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Your Book Activity - August 2014


Athena

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I'm on book two of the Once series.  It's early YA so goes pretty fast.  I reviewed book one in my thread.  A good suggestion from bookadayuk.

 In other news, I've downloaded a few books for holiday reading from the Kindle Summer Sale ...
 Non-fiction:
The Hotel on the Roof of the World: Five Years in Tibet by Alec le Sueur

 

Drat- my kindle isn't finding it.  I just looked on Amazon's site and all it shows is an audio book.  :mellow: I'd really like to read it.

Edited by Anna Begins
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A bit surprisingly I remembered what I'd read of Therapy the other night and could continue reading it last night. And it's getting good! :o Boy oh boy! Can't wait to read more :)

I loved Therapy! I'm listening to a dramatised version of The Child by him at the moment.

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I'm over halfway through Capital now, and I'm still loving it. :smile2:  Hoping today will be a quiet day so that I can sit down and have a good reading session, then I can use the Bank Holiday tomorrow to start *deep breath* …

Nicholas Nickleby  :unsure: 

Edited by chesilbeach
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I loved Therapy! I'm listening to a dramatised version of The Child by him at the moment.

 

I didn't know he's written a new one! :) I only knew about Therapy and another book, I think it's called Splinter or something of the sort. I'll check out The Child now, thanks! :)

 

Haven't made any progress with the book, I went out on Friday and took all yesterday to recover. *yawns*

 

Edit: I like the sound of The Child, it's going on my wishlist now :D 

Edited by frankie
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Goodreads says I am 73% through A Clash of Kings, and I am loving it. Better than the first book.

 

Already thinking about what to read next though.

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Hope you do too - I love this series. Some of O'Brien's naval jargon can get a bit obscure, but I just let it wash over me and enjoyed the story. Much of what O'Brien wrote is based on real events, but won't spoil your enjoyment by discussing that yet. It's fascinating once you have in tracing those real bits through the history books (if you're a bit of a geek about things like that, like me!).

 

 

Shame you didn't enjoy The Stars My Destination - I loved it, it's one of my favourite books.  I hope you enjoy Master & Commander a bit more - I thought it was quite hard work at the start with all the nautical terminology but, once I got past that I thought it was a great book, and the subsequent books are marvellous - a fantastic series :smile:

 

 

I'm just making a start on The Scent of Death by Andrew Taylor.

 

 

After more than a week of reading inactivity , I went back to Master & Commander and...

I just couldn't do it.

I wasn't interested in the story at all, and even if I quite liked Jack and Stephen, they weren't enough to keep me engaged. Too much naval language, too many (and too long) descriptions, and even the (few so far) action scenes managed to be boring to me.

Don't get me wrong, I love slow books; but this kind just isn't my cup of tea. Maybe because I'm not that interested in the navy?

In the end, I decided to quit it for the moment. Maybe I'll try to read it again sometimes :P

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Finished Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach. Really not sure what to make of it to be honest! I will attempt to formulate my thoughts and write a review asap. 

 

Now starting The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. Now seemed like a good time to tackle a book set in NYC :D

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After more than a week of reading inactivity , I went back to Master & Commander and...

I just couldn't do it.

I wasn't interested in the story at all, and even if I quite liked Jack and Stephen, they weren't enough to keep me engaged. Too much naval language, too many (and too long) descriptions, and even the (few so far) action scenes managed to be boring to me.

Don't get me wrong, I love slow books; but this kind just isn't my cup of tea. Maybe because I'm not that interested in the navy?

In the end, I decided to quit it for the moment. Maybe I'll try to read it again sometimes :P

 

Ahh, don't feel bad about it, I wasn't too interested in M&C either, tried it years ago, couldn't get into it.  I think, for me at least, it was the casual cruelty inflicted that I didn't want to deal with.

 

 

 

Now starting The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. Now seemed like a good time to tackle a book set in NYC :D

 

LOL  It took me two tries over 7 years, but I finally loved it! :)

I haven't read it yet, but my NY husband has, try Pete Hamill's Downtown: My Manhattan

 

Meant to add....started The Last Ship by William Brinkley last night.  Good so far, terse prose. 

