Which dystopian book should I read next Venn Diagram

Comment if you'd like me to make more.

Expressing my love for local bookstores

There's this local bookstore that I go to (but I won't go to for a while because I'm on a book buying ban *sobs*) and I absolutely love it. I realized that I like local bookstores altogether. I'm all for supporting Barnes and Noble, because it is the last major book chain. Seriously. We can NOT have another Borders incident.
But, I do prefer local bookstores. At least my local bookstore, and I'll tell you why.

• Barnes and Noble is like Starbucks. Actually, there's a Starbucks inside of most Barnes and Nobles. But when you go to Starbucks, it's like "Hi, I'll have a caramel mocha chocolate frappadappachino" and then the person behind the counter says "Okay, that'll be 4 dollars" and they barely look at you and they call you up, spell your name wrong, and then you sit in some place that has such a corporate feel, surrounded by people you have never met who sit with their laptops and type in the most pretentious way possible. Local bookstores are like the coffee places you can't even remember the names of. You go in, the people working there smile, they remember you, order your frappadappachino for three dollars, they get it just the way you like it, and when you sit down to drink, you find yourself in some sort of amazing coffee community full of people who like coffee. I like local bookstores for the vibe.
• The people working at local bookstores LOVE books. A lot of the times at Barnes and Noble, I'll see some person there who doesn't seem the slightest bit interested in books. But at local bookstores, there are usually the same people working there, and they are bookworms. The workers at my local bookstore actually order the books they want to read.
• The workers tell you what they think about the books that you're buying. Most of the time, they just gush over what you're buying and tell you about how much they loved the book, and I love that, because it's so cool to meet people who are as addicted to reading as I am.
• Store credit.
• Lastly, it's a local bookstore. You have to support your local bookstores, because the book business has been dying, but it is slowly regaining its strength. Together, we can keep Barnes and Noble and local bookstores in business.

Well, that's all I really had to say.
I love physical books and physical bookstores.

A tribute to Hufflepuff

Poor, underrated Hufflepuff.

Summer Reading List

There are many books I want to read over the summer. There are many things I want to do over the summer. I want to learn Spanish, violin, and study up on Quantum Physics simply because it's within my realm of human capability.

I also want to do some reading. Therefore, I'm making a list. I decided that any words in green would be the books at the top of my priority, any books in blue would be just kind of on the list, and any books in red would be the ones that I'll read as last resorts. Please comment and tell me what you think of my list, or make your own.

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken
Legend by Marie Lu (currently reading)
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (currently reading)
The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn (currently reading)
The Maze Runner by James Dashner (Hehe . . . I stopped at page 121 and haven't read it in a few months . . .)
The Compound by SA Bodeen
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (Stopped at page 20ish)
1984 by George Orwell
Miss Perregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (read the prologue)
The Monsters of Morley Manner by Bruce Coville (why do I own this?)
Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall by Mary Downing Hahn (currently reading)
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman
The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan
The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
Peter Pan by JM Barrie
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
The Time Machine by HG Wells
The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (read an astounding 3 pages)
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (this one might take me a while)
Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent
A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements
Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

. . . what is the Death Serum?

I just noticed on my blog statistics that there's usually at least one person somewhere in the world that is on this blog. So, you, yes, YOU--I have a question for you. But only if you've read Allegiant.
Is the Death Serum just poison? Because I know that it sounds so cool in the book. DEATH SERUM. But isn't is just poison? Wouldn't they at least have the same effects? The Death Serum kills you and poison kills you . . .
Just a thought.

I was sorted into a faction . . .

