A Poor Attempt at Book Reviews

Gah!  Now that Megan's started her slice-of-pie-whatever I feel like I haven't posted enough.  Conveniently, a torrent of ideas for blog posts have recently graced me with their presence.  One of which is book reviews.  At the begining of this year I made several goals pertaining to books.  Since my family is now the proud owner of a private library with close to a million (probably more like a few thousand) titles I figured it was high time I got well acquainted with them, especially since I've been named co-curator.  I set a goal for myself to read every book on the first shelf that I haven't already read by the end of the year.

In order, they are:
1. Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
2. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
3. Watership Down by Richard Adams (Not shown here)
4. Plague Dogs by " "
5. Shardik by " "
6. Blackhearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
7. Nightbirds on Nantucket by " "
8. Castle Barebane by " "
9. Midnight is a Place by " "
10. The Quiet Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott
11. The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
12. Gypsy Rizka by Lloyd Alexander
13. Time Cat by " "
14. The Wizard in the Tree by " "
15. Westmark by " "
16. The Kestral by " "
17. The Beggar Queen by " "
18. The Illyrian Adventure by " "
19. The El Dorado Adventure by " "
20. The Drackenburg Adventure by " "
21. Town Cats by " "
22. The Cat Who Wished to be a Man by " "
23. A book of 3 Lloyd Alexander novels: The Arkadians, The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, and The Iron Ring
24. Kit's Wilderness by David Almond
25. Tales Before Narnia by Douglas A. Anderson

It's quite a load, but I've already finished the first two books, which brings me to the main point I'm writing this.  I thought it'd be fun to write a review of each book after I finished it.  I've never really written a book review before, so here goes nothin'!

 Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
I was really surprised to find out that this book was written in the 1880's

because it's seems so science-fiction-y.  It has nothing to do with robots or extra-terrestial beings but it's all about Dimensions and crazy, mind-bending ideas.  It starts out by giving a brief history and rundown of Flatland.  Flatland is a place populated by two-dimensional shapes separated into classes; the triangles(lower class), squares(middle class), polygons(upper class), and circles(pretty much royalty).  The main character, A. Square, has a dream one night where he visits Lineland.  Lineland took me a bit longer to understand.  Basically, it's just a bunch of lines that make up one long line and they can only see a point in front of them which is actually another line, but they can only see the end of it.  A. Square tries to explain to the lines how to move left and right but they can't grasp the concept.  They believe that the line connecting their two endpoints is their insides, and you can't move the way of your insides.  Our gallant hero gives up on the ignorant lines and returns to Flatland.  Soon after (possibly that same day), A. Square is visited by a strange being who calls himself a sphere.  Because inhabitants of Flatland can only see straight lines in front of them he believes that the sphere is really just a circle.  The sphere begins to explain to A. Square that he is a 3-dimensional being and can move up and down.  The conversation is very similar to the one had in Lineland, only this time it is the square who is unable to comprehend moving in the direction of his "insides".  To prove what he says, the sphere rises above Flatland, out of A. Square's vision, and lightly taps his insides.  By this point A. Square believes that this sphere must be some magician and raises the alarm.  The sphere decides it's time for A. Square to learn the truth and somehow drags him into Spaceland where he can see the hole sphere and can move up and down.  Then they go on a little journey learning about spheres and cubes and other 3-Dimensional shapes.  Before they part ways A. square demands to be shown the fourth dimension.  The sphere doesn't understand what he means and only becomes angrier and angrier when he tries to explain that there must be a dimension above the sphere and surely there's a dimension after that.  In the end the sphere sends his guest back to Flatland raving about endless dimensions.  I won't disclose anymore because I hate when people give away the ending to a book.  All in all it was a really great book and left me in a sort of week-long stupor where all I could talk about was the existence of other dimensions and how we might discover them one day.  I also gained a greater appreciation for Geometry and found myself wondering what kind of shape I'd be if I lived in Flatland (If I were male, that is.  All females are sharp needle-like shapes.).  I give it four stars out of five.  Maybe four and a half.

There you go.  My poor attempt at a book review.  It wasn't much of a review, more like a lengthy summarization with a few comments at the end.  Oh well, maybe next time will be better.