Kylie
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Posts posted by Kylie
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I've also joined the BCF group at Library Thing. It's going to take a while to add all my books, but it's fun so I don't mind
I can see I'm going to have to get a lifetime membership as well, but not until I get near the 200 mark. -
I love this episode. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!!! That was so funny:lol:
Although, I didn't like the girl in the bar for obvious reasons
That cracked me up too
I was laughing quite a bit during last night's episode. Sam and Dean are so funny when they fight 
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@ Kylie -- thanks so much for posting a link to Arukiyomi's book blog and the spreadsheet. I really hope you all find it useful.
Also great to hear you are customising it!
Welcome to the forum Arukiyomi! I found your site when I did a search for the 1001 books. I'm going to go back and check out your blog because I noticed there are reviews of Atlas Shrugged, Jane Eyre and Invisible Man - three books that I have on my TBR list! I'll be interested to see what you thought of them.
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I usually like to just sit and stare at all my books until one jumps out at me (not literally, of course
). Lately though, between recommendations from you good people and other places, I've had more of an idea of what to read next. -
I went through the spreadsheet and I've read 28 books, with 32 on my shelf to be read and a further 97 that I want to read!
I used the forumula in A8 to do a new count for 'books TBR', and another one for 'want to read', and I'm entering TBR and W into the spreadsheet respectively.
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I found this site where you can download a spreadsheet of the entire list. It's been set up really well and you can simply enter an 'r' for 'read' in the left-hand column and it will automatically keep count of how many (and what percentage of) books you've read.
I suppose you can modify it further to suit your own needs if you like (adding columns to show the books you own but haven't read yet etc).
I'm going through it now to see how many I've read (not many I suspect, and apparently none that have been published in the 2000s).
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I lost my mojo for at least a week last month when I was sick. Since then I've been reading much more than I usually would (probably trying to make up for lost time). I hope I don't overdo it and lose it again - I have too many books that need to be read!
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They whisper many strange things, of the towers which rose to the sky, in those Unmentionable Times, and of the wagons which moved without horses, and of the lights which burned without flame. But those times were evil.
Anthem - Ayn Rand
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Ooooh reading in public? Could never do that, people would distract me far more than electrical appliances.
I'd be fine until some guy with a weird haircut comes along. ":readingtwo:, Oh wait no that's wrong, why??!? What is...just a bird nested and...what was this book about again? :doh:"
I can get easily distracted in public too. I often read the same lines over and over again or I have to put on my iPod to drown out noisy people. If I'm reading a 'light' book I can listen to any music and it won't distract me, but if it's a 'heavy' read then I can only listen to instrumental music. It's way too easy for me to get distracted anywhere, at any time (even when I'm by myself in a quiet room I'll start thinking about something else - I'm my own worst enemy).
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I do very little reading at home - I get easily distracted by what's on TV or I decide to watch a DVD. On weekends I usually have grand ambitions to read about 100 pages but end up going to work on Monday having read nothing
I've been getting a bit better lately and turning off the telly so I can concentrate on reading.Luckily I have a long commute to work so I read while waiting for the train, then while on the train (until I fall asleep), then while going up/down escalators and lifts. Then I read at morning tea and lunch (an hour and a half all up), although sometimes I bring my laptop to work and watch DVDs at my desk instead. I keep thinking I should get away from my desk and go for a nice walk, but then I think of all the reading time I'll miss out on and I give up on the idea
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Crime And Punishment 8/10
Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866
