Book Review: The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

How's it going, everyone! It's back to book blogging business for me! After a month-long read, I have finally finished The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. I would like to apologize for that book review hiatus, by the way. Since it's July already and there is just a whole month to go before my 4-month-long vacation ends, I will try my best to blog actively within this month. I'm more than sure that when I go to college I'll have lesser time to blog. Now without further ado, let's get down to business.

• Title: The Alchemyst
• Author: Michael Scott
• Genre: fantasy, thriller, mythology, fiction
• Pages: 375 pages
• Published: 22 May 2007
• Series:  The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

"Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on 28 September 1330. Nearly seven hundred years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life. The records show that he died in 1418. But his tomb is empty and Nicholas Flamel lives. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects - the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. And that's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it. Sometimes legends are true. And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time."

Quick info: I have actually read The Alchemyst about a couple of years ago although I did not really enjoy it that much since I was reading it along with another couple of books. But this time I was able to focus on this book more. My first impression when I saw this book (and yes, I still remember haha) was "Bummer, no pictures". Just kidding! (On a totally unrelated topic, am I the only one around here who's getting tired of the YouTube ad with that lady who goes: "Wanna hear a cat joke? Nevermind. Just kitten."? I always end up skipping that ad on the "Meow you doin'" part haha. Just wanted to get that off my shoulders. Now back to the review.) I was amazed by the cover itself. The cover is intricately detailed and there is a bunch of symbolism sprawled all over the front. On the down side though, it does not have anything that can help you visualize what you are reading. But who cares. I've enjoyed lots of other books with no graphic art of a scene/character on their covers. (e.g. Hunger Games, Lorien Legacies) I am just saying that the cover helps a lot.

Now before I talk about the content, I'd like you to know a couple of things about me. 1. I despise long narration. Especially when dialogue could have replaced it and it would have been much better. 2. I tend to freak out when a character does something out of human nature (or at least my nature). For example, in horror movies the person who clearly feels that something wrong is going on in his kitchen still proceeds to go into the kitchen. Alone. Unarmed. If I was in his place, common sense would make me run the hell out of my house and call the cops. Did you get number 2? Number 2 is about my "If I was in his place" thoughts. But lucky me, The Alchemyst managed to annoy me with these two things. 

What I disliked about The Alchemyst was its never-ending supply of narration. Or the opposite. Its supply of dialogue is seriously low. This contributed to the reason why it took a long time for me to finish the book. I was getting tired of all the narration and the descriptions and the narrator's voice that I was imagi-hearing in my head. (For this book, my narrator sounds like an old Hugh Grant. I don't know why.) The old Hugh Grant voice in my head was putting me to sleep every time I came across a dialogue-less page. On the other hand, I found some characters to be a bit out of human nature. SPOILER ALERT! A normal human who just witnessed a battle between two powerful magicians would freak out and go as far away from the battle as possible, right? Heck, they would not believe what they are seeing at all or would want to have nothing to do with it. Our main characters, Josh and Sophie, did the opposite thing. They went to the battleground, helped a magician out, and in return were forever doomed of the dangers of the magic world. If a person would introduce himself to me as the immortal Nicholas Flamel, I wouldn't trust him right away, even if he shows me his powers. I would go away and contact my therapist. 

What I loved about The Alchemyst was its mythology. This is a mythology-lover's book. Everyone is here! Not just the Greeks or Romans. Everyone! We have Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Norse was cited, and there could be a lot more! This is just the first book after all. I simply loved how all kinds of mythology was put together in this book, being a fan of mythology and all. Also, even though I ranted about long narrations, I appreciated how Scott describes everything vividly. I think that caused his over supply of narration. He was busy describing every little detail for us to visualize. 

My Rating:

I can honestly say that I did not enjoy The Alchemyst that much. Although it was very interesting. It is definitely worth a shot. Who knows, maybe it gets better with every succeeding book. I'm reading The Magician right now and I am getting hooked! From the first few chapters it's a lot better than The Alchemyst for me already. I'm thinking that The Alchemyst was just a taste of what we will experience throughout the series. Way to make a good first impression, though. -_- But seriously, The Alchemyst is worth a shot.

Jude Reads Turns 1!

June 23 may be just be an ordinary day for most of us. For me though, it was when I did the unthinkable. 365 days ago today, I sat in front of the computer and typed and typed and typed. After a couple of hours of typing, I clicked the Publish button and BAM! This blog was born! And 365 days after, here it is! And I couldn't have accomplished all this without you! 

