I liked the books at first mostly because of the show(even though the show got kind of soap-opera. Some of the early episodes kind of had the same feel, I thought. But then people kinda started flipping out.) I used to reread them, but the last time I did, my parents were getting divorced. I think that would be the memory now, not Christmas oranges.
'Trash'
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."
Not sure if you want to go this route but the American Girl Kirsten is a pioneer.
I liked Understood Betsy a lot as a kid, too. But I think Betsy was just sent to live on a farm - not a pioneer story.
A farm in Vermont. It's a GREAT book.
Oh, I loved Understood Betsy! And I read Caddie Woodlawn (which I didn't love as much as the Little House books) and Strawberry Girl. God, I want to get out *all* my childhood books now.
In non-Little House news (though now I want to re-read them, dang it!), I'm about a chapter away from the end of The Subtle Knife, and:
(1) I can see the whole Dust premise starting to unravel;
(2) Lee Scoresby! Noooooo!; and
(3) Seriously, Pullman couldn't come up with a better name for the knife (not to mention the book title) than the "subtle knife"? Lame.
And although I can see the Dust premise unraveling, I'm going to read The Amber Spyglass just so I can see how it all turns out.
Random House to stop using DRM on its audiobooks. [link]
But the interesting part is why:
Seems Random House, in a fit of unfettered wisdom, ran a DRM-free audiobook distribution program online and found that “none of the pirate editions of their audiobooks online came from those DRM-free editions.” All the pirated versions they found were from DRM-editions that had been cracked, stripped of their protection, or ripped from CD. To quote Cory Doctorow, “DUH.”
Political contributions by people who identify their occupation as "novelist": [link]
OK, I need to step away from that database before I end up putting in everyone I like from my LibraryThing list. If nothing else, there's always the possibility I won't like them after I see what they do with their money!
I can see the whole Dust premise starting to unravel
I love what he does with Dust in the second book, though. Also, how great is Mary Malone? She's one of the good parts about the third book.
Seriously, Pullman couldn't come up with a better name for the knife (not to mention the book title) than the "subtle knife"? Lame.
Heh.