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Lindz121

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Hi everybody,

 

I'm new here and quite new to books as well to be honest, simply because I couldn't read without it annoying me but a couple of years ago I become a single dad to my children and decided I needed to fill my life with some hobbies because I become quite restricted in what I could do and while searching I come across Audible as most probably know an audiobook site and at first I was listening to the likes of Karl Pilkington,Richard Dawkins and Darwin stuff but I soon become bored so I decided to try a bit of fiction but with not much enthusiasm but after persisting for months with a giant book World without end by Ken Follett about half way through I become obsessed and couldn't wait to go to bed to listen I literally got lost within the world and it gave me a whole new perspective on books. I still struggle reading I just can't get lost within the story but audiobook wise I close my eyes a wander to a whole new world.

 

Anyway the point of me joining this forum is because I want to interact with others but secondly I've become seriously stuck I have very strict principals when choosing a book so I'm hoping some members here who have more experience with books will be able to advise me better because lately I keep picking the wrong books and missing out and hopefully in the future when I get hang of the forums a bit maybe I can help somebody back.

 

Anyway firstly ill say some of the books I've listened too and then I'll add what I'm looking for and hopefully somebody can offer me some recommendations I just have such a difficult time choosing it takes me weeks to decide on one book sometimes and I'm missing out on listening.

 

Books I liked:

 

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (my favourite book)

World without end by Ken Follett (my second favourite)

The pillars of the earth by Ken Follet

The angels game by Zafon again

The prisoner of heaven by Zafon

Marina by Zafon

Winter of the world,fall of giants by Ken Follet

All souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness

Vampirates was decent too by Justin Somper

 

So there's obviously a pattern of Ken Follet and Carlos Ruiz Zafon mainly through there.

 

Books I didn't like:

 

The name of the rose by Umberto Eco

The Historian

Vampire acadamy (a little to teenagerish)

Angels and demons by Dan Brown

 

Now as I said I'm quite picky but for me to enjoy it I need it to be:

 

Fiction

Historical (more of a preference but I love the renaissance times or Victorian England era, I enjoy Tudor but I've overdone that so would rather avoid it if possible)

First person view, simply because I like my imagination drifting off as if I'm in and involved in the story I don't really like narration books)

I prefer real historical characters involved but not centre of attention I like it from a normal persons perspective but for instance say Machiavelli makes a cameo appearance etc

I love books where they give a great picture of the setting and characters, shadow of the wind is a perfect example I can close my eyes and see Barcelona and the characters or what I imagine they look like at any time in my head where as with the name of the rose I can't because it was written in a narrative format so I only experience the one character.

I also like the idea from Ken Follet trilogy of fall of giants where it spans over a lifetime is I like things to move over years rather than days and I also like the way he uses 4 family's as a main focus and jumps from them during the story and I believe Edward Rutherford does the same but unfortunately on Paris is available on audio format it doesn't really appeal because of bad reviews I wanted to listen to Sarum.

I also like books with vampires etc but not to serious and not to childish either I enjoyed the all souls trilogy it had a good blend to appeal to adults and teenagers and I enjoyed the time travel part a lot to and the mysteriousness of the book throughout the storyline so I'm open to books like that too and I was looking at Outlander by Diana Gabidon but have heard it is heavily influenced by sexual content so not really my idea of a good book I don't mind a little but I don't want it every few pages.

 

Anyway I apologise for the essay and also I realise I'm just jumping on the forum asking for help and I also realise with all the stipulations it's probably near on impossible for anybody to recommend much but I'm just really on the lookout for good books with hopefully a couple of them Stipulations in. So I thank anybody in advance if anybody can recommend anything and I hope I can advise others and help where ever possible on the forums because I'm looking to hopefully be quite active. Thanks for anyone reading if you got this far lol.

 

So Hi and hope to interact with more of you soon.

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:006: Welcome to BCF!  And a fellow Ken Follett fan!  I read Pillars of the Earth this year and fell in love.  Next year I hope to do World Without End and perhaps, the beginning of the Century trilogy, Fall of Giants.  I haven't done that many audiobooks, I usually do Kindle's Immersion Reading if I do an audio.  

 

You might like The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck for Historical Fiction (It can be read as a stand alone or as the first in her generational trilogy of the same name).  If you liked the Spanish War ear, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemmingway is great too (also Historical Fiction, Amazon has an audiobook read by actor Campbell Scott and I believe it is in 1st person).  Both books are in my top 5 of all time.  But you'll get tons of recommendations. 

 

Hope to see you around and happy reading/ listening  :smile:

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Thanks for the welcomes and the recommendations I'll certainly look into them.

 

Anna, definitely do read world without end when you get a chance I felt it was far superior to pillars if I'm honest and that was one book I felt like I actually knew the characters from real life that's how well Ken Follett depicted them. Also if your interested there is a mini TV series of both Pillars of the Earth which I think is on Netflix or at least it was and World without end was a little more difficult to find but I did manage to find it on the iTunes Store. Although they missed huge amounts of detail which is natural because they are 8 part series they were still very well made and if you need another fix they definitely fulfill that.

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Welcome here :)! I have some books by Ken Follett on my TBR (to be read) as well as two books by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (and books by Deborah Harkness). So I don't know if I can really help you recommendations wise since I haven't read those books, but I hope you enjoy it here :)!

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Hi Hayley,

 

Sorry it's taken a few days to reply.

 

I think the reason I probably didn't get into it was because like I said originally I can't read books so I listen, I think the reason I didn't like that was because of the narrator reading the story, I couldn't really get to know the characters very well and I didn't feel an affinity with the main character of the story, I really liked the concept of the story so I did persevere with it for about 3 quarters of the book but then I just gave up.

 

I think it maybe unfair for me to judge the book and say I didn't like it based on narration but because I only listen audibly that's the only way I can judge so to maybe say I didn't like it may be wrong because it wasn't the storyline that let it down. Maybe I will gives another go or try to read it because although I'm not good at reading and don't get the excitement of books that way the more I get into books the more are unavailable on audio so there may come a point where the urge to read outweighs the uncomfortableness I get from reading.

 

I hope that makes sense.

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Hello Lindz, and welcome to the forum. I loved The Pillars of the Earth.....thought it was a brilliant read.

 

If you like historical fiction, what about The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. It is set in Victorian London, and is a brilliant read. :smile:

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