So for Jude Reads's first anniversary I shall take you on a very nostalgic tour called Jude Reads: Through the Months!

• June - July 2013: Within these two months I was able to fully stylize my blog to a design which I thought was perfect. And looking back now I thought it just sucked. Kind of like that feeling you get when you read through your Facebook activity 3 years ago. Anyway, Jude Reads was still Seen Through the Glasses. the first blog name I ever thought of which I thought sounded so good until I realized it was quite a mouthful. I was also able to write six posts throughout these two months. I was getting single digit readers per post. Very encouraging, right? 
   

• August - October 2013: I tried to commit myself to writing about one post per week (with school and all) and I did do that for the whole month of August. Although in 8 September, my grandpa passed away. After my 1st-of-September post, I was not able to update the blog for the rest of September. I guess that that month was just too sad for me. I ended up with only a single blog post for September. Although in October, I got into blogging again since October was when the next book of the series I love was released. I was also able to post my first ever book review during this month and attend my first ever Nuffnang event. My readers soared up from single digits to double digits per post. I felt so happy and I really noticed the progress I was making. 

ACME MADE Back to School Promo

Hey Guys! 

I'm alive! I haven't been able to blog in a while so sorry about that. Honestly, I'm having both writer's and reader's block. I'm currently reading The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, although I find the story a bit static and ultimately boring. I try to read it during times when I don't have anything else to do, although those times were very rare these past few days. Anyway, I might update from time to time, what with the Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby trailers and updates coming out. 

But enough about me. I decided to blog today because I thought you guys should ought to check this out:

Ain't it cool? So if you're ever thinking about purchasing a Macbook Air/Pro, think about this awesome promo you can get. 

Book Review: The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

Hey there! Have you ever had a day in which you felt really sad or disappointed? And just when you thought that day couldn't get any worse, the universe proves you wrong? We've all had that day. But guess what. Despair could be occasionally there but happiness is always there in its many unique forms. It could be the other side of your pillow at bedtime, or the smell of freshly mowed grass. It could be anything! The only mistake we are doing is that we tend to take these awesome things for granted. But a man named Neil Pasricha was able to gather all these awesome things together for us to recognize and fully appreciate in his undeniably awesome book, The Book of Awesome.

credits to taylormorgan83.blogspot.com

• Title: The Book of Awesome
• Author: Neil Pasricha
• Genre: nonfiction, humor
• Pages: 393 pages
• Published: 15 April 2010

"Based on the award-winning 10-million-plus-hit blog 1000awesomethings.com, The Book of Awesome is a high five for humanity and a big celebration of life's little moments:

• Popping Bubble Wrap
• Wearing underwear just out of the dryer
• Fixing electronics by smacking them
• Getting called up to the dinner buffet first at a wedding
• Watching The Price Is Right when you're home sick
• Hitting a bunch of green lights in a row
• Waking up and realizing it's Saturday

Sometimes it's easy to forget the things that make us smile. With a 24/7 news cycle reporting that the polar ice caps are melting, hurricanes are swirling in the seas, wars are heating up around the world, and the job market is in a deep freeze, it's tempting to feel that the world is falling apart. But awesome things are all around us-sometimes we just need someone to point them out.

The Book of Awesome reminds us that the best things in life are free (yes, your grandma was right). With laugh-out-loud observations from award- winning comedy writer Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome is filled with smile-inducing moments on every page that make you feel like a kid looking at the world for the first time. Read it and you'll remember all the things there are to feel good about. 

The Book of Awesome reminds us of all the little things that we often overlook but that make us smile. With touching, warm, and funny observations, each entry ends with the big booming feeling you'll get when you read through them: AWESOME!"

Sorry for the month-long book review hiatus by the way! After that overly optimistic intro, let us now go through my reading experience with The Book of Awesome. I thought Pasricha was clever, yet at the same time he was too consistent. Clever because he was able to write about small joys in such a way that you could really, really relate to it. Too consistent because he kept writing in a style that entertains you at first but becomes predictable as you flip another page and ultimately becomes boring. Well not boring boring but happy-but-getting-tired-of-it boring. Pasricha explained all these awesome things one-by-one in this book. He has this writing style that I could compare to a speaker at a seminar. His words are to explain, yet he mixes up fun ways to make his explaining entertaining and enthusiastic. But honestly, I ultimately got tired of the way he always ends a page with the phrase "Awesome!". But I thought this book was a whiff of fresh air from all the emotions other books have given me. This one is just filled with much humor and happiness and positive vibes.