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The title of the book that I have chosen is “ The Lord of the Rings”, written by Tolkien and I decided to read it because I had seen the films and I wanted to read the books too. The setting of the book was very special , it’s a different kind of novel based on imaginary situations, but with some real parts. Tolkien had to imagine a new world, called ‘Middle Earth’ and he had to draw rivers, mountains, cities… and I think this made the book so original. The author wants the reader to be part of the book and to feel the characters in every situation, so he describes perfectly each scene, giving as many details as he can, so that the reader can enjoy he story more. My favourite character is Aragorn, a man with a strong personality and who does everything for his friends. He is also a great soldier and has a powerful and lengendary sword. All the characters seem real, not only in the films, but also in the book. Tolkien has described them in order to seem like that, because he wanted the reader to feel what the characters do. There’s one character who changes his behaviour, a wizard, who betrays his friends and goes to Sauron, the dark lord, as he thinks that nobody can defeat him. 

I definetely recomend the book because it is a very interesting book which lots of people have read and enjoy. It is also the most read book in the 20^th century, and despite having been written a long time ago, this book will always be special.

Francisco Vázquez Muñiz

Apart from the fact there were several books about the same story and so you can suppose it is an important one, maybe the title rang the bell.

It is “The Importance of being Ernest”, and its author is Oscar Wilde. The double sense which is used in the title gives an idea about the subject of the play and this words game is unique. So, the author emphasized sarcastically the different characters and how Jack and Argy tried to avoid their unwelcome responsibilities and conquer the love of Gwendoline and Cecily respectively. With a theatre comedy like this, Oscar Wilde is trying to get across to the reader a funny description about the hypocrisy of English society in Victorian era.

My favourite character is one of the main ones: Jack takes the identity of Earnest because he knows that Gwendoline is in love with that name.

The characters may seem quite real and believable because they represent some typical behaviours even in our society nowadays.

The course of the story evolves into an amazing mess, which is typical in many comedies like this one.

Of course I would recommend it. I think this theatre play is one of the best works written by Oscar Wilde, and it can be considered an English Literature masterpiece.

Manuel C. Lázaro

The reason why I chose “Bridget Jone’s Diary” was I had seen its film some years ago and I found it quite funny and romantic.

As I started to read this book, it gave me a nice first impression. The introduction is original and unexpected. Bridget starts to write this diary because she wants to record her New Year’s resolutions: not smoking, being more confident, improving her career, lose weight… She wants to achieve lots of goals. For this reason, everyday she writes down how many cigarettes she has smoked, what is her weight and how much alcohol she has drunk. But, suddenly the story turns into a romantic comedy…

In my opinion, “Bridget Jone’s Diary” could be considered an ironic sight or a satire of modern love relationships. The author tries to emphasize the comic side of relationships and the importance of having a positive opinion about them.

My favourite character is Bridget Jones. I would describe her as a lovable loser. She is a thirty-something spinster, unattractive, who has a disastrous sentimental life. For this reason her lifestyle is absolutely unhealthy; she usually smokes and gets pissed. Bridget doesn’t set a good example, but she is unique and funny. She seems real because of the way she acts, what I really love about her is how she copes with all the unexpected situations she had along the story.

The two other main characters who get involved in the story are Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleve. Mark is a famous rich lawyer who seems to be unfriendly at first, but finally he becomes Bridget’s boyfriend. On the other hand, Daniel, Bridget’s boss, seems to be the perfect lover, but he evolves and is said to be a womanizer.

I would recommend you this book if you want to have fun and, what is more, if you need a different point of view about love relationships.

“Charlie and the chocolate factory” is set in a chocolate factory, Willy Wonka’s factory. It isn’t known the city or the place where the factory is. This factory is very special because it has Ompaa-Loompas instead of workers and chocolate is not made in a traditional way.

The author tries to show how the social class influences the behaviour of some people. Charlie and his family are poor but the other four children have a higher social class and they are self-centred, mean and they have always what they want. In the end only Charlie wins the prize and the four children are given a lesson by Wonka’s factory. So I think that the author wants to criticise this behaviour and this kind of people.  

My favourite character is Willy Wonka because he doesn’t care what people say about him and he lives in his own world. Moreover, he makes the book funny and entertaining. He was also the character that made me learn new vocabulary such as “dumbfounded” or “flabbergasted”. I don’t know people like Willy Wonka and I think there’s no one like him, however, the children and their parents are a good example that show the bad behaviour that children have nowadays. Parents don’t know how to bring up their children because they think that punishment is the wrong way; and because of that, their children are self-centred and mean.

