Some Advices On Running A Good Bookshop Online

My teachers loved telling me that all business is local, but as we've moved into a world defined by e-retail and digital distribution local has become a matter of sociology rather than geography. I had the pleasure of listening to a speech by Amazon.co.uk's head of Print on Demand, and he had some good insights into which criteria you need to focus on to run a good bookshop online.

Selection

As opposed to a brick and mortar shop, a webshop has the option to have a near unlimited selection of books at the customers beck and call. Now, there are some crucial elements to selection that borders into availability and information. If a book is out of print or in some other way unavailable the customer needs to be aware of this. Optimally these books should then be made available through Print On Demand(POD) or rerouted to other print versions of the same book to increase the selection available in the webshop.

Price

Customers are price sensitive, even more so in deflationary periods. If a customer can get the product cheaper elsewhere you might find yourself with less customers than your site should be able to attract. This is especially true online, as getting hold of comparative prices on the web is way easier than in the physical world.

Availability

If a product is available NOW is has an increased sales potential as opposed to being available later. In the case of e-books, the books are always available right away if the book is available at all. The only thing standing in the way of physical books having the same instant gratification is the lack of a major POD database with local outlets. Both of which should pose no problems with further market penetration from the Espresso Book machine.

Convenience

People lead busy lives, and often don’t have the time to browse through a brick and mortar book store. The convenience of getting a book delivered directly to your door as opposed to slogging through the rain and hail is not to be underestimated. The webshop has to have a good distribution system in place to handle customers all over the world to capitalize on its potential. A good case in point here is the book depository, which was just bought by Amazon.

Information

Information is crucial to a sale, and web based shops are at an advantage here as opposed to brick and mortar shops. The more information that is available, the better the chance of a product being sold. After all, if a customer can't figure out what a product is, he's less likely to make a purchase. The information has to be organized in such a fashion that it triggers the optimal amount of sales, so remember to experiment with different options to find the golden spot.

Discovery

By leading customers toward products they didn't know existed, Amazon has created a sense of discovery (in essence "customers who bought this, also looked at/bought these books") Any bookstore would be foolish not to integrate such features.

Middlemarch Is Really A Great English Novel

Middlemarch, by George Eliot, is a long novel of great scope. Unlike some novels that just seem to go on and on however, there is always a point to Eliot's writing, so the novel never feels slow. Every sentence and paragraph is necessary to the story. The reader is very aware that Eliot is a great writer, and has spent considerable effort to create a full portrait of an English village.

The full title of the English novel is Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life. One can get a full view of this particular village through the interwoven stories of many characters. There are so many characters in the novel it can be easy to lose track. Eliot includes examples from all strata of society; the clergy, landed gentry, laborers, tradesmen. As if this were not enough, Eliot also uses her characters to introduce and discuss issues relevant to Victorian England. Religion, the Reform Laws and other political debates of the Victorian Age, marriage, and feminism all play a role in the novel.

Eliot is fabulous with creating portraits of particular types of people, especially upper class people, clergy, and women. The dialogue between her characters can sometimes be a bit clunky- Dorothea is so earnest and long-winded! Despite this I cannot help loving Dorothea- her story arc includes her struggles with her own idealism and expectations, her desire to do good, and her disappointments that she takes with grace.

The novel also has that sort of nostalgic vibe when later Victorians look upon early Victorian England; before the smothering industrialization, rapid connections brought about by railroads, and visible poverty. Victorians like to envision a time when the land was green, everyone enjoyed a bumpy carriage ride for a week to get from one part of England to another, and when all the poor people were tied to the land in a harsh tenant/landlord system and most upper class people did not need to see them.

There Are A Few Famous Chinese Historical Novels

Historical Tapestry has invited me to guest post with a discussion of historical novels set in China. This in response to my comment on Mary Tod's blog A Writer of History that I find historical fiction about China to be indifferently represented in forums devoted to the historical genre.

I assume the principle reason for this scarcity may be that we American readers are not so familiar with Asian history; in our schools Western history generally receives more emphasis – Athens rather the Warring States, Rome instead of the Han Dynasty, the Hanover monarchs and not the Manchu empire. So, the Far East is a longer reach.

Still, the reasons for reading Chinese historical novels are not unlike those for reading historicals set in the West or near East. The people invoked have similar troubles and triumphs, and the events evoked have similar storm and stress – but in different contexts often fascinating in their contrast. We gain some insight into people of another time, and perhaps into how our time came to be, by sharing in their drama. Adventure, war, hard times, love, understanding – they live in the pages of historical fiction about China just as they do in that about other places.

And what am I calling historical fiction? In addition to novels about events regarded as historical, events older than 50 years according to some forums, there are included here titles that, while not historical when published, are set in places that time has since changed enough to make them quite different now and, as such, have become chronicles of the vanished past.

There are original English-language novels about China, and Chinese-language novels widely available in translation. There are older books rarely heard of now, and more recent novels. And there are novels about Chinese-American experience (besides Amy Tan) I've left off the list because they are not quite historicals yet. Some of these are about earlier history and others are about more recent events.

Writing Your Own Online Novel

Because I'm throwing myself into the world of serial fiction for the next year or so, I've decided to start a new feature/topic for my non-fiction posts called Writing the Online Novel. Online writing is a different beast than what fiction writers are used to. For the most part, it's closer to journalism than to books. Books, and most fiction magazines, are immersive reading. They're designed to be read without distraction, for the reader to submerge his or her consciousness into the story.

Because of this immersion factor, the audience for a book is very conscious about its choices. They aren't just paying for the book, they're making a major time and attention commitment to it. They shop for books deliberately, looking for something special, which they will consume later, when they are ready to dive in and lose the world. The book must be worth that time and energy commitment. This makes them more attuned to genre and category and other boundaries.

The web, on the other hand, is more like a newspaper, lots of different things on any page, meant to be skimmed, full of everything from sports scores, to comics to commentary, along with the news and features, and ads. People approach newspapers and the web with a more "consume it now" mindset. No commitments involved at all. It's just skimming and browsing and killing time.

Which isn't to say that readers don't dip more deeply into some things, but that's not the point of screwing around on the internet. The point, more often then not, is to see what's going on. Right now. You skim through headlines and feeds and aggregators and social media, to see what catches your interest. You don't know what you're going to find.

And it doesn't always matter if you find much. You may feel completely satisfied with your experience just skimming the first paragraphs and summaries, and catching a few cartoons or LOLcats, or a video of an otter doing a back flip, or seeing the weather or sport scores.

So readers on the internet aren't looking for the same kind of exact experience they look for in a book. After all, we've already filtered out the bad stuff by sticking to things we like and trust: we subscribe to feeds, check out certain sites, follow friends and people we find interesting. And because of that, we can leave ourselves open to a wider range of experience than we do when we're shopping for books. We are less conscious of boundaries.

We have to make the same commitment to everything we write, whether the reader is just skimming or engaged in full-out commitment. It's the same time-consuming work, and burns up the same high level of brain energy. So we writers tend to see online fiction the same way we book fiction. It's just delivered differently.

