New listy thing

Argh! I've lost my list :(

1. Death's Mistress
2. Terrible Tudors
3. Crown Duel
4. Court Duel
5. Dragonfly
6. Going Postal
7. Remember Me?
8. The Color Purple
9. A Tthousand Splendid Suns
10. A Pirates Pleasure
11. Resenting the Hero
12. The Hero Strikes Back
13. Splendid
14. Dancing at Midnight
15. To Sir Philip with Love
    
16. Prudence
17. Beastly
18. Boy A
    
19. The Magic Flute - Iva Ibbotson (28/05/10)
    

Reading Project - Finished Books

Last year i found a list of books online, claiming to be one published by the BBC with the claim that the average person had only read six of them. Looking through the list i realised that was exactly the number i had read, so i set about trying to make myself a little less of a failure.

This is the list of the books from that list as and when i finish them. Unfortunately i haven't always kept dates

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Primary School)
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (Primary)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (High School)
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (High School - GCSE set text)
4 Harry Potter series - J.K.Rowling (Last one came out during high school)
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (Lower sixth - College - April/May)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (L6 - College - 20/04/09)
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (L6 - College - 18/09/09)
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (L6 - College - 23/09/09)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (L6 - College - September)
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (Upper sixth - College)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (U6 - College)
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (U6 - College - 03/03/10)

Going Postal - Terry Pratchett

WOOO! My first full Terry Pratchett book! :D I've been wanting to try them for years but never got very far, i think perhaps because i was worried i wouldn't like; its well known that they are suited to a certain sense of humour and i was worried i wouldn't get it but was pleasantly suprised when it had me laugh out loud.

The reason i got into this one was my college book club, which i am trying to finish all the books for (although i did finish this one after the meeting :P). Suprisingly all but two other members either didnt read it or didn't like it, which is a shame because once you get past the rather peculiar 9000 year prologue then its rather gurrd.

The story is about a guy called Moist who was an expert conman who finally got caught. The lord of Ankh-Morpork decides, rather than killing moist he would put his skills to good use by making him head of the failing post office. After some failed escape attempts moist finally grows to his role, seeing it as another challenge to beat the competition and fool the world.

Apparently this is one of the worst T.P's to start on, but i found it fine. However, this might nto have been the case if i hadn;t allready tried to read various pratchett books in the past so had an overview of the world already. If you're in a similar situation, then i'd say this one is a great start into the world (as its relatively stand alone). Earlier i made the mistake of starting at the begining, but apparently his books have changed a lot over time, apparently even he doesnt like his earlier books so much anymore.

Anyhee, worth a go, i'm definitely going to look to read more of his books, perhaps starting with the one that comes after this one, which i am told is called making money, where moist's given the job of reforming the banking system.

TBR Challenge

This is a useful challenge for knocking books off that list that you've always wanted to read but never quite got round to... and mines pretty extensive. The idea is to create a set list of 12 at the begining of the year and either read one a month, or whatever until they are gone. Last year i tried this and knocked 5 off my list, so i'm going to have another go :) (although i am a little late starting :/)

To Be Read:

1. I Hope - Raisa Gorbachev
2. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgees
4. Eucalyptus - Murray Bail
5. Dracula - Bram Stoker
6. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
7. Atonement - Ian McEwan
8. The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
9. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
10. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
11. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
    
12. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S.Lewis

Finished List:

1. The Color Purple - Alice Walker (03/03/10)
   

100+ Challenge 2010

Woop, another year and my first challenge of the year :) i really like this one as it allows me to indulge in my reading habbit :P
The Challenge is pretty simple, 1 year, 100 books :) i managed it in 2009 (by the skin of my teeth) and would like to do it again :) I'll probably list books on here as i finish them (i've got a few under my belt already) and stick them in the sidebar too. Hosted by J.Kaye, who i'm very gratefull to :)

(oh, and this year i'd like at least ten of them to be classics, either modern or traditional ones)

100+ Challenge reads:

1. Death's Mistress - Karen Chance (05/01/10)
2. The Terrible Tudors - Terry Deary (12/01/10)
3. Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith (17/01/10) -211 pages (re-read)
   
4. Court Duel - Sherwood Smith (18/01/10) - 260 pages (re-read)
   
5. Dragonfly - Juila Golding (19/02/10) - 398 pages (re-read coursework has left me with no time ):
   
6. Going Postal - Terry Pratchett (21/02/10) - 463 pages (Book Club)
   
7. Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella (28/02/10) - 432 pages (re-read)
   
