Magyk and Alcatraz

I don't know why I continually start books that are in a series. I tire myself out. I usually can't leave it at just one book. Yet, in the past few weeks, I've started two.

Magyk by Angie Sage is your pretty standard good magic vs. evil magic, mixed up identity fantasy. Although you'd think I'd get tired of these sorts of stories, I enjoyed this book. I'll probably read more of the series. It was a solid start to a series with good character development and enough of the mystery revealed at the end to satisfy, with more promise of story to come.

Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson is a state award nominee for next year. For the first part of the book, I was rather annoyed and irritated with the book. It was so forced, so desperate to be witty and "shocking", it constantly detracted from the story. I kept thinking if Sanderson would just write the story, it would be so much better. Instead, he was channeling Lemony Snickett, trying to convince the reader that Alcatraz isn't a good person and "foreshadowing" bizarre events that he claims are normal. About the end of chapter 11, Sanderson starts focusing more on our main character as he comes to terms with some serious issues in his life. This part was so poignant and engrossing. Chapter 12 continued in that vein and as the story continued, the sarcasm became less and less annoying too. It gave me hope for the future books of the series and made me wonder less why this book was selected for the state award.

I did give in and get a membership to Audible. With the amount of travel time I have, it's been very nice. I actually listened to the last two books rather than read them. And I have another few books that I have to actually read when I'm at home. I've spent far less than if I had purchased those books on iTunes. I saved almost $15 purchasing the membership and the then discounted book. The next question is, do I bite the bullet for the one year membership? It saves a whole lot of money compared to the month by month membership, but if I don't get the month by month during the summer, when I'm less likely to listen to audio books, will that be worth it? Hmmm....

I'm highly enjoying a little bit of useless trivia book at night to relax before bed time. Mental Floss's "In the Beginning" has nice sized bites of stories/trivia that "knowledge junkies" like me adore. I'm thinking about giving up the library copy of it and getting my very own to keep. And some others of the Mental Floss library. If you haven't ever seen the magazine...check it out. It's wonderful! http://www.mentalfloss.com/

I'm off to cheer on my beloved college football team who is playing well at the moment! Hopefully, they'll keep it up!