21-24) The Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith

I have been really enjoying the new TV series "The Vampire Diaries".  I knew that the show was based on Young Adult novels of the same name written by LJ Smith, but I hadn't read the books yet.  I decided to give them a try, and borrowed the first two novels (which were combined into one volume) from Martin's sister.  The first two stories are The Awakening and The Struggle, the second two are The Fury and Dark Reunion.

These books are dramatically different that the TV series.  The TV series is also a hundred times better.  There are extra characters in the books who aren't on the show, and there are characters on the show who aren't in the books.  The first couple of books are sort of boring, and I didn't really understand the motivation behind some of the actions of the characters -- it was too forced with no explanations.  The second two stories, once the characters were more established and there was some action, were much better.

At the bookstore the other day I noticed there are more books in this series, which I think were written a little later than these original four stories, and I do feel like I would like to read them too.  However, I'm really glad the TV series is what it is -- the characters are much better explained, I love the backstory they provide, and the characters they've added who are not a part of the books are really layered and interesting.

These books are pretty similar to the Twilight books, which were written many years later than these ones, but the Twilight books are actually a much better read.

At least I knocked four books out of the park in a fairly short time span!

24 read, 76 to go!  I know I'm way behind where I should be, but have faith...

20) Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

I teach the first grade and I wanted to read them a novel, as time-filler and to get them used to the idea of not always having pictures to look at in the books they read.  I chose the classic story Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  I'm counting this as one of my 100 novels read this year, since I did read it in its entirety and if I didn't count things like this I'd surely never get through this challenge! haha.

It's the classic story of Wilbur the pig, who is rescued by Fern and then raised in Zuckerman's barn.  He befriends a spider named Charlotte, who uses her miraculous web-spinning powers to write words in her web to encourage Mr. Zuckerman to view Wilbur as "some pig!" in order to save Wilbur from being turned into bacon.  The kids loved the story, and after we finished we watched the 2006 live-action film version of the book starring Dakota Fanning.  It was also well-received.

A very classic children's tale, and book 20 in my quest to read 100 books in 2010.

19) Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich

A few weeks ago I finally finished catching up on all of the Stephanie Plum novels released so far by Janet Evanovich!  Plum Spooky, one of those "between-the-numbers" novels was the last one I had to read.  I enjoyed it much better than all of the other between-the-numbers books, but my favourite stories in this series are mostly just the regular numbered Stephanie Plum mysteries.  Book 16 comes out this year, so I'll take it out from the library as soon as I can.  I plan on staying caught up with each new release, and I'm certainly very glad Janet is continuing to write more stories in this series.  I love these characters A LOT.

I'm still reading, just slowly!  Ugh!

19 down, 81 to go!