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Athena's Reading List 2013


Athena

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I've done so now, thanks :).

 

I read the Kindle User Guide, I'm not sure if this counts as a book XD. I've also organised the ebooks I bought and the freebies, into collections. There are quite a few on there, so I'll have something to read for a while. I'm particularly looking forward to read Jodi Picoult - Leaving Home (Short Pieces), among others.

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I did have a minor panic a few weeks back when the Kindle updated itself to the latest software version.  When it rebooted all my books and collections had disappeared :o   A few seconds of heart failure later they all reappeared, thank gawd :giggle2:

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I've received some more books:

 

Some of Jean M. Auel - Earth's Children series

I've read most of them in Dutch quite some years ago and really liked them. I look forward to read them in English.

 

EDIT: I'm making some progress with Towers of Midnight. It shouldn't be that long until it's finished.

 

I think my Mum read Jean M. Auel's books and recommended them to me but I never got round to it. Shame really as from what I can remember they sounded quite good.

 

Have you read the trilogy that Penny Vincenzi did about the Lytton family?

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I read the whole Earth's Children trilogy quite recently & although i enjoyed them the books did lose their appeal as the series went on, the last one was really awful :(  In my opinion the first & third are the best of the lot but you might think differently when you read them Athena  :readingtwo:

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Have you read the trilogy that Penny Vincenzi did about the Lytton family?

 

Not yet, I'm saving them for last (because they're generally considered so good I thought I'd read them as last of her books, so I still have a few other books by her to read), silly maybe but :P.

 

I read the whole Earth's Children trilogy quite recently & although i enjoyed them the books did lose their appeal as the series went on, the last one was really awful :(  In my opinion the first & third are the best of the lot but you might think differently when you read them Athena  :readingtwo:

Thanks, I'm sorry to hear that, will see what I think. My parents have read them all, or at least the first five, not sure about the last one, and they also liked the one they read last, less than the ones before (which is number five or six, I'm not sure).

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Not yet, I'm saving them for last (because they're generally considered so good I thought I'd read them as last of her books, so I still have a few other books by her to read), silly maybe but :P.

 

They're my favourite of her books. That trilogy inspired me to become a publisher. I think you'll like them. They're definitely different compared to her other books; all her other books follow roughly the same pattern. That doesn't make them any less good though.

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That's nice to hear :), I look forward to reading them. Perhaps I should revise my idea of reading them last, reading them sooner might be better, leaving the rest of her books, with the same pattern, to pick up again later (I think I've read over half of her other books). I look forward to her next one coming out in a while, though it is a short story collection and I'm not a big fan of short stories.

 

I've been reading Jodi Picoult - Leaving Home: Short Pieces, an ebook which consists of two short stories and a letter. I've finished the first short story and am now reading the letter. It was a good short story, though I wish it had been longer. The ending was rather abrupt for me, as in the ebook you can't tell how far you are with a part of it, only of the whole thing. I kind of was expecting the story to go on, as I felt there could have been perhaps more. As said above, I'm not a big short story fan, in general. There are a few that are quite good, I really enjoyed ie. the books Arthur C. Clarke - The Other Side of the Sky and Peter F. Hamilton - A Second Change at Eden, they were both really great, but in the case of most of them, I want more! I love big, long stories with detailed characters. I thought the characters in this story were quite interesting.

 

One problem I had with the story was that the formatting, it jumped from one situation to the next. I felt this would have been clearer with some new lines between the text, but there were none. I couldn't distinguish between a new paragraph in the same situation (indented I think they call it?) and a new situation (indented as well).

 

I thought the story wasn't as good as some of her other work that I've read (I would give the story 4 stars I think), I haven't read the rest of the ebook yet though so that rating may still change.

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I started reading Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay yesterday and have finished it now, pretty quick imo. It was a good read, though it was different from the first two books. I didn't really like the ending that much, but the rest of the book was quite good.

 

Rating: ***** (5/5)

 

EDIT: I realise this isn't a long post, but I haven't got much time :P.

Edited by Athena
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I finished reading Jodi Picoult - Leaving Home: Short Pieces.

 

This book consists of two short stories and a letter (written from Jodi to her son as he leaves for college). A review of the first short story, can be found two posts above this one. Below follow some thoughts on the letter and the second short story.

 

The letter was quite emotional, I thought it was a very sweet, excellent letter to send to your son when he leaves for college.