I think we need to start looking at online fiction -- particularly online novels -- is a medium unto itself. It has its own audience, its own requirements, its own modes and problems. And even though serialized fiction, and newspapers and magazines have been around for centuries, this version of the form is new in a whole lot of different ways.

How E-books Have Changed The Way That College Students Study

E-books were once thought of as a nice way to read books for entertainment purposes, and not much else. In recent years, they have exploded onto the education scene, as many schools are using them almost exclusively. It's interesting to consider how e-books have changed the way that college students study.

In many college courses, students can get the books that they need a in e-book format instead of buying a printed copy. These books are becoming required reading in many classes across the country. In fact, almost 60 percent of students who bought e-books said that some of them were required course material.

With this method, students can simply download the book that they need onto an e-reader like an Amazon Kindle, and start reading it. Many different types of schools are using e-books for their classes. Graphic design schools, trade schools, nursing schools, and regular universities are all jumping on the e-book bandwagon.

One reason that a lot of schools are going to e-books for class is because they save a lot of paper. Without having to physically print up the books, a ton of paper can be saved. This creates a solid eco-friendly brand image for educational facilities.

Another big reason that students are turning to e-books is so that they can save money. When you have to buy a book, it is usually quite a bit cheaper in e-book form. In addition to being able to save money on the purchase of the e-book, you can also rent e-books. For example, Amazon makes it possible to rent textbooks for as little as one day or as long as you need to. This is a lot easier than having to rent the book from a local store or ship it back and forth to a rental company. You just pull up the book you need on an e-reader, and then send it back when you’re done.

Although e-books have started to catch on, they have not completely replaced regular textbooks just yet. Many students don’t yet own e-readers, which is a bit of an obstacle to being able to read e-books. You could always download an e-book and read it on a computer or on a smartphone, but it’s not as easy as reading it on an e-reader. As the prices of electronic readers come down, more students will start to get them, and e-books will become even more common in college.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Review

If you're looking for a good book to read—either for your own enjoyment or a book club suggestion—what's one of the first things you do? You can ask a friend. But word-of-mouth recommendations depend to a large extent on personal taste. If you want a more reliable gauge, you'll want to find book reviews.
Let's say you're at a bookstore and you're holding a book in your hand. Invariably, you turn to the back cover where you find excerpts of mainstream media reviews. They're glowing, of course— "Characters with heart!" "A non-stop page-turner!" "A major new voice in fiction!"

When looking for a good book review, look for one that turns a critical eye on a book's style and content. A genuine book review considers the following elements:
Characters—are main characters convincing? Do they have emotional and psychological complexity and act according to authentic motivation? Or are they flat and one-dimensional with little detail of their inner lives?
Plot—is the plot predictable or does it surprise, going where you least expect it? Are there interesting plot twists? Do events unfold organically, naturally? Or are they forced—leaving you feeling manipulated. Does the ending wrap up loose ends? Does it wrap up things too neatly, to the point of being pat or trite? Or does it leave issues unresolved, open to different interpretations?
Ideas—does the book offer an exploration of ideas—perhaps a moral or ethical problem, or the meaning of relationships (familial, romantic, or friendship-based)? Does it offer interesting insights or a fresh perspective?
Style—is the writing heavy handed,...uninspired with over-written or even cliched phrases . Or is the writing feel fresh, even inspired? Is the writing funny or witty?
Where do you find helpful reviews? The best, most in-depth are from major daily newspapers: the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times, just to mention some. Look also in periodicals like Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Atlantic Monthly.
You can head to your public library and dig through past issues of newspapers and periodicals. Better yet, many libraries subscribe to online databases that carry the full texts of articles from the major papers and magazines.
You can also go online at home. But most newspapers and magazines require subscriptions to get into their archives, so you won't always have access to full articles—although sometimes you get lucky and find them on right on Google.
You can also go to customer reviews at the big online booksellers—Amazon and Barnes & Noble. But customer reviews tend to be all over the place and are highly idiocentric. They can be helpful but not always reliable.
The best bet is to find an online book site you can trust, a website with an index of titles, reading guides, and book reviews. Look especially for ones that carry complete reviews—not just blurbs—by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and especially Kirkus Reviews. Libraries subscribe to these review publications, so they tend to be forthright in their assessments of books—after all, it's what libraries pay them for.

A Beloved Classic Of All Time, With One Of The Most Favorite Love Stories Of All Time

Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, although Jane Austen had written it between October of 1796 and August of 1797. This was at a time when women were expected to stay at home and just be a pretty face, not think for themselves, and not involve themselves in politics or careers (read: “men’s work”). Men were authors; women were not. Austen’s father first submitted Pride and Prejudice to a publisher in 1797, under the title First Impressions, but it was rejected probably for the sole reason that it had been written by a woman. Even when Pride and Prejudice was finally published in 1813, Austen’s name did not appear as the author of the book, and in fact, Austen was never given credit for being the author of any of her works while she was alive. The title page of Pride and Prejudice, when published, read “by the author of Sense and Sensibility.”
　　
Regardless, Jane Austen is one of the most widely read authors of English literature and there is no doubt in my mind as to why this is true. She had a lot to say about women and society in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Pride and Prejudice is quite comic and it paints a clear picture of how women who lacked their own fortune oftentimes had to forsake love to marry for economic security and social status.
　　
It's a very sweet story in which the authoress has picturized the glamoures society of England during the 17th century. It has made me experience the world enchanted by true love and the attraction of a man towards a girl. We can understand the different relationships like sister, mother, child and a lover.
　　
-Srishti, Delhi
　　
I feel that after reading the book I have learned a lot about the old times and how life used to be. For example, most girls married not for love but for security. I've recently watched the new film and many parts that are in the book aren't in the film that I felt should be. Overall very sweet love story.
　　
-Jessica, Isle of Wight
　　
I had to read this book for a high school project. Being 16 and growing up as a woman in today's society it is nice to read a book about the old days. Sometimes I feel that I can be a lot like the protagonist of the story. Social inferiority (much like Darcy's) still can be found these days. Overall I give this book 100% on my scale, I'm not one for the sappy novels but this one is for sure a page-turner!
　　
-Alpana, Canada
　　
I first read this book when I was just 10 and from that time on it has been my favorite book. The book conveys the feelings and emotions of all its different characters very well and charms all its readers with the wit and liveliness of Elizabeth Bennet, the misunderstood character of Mr. Darcy, the beautiful, sensible Jane, and the agreeable Mr. Bingley as well as all the other characters. This book, with its many different types of characters is definitely a must read for everyone.
　　
It is a satisfying love story, if that’s what you’re after, but it’s also much more than that. The characters are great—even the ones whose personalities I can’t stand—and the book really has a lot to say about people’s pride, vanity and prejudices in general.
　　
I love this book because I love the characters. A few of them really work my nerves, but I still love how well-written they are. Elizabeth is my favorite because she is so independent, headstrong and outspoken. She refuses to marry for any reason other than love, even if that means she doesn’t end up marrying someone who can give her a better economic and social status. She has her faults, but she is not afraid to admit to them when she knows she’s wrong. Her mother and two of her younger sisters annoy her as much as they annoy me, and she can’t stand the snotty sisters of Mr. Bingley, whom I despise every time I read the book.