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Maybe I'll try to read it again sometimes :P

If you do, I'd go to one of his other earlier ones, perhaps The Mauritius Command? M&C isn't perhaps the best to start with, even if it's the first in the series (a bit like I don't think Swallows and Amazons is necessarily the best starter for that series!): a tad too much introduction and not enough action. If you don't like TMC, which has a lot more action, then I'm fairly certain you're initial reactions are correct for you.

 

But it may be simply it's not your scene. I'll forgive you! ;)   In which case, there's far too much other reading out there to waste your time on keeping trying.

Edited by willoyd
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If you do, I'd go to one of his other earlier ones, perhaps The Mauritius Command? M&C isn't perhaps the best to start with, even if it's the first in the series (a bit like I don't think Swallows and Amazons is necessarily the best starter for that series!): a tad too much introduction and not enough action. If you don't like TMC, which has a lot more action, then I'm fairly certain you're initial reactions are correct for you.

 

Yeah, agreed.  Either TMC or HMS Surprise are better starting points - or, should I say, more the sort of story I was expecting.  I found the first half of M&C a real struggle but I'm glad I stuck with it.  Marvellous series.

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I didn't know he's written a new one! :) I only knew about Therapy and another book, I think it's called Splinter or something of the sort.

 

I read Splinter a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it :smile:

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I read Splinter a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it :smile:

 

Yeah, I think it was your recommendation/review actually that made me add it to my wishlist :)

 

Edit: It was Splitter, though :D You didn't seem to notice the difference, either :D

 

Edit: Ack! :D It's Splinter in English, Splitter in German :D 

Edited by frankie
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I'm over halfway through Capital now, and I'm still loving it. :smile2: 

 

I must get around to reading this! I bought it shortly after it was released for the bargain price of £0.20 (Kindle) but just haven't got around to reading it yet.

 

I'm about 60% through Company of Liars. It's good but I can't figure out where it's going.

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Finished Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach. Really not sure what to make of it to be honest! I will attempt to formulate my thoughts and write a review asap. 

 

Now starting The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. Now seemed like a good time to tackle a book set in NYC :D

 

I really liked Kiss Me First.  The plot sounds ludicrous really, but I could see how Leila got sucked into such a thing (I'm not saying any more, because I don't want to give away any spoilers).  I listened to the audiobook though, and I do think that helped my enjoyment, because the narrator really captured the personalities of both Leila and Tess.

 

I am still reading The Three Musketeers.  It's been a busy old month, so not as much reading time as I would have liked, but I am still loving the book :)

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Yeah, I'm thinking writing the review without giving away spoilers might be tricky! I liked the ending though, which is a turn up - I normally find endings the weakest part of many books! 

 

I really want to read The Three Musketeers one day... ugh, if only I had Bernard's Watch :(

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Goodreads says I am 73% through A Clash of Kings, and I am loving it. Better than the first book.

I'm glad you're liking it :)!

 

I started reading Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl and am about one third of the way through. I'm enjoying it so far :).

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If you do, I'd go to one of his other earlier ones, perhaps The Mauritius Command? M&C isn't perhaps the best to start with, even if it's the first in the series (a bit like I don't think Swallows and Amazons is necessarily the best starter for that series!): a tad too much introduction and not enough action. If you don't like TMC, which has a lot more action, then I'm fairly certain you're initial reactions are correct for you.

 

But it may be simply it's not your scene. I'll forgive you! ;)   In which case, there's far too much other reading out there to waste your time on keeping trying.

 

 

Yeah, agreed.  Either TMC or HMS Surprise are better starting points - or, should I say, more the sort of story I was expecting.  I found the first half of M&C a real struggle but I'm glad I stuck with it.  Marvellous series.

 

Thank you both, I'll keep that in mind :D

 

Today I finished The Ringmaster's Daughter by Jostein Gaarden.

I enjoyed the first half, homewever the second was slightly worse for me. Also, I hated the protagonist, he was too much unrealistic and egocentric. 

All in all, I think it was a good idea, but it could have been done way better.

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I finished Company of Liars this afternoon. I'm going to carry on with The Mess We're In: Why Politicians Can't Fix Financial Crises but I'm also going to start another fiction. Not sure which yet, but it will be from my '2012 Purchases' pile.

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