geekyI really, really loved this book, which I felt expanded and improved upon the world of the original, so when Jim asked if I would be willing to host a giveaway, I was happy to oblige. This is that giveaway. The rules:
1. Leave a comment on this post, naming the first book that really changed your life.
2. Identify your location in the world (US, non-US).
3. If non-US, confirm that you are willing to pay postage (for we are poor writers).
The winner will be chosen by RNG on Friday, August 9th, and Jim himself will be sending a signed copy of Codex Born to the winner. If you're not familiar with the series, you're in luck: book one, Libriomancer, is out today in paperback, so you can get all caught up.
Books! Magic! Awesomeness!
GAME ON!
ETA: Guys, I know it's tempting to discuss people's awesome taste in books with them, but please DO NOT REPLY to comments on RNG giveaway posts! It confuses the RNG, and has resulted in people NOT getting the prizes that they should have received!
August 8 2013, 07:59:11 UTC 3 years ago
The Girl With the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts made me realize that wearing thick glasses did not make me lesser; that a complete stranger could understand what it's like to be an outsider so utterly; that there were other people who had to move to a new place, and had trouble making friends with their peers, and got judged unfairly for it. That my mother's expectation for me to merely smile and people would leap to be my friend was well-intentioned but still wrong.
So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane may, looking back on it, have saved my life. It gave me an ethical basis that wasn't rooted in handed-down arbritrary rules, but included handed-down rules with logical foundations behind them. It gave me the ability to look at my hostile classmates and realize their problem was that they were afraid of being me -- that they were afraid, period! And I could let their hostility blow past me, taking some reasonable precautions for myself but let them waste their energy without ever touching me, and I could choose not to hate them back. I could choose not to waste my own energy on them at all.
I think without the Young Wizards series, I would have let the scapegoaters define me in my teen years. I did have moments when I believed the future would never be any better, but they were only moments; I dove into another book, and another, until I believed I could out-endure my parents and my peers.
I live in Alabama nowadays, in the US, and I would be happy to pay postage anyway.