johnny dixonism

i have read voraciously from a very, very young age and i have always been able to read quite quickly. on family vacations we would have a large, separate bag of books just for me as i could go through 2-3 several hundred page books in one day. reading was my escape and it became a favorite pastime of my friends and siblings to talk at me (read: make fun of) while i was absorbed. they knew i was lost in my own little world of words and would not hear them. back then i read all the adult books i was allowed (and read the ones i wasn't by flashlight into the wee hours of the morning). now, as an adult, i adore reading young adult books. it is not that i did not read kid's books back in the day but the books i made time for had a sinister/adult edge that was lacking in many other books my peers were reading. my absolute favorite author from that time (and now) was john bellairs- in particular his johnny dixon mysteries. in fact, a mutual and surprising love of john bellairs was one of the 1st things that got my sweetie and i really talking back in the "just friends" stage. a particularly fantastic addition to these creepy tomes was edward gorey's cover illustrations. what is unfortunate, however, is that mass book publishers have mostly done away with the gorey illustrations (although the inner page one remains) in favor of some bland, generic artwork. so sad was i, at making this discovery at our local bookstore that i have asked my local used book collector to keep an eye out for the original books for me.

i thought it would be fun to share with you some of the young adult books that i have discovered (or been introduced to via the all-powerful-book-to-movie medium) over the years. some of these i enjoyed tremendously and some will forever be my favorite books across the board, such as the johnny dixon mysteries (the chessmen of doom is my favorite by the by). if you are like me and your professional life (and overwired, professional brain) never seems to stop i find these books to be excellent escape for just a wee while. and many are in serial form so there is the anticipation factor to which just about everyone who ever picked up harry potter can relate (which, by the by, are among my favorites as well!). my favorite modern series has certainly been his dark materials trilogy. i do not have a picture as my books are out on loan but you should all be familiar with the first, the golden compass. and contrary to what you may have heard- they are not juvenile and deal with some complex metaphysical and social issues much as a wrinkle in time did so long ago. I have included pictures of many current and past favorites: * the twits by roald dahl (although the BFG is my favorite)
* the black tattoo by sam enthoven
* the lemony snicket books
* holes by louis sachar (sideways stories, anyone?!)
* flush by carl hiaasen --- no ecologist should go through their life without reading his kids and adult books!
* the charlie bone series by jenny nimmo
* the inheritance trilogy by christopher paolini
* a tale of time city by dianna wynne jones (serious LOST parallels, i swear!)
* and my latest obsession- the pendragon series by DJ machale. at first the writing really bugged me but i moved past that quite quickly because of the fun plot. note that the pendragon books come in two forms- the 9th book (raven rise) was released 2 days ago and on the same day the 1st pendragon book was released in graphic novel form! raven rise was blood-boiling and left me trippy for the final book and the graphic novel was entertaining although i felt the artwork was fairly poor and hope the next one will be better.

not pictured are a few that i have on loan (in addition to his dark materials) including tunnels by roderick gordon and brian williams, the molly moon books by georgia byng and, of course, harry potter.