To Kill A Mockingbird 10/10
Harper Lee, 1961
Lolita 9/10
Vladimir Nabokov, 1955
The Bell Jar 8/10
Sylvia Plath, 1963
Black Beauty 4/10
Anna Sewell, 1877
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland 8/10
Lewis Carroll, 1865
Dracula 10/10
Bram Stoker, 1897
Of Mice And Men 9/10
John Steinbeck, 1937
A Clockwork Orange 10/10
Anthony Burgess, 1962
Through The Looking-Glass 8/10
Lewis Carroll, 1871
The Time Machine 8/10
HG Wells, 1895
Slaughterhouse-Five 9/10
Kurt Vonnegut, 1969
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest 10/10
Ken Kesey, 1962
Carmilla 8/10
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1872
Peter Pan 8/10
JM Barrie, 1911
Anne Of Green Gables 8/10
Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1908
Lady Chatterley's Lover 5/10
DH Lawrence, 1928
Diary Of A Nobody 9/10
George Grossmith, 1892
The Midwich Cuckoos 7/10
John Wyndham, 1957
Emma 9/10
Jane Austen, 1816
Great Expectations 9/10
Charles Dickens, 1860
The Town And The City 9/10
Jack Kerouac, 1950
The Thirty-Nine Steps 6/10
John Buchan, 1915
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A selection of classics on my TBR pile:
Classics
Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen: Persuasion
Jane Austen: Sense And Sensibility
Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
Charles Dickens: Bleak House
Charles Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby
Thomas Hardy: Far From The Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D'urbervilles
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House Of The Seven Gables
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
James Joyce: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man
Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
William Makepeace Thackeray: Barry Lyndon
William Makepeace Thackeray: Vanity Fair
Jules Verne: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
Emile Zola: Nana
Modern Classics
Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden
Truman Capote: In Cold Blood
Tom Collins: Such Is Life
Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
AB Facey: A Fortunate Life
Frank Herbert: Dune
Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game
DH Lawrence: Sons And Lovers
Joan Lindsay: Picnic At Hanging Rock
Henry Miller: Tropic Of Cancer
Henry Miller: Tropic Of Capricorn
Margaret Mitchell: Gone With The Wind
Sally Morgan: My Place
Boris Paternak: Doctor Zhivago
Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged
Nevil Shute: A Town Like Alice
Betty Smith: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
John Steinbeck: East Of Eden
John Steinbeck: The Grapes Of Wrath
John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy Of Dunces
Nathaniel West: The Day Of The Locust
Edith Wharton: The House Of Mirth
John Wyndham: The Chrysalids
Books that I'm reading are in blue. Once read, they'll be moved to the next post.
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'Classic' classics and 'Modern' classics, in the order they were read, with year published and rating out of 10.
The Catcher In The Rye 8/10
JD Salinger, 1951
Catch-22 10/10
Joseph Heller, 1961
On The Road 8/10
Jack Kerouac, 1957
Metamorphosis 7/10
Franz Kafka, 1915
The Great Gatsby 8/10
F Scott Fitgerald, 1925
The Day Of The Triffids 8/10
John Wyndham, 1951
The Count Of Monte Cristo 9/10
Alexandre Dumas, 1844-1846
The Invisible Man 8/10
HG Wells, 1897
Brave New World 9/10
Aldous Huxley, 1932
Lord Of The Flies 7/10
William Golding, 1954
Pride And Prejudice 10/10
Jane Austen, 1813
A Tale Of Two Cities 9/10
Charles Dickens, 1859
The Trial 7/10
Franz Kafka, 1925
Waiting For Godot 5/10
Samuel Beckett, 1952
A Christmas Carol 9/10
Charles Dickens, 1843
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Kylie's Classics Challenge
Seeing as I love reading classics above all else, I just have to give this challenge a go! I'm going to put my 'classic' classics in this thread along with my 'modern' classics.
I love that the term 'classic' is ambiguous because it means I can fiddle the years to suit my own needs
So for this challenge I'm going to label any literature prior to 1900 as 'Classic' and any from 1900 to around the mid 60s as 'Modern Classic' (even though in everyday life I would just refer to them all as Classics ).I'm also going to cheat a bit and list the classics I read last year, because that's when I really started getting into them and it would be a shame having them missing from the list.
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I've acquired the following books in the past week or so
Books purchased from book fair
Now, this isn't as bad as it looks. It only cost me $19.50 for the lot! Bargain! I was particularly pleased to find The Stand and I Am David.
