What Halloween Treat Are You?

Your Halloween personality is whimsical, colorful, and creative.
You see Halloween as a time to get your creative juices flowing.

Each year, Halloween can't start soon enough for you.
You tend to go all out for Halloween. You decorate like crazy and always dress up. Link: Blogthings - What Halloween Treat Are You? I would say that sounds like me. I love Halloween and can not wait for it to come every year. I love dressing up and love to decorate my room with Halloween things.

So Many Things Going On!

I know I haven't updated in awhile, but I have been online. I mostly blog on Xanga and that is what I have been doing, writing blogging and even got one of my posts featured on the front page of Xanga last week! I was pretty excited about that.
Now tomorrow starts my local library's book sale. I'm going there around 6PM tomorrow because that is when it opens to the public. I'm hoping to find some books there that I want. I know I found quite a few at the Hershey library book sale. I guess I will see what I can find tomorrow and I will let you all know!

Then on Friday is when I meet Paranormal State! I ordered my tickets yesterday and it starts on Friday at 7PM and lasts about two hours. Ryan Buell is going to be doing a Q/A thing and afterwards is when the autograph signing starts. I'm hoping that maybe I will be able to get a picture with some of people of Paranormal State. I am so excited! Paranormal State is one of my favorite shows and to meet them is going to be great!
I am also getting ready for Halloween. You can see my layout on here is different and I changed my layout on Xanga a few days ago. I also have some Halloween stuff up in my room.

Well, I will let you all know what happens on Thursday and Friday. I will try to update on Saturday.

My Summer Reading List

The Magical Worlds Of Philip Pullman - David Colbert : Read

Hawkes Harbor - S.E. Hinton : Read

The Anne Of Green Gables boxset ( set of 8 books ) - L.M. Montgomery : Finshed book 1, 2,3 and will be reading book 4 soon.

Angels In The Snow - Harry A. Kaufman : Read

Beyond The Burning Time - Kathryn Lasky : Read

Inkheart - Cornelia Funke : Read

If You Come Softly - Jacqueline Woodson : Read

Harry Potter and The Socrcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling : Read

The Game - Diana Wynne Jones : Read

Wild Robert - Diana Wynne Jones : Read

Bastard Out Of Carolina - Dorothy Allison : Read

Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones : Read

Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets - J.K. Rowling : Read

Evermore - Alyson Noel : Read

Explorer Books: Haunted Houses - Jason Friedman : Read

How History Is Invented: The Salem Witch Trials - Lori Lee Wilson : Read

Haunted Waters - Mary Pope Osborne : Read

Coraline - Neil Gaiman : Read

Igraine The Brave - Cornelia Funke : Read

Dealing With Dragons - Patricia C. Wrede : Read

The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle : Read

The Broken Bridge - Philip Pullman : Read

The Last Apprentice: Revenge Of The Witch - Joseph Delaney: Read

A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket : Read

Ghosthunters and The Incredibly Revolting Ghost - Cornelia Funke : Read

The Tough Guide To Fantasyland - Diana Wynne Jones : Read


This is my list of books I read over the summer. As you can see I read almost all of them, but the rest of the Anne Of Green Gables books, I read the first three books in the series. I also think there is more I've read, but forgot to add, but this is most of them. I will probably write some reviews on some of the books and post a few of the reviews on here.

Borrowed Books From The Library

Yesterday I made my monthly trip to the Hershey library. I found some scary/horror type books to read and wrote them down on a piece of paper to take with me. I ended up getting a few more books then what was just on the list. Here is what I got:

Revolutionary Girl Utena by Chiho Saito
Graphic Classics: Dracula by Bram Stoker, retold by Fiona Macdonald
Bunnicula: A Rabbit - Tale of Mystery by Deborah and James Howe
Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac
Believing Is Seeing: Seven Stories by Diana Wynne Jones
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

So far I have read Dracula, Bunnicula: A Rabbit - Tale of Mystery and Revolutionary Girl. Dracula is pretty good, I haven't read the book, but figured I could at least start with the graphic novel version. Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery was just great. It was a nice, funny read. I loved the steak part :) Revolutionary Girl was very good. I plan on buying all the mangas of Revolutionary Girl now. Currently I'm reading Skeleton Man and I'm liking it so far.

Books, Video Games and Paranormal State

Today my boyfriend and I went out to a few stores. We went to a store called Bearly Used Boutique in the next town. It was my first time ever going to that store and it was really nice there. They sell used clothing, books and other things. I was surprised when we went into the back of the store and there were many books. It was actually like a little bookstore.

After that we went to another used clothing store up the road, but they were closing soon so we couldn't look around much. Then we went to the Goodwill and looked around. They didn't have many books, but they did have a lot of halloween stuff.

