Lemony Snicket and his crazy tear-away sheet action

I’m really behind on the Lemony Snicket train, here meaning the riotous popular interest in at least the first three books and not to mean a literal locomotive. I read the first book a while ago after seeing the movie, which I rather loved, and thought that it was weak. The books are beautiful, and funny, and I’m all for the Snicket atmosphere (the untrustworthy narrator surrounded by a further literary mystery), but I sadly couldn’t continue reading them.

Then, regardless of how many pretty displays we receive from publishers hawking their wares, we got this awesome LS display that COUNTS DOWN, using very funny tear-away sheets, to the very last book in the series (which is available on October 13th) and I have made a pact with myself to read all of the books before then. *audible nostril inhale* But I still didn’t like re-reading the first book. It, sadly, is a Bad Beginning. Or, rather, I mean to say that it was funny and I liked its style but it had a weak flopsy story.

The Reptile Room was better. I laughed out loud to this:

“Violet, Klaus, and Sunny all knew that if [Count Olaf] figured out a way to seize their fortune, he would slit the throats of the Baudelaire orphans as easily as you or I might eat a small butter cookie”

And it was even better reading for book 3, The Wide Window:

“Frustration is an interesting emotional state, because it tends to bring out the worst in whoever is frustrated. Frustrated babies tend to throw food and make a mess. Frustrated citizens tend to execute kings and queens and make a democracy. And frustrated moths tend to bang up against lightbulbs and make light fixtures all dusty”

I loved Aunt Josephine and her annoying grammarnazi moments and outrageous phobias. But I wonder by this time if the rehashed Olaf-in-disguise-as-central-plot plots are maybe not strong enough to warrant further books. And I just want to hit Mr. Poe, whose ignorance is just ludicrous considering the amount of times now that Olaf has traipsed around in disguise and Poe only believes it’s him by his ankle tattoo. But book 3 was tense and had a good story with some good progress on the Snicket mystery and a redeeming character like Aunt Josephine. I’m looking forward to reading the fourth book and I see that one future book is set at a boarding school (and I love boarding school settings).

So its been a bumpy start but I have hope for the next 9 books, which I WILL have read before October 13th.

The tear-away sheet for today is "If you are looking forward to the book that's coming out in 17 days, you should be ashamed of yourself".

(posted by Mandy)