8. The Color Purple - Alice Walker (03/03/10) - 244 pages
9. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (14/03/10) - 366 pages (Book Club)
10. A Pirates Pleasure - Heather Graham (21/03/10) - 385 pages (re-read - 3rd time)
    
11. Resenting the Hero - Moira J. Moore (30/03/10) - 285 pages (re-read)
12. The Hero Strikes Back - Moira J. Moore (31/o3/10) - 308 pages
13. Splendid - Julia Quinn (05/04/10) - 396 pages (re-read)
14. Dancing at Midnight - Julia Quinn (11/04/10) - 375 pages (re-read)
15. To Sir Phillip with Love - Julia Quinn (11/04/10) - 372 pages
16. To Catch an Heiress - Julia Quinn (16/04/10) - 377 pages (Re-read)
17. Heros book 3 (may bank holiday)
18. Prudence
19. Beastly - Alex Flinn (15/05/10)
20. Boy A - Jonathan Tirgell (17/05/10) - 248 pages (Book Club)
21. The Magic Flute - Iva Ibbotson (28/05/10) (Here is where i've neglected it, lost my order and dates and possibly which books have been read.... shall try my best)
22. Do You Want Me? - India Knight
23. Octavia - Jilly Cooper
    
24. My Single Friend - Jane Costello
25. ?
    
26. The Duke and I - Julia Quinn
27. Making Money - Terry Pratchett
28. The Turning
29. ?
    
30. Harriet
31. Aphrodite's Workshop for Reluctant Lovers - Marika Cobbold (21/08/10) - 302 pages
32. ?
33. ?
34. ? various books, no idea how many.
35. Lisa & Co - Jilly Cooper
    
36. Riders - Jilly Cooper
37. Bella - Jilly Cooper
    

New Year Resolutions

HAHAHA, its the time to make a load of promises to ourselves that we know the chances of us keeping them are slim, its a wonder why we bother year after year.... but i guess you never give up hope and a new year is the best time to think of new starts and if you have several resolutions and keep to just one of them then thats good i guess :)

Resolutions for 2010:

• Learn to do the splits
• Read another 100 books
  
• Revise FULLY for exams and hopefully get into a good uni :)
• Learn to write more concisely in essays etc

I guess its at least worth a try :)
I would put in the typical ones: excercise more, eat less and healthier, monitor my bad language and help out more, but i guess that goes without being said. Been my resolutions so many times, but never quite managed to suceed for longer than a few weeks...

Methinks perhaps it would be better to lay out a couple of resolutions for each month and take things in bitesiezed chunks, therefore:

January Resolutions: (0/4)

• No more reading (unless exam related or book club) before re-sits
• REVISE, REVISE, REVISE.
• Not hang around in the hall talking with friends but burrow self away in library and... revise.
• Find a mousse recipe that works :) (for me at least)
  

2009 100+ Challenge Wrap-up

The aim of this challenge was to read 100+ books in 2009, and i almost thought i wouldn't make it! (Finished the last one this morning!), I'm going to publish the finished list below, which is copied from the original post i've been updating. I will confess the fact that i've been cheating slightly - there are several books that i've read twice this year and i've counted those aswell, not sure whether it technically counts or not, but everytime i've finished a book i've written it down - for the most part i've made a note of when i was reading one again, anyhee, here goes:

100 Books Read in 2009:

1. Blue Moon Rising - Simon Greene
2. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
3. Tithe - Holly Black
4. Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith
   
5. The Princess Academy - Shanon Hale
6. Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
7. Touch the Dark - Karen Chance
8. Claimed by Shadow - Karen Chance
9. Embrace the Night - Karen Chance
10. Midnight's Daughter - Karen Chance
11. Remember Me - Sophie Kinsella
12. Eclypse - Stephene Meyer
13. Curse the Dawn - Karen Chance
14. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
15. The Rangers Apprentice, the Ruins of Gorlan - (need to find out author)
16. An offer from a Gentleman - Julia Quinn
17. Storm Front - Jim Butcher
18. Bella - Jilly Cooper
19. Persuasion - Jane Austen
20. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac - Gabrielle Zevin
21. Kitty and the Midnight Hour - Carrie Vaughn
22. Beauty - Robin McKinley
23. Star-Crossed - Rachael Wing
24. Emily - Jilly Cooper
    
25. Minx - Julia Quinn
26. Harriet - Jilly Cooper
27. The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella
28. Brighter than the Sun - Julia Quinn
29. Splendid - Julia Quinn
30. Dancing at Midnight - Julia Quinn
31. To Catch an Heiress - Julia Quinn
32. Teen Idol - Meg Cabot
    
