Off the subject. Sorta.

PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS, by Rick Riordan.

THE LIGHTNING THIEF
THE SEA OF MONSTERS
THE TITAN'S CURSE
THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH (coming soon)

I've fallen in love with a new children's fiction series! Yay! I luhhhhhhhhhhhhhve: PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS. Imagine a cross between Harry Potter and a series of unfortunate events, cram it full of mythology, and you'd have this. The first three books are out, and the fourth comes out May 9th. I'm dying to get my hands on it.

What is it about?

Percy Jackson is a sixth grader suffering from ADHD and dyslexia who discovers that his teachers are not quite...normal. Then he sees the fates knitting socks. In a flashwhirl of events, Percy learns that the Greek gods are currently living on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building, and that his long-lost father is... one of the olympic gods. (I won't tell you which, it'll give the story away.) Anyway. Because of who his father is, Percy is accused of stealing a "divine" artifact of great importance, and to clear his name he undergoes a quest to the underworld. Along the way he meets dozens of characters from Greek mythology.

I love ancient stuff. Hence, my major. I owe most of this to my favorite teacher of all time, Pam Fossum, sixth grade, Wasatch Elementary. She introduced me to many of my life's passions: astronomy, good stories, and ancient history by locale: Roman, Greek, and Egypt especially. I still take notes the way she taught me to. I still measure my timelines by the duct-tape measuring sticks she had along the ceiling of her classroom. (I ran into her last week and recommended Percy Jackson. I was surprised she hadn't heard of it. She's excited to read it now, as should you be.) t was during her class that I was exposed to greek mythology, and I tell ya--this book is what her class was all about: exposure to things you hadn't heard of or considered in fun ways you want more of.

The books are hillarious! The similies and metaphors are classic. At one point, Percy describing the way monsters smelt said it was "as if a skunk had been living off leftover mexican food." Great mirth and merriment gained from these books. Furthermore, it helped with my mythology class by familiarizing me with the Greek olympians. I was the only one who remembered who Dionysus was on our last quiz. Huzzah!

READ THEM. Screen them for your kids, see if you're okay with them reading it, whatevs. I strongly recommend them.

if you wish to read more of my pretending-to-take-notes-during-ancient-texts-blogging-surreptitiously ramblings, continue, otherwise, goodbye:

I love to read, but I am picky. I don't like to waste my time on "classics," because I so often disagree with whoever decided that they were "classic." Who makes those lists, anyway? Take Wuthering Heights, for example: he digs up her corpse and cradles it in his arms, weeping. After she's decomposed for ten years! Sick. Not a classic in my book. The Scarlet Letter? Don't get me started. I'm sorry, call me uneducated if you wish, I know that so many of my college friends adore reading Les Miserables for enjoyment purposes. In French, even. And yes, I've heard that Dostoevsky has a "beautiful soul made evident in his literary pain." But so help me, no English teacher will ever again compel me to read literature from Walden, Nietzsche, or Shakespeare. Nor am I likely to listen to a friend's endorsement. If I like the plot, and the first chapter is engaging, I might. Otherwise--forget about it, pal. I'm picky. Most of the things I read are targeted for children. Again, call me crazy, but I get more out of those than I do the er... "adult" "dignified" texts. Besides which, I'm a sucker for stories. Yaaaaaaay for rambling!