Of All Time

~ Tell us the title:  

Stardust

~ Who penned this work?:

The astounding Neil Gaiman

~ How did this piece find it's way to your nightstand?:

It was a recommended book on the B&N table, and I bought it on a whim.  I'm not sure it ever made it to my nightstand, however, once I cracked the cover.

~ Number of pages:

248

~ Time passed from start to finish?:

8 hours at the most

~ Describe the cover:

A whimsical swirl of blue vines accented with some gold scroll-like text boxes

~ In what section of the bookstore would a reader find this?:

Is 'amazing' a section?  No?  Well them I would tend to say Fantasy or Fiction perhaps, but I know that B&N always puts Neil in the Sci-Fi section, for reasons I don't entirely understand.

~ Summary of the basic plot:

From the cover: Young Tristan Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria -- even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky.  But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name.  Beyond that old stone wall, Tristan learns, lies Faerie -- where nothing, not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.

~ Background information on the story/author:

From the cover: Neil Gaiman is the critically acclaimed, award-winning creator of the Sandman series of graphic novels; author of the novels Anansi Boys, American Gods, Neverwhere, and Coraline; the short fiction collections Smoke and Mirros and the upcoming [it's released now] Fragile Things; and the bestselling children's books The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and The Wolves in the Walls. 

From my mind: My favorite author of all time.  Greatly under-appreciated in the greater public awareness of literature.  Creator of my greatest verbal intoxication.

~ What did you think of it? (your general response, what you liked or didn't like, what you learned, anything else you want to share about it):

I can't say enough.  This is my favorite story and favorite author...ever?  I can't really say that because I certainly haven't read every book there is on the planet, but for my first twenty-five years this certainly wins the prize.  I LOVE THIS BOOK!  The story is so simple, yet the most utterly romantic concept EVER, with of course a beautifully unexpected twist and ending.  His style of writing mesmerizes me... it's at once stunningly simple (I hate when writers think an excess of adjectives creates beautiful writing), yet flows and melds and twists and twirls (much like the visual on the cover of the book) to create a delicious collection of text.  It just blows me away, and my own writing skills simply can't do it justice. 

~ Which page was your favorite? Share why:

Page 68-69, whereupon a star falls from the sky. You simply have to read it to understand :)

~ If the story was made into a movie, who would you cast as the main characters?

Don't even get me started on the movie.  It already was made into a movie, and though the movie was pretty good, it did very little justice to the story.  Claire Danes should NOT have been the star.

~ Share a quote that was worth reading twice. Explain why:

"He stared up at the stars: and it seemed to him then that they were dancers, stately and graceful, performing a dance almost infinite in its complexity.  He imagined he could see the very faces of the stars; pale, they were, and smiling gently, as if they had spent so much time above the world, watching the scrambling and the joy and the pain of the people below them, that they could not help being amused every time another little human believed itself the center of its world, as each of us does."  (I don't feel I need to explain why)

Choose your rating:

- Changed. My. Life.

-I laughed, I cried, I want you to read it

-A definite page-turner
  - Good to check out but don't spend the cash.
- Why did I waste my weekend on this?
- A disgrace to paper everywhere

~ Flip to page 2, 22, or 202. Share the 7th sentence on the page.

"The snowdrop chimed in his hand."