33. How to Marry a Marquis - Julia Quinn
34. AQA Britain (1483-1529)
35. The Lost Duke of Wyndham - Julia Quinn
36. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever - Julia Quinn
37. Everything and the Sun - Julia Quinn
38. Curse the Dawn - Karen Chance (re-read)
39. A Midsummer Nights Dream - William Shakespeare
40. Resenting the Hero - Moira J Moore
41. Addition - Toni Jordan
42. Mr.Cavendish, I Presume - Julia Quinn
43. And then there were none - Agatha Christie
44. Love you to Death - Meg Cabot
45. High Stakes - meg Cabot
46. Mean Spirits - Meg Cabot
47. Young Blood - Meg Cabot
48. Grave Doubts - Meg Cabot
49. Fantastic Mr Fox - Roal Dahl
50. Heaven Sent - Meg Cabot
51. The Sweet Scent of Blood - Suzanne McLeod
52. Fool Moon - Jim Butcher
53. Magic Study - Maria V. Snyder
54. Touch the Dark - Karen Chance (again)
55. Claimed by Shadow - Karen Chance (again)
56. Embrace the Night - Karen Chance (again)
57. Graceling - Kristin Cashore
58. The Secret Countess - Eva Ibbotson
59. The Singing - Alison Croggon
60. Warprize - Elizabeth Vaughan
61. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
62. Bella - Jilly Cooper (again)
63. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Attwood
64. Animal Farm - George Orwell
65. When he was Wicked - Julia Quinn
66. Bridget Jone's Diary - Helen Fielding
67. Angus, thongs and full frontal snogging - Louise Rennison
68. Its OK, I'm wearing REALLY BIG Knickers! - Louise Rennison
69. Knocked out by my Nunga-Nungas - Louise Rennison
70. Dancing in my Nuddy-Pants - Louise Rennison
71. '...and thats when it fell off in my hand' - Louise Rennison
72. '...then he ate my boy entrancers.' - Louise Rennison
73. '...startled by his furry shorts!' - Louise Rennison
74. 'Luuurve is a many trousered thing...' - Louise Rennison
75. 'Stop in the name of pants! - Louise Rennison
76. 'Are these my basoomas i see before me?' - Louise Rennison
77. Cinderella - Never-Never Land Stories
78. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Never-Never Land Stories
79. Little Red Riding Hood - Never-Never Land Stories
80. The Musicians of Breman - Fantasy Land Fairy Tales
81. Polo - Jilly Cooper
82. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
83. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever - Julia Quinn (again!)
84. The Changeover - Margaret Mahy
85. The Magic Finder - Roald Dahl
86. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
87. Minx - Julia Quinn (again)
88. Beastly - Alex Flinn
89. Everything and the Moon - Julia Quinn (again)
90. Slam - Nick Hornby
91. Brighter than the Sun - Julia Quinn (again)
92. Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews
93. Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
94. How to Marry a Marquis - Julia Quinn
95. Love Struck - Rachael Wing
96. Tales from Russia - James Mayhew
97. Emily - Jilly Cooper (again)
98. Midnight's Daughter - Karen Chance (again)
99. Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
100. Old Magic - Marianne Curley

Its a bit of a mix, there are some i'm proud of, others less so, but for me personally i feel i have achieved something because previously i don't think i'd read any classics or books like that, i read purely for pleasure (which i don't see much of a problem with, but sometimes i feel i should read more 'intellectual' books aswell), but i'll put a breakdown below.

Books i'm particularly proud of having read: (If 'proud' is the right word...?)

• Gone with the wind - (WOOP! first classic! - i really chose a short one didn't i? :P)
  
• Persuasion -(my first jane austen!)
  
• AQA Britain 1483-1529(I read a textbook woop! :P)
• A midsummer night's dream - (my first shakespeare!)
• And Then there were none - (My first agatha Christie! - and no, i didn't get the murderer right ):
• Pride and Predudice
  
• A Handmaid's Tale
• Animal Farm
• Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (totally out of my usual comfort zone)
• To Kill a Mockingbird - (AND it was relevant to my history course!)

