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Sunday, October 05, 2008

Books Like Crack

I remember reading a quote by Jason Isaacs (the actor who, among other roles, plays Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies) and he mentioned how he finally understood the HP phenomenon when he read the first book to study for the movie - he said the books were "like crack."

I have to agree about their addictive quality. And I'm pleased to share some other series (YA and adult) that I've discovered in the past year that had (have) me hooked as well.

The first discovery was Jennifer Armintrout's "Blood Ties" series starting with "The Turning". Great stuff.

Then in the YA section I discovered Terry Pratchett for the first time with the Tiffany Aching adventures. (This led me to his "Discworld" series and I can't believe I only found him in the past year.)

Next up in the YA section was The Bartimaeus Trilogy. I found the first book on sale and thought it looked interesting so I took it home. I went back the next day and got the rest.

Not so long ago, I found another book on sale, Dark Lover - book one of the "Black Dagger Brotherhood" series by JR Ward. Again, thought, "why not?" Well, I have to say that I have a love/hate relationship with these books. There are many things that bug me about them, but like any disfunctional loving relationship, I keep going back again and again. And I have no intention of leaving. :) In fact, I own all six that are out now, and will buy the next one that will come out in hard back next year.

So, there I was a few weeks ago back in my local Borders, and a book caught my eye. "Working for the Devil" book one in the "Dante Valentine" series by Lilith Saintcrow. I hadn't heard anything about her or the books, but decided to give it a try. Let me warn you: if you read the first one, make sure you bought the second one at the same time. Otherwise, you may end up like me and throw the first book across the room screaming and crying how, how, HOW could she end it that way?! :)

After that bit of hysteria, I decided to check out Charlaine Harris's "Sookie Stackhouse" series. Yeah, I'd heard about it for ages, but for some reason just never tried it. Well, Sookie and are good friends now.

Then just a few days ago, I gave into another series I'd heard good things about, but hadn't tried yet. The YA Twilight series. Oh. My. God. Stephenie Meyer is a genius at keeping you turning the pages. I talked my daughter into reading it, and she's hooked too. We've read the first two in as many days. The only reason why I haven't gone to get the last two is because I've had a bad virus the past few days and haven't been able to get out of bed. We also discovered they turned it into a movie that's coming out November 12. Woohoo! We're both really stoked. :)

So, what about you? Any books that got you so hooked you couldn't wait for the next one? I need another fix. :)

11 comments:

  1. Charles' "Cold in the Light" was like that for me but unfortunately, I don't see a sequel on the horizon. At least he's working on something in the Talera series!

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  2. I keep meaning to try the Sookie Stackhouse series. I think DH might have gotten me a Kindle for my birthday. I'm pretty sure. He's teasing me, so that pretty much means I'll get one. I am SO excited. I haven't bought a book in a year because I've been saving for one.

    *squeal!* I am so excited!

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  3. Lana, I'm ashamed to say I haven't read the Talera series yet, but it's on my to-be-read pile. I was thinking about it as I wrote this post - wondering if I should hold off until I'd read that one too. :)

    Cool, Spy! Let us know if you get one and how it works out! A woman at work has one and she said she loves it. Maybe one of these days I can break open the piggy bank...

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  4. I haven't had the same kind of luck recently. I've made some poor choices and I've slipped out of the reading habit recently.

    Of course, part of that also has to do with becoming a bit busy over the last month and a half.

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  6. I'm hooked on Mischief & Magic, though I must go far too long between fixes... ;-D

    Good to see ya again!

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  7. Hey, Travis - good to see you. Hope things are going all right.

    Aww, Steve... thanks. I knew there was a reason I was thinking of creating a high-octane character named Steve. :)

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  8. I read "Working for the Devil," but never got around to the sequel. It was good, but not crack for me. Same with Sookie. I haven't gotten around to Twilight, either. Although I need to move on it; don't like seeing the movie before reading the book (and HATE buying copies of the paperback that has the movie characters on it, or "Now a major motion picture!" slapped across the front).

    John Twelve Hawks' The Traveler and its sequel, The Dark River is my current obsession. I was almost done with the first when I ordered the second and was like Homer Simpson dancing by the mailbox, "Come on. Come on, come-on, come-on, come-on!" These books area great blend of fantasy and sci-fi that will either get you grumbling about tin foil hat types or make you extremely paranoid about ever using an ATM card ever again. I'm the latter.

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  9. I second Steve's remark, Kate. It's great to see ya' again. My reading list is way too skewed and hardly ever a series (don't exactly know why that's the case), although I did definitely enjoy the Talera series.

    And ahhhh...the joy of sharing books with your children. Fantastic!

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  10. Glad to see you back! All the books you like seem to be on the dark side, but I read two Ally Carter books recently: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You and Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy. They were both great!

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  11. First of all - sorry everyone for the long delay in replying.

    Avery! Thanks for dropping by - I'll have to check out your recommendations. Except I'm already paranoid about using the ATM... :)

    SUSAN MILLER!!!! Where have you been??? It's so good to see you out and about. I hope all is well with you.

    Edie - congrats on your DEAD PEOPLE nomination! :) And you're right - I've been reading a lot of "dark" books lately - guess that's just where I am right now. :)

    I have to say, though, that I'm now a bit disappointed in TWILIGHT. I found YA another book series a week ago that sounded similar to Twilight and picked them up because I thought my daughter would like them. Well, I read them first, and not only were they LIKE Twilight, in some cases, it seemed as if Stephenie Meyer took some phrases word for word from it.

    The books were by LJ Smith - The Vampire Diaries - and were written years before Twilight. There were so many similarities that if I were Smith, I might be considering a lawyer. Of course, there were plenty of differences, too, but it was still close for comfort. :(

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