Always a Good Time for Classic Good vs. Evil: Percy Jackson on Screen and Page

Don't be fooled by the teenage boy on the poster/ cover - this is more than a series for middle school youngsters. Or Greek mythology scholars.

Rick Riordan:
Percy Jackson & the Olympians
(The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian)

The Lightning Thief (2010) by Chris Columbus
Sea of Monsters (2013) by Thor Freudenthal

I always dread the moment I start reading a new series of books or start watching a new tv show. It's different to read single books or watch a single movie every other night. The thing about series - on screen and page - is their addictiveness. Human beings are fragile, we're emotional animals and easy to trap that way. We can get addicted to all sorts of things, mainly referred to as drugs, such as stimulating herbs and chemicals, sports, all the stuff that is put into micro-wave pizza. And yes, we can also get addicted to the arts of reading books and watching movies. With the breakthrough of internet platforms, especially tumblr, these addictions might have increased, but perhaps they've just become more visible. Staying up all night to finish reading The Hunger Games or watching season 2 of Game of Thrones has never been cooler. Geeks, ahem: we, are everywhere.

Current Treasures: The perfectly magical realism of Woody and Haruki

Left: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Right: The Purple Rose of Cairo by Woody 

„We think it's only natural to get rice pudding after we put rice pudding mix in the microwave and the bell rings, but to me that's just a presumption. I would be kind of relieved if, every once in a while, after you put rice pudding mix in the microwave and it rang and you opened the top, you got macaroni gratin. I suppose I'd be shocked, of course, but I don't know, I think I'd be kind of relieved too. Or at least I think I wouldn't be so upset, because that would feel, in some ways, a whole lot more real.“

This is one of my favourite quotes from Haruki Murakami's masterpiece The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. It is in many ways essential to the book, reflecting on our society's view on reality and wrapping up the mysticism of the whole story. You could also go as far as saying it's the essence of the book, but then again... there is something about the way the main character cooks spaghetti.