It is apparent from the first chapter that Elizabeth takes after her father, who is also headstrong and outspoken. He loves to put his annoying wife in her place, but he does it in very humorous ways without being too nasty. I get a lot of laughs out of Pride and Prejudice every time I read it, and most of those laughs are courtesy of Mr. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet annoys the heck out of me and I find myself audibly telling her to shut up throughout the book. Seriously, if she would only just shut up. I avoid people like the snotty Bingley sisters like the plague in real life because if anyone deserves a good slap across the face, they do. People who think they’re better than everyone else because of money or social status, like the Bingley sisters and Lady Catherine (Mr. Darcy’s aunt), just disgust me. Mr. Collins could use a nice piece of duct tape over his mouth, as well, since he really makes himself look like a fool every time he speaks. Finally, Mr. Darcy is infuriating and endearing at the same time.

Wit against wit, pride against prejudice, the continued encounters each grew into something more. It was the belief then that society could not tolerate a relationship such as theirs, and while one (in the beginning) struggled against his feelings, another was entirely ignorant of his affection towards her. It could not be overlooked however when in light of his feelings, his mistakes that caused the sadness of a loved one were shown, and his unjust actions towards an acquaintance were clarified. What appeared to be pride and prejudice on both sides eventually gave way in the story, leading to respect, modesty and even love.
　　
Truly a love story what one would like to believe, still existed in our modern world.
　　
What I loved most about the book is the witty dialogue between the characters, with a detailed relay of events and presentation of characters throughout the entire story, I believe it to be a much more interesting presentation than the movies themselves. One of the best things in the book is that despite the use of somewhat classical English, each sentence in itself is a presentation of the artful language of such a time. It was also a great thing to have to watch how slowly each of the characters evolved within the story, and also how eventually they came either to love, accept, and feel dislike for each other.
　　
A book I wholly recommend, this book is honestly not an easy read and may need more concentration in reading it than other books. Really a wonderful classic. Now I see why many people fell in love with the book, the author and its characters. Definitely a book one must read at least once in their life.

One Thousand And One Nights May Company Your Children

There was a time, once, when the life of the Arabian Nights was lived more fully and more consequentially in places very remote from even the loosest notions of what might be called Arabia. It was 18th-century Europe where the stories' first print publications saw the light, and Europe, too, where the tales were so highly prized - while back home they were frequently dismissed as trifles, vulgar and insubstantial.

Before Galland, the stories had existed for centuries in a constantly shape-shifting collection. It came to be known as Alf Laylawa-Layla One Thousand and One Nights, and it was a manuscript of this text (from the Syrian recension) which Galland took as his primary source. But he added stories not found in any of his predecessors, too, among them "Aladdin" and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", which have since become perhaps the Nights' most familiar components to Western readers.

Not that they ever had one "home" at all, of course. The component stories have roots in Iraq, Egypt, India, Syria, Iran and elsewhere, and were strapped together as a miscellaneous bundle that Europeans labelled "Arabian", which meant simply that they had some approximately Eastern exoticism in common, slightly weird colours and tastes, and people in a far-off land behaving in ways that we probably wouldn't here.

On the following morning, the merchant and his wife went to the bull’s crib, and sat down there; and the driver came, and took out the bull; and when the bull saw his master, he shook his tail, and showed his alacrity by sounds and actions, bounding about in such a manner that the merchant laughed until he fell backwards. His wife, in surprise, asked him, At what dost thou laugh? He answered, At a thing that I have heard and seen; but I cannot reveal it; for if I did, I should die. She said, Thou must inform me of the cause of thy laughter, even if thou die.—I cannot reveal it, said he: the fear of death prevents me.—Thou laughedst only at me, she said; and she ceased not to urge and importune him until he was quite overcome and distracted. So he called together his children and sent for the Kadi and witnesses, that he might make his will, and reveal the secret to her, and die: for he loved her excessively, since she was the daughter of his paternal uncle, and the mother of his children, and he had lived with her to the age of a hundred and twenty years. Having assembled her family and his neighbours, he related to them his story, and told them that as soon as he revealed his secret he must die; upon which every one present said to her.

We conjure thee by Allah that thou give up this affair, and let not thy husband, and the father of thy children, die. But she said, I will not desist until he tell me, though he die for it. So they ceased to solicit her; and the merchant left them, and went to the stable to perform the ablution, and then to return, and tell them the secret, and die. 16

Now he had a cock, with fifty hens under him, and he had also a dog; and he heard the dog call to the cock, and reproach him, saying, Art thou happy when our master is going to die? The cock asked, How so?—and the dog related to him the story; upon which the cock exclaimed, By Allah! our master has little sense: I have fifty wives; and I please this, and provoke that; while he has but one one wife, and cannot manage this affair with her: why does he not take some twigs of the mulberry tree, and enter her chamber, and beat her until she dies or repents? She would never, after that ask him a question respecting anything.—And when the merchant heard the words of the cock, as he addressed the dog, he recovered his reason, and made up his mind to beat her.—Now, said the Wezir to his daughter Shahrazad, perhaps I may do to thee as the merchant did to his wife. She asked, And what did he? He answered, He entered her chamber after he had cut off some twigs of the mulberry tree, and hidden them there; and then said to her, Come into the chamber, that I may tell thee the secret while no one sees me, and then die:—and when she had entered, he locked the chamber door upon her, and beat her until she became almost senseless and cried out, I repent:—and she kissed his hands and his feet, and repented, and went out with him; and all the company, and her own family, rejoiced; and they lived together in the happiest manner until death.

One Thousand and One Nights: A New Re-imagining, By Hanan Al-Shaykh

Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights, By Marina Warner

Just as any act of translation is by its nature a creative, or re-creative act, so storytelling itself is always fundamentally an enchantment. The reader of the Nights – like Shahrazad's king – is enchanted by stories that are themselves about enchantments. It's largely this inner wheel – the magical "content", if you like, with magicians, transformations, flying carpets and all – that is Warner's subject.

With the text of the Nights as her anchor, Warner's widely referenced argument spins outwards and back again - to some close relations, such as Lotte Reiniger's "shadow film", The Adventures of Prince Achmed, but also further to The West-Eastern Divan (Goethe's collection of lyric poems), and even to the symbols on the Persian rug covering Freud's couch. "The Persian rug, the Arabian nights and the psychoanalytic process," she writes, "are all forms of storytelling."

Where Al-Shaykh gives us a translation that, like any translation, reveals and acknowledges its origins as it simultaneously dissembles, Warner cracks open the frame to expose the workings of the component parts. She dismantles and rearticulates them on an exhilarating scale, in a book dense with allusions and wide-ranging new associations. Which is, I suppose, a sort of re-creation too.

In the late 1920s, the art publisher H. Piazza produced a twelve-volume version of The 1001 Nights that was one of the most beautiful ever made. It included splendid illustrations by Mohammed Racim and wonderful miniatures by painter Leon Carre. Today, Assouline is publishing an abridged version of this masterpiece, which includes the most famous and enchanting of the tales, from the story of King Shahryar, to the story of Sinbad the sailor, Ali Baba and the forty thieves, or Aladdin and the magic lamp...all told by the beautiful and sensual Shahrazad.

