Rediscovering old joys

Reading books for fun.

It sort of stopped happening after I started uni... reading stopped being about pleasure and entertainment, and became an experience of concentration, information and if it wasn't very interesting (hello textbooks) somewhat painful. Reading just wasn't on the whole a great experience any more.

Lately I've been rediscovering the old joy of losing myself in a book, for no other reason except entertainment. I love it! I have discovered a really fun, light and enjoyable trilogy, oddly enough a children's writer. I know everyone raves about JKRowling and the whole Potter thing, but I must say I found her writing style dull and clumsy, her characters shallow and unbelievable, and her females revoltingly idiotic - including Hermione who is meant to be highly intelligent, and is a whiny sycophantic pain in the arse.

On the other hand, is Jonathan Stroud, and the Bartimaeus Trilogy (find the website here). The story is good fun in itself, the characters are reasonably well developed for a young audience, and the writing style is articulate and fun (despite his over-use of footnotes, which drives me crazy but I forgave due to the large amounts of compensation found elsewhere in the book).

Bored? Give it a shot. I'm putting my copy back onto the Bookcrossing shelf in Civic Starbucks next time I'm there (give it a couple of weeks if you want to chase it down - ID is 293-4927190)