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Raven's Reads


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What a bunch of quitters!

 

Still technically reading the afore mentioned Star Trek novel, but have only read a few more pages since my post above.

 

Picked up copies of Expo 58, by Jonathan Coe and The Copper Promise, by Jen Williams this afternoon.  I suspect The Copper Promise will be my next read.

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  • 1 month later...

Looks like my reading mojo may be returning . . .

 

Ha!

 

Well, I finally finished The Copper Promise this evening.

 

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The time elapsed reading this book is absolutely no reflection on its quality, but rather my lack of reading drive of late (17 books in the first six months of the year, 3 since then . . . Not good).

 

The Copper Promise is a good little book though, and for anyone interested in fantasy novels it's a much better read than Trudi Cavanan's first Black Magician novel - it has a plot for a start! 

 

It's also refreshing to read a book that isn't the first in planned trilogy as well*.  I'll be interested to see where Williams goes from here.

 

Edit 03/11:

 

*Actually, I've just found out that it may be the first book in a trilogy, but it doesn't read like one as it has a definite end.  The sequel, The Iron Ghost, is out in February next year.

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I finished The Darwin Elevator, by Jason M. Hough last week and am in two minds as to whether to buy the second book in the series.

 

The premise is quite interesting, and I get the impression a lot more will be revealed in the second book, but I started to get a bit annoyed with the way the writing was going as the first book went on (there was a of repetition in the writing and it was bordering on juvenile in some places, as well).  Having said that, though, I did finish it rather quickly (by my recent standards) and I'm curious to know how the story evolves (or more to the point, why what is happening is).

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^ Well, the tension was short lived; I picked up a copy of The Exodus Towers this afternoon.

 

I also picked up a copy of Beyond Band of Brothers, by Major Dick Winters, the man who commanded Easy Company during WWII and having read the first 40 odd pages of it this evening I'm inclined to think it is a better book than Band of Brothers.  Still, early days at the mo . . .

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Beyond Band of Brothers
By Major Dick Winters

In 1992, historian Stephen E. Ambrose published the book
Band of Brothers and in 2001 Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks based their Emmy award winning TV series upon it.  Major Dick Winters, the former CO of E company - around whose exploits the book and series was based - quickly found himself the focus of attention for a public eager to know more.  Unable to respond to all of these enquires individually, this book is his attempt to answer the many questions he received and to give his own, very personal account of the war.

Band of Brothers, if you have not read it, is an account of the training and deployment of a group of American airborne troops during the Second World War.  Following them from the formation of their company in the US, to England and then onwards in battle through Normandy, Holland, Bastogne and finally Germany, the books tells how a group of young men came together to form one of the best fighting units in the War. 

Stephen E. Ambrose put together an excellent account of the men who served in E Company, recounting how their shared bond helped them to cope with the grim realities of war, but it is only when you start to read Beyond Band of Brothers that you realise how much of the personal detail is missing.  It tells you how, through his experiences from basic training to combat in Europe, a young man changed as he came to terms with the responsibilities of leadership and the sights he had seen.

The detail Winter's has put into the book is exceptional; whether it is in the recounting of the various military actions he was involved in or in his personal recollections about the family he was billeted with in England.  He explains his ideas on leadership and he also tries to explain - for those who can never hope to truly understand - what being under fire is like and how it changes a man.  It is clear, though, that his respect for the men he served with is paramount and for the most part this book is his testament to their commitment and their bravery. 

 

If there is a fault with the book, it is in the editing; the order of events is sometimes a little out of kilter and this leads to some repetition, but this is a minor gripe in what is otherwise a very engaging read.

Dick Winters is a man who, through his actions, honesty and integrity inspired others to be exceptional men and although he is now gone, this book is an excellent testament to his legacy and that of the men he served with.

Highly Recommended.

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The Ice Dragon

By George R. R. Martin

 

A short story set in Westeros, about an ice dragon and a little girl (and she's a regular Wednesday Addams, alright . . .).

 

I quite liked this.  It's an easy read if you have half an hour to spare and it's nicely illustrated as well (although by the time Adara appeared in a picture I already had a very different idea of what she looked like in my head!).  In style, it reads like a fairy story for children, but the content is quite a bit more graphic than anything Mr Tolkien or Mr Lewis ever used.  If you like the Game of Thrones books this is a nice little aside; if you've never read them this is still a nice little fantasy story in the classic sword and sorcery vein.

 

Recommended.

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I feel dirty.