The Small Assassin: Ray Bradbury
Such Is Life: Tom Collins
Bridget Jones' Diary: Helen Fielding
Tess of the D'urbervilles: Thomas Hardy
The House Of The Seven Gables: Nathaniel Hawthorne
I Am David: Anne Holm
The Stand: Stephen King
The Jungle Book: Rudyard Kipling
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn: Betty Smith
A Walk to Remember: Nicholas Sparks
Gulliver's Travels: Jonathan Swift
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Jules Verne
Nana: Emile Zola
Books borrowed from my brother
My brother is a big Stephen King fan and told me to borrow whatever I wanted. I would really like to read IT (which he has), but figured it would be a long time till I got around to it. In the meantime, I now have the two books below. I've actually read Night Shift before (my one and only SK), but would like to read it again.
Different Seasons - Stephen King
Night Shift - Stephen King
Book given to me by a complete stranger
A kind gentleman on my train saw me reading Lolita and recommended a couple of other books by Nabokov, including Pale Fire. A couple of days later he showed up with Pale Fire, and told me I could keep it because he had another copy! Wow! You don't see generosity like that every day! The book is in really good nick too. Now I ask you, what chance does a girl have to knock a few books off her TBR pile when people are literally walking up and giving her books?
Pale Fire: Vladimir Nabokov
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Black Beauty
Anna Sewell
Rating: 4/10
Published: 1877
Number of pages: 176
ISBN: 014240408X
Summary (taken from Amazon.com):
This graphic novel adapts the classic children's story of a horse whose gentle nature triumphs over abuse and misfortune. Anna Sewell's original remains beloved to preteen girls in particular, not just for the adventures Black Beauty goes through, but also for Sewell's lyrical descriptions of a past era. Husband-and-wife team Brigman and Richardson do a wonderful job illustrating that period, with b&w drawings that pop off the page and give readers an excellent sense of place as well as time. Unfortunately hamstrung by having to shorten a story that spans many years, they have had to cut all of Sewell's descriptions and most of her transitions, leaving short, choppy chapters that represent information rather than tell a story. Sewell originally wrote the story to expose mistreatment of animals in her society, and the cuts leave the adaptation sounding a bit preachy and repetitive. The spirit of the author's brave horse still comes through, as Black Beauty describes his different masters and the other horses he meets in his life. This should be a hit with horse lovers still too young for the original.
Comments:
Not a bad read, but I wouldn't read it again. It was very repetitive in the way that it describes Black Beauty's various encounters with humans ('horse meets bad person, horse meets good person, horse meets bad person' etc). When there were actually things happening I enjoyed it but otherwise it was a bit tedious. As an aside, I downloaded this book from Project Gutenberg and read it on my iPod.
Started: 16 April 2007
Finished: 28 April 2007
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Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
Rating: 9/10
Published: 1959
Number of pages: 361
ISBN: 014102349X
Summary (taken from blurb):
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than Lolita, whom he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster?...Or is he all of these?
Comments:
It took me ages to read this book (I was too sick to read for the first week), but it was well worth it, and it's one that I think will get better and better with repeated readings. Although next time I think I'll keep a dictionary and a French translator at hand
I love to read books that make beautiful use of the English language, and this is one of the best I've read yet. It's so well written, it's astounding
This was my first Nabokov and certainly not my last - what a brilliant writer! I don't know what else to say...this a superb book and highly recommended.Started: 1 April 2007
Finished: 27 April 2007
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The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
Rating: 8/10
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 324
ISBN: 0099740915
Summary (taken from inside front cover):
The Republic of Gilead allows Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs...
Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of 21st century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception.
Comments:
I'm a big fan of dystopian novels and was really looking forward to reading this one after the reviews I read on here. I wasn't disappointed! The style of writing was a little different from what I was used to and I found it a bit hard to get a feeling for the personality of Offred (I guess that was intended, but still...). However, I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable read, and one that made me think (and appreciate my life). I look forward to reading more Margaret Atwood in the future.