Books I Particularly Enjoyed:

• Touch the Dark/Claimed by Shadow/Embrace the Night/Curse the Dawn - Karen Chance - (urban fantasy series which IMO = Awesum :P)
• Midnight's Daughter - Karen Chance (spin off series)
• Gone with the Wind - (Because Rhett Butler = amazing; but the end is so sad!! NOOOOOO!)
• Minx - Julia Quinn (Because it made me smile on a dark day :)
• A midsummer night's dream - (because the language is amazing)

Anyway, thats a rough summary :P Of all the challenges i attempted this year this is probably the one i enjoyed the most (an excellent excuse for excessive reading ;P) so thankyou very much for hosting it :) :) I shall hopefully try again next year, but i have a couple of pesky exams to get out of the way first :P

Thanks, and Happy New Year! :D:D xxxx

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

My mind brings up a line from the poem i read last night 'the rain set in early tonight..' thats how the weather feels now, only its not night yet, at half three the grass is too bright against the dull grey sky, with a line of brown for a hedge, somewhere past the crest of the hill. It reminds me of some painting where the colours havent been blended properly, or muted down enough to seem real. I can hear the rain pooring on to the paving flags surrounding the house, can imagine it splashing off leaves in big, fat, continuous drops. From where im sitting i cant see the golden leaves of the autumn oak, which always looks too warm and comforting at this time of year, when the rest of the world has turned dull and drear, and the long wait for spring's flowers -heralded by the delicate snowdrop- begins.

Strange things to be thinking after finishing this book, but what first sprang to mind after the end of a story thats been described as 'hauntingly prophetic' is that i can't imagine it coming true. Dimly i am aware of rumours of people who spend their hours in front of the t.v. screen, unaware of the world around them, but maybe because my world is so apart from that, i'm in denial of it ever being true and can't really believe that the warning this book gives is likely to have any real effect.

But then it is only a book, and dystopias are strange in their fortelling-of-horror ways.

Fahrenheit 451 has been lurking on the edges of my life for some time, waiting to be picked up and read, i think i've only managed it now because before i was unable to see past the strangeness in the way it is written, particularly at the start. But it is definitely past working through this strangeness, as the story beneath is quite fascinating. A world where people have t.v. 'parlours' with giant screens for each wall. A place where they are able to shout nothingness to their 'family' and live without taking any time to stop and think for themselves, just absorb what is fed them in multi-dimentional, 3D, Hight Definition, Surround Sound. A world, set some un-specified time in the future where wars can take place but people take no notice of them. Where millions of books are banned and the posession of them brings firefighters to your door, to burn your house down with gushing streams of kerosene.

The sky outside has now turned a murky blue, cerulean mixed with a touch of lamp black, the grass slope leading up to it is bright sap green, with dashes of veridian slased across it. The hedge at the top is a dark burnt umber, the trees behind seem to be uniform splodges of burnt sienna. Two poplars reach up into the blue, high above the squater oaks. Every now and then i see the flash of headlamps through the hedge, the only sign of the road hidden behind it.

In this world people turn away from books and education, not by force but of their own violation, and i guess that is the shocking thing. It is only later when governments see the use in having people who don't question them, and decide to force out those who still cling to the old traditions. People seen walking slowly are thought to be crazy, and driving below 55mph is illegal. Billboards are stretched out, because people go so fast they're unable to see the old ones. Even the bible is baned and 'christ' has been made up on the screens to sell cleaning products to the eager viewers at home.

I don't know where this review is going :P

Guy Montag is a fireman, and this story follows his transformation from unquestioning follower, to someone who wakes up to the madness around him. The whole book seems to flow in a daze, like someone who is too tired to fix on things, but lets them flow around him without clear focus. Yet this doesnt mean that its filled with waffle, the books is short and the dull sense of it is clean and powerful to read. I found the speeches other characters gave to Guy particularly interesting, two of them i'll type below.


"Do you know why books such as these are important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details per square inch, you can get on a sheet of paper, the more 'literary' you are. Thats my definition anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often, the mediocre ones run a hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies' Pt. 2, p.83. Faber talknig to Montag about the bible.

Granger -> Montag, p.15o, part III
"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away."

This strange little book will make you think, and doesnt seem to have as much fame as one would think. I guess whether your into this type of thing or not its worth reading it, and while it makes you think it isn't challenging or too high and mighty for mere mortals to read. Even though i've probably missed a few of the higher themes. Although not likely to ever really happen, it is quite disturbing ;P

- poetry in first paragraph from porphyria's lover, by Browning.

100 + challenge,,, desperate cheating time :P

The idea of this challenge was to read 100 books in 2009, at the moment i have 24 left to read and only 51 days, which is like 3 1/4 books per week. With my studies (and 2 re-takes to study for over the xmas holidays) i have come to the decision that my only hope of succeeding with this challenge is through cheating :P

How am i going to do this? Read children's books.

