Roald Dahl

Here's another author I like. I don't know about you, but when I was a kid I devoured all of his books. James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The Witches, George's Marvellous Medicine, Matilda of course, The BFG... Then I read Boy - Tales of Childhood. And later I had a taste of his short stories, reading Kiss Kiss. (Unfortunately I lost that book because I lent it to a friend who lost it..).

Anyway, until now, I have never been disappointed by a book of Roald Dahl. Of course I mainly know his children's fiction, but now that I've grown up a little I'm pretty enthusiastic about discovering his other fictions.







That's why lately I read My Uncle Oswald. A pretty original story - like many Roald Dahl's stories I guess. It's the story of Oswald Hendryks Cornelius, or more precisely the story of how he became a rich man, using a powerful aphrodisiac, the Sudanese Blister Beetle powder.
This book is kind of silly. I mean, every page describes an incredible situation. But somehow you can't let it down until you've reached the last words of it. And it's funny. Basically, just read it. Or maybe don't, it depends on your age. I guess if you're too young it may seem a bit weird. After all, it is all about sex.

So once more I wasn't disappointed by that book. At all. I'll tell you when I read another Roald Dahl. I'm sure it will be another great book.

And how about you? How do you feel about Roald Dahl? Which ones of his books have you read?

Harry Potter

I think my biggest reading experience is Harry Potter. Why? Well, probably because I have read the seven of them, at least five times each. Like, I read the four firsts so many times I have stopped counting, the fifth a bit less than the four firsts, the sixth less than the fifth etc... Which is totally logical, for every time I decide to re-read Harry Potter, I read all the books in a row. And since the books number five, six and seven were published later, I couldn't read them as many times as the books number one, two, three, four...

You'll notice I put a picture of the books, and not of the movies.

I wish to make it clear that I fell in love with the books. With the great story J.K. Rowling told us, with the way she told it -with humour, with details that make the reader feel close to the characters, with references... So of course, being a big fan of Harry Potter, I saw the movies. But I honestly can't say I'm a fan of those. And I feel like they are getting more and more disappointing. You can't really feel Harry Potter's magic watching them, because details are gone, and sometimes the story is distorted (like, the sixth movie is starting with Harry almost flirting with a girl in a café, what the hell??).

So how did I find out about Harry Potter? 

Well we simply had the four first books at home when I was a kid. I don't think it was really famous then. At the beginning, they were put on shelves in my brother's room. I remember once, I was spending time in his room, and I wanted to see what those Harry Potters were about. And believe it or not, I read the first lines of the first chapter of the first book, and put it back on the shelves, because I was too lazy to go further. It seems incredible to me now that I could have been bored by the first lines, because today when I read them I feel the magic of J.K. Rowling's writing drowning me. I know them by heart: 

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Maybe I wasn't very patient then, being too young. Maybe I was too lazy to wait for Harry to go to school (because I know I was really curious about Hogwarts. I mean, a school of witchcraft and wizardry, seriously?? That must be cool). But even the time at the Dursleys' is fun when it's written by J.K. Rowling.
Anyway, of course I tried again a bit later. I knew that according to the blurb, it should be good. And that's how I became addicted. And read them over and over again.
When the fifth book was about to be published, I was in secondary school, and I reserved it at the library to be sure I could have my own copy as soon as possible. Same thing with the sixth and seventh. And each time I devoured them.
Too bad there are no other Harry Potters coming up... But I guess it had to end someday! And hey, there are many other good books out there waiting to be read!


So how about you? Do you like the Harry Potter books? You prefer the movies or the books?

Sarah Dessen

I couldn't start this blog without an article about Sarah Dessen, who's probably my favorite author, and who inspired me for the title of the blog.
Because in the song Dig a little deeper, Mama Odie actually refers to love. Which is what we need. Or so I understood. And I feel like this is what Sarah Dessen's books are (almost) all about.
I don't want to reduce her books to the scheme I'm about to describe, so please don't read it that way, because her books are so much more than just that scheme... But I don't think I'm wrong when I say that in most of Sarah Dessen's books, the main character, a girl, is facing hardships and has trouble dealing with her life, until she meets that boy. There things get clearer. I'd even say the boy she meets kinda saves her.
Of course you can't generalize. In Dreamland, for instance, there is no wonderful love story - you'll know why if you read the book (or maybe you already know). But I did find the scheme: "troubled girl / meets a boy / boy 'saves' her" in What happened to goodbye, or else in Just Listen. Sometimes it's not just a boy, it's a boy AND friends.
Anyway, this is not criticism at all. I like this scheme. Maybe I like romance. And I LOVE Sarah Dessen's books, and if you don't know her yet I can only advise you to have a look at her website and to buy her books, because they really are worth it.
On the covers, they say "Read her once and fall in love". Well that's exactly what happened to me. Every time I'm reading one of her books, I just can't put it down. It doesn't take long before I finish it - sigh.

So how did I find out about Sarah Dessen? Here's the story - don't worry, it's not that long!
It was a few years ago. Maybe five, maybe more than that. As often, my grandmother gave me a book for my birthday, and I didn't know then that it would be the first of many Sarah Dessen's books I'd be reading. This book was entitled This Lullaby.
I didn't pay so much attention to it. I loved it, of course, what else can you expect from a book by Sarah Dessen? But once it was finished I just got back to my usual life and forgot about it.
Until a few years back. I was on holiday, and my parents took me to Ireland. To cut a long story short, we stopped by a library and as I was strolling about, my eyes were caught by a beautiful cover. Black, with green drawings on it. I got closer and saw Sarah Dessen's name on it. Gosh, I thought, this name really rings a bell. I thought for a while, and I remembered. She had written a book I had read and loved,  This Lullaby. So I didn't hesitate and bought that other Sarah Dessen's book, The truth about forever. Of course it was awesome, and the following day I had already finished reading it.
So from that day on, I started collecting Sarah Dessen's books. Every now and then, whenever I had time, I went to the library to buy one of her books I hadn't read yet. And, you may have guessed it already, today my collection's complete.
I can't wait for her to publish other books, be sure I'll be one of the firsts buying them!

How about you? Do you know Sarah Dessen? How did you find out about her? Do you like what she writes?