I'm listening to The Dark Is Rising (people weren't kidding about Over Sea, Under Stone not being a good place to start, how boring was that?), and people keep referring to Will as an "Old One," so I am expecting him to sprout tentacles at some point.
We're deep in space, corner of No and Where.
Mal ,'Objects In Space'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Polter-Cow - May 16, 2012 8:21:16 am PDT #18728 of 28326
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
§ ita § - May 16, 2012 8:23:06 am PDT #18729 of 28326
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
B&N has a really long sample from Night Circus available in ebook, and I kinda forgot I hadn't bought the whole thing yet, I was enjoying myself so much.
Well played, teaser, well played.
Does Amazon let you get samples, or does it just do the "look inside this book" thing? It occurs to me (d'oh!) that you don't need to have an e-book to take advantage of this--you just need to set up an account and install the app on your computer. Then you can read the first few pages of, well, just about anything that's also sold as an ebook if you want more info to make up your mind. It's not like you can't go buy the paper version afterwards.
Dana - May 16, 2012 8:24:28 am PDT #18730 of 28326
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
I love Over Sea, Under Stone. Classic quest book.
Steph L. - May 16, 2012 8:24:36 am PDT #18731 of 28326
I look more rad than Lutheranism
Does Amazon let you get samples
Yup. They're like a drug dealer -- first one's free, yo.
Jessica - May 16, 2012 8:24:51 am PDT #18732 of 28326
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
On the Kindle, it's samples. I don't know if they're the same pages as the "Look inside this book" pages on the website.
Consuela - May 16, 2012 8:24:57 am PDT #18733 of 28326
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
Many Amazon books have the first chapter free. I think it's up to the publisher. I downloaded the first chapter of Leviathan Wakes, which is getting billed as a Firefly-esque space opera set in the asteroid belt.
Ginger - May 16, 2012 8:27:24 am PDT #18734 of 28326
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I do not understand why they keep assigning the world's most depressing books to an age group already prone to depression.
It's a shame that Roller Skates never seemed to acquire literary heft. Being one of the best books ever doesn't seem to be a criterion. Lucinda is a child of privilege, but the book is about her discovering that others are less privileged and standing up for them. Also, it set me up to love Shakespeare.
Island of the Blue Dolphins? One of Octavia Butler's books?
Atropa - May 16, 2012 8:29:17 am PDT #18735 of 28326
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
It doesn't have a female protagonist, and it's a completely cliched suggestion from me, but how about Something Wicked This Way Comes ?
Consuela - May 16, 2012 8:30:51 am PDT #18736 of 28326
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
Mara of the Nile?
Actually, that's not a bad idea. What about some of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's stuff? I was reading her in 7th grade.
Sophia Brooks - May 16, 2012 8:47:00 am PDT #18737 of 28326
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
I loved the depressing books! Except The Red Pony, which I hated. It was boring and bleak. All the books I hated reading in high school were either two terse (Steinbeck and Hemingway) or too wordy (Hawthorne). I seriously hated both The Red Pony and The Old Man and the Sea more than any other books I had ever read. And I was not too fond of The Scarlet Letter.
I did LOVE Silas Marner and all Thomas Hardy, though.