Zen

. **The Scott Pilgrim Series**

**By Bryan Lee O'Malley**

// Synopsis: // Scott Pilgrim has to fight his new girlfriend’s seven evil ex-boyfriends. While dealing with Knives (his old girlfriend that he still hasn’t broken up with) and his band, he has to survive while seven people are hunting him down // Genre: // Action/Comedy // My thoughts: // When I first picked this up I couldn’t believe that there was something that combined my two favourite things, music and videogames. It’s pretty funny too. It was recently made into a movie [] This is my favourite movie and my favourite book! I give it 10/10

 ** Contest **

 ** By Matthew Reilly **   // Synopsis: // Swain and his daughter Holly are transported to a strange place were Swain has been chosen to participate a Fight to the death.

// Genre: // Sci-Fi/Action

// My thoughts: // Judging by Matthew Reilly’s other books (which I like) I thought this book was going to be another book with army and guns as the theme, but after reading the first chapter I found out it was much different. I love Sci-Fi books so I was instantly in love with this book because in combines Matthew Reilly’s action with something that includes aliens, thrilling story and parts that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

I give it a 9.5/10

 ** The Alchemist ** 

 ** By Paulo Coelho **  // Synopsis: // A tale of a shepherd that has visions of pyramids, when visiting a gypsy he is told that the vision is the location of a hidden treasure. Along the way he learns about life goals and omens which he uses to get closer to the treasure. // Genre: // ? // My thoughts: // If you come to this book expecting… well, a book, you will finish it not knowing what its purpose was. The book talks about life goals, and that you have to follow ‘signs’ to reach them. When you start reading the book you may get confused about all the talk of inner peace and alchemy, but by the end of this book you would have had one of the best experiences from a book. 8/10

By Ray Bradbury = Synopsis: A man tells stories, not by words, but with his tattoos. The stories tell about different futures the world might have. Each Tattoo tells its own story, and its own future. He has tried everything to get his tattoos off, but still every single night they come to life and torment him. = = Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy = = My Thoughts: I like a good Sci-Fi book, such as this one. Most of the short stories had rockets in them or monsters, or just plain old weird things. That was probably my only complaint, it was a bit to abstract for me to get my head around. = = 8/10 =
 * The Illustrated Man **

= Flatland = By Edwin A. Abbott =Synopsis: A. Square talks about his life in the flatlands (2D) and explains it to people from the spacelands (3D, us). He talks about life in the flatlands and how he travelled to the lands of 1D and how he dreams about the land of 4D.=

=Genre: Mathematical Fiction= =My thoughts: It is a little confusing at first, but you get used to it. The book was written before Einstein created the theory of relativity, so the thoughts about 3D and 2D were not around. I think because of this it may have been not very popular in that time because it didn't really make sense. The book explains itself well, so you get an understanding of the 2D Flatland. I think this is a definite read for anyone who likes books that think outside the box.= =9/10=

=The Inventors= =By Alexander Gordon Smith & Jamie Webb= ==Synopsis: Nate and Cat are young inventors. They have tried to build almost everything, but it always fails. One day at school an invention of theirs goes horribly right. Because of that invention they get a scholarship with the extremely talented inventor, Ebenezer Saint, but when they get to the facility they realise something is not right at Saint's Solutions.==

Genre: Action
==My Thoughts: Great Book. Very original. The inventions are very innovative, like a seat that fly s along a rail between the two main characters houses. The story had a lot of great twists and you soon become in love with the characters. Saints's Solutions is very stylised and makes you wish you were there.==

7.5/10
=Tomorrow When the War Began= By John Marsden

Synopsis: Ellie and her friends become soldiers when they leave for a camp and return to a war-ravaged town. Their parents are gone, their town is deserted, so they need to take matters into their own hands. Genre: Action My thoughts: When we were given this book to read for English my first thought was "Oh God". I thought it would be like an action movie, but dumbed down for kids. The first couple of chapters changed my mind. I wanted to read as much as I could. By the end of the book I was looking forward to reading the sequels. It puts you into the shoes of the characters and makes you think, "What if that was me?" 9/10