I don’t want to repeat myself (hence why this post exists!), so head on over to Mark Watches for some important news regarding e-books, newsletters, and other such shenaniganry.
Because there was no need to give that information there, I’d like to update all of you about the upcoming schedule. It looks like I’ll finish The Book Thief early next week, probably Monday or Tuesday. Once I do, I’m going to take the rest of the week off to start preparing and publishing the e-books. The week after next, I will spend the whole week doing re-reads of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Infinite Jest posts, since I have largely ignored them! It’s time for both of those books to get some attention.
After that week, I will begin the His Dark Materials trilogy!!!! I am quite excited to start that, as I’ve always meant to read it, and I know a lot of you are excited for me to start it, too. PARTY FOREVER.
Anyway, head on over and leave some feedback on that post or you can leave it here on this site in regards to newsletters/e-books. (And the message at the end of that post on MW applies to all of you, too. Thank you.)
ASGFAHGSF MORE HARRY POTTER REREAD AND HIS DARK MATERIALS AASGJHAGSHGASHGADJHGSDHG YAY:D
Long time lurker here btw (since the twilight days, fun times!), and I'm gonna say what everyone else says, that you are AWESOME and I adore you and thank you for doing the amazing stuff you do!
Internet hugs!
Thoroughly seconded! Also add some cake and puppies to the internet hugs.
Just……. maybe not at the same time, because I had a sudden mental image of a mass of cake-covered puppies launching themselves at people, and I think I need to go lie down.
EVERYTHING HE/SHE SAID
EXCITE!!!
Thoroughly thirded! Or fourthed or whatever 😀 except I'm more of a lurker mostly since HP 😀 And I haven't yet read His Dark Materials and now I need to get those books PLUS I still haven't laid hands on a used Infinite Jest so I'd better get on that!
**throws confetti**
Harry Potter re-reads!!! Yes!!! 🙂
Yes! Re-reads of HP and then some HDM! I am very excited. I first read HDM in grad school (and was surprised that my mid-50s advisor had read it too). Can’t wait!
Infinite Jest? What's that? 😉
Looking forward to everything, really! I should really go back and get back into Infinite Jest.
YAY YAY YAY MORE EXCUSES TO PROCRASTINATE!
No siriusly I am way too excited about this. His Dark Materials is awesome and OMG MOAR HARRY POTTER and I really need to pick up Infinite Jest again!
BRB SQUEALING IN DELIGHT
Sorry, Mark, for literally dropping off the face of the Earth for pretty much the entirety of your Book Thief journey. I started grad school right around when you began reading it, and…well, it's more work than I thought it would be! But good thing I decided to randomly read my Mark Reads RSS feed today, and am SUPER EXCITE to see you return to HP and move on to His Dark Materials! I've been meaning to start that series, too. I will read along with you, now that I'm sure I can safely handle that, my courseload, and my toddler (who will soon be starting preschool, WEEEEEEEE)!
Next week will also give me a chance to hurry up and finish Dead Reckoning, the 11th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, which JUST CAME OUT and I WAITED A YEAR FOR IT and um, yeah. Good to be back! 🙂
I have been eagerly awaiting Dead Reckoning as well! I'm so glad it's finally out (but a bit mad that Amazon made the kindle version more expensive than the physical version. wtf, amazon?)
I am so excited for more Harry Potter re-reads! At this rate you might actually finish Sorcerer's Stone sometime this year!
Kidding aside, I'm excited for pretty much every book in your pipeline. Thank you for providing and maintaining these communities!
Hooray!
Really excited for HP rereads and especially for HDM!
WOO! I've had to suffer through Infinite Jest without you and I need your insight because I don't understand ANYTHING.
YAY HARRY POTTER!
EXCITE.
I've been trying to catch up on reading the ever-growing stack of books by my reading spot (I have my own chair, don't judge me) and now this? I should be annoyed at the distraction, but I'm really not. It's Harry Potter and His Dark Materials, I could never be angry at Mark over those.
YES! HARRY POTTER FTW!
And HDM is cool too! I read the books several years ago, so it'll be nice to have something of a refresher course on them, and to see what I actually do remember, and your insight is always valued and appreciated.
In regards to the ebooks thing, then sure. I'd be guaranteed to pay for the MRHP series at the least. And would you also include Mark Re-reads Harry Potter?
Mark is reading "His Dark Materials"?
MARK, YOU ARE READING "HIS DARK MATERIALS"?
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Oh, God, I am also so damn excite for you to read His Dark Materials. I've been waiting for about two months. They're so good and I really think that you're going to like the series.
