Best and Worst Books for 2007?

[Shaun]

So what books did you read this year that you particularly liked? (No they don't have to have been published in 2007, this is for any books you read this year). What books did you hate?

For the best:
The Steam Magnate (fantasy/steampunk/science fiction) by Dana Copithorne
The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction Volume One (edited by Dave A. Law and Darin Park)
Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Shadowfall by James Clemens
Old Man's War by John Scalzi

For the worst:
The Elder Gods by David & Leigh Eddings
Tower of Shadows by Drew Bowling
Slaves of the Shinar by Justin Allen (I couldn't even finish it...it was so bad)
Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson

Those are my worsts (not including anything I read in the coming weeks).

What about you?

[Rafael Domination]

Best: Ark Angel, Idot's Guide to Drawing Manga, the Bible, Naruto (Volume 17)

Worst: the Taming of the Shrew, Eragon, the Lord of the Flies

[Nyx]

Best:
Ender's Game-O.S.Card
Ender's Shadow-O.S.Card
The Speaker for the Dead-O.S.Card
CHERUB:Class A-Robert Muchamore
Diary of a Wimpy Kid-Jeff Kinney
Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows-J.K.Rowling

Worst:
CHERUB: The Recruit-Robert Muchamore
Gossip Girl (1st book)- Cecily von Ziegesar

[Shaun]

I hated Lord of the Flies too...the best part of the whole book is when Piggy dies...

[Crocolyle]

Best:
The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

Worst:
The Other Wind by Ursula K. LeGuin (It's not worth reading past The Farthest Shore in the Earthsea series)

That was the only book that I couldn't finish. Except for that one, the books that I read this year I thought were mostly okay and a few of them were really good.

Edit: How come everyone hates Lord of the Flies? I didn't think it was the best book that I ever read, but I liked it... *passes the conch to someone who has an answer*

[Nyx]

Oh Crocolyle you reminded me about HP! I completely forgot that -goes to edit-

[Imelda]

Best:

HP 7, it has to be said.
Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
The Healer's Keep by Victoria Hanley
Poison Study by ... someone
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
The Obsidian Dagger: Being the Further Extraordinary Adventures of Horatio Lyle by Catherine Webb

Worst:

I don't read bad books. :p

[jordanisonfire]

I didn't really have any worst, I liked all of those that I read:

Soul Eater
Sabriel
Lirael
Abhorsen
Harry Potter 7
LotR: Fellowship of the Ring
Blood Beast
Demon Apocalypse

[Shaun]

Edit: How come everyone hates Lord of the Flies? I didn't think it was the best book that I ever read, but I liked it... *passes the conch to someone who has an answer*

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we all have to read it in school and it's not a thrilling book to begin with. So, forced reading + non-exciting book = we hate it.

[Imelda]

Lord of the Flies is evil. End of.

[jordanisonfire]

I just read the plot on Wikipedia (sorry, Shaun), and it sounds quite interesting. Notice I said quite, not very. I guess I'll have to read it in order to get a true opinion on it.

[Shaun]

You might want to get a plot summary from somewhere else Shadow. I say that because I found a wiki article that incorrectly summarized the plot of Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke and said it was about a bunch of thing that it wasn't actually about. So, you might want to look somewhere else.

[jordanisonfire]

