Forward March!

My goodreads reading challenge is going pretty well. Only three days into it and I've finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and The Giver by Lois Lowry. I don't usually read that quickly, so I'm impressed with myself that I read Northanger Abbey that quickly. For some reason I absolutely sped through The Giver. I started it at 10 PM last night and finished it a few hours ago. It probably would have been sooner if sleep and work and such weren't necessary.

I enjoyed Northanger Abbey, but I don't think it's my favorite Austen. Call me cliche, but I think my favorite still is (and always will be) Pride and Prejudice. Persuasion and Emma might be tied. Then Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey. I still haven't read Mansfield Park, so I guess I'll have to re-assess my list afterwards. I'd also like to re-read Emma. It's been a while.

Northanger Abbey was interesting, but I found the characters vapid and just plain annoying at times. Overall, I still like Austen, but this novel didn't thrill me. I don't feel the same need to re-read it as I do with Pride and Prejudice.

The Giver was amazing. I don't know how I managed not to read this before. I'm truly ashamed.

Anyway, I've read it now and I really enjoyed it. I never would have expected the whole utopian/dystopian thing to work in YA, but somehow it does. Considering I'm not always thrilled with YA in general, my enthusiasm for this book really shocked me. Seriously though, it's really good. I think I will be buying my own copy in the near future so that I don't have to keep taking it out of the library. In fact, I'm almost certain we have a copy somewhere in my house, but since searching through all the books is a ridiculous undertaking and it isn't in any of the usual places I would look, I think I'm just going to break down and buy another one.

That's it for now. Off to continue my challenge reading.