Jump to content

Top 5 (or 10) Wednesday


Athena

Recommended Posts

This week's topic is: Characters You Used to Love but Don't Anymore

 

Author's Note:

-- These are the characters who you used to adore, but now you don't. Maybe they changed a lot. Maybe you outgrew them. Maybe your outlook changed and now you can't stand them. Maybe you don't even hate them, you just are neutral about them when you used to run a fan blog about them.

 

I can't really think of anyone right now. Maybe something / someone will come to my mind later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 652
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Harry Potter - got so bored with him by the end I was almost rooting for Voldemort!  Maybe I've just outgrown him....but I think the books got longer and more repetitive by number 5, I still haven't read Deathly Hallows but was so bored by the film versions I'm not sure if I want to read it now (but probably will eventually).

 

Likewise Twilight - started going off  the boil in Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn was more like Breaking Yawn for me, what a damp squib that turned out to be for a final showdown.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I'm a bit late with this week's topic. This week's topic is: Favorite Publishers

 

Author's Note:

--I thought this topic would be a cool way to examine what we read and what publishers put out our favorite books. I encourage you to take a look at your shelf and figure out which books come from which publishers. I think you'd be surprised how many probably end up coming from the same publishing house! Plus, this is your chance to introduce us to some of your favorite small presses or imprints. We talk about the contents or the wrappings of books a lot in this group, but rarely do we talk about the people that bring them together.

 

I own a lot of books by these publishers (English books):

HarperCollins

Orbit

Corgi

Gollancz

Orion

Tor

Voyager

Del Rey

Pan MacMillan

Scholastic

Simon & Schuster

 

Which ones would be my favourites.. well I'd have to think about that to be honest. Of most of the books I've read, I don't know on top off my head which publisher they were published by.

 

Dutch publishers:

Kluitman

Deltas

Wolters-Noordhoff

Bruna

Poema Pocket

De Fontein

Querido

Elzenga

Zwijsen

Lemniscaat

Leopold

Malmberg

Ploegsma

Van Goor

De Wakkere Muis

 

There are also several publishers of whom I don't own any books but I've read some books published by them at the library, such as Best of YA and Uitgeverij Moon. But again I'm not sure which ones would be my favourites, and of some I mainly have books they published in ie. the 1990s and not so much any new stuff.

 

I don't know that much about British and American publishers. I believe some of them might belong to the same publishing house? I don't know that much about it to be honest, nor of the Dutch publishers. And half the stuff I've read about them online, I forgot again. In terms of British and American editions, I have both. I often don't take note of which one it is I buy, because most of the time there is only one available in Dutch shops (one of the two), so I can't usually choose if I buy at a Dutch place. On occasion both editions are available and then I sometimes look into it (particularly if the book is part of a series of which I already own some books), but not always. When I buy a book from the UK or the US then obviously it'll usually be that countries' edition.

 

Anyway, anyone else? I'd be curious to know your answers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm lax, I really don't follow or pay attention to publishers. :blush2:   Looking quickly at my front shelves, I'm seeing these guys pop up more frequently:

 

Picador

Harper Collins

Black Swan

Pan

Penguin

Grove Press

 

They seem to be specific to favourite authors.

 

I also have a large collection of art books published by Phaidon.  So -- for art, at least -- I suppose this publishing house would be my favourite.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My current favourite (former) publisher is Main Line Mysteries - JB Lippincott.  Some of their books are HERE.  They published the Frances & Richard Lockridge books, and have lovely thick paper with deckle edges. :)

 

I also have lots of Henry Holt/Owl books ; Patricia Moyes murder mysteries have great covers, with a skull hidden on the cover.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't pay much attention to publishers either, and a lot of them now tend to be owned by one big company eg Random House & Penguin.  I think I have quite a few from:

 

Pan

Gollancz (mainly Charlaine Harris and Ben Aaronovitch)

Harper Collins

Allison and Busby

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It might be a bit early, but this week's topic is: Books I Want to Re-Read

 

Author's Note:

--Though it seems like we are all constantly chasing the next upcoming release, let's take a trip down memory lane and talk about some books that we'd like to re-visit.

 

To anyone posting, feel free to still respond about your favourite publishers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a few:

 

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte  (Mainly because I can't remember a thing about it!)

Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote

Maurice by E.M. Forster

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

 

The latter four are old favourites that I haven't revisited in years, although they're still firmly wedged in my memory.  The Capote one is fairly short; I might have a go at re-reading that one soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Possibly Wuthering Heights as well (re-read Jane Eyre earlier this year)

Persuasion by Jane Austen

A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin (but would probably skip some chapters ie the boring ones about the Dothraki)

A Storm of Swords by George R R Martin

Dracula

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of the books I would want to re-read are spiritual books as I sometimes need reminding of what's in them. Things like

 

Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsh

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

and sorry if this sounds like advetrising, but my partners book, A Way of Seeing by Coran Foddering

 

There is so much truth and wisdom in each of these books that it is useful to be able to dip in and out of when I need to get back on track.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a good one! There are sooooo many books I want to re-read. Even books that I first read this year that I want to re-read soon. I have a long long list... (I won't include books that I've already re-read at least once)

 

Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre

Bernard Malamud: The Natural

E. L. Doctorow: Ragtime

Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities

Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five

Jasper Ffordge: The Eyre Affair

Patrick Süskind: Parfume 

Andrei Kurkov: Death and the Penguin

Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Shadow of the Wind

Alain de Botton: How Proust Can Change Your Life

Lloyd Jones: Mister Pip

Ronald Hayman: The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath

John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces

Sofi Oksanen: Purge 

Michel Faber: Under the Skin

Garth Stein: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Väinö Linna: The Unknown Soldier

Dan Rhodes: Gold

Grace Metalious: Peyton Place

Poppy Z. Brite: Exquisite Corpse

Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Matt Haig: The Last Family in England

Augusten Burroughs: Sellevision

Ann Patchett: Bel Canto

Mary Roach: Stiff - The Curious Lives of the Human Cadavers

John Steinbeck: Wayward Bus

Emma Donoghue: Room

Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita (in English!)