Jane Eyre Teaches You How To Love

A superficial reading of Jane Eyre would consider the novel a romance, in the most obvious sense of the term. Yet such an interpretation overlooks Bronte's innovative use of different literary genres. Several genres compete within this essentially hybrid text, none of them gaining complete ascendancy over the others. Jane Eyre could be considered a realist novel, however this definition omits the other genres which comprise the text, most notably the Gothic. How we go about recognizing the genres in Jane Eyre inevitably affects our interpretation of the novel.

Jane Eyre reads like an autobiography, a quality observed by its earliest critics; some of whom actually believed that it was a factual account of a person's life. Some of Jane's experiences do mirror those of the author, such as the scenes set in Lowood School in which Bronte drew on her own childhood experiences. Assessed from this standpoint, the novel could be viewed as a fictional autobiography, a genre which emerged in the 18th century, with Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (1722) being an early example. Charles Dickens's David Copperfield (1850) is another fictional autobiography, and a close contemporary of Jane Eyre.

The fictional autobiography has close parallels with the Bildungsroman, a genre concerned with the moral and spiritual development of the protagonist. Bildungsromanis a German word meaning "formation novel". Literary historians generally consider Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-96) as being the first Bildungsromannovel. These types of narrative are generally written in the first person and feature a mature narrator recounting their life from childhood to adulthood by relating significant experiences to the reader. Bronte's novel utilizes this genre to effectively filter a young protagonist's experiences through the mature voice of an adult narrator. Charles Dickens employed a similar narrative device in Great Expectations (1860-61).

As a young adult Jane gains employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall. The vocation of governess was the subject of many 19th century novels and came to be regarded as a specific genre in its own right. Basically there were two types of governess novel, the 'romantic' and the 'providential', and both were generally rooted within the realist domestic mode. The first type chronicles how a governess's positive qualities are noticed by a gentleman and the novel concludes with their marriage. The second type follows the governess's moral development and acknowledgment of God's providence. Jane Eyre is arguably a combination of the two types, in that her attributes are recognized by Rochester, and the reader learns that she married him. However the narrative frequently illustrates how Jane is conscious of her own morality.

Social commentary is a persistent theme of Jane Eyre and Bronte utilizes the figure of the governess as a means to critique the attitudes of her time. On account of its ambiguity, the vocation of governess was a controversial position. Such women were educated to roughly the same level as their employers, yet they were wage earners similar to their household's servants. The awkwardness towards governesses is manifest in the character of Blanche Ingram, and her disdainful assessment of the profession. Bronte voices her contempt of this attitude through her narrator when Jane remarks on Blanche's superficial qualities.

Whereas the Bildungsroman and the governess novels are generally considered realist, the genre of the Gothic is decidedly non-realist. Right from the beginning of Jane Eyre, Bronte makes significant use of the Gothic. The heroine's detailing of the sinister and fantastical illustrations in Bewick's History of British Birds in the opening chapter and her subsequent imprisonment in the red-room at Gateshead Hall, where she believes she witnesses her late uncle's ghost, set the tone for the rest of the narrative, where the Gothic is never far away from the seemingly realist proceedings.

Incarceration was a common theme in Gothic fiction of the late 18th century, such as in the novels of Ann Radcliffe. It is also apparent with the character of Bertha Mason, who has been imprisoned in a remote chamber on the third floor of Thornfield Hall. When Jane first hears Bertha's unearthly laugh resounding round Thornfield's upper storey the narrative has taken a decisive step into the realms of the Gothic. Bertha is a distinctly Gothic creation: her preternatural laugh, late-night wanderings around Thornfield, and her attempts on the lives of her brother and Rochester, portray a character much removed from the familiar domesticity of realist fiction.

Bertha's presence at Thornfield also invokes an uncanny feel to the narrative. The uncanny is used to broadly describe an eerie atmosphere, although it more specifically refers to a sense of unease brought about by the presence of the unfamiliar within the familiar, or vice versa. In Jane Eyre, the presence of the mad wife could be regarded as the unfamiliar, residing within the familiarity of a family home. Other uncanny events also feature within the text, perhaps the most prominent being Jane and Rochester's strange telepathic link. This is evinced towards the end of the narrative, when they are both separated and Rochester calls to her and she psychically receives his message.

The Immense Popularity Of Les Misérables Has Not Diminished Over Time

Les Misérables was first published in France and Belgium in 1862, a year which found Victor Hugo in exile from his beloved France. Enemies and admirers throughout the world devoured his works—poetry, political tracts, and fiction—and the effect of these works upon the public was always sensational. On the morning of 15 May, a mob filled the streets around Pagnerre's book shop, eyeing the stacks of copies of Les Misérables that stretched between floor and ceiling. A few hours later, they had all—thousands of books—been sold. Hugo's critics were quick to condemn him for making money by dramatizing the misery of the poor, while the poor themselves bought, read, and discussed his book in unprecedented numbers. True to Hugo's political stance, he had written a book about the people that was for the people, a book that demanded a change in society's judgement of its citizens.

The story is set between 1815 and 1832, the years of Hugo's youth. The descriptions of Paris, the characterizations of Gavroche and other Parisian stock characters, and such statements as, "To err is human, to stroll is Parisian" all attest to Hugo's unswerving adoration of his home city. Exile no doubt encouraged the romantic meanderings of Hugo's prose. The protagonist of Les Misérables, Jean Valjean, is also in exile from the world of men because of the desperate crime he committed in his youth. Liberated from prison, Valjean hides his identity and becomes a successful man, as charitable as he is rich and powerful. His altruism leads him to promise Fantine, a dying prostitute, that he will seek out her exploited young daughter Cosette after her death. The ensuing love between "father" and "daughter" (Cosette) is miraculous, redeeming Valjean and bestowing happiness on his otherwise grim life. To some extent, Hugo also was seeking redemption, having, for much of his youth, ignored the populist concerns of Republican France. He sacrificed his lifestyle in Paris for justice, andLes Misérables, "the Magna Carta of the human race," is a testament of this humanitarian awakening.

The story of Les Miserables is about four people; Famine, Bishop Myriel, and Marius Pontmercy and Jean Valjean. The story revolves around the lives of these four French people and how was their experience of meeting each other in the most restless era of the French history. The story tells a lot about the 1832 revolution and it also shows distasteful side of Paris. The novel promotes human rights and the theory of impartiality among all citizens.

Marius' life has a happier ending. He recuperates from his wounds and overcomes his grandfather's hostility to his marriage. The marriage, however, is a mortal blow to Valjean. He has confessed his past to Marius, and the latter, in spite of his magnanimity, slowly estranges Cosette from Valjean. Marius does not know that Valjean is the man who saved his life in the sewers. Without Cosette, Valjean's life loses its meaning and he slowly withers away. Thénardier, however, unwittingly reveals to Marius that Valjean is his savior, and Marius and Cosette arrive in time to console Jean Valjean on his deathbed.

