{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2754",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2754,
    "subject": "Best book choices",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-08-02T15:05:33+00:00",
    "last": "2001-08-02T15:05:33+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0595@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Joel T. Sieh",
        "address": "jsieh at cs.umass.edu"
      },
      "date": "2001-08-02T15:05:33+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Best book choices",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "\tI noticed that a few people listed _A_Wizard_of_Earthsea_ as one \nof their best books.  I was just curious why....  I read it and thought it\nwas a pretty good read, but I didn't think it rated -that- well.  It's\nbeen a while since I read it, but I remember feeling like I was watching a\nmovie that was shot completely from one far-away angle.  By this I mean\nthat I didn't feel like I could get close to the characters or even really\nknow them or see them as anything more than 2-dimensional.  \n\tI haven't read many of the other books people listed (including\nPullman, which is one of the next books on my list, after I reread\nLotR).  I did read Susan Cooper's _The_Dark_is_Rising_, however, and at\nthe time was more impressed with some of the books, most notably\n_The_Grey_King_ than I later was with _A_Wizard_of_Earthsea_.  \n\tI think I'd also put _A_Wrinkle_In_Time_ up there, and \n_The_Phantom_Tollbooth_ by Norton Juster.  I guess I'd put\n_The_Hobbit_ and maybe even the rest of LotR, even though LotR is probably\nbetter suited for adults.  The only reason I'm really including LotR,\nthough, is because it was sort of like a weird Book of Gold for me.  In\nelementary school I  couldn't resist walking up to the \"big\nkids'\" bookshelf in our school library and grabbing the large, slightly\ntattered, forbidding black books branded with the red ring and eye.  Much\nlater I picked up Shadow and Claw because of that same forbidding look\n(and because I read the first chapter, which was wonderful). \n\n--Joel"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}