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Andrea's reading 2013


~Andrea~

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Well I've put down Wilfred Price for a bit as I'm not in the right mood for it and I've picked up Flowers for Algernon, which so far is great. I was so tired last night but didn't want to put it down and kept reading 'just one more section'. That's a good sign :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished Flowers for Algernon last night.

 

This is the story of Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded adult who becomes the subject of an exprimental treatment to increase his intelligence. The experiment succeeds, but its long term effects are not known...

 

What a brilliant book! The older I get the more it takes for a book to impress me, even books I loved when I was younger disappoint on a re-read (Is that because the older you've got, the more you've read, and the higher your standards get?) Anyway - this book did! It was a gem that is definitely going on to my favourite books of all time list. I just loved the character of Charlie Gordon, and the changes in his character through his written progress reports are really well done.

 

It's quite a sad, poignant story, without being overly dark and depressing. I don't normally give ratings to the books I read, but if I did this one would get 10/10

 

PS Thanks to all the folks who egged me on to read this :)

Edited by ~Andrea~
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I finished 'The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year' audio book the other day.

At the beginning I quite enjoyed it, it was a bit different, sometimes humourous and I was interested to see where the story would go. By the end though, I felt it had become so ridiculous I couldn't wait for the silly thing to end.
I didn't really engage with or like any of the characters - although towards the beginning I thought I would. Nobody was very nice in it, and most people seemed pretty selfish. For the most part I couldn't really sympathise with the main character and several things didn't ring true for me, like

why did Brian and Eva get married in the first place? They didn't even seem to like each other. And I thought that the crowds coming to visit Eva was ridiculous.


I was glad when the book ended.

From an audio pov I thought it was well read by Caroline Quentin, although I did think Alexander's accent seemed to change throughout the book.

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I've now completed the first two sections of Andrew Marr's A History of Modern Britain which covers the period from the death of Queen Victoria to then end of the second world war.

 

I've read up to the end of the first world war and these two sections (pre war, and war) cover a diverse range of topics from music halls, to the troubles in northern Ireland to the crushing poverty that was rife across Britain at the height of Empire and the reforms that laid the groundwork for the introduction of the welfare state. So far it's an utterly fascinating and engaging read. Looking forward to reading the next two parts later in the year.
 

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I started The Everlasting Man by G K Chesterton last night, a history of mankind, Christ and Christianity, which C S Lewis describes as one of the most influential books in his journey away from atheism.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished Sherlock Holmes yesterday. This is the second volume I've listened to and I have to say I am falling in love with them. They are really well written, exciting little stories without being too macabre. I wish I had more to listen to. Fantastic.

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I finished listening to Metamorphosis yesterday. What a wonderful, and highly unusual, little story. I really got drawn into the situation and characters. I couldn't really claim to know what the story is about, but it seemed to me that

 

the family didn't really treat Gregor very well, (letting him do all the work although it made him miserable) and he became something unpleasant, he became almost what they thought of him. He also could not see anything but good in them and failed to realise how they took advantage of him. He allowed them to transform him thus, and eventually be destroyed.

 

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I love Holmes! I've never tried Kafka and maybe really ought to? This site is terribly dangerous for racking up books to live temporarily on my TBR shelf... ;)

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Not quite finished Chocky but I've started another book anyway. I had to go into hospital yesterday and didn't want to take my Kobo or any valuables in so I started reading The Men and the Girls by Joanna Trollope which I'd picked up in a charity shop. I probably won't read more until I've finished at least Chocky. Annoyingly my op was cancelled right at the last minute when I was all gowned and tagged and ready to go in, having been hanging about all day. Good job I had a book with me!

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