Hi, guys. I've read 30 books so far, plus a number of other items that I'm reluctant to identify as books (architecture albums? various guides? hmm), so they will stay unnamed.

My list of finished books with one-line (or even shorter) reviews:( is here )

I enjoyed reading your posts, guys, it helped me to choose a few interesting books for my to-read pile. Thank you! *hugs*

So, I almost made it!
Still not finished with Dorian Gray; first I got sidetracked by a heatwave, and then by ...other things, like work, existential coma and too much fanfic. But eighteen and a half out of twenty counts as pretty good, in my book. (Note: I haven't actually finished any project at all since ...1998, I think.)
The good thing about doing this is that I actually was forced to sit down and think about what I'd been reading, instead of just wolfing a book down, head-labeling it as "liked" or "didn't like", and then moving on and, in most cases, forgetting about it. If we decide to do another round - which I'm all for, by the way - I might make myself some sort of form to fill out about each book, to help structuring my thoughts a bit.

Turn of the Screw by Henry James

It's a classic ghost story, first published in 1898. It deals with a young governess being put in charge of two children, a boy and a girl, by their absentee uncle. After she arrives, she discovers that the ghosts of their former governess, Miss Jessel, and a man in the uncle's employ, Quint, have appeared to the children. The governess tries to find how much the children have seen the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel, and believes the children are in danger. She takes it upon herself to save the children from the spirits, and the story ends in tragedy. It was well written, but of course, I didn't find it particularly scary. Given the time it was written, and the sensibilities of the period, I can see how the story would have been considered frightening. (Of course, if I was still living in my former 127 year old Victorian house, and reading it while I was alone, I might feel different about it.) James relies on melodrama to get the atmosphere across. Sometimes I wish people still wrote stories like this, instead of relying on gore and shock to try to frighten readers.

17/20

1066 And All That by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman

This book was written in 1931. It's a spoof of English history. The title page states that the book is "comprising ll the parts you can remember, including one hundred and three good things, five bad kings and two genuine dates." It's a satirical look at how most people remember history. It has names of people, places and events that may be more or less accurate, facts that aren't really facts, and the very basic idea of history. I found it amusing. Especially once I looked at when it was written. It's just another of those oddities that I found on the bookshelf.

18/20

Okay, I almost made it.
I had fun sharing what I was reading, and seeing what other people were reading as well. I managed to read a couple of books from the "read this" pile, and didn't get around to anything I'd been meaning to but hadn't gotten around to yet.
If we're going to continue, I'm up for it, whether it's another challenge, or just to continue to share the love of reading.

A Spy in the House of Love

Yay!

I couldnt find Rohypnol so I read one of my favourite books over again, A Spy in the House of Love. I needed something so I could finish in time!

I love Anais, it just feels like im reading poems. The prose is always so melancholy and beautiful. :S I feel sad and also hopeful whenever I finish this one, hoping that Sabina finds a way to shed her fear.




The Curse

This is an Angel graphic novel miniseries combined into one binding. Its a slightly boring story (sadly) but deals with Angel going to Romania to try to get the gypsies to lift the curse so he can get nookie? basically? With Nina? I was a bit put off when I got to this bit, because, like... I dont know. I only read it today so i havent fully formed an opinion about it. And then it starts going on with the old 'this chick is dying but i could turn her, but she wouldnt be human'

The opening is kick ass though, Angel looks like Angel, and they've captured his slightly wry weary humour if you know what i mean without making him seem like a dumbass.

But then theres just a whole bunch of characters i dont care about, and then Angel gets a bit 'im going to help you so you can do something FOR ME' which is not really what he projected in the television series.

But it ends well... if very suddenly. Like the writers suddenly realised they were bored with the rehashed story and just ended it abruptly.

So, in summary, pictures pretty, humour funny, story pretty ordinary.


Books read: 21!!!!!!!! YIPPEEE



ETA: This was immensely fun for me! I really loved reading everyones posts, even when i didnt reply. I liked reading the reactions, and seeing everyone try to take part. It was a wonderful atmosphere for me, being in a group of people who loved enjoying books. :)

It's the last day of this challenge and despite having two more books to report I for sure have failed miserably with just 11 books read, but I had loads of fun anyway. How did you do?

I guess this is my cue for thanking you all for participating, but I kind of don't want to see you leave. It's been a great time getting inspired by you to read new things, finding new genres and authors, seeing the different reactions when we read the same books and getting motivated by seeing all of you posting. So, my question for all of you is... Want to do another round? 20 books by Feb 1st? And if you do, do you guys have any ideas for any changes, new rules, new challenges, anything?

