Just Some Thoughts

There are just some miscellaneous books and blogging related things that I want to share with you but they do not really belong in any other post, so here they are:

a)     Today I’m a guest at Library Mosaic: I’m playing the devil’s Damon’s advocate in Carla’s cool feature called Team Smackdown. She features a different team duel every week, this one is the third and there are plenty more on the list plus she is giving away some goodies. She could also use some help in defending different teams. So go check it out!

b)     I started The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J. R. R. Tolkien yesterday. I skipped the foreword and introductory notes and went straight to the poetry, but I’m going to read those later on. I am making this the fourth book for the LOTR Read-Along hosted by Loren at The Story Girl instead of The Silmarillion. Though, I might still reread The Silmarillion as I love the book, but at the moment I just don’t feel like rereading it.

c)     I read Phantom, the eighth book in The Vampire Diaries series, on Sunday. I have the review ready for tomorrow, but there are two things I want to say about it that don’t belong into a review, so I’m saying them here.

Firstly, there is quite a campaign against this book as it is not written by L. J. Smith but by a ghost-writer. I had expressed my sympathies with L. J. Smith situation before and I stand by what I said (the unfairness and all). However, as Mrs. Smith herself said not to boycott the ghost-writer and as I wanted more of the story and characters, I read the book and I am glad I did (more in the actual review tomorrow).

Secondly, related to the issue above, I have seen lots of hate toward this book from the people who have not read it and only presume it would be bad. I’m happy I did not cave in under such opinions and checked out the book by myself. The lesson to be learned from this (considering any book): keep an open mind and check it out by yourself if you feel like it. You can still hate it later. But at least it will be your opinion, not someone else’s.

This is it. Enough of rambling. And thank you for reading! You are welcome to express any related or unrelated thoughts in the comments.