My mum asked me earlier to sort though a load of old kiddie books to work out which ones i was happy to get rid of, which at first i decided to check for the A-Z Challenge, before realising i had challenge gold dust before me (unfortunately none of them really had the letters i was looking for - I've got to the tricky point where its mostly X's and Y's left) I've also found charlie and the chocolate factory, which is on my reading project, so BONUS!

I know this isnt really completing the challenge properly but a books is a book is a book, and it'll be fun if nothing else, besides, i have some lovely ones like dodger and fungus the bogey man, so i dont think i'm missing out really.

Despite this i am still going to try my hardest to get through the 100, this is hopefully just edging me a bit closer, then maybe next year i'll be able to do it properly :P

Hope nobody minds too much - would you think its amoral or not?

i'm getting kindof guilty now :P

The Classics Challenge - Wrap up

I joined this challenge because some time ago, after having kept lists of read books for a while, i noticed that allthough i read quite a lot, none of it seemed like the type of thing i'd reccomend to a friend, or be proud of having read (though all enjoyable). It started with me finally getting back to reading gone with the wind (which id read the first 200-300pages of when i was in year eight - about 12-13yrs old- but stopped part way through) i picked it up again during the easter hols and was suprised by how much i enjoyed it, and it was this that led me to search the net for more classic ideas, and i think thats how i came upon the whole blogging thing.

Persuasion followed, a bit of a drag, but still fun. After this (and as part of the once upon a time challenge)i read a midsummer night's dream - my first shakespeare! and it was fantastic! The language had the lovely poetry-ish feel that made it perfect for unwinding before bed.
After this i lost momentum for a while, and went on binges of my usual easy reading, before finishing pride and predudice, a handmaid's tale and animal farm in quick sucession. Pride and predudice and a handmaid's tale were both read during my frees at college, and as some friends were reading the latter for their english lit course we were able to have discussions about it. Animal farm was read whilst waiting for my mum in the library one afternoon when i'd walked into town.

My last book, To kill a mockingbird, has probably been one of my favourites, also read in college, (with a louise rennison series at home, and nightly doses of emma before bed) i had loads of people telling me how amazing it is. After taking a while to get into it - it tends to be distracting reading in college - i really started to enjoy the story, although unfortunately i've not finished it yet (Busy half term spent gutting my room, followed by a weekend at st.deniol's library) i hope to soon.

So despite not finishing the challenge, i feel i have done enough to have achieved something personally. Six classics to some people may not mean much at all, but to me, who has never been able to stick at anything respectable, its meant a lot. I feel better about myself, and have the added bonus of being able to talk about books that other people might actually have read ;P But not only this, I now have the confidence to try more books of a similar genre, and not pass them by with the assumption that i'd never read it, never get into it, or just abandon it after the first chapter.

If i'm still on the blog, i will definitely have another go at this challenge next year :D
Thankyou very much for hosting such a worthwhile and entertaining challenge :)

To Read this Year

Its mid-october, i think i have about 75 days left to finish this (my first) years challenges (with the exception of the classics challenge and R.I.P. which both finish october 31st).

My main aim is to get the last 29 books of 100+ challenge, although its unlikely i'll manage (college takes time away from reading :'( ) I'm also doubtful that i'll manage either of the A-Z, as i'm struggling with those last few X, Y, U letters, but we shall see.

Heres a list of some books i still hope to read this year:

• '...then he ate my boy entrancers.' - Louise Rennison
  
• '...startled by his furry shorts!' - Louise Rennison
• 'Luuurve is a many trousered thing...' - Louise Rennison
• To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee
• Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol
• Sunshine - Robin McKinley
• Dead as a Doornail - Charlain Harris
• The Two Towers - Tolkein
• Breaking Dawn - Stephene Meyer
• Dead until Dark - Charlain Harris
• Emma - Jane Austen
• 'Stop in the name of pants!' - Louise Rennison
• The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams
• Are these my basoomas i see before me? - Louise Rennison
• Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews
• The Hero Strikes Back - Moira J. Moore
• Love Struck - Rachael Wing
  

Bold = Read since started list

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Attwood

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel set in a totalitarian society, where infertility is becoming a serious problem due to radiation and other problems so people are taking drastic measures to get children. It is set in Gilead -which 'was' the united states, with the government overthrown- and the narrator reveals a world where everyone is placed in positions/roles and any slight deviation from their set character can result in punishments or hanging.