The story begins with a large number of adolescent boys, ages 6 to 12, stranded on a tropical island with no tools to survive, except for a knife. They were being evacuated from a war and their plane had been shot down. The first two characters are Ralph, an athletic and charismatic boy with fair hair, and "Piggy," a fat boy with glasses who also suffers from asthma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma). The two boys obtain a conch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch) shell and use it to call the other boys from across the island. The boys begin to discuss who should be their leader. Ralph is chosen by vote, but one other potential leader arises — Jack Merridew. Jack was a choir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choir) leader and still acts as leader of all the other castaway members of his choir. Ralph is elected as leader but because Ralph senses the threat, he elects Jack to be the leader of the hunters (his choir). Piggy is the least popular of the boys but is intelligent and becomes Ralph's "lieutenant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant)," having civilized values but no way to carry them out. However, it is evident that Jack covets the leadership position. Then, Ralph takes Jack and Simon to explore the island. During their exploration they find a trapped piglet. Jack pulls out a knife but hesitates to kill the piglet, and it escapes. Jack vows never to hesitate again. Early on, the boys are full of optimism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism) and expect the island to be fun, despite the fact that many of the boys are scared of a "Beast" — allegedly some kind of dangerous wild animal on the island seen by one of the younger boys with a birthmark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthmark) on his face.
The boys then make their first attempt at being rescued by starting a signal fire, lit by Piggy's glasses. The fire burns without control and scorches a good portion of the island. The boy with a birthmark on his face who saw the Beast goes missing during the fire and is never seen again.
The major characters Jack and Ralph have conflicting aims for the island; life on the island begins to deteriorate and becomes more and more disorganized. The island's descent into chaos starts, ironically, with the potential for rescue by a passing ship. Jack had led a group off hunting and took with him the boys who were tending to the signal fire, so the fire died out, resulting in the ship sailing past without knowing of the boys on the island. An intense argument ensues in which one lens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens) of Piggy's glasses is broken by Jack. Although the signal fire is maintained along with a false sense of security, the order among the boys quickly deteriorates as Jack and Ralph continue to struggle for power. Jack has a way to tell people what they want to hear, and Ralph soon loses control over his friends.
As the novel takes place during a war, a dogfight between two planes occurs over the island. One of the pilots parachutes out of his plane but dies upon or before landing. Sam and Eric assume that the pilot is the Beast when they see him in the dark, causing mass panic. An expedition to investigate leads to Ralph, Jack, and Roger ascending the mountain, but they eventually run away from what they believe is the Beast. Jack denounces Ralph as a coward and calls for another election for chief but does not receive a single vote. He leaves the group to create a new tribe. Most of the older boys eventually leave Ralph's tribe to join Jack's tribe. Jack becomes a tyrant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrant) on "Castle Rock" with his followers, whom Ralph thinks of as "the savages."
The new tribe hunts down and slaughters a mother sow, crossing the line from hunters to savages, and Jack decides to host a feast. Before that, they sever the pig's head and place it on a stick as an "offering" to the Beast. Flies swarm around the head of the pig. Simon comes across it and has a hallucination. He hears the dead pig(or self proclaimed 'Lord of the Flies') speaking to him and telling him to do things. He discovers that the "beast" is in fact the evil in every human being, and then finds the corpse of the parachutist. He unties the parachutist from his perch. Realizing that the corpse is the thing that has been frightening them all this time he runs down from the mountain to break the news. However, when he arrives, it is raining terribly, and while the little ones are screaming and running around, the other boys, who were worked up in their war dance, mistake Simon for the beast and tear, bite, and claw him to death.
Ralph's tribe dwindles in number. Jack's larger, less civilized tribe, however, needs to steal items from them to maintain their existence. They steal Piggy's glasses to light a fire. Piggy demands his glasses back but is killed by a boulder Roger launches at Ralph. The boulder crushes the conch shell and sends Piggy off a cliff. Jack's tribe captures Sam and Eric and forces them to join their tribe. Jack tries and fails to kill Ralph, and the next day, his tribe tries to hunt him down. In doing this, they set a forest fire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire). The fire is seen by a passing naval vessel, and one of the ship's officers comes ashore and rescues Ralph and the boys. Ralph declares to the captain of the ship that he is the leader of the children, and for the first time on the island, Ralph cries. The marine officer turns his face away from Ralph and all the weeping children and stares at the horizon of the sea, where his naval vessel also shines in gray and silver.

-------

Does that follow it?

[Andy]

I can't remember much :(, but:

Worst:
Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolfe)

Best:
LOTR (I finally finished it!)
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire
Nikara
The Concubine

[Imelda]

*Sniffle*

*Leaphugs Andrew* (Sorry Shaun)

In other news: The Concubine? Doesn't sound like your kind of book. :p

[Andy]

The Concubine is a book about this African village, or more symbolically, a content culture that has no need to modernize or advance anything. It was sort of a new genre for me. It was for school, and I think it's out pf print, so our teacher had to go get a special set of copies from the publisher.

[Shaun]

Shadow, I haven't read that book in almost 10 years and never will again.


And...Andy, we're going to have to have a talk about you and Imelda and that leaphug...a serious talk...

[Andy]

Shadow, I haven't read that book in almost 10 years and never will again.


And...Andy, we're going to have to have a talk about you and Imelda and that leaphug...a serious talk...
Don't look at me. :whistle: I just liked the story. I didn't ask for a "leaphug" *adds to list of portmanteaus*

[Imelda]

You know, the scary thing is ... I can't tell if he's joking or not. :s

Portmanteaus are cool. :groovy:

[Andy]

You know, the scary thing is ... I can't tell if he's joking or not. :s

Portmanteaus are cool. :groovy:
Wait, what? I liked the story. Reread the 80+ critiques of it I wrote if you're not sure. What's there to joke about?

Portmanteaus sound French. :)

[Shaun]

She meant she couldn't tell if I was being serious...

[Crocolyle]

Don't look at me. :whistle: I just liked the story. I didn't ask for a "leaphug" *adds to list of portmanteaus*

Portmanteaus are awesome. Anyone here read Jabberwocky?

I created several vegetable-themed portmanteaus for my series of short stories (The first of which was entered into the comedy contest) and films:
Tomanto - A superhero who is part man, part tomato
Eggphlantom - His half-phantom, half-eggplant enemy
Carrorist - His half-terrorist, half-carrot enemy
Bazucchini - Half bazooka, half zucchini weapon of mass deforestation
Asparagun - Half gun, half asparagus weapon
Grapes - half grape, half... ape