1.Stephenie Meyer

    Stephenie Morgan Meyer was born in Hartford, Connecticu.
    The idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003, which was about a human girl and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. After preparing for three months, she had transformed her dream into a complete novel.
    Another famous novel written by her is The Host, an adult sci-fi novel published in May 2008.

The series of Twilight.

2.The Story

    Bella Swan moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie.

    When Bella is seated next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, he seems to dislike her. But when she is nearly crushed by a van in the school's parking lot, Edward instantaneously appears next to her and stops the van with his bare hands.

    This experience arouses Bella's curiosity.

    After investigating, she finds that Cullens family's members are all vampires, which only drink animals' blood, and Edward has the ability to read other's mind, instead of Bella's.

    Bella falls in love with Edward, and is considered to be a member of Cullens family.

    One day when Bella and Cullens family are playing baseball, the vampire from the other place comes. One of the enemy, James notices that Bella is a human, being protected by a vampire family, so he decides to hunt her as an entertainment.

    After a hard fight, Cullens family finally beats James before he kills Bella, but it also brings more crisis and enemy to them...

    The series cuts into four volumes── Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Down. and one side plot of Eclipse──The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner.

3.My Thought

    My first approach of this series is in the years in junior high school.

    At that time, some of the Twilight-fanatics in my class introduced it to me, then I finished the volumes one by one as it was published.

    To be honest, the story is dull (a classic romantic story, adds in some different races(種族) that do not exist in the real world),  and is easy to guess what will happen later. The fighting description is not exciting enough, too.

    But I have to thank this novel for giving me a chance to watch a movie with a group of girls.

    Boys, don't consider reading love story to be a waste of time, it's a good way for you to get closer to girls!

This is a parody (※a little bit erotic and racial discrimination) of Twilight.
Just for laughing.

1.Victor Hugo──One of the Greatest French Writer

    Victor Marie Hugo is one of the representatives of Romanticism(浪漫主義). He was at first famous for his talent on writing poems. 

    At the most tumultuous periods in France, he produced many representative works, which is about the politics or the miserable situations of the citizens.

    One of the others his famous novels is 《Notre-Dame de Paris》(法文原譯:巴黎聖母院), which is renamed in Chinese:《鐘樓怪人》. Like《Les Miserables》, it was adapt for musicals or movies.

The musical of 《Notre-Dame de Paris》.

The musical of  《Les Miserables》.

The movie of《Les Miserables》.

2.The Story

    In 1801, a poor farmer named Jean Valjean was put into prison for 19 years because of stealing a loaf of bread and trying to escape.

    Although he was discriminate by the public because he had a yellow passport, Bishop Myriel gave him shelter and then encouraged him to be a promising and honest person.

    But he still obeyed his human nature and robbed 40-sous coin from 12-year-old Petit Gervais.

    For this, he became an escapee.

    After six years, Valjean, replaced by his new name──Monsieur Madeleine, became a wealthy factory owner and was appointed to be the mayor of a town.

    Then he met  Fantine, and promised her to take her daughter, Cosette to her.

    When dealing the case that Fantine had encountered in, he enraged a adjutant guard(檢察官) named  Javert, who guess him to be the escapee, Jean Valjean, and then get into a series of troubles and heart-stuggling...

3.My Thought

    Although the story is really long, contains much knowledge of the historical background that we actually don't need to know, some parts, such as the description of the emotion, agony between  the honesty and the fame...etc are very worth reading.

    People don't have time to read can watch the musical version, it will move you not only by the touching story but also by the graceful melody!

1.J.K. Rowling ── from a single mother to a well-known author

    When starting to write Harry Potter, she was a nobody, working in Amnesty International(國際特赦組織)."In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry "came fully formed" into her mind."(from Wikipedia)
    "I did not have a functioning pen with me, but I do think that this was probably a good thing. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, while all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled(戴眼鏡的) boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me."

──from her website

    Going through the divorce and the single-parent hood, she finished the manuscript, and then finally had it published after some twist and turns. It not only improved her economic condition, but also made her to be a world-famous author, who has set off a whirlwind of Harry Potter around the world!

The manuscript of the Philosopher's Stone

    

Covers of the series of Harry Potter.

2.Story

    At the 11 year-old birthday, Harry Potter, a boy who had escaped from the notorious, frightening wizard, Voldemort, was bring to the wizard school, Hogwarts.

    The series is about the Harry and his friends' adventure in the wizard world, and the fight with the final boss, Voldemort.

    Let's see a short film to know the synopsis of each volume:

3.My Thought

    If you think that you've watched the movie so you don't need to read the novels, you are absolutely wrong!
    There are many interesting and exciting part, more details that are only mentioned in the novels. You may be amazed by the exquisite description which cannot be showed in the movie.
    For people don't have time to read whole seven volumes, I recommend the forth one, the Goblet of Fire. It's about the Triwizard Tournament. You will find that not only the 3D special effects but the words can bring the excitement to you!

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O‧Henry's Short Stories

1.Who is O‧Henry?

    O‧Henry is his pen name. His real name is William Sydney Porter. 
    He is absolutely more than an author.
    At his young age, O‧Henry was forced to drop out from high school. He worked in his uncle's drug store for five years, with the dream of being a painter in his mind.Then, he has tried a lot of works, such as shepherd, chef, babysitting staff, singer, comedy actor, reporter, cashier...etc.
    These experiences stimulated his humor, and also became his subjects of the stories.
    In 1898, he was arrested for embezzlement.
    He whole-heartedly wrote short stories when he was in the prison,
   only because its writing time is short, so that he could get the payment soon!
    After leaving the prison, he published hundreds of well-known short stories and his only long novel  Cabbages and Kings, and became a world-famous author.

    Many of his stories were adapted into comics, cartoons, or short movies for children.

2. O‧Henry's stories
    Since there are too many stories (almost 300!)which were written by him, I can't talk about every of them.
    So, I choose two most famous ones, The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf.

    The Gift of the Magi 

 
    I choose this video because it can help us learn how to read a story.
    People who want to practice their listening ability can ignore the caption and see if you can understand the whole story.
    The Last Leaf

    Both two stories has a common point:
        O‧Henry endings──
            unexpected, but reasonable
     O‧Henry often used some ambiguities or wordplay to create a totally different end from our thought.
    Although some critics say O‧Henry always use this immutable way in his stories, it's the most major reason why his stories are so famous.

3.my thought
    For those who spend lots of time on the bus or the MRT, reading these short stories may be a good pastime for you. 
    Spend 15 minutes enjoying the surprise that O‧Henry endings brings to you, maybe it will change your outlook on life!