Post book thoughts

So, I've finished it. The book I mentioned before. Before I start into that, the keyboard I'm using to write is trash. I imagine that the people who installed them on these library computers thought they were more effective, more economical. It has been like a week or so since I submitted my last post, so the new keyboards must have been installed since then, obviously. The keyboards I prefer are the ones with keys that are probably now considered over sized. The ones I like make a certain comforting sound. I can't explain it. The city of Plano puts a lot of money into their public libraries and to me there haven't been improvements lately. The checkout and return stations are highly automated. Even new bogus orange chairs have been placed throughout the three floors of the library this week. It's all a big mess if you ask me.

The biggest upside to finishing the book is to know there will be another. Arlo Finch and the Valley of Fire will be the former and Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon will be the latter. One of the things I struggled with while reading the first book was the setting. I live in a flat area devoid of any great hills and mountains. The in depth descriptions of the outdoors drew blanks for me. I haven't spent much time outdoors and because of that I had a hard time picturing the setting in my head. I'm not a boy scout (past age 10) either. This book showed me that there are so many cool things boy scouts do and I had trouble grasping. The sled construction, knot tieing, and the compass signaling were the most hard to follow.

The use of technology in the book tries hard to connect with what is modern. I think smart phones and advanced technology like Skype make it hard for a fantasy novel to answer "Why can't anyone take a picture or video of what is happening?". I think the author tried to explain that technology doesn't work in the magical areas of the book. I felt like he did, but I can't remember a more specific example.

From the beginning of the book, I had a mental image in my head of the house Arlo would be staying in. I couldn't help but think that the house would have bore a resemblance to the house in the movie Big Fish. The house in Big Fish I'm talking about is the one that the giant moves to an upright position. Because I quickly had that image in my head from the start, whenever something happened in the book that made me question my assumption, I just assumed the book was wrong! I've been attached to Big Fish since I first saw it in Mrs. Heck's 11th grade high school creative writing class.

Every time I felt I was lost or missing something, the answer was usually in the very near pages of the book. I liked thinking that the book had me locked in when I found the answers to my questions when they appeared. It felt like I was connecting with the book and the author was saying: "You've got it! Keep Going!"

As I am about to return the book to the library, I realized I have made an error. I thought the return date was November 14th, but as it turns out, the receipt clearly says November 4th. Three days ago. It's time to see how much money I owe. After, I will spend an amount larger than that to secure my own copy.