 

The second short story is about a mum who leaves her family, one day she's gone, leaving a note. This short story surprised me, I like it more than the first short story. The formatting issue I mentioned above, was still there but it bothered me less here. There are other reasons why I like this one more, but I can't write that down without spoiling what happens. I thought this story showed more insight into the characters, more details of their lives, than the first story (the stories do have names.. but I can't remember them :blush:. There is no table of contents, at least I haven't found it while I read the book).

 

Rating: The first short story and the letter would get **** (4/5) from me, the second short story a ***** (5/5).

In total that makes it: **** (4/5)

 

I've started reading Peter F. Hamilton - If At First.... So far, it's interesting but it's different from his other work that I've read. The books of him that I've read, all take place further into the future. This one takes place closer to our own time. Not that there's anything wrong with that! It's just not what I was expecting. I have to admit, I didn't read the summary for this book, so I don't know if there's anything in there about that. Once the book is on your Kindle, you can't easily read the summary of it, I think (at least, I haven't figured out how, unless you were to browse the shop, which I can only do if I have wifi). The story starts off a bit vague but soon the plot becomes clearer. I'm quite eager to read more of it (I think I'm about 20-30% in? I can't totally remember).

 

I may also start John Grogan - Marley & Me soon. I feel in the mood for reading about animals.

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I've started reading Peter F. Hamilton - If At First.... So far, it's interesting but it's different from his other work that I've read. The books of him that I've read, all take place further into the future. This one takes place closer to our own time. Not that there's anything wrong with that! It's just not what I was expecting. I have to admit, I didn't read the summary for this book, so I don't know if there's anything in there about that. Once the book is on your Kindle, you can't easily read the summary of it, I think (at least, I haven't figured out how, unless you were to browse the shop, which I can only do if I have wifi). The story starts off a bit vague but soon the plot becomes clearer. I'm quite eager to read more of it (I think I'm about 20-30% in? I can't totally remember).

 

Just in case you don't know, If At First is actually a short story (about 11 pages in the paperback) that is included in his Manhattan in Reverse collection, so I hope you got it as a freebie :shrug:

 

Re the Kindle, I don't know how it works on the Paper White, but on my keyboard one you highlight the book in your collection, press right on the directional pad and then click on 'Book description' and it goes off and finds the Amazon page for it, so yeah, you'd need wifi  :smile:

 

 

ETA:  Don't know if this applies to the version you have, Athena, but people on goodreads are saying the ebook is the short story, If At First, plus a promotional extract from one of his novels, which takes up about 75% of the file.

Edited by Karsa Orlong
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Just in case you don't know, If At First is actually a short story (about 11 pages in the paperback) that is included in his Manhattan in Reverse collection, so I hope you got it as a freebie :shrug:

I did :). And that's good to know, I have Manhattan in Reverse in paperback.

 

ETA:  Don't know if this applies to the version you have, Athena, but people on goodreads are saying the ebook is the short story, If At First, plus a promotional extract from one of his novels, which takes up about 75% of the file.

Yeah I just figured this out XD, I've finished it now.

 

It was an interesting short story but I would've liked more (as with most short stories). It's not completely clear to me what happened near the end, what exactly is going on.

 

Rating: *** (3/5)

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I finished reading John Grogan - Marley & Me and Ryan Ennis - This Thursday Surprise. The latter was a Kindle freebie.

 

John Grogan - Marley & Me

The book is basically a biography of John Grogan, focused on his dog Marley and the life he has with his wife. I had seen the film and really liked it, so I thought I'd give the book a try. I'm glad I did! It's such an amazing story, very well written. It's funny what Marley gets up to, I had to laugh out loud sometimes. I like dogs, so I understood the connection John Grogan had with Marley, as I love our dogs a lot too. It does get sad towards the end, and I cried. If you really like dogs, you'll like this book.

 

Rating: ***** (5/5)

 

Ryan Ennis - This Thursday Surprise

This was a Kindle freebie, it's a short story, I think meant for children, to explain what autism means. I found it to be not that explanatory, there were only a few lines in there that were meaningful in this regard, imo. I did enjoy the story, it's a nice short little story. I thought the writing style seemed like it was meant for older children. Maybe it's meant to read to a child? I'm not sure. I liked the writing style, it seemed fine for adults, I'm just not sure how young a child would be able to follow it. The story comes with nice illustrations, which are probably better visible on a computer screen rather than a Kindle, they were still nice to look at though. All in all, it's a nice short story, entertaining, but I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't free.

 

Rating: *** (3/5)

 

I'm currently reading some information freebies on the Kindle, and thinking what physical book I shall start: The Hobbit (by J. R. R. Tolkien) or Home Front by Kirstin Hannah.