Les Misérables vindicates those members of society forced by unemployment and starvation to commit crimes—in Jean Valjean's case, the theft of a loaf of bread—who are thereafter outcast from society. It is fairly common parlance today to suggest that prison creates more hardened criminals than it reforms, but the idea was radical to Hugo's contemporaries. "Perrot de Chezelles, in an 'Examination of Les Misérables,' defended the excellence of a State which persecuted convicts even after their release, and derided the notion that poverty and ignorance had anything to do with crime. Criminals were evil." Jean Valjean morally surpasses characters working on behalf of this excellent State. The poor and the disenfranchised understood Hugo's message, accepted the affirmation he gave them, and worshipped him as their spokesman. Workers pooled their money to buy the book not one of them could afford on their own. The struggling people of France had found an articulate illustration of the unjust forces arrayed against them.

The immense popularity of this story has not diminished over time. Since the original 1935 film version, there have been several other international films entitled Les Misérables including a Spring 1998 release starring Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman. The "most popular musical in the world" has toured the globe several times and has been running on Broadway since March 1987. Why does this story continue to charm and inspire audiences and readers? In our time, as there was in Hugo's, there is cause for despair: greed and violence undermine true progress; human life is rendered meaningless through materialism and nihilism; children the world over suffer neglect, poverty, and ignorance. Who does not identify with Jean Valjean's arduous journey through the sewers, and who does not long for an escape like his emergence into the pristine Parisian dusk? Hugo illustrates how the most profound revolution takes place in our individual consciences, how every moment we are faced with decisions to do right or wrong, and how to make in our hearts pitched battles against our own worst impulses.

Les Misérables incites us to make the best fight of our lives the fight to become authentically good people and gives us hope that our efforts will not be in vain. Time cannot change the necessity or urgency of that message—only people can.

The Old Man And The Sea As A Good Book To Read And Reflect Upon

Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is a classic work that brought him the 1954 Nobel Prize in literature. It has been translated and read in many different languages. It is a book that is familiar, at least by name, to almost anyone who has had a primary education. Growing up, I too heard a great deal about this book. Frankly, I wondered what all the fuss was about. It was met with the reply, as all kids will know, that I was too young to understand. Eventually, I decided to read the book and discover for myself.

The story of The Old Man and the Sea, as the name may suggest, revolves around an aged man named Santiago. He is a fisherman in Cuba who has come upon some hard times, in that he has not caught a decent fish in eighty four days. He has been so unlucky that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents to sail with Santiago any more. Santiago believes that his bad luck is drawing to an end and sets out on his eighty-fifth day to search for a fish far into the Gulf. He travels farther than all other fisherman and casts his lines. A very powerful fish, which he believes to be a marlin, takes his bait. The fish is so powerful that it pulls Santiago's skiff along. Santiago does not let go and braces the lines with his body. So starts an arduous journey for both the fish and the old man that lasts two days and two nights. On the third day, the marlin is so tired out that Santiago, who himself is delirious with pain, manages to pull it close to the skiff and kill it.

The fish is too big for his skiff and so he ties it to the side and starts for Cuba. However, the trail of blood oozing from the slain fish draws in sharks. Initially Santiago is able to defend his catch against the sharks but it is not long before the inevitable happens and Santiago has to watch as sharks completely devour the marlin, leaving only a skeleton and the head of the once great fish. Eventually Santiago reaches shore and drags himself to his hut and falls asleep. In the morning groups of fishermen and tourists notice Santiago's skiff and the skeleton of the enormous fish, measured at eighteen feet. Manolin rushes to Santiago's hut and cries when he sees the old man fast asleep with the injuries received from his battle with the marlin. He brings the old man coffee and newspaper and upon waking the old man promises they will fish together again. He falls back to sleep and dreams of his youth, of lions on the African beach.

During my reading it was difficult to keep an open mind, my mind being filled with preconceptions of my mother's and sister's opinions. Their opinion was that The Old Man and the Sea was a testament to the resilience of human nature and our ability to endure pain and suffering in our battle against nature. Of course the old man has to endure a lot of pain and hardship to catch the marlin. The marlin represents nature and the old man humanity. Humanity's resilience and endurance are certainly showcased but there are other characteristics of the human species which have been showcased more prominently. I assume that the old man is quite an experienced fisherman, seeing as he had been fishing for some time and some of his feats of skill have been mentioned. I do not question his bout of bad luck but his attempt to try to fight against the marlin even after its strength had been revealed when it started pulling the skiff. The old man is an experienced fisherman and he knew how powerful the marlin was. Despite that the old man still carries on with his efforts.

Readers are reminded of the old man's past, how he was called 'Santiago the champion' and how strong he once was, how he dreamed of lions playing on the African beaches. I think that his efforts push into the spotlight a quality of humanity that is evident to anyone who but looks: arrogance and pride. The fisherman refers to the marlin in a tone of respect, as a brother, and acknowledges its strength and that it is a worthy opponent. But I think that is just to comfort himself and convince himself that there is another reason why he is trying to catch it. It is conveyed that Santiago yearns for the strength that he once had. He knows that he would have been able to catch the marlin by himself when he was younger. He yearns for acceptance in his community and, most of all, he wishes to prove to himself that he still has the strength that he once had.

It may be evident that Santiago, in fact, does still have the strength and endurance to bring the fish in himself. But take a look at what happens afterwards. Santiago knows that at one point, if he manages to bring the fish in, he will have to slay the fish. He knows that in order to slay the fish he has to harpoon it and he knows that harpooning the fish will release its blood which will bring in sharks. He knows all that and still he cannot bring himself to let the fish go. He goes through hell and back to catch that fish and in the end he can do nothing but satisfy himself with the thought that he still can bring a large marlin in as he helplessly sees his effort and hard work dissolving in bloody water as the sharks munch on it. It seems pathetic, the lengths to which he will go to satisfy his ego, which is almost as big as the marlin. In the end, it is all for an 18-foot skeleton lying on a beach which shows that "yes, the old man caught this". Does nature not reclaim itself? One wonders what would have happened if Santiago had kept on fishing near the bay. As he says himself, his bad luck cannot last forever. Everything that he does is the act of a desperate man who lets his emotions get the better of him. Santiago's actions are not so distant from a depiction of humanity's tendency to act without thinking about the consequences or often ignoring the consequences all together.

Hemingway's style of writing is precise. It is simple, yet elegant and succinct. One would recommend it as a good book to read and reflect upon. One's reactions may seem critical and pessimistic but one is entitled to one's own opinions.

The Kite Runner Has To Be One Of The Most Profound And Beautifully Books

The Kite Runner is a book that has accommodated almost every kind of emotions in this world. Relationships like father and son, between two friends, between two lovers and between two countries.

It is a tale of two friends – Amir and Hassan, living in the 1970s’ Afghanistan. Amir is the son of one of the wealthiest father in the whole Kabul and Hassan is the son of his servant with whom Amir’s father has grown up.

They are enjoying their childhood lives with full passion under an Afghanistan ruled by a monarchy. But the fate has something else for them. After a shocking incident that Amir saw happening with Hassan, in which he didn’t do anything to help him, made him depressed. He no longer talked to Hassan and was immersed in his dead mother’s old books and writing stories.

Then there comes a republic in Afghanistan which seeks help of Russians to help them rule Afghanistan. But the people of Afghanistan can’t tolerate living under guns of the Russian soldiers. But the Russians had more plans for Afghanistan – They overtook the government and put their own raj in Afghanistan. Gunfire and bombs were everywhere.