I recently did a sorting hat test and posted my results: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-took-sorting-hat-quiz.html
I decided to do something similar, but with the Divergent factions. I found this cool quiz at the back of the book and I might post it up if there is demand for it. Also, another cool thing that I found at the back of the Divergent book: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/06/veronica-roths-divergent-playlist.html

Anyway, my results were:
C
E
E
E
E
A
B

So, A is for Abnegation. B for Amity. C for Candor. D for Dauntless. E for Erudite. (I see what you did there, Roth.) As you can see, I did not get all of the same answers. We are all genetically pure--we are all Divergent. And none of the answers were perfect, either. But, as you can see, the majority was Erudite.

I didn't have any aptitude for Dauntless. That's fine. I would die in initiation anyway. I knew that I had aptitude for Amity, because I'm actually a pretty kind person. And I knew that I had aptitude for Abnegation because I'm extremely introverted. Candor is not something I was expecting. It asked how you wanted your family to see you, and I answered that I wanted them to think I was trustworthy, because trust is extremely important in any relationship. But the wording of the question, that one word--"want"--opens up a lot of possibilities and I don't think it necessarily gives me any aptitude for Candor.

So, I'm Erudite. Cool. Jeanine Mathews . . . yay . . .

Veronica Roth's Divergent playlist

At the back of Divergent, there is a list of some of the songs Veronica Roth listened to while writing, which I thought was really cool. I also liked a lot of the songs that she listened to and knew them before I even knew about Divergent.
I'm not sure if all copies of the books have this, because I have a paperback copy and it says that a movie is coming out on the front cover, and the back of the book may be just to get you hyped up and excited for the movie, so it may only be in paperbacks. I don't know. So, I am going to share Veronica Roth's Divergent playlist with you today.

1. "Starts with One" by Shiny Toy Guns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqEFJEgGva4
I'm just listening to this song for the first time. Veronica Roth said that the song helps her get in touch with the good aspects of Dauntless. It's a pretty cool song, I like it. It's a little different and more electronic than what I normally listen to, but I can really see how this song would help Veronica Roth see the awesomeness in Dauntless.

2. "Chasm" by Flyleaf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CHHLAwGAFU
I love Flyleaf so I've already heard this song. Veronica Roth said that the song helps her get in touch the bad aspects of Dauntless. The song has a kind of sad and hopeless feel to it, and the lyrics are downright depressing.

3. "Come Alive" by Foo Fighters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJPD5GxIuxg
The explanation for this song is "this is the love interest's song for Tris." It definitely has a different feel than the rest of the songs. It starts off with just acoustic guitars and there's a happy and kind of haunting feel to it. Later in the song, the electric guitar comes in, along with the minor chords, and it's kind of like how Tris and Tobias's relationship developed.

4. "Again" by Flyleaf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbdCeWoEH1U
I've listened to this song one million times. I love this song. Veronica Roth said that this is Tris's song for her love interest. It makes their relationship seem kind of . . . weird. It makes Tobias sound like an absolute wimp. It makes it sound like Tris wears the pants in their relationship, and maybe she does.
No, it makes her sound like the psychotic ex-girlfriend out for revenge.
It's a good song, though.

5. "Help I'm Alive" by Metric.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoK63Bk7pgw
I'm not the hugest fan of Metric. I don't mind their music, but it's not something I would usually listen to. Veronica Roth said that this song is Tris's initiation song, and listening to the lyrics, I can totally see that.

6. "We Die Young" by The Showdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFGWds439sI
This is basically the theme song for Dauntless. Electric guitars, loud and fast drums, lyrics that pretty much explain the Dauntless, etcetera.

7. "Canvas" by Imogen Heap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXj0dF7LAyE
This is the "riding on trains" song. There's definitely an interesting feel to it. There's a long intro, and it's a very different song. It should be the theme song for an anime. There's this really cool orchestra and this interesting beat. Don't just listen to it because you're a Divergent fan; listen to it for the amazing things it does to your ears. Gosh. This music is friggin' beautiful.

8. "Running up that Hill" by Placebo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP0ngiMBnas
I'll be honest--I wouldn't know Placebo if it weren't for Emma Blackery. Veronica Roth says that this book matches the tone of the book. I've noticed that a lot of these songs have electronics and have a kind of melancholy, almost, vibe.