The characters don’t change in the story, they represent a role until the end of the story, and it doesn’t change. I would recommend it to people who like fantasy. I think that the book is funny and original. I prefer the book than the film because with the book you can imagine the story, the factory although in my opinion Johnny Depp plays a very good role in the film.

I’ve read “Matilda” by Roald Dahl. I’ve chosen “Matilda” because I watched the film when I was a child, and I liked so much that I decided to read the book in its original version. What makes this book unique and different from the others, is the fact that it’s supposed to be a novel for kids but the truth is that it’s a book for adults, especially for adults with children. Roald Dahl emphasizes the importance of childhood in our lives, and how the adults make mistakes in the way they educate their children. So, in my opinion “Matilda” is not only a good story, it’s also a guide of good advices about the education of our kids. My favourite character is Matilda because she’s an interesting girl. She’s a five-years-old girl with mental powers; she’s able to move objects with her mind without touching them. The rest of the characters of the story are not very believable. I think they are an ironic version of the reality of the society, although there is a character, Mrs. Trunchbull that reminds me of someone from my childhood. Mrs. Trunchbull is one of Matilda’s teachers and she’s very rude and hard with the children (especially with Matilda); she’s always angry and has bad words for everybody.This character is similar to one teacher I had when I studied at school. The changes of the story start when Matilda learns to use her powers to get a better world. In fact, thanks to Matilda, Mrs. Trunchbull leaves the school and everybody is glad about it.

Finally, it’s important to say that I recommend Matilda to everybody, children and adults. It’s a beautiful and magical story that involves kids with its fantasy and helps adult people to learn more about life.

Set in London in the 19th century, this novel introduces us to the British upper-class society.

Two topics are emphasized throughout the story. The first one would be the friendship, as Mr. Utterson tries to help his friend Dr. Jekyll although he doesn’t want him to visit his house. The second one would be the duality: how we all have a good and an evil side and to what extent trying to separate them could be disastrous.

My favourite character is Mr. Hyde, despite being the most hated. The fact that everyone dislikes him but nobody knows anything about him is just amazing. It makes you think how it can be that he appears in Dr. Jekyll’s will.

All the characters seem real but Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. Changing your body and personality by drinking a potion may remind us of a fairytale. It would be difficult to find someone like these characters nowadays as there have been many changes in two centuries.

The character who most changes is Dr. Jekyll. At the beginning he arranges Mr. Utterson quite often and enjoys his company; but later on, he doesn’t go out of his laboratory. It is all because he turns into Mr. Hyde by taking«» a chemical potion.

I’ve chosen this book because it had been recommended by my teacher at school and I thought it could be an interesting idea to read a novel by the famous Stevenson. I would recommend it to those whose level of English is medium-upper. I’ve found some difficulties in reading this book but if you take your time, nothing is impossible.

I have read Momo, by Michael Ende. I chose this book because in my childhood I had read the Neverending story written by him and it seemed a fascinating book to me.

I believe that the whole story was really original. I had never read something like it before –it was different and strange, but also interesting. It is supposed to be specific for children; however, I think anyone could enjoy it, because the novel talks about essential points in our lives, such as the importance of our time, which we don’t usually value, or freedom and friendship, which brings us true happiness.

My favourite one was the main character, Momo, because although she was a nice and innocent girl, when her friends were in danger she could be strong-willed and face all her fears to fight for them.

The characters are not very real, and I think they don’t try to, because this story is a fairy tail in which everything is exaggerated: the situations, the people, etc. On the other hand, all of them have real parts in their personalities, like being practical or being a dreamer, for instance.

Most of the characters don’t really change during the story. The one that changes a bit is Momo, who learned to be determined and strong the moment she had to give the time back to people, because it had been stolen from them.

I would recommend it, because it wasn’t difficult to read and I had a good time with it.  

The book I’ve read is Pig, written by Andrew Cowan in 1994. It was his first novel, a drama which made him win a lot of prizes.The story takes place in England, during the industrial restructuring of the country. It is narrated by the main character, a fifteen-year-old boy who has his head in the clouds and lives quite isolated from the real world.The book tells us about the life of an underclass family, seen from the boy’s point of view.The story starts with the death of Agnes, the protagonist’s grandmother and shows how the family reacts to it, taking his grandfather to a residential home for the elderly, and how the teenager spends the summer taking care of the pig his grandparents had, until the house is pulled down to build a theme park.Apart from his Indian girlfriend, the pig will become his only worry, the way he disconnects from all the problems.In this context, the book deals with the troubles of racism, the hate that English people feel towards the immigrants, and the lack of attention that the grandfather suffers. The boy is the only character who really worries about him, the only one who goes to visit him.In my opinion, it is a deep story, but I found it a little bit boring to read, because it doesn’t tell a story in the typical sense, with an ending. It’s just a part of his life. The most interesting aspect in the book is the symbolic meaning that the pig has. From my point of view, the pig is the symbol of the last time of innocence in his life. The pig gets ill and old and finally he has to kill it, what I think it means: he has to face adults’ problems, his girlfriend leaves him and his innocence is gone. All the things that have happened change him and he matures.

