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Giulia's I'll-Be-a-Better-Reader Quest 2010


BookJumper

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Thanking you :smile2:.

 

ETA: I'm vexed.

 

I haven't done any reading in the past week because as soon as package #2 containing (amongst other things) Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 arrives, I would have had to put whatever it was down to read that for the benefit of the January Reading Circle. Now it turns out that the snow is slowing down the Royal Mail which means, who knows when the Bradbury will get here?

 

... when I give up and start something else, you mark my words :)!

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Giulia, I'm in awe of your wish list. It's very thorough! I only know the titles of books I'd like to read but you've got all the info down to which edition!

 

Best of luck building your library this year. I hope you don't get ripped off by bad salespeople this year, and I hope you're able to find lovely new copies to replaces the books that didn't meet your admirably high standards and had to be removed from your shelves for sanity's sake. :D

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Why thank you :D.

 

The editions are noted down for one or more of the following reasons:

 

- the book's most popular format is *shudder* mass market paperback (I'm not a fan of hardbacks unless they're collector's editions, but in the absence of a trade paperback I'd rather have a hardback than a MMP);

- there's multiple covers, at least one of which I don't like;

- there's multiple publishers, at least one of which I don't like on grounds of poor paper/ink/binding used.

 

The titles with no edition notes are those which are commonly sold in an edition which is fine by me; existing notes are there to remind me to check the edition I'm buying for size and prettiness before irredeemably hitting the 'buy' button.

 

Also thanking you for your kind wishes :D and the very fact that you admire my standards rather than thinking I'm as nutty as a peanut butter cookie!

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Well, if you're nutty then that makes two of us. :D

 

I'm not generally a fan of hardbacks either, although I seem to have acquired a fair few. I tend to buy MMPs over TPs simply because they're cheaper and take up less room on my shelves. I use IKEAs Billy bookcases and I have two extra shelves in each one for maximum storage capacity (there are photos on this forum somewhere). This means TPs can't usually stand up and have to be laid down, which actually produces a nice effect on my shelves, although it becomes more difficult to organise my books when I have too many of them (like now).

 

Ah, I love discussing the tiny details of book organisation with you. :D

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I see the method in your MMP madness :D my personal problem with them is manifold, however: they fall apart upon repeated readings (given my extremely limited shelfspace, I only buy books I intend to read again several times), the ink tends to smudge, the pages tend to yellow without asking permission first... *irk*! I guess that if I did come to live in your house you could rest assured I'd only steal the odd TP or two :D!

 

Note: I have just learnt from Chrissy how I may insert extra posts at the beginning of this thread - be afraid, be very afraid. My unabridged wishlist is approaching.

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Wow wow wow, your Wishlist is huge! Good luck with that Giulia. :D

 

Also, can I be enlightened on how to insert a post at the beginning of my thread, please? :D

 

Edit. - Ah I understand it is probably only Moderators that can do this!'

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Indeed it is a Moddish thing although I believe Janet has very lovelily made you a blank post at the beginning of your thread :D.

 

Thanks for the luck, I'll need it :D not only because my reading is so slow these days, but most importantly because my shelf-space is so non-existent. When your living space is confined to a shared room and all you can count on is a shelf and a half (note: the half still needs building), a wishlist of such epic proportions is fairly unhealthy...!

 

... OK, I *swear* Parts V and XI of my wishlist just swapped places while I wasn't looking *toodles off to swap them over again* what the...?!

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Why thank you :blush: yours is pretty staggering as well.

 

Re: my future library, I agree. Give Archimedes a lever, and he'll lift the world; give me the sweeping space and pots of money, and I'll rebuild the Lost Library of Alexandria.

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Fantastic list Giulia :D ... I like how you've entered 2010 in full book attacking mode. Hope you achieve your reading goals .. I started well last year but finished pathetically.

 

I'll be interested to read what you make of Eoin Colfer's sequel to 'Hitchhikers' .. I've read mixed reviews of it and Neil Gaiman in particular had some harsh things to say (though it was at Eoin for attempting it .. I don't think he'd read it). I love Eoin's 'Artemis Fowl' books.

 

I especially love Pratchett, Fforde, Gaiman and Abercrombie.