9. "Sweet Sacrifice" by Evanescence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBYhQnjyrWo
I love Evanescence. I'm actually wearing the band t-shirt right now. Veronica Roth said that this song helped lead her to the basic world of this book as she was writing chapter 6. That's pretty cool, and this song is amazing, and Amy Lee can really sing, and the entire band is amazing.

10. "Arise" by Flyleaf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnsALhwxjzo
Veronica Roth is clearly a Flyleaf fan, and I do not blame her.
This is the last song on the playlist, and she said that it helped her write chapters 38 and 39. This was when Tobias was in the simulation and tried to hurt Tris. The song is about waking up and being strong, which is perfect for those chapters.

That is the entire playlist and it's all pretty great music. Maybe you could listen to them while reading certain parts of the book.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post. Comment. The poor comment section is feeling neglected.

I took the sorting hat quiz . . .

Recently, I joined Pottermore after I found out that Luna Lovegood married some Quidditch player, and that originated from Pottermore, so I didn't want to miss out on anything.
I have already taken a sorting hat quiz, but not on Pottermore. It wasn't official unless it was Pottermore.

I was not sorted into Hufflepuff, luckily. My parents would have been very disappointed. They would have disowned me and sent me to live under the stairs for the rest of my life. If I would have been sorted into Hufflepuff, I would have been a disgrace to the family and they would hate me and probably tell everyone that I tragically died in a car accident on my way to Hogwarts to get sorted.

I'm not a Slytherin, and I've never identified as one. In the song that they sang during the sorting hat ceremony in the Sorcerer's (or Philosopher's, for you silly British people) Stone, it says that the Slytherins will go to any means to get what they want (paraphrasing). But I've never been like that. Take the hallways, for example. I never push or shove to get past people. I just find some spaces to walk in and if there's an opening for me to get by, I'll take it. But I would never run someone over to get past.

Now we're down to two: Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. I personally see myself as more of a Ravenclaw, but I don't really flaunt my knowledge. I never try to draw attention to it, and I think that Ravenclaws are very proud of their smarts. But, much like Hermoine Granger, who--despite her knowledge--was sorted into Gryffindor.

We are taught to like Gryffindor. Gryffindor is like, THE house, and most of our favorite protagonists come from this house. But I'm just not excited by Gryffindor. They're all basically jocks, and I'm an orchestra nerd. I suppose that standing up for myself and being different is a bit of a Gryffindor trait, but I'm still not a big Gryffindor.
It's better than Hufflepuff.

While Reading: Divergent

I love gifs, and sometimes I have too much free time, due to my lack of friends. So here is a gif collage in chronological order that depicts my emotions and facial expressions while I was reading this book.
I hope you enjoy. Interpret it however you want.

Books about books about books about books within books about books

I noticed a recent trend: books about books. A lot of books that I have been reading have mentioned other books, or are about books, or have a main character who likes books, or having a book mentioned in the text that the publisher of the text decides to make into a book. Books.
So, this post is all about that. I hope that made sense.






The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I shouldn't really have to explain this one because of the title, but it's a book about a thief of books. Technically, there are books in it, if Max Vandenburg's drawings count, but it's still a book about books about books about books.








Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
So, this book is about someone who can make characters from books come alive. That would be so awesome! I love the concept! Just imagine being able to make Leo Valdez come to life, or Luna Lovegood, or anyone! That is pretty much every fangirl's dream. I mean, unless you choose to make Voldemort come to life. Or Clancy Gray, or President Snow . . .