And if this is it... THANK YOU and MUAH. It's been lovely having you ♥

I think I read this when I was younger, nothing in the book seemed particularly new. And it was in my bookshelf. But I still found it fascinating, especially the parts about rudimentary organs (possibly so interesting as just got my useless wisdom teeth REMOVED from my head) and the entire chapter on Instinct. Especially the part about the slave ants!

The chapter on Hybridism almost put me to sleep though. Ive got to say I started flipping through it while yawning.

Its like a written documentary! Insatiably readable too, especially when you're meant to be making up lost time at work ...

;)

Fish memory works in my favour sometimes, everything seems new, or at least... like deja vu!

Books read: 19/20
Next book: Well i was looking for Rohypnol when I found this, so maybe i'll search for it again.

Dark Side of the Sun, by Terry Pratchett.

Not one of his Discworld novels. Dom Salabos is about to take over as Chairman of his home planet, the First Syrian Bank. Some one is trying to kill him and prevent him from finding the mythical Jokers. There's sort of intrigue, robots and strange races. It doesn't live up to Pratchett's usual standards. There was humour, but not his usual laugh out loud variety. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as his usual work. Maybe I'm just jaded because I'm used to Discworld. Meh.
14/20

Murder in Three Acts by Agatha Christie.

It's a Hercule Poirot mystery, but Poirot is hardly there. He's more of a background character in this one. He does ultimately solve the murder at the end, and gives his usual explanation of how he figured it out and why the murdered killed who he did, but other characters do most of the leg work. Sir Charles Cartwright, his friend Mr. Satterthwaite, and a young woman with the unlikely name of Egg Lytton Gore do most of the investigating and only really occasionally meet up with Poirot to tell him what they've found. Still pretty good, but I don't think it's one of her best. It seemed almost like Poirot was laid up with a broken ankle or something and let others do his work for him. There wasn't any mention of Poirot being injured, it's just what it felt like while I was reading it.
15/20

Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen

I've been a Leonard Cohen fan since High School. I've listened to his songs and read his poetry. I still have some of his cd's and occasionally listen to them when I'm feeling particularly depressed. This book is described as "modern psalms". The prose is lyrical, and reminiscent of his poetry. It's also somewhat biblical when you read it. It reflects Cohen's Jewish heritage. It's hard to describe exactly what it's about, other than one man talking to his god. I can't see anyone other than a Cohen fan reading it.
16/20

Next book: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

So. CANNOT do Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" I just cant, that fucker is like a punt of rohypnol, it just puts me to fucking sleep!!! whats it even about! I cant HANDLE IT

However. Silent Bob Speaks does NOT put me to sleep and is very very amusing. Its not Kevin Smith's biography exactly... its more an amalgamation of his rants and thoughts. From ... a weight loss drug that gave him the runs, to a fake comic book convention write up thats filled with porno style sex.

Completely interesting, though you should ignore most of what he says, and he's very open about his bias' - and sometimes he's just really human and moving in his thoughts... especially about the real storyline of Starwars. :)

Books read: 18/20
Next book: NOT heart of darkness.

Maybe Rohypnol, mainly because i mentioned it above, lmao

Ok, so even though it's technically a kids book, I didn't really care. Being a HUGE Faith fan (from Buffy), I was curious to see what kind of backstory this guy would give her.

He has said that his research came from watching the show.

Ok, fair enough. But Robert... did you PAY ATTENTION to the show? Seriously kid, I could've crapped out a better backstory than that. I feel like I know Faith's character better than that.

Not to mention the gaping plot holes. Like... Faith getting that tattoo while she was possessed which it happens, literally, days before she shows up in Sunnydale. So shouldn't it still be all red and scabby?

It's written in diary format but I didn't see it as being completely in Faith's character, is all. Maybe I'm picky because I'm a huge Faith fan, but I really felt like it was out of character for Faith to say and do a lot of those things.

ALSO, he implies that Faith made up a few of her stories before she came to Sunnydale - ie. The priest hugging her while she was naked, the alligators, etc.

Thank God the books are never considered canon.

He was trying to show what choices were taken away from Faith and why she turned out the way she did, but I don't think he achieves that. He is basically implying that, no matter what, Faith is destined for the path she took because she's more or less a psychopath - even before she is called as the Slayer. But that's not how I perceive Faith as a character. I think she's very flawed and she did have a rough deal in life, but it wasn't until she reached Sunnydale and those actions took place that helped to make her what she was.