I'm sooooo psyched at the e-book thing 😀
And will be intrigued to see you read HDM – there were things I adored and things I loathed about those books, and things that I just found irritating. Northern Lights (think it's published as The Golden Compass in the US?) is still my favourite of the three, I am very, very interested to see you read them. Think there is a lot you will love, though not tailored quite so uniquely to your taste as Liesel and friends! 🙂
well, I'm glad about the rereads but…….
what about the series of unfortunate events?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I haven't commented in a long time because I intended to read The Book Thief along with you, couldn't find a copy, and now don't want to read those posts because I don't want to be spoiled (but I can't wait to go back and read all the chapter reviews and comment discussions when I eventually do read the book!). I have read His Dark Materials (quite some time ago, I don't remember many details), so I'm excited to come back to this community! I've been checking obsessively to find out when the next project would begin (and found myself saying, more than once – "My GOD, how many chapters does The Book Thief HAVE?!?!").
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"I've been checking obsessively to find out when the next project would begin (and found myself saying, more than once – "My GOD, how many chapters does The Book Thief HAVE?!?!")."
Ha, I've been doing the same thing for two months now. I tried looking through my copy to get an idea of when he'll be finished, but the chapters aren't numbered.
I checked on wikipedia 😀
This could be exactly from my keyboard – the very same thing happened to me! And now I’ve been waiting for Mark to finish the Book Thief (or for myself to start it…) and now: EXCITE! I read HDM a very long time ago, so I could read it along with you.
Yay! I can go back to reading your reviews! (I thought you were reading The Thief Lord for like a day when you started the Book Thief…or maybe I thought you were reading City of Thieves…probably the latter…and then I was worried that I might actually want to read The Book Thief, so I stopped reading your reviews. But I've read AND TOTALLY LOVED His Dark Materials, so I'll be following you doing that!)
Why did nobody tell me that I should click on the ads to let you have a reward for your reviews? I didn’t know how these things work. Don’t judge me. (Does it also work if I “Open in a new tab” and never really look on this tab? Just curious.)
A Newsletter? Yeah, my in-box is hungry.
There are some minor problems:
I don’t have an e-book reader.
Doesn’t really matter. Perhaps I should get one. I love my paper books, but searchable files would be helpfull for commenting. Or given some time, I may find a way to read e-books on the PC.
I don’t have time.
I cannot read fast in english. Your reviews and all the comments are already quite time consuming. When should I find time to re-read e-booked reviews. Should I stop to follow “Mark watches”? I don’t even watch these shows and still love to read your reviews (and I didn’t know anything about Dr Who, but by now The Doctor invaded my dreams twice).
I don’t have a credit card.
Yes, I’m anachronistic. There were only two occasions in my life when I seemed to need such a thingy:
1. I abandoned my Security Suite when I found that the options to pay for the yearly update had been reduced to one: get a credit card first. I’m now using a combination of free tools and common sense.
2. Im still trying to figure out how I can donate to your AIDS/LifeCycle. Should I send a check across the ocean?
I don’t promise, but I will probably buy your e-books if I find a way to do it, and I would pay more than 1 Dollar.
It will be good to have some more “Harry Potter” to relax after “The Book Thief”.
“Northern Lights” / “Der goldene Kompass”:
The movie didn’t make me feel that I should read the book. But then I don’t know what I would have thought about “Harry Potter” if I had watched the movies before I had read the books. I will try to get the german edition from the library and read along with you. (I hope it wasn’t as hard to translate than “The Book Thief” and I don’t have to go for the original edition.)
"Why did nobody tell me that I should click on the ads to let you have a reward for your reviews? I didn’t know how these things work. Don’t judge me. (Does it also work if I “Open in a new tab” and never really look on this tab? Just curious.)"
I heard of someone getting unpartnered from youtube because someone clicked all their adds and told google or whatever that she was abusing her partnering privileges. So it might be best that you didn't know.
I'd imagine that it still work if you didn't look at the tab. How would they know if you actually looked at the site or not?
Can't wait, I've not actually read His Dark Materials and have been meaning to for a long time now. I think i'm going to wait and read it at the same pace as your posts, make it more interesting
Yay! I’ve been half skimming reads since I haven’t read The Book Thief but I’ve read HDM like 3 times each. Super excite, now I’ll be caught up on reads and watches. Now I just have to remember to comment more frequently 🙂
Oh man, I was suggesting Chaos Walking series, but I didn't know you hadn't read HDM, so DO THAT FIRST. HDM is so fucking good.
(But then read Chaos Walking, cause they're also so fucking good…)
HIS DARK MATERIALS HURRAH 😀
Oh, I would TOTALLY sign up for a newsletter (I was like SHRIEKING from JOY here), just tell me when (and how) it’s possible!
Mark! This news makes me so happy! I'm going to Russia for 2.5 weeks, and I was so upset that I was going to miss so much of HDM. But now I'll only miss about a week!
OH MY GOD. Am a long-time lurker (since MRHP), once commented anonymously, but now I must come out into the open to tell you I AM SO EXCITED YOU'RE GOING TO BE READING MY FAVOURITE SERIES OF ALL TIME. OFF ALL TIME. Seriously, this series wins all the things. I have never loved anything as much (well okay, Lolita, but that's a whole 'nother kind of awesome) I am actually currently writing my English Lit Master thesis on HDM and the *spoilery spoiler that is spoilery*. Ohhh, I'm thrilled you're doing this!!! You're going to love it so much!