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I hope I achieve my reading goals also... I haven't actually physically attacked any actual book yet this year, ho hum :smile2: better rectify that pronto!

 

I haven't read Eoin's Artemis books yet, however: Douglas Adams's widow and daughter have, and personally declared him the only man for the job; also, the few sample pages that Eoin read at HitchCon 09 I found quite amusing. I think it all depends on what one's expectations of such a book are; I don't expect it to replicate the genius of Douglas (for how could it?), just to respectfully and tongue-in-cheekily pay homage to it. If it does that, I'll be happy.*

* not that I'm going to get rid of my copy if it doesn't, as THE Arthur Dent and Zaphod Beeblebrox (as well as Eoin himself) have signed it.

Haven't read any Abercrombie yet but as I, too, am a great fan of Messers Pratchett, Fforde and Gaiman your recommendation bodes well :D as for Neil - I respect his opinion (Gene Wolfe, Steven Brust and Hope Mirrlees are on my wishlist because of his good opinion), but I disapprove on principle of passing judgment on something one has not even attempted to read :hug:!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Anthropology and 100 Other Stories



by Dan Rhodes

 

I can't understand reviewers' urge to compare this to Queneau's Exercises in Style. While it's true that both rehash the same idea over and over, Rhodes still has a lot to learn from the master: Queneau managed to rework a deliberately identical plot to the point of utter irrecogniseability; Rhodes on the other hand sketches vague self-referential tid-bits that melt into one big pot in the mind. If you were to quiz me re: a particular story I'd draw a blank, and I only read it a few hours ago.

 

It's without question that the man has potential; the prose is sparse and clever, if a tad too self-consciously so. I just wish he hadn't wasted his talent in telling us 101 times x 101 words how uncaring, unfeeling, unhuman and immoral women are. I'd like to meet the women who've enjoyed this and - when I do - raise my eyebrow at them.

 

To think Dave Gorman liked this; it'd got me all intrigued. I wouldn't go as far as the reviewer who claimed that he'd been overcharged when he got the book for free with Books Quarterly; however I would be extremely miffed if I had paid even a single pound for it. I could have saved it for a rainy day.

 

And talking of rainy days - this reads like the kind of thing someone'd write hot in the wake of a devastating breakup. Big deal; so who hasn't written for catharsis? True, however unless your name is John Keats, chances are your cathartic writings aren't Great Art.

 

1/5

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  • 5 months later...

As you can tell from my updated TBR (new additions in green, although some aren't quite so new; I've neglected to update this for a while), I have given up on this whole 'reading one book at a time' business. I seem to actually get through more pages when I indulge whatever mood I might be in at any given reading time, so back to my old ways it is :D review of The Curious Incident etc. will be forthcoming.

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As you can tell from my updated TBR (new additions in green, although some aren't quite so new; I've neglected to update this for a while), I have given up on this whole 'reading one book at a time' business. I seem to actually get through more pages when I indulge whatever mood I might be in at any given reading time, so back to my old ways it is :D review of The Curious Incident etc. will be forthcoming.

 

 

OOh I read this in 2009. Will await your review with interest.

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime



by Mark Haddon

l tend, sometimes more consciously than others, to steer clear of bestsellers, must-reads and page-turners. Occasionally though, a book will come along which will turn out to have deserved the hype surrounding it. This is one of them, even though the story's linear, as is the storytelling. Under normal circumstances, I'd fling a book across a room with great force at the umpteenth usage of 'and then he said, "...".'

 

However.

 

It is precisely thanks to a plot and devices that couldn't be more straightforward that Haddon is able to delve deep into the mind of his unusual protagonist, and provide as close a look as one is probably ever going to get into knowing what it means to have Asperger's. The narrative voice is real, vivid, instantly believable; for a short while, one gets to see and feel the world as young Christopher does, and what is fiction for but to enable one to step outside of oneself and into the mind and soul of another for a while?

 

Good books entertain; great books manage to simultaneously entertain and teach without preaching. This is a great book. I have edited out this last paragraph of my review prior to posting because I was unable to do the book's message justice without sounding preachy myself, so you'll just have to pick it up and experience it first-hand.

 

5/5

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