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Sazed

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Everything posted by Sazed

  1. Yeah exactly, I appreciate that it'S a classic, but I'm just not much of a fan personally :/ The Book Thief is actually my favourite book of all time, did you end up finishing it? I have been incredibly busy with uni stuff again and haven't really had a chance to post on here at all, but I have since read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, which I gave 2 stars, because I found Holden Caulfield to be so. Incredibly. Annoying. It was really driving me mad haha! I also finished listening to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which I gave 5 stars. I bought and already read When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, which also got 5 stars, what an incredible, emotional book. A coupld of days ago I needed a bit of a break from uni stress and I read The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket in one sitting. It got 3 stars, since it was entertaining and actually a bit different from the previous three stories in the series, but overall it was quite boring and... weird.
  2. My favourite tea brand here in Germany recently released two amazing new flavours - blueberry muffin and caramelised apple pie, and they literally smell and taste exactly like those. Right now, I'm enjoying a cup of apple pie tea, and loving it =)
  3. I'm glad to hear the march had such a big turnout. I may have considered going down myself with a few friends if I hadn't been home in Germany. I saw a video message recorded by Nick Clegg in German on Facebook yesterday, talking about how the rights of Germans and other EU citizens should have been guaranteed as soon as the referendum happened, and I'm really glad the Lib Dems are taking such an active stance on this matter, as all us "dirty dirty immigrants" have gotten so far was nothing more than a few vague statements and a lot of "can't say, who knows". It's just frustrating and anxiety inducing, and I'm lucky in that I'm a uni student with a fairly promising future from one of the strongest EU countries, so even if a controlled immigration policy is adapted, I probably don't have all too much to fear. I can't imagine how much worse it must be for people who emigrated from less well off countries, who I'm sure won't be getting too much sympathy from the government if it comes to deciding who can stay and who can't :/
  4. I've gone back home to Germany for the holidays, and I'm so happy to be back. I also managed to take a week off work so it works out so that I only actually have to work from home on two days while I'm here. The rest of the time I'll focus on my uni revision and assignments I have to do, and I should hopefully also have loads of time to just relax, read, and meet friends!
  5. I completely agree. The short stories are much more satisfying. I feel like both with A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four (it's been ages since I read The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear, so I don't remember how it is with them), they seem a bit dragged out just for the sake of making it a bit longer. In both audiobooks I thought at several points that the book was about to end, but then another turn happened and it went on for another 50 pages. They just don't flow as naturally for me...
  6. I don't know about everyone, but in our age group, we use pissed (or pissy) as a synonym of annoyed or angry in the UK as well =)
  7. The Sign of Four - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3 stars) Because I had a lot of walking around to do today, I got a chance to finish the second book of the audiobook bind-up by Stephen Fry: The Sign of Four. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it very much, since the whole backstory didn't really interest me. I suppose I generally just prefer the short stories to the actual novels. Now on with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  8. We've had the weirdest weather today. It started out sunny but windy, then on my way to work I was surprised by about 3 minutes of heavy!! snow, since then it's been alternating between blue skies, heavy wind, rain and snow...
  9. Well thanks to this thread I now have both The Lost and Found and Good as Gone on my wishlist
  10. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (2.5 stars) I finally managed it! It took me over two months to read this book, but I have finally managed it. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this one much at all. There were certainly passages that I found quite engaging, and there's no doubt that Rushdie is a talented writer, but the topic and density of the story just really wasn't for me. I'll admit that prior to reading this book, I didn't know much at all about the history of India and Pakistan, and I found the majority of the book to be incredibly confusing. Having a knowledge about the history would probably have been helpful, especcially because the story is told by an unreliable narrator who points out multiple times that it's entirely possible that some of the historical details he mentions aren't true at all. Because I couldn't really interest myself in the historic facts even while reading this book, they seemed a bit annoying and redundant to me - and seeing as the whole "point" of the story kind of is to see how the history of the entire country connects with that of an individual, I suppose the entire thing just completely went over my head. I'll have to see if I tackle this book again when I'm older, and if it will make more sense to me then, but this time round I'm pretty sure most of the analogies and metaphores and images just went over my head completely. It's true that after following the characters for such a long time, they do kind of grow on you, and I guess I'll be thinking about this book for a couple of days, it just wasn't an enjoyable read for me. However, it was part of my Man Booker challenge, and it is a modern classic, so I am glad that I read it.
  11. Rainy and grey, so no surprise. I can't wait to go home to Germany on Wednesday, where sunshine and 17°C are waiting for me
  12. A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4 stars) I just finished my re-read of this book on audio, and I won't write much because I absolutely love the Sherlock Holmes stories and don't have much to say apart from endless gushing. I think this is a great start to the series, even though I have to say I really didn't enjoy the second part set in America as much. I'm glad Doyle didn't make much use of this style of narrative in the later stories. Of course, Stephen Fry reading this was absolutely brilliant, and I can't wait to continue with the rest of the audiobook.
  13. I made quorn mince with frozen veg, cous cous and tomato sauce.
  14. I think I'll finally be able to finish Midnight's Children tonight!! I've been reading it for over two months, so it's about time. I'm also about to finish my re-read of A Study in Scarlet, which I'm listening to on audiobook - the wonderful new Stephen Fry version After that, I'll be starting The Catcher in the Rye as well as Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, which, to be honest, I'll be reading mostly for revision, because one of my uni modules was basically just a summary of his theories.
  15. I know how you feel about City of Glass. I always quite enjoy the books when I do read them, but it tends to take me ages until I pick another one up again...
  16. A really great review, I want to finally read something by Virginia Woolf, do you have any recommendations for which one to start with?
  17. The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson (4 stars) Wow, it took me so long to finish the first book of this month, uni has been crazy... But, after such a long time, I got to finally go back to the amazing world Brandon Sanderson creates in this series. It's set after the original trilogy (maybe a couple hundred years after? I don't really remember haha), but the world and the magic system are still the same. I absolutely adored being back in this universe, and I loved finally reading about the magic again, because I think the whole metal allomancy is such a great idea, but at the same time I felt like it could have done with a few more explanations. It's been a while since I read the original trilogy, and I have to admit I didn't remember what all the metals did. There is a detailed index in the back, it just kind of broke up the reading experience a bit having to go back and look all the time. The plot was a little bit disappointing as well, as I found it somewhat cliché. Of course I won't go into details, but the villain's motives and everything made me go "... really?" a couple of times. The characters, on the other hand, were amazing, and are probably the main reason I gave the book 4 stars in the end. All of them have their unique personalities, and the dialogue between them is absolutely fantastic, clever and funny. Sanderson's writing style is outstanding, and he makes the characters seem so vivid, it's an absolute pleasure to read. I listened to this book mainly on audio, and the narrator, Michael Kramer, did a superb job as well. One of the characters in the book is really good at using different accents to disguise himself, and that definitely came across perfectly in the audiobook. I can't wait to continue with the rest of the series =)
  18. Interestingly, we were taught get - got - gotten in school, and schools in Germany usually teach British English. All the other spellings we learned were British. I was quite surprised when I read this thread and found out gotten is not actually the correct form
  19. My ex-boyfriend who I'm still on friendly terms with just got kicked out of uni and I'm trying to figure out a way to be there for him without letting myself get too close to his problems and be dragged down with him. Fortunately, I just handed in my last assignment of the term, so at least that stress is out of the way for a couple of weeks. Today shouldn't be to bad, I have a lecture later and then work, and I plan on spending my evening relaxing with my book.
  20. Shame about Dark Places, I really loved that book, although I remember it being really slow. What's the reasons you didn't love it? =)
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