I don't know... it's kinda amusing, slightly weird, and a lot out of character. Glad I ordered this one rather than heading into the city to pick it up myself.

Books read: 12/20
Next up: I have a few things that I'm reading at once... which is probably why I don't absorb things, lol.

I'm happy to announce that I seem to be the first person accounted for that can resist this series. Both bittersweet_art and anso read them, despised them, ranted about them, and then went out to get the next part, so of course I had to see what all the fuss was about. Maybe the pages were doused with catnip? Maybe there were subliminal messages hidden in the text?

After reading the first book, I have no urge whatsoever to continue. I foung the language too simple even for a young audience, and I couldn't see the connection between what the main character tells us is going on, and how she reacts to it. I guess I might have liked this when I was 13 - when rereading old favourite books, I've found that my adolescent brain seemed to automatically fill in the gaps in, say, logical leaps and bad characterization. But what really put me off was that this is something I could have written when I was 13. (And yes, I quit writing for a reason.) But even back then, I knew how to construct a subclause...

The only thing that could make me keep reading these books is the hope that Edward might bend whatshername over the hood of his shiny Volvo (and come on! A Volvo is about as un-cool as it gets!) and fuck her senseless. But, this being a teenage book, I highly doubt that will happen.

Progress: 18/20
Next: halfway through Dorian Gray!

We were rewatching all of Supernatural when suddenly it hit me: the Winchester brothers are a perfect reincarnation of Skorpan and Jonatan! So of course I had to read it again.

The main part of the book is a classic fantasy story: the battle between good and evil, peaceful valleys full of cherry blossoms, evil tyrants, hideous dragons - the complete works. But the beginning and end is what caused an uproar among literary critics when it first came out in the early 70's. In normal children's books, you usually didn't have little kids a) dying from polio and TB in a corner, b) jumping from a burning building killing themselves to save said TB/polio patient, and definitely not c) jumping off a cliff to a certain death to avoid getting paralyzed. Highly unsuitable, I say!

This may be a children's book, but the first few chapters - before the brothers are both dead and happy together again in Nangijala - kill me every time. Skorpan, withering away on the kitchen couch, coughing his lungs up, painfully aware that everyone thinks that the wrong brother - perfect fairytale prince Jonatan - died in the fire, while Skorpan was about to die soon anyway? Has me blubbering like a baby seal. Feel free to use it against me.

Progress: 17/20

As long as I have Lindqvist, I don't care if Stephen King never writes another book in his life. I was completely blown away by Handling the Undead, Let the Right One In and Paperwalls, and his latest book (not yet available in English) definitely didn't let me down.

A depressed, alcoholic and recently divorced man returns to the little island village where his daughter literally disappeared without a trace a few years earlier. One second they were all on a hike over the ice to an old, abandoned lighthouse; the next, she was gone, even though there was nowhere she could have gone without being noticed.
As the father begins to receive cryptic messages from something that may or may not be his daughter, he unearths secrets about both his own family and the island's history, and soon discovers that there's a price to pay for living happily ever after.

Even though Lindqvist is usually labeled as a horror writer, that's never the main attraction about his books. Sure, they can be creepy enough, but his main qualities are his character depiction, and the way he so effortlessly weaves zombies, vampires and changelings into the bleak, ordinary, Swedish everyday life.

So go out and read all of his books, all of you; however, I strongly advise against reading this book if you a) like the sea and would continue to do so, b) enjoy spending time in the archipelago of the Swedish east coast, or c) are a The Smiths fan. Trust me, these things will never be the same again.

Man I could not put this book down!! I actually started reading it yesterday on the train, then on the way home, and then stayed up till past midnight reading it last night, then sneakily at work today!

Complete contradiction to the last book! This is a book about learning to love life, and to put your back into it, even if you break your own spine in the process. Cause the main point of it all is to defiantly keep pushing back against people who want to tear you down, cause no one deserves it in this life.

Nice message.

Beautiful characters.

*great* ending. Very this-century noble.

I would definitely recommend this one. :) Unless you have work to do lol, cause its infectious! Kinda sad still, but life is sad.

Now i wanna see the movie!

Books read: 17/20
Next book: will try to do Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' ... failed before... but lets try again!!!