Always wanted to read His Dark Materials and now I have the perfect reason to! Very excited! And I would definitely sign up for the newsletter!
Hi! I love this site but I've never commented before… But now I'm so happy that I HAVE to do it!
I haven't read the book thief reviews 'cause I haven't read the book and the only traslation to my lenguage (Spanish) I found was terrible, and I wasn't sure I could understand it completely in english.
I would definitely sing up for the newsletter, and I'm very exited about the re-reads of Harry Potter and HDM! I love it so much and I know you will too!
Kisses!
PS: I'm very sorry if my english is not very good, I'm still learning! And reading this reviews helps me a lot ^^
I haven't managed to get hold of 'The Book Thief' yet (and then reached a point where my exams began and I thought a massive reading and blog catch-up session was probably not something my degree needs!) but I have TOTALLY read HDM about fifteen times so I am EXCITED and will BE THERE. 😀 I've also not been watching Avatar so the past couple of weeks my life has been very Mark-bereft. 🙁 Except for the Doctor Who reviews of course, but there is not the flaily keysmash of 'OMG YOU THINK IT IS EPIC NOW JUST YOU WAIT' because we are all in the same boat now!
His Dark Materials… YAY. It's actually going to be hard for me to follow along, because I love those books so much, and they're so important to me, that it's hard for me to discuss them with other people! How silly is that. I will follow along anyway, of course.
Late to comment since I've been busy with exams but I'm really excited about this. I've read the first book in the trilogy years ago, but never got around to reading the rest. Thus, I'm excited to go ahead and finish the books. I feel like people are always writing cross-overs with HDM so this will allow me to understand them.
Also, I love when you pick up series/books I haven't read before. I probably would have never found The Book Theif if you hadn't started reading it and I love it!
Ooh, i'm really excited to hear you're reading His Dark Materials. I've not been so interested in the stuff you've been reading recently. (I had problems with The Hunger Games and never got round to The Book Thief, although my parents keep telling me to read it). And now i'll be clinging to my seat in anticipation for your blogs once again, which will be a lovely experience.
I know you're probably always getting suggestions, but if you have a strong stomach you could do worse than read The Millenium Trilogy (The girl with the dragon tattoo etc.) by Stieg Larsson. The books are kinda brutal, but they say some equisite things about the treatment of women in media, by authorities and, well, just in general.
he mentioned on the suggestion page that those books were too rape-y for him.
This series will always be my favorite series (and the movie ruined the first book, just saying). I want to meet Philip Pullman because this work (mostly His Dark Materials) inspires me as a writer. I hope if/when you criticize some of the chapters or stuff I don't get too upset. I love this series to death and can't wait to see you review it. More people need to read this epic series.
Just a thought, but maybe you should designate one day of the week as a Harry Potter reread post day, so the book doesn't get ignored in the future. Plus it would make it quicker getting through the books a second time, and it would make many fans happy for a guaranteed harry potter review day 🙂
I have yet to read his dark materials so I'll probably try to read along with you.
I just thought I'd mention that you're the one that inspired me to read Infinite Jest. I've since finished it, so I don't want to say anything more for fear of spoilers, but thank you. =)
It's one of my favorite books now, and I've been told I'm rather picky about my taste in literature. xD
I'm gonna try to read his Dark Materials along with you! I downloaded all three book on my Droid so I'm ready when you are!
I'm excited because everything you've done so far I've already read or didn't really have an interest in reading. I"m gonna do my best to keep the same pace as you. Whooo!
Mark! Are you going to read the US or UK versions? I just read a blog post and a forum thread, and there are at least two passages in the third book, The Amber Spyglass, that are significantly different in the US version from the UK. It amounts to a couple paragraphs that are missing.
Personally, I read the US versions, because that's what the stores have in Canada, so I had never read those paragraphs before, and I think I'll have to order the UK versions now.
I will link to appropriate pages for people who want to know, but DON'T read them if you haven't read the books, because SPOILERS AHOY!
First two about the changes; http://diceytillerman.livejournal.com/37747.html http://diceytillerman.livejournal.com/38105.html
Third from the HDM forum with the altered and unaltered text for both passages; http://www.bridgetothestars.net/forum/viewtopic.p…
OMG, I'm so happy that you're reading HDM, I will be very interested to see what you think and can't wait for the HP re-reads!
hi, this is my first time commenting but i have been reading your reviews since mark reads harry potter on buzznet. i have enjoyed them immensely(they are fucking hilarious) and it's great to see other people that get as excited about HP as me. i am sooo pumped for you to read HDM! they are amazing and i feel like they are right up your alley. can't wait to see what you think!
I am very excited for this, these books are nostalgic favourites for me (as in, they are my favourites FOREVER because they were my first favourites and they were a Big Deal when I was small and I refuse to love anything else as much JUST ON PRINCIPAL). Um. Yeah.
p.s. First time post…hello there.