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vodkafan

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About vodkafan

  • Birthday 01/27/1961

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  • Reading now?
    Re-reading all George Gissing
  • Gender
    Male
  • Location:
    Deepest England
  • Interests
    Jack Vance, George Gissing, Sarah Waters, Victorian England, Old sailing ships, anything about Norway, anything about London, sci fi films, what makes women tick, going to the gym, swimming, walking, travelling, art galleries,drawing, buying something really good cheap from a charity shop, theatre, writing my first novel.

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  1. Interesting comments coming out! And I haven't even got started yet! Been sidetracked by matters medical and practical. Lady Audley's Secret sounds great. And also I thought I had read Dracula before but I don't remember actually reading it the way I can recall other books; so maybe I have just absorbed the basic plot through all the various films. In that case I MUST read it for this challenge!
  2. That website seems a great resource, and it would be easy to dip in and read a bit from any of those. I would certainly take up that challenge as well as a bigger one or two
  3. Challenge Suggestion 6: A memoir or life story of a Victorian person, not necessarily famous...
  4. I really have to start doing some reviews...
  5. Sorry been out of it for a few days. I haven't really put any thought in yet , I just saw Lady Audley's Secret mentioned and knew it was a well known example of the genre. The book I was going to put forward was A Victorian Family 1870-1900 by Molly Hughes but that was before I saw the categories, and it won't fit any of those mentioned, being a memoir. (and it is a trilogy!) Back to the drawing board...
  6. Thanks Angury and Andrea. It's ramping up slowly.
  7. I second Lady Audley's Secret! That is supposed to be the most shocking sensation novel of it's time. And I doubt any of us have read it yet.
  8. Has anybody else read this yet? Reading Daughter bought it for me and I read it in one day, I enjoyed it very much. Totally different to Strange and Norrell.
  9. The Girl Who Wasn't There by Kirk Slater 1/5 This was the book that was funded on the Kickstarter platform, way back before the Pandemic hit us. It is only fair I have to separate the actual book review and my experience of the Kickstarter. I went for the Full Monty reward which included some sort of an extra, large Limited Edition book which I think was illustrated with maps or something? I cannot now say, because I never received it. The actual paperback came, and I think an email notification from Kickstarter that the other package was on it's way. But, a pandemic was on and my mind was on other things like keeping our family safe. So, by the time I realised that the Limited Edition had never arrived, months had gone by and it was too late to do anything about it. I forget now exactly how much I paid up front to the Kickstarter, but it was very, very expensive for the slim paperback that was all I got. For sure I will never buy a book this way again. Having said all that, Whatever went wrong with Kickstarter, the book is going to be judged on it's own merits. So, much later I actually picked up the book and hoped for something good. Unfortunately, the book was a very big disappointment. The writing was pretty bad. The characters didn't make any sense or achieve any life in my head at all. The plot just seemed to be recycled from bits of popular ghost films (and at the end had very big nonsensical holes in it you could drive a horse and carriage through.) The research was poor. For instance at one point the Housekeeper tells the servant girl to get sheets from the "Lining cupboard" and this word is actually used twice. It should obviously be linen cupboard. Then the main character of the servant girl got completely destroyed when the author had her use the expression "she could care less". Of course no English person would ever use that expression; it being a very modern American derivative corruption of "could not care less." . Again, poor research that stopped me getting into the mind of the main character. So, I didn't like it.
  10. Welcome to my very late 2021 Reading List! (k) denotes kindle ebook® denotes book read primarily for research purposes keeping the same simple rating system this year:1/5: I didn't like it2/5: It was okay3/5: I liked it4/5: I really liked it5/5: It was amazing! BOOKS READ IN JANUARY Zero BOOKS READ IN FEBRUARY Zilch BOOKS READ IN MARCH Nada BOOKS READ IN APRIL Naff All BOOKS READ IN MAY Piranesi Susanna Clarke 4/5 BOOKS READ IN JUNE The Girl Who Wasn't There Kirk Slater 1/5 The Time Keeper Mitch Albom 2/5 Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana 1879 A Battlefield Guide Chris Peers 2/5 Orange is The New Black Piper Kerman 3/5 BOOKS READ IN JULY Magikind George Bakerson 3/5 Small Pleasures Clare Chambers 2/5 BOOKS READ IN AUGUST The Triumphs of Eugene Valment Robert Barr 4/5 Young Miles Lois Macmaster Bujold 3/5 BOOKS READ IN SEPTEMBER Once Upon A River Diane Setterfield 3/5 Self-Made Man Norah Vincent (re-read)
  11. I was wondering if anyone has heard from James (Vodkafan)? He's been radio silent for almost a year.

    1. vodkafan

      vodkafan

      Hello Virginia I am here!

  12. I would go to Norway to hike about in the mountains above a fjord and at night would camp so I could sit by my fire and look out over the water and think my thoughts.....and of course to look for trolls.
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