 

EDIT: Also, I bought a lot of books at a book fair and am still busy cataloguing them (I couldn't do it much because I've been ill). I don't think I should post the whole list XD.

Edited by Athena
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I've finished cataloguing my books and have put them in my book cases / cabinet (a few not on a shelf). I don't dare to update the post on the first page with the whole list :blush: XD. I'm leaning towards starting The Hobbit atm since it's fantasy and it's been a while since I've read fantasy, I feel like it. Unfortunately though I don't have much time to read before I have to go to bed soon so XD. Will have to see what I feel like tomorrow, if I feel like reading it or something else.

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I made a little youtube video of my TBR soon books. The image is a bit blurry, but I hope you can see it allright.

 

 

EDIT: Hmm somehow it doesn't show up. I'll try to fix this asap, the link does work when I copy paste it into the browser. The bb code used is exactly the same as when I posted the video of our two dogs, and that one does show up. Weird..

Edited by Athena
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Hmm apparently my video shows up in some browsers but not in others. Curious.

 

Anyway, today I read Susan Hatler - An Unexpected Date and started reading Susan Hatler - Love at First Date. Yesterday I started reading J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit.

 

An Unexpected Date is a short story (17 pages I think), it was entertaining but as with most short stories, I wish there was more of it. It was a little bit predictable. It was a good read though, entertaining while it lasted.

 

The story is a chick-lit book / love story, I can't really say a lot about it or I might be spoiling it. I wouldn't recommend buying it unless it's quite cheap, I'm not sure what the price of it is depending on where you live. It's just that what I paid for it, was a bit steep compared with the content (I prefer to get a lot of pages for my money, does that make sense? :blush:). It was nice, though.

 

Rating: **** (4/5)

 

I've read one other book by Susan Hatler, My Last Blind Date (25 pages) which I liked slightly better than this one, though they're both rated (****, 4/5). So far Love at First Date (117ish pages) is being quite interesting, it's longer than the other two books mentioned so there is a lot more detailing etc. I own one other book by Hatler, namely The Boyfriend Bylaws (~400 pages), which is the size of a normal book.

 

The Hobbit is quite nice too so far, I'm not that far in yet so I don't really know yet what's going to happen. I was going to see the film (the first film, since the other two aren't out yet) in December but I got ill. So I decided to now finally read the book instead XD. I haven't read The Lord of the Rings trilogy yet either, I plan to do that after I've read The Hobbit though probably not straight after as I prefer to switch up my genres and read something different in between.

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I'll be sure to post my thoughts once I've finished it :). So far I like the story (though it's not as epic as Lord of the Rings, so far at least), I'm eager to read what will happen next. The writing style feels a little bit awkward and old-fashioned, so I find it a bit harder to read than something with a really easy writing style (ie. the chick-lit books I read yesterday). I haven't read Lord of the Rings so I can't compare it to that.

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Hi Athena

I decided to try catching up in here with everyone's book pages .You have made some great progress on your reading list .

Congrats on getting your kindle - I haven't gotten to see the paperwhite one yet,so have been curious about them.

 

Thanks for the video showing all your new books . You have some good reading ahead .

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Thanks julie :)!

 

I quite like the Paperwhite so far, last week when I was on the train, the light where I was sitting, was broken so I used the Paperwhite light and could read even though it was a little bit dark (there was some daylight), it was quite awesome. I also love that you can highlight a word and look it up in the dictionary (I think many ereaders have this feature?), that's really nice.

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Yep, my kindles can look up a word for me too,so they do have lots of handy features. I have used mine so much now that it feels strange to hold onto a book. They feel more clunky in my hands I think.

I'll probably put the paperwhite on my list of items to get someday,only because I think it'd be one of the most ideal ereaders. The size, the light,the touch screen,and I think  ? No keyboard ?

Does yours have one or not ? See, my kindle has the keyboard,and it gets used so rarely,that to me, it's extra wasted space. I'd rather have a smaller reader without the keyboard .

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No, there's no keyboard. There is an on-off button, the rest is all done by touchscreen. It works quite well, I haven't actually used many devices with touchscreen but so far I'm finding the Kindle quite handy and intuitive, it hasn't happened much that I clicked on the wrong thing (I've had that happen on an iPad).

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Yep, my kindles can look up a word for me too,so they do have lots of handy features. 

 

That is useful! I sometimes come across words i don't know but can't always be bothered going to get the dictionary & looking them up so i make an approximate guess as to what they probably mean  :smile:

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