One of the most different and compelling books I've read in years, The Kite Runner is a story told to a Western audience of a culture almost completely foreign to them. I swallowed up the little references to Afghani customs and daily life as much as I did the story itself. Even the revealing tales of the refugee community in the United States made for fascinating reading.

The story is so horrific in places, my wife almost abandoned the book when she read the rape scene. However, Hosseini touches on the drama and tragedies in human life with a strangely philosophical tone that draws your onward through the text. On the other hand, he doesn't try to make the story perfect - the fact that Hassan dies before Amir returns to Afghanistan means he can never apologise for the things he did. Worse, when he discovers Hassan is his brother, Hassan is dead and so is their father - Amir can never reconnect with them on the strength of this new information. I found some of these things the most heartbreaking of all.

I found a surprising dislike for Amir through the book. He always seemed to drop out of everything that required courage. Like defending Hassan, or actually fighting Assef. Even with the relatively bureaucratic process of adopting Hassan's son, he fails rather than fights. And this leads directly to Sohrab's suicide attempt. When an Afghani commented that perhaps Amir was always just a tourist in Afghanistan, I felt it was a real comment on the weakness of Western culture - that Amir was better suited to a detatched, democratic lifestyle where you could donate through a telethon but never help anyone directly. Take the example of Baba standing up to the Russian soldier to defend a woman's honour, but failing to integrate into American society later on. Amir's experience was almost the opposite.

Perhaps the bravest choice by the author was not to go for the 'happily ever after' ending. Amir takes Sohrab to the USA, sure. But Sohrab is traumatised and doesn't speak for a year and doesn't interact. The book ends with Amir making the tiniest bit of headway in connecting with the boy but there's clearly a lot of work to do. Sohrab may never be 'normal' or healed. He may never live up to Amir and Soraya's dreams of a child.

Still, despite overwhelming odds, The Kite Runner manages to stir something in the soul. It may be that Khaled Hosseini has tapped into a way of letting us realise we do the same thing - do we stand by and allow injustices to happen and justify it with excuses?

The characters are exceptionally well drawn. From those opening words about Baba, Hassan, Ali and Rahim Khan, you'll grow to care about those people, their lives and their outcomes. And throughout the book, all the people whose lives impact on Amir's childhood are brought back and we're given closure on each one. Hassan's execution and Ali's death by land mine are a stark reminder of the deadly regimes that reigned over Afghanistan while Amir was in the relative safety and comfort of America. I knew this was a work of fiction when I started reading, but it could have easily been a biographical piece, and that's why I have more of an emotional investment in the characters than I would with an ordinary book.

The Kite Runner, for me, has to be one of the most profound and beautifully written books I've read in years. It's not my normal reading material either, but I'll be swiftly following up with a reading of Hosseini's next book, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

To get rid of all this, Amir and his father leave for Peshawar in Pakistan from where they go to America forever. There Amir gets married to an immigrant Afghan. But there is one problem – They are not able to have any children.

After some days, Amir receives a call from Peshawar from his father’s brother – Rahim Khan who asks him to come and meet him in his last days of life. Amir obeys, and reaches Peshawar where he comes to know that Hassan has died and now he has to go to Taliban ruled Afghanistan to save his one and only child. He also comes to know about a startling fact about him and Hassan from Rahim Khan there.

What happens next is truly epic and the whole story is also awesome. This part of the book really captures your heart. And if you are not the ones who have a brave heart, you are sure to shed some tears along the journey of this book.

"To Kill A Mockingbird"-Appropriate For Young Adult Readers

Probably ten million folks have written opinions on Harper Lee’s classic during the last fifty years, but I’m going to add my ten cents to the pot anyway. Because To Kill a Mockingbird is worth every coin we toss in.

This is the story of a black man standing trial in Alabama for a crime he didn’t commit. An honest, hard-working black man accused by the lowest of white men. But it’s much more than a local legal proceeding. Within these pages, the whole of American society stands trial.

Maycomb is a slow, tired, tight-knit southern community where everybody’s blood kin if you dig deep enough. It’s a town of contradictions. A town where good people are blinded by old prejudice and set habits. It’s where young Scout and her brother Jem are trying to work out just what makes people tick.

The narration is carried by an adult Scout, looking twenty-five years into the past to the recall the events of 1935. It’s rich with quirky, childish humor. With dry wit, exaggeration, understatement and innocent misstatements. For example, when Scout has a run-in with her new first grade teacher, she complains to Jem.

“Don’t worry, Scout,” Jem comforted me. “Our teacher says Miss Caroline’s introducing a new way of teaching. She learned about it in college. It’ll be in all the grades soon. You don’t have to learn much out of books that way – it’s like if you wanta learn about cows, you go and milk one, see?”

“Yeah, Jem, but I don’t wanta study cows. I-”

“Sure you do. You hafta know about cows, they’re a big part of life in Maycomb County.”

I contented myself with asking Jem if he’d lost his mind.

“I’m just trying to tell you the new way they’re teachin’ the first grade, stubborn. It’s the Dewey Decimal System.”

Scout and Jem are guided in their reflections on the human race by their father, Atticus Finch. He’s old, as fathers go, but he’s the best shot in Maycomb County. And he’s level-headed, fair, unassuming, and the attorney of Tom Robinson, the black man on trial for his life. Miss Maudie, a neighbor, tells the children after Tom’s trial:

“There are some men in this world born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them….We’re so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus Finch to go for us.”

But the Christians of Maycomb County aren’t found guiltless. In one starkly hypocritical scene involving the Methodist missionary society, pious Mrs. Merriweather laments the barbaric societies of the world that don’t adhere to the teachings of scripture. Yet with her next condescending breath, she recommends the church leaders “encourage” the unhappy Negro community after the unfair and fatal result of Tom’s trial. “If we just let them know we forgive ‘em, that we’ve forgotten it, then this whole thing will blow over.” She goes on:

“The cooks and fieldhands are just dissatisfied, but they’re settling down now – they grumbled all the next day after the trial…Gertrude, I tell you there’s nothing more distracting than a sulky darky…You know what I said to my Sophy, Gerturde? I said, ‘Sophy,’ I said, ‘you simply are not being a Christian today. Jesus Christ never went around grumbling and complaining,’ and you know it did her good. She took her eyes off that floor and said, ‘Nome, Miz Merriweather, Jesus never went around complaining.’ I tell you, Gertrude, you never ought to let an opportunity go by to witness for the Lord.”

And in a discussion of current events at school, German persecution of Jews is condemned, and rightly so. But as the teacher enumerates the qualities of Jewish citizens, their contributions to society, their difficult past, their being forced to leave their homeland, the reader’s mind draws strong parallels to the blacks overlooked and persecuted in the same way in Maycomb County. This blindness and hypocrisy is underscored when a student remarks, “…that ain’t no cause to persecute ‘em. They’re white, ain’t they?”

Old Families take a good hit as well. That cultured set of gentlefolk deprived during the War Between the States of everything but their land, their pedigrees and their snobbery. Scout declares, “Atticus told me one time that most of this Old Family stuff is foolishness because everybody’s family’s just as old as everybody else’s. I said did that include the colored folks and the Englishmen and he said yes.”