The narrator is a woman, one of these 'handmaids' which are some of the few fertile woman, who are expected to give their bodies up to act as surrogate mothers to the wealthier 'commanders' etc who can't conceive themselves. The narrator lets us into her world, showing snippets of her characters past woven in with its present (as she narrates it), and the world she portrays is kind of frightening; women have lost virtually all rights, the right to vote, own property, own money... they are dressed in colours matched to their position and are supposed to act as vessels, wives or maids depending on their position in this society. The book is described as feminist, but this didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of it, instead made the story more interesting, and the world it created worrying.

I found the handmaid's tale enjoyable and accessible, easy and clear to read, yet gripping and intelligent at the same time (although i didn't like the end!!) and it didnt put me off in the same way most modern classics do (theres something so depressing and cold about them), so if anyone else is taking their first dip into this kind of genre, The Handmaid's Tale is a good place to start. Other people i've spoken to who've read it have split opinions, all admit its written strangely (i think in a good way) but either think like it or hate it. But i'd definitely say its worth the read!!

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

If i'm honest there's not really much to write about this, its a classic. I was working it out earlier that Miss. Austen started writing this around 216yrs ago (unless my maths is faulty) and yet people today can still relate to it, and the characters within. As many people have said its sort of the original chic-lit romance, with so many other stories based upon it.

I started this some time ago, yet never managed to get round to finishing it until today where i sat down and gobbled up the last 100 pages.

Character wise I liked Lizzy, although she was almost too outspoken at times, but one of the brilliant things is the way the characters faults are shown up, making them seem much more human and real to the reader. Darcy was ofc amazing, yet there was fun to be had with mr.collins, lydia bennet, and mrs.bennet also. The annoying characters are so fantastic i cant help feeling affection towardst them. Overall a good read (ofc), personally i'd reccommend getting a copy with well spaced non-bold lettering if possible, particularly if you're a bit slow on the classics like me, as when i changed copies i found this so much easier, it really saves peering and getting lost between lines. (my second one was the everyman's 'the millennium library' one, although this may be out of print.)

Touch the Dark - Karen Chance

I've recently re-read this series and am still loving it :) Thought i'd tinker my amazon review for here, as it seems wrong not to post one for a book i like so much :)

Cassie has just spent the last several years on the run from her former master, vampire crime boss Tony. At the start of the book her motivations revolve around trying to either avoid being found by him, or getting revenge. However, as the story progresses she becomes ensnared in a mess thats much more dangerous.
Touch the dark focuses a lot on the vampires, and i really like the way Karen Chance brings back people from history and hangs them into this story like choice ornaments on the christmas tree. For the most part we are not told exactly who they are, but you get hints. For example, we meet cleopatra; "it wasn't an asp that bit her, mia stella", dracula's brothers, and one who i think is marie antoinnette. There are others also. (Raphael, Rasputin...)

Characterisation is something that Chance does well, my favourite is of course pritkin, who really comes into his own in the later books :D he is described as a sort of rambo meets mad scientist and jumps out of the page at you.

Some reviewers have said they've found the plot a little confusing, but i enjoyed the twists, however, as this was my third reading i may have got used to it :P if you do find it a bit of a boggle keep going because its worth it and you will be left craving more and counting the months till the next release. Chance deals not just with one problem or storyline but holds several at once, which may confuse some people, but overall i think it makes things more interesting. Its not just problem.resove.problem.resolve. like many others. This may be an advantage or disadvantage according to tastes but i believe it to be a strong point, as while waiting for book 5 to come along i can't wait to find out which problems she tackles and how, and see how the relationships between different characters and factions develop. I am well and truly hooked. so far nothing else i've read of this genre has compared.

I've read a few people saying that they've picked this up because amazon recomended it as something to read after twilight. If it helps they are completely different, as another reviewer pointed out the only thing really in common is the vampires. Twilight is all gushing romance and sweetness, everlasting love etc. This series is more action filled and isn't meant as a teen book (although i read when was 16, so its fine if thats what you're into). If you've read twilight and are looking for more of the same id recomend checking out listmania rather than amazon's own recomendations, as its written by people with the same dilema. But that doesnt mean you won't enjoy these, they're just different and its probably good to realise that before you buy expecting more of the same. I've read both and enjoy these a lot more.

And for those who arent a fan of Mircea, the main love interest in this book, due to the slighly creepy childhood crush cassie had on him where he took on a fathery/uncle type role, he meets some competition in the later books, so don't dispair as its not all over yet :P

Hope this might be some help. I'd say its definitely worth reading and that the later books are even better. :)

R.I.P. IV Challenge

Hosted by Carl, this challenge is about all things that go bump in the night. There are seven subgenres:

• Mystery
• Suspense
• Thriller
• Dark Fantasy
• Gothic
• Horror
• Supernatural

The aim of the game it to read either 4, 2 or 1 books from any of these subgenres by October the 31st and have fun doing it :P Because i'm predicting an intense year at college i am only going to put my name down for Peril the Second, which is to read two books, but i hope to do better than that.

