{"id":23,"date":"2004-05-26T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2004-05-27T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=23"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:26:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:26:27","slug":"a-bad-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23","title":{"rendered":"A Bad Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bad Beginning<\/i> by Lemony Snicket<\/a> (1999)<\/p>\n

\"\"I really <\/i>liked this book. It may have only taken me 45 minutes to read, but it was a very enjoyable 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

A Bad Beginning<\/i> begins the tale of the Baudelaire children, who, in the first few pages of the book, are orphaned and lose everything except the clothes on their backs.<\/p>\n

Let me quote the back of the book, to give you an idea of the writing style:<\/p>\n

Dear Reader,<\/p>\n

I’m sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.<\/p>\n

In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.<\/p>\n

It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

With all due respect,
\nLemony Snicket<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I mean really, how could you not LOVE a book written like that? There are ten books in the series so far, with thirteen (?) proposed.<\/p>\n

Harper Collins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (1999) I really liked this book. It may have only taken me 45 minutes to read, but it was a very enjoyable 45 minutes. A Bad Beginning begins the tale of the Baudelaire children, who, in the first few pages of the book, are orphaned and lose everything except […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids","category-paper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-n","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":633,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/633","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":0},"title":"Hellboy Vol 3: The Chained Coffin and Others","author":"Michelle","date":"August 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hellboy Vol 3: The Chained Coffin and Others (1998) Mike Mignola Unlike the previous two volumes, which were along the lines of novellas, The Chained Coffin and Others is a collection of Hellboy short stories. As I'm a big fan of short stories, I really enjoyed this collection. And as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/Hellboy-Chained-Coffin.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":121,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/121","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":1},"title":"Fables Vol 3: Storybook Love","author":"Michelle","date":"September 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Fables Vol 3: Storybook Love (2004) Bill Willingham So apparently I lied. I must pay at least some attention to the artwork in graphic novels, because I really hate the way that Bigby looks in the middle stories here. The way he looks as a wolf is great. I quite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Graphic Novels"","block_context":{"text":"Graphic Novels","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/graphic-novels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/09\/Fables-Storybook-Love.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":290,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/290","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":2},"title":"Fables Vol 7: Arabian Nights (and Days)","author":"Michelle","date":"August 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) (2006) Bill Willingham Volume 7 of Fables struck me as somehow different from previous volumes. Although there is a complete story arc about the Sinbad and the Arabian Fables coming to Fabletown, that story seemed almost secondary to several different different threads that were dropped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Graphic Novels"","block_context":{"text":"Graphic Novels","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/graphic-novels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/Fables-Arabian-Nights.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":70,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/70","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":3},"title":"Twice Upon A Time","author":"Michelle","date":"May 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Twice Upon A Time (1999) edited by Denise Little Fairy tales seen from another perspective--the wife of the giant from the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. The hunter in the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. The Wolf who appears in multiple tales. This book is hit and miss.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"twice upon a time.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/twice%20upon%20a%20time.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":293,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/293","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":4},"title":"Swan Sister","author":"Michelle","date":"August 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Swan Sister (2003) Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling I don't think I've come across a short story collection put together by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling that I didn't like, and Swan Sister is no exception to the rule. The stories are fairy tales retold, by a variety of authors--many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/swan-sister.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":174,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/174","url_meta":{"origin":23,"position":5},"title":"Murder by Magic","author":"Michelle","date":"January 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Murder by Magic (2004) edited by Rosemary Edghill I love fantasy, and I love mysteries, so I figured that this should be a great short story collection. After all, I've read some excellent fantasy mysteries recently, such as those written by Charlaine Harris and Simon R. Green. This collection, however,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/01\/Murder-by-Magic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}