The Harry Potter Companion Books by JK Rowling
I'm so glad that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages are actual books. And, I have VERY exciting information about a possible MOVIE TRILOGY about one of these books where the screenplay is written by JK ROWLING: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-z-marathon-jk-rowling-i-suppose.html



The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This books talks a lot about a book that doesn't exist called An Imperial Affliction. John Green has stated that he won't write An Imperial Affliction, but the thought of it is still pretty cool. In TFiOS, the main characters meet the author of the book, there are references to the book, there's an excerpt from the book, the main character is always reading the book, and the book doesn't exist.





The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
I'd really hate to spoil the ending of the book for anyone who hasn't read it, so if you haven't read it, go away.
But the ending of the book, which I didn't understand when I first read it, goes like this:
"The complicated machinery inside my automaton can produce one hundred and fifty-eight different pictures, and it can write, letter by letter, an entire book, twenty-six thousand one hundred and fifty nine words.
These words."
So, for those of you who don't understand, the author is implying that the book was written by the automaton, which sort of makes sense and sort of doesn't, but it's a satisfying ending and it's pretty cool.





Well, that is it for this blog post. Please, comment below about other books about books about books about books.
And I mean it. You guys are neglecting the poor comment section.
It just wants to be loved.

Something I thought you guys would appreciate

The best thing I have ever seen.

A-Z Marathon! JK Rowling . . . I suppose . . . Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

So, as some of you may know, JK Rowling has a companion book to the Harry Potter series called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It's really cool and I love when authors do things like this. She also wrote another book called Quidditch Through the Ages, and it's really cool. This isn't really one of those books you read every page of. It is still a really cool thing to have. There's a sticker on the cover that says "Property of Harry Potter" and it says that it's written by Newt Seamander, and all of the detail that went into this book makes it really cool and special.

It's a great companion to the series and I recommend for all Harry Potter fans to own it.






As you may not know, a screenplay based off of this book is being written by JK Rowling, and it's going to be a movie.

 

Guess when it's coming out?

November!

2016.

Beautiful covers

I'm a perfectionist, so this took forever to put together. It's still imperfect.
It's still extremely imperfect.
However, the cover for the Blood of Olympus, the conclusion to this long series, is here! It may change, but this is what we have so far.
Just click on the picture to zoom it in.
*By the way, my abbreviations might really annoy you.
This series is probably one of the most beautiful series ever. TLF was okay. It's all kind of dull, minus the camp half blood t shirt. SoM was a little better. There are more details, like the gigantic eye in the background, and the ship that you might miss. TTC is kind of . . . meh. BotL just looks epically epic. TLO looks cool, too.
Then we get on to the Heroes of Olympus series, and everything has gotten better--the plot has gotten better, the characters have gotten better, even the writing itself has gotten better. TLH has an epic cover. I didn't even really notice the translucent building in the background to the left of Festus until now. I should probably stop myself, but let's just say that SoN is amazing, MoA looks like someone almost had too much fun with the cover, HoH looks ABSOFRICKINGLUTELY AWESOME, and now let's study The Blood of Olympus cover.
Spoilers below, if you haven't read the series.
So, we have two giants on the cover. That's what we're expecting. There's a sword on the giant's back, so we can assume that there will be tons of actions in this book, but the happy ending of the previous book already clued us in on that. Then we have what looks like Jason Grace front and center on the cover with lightning and stuff. To be honest, it'll be cool is he saves the day in this book, but I'll be really pissed if he does. For the past four books, he's basically been mooching off of everybody else's success and surviving on the fact that he's a son of Zeus. If he swoops in and saves the day, I'll feel so angry. "Yay Jason! You saved the world, but let's not forget the fact that you couldn't defeat two gnomes." But, I'm not sure if he is Jason. For one thing, he's wearing a camp half blood t shirt, but we have seen him becoming more Greek in the previous books. But, for another thing, he's wearing glasses. If you zoom in really close, you'll see them. Then we have Hazel, or what I'm pretty sure is supposed to be Hazel, on her horse, holding a sword. Mkay. Then we have what might be Frank. I'm not too sure, but he looks kind of muscular. I don't know what he's holding. The thing in the air near the top left of the cover looks like the hook of a crane. Wonder what that's for . . .
In the background, we have another face, possibly another giant, maybe the statue of Athena. Then we have some ancient looking white columns, so I'm pretty sure we all can assume where they are.
I want Nico on the cover.
I want Nico on the cover.
Nonetheless, I am so happy. The cover looks great. This entire series looks great, and while I'm sad that it's ending, I can still read the companion books and the Kane Chronicles and all of that fun stuff.