Its recommended to create a pool of books you'd like to read from, so im going to write down some that i have waiting on my shelves, but will look into aquiring others to read instead/aswell.

1. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
2. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
3. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (its supposed to be a piss take of gothic horror novels)
4. The Host - Stephenie Meyer (not sure if this one counts)
5. The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
6. Dracula - Bram Stoker
7. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
   
8. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (i've tried reading this twice, but its freaked me out to much, so am going to include it, definitely spooky for me :P)
9. Agatha Christie - (have a few to choose from, ABC mysteries, Towards Zero, Onboard the Orient Express etc)
   

I also have two stories in a selection of Victorian mysteries called Nottinghill mystery and Carmilla by J. Sheridan le fanu which i dont know anything about, but may look into

Library books: Wicked - Maguire (not sure if counts as spooky :P), Kitty Goes to Washington -Carrie Vaughn, Grave Peril - Jim Butcher, Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris and Sunshine by McKinley.

Ones i've had my eye on getting for a while (and this would be a good excuse :P): Inkdeath - Funke, Inkexchange - Melissa Marr, The Graveyard book - Gaiman and Breaking Dawn - Meyer (have been delaying the inevitable with that last one, too many of my friends are obsessive about it and it puts me off) some of these are probably a pretty loose interpretation of spooky, but shall see how it goes.

Personally, i think this is going to be fun :)

The Sweet Scent of Blood - Suzanne McLeod

I'm still not quite sure what i think about this book, so it might be a little tricky to review.

The Sweet Scent of Blood is an urban fantasy novel, which was definitely enjoyable, but i also found it a little confusing in places. Here's the basic overview.

The main Character Gen is Sidhe fey, the only one in London. This makes her incredibly appealing for vampires and the like because her blood tastes particularly good to them. Gens been trying to avoid the vamps for years and is working at spellcrackers.com where she gets protection from the witches council and is relatively safe, however, when the girlfriend of a celeb vampire gets murdered, his father comes asking for her help

(which she, due to a debt being called in, unwillingly gives) this puts both her witch protection and her job in jeopardy and she becomes caught up in a power struggle between some centuries old vamps.

-Thats how things stand at the start of the book, but the plot moves on quite quickly, so lots more interesting stuff happens.

The way this is set is sort of modern day london, but rather than with some urban fantasy books, where the vamps/weres/whatever are trying to hide from the norms, this one has everything out in the open and vampires have some celebrity status so getting the 'gift' becomes incredibly fashionable. There are also quite a few different types of fey involved. The characters are quite interesting, my favourites were Hugh, (who's a troll (in the police force) coming from a tribe in the cairngorms, Scotland), Malik (a vamp) and Finn (a satyr fey, who is rather lovely :) ). The main character is also interesting- without a lot of the whining that tends to come hand-in-hand with many of the leads in this genre - so although Gen had her problems, she got on with it and didnt moan too much :) bonus :)

There were lots of twists and turns and lots of excitement, along with some interesting concepts - such as being able to turn herself into an alter-vamp ego, although sometimes a turn would leave me going 'huh?' until i read on a bit, but it all made sense in the end and was lots of fun to read, so yeah, id recomend it if you're interested in the genre but want something more than the basic whiny girl + gorgeous guy + watery plot + urban fantasy concepts dealy (or even worse, gorgeous girl + gorgeous girl + even thiner plot). Its interesting and different to most of the ones i've read and although there are possible romantic attatchments [^^] and lots of sexy characters, it doesnt take over the plot.

* * * * *

I'm reading this as part of my whats in a name challenge for the body part (its a bit weak, but blood is kindof bodypart like, and will have to do till i get something better :P) it is of course also being used in my 100+ challenge and is book number 51. :)

Whats in a Name Challenge

I was trying to stop joining challenges half way through the year, but this was too tempting to miss...

