Simon style. Matt just finished reading him The Hobbit. His favorite part was “when Gandolf comes back and he’s afraid they will leave the path.” His biggest takeaway, however, is that “It’s 317 pages.”
In a similar vein, we caught him checking out our copy of Anthony Shadid’s* Night Draws Near. It’s a bit above his reading level (try again in 10 years, honey), but he was nonetheless intrigued and inspired.
“Oooh, this book has 424 pages. Do we have a book with 500 pages?”
And that’s how Simon was introduced to George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones** series. At the other end of the spectrum, there are the books he can sort of read, with help. We grabbed a few books about the solar system from the library earlier this week. We started with Pluto: The Dwarf Planet. Here’s Simon’s report on that book. “Where’s Eris? … It has only 20 pages.”
Then we moved on to The Moon: Earth’s Satellite. Well, remember when you were a kid and your mom told you not to judge a book by its cover? How right she was. Behold, the cover:
The Moon: Earth's Satellite
And the somewhat unexpected interior:
Ooopsie!
The former publisher in me is dying to know how this happened and whether and entire print run was compromised.
*Anthony Shadid was a 43-year-old New York Times columnist famous for his coverage and understanding of the Middle East. He died in Syria last week as the result of an asthma attack. It’s a terrible loss for journalism and anyone who sought to understand this part of the world, especially how war affects the everyday lives of average citizens. I had the book down because I was re-reading parts of it in the wake of the terrible news.
**The Series is properly called A Song of Ice and Fire, with Game of Thrones being the first installment. It is a much loved fantasy series that is currently being adapted for television on HBO. I watched, and read, the first season/book and enjoyed it with some reservations. I read the second book and was simultaneously bored and offended by it. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. I hated it with the intensity of a thousand burning suns, and I have suspicions that the author is a creepy, creepy man. So please don’t take this mention as a recommendation!
Interesting. What did you hate about it? I’m no longer into (bad) fantasy, having moved into (bad) mysteries, but most people I know have loved the series. Then again, I think they were all guys. Try reading Simon “the Pluto Files” by my Secret Boyfriend(TM) Neil DeGrasse Tyson, or “How I killed Pluto and why it had it coming” by Mike Brown. Not up to his 500 pages, but interesting and amusing.