Monday, December 24, 2012

My New Blog (With Link)

I want to blog about things besides just books, so after some thought I decided to start a new blog... and I've started to hate Blogger so I'm jumping ship to Word Press. Since I hardly update Book Infinity anymore, I don't know if I even still have followers that care about me. But in case I do, and you want to follow my current expeditions in life, here is the link to my blog:

http://thesethingsivedone3432.wordpress.com/

I will still review books when I get to read them, but I will also talk more about writing, and my other huge obsession: music. I will probably spend many a posts ranting about my favorite bands... like I did in my intro post.

So if you're into that sort of thing, check out These Things I've Done!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

YA Books Becoming Movies In 2013

The purpose of this post is not to talk about how movies ruin books (because we all know a movie is NEVER as good as the book). It is not to talk about whether or not they should make all these movies. It is also not to talk about how horrible the casting is for any of them... we all know Hollywood can't cast exactly who you thought of in your head.

I also know readers who will never see the movie of a book they've read because it ruins the book for them. If that's you- I get it, and don't read the rest of this post!

Personally I love to watch the movie, if only to criticize it, or I might even end up loving it (For example, I love The Hunger Games movie almost as much as the book.)

I'm mostly writing this post as a way to remember all these dates of the many movies coming out in 2013 based on YA books. There are so many this year, I think Hollywood is running out of their own creative ideas, so they're turning to YA books. I'm not complaining!


Beautiful Creatures

Release Date: Feb. 13 2013

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1559547/



The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones 

Release Date: August 23, 2013

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1538403/




The Host (Not technically YA, but still)

Release Date: March 29, 2013

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517260/





Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Release Date: August 16, 2013

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1854564/

No trailer yet.


Ender's Game

Release Date: Nov 1 2013

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731141/

No trailer yet.


Catching Fire

Release Date: November 22, 2013

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1854564/

No trailer yet.


Honorable Mention:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (doesn't really count as YA or 2013, but I'm still uber-excited!)

Release Date: Dec. 14 2012

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903624/





The Great Gatsby

Release Date: 10 May 2013

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343092/


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Summer Reading Goals

Pretty simple, what the title says: my goals for this summer in terms of reading. Most of this is stuff I want to read to prepare for college and be educated, a lot of it is stuff I feel like I "should" read. And some of it is stuff I'm just plain excited to get in my hands!

Books I started long ago that I want to finish:
Atonement by Ian McEwan (40% complete)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (80% complete)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (90% complete)
Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer (20% complete)
Paper Towns by John Green (20% complete)

Classic books- I hope to read 3 from this list:
Anthem by Ayn Rand (or anything by her)
Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzergerald
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzergald
Oliver Twist or something by Charles Dickens (I would love to say I've read one of his books)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Persuasion by Jane Austen
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Duman
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (I read this in 6th grade and I want to see if it's anything like I remember)


Ok... let's be realistic. I hope to finish 1 or 2 from that list! That list was taken straight from all the public domain books I've downloaded on my kindle. :)

Books on my shelf I want to read:
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Secret Life by Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Welcome to Harmony by Jodi Thomas
IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Not on my shelf, but hopefully will be soon:
Insurgent by Veronia Roth
Sweetly by Jackson Pearce
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Just saw the movie and loved it! Sidenote: I like watching the movie first because if I read the book first, the movie is always disappointing.)
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (the 1st one was one of my favorite summer reads last summer)
City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (not much to say... she's one of my favorite authors who ever graced this Earth)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult (or anything by her, she's one of my new favorites)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

FINAL GOAL: Finish 1 book a week this summer. Which would be a huge improvement on the fact that I've read about 5 books all year so far. That means 17 books (based on my own school schedule- I have a very long summer that started yesterday and ends halfway through September). Which actually shouldn't be that hard when I think about how I used to read that much all the time. Although I do have a full time job and I'm preparing to move out. So we'll see...


EDIT (Nov. 2012):
An update on what I actually read...
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Paper Towns by John Green
I tried to read Insurgent by Veronica Roth but I never finished it... just didn't like it as much as the first one. Probably will come back to.
Needless to say I didn't make much progress on the classics...

Thursday, May 10, 2012

A Short Little Update

Here goes, I'm just gonna talk about my life reading/non reading for a little while, because every once in a while I miss blogging.

I'm finishing my senior year- one week left of finals and then I'm done. Graduation is in 2 weeks! I'm enrolling in college at Oregon State University this fall (go Beavers!), I'm majoring in pre-med, and other than that, I have no plans! I am so excited to start a new chapter of my life.

The last book I read was the Kite Runner by  Khaled Hosseini... it was really good, a little slow, but powerful. I read it because my English teacher said it was her all time favorite book. It's not one of my all time favorites, but I liked it a lot. (4/5 stars).

I read so much "classic" literature in the past school year in my English class- it took up most of my pleasure reading time, but I enjoyed having these titles under my belt. I read Fahrenheit 451, Things Fall Apart, Lord of the Flies, Crime and Punishment, The Stranger, The Poisonwood Bible, Night, Hamlet, Man's Search for Meaning, and probably a few others that I don't remember. Some I liked more than others. My favorite was The Poisonwood Bible because it was just fantastic, but I also really liked Crime and Punishment just because I can say I've read it, not so much because I enjoyed it. :)

I read a few books for fun- one in paticular was called "The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofono. 5/5 stars, I loved it! It was about a girl in Witness Protection because she was wanted by the Mafia for witnessing a murder, the Mafia that had also killed her parents.

