"The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly

This book was great. I have to admit I knew nothing about the author or the book itself before I picked it up. This book was purchased solely on the appearance of the cover. I loved it and I'm glad I bought it.

This is a coming of age story, and based on the reading difficulty level, it is probably aimed for an adolescent audience. That dosen't mean it was childish or dumb in content. (The Harry Potter series is aimed at younger readers and I think J. K. Rowling is a more intelligent writer than Dan Brown is.)

The book is kind of a jumble of a lot of different fairy tales and classic childrens stories. Think of it as "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" crossed with "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" crossed with "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". (These are three amazing books in my opinion.) It's also very much like the Fables comic book series in the best of ways - random cameos in ways you wouldn't expect.

I would easily recommend this book for fans of magic or fairy tales, or anyone who isn't too serious about a good read. This book will definitely be getting a decent spot on the (as-yet-unbuilt) book shelf.

Logic: A Very Short Introduction by Graham Priest

http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780192893208

Brilliant. This book covers most of the main aspects of Logic in a concise, but striaght forward manner. I admit, the book does assume some mathematical ability on the readers part, and in you are unfamiliar with any logic/math notation then the book could move at a quick pace. (I am quite familiar with all of the notation used in the book, so I had no trouble keeping up.)

In a way I can't really explain, reading this book felt a little bit like reliving a part of my life all over again. This book was basically a very short introduction to the Philosohpy Minor I did at UBC. It covered, in brief, almost every Philosophy class I took - Modal Logic, Game Theory, Symbloic Logic, ect. - each as their own chapter. Also, as a central theme running through-out the book, the writer continually approached different arguments for the existence of God from a logicians point of view - basically the idea behind the Philosophy of Religion class I took. Additionally, there was a chapter on proability which mirrored a Math class I took at UBC.

Reading the book was a little bit like a quick refresher in logic for me. I liked that. One of the later chapters even dealt with some topics I hadn't come across before and introduced some new concpets to me. The book is an excellent read for anyone interested in studying logic, or anyone who has studied logic - but I don't know if it would be very enjoyable to someone with no interest in the subject.

"The End of My Tether" by Neil Astley

Hmmm. This was a different book then most anything else I've ever read. A warning: that is not necessarily a good thing.


Initially I quite liked this book: It was witty and intelligent. The author seemed to know a lot about magic and interesting English mythology, and wasn't afraid to use share tha knowledge. It had a great protagonist; a prolific character that I could tell right away I was going to enjoy reading about (like Dream or Holmes or Raskolnikov). The book had me hooked right away and for a while I couldn't put it down.


Unfortunately, about half way into it, the book started to deteriorate. The plot became increasingly complex and convoluted. The secondary characters started to become too primary. Worst of all, the once-engaging writing style all but dissapeared.


This is the novel by Neil Astley - a well published poet. The second half of the novel made that abundantly clear. The prose started to break down with the plot, until the book reached a point of utter miscomprehension. The characters (all of them!) started talking in confusing extended metaphors and the author himself became an key character. Some characters left the book to enter other books (like "Vanity Fair") and chronological and dimensional displacment started becoming common place.


I rode the train wreck out, though, and I'm glad that I did. I picked up a lot in interesting (assumed) truths about English folklore and environmental studies. The book had a lot to say, and for the most part it was interesting. Ronnie (Troë's cousin John's mom) was the one who lent me the book, after I was telling her about Neil Gaiman. There are similarities between the content of Astley's novel and Gaiman's works, but they are much different writers.


This should be considered a possible read for people who can grasp conplex plots and are interested in magic or concerned about the environment. I don't think I'd recomend it to anyone, but I wouldn't dissway anyone from reading it either.