Against all this drama, we also meet Arthur “Boo” Radley, reluctant hero and victim in his own right. A harmless mockingbird whose protection warrants the bending of a few rules.

Published right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, To Kill a Mockingbird has left its mark on American society. And for the better. It captures a segment of history with all its nostalgia and preserves a slice of small town southern culture. But it uses neither the forgetful nor the rosy lenses we often prefer to view such subjects through. Rather, it takes a good hard look at where we’ve been, and gives us all the encouragement we need to never go back there.

Appropriate for young adult readers. Difficult vocabulary, complex sentence structures, abstract ideas and some adult material. Probably too advanced for readers younger than high school.

Famous Classic Fairy

Fairy tales are something that we all have grown up listening to. Many of us still love reading old fairy tales and story books. These fairy tales take us into a world of mystery and fantasy where there are fairies, ghosts, elves, dwarfs, prince and princesses, etc. the world of fairy tales is a world of magic and miracle which leaves us enchanted.

Some of the famous famous classic fairy from reliable book guide are enlisted below:

1. Cinderella: This story revolves around Cinderella who stays with her step mother and two step sisters. This story shows how Cinderella transforms into a beautiful girl with the help of her fairy godmother and goes to the royal ball where she meets the prince who falls in love with her.
2. Sleeping Beauty: this is a story about a princess who is cursed that she will die on being pricked. This curse is altered by a good fairy so that instead of dying she will sleep for hundred years. The princess gets pricked by a spindle and falls asleep until a handsome prince comes and wakes her up.
3. Rumplestiltzkin: this story is about a poor man who tells the king that his daughter can spin straw into gold. The king sends her into a room full of straw and asks her to spin it into gold. She fails to do it suddenly a little man comes and helps her. The girl gives birth to a son whom the little man wants when she refuses he feels pity and tells her that if she guesses his name correctly he will spare her child. The girl guesses his name which is rumplestiltzkin and the man runs away.
4. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs: this story is about a beautiful princess who runs away from her evil step mother and stays in the woods with seven dwarfs. The evil step mother tries to kill her with a poisoned apple but a prince kisses her and brings her back to life.
5. Rapunzelle: this story is about a girl with extremely long hair, the girl is locked up in a tall castle by a witch. She is rescued by a prince who climbs the castle by the help of the girl's long hair.
6. The Fir Tree:Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. The place he had was a very good one: the sun shone on him: as to fresh air, there was enough of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as firs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.

The Book Named Love Story

Love story is indeed sad but, as Kavanaugh’s production suggests at both the beginning and the end, there is nothing else to say about it. Which begs the question: why was it made into a stage show in the first place?

What’s there to say about a young girl who died? This musical adaptation of  screenplay and best-selling novel, Love Story, poses this question at the beginning of the evening – but rather fails to answer it. We are presented with a terribly sad tale, but not a stage-worthy one – as another writer once said, it is tragic but not a tragedy.

Emma Williams in the lead role – Jenny – is by turns feisty and tender, and sometimes both. She delivers the witty lines deftly and communicates her character’s intelligence.Michael Xavier as her husband Oliver is endearingly arrogant – and his adoration of Jenny is palpable. He goes from nought to marriage proposal in a matter of minutes but, nevertheless, Xavier makes Oliver’s love believable. The third principle character is Jenny’s father, Phil – played by Peter Polycarpou. Although veering a touch towards caricature, Polycarpou brings a spark to each scene he’s in and his timing is spot on. On the pair’s wedding day, he takes Oliver to one side saying: “If she thinks she’s right…” he pauses and glances at his daughter before concluding “I’d give in.”

The singing is solid throughout Rachel Kavanaugh’s production –Howard Goodall’s music gives Williams plenty of opportunity to show off the range of her voice. The two best songs of the evening were both hers – the bright, light-hearted pasta song (in which spaghetti is rhymed with Donizetti) and a song in which she imagines the music she’ll play to her future children.

Stephen Ridley, directing the music from the piano, plays with real musicality and energy – bringing out the best in his small ensemble, despite Howard Goodall’s largely bland, unadventurous music.

But there’s no escaping the fact that Love Story does not belong on stage – and certainly not this one. The Duchess Theater feels too big for such a small-scale, modest tale. And although the story is – there is no doubt about it – terrible and incredibly sad, that in itself is not enough for a piece of theater. A tragedy might awaken you to emotions you’ve never experienced or infuriate by pointing out the futility and hopelessness of human endeavor. But it can’t just be a sad story – there’s enough of that in the real world.

The true love is the most beautiful things in the world，wish your love story has a happy ending！

Buying Book Online Is Quitely Perfect

Books can be your best buddy. People read books for various reasons like passing the time, gaining knowledge, improving reading abilities and much more. If you are on learning stage then you can buy the books accordingly and if you are reading book from a long time then you can buy higher vocabulary book.

If you do not have anything to do then books can become your best companion of the life. If you have interest in reading guides then it can be nothing like it. If you have started reading books from few days then you can select a simple novel. If you have read many books then you know it better that which book you want to read the next. It can really become easy if you Buy Books Online. It gives you numerous options and choices. You can select the guide from best seller, national or international award winner book, popular book, author's choice and much more.

People who are fond of reading books do not look for the places from where they can buy books, be it online or any book store, but yes! The price of the books surely matters. It was years back when people personally had to visit book stores and buy books of their choice. Things have changed and now online books are the best option for readers.

Readers prefer to buy books online and get them delivered at their doorsteps. Of course when Internet has so many facilities associated with it then why not use them, it is far much easy and beneficial to buy books online. People passionate about books need not rush into a book store rather sit at home and access online services to buy books online.

So many online book companies and online book galleries encourage buyers and readers to go through the latest collection of books available online and buy them through a simple click of mouse. Yes! It is very easy to go through the online books collection and buy books online of your choice without even exerting yourself. Online facility even delivers the books to the destinations, as mentioned by buyers.

So, one can buys books online anytime and get them delivered without making major efforts. The mode of payment is also very easy and this is a reason why buyers prefer to buy books online. All those who want to buy the latest books must try to buy them online and enjoy reading. Hardly a matter of some time and you will get the latest books delivered at your place.

So, just go through the best online book portals that have the latest and wide collection of books with them, buy books online of your favorite author and enjoy reading day in and out. 

Harry Potter Collection

I know most people love Harry Potter very much,not only the children but also the older,not only the men but also the women.
The Harry Potter collection has seven movies on seven UMDs and it’s only being released in Europe. Since PSPs are region coded for video, but not games, you won’t be able to watch these films if you have a Region 1 North American PSP. Region 2 PSPs — Japanese and European PSPs can play the movies, though.

Since the PSP Go is right around the corner I don’t think this will get a huge print run. So, take note Harry Potter fans and track this down before it becomes an obscure collectable sold on eBay!