As I reported on earlier, I read Inheritance, a series which I love although the ending was bittersweet. I also read the sequel to Nightshade, entitled Wolfsbane- it was as awesome as the original. I bought the third one Bloodrose but I haven't read it yet. I also read a Jodi Picoult book titled The Tenth Circle- it was also very fantastic and I absolutely loved it- 5/5.

I discovered the show How I Met Your Mother and I haven't really gotten any reading or writing done since... haha. But seriously, it's the best show ever. Or Scrubs. That's a good one too. I'm currently watching Parks and Recreation since I finished all the episodes of the aforementioned shows. It's decent... but not HIMYM. I could probably start a TV blog with all the TV I've been watching. Actually, writing this post makes me realize I now watch TV (or play Skyrim...) in the time I used to read. Thankfully I know that's only a phase and I'll get back into reading soon, especially when I go to college.

My writing life has all but disappeared. I said I would do NaNoWriMo in December... I did write some, which is great, but nowhere near what I did the year before. I was consumed with college applications at the time and had to let my writing go for a little while. I still have awesome ideas that I open every once in a while. I hope someday when I'm a money making doctor I'll actually get something published (ha).  But seriously, I would love to be a writer, and it was a tough decision deciding not to just go major in English, but I know I'll keep writing because I love it. I have a bunch of awesome story ideas and I will write them down someday. I'm currently doing this re-telling of Sense and Sensibilty in High School that I love because Elinor Dashwood is one of my favorite characters ever written and Marianne reminds me exactly of my sister. We'll see how that one turns out.

Thanks for reading, or not reading. But it felt good for me to update this with all my life's boring details. :)

Saturday, November 26, 2011

NaNoWriMo... In December!

To my shame and regret, I didn't participate in NaNoWriMo this year because I spent the entire month of November doing college applications. Really it's a lot of work! But now that I'm (almost) done applying, I plan to sit back and relax during December. Aka, I'm going to start writing again. I have a few new novel ideas that I've set aside for awhile and I'm going to start them up again. I plan to try to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of December. We'll see how that goes. Last year I finished NaNoWriMo at 30,000 words and an almost complete manuscript that I never finished but it was still one of my greatest accomplishments. It gives me the encouragement to try again. I'll probably never return to that one, it was waaaaaay too crappy.

Maybe everyone else will be spending December doing revisions. Or maybe someone would like to join me in attempting to write a novel in December? For me, having 2 weeks off from school will give me plenty of time to sit around my house writing. It's the perfect time of year. Most people are probably super busy around Christmas time, usually it's the opposite for me.

Good luck to anyone trying rapidly to finish up their novels this November!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Book Review: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

I'd be very surprised if I still have people reading this blog, it's been so long since I posted. Anyway... I thought this book was worthy of posting about! FYI when I do post, my posts will be a lot less informal without all the links and stuff that used to take me hours. I don't really have the time or want to put in the energy!

A few months ago I posted a general review on Books 1-3 in the Inheritance Series, you can find it here if you're interested in my background going into this book.

I finished Inheritance! I remember when I read Eragon in Elementary school. I can hardly believe these books have been with me all these years, and the last one came out when I was a senior in high school. I guess that means I haven't changed all that much since I still like them just as much. I know a lot of people say that with Harry Potter, but that was a series I never picked up until 2 years ago, so I can't say I grew up with Harry. I did "grow up" through elem/middle/high school with Eragon though.

My one aim in reading this book was to figure out who that green dragon was on the cover. Obviously the 3rd egg would hatch, and the whole book I was waiting for it to happen. It's not really a spoiler to say that it finally did, but I won't say to who. I will say that I am satisfied with it although I think it could've been better.

The ending was great and terrible at the same time. It reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings (they get in a ship and sail away into who-knows-where...). I would love to discuss it somewhere else as to not give away spoilers here!

If you like the series at all, read this book. If you're a romance lover or a quick read lover or you hated the other books in the series... I would not recommend this to you. For a fan of the series, it was a terrific book that had me glued to it until the very last page. The first half of the book took me a little over a week, then the second half of the book took me 2 days because I was so into the book.

Now, I have about 50 friends who asked me to borrow it. I have a feeling I won't get this book back for while ;p

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Reality (it's great)

Hi, everyone, anyone...

Out of the blue, I got a book in the mail today, and it reminded me that I have a blog.

I got on my blog today and couldn't believe I haven't posted since July. I remember putting those posts up... they don't seem like that long ago! Surely it wasn't 3 months ago?

But the date of that last post- July 8th- was right before a major changing point in my life. I started working 40+ hours a week and I started thinking about college, plus I went on a few vacations... pretty much the pacing of my life changed for real.

You see, I've abandoned my blog before, either for a couple of weeks or months, but I've always thought out it, thought about reading, thought about how I need to get back.

I forgot I have a blog. But I read some great stuff- I read Divergent by Veronica Roth back in July. (And I never even posted about Divergent! It was easily my favorite book of 2011!) I also just finished City of Fallen Angels a few weeks ago- it was also full of awesomeness.

I haven't been writing which makes me sad. Along with my remembrance of blogging I also remembered that National Novel Writing Month is coming up this November! My previous goal had been to finish all my college applications by November 1st, just to get them done with (which is also, coincidentally, my birthday). Now, that is still my goal, but it is so I can have the month of Nov. to get back into writing! I'm really excited for this year, although I didn't win last year (I got to 30,000 words in my novel), I'm hoping for at least a little better this year.

Reality is so much fun when you fully embrace it. Although I wholeheartedly love blogging and love the year I spent doing it, forgetting about my blog was blissful as well. Maybe in November, when college stuff is done, I'll put up a few reviews. (Which would require me to start READING again, haha).

ttyl... hopefully :)