“It tells the truth. As for how to read it, you’ll have to learn by yourself.” With these words, Lyra is given an Alethiometer. Armed with this mysterious tool, which will answer any question truthfully, she sets out on what will become an adventure, determined by an ancient prophecy.
The story takes place in another world, [...]
Have you ever wondered what the most fair way to rate books is? Problem solved. I’ve come up with LibRate, a rating scheme that I think compares books in a semi-fair manner.
Okay, there are five options when you rate a book:
5. This rating applies only to Harry Potter
4. This rating, also known as “Beyond Really [...]
I finished my second reading of The Dark Is Rising series. The first was 4 to 5 years ago, and I remember being excited and enthralled by it. This time, looking at it more objectively, I noticed that there is an excitement building within the books similar to an orchestra rising to a crescendo. This [...]
Podcasting Hacks is a great book on, well, podcasts.
In case you didn’t know, a podcast is “a Web-based audio broadcast via an RSS feed, accessed by subscription over the Internet” (definition from Dictionary.com).
Podcasting Hacks teaches you to subscribe to podcasts and (mainly) how to create them. The book covers everything from microphones to recording [...]
Leonardo’s shadow is an interesting book about Leonardo da Vinci’s servant.
It’s set in the 1400s, when Da Vinci is painting The Last Supper in Milan. Basically, Leonardo is working on his flying device instead of the painting…and racking up huge debts.
There’s plenty of funny dialog, a bit of action, and the hilarious thoughts of the [...]
Just because it’s labeled as a “children’s book” doesn’t mean it isn’t good. In my experiences, “children’s books” are better.
Look at Harry Potter. Though it’s tagged as a “children’s book,” it’s without a doubt my favorite series. After the last book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, would you seriously consider it a “children’s book”? [...]
Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen are more fantasy books by Tamora Pierce. They are…different from the rest of her books, though.
In a typical book by Tamora Pierce, the main character is focused on attaining some goal, relentlessly plowing through the plotline. In these two books, however, the heroine is more easygoing…and funnier. The storyline is no less serious than any of Pierce’s other books. It’s more serious if anything. Seeing as the character, Aly of Pirate’s Swoop, is a Spy rather than an aspiring knight/mage/whatever, it makes more sense.
The two books detail the rebellion of the native people of the Copper Isles (Aly is actually from the nearby country of Tortall, though she ends up in the Copper Isles).
The Leaky Cauldron has made yet another countdown to the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (to be released July 21). The new countdown features a rotating Deathly Hallows book and a daily trivia question. Other countdowns can be found on The Leaky Cauldron Countdown Page and The Site of Requirement Countdowns Page.
Cell: A Novel is the only book I’ve read by Steven King so far. So far, it’s the best book of his I’ve read. 
In Cell, an odd happening called The Pulse (a wave sent through cellphones to their users). Basically what The Pulse did was erase all the cellphone users’ brains. Scary?
The book details the survival of a small group of people who weren’t Pulsed because they didn’t have cellphones. By survival I mean “running from insane ‘Phoners’.” Eventually th Phoners started to develop a sort of single mind resembling that of an ant colony. “Survival” is a broad term including most of the book.
In 1968, a book by Anne McCaffrey known as Dragonflight was published. It was derived from s short story she published earlier on called “Weyr Search”. Dragonflight was followed by two more called Dragonquest and The White Dragon. Today there are over 20 books in the Dragonrider’s of Pern series, the latest two being co-written [...]