And then we went to the video game store and looked around for awhile. They have tons of video games there for cheap and we got a few. I also got some books from the other stores we went to. I even got some ghosts to stick on my windows for halloween.

Here are the books and video games I got:

On the way home I saw a billboard for Halloween Park. I wasn't sure what Halloween park was, I've never heard of it, but I decided to go on the website and see what it's all about. I went on there and saw on October 2nd Paranormal State is going to be there!!! Paranormal State is a ghost show and it's one of my favorites, but I am going next month to see them and I am so excited!!! Today was really great!

Sega Dreamcast

September 9th 1999, the Sega Dreamcast was released 10 years ago on this exact day in North America. I didn't get a Dreamcast until years later though. I was young at the time and my parents said they weren't going to buy it, but I always wanted one and when I got with my boyfriend he had a Dreamcast system. Needless to say, I was happy because I could finally play the system! And when once I got some games for it and played it, I could see why so many love this console.

The Dreamcast was....actually still is a great system. It was the first console to have online -- at least in America -- and from what I've read it had a pretty good launch too. Sadly though, the success was short lived. So many wanted the console and Sega just couldn't fulfill the demand for the Dreamcast.

Even though the Dreamcast didn't last long, it did have some great games like Sonic Adventure and Shenmue. I just think that it is to bad that Sega gave up on the Dreamcast, but either way we still have the console and it had some really amazing games to play. I know that a lot of people were hoping that on this day Sega would release the Dreamcast 2, but I haven't heard anything yet. Who knows though, one day Sega might surprise us all and release another amazing console like the Dreamcast.

10 years on and I still see people talking of this console. It may have only sold about 10 million units, but all these years later to still have people talking and wanting a Dreamcast 2, I would say that is pretty good. Happy 10th birthday Sega Dreamcast :)

Got An Award!

Thanks to Misty for this award!!

Scary Books

Next month is october so that means it's halloween! I love halloween, it is my favorite holiday -- besides christmas -- because of all the scary movies, paranormal shows and of course, the dressing up! Well, the candy can be good too :) But, I want some scary books to read and I don't really have any, or know of any good scary books to get.

I know it's not october yet and I'm starting a bit early, but I want some scary books to read and I'm going to the library next week and I would like to borrow a few from there. I mostly read YA books, but I will read adults books so if anyone could recommend me some good scary books, YA, or adult, I would be very happy :)

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

I read all three books earlier this year and I must say, the books are wonderful. The story, the characters, all amazing and very well-written.
His Dark Materials are books by the British author, Philip Pullman. I will tell you a little about each book.





This is the first book called The Golden Compass or Northern Lights in the UK. The book was first published in 1995.

The story starts off with Lyra Belacqua, a 12 year old girl who lives at Jordan College in Oxford. The story begins when Lyra enters the Retiring Room in the college, which is forbidden to enter. Lyra's daemon, Pantalaimon - or Pan - tries to stop her, but it is no use because she doesn't listen to him.

Lyra and Pan hid behind a chair when they hear the master of the college coming into the room. They see him putting poison in some wine, which Lyra learns the wine is for her uncle, Lord Asriel, who is visiting. Eventually the master of the college leaves and Lyra hides in the wardrobe. A bit later Lyra's uncle shows up to the room and is left alone in there. Seeing he was going to drink the wine; Lyra bursts out from hiding and stops him from drinking the wine. Instead of punishing her, he tells her to hide once again until the meeting is over.
Through a little crack in the wardrobe Lyra can see through and sees what her uncle is showing to everyone. Pictures of where he's been and Dust...Something called Dust. Shortly after the meeting Lord Asriel must leave again and Lyra is left at Jordan College. Lyra can't stop thinking of what she had heard - and seen - in the Retiring Room. What is Dust? She doesn't know, but wants to find out.

Something strange is going on. Children are disappearing because of something called the Gobblers. Lyra and her friend, Roger, have been hearing about children disappearing all over town and no one knows why. One night Roger goes missing and Lyra becomes worried. Did the Gobblers get her friend? She doesn't know and no one else seems as worried as her.
Her friend is missing, what is Dust? And all the other things she heard in the Retiring Room? Eventually all this will lead Lyra into a journey that she will never forget.




This is the second book called The Subtle Knife. It was published in 1997.

This book starts off with a boy named Will Parry, who is also 12 years old. Will takes care of his Mother and has ever since his Father disappeared when he was only a baby. Will loves his Mother very much and will do anything to make sure she is okay. She is a great mother, but just has problems sometimes.

Some men are after Will's Mother; and he thinks it has something to do with his Father. Will's Mother has some papers from his Father and Will figures that is what the men are after, but doesn't know why.

