Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Flashback!

Recently, there hasn't been a lot of time to read. Schoolwork and ACT prep has taken over my daily routines for the past couple weeks. Every so often, I get a few more pages done with American Gods by Neil Gaiman on my Kindle but no major progress has been completed. Speaking of Kindles, what are your opinions on e-readers? I got my Kindle as a Christmas gift from Andrew Han's family and it was intended to be a family gift but I was the only person who knew how to use one, so it became my property. I think it's an interesting alternative and I do like how you can store a gazillion books on one tablet but I still prefer the original versions. Much longer battery life.

Anyway, that wasn't the point of this blog. I've decided to call upon childhood reading memories and write about one of my favorite series ever, The Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz. This series focuses about a teenager by the name of Alex Rider who is also a spy for the British Intelligence Agency, MI6. Each book focuses on a different adventure he has, ranging anywhere from the Swiss Alps to sunny Miami, Florida. Up till now, the author has written nine books in this series, eight of which I've read. I just put the 9th book on hold at the library so maybe I'll review that at a later time.

Obviously, it would take much too long to review every single book in this series (although that would definitely be a lot of fun), so I'm going to go for an overall gist type of thing. Basically, there is a boy named Alex Rider who was unknowingly trained by his uncle to be a spy all his life. One day, his uncle was assassinated and Alex decided to find out why. Thus began the career of a teenage spy. In every book, Alex sets out to investigate a certain person or company based on MI6's suspicions and he usually ends up fighting for his life against incalculable odds and whatnot. They're not exactly mind-blowingly creative, but they definitely were a lot of fun because who hasn't dreamed of being a teenage spy?

Keep in mind, I started reading these books in... oh I don't know... 5th grade or so, and my tastes have probably matured somewhat. Still, if you're looking for something to serve more as a distraction than heavy reading, I would recommend this series. Even if you find yourself thinking, "I definitely saw that one coming..." I'm pretty sure there'll also be parts where you think to yourself, "Oh, that'd actually be pretty cool!" Have fun!