John Boyne: Crippen

Dai Sijie: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Nevil Shute: Piep Piper

William Goldman: Marathon Man

Tobias Wolff: This Boy's Life

Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination

Muriel Barbery: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Guy Gavriel Kay: The Lions of Al-Rassan

Stef Penney: The Tenderness of Wolves

Alex Garland: Beach

Gaétan Soucy: Vaudeville!

Tom Wolfe: A Man in Full 

Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen: The Rabbit Back Literature Society

Claire London: Left of the Bang

Dan Rhodes: This Is Life

 

Plus a bunch of thrillers and Finnish novels. 

Edited by frankie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love this topic and that so many of you want to re-read books!  I find with several people I talk to in life that they never want to re-read something, and in fact get rid of a book they enjoyed once they've read it   :o The horror! 

 

In a heartbeat I would re-read:

 

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

The Shining - Stephen King

Circle of Friends - Maeve Binchy

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Toby Young

Close to Shore - Michael Capuzzo

Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

Jonathan Argyle Art Mystery series - Iain Pears

Arcadia - Iain Pears

The Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears

Julian Kestrel Mystery series - Kate Ross

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl

Ordinary People - Judith Guest

The Art Spirit - Robert Henri

Animal Farm - George Orwell

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Land of the Burnt Thigh - Edith Eudora Kohl

 

I'm sure there's more but I'm still on my first cup of coffee...

Edited by Peacefield
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love this topic and that so many of you want to re-read books!  I find with several people I talk to in life that they never want to re-read something, and in fact get rid of a book they enjoyed once they've read it   :o The horror! 

 

So weird... I love re-reading books! But like Lau_Lou said, it's not a priority because there are so many new novels to be read... But every once in a while there's just something about an old familiar book, calling out one's name... :D 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh no I would never get rid of a book I enjoyed! That's blasphemy!

I agree, I wouldn't either!

 

I don't often re-read books, because if it's been sooner than about 5ish years (depending on the book) since I've read the book, I feel I know too well what's going to happen and re-reading the book isn't quite as fun. There are so many new(-to-me) books I want to read, that the majority of my reading are new-to-me books. But I sometimes re-read books and I usually enjoy doing so. When I was a child and teenager a lot of my reads were re-reads, because other than library loans, I wasn't able to buy very many books for myself (sometimes I was gifted books for my birthday or Sinterklaas though :) ). So the books I used to have back then, especially my favourites, I've re-read those lots of times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have far too many to list. :blush2:  I love re-reading books, and there are some that I have read many, many times (mostly Stephen King). I would like to re-read The Dark Tower series and some of King's earlier work.

 

Some others that spring to mind are:

 

Watership Down - Richard Adams

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

Microserfs - Douglas Coupland

The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee - Jared Diamond

How The Mind Works - Steven Pinker

 

Those are just ones that I have on my bookshelf behind me...I'm sure I have countless others on my Kindle.

 

Whether I will get around to reading them, who knows? I just have so many other books to read and not enough time to do so. :doh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done this loads in the past though not so much now as I don't have time :wibbly:  (other than re-reading the first 7 books of The Wheel of Time in order to get to read the later ones for the first time).

 

The Dragonlance Chronicles & Legends trilogies I've read many times, but not for a number of years now

There are certain Stephen King's I've re-read (and I'd like to do this again with The Dark Tower series)

Various Discworld novels have been re-read multiple times, but only once through for the later novels

The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

 

There are a few other re-reads on my TBR that are there because I've bought them whereas I may have borrowed them from the library before (eg. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I`ve reread Discoworld ( it`s a typo, but it amused me :) ) and Thursday Next, and I`ll reread them again in a few years. :) 

 

From the mysteries section, I reread Ngaio Marsh this year, and want to reread Margery Allinbgham and Dorothy L Sayers. 

 

I`m looking forward to rereading Frances & Richard Lockridge ( mysteries from the 1930`s onwards - Mr and Mrs North, Inspector Heimrich ) and  Patricia Moyes ( Inspector Tibbitt and Emmy ) , but I`ll have to leave it a few years till I can`t recall whodunnit. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done this loads in the past though not so much now as I don't have time :wibbly:  (other than re-reading the first 7 books of The Wheel of Time in order to get to read the later ones for the first time).

 

The Dragonlance Chronicles & Legends trilogies I've read many times, but not for a number of years now

There are certain Stephen King's I've re-read (and I'd like to do this again with The Dark Tower series)

Various Discworld novels have been re-read multiple times, but only once through for the later novels

The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

 

There are a few other re-reads on my TBR that are there because I've bought them whereas I may have borrowed them from the library before (eg. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)

 

 

Hmm, I`m not seeing the Sword of Truth books there ? *ducks*  :giggle2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, I`m not seeing the Sword of Truth books there ? *ducks*  :giggle2:

 

*looks for book throwing emoticon* :giggle2:

 

Actually technically I have re-read Wizard's Own Rule (book 1), as I'd read that years before it got turned into a super duper tv show which made me want to read the whole book series. :D

Edited by More reading time required
Link to comment
Share on other sites

*looks for book throwing emoticon* :giggle2:

 

Actually technically I have re-read Wizard's Own Rule (book 1), as I'd read that years before it got turned into a super duper tv show which made me want to read the whole book series. :D

 

:giggle2:  Any ill effects ?  ;)

 

I see the book series is still going on ! :o

 

I miss Richard and Kahlan !  :blush2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...