Will has left his Mother with someone he knows because he feels she will be safe there and he heads back to their apartment to pack a few things and get the papers his Father gave his Mother. While packing Will hears someone at the door and it opens. It's these men again, looking for something. One comes in and looks around while the other stands at the door. Will charges the man standing in the doorway and the man trips over Will's pet cat and falls down the steps. When the other man leaves Will gets his things and leaves too.

He has to leave; he knows the police will be looking for him for killing a man. While walking Will comes upon a portal to another world. A city called Cittàgazze. The city looks deserted and he finds a house where that is some food. It is this house he finds a 12 year old girl.





This is the third book called The Amber Spyglass. It was published in 2000.

This book continues where the second left off. Lyra was taken by her mother, Marisa Coulter, who has them both hiding in a cave from the Magisterium. Marisa forces Lyra to drink tea which keeps her asleep.While Lyra is asleep she dreams of a wasteland and she can see her friend, Roger, there. She talks to him and promises to help him.

In Cittàgazze, Will meets two Angels named Balthamos and Baruch. They tell him they are there to take him to Lord Asriel. But, Will refuses. He tells the angels he won't go until he can find and recuse Lyra.

**********************************************
Those are all 3 books and I tried not to give to much away of books for those who haven't read them. I'm also going to show everyone some other books. There are some other books are set in the His Dark Materials universe and the other two books are actually about the His Dark Materials books. I'll explain more when I come to them.
Other Books In The His Dark Materials Universe:




This book is set in the His Dark Materials universe, it's called Lyra's Oxford. It was published in 2003.

This book is set two years after The Amber Spyglass and Lyra is now 15 years old. Lyra is watching birds, out of the tower in Jordan college and she notices the birds attacking another bird. It turns out to be a daemon in the form of a bird.

Since there is no human near; Lyra figures this must be the daemon of a witch because a witch's daemon can be far away from them, where is a human's daemon can't. Lyra saves the daemon from the birds and finds out the daemon's name is Ragi. After saving him, Ragi asks Lyra to help him find a man named Sebastian Makepeace.

I read this book last night, and it is really small, but it's a nice little book. It also has a really cool fold out map.



This book is also set in the His Dark Materials universe. It's called Once Upon A Time In The North. It was published in 2008.

This book is actually a prequel, I guess you could say. It is about the one character named Lee Scoresby, who is an aeronaut. In this book he is 24 years old.

The story starts with Lee, and his daemon, Hester, making a rough landing in Novy Odense. After putting his balloon in storage, Lee and Hester decide to head into town. Where Lee is surprised to see bears; working and some just hanging around.

Lee then enters a bar and starts talking with a man about the bears. This is where Lee learns the bears are intelligent, can speak and even make their own armor.

Future Books:
The next book is to be The Book Of Dust. There is not much known about this book, but it is to be a really, really big book. What is known is that Lyra will be about 16 in the book and it will address the questions about the lack of portrayals of positive effects of religion in His Dark Materials. Last I heard it might be released in 2009.

Another book that Pullman wants to make is a book about Will. Nothing is known about it other then at some point he wants to make it and it is going to be a green book.

Further Reading:






This book is The Magical Worlds of Philip Pullman by David Colbert, who is also the author of The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter and The Magical Worlds of Lord Of The Rings.
This book is a guide to His Dark Materials. If you've ever wondered where Philip Pullman has got his ideas or who influenced him then this is a very good guide. It is only about 170 pages long so it is not a very big book, but has lots of great information for those who wish to know more about Pullman or the books.




This is The Elements of His Dark Materials: A Guide To Philip Pullman's Trilogy by Laurie Frost.
This book is another guide to the books. It's also very good, but much bigger; about 500 pages or more. This is a great guide for those who want to know more about the books in more depth.

The Movie(s):




This is The Golden Compass movie. It is based on the first book and I actually saw the movie before I read the books. I love the movie still, but the book is better. I know that is usually always the case with books to movies, but the thing is with The Golden Compass movie is that there was a lot of stuff left out from the book. It was left out because the company wanted it to be a family film and the ending of the movie isn't the ending of the book. They left out the last three chapters in the movie because they wanted it to be a happy ending. There was some other changes as well.

But, I would recommend anyone to watch the the movie because it is still very good but if your going to watch the movie you should read the book too so that way you will get the full story.
You already know that there is two other books in the series and they were to be made into movies, but the chances of that happening is not very good. The Golden Compass did very well in other countries; making over $300 million and in America it only made about $70 million. There were lots of boycotts in America of this movie and the books too. People were sending out e-mails and everything to tell of the evils of this movie and the books.
But, in total it made about $372 million worldwide. But, because of it not doing so well in America we probably won't see the other two made into movies.
Facts About His Dark Materials:

I think that there is a lot of misunderstandings about these books. People just go by what they have heard and I just want to let everyone know these books are not about killing God. There is a God character in the book, but it isn't the God we know. And I'm only telling you all this because I know all the things that have been said about these books.
Anyway, there is really misunderstandings with these books. Like Daemon, in the books this is what a daemon is; an animal-formed, shape-shifting manifestation of ones soul. As for the word, it sounds like demon, but doesn't mean the same thing. Check out this post here: Daemon - It Doesn't Mean What You Think and it will tell you what the word Daemon means and where Pullman found the word.