The main character is a woman in love with a man. Unfortunately the man is already in a relationship with another woman. While waiting her beloved to notice her as a potential love interest the woman wanders around Paris, waits his phone calls at home and goes to work - she is an announcer telling people which trains to catch, where and at what time. Timetables she can do but life is much more complicated.

The book concentrates on what's going on in the mind of a lonely, obsessed (and stupid) woman. I didn't feel too much for her although I probably should have. Mulling things over is ok but there's a limit to it. I didn't really find any of the characters particularly charming. They just live their lives being desperate or bored or silly. If the "doesn't matter" -attitude is what the writer wanted to point out she succeeds. It just feels a little used theme. (Especially with this one subtext the book has, I won't spoil it for you, but it explains the main characters actions quite a lot and is visible throughout the book. When the thing is fully explained in the end all I felt was blah blah.)

Oh well. Even though I didn't like it too much I can see why some other people would enjoy it. It is written nicely after all and if you don't mind this sort of storytelling... Personally I think I will forget this book quite quickly as the story really didn't really affect me in any level.

Books read: 16
Next: Veronica - Nicholas Christopher

This was another reread for me. I originally read it in Yr 11 while I was studying that particular time period in Ancient History, and I'd become interested in it after reading excerpts.

Random side note: It only cost me $5 in a secondhand bookstore. Awesome.

Anyway, enjoyed it less the second time around, but that's not to say it's not still interesting. If that makes sense. I think just my interest in that time period has waned a bit, understandable, as it's been like 6 years.

Also had random flashbacks to high school, of giving everyone in my class X-Men personas and then my "study" for the HSC with a friend, eating lunch and making up dirty names for the people we had to remember.

... Could be why I didn't do that well in school.

Books read: 11/20... 9 books in a week. Mmm, do-able? I do have 5 new books to read, so I should probably read them...
Next up: I'm in the middle of reading Lolita, but I did just order a book online, so if that comes before I finish Lolita, chances are, I will start reading it... haha.

Oh My...

Great book.

Really, I think its the best book ive read all year.

I cant really describe it, it deals with so much. Its about two brothers.
Weve got one brother who cant understand the mechanics of love/lust, but ridiculously smart, a contributor to mankind. And then, on the other side, a brother who cant seem to get through a wall he can FEEL between him and actually falling in love with someone, he lives through his cock and has this underlying resentment towards women for ... almost... not letting him love them. He lives as a regressive teenager, and cant seem to understand that he is getting older.

It talks about womens places, talks about men's roles in society, and why we're doomed to succeed in any ordered fashion [""Without the notion of continuous progress, human evolution took random, irregular and violent turns for which men (with their predilection  for risk and danger, their repulsive egotism , their volatile nature and their violent  tendencies)  were directly to blame.""] talks about sexuality, biology, Huxley...

Its terrifically sad. And makes you hate the world for what it is, and people for what they are, and makes you ... hope... for something better amongst all the sadness and disassociation. And its also pretty funny in spots too, though its a bitter laugh.

It can come off as coolly written (as in, lack of heat) but i believe he's writing about passionless people. Its a world that is shallow and meaningless and they understand it, and the characters don't live with a ... zest for life. Most of them are just waiting to die.

Dont read if you like the usual happy endings you get these days

Do read if you like to wallow, if you can stand sad people living sad lives, and if can bring yourself to be slapped in the face over and over with a blunt dissolute reality that is just kickass. Its great writing. And it just FORCES you to think outside the comfort zone.

I reeaaaaaaaaaalllllly enjoyed it, though I did feel like i was slowly being punctured to death.


Its like that movie Sunshine. It deeply affected me, and i loved it. But it scared me and I tell everyone:



"I loved this movie... but dont watch it. I can't tell you to watch it. Because it turned my thinking upside down for a little while..."



Books read: 16/20 (i have to read 4 books in a week? Lucky i have no money to go out with!)
Next book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

Everytime I try to get clockwork orange, it isnt in! last time, all the copies had been nicked. If i read the count of monte cristo... i def wont make the cut off.

So even though he's come out and said that a lot of things are embellished, yada yada, I did still quite like this book. It's fragmented and it took me awhile to get used to the way he writes. The random capitalisation of words confused me a bit, and sometimes it's hard to follow who is actually speaking, because it all merges into one block. Oh, and to be extra helpful, he doesn't use quotation marks. But once I got used to that, I didn't mind it at all... keeping in mind that yeah, some of it didn't happen exactly that way, but I agree with his point to an extent, it is his memoir and if that is how he felt/remembered the situation, well then, that's how he should describe it.

