperventilating/ going crazy/ or all of the above.

The sweetest thing? We skip school, and we get extra marks for English for it. :)

I have, I admit, already gone past the point of excitement a few weeks ago. I go on to both Stephenie Meyer's website and Twilight Lexicon several times a day. I trawl through cyberspace in the doomed search of finding good fanfiction to read. My art book is filled with rough sketches of a certain golden-eyed guy. Really, I haven't been like this since the countdown to Deathly Hallows. I wrote a four page essay in the upcoming weeks on contents of JK Rowling's book- concerning paragraphs including "What On Earth Are Deathly Hallows," "People Most Likely To Be Killed Off," (although Hedwig and Dobby never crossed my mind) "Horcruxes- What and Where the Hell Are They?" (I got most of those right too.)

The major problem with Breaking Dawn is that there's still no set problem- no dilemma that will determine the overall plot. If all goes to plan, Bella will be married. Then changed into a vampire. Wonderful stuff- but certainly not enough to fill 768 pages. There's definately a trivial point that we, the readers, are missing. Who knows? Maybe Jacob and his werewolfy friend will crash the wedding a la Death Eater style. Maybe Bella will turn into Edward's lunch. Maybe even a half-vampire chicken Edward changed many years ago will come seeking revenge...

It's all purely hypothetical, all up in the air right now. Who knows what could happen?

Back to the Institution

It's a very bittersweet feeling, coming back to school after the holidays. Mostly you're just bored out of mind and brainwashed from far too many hours of staying inside, tapping away at a keyboard- you feel like you've been underwater for far too long.

So you're back at school, you catch up with your friends, hear the latest gossip, and then BAM! Back to the real world. You have assignments, projects, even that test on Friday that you forgot to study for. You can hardly carry your textbook-filled bag, and squeeze it into that tiny locker still invaded by rubbish and smells of that sandwich that the person two lockers over forgot eat for lunch in Term 1.

However, I'm not too far behind on the reading scheme. I managed with great effort to drag myself to the closest local library and borrowed the next two in the Demonata series by Darren Shaw, the first novel in James Patterson's popular Maximum Ride series as well as a battered copy of Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights is still sitting on my untidy desk, lost beneath mountains of schoolwork and half-attempted drawings, still unread. I tried, I must admit. I was able to complete the first page. Then I gave in to temptation and just flipped through the pages to find Bella and Edward's quote from Eclipse. Yes, I am sad. I realized this many, many years ago.

Maximum Ride is a different story altogether. It was recommended to me by another member of my book club (go to http://www.koobians.blogspot.com/ to find most of her insane ramblings) and the copy at the school library was stolen from under my very nose. I absolutely loved the first book, and when in town the next day, I brought the other three books in the series, believing them to be just as brilliant, if not better.

Wrong.

Five hours and forty-five dollars later, I had read through all the books and had come to the conclusion that James Patterson was a very indecisive author. He also never explains anything properly- his books grasp more on the action and the avalanche of the series, instead of fleshing out a logical and believable plot in the first place. Not exactly the best qualities that you want in an author.

I also read Chocolat in the holidays, as promised, and found it a very good and engaging read- and also a job very well done by the screenplay writers adapting it to the big screen. Another good book was the Book Thief a bestseller historical fiction on Nazi Germany that my sister bought as a part of her English homework- she misplaced it for a couple of hours.

Back to school, and I have read Blood and Chocolate after finally grasping it from the clutches of my fellow book lovers. It reads very much like Twilight- the same scenario, but with werewolves instead of vampires, and more alcohol and swearing. Nice read though.

Most importantly, in the light of upcoming release of Breaking Dawn, we have found an alternative to skipping school on Monday. We have arranged- and I kid you not- an excursion to the local bookstore exculsively for the population of the Year 9 Twilighters Fan Club. We're even making t-shirts for the occasion. We even miss out of ten minutes of class in order to catch the bus. I swear, on Monday 4th of August, around lunchtime, I will be in heaven.

Holiday Blues

Contradictorily to my last post, I do declare that going through the holidays without good reading material sucks. I have been partially saved from the brink of frustration by steamrolling through the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan (a very good series, but maybe a bit more suited for younger years) but now I am reduced to slavering over my computer, tired eyes scanning over the clichéd and the utterly repetitive world of fan fiction.

