Books: Percy Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan
Published: 2005-2009
Edition: Hyperion Trade Paperbacks
Pre reread Notes:
Hi my name is Reenie, and I’m a book franchise a-holic
It’s been seven months since I started my last franchise. And that franchise was Percy Jackson And The Olympians. OK, so technically speaking, this is five books, not one, but they’re written for ten year olds, so guess what, they only count as one. Also, I’m going to be in Chicago this weekend, on break from school, so I’m going to have a lot of reading time. And the first book of the sequel series, The Heroes of Olympus comes out on Tuesday. But that’s another story entirely. So, where to begin with Percy?
I guess you could say it starts with Xena. I loved that show. Then I loved Disney’s Hercules. Plus I loved looking at constellations. Greek mythology has always resonated with me. I also love interpretations, and anything that makes learning fun for kids. I hadn’t ever heard of Percy Jackson until this winter, when buzz started to circulate about the movie version, which incidentally is not very good. I was working for big super book store, and selling a lot of copies of the books. I was intrigued by the concept. In case you didn’t know, the idea behind Percy Jackson is that the Greek gods of the classics are real, and haven’t changed much in a thousand years, although they have relocated to the center of Western Civilization, these days? New York City. The gods still well, they’re still the gods, they still influence humanity in their small ways, and at times they still er, couple with humans, and produce demi gods. This children are easily spotted by their superior strength and speed, plus their predilection for ADHD and dyslexia (Fast reflexes, better for fighting, and their brains are hard wired for Ancient Greek, not English!) However, they’re also chased by evil monsters. As such, they spend their summers at a camp on Long Island called Camp Half-Blood. Percy Jackson is one of these kids.
The books aside from being action packed and super educational (they contain lessons galore about the classics) are really well written and devastatingly funny. But let’s bring it around to me. I finally picked up the first book in the series The Lightening Thief in March. I’d been working at my job for a month, out of school for three, and was still, well, struggling a little. I was happier than I’d been in a few years, but I was still floating and unsure. I needed to smile. And these books did it. It had also been a while since I had an obsession. I mean, I have an obsessive personality. This is something that I’ve just accepted as a part of who I am. I’ve had some good ones through the years, the whole Happy Days/Scott Baio thing (Age 14) was a winner, The Mighty Ducks movies (Ages 16-20), also a good one to cite, Harry Potter (Age 12-Now), Degrassi: The Next Generation (Age 17-22), Twilight (20-22), Joss Whedon (Current), and those are just off the top of my head. But I was due for one. And Percy and the other Heroes answered the call. Here were five books full of characters for me to devour! And they had lots of nerdy goodies for me to pick at about ancient civilizations. Plus it was something to talk to my younger cousins about.
Seriously, my cousin Bobby, is ten, and he’s possibly the best conversationalist I know. He’s really into Percy Jackson. So you might be thinking, “Reenie, you read this book seven months ago, how could it have had that much of an impact on you?” It just did. It was a light fluffy easy distracting obsession at a time in my life when I really needed that. So, there it is.
But seriously, I love a good book franchise. Give me your boy wizards, your sparkly vampires, your teen super sleuths, your Upper East Side teenagers, your NY Princesses! I’ll take ‘em all. But the demi-gods, they’ve got something special, and I can’t wait to see how that holds up!
Post Reread Notes
Big spankin thumbs up.
I love these stories, these characters, all of it. But there was something else I forgot about in the pre reread stage about why these stories resonate with me.
Percy is a son of Poseidon. The Sea God.
Why does this matter, exactly? Well, it’s kind of a funny story. When I started college I was really lucky. I had this awesome freshman year roommate. Seriously, she was super fun, and we had loads in common. We also had this friend that lived up the hall. Now, I was eighteen and away from home for the first time ever. I used to be a cheerleader. In middle school. I was very into it. I’d gone to an interest meeting about trying out for the Scranton squad, or I was on the way to a meeting, or something. Who knows? But I do know that Jaws was on TV and the three of us were watching it. Loath though I was to leave the Great White, I did. It ended up pouring raining. My friends’ response to this:
“You’re not supposed to be a cheerleader. It’s a sign from Poseidon.”
Yes, the rain and leaving Jaws was a sign from Poseidon that I’m not supposed to be a cheerleader. From then on it became a convenient excuse for us. If it rained and we didn’t feel like going someplace, such was Poseidon’s will. Jaws was one of his servants. If anything went wrong in our lives, it was Poseidon’s fall, he was screwing with us. So we had to pay tribute to him in stupid little ways before we did anything. Our biggest tribute came our sophomore year, when we went to Universal Studios Florida.
That’s us in front of Poseidon’s Temple in Universal Islands of Adventure The Lost Continent. Possibly the worst ride ever, of course saying this is the reason our flight home was delayed by four hours (damn you Poseidon!)
That’s us with his servant Jaws at Universal Studios Florida.
I haven’t thought of this in a while and it was kind of nice to reminisce. So, thanks for that Percy Jackson. Thanks a million!