To sum up, we could say that it’s a good book, but that’s not because the story is gripping or entertaining, but it has a hidden meaning that makes you think about the problems that appear in the book.

by Águeda Díaz Tuero

“Girl with a pearl earring” is a novel written by Tracy Chevalier. It is published by Harper Collins and it’s a drama and a romantic story. It’s told by the protagonist who is telling us her own biography.

The story took place un Delft, a Dutch town, during the seventeenth century. Griet, the protagonist, was a sixteen-year-old girl who belonged to a poor family. As her father got blind and he couldn’t continue working as a tile painter, she had to start working as a maid for a painter’s family, the Vermeer’s. It was a huge family whose bread-winner was a painter. Since the first day he met Griet, he realised that she had some artistic intuition which, later, will help with his colours and paintings. At her work, she had to deal with children pranks, specially Cornelia’s ones , the jealousy of the other maid and of her mistress, who didn’t put up with the special attention her husband had for the maid.

She got used to her hard job, her new house, her mistress and master religion, not seeing any familiar face.. Nevertheless, her new life brought Pieter to her, a handsome and kind boy who wanted her as his wife. On Sundays, she was allowed to visit her family and do her protestant services.

Eventually, she was in big trouble because the man who supported her mastress job, van Ruijven, wanted a picture of her. The story reflects how the aristocracy seemed to believe that they could have everything they wanted and what life was like in the 17th century.

From my point of view, the writer uses a good technique, giving us information from the past in between present events and going back and forwards in time (flashback). I think the vocabulary isn’t very common nowadays because it’s set in another century but I could guess almost all the meanings from the context, without looking them up in a dictionary. I found it moving and worth-reading. What I most enjoyed was the strange relationship Pieter the son and Griet had, that is gripping. They loved each other in a weird way. On one hand, she wasn’t sure about getting married to him and she put it off for two years. Moreover, she was found of her master but she tried to hide her feelings. On the other hand, he never inquired her about her feelings, his relation with the master or how she had her lobes pierced.

I was quite interested in the importance Griet gave to hide her hair. The moment someone saw it, she felt like she had nothing more honour able to lose and she lost her virginity with Pieter.

I did not like van Ruijven character because he thought that, due to his fortune, he could have whatever he wanted. He had had an affair with one of his maids whose life he spoiled leaving her pregnant. Pieter the father was also a very rude character but, in my opinion, he had a good heart. I found her sister’s death because of a sudden pest appalling and the effect it had un her sensitive little heart.

It was an easy read. Nevertheless, the beginning was a little tedious but then you couldn’t stop reading it. I would like to recommend this book as a love story for those who are romantic like me. I found the book explanation of how the paint of the girl with the pearl earring was done moving: the colours, the shines, the reason for the earring…That’s beacuse I had seen the original picture in a trip to Holland and I can say that it’s worth-seeing.

On balance, I¡m satisfied with my decision of choosing this book.

Silvia Blanco

The talented Mr Ripley is a novel written by Patricia Highsmith, published in 1955. It is a mystery story. The narrator is not involved in the action.

Tom Ripley, the protagonist, is a cruel inhuman young man who lives in New York City. Tom is asked by a wealthy man to go to Europe and try to convince his son to come home. Tom decides to go to Italy and talk to Dickie Greenleaf. Although the Italian village and his new friend make him feel as though he is in a paradise, Tom realizes that he loves Dickie´s life so much that he decides to become Dickie. Tom kills Dickie when they are in San Remo, where they were on a trip. Marge, Dickie´s girlfriend, suspects Tom of being a murderer but Ripley tricks her and finally, the book ends with Tom traveling to Greece, replacing Dickie Greenleaf.

From my point of view, The Talented Mr Ripley is a extremely absorbing book that makes you feel the tense atmosphere that involves all the characters. It´s a really gripping book because you can´t stop reading. You can read a hundred of pages and want to read more. What I most enjoyed was that it wasn´t like other books, where the good guys fight the bad guys and at the end the good guys win. This story is different and I would like to recommend it.

Rachel