1/15/15 - A Book My Mom Loves

Guess who got lazy about writing reviews during the first week of the semester?

I finished Goodbye, Mr. Chips on the 9th. It was a pleasant, very short read - it took me about forty minutes - and I get the appeal. It's very third-person omniscient, going over the anecdotal incidents of a very popular English professor that, in a longer book, would have been tedious in the extreme. But since this is a novella, with a distant, thoughtful air, it's much more entertaining. Mr. Chips sounds like the kind of professor I'd like to have. He also reminded me of such professors as Professor Keating - kind of like their more conservative prototype. I'd like to know Mr. Chips's influence on other "life-changing teacher" stories.

I finished three of my five books last week. A little sad, a little good. Improvements can always be made (unless I won like last week) and hopefully this coming week will be better!

The War That Killed Achilles and Hannibal are crossing over - I just didn't get to them soon enough. (I did, however, finish The War today and it seemed like a well-researched analysis of a few of the broader aspects of the Iliad. A good beginner-level book, which I am. A beginner, not a beginner-level book. That's also why it's not in the picture - I had to return it today.)

I splurged and bought the book I've chosen for the category of A Book With Magic, to wit, A World Without Princes, because it'll probably take my library system a year and a day to get it. I don't want to wait a year and a day for it because I am very excited for this book. So expect either a deliriously pleased review or a deliriously disappointed review sometime between tomorrow and next Wednesday.

Hopes for this week: that Paper Towns isn't as eye-stabbingly painful to slog through as Looking For Alaska, that Hannibal is even better than Red Dragon, that The One isn't as upsettingly drab as The Elite was, and that A World Without Princes is as beautifully characterized and drawn as The School for Good and Evil was. Lots of sequels and lots of expectations for this week!

Joyous Reading!