*The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a "profession" in its title. Examples might include:
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (Read)
The Ranger's Apprentice - John Flannigan (Read)


2. A book with a "time of day" in its title. Examples might include:
Embrace the Night - Karen Chance (Read)
Midnight's Daughter - Karen Chance (Read)
Curse the Dawn - Karen Chance (Read)


3. A book with a "relative" in its title. Examples might include:
The Memory Keepers Daughter - Kim Edwards
A Friend of the Family - Lisa Jewell*

4. A book with a "body part" in its title.
The Sweet Scent of Blood - Suzanne McLeod* (review)
'...and thats when it fell off in my hand' - Louise Rennison (Read)

5. A book with a "building" in its title.
Animal Farm - George Orwell (Read)

6. A book with a "medical condition" in its title.
Memoirs of a teenage amnesiac - Gabrielle Zevin (Read)

Okay, im not sure about some of these, if i read better ones then i shall change it. Some need their reviews linking/writing and hopefully i'll get around to that soon. Not sure if a farm counts as a builing or not though...

Reading Project

According to the BBC (BBC Big Read top 100 - this list has been passed around a bit, and can apparently be found on facebook...) the average person has only read 6 of these books, today i printed it off and counted and i am that person (i have also started 13 and had another 5 read to me) but still, bad form. Compared with the mother and she has read about 26. we have each selected five we want to read by christmas.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird
6 The Bible -
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (seen the bbc addaption - looks far too depressing)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - (MsNDream, parts of macbeth + romeo&juliet, sonnets)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (mum read to me)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (lion witch & wardrobe and magician's nephew)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac -
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (03/03/10)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - HATEDHATEDHATEEDHATED So very much!
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - X (I think so)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Blue = own
Green = mums read to me
italics = started (generally mean to continue, just got distracted...) includes series read part of
bold = finished/read all of
Purple bold = read and own

Mum and I have each selected five we wish to read by christmas

Mum:
Far from the Madding Crowd
Tale of Two Cities
The Da Vinci Code (not sure if she'll like this, being religeous)
Catch 22
The Three Muscateeres

Me:
Pride and Predudice (Finished 18th September 2009)
Animal Farm (Finished 24th September 2009)
The Handmaid's Tale (Finished 23rd September 2009)
Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding (Finished 4th October 2009)
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (Finished 23rd November 2009)

Of course i would like to read more than that, but hopefully there will be other years and i can chip away gradually, reading the woman in white and grapes of wrath and all the others that look tempting (but which im probably not going to stick to if i try now).

5 To read by end of easter hols...
Emma - Jane Austin
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
The Hitch-hiker's guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Summer Holiday Reviews

Reviews to books i read over the summer hols that are not directly linked to the main challenges im doing can be found on my other blog, however, links to these reviews can be found on the 'Read this year:' section on the left, or within my 100+ challenge. I am trying to write reviews for most of the books i'm reading this summer (who knows, it might make me a little better at it :S) but i shall probably still skip out on books i read that i dont think other people would want to know about (i read a lot of fiction that is rather light-hearted and is unlikely to interest a great many people). Just so you know where they are, in the off chance anyone actually cares :P :) have a nice summer :) :)

TBR Challenge 2009

TBR Challenge... what i've been waiting for. yet again its late entry (but 5 months seems a long time to wait for next year, and i'll have probably forgotten/be too busy with january exams and re-takes by then) so here goes.

What stands out for me about this challenge is that your list has to be set in stone, wheras most challenges allow you to alter it, i think this is a good thing, should help to shift the stubbon tbrs of the shelf :P

I'm hoping that its alright if you use books that you've already started (most were admittedly started this year) as i find they're the worst sorts of tbrs for me (and i can count over 69 from where im sitting, not even thinking about the three underbed boxes full...) the only one thats really pushing it is the two towers, which i started years ago, but i really need something like this to help push those last few pages (also i was struggling to find 12 that were desperate tbrs, most are just hanging around waiting for my attention to fall on them. The idea is to read 12, 1 for each month (or for me, starting late, 2.4 per month or as many as i can this holiday!)

well, heres my list: (and im sure i'll regret some of the choices later, especially once i've discovered forgotten books, or remembered why i didnt get into them in the first place...)

1. Pride and Predudice - Jane Austen
2. The Singing - Alison Croggon
   
3. The Handmaid's Tale - Margarett Atwood
4. Animal Farm - George Orwell
5. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
6. Preistess of the White - Trudi Canavan
7. Bisringr - Christopher Paolini
8. Fortress of Grey Ice - J.V.Jones
9. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
10. The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkein
11. Chocolat - Joanne Harris
    
12. Something Blue - Emily Griffin

well, there we go... set in stone. almost included l'étranger, but the blog advises that you use books that have been hanging around for over 6months, and my copy only arrived in the post today :P shall have to find some other challenge... hopefully my late joining won't be a problem :S

Bold = Completed