Yong (5/26): The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Go ahead, admire the lovely armchair in which I sat and read this book. Bought the set for my brother's kids for Christmas, started reading it myself in a Canadian library, and finished it during my two day stay at his home in Connecticut. Despite the hype, I didn't find it nearly as engrossing as say Tolkien. But it was a fun, enjoyable, low stress read. And the book actually feels more like sci-fi than fantasy, if you ignore the daemons and witches and talking bears, in that Pullman ties in real science and real history and goes out of his way to provide (plausible/coherent/alternate) explanations for real life stuff, like elementary particles and Christianity and the aurora borealis.

It's a little sad that I'm too old to completely relate to the girl child protagonist who as the hero of the story conveniently displays both ingenuity and fierce determination. But soon enough, most of us will have kids who aren't too old, and I can see how they'll absolutely love it.