Lightning-lit battles, horny adversaries, and even more pantsless-Grover! It must be time for another installment of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. It’s the 4th chapter…

My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

MY mother once taught me how to catch bumblebees. Never bullfighting. Then again, there were very few bulls in our neighborhood, to say nothing of minotaurs. That’s county zoning law for ya. [Read more…]

Lousy step-parents, blue candy, prophetic dreams, and missing pants! That can only mean that it’s time for another installment of Michael Reads Percy Jackson! Enter The Lightning Thief, chapter three, a.k.a.:

Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants

I suppose it’s better to lose them unexpectedly. …I’m not sure how to back up that statement. And that’s my favorite chapter title so far. [Read more…]

Okay, so chalk up two gigantic marks on the “Michael Guessed Wrong” tally. Today I encounter overheard conversations, old women with dangerous shears, and likely centaurs in Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, chapter two, a.k.a.:

Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

I’m a big fan of adding the suffix “of death” to pretty much anything. (Though I tend to prefer “-o-death” for a more festive bit of mortal danger…) I therefore liked this chapter right from the title. I was also pretty sure it meant we’d be seeing–or at least hearing about–the Fates (a.k.a. the Moirae). In Zeus Is Dead, the Fates were at once the most difficult and the most interesting characters for me to write, so I was eager to see how Riordan tackled them. [Read more…]

So I’m all set to plunge into the first novel of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, The Lightning Thief. (Here’s my intro blog post if you missed that one.) This will be the first time I’ve ever blogged my experience of reading a book, so I don’t know quite how quickly it will go, but I guess we’ll explore this together.

First, a few ground rules:

1. NO SPOILERS! I want to experience the book as Riordan intended. The art of crafting how a story unfolds to a reader is something I’m passionate about. I’d hate to think of someone altering that experience for readers of my own novels, and I don’t see how I should hold myself to different standards when I’m reading. Comments are encouraged, but please leave them spoiler free – or at least blatantly spoiler-tagged to give me some warning.
2. …Actually, there’s really only one ground rule, now that I think about it. But I’ve already typed the “2)” there, so, um, let’s see… Do NOT talk about Fight Club! Which actually makes me think of another rule…
3. Talk about Michael Reads Percy Jackson as much as you want. Tell your friends if you like. And your family. And Rick Riordan if you know him. In fact, why not hit one of the “share” buttons down at the bottom right now? (Yeah, I’m shameless.)

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