 

The truth, however, is that there are some books that I want to read that I can only get on a Kindle.  I've only sprung for the basic model, partly because I'm not sure how I will get on with it, but also because they are cheap at the mo.

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I love my kindle, and haven't found it to be an impediment to my tree book buying - I have hundreds of both!  :smile:

 

Don't feel too grubby from the experience Raven, your new kindle is just another reading tool, sitting alongside the book light and book mark. Better?  ;)

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So you should!

 

OK, I'll admit I occasionally do a little e-reading on my iPad, but at least I didn't buy a device specifically for e-reading. :P

 

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Kylie relaxes with her books . . .

 

Don't feel too grubby from the experience Raven, your new kindle is just another reading tool, sitting alongside the book light and book mark. Better?  ;)

 

I don't have a book light.  Or a book mark.  You're just making me feel totally inadequate now . . .

 

(I bet you have a smoking jacket and slippers as well, don't you?).

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I've only sprung for the basic model, partly because I'm not sure how I will get on with it, but also because they are cheap at the mo.

I actually think they're the best - the reading experience is the best on the ones that are dedicated e-readers, rather than having the tablet ones which I find the screens unpleasant to read from. How are you getting on with it so far?

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I actually think they're the best - the reading experience is the best on the ones that are dedicated e-readers, rather than having the tablet ones which I find the screens unpleasant to read from. How are you getting on with it so far?

I'm in full agreement with you, I much prefer the e-ink screen for reading, vs. a normal tablet screen.

 

Though paperbooks I love the best :giggle2:.

 

Raven, I also bought a Kindle specifically because I wanted to read some books that were only available on Kindle. I still read most books in paperbooks, if available, but I've read some great books on the Kindle that I otherwise couldn't have read. There are also quite a few free books to be found, some of which are rubbish but some of which I've really enjoyed.

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I'm in full agreement with you, I much prefer the e-ink screen for reading, vs. a normal tablet screen.

Though paperbooks I love the best :giggle2:.

Raven, I also bought a Kindle specifically because I wanted to read some books that were only available on Kindle. I still read most books in paperbooks, if available, but I've read some great books on the Kindle that I otherwise couldn't have read. There are also quite a few free books to be found, some of which are rubbish but some of which I've really enjoyed.

Hope you don't mind my barging in: speaking as someone who continues to buy loads of paper books, there are some other big advantages with a Kindle. You can vary the font size: too many paperbacks have print sizes way too small for me nowadays, or text running into the gutter. The Kindle fits much better into a bag - I carry mine round with me all the time, without any danger of running out of books! I've got a paperwhite, which means I can read in bed at night without disturbing OH with a bedside light on (book lights can be just as bright!). A Kindle means more space on bookshelves. I use the search tool a lot to help me refer back and remind myself about characters etc. And so on and so on.

 

I still prefer reading a book,and there are times when there is no doubt they are better, but the Kindle is brilliant alongside them.

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Hope you don't mind my barging in: speaking as someone who continues to buy loads of paper books, there are some other big advantages with a Kindle. You can vary the font size: too many paperbacks have print sizes way too small for me nowadays, or text running into the gutter. The Kindle fits much better into a bag - I carry mine round with me all the time, without any danger of running out of books! I've got a paperwhite, which means I can read in bed at night without disturbing OH with a bedside light on (book lights can be just as bright!). A Kindle means more space on bookshelves. I use the search tool a lot to help me refer back and remind myself about characters etc. And so on and so on.

This is all true. I use the light a lot too of my Paperwhite. Though the font I have set to the default I believe, and I hardly ever change it (though I agree, sometimes in paperbooks the font can be really small, or too big sometimes). But it's good you can change it. I also love that I can easily look up words in the dictionary (though sometimes it doesn't actually know the word I'm asking for because it's slang or such).

 

Anyway, Raven, I hope you enjoy your Kindle!

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I may have just bought a Kindle . . .

 

Congratulations. Hope you enjoy it!! I love mine, and read most of my books on it. :boogie:

 

This is all true. I use the light a lot too of my Paperwhite. Though the font I have set to the default I believe, and I hardly ever change it (though I agree, sometimes in paperbooks the font can be really small, or too big sometimes).

 

That's interesting.....I'm forever changing my font. I like to use the publisher font if it is available. Otherwise, I'm always changing between the 6 available ones. I change font size as well. Sometimes I have it bigger (the fourth size up) and occasionally I will set it to the smallest. I always have the line spacing set to the largest, or I get distracted by the lines above and below what I'm reading.

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