'It's broken beyond repair. It's in a million little pieces.'

Anyway... it's taken me awhile to read this one, I read a few other books while I was still reading this one, only because this one was a little heavy at times, and because it is fragmented, I found I couldn't read it for hours at a time. But I do want to read the continuation - My Friend Leonard.

Books read: 10/20 - halfway finally!
Next up: Hamlet maybe?

I finished The Fountainhead today. A+.

In case you're wondering what I am going to do now that I have scaled this tome, I'll set your minds at ease. I am going to read it again. I tend to read fast, and in doing so I miss a lot of stuff. I also tend to skip long passages that aren't broken up, which leads to missing even more stuff. Unfortunately for me, a good 20-30% of this book consists of characters monologuing their little hearts out. It kills me, people, it kills me. My brain is just not wired to consume large blocks of text. Ayn Rand, take note!

Oh, right, you're dead.

Interesting note: I did not like any of the characters, not a single one of them, until the very end of the book. At first that really annoyed me, but then I realized that I was able to read the book more as an observer, because I didn't identify with anybody and wasn't too invested in their lives. Then the book drew to a close, and I actually was happy at certain characters' personal triumphs.

Anyway, good book. Long book. Yay me.

Books read: I have no idea, it's been a season of re-reads for me. I am glad that Therese is running this community so the deadline is more of a suggestion, and what would she do to me anyway, seriously? (<3 Therese)

Ok, so for those non Aussies, Judith Lucy is a fairly well known comedian over here in Australia, and she's kinda known for telling horror stories about her family. She was inspired to write a book about them when someone close to her implied that she didn't love her parents, so she wanted to set the record straight.

So... wow. Just wow, really. I'm a fan of Judith Lucy, although I've never seen her live, I do enjoy watching her on shows and she's always managed to make me laugh. But I'll be honest when I say that I wasn't expecting much from the book. From what I'd heard about it (and watching her interviews about it) I surmised that it would be a funny recount of her childhood with some tragic stories told in a funny way. And essentially, that's what it is.

But it's much more than that. I was blown away. It was horrible and sad but hilarious all at the same time. It's told in the same sarcastic humour that she's famous for and it's really not a disappointing read. It's an easy read, I finished it in about 2 days, although, I did do most of the reading on a train and so looked quite insane chuckling to myself, and sometimes none too quietly.

Apparently am on a bit of a biography kick at the moment. But I enjoyed it.

Books read: 9/20
Next up: Will finally finish off that James Frey book... hopefully. Short of getting distracted with another book...

Oh, man, I'm so behind in my reviews. I've read about 30 books so far, but I posted only once, because, well, writing in English turned out to be hard, hard, hard. But I keep trying. :D

'The Devil Wears Prada' - Lauren Weisberger (USA, 2003)
Pages: 448
Rating: 4/10

My second choice back in February was "The Devil Wears Prada". I liked the movie, it was silly, amusing and even inspiring. The book was disappointing. Not a single joke that made me laugh really hard, not a single event that made me really sad. The characters were easily sorted by their main traits: a bitch, a drinker, a whiner (yes, I'm talking about you, Andrea), etc., and most of the time didn't do anything else besides that.
It could be a nice short story, but 450 pages of the same complaints repeated over and over again bored me pretty fast.
I liked the end, though. It was syropy and unrealistic, but the main character was happy at last. Phew!

Naive. Super - Erlend Loe (Norway, 1996)
Pages: 256
Rating: 7/10

Nice and deceptively simple book. It asks many questions, but offers very few answers. You must find them on your own. After reading it I spoke in short sentences for two days. I even made a list of things I loved as a kid. It has 36 items and it makes me smile every time I read it. The list of things I like now has only 5 items. But it's ok, I'm working on it. And it seems I'm speaking in short sentences again. This style is catching.

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (UK, 1989)
Pages: 304
Rating: 7/10

This "most British book of the century", as the cover insists, in fact is very Japanese. I'm not surprised it was written by the Japanese-born author. It reminded me of the Japanese treatises on warrior virtues, because the virtues of a perfect butler, as the main character sees them, are the same as of a perfect samurai: utter devotion to your master, dignity, loyalty, stoicism, suppressing of your own sentiments, desires and opinions.

The tragedy is that a perfect butler unlike a perfect samurai most likely would live long enough to look back at his life and to question some things he so vehemently beleived. In the remains of the day he's left with very few options: lonliness and disappointment or listless life and denial.