The best thing about going to school is that you have a pretty decent library sitting just within a few metres of wherever your classroom is. In the holidays, of course, I had to strech my loan limit to its boundries and travel home with a ton of books in my already-loaded bag, or otherwise get up early *shock horror!* and find myself a public library whose card I have not yet misplaced. *Sigh*. It's a hard life.

I have an undefinate list of books I want to read soon, mostly all choices influenced by friends who are able to steal the book faster off the shelves than me *glares at a certain someone*. Amongst them are Blood and Chocolate, another one vampire/werewolf (or is it just werewolf?) genre, Chocolat, (I saw the movie with Johnny Depp and few deep in love with the screenplay), the Dragonriders series, and a few classics such as Pride and Prejduice and Wuthering Heights.

However, the best thing about holidays is the free time to watch movies. There are a few good ones out right now- Prince Caspian (dubbed Prince Caspicum by my sister) and the latest Indiana Jones among others. I saw Get Smart on Sunday night, a good movie, but unfortunately not as good as the old Maxwell Smarts.

Breaking Dawn

Get this widget!

As a joint celebration for the beginning of the school holidays (two whole weeks of bliss!!!) and only thirty more days until the release of Breaking Dawn (ignore what it says in the widget- where I live they only release it on August 4th :( ) I have decided to draw attention to all the books and book-movie adaptions being released this year.
I thought this whole "waiting" thing for sequels would be all over an done with as soon I lined up in front of a bookstore in the dead of the morning, counting down the seconds until Deathly Hallows was released, but no. A small list of what I'm expecting so far this year...
- Breaking Dawn. First and foremost. Considering skipping school to get to the bookstore.
- Brisingr. Third book in the Inheritance Series (not Trilogy anymore) by Christopher Paolini. Will be released in September. A bit disappointed with this one; it was meant to be the last book in the series...
- Stop in the Name of Pants!. Ninth in the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series by Lousie Rennison, released sometime in July. So what if I haven't read numbers 7 and 8 yet?

As for movies...
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. A real no-brainer there. Utter distress and devasation guarenteed in the viewing of this film, but I'm going along anyway. All should know that it will be released on the
- Twilight, an absolute must for a Twilighter such as me. Looks promising so far.
- Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, based on first book in Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by above author. While doubts about the renamed title still ensure, (honestly, perfect snogging? Have you ever heard a teenager say perfect snogging???) but the trailer looks good.

Book-to-Movie Adaptions

So I watched "Speak" on Youtube (God, how I love Youtube) and between waiting for my wheezy old computer to buffer and loading the separate parts of the movie, I was wondering about book to movie adaptions.

"Speak" turned out, as a movie, didn't fulfill my expectations of the book, which seems to be the case nowadays. We Pottermanics groan and weep over the inaquadete adaption from paper to screen (they missed the whole chapter in PoA that was the most central to the plot!!!) and I won't even comment on the Eragon film made two years ago.

True, some aren't so bad. I've watched both "The Notebook" and "A Walk to Remember" after reading the books, and I think that the screenwriters did a very good job of them. Classics written by Jane Austen also look very good on-screen.

I've already given up on the Harry Potter movie coming out later this year, but my hopes for "Twilight" aren't dashed yet, and although they were cut a bit after Emmett's line in the trailer *shudder*, the scene from MTV Movie Awards rose them back up several notches.

Here's the first ten minutes of "Speak" from Youtube.

The First Ten Lies They Tell You In High School

I've recently been reading many high-school dramas for my Book Club, but probably one of my favourites so far has to be "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson about a girl struggling through high school after an horrific summer holiday experience. A highly recommended read, but I was struck by the absolute truth and reality of Melaine's list of lies they tell you in high school. So, without further ado...

The First Ten Lies They Tell You In High School:

1. We are here to help you.
2. You will have enough time to get to your class before the bell rings.
3. The dress code will be enforced.
4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.
5. Guidance counselors are always available to listen to you.
6. You will use algebra in your adult life.
7. Your locker combination is private.
8. Your schedule was created with your needs in mind.
9. Students must stay on campus for lunch.
10. These will be the years you look back on fondly.

EDIT: Just googled "Speak" and found out a movie had been made on it back in 2004. Turns out that Kristen Stewart (playing Bella in the upcoming "Twilight" movie) has the main role!!!

Greetings, Earthlings

Welcome to those crazed few who have happened to stumble upon by blog. Hopefully, you will be able to survive the process and endure the mad, rambling thoughts of yours truly. Enjoy your stay on Planet Earth.