Harry Potter

Harry potter author jk rowling British writer lady, 8 years ago will harry potter introduced to the world, only is impoverished single mother, now she not only and the young wizard known as and mysterious, wealth is also far more than the queen Elisabeth ii, her harry potter novels with young and old, has been translated into more than 60 species of language, sold more than 250 million copies, her novel made into a film, also immediately in the global hit。
She spent five years to finish, harry potter the first episode of "the philosopher's stone", another two years until 1997 years "the philosopher's stone" to the market, but the book a listed immediately big sell the next year "disappeared chamber" issue, rowling establish her in the literary world's reputation, "the prisoner of azkaban" came out 1999, she becomes literature legend, then "fire cup test" and "the order of the phoenix" have FuZi, all set sales record.
And in March 2003 gave birth to her second child, David. Harry potter 6 sets "half-blood prince" at the same time around the world today listed, anticipating a again buy boom.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

In the imaginary past
Plot: About a beautiful girl and a Queen that wants to kill the princess Snow White comes across a cottage  and decides to clean it up and doesn't know that it belong to small, but very intelligent  dwarfs. They first meet her when she was laying on one of the dwarfs' beds as she is very tired after cleaning all day. Then one fine day Snow White finds this handsome prince and falls in love with him. They have planed to see each other under the apple tree and will meet him after she cleans the cottage.When Snow White had finished cleaning she goes out and finds the prince and   she comes across the Queen who is disguise as a very ugly old woman and says that if she eats the apple she gets happiness so Snow White bites the apple and fall into a dark sleep. The dwarfs get worried and search for Snow.   They find her under the tree and all lift her up and carry her back to the cottage and only her true love can awake her with just one kiss, so they set out to find the prince and they found him.   They tell him that Snow White has fallen into a dark sleep,  so he quickly races back to the cottage and kisses her and she awakes and she tells him that the queen gave her an apple and the prince kills the queen and they live happily ever after.
 One of the earliest books ever, that I loved and I still do read, is the tale of  Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Unfortunately, when I read it first, I hated reading, and hated reading English more. Everything seemed acceptable, admirable, wonderful when a story was being told to me; the same become rather a pain to read! Pages never seemed to end and during those days Disney’s story books with its amazing colors and features and loveable characters were not available, at least in my hometown. When they did become available, they seemed way too costly for a small fairlytale book. All I had was a hardbound copy of Brothers Grimm Fairytales, from my ma’s college library.
The book was a serious looking thing that no child would like to read.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
It  did have illustrations, in  black and white, more of art than of a child’d fantasy. Obviously I didnot read it at all. Kept it with me for a few days and returned it saying I have read all of it.
Much later, I found my book, at a second hand shop. I fell in love with it, as soon as I saw. It was old, yellowed ,little torn on the sidea, but altogether it was a perfect lil Disney Snow White, in blue, with Snow White and thye dwarves all together on the cover. I begged for it immidiatly and fortunately got it too. From that day on, its still there. Reading it was a wonderful expirience. Bright, colourful, with wonderul looking Snow White and the cutest Dwarves and the handsomest prince ever. I was astounded, never in my life the tacky old Grimm Bother’s Taleds would have created such an impression and such romance. After I read it and saw the pictures, over and over again, imagining the castle, how beautiful Snow White was, how pretty she would be, if she were real, and how quaint the dwarves cottage was…
That seemed to be the parameter of my imagination. It sort of defined what princes, princesses, woods, witches, castles, evening gowns were like. Once it was set reading the book of fairy tales in hard bound tattered green cover seemed easier than before. As I grew up I read many more fairy tales. Some I found common to the tale of snow , like the tale of Nourie Hadig.I thought it was a arabian story, as the word nourie is a word used in Hindi, Urdu, as a beautiful woman, who lures men though not intentionally. I found it to be an Armenian tale. Only here, Nourie Hadig took care of a prince, for seven years. And then wore a ring , sent by her stepmother to fall asleep again. A little search found similar italian story Bella Venezia, The Young Salve, Myrsina (Greek), etc. All these tales are with little variations, but most agree to falling asleep due to magic and the Prince.
When I read now, Snow White seems to be a strange story, A difficult story;  for we all know that it is not nice at all, to be plotted against by a stepmother,simply because of being beautiful.I believe it is as always because of popularity and political future. If I imagine her to be real, then it is the most unfortunate story of a girl, unattened by her father, living a life of an almost-maid, in difficult conditions, fleeing for her life. It needs a great heart or a lot of pain to serve seven dwarves, I go with great heart. When none helped, she was helped by these men, who sort of took care of her. She died none the less. If the story had any real part was the fact that she did die. It turns in to a fairy tale with the arrival of the Prince. For a girl who has been working at a cottage in return of shelter and food, it is quite difficult to maintain her beauty. I wonder what the Prince liked in her. The kiss of true love does not come easy to most individuals. The last part is rather acceptable, being taken by the prince . For a girl who is considerably pretty, marriage to a man who is ready to accept her and keep her safe was all she could ask for. Still we all know how marriages are, how princes are, and how fairytales are more possible in lives of common people than those those born in seats of power and politics. It seemed to be a marriage of no choice. I do not know how Snow White lived rest of her life.

Colorful Children's Books Keep Children Happy And Engaged

Children's books and toddlers books are some of the most colorful items that grace the front windows of bookstores. This is an age when a majority of the population worldwide has decided to go for everything other than books as mode of learning and entertainment. Book lovers worldwide are frowned upon as bookworms. All this happens despite people knowing that books are the best source of learning and knowledge. We believe, when someone buys books for their toddlers and children, they are possibly giving them the best gifts possible. Children's books and toddlers books are full of color and life and they make everyone happy and educate at the same time.
Buying the best children's books and toddlers books is easy. They can be found in all book stores and kid stores. The advantage with toddlers and children is that almost everything is new for them. As a result, colorful children's books and toddlers books keep them happy and engaged. As it is, toddlers and children keep their parents on their toes. Attractive children's books and toddlers' books keep toddlers and children engaged for long periods of time and let the parents catch up on some much needed rest.
It is a fact that children's books and toddlers' books bring learning and happiness to everyone. Toddlers and children learn by going through the colorful pages that depict words, colorful characters and more. There are many parents who read stories to their toddlers and children before the young ones hit the bed. If parents had to read from some drab book containing rows and columns of text, they themselves would likely fall asleep. The pictures and the colors on children's books and toddlers' books keep them interesting to all. They paint the pictures of the stories in the books and captivate everyone's attention. Many smile, remembering the old times, when Mom and Dad read to us and the shared pictures in books, with fondness and happiness.
The modern children's books and toddlers books come with cds that use narration to explain the content of the books. So, the children see colorful images of characters and hear the words to maximize interest and attention. The learning gets reinforced and fortified. Parents always enjoy spending time with their kids and sharing the best books while helping their children's minds grow and learn.
The best children's books and toddlers' books available in the market ensure that the kids learn while they play. They have the ability to keep children hooked for hours. Using children's books and toddlers' books to enable kids to learn is the best way to help them learn. With an expansive range available in various languages and containing stories and pictures from around the world, children's books and toddlers' books are a sure shot way for parents and kids to learn from each other.
Through children's books and toddlers' books, parents get to spend quality time with their kids, helping create bonds that can remain strong for ever. It has been observed that kids learn language faster and do better in school if books are introduced early in their life. Both children and their parents get to enjoy the color, stories and characters of the books brought into their lives.