There is also some who won't read the books because of the fact they are called His Dark Materials. It's simply because the word 'dark' is in the title, but actually the title isn't something evil and I will tell you where he got it from.
His Dark Materials is a direct quote from the poem Paradise Lost by John Milton. Paradise Lost is a story about the fall of man, temptation of Adam and Eve and the Fallen Angel Satan. Paradise Lost hasn't only been influence to Pullman, but to many others as well. Another major influence on Philip Pullman was William Blake.

I could go on and on because there is many very interesting things about His Dark Materials that are misunderstood. One of the things is definitely the religion part, but I won't talk about that just yet. Maybe in another post.

But, there is many more things to this book and if your interested in learning more I would recommended one of the guide books shown above. If you just want a quick read about it then David Colbert's book is very good and I enjoyed reading it very much. But, if you want to know more then go for Laurie Frost's book or you could just read both.

For anyone who hasn't read the books and likes fantasy books then I would recommend this book series to you. It is wonderful and it really makes you think at times. His Dark Materials is one of my favorite book series and I just hope more people will give it a chance and read it.

Enchanted Glass

One of my favorite authors, Diana Wynne Jones, is going to release a new book titled Enchanted Glass. I'm unsure of when it is going to be released because on her website it says that it will be released sometime this year and some other websites I have looked on says next year. Here are some of the book covers:


I don't know which is the American cover, but I think they both look really nice. Anyway, I am excited for this book. I love Diana Wynne Jones books and there is just so many of her books to pick from and read. She is really an amazing fantasy writer.
Here is the description of the book for anyone who is interested:

"As a boy, he had spent fascinated hours looking at the garden through each differently coloured pane. Depending, you got a rose pink sunset garden, hushed and windless; a stormy orange garden, where it was suddenly autumn; a tropical green garden, where there seemed likely to be parrots and monkeys any second. And so on. As an adult now, Andrew valued that glass even more. Magic apart, it was old old old. The glass had all sorts of internal wrinkles and trapped bubbles, and the long-dead maker had somehow managed to make the colours both intense and misty at once."

When the magician Jocelyn Brandon Hope died he bequeathed Melstone House to his grandson Andrew. He also left his ‘field of care’: an area of strangeness surrounding the land around the house, whose boundary Andrew must walk in order to preserve its power.

Andrew had always loved the house, but he finds owning it a lot more complicated, aside from all the magic. There is Mrs Stock, the tyrannical housekeeper who won’t let him move the furniture and punishes him with her terrible cooking. Just as bad is the obsessive gardener who will only grow giant inedible vegetables. To add to his troubles, twelve year old orphan Aidan Cain suddenly arrives on the doorstep begging protection from magical stalkers, and Andrew’s sinister rich neighbour, Mr Brown, begins to encroach on the ‘field of care’. The one compensation is the gardener’s beautiful niece, Stashe. Things become stranger and stranger until all is made clear with the help of the enchanted glass itself.

Not since HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE has Diana Wynne Jones combined romance and humour so successfully as in this delightful novel with echoes of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream."

I am really thinking about pre-ordering this book. I actually hope that it's released this year because I can't wait for it. I can't wait to have it and read it. Oh, well....It will come out soon enough I suppose. Until then at least I can see the pictures of these nice covers :)

Just A Little Update

I haven't posted anything on here for a few days and figured that I would write something. I haven't been up to much. I've been playing Chrono Trigger for the DS and it is a really great game. I should finish Pokemon Ranger: Shadows Of Almia. Yeah, I'm a Pokemon addict. Whenever a new game comes out I have to have it.

I'm also reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and I am really enjoying it. I like the story and the characters. One character I'm unsure of is Dustfinger. I like him one minute and the next I would like to slap him, but I like the book so far and will probably buy Inkspell soon. I've seen the Inkheart movie too, and I really liked it. I've heard the second movie is already announced.

Anyway, I'm not doing much of anything at the moment. Just writing my book some and holding my one hamster. I have five, but the one who is out right now is Vivi. He is very calm, and likes sitting with me and being petted. He also likes to look at things online with me and watch my boyfriend and I play video games. Vivi likes to read my books and magazines too. It's really cute.

That's a picture of Vivi. He posed for the camera in that one. I will put up some pictures of my other hamsters if anyone would like to see. Well, at the moment that is all I'm doing. Next week I'm going to the game store in my town and a used book and clothing store in the town next to me. If I find any good books I'll post them on here.