Nothing like an all nighter when you are sick!

Hello everyone!

I've been trying to get rid of this rather annoying cold for the past couple of days, but I think last night was the climax of its miserablelness; no air has passed through my left nostril this whole time, but last night, my right one was also afflicted! Then when I tried to breathe through my mouth--what other choice did I have, right?--I couldn't even do that because I was coughing every other second!  

There have been a couple of positives to this, however  =)

1.  I have become best friends with my blanket and my tea.  

My favorite tea is hands down any good green tea, but recently (during my sickness) I have found that I also really love the Yogi Detox with a little honey  =)  yummy!  (Maybe because subconsciously I think it'll help get rid of this toxic cold?  haha)

2.  I have all the time in the world to read!

Well, I suppose I could read whenever I want to, but this whole almost being bed-ridden thing has left me with not very many choices in my entertainment.
I brought my computer to bed once, but it was too heavy and clunky, and besides, nothing will ever replace the joy of curling up with a good book in a nice comfy bed.  

So that's what I did last night from 12 am until 6 am.  

I hand't meant to pull an all-nighter...

Contrary to what it may have seemed during school, I do not enjoy them.  

They were merely a frequent byproduct of a belief that papers could be written,, oh say 5 pages/hour.

I was proven wrong again and again, but hey, nothing like a little pressure to keep one focused, eh?

Anyway, I had purchased this book, Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card a year ago as a part of a 3 set volume, but hadn't gotten around to reading it until last night.

  

I'm not sure what exactly made me pick it up, but perhaps it was because I had first met Ender Wiggin, the main character, through Ender's Game when I was sick and almost bed-ridden 4 years ago. 

It was during my Freshman year at college, and Sean Anderson, one of my good friends, gave me the book to keep me company when he heard that I was sick.  

I also finished that book in one sitting, curled up in bed.

We have quite a history, Ender and I.  We go waay back  haha

The whole series is set in the future, and Ender's Game starts with a young genius child named Ender as he is being trained at the Battle School to lead a war against an alien species.  

The book ends with the huge battle between the humans and the aliens, 

and while the battle is incredibly significant (I won't spoil it for you), I enjoyed reading about Ender's experiences at the Battle School preparing to defeat the aliens much more.  

It's incredible what all these students are able to do, how they act in certain circumstances, and for what purpose, but what's really jarring about the whole thing is how young these kids are!  

Imagine 5 year olds being trained as commanders and generals in an army, and excelling at it!

Speaker for the Dead deals with Ender's journey many, many years later (like 3000) when humans find another alien species.  This book deals with a much more complex problem of trying to understand
and live harmoniously with a culture so extremely different from ours.  

It seems that much of humanity's history has found it easier to condemn and kill
than to try to understand and coexist, right?

It is probably the end of Ender's traveling days around the universe, I would assume, and through these two books as well as the book Ender's Shadow, which tells the same story as Ender's Game but from a different child's perspective, I have really grown to love and respect this character Ender.  

He is extremely intelligent, compassionate, and loving, with an incredible desire to make right what he may have done wrong, albeit unknowingly. (sorry! almost a spoiler!)

Orson Scott Card is one heck of a story teller, and once you get hooked, you just can't stop reading!!  

He has many other books in the series, and I will probably start reading the rest of the 3 volume set sometime soon.  Though, I'm not sure anymore all-nighters would be good for me at the moment.. haha

Even if you are not a big fan of Sci-Fi, but are perhaps a bit curious, I would highly recommend this series =)

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great Monday!

--Janny