Bartimaeus, Jonathan Stroud. Cycle 22 Reading Response, 3-18

Summary:
I read pages 3-18 of a new book called “The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand”. The book opens with a description of a room being turned into a dark, arctic Iceland by some magical being. A djinni (genie) appears in a cloud of smoke and sulfur, trying to use all these excessive poofs of smokes and magic to scare the small 12-year-old boy that summoned him into telling him his name, so that he could use the name to later take revenge on him. The young boy though quickly took control and ordered the djinni, Bartimaeus to go and retrieve the Amulet of Samarkand from the house of Simon Lovelace, a very powerful magician and to bring it back to him at dawn the next day. Bartimaeus fights against having to go, but ends up just going due to the fact that since the boy summoned him, he could use spells to inflict pain till he would go. Bartimaeus goes in the form of a blackbird. He soon arrives at the house where he found several defenses around the house. He has the ability to look through 7 different planes, all coexistent with each other. Bartimaeus used several different transformations to sneak past all of the defenses and made it into an air duct as a fly. Bartimaeus enters another room in the form of vapor and slips through the crack under the door.

Vocab:
Writhed- v. To twist the body about, or squirm, as in pain, violent effort, etc.
v. To shrink mentally, as in acute discomfort.
Perceptible- adj. Capable of being perceived; recognizable; appreciable: a perceptible change in his behavior
Phlegm- n. The thick mucus secreted in the respiratory passages and discharged through the mouth, esp. that occurring in the lungs and throat passages, as during a cold.
n. One of the four elemental bodily humors of medieval physiology, regarded as causing sluggishness
Intoned-v. To utter with a particular tone or voice modulation
v. To give tone or variety of tone to; vocalize.
v. To recite or chant in monotone.
Sepulchral- adj. Of, pertaining to, or serving as a tomb
adj. proper to or suggestive of a tomb; funereal or dismal
adj. Hollow and deep
Conformists- n. A person who conforms, esp. unquestioningly, to the usually practices or standard of a group, society, etc.
Adj. of or characterized by conforming, esp. in action or appearance.


I decided to switch books because of a couple of reasons. The first was because I didn’t think the book had enough challenging vocabulary to increase my own set of words. My new book “Bartimaeus” has a wider set of vocabulary that I can learn and use in my own writing. Also I didn’t really find “The Supernaturalists” to be very interesting or exciting. It never really had me on the edge of my seat; I think this is because I’m more into fantasy books then Science Fiction. By reading the first 15 pages of Bartimaeus. I think I’ll really enjoy it because its showing me the usual fantasy that I really like with a whole new level of vocabulary to learn and master. I think I’ll enjoy reading Bartimaeus.