The DNF Pile

Sometimes, you start a book and it has such promise. Then, you just never pick it up again.
That book becomes part of the DNF pile, and I am here to share mine.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

This book probably won't remain in the DNF pile for long. I'm sure I'll get around to reading it some time.
You see, I checked this one out from a library, and my copy was all torn up with strange stains in the pages, so it was not pleasing to pick up. Also, it's paperback, and I just prefer to check out hardcover books.
Also, I didn't have much time to read this one. So, I trudged through the first few chapters, decided I didn't like the writing style, and returned it to the library.


Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

What can I say about this book . . .
It was painfully, painfully slow. Whenever I picked it up, I sighed and found no interest in the book. The author didn't create a world I really cared for and I hated most of the characters. Also, the book was about sewing or knitting or whatever, which I just don't find pleasing. I might pick it up again some day. I might just read a detailed summary and move on to the next book. Who knows . . .



The Maze Runner by James Dashner

This book is not officially DNF. I just haven't picked it up in a month because I was so bored with it.
I am willing to trudge through The Grapes of Wrath and other classics, but this book was made purely for my entertainment. It didn't entertain me.






The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

I did finish this book, but I started it two years before I finished it. So, it was once in the DNF pile, but this one is just proof that books don't have to stay in the pile forever.







Redwall by Brian Jacques

I derived no pleasure from this book.









That's really all that's in my DNF pile. Any other books I probably hated so much that I simply suppressed the memory of them. Oh well.

Dead Parents in Books Rant

At the end of this post: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/05/i-have-problem.html I said that I would make a rant about dead parents in books, because it's become very cliché. I think it's supposed to make you sympathetic towards the character, but it's like "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and join the club, Harry." So, here I am.
****BY THE WAY, there are spoilers below. I'll cover up the ones that are spoilers, so don't worry.
However, this post is about parents dying, but there are usually two parents, so I'll leave it a mystery.

1. Harry Potter's parents died. However, it wasn't just to make you feel sad for Harry. JK Rowling did weave his parents' deaths into the plot.
2. The Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen's dad died in a mining accident. Of course.
3. Divergent: Both of Tris's parents died on the same day to protect her. Go figure.'
4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret: Hugo's dad died, but that was a major part of the plot.
5. I was about to say Percy Jackson when I remembered that his dad is a powerful Greek god . . . but I'm sure that someone in that series has a dead parent.
6. In Wonderstruck, Ben's mom is dead.
7. In The Book Thief, either Liesel's mom died or her dad died, or both. You think that because the book is narrated by death I would remember who.
8. In Bud Not Buddy, his mom is dead. However, that was basically the plot.
9. In the Gaurdian's of Ga'Hoole series: Soren's parents are confirmed dead by book three, if the whole thing about the scrooms was not just a hallucination.
10. In Kendra Kandlestar--yes, it's as cheesy and stereotypical as it sounds--nearly her entire family is dead.
11. I gotta mention A Series of Unfortunate Events. Yeah, it was the plot, but the whole series was filled with so much tragedy it was almost funny. Whenever something bad happened to the Baudelaires, I didn't think "No! How can the author do this to us?" I thought "Ha ha. There goes Lemony Snicket, destroying the happiness of children everywhere."
12. The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
13. The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
14. Because of Winn-Dixie . . . . . . . by KATE-FREAKING-DICAMILLO
15. The Kane Chronicles
16. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, which I actually haven't finished so some freaky zombie stuff could have gone down and I don't know

Those are only the ones I have read and remembered the parents died in. I will be adding more to this list over time.

