Lemony Snicket, �A Series of Unfortunate Events� (Multiple titles)
- �The Bad Beginning� Started August 1 � Finished August 1, 2004; 165 pages.
- �The Reptile Room� Started August 1 � Finished August 1, 2004; 193 pages
There are certain things that happen to you in life that you will tie into a product, usually involving media. Certain songs or movies can trigger fond memories or extreme emotions in people myself included.
For me, thinking about this title, or indeed, even looking at the covers of the books as they sit on my shelf, makes me think of driving The (ex)girlfriend down to Monterey for the hell of it. She brought the audio book version of the first novel, read by Tim Curry. I listened, laughing and then having to quickly correct my steering constantly.
In Monterey we had oyster shooters, sampled every store�s clam chowder, and I shook hands with a monkey who was rather indifferent in meeting me, despite my being monkey king and all. After all that was finished we read by a lake while red-footed strange birds peeped at us tentatively, either thinking we had food, or demanding answers on what we thought we were doing hanging out in their turf.
We listened to the rest of the audio book on the way home, spending the last ten minutes of the tape parked outside her house so it could finish. I bought the books the next day at work and tore through the first two in one night.
This series for children is currently more popular at my store than Harry Potter � we can�t keep any copies for more than two days at a time as it stands right now. And for once, something that�s popular doesn�t suck ass. This is smart, sarcastic, and funny fucking stuff. So why are kids still such incompetent non-cool drooling mongoloids?
I can�t compare these books with what I read as a child, as the only children�s books I remember reading were Judy Blume and Encyclopedia Brown. After that, I went straight into reading bad horror. This was better than all those crappy Clive Barker novels I read when I was ten. In fact, these two books were a hell of a lot better than a lot of stuff I read this year.
There are at least nine of these books out now, and I�m going to get every one of them. And every time I do read one, I�m sure I�ll think back to my time with The Ex and smile. I hope to be reading this series for a long time. With any luck, she�ll be there for me to smile at.
Jesus fuck, when did I get so sappy?
