The Blue Librarian

When we think about wizards we think old men with long white beards and pointy hats. Or guys with long robes, long hair carrying a long carved staff way taller than them. You do not imagine for one minute a guy wearing a leather duster coat driving a beaten Blue Beetle. Harry Dresden is Chicago's first and only wizard P.I. You can even find him in the newspaper: HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other Entertainment But despite his uniqueness, the business sucks. Probably it sucks because Harry is the quintessential good guy. He helps everyone in need even if this puts his life in danger. He fights all sort of monsters, vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves and opens our eyes to a different world. A world where magic exists and we need someone like Dresden to protect us. And who can do this better than him? He is the son of Margaret La...

If Bram Stoker would have read Twilight saga, he would slit his veins and call it a day. The last twenty-five years have transformed the monsters into very attractive, misunderstood and charming individuals which is in total contradiction with the message of the original book. I read Dracula when I was fourteen years old. The book today would probably be R rated and parents would forbid their children to touch it till they turn eighteen. In my youth, parents had other stuff to do than to look constantly over our shoulders and trusted us not to be complete idiots. We had one neighbor though who forbid his daughter to see horror movies, and she ended up working at the morgue. Enough said. Bram Stoker did a very thorough work with his book. It was a time when Gothic novels were surfacing and the vampires were an interesting subject. After Sheridan Le Fanu published 'Carmilla', one of the first Gothic novels having a female vampire as the main character, Bram Stoker came wi...

Much ado about nothing. I think this is the line that best describes the book. Interesting title, intriguing beginning, good characters and yet...a disappointment. I have read Dan Brown before so I knew, in a way, what to expect. Lots and lots of art, vivid descriptions, history, insights, basically you get a thriller mixed with an artsy tour guide. If you ever wondered what you can see in Barcelona, just read this book. It covers all the hot places and poses as a very comprehensive tour guide. For the art lovers, it is a great read. Still, I do not know how many have the patience to drill through hundred of pages to get to see something happening. The book promises the secret of human most important questions: 'where are we coming from?' and 'where are we going? The discovery of Edmond Kirsch promises to be earth shattering, worth killing for but what we get in the end is a big 'Pleeeeease, give me a break.' The story or to be more precise, the endi...

I was never a religious person because from an early age the words of the priests sounded phony to me. Science made more sense. Philosophy made more sense. I like logic in things and this makes me a doubter. Shawn Murphy is a scientist with an interest in religion and philosophy and an extensive knowledge in these fields. In 'Torn between two worlds - science and religion', he shows us, in short words, how religion evolved to match the interests of the rulers. It is a known fact that religion is the best tool to rule the people but to see the extend they went to cut, to deform the original thoughts into anything that will serve them is different. We get to know more about the works of Socrates, of Origen of Alexandria, how Aristotle came to be a great philosopher, and how science, in the past a part of philosophy and wisdom, came to be a separate religion, sometime with its own blind shades. In a world where long and pompous speeches are often what defines a good le...

'Dead over heels' is a short story written by Theresa Braun. I came upon it a couple of weeks ago and from the first pages it felt like a story with magic and ghosts. A little romance with a sprinkle of Wicca magic which moves slowly into the ghost territory and finishes into full-blown horror story. I must admit I was not convinced by the whole magic factor since it seemed a little stretched. Or the ghostly seeings. But the whole idea of the book, once you finish it, it is surprisingly good. With a little more details and polish it would have been an excellent story, one that I would have put easily alongside my collection of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe stories. Still, a must read if horror story lovers. For its ending which is one of the best I read in a long time. Buy book on Amazon

I love smart books because let’s face it, you need to have something else in a book beside fast pacing action or boring romance. But finding an interesting book that keeps you engaged from beginning to end is not that easy these days. This is why, when the guys from Booktasters recommended Phil Philips' book 'Mona Lisa's secret' I thought I am on to something. And I was not disappointed. Phil Philips knows history and art. His book 'Mona Lisa’s secret' is a historical fiction based on some true events. Not many people maybe know that Mona Lisa was once stolen, and other time almost destroyed with acid attack. The author knows that and it centers the book on the history of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, how it came to fame and the mystery behind it, giving it a new twist. We have Joey Peruggia, the grandson of the man who stole Mona Lisa almost a hundred a years ago, being in love with Marie Martino, the daughter of one of the guy who wanted to destroy ...

'Sucker Punch' is not a movie for everyone. It has one of the best opening scene and soundtrack I have ever seen and some of the lowest critic ratings on Imdb and Rotten Tomatoes. What does that tell you? Not that the movie is bad, because I cannot see Zack Snyder doing a bad movie, but that people have a difficult time grasping metaphors. Because the movie is filled with them. You need to watch it carefully to understand Snyder's magic. He handpicked each actor, carefully painted every scene and put together excellent classic song remixes for us to have a truly amazing experience. And many of us did have an amazing experience. The rest just bitched about how women were so badly depicted in that movie and that is a kitsch and so on. Fact is we are in the era of fast forward and multi-tasking. People often do not take their time to really watch a movie from beginning till end without checking their phones or doing God knows what. But it is a true shame when critics a...

I love books, I always had and for me reading is a form of relaxation, an escape into another world so I rely on the author to create a good atmosphere, story line and characters. The classics or the modern authors, they both brought me enjoyable moments and I usually can tell from the first pages of the book if it is or not what I am looking for, if that book will be something I will love or it will collect dust in one corner of the library never to be heard from again. In the past I could walk into a library and easily find a book. Nowadays it is not so easy. The writer market has changed and the public as well. Many times I have seen books as best sellers that I could not read. And not because those were difficult to read. Kant is difficult to read, E .L. James not so much. I understand people's need and fascination for books like 'Fifty shades of grey', 'Twilight' or 'Hunger games'. Personally I could not read them. I have the first two volumes o...