I have a problem

You know how most people prefer to only read 1 book at a time and give that one book their full, undivided attention?
I am not most people.
I, the sole blogger of Bookahooligans, am addicted to books.
I still go to school, so I have two libraries: a school library and a public library. At my school, you're only allowed to check out two books at once. So, I just checked out two books today. At the public library, you are allowed to check out as much as you can carry, so my situation could be worse because I haven't gone to the public library in a while.
However, there's also a book store nearby. I bought 3 books the last time I went there. I devoured one, I'm still trudging through the other, and I started one today that I'm pretty content with.
I'm addicted to books. I suppose it's better than being addicted to drugs, but it's fairly similar. I have to get my next hit. I've started about eight series, and I picked up other books just to salvage my sanity when I couldn't get the next books in the series.
I'm reading too much. Far too much. So, I decided I might as well show you guys what I'm reading.


To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I got this book from my old bookshelf, because it was my brother's required reading but I somehow haven't gotten to it yet.
If you've seen my post about expanding my reading, you'll know that this is one of the books that I wanted to read. I started it about 10 minutes after publishing that post.
I'm only on chapter 2, so I can't tell you much about it. I can tell you that I'm learning some phrases (7 years my senior means 7 years older. I didn't know that before) and the little town this story takes place in is interesting. I can't tell you much else, but I can say that it's going to take me a while to get through this one.
I'm so used to the exciting, fast-paced fantasies that it's difficult to adjust, but that's what expanding my reading is about.







Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

This book hails from my school library, and I got it exactly four hours and fifty-seven minutes ago.
Despite being over 630 pages long, I'm going to finish this one quick. I love Brian Selznick's work and I love his illustrations and I really want to see what happens in this book. I loved the Invention of Hugo Cabret and I'm sure I'll love this as well.




The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This one comes from the book store and I have some problems with it so far.
The writing style is extremely hard to get used to. The spaces between the paragraphs, the incomplete sentences, the narration, the German words, **THE CUT INS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE THAT LOOK MUCH LIKE THIS**, the plot, um . . .
I know that it sounds like I'm not enjoying this book, but I've been learning a lot of in-depth things about WWII lately, so it's very interesting and I understand what kind of world the characters are living in.


Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Speaking of WWII, this book is a memoir about Japanese Internment and I'm kind of surprised by how much I like it. I don't read memoirs very often and this book is helping my understand WWII and it's also helping me understand The Book Thief a little bit. I'm more than halfway through it, which I'm kind of surprised about.
This is not a book I would normally pick up, but I'm expanding my reading, so hooray for me.



The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I bought this one at the bookstore and made a mistake.
I'm told that the books gets better, but I'm around page 120 and I can't get through any more of it. It just sits at the back of my shelf saying "Come on! I'm a dystopian novel! There's so much you don't know about how I end! I'm being made into a movie! You know how much you love watching book to movie adaptations, even if they're bad. Please! You spent ten dollars on me! I'm so full of promise! Don't you want to know what a Griever is? I'll tell you in 100 pages from now . . ." And I'm just like "No."


Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur

Got dis one at da library.
Please, pardon my spelling there. I just wanted to sound slightly more casual than I usually do.
I actually haven't started reading this one, but it looks like a fun little read. What worries me is the title of the first chapter: Why my Life Really Stinks. I'm worried that this book will be about some kid who has lost one or both of her parents and has some sort of social . . . problem (bullying, isn't popular). . . at her school. If this book is anything like that, I am going to throw it across the room in rage. I don't want another stereotypical book like that. Even Wonderstruck is kind of annoying me because the main character's mom is dead, and now he's dealing with this emotional trauma. You know, I'm going to make a post about book characters with dead parents just to rant. I'll be back.