Overbooked Reader

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling was a book series I grew up with, during my grade school and high school years. I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on paperback, after one of my bookish aunts recommended I read it. Then, I bought books two through seven on hardback, each day they were released in the local book stores. The new books were always launched during the eve or right in the middle of my final exams, so I ended up reading about The Boy Who Lived instead of studying for school. Fortunately, my grades were still good enough for me to get accepted in the Ateneo de Manila University, for college. I remember being awestruck when I first read about Harry Potter. I kept daydreaming and dreaming about what Hogwarts house the Sorting Hat would put me in (I was hoping to get placed in Gryffindor), and what want would choose me in Ollivanders (as long as it had a phoenix feather). I wanted so much for Quidditch to be real, and I wanted my very own Nimbus 2000. It too...

In Mistborn: The Final Empire , the first novel in the Mistborn trilogy written by Brandon Sanderson, The Lord Ruler controls the Final Empire, a kingdom wrought with slavery and political strife. This kingdom is a land where constant ashfalls have blackened the color and greenery of life, leaving everything covered in soot, and where the mist rules over the night. It's been lifetimes since the last skaa (slave) rebellion rose up against the Lord Ruler and the noble families who support him. He crushed this rebellion easily, like he did those that came before it. Many believe the Lord Ruler is invincible, that he is a god. Slowly, the common people have lost hope. All they seem to know now is work and death. They live to work until they die. However, a new rebellion is brewing. Kelsier, formerly the best thief guild leader in the kingdom, now one of the most powerful Mistborn Allomancers of all time, is gathering his most trusted men for a new contract--perhaps an imposs...