Off The Shelf

Yesterday, I posted the first half of a story written during a discussion I started on Goodreads. It is a fan's take on what happened after the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling. By clicking here , you can read the rest of the story. This material is the compiled work of several Goodreads members, and therefore what they contributed is their property. I have listed their usernames on the bottom of the document to give credit where credit is due. Please respect that. Thank you. To read the previous part of the story, click here

The following was a discussion I started on Goodreads, a website that allows readers to talk, share and write about what they are reading or have read. I figured as Harry and Ginny's wedding scene never made it into the book or the movie of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling, it would be fun to write it as a group: The Weasley's kitchen table was covered in white envelopes, each with a neatly folded piece of parchment inside. Three quills floated above them, addressing them without a hand. Harry leaned over the table and studied some that had already been addressed. Written in perfect script, were names like: Professor Neville Longbottom, Mr. and Mrs. George and Angelina Weasley, Ms. Luna Lovegood, and Professor Horace Slughorn. Behind him, Harry heard the creaking of the stairs. Ron appeared beside him. “What are you doing down here?” said Harry. “Mum sent me down here to keep you occupied. You are not allowed upstairs.” Ron replied. “Why not?” “...

The Fault in Our Stars John Green 313 pages “Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”  -Hazel Lancaster, page 33 Sixteen year-old Hazel, a girl diagnosed with Stage IV Thyroid in her lungs, says the above about An Imperial Affliction,  a book she has read dozens of times through. I believe it should be said about this book. Hazel has always felt like she was a grenade ready to blow up, hurting everyone around her; a side-effect of death. When she attends the Cancer Kid Support Group one evening, not only does she find friendship in Isaac, a boy soon to go blind, but in Augustus Waters, who just won't, stop, staring, at her. Together, the three will ride "the roller coaster that only goes up", which is one of sickness, health, humor, and love. I read this book from start to finis...

Just as a reminder, "Something to Think About" posts are short poems or passages from novels that I think send a message to think about during your busy days. The following passage is from the book Paper Towns by John Green which I finished yesterday (a review will be coming shortly), so I figured I would post my favorite part here. "When I've thought about him dying, which admittedly isn't that much, I always thought of it like you said, that all of the strings inside him broke. But there are a thousand ways to look at it: maybe the strings break, or maybe our ships sink, or maybe we're grass; our roots so interdependent that no one is dead as long as someone is alive....If you choose the grass, you're saying that we are all infinitely interconnected, that we can use these root systems not only to understand one another but to become one another. Maybe it's like you said before, all of us being cracked open. Like each of us starts out as a water...

There is nothing like reading a book at the beach. Especially if the book is good, and your toes are in Cape Cod sand. I always try to keep my books clean; no dog-eared pages, no food stains, but the books I bring to the beach, never return the same way. They get wet, and some-what salty, and oily fingerprints dot the cover from all the sunscreen my pale skin makes me where. And truth be told, I don't mind that too much, because when I bring it home, I get to bring some of the beach back with me. I am currently reading Paper Towns by John Green, an author that was recommended to me by a friend. She has read all of Green's books, and has suggested I read: Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, An Abundance of Katherines, and Looking for Alaska. I am about 100 pages in of the book shown above and really enjoying it. This is a much happier book compared to some I have just finished. Happy summer, and best wishes from Cape Cod! 

Midnight Sun Stephenie Meyer 264 pages I did say about two months ago that I was done posting about vampires, but I just finished reading this, so had to write about it. Now, I promise, no more until November :) Midnight Sun is an unfinished companion novel for the book Twilight written by Stephenie Meyer. The story is told  through the eyes of Edward Cullen, as opposed to that of Bella Swan. Meyer said that Midnight Sun "[was] an exercise in character development that got wildly out of hand." The first twelve chapters were leaked illegally online in 2008, therefore Meyer has put this project on hold indefinitely. As she has stated in several interviews, and on her website, she was just too upset to continue, because it was a violation of her rights as an author. As with the other four books in the series, I was thoroughly pleased with the way this one was written. Readers will receive entirely new insight from Edward, and a broader understanding of the c...

I am now beginning a new series of posts entitled "Something to Think About". These posts will consist of a poem, or passage from a story in which I hope you will take the time to think about during your very busy days. I might even share my own thoughts as well. We'll start the first post off with... The Road Not Taken Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear. Though as for that the there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and age...