I surprise myself...after a few disappointments

I used to be a movie fanatic but that was many moons ago. During my time in college I found that movie time is better spend napping. I have slept solid through The Rock, the newer Star War Movies, The Matrix, The 007 movies, etc. Thus, it comes as no surprise that I slept through the movie about the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I dosed right as the lights went off in the theatre and all I knew was that there was a house and for kids.

Later on, I observed across some college friends' blogs commentaries that this is a book or rather a series of books filled with christian symbolism. This put the book into the category to avoid. I absolutely dislike preaching books.

After attempting a few 'recommended' books and after finding them utterly dull, I did a random, lucky eye browsing through the library shelves and Lo and Behold! this book was staring at me. OK, I told myself, I will give it a try.

I did and I loved it. I loved it precisely because it is not intrusive despite the deep symbolism. The symbolism is only symbolism if you know about it, but if you don't, the story is just a great fantasy about good against evil. So, this is the pick as a read-aloud for next month, December. I am thrilled.

Here is what is absolutely fascinating about christianity. There are resources out there which otherwise may be very difficult to find.

The book in portuguese.

The film in portuguese.

This is one of the books that completely put me off. I disliked this book. I read reviews on Amazon about it and decided to check it out. Some of the reviewers mentioned how exciting this book is and that it can be read in 2 hours. Two hours-I would give anything for the few days it took me to go through this 500+ page nightmare. A dumb story, very slow, very boring, very meaningless, very weak built on poor characters. Most of the book is pictures and the pictures are pretty but if I did not want art to look at, I wanted art to read. I was disappointed and do not recommend this book to adults or to children. It is heavy too and the price tag is because of the fancy binding.

I really, really wanted to find a funny book for us to read. Last month's Little Witch did not amuse the kids but we enjoyed a bunch of silly picture books which made up for the disappointment of the Little Witch. I was looking for something silly for our main read aloud this month and came by this title. OK, I said, I will read it. I read the first two chapters and the story looked silly, absurd and just right. So, without finishing it myself, I jumped into reading it t the kids. After the third chapter, I threw it into the 'return to the library' bag. Very boring and just plain dumb. A big disappointment. There should be a book recommendation engine which is better than Amazon's. I am tired of scavenging bloggers' sites to look for suggestions.

Overall, however, I read some really good books in the month of October.