Started: 24 March 2007
Finished: 1 April 2007
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I finished Black Beauty a couple of days ago (my first reading circle novel). Not a bad read, but I wouldn't read it again. I have to agree with you Kell when you talk about it being a bit preachy. I got a bit sick of 'horse meets bad person, horse meets good person, horse meets bad person' etc. It was very repetitive in that way. When there were actually things happening, like the fire, I enjoyed it, but otherwise it was a bit tedious.
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I've now embarked on Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities (which is part of my Classics Challenge). It's a novel that I've heard referenced to an awful lot throughout my life, so thought it was high time I read it.
However, I am struggling a little bit with it, which makes me wonder if my Victorian reading sensibilities are a little rusty... I think I'm getting back into the swing of things: once I hit Dickens' dialogue, it's like a part of brain/imagination is instantly fired up.
So as yet, I'm not finding it as immediately compulsive as Great Expectations, but I'm certainly sticking with it
I like the sense of injustice and protest that Dickens is weaving throughout A Tale of Two Cities already. It's interesting that some elements of society that Dickens protested about can still be seen... Interesting, eh?I had the same problem when I first started reading A Tale of Two Cities (my first Dickens). I found it a bit difficult to get into, but by the end I absolutely loved it. I found it quite educational too (not knowing much about that particular period in history). It inspired me to a bit of extra research, which is always a good thing! I hope you enjoy the rest of it!
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I have a list of my books in a spreadsheet and just counted up the unread ones...107
And what's worse is that the spreadsheet is nowhere near complete. I think I could easily add an extra 30-40 unread books! Oh dear. I had no idea it'd gotten that bad.
But that's still not going to stop me from going to a huge book fair next week, where I expect to buy another 20 or more. Hey, the books will be dirt cheap and the money goes to a good cause, OK?
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Wow, has anyone read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. It is a masterpiece IMO. I loved previous books by McCarthy including his Border Trilogy and Blood Meridian. The Road however is a powerful book that will stay with me showing the worst in people and at the same time showing the love that some people are capable of holding onto through the most depressing of conditions.
Funny you should mention this. I just read that McCarthy has won a Pulitzer Prize for this book.
I've never read any of his works before. When and where is 'The Road' set?
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In addition to some of the movies mentioned above, I always cry at the end of Hair. I bawled at a mini-series remake of On The Beach. The Notebook leaves me blubbering for ages after the movie ends, and nothing beats Beaches for a good cry! I'm certain I've cried during at least two of the Lord Of The Rings movies.
I cry during pretty much anything that has a remotely sad part, or a very happy ending
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As I think I may have mentioned before (but not recently), I don't think King's a horror writer at all, and it annoys me that he's always classified as such. Yes, he's written some horror books (vampires and ghosties, etc), but many of them seem more fantasy or thrillers to me.
The book with Children of the Corn in was 'Nightshift' - some good shorts in there. If you like his shorts, you should also try:
Skeleton Crew
Everything's Eventual
Four Past Midnight
They should give you a good idea of the spetrum of Kings work (although many of his shorts are typical horror).
Thanks for the recommendations everyone. I might check out The Stand first and see if I can get my hands on Different Seasons as well. The Shawshank Redemption is one of my favourite movies and I'd love to read the original novella.
Kylie's Reading List
in Past Book Logs
Posted
More books acquired in the last week
The first 5 are from a bargain basement bookshop and all at very good prices. Jules Verne is from a charity shop. I'm very pleased with these purchases and can't wait to read them 
Margaret Atwood: Oryx And Crake
Jasper Fforde: The Big Over Easy
Jasper Fforde: The Fourth Bear
CS Lewis: The Chronicles Of Narnia (complete)
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
Jules Verne: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (illustrated hardcover)
Also, just noticed a 'Buy 2, get 1 free' on Penguin Classics at Dymocks. There's no way I can pass this up! I still have $30 left over from a gift voucher and a little over $10 in reward points, so it won't cost me anything if I get a few books!
I've decided on A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess), and Of Mice And Men (John Steinbeck - will come in handy if chosen for this month's book ring). The freebie will be a Penguin Read Red classic.
Looking forward to tomorrow